What a difference a(nother) year makes

Boy have we been having fun this week! (though my feet ain’t liking me at all – especially since all I do all year round is walk from home to the car, to the office and then sit on my butt all day in front of the computer and then walk back to the car to get home) Every day’s been an exciting adventure for us!

On Monday, we started out the wonderful day with a yummy lunch at our favorite Sichuan restaurant down in the middle of Paris. Bibou totally so enjoyed the food (her favorite shredded chicken vermicelli soup) that she had about 5 bowls of it! She also had lots of water as she had some of ‘our’ food, which was rather spicy (but she kept eating it also.. with lots of rice and water). Daddy and I shared the following dishes, very spicy minced pork with vermicelli, slowly-roasted- in-claypot-eggplant in a special sauce, stir fried broad flat beans and stir fried chicken with lots and lots of dried chillis. Oh yum. I digress, … so yes after the scrumptious meal, we left, though we had to stop a LOT of times along the way as Bibou had to pee! (no less than 5 times within a space of 30 minutes!! She had a LOT of soup). We finally made it to the fair in the middle of Paris – the Fete de Tuileries which is in the Tuilieries Garden next to the Louvre. We’ve been going there every year now for the past 3 years. Bibou’s been really excited everytime we’d mentioned that we’re going to the fair to go on the rides. And when we finally got to the fair, she really couldn’t contain her excitement. She was jumping up and down screaming “rides, rides”. The first one we came to was the really old carousel (it was so old that it creaks and jerks as it goes up and down, and ‘moans’!!). Bibou got on immediately, while I quickly scooted up with Angel. It was Angel’s first ride on a merry go round! But since she was with her big sister, she was just pleased as pie. She was squealing away with delight.

Next, we came to a ‘big’ roller coaster, ie one that goes fast and would be scary for her as she’s never been on such a fast one before. At first, when she first saw it, she was a bit apprehensive, but then Daddy took her to the side and watched a ‘round’ of it (they are all very short really – nothing like a real roller coaster… this is afterall a temporary fair), and then when she heard all the kid’s squeals of delight she got excited too and wanted to get on it. So off Daddy and her went. Oh mi gosh, the screams that came out of that girl! But they were from sheer joy and exhilaration! She wanted to get on that ride again! But we told her that she had to pace herself.

So off we went, until we came to this ‘baby’ car ride (baby only ‘coz it was tame compared to the coaster ride of course), and Bibou jumped right into the ride and chose the car that she wanted. I was busy with Angel so wasn’t paying much attention until the ride had started and I noticed – oh my, she’s picked the SAME car that she’s picked for all the past 3 years! Isn’t that wild?? Here’s the link back to the past 2 summers : http://biboupage.blogspot.com/2007/08/fun-at-funfair.html that shows the same pix. Funny how the first year, Bibou at 1½ years was all excited about the ride, at 2½ years she was sad and clingy (prob ‘coz of the new arrival of new baby) and this year, all excited again!

As we progressed on, we came to the big slide. Bibou got on with Daddy and came down giggling and laughing. We also decided to see if Angel would like it too… so she went down with Daddy! Errm, well, she didn’t cry! Not a peep, though she wasn’t laughing and giggling… Daddy thinks that she may have been in ‘shock’ LOL. But she was fine as you can tell from the videos.

Soon it was time to return – we went back the same way, and Bibou had another round on the roller coaster (with me this time) and another round on the merry go round (Angel had fallen asleep by now).

Until next year!

Here's the video of Bibou on her 'car', the same one that she picked 3 years in a row!

A not-so good video of Bibou on the 'scary' roller coaster

Angel coming down the big slide. Not a peep out of her! Daddy said perhaps she was in shock! LOL. She was fine though.