Magic

I met a 4th grader at work last week. It was nothing unusual. The kid is having trouble with his behavior so they called me in. Basically, every time he gets frustrated, he has a meltdown, resulting in yelling, crawling under tables, and/or throwing himself on the ground. He is a cutie with some of the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. He and I talked, I did a classroom observation, and I talked to his teacher. The kid said without reservation that he just can't take it when he is upset and he agreed to work with me on that. I didn't think much else of it until I called his mom on Friday. She said he was diagnosed with severe autism when he was 3. I couldn't believe it. Severe autism??? Like the can't-relate-to-others-flap-your-arms-don't-talk kind of autism? Yup. She even brought documentation of this fact to the kid's IEP meeting today. I asked her what kind of magic they have at her house because the kid appears to be your typical,average,everyday 4th grader until he has a meltdown. She calls him her miracle baby. When I looked through the records though at the amount of therapy this kid's mom set up for him, I tend to think that hard work and available resources are to thank for this magic. Either way, the kid is incredible and so is his mom. We had a great IEP meeting today to set up a program for him that will help him manage his frustration better and the best part is, I get to be a part of it! On days like this, I love my job!

Paris III

I think this is my last Europe post. It is just now sinking in that I went to Spain and France. I am so freakin' lucky it's unbelievable.

So, on Thursday morning, we got up and walked over to Notre Dame. Here are some pictures form the walk over. It was our only beautiful day, weather wise, in Paris.

A Metro station (the subway):

Notre Dame:

The stained glass in Notre Dame is AMAZING!

After exploring Notre Dame, we did a little shopping on the Ile St. Louis (an Island in the Seine). Then we took the Metro up to Montmartre, a neighborhood on the north side of Paris proper. It is a bohemian artist colony type thing and it was my favorite part of Paris by far! Sacre Coeur, my favorite church we saw in Europe is there. Here are some pictures of it:

Here are some pictures from the rest of the time we hung out in Montmartre. We stopped at a bar and had a drink and a bartender was mean to Amanda so I kicked his ass. Just kidding. Seriously though, at that bar, they had the strangest bathrooms I've ever used. It was just a hole in the floor. Gross! But I managed. I just pretended I was camping. None of these pictures are from that bar. I would not want to give them the publicity. Email me if you are going to Paris and I will tell you where NOT to go!

A cool door:Sacre Coeur from the main artist's square in Montmartre. It is called Place du Tertre:La Maison Rose, Utrillo (one of my favorite painters) and Van Gogh used to hang out here:

One of the last few windmills in Paris:

Another one: The Moulin Rouge

Amanda modeling the jewelry she got on the Ile St. Louis:

Paris II

The Louvre is boring. There, I said it. But at least they let you take pictures! I am not all that into classical art, so I didn't expect to totally love it. But even Amanda said it's overrated.

We got up Wednesday morning and went straight from our apartment to the Louvre (after some pain au chocolat from the local bakery, yum!). The sun was actually out! It was a nice walk over and it only took about 5 minutes! Even though I was bored with most of the art,the building itself is unbelievably beautiful (it used to be a palace) and the ceilings are absolutely incredible:Venus de Milo:Winged Victory:Sorry, but the Mona Lisa was totally lame. It is tiny and there are a billion people trying to see it.
The one part of the Louvre I liked was their African art:Cornholio!!!"Dum-dum, you give me gum-gum":

The Tuilleries (the park between the Louvre and l'Orangerie):

View of the Eiffel Tower from there:After the Louvre, we went to the Musee de l'Orangerie. I liked this one much better than the Louvre. They have Monet's Water Lillies paintings displayed in natural light and tons of more modern art as well. I had fun at this one and I highly recommend it.

Water Lillies:

Other Orangerie Art:

This one reminds me of the pig I saw in the store window in Alcala: Then we walked over to the Champs Elysees, another thing in Paris that is overrated. It's this ritzy shopping area, supposedly like the best in the world, right? And I am not a shopper. And there is a Nike store and a Gap and some other American stores alongside the frou-frou ones like Luis Vuitton. I might as well be back in Castle Rock at the outlet mall, right?

But at the end of the Champs-Elysees is the Arc de Triomphe. That was pretty cool to see!After the Champs-Elysees, we took the Metro back to our apartment to get ready for dinner. Then we went over to the Rue Cler area to have dinner. Dinner that night was easily the best dinner we had in Europe. It was incredible.Foie Gras! Yum:Dessert:This is one of my favorite pictures of my mom. She looks so young and pretty and happy!After dinner, we walked over the the Eiffel Tower. It is HUGE! Even bigger than I expected. We got to see the light show they do every hour and it was so beautiful.

Then we headed home and went to bed. What a fabulous and full day in Paris!