Every night when we put Julien to bed Richard reads Julien a story and then I lie in bed with Julien in the dark and tell him two stories. It is a long process, and it seems to be getting longer as time progresses. He has started to frequently get out of bed a couple times before finally settling in.
Last night after our second story, which was about Thanksgiving, the conversation continued:
A: "good night"
J: "But the story's not done!"
A: "Yes it is. We were done eating and we all went to bed."
J: "But it's not over. It continues all the way up until I am big and strong like Daddy!"
A: "That would be a long story."
J: "Tell me."
A: "OK, I'll tell you the quick version. When you turn five you will go to kindergarten, when you are six you will go to first grade (this continues all the way up until..) When you are 18 you will go to college for 4 years and then you can decide if you want to continue being a student as a graduate student, or go to work."
J: "I will choose going to work."
A: " And what will you do for work?"
J: "I will be a paleontologist. And I will work with the paleontologist in the Geology Department."
A; "you mean Steph who gave us a tour of the fossils in the Geology Department?"
J: "Yes, Steph. I will work with her."
A: "And will she teach you stuff?"
Long pause
J: "I won't be a kid any more so I will know a lot. I won't need her to teach me."
By the forth day Julien finally seemed completely recovered. And he had begun to notice that he was getting much more sugar and chocolate than he was used to, a very pleasant surprise. It was a rainy day so we went to the Pompidou Centre to see the Dada exhibit, which was overwhelmingly complete. We also went to the Big Bang which is a reorganization of the Pompidou collection by theme. It was very dynamic and interesting. We were exhausted by the end of the day.
The next day we took a trip to Versailles. Julien was very excited about taking a "real" train. A group of Klezmer musicians came through with an accordion and more, which was especially fun...and had Julien asking questions for hours!
The first day after Julien's illness we decided to take it (relatively) easy and went to the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, even in the cold there was a long line to go up, so we decided to take the Bateau Mouche down the Siene. It was quite beautiful. Afterwards we went to Rue Cler and ate at Cafe du Marche. Rue Cler was charming: carolers, a horse carriage and a wonderful chocolate shop.
Perhaps the best place to start the story about our trip to Paris is with the apartment. It made a huge difference to stay in an apartment instead of a hotel (thanks to Kathy and Rick). We stayed on Rue Malte on the corner of Rue Crussol a block away from Oberkompf. We had three boulangeries in a one block radius as well as several local designer boutiques, the Clown Bar, and the Cirque D'Hiver (the Winter Circus). It was a great location, not touristy, lots of action, but not too much. We had just enough room in the apartment--cozy and comfortable. Out our window we could see a brasserie and the tag "Typo."
HAPPY NEW YEAR! 
We went to the Holiday Train at the Indianapolis Zoo with Graham and Andrew and family. They loved it! We walked around the zoo after we saw the indoor train. The polar bear was very happy but there were very few animals out in the cold and even fewer visitors!
We had big snow yesterday, along with a lot of the country. It is beautiful out! Julien is very excited, as you might imagine. They went sleding at school yesterday. Julien's teacher called Julien "the ghost rider," everytime the sled went down the hill, Julien seemed to be on it. This morning when we were shoveling the drive way, Julien made himself a snow car and started work an a snow house/igloo. 
I'm a little behind on my posts. These photos are from Thanksgiving. We had a very restful visit with Bill and Jan, it really felt like vacation! In the photo of Bill and Julien, Julien had painted himself as Rudolf-the-Red-Nosed-Reindeer.
