back

I think i'm going to write a book on how to visit Paris with feisty two-almost-three-year olds. It would only be about a word long.

Chapter 1: Don't.

:-)

It wasn't that bad but i don't think i would do it again any time soon. Not with our boy who doesn't like the indoors much unless they are filled with toys (it rained quite a bit).

Morning 2 there started like this. At four in the morning because it gets light there at that time (and stays light until 10 pm).

4 am. LD wakes up and says "I want to go to my playroom." We say we're sorry but there's no playroom here. He says "But it's light outsiiiiide (turning into a whail that turned into huge tears)." I felt so bad for him right then. That's the rule here. If it's light outside he can get out of bed and go to his playroom. Otherwise he has to stay in bed which usually means he turns my face to him and says "talk to me ami. ami, wake up. Talk to me." As much as i love these morning conversations we have -after the fact, they are grueling in the beginning at 4 am. Ours this morning was what we were going to buy from the grocery store today. The staples: blueberries, cherry's, grapes, oranges and raisins. And then we sang silly songs - wheels on the mommy.

He did good though. Loved the pigeons - especially our day in London, the cars, trains and London buses and French playgrounds with crazy french kids. Interesting parenting in Paris from what we saw...although i do think many were nannies. Parents sit on benches with babies and smoke while the kids that are old enough to play do so without any supervision. Which means your kid can get thrown from a slide and no one will say anything -if they even notice. In one case, a six to eight month old kid ate sand, a stick, and almost fell off the platform he climbed up while not a single person watched him. His fingers got stepped on by the big kids, he cried. Nothing. When the nanny got up to leave she simply wiped the sand off his face and out of his eyes, plopped him in the pram and off they went.

But LD loved the playgrounds and we went to one usually every day. Luckily there was a playground across the street from our hotel.

That's a small update. We did have a good time - it was just much more stressful than we imagined and lugging so much around and time changes and food and diapers and lack of toilets and changing places can really zap your energy. He was a trooper though and I'm still glad we took him with us. I can't imagine travelling without him. He makes everything fun even if it's more stressful and we have to compromise on food and things like that. We'll have our retirement for solo trips, until then, this is how it will be.