Paris Part 3: Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday was a very late start. Miss Callie was a big ole mess! We really didn't get going until about 4 oclock in the afternoon when all was said and done. We stopped for lunch at a cafe. I decided to give onion soup another go and was pretty disappointed. Oh well.

Bill's first beer of the trip. So hard to say no to such good/cheap wine!
It was raining off and on so we decided to make it a shopping day. We had heard that there were some great kids' stores in the area so that's what we did. We got her some socks since it was so cold and we really hadn't brought any. We also found some really cute stuffed animals. We thought it would be fun for her to have a pretty unique toy so we found this really cute stuffed animal that looks like a chicken super hero! On the back it says "Juliette la poulette marquee." And Callie looooves it!

Say Bon Jour to Juliette!
We also stopped in at a bakery. I got a pistachio macaroon and mom got a devilish chocolate eclaire. It was ridiculously good!

Callie is definitely eyeing my Pistache Macaron
We also stopped at Printemps which is a super crazy department store for people who have money to burn. Each section had 6 floors and they carried crazy brands like Burberry, Fendi, etc. Needless to say we didn't buy anything:) Before we left we wanted to change Callie so we asked where the bathroom was. They pointed the way, but when we got there we had to pay for it! And since we were changing her we got to deluxe room with changing pad. And for that pleasure we had to pay 3 euros! Oh well.
At this point was back was really hurting and everyone else wanted to sit for a while as well, so we found a table at Cafe de la Paix across from the Opera House.

Once again I opted for the soup and it was so-so.

Callie was more interested in the soup than I was!
I had to nurse Callie on the terrace with the nursing cover but she sure didn't make it easy. She kept trying to give everyone a free show of my boobs. Its nice that she likes them so much, but come on girl! So Bill helped by continuously re-covering me. After dinner we walked over to the Opera House to take pictures of my mom and the sock monkey.

Its a long story, but mom and her brother have a duel going on. They each take pictures of the sock monkey in different places and email them to each other. I'm pretty sure she wins with the sock monkey in France!

After that we walked home and painstakingly got Callie to sleep.

Thursday
Today Bill had one of his two work days so it was just us girls! Poor Bill only got about 4 hours asleep when all was said and done. Today we were heading to Jardin du Luxembourg. We had read that it is Paris' most popular park and they had a lot of fun things for kids to do. We got an earlier start then yesterday but that isn't saying much:) We successfully navigated the bus system and made it to our destination.

Callie on the bus
The bus tickets are pretty funny. It costs 1.80 and it is good for as far as you can get in 90 minutes.

The gardens were gorgeous! Before we explored them we thought it best we stop for food first. There was a really cute cafe near the gardens so we sat down. It became clear there was only one poor soul for alllll the gazillion tables. They also had a Take Away Bar so mom went up to ask for 3 things: cafe au lait, club sandwich and some fries for her. Apparently that was too much, because that was exactly what the guy said to her! Then he told her to sit down and a waiter would come to us. Nice dude. We waited longer and finally the waiter did come our way. We tried to order the club sandwich but he said "No sandwiches today. Bread is bad today." Oooh kay. So Cafe Au lait. Mom tried to get a cappuccino but he said it was too busy for them to make a good one, so 2 cafe aulaits. It was so odd it was hilarious! So all day we kept saying "Bread bad today."
After we ate we explored the gardens.

Medici Fountain

Sculptures
It just went on and on! Callie got to see some ponies and a huge playground. We also stumbled onto a bocce ball court, although they called it croquet.

Mmmmhmmm. Whatever. There were no mallets.
We were about to leave when we were hit with a huge downpour! Everyone went running for cover under the gazebo, so there we all were Parisians and tourists alike all huddled together to wait out the storm.

Run for Cover!

View of Callie from above the stroller:)

Making fun out of being stuck in the rain

Smile!

Finally it stopped and we went on our way. I had read online about a place nearby that was famous for their onion soup called Boullion Racine. So on we went to find it. We found it at last and guess what? They had no onion soup! Curses! So we had a nice glass of wine instead. We had passed by a cute spot called the Creperie Cafe so we went there. The waiter was hysterical. We was totally amazed by our gigantic stroller and sat us in the back so we would have plenty of room. Callie was starting to get grumpy so everytime the poor guy came up to her she started screaming. We got our crepes and drinks and after I finished I decided to go change her in the restroom downstairs. The downstairs was like a bomb shelter. Once I changed her I tried to open the door to no avail. We were locked in and no way to get out. It was pretty freaky. I knew I was so far downstairs that I couldn't really yell for help. As I was about to kick the shit out of the door I heard voices. A nice woman tried to get me out, but the lock was jammed. Enter nice/funny waiter guy. After a few minutes he was successful. The woman was so happy when it opened and even more relieved when she saw Callie. Who of course took one look at our waiter who had just rescued us and started screaming again! I have never seen her do this to anyone in particular before! We got cleaned up and left the cafe and she started in on the poor guy again! He yelled to us as we left "Tell her goodbye for me!" so she wouldn't start crying again.
We caught our bus back and headed back home. We had another long night with Miss Callie. She was all worked up.

Paris Part 2

This was our first "real" day is Paris.
The previous night Callie was all screwed up. The time change and all the excitement really threw her for a loop. She woke up around 2, hungry. So we fed, hoping she would go back down easily, but that was not to be! Around 3 she was super wired! I have never seen her that hyper. Thinking back on the previous day, I wonder if it was because I had too much caffeine. I normally only have one cup a day, but because I had been so worn out and tired from traveling, I had more than that...We put her in the travel doorway bouncer that we borrowed from John and Valerie, but I think she is still a bit small for it. Everytime she would jump she would lean forward so she was basically choking herself on the fabric. So no go there. Clearly should have tried it out before we left! So I tried to wear her out playing, but she was still rarin to go! So we brought out the big guns. We swaddled her and cranked up the Rockabye Baby lullabies on my computer. She slept for a while. She pretty much woke up every two hours. She definitely seemed to be napping, not really going in for a deep sleep. But the time 11:30 am rolled around, I felt like I had gotten enough sleep so we got up. Since we figured it was almost noon, I opted for my casual shoes for the day, because I figured since we were getting a late start we would just stay out for a few hours and come back. Ooooh no. Now I know better! Tomorrow I am pulling out the really athletic shoes.
Our first order of business was food. We had all been talking about crossaints for days. So, we walked in the direction of the Louvre and stopped along the way.

Callie was very sleepy as you can see, so she napped quite a bit along our walk. Which was fine by me! I figured we should take advantage of the sleeping baby to get to as many locations as possible! When she fell asleep in the stroller, she was kind of slumped over forward. This Parisian grandmother stopped us and said God knows what, but she might as well have shook her finger at us. We just smiled, shrugged and went on our way. Somethings truly need no language! We stopped along the way to pick up some postcards and continued on our way. Then we arrived at the Pyramid at the Louvre.

We woke her up fully, she was going in and out at the time and took a few pictures. We opted not to actually go inside the museum and walk through the adjacent park instead. It was beautiful!

We hung out by the fountain and had coffee. Then I spotted the ice cream stand. It said artisian, so I had to try it.

I am laughing so hard in this picture because I had asked Bill to take a picture of me with my ice cream (otherwise I probably would have forgotten about it!). When I looked up at the camera, this is what I saw staring back at me through the camera screen.

To which I exclaimed, "That's not me! That's you!"

We gave Callie something to play with...

We walked over to the Egyptian Obelisk. When we arrived my mom says "I can read that." (It is covered in hieroglyphics.) She had taught Eygptian history to one of her classes a couple years ago, so I was hooked. So I say, all excited, "Really?! What does it say?" To which she says "The pharoah died and he was really important." Nice. Totally got me.

Munching on my finger.
We kept walking and came across this really cool fountain, which we assumed is for washing hands.


Bill demonstrates.
We continued on and ended up the Esplande de Invalides, a nice outdoor area that leads into the Musee d'Armee. Again, opted not to go in.

Old canons outside the Museum

Mom had been searching for some Fleur de Lys. And we found some!
We continued walking around, always seeing the tower in the distance. We had to keep telling ourselves, "We are in Paris! So crazy!" We stumbled onto Rue du Cler which was an adorable little street closed to cars for the most part, filled with awesome little cafes and organic markets. We opted to have lunch here at a cafe called Central Cafe. I decided to try the onion again since the previous nights was so incredible. This one not so much. More like a little onion soup and a shitload of cheese. At least I found a really nice glass of rose wine. I have never really liked rose wine at home, too sweet, but this one was really very nice.

We stopped at this adorable cheese shop as well. So cool! We picked up a little piece of cheese and it was sooo stinky!

Also a cute bakery with neon colored treats.

We skipped the treats and opted to show Callie what good bread looks like.

Callie has been going crazy grabbing at glasses whenever she can. And my glass of rose was certainly no exception!

I got a little help from Grandma Tere so I could drink my wine without interference!
At this point, I expected a meltdown. But she was doing great! I couldn't believe it. We had already covered so much ground.
On our way we took some silly pictures. Bill's idea of course.

Stinky foot!

We just kept walking since Callie was doing so well. Then we found ourselves at Champs Mar, just on the other side of the Eiffel Tower. I found a nice spot to nurse her. I wasn't too sure how nursing was going to go in Paris. I had read that we had to be a bit more discreet here than in the states so I packed my nursing cover. I had actually nursed her earlier in the day as well. It is pretty funny to watch her. Because she is always moving her arms and legs someone of the other side of the nursing cover would just see moving fabric and kicking legs. Bill and I sat on a bench to feed her while my mom went ahead to check out the tower. Next to us was this couple that had obviously run into a rude cheese clerk. The girl was going on and on about how could he assume that we know nothing about cheese, so rude, blah blah blah. Apparently her boyfriend felt the same way at first, but eventually he tired of the conversation because he finally said, very calmly "I know it was annoying but I'm going to move on about it." But that did not deter cheese girl. On and on she went. Calm boyfriend just ate his cheese and drank his wine. Poor guy.
Meanwhile, we took some great photos at the park.

3 Generations of Girls

Family Photo!

Sophie is so happy to be back home!

Giant Baby!

Mom wanted to take a "school picture" since yesterday had been school picture day back at Buschser.
So here is her school picture! It is one of my favorites from the whole day.

We then stumbled onto a really cute carosel. I thought it was high time Miss Callie went on one!

We had the whole place to ourselves. The guy working there looked bored out of his mind, on his phone and watching tv the whole time.

But we didn't care, we had a blast! Once again, no seatbelts for the little miss. Living dangerously!
Afterwards we talked about how funny it was that her first carosel ride would be in Paris. We may have ruined her forever.

After the carosel ride, they had tuned on the lights on the tower. So you know what that means! More pictures!


Another super cute one of Grandma Tere and Callie
After that we started our journey back home. I was totally shocked Callie had done so well all day. Girl likes excitement I guess! It was a good 2 miles back, so we took our time. Our feet were hurting pretty bad after a while, so we stopped for dinner at the MonteCristo Cafe which is in the heart of Champs Elysees. The whole area was super crowded. When I checked in via FourSquare I found out why. The Vogue Fashion Week kickoff party was in the area. Who knew ? We got a veggie pizza and a bottle of wine. By this point, Miss Callie was finally overstimulated.

Here you go Grandma! Squealling little girl for you!

I didn't want to use the flash with so many people around, so when she started moving around this is what I got on my camera:)
We were done and started the rest of our walk back, when we ended up in a rainstorm! What a day of firsts for Callie! Thankfully the Bob covers her perfectly. Bill has now taken to calling it The Hummer. The rest of us, however, were not so lucky! We stopped in a pharmacy to find an umbrella. We got the last one! The lady working there exclaimed in her proudest English "It is raining cats out there!" It was hilarious!
With the rain we walked back quite quickly:) So that was it, our first day.

Paris Part 1

So we have made it to Paris! Callie did remarkably well on the plane. Before we left we stopped in the ladies bathroom at SFO to change Callie before space got cramped. But we learned something interesting about our little one. She is absolutely terrified of those Dyson high speed hand dryers. Once they started, so did she. Screaming! Then when it stopped so did she. And....repeat.

She of course was alseep all the way up until takeoff...
The bassinets that the airline had for us were fantastic! Unfortunately, Miss Callie didn't do much sleeping, so unusual! :) She did fine on takeoff, we just distracted her with our little pigs hand puppet.


Sophie is returning to her homeland...
Luckily we were seated next to a really sweet couple with their own little one.

Callie did struggle a bit with landing but I just nursed her and she did just fine. The flight attendants were incredibly helpful. They even brought us a little toy and a bib that says Bebe.

Champagne? Don't mind if I do....



After dinner drinks? Oui

I would like to mention that I did get to read my magazine while Callie napped!
Once we landed the challenge was the luggage situation. Luckily, someone from our hotel was there to meet us and helped us with our bags. The guy was pretty funny, when Bill asked about how the World Cup drama was received when he told us that"striking is Paris' national sport, after that it is soccer. "
It was definitely an odd experience to just have Callie sitting on my lap instead of a carseat! She certainly enjoyed it though! When we arrived, the room wasn't ready so we hung out at a nearby cafe and killed some time.

The no sleep was definitely catching up with me by this point. We got some drinks and some snacks. Luckily, Bill called the hotel again and was able to get us into the hotel a little early. Which is good, cuz we were pretty much done. Poor Bill had to lug the craaazy heavy stroller bag down the street. The room is nice. The only negative so far is that the floors are really squeaky, which may be problematic for getting the little one to sleep.
We managed to nap for a couple of hours and then got all set up. Then we went for a walk to find dinner when it started to rain so we ducked into a cafe and had a delicious meal! I had my first ever french onion soup and we all shared a half bottle of wine. Oh and by the way, most of the glasses of wine are cheaper than soda! So that was our first day in Paris! We are just so pleased that Callie did so well!

Leaving on a jet plane...

We are getting ready for our Paris Adventure! Packing took about 2 nights to do, mostly because one of us would have to be holding/entertaining the little one while the other one packed or did various other projects. But I think we are ready!
We basically just cleared off the dining room table and starting piling stuff on it we wanted to take.

This is just a small sampling of night 1.

Bill spent his time making some aftermarket alterations to the Bob Stroller to make it more comfy for the girl. She is a tad too small for it, so she gets uncomfortable after a while. Bill bought a bunch of foam and cut it to size.



The really nice thing about this trip is that we are staying in an apartment with a washer and dryer so we don't have to bring quite as many clothing items as we would normally. And of course, by we, I mean I:)

The Bob all folded up and ready to go. And clearly, we have some sort of alien technology hitching a ride with us...

So we are bringing the Bob, the Boppy, the co-sleeper, clothes, diapers, computer, camera, flipvid, guidebooks, some magazines for the flight (I can dream! Leave me alone! It could happen!), breast pump and

enough purrell to stop the bubonic plague in its tracks.


There are still 2 bags left to join these...but we are looking good! And yes, we are totally obsessed with Timbuk2 bags:)
And my reward for getting it all done so efficiently?

One of Miss Valerie's fabulous cupcakes!

Meanwhile...elsewhere in the house....

You can see, Milo is really broken up about the whole thing...