Sum Up of Paris

HERE's MY LONG POST...a sort of "short" summary of Paris (I'll post pictures on separate posts later)

Sorry- I didn't get on yesterday after getting home. I laid down with DD for bedtime and fell asleep and went straight to bed. I was exhausted. I'm so tired today too! I forgot/didn't realize how exhausting it is to take care of three kids and all the household chores. After having so much time away with just one little baby with my sisters help too it's exhausting with three especially with DD throwing tantrums galore and LM now starting to have more too. My body isn't tired like I was in Paris from all the walking but my mind is overly tired!

PARIS was wonderful. I already want to go back. SP did great and was loved on by all the French. Apparently they feel they can touch your baby since everyone did even they guys. It was too funny though now SP has a cold probably from all the touching. I'm glad she wasn't my first child because I don't know if I would have handled all the touching well but since she was my third it wasn't as big of a deal to me. I got the Ergo for SP and it was wonderful. I loved that I could pull the cover up and nurse her on the go which I literally did a lot while walking around (the top of Notre Dome Tower and the top of the Eiffel Tower).

Sadly my sister got Strep throat while we were there (Wednesday)...scary that she would pass it on to us but sad that she was sick too and would miss out on some of the stuff. She didn't want to give in to being sick but once I looked in her throat and saw blisters on her throat and she had a Temp I told her I was calling for a doctor. It was wonderful to see their health system in place. SO CHEAP! The Doctor does house calls and came to our hotel room and checked her out. Wrote out a prescription for her and I went up the street to the pharmacy and filled her prescription (pain meds...they don't have Tylenol there & antibiotic). It was only 80 Euros for the doctor and 14.40 Euros for the meds. Thankfully we had just pulled out money the night before so we had enough to cover the bills. I took SP that day and we went to the Louvre and surrounding parks by ourselves while my sister slept all day. It was exhausting lifting the stroller everywhere by myself (note- the Louvre is NOT stroller friendly). It was nice to sit by the two water ponds out front and watch the kids with their boats play and the ducks swim at the other one. It was nice to just relax and enjoy just being there instead of in a hurry to go from one place to the next. I tried the D'Orsay Museum too but they were having elevator issues too so I just left after a little while and decided I would come back with my sister, which we did Thursday night after Versailles.

We took a cooking class while there and it was so fun. We made a pear tart and lemon tart. We lucked out in a small class because a group didn't show up. There was only a mom with her two early teen daughters with her. It was so fun. They were shocked to find out I had a baby (we got a babysitter through the hotel...which Addie slept the whole 3 hours and only woke up 5 minutes before we came back). They were even more shocked to find out I had two more kids at home and then they had to know how old i was. I guess I look really young. lol

I love the Latin quarter and all the restaurants trying to get us to come and eat there. That was entertaining. All the architecture was beautiful along with all the bridges across the Seine (there are over 20). The Eiffel Tower to me isn't very beautiful during the day when you are far away. It really is a metal eye sore among all the stone buildings and structures but is BEAUTIFUL up close and light up at night.

One of my favorite days was going to Montmarte District (Friday). We did a walking tour through there and even lost ourselves in a part that was not a tourist part. We walked into a bakery and ordered all in French. It was thrilling to fill like we fit in. One guy walked in and ordered bread and she put it in a machine that cut it in to slices. It was so neat to see. LOVED it. We bought some strawberries from the local tiny market. So expensive but so YUMMY! We waited in line for a yummy panini from the local cart...oh so GOOD! I loved watching the artists paint in the square too. Too bad it was so expensive otherwise I would have loved to buy one but when a palm sized picture is 50 Euros the exchange rate makes it so much more and it's not even big enough to really enjoy.

The drama started the night (Saturday) we were packing to leave in the morning when my sister asked me where SP's and my passports were and I couldn't find them. I looked EVERYWHERE. I was guessing they were lost or pick pocketed. I lost it. I didn't know what to do. I know realized I was so far away and couldn't just get on a train and get home. DH looked things up for us since it was still daytime in Oregon though it was Saturday. There was nothing for us to do. I called the emergency number to the embassy for getting new passports and she told me they were closed until Monday and then that number said that it would take 3-4 hours and to schedule flights to leave in the afternoon which the other flight for our airline left in the morning and not again until the next Saturday. That was stressful. I figured after we slept on it and got up early to use the Internet to find other flights and such that we would be staying until Tuesday and paying to fly on another airline (more money for the one-way flight than our round trip was). Thankfully I had copies of our passports, SP's birth certificate, and my drivers license. The hang up was getting a notarized letter from DH saying I could fly with SP by Sunday afternoon for us to have Monday morning. Thankfully last minute before my sister headed back to bed after not sleeping well due to all the stress she asked if I checked my coat. I hadn't but knew what was in my pockets though I went to check the inside pocket that I never use and out I pulled both passports! I immediately got up and phoned downstairs asking for a taxi ASAP (doubt they knew what that meant). We packed up in just a few minutes. I literally took a bag over to a shelf and scooped everything in the bag. We hurried downstairs and my sister checked out as I got the stuff in the taxi and were on the road. By the time we got in the taxi we were suppose to be at the airport in 5 minutes for out 2 hour before check in. Thankfully our taxi driver got us there so quickly in just 25 minutes instead of the normal 45-60 minute drive! We got there and got immediate service and skipped the security line (thanks SP...she helped us skip most every line). It was amazing and as we sat on the airplane we couldn't believe we made it!

SP made the transition to the time zone beautifully. She took an extra long nap on the airplane and then slept in the car ride. There were so many people at my sister's house when we got back (from her room mate's family) and they entertained her and kept her happy. I put her down at 8pm and then she woke up at 5am and I thought she was wanting to be up for the day but she didn't want to play just held so I checked some email on my phone while holding her and then she was rubbing her eyes again so I wrapped her back and she slept until 9:30am. LOVED it! Having just one baby was so nice. I got all the laundry done and repacked my bags. It was so relaxing.

She slept the whole flight back to Oregon too though she had a blow out right after I got on the airplane and pooped again right before take off and had to wait until we could get up to change it. The kids were so excited to see us though. LM's talking SO MUCH better. It was crazy. I opened the door and leaned in and said Hi and he told me, "You scare me Mama!" I didn't even know he knew the word scared and that was a 4 word sentence. The kids LOVED their gifts I got them though sadly DD broke her pink Eiffel tower already. I'm hoping to sort of glue it back together for her. LM loves his light up one. DH love his Welsh scarf I got though I never went to Wales. I knew he would love it. I gave each kid a LOT of cuddles and poor SP gets to learn how to self entertain again after being carried all day long with attention from everyone.