From the beginning...We left on Valentines Day, February 14th 2010 and arrived on the 15th. It was a ten hour flight that our two year old managed to stay awake for, I guess he didn't want to miss a thing!
We spent the first two sleepless nights in a hotel, The Pullman which is right near our building 11 av Suffren. I try not to let the street name scare me. We pretty much look settled already.
After a bit of phone/computer problems we are back in the game!
I have not met anybody in person yet but I try to go the Eiffel everyday, there are a few parks for G to play at and a ton of paths, ducks, street performers, three military guys patrolling with guns everyday. So lots for little eyes to see. Kind of hard to believe how close we are. We just go out the back of the building and cross the park. It's great not one road to cross so he can run ahead the whole way if he wants!
He is laying on my bed crying right now because I am washing his favorite blanket. It was seriously starting to smell!
Stella is a giant already into her 6-12 month shirts, but I guess G was at her age too.
L'appartment is very nice. It's very old and not what I am used to at all. The windows are just giant glass doors that open without any screens, so I have to really watch that G never figures out how to open them. There is no air conditioning here though so we will have to figure out something for the summer. The kitchen is tiny as hell. No surface area to work on. I only have an attached to my tiny single sink dish rack that I can put a cutting board on to use for surface. It sucks, no major cooking going on here. The lift is a tiny as Perry said. I can fit our new single in there folded up. I carry it and Stella to the lift, then we squeeze into it, once at the lobby I have to carry her and the stroller down the stairs before I can get her in it. Griffin already knows to wait for us or NO WALK!
I'll send along a few pictures. Really everything is so new, not just Paris, but living in the city, in an apartment, with no car.
I really have to go console the poor wee toad, I'll talk at you later.
MMMM...he just stopped, maybe fell asleep...not sure, nope watching Thomas.
A load of laundry is three pairs of jeans to give you an idea of how tiny the machines are. The drier takes forever but is kind of cool, well and annoying... you have to empty the water compartment (which I keep forgetting to do) all of the water that is sucked out of the clothes ends up in a side container. It's surprising how much one load can net!
I'll post pictures of all of these things when I can get on FB.
Today is actually very nice, well most afternoons have been. Every morning it seems to rain for a little bit and then we have a warm sunny afternoon.
Last thing...yesterday afternoon Perry said that the it guy might come by to fix the phone and I thought shit, the house smells like diaper pail. (l'appartement) so I was just going to run the garbage out real quick. I should back up a little to make the story better. To run the garbage out, you have to go out our fire escape down three flights of stairs to a little courtyard that has the trash bins. Well I took the fire escape key and let my self out. I'm potty training G so he was naked from the waste down and I was getting Stella into actual clothes not barfy p.j's in case the guy stopped by, so she was on the living room floor in just a diaper and G was watching Thomas. Thought I could sneak down and he would never know. Well, I probably could have but when I tried to come back in I couldn't it was only a decoration doorknob on the outside of the door and the one inside was up to high for Griffin to reach. He could hear me trying real hard to get back in, so of course he started wailing which set Stella off. Shit! So I run back down to the courtyard and can't find my way out for a few minutes, finally a little door spits me out on the other side of the building. I run around back to the front and have to buzz the landlady. We have never met yet, which I felt bad about but Perry said she didn't speak a word of English, any how, I have to explain who I am and do a ton of broken french and sign language (poor Lassy) to get her to help me. We finally make it back up here, to the two screaming kids and realized the safety bolt is locked on the inside. Thank god Griffin could reach that, but he of course was hysterical after 20 minutes or so of this and would not unlock the door. The landlady (La Guardienne) runs back to her place, I thought she was going for bolt cutters but came back with a chocolate bar, voila tears stop and out comes naked to get his candy bar. I looked like a total looser Mom I'm sure, but I'm still actually laughing about it now!
We spent the day exploring on foot each with a stroller, checking out the fabulous baby clothes. Our kids look like beacons with there very bright American clothes. Next year I will dress them much cooler. Only black, brown or grey. Onve I figure out how to post pics here I will! Time for bed 12:30am.
Michelle