The Flight and Day 1

Phew! We finally made it! The planes flights went pretty well, all things considered. S was really perfectly behaved and so much fun to be with. He was so excited to be going on a plane. The first flight was a short hop on a tiny commuter jet to LAX. As the plane took off he shouted, at the top of his lungs, "Up, up, up! We are FLYING!". Pure joy. It was so cute. E had a tougher time. He was hot and his little ears hurt. So did everyone's by the time we landed.

E waiting to board our first flight

The long haul flight was better. S napped then watched 3 entire movies, then napped again. Couldn't have been easier. E was over the whole experience by then and just wanted to sleep- in my arms. So I ended-up holding him for about 95% of the flight. (Guess we could have skipped buying him a ticket after all.)

Finally about 24 hours after leaving our house we arrive at the door step of our apartment building. We unload our kids the car seats, the strollers, 4 suitcases, 2 carry-on size bags, a diaper bag, and S's little backpack and then we realize neither Gardner nor I remember the door code. S#!T. Now what. We have no access to Internet, no where else to go, not to mention no way yo move all of our stuff and kids. We stand there for about  10 minutes, just sort of hoping an answer would appear. Then, luckily the door opens. The owner of the apartment's daughter is standing there. They happened to look out window and see us. Thank God. We head up. The elevator is small. My stroller won't fit unless it is folded. It takes 5 trips to bring everything up. I have officially over-packed. But, the apartment is amazing! Looks just like the pictures.  After unpacking and heading to the local market for a few supplies, we are all ready for bed.  All except E. He screamed for 2 hours straight. Didn't matter if he was being rocked, nursed, left alone in bed. We gave him some Tylenol, to help calm him down. Nothing worked, except what he wanted, which was to sleep with me. So finally we gave in and let him sleep in our bed. Other than a few quick visits from Sebastian and a midnight feeding of butternut squash to E the night went really well, and we woke-up feeling refreshed.

On our first day of sightseeing, we had already decided to visit Ile de la Cite. We planned to see where the city began, the very center. The morning was overcast and very cold and windy. We grabbed croissants and coffee and took the metro (kind of a hassle with 2 strollers, all those steps) over to Notre Dame. It's amazing. We got there right at opening, so there weren't too many people yet. (Walked by a few hours later and the line stretched all the way through the square. The church is absolutely beautiful. I have always had a fondness for Gothic cathedrals, and Notre Dame in Paris is arguably the most famous in the world. The way the light comes through the windows (even on an overcast day) is beautiful. It makes the walls look like they are sort of glowing. We decided to save the climb to the top of the bell tower for another day.

The wind and rain picked up. We were unprepared for that kind of weather. Bummer that's the forecast for the next ten days. But I think we will do better bringing only one stroller for the boys to share with the ergo baby carrier. For the rest of the day we got lunch, saw the Archaeological Crypt (the ancient Gallo-Roman foundations of Paris), took a rest and walked around Bon Marche. Bon Marche is a huge, very cool, and very expensive department store that also has a whole gourmet grocery store attached. Tonight E was the easier one to get to sleep. (Both kids have been napping on and off all day). S is still up and listening to books on tape. It's 10:30PM. Wish he would fall asleep so I could too.

All in all, so far we are having a good time. Looking forward to everyone fully adjusting from the time-change and hoping the weather improves. Bonne Nuit.