We're Off to Paris!

I am so excited! We're off to Paris tomorrow! We have to go to the Embassy to get CG's certificate of birth abroad and apply for her passport. We could have gone to Lyon for this, but why pass up an opportunity to go to Paris? D is excited about going to Starbucks. I am excited about seeing the Musee Dorsay and shopping! SA is excited about riding the train!

My challenge for today is to figure out just how to get around one of the greatest cities ever. It is a challenge because there are so many options, but which one would be the best? Baby carrier and a stroller? 2 strollers? Double stroller? Stroller and a boogie board attachment? Stroller and a snap and go? We have lots of second hand baby equipment from friends- a double stroller which is like driving a bus- I am not too keen on taking this as Paris is VERY handicap inaccessible. I also have 4 baby carriers none of which I have had great success with thus far. Hmmm, I am just not sure what would be best. The good thing is that we know that the Metro is very hard to navigate with a stroller. I really prefer knowing what the challenge is ahead of time instead of being taken totally off guard by expecting American accessibilty where it is unavailable. The other good thing is that SA can walk now. However, just because she can walk does not mean that she is totally in control when she does, and I do think that both she and I need an option for her to sit. We have this great Combi stroller which has a tri-fold system and a shoulder strap- we could just fold it up and walk down the flight of stairs into the Metro and then carry it through a turnstyle. Last time we just gave up and walked for miles as it just seemed too hard to get on and off the Metro and the buses with her and the stroller and all of our stuff. This time we will need to ride more if she is going to have to walk and if one of us is carrying CG. I am just not sure of the best mobility solution. I guess I want one that will be easy and enable us to enjoy the city, but as one French lady told me at the laundry mat the other day, "La vie n'est pas simple." ("Life is not simple.") My response to her, "Jamais, jamais" ("Never, never").

After washing everything (for the second time)in my flea ridden house in a washer that is one third the size of the washers in the US and a dryer of the same size that has a condenser that needs to be dumped out about every hour, vacuuming more times than I can count with a second hand vacuum cleaner that is not the best, and finally bombing the suspect areas because nothing else seemed to work, I spent the day at the laundry mat with SA's bed linens on Monday only to find out this morning that she has wet them all! I need a break! Hopefully we will have a wonderful weekend in Paris... I just need to wait until after the plumber comes to fix the leaking toilet, then hopefully I can get out to buy my Paris travel necessities. This mobility thing with 2 kids is still difficult- yesterday I didn't make it out of the house until noon even though I was getting ready all morning. And then I returned empty handed at 4:00 because I couldn't think clearly or make a decision while shopping with both girls. I've got to get better at this!