November 7, 2013

Charlie & I have been obsessively checking the weather forecast for Paris for the past week or two.  It keeps changing but unfortunately it looks like we will see quite a bit of rain while we are here.  Today was supposed to be one of the rainiest days so we decided to make it our shopping day.  This morning we visited all of the food and specialty shops and in the evening we headed to a few department stores.  We've been kind of disappointed to find all of the same clothing brands that are available in the US and not much that is unique to France, however the architecture and design of the stores themselves have been anything but disappointing.  This beautiful stained glass dome is inside the Galeries de Lafeyette which is the oldest and largest department store in Paris.

November 6, 2013

After checking into our hotel this evening we stopped by a market to pick up a few essentials (most importantly, diet Coke for Charlie) and then went for a long walk along the Seine River towards the Eiffel Tower.  The best spot for a photo of the Tower is across the street at the Trocadero, but unfortunately I didn't bring a good camera tonight.  

November 5, 2013

Today is Charlie & my 8 year wedding anniversary.  To celebrate we are going to Paris!  Quite the celebration, right?  Especially since his parents are so nice to stay with our boys.  This is the first time we have ever left them.  I’ve been away for a couple nights when Isaac was younger, and Charlie travels often for work, but we’ve never gone away together and I’ve never left Luke for more than a couple of hours.  I am anxious about leaving my little loves but excited to have the alone time with Charlie.  I snapped this photo with Luke on the way to the airport.  He was excited to ride in Grandma’s car and was happily waving goodbye to me.  But when it was time for me to get out of the car he and I both teared up. 

And now Charlie & I are off.  As much as I’m looking forward to Paris, I’m also really enjoying all of this quiet time on the airplane. 

November 4, 2013

I spent most of the day finishing up a few last things before our trip.  The boys were excited to have Grandma & Grandpa here.  They both loved hanging out on the couch with Grandpa watching the Packers game.  Especially since Isaac took over Grandma’s iPad with a new Star Wars game, and Luke got full reign of our iPad.  Screen time overdose.  

November 3, 2013

Luke has been horrible at bedtime lately.  Ever since we converted the crib we have been keeping him in his room at night with a  baby gate across the doorway.  He recently decided that he HATES the gate.  He screams and cries “I don’t like gapes!” over and over again until we finally relent and take it off.  And then he gets up and joins us in the living room over and over again until one of us goes and sits on his floor and waits for him to fall asleep.  It is totally irritating and we are at a loss about what to do about it.  I’ve been skipping his naps all week in an attempt to tire him out, but he was still up until 10:30 tonight.  It’s exhausting.

November 2, 2013

One day a week Luke’s preschool has an Occupational Therapist that comes in.  She has been teaching them yoga and she has an animal name and a song for each position that they do.  Luke sometimes practices his yoga routine at home and it totally cracks me up.  This is his favorite position.  I’m not sure what it is supposed to be (I don’t do yoga myself).  He always tells me he is “just stretching.” 

November 1, 2013

After lunch we headed out to run errands.  First things first: haircuts!  Isaac has been growing his hair out so that he could have “Luke Skywalker” hair for Halloween.  It was looking super shaggy and I was counting down the days until we could cut it.  Next we headed to the carwash (with Dum Dums from the hair salon).  It rained earlier this week and made my car really dirty.  Luke noticed (he does not like dirty) and kept insisting that we needed a car wash.  Seriously, every time we got in the car he would tell me “Mom, we NEED a CARWASH.”  We’ve only been to this particular wash a handful of times but I’ve decided it’s my new favorite.  The big windows are perfect for my little audience.  

I skipped Luke’s nap again in hopes that he would sleep tonight.  And Luke fell asleep in the car again.  I know he is tired.  Why won’t he go to bed?!

October 31, 2013

I don’t care much for Halloween, so I don’t really know how I got myself into the habit of crafting ridiculous dog costumes for three of the past four Halloweens.  Isaac wanted to be Luke Skywalker and luckily Luke really liked the idea of being Darth Vader.  He likes Star Wars because Isaac likes Star Wars, and he actually really loves wearing masks.  Whenever we go down the toy aisles at Target he always wants to try on all of the superhero masks and look at himself in the camera on my phone.  Anyway, Isaac and I decided that Cracker should be R2D2 and the idea of making his costume seemed simpler than it actually turned out to be.  I was happy with how it turned out, but kinda wish I didn’t have to spend so much time on it. 

Also, I really liked this picture that Isaac drew at school of himself and Cracker in their costumes.  

October 30, 2013

Our dog is ridiculous.  He will take any opportunity to lay on anything that might be even the tiniest bit soft.  He does not like hard floors and will never lay on the wood or tile.  Even on the carpet he is always in search of the next best thing.  We often find him laying on things like Luke’s googins or Isaac’s clothes that he left on the floor.  As you can see in this photo, the dog bed behind him is plenty soft but he opted to come take a seat on top of Charlie’s sweater instead. 

October 29, 2013

Today I had the carpet cleaned.  I moved everything that I could carry out of Luke & Isaac’s rooms and stacked it up in the living room.  Then I had to keep the boys contained in one part of the house while the carpet guy did his work.  My friend also dropped her son Steve off for a bit while she took her girls to the dentist.  I was really happy with the carpet cleaning.  They offered a “dry” cleaning service that is environmentally safe and is dry pretty much immediately after they finish.  So much better than the soggy carpets and stinky chemicals.  And the carpets look amazingly clean!  So glad I finally had that done. 

Tonight we met my cousin Amy & her husband Jonathan for dinner at La Sirena Grill and then Charlie needed to go to some home stores at the mall for work.  The boys were drawn like a magnet to the displays of Christmas ornaments in every store.  Luke especially liked all of the balls.  It is a miracle that we walked away without any broken glass.