Yesterday morning we went strawberry picking at Verill Farm in Concord. They had a pick-your-own strawberries and since I usually miss the season each year, this year I really tried to pay attention and jump on it when the strawberries were ripe. We went with our neighbors Christina, Zach and Ethan and had a great time picking the berries. Josie caught on right away how to look for the good ones and did pretty well. Celia was just tickled pink at getting to rip things off of plants which is usually not allowed, she’d often pick the white ones. After a while she figured out that she was allowed to eat some and then she was overjoyed as she loves strawberries. The picking was fast as we can’t eat too many pounds of strawberries at once. We got about 3 lbs by the time we were done, I sorted through them for the rotten/squished/not ripe ones and we headed over near the other fields for a snack and we and the kids played around for a while. I enjoyed using my camera and trying to work on backlighting since it was full sun but at least it wasn’t noon.

We had fun, we’ll definitely have to go again next year! I also tried a new trick that I read online which was  to soak the berries in a 1-10 vinegar-water solution to kill mold and bacteria that makes them rot. Normally I know they shouldn’t get wet so I’m interested to see if this works at all.

Don’t forget to stop and enjoy the journey, not just the destination.

Upon arrival in Paris, we went to our apartment. We stayed in the Rue Cler/Ecole Militaire area of Paris (the 7th). We stayed in the area the last time we went to Paris and we really enjoyed it. We rented a little 50 square meter 1 bedroom apartment. The neighbors were friendly always saying hi to us and cooing over Celia. That night we were all jetlagged, it was already bed time pretty much at 7:30 by the time we even got into the apartment. Then we went out hunting for dinner and cash. All our apartments were paid for in cash so we arrived with a lot in hand and needed more for Amsterdam too. We went right to Rue Cler which is a pedestrian market street, with open markets on the weekend and lots of regular stores throughout the other days. The buildings are classic french architecture with the beautiful light repetitive buildings and balconies. We went to a creperie and put back at least 4 crepes between the 4 of us including one yummy chocolate one and some egg and cheese crepes.

Then the girls and I played in the street a little bit, exploring and walking around. They sort of just looked intoxicated because of jet-lag.

We’re all sort of off-kilter, unsure of how we’re supposed to feel (hungry? tired?). At 9pm and we thought we’d walk over to the Eiffel tower to see it shine, but the kids just lost it on the walk over so we headed back to the apartment. By 10 it was finally dark, it stays light really late comparatively to here in Boston! We tried to put the kids to bed and Josie went to sleep, but Celia went into total meltdown mode and screamed for an hour in bed while we tried to comfort her and then she too gave in. We all slept till 10:30am (4:30am Boston time) before we started our first full day in Paris. Being in bed almost 12 hours gave Jordi and I a really great start, even though the kids were still really short on sleep.

We did a lot of planning for our trip trying to make it as successful as we could. Here are the things we found important for our family, cause I know other families read this and might get some ideas:

• Book apartments with washing machines and kitchens. Let me say it again. Book apartments with washing machines and kitchens. We used homeaway.com for this trip and got an apartment in both cities, this made a huge difference with the kids. Paris is known for having hotel rooms the size of the bed and this way we got a lot more space. We also then had room to eat dinner, because at the end of the day small kids are just done and can’t handle the super-stimulating environment of a restaurant and actually eat enough, or ours can’t anyway. This way we got takeout for dinner, grabbed pastries at breakfast and added home cooked eggs and store bought fruit. I cooked a few times. We also could refrigerate easy snacks like yogurt and cheese to have on hand. These places all also had free wifi, perfect for facetiming with the grandparents. We also did laundry almost every day because…
• Pack really light, four outfits per person plus one pair of pajamas. This meant we could travel the public transportation systems (and airports) while carrying and pushing both girls with a single stroller and a carrier and still have enough hands for the luggage. We took one hiking backpack, one carry-on suitcase and two regular sized backpacks and that’s it. We were mobile, we were minimal, and we had enough. I did end up buying the girls each and outfit as well in Paris for fun. It was a great time of year for this lighter travel too as we just needed pants plus t-shirts and fleece coats for when it got chillier. We just planned to buy things if we happened to need them, like we ran out of deodorant so we just bought some local stuff. I was surprised by how much stuff we didn’t even need to refill. Almost everything can be bought there, we weren’t going on safari.
• Keep the entertainment small. Most parents learn quickly to bring some toys along with them to keep the kids entertained. I had packed the regular drawing supplies, plus some new stickers, and wikki stix (big hit with Josie). Our other big entertainment device was the iPad, but not for TV. We got a whole library of scanned books from our neighbor and so the iPad was like carrying around 20 different books (all new thankfully as they weren’t ours). We did lots of reading on trains and at night. It also served as a backup for all my photographs in case anything would have happened to my camera or memory cards. We also played counting games with sugar packets, made up our own stories and the cook-ware in both apartments became toys as well. In Paris we also bought a funky travel ball which is a cloth covering that goes over a balloon that you blow up, so it can be popped for packing and just needs a new balloon to re-inflate.
• Book car service at the beginning and end of the trip. Traveling with small kids is hard and just physically tired because you can’t rest if they won’t. So we took it easier on ourselves by booking cars in Paris from the airport (at the end of the long long trip) and in Amsterdam to the airport (because it was crazy early). Things we might not have done pre-kids, but we decided to respect our limits so that we’d have energy for times like the plane ride when you just have to dig deep and deal with it.
• Accept that the trip is going to be very different than traveling before kids. Our last trips to Europe were packed with many cities, train trips and multiple tourist activities per day. Last time we spent 12 days, we saw twice as many cities and took three times as many trains. We went slower this time, did an adult-oriented thing in the morning generally while Celia napped, and then tried to be outside and do things the whole family could mostly enjoy with a few kid-special activities too. Good thing we all like to eat and try new foods! Kids are loud and need to move, museums were limited to an hour. So we didn’t see the Louve, we’ve been there before and hopefully we’ll be back again. We saw some smaller places instead and we got to see the wonder and joy of Paris through a small child. I think we also probably got a lot more sleep.

All in all we got a lot of great family time. Enough adult-mental-stimulation time. Lots of exercise and tons of memories and photographs. I’ll keep writing more about the details too… but I wanted to pull this information out separately.

We left to Paris on a Tuesday night. After dinner and teeth brushing and pajamas, instead of heading to bed, we got into my parents car and drove to the airport. We had been hoping Celia and Josie would fall asleep given this was their normal bedtime, but no dice. The change of routine and excitement about the trip was far too much. There was absolutely no line in security so after checking our bag we had over an hour to wait to board the plane. Most of the stores were closed too as this is clearly a low traffic time at the airport. We walked around, used the bathroom, drank more water and otherwise hung around in the airport trying to keep the girls from being too loud and too unhappy.

Since the girls were awake I started working on one of my goals for the trip which was a number of family portraits. Nothing perfect or fancy, but plenty of pictures with the four of us in it, and especially me since I’m the one usually behind the camera.

We were flying to Heathrow in London and then had 5 hours till we got a very short flight to Paris. They finally called our flight and we got on board. We ended up having a whole row to ourselves as the gentleman near us did not want to sit with us and there were plenty of open seats. Both girls wanted to sit with me though which was tough, and basically Celia got on the plane and started screaming ‘NO NO NO’ for about 5 minutes until she just passed out since it was way past her bedtime. Josie was determined to stay up for dinner on the plane. We tucked her into her seat and not long after the plane took off she fell asleep too. Jordi and I enjoyed a bit of dinner which wasn’t too bad, except for having a sleeping Celia on top of me and we tried to get some sleep.

Breakfast in the morning woke Josie up eventually and so after 5 hours of sleep for her, instead of her normal 10, she ate some breakfast and we landed in London. We got off the plane, walked a long long way to a shuttle bus and then through another terminal to wait for our connection. It was a nice big terminal though with lots to look at and walk around. The only trouble was finding some water for our water bottles, seems the water in the sinks in the bathrooms is not safe for drinking, but there are no signs, I only knew because someone I asked for help told me. There was one water fountain in the whole place, they definitely want you to have to buy some. We ate our snacks and leftover breakfast while watching the Queen on TV speaking to parliament. We muddled around a little, did some drawing and stickers before grabbing some lunch at an asian place, trying to get closer to local time. Walked around some more waiting for our flight and got Josie an ice cream. Note at this point in our  trip Celia did not like ice cream and would not eat it.

Finally our gate was announced, we got to our flight, and settled in for the hour long flight. The girls fell asleep again immediately on takeoff. I got a drink and Jordi and I took some more naps too. In Paris it was an easy trip through customs where they did almost nothing other than stamp us, picked up our bags and grabbed our car service into the city where it was already 6pm local time. All in all, it was a long and tiring trip but the girls were excited about stuff enough that they were engaged with their surroundings.

Here’s the silly kids along the bench in front of the Charles river!

Today our homeschool preschool did our own ‘Make Way For Ducklings’ Tour. We started at MGH and walked along the esplanade, meeting not only pair of ducks as we read the beginning of the story, but also a mama duck and her 6 ducklings as we got to the middle of the story! The mama and babies were clearly waiting to be fed as they swam up near us and walked ashore and softly quacked at us for a while before getting bored and leaving. Then we went down Mt. Vernon Street and Charles street into the public garden to sit on the statues and enjoy looking at the swan boats. We were all a bit too tired to do the boats this time but we plan to be back later this summer!

Yesterday we spent our free time with my dad celebrating his birthday with a nice dinner out to Punjab, some gifts and some pie and home-made kitkat ice cream. Our friendly neighbor snapped this for us, showcasing the card Celia and Josie made for my dad. Celia painted the orange cake, Josie did the candles with her fingers. Note that some people are wearing a coat, in June, yikes is this weather weird.

Jordi’s mom came up for Josie’s birthday party and hung out with us a few more days. She got to do such fun things as take the girls to the doctor, and take me to the doctor for some strong medicine to finally get healthy. One day we went to the Stone Zoo as she had gotten Josie a membership for her birthday. We also played outside and inside and luckily on the day she had to leave we got to go to the Franklin Park zoo all together before we dropped her at the airport to just barely catch her flight. Josie and Celia loved to watch the gorillas, especially the baby one. We’ve been to the zoo at least 5 times now since getting the membership, we can get friends in too, so let us know if you want to go!

Celia today was determined to use the potty. She hasn’t yet (not that we are instructing her to, this is her idea). Directly after bath Josie decided she needed to go and sat on the toilet, so Celia got her little potty and brought it in front of the toilet and sat down. She made the ‘sssssssssst’ noise we try to use. She checked the potty. Nothing. She sat down again and grunted. Checked the potty again, nothing, some gas. So she decided to stand up. Now I know if she is successful she is going to make a big mess trying to go while standing, but she is so determined I don’t want to interrupt her. I see all of her body clenching and pushing, her stomach, her legs, her face. More grunts, nothing produced. She stands off to the side of the potty and tries again. And suddenly there is fluid on the floor!

Except it’s vomit, she tried so hard she spit up a bit.

I just hope she continues with her self motivation to use the potty because she wants to be like her big sister, I wouldn’t mind getting her out of diapers sooner.