Halloween

Today is Madison's first Halloween! It's a pretty tame holiday here in Paris. The suburbs go trick or treating but not here in the city. So we got Madison dressed up in her dragonfly costume and met Kevin for lunch (where Madison proceeded to flirt with all of the waiters, as usual).

Tomorrow we're getting ready for Salon du Chocolat. It's a chocolate expo that is supposed to be out of this world. I'm looking forward to all of the samples of chocolate and champagne, not to mention the fashion show with "clothes" made entirely out of chocolate.

This week while I was walking around I met another American mother with children. I overheard her speaking English to her daughter, so I struck up a conversation with her about Halloween. They're from D.C. and heading back to the States in December. She offered up her babysitter, so I couldn't pass that up :) Starting next week, I have a few playdates set up with other English speaking moms and their babies...some are from the US, England and Ireland. I'm really looking forward to it.

Other than the chocolate expo we don't have anything else planned for this weekend...other than waiting by the phone to hear that Jenn is finally having the baby! For any of you out there that plan on seeing her in the hospital...TAKE PICTURES and email them to me asap!!! It's killing us that we won't be there at the hospital to meet her in person :(

This past weekend wasn't too eventful. Madison had another tooth break through, followed by a cold. But I'm grateful for the timing because next Friday we're leaving for London for 5 days.

I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

Some video...

For anyone who'd like to see Madison (and Angus) in action, I've attached 2 short videos. The first is of Madison attempting to crawl ...she's so close! The second is just of Madison sitting with Angus on one of her playmats. Angus is reallly amazing with her.

Disney!

This past Saturday we decided to visit Disney. It was a really easy subway ride (about 40 minutes) and the weather was beautiful. The park was a smaller version of Disneyworld in Orlando and had all of the big attractions: Cinderella's castle, Tea Cups, Dumbo, It's a Small World, Main Street, etc. Madison was able to sit on our laps for most of the rides...roller coasters excluded :) The park was decorated for Halloween and had a few Halloween-themed character shows in front of the castle. We didn't stay for the evening parade on Main Street. We're going back in November to see it decorated for Christmas (b/c I am such a Christmas nut!) and we'll do all of those things then. Madison definitely enjoyed herself...she was leaning out of her stroller to look at everything and during the rides her head was going back and forth so fast trying to take everything in.

Sunday we went down to Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter just to stroll around and get some lunch-again the weather was beautiful.

Madison's top left tooth broke through and the right one isn't far behind. She's still not crawling but it will be any day now.

I've found 2 English speaking playgroups to attend in the next couple of weeks. It'll be nice to meet other couples with children who speak English and live in the area. We're trying out the babysitter on Saturday for the first time. The cleaning lady came last Thursday and it was great!

We're all booked for our first adventure. We're headed to London on November 7th. Here is the link to the hotel where we'll be staying:

http://www.landmarklondon.co.uk/

Our First Road Trip

This past weekend we all got in the car and took a little road trip. Because Angus has such strict regulations in regards to entering the U.K., we wanted to make sure his documentation and microchip were in the right before we hit the 6 month marker for our return trip on the Queen Mary.

So we set off on Saturday and made the 3 hour drive to the Eurotunnel in Calais, France. Once we double and triple checked Angus, we did some shopping and eating in Calais. We found a baby store which was the Bloomingdale's version of Babies R Us. Kevin had to pull me out of there before I bought one of everything.

Madison and Angus did beautifully during the drive and practically cuddled the entire way there. As you can see in the picture, Angus spent most of the time with his head on Madison's lap while she was in her carseat. They really are so cute together.

Now that is squared away, we are back to planning fun weekend excursions. We'll probably go to Disney this weekend if the weather is nice (it's been warm and sunny pretty much the entire time). We are currently planning a trip to London for early November. We have found a babysitter and a dog sitter and she actually lives right here in our building. She speaks both English and French, which is perfect.

Madison is doing great. You can see the start of her top 2 teeth coming in and she's getting so close to crawling. You can clearly hear "Mama, Dada," and even "Angie" in her babbling rants. We can't believe she's already 9 months old!!! It really does go by so fast.

Kevin has been absolutely amazing during our transition here (as always). He really goes above and beyond to make sure Madison and I are perfectly set up and happy. Not to mention all of the trouble he goes through just to make sure Angus makes it home with us. He's hired a cleaning lady so we can enjoy every minute of our stay here...she starts tomorrow and I'm so very excited :)

We miss everyone very much! PS-Happy Birthday to George! See you soon :)

Still getting settled

We are just about officialy settled in. The clothes are unpacked and Madison's playthings are all set up. We decided against Disney this weekend, as we are going to go either this or next weekend when the Halloween decorations are set up (and then again for the Christmas spectacular....because I love Christmas so). We still have to sign Madison up for Gymboree. We have a playdate this Saturday at a park with other American expats, which will be nice to meet other people in our same situation. I joined the gym last week. I go in the mornings while Kevin is on breakfast detail with Madison.

This weekend was a lot of fun. An old friend, Jill, was in Paris for Fashion week and invited me to the Rock and Republic Party at the Eiffel Tower on Friday. It was such a good time (and a good excuse to get all dressed up). Kevin was so sweet-Friday after work he came home with a surprise for me....a brand new pair of gorgeous Ferragamo shoes to wear with my outfit for the party! I was completely surprised, he said I need a pair of fancy shoes to wear to my fancy party. He's such a doll.

Then on Saturday we did a LOT of walking around. We walked all of the way from our place up to the Notre Dame area (approximately 4 miles each way)...stopping at the Jardin de Tuileries, St. Germain, St. Michael and the Latin Quarter.

Sunday was a lazy, rainy day. We mostly stayed at home (afterall, my feet were still recovering from Friday and Saturday). Today we have an appointment with Madison's new pediatrician. This week we scheduled potential babysitters to come in for interviews. We still have some shopping to do for the apartment to add our own touch. Once we're officialy unpacked and squared away, I'll post pics of the apartment.

Our home phone broke, so we're replacing that today and then I'll be reconnected and able to make some calls to the U.S. Email doesn't always cut it :) But we do have our new computer and it's wonderful.

Hope all is well!