12 1/2 weeks

Last time I was pregnant my go-to outfit was my brown Costco shirt and green cargo maternity pants from Lisa. It was the outfit I wore every day, rain or shine, warm or cold. This time around, I had some thought that I would try to be a 'cute' pregnant, but I can see I am already sliding into my old nasty habits. In fact, I had told a girlfriend from work a while back that I was in a sweatpant slump, and this was before I was even pregnant! Anyway, this time my go-to outfit has become my black Lululemon's and my striped H&M shirt. This is proper warning that it may be appearing in most blog posts for the next 6 months!

Last night was our company's annual business dinner, otherwise known as Prom. I tried on every dress I own and was deliberating between whether I try to hide the bump or just forget it and whoever sees it sees it. Well I picked the former and ended up wearing the same dress I've worn to the last 3 Proms, this time with a black scarf tied around the front. So, of course, this is the one Prom where I have to walk up to the podium twice. I had to go up once for a 5 year service recognition and once because...I won a raffle! This is epic. I used to be a master at raffles. I always won the top prizes in dental school (dental loupes, DVD player). I think I inherited the gene from my mom, who won a rowing machine when we were kids that we stored in the family room and which quickly became another seat for guests. Anyway, ever since I met Dae my raffling skills have waned. Haven't won a darn thing. Last night I even told him that hypothetically if I win the raffle he has to go up for me to claim my prize because I don't want to have to walk up again and he said 'sure, sure', half- ignoring me because he knew it wasn't going to happen. Well, I guess when you least expect it...

and by the way he did not walk up to the front for me. All talk.

So far pregnancy has been fine. I have been quite nauseous but it varies from mild to moderate/severe and I've only actually thrown up a couple of times. My stomach meanwhile has been growing fast and furious. I have been trying to continue jogging but it really has become more of a 1 to 2 mile leisure walk where I sometimes pick up the pace enough that my feet lift the ground! Anyway, we are very, very happy to be expecting. It really is a privilege and we can't wait!

Oh one last Leelee news: For two weeks now he has been asking "What is that?" in Chinese about everything. I don't even know if he really wants to know what it is, I think it's more that he enjoys asking. Funny little guy.

Post-shower with mama. He's so long now!

Thursday

It's my Thursday off and it's the Big late-Winter Storm in Portland, although there's barely a speck of the stuff over here in our neck of the woods! So Ev and I met for a 'jog' this morning and Starbucks with the kids. We're headed to Dim Sum in a bit. Yay!

Hot chocolate galore

After our trip Leelee's hair was a long, greasy mess so we tried out Little Clippers in Lake Oswego. It was OK, and Leelee liked the toy variety but for $20 I'm thinking I'm going to buy a pair of little clippers myself and have at it. Cross your fingers for successful updates!

Paris #4 - Montmartre

Leelee's Marilyn Moment, in front of the Moulin Rouge

Our last full day in Paris :( We will miss it but look forward to the comforts of home!

Today we visited Montmartre. The only thing I knew about Montmartre is that Amelie was from there in the movie 'Amelie'. I was never really interested in visiting, but I figured I better see something I had not already seen, so we went, and loved it! It was a really cute section of Paris, and the highest point in Paris at Sacre Coeur - 420 feet. Besides the rash of tourists at Sacre Coeur, Montmartre was filled with cute streets and artists filling the main little square called Place Du Tertre.

Sacre Coeur

Streets of Montmartre

Sacre Coeur in the background

Place du Tertre

Van Gogh's house in Montmartre, lived here 2 years

Moulin Rouge

So, I packed 3 outfits for our trip and I have ended up wearing two of them the entire time. (Again, that laundry machine sure did come in handy!) Meanwhile, Dae's jeans were looking suspiciously familiar, so I asked him if he wore the same jeans every day this trip. He said yes. Which means we are well on our way to the Robertson-Bian method of packing: One carry-on bag for the entire family of 4 on an international vacation!!!

A majority of our trip

Paris #3

Carousel on Rue de Rivoli. Rode it 3 times and wanted more.

Paris Metro

The past two days we have stuck to our one-sight-per-day goal. Yesterday it was the Musee D'Orsay, where we got to scoot over to a special line because we had Leelee with us. Therefore we were able to avoid the huge and imposing line. Nice! As usual Van Gogh did not disappoint.

Today we walked to a Falafel shop in the Jewish Quarter which was recommended by Rick Steves and tripadvisor and it was packed. They ran quite an operation at the take-out window. This very aggressive worker approached everyone in line and said 'two regular falafels?' in a very hurried manner and before we even had a chance to look at a menu or ask if there was anything else he had written it on a ticket and told us how much to pay him. So it was pretty good, but I'm not the right person to ask about falafel. Anyway, we walked over to Place des Vosges and had a bench picnic in the sun, which made its first brilliant appearance today!

Afterward, we walked over to (drumroll)...the Chopin Museum! Quite probably the most anticipated event for me in the past 10 years. Since the first time I came to Paris 10 years ago I have tried each time to go to this Chopin Museum and either 1) it was closed or 2) there was a sign in French that led me to believe it was being demolished? Perhaps it was my French. So, I had done my research this time and e-mailed the museum in advance to confirm opening hours and whether or not we needed a reservation. The woman had assured me it was open and mentioned that the Salon Chopin was quite small. No kidding! Dae thought his 5 Euros might have been better spent on some nutella crepes, but I was still glad we went. The 'museum' consisted of one small room with a piano he had played on, several works of his (I couldn't tell if they were originals or copies), a letter, a lock of hair, a plaster sculpture of his hand and face and a few other paraphernalia. I still loved it. They mentioned this was the largest Chopin Museum in France, which I am hoping means that there is an enormous Chopin museum in Poland!

And in other news:

1) Leelee now says "oh my gosh"

2) We can now instruct him to go throw things away for us. He runs over to the kitchen, opens the door, throws it away and slams the door with vigor. He also can get his own milk, which we're not quite as jubilant about (this guy could go through a gallon a day if we didn't watch it).

3) On a sad note...another $100 flat iron bit the dust yesterday. This the third expensive flat iron I have inserted into a 220 volt European outlet and literally fried. Dae is like "do you seriously not learn?". But this time I thought I took all the proper precautions! I used the voltage converter that they had provided here, assuming that since it was pretty large it was both an adapter and a converter. Nope. 2 minutes later smoke began to seep from my flat-iron and I knew all was lost. I guess I am just not meant to have nice straight hair in Europe.

Au Revoir for now. Tomorrow we are going to Montmartre!

Paris #2 - Staredown at the Arc & Notre Dame

This is the face we had to contend with between the hours of waking up and 2pm yesterday. Dae tried to crack down on the crying, which led to another infamous stare-down between Christian and Dae at the Arc de Triomphe. Christian triumphed, for sure.

Christian wasn't allowed in this photo. Too upset.

When the afternoon rolled around we had all napped and cooled down enough to make it over to Notre Dame and a delicious dinner at Au Bougnat.

Squatting "cheese!"

Carousel ride on the way home at Hotel de Ville

Today is Valentine's Day and we deemed it Christian's Day. As much as I know he loved visiting the historic sites of Paris, we were thinking a trip to the park was possibly a little higher up on his priority list, so we took the Metro to the Luxembourg Gardens and the kid's park there. On the way back we picked up a banana nutella crepe. Is there anything better than a banana nutelle crepe? I think not.

Christian loved the crepe, as did the entire family. We realized we should have sprung for a second one when we were all fighting over the last scraps.

Luxembourg Garden path

Deep in thought at the Luxembourg Garden

Do these shoes go a little better with my ensemble?

Luckily I do not believe Parisiens celebrate Valentine's Day since we were able to get a reservation at a restaurant I remember from the first time I came to France called La Coupole. It also can't hurt that we are eating at the unheard of hours of 6 and 7pm. Yesterday we ate at 6pm and the restaurant was empty (and when we had called, they were completely full. It wasn't until I said we could come at 6 that she said we could go ahead and come in). We're so American!

Paris #1 - Eiffel Tower

Paris...we've arrived at my favorite city! What a climate change - it felt almost balmy (54 degrees) when we arrived so I didn't even need a coat, which is saying a lot. Paris is just as I remembered, but oh-so-different with 2 year old in tow. No leisure dinners with an abundance of vin rouge, no jetting from sight to sight as fast as humanly possible. This time, it is a leisure, one-sight-per-day trip. Christian pretty much insists on walking everywhere, so what should be a 5 minute walk from our apartment to the Metro stop averages around half an hour. Sometimes we are able to wrestle him into the Beco or the Stroller, but those are rare moments filled with much resistance.

Today's sight was the Eiffel Tower. At the recommendation of Rick Steves, we rode the #69 bus from Bastille to the Eiffel Tower. It was really nice. I have never ridden the bus in Paris and it was a nice way to see Paris while traversing the town for 1.20 Euro's per person. Leelee fell asleep in the Beco and missed the Tower, but he said not to worry, he will be back.

I've taken many an Eiffel Tower pic and these are among the worst. Oh well. I just can't not post Eiffel Tower pics on a trip to Paris!

Our accommodations are, again, very good. I think I used tripadvisor.com for all of our lodging and I have been really impressed. This apartment is considerably smaller than the one in Iceland, but we actually love it. It is quite cozy! It also came with free Wi-fi, a land-line phone with free unlimited calls to the US, and a laundry machine (necessary - I think Christian had been in the same Helly Hansen thermals for 3 days). The owners also stocked the fridge with fresh milk, juice, jam, bread, and a fresh baguette. So nice!

So it's more or less one room partitioned by this red wall into bed area and kitchen/dining area. We bought this crib at a store called Natalys for 99Euros and we will be bringing it back! I think the owner was slightly shocked we were going to cram 3 people into this space but he was very nice about it nonetheless.

One huge bonus: The owner said one of the best Boulangeries was on the corner of our street and I think he was right. There was a line to the door this morning at 10am. So we picked up a pain au chocolat, pain au raisin, pain chocolat amande, a bag of choucettes, and a tarte fraise that Christian was not-so-politely begging for. Delish.

So in coming directly from Iceland, the differences between the two countries were vast and readily apparent. I don't remember the French speaking so little English, but on the other hand I think we were very spoiled by the Icelandic speaking so much! So I have been forced to try my very, very poor French (to the dismay of shop-owners as well as Dae!). Also, Visa is seriously accepted everywhere in Iceland. In the smallest shops and for the smallest amounts. I think, in the future, they are aiming to go completely electronic (digital?) from what I read in the guidebooks. Paris, on the other hand, has been mostly a cash-transaction environment. I suppose I find it odd because I would just assume that Iceland being so remote would be the hardest place to get around as a tourist, and Paris the easiest. Anyway, that's my deep thought for the day, which was obviously wrong.

Alright, off to relax and then scout out some dinner. Au Revoir!