Santa
We kicked off the weekend with a holiday party at Madison’s day care. Parents were invited for dinner at 5p – the owner cooked for all of us, yummy Peruvian fare, including a delicious rice pudding concoction. We enjoyed our food, child-free, while watching videos the caretakers had put together of all the kids – it was nice to finally see what Mads is or isn’t up to during the day!
At about 6.30 we met the kids in the main room, shortly before Santa made his appearance. Now, Mads hadn’t been too thrilled about strange old men in red suits and big beards and this night was no exception. Even though she saw that everyone was getting presents when they went up to Santa, she refused. REFUSED. to go collect her gift. Once the gifts were handed out and Santa left, the kids just about ripped into their gifts. Being one of 3 girls at day care, Mads received a nice lavender tulle tutu and matching headband. The mom that bought it for her was so excited to shop for a little girl. “It’s so much fun!” she exclaimed. Unfotch, Mads wanted nothing to do with it once she saw that another girl had received a princess dress and was already wearing hers. Mads went to drawer where the dress-up clothes are kept and proceeded to pull out the blue princess dress and asked to put it on. (Oy! I was so not looking forward to a princess phase so early.)
don't touch me
Macy’s
We got a late start to our Saturday, we ventured downtown at about noon, grabbed some lunch, did some shopping and went to see the holiday windows at Macy’s. Together, with the SFSPCA, Macy’s produces some great storefronts with some awfully cute animals in the windows. Mads was excited to see a black kitten responding to her window taps, a cute little puppy just sitting nicely, and even a sleeping black cat!
She wasn’t too thrilled about the SFSPCA mascot, as you can see.
(Yes, we managed to take advantage of some of the sales most of the stores were holding.)
Slumdog
Later that night, S & I made our way to the Embarcadero to see Slumdog Millionaire. Please go see this movie if you haven’t already! It tells the story of a young boy growing up in the slums of Mumbai (Bombay). Though the conditions are absolutely heartbreaking, it’s still my feel good movie of the year.
And here’s a clip f/M.I.A.
Happy Holidays!
Mads’ latest craze, other than driving us all (Lucie included) ragged and tired, is Miyazaki’s anime classic, My Neighbor Totoro.
This movie has been mentioned on so many parenting blogs I read, I figured we give it a try. At first, I thought Mads would be scared, but she wasn’t. (It helps that the girls in the movie don’t seem scared at all.) Also to note: This is the first movie that she sat still for a majority of the time (more so than Nemo AND Shrek)!
I’m also happy to read that Totoro is the Winnie-the-Pooh equivalent in Japan. I can see why!
This turned out to be a longer post than I had anticipated, so I’m breaking it down into digestable posts.
I know exactly when school is starting when my weekday driving routes are more congested than usual and it takes me more than an hour to get to work.
So, yes, Kellybean and family are back from vacay and back to work/daycare today.
Our flight to Paris was, for the most part, uneventful. Mads did scream and throw a tantrum for the first 30m of the flight, but all was well after that. She made friends with the toddler sitting next to us, managed to eat most of the toddler’s pretzels and even managed to sleep in a way-too-small bassinet provided by AF. (Sidebar: for the money we paid for these airline tickets, the very least Air France could have done was provide a newer plane with a coach section that includes individual and on-demand movie screens. Plus, the quality of their meals has gone down.) We noticed that even our flight path to Paris was impacted by high fuel prices – instead of making that nice big curve that takes you over northern Canada and Greenland, we flew straight through, over the Midwest (MN, IL, MI) and then turned right at France. Needless to say, the flight was bumpier than usual.
We arrived in Paris just in time for a late lunch of cheese, bread and rillettes. (Perfect!)
We spent the next few days getting over our jet lag and prepping Mads for a week with grany & granpy sans mommy & papa. We took her to Parc Corbiere in Le Pecq – complete with large grassy fields, your usual playground equipment and with resident bunnies, donkeys, chickens, geese, ducks and goats.
hi canards!
Our first baby-free evening, we dined at Restaurant La Gare, in the posh 16th with S’ family and friends. Highly recommend it! My scallops were perfect as was the molten chocolate cake. It was late when we left the restaurant, and off in the distance, I could see the Eiffel Tower lit up in sparkly blue lights. Sigh. F*** all the clichés, Paris is effin’ romantic.
The day before her birthday, we had a wonderful family feast, celebrating 3 birthdays! (Mads and her cousin Leo share the same birthday!)
On her actual birthday, we took Mads on her first RER trip into Paris. Of course she fell asleep in the stroller in the train, but when she woke she was strolling down the Champs Elysees and we were looking for a place to lunch. After lunch and a stop at the Disney store on the Champs Elysees, we walked towards the Jardins des Tuileries. (Lesson learned: don’t wear sandals when walking thru the Jardins des Tuileries as your feet will be SO dirty and dusty!) We stumbled upon a carnival type event and eventually found something that Mads would enjoy: a trampoline. (She refuses to go on a carrousel – refer to our Mpls trip.) It took her a few moments to get warmed up, but once she saw the other kids going “bouncy, bouncy” she was all over it!
We continued our walk towards the Louvre and then along the left bank of the Seine. We found a crepe stand and snacked on a nutella crepe in front of Notre Dame. Decided that we had enough walking for the day , we made our way to the nearest Metro station and headed back home. Sounds like a wonderful 2nd birthday, if you ask me.
We spent another baby-free night with friends and family with Domino’s pizza (way better options than Domino’s here) and a crazy modern mob docu-drama flick, Gomorra. It was in Italian with French subtitles, so I did my best to keep up.
Before we knew it, S & I were off to Spain…