France, Baby!

Well, here we are. One week into our French adventure with our shmamily (the word we've used to describe our unique family situation here with our friends).  We traveled to Bordeaux, France for a home exchange along with our friend Mandy and her 2 kids Casey and Maya.  Mandy gave her home to the French family, Mandy's husband moved in with Joe, and we are living in the home of the French family along with their delightful beta fish.  For those trying to do the math, that's 2 adults and 4 kids ages almost 7, almost 3, 19 months, and 4 months...  So yes, we are indeed certifiably insane.  But what's life without adventure and challenge??   I guarantee this will be my longest and most detailed post...  hopefully I'll be doing them more frequently now that we're settled, but in an attempt to use this blog to not only share our experiences with friends and family,but also to use it as a keepsake for the kids I'm going to try and recollect all the fun and not so fun times.

So, you may ask - you've been in France for a whole week, you must have seen a lot of amazing stuff, right?   The answer to that is a resounding... um, not really.   For those of you with toddlers, especially those who keep them on as tight of a schedule as mine is, you might understand.  I have 2 awful, awful words to describe week 1.. JET LAG.  My darling little blonde boy lost much of his charm in this last week... apparently a 9 hour time change does not sit well with a passionate, loud, agressive toddler.  Mandy and I have spent many a night listening to him cry for hours, getting up at midnight entertaining him for hours, etc.   Finally after 7 days here he's back on track and sleeping through the night (at least he did last night and fingers are crossed this is the new norm).

So, what have we done so far... and please, while judging how little we've actually accomplished, try to imagine what it's like to move 4 little people around in a foreign country - nothing is simple!   The flight here was the first adventure.  10 hours on a plane to Paris, which overall when remarkably well.  A few meltdowns here and there, Air France flight attendants scolding me for allowing Gordon to rest on me and have his head sticking out 1/4" over the chair into the isle.  Apparently there was an "incident" last year where a child was hit in the head.  If you've met my son you'd know that another blow to the head probably won't change much.   Judging by the seriousness of the flight attendant, you'd think I was holding him out the emergency exit door.  Lesson #1 - the French tend to lack a sense of humor, or at least don't share my sense of humor.  Anyway, Claire did great, as usual.   Then the fun really got started when we landed in Paris.  Our Bordeaux connection was delayed by a couple of hours and in our sad attempts to translate what people we're telling us it sounded like there was a strike at the airport and we may have to sit in the plane on the tarmac for a couple of hours before taking off.  Just the thought of being stuck on a plane with kids that have been traveling for 14+ hours and not moving for a couple of hours was terrifying.  Thankfully we took off shortly after boarding, we're still kind of confused about the potential strike and people here seem to be too.

Finally, after all the travel we landed, got a giant taxi van and made our way "foam" (fake home) to our house in Bordeaux.   The house was adorable and we quickly settled in and attempted to embrace local time.  Thus begins the battle of the jet lag.  It was about 5PM local time so we fed the kids and tried to put everyone to bed around 7PM.  The real party began about midnight when everybody was up as their internal clocks were all off.   We fed kids, entertained them and tried going back to bed...  many attempts in we finally got to sleep and ended up sleeping until 1PM the next day - yikes!!  This took days of adjusting, Mandy's kids were much quicker to adapt.  Claire could care less - as long as she could nurse, she was happy to lay down and sleep.  Gordon, on the other hand, oh Gordon.  All I can say for my boy is that he is relentless.  I gave him the benefit of the doubt, let him get up for the first 4 nights and exert some energy, but then it was time to crack down. Man was it painful.  This has been a lesson for us both - but I guarantee we will come home better from this.  G will be better adjusted and I will be a mama that puts up with less bullshit!  I've taken a few lessons from the school of Mandy, so far I think I'm getting an A because he's sleeping, I'm feeling less sorry for him and I'm even working on sleep training Claire!

On to the fun!  On day 2 we attempted to take a short walk around our new neighborhood.  One block in my stroller collapsed in the middle of the road and it became evident that Air France did a number on it and it was just now evident.  Gordon was not thrilled to be laying on the ground..  it was quite the site.  Mandy quickly went back to the house to grab the umbrella stroller the family left for us.  She got back with it and we realized that was broken too. On that note we headed back to the house and decided to call that day a bust and try again later.

Over the next couple of days we struggled with jet lagged kids, surviving on little sleep, and just laughing about all the little things that might otherwise end in tears... it really is true, laughter is the best medicine.  Or maybe Benadryl - that has surely helped the Gordon situation.

OK- moving on.... aside from the sleep issues, the walks have been great, we visited a fabulous local park, the architecture is stunning,  and it's even fun to shop the grocery store and attempt to figure stuff out.  We even got to experience a hail storm that according to the neighbors is very rare.  I'm convinced this home exchange thing is the way to go - you truly get to feel like you live in another country.  We've met the neighbors, experienced the garbage strike that is currently going on (try imagining the garbage piling up in a house with 4 kids - 3 still in diapers), and just immersed ourselves trying to act like locals except for that whole we don't speak the language thing. Speaking of language, Gordon has added a few new words to his repertoire (that's French in case you were wondering :) )  -  kitty, sister, a word resembling Claire, and a few others that my brain can't gather as it's getting late.

Today we finally made it downtown and got to check out a flea market, the river, and a downtown park. It's amazing how productive and ambitious 2 moms can be when they are finally getting some sleep.  Gordon doesn't seem to care where he is as long as he can still see trucks, trains, and construction equipment.  Lucky for him, the whole city seems to be under construction so there are cranes and trucks everywhere and the tram system has him mesmerized.   Tomorrow our plan is to hit the zoo and check out some French animals.  

Well, sorry for those I've bored with this lengthy post..  will hopefully be shorter and more clever in posts to come.

Much love from France!

Au revoir

Charlene, Gordon, and Claire

Gordon digging the French ride at our neighborhood park

Hail storm!

The kids enjoying some Easter goodies

Cool stuff downtown

cool building, Gordon playing

The slide master

Totally digging the see-saw

The view of our "city garden" at the house... sounds so much nicer than "backyard".. oh those fancy French folks

The view of the front of the house.... check us out on Google Earth - 57 Rue Pasteur, Bordeaux France 33200

Claire in her loaner baby mobile

An evening stroll through our neighborhood... kind of nice that it doesn't get dark until 9ish...not that we would ever consider staying out that late with munchkins! 

All geared up and ready to fly at SFO

Our row of fun

passed out babes

Just after arriving, all our stuff lined up outside our new house! 

Claire and I on our first adventure out on our own.  We went to the grocery store, but still.. it was an adventure.. come on people.. think infants! 

The ladies, and 1 gentleman out on the town

Naked baby cruising around the house!