I left my blankie in Paris

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I thought we were doing really well with jet lag and I still stand by that. However, 2.30am with a 2 year old bouncing around the walls I wasn't so sure. The thing with Paris apartments is that they are small! And when I say small, I mean just enough room for a bed, a travel cot and a blow up mattress. There is barely enough floor space to navigate between these things so having Mykenzie wide awake and Edyn sleeping soundly may have posed a problem! As quietly as we could, we coaxed Mykenzie back to bed and after around an hour of listening to her sing Christmas carols, she finally dozed off again. We didn't hear from either of them again until 6am so that was pretty good!

We have been to Paris a few times and have done all the tourist sights, so this time we just wanted to hang out and BE in Paris. The one exception was the Eiffel Tower. We felt that it was only fair that we take Edyn to see it and have the obligatory photo, since Mykenzie had been there by the same age! We just walked around the bottom and took the necessary photos and then proceeded to spend the next hour at a nearby playground. Mostly, playgrounds are boring places for parents, but at least this one had a 'million dollar' view overlooking the Eifflel Tower! We weren't in too much of a hurry to leave.

We found a beautiful little patisserie around the corner from the tower where we stopped to warm up and have a cappuccino. I have now learnt a very valuable lesson to look at the price of menu items before ordering. I was a little unimpressed when our cappuccino, hot chocolate and 2 croissants came to the equivalent of $30AUD! I think they were taking a 'million dollar view' a little too literally!

Anyway, on we travelled to the Latin Quarter to have lunch with Brett and Lans. We've had some great meals in this arrondissement and weren't disappointed this time. We found a great little place that served amazing mules and frites (muscles and fries) and it's always a positive when the restaurant fills to capacity during the course of the lunch!

This evening we just stayed in our local area. Its full of beautiful local boulangeries, boucheries, fromageries, chocolateries and fruit stalls. There was a little Christmas merry-go-round which Mykenzie loved. The bonus was that it was free so I was happy to let her go round a few times. Everything was going well, we left the ride with Mykenzie in the stroller and Edyn in the baby bjorn. I had given her, her little blankie to hold and I was very aware that she could drop it. Anyway, I needed to find a Christmas present for Edyn and came across a little souvenir store that had a few cute things for her. Mykenzie was being such a well behaved girl that I had a lot of time to spend in the store looking at all the fun things. Edyn dropped her blankie a few times but we always realised and picked it up. After about 30 minutes we made our purchases and made our way to the supermarket about 100 meters away! I was standing in line waiting for the cashier when my heart sank! I realised we didn't have the blankie anymore! Anyone who has children will tell you what a tragedy this is. Pushing Mykenzie in the stroller over cobblestoned streets and with Edyn bouncing from side to side in the baby bjorn we high tailed it back to the souvenir shop to find the blankie! I was positive Edyn had dropped it in the store because she couldn't hold onto it for that long, but alas, it wasn't there! I searched high, low and middle for that bloody blankie to no avail. The shop keeper was helpful to a point but I was in there for so long looking for it that she started thinking that I was accusing her of stealing it. All she could say was "catastrophe, catastrophe, l'doudou, l'doudou" the first part of which, I didn't need translated! L'doudou, although it sounds like the big mistake I had just made, actually means "blankie"! This really was a disaster of monumental proportions! I can't believe what a terrible, terrible mummy I am! I was so distraught but Edyn was blissfully unaware! The poor little possum doesn't even realise the extent of the problem but I know the screams that are going to come! Up and down the Rue I went looking for that bloody blankie but there was no sign of it. I can only imagine that there's some smelly, homeless Parisian that has picked it up and shoved it into his shopping trolley! Mykenzie was very sweet and offered to cut, that's right cut her blankie in half and share it with Edyn. I couldn't believe she said that because I think she's more attached to her blankie than she is to her parents!

So when we got home, sure enough Mykenzie allowed us to cut a little bit off her blankie to give to Edyn. In theory this sounds perfect, but Edyn wasn't having a bar of it! She wanted her blankie and nothing else would do! Oh no! We kept shoving the new blankie into her hands and she kept throwing it away. So with no other option, we just had to put her to bed and see what happened. What happened was, she cried! And cried, and cried some more. I was distraught with self-loathing knowing that I created those screams. It was horrible listening to her and not being able to explain where her real blankie was and why she couldn't have it. Eventually, she cried herself to sleep and surprisingly sleep well for most of the night. We'll wait and see what tomorrow brings!

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