I always knew Lainey took after Jason...

Not only does she look like Jason, but now she's going start the "spare parts" removal like him.  My dear husband has had everything removed that can be without missing (much).  In fact, he said to me the other day that he is surprised he still has his extra kidney.  As a child he had his tonsils, appendix, wisdom teeth, and something else I can't remember, taken out.  It looks as if Delainey is following in his footsteps.

I just found out today that she's got to have her adenoids removed.  She has had recurrent ear infections since she was a baby.  Last year she had one so bad she had blisters on her eardrums and required strong pain medicine to get through it.  The one she had earlier this year turned into a chest infection (beginning of pneumonia).  We've been to two ENTs and two speech therapists who all agree that her ear infections have caused temporary hearing loss which has caused some speech delays and bad speech habits.  So, now we think we've figured out the culprit...the adenoids.  Apparently, they swell with each infection and stay swollen which then makes the air flow from nose to ear weak.  Then bacteria grows and fluid fills the inner ear.  That fluid can stick around even after bouts of anti-biotics for months without proper air flow.  So, basically, its possible that Lainey has been hearing-impaired (like with earmuffs on) for a few months of every year!  Now add to that, new languages and accents, and no wonder the poor kid is hard to understand!  Plus, now I'm noticing it's interfering with her learning to read.  She doesn't sound out letters and words properly and doesn't recognize that the sounds she makes aren't what I'm making.

Hopefully, this minor surgery will make a major improvement in her health, hearing, and speech.  I'll keep you posted...

It's not Taco Bell, but it's something!

 It's a Chi-Chi's!!  A real, honest-to-goodness, tastes just like I remember, Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurant.  And where did I find this, you may wonder...why in Luxembourg of course!  The teeny, tiny, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has a Chi-Chi's.  And we in American no longer do.  So,  OF COURSE we had to eat there!  After a week of icky French food it was such a yummy treat.  I'd drive back again, it's only 2 hours.  I'll happily drive that for some good Mexican !

We didn't know there was a Chi-Chi's there when we decided to drive through Luxembourg on the way home from Paris.  We just figured we'd make a slight side trip to check off another country off our list of places we've been.  We planned just to stop for lunch, therefore being there long enough to "count".  (We also drove through Belgium, but since we didn't stop, we can't "count" it.)  Luxembourg is quite a pretty town with a gorgeous palace that we didn't have time to explore.  We only walked around the pedestrian zone and ate some yummy food.  I'll go back for more Chi-Chi's and more sightseeing someday. I want to see the palace and figure out why every postcard of the royal  family had them all looking in different directions instead of at the camera...weird.

Overlooking the palace

 

Stone steps that led to a park just below the palace grounds



Paris- Ooh-La-La and ARGH!!!!

We had planned to spend 2 days in the City of Light, but thanks to terrorist threats we decided to only press our luck 1 day.  We took a hot, smelly, crowded, and delayed train from Disneyland Paris into the city.  Let me tell you, French trains are NOT like Swiss trains.  Ew. 

But, I digress.  Let me start by stating I LOVE Paris.  I just get a happy feeling, an ooh-la-la feeling, a I-could-just-sit-at-a-cafe-and-people-watch-all-day feeling when I'm in Paris.  Someday, I want to go to Paris and just absorb the Paris-ness of the city. 

But, alas, this was my third time in the city and I have yet to just sit and absorb.  This day was meant for warp-speed sight seeing.  Get in all the highlights in less than 10 hours.  I think we did a good job and the kids and senior citizens (sorry, but you guys do fit the age requirements of the term) did a great job of keeping up with me!  I led them all around the city and didn't leave much time for meandering.  We marched through neigborhoods, into Notre Dame, down the end of the Champs-Elysee, through the Jardins de Tullieries, and through 2 sections of the Louvre.  The only breaks we took were during the Seine boat cruise, a quick lunch, and a stop to feed ducks in the Tulieries. 

 In the Louvre, the kids almost broke us adults down.  They got their second wind and had Audio Guides.  Actually, they were really cool Multi-Media guides that had video and pictures and games for kids to play hide-and-seek like games at exhibits.  They were on a mission to listen to every commentary possible and to find the Mona Lisa.  My favorite part of this visit was when Lainey was listening to the commentary about a Botticelli.  When it was over, she pulled me to the painting and said "Mommy, this painting is about a guy who was in the Battle of Jelly".  (Botticelli=Battle of Jelly to a not-quite-five-year-old's ears).  After about 3 hours of trailing behind the kids, we finally begged and convinced them to leave the Louvre.  I'm not sure if this proves that my kids are highly cultured children or that my mom, aunt, and I are highly un-cultured.  Either way, we finally left the Louvre around 7pm and headed back to the train to go back to our hotel.

You'd think my story could end there, but not yet.  This was a vacation with Delainey.  Seeing as we were leaving the next day and she had yet to throw up or need to be seen in hospital, I should have realized something was still to come.  As we were connecting trains to go back to our hotel in Disney passing through the turnstyle at the train station in Paris, at rush-hour, Lainey got her hand stuck in the turnstyle's sliding door. 

She starts SCREAMING and I'm trying to pull her hand out and there are masses of people trying to get home from work pushing behind me. 

Her hand is STUCK. 

I'm afraid to pull too hard, I don't want to break it.  She's still SCREAMING.  I'm sweating, my mom and aunt are panicking, people behind us are yelling.  Finally, after the longest hour  (or 45 seconds) of my life, a man reaches in and yanks her hand out.  I didn't know whether to hit him or thank him for interfering.  He tells us to go see a policeman.  Lainey is still crying and now shaking too.  I find the police man who is apparently used to this sort of thing happening.  He leads us to a bathroom and says "She'll be fine.  Just run some cold water on it" and leaves us.  Luckily Lainey can move her fingers and nothing seems to be broken or permanently damaged.

No vacation is complete without a health-scare from Delainey.

We managed to calm her down and get back to the Disney area.  We took the kids to Rainforest Cafe for dinner (I know, how French!) and then we all crashed into bed.

Maybe my next trip to Paris will be more relaxing.  Maybe not.

 At the Trocadero overlooking the Eiffel Tower.  We decided not to go up it this time due to terrorist threat evacuations earlier in the week.  Aidan was bummed.  He REALLY wanted to go to the top.

 Outside Notre Dame

 Lighting candles at Notre Dame

 On the Ile-St.-Louis.  This neighborhood was so quaint.  Lainey loved all the flower sellers.

 Bertillion ice cream, supposedly best in the world!  We concur.

 The busy Champs-Elysee and Arc de Triomphe

 The pyramid at the Louvre

 Learning about masterpieces

Mona Lisa

Palace of Versailles

Day 4 of our trip was a trip to the Palace of Versailles.  We inched our way there through massive traffic on the outskirts of Paris and then waited forever in lines for tickets (note: always purchase tickets online when possible!). The palace was jam packed with student groups, tour groups, and Asian people because there was some Japanese art exhibition going on.  I don't know why one would have an art exhibition in the Palace of Versailles, especially modern Japanese cartoon-y art, but they did.  I wasn't a fan, but I still enjoyed the opulence of Marie Antoinette and Louis XIV's home.  Delainey, upon finding out we were going to a palace, just HAD to wear her fanciest dress.  If you can't really be a princess, at least you can look like one when going to a palace!

In the famous Hall of Mirrors

Overlooking the amazing gardens, Audio Guides in hand

Enjoying the huge gardens.

Disneyland Paris

After our time in Champagne, poor Jason had to go back home for work.  His busiest times always seem to coincide with the kids' school holidays!  How frustrating.  So, he went home and the kids, my mom, my aunt, and I went on to Disneyland Paris.  This was my and the kids second time here, but it was new to my mom and aunt.  The thing I like about Disneyland Paris is it's size.  It's MUCH smaller than Orlando; it only has the Magic Kingdom and Studios, and both of those are about half the size of the same parks in Orlando.  It is a much less overwhelming trip than going to the real Disney World.  2 days is really enough.  So here are some pics of our 2 days there.

On Main Street USA, with Sleeping Beauty's Castle in the background (it was awfully sunny that day!)

 On "It's a Small World" - always a favorite with our kids!

 We always have to take the Teacups for a spin!

 Halloween had come to Disney!  The kids LOVED all the decorations and had to take pics with all of it.  Here is just one of the many we took.

 Lainey bought herself some sparkly Minnie Mouse ears.

With the most famous mouse in the world!  A few years ago, neither one of these kids would have gone near a character! 

Aidan with his BFF Aunt Toni on the Slinky Dog ride

Leaving Disney Studios

Walt, Mickey, and our whole gang at Disney Studios



A Week in France - Day 1 Reims

When my mom and aunt decided to come visit us, I asked her where else in Europe she wanted to go.  They were coming during the kids' Fall Break and of course we HAD to go somewhere!  So, my mom, being the practical girl that she is, said she wanted to go to Paris so that she could say she's been to all the places listed on her doormat.  Not because Paris is the City of Lights, or to see the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe, or to wander the Louvre, or because it's somewhere she's always dreamed of seeing, or any of the "normal" reasons one wants to go to Paris.  Nope, my mom bought a doormat with European capitals decorating it, and darn it, she'd see them all!  (I love you Mom!;)

So, I planned a trip involving all of the aforementioned sights in Paris plus a few more, such as Disneyland Paris.  For those of you who know my mom and aunt, you will realize that Disneyland Paris was the real highlight for them!  But those places are for another blog.  Today, I'll tell you about Jason's addition to the itinerary.  Champagne.

Ah, champagne.  The wonderfully bubbly wine that gives me a headache if I drink more than 1 glass (and anyone who knows me knows that I always drink more than 1 glass!) and that can only be called "champagne" when it comes from a certain region in France, between Paris and the German border.  Seeing as we'd have to drive through this region on our way from Frankfurt to Paris, it seemed an obvious choice to spend a few days sipping the bubbly.  Jason was only able to join us for the weekend, so we decided Reims and Epernay, mecca of champagne, would be our first stop.

For Father's Day, the kids and I bought Jason a membership into a wine club.  We are the proud owners of 3 rows of vines somewhere in the Burgundy region, near Beaune, but along with such prestige, we are also able to visit other vineyards associated with 3D wines. We contacted 3D and had them set up a visit to a vineyard just outside Reims.  What a fantastic tour we had!  Pierre (seriously how perfect to have a champagne maker named Pierre!), showed us all around his family's winery.  He told us the finer points of champagne making (which really does make you appreciate the wine more and understand why it costs more than normal wine) and gave us a few sips of some of his wine.  Jason and I would really like Pierre and his wife to be our new best friends.  They are living our dream and seemed like really cool people!  We bought a few bottles, the kids enjoyed the tour and watching movies on my iPhone while we tasted, and my mom and aunt got a bit tipsy on the bubbly and ended up buying 2 bottles and some fancy flutes. 

 At Fresne Ducret, a small family owned winery.

After our small tour, we went completely in the other direction by visiting one of the largest champagne makers in the world, Moet et Chandon.  This was a cool tour, but not nearly as interesting or free, as the last one.  We did take more pics here.

 The smallest of these bottles is a magnum.  The biggest costs €1300!

How many family pictures do I have in wine caves now?  More than I probably should!

How about a double magnum of Dom?  This was just an empty bottle (otherwise I would have smuggled it out under my coat!)  Moet et Chandon make Dom Perignon and they don't make it every year.  Dom is only make from a near perfect vintage year.  The last vintage on sale now is 2002!

Road sign, as Lainey's Little Einstein book says, "follow the trail and you'll never fail!"

After spending the day sipping champagne, we spent the evening in the city of Reims.  What a beautiful old French town!  We wandered all around and found Reims Cathedral which is nearly 800 years old and looks a whole lot like Notre Dame in Paris.

We also found the requisite Merry-Go-Round found in every French village center.  Riding on a double decker carousel made up for being dragged through wine cellars earlier in the day!



Our Five-Year-Old Fairy

Today my baby is 5!!!  How that can be, I don't know, but it's true. 

Yesterday we had her party with all her school friends and 2 second grade friends.  (Lainey loves older girls).  I had her party at a craft shop in Wiesbaden that was recommended to me by a friend at school.  I wasn't sure how it would work, but in the end it was such a great experience!  Each girl was able to choose their own fabric and make a bag/purse.  They did all the pinning and sewing with a machine on their own with minimal help from the lady to owns the store and her daughter.  The ladies did an amazing job keeping the girls busy and working and interested.  The girls all LOVED making the bags and felt so grown up using the sewing machine.  I personally have never used a sewing machine so I was also impressed by how quickly the girls caught on! 

Our baby had a great time and was so proud to wear her creation to school this morning. 

 Very basic cupcakes this year, no castle cake this time.  Maybe next year!

 Pinning

 Learning to use the machine, I love the look of cmplete concentration!

 With Zoe and Brianne, the second graders

 School friends

 Olivia, Lainey's latest BFF

 The whole gang backstage getting ready for the fashion show

The fashionistas after making their runway debut!