We Shop Til We Drop

"Bon Anniversaire a Juliet! Today she is one month old! We celebrated by taking her to the pediatrician for her one-month checkup, which she (of course) passed with flying colors. I wasn't actually in the room, but I'm assuming the doctor said she was not only beautiful and intelligent, but also perfect in every way. The other infants and children were screaming their heads off, but I didn't hear a peep from our Juliet. Next month she gets shots, but thankfully Grandma won't be here for that.

After the doctor's appointment we had precious little time to get back to the apartment and load up in the car to go across Paris to Jeanne's hair salon. We couldn't figure out how to get the new stroller folded up, and after wasting a lot of time and energy, we just chucked the bottom part in the trunk, and stowed the car seat in the front passenger seat. We arrived at the salon 15 minutes late, and by this time Juliet had been asleep for an hour.

What fun for me at the salon, as all the customers and stylists wanted to tell me how cute she was, and ask all the easy questions like boy or girl, name, and age. I'm pretty good with the easy answers, and smiling gets you a long way in any country. One of the stylists asked Jeanne if she was French. When Jeanne said "yes" the stylist asked if the father was British, and Jeanne said, "American". Right away the woman came back with, "Oh, that's a great combination!" To which Jeanne agreed...and I was secretly amused that this young woman had obviously given this some consideration.

After the salon we three girls went shopping. My daughter-in-law is famous for shopping under normal circumstances, but given that she hasn't really been able to do any serious shopping for the last month, I should have been forewarned. We shopped for the next three hours. And in Paris that means lots of walking, the main reason Parisian women are so thin. I was ready to call it quits long before Jeanne, but Juliet was sleeping so peacefully, and Jeanne was so animated and happy, that I didn't have the heart. So we shopped, and we shopped, and we shopped. And Grandma was the only one that dropped.

We got back to the apartment at 7:30. At this point Juliet had been asleep, with brief periods of wakefulness, for six and a half hours! It seems that like many newborns, she has her days and nights mixed up. Jeanne asked me what she could do to get Juliet turned around, and I didn't have an answer for her. It's been 35 years since I had that problem myself...

It's been cold and rainy most of the week, but today was an absolutely gorgeous day, the kind that fools you into thinking that spring is just around the corner. The high was only around 15 degrees C., and since I don't remember how to translate C. into F., it seemed really warm and it may have been really warm! By the time we got into the car to come home, it was dark. Jeanne drove along the Seine, and you could see the Bateaux Mouches (boats that cruise the Seine and point out the landmarks along the way) all lit up, as well as the historic buildings on either side. And late tonight as I walked from the Metro to my apartment, I saw groups of young people at tables in the cafes, and lovers strolling hand in hand on the boulevards, and I thought to myself, "I must remember to say in my blog, how much I love this city!" I feel at home here, and when I'm not here, just thinking of Paris makes me smile.