Sleepy Sunday

After five hours sleep Friday night, and one hour last night on the plane, I arrived in Paris a little jet-lagged and sleepy but eager to see the grandchildren.  When Matt opened the door to the apartment and Juliet leapt up to hug me, the whole long, crazy day of travel to get there was suddenly worth it.  I'm not going to go into every little detail that made my travel day very long and frustrating, because we all have those stories.

  Seeing James again after four months, was like seeing a totally different baby.  For one thing, he's wearing size 12-months, as a 5-monther.  He's a good eater but he's not fat; he's just very solid!  I'm thinking linebacker if he stays in the 75th growth percentile.  He's very aware of his surroundings and interacts with people around him.  His sister is a huge attraction for him, as is anyone who will make him laugh, tickle him or play peek-a-boo.

When James is ready to stop eating, he stops.  He doesn't get "fussy" but he grunts in such a way that you know he's done and he's ready for something else.  If you don't get it, he keeps grunting until he's red in the face. Occasionally he has a dirty diaper, but usually he is ready for bed.  The kid is a regular eating, sleeping and pooping machine.  And having said that, he is one of the most cheerful babies I've ever seen; always ready to smile, he's also a terrific giggler.  He seems to understand the idea of joking around because he'll keep doing something over and over and over again if you laugh with him.

Juliet is the same darling girl with definite ideas of what she'd like to do and what she'd like you to do.  Tonight we played paper dolls for about an hour.  We read one (two) chapter(s) of the new Ivy and Bean book I brought.  The usual questions and last-minute "oh I forgot to..."s extend the good-night period by a half hour.  But then Juliet goes pretty quickly to sleep.  She, like Grandma, has had an exciting day, and starts back to school tomorrow after a two-week "vacation".  I can already tell that the word "vacation" isn't really going to be descriptive of Grandma's time here...