Jet lag

Although they slept in the plane, both Oskar and Thomas are jet lagged. 

We spent nearly two hours getting the two back to sleep at 2am. Thomas woke up. We fed him and Wolfram tried to get him back to sleep several times until he was down for good.

Oskar woke up a bit after Thomas and decided he did not want to sleep throwing a tantrum in the middle of the night. I stood in his room for one hour until he was quiet enough for me to leave. This kid sure has a strong will and is never missing an opportunity to show it. I was struggling to stay awake and I am not 100% sure I did not sleep a bit although standing.

Unlike the kids, the parents barely slept in the plane and are exhausted. Sadly for them, two little boys have decided not to let them sleep. But revenge there will be... When we wake them up in the morning :)

It's 3:30am, both are sleeping for 15min now. Maybe we can get to bed before its pumping time again at 6am.

Good night, hopefully.

Mixed feelings

We are back home after a somehow ok flight. We could not be sitting together but we knew it and organized ourselves accordingly. I find it disappointing that when I travel with my family we end up in two groups, each of us with one kid and we barely see the other one as it's difficult to move. That's not how I envision a family trip.

Aggie met us at the airport with the car seat for Oskar (yes we insist on having him secured even for a taxi) and we drove home in a maxi taxi, us and our 6 suitcases, stroller and countless cabin luggage. It's hard to believe we were just going on vacation visiting family and not moving to another country.

It's good to be home especially when you find it sparkling clean. Aggie cleaned everything in our absence including all the cupboards and wardrobes. The house has never been so clean and it only took a few minutes for us to ruin this perfection. I'm looking forward to not living out of a suitcase and going for a swim tomorrow. Did I mention she got us flowers to welcome us home?

It's sad to be home when I think of all the people we left behind. Each separation is harder and this time I started to think that it is time to come home. I hate that I could not attend my sister's wedding even if it was only a formality as she describe it or that I most likely won't see my niece or nephew until end next year. I hate that my brother and first niece are so far away it would take 24h to fly there which means I never see them. Food for thought for the new year.

Now it's time to unpack!

La grande galerie de l'évolution

What to do with a toddler in winter time in Paris? 

The other day we went to the Galeries Lafayette. Today we visited another popular place with kids: the natural history museum and its famous Galerie de l'évolution showing a very vast collection of species. 

The museum is spread over four levels. From the top you can have a panoramic view of the jungle animals led by the elephants. 

Oskar enjoyed himself very much, from what I could see as I stayed behind with Thomas in the stroller. 

As per the request from Joy, we paid special attention to the gnu. If you don't know what it is, here is a photo.

Oskar was so full of energy that he would not even stand still for the picture. Unlike Thomas who was nicely quietly watching things in the arms of Yann.

Santa came last night

And as always was very generous. 

I'm curious to see Oskar's face when he discovers all the gifts.

Merry Christmas to everyone! 

Waiting for Papa Noël

Thomas decided to sleep by the tree not to miss Papa Noël when he comes.

Consequence of 1 hour in a toy store

A little nap in the bus.

Too bad the parents could not do the same.

Vitrines de Noël aux Galeries Lafayette

Oskar showed some interest for the animations in the windows of the shop. He might be still a bit young.

The Christmas tree inside the shop under the dome is, as always, stunning.

In the bus on the way to Galeries Lafayette

Father and son.

Oskar, please smile AND look at the camera. 

Father, daughter and grandson happily sleeping.

An yogurt aisle like it should be

Living in a country with limited yogurt selection made this small shelf of yogurt appear like heaven. 

Let the yogurt feast start 

First time out without the kids

Today, for the first time since Thomas was borne, Wolfram and I left the house to go to the movies without kids!!!

My parents and Daad offered to babysit so we took the opportunity. 

We went to watch the latest Star Wars because there was no way we could miss it. Surprisingly there was a cinema in Brest showing the movie in original version. We thought we would have to wait until Paris but got lucky.

We went in the afternoon as we would have never survived a late night one (offer is limited in Brest when it comes to original version and we are still missing a lot of sleep) but still we made it outside of the house alone. 

Theater was not full and the audience was 90% male and mostly students (who else has time to go to the movies in the afternoon on a weekday?) for this new episode. 

Not only was it great to have some time alone, but on top the movie was pretty good. I had low expectations based on the second trilogy so I was positively surprised. There was enough elements of the original trilogy to make it Star Wars and at the same time some  novelty and the seeds for the next episodes. Disney did a pretty good job I have to say. 

Now I'm curious to see what they will do in the next round.

A little seafood treat

Seafood for lunch today. I really miss the free access to those. 

No chili crab can beat this.

Bon appétit!

Much better after food

First encounter

My dad met Thomas today for the first time. 

Unfortunately Thomas was hungry at that very moment and not really in the mood for socializing.

We will try again later... After a good bottle of milk. 

Powerless and frustrated

That's how I feel after numerous calls with Air France regarding our missing luggage.

One suitcase was located and delivered this morning. It was mine with some of my clothes and the rest of the kids' things.

One suitcase is still missing. Wolframs'. Obviously with all his clothes but also some of mine, diapers and the Star Wars advent calendar. After several calls we were told that the suitcase had been located in Paris and would arrive on the 5pm flight. Sadly, the suitcase did not make the flight. We had hope for the following one at 22:40 but my latest call confirmed it was not on board. Apparently Air France is in no hurry at all to return the missing suitcase. 

And the only compensation we are offered is 100€ for first necessities. Go buy those on a Sunday in Brest. This is not Singapore where shops are open every day so Wolfram ended up going to the only supermarket open on a Sunday morning to find underwear and t-shirt. 

Air France is really doing a poor job with us this time and given everything that happened already with this company, any understanding is long gone.

Ahhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!

We are home

Apparently Air France has decided to mess all our trips. This time something was wrong at the check-in in Stuttgart and it took one long hour to get us checked in on the first flight yet with the luggage up to Brest. As for the passengers, Oskar was checked in but not his parents. They had to wait to be in Paris to get boarding passes. Of course this meant that we had to rush through security and the airport to catch our flight while feeding Thomas and managing a crying Oskar. Not exactly what we had planned for when arriving two hours before the flight.

I seriously don't know what is wrong with Air France but this year they really go the extra mile in screwing up every single trip.  

Cherry on the cake: two suitcases did not arrive. Fair enough we had plenty but I still don't get why 4 arrived but not 2. Luckily the kids' suitcase was there. Who cares if parents can't change clothes as long as diapers, kids clothes and baby bottles warmer and sterilizer are there. 

They say we will get them tomorrow morning. It'd better be true.

While the stressed parents tried to get organized, Oskar was enjoying every minute at his grandparents with Daad. My parents were on the way back from Belgium so Daad welcomed us. She played with Oskar who had a whole new place to explore and lots of toys everywhere to discover. Seems my parents transformed the house in a paradise for toddler.

We decided to skip the bath tonight and put everybody to bed directly. This went quite well and we could enjoy peacefully the great dinner prepared by Daad. 

Around 11pm, surprisingly, my parents showed up. They were supposed to sleep half way on their trip back from Belgium and arrive the following morning. But apparently they could not wait to see us.

It's good to be home. 

First wave of presents from Saint Nicolas

Saint Nicolas has been very generous this year. 

Oskar helped Oma unpacking hers.

While interesting, he clearly preferred the Duplo Spider-Man toy over the calendar.

Papa also enjoys it. I fear there will be fight over the motorbike soon.

Thomas was not forgotten with a musical turtle. He does not dare to touch it yet but that will come.

Thank you again Saint Nicolas!

And...

Yes there will be more presents later today!

Miracle egg opener

This morning, Saint Nicolas had a surprise for me: an egg opener.

Everybody was curious to see what was in the box and how it works.

As you can see it's pretty simple and all you have to do is put on the egg...

... lift the steel ball and let go which cracks the egg...

... then with your knife you open the egg. 

As simple as that and unbelievably perfect. Just the right size for my mouillettes (bread sticks to dip into the egg)

Wolfram tried as well and got the same results. 

Danke schön Saint Nicolas Christian :)

Breakfast has arrived!

Wolfram and Oskar went to the bakery. 

By car because the one nearby is closed on Sundays. Can't get my mind to understand how a bakery can be closed on a Sunday but apparently I should be happy that there is one open at all even if we have to drive there. 

Good morning sunrise

Amazing sky this morning at sunrise.

Phone did not capture it all the colors so you have to imagine it was even better than this.

It's an art

To fall asleep anywhere anytime.

Wolfram slept through desert, clearing the table, emptying the dishwasher, tickling his feet, taping his shoulder...

Someone is very tired.

The challenge with two kids

It was already hard to get Oskar to look at the camera and smile. Now with Thomas we have doubled the challenge and added the complexity that we need both to smile at the same time.

Today I only managed to get one of them each time. 

Breakfast at the airport

As per what is becoming a tradition, Joy and Yann met us at the airport in Paris in between our two flights. We had a breakfast at Paul where we enjoyed our fare share of viennoiseries.

It was the first time they saw Thomas.

After the terrible flight, it was fantastic to have family welcoming us. 

The flight Air France really screwed up

We booked our flight back to Paris with Air France like we did the previous years. This time we had two adults, one child (yes Oskar gets his own seat now) and one infant. We were assured three seats together and a bassinet. A week before I called to confirm and everything was as planned.

Except it was not.

Check-in took forever. A whole hour as something was wrong in the system. Apparently Oskar was entered as infant on the flight to Stuttgart despite he had a child ticket as showed on the e-ticket. We could not really understand what the issue was not why it was so hard to solve it. Nevertheless we had to wait one hour until they figured it out. As we waited, I did ask three times confirmation on the bassinet and the lady said yes we have it.

Except we did not.

As I got onboard first with Thomas and Oskar I realized that row 40 was not the front row where they have bassinets. It was right in the middle. I immediately reached out to the crew who told me there had been a change of plane and that there was another family in the same situation. Like I cared to know that not only they screwed up with us but also with others.

Long story short between talking to different member of the crew as well as the ground staff, we found out that we never had the bassinet due to the change of aircraft and that someone should have told us so at the check in. That's probably why it took so long to check us in. While it would not have changed the end point, I would have preferred to know at the check in about it so we would have options in what to do. Once in the plane it's too late. 

And too late it was. They managed to get one person in row 36 to move to row 40 so Thomas would have a bassinet. But only one seat as the other people refused to move. This meant traveling separated which we did not like but were told to either take it or disembark because we were holding the plane. 

So yes, not only Air France did not deliver what they had committed for, but on top they gave us an ultimatum. 

Our bags were parked in every empty space they found in the compartments above and we were asked to seat so the plane could leave.

I was with Thomas. Wolfram with Oskar separated by 4 rows of people and unable to communicate or help each other when needed. 

The flight was stressful on all of us. Oskar could not understand why he could only get either me or wolfram at a time. We had to open four different compartments to get the things we needed from our bags. Neither Wolfram nor I slept more than a few hours so we were both exhausted. We both felt like the crew did not care at all about us nor the kids which is very unlike all our previous flights. Even Thomas slept in pieces. 

What a bad way to start our vacation. 

11pm

We are at the airport with lot's of luggage.

Everybody is very excited :))))

6pm

13 hours to the flight.

First suitcases are closed. Oskar is excited!

It's beginning to look like Christmas

Suitcases are open for airing.

Packing will start soon...