I’m committing these next few days to catching up on Annabelle’s weekly updates (and ours too). I’m over a month behind! This week we ended our stay in Paris by celebrating our anniversary! We’ve been married for 7 years! Dusty made reservations at a super fancy restaurant for lunch and we got a babysitter all afternoon. We went to lunch and then walked to the Eiffel Tower for a relaxing quick nap on the lawn.

I haven’t mentioned a lot about our babysitter but here’s a picture of Solêne and Annabelle! We were very lucky to find her and hope she’s around next summer! Solêne was so good with Annabelle. When she’d walk in the door Annabelle would light up and walk right over to her.

Since we’ve returned from Paris we’ve had a lot of people ask how Annabelle travelled. Well little lady, you did great! We had no problems on the way to Paris because she was pretty darn sick, had a really hard time breathing and because of this, slept the entire way. And then on our way home, we got lucky and scored a row that had an empty seat so Dusty sat by the aisle, I sat by the window and Annabelle sat in the middle seat and was able to roam on the floor in between our feet. In the end, our flight from Paris to Newark went better than expected and we got Annabelle to take two decent naps. I think the flight would have been painful if we would have had someone sitting next to us because she wouldn’t have had any space to herself.

We had a long layover in Newark so that we’d have plenty of time to go through customs and get checked back into the airport (if you haven’t flown internationally, they essentially make you pick up your luggage and re-enter the airport and check-in again). Long story short, our flight was delayed several times and then cancelled after a long evening in the airport. Annabelle did awesome! We had our a little stroller so I was able to cover it with a blanket, stroll her around the airport and then get her to go to sleep. We were exhausted but I’m happy to say that there was no meltdown from Annabelle or me! We ended up taking a taxi into NYC and getting a hotel there so we could spend the next day sightseeing until we could catch a plan home in the evening. So, Annabelle had her first visit to NYC this week as well!

Once we finally got home Annabelle had pretty much adjusted to the time difference and started to sleep through the night. If there was one reason for coming home, it was to have our little lady back to her own room! Now that we’re back Annabelle’s taking one long nap each day (so many people to see that we haven’t been able to take a second nap) and sleeping at least 10-hours straight. No more waking up at 5am and not wanting to go back to bed! Or not wanting to take naps!

Now that we’re home I’ve noticed Annabelle is a bit attached to Dusty and I. Not surprisingly, our place in Paris was small enough that she could see us at all times and she had grown used to it. Now that we’re home and have more space, she doesn’t like it when she’s on one side of the couch and I’m on the other and she can’t see me. She’s most definitely aware of her surroundings. I can tell she loves having the extra space to walk around though. It’s so crazy to think that 6-weeks ago when we left for Paris she wasn’t walking yet and now she’s zooming around the apartment. And yes, we’ve bought baby gates!

We had a busy first weekend home. Everyone wanted to see Annabelle so we spent a lot of time with all of Annabelle’s grandparents. If you can believe it, I think Annabelle saw all of her grandpas and grandmas in one weekend. Here’s just one picture of Grandpa and Grandma Howe who came to visit from Oklahoma, Annabelle and two of her cousins! And one last update, Annabelle has started waving just a bit. Not all the time but if we wave to her, she’ll wave back!

We had a great time in Paris and can’t wait to go back but it is good to be home!