The Adventures of Baby Craig: Damien Does Paris

Damien hit the ground running in Paris. No time to ease into the 9 hour time difference or freezing cold, or what have you. No, Damien's dance card was booked up. First off the day after our afternoon arrival was a lunch at Damien's great uncle Jean-Christian's in Paris. Thankfully, Jean-Christian's place was a short 10 minute stroll from Lal's apartment. Damien got suited up in his super comfy and warm fleece bear suit and fleece blue hat and hitched a ride on Papa in the bjorn. After meeting everyone and having a snack, little D took a nice long nap so that the grownups could have a nice turkey, homemade foie gras, meat stuffing, vegetables and cheese lunch. It was quite a feast.

Shortly after dinner ended, the Craig's headed back to Lal's place to rest before heading out again for another meal! Unfortunately, Papa forgot to get the codes to Lal's building (Paris residences apparently only have codes instead of keys to get into the buildings). Oops. So, we had to buy a phone card and attempt to call Mathias' mom. Papa is quite proficient in French, however, he didn't know the French word for the pound sign, so we were unable to make a call until we got some assistance from a nice lad. Thank goodness.

After a short rest, it was time to head to Lal's parents house for a Christmas Eve celebration. After waiting a short while in the freezing cold in the taxi stand (you can only get cabs at taxi stands, there are not many cabs in Paris, and lots of them are Mercedes!), we had a short ride in a Mercedes taxi to our destination. Once there, Papa realized that he again did not have the door code. You can imagine that Damien and Momma were none to pleased as it was mighty cold! Oh how we missed our cell phones at that moment. Papa started shouting hoping they might hear us through the window several floors above. Luckily, Lal's dad happened to come home right before us and heard our cries as he headed in from the car (behind the locked outer gate)! Phew.

Once inside we had a nice late turkey dinner with lots of champagne and other treats. Damien got to meet his friend Niels (Lal's son) for the first time. Niels, who is 1 1/2, was happy to share the limelight with Damien and was quite intrigued with the little D. The funniest part of the evening was when, after seeing Damien drink his bottle, Neils ran into the kitchen to retrieve his much larger bottle as if saying, hey man, I got one too and mine is much bigger! While the age gap is quite meaningful right now, it is Papa's hope that Damien and Niels will be good friends and can trade summers like he and Lal did (Mathias would go to France every other summer to be with Lal and Lal would come to Oregon to be with Mathias every other summer). We shall see. Momma can't bear the thought of little D going away for a whole summer at this time - it will be interesting if she feels the same way ten years from now!

Hanging out with the boys at 2 am, Damien and Momma were happy to have some company at that hour!

Damien playing with his first toy, an interactive elephant that Grandma Linda gave him. He loves it and is just starting to be able to grab onto the rings.