I’ve been wearing the Chief Mom Officer hat for five whirlwind months. It’s been an amazing five months on three continents. I wake up every morning thinking about my experience so far and I feel lucky. So very lucky.
I’ve been thinking a bit about friends lately – what it means to have them, what it means to keep them and how important they are, especially for young girls.
The results are in. The truce reached between Chloe and Sophie lasted about one day. I’m not surprised. Disappointed, yes. But not surprised.
After the girls managed to studiously ignore one another a little bit, we all went to the Great New York State Fair in Syracuse on Thursday. The experience has taught me that state fairs bring out the worst in kids – and adults, too. For the first two hours they went on rickety carnival rides together and seemingly enjoyed one another’s company. They even split the cost of buying a huge package of candy buttons. Not much bickering, teasing or arguing took place because they were too busy to realize they were actually getting along.
Sophie has been going through one of those dreaded kid stages again. She’s around the corner from her 8th birthday and pushing all of our buttons. Adorable and kind one minute, angry and manipulative the next.
In my persistent semi-stupor following our return home on Tuesday (jet lag really sucks as one gets older), I started to research all the shit we’re going to need to do and buy before we bring home our puppy in October.
After a couple of days in Paris our magnificent vacation has reached its end. My impression of Paris this go-round was definitely colored by the fact that we had just spent the previous 4+ weeks exploring the much less frenetic and incredibly picturesque countryside.
When all is said and done, our most vivid memories of the past week in the Gard region of France can be visually summed up in the photos below. We enjoyed another week of beautiful weather, great sights, outdoor activities galore and yummy food. And after spending almost five weeks of non-stop time together, we are still talking to each other.
I promised the kids a break from castles and I have lived up to that promise. In order to avoid more towers and moats and ramparts and winding staircases and royal gardens, we have traveled further back in time. About 2,000 years to be exact. When the Roman Empire extended into Gaul, or what is now current-day France.
I can finally say with a great deal of confidence that we have finished the castle-touring portion of our trip. We’ve seen furnished castles, partially completed castles, enormous castles, tiny castles and castles in ruins. Gallo-Roman castles, medieval castles, Cathar castles, Renaissance castles and strange neo-Gothic castles.