Wednesday, November 02, 2005
back from Paris; happy to be home in the spring (hot enough for summer right now), missing the well-dressed bebes and not missing all the cigarette smoking. A is taking his sweet time adjusting; every night we wake up and get him up for a meal, partly because I was sleeping in too to start with and too wimpy to get him up at 8am every day to force him to adjust.
flight back pretty horrible. got onto the first flight (paris-singapore, 12.5 hours, starting at 12.30 in the afternoon) and almost immediately realised our presence was not welcomed by a well-dressed frenchman (pressed pinstripe shirt, cufflinks) on the window seat across the aisle. even when A was just happily eating dinner and so on we got dirty looks. then at the first round of crying, a "sshhh". later, when the baby was complaining but not actually yelling, another dirty look and a shake of the head. then, finally, at around 10 pm (everyone was trying to sleep as we were flying into morning in Singapore, A lost it again. I climbed into his seat with him (you'll recall we were in business class and A had his own seat), and held his very noisy body right up against my tired self, trying to calm him/muffle the sound. dh came over from the seat behind to try to help. then the frenchman again: "sshhh". at which, like any sane woman, Ilost it. the whole plane was awake anyway (yes I felt awful about that, I was doing everything I could to shut A up), so I pretty much shouted at him to shut up. he said something rude in French, probably something dumb like "your stupid baby is keeping everyone awake". at which I said something loudly, fast and angrily along these lines: "I'm doing everything I can, you're not helping by shushing me, it's only making me more tense and that's upsetting the baby." dh also told him to leave me alone. through this, he pretended he couldn't hear me (he was reading a book in English, so could understand me fine) and the Indian IBM employee seated on the aisle between us didn't know which way to look. I finished with "you rude individual", knowing that profanity/violence are not a good idea when you're sitting three rows from the cockpit flying into singapore. just after that I remembered the "quiet book", an activity book a friend had loaned me and voila! quiet if not sleeping baby. from then on Mr Welldressed Rudebottom ignored me and I glared at him. I wanted to say more, but restrained myself. I still feel he should have been punished more for such stupidity and intolerance, but at least I said something.
haven't blogged much at all of Paris. for A, it was a series of tired museum visits interspersed with fun at French entertainments for kids, like a puppet show in the Luxembourg gardens and various playgrounds. and of course, lots of "cake" (croissants)
and now I am back I have a million things to do; Christmas is already looming, friends have been neglected and I have the dreaded u/s, mammogram, dr visit trifecta underway. the first two were monday; all seemed OK, but I need the full report from the dr tomorrow morning. this is not something you have then don't have. it's something you have then might have, on and on.
A came back to a birthday party for two of his friends; everyone in the park with their kids. it reminded me why I love living here. he's talking heaps more, has a great sense of his own place and desires, and I laugh at him making raspberry sounds in his high chair, that little future master of the universe who one day will be Big and wear a suit, but for now is a baby thing, and all mine.
flight back pretty horrible. got onto the first flight (paris-singapore, 12.5 hours, starting at 12.30 in the afternoon) and almost immediately realised our presence was not welcomed by a well-dressed frenchman (pressed pinstripe shirt, cufflinks) on the window seat across the aisle. even when A was just happily eating dinner and so on we got dirty looks. then at the first round of crying, a "sshhh". later, when the baby was complaining but not actually yelling, another dirty look and a shake of the head. then, finally, at around 10 pm (everyone was trying to sleep as we were flying into morning in Singapore, A lost it again. I climbed into his seat with him (you'll recall we were in business class and A had his own seat), and held his very noisy body right up against my tired self, trying to calm him/muffle the sound. dh came over from the seat behind to try to help. then the frenchman again: "sshhh". at which, like any sane woman, Ilost it. the whole plane was awake anyway (yes I felt awful about that, I was doing everything I could to shut A up), so I pretty much shouted at him to shut up. he said something rude in French, probably something dumb like "your stupid baby is keeping everyone awake". at which I said something loudly, fast and angrily along these lines: "I'm doing everything I can, you're not helping by shushing me, it's only making me more tense and that's upsetting the baby." dh also told him to leave me alone. through this, he pretended he couldn't hear me (he was reading a book in English, so could understand me fine) and the Indian IBM employee seated on the aisle between us didn't know which way to look. I finished with "you rude individual", knowing that profanity/violence are not a good idea when you're sitting three rows from the cockpit flying into singapore. just after that I remembered the "quiet book", an activity book a friend had loaned me and voila! quiet if not sleeping baby. from then on Mr Welldressed Rudebottom ignored me and I glared at him. I wanted to say more, but restrained myself. I still feel he should have been punished more for such stupidity and intolerance, but at least I said something.
haven't blogged much at all of Paris. for A, it was a series of tired museum visits interspersed with fun at French entertainments for kids, like a puppet show in the Luxembourg gardens and various playgrounds. and of course, lots of "cake" (croissants)
and now I am back I have a million things to do; Christmas is already looming, friends have been neglected and I have the dreaded u/s, mammogram, dr visit trifecta underway. the first two were monday; all seemed OK, but I need the full report from the dr tomorrow morning. this is not something you have then don't have. it's something you have then might have, on and on.
A came back to a birthday party for two of his friends; everyone in the park with their kids. it reminded me why I love living here. he's talking heaps more, has a great sense of his own place and desires, and I laugh at him making raspberry sounds in his high chair, that little future master of the universe who one day will be Big and wear a suit, but for now is a baby thing, and all mine.
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