catch-up

Nana called my blog "anemic;" blame her for the over-compensation.

Today was my last day with the lovely Ithaca family. The father is a physics professor at Cornell, and he brought his family to Paris for a month for a workshop he was attending at the Curie Institute. I worked with the family 9-12 hours a week; usually I was just babysitting Lily, who will be three on August 29 (my birthday!), but sometimes the mother and I would go on field trips with Lily and her 3 month old brother Wolfgang. Paris is a nightmare city to navigate when it's unfamiliar to you, so I can't imagine trying to get around with a stroller, an infant who is nursing constantly, and a metro that is unaquainted with the Americans with Disabilities Act. I had a great time with Sue, and I think she really liked having someone over the age of three to talk to oduring the days! Wolfie was a cutie; he's young enough that in just this past month I got to watch him learn to roll onto his belly from his back and hold himself up a little. (An infant with the hiccups is the funniest thing EVER.) Since we often went off on our own, Lily and I totally bonded, and last Friday she told me she loved me.

The best part about the sitting, though, was that it gave me a chance to do all the tourist things I hadn't done; and to explore further things I had. We went to the Cluny Museum, the Catacombs, the Eiffel Tower, Sainte Chappelle, Notre Dame a million times (she loved the stained-glass windows), the Tour Montparnasse, and the Louvre a million times. Lily was obsessed with the Louvre; she called it the Triangle Museum and was totally happy just hanging out under the big pyramid in the lobby. (Bonus to travelling with a stroller: you don't have to wait in long security lines!)

The whole experience was really fantastic. Lily was a doll, and I'll totally miss her, and Wolfie was a delight to cuddle, but it was the mom who tied it all together. She never made me feel like I was intruding, or like her way of doing things was the best/only way, or like I was the "help." Whoever gets her full-time back in Ithaca once Wolfie gets a bit older will avoir de la chance.