Paris.

view of Eiffel from hotel room

Yes, we are back from the fabulous city. Food in Paris was a bust. I just had to get that off my chest. The one meal I enjoyed cost an ungodly amount of money that I just don't feel comfortable 'fessing up to spending. Ye gods! I have honestly never, ever, had food that bad. And it's not like I don't like French food. Au Contraire, I actually adore it. Well, when it's seasoned and cooked right. So I deducted mucho points from Paris, as everyone that knows me has to know that I take my 'manger', tres serious. I had never been so happy to see a McDonalds in my entire life (we came across one near the hotel) I was this close to kissing the floor. For real.

But food aside, Paris was great. And everything was just a little bit nicer than I thought it would be. Parisians are less rude and snobbish than in the yesteryear, not everyone (in fact very few) were decked out in head to toe haute couture(lol) and everyone wears jeans now. It was a laid back, nice fab vacation. Well, not really laid back for us, obviously, with two little boys - one of whom had decided he was potty trained days before the trip and so would NOT under any circumstances pee in his 'pull ups' on the plane or anywhere else for that matter (even though I begged him to at one point) to this mothers' consternation and extreme annoyance. I mean, picture me- exhausted, bleary eyed at some ungodly hour, running down the narrow plane aisle to get Numero Uno to the stinky, cramped plane loo, while he's crying hysterically that "Poo-poo's coming, Mama!". Of course we get there, and nada. Just a few miserable drops of pee. All this after almost dislocating my arm to prevent him from falling down the cavernous, stinky toilet bowl. Now rewind and picture this twenty or so more times during the same flight. Exactement. I am grateful the boy is (finally) potty trained, don't get me wrong, but dear Lord, where is a nanny when you need one? I know, I'm a bad Momma. :-)

The boys (en Paris), having a laugh at our expense

But this picture of Numero Uno staring out his hotel room window, soaking up the culture, made all his hassling almost seem worth it. Almost.

Mom of the Year, pp

Stuntin' like My Daddy...

They start so young, don't they? So Numero Uno goes out for a drive/walk (he's driving, Hubby's walking) with his favorite person in the world - Daddy. And let me tell you, that Ford truck of his is the best gift we ever got for our car crazy young'un, with its REAL battery and speeds, up to (watch out now!) 3 MPH. He looks for a car in every book, magazine or commercial he watches. He makes pretend cars from Lego and playdoh. He eats, sleeps with
and collects little die-cast cars. So you can see why this his own real life car that he got for his second birthday, is definitely one of his favorite things. Like in life.
So why did my heart just about break when I heard he said to his daddy, after their drive/walk, "I'm gonna park my car now." And he promptly executed a perfect parking maneuver, in between our two cars? Oh, my son, my heart doth burst with love for thee. Just don't grow up to fast please - I mean, what's next? Potty training? {Gasp}

Mom of a diaper wearing driver, pp

Target Wonderland

Target be rocking, yo. You know the one about the lady who went into Target to buy some gum and then ended up spending $100? No? Oh, you know what? That's just my story. I went into Target to get a few of their ridiculously cheap 'Osh Kosh' shorts for my boys - Numero Uno who is now going down in pant sizes from a size 3T to 2T, and monkeyboy who is growing rapidly, wearing his teensy tiny, but oh so cute 6M shorts. I learned the hard way not to pay $20 for anything for babies under 18 months. So armed with this noble mission and full of purpose and financial prudence, I am bewildered to find myself at the checkout counter with not only a cart full of shorts for both munchkins, a travel comfort set (blanket, pillow and eye mask), cause I just know that soon we will be bringing our own seats,to travel on airplanes, mark my words. Two sets of hot wheels cars (Numero Uno is a car fiend and Aunty Carmen's grandson would appreciate them too, right?), a pair of incredibly cute 4th of July flipflops, for ONE Dollar. Stickers, T shirts (on sale for $1.49) - I Love this Mr, Grumpy one. More T shirts. Toddler underwear with Thomas the Tank on them. Hoping and praying that Numero Uno would respect the train and not pee on them until Mama is able to get proper training pants. Um, nope. But they were just $4 for a pack of 3. Ridiculously cute 'faux crocs' for MB. $6.99. But you know any footwear in that size is insanely adorable. All told for a whopping $60. Before you judge me, I challenge you to try spending just $10 at a Target - let me put a caveat there, a good Target. The crappy oes you just wanna get in and out. Virtually impossible though, in a clean, brightly lit Target such as mine. And when you think of all the things I could have gotten ( organic shopping totes, lotions and potions from the 'Boots' line, those delicious soda- seltzers from Target's 'Archer Farms' and every other yummy or in trend or so affordable-why-not? thing), but didn't, I really am disciplined. No, really.

The ever so prudent pp

La Dolce Diaper

I'm a simple girl at heart. Really, I am. But I love nice things, I mean who doesn't, right? It's not an obsessive, all consuming love for nice things, as in I can totally do without them. I mean, I'm the girl who goes for half a year without buying anything for myself. Until something triggers it - like these gorgeous, dark purple suede flats (so dark mind you, that you would swear they were black in some lighting) adorned with outsize flowers that I scored at DSW. The flowers somehow just make this demure style of shoe tres, tres chic. Love them!

But I was trying to make a point before I got caught up in rhapsodies. The other day I went into BJ's on a budget. A $100 budget. Now we all know how difficult it is to spend just $100 at BJs, Costco or any of those bulk warehouses. The temptation of a 'deal' is just too much for me to resist, so I always come home with a ton of stuff that I don't really need that much - like Mr. Clean Magic erasers for days. But on that occasion, I had somehow managed to avoid the pitfalls and I made it to the diaper aisle only to find that they had increased the price of Huggies diapers from $29.99 to $37.99. Highway robbery in the 'burbs, if you ask me. So I decided to go generic with the BJ's brand. Gasp. I know, bad bad momma. Can his butt really tell the difference though? The guilt has plagued me for days, especially when I remember that I will be toting around those diapers in a burberry diaper bag. Am I going to mommy purgatory? In my defence, that kid should be potty trained by now. I'm just saying.

Fondly, PP