It’s been ages since I last updated. In fact, I think it was around the time Atticus was 2 months old. Yikes.
But like many of you know, adding a new member of the family makes free time few and far between. Let alone free time for writing. Cause suddenly, Atticus is 11 months old.
Can you believe it?
I can’t either.
So why am I writing now? Well we are doing something with the whole family I’ve wanted to do since falling in love with Michael.
WE ARE ALL TRAVELING TO LEBANON (and Paris)!!
Sorry to shout but it’s so damn exciting!!
Writing about our travels is something I’ve always done here, but I didn’t get a chance to document my Greece trip, with Atticus, the way I would have liked. I really learned a lot on that trip about traveling with babies, that I felt like someone should be writing about.
So I searched and searched, and while there seemed to be some really excellent family travel bloggers out in the interwebs, none with a perspective quite like me and my family.
Which means: I’ll be back WAY more often, and hopefully this blog design will be updated soon with current pictures and pics of our little guy on this side bar over there ——>
First though, let me give you a little background on how this trip came to be.
Michael’s close friend Joe, has lived in Lebanon for a few years now, and is marrying a fantastic person in a few short weeks.
Last fall, when we first heard the wedding might be in Beirut, we started thinking about making the trip as a family, particularly because it was a perfect occasion to finally make the trip. Selfishly? It would give us a chance to all meet and visit with Michael’s Teta, who is in her 90’s. In fact there’s a whole extended family we have never met, waiting for us there. Needless to say, by January, we had our tickets booked.
How does Paris factor in? Since we had to have a layover somewhere in Europe, because the US has no direct flights to Lebanon, we asked the girls where they’d like to stop and gave them a few options.
Well about a split second after I said Paris, they both shouted “Paris!!!! The Eiffel Tower!!” And that’s how we ended up with four days and nights in Paris as well. Which was an excellent choice IMO. I haven’t been to Paris since college, and have been dying to get back there, to revisit the city I fell in love with and practice my French. And I think the kids and Michael will love it as much as I do.
Now, many may be wondering how or why or what we are thinking, taking three kids overseas and especially to Paris and the Middle East right now. And I hear you.
Traveling can be scary. All the unknowns and all the fear mongering in the media, can really mess with people and make naturally curious human beings, distrustful and insulated.
But for us, the experiences and understandings we have gained from traveling the small bit of the globe we have seen, far outweighs the inherent risk of living in the era of the world we inhabit.
People wonder how we can take a baby or small kids. Won’t it be difficult? What will they eat? How about the baby, what about his schedule?
Well, I can tell you from traveling with Atticus and my sister to Santorini, Greece, this past October, it’s not as hard to travel with a baby as I thought it was. The hardest part was the plane ride. The rest was just tucking him into the carrier, having to stop to nurse occasionally and finding a spot to change his diaper (hard to come by). Having two adults to deal with the baby was excellent, and will be again. The big girls are pretty self-sufficient, and we trust that they’ll be just fine on the plane once their movie screens are working.
As far as schedules go, the girls don’t nap, and the baby sleeps really well in a carrier. So…babywearing for the win, again.
And eating? Thankfully all three kids are adventurous eaters and love carbs and pastries. They’ll fit right in with the Parisian kids. And Lebanese food is their absolute favorite, and the girls know how to say most of the food in Arabic already.
We found an excellent looking AirBnB in Paris with its own children’s bedroom, a few blocks from Notre Dame and Place St Michel. Then we will fly to Lebanon and stay with Michael’s Teta (grandmother), in the village my father-in-law grew up in, for a week. After that, it’s off to Beirut, for the rest of our holiday, which we have an lovely apartment in the Hamra district to stay in.
But now the hardest part of traveling. Packing.
Its the WORST.
We are leaving in five days and things are only vaguely packed. It’s a bit stressful, to be honest. 
Tomorrow…watch me turn this overflowing laundry basket of black knit and Spanx into a beautifully organized and (hopefully) wrinkle free suitcases
I’ll break down the method to my madness of packing for five people for three weeks in two totally different climates, with a special occasion in the mix
As always if you have any questions please let me know! I’ve got all kinds of post ideas about traveling with kids, cheap flights, finding the perfect hotel/rental, how to make things less difficult once you arrive in the country you’re visiting. Let me know if there’s anything else you can think of…
Happy Sunday!!
