I leave for Paris tonight and today will be a day of scrambling to get ready. The truth is I feel overwhelmed at the prospect. It doesn’t help matters – at all - that Little Girl whimpered on and off all night. My exhaustion from a night of broken sleep is only adding to my anxiety, but I’m a few sips into my coffee and feeling better already. The reality is that there is a really profound part of me that doesn’t want to leave my little girls. I look at the picture above – of the three of them on the way to school yesterday – and I smile and kind of wish that I wasn’t going.
But I am going. And I am really excited, too. This will be a nutty day of errands and organization, but I will do it and I will heft my suitcase into the back of a taxi this evening and go. At the airport, I will settle in and read a book and have a bite and then I will board a big plane. And my palms will sweat and I will feel my heart race, but we will take off and I will be fine. And then I will be in Paris. Paris!
I’m not sure there’s any important point to this post. I think, more than anything, I continue to be amazed by how hard it is to be a mom and how hard it is to take time off from being a mom. I want to stay and I want to go. I find this interesting; my simultaneous desire to be tethered to my tiny things and to escape their orbit for a day or two.
Anyway, off to sip some more coffee from my favorite meow-meow mug and ponder all of this before wrangling the three chickadees above toward school. It will be a good day. It will be a good weekend. I know this. I do. Now it’s your turn to tell me that it’s a really wonderful thing for me to get away, to spend time with my man, that my sweet trio will be beyond happy (with Grammy, Dad-Dad, Moo Moo & Nanny!) while I am gone.
{Hope you all have a great weekend. I will be back next week with stories and pictures. In the meantime, feel free to follow me on Instagram as I will be snapping oodles of pics of my trip. I am newly obsessed with Instagram and am trying to convert everyone!}
Enjoy!!!
Have a great time! Will be following on Instagram. xoxo
Amuse-tio bien. And have something from Pierre Herme for me!
You’re going to have the best time! And after a phenomenal trip, there will be nothing better than pulling back up to your house for hugs from your girls when you get back! xo
What’s your choice of airplane reading?
You will have fun. The first time is always the hardest. You’re also going away for the perfect amount of time. Two days is never enough and a week is always too long, in my experience. And – you WILL come nack a better mother, that I promise.
Flying alone is such a treat! Trust me…all your hesitations about taking a break from mommyhood will disappear the minute you reach 30,000ft!
I constantly feel this push-pull, but in the end I’m never (too) sad to have left my little one, ESPECIALLY if it’s for something as amazing as PARIS! xox
I hope you have a wonderful trip! I don’t have kids but even before I go on a trip I feel the push/pull to stay and go…just the amount of energy involved in getting ready to go on a vacation or trip. Always happy I went and it always re energizes me for life- but sometimes it involves a big emphasis on the push to go. Your trip will be wonderful and amazing and I look forward to the stories when you get back!
Also I am recently obsessed with instagram and trying to find people to follow…I am going off here to follow you right now!!
Safe travels, Aidan. Enjoy every single moment of your Parisian adventure. xoxo
Bon voyage — and safe travels! Hope you have a marvelous time, and can’t wait to hear all about it. I’ll be living vicariously through your Instagram feed!