Well, we survived our first European vacation as a family! It certainly is a whole lot easier to go as a couple without small children and we had our National Lampoon's European Vacation moments for sure, but AJ was such a perfect angel. Of course he had a few two year old meltdowns--but they were mostly due to exhaustion and I know I wanted to through a fit sometimes, so I don't blame him. Overall, he was so good.
One very awful thing that happened was that we lost our brand new digital camera. The camera was purchased specifically for this trip (to avoid bringing a big bulky SLR camera that could have been lost) and was lost after a week--so over 400 pictures all gone. It was our fault--I'm pretty sure--as I think we left it on a hop on-hop off bus in Brussels. AJ fell asleep on my shoulder while we were waiting for the bus at the end of the day. Once on the bus (with a stroller and sleeping child!), he looked so peaceful and I asked John to take a picture. He showed it to me and I think I put the camera down on the seat. Neither of us thought to look to make sure we had everything because we were so distracted with a sleeping AJ and a stroller. It put a bit of a strain on my next few days. I was in mourning for sure. John wasn't as bothered as I was. I just had so many plans for those pictures! It could have been so much worse, that was the theme for me this trip actually, we were safe, we didn't get robbed, we didn't lose our luggage, we were fine. We made up for it on John's I Phone, but the picture quality isn't great.
One of the moments that reminded me of the European vacation was our first train ride out of Paris. If you are skiddish on kid bowel movement stories, you might want to stop reading. If you are a mom, you will want to read.
First off, I have to say that riding the train in Europe is SO EASY. I thought it would be like flying where we had to be there early, check bags, etc. I had never even took a train in the US and the last two times we travelled to Europe we took flights internally instead. Realistically, you don't need to be at the station until about 20 minutes before the train leaves. Anyway, I say that because we didn't know how easy it was and showed up super early for our train out of Paris. We found a quiet and out of the way spot in the train station and just waited. I left to go to the bathroom and John changed AJ's poopy diaper in the said quiet spot. Remember how AJ was doing very well in potty training? Well, I regretfully say that John and I pushed for him to go in his diaper at times because not only are the bathrooms not clean in Europe for the most part, but you also have to pay to use them--even in some restaurants where you are paying good money for sub-par food!
So anyway, AJ had held in his poop for a day, partly because he was used to going on the potty and partly because the change in food. We were getting worried (remember--AJ is a kid that goes A LOT in a day) and then relieved when he did finally go. So John changes his diaper and I come back from the bathroom. I asked John if he was sure that he got everything because I swore I still smelled it. Thinking that maybe it was the disgusting bathroom I just came from, I dropped it, thinking maybe it was ME that smelled. A minute later, I look over at AJ, who was sitting on luggage and being quiet and said to John, that does look like a poop face, doesn't it. Sure enough, he was pooping again.
I asked AJ if he was going again and he didn't break concentration. I guess I caught it once he was already in the middle of his business. John and I laughed it off and he made sure to tell me it was 'my turn'. Once AJ seemed to be done, I told him we were going to change his diaper again and he complied.
Man, it smelled without even taking his pants off. I knew it was going to be bad, so I thought I should be somewhat careful. AJ was in a stage of wearing his soccer jersey my mom had just got him before he left (luckily we had a washer in the Paris apartment!). It came with soccer shorts and AJ really wanted to wear the shirt and shorts everwhere under his warmer clothes. In hindsight, it was a good thing he had an extra layer of clothing. I took off his jeans and the smell intensified. I immediately knew this wasn't good. I asked for some help from John before taking off the shorts--very carefully of course. Sure enough, the shorts were filled with poop. I mean filled. Let's not even discuss the diaper.
So within two seconds I went from smelling poop to a poop explosion. Even with careful attention, I still managed to smear the poop all over AJ's legs. John quickly took the clothes to the nearest trashcan. Then, after a half hour of no one coming near our little corner, a group of about 50 people walked by. My son's poor poopy butt, laying on our large piece of luggage, and legs were in the air held on by just three fingers on my left hand while I was trying to use wipes to clean him up -- all while trying to avoid smearing further poop to our luggage or me or John or onto the upper part of AJ's body. I glanced over at the people--who were of course, all staring at us in disgust.
I just shrugged it off and went back to work. John and I got a system going. AJ was laughing at us. Our faces were priceless I'm sure. It took a good 15 minutes, but we managed to clean him up well enough that we felt he at least no longer smelled. We put a good new diaper on him and LUCKILY had our bag so we were able to put all new clothes on him. His shirt and socks weren't affected, but I felt better with all new clothes.
The little **** laughed at us. LAUGHED at us cleaning up HIS mess! I swore I smelled poop the entire train ride. This caused us all to shower when we got to our hotel before doing anything. All of our clothes ended up in a laundry bag just in case so not to disturb our other clothes.
It's funny now looking back on the story. The rest of the trip I felt paranoid that we were going to have to go through that again--so I never left without a change of clothes for AJ.
I will post some more stories this week and hopefully some pictures later once I somehow get John's IPhone photos to my laptop. Ok, I am still upset about losing the camera.
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