Identity Crisis

As a new mom, there are two questions I get asked repeatedly.

1. What do you think of parenthood?

2. Is JR going to have French citizenship?

So here are my answers:

 1. It's like having dogs, except a lot more work.

 2. NO!  He is an American baby.  France does not grant citizenship based solely on birth place.  

In fact, we recently got proof of his true nationality - baby's first passport!  That said, had the U.S. rejected his application for citizenship for any reason, France would have granted it to him, but only with proof that the country of his heritage had turned him down.  The three of us made a quick day trip to the US Consulate in Marseille to declare his birth and apply for a Social Security number and a passport, and three weeks later it showed up in the mail.  I brought 3-5 extra copies of all requested paperwork; the lady reviewing our application thought I was crazy.  Clearly, she hasn't had to work with the French government very often.  The arrival of the passport is very exciting for us, because it means we can travel again!  Without any sort of ID, we couldn't leave the country.  But JR is finally ready for some European adventures, and maybe even a trip across the Atlantic before too long.  

We may not have been able to leave France, but fortunately for us, that includes Paris!  We braved our first trip with JR and enjoyed a quick weekend in the City of Light.  You might think traveling with a baby would be a new challenge for us, but after weekends away with Max and Minnie, one little baby was easy.  We took an early train in on Saturday and spent the afternoon wandering in and out of shops in the Marais.  That evening we gathered up all of our courage and made use of the hotel baby sitting service.  Yes, we left our (almost) three month old baby with a stranger, in a hotel room, in a foreign country.  Crazy?  Probably.  But can you really expect rational decisions from two people whose brains have turned to mush from the efforts caring for a newborn for three months?  Didn't think so.  So to dinner we went!  These were our menus:

Not a great photo, so maybe it's hard to tell, but this is an iPad!  I know we don't get out as much as we used to, but have restaurants really changed that much?

Sunday morning we made our obligatory visit to the Eiffel Tower - I really can't get enough of it.  And of course, we had to take JR to "see" it.  He had a great time...

sleeping... 

He did wake up eventually for a little play time

We also met up with a couple of fellow Texans - Steve and Lynn were in Paris on vacation - so a big thank you to the two of them for giving us a great reason to come to Paris :)   We had planned on touring the Musee d'Orsay, but the day ended up being so beautiful that none of us could bring ourselves to spend the afternoon indoors and we ended up walking the Luxembourg Gardens instead.

Busy day at Luxembourg Gardens

Monday morning we took the 6:00 train back to Montpellier.  Here's how I spent my train ride:

Not fair.

And just one other highlight from the last few weeks... my boy is getting strong!  He is working those arm and neck muscles, and even managed to push himself from tummy to back the other day, although I have yet to get a repeat performance.  Tummy time is his very least favorite thing, so we don't practice it all that often.

A very rare, peaceful moment on his belly

                           
This week we will head off on our first real vacation with JR.  Spain, here we come!