June 27, 2025
I was up early today and spent the time doing some life admin until Ollie woke up. He sat down with me and I told him he should start his letter. At first he tried to get out of it but that was brief as he agreed he had not done one in a few days. He sat down and with zero distractions, since we were the only ones up, and a little spelling help he wrote his neatest letter yet! This one was to his friend Ollie M that moved to California. Hopefully he liked the feeling of knocking it out before the day starts.
I left to go meet an old coworker, Anne-Claire, who now lives in Paris with her family for coffee. I took a Lime e-bike to near the Eiffel Tower, three straight days and my butt wants a break from those seats. It was nice to see her and chat about life instead of just work. She had some good stories about living in Paris and recommendations of things to do.
Kayleen finished home school and watched a video on the Eiffel Tower with the boys. Year 1889 was mentioned and Lenny goes, “whaaaat that was when Hamilton and Burr were alive!” Wrong, but good listening.
She then led the crew on the bus to meet me so we could do our Eiffel Tower adventure. It was a slow ride with some traffic but they made it and I was waiting at the stop next to some recently exploded e-biked?!? We snapped a nice group photo but were unable to keep this one Instagram queen out of it as she stood there forever taking pictures.
Before we started the climb we pumped the kids up with some soft pretzels and bathroom breaks. They played a new game call “stick tag” as we waited for the pretzels. The person who is “it” must tag, aka stab, the other one with their stick. It somehow did not end in tears but probably only because it didn’t last very long.
To enter we all had to go through security and then once under the tower we had to make the choice of what tickets to buy. We opted for the stairs ticket to get some exercise and tire the boys out. We wanted to then take the lift from the second level to the very top but were told it was closed for the next hour so we all agreed to just be satisfied with the second level.
The climb went mostly without incident. Lenny complained some and we gave him a few Eiffel Tower gummies, aka power-ups, that got him through it. We took a break at the first level to get some water and there was a small glass floor section that let you look down to the ground. At first Lenny was scared but then loved it and was rolling around on it like a manic.
We made it to the second floor to take in the view and snap a few photos. The boys were not their best selves at this point but the promise of ice cream back on the first level got them threw it. After the ice cream break we all headed down. Bri and Amanda left to make their way to the Louvre and attempt to use our tickets even though they had our name on them and claimed a matching ID was needed for admission. We tossed the rugby ball with the kids on the edge of the park before getting a bus to be closer to Lenny’s dentist.
We got a snack and a drink at a cafe near Lenny’s dentist while we waited for his 6:30PM appointment to arrive. The boys caught a few Pokemon while we sat but Ollie already seems to get a little bored of it. He started to ask to play an old game called Temple Run on my phone instead. It must be over 10 years old but he’s into it.
Lenny hopped into the dentist chair with no complaints and the tooth was out in 5 minutes. He came out proudly wearing it in a tooth holder around his neck. After seeing Ollie lose so many teeth I think he was just excited for it to be his turn. The tooth was gnarly looking because the whole root was still intact. It really made Ollie freakout/squirm to see it, though he asked to see it many times.
Lenny walked home happily with some gauze in his mouth that he must have dropped and needed replaced 4 times on the walk. Once home we settled in and let the kids watch some TV and my parents came over. Lenny gladly showed off his tooth and was all smiles when collecting some extra tooth EUR from Grandma and Nonno knowing he still had the little mouse coming. Kayleen and I didn’t go out and just lounged around the house with everyone before heading to bed.
