A Parisian monodose

You probably know the cosmetics samples. Now called 'monodose' A single dose. Well, this is exactly how it felt last weekend. A monodose of Paris. With the econonomic crisis and the intense competition of airlines, the trully successful ones have some supreme offers for European cities from Athens, so I took advantage of Aegean's offer to Paris.
It was a very quick visit to Paris, lunch and coffee in 1er arrondisement with Helena, a bit of shopping, and then home to play with Chiara Zeta and relax. Sunday after breakfast and a stroll around the neighborhood, off to the airport!
Chiara is now walking!!!! She is very vocal, but not able to speak yet, although she seems to understand everything and she starts developing her own judgement, at least she has mastered 'no' :-))
Watching a kid grow, one realises how fast time goes by. Besides the joy that a child brings to its parents and rest of family - provided the child is physically and mentally healthy - the child enriches adults lives in so many different ways.
Firstly, a child needs will fill in every inch of leisure time of the parents, leaving very little room to any thoughts about the vanity of life or other similar grand thoughts..

Even though we all know that there is a cycle in life, somehow watching a kid grow, we tend to forget all that and think that life is forever, as we focus on the now and future plans go as far in the future as next weekend.
Life as we knew it bc (before child) changes. FULLSTOP. Now the adult becomes a caretaker of someone else, and thus needs to care about his or her own self in order to make sure that someone will always be there for the child. Hence, the adult matures. What is greater than just watching the kid grow, is watching its parents grow as well. By growing, I mean maturing, become more accepting, finding solutions instead of problems and overall happier. This is the only way to reach equilibrium in life and most probably discover its true meaning as parenting a child means that we discover the world all over again.



On a different note, that trip also reminded me - as if I had forgotten - how beautiful Paris is. With the sun or snow, Paris remains one of the loveliest, most elegant and most indulging places a person can spend a saturday afternoon.