I’ve been able to spend some time with my sewing machine lately. It must be Fall because I’m loving corduroy. I made a skirt and a jumper for Bea. The skirt is the 2+2 Skirt from Oliver + S and the jumper is an old vogue pattern that I got at a rummage sale. Now I should do some thinking on Halloween costumes.
You may be getting sick of seeing my photos of “our” vineyard, but I can’t help myself. I must document it in all it’s seasons – it’s a habit now.
Here are my previous posts on the vineyard:
VINEYARD UPDATE – NOVEMBER 13, 2010
YET ANOTHER VINEYARD UPDATE – JULY 23, 2011
Last weekend we took a day trip to a town called Schaffhausen. Another lovely little town and it felt particularly calm and serene on the Sunday morning when we were there.
Bea enjoyed getting completely soaked in a water fountain.
The medieval town is known for its oriel windows. I didn’t know that word before – it’s a bay type window that projects from the building, but doesn’t reach the ground. They are ornately decorated to show the hight status of the merchants who lived in the houses.
I wish they had a few more baby swings in Switzerland.
But they do have these cool horses.
Schaffhausen is right on the Rhine River.
We climbed up a bunch of stairs to the town’s fortress and then when we walked inside it was a cool and dark, cavernous space – it felt so good.
The view from the top:
At the very top there was a fencing tournament happening. Some of the men had their shirts off… We I watched for a while.
A treat makes everyone happy on the train ride home.
and yet so babyish while they are sleeping.
— I’ve been busy trying to adjust to our new schedule. Bea seems to be doing great at school – much better than I imagined she would. She still reminds me many times per week that she doesn’t like school, but I can see that she is energized by it as she talks to me on our way home. I go between feeling really sorry for her as I imagine her surrounded by kids who don’t speak the same language – she’s the odd man out – she’s been doing lots of observing and listening. And then I see the hint of a smile on her face when I see her coming out of her school and I feel she is doing fine and handling it well. She had her first forest day on Friday – the class spends the whole time in the forest. She was more excited about that day than anything so far – she told me all about it and actually admitted liking it – the climbing over streams, the lizard they saw, and the fire thay made! They also have a gym day where they walk to another building and they change into shorts, t-shirt and special shoes. I originally bought the wrong gym shoes – I figured she needed tennis shoes, but it turns out they wear a sort of gymnastics shoe – like slippers with non-slip soles. So now she has shoes galore – oh well.
— Claire has been riding her Bobby Car lots, but still no walking. She is really into throwing balls. She loves it. She lifts the ball way over or even behind her head before she lets it go and then she gets a funny little surprised face after she throws it.
Here’s her hand signal for give me the ball.
Bea has been asking me to make little stuffed animals with her. She calls them friends – not for herself – friends for blankie. She picks all the fabrics from my stash and I sew it up in no time at all. She does the stuffing and viola! happy Bea.
— It’s been warm this week but the air feels Fallish. The girls and I went down to the lake after dinner one night. There was a big, big wind and I watched some little sailboats zoom along the lake really, really fast. I can’t help thinking of my sister whenever I see sailboats.
— In other news – I got the bad Mommy award this week because I dropped my baby on her head again. Oh golly. We were at the Mom & Tots group that I go to and she climbed out of a high chair outside. I had just stepped away for a minute – that’s always how it happens isn’t it. I had a mini breakdown because I felt so bad and she looked so bad. So all the other sweet moms comforted me and helped me get her cleaned up. She had a big scrap and goose egg on her forehead but, thankfully, she was fine.
— So it’s been a week of ups and downs. Brian was gone from Saturday through Thursday night. The girls were so happy to get to spend time with him when the weekend came. I love to hear Bea excitedly chatting with him as they go about eating breakfast – the love is palpable. And I got to sleep in.
I don’t know how it happened, but I didn’t really get many pictures from my days in Midland. I guess the time just went much too fast.
One night I gave Jenna and Bea a bath and I had memories of sitting in that same tub with Jennifer. Now I was the one standing and waiting with the fluffy towel instead of my Mom. Then a couple days later Dad and I took Jenna and Bea for a little canoe trip. I sat in front and the girls were behind me. I thought of my Mom – I was sitting in the position that she commanded for so many canoe trips. Up front with two girls behind and Dad steering/fishing in the rear. I was struck how nice it felt because I was a little bit alone up there with the river splayed out in front and all around me. I was very relaxed as the girls had to stay put and I was free to focus on the little details of nature. So I felt very much like Mom two times – but in a good way. Strange (not strange that is was in a good way, just a strange feeling… OK, I’ll shut up).
I need to post some of the photos from Grandma and Grandpa C.’s visit before I do anything else. We had some great weather and the girls have been having Grandma withdrawal symptoms since they left. Here are some of my favorite photos from their trip to Bern with Brian and then our trip to the top of Mt. Rigi.
One more picture from our hot afternoon spent at another Chilbi. Bea was beyond excited to take her little sis on a ride.
This is Claire’s Bobby Car. Bobby Cars are popular over here – I think the company is German. We had to have one. We call it Ricky Bobby.
Claire has learned to ride it by herself while Grandpa and Grandma C. have been here. First she just went backwards.
Then with a little encouragement she learned to go forward.
She loves it and I love watching her.
Grandpa and Grandpa C. spent a week on a boat tour along the Rhine River before joining us. They’ve seen more of Europe than I have now. And I think they had a lot of fun.
Bea is in school so during Grandma and Grandpa’s visit we are keeping it low key and staying close to home. But that hasn’t stopped us from having lots of fun.
Laowai 