Laowai

It’s been very rainy and of course we have a teeny baby so we’ve been staying close to home. Bea has been good at entertaining herself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the bumblebee stamp Aunt Sandy 

 

Claire really enjoyed her bath last night and I was fortunate to have lots of help from Bea.

 

 

 

Click on the photo if she’s not looking animated.

Dad has been keeping himself busy quizzing Brian by night and exploring the country-side by day. I think he’s enjoying himself.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll remember this Mother’s Day because it was full of intense mothering for my mom and myself. We are right in the trenches of soothing a baby, keeping a toddler in good spirits, trying to keep the house somewhat orderly and feeding everyone. The good parts are watching Claire’s little face – how can I find her tiny expressions so fascinating? Especially since I know they don’t mean much other than she is practicing moving those muscles. She doesn’t even have to open her eyes for me to relish in the slight movements of her mouth, her little furrowed brow and her wrinkled up nose. And then there is my big girl. She’s been so very good – and I’m very proud of her. She’s full of questions about her sister. She figured out the hand holding reflex and she likes to tuck the blankie up under Claire’s chin so she is snug as a bug in a rug. Without my Mom here I’m sure I would be a complete wreck – not to mention the house. So I’m glad to be sharing all these memorable mothering moments with my Mom.

Brian gave me these flowers:

 

I am blessed in so many ways.

 

 

 

Not much to report. We came home yesterday and it feels good to (not) sleep in my own bed. We seem to be very busy soothing her baby belly. 

 

 

Thanks again to everyone who has left such sweet comments and emails. It makes us feel so much closer to you all.

Everyone keeps asking for pictures of the Kid. Today she learned how to eat for real, had her first tummy ache (please don’t have them like Bea had them…) and tested her screaming stamina (this is a technical term something like VO2 or lactic acid threshold meant to measure how long a baby can scream before collapsing in exhaustion. Current world record holder is featured in the pictures below as well.

First is the proud grandma, thrice over, and the happy sleeping baby.

Bea has been a really good big sister so far, really not getting too jealous. We think this will eventually change given her former position as 100% focus of Mommy and how much she seems to enjoy it. This fall from grace may actually work out in my favor as she rushes for affection from someone else not previously occupied by a ravenous eight pound baby seeking nourishment… but I would never hope for such a thing. She does seem to know how to hold a baby…

I am sure that when Kathy returns to action on this blog, she will talk about the hospital. It is a private clinic, happily paid for by our ex-pat insurance, that is really almost decadent. The ratio of staff to patients is very high and the other thing that you notice is that you see the same people all day versus 10 different people, each with a tiny subsegmented role who has a short shift that you only see once (this is Evanston). The food is actually quite good, probably better than many restaurants. One wall is an entire wall of glass window, overlooking the lake. Switzerland is a painfully expensive place to live but you do get to enjoy that quality of life only when you come to terms with an inability to save any money…

Claire does know how to sleep. Our hope is that she will sleep better than her big sister, avoid the digestion problems and generally take pity on her aging parents. Is this too much to ask?

Now for a few pictures of the former star  if this blog –

Do you need me to describe the pouty lip?

 Tomorrow if all goes well, they finally come home. We are ready.

6:26 am on May 4, 2010.

3885 grams and 51 cm (sorry, they’re metric)

8.6 pounds and 20.1 inches

Kathy and Claire are fine.

Exciting days since we had four different possible back-ups to watch Bea and three were out of commission for various reasons – job interviews, trips to London, chaperoning trips to the Zoo. In the end, it worked but we were fairly sure that Bea would be an unwanted visitor to the zoo and that Kathy’s parents would spend a few hours without a clue about what to do in the airport.

 

First glimpse (she is quite blue) –

 

Bea is so far quite a good sport about sharing her parents

Bea says, “Gimme baby!:

 

Bea shows she can be gentle

Just like a doll…

 

Bea shares with Grandma J.

 

Thanks Aunt Sandy, Jennifer and everyone for your kind wishes. I’ll be sure to share your comments with Kathy as she serves out her mandatory 5 days in the Swiss hospital. 

Saturday we went to the day of the opening of the wine cellars. All the wineries open up and invite you into their barns to taste wine and have some sausage. I actually only went to one and then I waddled home for a rest. Brian and Bea continued on with our friends Matt and Julie. It was a drizzly day but that didn’t really bother any of us because the leaves have just popped out on the trees in the last couple days and it felt so springy. The wineries are just a short walk from our front door – Brian bought a few bottles that I hope to taste one day.

Here’s the nice poster that advertised the event around town:

 

All the barns are so old and well maintained:

 

 

 

Here’s a shot showing all the vines growing on the hills:

 

And this photo is for Jennifer – they have lilacs here – yippee!

I apologize for this silly and uncomfortable to watch video but I’m about to get desperate about this potty training thing. And I’m willing to try anything.

Also, I’m posting it because I found it on a cool site called Kideos. It’s like YouTube but with content for kids. So you don’t have to worry about some freaky thing coming up when your kid points to something on YouTube and says “I want to watch that”.