Warm Adventures: November 2012

Holy moly this year is going by fast. I realized I haven't posted anything about what we did in October and it is already almost the middle of November. So here goes a not-so-brief recap. The weather started feeling quite a bit different in October. We've had days upon days or rain, mixed with colder weather, a sprinkle of sunshine here and there, as well as a late October snowfall.

Some highlights from last month included a family trip down to Locarno. Locarno is located in the Italian part of Switzerland. And it did kind of feel like we were in another country, warmer weather, brighter color buildings, big piazzas and lots of boisterous people (no offense to my Italian friends). We really enjoyed it, although looking back on it, it seems like we spent most of the three day weekend at the various playgrounds around the area. Which by the way were phenomenal. I know I am always raving about the playgrounds here but these were truly spectacular. They were so huge, you could literally get lost in them. We also enjoyed yummy Italian food. And we learned some valuable lessons about traveling with two young kids. Lesson #1) no more small hotel rooms for us - it will have to be a suite or home stay or something with multiple, larger rooms. At one point I was up in the middle of the night feeding Miles when Erik awoke and thus Alison stirred and proceeded to roll out of the bed we were all sharing and bumped her head. Needless to say no one got much sleep that weekend. Lesson #2) Factor in 2 or 3 additional hours for traveling in the car anywhere with young kids. And Lesson #3) Be patient and if all else fails find a playground.

The Stuttgart gang

Towards the end of October we visited our friends, in Erberdingen Germany, close to Stuttgart. This time I took the kids for a few days as Erik was out of town as was CW's husband. I had these grandiose visions of us relaxing and enjoying conversation and wine in the evenings. This was not to be. We finally arrived late and road worn on Tuesday (after a failed attempt to depart on Monday). That night Alison refused to sleep in the crib, in the pack n play or just about anywhere but with me. So I spent a good portion of what was suppose to be a relaxing evening with a friend, convincing Alison to go to sleep. And this painful process continued for the next few nights and resulted in a very tired Alison and a very tired mommy. On Thursday I packed both kids in the car after lunch and drove all over the countryside, just the kids would nap. All in all it was a good trip, it was nice to visit with CW and watch all the kids play together. MW taught Alison how to do a somersault which was so cute and also taught Alison how to climb out of the crib, which was only a matter of time given our little monkey child. I really appreciate CW's patience and hospitality with us. I felt like we came in like a hurricane disrupting her normal routine and left a mess of destruction in our path. This has happened before where I think putting kids together under one roof is going to be good for everyone as the kids will play together but in turn you just increased the number of children under one roof exponentially which equals chaos no matter what. We will hopefully be invited back next year and Alison will have her sleeping issues resolved. Of course then it will be Miles turn to be teething or having his own sleep issues. Ah maybe in a few years we will be normal again.

Miles

What else happened last month? We had lots of fun playdates with our friends. It snowed. We were invited to a super cool Halloween party. Alison went as a bumble bee while Miles was a pumpkin. Erik and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.

The kids are doing great. Miles continues to be just a happy laid back kind of baby. He is still pretty small for his age and the doctor suggested starting him on solids sooner than we anticipated. Which we did, his first food - pumpkin of course. Alison continues to be a very "spirited" child. The whole learning to climb out of her crib thing has us perplexed as she just keeps getting up, at night, early in the morning, and for naps. Our child who normally slept 12 hours at night now takes a while to go to sleep and gets up anywhere from 5:30am - 7:30am. Combine that with some new molars coming in and a sickness that impacted all of us and you have a recipe for a very tired household. That being said, she is still a sweet girl who can count to ten and sing her ABC's as well as half a dozen other songs. She started in daycare two weeks ago, it is just on Wednesday mornings for 3 hours in a ladies house not far from here. She loves it and unlike some of the other kids has no problem saying Bye to us when we drop her off. It is nice as it gives me a small break to do things like grocery shop or clean the apartment in peace.

We did make our first (probably not our last) trip to the emergency room two Saturdays ago. Erik and Ali were just horsing around the apartment and she fell off his back, slipped and hit her head on the floor. We didn't think much of it until she started throwing up, refusing to eat and just acting really strange. So Erik took her in and although they didn't conduct an X-ray, it is safe to assume she had a slight concussion. They kept her overnight and released her the next morning. She is fine now and the emergency room was a nice experience in that they keep the children in a totally separate building from the adults.

That about wraps it up from here. My mom arrived last week and is bringing some much needed support to our chaos. Mom and I already reorganized the entire kitchen. We have a long list of things to do while she is here, including planning Alison's 2nd birthday party and visiting some of the Christmas markets.

More on all that later. Like I said before it is hard to believe we've been here a whole year now and hard to believe we've been here only a year as so much has happened. We continue to make the most of it. We miss everyone and can't wait to see you all in January.