Vacation's Over

We are now in the final days of November, which means that we have been living in Switzerland for exactly 6 months. This is incredible to me. It is truly hard to believe how fast time has gone by. For me, the first 5 months seemed like a majorly extended vacation. We were living in a new and fantastic place, going on great day trips and weekend trips, with a couple longer trips thrown in. Claire and I were making new friends and exploring new places each week. The routine that I strictly followed for the first year of Claire's life was nowhere to be seen. Naps, meals, and bedtime happened whenever they fit in between play groups, play dates, and outings. While this was a fun way to spend our first months here, it was also exhausting!

In the past two weeks, it seems as though reality has set in for me. We do indeed LIVE in Switzerland now. This is our home and it is time to start treating it as such. Over the past two weeks, I have made a huge effort to stick to set bedtimes and nap times for Claire, as well as to have all meals and snacks at set times. Play dates have been scheduled around Claire's routine, and not the other way around. As a result, Claire has been sleeping more, eating better, and playing harder.

I have also spent some time looking for a baby sitter so that Gordon and I can have an occasional date night. Date nights are something that have definitely been lacking in our life here. I found some great options for baby sitters, so all that's left to do is set up a night for us to go out. As much as I look forward to going out on a badly needed date with my husband, it's taking me a very long time to work up the courage to leave Claire with a sitter!

My next big task is to find a place to send Claire one morning a week beginning at age 2. I would love for Claire to learn French while we are here and I think that going to a French pre-school is her best bet in that regard. Fortunately, I still have 5 months before she will turn 2. I will probably need every minute of that time to get comfortable with the idea.

This week, our mornings have been spent enjoying what may be the last park days of the year. We have spent our mornings outside in the sunshine, exploring new parks in Vevey and leisurely wandering through the town. It is mornings like these that remind me just how very fortunate I am to have this one-on-one time with Claire. She is developing into such a sweet, silly, and adventurous little girl and I am grateful that I get to be there with her every step of the way.







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Long time, no blog

Last week, Claire and I returned from a month-long trip to the USA.  The trip was fantastic.  We saw many of our friends and family and it felt great to be in a familiar and comfortable place.  After a month away from Gordon, we were both ready to come back to Switzerland.  Last Wednesday, we returned to Vevey after an 8.5 hour flight to Paris, a 5 hour layover in Paris (where I was NOT allowed to bring my stroller through security.  Let me tell you, a 5 hour layover with an 18 month old and no stroller is not for the faint of heart!), a one hour flight to Geneva, and a one hour drive to Vevey.  Claire had a few not-so-great moments at the airport in Paris, but was otherwise a champ.  I am grateful that she is such a good little traveler.

We have now been back in Vevey for a week and we have been keeping busy and having lots of fun.  We are back to daily playdates with friends and I'm back to my twice-weekly French lessons.  It has been great to reconnect with our friends here and to get back to our not-so-new-anymore routine.  I feel like we are finally settling into our "new" apartment.  Great news regarding the apartment:  I used the building's laundry room on Monday to wash our sheets and I used the dryer to dry them.  When I put them in the dryer, I fully expected them to come out only half dry, but to my ultra pleasant surprise, they were completely dry and fluffy when I took them out!

This weekend, we plan to go to France to a ski sale as the ski season is quickly approaching!  I think I will rent for this year because I don't know how much I'll be able to go, but Gordon is definitely going to buy some as he plans to ski often.  Also on the agenda for this weekend is stick shift driving lessons for me.  Our car died a painful death in Italy and we'll get our new, manual transmission car on Friday.  Wish me luck!