Before I forget, with my last post I had a nagging feeling that I was forgetting one other interesting conversation that Liam and I had. Well thankfully I remember it and so here's the gist.
We were playing in the grassy area in the square and a young girl with short hair and nondescript jeans and a t-shirt came along. She interacted with Liam, kicked his ball to him a few times and then was on her way. When we got home he asked me about the boy in the square. I said "what boy?" and he proceeded to explain the person I described above. Only he insisted that she was a he. I asked him why, because really I find this so curious that there is already such a sense of gender at such a young age. Of course he doesn't necessarily have the words to fully explain why, but I gathered it had to do with the lack of long hair, pink or other girly accessories, and the neutral clothing. Interesting indeed.
We have been enjoying our little mom and tots group - amazing that we're all still here 2 plus years on! We've been getting together as much as possible outside, but when the weather turns south, we head in. A couple of weeks ago Carolyn, who is due with baby 2 in a couple of weeks, and who has conveniently moved across the street from us, hosted all of us and our crazy kids at her place. Here are a couple of photos of most of the kids Liam and Eowyn see regularly - of course it was almost impossible to get them to sit still together, but we tried anyway!
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| Liam, Eowyn, Isla, Cassidy, Sam and a bit of Drake |
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| And this one with Cassidy about to leap off at least shows all of Drake! |
A couple of weekends ago we decided to take advantage of our long weekend and do an overnight stay in Vals. This was a little risky as we have never stayed as a family of 4 in the same room, but we figured one night was easy enough to recover from. We went up on Saturday morning, had the whole afternoon and night, and spent the next morning there. It's a beautiful valley for sure, and the hotel Rovanada is a decent option that also has an indoor pool. Our thought was that at least we would be able to swim with the kids if all else failed with the weather.
So after getting there, going for lunch with Josh and Jen (who were also staying there), we tried to settle the kids for nap time. That was both humorous and frustrating. It took 45 mins for Liam to finally fall asleep. Eowyn at least did better.
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| Our alpine suite |
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| The bathroom area complete with colored lights! |
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| Eowyn and Liam enjoyed rolling around on the fur rugs |
James and I managed to take 1.5 hours to go to the thermal baths there while Jen and Josh took our kids swimming at the hotel. They managed alright, and we enjoyed the baths and some alone time. When we got back we got ready for dinner at the hotel restaurant. We ate early enough so the kids managed ok and since we'd bathed them before we could head right up for bed. So because we were in one room we knew we'd be going to bed with them, but we didn't realize that the excitement of a new place and sleeping in his bed but in our room would keep Liam bouncing up and down out of bed for another hour! I guess this is why it was a good experiment. of course we were nervous about Eowyn waking up with his noise, and then later in the night, when she woke up 3 times talking to herself so loudly, we were worried about her waking him up! Ah the fun of it all. Somehow we got some sleep and for one night, it was just fine. We had a lovely buffet breakfast at the hotel, and took a walk outside to enjoy the scenery during Eowyn's nap. We managed to squeeze in a good swim in the pool altogether, before heading back home around lunch time. All in all, it seemed a worthwhile endeavor!
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| Eowyn munching on a rusk at dinner |
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| Liam ordered a pasta with salmon and shrimp (which was very tasty, I might add!) He has good taste! |
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| Sunday morning walk |
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| Eowyn before she fell asleep on the walk |
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| Beautiful views and low lying clouds |
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| Swiss bliss |
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| We live here? |
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| Some very comical mushrooms that we discovered on our walk |
Last weekend there was a fall festival in downtown Lugano. We managed to run our errands and still enjoy the morning walking through the piazza, and along the lake, and of coure having lunch at Manor! It was all in a all a lovely day, though slightly marred by Liam hitting me. We have definitely been a more trying phase with him lately, and I notice that he is much more quick to melt down, or react in not so great ways. Of course we are reminding ourselves that this is all age appropriate, but it is also a good reminder of our huge task as parents to help guide and educate our children. Liam definitely seems ready to take on some more in depth concepts and we are slowly trying to find ways to incorporate virtues into daily life. I think parent and child alike we have our moments of struggle and joy.
Eowyn is continuing her efforts to move, and with more vim and vigor these days. She is mobile enough and can scoot backwards pretty swiftly when she wants to. She comes up on hands and knees a lot more too, but from there she either plops slightly forward or scoots back again. She's also always excited to get out and see things now, so every time we go outside I either carry her facing out in the bjorn, so she can look around, or I put a blanket down for her to be on the ground and play a bit. She also loves to see Liam playing.
And speaking of gender stuff - Eowyn naturally is exposed primarily to vehicles and whatever other toys Liam is playing with. But Liam does have one doll, and the other day, when Eowyn caught sight of it, she let out the most adorable squeal of delight! I was so surprised and how immediate and absolutely fascinated she was with a doll! I guess some of these things are really just built in. We have since given her one very small one so that Liam doesn't feel like his baby doll is being taken away from him. And quite naturally, he has in turn become really interested in playing with "baby doll" (that's her name), and does a lot of pretend games with her. Lately he has also been taking her for naps and bed time, and reports to us in the morning about how well she slept. (last night she didn't cry at all; she slept well but didn't want the blankets!) He has a great imagination when it comes to play, not just with the doll, but all his toys, and his games are always a strange and wonderful mix of thoughts and ideas.
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| Liam, Eowyn and James and a lively Lugano backdrop! |
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| Liam and I checking out the swans and ducks |
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| Eowyn later in the afternoon at Johannes' birthday party |
