Saturday was a long day, but Joseph did tremendously well. I did the baby swim course with him this time as Stephan still had a cough. It’s so much fun and also very nice to be in the warm water. This time Joseph stayed awake and active the whole class. He was very active “swimming” after objects in the pool. He’s really just trying to crawl, and he’s hard to hang on to, but I tried to encourage him by moving him faster when he moved his arms and legs. Next week is the last class. I’m not sure how much he’s learned, but it’s been fun doing it anyway.
After lunch we drove out to visit some of Stephan’s old university friends in Bremgarten. Joseph slept almost the whole two hour drive. We enjoyed the time and Joseph tasted his first snow. He seemed pleased enough. We couldn’t stay too long because Diana was hosting her annual Thanksgiving pot luck and I didn’t want to miss it. Joseph was a champ and slept again on the drive. We’re spoiled. At one point we drove past Etinhard. Stephan said that’s what we’re about to do . . .
Though we arrived only in time for dessert desert they had saved each of us a plate of dinner. Yum, yum! Joseph started to get a little tired, but he did well enough being with people and crawling around.
Sunday some friends from church showed me how African moms carry their babies on their backs. It’s simple, so a bit scary (no knots, just tucks!) but it gave me the currage to try the Moby wrap on my back though the instructions say not to do it before 12 months. Joseph liked it and I got SO much more done! I even vacuumed with him in it. I’ve yet to get totally comfortable with it and Joseph needs time to adjust as well, but it is so much more practical to carry him on the back than the front and I’m excited to get better.
One funny anectdote: Stephan was holding Joseph while we were eating dinner when Joseph neatly grabbed the napkin in front of him, brough it to his mouth and spit up – catching all of it on the napkin. It looked for all the world like it was politely on purpose.
Okay, this puzzle master is stumped. Google, usually so helpful even with variant spellings, failed me on "Etinhard" as a place name or anything else for that matter. If "Etinhard" is taken as a pun for what one does at Thanksgiving dinner—which is what I would expect from Stephan—I thought perhaps the initial "E" might have been an "I"—but still no luck. Enlightenment, please?
Congratulations to Joseph on becoming a seasoned traveller.
Our experience with baby swimming is that if you want them to make progress you take as few breaks as possible. Those in our classes who followed one class with the next made the most progress; a break of even a few weeks is long enough for a baby to forget what he's been doing.
Stephan, can you help me? I saw the name on the GPS but I can't find it under any spelling variation . . .
I took Etinhard as "Eating Hard" which we certainly did at Thanksgiving :)
Yes, NMKB is right, but Mom is also right that I messed up the spelling. It is "Itenhard" which is an even better joke because you don't have to butcher it with English pronunciation to get the point.
Which makes it a bilingual pun, at least in the sense that one has to know that "i" is pronounce "ee," not "eye."
Do you think it could be "Im Itenhard" that you saw? That's the best Google Maps can do for me, and it's in Bremgarten.
Not that it matters; I got the joke from the beginning. It's the puzzle aspect I can't let go....
