I have a hard time knowing what’s important to record and what’s not. I find myself impressed Joseph’s accomplishments and I need a place to share EC success, so it seems those topics dominate the blog, but I have too much going on to really think about what I want to be getting down. For now, something is better than nothing. If you have ideas of things you were glad you recorded, or wish you had, and in what format, or if there are things you’d like to know about what we’re up to, please comment with your suggestions!
March 18th: Vivienne was sleeping diaperless on my chest while I was watching cleaning videos (Aunt S’s fault). I was impressed with us both that even though I was distracted by the videos, I noticed when Vivienne woke up to pee, and after she went in an appropriate place she went back to sleep peacefully. I know, I know, more EC blather . . .
March 20th: Vivienne rolled from back to tummy on our couch that has a slight incline. She got over completely, even freeing her pinned arm. Go Vivienne! The next day she rolled over on a flat surface, but never managed to free her arm.
March 24th: Joseph put his right shoe on correctly without any help. Now he has new shoes that are even easier to put on.
March 25th: Total EC success! Move on to March 26th if you don’t want to hear it . . .
The day almost couldn’t have gone better, so make note that not every day with EC is this easy. That’s why I want to report it! Vivienne woke up not too long before we had to go to church (the time change helped that). I put her on the couch while I got other things ready in hopes of catching some morning pees before I imprisoned her in a disposable diaper and cute clothes (thanks, Heather! She’s in the 6-month outfit already!). Sure enough, I got two pees easily and then I packed her up and put her on my back so we could walk to church as a family. Joseph likes to hold our hands as we walk and then do the counting himself for when we lift him in the air to give him a boost with his walking. It’s so cute, but he still forgets eight a lot! (We starting making him count higher and higher in order to get a lift. What’s life without a challenge?) Anyway, Vivienne slept most of the service, then woke up, had a nurse (she’s pretty fast now) and then I thought I’d try to catch her after-nap pee. She want as soon as I got her on the toilet! She was then happy and awake after church so everyone could admire her beautiful smiles. I sensed she needed to go again and waited until I could excuse myself from conversation and get to the bathroom. We were detained by a bathroom conversation during which I undressed her but didn’t feel comfortable taking her into the stall while the lady I was talking with was still watching. Still, with all the waiting, she held it until we were on the toilet and then went right away. Maybe this is what people mean when they say EC is easier when you’re out and about. We got home from church and I’d caught every pee since her morning awakening! We didn’t stay home long before we took off walking to the home of church folks who live in the area. Again, Vivienne was bundled on my back and just as we arrived she started fussing. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get her to the toilet in time, but I did catch a later pee. While we were having dessert and Stephan was holder Vivienne he sensed she need to poo, but I wasn’t sure of the urgency so I tried nursing her first. I sensed he was right, so took her to the toilet and she did her business where business ought to be done. Our hosts were none the wiser as each time it looked like I was changing her diaper in the bathroom, though they might have thought I changed it too often. So, all day we used three disposable diapers. I think plenty of people do that without EC, so we have a way to go yet when thinking about the environment, but if this continues, using cloth when we’re out and about won’t be so much of a problem. Plus, two of those diapers were worn a while and only had one pee, and the rest went to the sewer and not the landfill (or the burning site, which is what I think happens to our trash). So, I have renewed excitement for EC. Some days it just works so easily without even trying.
March 26th: Vivienne smiles and coos and is just such a delight. What great big smiles, but I can’t catch them on camera just yet. Joseph can screw together his Haba toys with a little effort.
I finished our US taxes. I’ll spare you various complaints, but I’ll report a problem Stephan’s brother ran into. If your child is not a US citizen (or resident or a few other technical things) then you cannot claim him as a deduction on your US tax return. Do you realize how many US citizens living abroad have children who do not hold citizenship? Lots! The US is quite helpful, they simply sate “generally if you are a US citizen your children are, too.” Great, and if not? Well, tough luck! The US is really rather crazy. I won’t even mention how the exchange rate gave us a tremendous raise this year . . . Oh, one more thing, I can’t resist. According to the definitions, our move to Emmen wasn’t a justifiable move because Stephan’s commute would not have increased more than 50 miles if we’d kept our old place. That number might work in the US, but in Switzerland, it would be crazy to commute that far! Okay, people do it, but they have cars and burn lots of CO2. We use public transport and Stephan bikes to work. For that, we get penalized because we can’t justify our move as due to a job change. Gotta love it. But we’re STILL looking forward to our visit to the US this summer!
Oh, and Joseph calls me “Mommy” now! I’m thrilled!
March 8th: Joseph counts from zero to 12 in Swiss German while pointing to the numbers of his number puzzle. (Up until now it’s mostly been English for me.)
14th: Joseph counts from zero to ten in Swiss German for memory (no visual aids) without skipping eight, as is often his habit.
15th: Joseph says “Mama say cheese” (how he says cheese is hard to write) then I’m pretty sure the next part was “Joseph say kääs.” It was clearly cheese in Swiss German, but the “Joseph says” was unclear. He has since experimented with this. It is the phrasing I use when he asks me to identify things in different languages. I say “Mommy and Grandma say X, die Deutschen sagen Y, und Bappe sagt Z.”
He took my keys, managed to get them in the door (quite a stretch!) and turned them a bit.
Vivienne has the greatest smile and silent laugh. She is so precious. She often goes down for morning naps peacefully on her own – I appreciate having that much more time since I don’t have to carry/nurse her to sleep every time like I did with Joseph. She hold her feet up high when on her back. I’m convinced the diaper free time has a lot to do with her ability since no bulk is in her way. She’s discovered her right fist – I caught her staring at it.
Last night (16th) Stephan was holding Vivienne and he let out some loud gas. Stephan thought it was the real deal but I encouraged him to take her to the toilet. A few minutes later he came back saying that’s SO much easier than changing a diaper! He caught it all, too, she didn’t have more later as is often the case. I’m thrilled my husband is on the diaper-free bandwagon as well! For a number of days now she’s been diaper free all day except for our walk. I haven’t figured out away-from home EC yet, though she has pooed on foreign toilets while we were at someone else’s place for a visit. In those cases I don’t plan to EC, but when she makes it clear, I can’t just sit and watch her go in her diaper, so I take her to the bathroom and people are none the wiser. Unless of course I can’t keep it a secret and announce to everyone what she did when we come back . . . I hate wearing my every thought on my sleeve. Sometimes being in a foreign country is a good thing for learning to hold the tongue. It takes more energy to formulate the thought in German and it’s often the time I need to realize that it might be so important for people to know about my daughter’s poo. Blog readers, on the other hand, aren’t so lucky . . .
I’ve found a ditty to sum up the “how are you doing” question. “When life is good it’s very, very good, and when it’s bad it’s horrid.” (Click on the link and you’ll see that it has an author and that I quite it wrong!) Horrid is too strong, but when being a mother overwhelms me, I’m in a bad state, so it feels pretty horrid, but most of the time life is very, very good (or very good indeed, as the original goes), so I feel it sums things up rather well.
There are so many things to write I have no idea how to write them all but better write something than nothing at all.
We don’t have a car, but we have plenty of ways to get around. We recently got a fancy 3-wheel stroller that holds both kids but isn’t much bigger than our old stroller (thanks, G+G S!) so that’s great for brisk walks, short trips to the grocery store thanks to some storage at the bottom.
Of course we can walk and take public transportation. Joseph is turning into quite a good walker, and Stephan has a fancy backpack for carrying Joseph longer distances. I have a variety of wraps for carrying Vivienne. I recently figured out how to tied such a small baby on my back with my big wrap thanks to some internet research. I’m not comfortable doing the African tie I used with Joseph when he was older, but the back tie given with the Moby wrap isn’t good if babies don’t have head control (or so they say). But it makes little sense to wait until six months to put your baby on your back. The time is NOW that babies want to be with mommy all the time, and the house doesn’t wait and Joseph needs attention, too. Up until now I’ve been trying to get Vivienne to be more independent by training her to fall a sleep on her own (gently – not with cry-it-out) so I can get things done, but it’s so much nicer to just put her on my back and get on with work rather than hope she’ll stay down for a bit and get pulled away from my work all the time.
The other set of wheels we have is the bike trailer. Last Sunday the four of us took a practice spin along the air strip (not ON it!). Vivienne was in the baby-insert in the trailer and Joseph was next to her. Stephan pulled them and I rode behind. We did a 30min ride and they did great. At one point Vivienne started crying and Joseph reached over and patted her. At the end she was asleep and Joseph was calmly sitting there holding her hand. It was so sweet!
And there are still those times when a car is just the best option and then we can use a car with the car-sharing organization here, Mobility, which is also rather convenient and cheaper than renting a car for short trips. We have to put the car seats in each time, but we don’t have to clean it, or care for it, or worry about paying when it breaks down. Lovely!
That’s how we get around, and I’m so thankful that our normal activities mean we need to use our own legs – it’s such a pleasant way to get our exercise!
