merry christmas

Happy holidays from our little corner of the world to yours.

snow

Coming home from Vienna...our garden looked like this...



very exciting first snow experience for little brother (in the sling of course)


big brother hanging out in his igloo


silly winter hat...every baby needs one. :-)



lots of playing, shoveling and building. Totally magical, and just in time for the holidays.

Still scenic, still grand

We're winding up our last week here. It's been great actually. Much easier with two kids than I expected. We've been socializing quite a bit, which is nice, too. Met some lovely people and got to know much more about the life that awaits us. Mostly, though, we're excited to get back home...to start preparing for Christmas and the coziness that comes with it. It's one of my favorite times of the year in Switzerland after all! Plus my back is *finally* protesting after carrying the baby around the streets of this city every day for weeks now. This little boy is getting HEAVY! Time to break out the stroller I think.

A day in the life...Vienna

Wake up to my cell phone alarm around 6:45*, restless baby nuzzling me, and big brother making various noises from his bed on the other side of the room. Papi gets up to shower, I fall back asleep. For about 2 minutes. And then there is 6 year old pitter patter and much more nuzzling. I get up. Change a diaper. Collapse on designer (read: uncomfortable but attractive) sofa feeling very, uh, groggy. Why is that? Oh, yes. There was much nuzzling throughout the night. Little brother must have been processing the sensory overload that was the evening before. So. Coffee. Papi has made some. Bless him. Boys eat. Little brother is already tired again...so that makes two of us.

I remember that the Putzfrau is coming to clean the apartment today. At 9am. 9am...that's like, soon. I do some tidying, as I don't want the Putzfrau to think we are...untidy?...and then I get big brother ready to go out...as I am not really comfortable with people cleaning up our mess while I sit and watch. Can't imagine why? Running out of time! Skip the shower. Dressed. Wrap 2 meters of fabric around me and insert baby. Out the door, 2 minutes to 9. Oops, forgot to eat breakfast. Walked all.around.Vienna. Ended up breakfasting at Starbucks...shame! In the land of Kaffeehäuser and Bäckerei? Really. Baby isn't napping. Why isn't he napping? Walk the other way around Vienna. Baby has missed his nap!** Now lunchtime is upon us. Get lunch and dinner ingredients at local supermarket. Feel like a pack mule. Walk up the stairs back up to the apartment, open the door, and...

it hasn't been cleaned.

IT HASN'T BEEN CLEANED?

Make a call. The apartment manager didn't want to "disturb me" so early in the morning. Er...uh...but...

I explained. I complained. I appealed.

And then I rescheduled for tomorrow.

When we will repeat the whole scenario once again...only this time, hopefully, including a shower.

Sigh.

And there you have it. The trials of a trailing spouse. Unplugged.***


*Because our clock is radio controlled and seems to only be loyal to Swiss radio signals.
**He then went on to sleep the ENTIRE afternoon and evening, which will make bedtime tonight interesting. I'm guessing...plenty of nuzzling? And restlessness?
***With the underlying moral of the story being...how much easier it would be to not have a cleaning lady. Ah, the irony.