Wagging Away

Today a friend sent me something quite precious and thought-provoking. In a time, she said, when all around her was bad news, she wanted to stop and reflect. On things that gave her joy, made her rediscover herself and those around her, love this one life we are given. A beautiful thought that she was kind enough to share...It is an example I am going to borrow...to count my blessings and be happy! So to celebrate 2008: 1) I am glad for a year that allowed us to restart our lives in a brand new land and swept the wind of change through our lives. 2) I am grateful for a year that allowed me to slow down, suck some air and look around me with a new pair of eyes. 3) I am glad to have had a year that allowed me to be daughter and sister for a while after a very, very long time. My parents and brother have been such an essential part of my life, I have taken them too much for granted from afar. 2008 let me do that for a while being close to them! 4) I am thankful for a year that allowed me

So, the family moved en masse to the land of fresh white snow, yodelling and clean freaks called Switzerland and it's our first winter here. And because the silly country works and functions and teaches in a language useless west of its border, we had to enroll D-Poo in one of those fancy, private, "international" schools. And yes, it is overpriced. With that out of the way, I have to admit it's been a really good school thus far. Yes, I do have to deal with too many rich people living in respective expat bubbles, but on the whole the teachers are nice, kids seem less than psychotic all of the time and the teachers don't look like they would rather be a hundred miles away. All good signs. And then the benefits of a fancy private education (welllll...actually even the free public school education here in Switzerland) is the nice set of extracurricular activities she gets exposed to. D-Poo will be the first in the family on any side to learn ice skating and then her

When I was pregnant the second time, people would nod knowingly and say "you know, no two kids are ever the same." Bollocks was my thought, oh really was my spoken comment! I mean come on...once you've handled the whole peeing, pooping, privacy-invading, peace-destroying experience of having a child, what can be different the second time? Turns out the nattering masses were right after all. I have spent the last two days with my second daughter with ample time to reflect upon the fact that god was laughing his gob off watching me drown. The whole experience the second time round is cool... until the baby is born of course. Body used to stuff and baby is all fine. And the sibling is over the moon at having "a friend to play with." Until of course, said older sibling is told, please don't pinch the baby, don't get into the baby crib while the baby is still inside, no you cannot help change a poopy splattery diaper and spread the mess around, no noise pleas