For our last full day in Grindelwald, we decide to take a page from the hang-gliders constantly passing through our view of the Eiger and be adventurous. We walked through town to find the gondola which would take us up the mountain to an alpine playground we had read about in the tourist brochures. This [...]
The YMCA Christmas Run is an absolutely great way to kick of the holiday season. Nothing beats catapulting into the holiday spirit while burning a few calories right along side some fun-loving fellow runners and walkers.
The mini adventure this week was to Nana and Papa’s house. Their house gets more magical with every visit both because my mom is constantly bringing new things home from her gathering and because as Belén gets bigger, she appreciates what Nana’s house has to offer more and more.
Ever since Eloise was born, we have wondered who she looks like? Some have speculated Erin, Andy’s sister. Others have said Chrissy, Andy’s other sister. I have heard that Belén looks like me and Eloise looks like my sister, Anna. I personally didn’t think any of them were the right fit and then about a month ago, I asked my mom if she had a picture of my dad when he was little. For some reason, I recalled a photo I remembered looking a lot like baby Eloise.
I don’t know if it was the glass of wine or what, but at some point, the evening turned idyllic. I suddenly forgot the jet-lagged children battles we had been fighting all weekend, the lack of sleep and the excessive work required after a long vacation. Instead I found myself slightly zoned out wondering, “Is this that moment?” You know that moment in the movies after many trials and tribulations have transpired when the main character flashes back to some perfect moment of everyday life that happened years earlier? I almost teared up as I thought about how precious everything suddenly seemed.
Despite wanting my child to be able to articulate words correctly, it makes me sad to share that she is starting to say Birthday correctly and her “‘Happy Derday”‘ days are almost over.
When I was sick last week, moments after I had finished puking, Belén walked over to me, put the Pooh Bear birthday hat on my head left over from her one-year-old birthday and sang me “Happy Derday.” I don’t think I will forget the sweetness of that moment as long as I live.
Grammy, Nana, Belen and Eloise wearing hats.
We have had a lot of big topics to talk about with Belén this week and I found myself feeling a bit underprepared. What is the best approach to bringing up big heavy topics she does not yet understand? As with most things in parenting, we just winged it and did the best we could and tried not to scar her for life.
On Monday, Andy and I were chatting back and forth on Office Communicator trying to figure out what we should say to Belén about Sassy dying later that afternoon. While we could have just told her Sassy went away and was not coming back I thought it was important to introduce the word death to her vocabulary and use this as a learning opportunity, albeit a hard one.
Andy had already told her on the way home from school that Sassy was going to the doctor in a few minutes and wouldn’t come back. I kind of freaked out when he told me this as I thought it was a really bad idea to take the risk of her associating the doctor with not coming back and her new word, death.
So when I talked to her l I told her Sassy was going to die which meant she was going away and would not come back. Her response in her adorable little two-year-old voice was, “Sassy go to the doctor?”
We are just plucking along over here at the Hoobing household enjoying the heck out of July. I mean seriously, a smiley baby, entertaining toddler, nice weather, no work, the Tour de France, BBQs, a backyard fire pit, an ability to drink wine again, a new book by George R. R. Martin and workouts finally feeling great…does it really get much better?
