Goonies in Geneva

Post from Dooce.com

2012-02-03T10:03:00.001+01:00

This one made me cry not because of her ability to convey the sheer enormity of being a parent, but because it let me know that you don't have to be all TIGER MOM to get your kids to succeed in life, that you can just be supporting and let them grow on their own and not pressure them into success with constant criticism. And that the pride they feel in accomplishing things all by themselves is much greater than the feeling of just barely having avoided disappointing the critical eye of your parents. As a child of the TIGER MOM line of thinking I am happy there's another way. I struggle every day, sitting on both sides of the fence, pledging to be totally unlike my mother but realizing that what's been ingrained in me for almost 30 years is kinda hard to suppress. I hope I can spend more days on the supportive side of the fence than on the TIGER MOM one. And maybe then I will feel like as a parent I am deserving of the amazing kids I was lucky to have.

Hearing crickets once again

2012-01-30T10:00:00.000+01:00

After having Jose back for a few days, and my Dad visiting, which was then followed by two other nice visits, one from our dear friend Jeronimo from Cincinnati, and another one from Lily the Class Hamster, our house is empty once again. While I'm happy to re-enter some kind of normal routine I wonder how I'll make sure the kids don't miss their dad for the next 12 days...I did my best yesterday by taking them to Disney on Ice and then having some friends come over for a play date, and maybe next weekend I'll coerce Gabi into actually skiing? Time will only tell. :)

Here's Jose and I at a local restaurant we went to last Friday night with Jeronimo.

Here's Lily the Hamster eager to come out of her cage.

And finally here's a short clip of one of Sebas' favorite parts of Disney on Ice. We were especially excited with parts like these where it was actually in English rather than French. :)

Skiing when it's actually winter

2012-01-23T13:25:00.000+01:00

This was a great weekend despite freezing temperatures! First everyone is quickly recovering -- I'm probably the farthest one behind but at least I feel good enough to be useful. :) Then Dad and Jose both arrived on Thursday and Friday afternoon we drove to Tignes for another round of skiing. While I stayed with the kids most of the time (and most of the time indoors because it was soooo cold!) it was a very relaxing weekend and the boys got to enjoy their skiing. Whereas in November there wasn't nearly enough snow now there's actually too much snow! The good thing is all the runs are connected with snow so you can go everywhere around the mountain in skis (or sled if you're me and the kids). Here's Jose and Dad starting their first run on the first day, basically leaving from right in front of our apartment and this tunnel took them to one of the lifts.

On the way back on Sunday afternoon we stopped at Annecy for a late lunch and took some beautiful pictures of Annecy at night, which I never had seen before "in person". This one was from my iPhone which came out even better than the one with the Canon.

Next up some more goodbyes. :( Dad is leaving on Wednesday and Jose's leaving this weekend to go back to Cincinnati for a few weeks. C'est la vie!

In sickness and in sickness...

2012-01-16T09:45:00.001+01:00

After so much "fun and leisure" over vacations we hit reality with a thump. Jose left for Cincinnati on Tuesday after we arrived on Sunday afternoon, where he'll be spending a lot of time over the first few months of the year (the fewer the better!). I will be playing single mom, hauling kid after kid to the doctor because their bodies are in shock after three weeks of pleasant weather -- warm sunny beaches and still warmer people around them. I am incredibly grateful for the help of our nanny who can stay with one kid at home while I rush the other one to the doctor. I am also incredibly happy that on Thursday both Jose and my Dad are coming to spend a little time here. I do enjoy my time alone once the kids have gone to sleep where I can actually watch some chick flick that's been sitting on my DVR for 6+ months. But I'd rather have Jose here taking the control of the remote because it's either Formula 1 or FIFA or who knows what other sport on the TV. I would also like some time in the hectic schedule to be able to work out, but with this cold who wants to go outside anyway? I hope spring comes early this year...

Our only outings this weekend were to a birthday party and to the peruvian restaurant. Sad I know but I'm trying to keep the kids inside healing as much as possible. Sebas is thankfully fever-free as of Saturday, but now they're both coughing a lot and super congested. And I'm next I can tell! Hopefully next weekend I am alone with the kids we can do something a bit more fun like ice skating. Gabi is not looking forward to skiing the next couple of weekends -- says it's too cold. I can't say I disagree with her, despite the fact that everyone says it's been a relatively mild Genevois winter so far!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-09T09:34:00.000+01:00

Crash landing is probably the best term to describe what I'm doing in the office today after so much time away! Suffice it to say the vacation to Lima was amazing and much-needed, and that it'll take me a while to adjust to the reality of being back in the daily grind (not to mention losing those extra few pounds). Given I can't get my head in the game for a good post-vacation blog post today (hopefully after next weekend), I decided to just post these videos from our vacation, and then post my career horoscope for the year from Yahoo which I thought was suitable to describe the mayhem going on in our work lives right now, given that Jose is leaving tomorrow for Cincinnati and will spend a good portion of the next three months in Cincinnati. Here's to single motherhood, hoping I can survive the next few months of 2012! I'm hoping the horoscope is right and that while turbulent, 2012 will bring great things to our personal and professional lives...

One more week

2011-12-12T09:28:00.001+01:00

This was our last weekend in Geneva for the year. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. We had another busy weekend, trying to fit in some packing time for the four of us in between all the activities. Packing this year has somehow been very hard. Last year I packed everything for the kids and myself for five whole weeks in just one suitcase. I honestly don't even know how was I able to do that. This year somehow we've got two pretty big suitcases for the four of us and they both seem to be bursting at the seams.

Anyway, yesterday we went to La Clusaz again. We'd been there last January and now that it's been raining a lot in Geneva it means lots of snow in the mountains. Jose took a skiing lesson while the kids and I did some sledding at the base of the mountain. After a while I couldn't feel my feet though, so I was more than happy sitting in a restaurant looking out at the crazy skiers...

Only four more days in the office before beginning the long journey to Lima. Via London. Via Mexico. Via Connecticut. I will be so happy once we're finally settled in (and free of jet lag!). Here's to another year of world travels. :)

Escalade

2011-12-05T10:04:00.001+01:00

There's a well-known Genevois tradition every first Sunday in December called L'Escalade, which celebrates the defeat of a surprise attack to Geneva by France back in 1602. Because Escalade means "climbing of the walls", there is a short race around the old town (which is all walls basically) every year. I was excited to sign up Gabi for her very first race and she was excited that she would be running with some friends from school. She did a 1K in the morning and then with zero training and just after having had lunch I did 5K in the afternoon. It was a very fun activity that we had to miss last year because we were already on our way to Peru (can't complain about that!). Gabi was a little lazy about it (every time we saw her she was walking instead of running!) but with a little prodding from us she completed her first race. I think she was proud to be like her mommy who likes to run but I also have to remember she won't always like what I like. And that's OK.

Another activity we had missed last year was the Company Kids Christmas party. We were also able to do that yesterday afternoon and the kids had a blast. It was their own version of Art Attack which they are crazy about lately.

Today I am counting exactly 9 working days before we begin the long journey to Peru - not looking forward to the actual process of traveling, but definitely looking forward to actually being there! Warm weather, great food, and family. What else is there in life!?!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T11:45:00.001+01:00

Lots of people are doing the "gratitude posts" all over social media this year. I myself tried to be good about posting something daily on Facebook, and I also downloaded this cute little iPhone app called Gratitude. I'ts pretty obvious that family and friends are usually at the top of the list for most people when it comes to giving thanks this time of year, and I am indeed very grateful for that. But I quickly add a "but" in there -- I am so grateful for spending Thanksgiving with family BUT I wish I could spend more time with them. Guess it comes with the territory of living away from family. So I keep trying to find a "BUT-less" gratitude statement and I guess it's this...that my incredible three year old son showed an amazing amount of bravery on Friday evening after getting into a losing battle with his sister and slamming his chin against the corner of a wooden sofa in the apartment we were staying at Tignes, requiring four stitches and a big injection to the cut...while he cried a ton when he actually cut his chin once he was on the doctor's table he didn't move a muscle, he didn't cry and he didn't complain at all. Then he was so proud of himself he kept telling us he was so brave. And then when we got to school this morning and a friend asked him "what happened?" he said "You should've seen the other guy". (coached by his Dad of course). And that his wonderful older sister felt so concerned for his baby brother she spent the entire time he was at the doctor writing him "get well notes" (she also felt partly responsible about his accident so she had a huge amount of guilt that we had to try to talk her out of!). So I guess what I'm saying is I'm grateful for how my kids never seize to amaze me. Never ever ever. No buts about that.

I'm also grateful for this amazing view. I got what seems to have been the flu over the weekend so skiing was out of the question for me; I barely had enough energy on Friday to watch the kids sledding...But once I started feeling better I went out with my sister around Tignes for walking and usually stumbled upon a view or two like this. The altitude wasn't the only thing that left me breathless!

We had to break the streak

2011-11-22T17:59:00.001+01:00

Well I guess it was too many straight weekends at home (two!) so we took a short trip to Morocco this past weekend. The weather didn't want to cooperate too much the first day but we braved the elements and went through the street market for hours and hours. So cool! Next day we traveled 3 hours to the Atlantic Ocean and since the weather did decide to cooperate that was an even better street market experience! Now we are waiting for Thanksgiving to go skiing at Tignes!

One thing I loved is how many cats there are in Morocco, amazing! And they were so nice too but you had to be careful not to feed them because otherwise you were bringing them home!

And finally I loved my little iPhone 4S camera, it took such great pictures! Like this one...And with Instagram filters, I'm in photography heaven. :)

Second straight weekend at home since who knows when

2011-11-14T10:01:00.001+01:00

That won't last long though...

My sister is coming on Friday and I'm going with her and her husband and my nephew to Morocco for the weekend. All I care about is that I heard my sister say it was going to be 80 degrees F one day. Then for Thanksgiving weekend we are going to attempt skiing in Tignes, France again like we did last year although the snow forecast is not very encouraging. I'm fine just staying at the base of the mountain eating fondue and drinking hot chocolate.

Here are some pictures of the weekend with the kids modeling their H&M loot from last weekend... They are so excited that Titi Ge, Jakey and Uncle Tom are coming in just four days!!! (or maybe I am, or both).

Fun weekend at home!

2011-11-07T09:49:00.000+01:00

I tell you, when we look back on our time in Geneva and count how many weekends we were actually at home in 2011 we'll probably come up with only half of the weekends in the year or so. It makes it a little hard to keep up with grocery shopping which I can pretty much only do on Saturdays as well as Gabi's swimming lessons. But it has been well worth it. To quote Green Day "for what it's worth, it was worth all the while". This was an enjoyable weekend at home though! Gabi had a birthday party on Saturday and on Sunday we had front row tickets to the Dora Show! Funny that here instead of Dora being mainly in English with a little Spanish it's mainly in French with a little bit of English. It was a good French lesson for me since they speak more slowly than most people and they translated into English every once in a while. :)

Here is Sebas dancing up a storm at the Dora show...

And here's a beautiful picture I took with the iPhone 4S (Instagram processing) when we were heading to breakfast at my favorite place Sunday morning. We hadn't been there since Mother's Day and I was able to get hot apple cider which I have been craving ever since the Fall started and did me a world of good because I'm pretty sure I have a sinus infection. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to get it checked out but I know the drill with these sinus infections already so it's antibiotics and something for the cough! Gotta love Fall. :)

London

2011-10-30T14:27:00.001+01:00

This weekend we went to london to visit jose's sister who's been living there for a few months now. It was the kids' first time so we tried to make it kid-friendly. Despite the cold and rainy weather on day 1 we did the hop on hop off bus and saw the london eye and walked around quite a bit. For dinner we had indian food which the kids tried for the first time. On day 2 we went to the aquarium and the m&m store (massive!). And then saw wizard of oz which the kids loved (but I think I loved more). On the last day we went to bedford, the town where paloma has been living in. Overall great trip - fun, family and food. :)

Now no more airplanes until Lima in December!

Gabi's 6th birthday

2011-10-24T09:11:00.001+02:00

On Friday Gabi turned 6 and we went to her school with some cupcakes to celebrate with her friends. I'm glad we did that because her party wasn't as well attended as we would've liked, largely because there are school vacations all this week (which I didn't realize at the time I set the date of the party) and everybody pretty much checked out of town early. Once enough kids showed up at the party she had a blast though! And I think Sebas probably enjoyed himself more than anyone. We had a Scooby Doo theme so Gabi was dressed as Daphne (sans the wig because it was too itchy) and Sebas was dressed as Scooby Doo. He held on to the hat for as long as possible after a while he was just too sweaty to keep it on!

Here are the two of them dancing with our neighbor Lola while playing something similar to musical chairs.

And here is Sebas thinking very strategically about his musical "rings" game -- he was staying pretty close to the rings so that when the music stopped he wouldn't be left without a ring. I thought that was pretty smart of him! He would even go to the rings before it was time just to make sure he wouldn't miss out. :)

This weekend we are going to London to see Jose's sister. This morning I dropped my mom off at the airport so now we won't have any visitors until my sister comes with her family close to Thanksgiving.

Strasbourg

2011-10-16T15:19:00.001+02:00

I guess it was too long without traveling because lo and behold Jose got ants in the pants and took us all to Strasbourg for the weekend. Strasbourg is considered to be located in the very center of Europe and this is a primary reason why it's the seat of the European Parliament. We took a little boat tour on Saturday morning (which was a little cold but still very pretty). We did some walking around all the streets and found a beautiful Christmas market, so cute we had to go back again while Sebas was napping. And because Jose was back with Sebas at the hotel we got lost for like an hour trying to get back to the hotel. Maybe Ivette 2.0 comes with GPS as Jose likes to say...

Edge of Forty

2011-10-03T21:53:00.002+02:00

In honor of my friend Ida's 40th birthday I re-did the lyrics of Lady Gaga's Edge of Glory to be "Edge of Forty". I don't think she appreciated the old jokes in there but I think I was projecting myself just a tiny bit. Anyway, hope you get a kick out of them! We sang them during the party and gave out the lyrics for people to sing along with us.

"Edge of Forty"

There is a reason you and me just feel so old tonight yeah baby tonight yeah baby.
I know the reason you and I should get so drunk tonight.
We need a girl that tells us what we're doing wrong tonight yeah baby tonight yeah baby.
Give her some spirits so she'll grab the microphone tonight.
It's hard to feel the rush, to see the big 4-0.
I'm gonna run right to get some clairol too so we can both turn back the time.

I'm on the edge of 40. And I'm sagging like a day old balloon.
Out on the edge of 40. And my eyes look like they're on a raccoon.
I'm on the edge the edge the edge the edge the edge the edge the edge.
I'm on the edge of 40. But I'm peaking not a moment too soon. I'm on the edge it's true.

Another shot before we both forget the time tonight yeah baby tonight yeah baby.
We're on the edge of something magical called life tonight. Alright alright.
Put on your shades cause ida's future is so bright tonight yeah baby tonight yeah baby.
It isn't bad if everybody knows your age tonight. Forty Forty!
It's hard to look this posh, without a bit botox.
I'm gonna fill a line here and there one too.
So we can both look thirty two.

I'm on the edge of 40. Can feel menopause coming too soon.
Out on the edge of 40. Got more wrinkles than this side of the moon.
I'm on the edge the edge the edge the edge the edge the edge.
I'm on the edge of 40. But I'm peaking not a moment too soon. I'm on the edge it's true.

I'm on the edge it's true.
I'm on the edge it's true.

I'm on the edge of 40. And I'm sagging like a day old balloon.
Out on the edge of 40. And my eyes look like they're on a racoon.
I'm on the edge the edge the edge the edge the edge the edge.
I'm on the edge of 40. But I'm peaking not a moment too soon. I'm on the edge it's true.
It's true, it's true, it's true, it's true. I'm on the edge it's true.
It's true, it's true, it's true, it's true. I'm on the edge it's true.
It's true, it's true, it's true, it's true. I'm on the edge it's true.

US trips

2011-09-26T11:19:00.000+02:00

Jose left for Cincinnati yesterday for a week of work meetings. If all goes well I will meet him in Miami on Friday for Ida's 40th birthday party. Only good thing about Jose being gone is that I get to watch chick flicks I've had stored in my DVR for eons and eons. Oh and that he's buying a bunch of stuff in Cincinnati to bring back for the kids -- clothes, toys, medicines, etc. But other than that we definitely miss having him around and the kids miss him (and they behave quite erratically as a result!). They are making me sleep with them (or rather they are sleeping in my bed) and I'm squished in the middle between the two of them. But it feels soooo good to have a kid reach out in the middle of the night to touch your face to make sure you're there. That and being able to smell them have to be some of the best feelings in the world. But I'm already exhausted after ONE day of Jose being gone and looking forward to the Friday plane ride where hopefully I can sleep the whole time. But I did download Bridesmaids on the iPad so I can watch it in case I can't sleep. :)

First weekend at home in a while...

2011-09-19T11:20:00.000+02:00

If my count is correct this is the first weekend at home in about 10 weeks. We were able to do grocery shopping, get school supplies for kids they were still missing, go to the movies, and catch up on laundry. Phew. Jose complained at times that he was bored and that we shouldn't go another weekend without traveling so he planned another two trips during the weekend! Go figure. Me? I was happy to actually be able to relax a little. Yes I think the kids were probably a bit restless especially because it was rainy and cold (looks like summer is officially over) so they weren't able to go outside much. But I am grateful for being able to take a breather to catch up and even go through the closet and take mental note of Fall clothes I had bought and didn't even remember I had! But of course next week the traveling starts again. Jose's going to Cincinnati for a week of work travel and if everything goes well we'll meet up in Miami the following weekend for a good friend's 40th birthday party.

Como/Monza

2011-09-11T13:43:00.000+02:00

We spent a couple of nights in Lake Como in a wonderful little apartment that had enough space for everyone, and then some! As well as a great pool and jacuzzi for the kids. We ate Italian for breakfast, lunch and dinner and rented a boat to hang out on the lake, total peace! Then yesterday we drove to Monza for the F1 qualifier. It was a lot of fun and definitely something you need to say "been there done that", but it was so hot all day long today we decided to head home early so we could watch it from the comfort of our own couch. I guess the fact that our hotel room in Milan last night didn't have air conditioner and it was like 100 degrees didn't help either. Happily though I was able to see my friend Vicky from college, even if only for a little bit this morning during breakfast.

Birthday/Labor Day Weekend with Jero and Elika in Spain

2011-09-06T09:57:00.000+02:00

Another weekend, another trip (I swear we're almost done with all the traveling!). This weekend saw us taking a 2 hr. plane ride to Malaga, Spain and then driving 3 hrs. from Malaga to a beach town called Huelva, where we proceeded to eat ham and cheese for approximately 72 hours straight. We also enjoyed the pool, the beach, and great birthday surprise by the kids (live performance + cake). Good to have the day off on Monday too so we could recover from all the activity! We were super happy to see Jero + Elika plus their kids Ava and little Gabi who we hadn't been able to meet yet. Now back to work and back to the diet. :)

Tomrorow my Mom arrives from Puerto Rico so the kids are really excited! They are loving school. In fact I always show up at school too early because they're hurrying me out the door in the morning they don't want to miss a single second.

Venice (and a little bit of Milan)

2011-08-29T10:43:00.000+02:00

We had hoped to travel to Venice on Thursday so that we could spend all day Friday and Saturday and then drive back all day Sunday. But Jose had a meeting scheduled at Friday at 5 pm so we had to leave at 6 pm. We drove like bats out of hell in the middle of some pretty nasty rainstorms so by the time we made it to our hotel in Venice it was 2 am. But we spent all of Saturday walking around, eating and shopping. Despite the crowds our gondola ride was peaceful and Piazza San Marco in the morning and in the evening without all the crowds is a beauty! On the way back from Venice on Sunday we stopped at Milan for lunch. I wish we would've had more time but it was still enough to remind me how much I love both Venice and Milan. Next up, Spain to meet up with Jero and Elika and I guess celebrate my birthday a little! I've been so crazy I can't even remember how old I'm going to be. Today my mother in law and sister in law are leaving after almost two months so I think everyone will be sad. :(

Paris and Disneyland!

2011-08-22T08:45:00.000+02:00

Another fun filled weekend traveling across Europe. This last weekend we spent time in Paris taking in the sights and then we hung out at the happiest place on Earth! :)

Sebas says his favorite part was the Walt Disney Studios tram where there's a big fire and an earthquake, and Gabi of course probably only remembers princesses. :) She was pretty brave and went on a couple of "medium" roller coasters, and I overcame lots of fears and went on Space Mountain, Tower of Terror and a few other thrill rides!

Château du Coudree

2011-08-15T08:24:00.001+02:00

We stayed at this incredible place on Saturday night after spending the day at Excenevex Plage. We had the "dungeon" which is that huge tower in the middle. Our room was like 3 stories tall, it had 3 balconies all around, and it was just one of the most spectacular experiences. We had dinner and breakfast there and hung out in the lakefront and jacuzzi. Gotta chalk that one up to another once in a lifetime experience we are lucky to have by living in Geneva. Next up: Paris and Disneyland Paris!

La Clusaz

2011-08-08T08:56:00.002+02:00

We had to cut our weekend short this weekend because Jose's neck was really bothering him, but we did enjoy one beautiful night and morning at La Clusaz in France. We had been here before for skiing, but it's truly beautiful in the summer with all the green in the mountains and all the houses full of flower boxes in front. We arrived Friday evening and had a great meal followed by a fun round of La skiing-inspired mini golf. Saturday morning we woke up and had enough time to take some of these pictures before heading back to the clinic to get Jose's neck checked out. Between P90X and carrying Sebas on his shoulders everywhere we go it was really taking a toll on him.

But thankfully now with the medicine and hot/cold compresses on his neck he's been getting better and better. So yesterday we spent a little time at Fetes de Geneve as well, a really big festival here in the city. Sebas loved finding his famous Ferrari! :)

I cut Sebas' bangs right after this his hair was totally in his face he was trying to play with our neighbor Lola yesterday evening and it was super windy so the hair kept getting in his face. He finally stood still long enough that I could at least cut enough of his bangs so that he can see what he's doing! Hopefully we can give him a better (and reasonably priced) haircut when we are in Lima in December/January.

Baltic Sea Cruise

2011-08-02T09:53:00.000+02:00

Just got back from the most amazing vacation aboard the Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas! We sailed out of Stockholm, Sweden and visited Helsinki (Finland), St. Petersburg (Russia), Riga (Latvia), Gdansk (Poland) and Visby (Sweden). The weather wasn't always the nicest in the places we went to but the experience was once in a lifetime. The kids loved the kids area and spent tons of time there which gave us a break to enjoy ourselves reading, going to the casino, enjoying a quiet meal or having a few glasses of wine! We were all really sad to get off the boat. But we have yet another vacation to look forward to! Well not really a vacation but a weekend in Disney about 2 weeks from now. I'm sure the kids will love it even more than last time! Now to hit the gym to lose all the weight from the cruise....

Here are a few pics of the kids during the trip.

Montreux Jazz Festival

2011-07-11T11:04:00.000+02:00

This weekend we had tickets for the Ziggy Marley and Alpha Blondy concernt in the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux. The Montreux Jazz Festival is apparently the biggest jazz festival in all of Europe. I was very jealous of my work girlfriend who say Ricky Martin and Ruben Blades last Wednesday. We took advantage of the weekend and spend two nights in Montreux - where one of my Mexican restaurant finds is located (I haven't been able to find many good Mexican resturants in Switzerland). With Jose's Mom and sister we did quite a bit of walking - to Chateau Chillon on the first day, to the chocolate and cheese factory tours on the second day, and then on Sunday the weather wasn't all that great so we came home early to enjoy the rain and sports on TV. :)

Here are a couple of clips from the concerts on Friday night, I ended up missing the beginning of Tomorrow People from Ziggy Marley for the SECOND time in my life! The first time I was in Indianapolis when my sister was in Purdue - this must've been like 13 years ago. The second time was because I had to go to the bathroom here in Montreux! I wanted to kick myself. I never would've thought they'd start the concert with the song! But I got back to the concert hall in time to capture some video. It was also pretty cool that he did a couple of Bob Marley covers.

Sitges

2011-07-04T12:50:00.001+02:00

We just came back from what I believe is truly one of the most beautiful places on earth. It was the perfect combination of wonderful people, beautiful views, a great beach for the kids, amazing food and great drinks. Definitely on top of my list of cool places to retire.

We went back and forth every day from the hotel to either the beach or the center of town to go to restaurants and shopping, which helped at least partially offset the effects of all the food and drinks. :) And the kids thought it was so much fun to travel on bike all the time. This morning when we left the hotel Gabi says to me: "Mommy, I'm going to miss this hotel, and the bikes". I think that means I definitely have to take the bikes here out more often!

Ballet recital

2011-06-27T08:49:00.000+02:00

The school year is officially winding down which means a lot of end of school activities! I think we've had 3 birthday parties in a week's time and I'm pretty sure we have another double birthday party this week. Last Friday was Gabi's ballet recital. It was nothing like the ones in the US because here they do that with the slightly older kids. But Gabi still was very excited about her performance and loved the flowers her baby brother gave her at the end of the show (last year I was a horrible mom and forgot to give her flowers). Beyond the ballet recital we had tons of other stuff going on too; birthday parties, dinner at a new friend's house, beach on Sunday, etc. Now the kids are very excited that after this weekend's trip to Barcelona when we come back Abuela Patty and Titi Paloma from Peru will be joining us for all the summer fun. :)

Father's Day Brunch

2011-06-20T10:14:00.000+02:00

While there are many "boulangeries" where you can have a nice croissant or pain au chocolat in Geneva, we were really looking for something more like American brunch for Father's Day. I did some research online and we ended up going to this place called O Calme in Carouge, which is near the center of the city. While I can't say the food was exactly as yummy as I would find it in Sunday brunch in the US, the brunchy vibe was definitely there (the Calm in the restaurant name is actually an acronym which means "Comme A La Maison" ("like at home")). We got pancakes for the kids, I got the full brunch (eggs, pancakes, oatmeal) plus coffee and Jose got this thing which was basically smoked salmon on top of pancakes. So we were happy with our find! Not a place to go every weekend, but definitely a cool place for special ocassions. And a huge plus was that our kids were not the loudest people in the place. :)

After brunch we went bowling, then we went to an INSANE birthday party for one of Gabi's friends from school (I cannot even begin to explain how elaborate this party was, I just hope Gabi doesn't ask for the same thing for her birthday!) and then we went to Kung Fu Panda with our neighbor Lola. By the time we got home I was ready to pass out. Plus I'd had so much sugar between brunch and the birthday party I was literally crashing. Back to the gym today...

Lake Annecy

2011-06-14T10:02:00.000+02:00

Thanks to my Dad who shared this link with me. Lake Annecy was just voted as one of the top 12 most beautiful lakes in the world. We were actually there last Sunday! And I have to say while I haven't seen the other 11, I definitely have to agree that this Lake is a piece of work (just like my kids!).

The French Rivieraaaaah

2011-06-06T08:47:00.001+02:00

Since this weekend was a long weekend in Switzerland Gabi had three days of vacation so we took a trip to the French Riviera. The first two days were a bit of a washout, cold and rainy throughout. But then on Friday afternoon the sun finally came out and boy what a difference the sun makes. As a result I think the prettier places were the ones we were in when the sun was out (Monaco and St. Tropez over Cannes and Nice). We ate like pigs, enjoyed the beaches as much as possible, tried to give Sebas the feeling that he was Fernando Alonso racing for Formula 1, and walked a TON. We stayed at a hotel in Nice and from there drove to all these different places. We also walked around Nice for dinner and stuff like that. Last night dinner was at a Spanish tapas places were we had to stay way longer than anticipated because of a flash thunderstorm, but they had live music (and dessert!) so that was A OK with us. :)

Here is us when the sun finally came out in St. Tropez. We had lunch at this place where the owner was super nice, she spoke Spanish because she was French but grew up in the border with Spain.

I do have to say, that while the French Riviera is unique in the fact that you see the most beautiful views from the beaches, the beaches have NOTHING on the Puerto Rico beaches. Obviously they are colder, but beyond that a lot of them were either rocky (big pebbles that hurt your feet quite a bit) or kinda cumbersome to get to (even when they claim to be "kid friendly"). So while there's nothing like the "ambiance" of the French Riviera, Puerto Rico beaches have nothing to envy. That's my plug for Puerto Rico. :)

Unofficial kick off to summer

2011-05-30T11:51:00.001+02:00

Well, Memorial Day isn't celebrated in Switzerland. Here the long weekend is NEXT weekend (something about Ascencion and who knows what else but hey I'll take it especially because it's longer than Memorial Day Weekend). In any case, we had our own unofficial kick off to summer by attempting the beaches around Geneva for the first time this year. The weather was great and the kids had so much fun, mostly because this beach is so shallow they can walk around on their own for a really long time exploring the little "islands". Here is Gabi coming back from one of those little "islands".

Next weekend we are going to the Cote D'Azur which kicks off our "crazy summer of traveling". The husband has planned so much travel I don't know how we're going to fit it all in, but I won't complain! We gotta take advantage of the fact that we're here for another year because we don't know what happens after the year whether we stay yet another year or go somewhere else.

This weekend we also had "Kermesse" at Gabi's school - it's like a little world festival with a bunch of booths, music and games. I volunteered to help out in our classroom table for an hour on Saturday morning so the kids enjoyed playing games and winning stuff during that time. Then we had a little party at our house for the Barcelona-Manchester game. Sebas is so into watching sports with his dad it's so funny. Here he is booing Manchester in his Barca sweatshirt. His favorite sport though is definitely F1, made us watch the Monaco qualifier and Grand Prix as much as possible!

Geneva UNICEF Half-Marathon

2011-05-16T10:11:00.000+02:00

I finally did it! Best thing about the half-marathon yesterday? First, that it's over. Second, that I can rest for a couple of weeks before getting back into running.

The weather was terrible on Saturday so we had no idea what would happen on Sunday for the race. But we got really lucky because we got PERFECT weather -- not too warm, not too cold. And the rain held off until the moment I literally crossed the finish line. There were actually moments when the sun was shining bright where it was actually a bit too hot.

I had my iPhone GPS to help me keep pace (since all the markers were in KM and I still get confused about that) and I was doing really well. I think I was on pace to finish between 2:03 and 2:05. At mile 9 I saw Jose and the kids and that was so exciting I had to hold the tears in (cause otherwise I get kind of an asthma attack while running if I'm too excited). Then right after I saw them my iPhone died. There went my music, and there went my pacing. The last 4 miles were an absolute nightmare. The lack of music made me want to quit every step of the way. If it wasn't for the people actually yelling out your name (because your first name is on the bib) I would've totally quit. There were moments when I had to walk -- which for me always makes it so much harder to get going again. And there were moments where I literally wanted to throw up. But then I saw Jose and the kids again with about 2 KM to go and all I kept saying to Jose was "how much more? how much more?". I was so desperate. He said "you'll break your record by about 2 minutes" -- funny thing my brain knew EXACTLY what he said but my heart said "You've got two minutes to finish this". It was much more than 2 minutes it was probably more like 5-6, but I kept going till I finished the damn thing. I got one of those quasi asthma attacks where I really thought I was going to pass out but thank God it went away before crossing the finish line and I was able to finish. Net time was 2:06:59, so about 3 minutes better than my personal best. Key lesson - forget the GPS if it's going to make the iPhone die and make you lose the music. Since I was running alone for me the music was soooo important to keep me going, and then I lost the music along with the GPS it was an unbearable loss. Thank God for the crowd cause if I hadn't heard people actually say "ALLEZ ALLEZ IVETTE!" (go go go Ivette) I would've quit or just walked the last few miles. But in the end I'm really proud of beating my personal best, and a little bit wiser. :)

You can see the times how I was doing really well in the first two measurements and then in the last part of the race I was just shot -- dropping from 213 to 279 in ranking.

Here's some video Jose shot on his Blackberry. Having the kids in the crowd yelling "Mommy we love you" was priceless. I wouldn't trade ANYTHING for that. I also have to say that while the crowds here don't compare to the crowds in Cincinnati, the view running was absolutely breath-taking, I would highly recommend this race for anyone! The lakeview was almost the worst just because we're used to seeing it all the time. The "countryside" with green fields, flower fields, wine fields and God knows who else what was incredible. And seeing the little dots of people running all along the countryside it was really a sight.

Mother's Day

2011-05-09T12:56:00.000+02:00

The best thing about Mother's Day yesterday was Jose letting me "sleep in" (even though with the kids screaming it was actually impossible to do) and then letting me nap with Sebas while he was napping. Which of course I wasn't able to fully do because I wanted to read and stuff. But I think I did get in about a 20 min. nap in there which is better than most days! We had wanted to make it a beach day but the beginning of the day was cold and dreary. However, after we woke up from the nap it looked like an amazing day. But by that time it was too late to go to the beach and next week I have the half-marathon so hopefully in a couple of weeks we can actually go to the beach. After nap time we went to Scooby Doo Live, not my idea of how to spend a Mother's Day but at least the kids sat still for 2 hours!

Gabi made me this card at school together with a really nice framed "painting". My favorite part is that I've officially transitioned from "Mom" to "Mum". :)

End of training

2011-05-02T10:26:00.000+02:00

While my friends back in Cincinnati were getting ready for the Flying Pig yesterday morning, I was in the middle of my longest run before the half marathon a couple of weeks from now. 12 miles. I went for a morning run this time just so I could try to get it over with earlier. At the beginning Jose called me and by picking up the call I kinda messed up the whole GPS so the whole time I wasn't sure what was going on from a pacing standpoint. But from the looks of it I was able to keep up a 10 min. per mile pace which I'm comfortable with for training. Now I don't know if I'll be able to take that down to about 9:30 during actual race day so that I can beat my last time of 2 hours 10 minutes, but I'm honestly less concerned about the time than I am about actually finishing. Because let me tell you my biggest lesson from this year's training is that doing those long runs solo is a really painful experience. A very challenging mental exercise. Half of the time I'm telling myself to quit while the other half of me is giving me a slap on the shoulder for going the distance. It's truly the quintessential "evil vs. good" on the shoulder battle with the little devil and the little angel talking into your ear. This time the good guy seemed to prevail, as as I got closer to the end of the run I kept telling myself "I have NOT come this far to quit now". I hope that feeling stays with me for race day.

Sadly at mile 11 I realized I had lost a very valuable earring my Mom gave me after I was born which means I've basically had the pair for my whole life. The devastating realization sent me to my knees right at mile 11, I know I shouldn't hang on to material things but that set of earrings was just so important to me. My sister, mom and I all have the same pair and we've had them forever. I am still reeling from the "loss". I sat there at mile 11 trying to regain my composure and then did the last mile walking and crying at the same time until I got to the bus station and caught the bus home. I was upset the rest of the day and I'm still upset this morning -- more than anything mad at myself for not being more careful with something so valuable, wishing I could turn back the clock so I could safely put them away and not have them on me during the run. Obviously the thought of going over my steps again crossed my mind, but imagine, lakeside in Geneva over a 12 mile stretch of ground. The chances are less than zero. So now, now I just gotta keep going, just like in running, reminding myself that life is about the living and that I have not come this far to give up.

Back from PR

2011-04-25T16:04:00.000+02:00

We are back from an absolutely wonderful vacation in PR. We had the best weather - in fact we here hiding from the sun towards the end! Here's a video of Sebas dancing to Lady Gaga at Kaplash, our favorite restaurant in Rincon, Puerto Rico (where we can always see the absolutely best sunsets in the world -- also pictured below).

Now we gotta get back into the swing of things -- school, work, dance classes, swimming lessons, and everything being closed on Sundays! (And Monday today too because the Swiss celebrate Easter on Monday instead of Sunday not sure why...)

Sebas is 3!

2011-04-11T11:26:00.002+02:00

This weekend our little angel/devil turned 3. While we didn't nearly make as big of a deal about it as we have done with Gabi in the past, this is the first year where we actually set out to buy him presents (the last two years we figured he'd be happy with presents he got from family/friends). We woke him up on Saturday morning and surprised him with all his presents and it was soo cute to see how he kept saying "I so excited, I so excited!". While he had a few meltdowns throughout the day due to lack of napping (who can nap when it's your birthday?!) he enjoyed the weekend to the fullest - he played non-stop with the neighborhood kids who sang happy birthday to him, he had water fights, got into fights, scraped his knees, etc. In other words, now we really have a HANDFUL! :)

Here he is with his Toy Story 3 cupcakes I got from this place in Geneva, they were yummy! I'm still recovering from eating so much cake and then having to run 10 miles yesterday.

On Thursday we begin the journey to Puerto Rico, I absolutely cannot wait!!!! We'll be there for about a week and I want to soak up the sun and good food every single minute. Also on other news, Gabi now has THREE loose teeth at the same time so pretty soon she'll be missing all four front teeth (two top and two bottom). Don't know how cute she'll look but she's all excited about it because it means she's a big girl.

Date night with Gabi

2011-03-31T10:28:00.001+02:00

We've gone out to dinner (just Jose and me) a couple of times in the last weeks so Gabi decided she wanted to be a grown up and join us for dinner one night. So yesterday after Sebas went to sleep (way too late because of the DST time change, now it's light way past 8 pm) we went out. We had wanted to try this place because it looks so pretty (and we thought we'd take advantage of the outing to try a new place) but as soon as we walked in we were told there was no space.

By this time it's already 9 pm and Gabi is already getting tired, so we went to a place we'd already been to before because it was tapas and therefore relatively quick. It's a Spanish tapas place called Lokesea and it was yummier than I remember from the first time - we had croquetas, patatas bravas, queso manchego, chorizo and calamari (with a little bit of red wine). Gabi was all over the chorizo! And as soon as she finished the chorizo she said "OK I want to go to sleep now". Here she is super proud to be on a "date night" with Mom and Dad. She even dressed up to the nines and asked to wear make up. Jose will pay for all his sins with this one. :)

Running

2011-03-23T11:07:00.001+01:00

My friend Tom turned me to TED for the first time a few year ago. Then another friend said on Twitter that the TED iPad app was awesome. Since I have little TV to watch here in Geneva TED has become my 20 minutes a day before going to sleep where I try to see an interesting video to make me think about something else other than work and the kids (then I try 20 min. of meditation right before going to sleep). So last Friday night I saw this TED video on running and was very intrigued by the Tarahumara story.

I didn't know whether to believe the whole TED speech by Christopher McDugall or not but my friend German had been trying to convince me for a while to try barefoot running which I was honestly too scared to try (I've always had either knee or ankle problems and have felt that I need all the protection I can get in the form of really bulky but stable shoes). But last night after I saw ANOTHER amazing speech from TED on running, I decided to download the book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. I'm only 10% into the book but I'm already fascinated by this whole barefoot running thing. Of course it seems like the #1 question people come up with is "how do you do it, how do you run barefoot?". So I looked up a couple of videos on YouTube that explain how to get started. I think I really want to do this after the half marathon on May 15 (I'm definitely not brave enough to attempt it during training for a half marathon). I've already looked up these Vibram Five Fingers shoes for barefoot running that I'm going to get myself for Mother's Day and try out a couple of weeks after the half marathon. Even if I don't do it all the time it seems that at least doing it part of the time helps to diminish some of the pains and injuries from running with traditional shoes. I also looked at the NIKE Free shoes but it seems that the Vibram Five Fingers might be the best way to go. I just hope I'm not doing something totally crazy. Who knows? This might be the thing to inspire me to go for a whole marathon. Also, there was a quote from the Born to Run book I found really cool so I wanted to share it here. I hope it's inspiring to my friends who are trying to get into running.

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."

Happy Running!

Gabi lost her first tooth!

2011-03-21T08:49:00.001+01:00

She is so excited because she is now "officially" a big girl! I thought this would happen later but apparently she's a little ahead of the curve on this one since she tells me she's the first one in her classroom to lose one tooth. She was very excited that she shared this special day with her Dad's birthday. But she was even more excited by the Tooth Fairy visit. She says she actually SAW the Tooth Fairy even though she didn't have a wand. This coming from a girl who was actually to scared to put the tooth under her pillow so instead put it in Sebas' little training toilet. Weird place for a Tooth Fairy to leave money. I wonder where the "Toilet Fairy" will leave money when Sebas starts going to the potty full time?

Signal de Bougy

2011-03-15T10:59:00.000+01:00

On Sunday we were scheduled to go skiing but I guess we all didn't sleep very well because we woke up not wanting to go. Which I guess was a good thing because later on Sunday Sebas developed a fever (which was way worse Monday morning) so I think skiing would've just made things worse. Instead we went to this little place called Signal de Bougy which was less than an hour from home. It was a cute little park (obviously much nicer in summer!) with animals, mini-golf, a huge playground, etc. The kids loved the "fast cars" and the "mini golf". Gabi says as a surprise for her dad's birthday (this Sunday) she wants to take him back. I hope it's nice, sunny and warm. They also have special events throughout the season - like Easter parties, Halloween parties, and a big fireworks show on August 1st which is the Swiss Independence Day. Hey, it's no Disney, but it'll be a nice place to spend sunny Saturdays and Sundays this summer. Oh, and Gabi is already asking when we can have a picnic there. :) Sadly I left both of my nice cameras at home so Instagram had to suffice.

First loose tooth!

2011-03-07T10:48:00.000+01:00

I can't believe it but I have a little grown up girl! Gabi's first tooth came loose yesterday. Even though every time I say to someone "Gabi has a loose tooth" she corrects me saying "I haven't lost it yet!!!". :) My only "benchmark" was my nephew Jake who lost his first tooth when he was 7 so even though the dentists had told me between 5 and 7 I wasn't expecting it to happen this soon!

She's quite proud of it so here's a picture of that (even though you cannot tell at all the tooth is loose from the pictures of course). But she was talking to EVERYONE about this yesterday and first thing today when she saw the nanny she wanted to tell her! Although I don't know how she communicated "I've got a loose tooth" in Spanish but somehow she got through. She also thinks that the process only takes 24 hours because that's the one benchmark she has, so she's quite impatient for the tooth fairy to arrive. Let's see how long it actually takes.

To go along with the "big girl" idea I cut her bangs yesterday, she's never had bangs before. Now clearly I will never be a hair stylist because they are lopsided and too short. So I am just hoping they grow a little bit before our trip to PR so we can fix them either right before, or maybe in Puerto Rico (way cheaper to get a haircut there than here!). So I will only post pictures when I feel like they look OK! I am such an embarassment to hair styling. First I botched Sebas' bangs (thank goodness they've already grown) and now Gabi's. But she's really proud she says she looks like Hannah Montana and her cousin Mia.

13.1

2011-03-02T12:46:00.000+01:00

I started training last week to do the half marathon in the Geneva UNICEF Marathon on May 15. I think it'll be a really pretty run so I am looking forward to the actual race day. I have also always dreamed of seeing my little kids cheering for me on the sidelines so hopefully this is the year we can make that happen. :) Also it'll be cool because I'll be able to say I've run races in 3 continents! (North America, South America and Europe).

However first time I got on the treadmill here at work (it's still a little bit cold for me to go outside plus I'm not running with anyone) I almost died because I had this sinus infection that later got diagnosed. So while I did my 1st day 3 miles it felt like hell and I wasn't able to do anything until a week later (so I didn't do my "long run" although thankfully it's early on it was only 4 miles so I feel like I didn't miss that much). I also kinda hate the treadmill but at least it's right here at work and I can easily get in and out of the gym and take a quick shower after running. But anyway, I did my 3 miles yesterday again on the treadmill and again felt like hell because this stupid sinus infection won't go away. Today I'm supposed to do cross training but my spleen hurts from not being able to breathe properly yesterday so I think I'll take the day off and do 3 miles tomorrow.

Anyway, I know training has its ups and downs so I hope these are the downs and the ups are just around the corner. This Saturday I will try my 5 miles outside, I think running around my house might be a nice change of pace. But I do miss the comraderie from group training with Feet Fleet in Cincinnati. There is a P&G Geneva Runners Group and they will get together next week for a meeting so I'm looking forward to that to see if there are some group runs.

Back from Rome

2011-02-28T08:41:00.000+01:00

Back from an absolutely wonderful trip to Rome. Granted, we had to get a doctor to come and see me at the hotel and prescribe antibiotics for a horrible sinus infection, but other than that it was peachy. Seriously, this has to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth. It's amazing that everywhere you look around there is history there to be told. I would never get tired of discovering every single ruin if I ever lived in Rome (which would be awesome). Here's our favorite picture from the trip -- which I took with the self timer of the camera so that makes me extra proud. This is in St. Peter's Square in front of the St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Last night when the kids went to sleep (which was thankfully early since everyone was so tired) we started watching Angels and Demons again just so we could revisit all the places we had been to.

Rome

2011-02-22T11:02:00.000+01:00

The kids are in their February vacation (well I guess Gabi is since Sebas technically doesn't go to school yet!) so we are going to Rome from Thursday to Sunday. Any recommendations for Rome? I am just happy it'll be a little bit warmer than here! Mostly in the lower 50's which I'll totally take with this stupid cold that Sebas and I just cannot shake. And of course I'm looking forward to lots of good coffee. I've never been to Rome we went to Milan last November (that's when I met up with my old college friend Vicky) and before that I'd been to Milan and Venice in 2005 back when I was pregnant with Gabi. Here's a picture of that. Long time has passed! My sister came to meet up with me as a surprise that was awesome. Well it was a surprise for her but it was awesome anyway. Now they're in California visiting my Dad, I wish I had been able to go but California is pretty far away from where we are these days. Can't believe I complained about it being far when we lived in Cincinnati, sure puts things in perspective!

Also, looking at this picture I realize I didn't really look pregnant I just looked fat. :(

Where are my kids really from?

2011-02-11T16:12:00.000+01:00

Last month we got a note from Gabi's teacher that they were going to do a focus theme called "We are all different, we are all alike". They were going to take advantage of this opportunity to showcase different cultures based on where the kids were from. Now since we had gotten a typical Peruvian costume recently while in Peru I automatically thought to talk about Peru -- also because other than where we are living at the moment, this is where Gabi spends the most amount of time. Now this sometimes gets me a little bit because sometimes it's hard to think that my daughter considers herself more Peruvian than Puertorrican, but it's just one of those things we deal with. She spends much more time in Peru than Puerto Rico so it's only natural. What I found interesting was that Gabi started going, "But Mom I'm not really Peruvian I'm from Cincinnati". You should see the look on my husband's face when she says this he almost wants to throw up. But I guess I can also understand why she would think this - after all, Cincinnati is where she has spent most of her life, and also where both her and brother were born. So I know rationally we shouldn't take it as an insult to Peru or Puerto Rico but rather as a reflection of her 5 year old point of view. So we joked that we should go to the school one week to talk about Peru, one week to talk about Puerto Rico, and one third week to talk about Cincinnati (well the US anyway I don't think Gabi realizes Cincinnati is located in the US).

Anyway, here's her at school yesterday dancing this typical Peruvian dance called "Marinera".

Winter sports

2011-01-31T09:13:00.000+01:00

We went back to swimming lessons on Saturday, but Sunday was dedicated to winter sports. We got up at 6 am (earlier than on weekdays!) to head over to La Clusaz for some skiing lessons. Well Jose and Gabi had lessons while Sebas and I stayed at the base of the mountain in the cute little town trying to brave the cold. Now it wasn't nearly as cold as it was when we went to Tignes back in November, but maybe I was wearing the wrong socks or something but my toes were freezing. By the time Jose and Gabi came down the mountain at 11 am I thought I was going to lose my toes. At which point the kids decided it would be a good idea to go ice skating. Thankfully the change in shoes to ice skating shoes actually helped defrost the toes a bit! Then we had a lunch at a cute little pizza place and then headed home to try to use to the rest of the day to recharge the batteries. :) I am still tired this morning. Now one thing is for certain, if Jose and Gabi keep skiing while Sebas and I eat at the base of the mountain come summer I'll be rolling downhill ha ha.

The good thing about yesterday is that Sebas and I were able to go up and down the mountain in the lift, which he LOVED. Last time in Tignes we hadn't been able to do that since it was so damn cold. We also did a little bit of sledding (videos below). Hopefully we can remember to bring our own sled next time so that we can keep doing it for a while.

Next weekend we will attempt the same feat again except this time I'll try better socks and less food. :)

RIP Greenie aka the Safety Blanket (2008-2011)

2011-01-25T08:50:00.002+01:00

In your short three years you went to more places than a lot of us humans go in their entire lifetime. US, Puerto Rico, Peru, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain. And you were probably made in China so that's one more. Sorry to see you go so soon, I was hoping to keep you in a treasure chest and one day take you out and reminisce about the days when my baby was still a baby.

Getting used to the fact we live in Geneva

2011-01-24T12:14:00.001+01:00

This was the weekend were we faced head-on the fact that we live in Geneva and tried to make the best of it, trying to live "life as locals". So last week I signed up Gabi for ballet classes, I went just to find out about prices and stuff but the teacher made her take the class right on the spot and of course she came out saying "I wanna come back EVERY day!". So now she's signed up on Mondays. Now Monday is a really awkward day. This is one of the things about Geneva that is sort of annoying, no ballet classes on weekends! So now today is Monday and I can't take her on Mondays because of work so we'll see how well the nanny can handle taking both of the kids straight after Gabi gets dropped off from school. I hope Sebas doesn't scream up a storm in the ballet school waiting room!

We also went to a trial swimming class on Saturday morning. Also a bit of an awkward time, 11:45 am so we were all starving by the time it was done. It's great that the swimming pool is really close to home but we are waiting now on the teacher to tell us if she has the time to accomodate Gabi at a class that is at her level since Saturday morning was just about evaluating her level. But I guess Gabi knew she was being "judged" because she was dancing up a storm!

Then on Sunday morning we went to see Disney on Ice which was just great even if we didn't understand half of the things they were saying. The kids absolutely LOVED it (the picture is of them waiting for the show to start while waiting for their Dad to buy them popcorn and other overpriced goodies). And of course they made us buy tickets on the spot for future shows (Scooby Doo and Dora Live). But hey, as long as it gives us something to look forward to on the weekends we will gladly pay for it.

I also feel bad about the fact all these activities are mostly centered around Gabi and nothing really yet for Sebas. But once he goes to school I'm sure he'll have a ton of fun.

Beautiful weather

2011-01-17T15:32:00.001+01:00

It's amazing what a little nice weather can do for the spirits. Even though we are in that post vacation depression where we question time and time again why we live so far away from family, Geneva weather decided to be kind to us to help ease the transition back into Geneva life. We had about 50 degree weather all weekend long. And better yet, gorgeous sunny days, quite unlike the norm. So we hit up the park, went ice skating on Sunday morning and went to the indoor pool on Sunday afternoon. Couldn't have asked for a better transition weekend! Now today we wonder, "do we really have to go to work". Sadly yes. We still havent learned how the Swiss lottery works!

We also saw Rapunzel in 3D which was great only we had to see it in French and we had to lie about Sebas age and say he's 5. :) Oh, and I'm addicted to the Instagram iPhone app, which I used to retouch this picture of beautiful Route de Florissant!

Back to reality

2011-01-10T08:49:00.002+01:00

After a wonderful vacation in Lima we are back to the grind. Have been traveling for what seems like forever finally made it to Geneva yesterday and somehow the kids held off until a decent time so we could try to beat the jet lag. Gabi and I seem to have caught colds along the way hopefully they are not too bad and we can get rid of them quickly. Gabi was excited to go back to school this morning so hopefully we can get back some sense of normalcy soon. Can't believe we already have another trip planned (to Rome for ~4 days) next month. I feel like I need to keep my feet on the ground for at least a few weeks before I can start traveling again! Also, when is spring coming?

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Fun in the sun!

2010-12-23T23:40:00.001+01:00

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Ge's visit

2010-11-22T08:58:00.001+01:00

Finally my sister and family have arrived! Last Monday, to kill time (ha ha), we drove 3 hours to Zurich to watch Lady Gaga in concert which was amazing! Followed by another 3 hour back early Tuesday so that we could be at work all day.

My sister finally arrived on Saturday! As soon as she arrived I took them all home to take quick showers so we could head out to Milan to watch a football (soccer) game for AC Milan (I felt bad for them they were zonked out all day long they didn't sleep very much on the plane and then we had them on a crazy schedule on Saturday!). The weather was absolutely miserable but somehow we put up with it all day. I was happy to be able to meet up with an old friend from college who I hadn't seen in about 5 years. The kids loved the game although everyone was pretty exhausted by the end of the day. When we woke up Sunday morning we toured Turino which is an absolutely beautiful city (although again more miserable weather!). Turino is where the Winter Olympics took place right before Vancouver and it's also apparently a great mecca for cinema (and I have always loved the history of cinema since I took this really cool class in college so listening to the bus tour mention all the cinema stories was really interesting).

This morning my sister and family left for Barcelona (so jealous!) and they'll come back on Wednesday so that we can go skiing all Thanksgiving weekend. I'm not looking forward to packing 7 people + all the very big and poofy skiing gear into the Volvo, but I am looking forward to a wonderful skiing weekend and lots of family time!!!! Lots of pictures to come. :)

They Call Me Baba Booey Book Review

2010-11-04T08:56:00.001+01:00

To read my "published" review you can go the Stern Fan website. But here's the original!

***

As many Howard Stern listeners, I am a huge fan, not a SUPER FAN, but still a pretty big fan. I listen to the show every day, bought a Sirius radio 6 months before the show moved, read Artie’s book, etc. I’ve always said it’s like I’m watching some of the best set of friendships evolve over time and I’m just happy to have been a part of it for so long. So now that I’m living in Switzerland the fastest way to get a hold of “They Call Me Baba Booey” when it came out yesterday was to download it on the Kindle. I didn’t want to get the audio book because I really like reading a book on my own, but I have to say on several of the really good stories in the book I could actually HEAR the story in Gary’s voice. If you know Gary (which of course you do), you know this made some of the funny stories even more hilarious (like the part where he retells the story of the apology video to Nancy) so I wonder if I would’ve laughed even more hearing it from Gary’s voice throughout. I might have to get the audio book after all.

Anyway, as Howard and Robin like to point out Gary has had a pretty normal life, I guess they would call it mundane (to borrow from David Arquette). I have to say to a degree this is true, but I think this sense of “down-to-earthedness” also made the storytelling more interesting, more intimate, more like I could be reading this story from anyone. It’s almost like the parts that are sad and even shocking he tells them so completely nonchalantly that you end up thinking “this isn’t so bad”. Unlike when I read Artie’s book and I just wanted to step into his life and try to save him from himself. Now don’t get me wrong, Gary has definitely gone through some crazy and sad shit in his life (and a lot I could identify with because I’ve had very similar situations personally) but while in Artie’s book I could see the train wreck happening before my very eyes, with Gary’s book I could see him already as a mature hard working family man just telling the story about “becoming Baba Booey” in the most normal possible way. And in a sense it gives me hope that you can go through a lot of stuff like that in life and still end up OK.

Even though I heard Gary “Baba Booey” the Baba Booey story on Letterman it was actually my favorite part of the book to hear him telling about how he got the nickname and also how it became like a battle cry for fans. I wasn’t part of the show when “Baba Booey” was born and I’ve definitely head it retold over the years but though the book probably told the best version of all. The story of his teeth needing to be repaired by the dentist after his caps rotted through his own teeth was pretty hilarious; it totally freaked me out even if I couldn’t actually see it! That’s one of the older stories I didn’t already know so I felt great discovering that one for the first time. And in a complete side bar when he talks about not getting assistant jobs because he didn’t know how to type I kept hearing Fred’s “pecking keyboard” sound and couldn’t help but laugh out loud!

I felt myself getting a bit nostalgic when he talks about the whole cast including Artie doing the show from Vegas and just everyone being at their best (isn’t it obvious I miss Artie?!). The way Howard brings him to K-Rock after leaving NBC was also emotional (even if it was just “glossed over” as Howard says). Now, a really sad part for me was when he bluntly comes out and says after 45 years of marriage his parents got divorced. I don’t know why it got to me so hard (my parents are divorced but it happened when I was 5). I think in this case I felt that they had gone through soooo much together (his mom’s mental illness, Steven’s death, his dad’s unemployment, etc.) and they had made it together for so long that how could it all fall apart after so much time. I think I also didn’t know all the background behind that story and that’s why it got to me. In general just reading about how his family history (albeit a bit insane) made me miss a time when families did everything together – not one child playing with the iPhone while the dad surfs the internet and the mom tries to work on her blackberry. I am not as old as Gary so of course I didn’t live through a lot of the things he lived to at an early age, but I know I look at things like writing out the lyrics to a song by hand (which I used to do growing up too, call me a loser too if you want I don’t care) and knowing that a kid today would NEVER do something like that because kids today are used to having everything be a click away. It takes all the fun out of life.

And then the parents’ divorce story is followed by an even sadder story which is his when his mom gets into the car accident and he finally gets the mom he always wanted but then realizes that’s not his mom and that’s not who he wants for a mom. Poignant and bittersweet, this is a part of the book I think I’ll always remember. With how big a force his mom has always been in his life, it’s just not the ending I imagined for her.

Despite some of these “headier” stories, this was all in all a relatively lighthearted, always interesting, sometimes hilarious, and a few times heart wrenching read that will help us better understand the brilliance that is Baba Booey. So if you’re one of the few people who haven’t bought the book yet (can’t be that many of you because it’s sitting at #19 on Amazon right now), go out and get the book! BABA BOOEY!

P.S. And yes the “top 10” lists are kind of hokey – I guess that’s one thing we can all make fun of him for in the future! The one notable exception was the list of names considered and rejected for the book. I gotta keep that one taped to my desk at work along with a picture of Baba Booey’s teeth.

Halloween

2010-11-01T10:11:00.000+01:00

At long last Halloween was upon us. The kids got dressed at 7 freaking AM yesterday morning (and they woke up around 5:30 am because we had the time change yesterday so their bodies are all out of wack). As a result it was like 6 pm and we already wanted to go to sleep! We went ice skating in the morning just to pass the time and both of them found it scary but wanted to keep doing it over and over again. So hopefully we'll go again soon but be more prepared (other kids have helmets, gloves, hats, scarfs, mittens, etc.). And hopefully by the end of the season the kids will be experts! They have these cute little "walkers" so that the younger kids can learn a little easier. We're going to try to see if they actually have lessons.

Anyway, we kept waiting to see when the kids would start trick or treating because we didn't know what to expect. And we really stocked up on candy too just in case. Sebas also changed costumes several times throughout the day so he had his very own Halloween fashion show...first Buzz PJ's, then Woody costume, then Buzz costume.

So around 6 pm when the sun goes down we started following the sound of kids and eventually bumped into a group of about 15-20 kids. It was awesome that there were so many of them (apparently they had a birthday party or something). But the problem was they were all more aggressive than Gabi & Sebas so any house we went to they either grabbed all the candy first or they just didn't have candy for them in that house at all. So Gabi was super bummed at the end that she didn't really get any candy (I kept trying to sneak in candy from our house into her bag, Sebas loved that cause he thought he'd gotten it but Gabi knew better). Imagine one house we got pretzels! Seems like the neighborhood is just not used to getting that many kids cause no one was really prepared. I think our house was probably the one with the most candies the kids were so excited when they hit up our house (SCORE! in French or whatever the equivalent). I had to call my mom ahead when I saw the huge group and tell her to take a lot more candy out. The kids were on here like a swarm of bees! Anyway, hope next Halloween the neighbors are more prepared.

I dropped my Mom off at the airport today, I think the kids will really miss her the fact that they weren't in school all last week means they really got to spend a lot of time together. But Gabi is super excited that her cousin Jakey is coming in 19 days (and so am I)!

Gabi's 5th birthday party

2010-10-25T10:53:00.000+02:00

Last Thursday Gabi turned 5. Half a decade old. I can't believe it myself. She acts like she's so big and I love to see her "mothering" Sebas even though sometimes I have to remind her she's not meant to be scolding him that there's only one Mom for Sebas. :)

On Thursday we took cupcakes to Gabi's school and yesterday we had some friends come over for cake and pinata. They were both so excited! Especially to have some new friends (and English speaking ones!) come over. The weather was pretty crappy so we had to mostly stay indoors which means their room looked like a tornado had hit after the party, but I'm glad we are able to have a cool "playroom" for them in their bedroom so that they can have friends over. The cake was delicious and the company was great. I'm glad the whole thing is over but I am looking forward to Sebas' 3rd birthday. But that's a little far away so I guess for now I'm looking forward to seeing how big (or not) Halloween is around here. Hope it's big!

Interlaken

2010-10-18T09:55:00.000+02:00

This weekend we took a two hour trip to a town called Interlaken in the German part of Switzerland (thank goodness everyone pretty much spoke English). On Saturday morning we attempted to go to Jungfrau ("Top of Europe") but we were a bit concerned with my mom and the altitude and also the weather was pretty crappy. So instead we took a 2 hour train ride to Luzern. I think the kids loved the train ride even more than they loved the actual town! Although it was definitely a beautiful place. You can tell that it would be sooo much nicer in better weather. After having lunch in Luzern we took the 2 hour train ride back and then had dinner and went to sleep. I think every night this weekend we were in bed before 9 pm and slept for like 11 hours! Sunday morning we drove to Bern but didn't even get out of the car (it was freezing rain and I had started to develop one of my wonderful allergies). From Bern we drove to Lausanne, had lunch in Lausanne and then drove home.

Overall really beautiful places and a trip which was great but could've been so much better if it wasn't for the crappy weather. And this is the second bad allergy I get in a week so there's something here that's triggering my allergies and I don't know quite what it is but the doctor said I might have to get re-tested because it's pretty difficult going through every day life with a stupid allergy every week! I think the kids were excited to wear their heavy winter gear for the first time, but I don't know how long it'll take for them to get sick of that. :)

Thursday is Gabi's 5th birthday, we will try to get her present today and on Thursday we'll take cupcakes to school to share with her friends. Then on Sunday we'll have a little party at home.

Cows, Cheese and Chocolate

2010-10-11T10:17:00.001+02:00

...Those seem to be my son's three favorite words now that we live in Switzerland. And he seems to make a very obvious effort of pointing out to everyone that there is COW cheese and COW chocolate. And apparently the cows that make cheese are different from the cows that make chocolate. Duh!!!

Anyway, since my mom arrived a few days ago and the first weekend she spent it babysitting while we went to Barcelona we decided to show her some of the sights. On Saturday we went to Annecy where we love to rent boats and go out on the lake (when it's warm). This time it was for Retours d'Alpage, the yearly pilgrimage to conmemorate the "descent from the Alps" of the cows and if I'm not mistaken the time to start making yummy cheese! The little town was filled with craftsmen who were either making clogs out of wood, or other wood carvings, or men taking the wool from the sheep while the women started making fabrics for clothing from it right there. The kids loved the fact that we saw lots of animals and we loved the cheese, hams, fresh apple juice, and breads for sale!

On Sunday we went to Gruyeres to do tours of the main cheese and chocolate factories, where Sebas once again proved he takes after me when it comes to chocolate. :) We bought some goodies to take to Peru for Christmas for Jose's grandma and we ate the rest!

This weekend we are going to a place called Interlaken. It'll be a bit of a drive but it's supposed to be absolutely beautiful. And cold!

Mario Vargas Llosa

2010-10-08T11:12:00.003+02:00

In honor of Mario Vargas Llosa FINALLY winning the Nobel Prize. I think this was the best day in my hubby's life. We were in Lima during the 2007 Holidays (I was about 6 months pregnant with Sebas). We left Gabi with her grandmother and went to catch a local play when we discovered that MVL was sitting right in front of us. During the intermission these guys were like kids who met Michael Jordan or David Beckham. Now I don't know whether the day this picture was taken was the best day of my husband's life or yesterday when MVL finally (and deservedly) won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Ten Years Ago

2010-10-05T16:59:00.001+02:00

‎10 years ago...I was at Mariselle's graduation, celebrated Carin's bday with her, went to visit my sister to celebrate my nephew's 1st bday, went to concerts for Juan Luis Guerra and Carlos Vives, said farewell to German who was moving to Geneva, started seeing Jose, and worked on Pampers (among others).

10 years later......I was at Mariselle's wedding, celebrated Ida's bday with her, went to visit my sister to celebrate my son's 2nd bday, am going to Shakira (and hopefully Gaga!), said farewell to my friends and moved to Geneva, still married to the man I started seeing then, and now he works on Pampers. :)

In short, 2000 and 2010 are two sides of the same coin. I'm blessed to still be close to all these wonderful people after so many years. Hope in 2020 I can look back and say the same.

Barefoot in Barcelona

2010-10-04T09:50:00.000+02:00

Barefoot in Barcelona is one of my favorite OPI nail colors! However for this ocassion which called for a celebration (my girlfriend's Ida's bday) I went with Pamplona Purple on a little Swiss Air flight to Barcelona. No more to say than good friends (some of which I hadn't seen in 9 years when we made the calculations!), remembering previous visits to Spain (I had gone with Ida and her sister in law Keysa to Barcelona freaking TWELVE years ago), good food (and wine of course), and sightseeing around one of the most beautiful places in the world. And my favorite part was the 20F degree difference with Geneva. Thankfully when we came back it was a little bit warmer here so looks like we brough the good weather for us. We actually surprised Ida -- they were on a 2 week trip all around Spain and we decided to surprise her on her birthday on the last leg of the trip. Her husband was wonderful helping me keep the whole thing a secret and reserving hotel rooms for us and stuff.

Now I'm home to the wonderfully territorial battle that has already begun between my mother (who arrived last Thursday) and my nanny. And you know how the Sex and the City goes. The nanny is the most important person to keep happy. So I might be needing to send my mom back to Puerto Rico early. :) Just kidding, but I honestly don't know how they're going to get along for a whole month by themselves in the house.

I am also on full on diet mode after consuming all that jamon, chorizo, manchego, seafood, wine, etc. Even all that walking around the city wasn't enough to counteract all that!

And now absolutely NO MORE TRAVEL until Lima in December, which I cannot wait for!!!

Gabi's first birthday party in Geneva (not her actual birthday!)

2010-09-27T13:53:00.000+02:00

We were invited to Gabi's first birthday party (a kid from school) which we almost missed cause my calendar was off by two hours so I'm grateful the mom actually emailed me the address and CORRECT time about 30 min. before the party started, at which point I ran to the shower and we made it only about 5 min. late which is great.

Gabi was super shy most of the party, as were most of the other girls since it was a 95% all boy party! But in Cincinnati she would've been running the joint 5 min. after arriving! By the end of the party though she was hanging out with some friends and totally enjoying the puppet show and asking could the puppet show also come to her birthday party. Still, I can't help to think Gabi is not quite herself yet. That this move has affected her in ways I cannot even begin to understand. I hope my mom's visit this week gives her a little bit of that "home" feeling and that she'll enjoy her grandma's company.

She was also pretty excited to get her first painting here -- although I have to say it didn't compare to the more elaborate ones we've had in Cincinnati! We keep struggling with what to do for her birthday, we were used to such huge productions back in Cinci but with her not knowing that many people and not even knowing the infrastructure here it doesn't seem worth it to go through all the trouble. We wanted to just to cupcakes at school on her actual birthday and just have cake at home with the family the weekend afterwards, but I wonder if she's expecting more! We just don't even know how to go about finding a place to have it that would fit all the kids from school, getting the cake, entertainers, etc. Not to mention how much it could cost here!!!! Yikes. We'll keep noodling that one for now although we do need to make a decision soon if we're going to invite people from school for it.

World's Best Countries

2010-09-24T12:58:00.001+02:00

Someone shared this link with me on Twitter recently and I come to find out that Switzerland is actually number 2 on that list. Now it's not surprising that it would rank so high, but it got me thinking...are they really considering all the important factors of being considered one of the world's best countries? Here are some factors I think they were missing from their analysis which might not tip the scale so much in Switerland's favor:

- Weather: I know there are some people who absolutely LOVE cold weather, can't wait to get out the skiis and whatnot. But me being a Caribbean bred, I can't help but think that a place that is cold more than 50% of the year should not be all the way at the top! By the way same applies for Finland which came at overall #1.

- Food: Part of living in a great place is finding great food. While Geneva has so far offered us pretty good fare "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" as U2 would say, mainly a great Mexican restaurant (in Puerto Rico there are tons of great Mexican restaurants which is why Mexican food is one of my favorites). We went to a really crappy place that was supposed to be Mexican here in Geneva and got completely turned off by our first experience. The next time we tried again was in Montreaux and that was actually a pretty good place that I found thanks to Foursquare. Funny that it was managed by a Chilean but the food was still pretty good.

- Music: I'm sorry but the music here sucks! Jose and I are always so annoyed when we get in the car that all we get is Euro disco crap or French speaking talk shows! Thank goodness for the iPod but the only way I can actually find out what good new music there is on is by listening to Sirius (oline of course because our car doesn't have satellite radio like I used to in the US!).

So net, Newsweek poll, if you could address these three points ahead and turn Switzerland into a warmer place with good Mexican food and good music, I'm sure you could rise up all the way to that coveted #1 spot. And throw a real beach while you're at it will ya? :)

Fall weather

2010-09-20T10:59:00.001+02:00

Well Jose was pretty much out of commission for most of the weekend so we didn't do too much except grocery shopping and go out to eat! The higlight of the weekend was going to the park yesterday after Sebas' nap to enjoy the beautiful fall weather. I'm not happy at all about how cold it is these days but yesterday afternoon was awesome. We just lay there on the grass soaking up the sun as the kids ran around chasing each other and tumbling and whatnot. Once we got back home a couple of kids were out playing ball in the street and then once Sebas, Gabi, Jose and I joined it's like they started crawling out of the woodwork to play ball. It's pretty interesting to see that happen everytime we go out in the street to play ball. Gabi met two of the neighborhood kids who are Swedish so she was so happy that she met a girl who spoke English, she wouldn't shut up talking to her and meanwhile the girl is telling her to please keep her eye on the ball. Gabi could care less about the ball she was just in it for the conversation. :) Guess who's daughter she is. She kept telling her about this second cat she's adopted. She's decided she's adopted a kitten because she wants a "baby cat" on top of the adult cat. I wonder if that's a good idea they say it's good for a cat to have company but I wonder if Borges is too old to get company. Speaking of which...

Borges continues his escapades I think it's just his new MO. So most nights I gotta leave the door open so he can come in whenever he decides to which is not great because even though this seems like a pretty safe place who knows and also because it lets the cold in! I wish I had one of those little cat door openings. :) One night last week I didn't even realize he was out so he slept outside all night and I only realized when I woke up the next morning and went into the kitchen to get a bottle for Sebas and saw him outside the door with a sad look on his face!

The kids (especially Gabi) are also ecstatic with all the new clothes Dad got from the US. Now we just gotta clean out all the stuff that doesn't fit them anymore which is a huge undertaking especially with these closets where you can't hang everything up so it's very hard to see what all is there.

jose is finally home

2010-09-18T10:02:00.001+02:00

I survived the 10 day relatively unscathed. of course I wish i could give the kids to jose and run out and get a pedicure but I guess he still has jet lag to overcome. today we will attempt the "fete de la pomme" here in the village and then perhaps the zoo/aquarium. and early to bed hopefully!

Single motherhood

2010-09-13T09:50:00.003+02:00

Nothing new to report except that I'm into Day 5 of single motherhood (half way through) and really looking forward to the day Jose comes back. Normally in Cincinnati I would have lots of things to do with the kids over the weekend (zoo, aquarium, friends, etc.) but here (especially on Sundays) there's just not that much to do. I tried to coerce them into going into the park yesterday (the beach seems to be out of the questions now that we're fully into Fall-like weather) but Gabi is a little lazy these days so she just wanted to stay home pretty much all day. We ordered a pizza which arrived two hours late so everyone was about to gouge the other person's eyes out from starvation. I've never seen the kids each with such gusto! The rest of the time was spent trying to break up fights between the two kids -- they fight over EVERYTHING these days! Mostly because Gabi doesn't want to share with Sebas and because Sebas wants whatever Gabi doesn't want to share with him. I wonder if they will ever get out of this stage and if I will have any non-gray hairs when this happens. The monotony of all this fighting was interruprted only by the exciting task of trying to find Borges the cat who got lost for like 4 hours (after sunset) and I thought had been lost for good. And Sebas naked in the street screaming "BORGES COME BACK!" And Gabi super upset at prospect of having losing him saying "Mommy we will miss him very much" but as upset as they both were I think I was waaaay more upset. I honestly don't know what I would've done if I had lost him for sure -- I probably would've made Jose come back immediately, with another cat in tow of course. Especially because in the last 3 days Gabi has become obsessed with the idea of adopting a kitten. And I won't ponder about Borges' reduced life span (my previous cat lasted 16 years, Borges is 8 now) because the thought of losing him is too much to bear especially now that the kids are much more aware of his existence and actually love the little furball.

I'm grateful for two things however: 1) that unlike ever since we got here Sebas is actually going to sleep fairly easily (he's giving us hell since we took him off the crib since it's so easy for him to get out and he just starts playing with all the toys in his room instead of wanting to go to sleep) and 2) as bad as this sounds -- for getting a much needed break by having to come into work! I hope that doesn't sound horrible but taking care of a toddler and a preschooler all by myself is just physically and mentally draining. I know I probably sound like a broken record but I really don't know how single moms do it. I'm also really grateful for the Kindle (especially the iPad version!) which has helped me get some needed distractions in the late hours once both kids are in bed and I need to relax a little before I can go to sleep. In fact I've read more since we moved to Geneva than I have in the last year. I'm reading "Super Sad True Love Story" and it's such a bizarre but beautifully written book that I can't put it down. The Kindle is truly a life-changing device! The only thing that makes me sad about the Kindle is not being able to finish and book and hand it over to Jose and say "here, read this, it's awesome you'll really like it". So when I end up reading a book that I love I sometimes order the printed version for Jose -- I must be the ultimate Amazon consumer buying books TWICE! My re-kindled (no pun intended) passion for reading is what prompted the new blog design. :)

This morning we went to Gabi's school by bus beacause the car situation is just a nightmare. She complained that she wanted to watch DVD's in the car but all in all behaved pretty well. I probably got to work around the same time I would've in the car with the major difference being that I wouldn't have found parking had I brought the car in. So I think we'll be busing it the rest of the week at least until Jose comes back and we can decide on a more permanent strategy. At least in October once Gabi turns 5 she'll be able to ride the school bus and we won't have to worry about this.

Birthday weekend and "non Labor" Day

2010-09-07T10:09:00.001+02:00

Saturday was my birthday. Can't believe I'm 36 now. On Friday night Jose and I went to this really great restaurant called La Cantine. We went by bus and it was really cool that part of town where the restaurant is, it sort of felt like I was in Boston (on a nice weather day). For some reason I always order something to eat and then regret it because it's never quite what I was expecting -- this was especially true when I ordered a shrimp cocktail at an italian restaurant and got something totally different than what I expected. However, at La Cantine it was the first time where I actually got what I expected and absolutely LOVED it. I got this "pot" that was sort of like mashed potatoes on the top layer and duck on the bottom layer. It was absolutely divine. And Jose loved his risotto as well, I tried it and liked it too and I'm not even a risotto person. We'll definitely have to take my sister and husband to that place when they come visit in November. Don't know how the bus ride will be then though if it's too cold.

Saturday morning we went shopping a little so I could get a case for the new iPad Jose got me for a gift, and then we went to the pool in the afternoon although it was too cold to get in. Gabi didn't mind she's in her mermaid stage but the rest of us just enjoyed the sunshine but didn't go in the pool! Sunday we went to Excenevex beach and again it eventually warmed up but again it was too cold to go in the water. Sunday night we went to the circus. Gabi LOVED most of it (both the animal acts as well as the "performer" acts, but the comedy acts in between were a little boring to all of us since we couldn't understand what was going on). Sebas hadn't slept so he was a little cranky. But he still loved the animal acts and this morning he kept saying he wanted to go back to the "circle".

Jose had to work yesterday and I attempted to come into work but it's impossible once I drop Gabi off at school it takes me so long to get to the office there's no parking left in the office. So I said screw it and went home and took Labor Day off since technically I work in the US still. No fireworks or anything though, so it was a very non-Labor Day Labor Day. I miss watching the fireworks from next to our house on Golden back in Cincinnati. The one thing that was truly "Labor Day" about yesterday was that it definitely marked the end of summer. Today it's 61F degrees and rainy. :( Hard not to let it affect your mood! I guess I gotta see it as we were very lucky to get such good weather this weekend!

First day of school

2010-09-03T14:44:00.000+02:00

Gabi's official first day of school was today. We dropped her off after enduring what has become crazy Geneva traffic post-back-to-school. We are definitely going to be taking the bus more often! In any case, Gabi was super excited (and I think a little bit nervous too) about her first day. It was only half day and the nanny tells me she did great, I can't wait to get home and hear all about it!

On another random note, we had a parent reception on Wednesday and it's the first time I have ever seen wine served at a school function! But I guess I'm a catholic school girl after all. :)

Tomorrow I turn 36. Eeek!

Summer's last hurrah

2010-08-30T12:06:00.002+02:00

This weekend was officially our last summer weekend as the weather is getting noticeably colder and Gabi starts school this week. So we went to Montreux – a beautiful town on the opposite side of the Lake where supposedly the biggest jazz festival happens every year and, as we later learned, was also home to Freddy Mercury for years.
We arrived Thursday evening just in time for dinner and to get a glimpse of how beautiful the town is. However, Friday morning was chilly and rainy and I had to work so we just did a little bit of shopping around in the nearby clothing & toy stores. The kids were pleased with that of course, and Sebas, as usual, left the toy store with only Toy Story related items. He also left the clothing store with either Toy Story or Cars related clothing. That one has a one-track mind!

On Friday afternoon when the weather cleared up and I was ok to stop working, we went to Chateau Chillon, a beautiful castle that served as the main fortress for the surrounding areas since 1100 or some ridiculous ancient date like that. Gabi was a little weary of this visit (she hates walking and we had to walk quite a bit plus I think she’s got some idea that there will be monsters or something, she watches too much Scooby Doo!) but once there they both loved it.

Saturday was another pretty bad day, again super chilly and rainy, but we ventured to Gruyeres for a little while. Our initial intent was to only drive through the town, but then of course we discovered you can’t drive so we got out of the cars, bought ponchos for all 4 and explored a bit. There is also a beautiful castle there although we decided it was enough with Chateau Chillon so we didn’t tour that castle. But then driving around some more we found a fromagerie and we did a little tour of the fromagerie and then we found this cool “bob-luge” (it’s a mix between bobsled and luge) that we did. Sebas was the first brave one to go with Jose and then Gabi went with me and then I think we had to do it another 1,000 times before finally heading back to the hotel for a beautiful sunset.

Sunday morning we did a chocolate factory tour – and again Sebas won MVP for wanting to try all the chocolates! After that we had to go back to the “bob-luge” for another 1,000 rides, and then finally we were too cold and we headed back home.

I would say it was a pretty good way to close the summer and these are definitely places we need to take our visitors to! However, I’m not happy at all about the cold coming so soon, I really hope it’s temporary. Today supposedly the high will be 60F and the low 44F. Brrrrrr.

Sports Enthusiasts

2010-08-23T12:07:00.001+02:00

It's been getting cooler than I would like it to be which sadly means the days of summer are coming to a quick end. I guess that's another thing I'll miss about Cincinnati, having warm weather way into September and even being lucky enough 4 years in a row to have awesome weather for my daughter's birthday part in late October. I've told we will have no such luck here, which also means I gotta find a place to have a birthday party for a 5 year old who unfortunately only has 2 friends so far! Hopefully that changes pretty quickly once she starts school next week. But anyway, we went to Geneve Plage (or Geneva "Splash" as Gabi likes to call it now) on Saturday and then to Excenevex Plage on Sunday just trying to soak up the last few rays of sunshine while it's still warm enough to wear a bathing suit. Gabi is officially a different color now and Sebas is a slightly less pale shade of pale. It's too funny how to people who look so much alike can have such different skin tones. Gabi has also become a mermaid this summer, I guess being in the water practically every weekend has made her much more comfortable. On Saturday she even swam without her floaties. I guess that's one point in favor of Geneva. I have decided to spend a whole month in Peru during the Holidays (since I can do my job from anywhere) so hopefully she'll take more swimming lessons there and become even more comfortable. Sebas is a whole other story, he's more like me, loves being in the beach and close to water, but not actually INSIDE the water. Although if I was lucky enough to live by the warm waters of the Caribbean as I once did I swear I would be in the water until I pruned up into a raisin. Anyway, Sebas is very cautious likes to be around it but not actually go inside. And just yesterday on our likely last day at the beach he started getting comfortable, this beach in Excenevex is really shallow for a good long distance so he was going out to the end of the kids area all by himself if we weren't careful he'd go out all by himself into the deep end. That's Sebas though, once he loses fear he throws all caution to the wind. He's one brave cookie. Today I had to take them both to the doctor for shots because school is starting next week, Gabi was a little whiny when she found out she needed the shots, and I was scared that Sebas observed so closely that once he found out it was coming for him too he'd start screaming and trying to get away from us. But he took both shots without as much as a whimper, the nanny and the doctor were both impressed!

I titled the entry Sports Enthusiast and then proceeded to write about something completely different. So getting back to the matter at hand, we went to the local Division 2 soccer game on Saturday night just to do something different. Very good team in a beautiful stadium that unfortunately is only about 25% at capacity pretty much the whole time. I thought the kids would be bored to death but they loved it, especially when we moved all the way down to 1st row (not enough fans!) and we told Gabi she was the #1 fan and she had to act like it. They went crazy. The picture above is of Sebas using his hot dog baguette as binoculars (well one-ocular however you say the ones that only have one whole). He was loving the action coming from the fans in the stands, I thought using the bread as a telescope was just too cute.

Wedding in Salamanca

2010-08-16T12:22:00.002+02:00

We traveled to Madrid on Wednesday morning and drove about 2 hours to Salamanca to a house my father was renting for the week. We had a nice time walking around the town of Salamanca and eating. However after about 2 days I couldn't have any more jamon iberico -- total overdose! I am now in full iberico detox mode. As well as in wine detox mode. On Friday we traveled to La Alberca, a town about 1 hour from Salamanca. This is where my sister's wedding was on Saturday afternoon. We had a wonderful time and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We are back home exhausted but happy to be "home" for a few more days. On Friday Aug. 27th we are going to Montreaux just for the weekend. Then afterwards no more travel until October!!!! Also Gabi is in summer camp this week again so at least she's happy she's got stuff going on. Especially because she made a few friends during the wedding and I would've felt back if she went back home to be bored without friends at home. And after this week she's got 4 more days at home and then she starts school on September 1st. So hopefully things start really picking up for her soon. Now I feel bad for poor little Sebas. Although he is OK most of the time at home with the nanny when Gabi is not there -- I hate to say it but there's less fighting and since he's the "only one" he gets all the attention of the nanny and he's good with that.

Here is a video of the kids dancing at the wedding. Sebastian looked like he was drunk on Coke.

The Cast of Characters

2010-08-09T11:00:00.001+02:00

This weekend we went to Disneyland Paris. We took of Wednesday night after work, spent the night in a beautiful little town in France called Auxerre, and then drove the rest of the way early Thursday. We literally spent every waking hour at Disney. We would be there when the gates opened and would be there until around 9 pm when we couldn't take it any more and then we'd go back to the hotel lobby for a beer (or a milk depending on your age) and then hit the sack to do it all over again the next day. However, I felt that this time was so much more fun than the last time. Maybe because Sebastian is a little bit older and he therefore enjoyed it a lot more (although he was terrified of most rides in the beginning and then he started losing the fear as time wore on) or because the park is smaller and we were able to do a lot more (met a bunch of the characters, saw the different parades, rode the rides a bunch of times, etc.). Or maybe because this was the second time for us doing it with two kids and we knew what to expect and were better prepared. But whatever the reason it was amazing, truly the stuff of dreams. Can't wait to do it again! Here are a bunch of pictures with the characters. My absolute favorite is Sebas kissing Belle (we stood in this line for 1 hour).

Next up! Spain for my stepsister's wedding. We are leaving on Wednesday spending the night in Madrid, then Thursday to Salamanca.

You attract more bees with honey...

2010-08-02T12:39:00.000+02:00

No beach pictures this weekend! We did have a nice time at the pool Saturday afternoon and got to the beach ready to go un Sunday around 10 am, but Gabi got bitten by a bee while building a sand castle and I didn’t know if she’d be allergic or what given it’s her first time so we decided to leave for a clinic not knowing if we had to remove the stinger. The only clinic that we’ve been recommended is close to our house so even though it’s a 40-45 min. drive to the beach we came all the way back to the clinic as we didn’t want to risk it. Turns out the stinger wasn’t inside, so she just got a prescription for an anti-biotic, and anti-inflammatory and an anti-histaminic (so many ANTI’s!). By the time we got out of the clinic and the pharmacy (there’s only 2 pharmacies open on Sundays and they’re both pretty far from home) we were starving and it was too late to go back to the beach. We had to make do with the food at home (it was the Swiss Independence Holiday so practically NOTHING was open) and afterwards we went back to the pool for a little while only to be chased away after less than an hour by rain. Oh well, so much for the perfect beach day! “Manana sera otro dia” as they say in Spanish. Wednesday is EuroDisney time!

Alberto comes to town

2010-07-26T10:03:00.000+02:00

Gabi finished her summer camp on Friday -- her teachers were already sad despite the fact that it was only a week long! By Friday I had decided I would sign her up for another week in August. She was super sad on Friday morning that it was all ending and started to say she missed her Cincinnati frieds after she found the bracelet her good friend Andrea gave her as a farewell gift. I felt so bad for her -- 4 year olds shouldn't suffer from being far away from friends and family but I guess living on the other side of the ocean it's inevitable. So at least she was happy she's going back for one more week before school officially starts on September 1st. So she's got one "boring" week this week, next week is Disney, then Spain, then summer camp, then one more "boring" week and then school starts. Hopefully that's enough activity to keep the homesickness at bay!

Alberto came to visit us yesterday he's in town today for meetings and then headed to Germany. We picked him up at the airport yesterday morning and then headed straight for Annecy. We walked around the town and for the first time we saw a farmer's market around the town which looked great. We bought some bread and headed towards the boats. We stayed out longer than when we went with Mara but it was a lot chillier and on the way back we were against the wind so we were splashing water everywhere and everything in the boat got soaked. Poor kids were miserable and now today both Gabi and I look like we might be getting colds. I at least am CRAVING Vitamin C today already had my first dose and am headed for a second dose as soon as I finish this post. Gabi slept with her winter pajamas and this morning wanted to be all covered up. Poor thing of course didn't want me to leave for work I was tempted to call in a sick day but with all the work I have and the days off that are coming because of Disney and Spain I can't afford to be out.

Jose's in Rome today for all day meetings he'll be back late tonight hopefully we can make it through the day without too much fuss or sickness. And don't even ask me if I'm going to the gym today...I was doing so good at the end of last week and now I'm back to not wanting to go anywhere near a gym machine.

On Saturday we went to the top of Le Saleve. I thought I was going to be scared out of my mind but it wasn's so bad. The kids absolutely loved it even though Gabi was also saying she didn't want to go up right before. Definitely a must see, the view from the top was great and one day we'll convince someone who comes to visit to do parasailing from the top because it's sure not going to be me! I took this video of someone taking off just as we got up there.

Summer Camp

2010-07-19T22:18:00.001+02:00

Gabi had a blast. She says she made 16 friends but doesn't remember any of their names. Her teacher is half Venezuelan and the assistant also speaks Spanish. They did so many cool things she can't remember. All she knows is shes grown up and pretty soon the jonas brothers are going to show up and start singing like in high school musical or something like that. Tomorrow is water day can't imagine it being any more fun than it was today but I guess it will be!!! And as proof she wont remember anything. I take it as a sign that things were so overwhelmingly fun there was no way to keep it all straight in her head.

Today we finally got our drivers license, a DVD player that plays US movies so they can watch something OTHER than toy story, and a cd player for sebas' lullabies so he's off going to sleep all by himself. Thanks to the music to quote ABBA. And gabi? She went to sleep before any of us did, including sebas. Cant wait for school to start in September. :)

Speeding

2010-07-18T21:11:00.002+02:00

This is a bilingual post because I'm too lazy to translate, plus some things really do just come out better in Spanish...

We got 240 CHF in speeding tickets by mail yesterday I almost died when I saw the letter. And we got both on the same street. Today we found the camera once we knew the address. And by the way, every ticket for 120 CHF was for going 6 km per hour above the limit! Can you believe it? We are scared of what we'll get from July. At least now we know so hopefully no more from here on out! But 240 CFH is a pretty expensive lesson to learn...

No nos querian dejar entrar al cina a ver Toy Story porque Sebas no tiene 3 anos. Por poco me vuelvo loca empece a gritarle a la tipa "I've been promising to take them for a month!!!!". Por poco le hago todo el cuento CABRONA LOS TRAJE A GINEBRA ESTAN ABURRIDISIMOS EN CASA LES LLEVO PROMETIENDO ESTO HACE UN MES THIS IS THEIR ESCAPE IF YOU DON'T LET ME IN THEY WILL BE HEARTBROKEN. Pero Jose luego fue el solo a comprar los tickets ahi se los vendieron cuando dijo que Sebas tenia 3 y nos colamos al cine a ver Toy Story. It was great by the way.

El armoire todavia no esta montado so no pictures yet - cuando lo fueron a montar lo encontraron todo rayado (that was probably Jose) asi que van a traer otro so I guess waiting another 10 days for a new armoire is acceptable especially knowing Jose probably was to blame for the scratches!

But we did go to IKEA yesterday and got an area rug for the sofa (like between red and burnt orange I really like it), curtains (although we have to get something to make it easier to open and close cause right now they don't move -- but they're pretty!), a chair to go along with the living room sofa, and a huge PLANT that looks great by the TV! Y BTW la planta que habia visto la semana pasada en el COOP era $80 y esta me salio $30 en IKEA y era mucho mas grande which is what I needed. In fact I think I could've even gone bigger. In any case I hope it's the last trip to IKEA in a long time. I'm done with the place. IKEA is a place you WANT TO LOVE so desperately because of all the potential it has to offer but the experience is so overwhelming and often frustrating I would just rather avoid it altogether.

Child Care

2010-07-15T15:08:00.002+02:00

We are enjoying our stay -- but I definitely do miss being in the old little world where I felt the kids were so happy. I feel guilty about making them be here at home, I feel like they are all bored and I think back to their wonderful teachers and their wonderful friends and feel badly for pulling them out of that happy world! I think things will get better for them soon but my heart breaks leaving them at home with the nanny. The nanny is wonderful but of course she has other responsibilities too and is not there to play with them all the time. So it's just Sebas and Gabi and I feel like they just get bored all day long. They go to the park every once in a while which is the highlight of their day when they do go. Thankfully Sebas isn't biting anymore, although he pinches now! :)

Next week Gabi will go to a one week summer camp in her new school - while it's only one week I think it'll help her maybe get to know some people and just do a lot of fun activities for a week. But I'm afraid poor little Sebas will be heart broken when she leaves the house too. They have a couple of friends in the neighborhood but they can barely understand each other! But they still figure it out. So all in all I think it'll be much better when they go to school in september, although sadly Sebas cant go until NEXT September when he's 3. We tried to look for day cares for at least a few days a week but there's just nothing available -- I guess the collective thinking is that women shouldn't work until the baby's 3 so there just aren't many day cares and they're all full. The funny thing is I know they are fine, it's just probably working mommy guilt! And once they're both in school next september I'm sure it'll be great.

Funny story...our brother in law moved to California and his wife is a stay at home mom. So I am telling Gabi how her cousin is now in California and she asks where her Mommy works and I say the whole "her Mommy works at home she stays with your cousin" and she goes "Mom, can we move to California so that you can stay at home?". Somehow she equated living in California with stay at home mom. Me? Heart broken, check. Working mommy guilt, double check.

Sebas is talking more than ever. Bona fide chatter box. In the morning he gives me a kiss and a hug and says "go to work now mommy". The nanny speaks only Spanish so he's learning more Spanish words now. Gabi tries to translate for him when he can't make himself understood (which is rare because that boy knows how to get a word in). It's very cute.

They love their new bunk bed! Sebas of course gets the bottom and Gabi gets the top. I was scared that would mean Sebas would just get out so much more easily but he's pretty good about staying in bed all night. Gabi's the one who gets out. :)

I've realized that when you're a family where both parents work Geneva is not much different than Cincinnati. You work your ass off all week try to get home early so you can be with the kids, try to do something special with them in the weekends to make up for leaving them all week. Granted the places you can take them on the weekends are definitely BREATHTAKING, but other than that I would say no different than Cincinnati! Except for FRIENDS. That tips the scale in favor of Cincinnati. BIG TIME.

Planning Trips

2010-07-15T09:20:00.002+02:00

I want to go visit Cincinnati soon. I was supposed to go for work at the end of this month but the meetings got cancelled and it didn't make sense for me to go at this point. But I want to see all my friends and go to spinning and get pedis/manis and waxing and all the stuff that is way too expensive here. And I want PANCAKES. No pancakes here and no maple syrup at the store can you believe that!
Other than that things are good, slowly getting used to the little quirks that the country has. They’re so annoying in the beginning but once you start getting used to them it doesn’t feel so bad. I do miss having girlfriends, I need a good girls night out! The office is too quiet since my whole team seats in the US so I’m all “alone” in the morning and once people start coming in we’re emailing all the time and there is no actual TALKING!

We are planning a couple of trips – Euro Disney early august, Spain for a wedding mid-August, then hopefully late September Spain again just to meet up with one of my friends from PR, and then Peru in December. Can’t wait. Oh and I JUST found tickets to Shakira here for Nov. 29, I am so excited!!!! Now I gotta find a big old Puerto Rican flag so I can wear it to the concert. Cheesy.

The gym here is pretty good – I haven’t tried the classes yet because I’m afraid I won’t understand anything but I do treadmill and bike and elliptical and weights on my own. It’s usually very quiet. This week I have totally lost my motivation but I hope to find it again next week.

I am turning 36 soon and somehow I feel that’s the point of no return. Like now I’m really closer to 40 than I am to 30, and 40 is such a MOM age. Such an old person age! Mid life crisis here I come! I wonder what I should take up for my mid-life crisis. I’m thinking plastic surgery.

Weird parade and beach

2010-07-12T09:12:00.000+02:00

I have to say with the heat this summer if we keep going to the beach every weekend we will all be toast by the end of the summer. Welll all except Sebas. As Gabi so aptly puts it everyone in our family is a "little brown" -- Mami, and Papi, and Gabi. Everyone except Sebas who is "really light". Evidence of this is the fact that by Sebas' standards he is SUPER TAN, but he's just a slightly darker shade of beige. As a result Jose is always prompted to ask who really is the kid's dad. If it wasn't for the fact that he's identical to Gabi (save for the skin color), I might be prompted to ask myself.

On Saturday our neighbor had told us about the "Lake Parade" so we went to down to see what was going after Sebas' nap. What we ran into was quite the interesting sight. All the cross dressers and crazy folk came out in style. My only question is...where are these people normally hiding? However, let's not forget there is always evidence of Swiss rules at play. At the very beginning of the parade they gave us ear plugs for the kids. :)

On another note, I'm glad the World Cup is finally over. It was good while it lasted but good riddance!

Mt. Lookout bank robbed

2010-07-07T15:21:00.000+02:00

This is next to our old house!

Mt. Lookout bank robbed

Mara's visit

2010-07-05T16:30:00.000+02:00

Well that was the most fun I'd had since Ivonne came to visit me in Cinci last month! Mara came to visit us for a SHORT but fun-filled weekend and we of course had to show her the best we've seen of the city so far. She arrived Friday afternoon and by total luck we were both at the SAME WRONG train station. Amazing how things work out isn't it?

On Friday night we went to a school year end parade around Thonex (the area where we live) and then to the old city to get a bite to eat, a few drinks, and watch Ghana lose in penalty shots -- heartbreaking.

On Saturday morning we took her to Annecy but we decided to do it up a little bit vs. last time. Instead of renting a pedal boat we actually rented a REAL boat -- way easier on the legs! Way to live it up man. Like they say in PR: "Como viviran los ricos?" It means "if us poor folk live like this, how do rich people live?"

On Sunday we went back to Yvoire as well. Both places were SOOO much more beautiful with good weather. We also ventured out into one of the little beaches on the lake and it was awesome. A little chilly but awesome. Can't wait to show them to other folks as well, although I know Mara has a certain sense of appreciation for discovering new things, I know she probably enjoyed it more than a lot of other folks do.

On another hand we've really made progress in the house. This morning we finished putting up artwork and light fixtures. On Thursday we have our (hopefully final) IKEA delivery so I think by this weekend we'll look like we've been here for a while. Turns out we've been here for exaclty one month. Crazy isn't it?

Earlier today I dropped Mara off at the airport. Que sonido tan triste cuando se acaba.... :(

La Plage

2010-06-28T10:09:00.002+02:00

Yesterday we ventured out to the "beach". It opens at 10 am and in true Jose fashion we were there at 9:30 am. To my surprise by the time the gates opened there was a pretty long line and people were rushing in when the gates opened to find a good spot. We ended up situating ourselves around the kiddie pool of course. The kids had a blast going between this one and the adult pool where there was one of those big winding slides that Gabi actually went down in after getting up enough courage to do it. We were only there until ~12:30 pm cause we started getting tired and hungry but it was pretty crowded by then. Sebas loved the sprinklers although fell right smack into the pool at one time from running out of the sprinklers a little too excitedly.

The funniest thing about the whole day was that we didn't actually found a beach. It's more like a big water park with different pools and stuff. And I guess people do jump in the lake. But the beach we did not actually find.

In any case I hope we can get to the "beach" (whether it's that or the local pool or beaches in other cities etc) once a week the kids have a blast and we all need the tan.

Here is the picture album from yesterday. The first few are of Saturday night we went to Eaux-Vives to hang out for a little while and get a snack in one of the docked boats.

Air Shipment

2010-06-25T09:46:00.001+02:00

Things I wish (and thought) should've been on the air shipment but weren't:

- Cat stuff: when the cat arrived I had to run out and get food, plates, cat litter, a cat litter box, and a scooper which was the HARDEST thing to find on Earth.

- My SCALE (which was a wedding gift from Mauricio): I want to know what I weigh in POUNDS not Kilos thank you.

- CAR SEATS: We have to return the rental car today and come to realize we don't have car seats for the kids. And I refuse to buy a new car seat because there are TWO FREAKING CAR SEATS for Sebas in the move when now we only need one because we only have one car.

- Contact lenses: Before we left Cincinnati I bought a 6 months contact lens supply not knowing when I would find an optometrist and also being pretty sure whatever I got at Sam's club would be waaaay cheaper than what I found here. I only packed one month's supply though (maybe 6 weeks) and I am dangerously low on that supply. If I have to start wearing glasses I will not be a happy camper. But hey, at least I brought my glasses with me only because I had left them in the office until the very last minute.

Local cuisine....REALLY local

2010-06-23T10:05:00.005+02:00

We'd been going past this place a few times. It's literally two doors down from our house. We went in last night on a "special date" with Gabi. It was a lot fancier than we expected given the facade that we always walk by, but it was a great little place to go back to (especially when Dads visit and they can afford to pay for all of us). The best part is that it's literally next door.

http://www.hostariadevillette.ch/main.php

I loved seeing the pictures on the wall of how our street looked like 100 years ago...which is SURPRISINGLY the SAME as it looks like right now.

Also, I had a flourless chocolate torte with apples in it and ice cream on the side so I gotta go on the treadmill for an hour today...

More Exploring

2010-06-21T09:51:00.000+02:00

It was bitterly cold this weekend. As if summer had decided to stay in Cincinnati and not come with us. Plus it's been raining and overall super dreary. But we decided to do a bit more exploring this weekend nonetheless. When we came back from Yvoire last Sunday our next door neighbor (who also owns the house we are living in) recommended that we go to Annecy, he said it was even more beautiful than Yvoire which was a little hard to believe. But I guess he was right. This place reminded me so much of Venice, but it might be even prettier than Venice because it's not so crowded. Although who knows had the weather been a little better. We walked around, had wonderful food, then did the pedal boats around the lake, followed by a little train ride which let us discover everything they had there. We discovered they have a little beach so we'll definitely be bringing our friend Mara when she comes to visit. Hopefully the weather is better! And some of the pedal boats also have little slides so you take them out in the middle of the lake and then you slide of the boat and swim around in the lake. Again, I can't imagine how you do any of this stuff given how cold it was this weekend, but hopefully when Mara's in town it'll be a whole different story. After the train ride it started raining so we went home for more World Cup action.

American as Apple Pie

2010-06-18T15:17:00.001+02:00

The food here is awesome. I joke about having a glass of wine and brie every night and it's actually not far from the truth. I remember during our house hunting visit going to some "fast food" sandwich place in the middle of the city and having the most amazing sandwich - it was the simplest recipe: baguette bread, brie, and lettuce. I loved it. Not to mention the belgian waffle covered in chocolate that followed it. But then somethig happened and I started to get that "American food" craving. Right before we left we went to one of those fancy chain food seafood restaurants and I remember ordering apple pie. And don't get me wrong, I have ALWAYS liked apple pie, but never to the point where I would pass something made of CHOCOLATE in favor of apple pie. But I wanted to eat anything that was remotely American.

Now I crave all things American: hot dogs, apple pie, hamburgers. And I've never been one to eat those things, well maybe except for hot dogs but other than that I can't even remeber the last time I had a hamburger. And it's not like the food isn't delicious because it is, but give me some apple pie a la mode right now and I'll be a happy camper. So today in the cafeteria I see something that looks like apple pie and I get all excited and it was some kind of fruit compote covered in the apple pie crumbs but it couldn't even hold a candle to real American apple pie. I ate it half-heartedly and as with any craving that isn't fully satisfied I continued to think about apple pie the rest of the afternoon, even on the freaking treadmill at the gym. I also miss this amazing cupcake place that we recently discovered in downtown Cincinnati. And of course I miss Graeter's. I even joke about having chili once I get back to Cincinnati. I never did try it.

Yesterday I'd been running around for hours during errands and it was way past lunchtime and I was starving . All I wanted to do was go through a drive through McDonald's and order a big ass Diet Coke with a ton of ice in it (yes this is also one of those countries where they don't put any ice in your drink, it drives me insane. Even our super duper fridge/freezer combo at home doesn't have an ice maker, which is of course a staple of every American home. I have a teeny tiny ice tray that I make ice on every chance I get almost as if I needed to hoard ice in case of famine. It's so funny, so useless.)

I wonder what the kids miss eating. I know the first few days they asked for Fig Newtons non-stop and couldn't understand why we couldn't find them. I still haven't been able to find them. But I wonder if they miss anything else. Tonight, my goal is to drink a tall glass of Diet Coke with LOTS and LOTS of ice.

TGIF

2010-06-18T12:41:00.000+02:00

Thank goodness it's Friday cause this morning I've had enough aggravation for the whole weekend. Jose got home last night from London thank goodness not too late. But this morning he had to wake up super early to purchase the used car from his boss. So I'm stuck again having to do the "goodbyes" at home with the kids which are getting worse and worse because they cry every time I leave. It's heart breaking. But then I got the bus which was even faster than before so that was good. However, as soon as I get to work and start cranking away on the to do list the nanny calls that we have to move the car because of the construction. At first I thought she was calling to say Sebas had thrown up again cause last night he threw up all over his bed and I had to wash clothes in the middle of the night without Jose being there in that crappy washer/dryer that doesn't dry anything. Worse yet I had to take Sebas' blankie away from him which is a huge ordeal. Thank god he accepted an alternative blankie for the night and went to sleep (super late but at least went to sleep). So I've been in a bus for almost an hour to get to work and I have to haul ass all the way back home to deal with the parked car in the construction -- we had parked it EXACTLY where the construction workers told us to but when we got there a cop had already given us a 40 CHF ticket. I was so mad and I'm trying to make myself understood to the cop and the construction workers but it's not working. Finally the cop speaks a little English so he's kind enough to null the ticket and they tell us where to park...again. From there we try to find a place that will STORE our winter tires on the new car (who the hell has winter tires these days anyway!?!) and then we have to go to UBS to transfer the money to Jose's boss for the car purchase. Lo and behold it's 12:40 pm and I'm just sitting back at my desk again. I'm used to having errands to run every day in Cincinnati but I'm used to getting it done super fast. Here it's like you waste the whole day trying to do TWO THINGS. So I've decided I'm only going to do one personal to do a day, it's too aggravating otherwise. So, on Monday I will get my work ID/badge. That's it. No more. And I think I've already said this before but I am NEVER driving to work again. The bus is sooooo much less of a hassle.

Back to frustration

2010-06-17T13:45:00.003+02:00

It seems like I take two steps forward and then two steps back. Today I had an allergist appointment at 11 am so I decided to combine "car errands" to use the car only one day and go back to the bus tomorrow. Yes I'm that green. No I'm not really that green it's just that driving in the city is so aggravating it's so much easier to take the bus (even though last night coming home I missed my exit in the rain so I had to walk longer than I normally would in the pouring rain in flip flops). But anyway, first I went to Gabi's future school to drop off an application for summer camp so that she'll have something special to do during at least one week this summer. Of course it takes me 20 min. longer to get there cause I'm going around in circles cause the GPS can never find the exact address. At least I heard that she's getting in so that's good. For 580 CHF a week which is CRAZY if you ask me.

After that I head over to the allergist and since I arrive about 40 min. early I decide to get some groceries so I don't have to go tonight after I leave work and make it home even later than normal. And of course I have to go around the whole city twice trying to find parking. Finally I get to the store and I'm already running late so I'm running around like crazy in a store I am not familiar with (nice store by the way gotta go back there cause there are other stores in the shopping center). I get to the cashier and the lady is yelling at me about the bananas not having stickers on them, whose fault is that!?! So I leave without the bananas and rush back to the allergist, where they proceed to RETEST me (for like the 3rd time in my life) for allergies even though everything was right there on the paper. Then the doctor tells me he doesn't understand what's in the vials I dragged ALL THE WAY FROM CINCINNATI and I keep asking him did you check the envelope where the vials came in and after like 4 times he finally checks and lo and behold everything is right there too. So after an hour at the allergist I'm now starving and now I need to go to the potential day care for Sebas to fill out another application. I make it to the street and realize there's no way my car can make it to that side of the street because of all the construction around. So I give up and come into work so I can at least eat something and sit at my computer and fume about how long it's taken me to run 3 measly errands which in Cincinnati I would've been able to do in about 1 hour. And I've also missed my workout which I've realized is a critical thing to do every day to keep my mental sanity in the middle of all the chaos.

My therapy at night? A glass of wine and putting stickers on the Panini World Cup album. Yep, I'm a loser. At least Jose is coming back from London tonight but I feel bad for the rap that he's going to get from me tomorrow morning as soon as I wake up. :)

Public Transportation

2010-06-16T12:07:00.003+02:00

Today I took the bus into work for the first time. It's a relatively short walk from our house to the bus stop and then two buses to make it to work. This is definitely where the Swiss start to impress. The buses are on time, there is an iPhone app to show you the routes and times, the buses are super clean, and even though it took me slightly longer to make it to work than if I had been driving (55 minutes vs. 45) I don't have to worry about getting lost, or the damn stop and go traffic, or parking here at work (which is 12 swiss francs a day), plus I can read a book on the way to work, listen to music, read email, etc. So that's definitely something I hope to keep doing every day. Not to mention it's green too!

I also started to work out again. I joined the gym here at work. About twice as expensive as the one back in Cincinnati but it's a very pretty facilities with the whole placed windowed with views to the city. I haven't tried the group classes yet but hopefully tomorrow. It's a bit intimidating that everyone is so damn good looking, and it's also weird that they don't provide towels or those wipe thingies you use to clean the equipment. But oh well. Plus I'm working out while the people in the US haven't started working yet so I feel like I can work out a good 45 minutes in peace. I still want to get outside and do some running though.

Leaving the kids at home with the nanny is still hard. We are now looking for summer camps and other things so that at least Gabi can have some fun before school starts. But they are always so sad to see me go in the morning, it breaks my heart.

Exploring

2010-06-13T15:52:00.007+02:00

This week we've made quite a bit of progress. We have internet, we have TV, we went to IKEA yesterday and spent HOURS looking at stuff, and yesterday we got our work permits. On Friday we also got the air shipment, although we didn't nearly plan that one as well as we should've because we basically only got clothes when we needed to get a lot of more "urgent" stuff like for the cat (who also arrived on Friday), tool box, etc. All these things we need to be able to use now. But oh well. At least that means that the only items left on our list are getting drivers licenses and getting the rest of the move. I stayed up until about midnight on Friday putting clothes away...so I'm not looking forward so much to the amount of work I'll have to do when the rest of the move arrives though.

Given pretty much nothing is open on Sundays we decided to go exploring a little. We went to Yvoire, a cute little French town less than an hour away from here. It was so beautiful! Lots of little cafes, lots of little cute shops, beautiful flowers and scenery, the lake view, etc. We took a boat ride also that let us see the town from the outside. We also had lunch at a restaurant there -- I don't even want to mention how much we spent on that lunch given that we were paying in Euros. But it was nice to take a break from either moving stuff, or World Cup! And to get a taste of what living in Geneva has to offer, being able to explore places we've never seen before just a car or train ride away. I can't wait to see all these places!

More Moving

2010-06-09T09:48:00.002+02:00

We have phone today! No internet though. And no TV still either.

Gabi turned out to be OK from her Friday accident. She had a pretty deep cut so I thought she might need stitches (I’ve had my share of stitches in the past). We had to go to 3 hospitals before we landed on the right one (even though a friend had already sent me the information but in the thick of it you can’t even think). When the nurse saw her she also thought she needed stitches but then eventually when the doctor saw her she said it would probably be better to let it heal on her own. At least it’s in the back of her head so not visible. She would be devastated with her princess status. :) At least now we know where the good hospital is when it’s a REAL emergency (knock on wood there never is one). Now we set up pediatrician appointments for Friday just to get to know them. They speak Spanish a little so that’s great.

The nanny is the temporary one and not only she cooks and cleans but also washes and irons! We don’t have an iron yet but eventually we won’t have to take anything to the dry cleaners. The only thing of course is that doesn’t leave much time to “play” with the kids. So Gabi said yesterday “she doesn’t play with me she just takes care of me”. That makes me kinda sad because I know both kids are used to playing all day with their friends and teachers at school. But I guess it’s just a different set up. You would need another nanny just to play with them.

So far mostly local people that we’ve met but there are these ones we met who gave me a TON of helpful information for kids and they have a 4 ½ year old just like Gabi and a huge pool and cool toys so they invited us over right away and while the kids played in the huge yard we had drinks and snacks. That was kinda nice. Feels like what I could be doing every weekend. :) This weekend we will try Ikea and then the beach. And Borges is supposed to arrive on Friday morning I hope that goes well! Jose and I celebrate the “small victories” every day. Crossing one thing of the to do list. Little by little. I think we’ll get some toys at Ikea this weekend and once we have that and TV the kids at least will be in a better place. And the friends we knew from PR have been sooo helpful, I don’t know what we would do without having someone like them here. I’m glad we overlapped for that one month at least!

The Move

2010-06-08T17:24:00.005+02:00

The move went well although the house isn’t nearly as set up as I’d like it to be – no TV, phone, internet! So the kids are at home trying to get used to a new nanny without too much entertainment. Plus none of our move has made it yet so we’re basically living off the same suitcases we’ve been living off since May 24th when we moved out of the house in Cincinnati. And our washing machine wasn’t hooked up until this morning so we’re all wearing clothes that are a little bit stinky. But that’s the European way I guess!!!

At least we’re out of the hotels I was getting so tired of the hotel life especially when Gabi hit her head on a corner table last Friday and we ended up in the ER! I practiced my French a lot as a result – I’m learning FAST. But after that I was like “THAT’S IT! THIS HOTEL ROOM IS TOO SMALL WE’RE GOING TO THE HOUSE”. And we have groceries for the house so we can at least eat home cooked meals (by the nanny which are so much better than anything I could do on my own). We have temporary furniture so at least we have beds, table, sofa, etc. But we are DYING to have TV and Internet!!! The area where we live is super nice and there’s tons of kids we’ve already met some neighbors and are hoping to meet more through some organized BBQ’s and stuff.

We flew business class which Gabi loooooved. Those huge seats that have personal tv and lay down all the way to sleep. Although we didn’t sleep too much but it was comfortable at least! Here is a picture of her in business class. They miss their Fig Newtons from the US but at least I found Oreos at one of the supermarkets. We also found a little Peruvian restaurant so at least we can get our cravings fix that way. They loved Sebas’ Peruvian t-shirt that he was wearing the day we showed up (also attached).

The gym here at work has massages and waxing, all expendable to your health plan! Isn’t that crazy. There are classes every day at 12:30 pm so I am waiting to get enrolled so I can start working out. Plus that’ll be 6:30 am in Cinci so hopefully no emergencies blow up in my face when I am trying to get to the gym.

Flying Pig 2010

2010-05-05T16:15:00.010+02:00

I don't have any pictures because it was too wet for me to attempt being a photographer, but I definitely have stories!!!

I signed up for the Relay leg last year as part of a group wide effort at work. I trained to build up to the miles mostly out of not wanting to let my team down -- since I had signed up with a team of females who are pretty athletic and in shape. I really enjoyed the camaraderie and as an added bonus I lost the majority of baby weight I'd been struggling with after two babies. So at the end of the experience last year I decided the next goal would be to sign up for the Half Pig this year, especially because after training so hard for the relay I hadn't kept up with running and the baby weight had caught up with me again.

Someone convinced me to join the Feet Fleet running group which was originally a hassle because of the time commitment and distance from home, but it turned out to make all the difference in the world. I learned things with the group that I would've never learned on my own - such as nutrition, hill training, speed training, etc. It was also a life saver to have a group to run with particularly during the long runs on snowy February Saturdays when all I wanted to do was sleep in. Also, I actually signed up for TWO half marathons a week apart (another story altogether) so I needed to take the training, cross training and nutrition pretty seriously.

On the day of the race we met with our Feet Fleet group at 5:30 am in the Hyatt. I would've skipped out altogether on the race given the awful weather and the fact that I'd done a half just the week before and was honestly afraid (two weeks ago I'd never run a half in my life much less two back to back ones!), but what kept me going was the group (and the pride from public commitments I had made on sites like Facebook!). As we headed to the start line in that big mess I lost my running buddies from the group so I had to end up running all by myself for about 10 miles. That was probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. After all, I had purposely built in the group support so that they could push me through on race day and I had ended up losing that group during the most difficult part of the journey. But I kept thinking back to the words one of the Feet Feet coaches said right before the race: "There will be a day when you can't do this...but that day is NOT today". That kept me going ALONE for 10 miles. On mile 10 I was lucky enough to get tapped on the shoulder by some ladies I do spinning with around once a week. They pushed me the last 3 miles and I think they were put there by fate just to keep me going. I know it probably sounds overly dramatic but during a race as hard as that you need motivation wherever you can get it.

Long story short...I think that's the power of group running...the support you get from others which turns into positive peer pressure to always do better, to always stick to your word, to see your commitments through when things are so tough all you want to do is quit. But most importantly, you hope in some part your story can inspire and serve as support for others. Cause if I can do it, honestly ANYONE can.

****

I just found the link to the professional pictures, although I'm hidden in most! You can look for me with the light green jacket, blue shirt, black pants, and cap on to try to stay dry. I've looked for some of my friends' pictures and they're all way better than mine but oh well. I still got a medal. :)

In The Heights

2010-04-26T18:46:00.003+02:00

I’m sitting on the airplane on the way back to Cincinnati after an all girls weekend in NYC with my sister. We signed up for the MORE Magazine Women’s Half Marathon in Central Park – I’d been training since February but with the move to Geneva and how complicated things get with the kids I never thought I’d make it. I paid for registration a long time ago since it seems to get sold out pretty quickly and figured I’d just bail if things didn’t work out. I saw my sister a couple of weeks ago as they stayed with the kids when Jose and I went house hunting to Geneva and she finally convinced me to travel so I bought a cheap ticket soon afterwards. Then we decided we should go see In The Heights. I love anything Broadway, anything musical and we figured we needed something relaxed the day before the race. I chuckle as I remember Mara, the queen of hyperbole, visiting me at my sister’s house in Connecticut 2 years ago when Sebastian had just been born RAVING about In The Heights. We happened to be watching the Tony’s and of course it won best musical back in 2008. Then two weeks ago when I was at my sister’s house all she did was play the soundtrack from In The Heights, I can’t remember whether she saw it before or after Mara but it makes no difference they were just as obsessed with it. So we’re sitting there on Saturday afternoon after a great little lunch in the City followed by great dessert in Times Square followed by great sunbathing/people watching also in Times Square. We make our way to the theater which is absolutely packed. It’s the first time we get tickets in the Mezzanine but we’re smack in the center so that’s awesome. As curtains go up the same thing happens to me as every other time I go see a musical. The moment the music starts I get teary eyed, I don’t know why musicals have that effect of me but they do. I must’ve been a Broadway star in some other life because I somehow feel more moved in a Broadway show than anywhere else. I hope in some other future life I also have the talent to be in Broadway. God knows I had an inkling of the dancing talent and maybe even a little inkling of the acting talent but the singing talent, no way no how. Which is how I knew I would never make it to Broadway on this particular incarnation of myself.

Anyway, it’s no secret I’m Puertorican and that I’ve been living in exile for the last 6 years of my life, an exile which is quickly about to get extended for who knows how long. So the mix of the storyline and the Broadway pipe dream I’m hooked on the characters instantly. I’m torn for each one of them, identifying myself with each one of them. Especially the book-smart college student who was trying to live up to the expectations of everyone and felt herself a disappointment to herself as well as everyone else. She’s got me more than anyone else. And I can feel myself praying for nothing bad to happen to any of the characters. I usually get sad when characters die or something in other shows but in this one I’m feeling it like it’s a family member. My Tia Maria Eloisa, Titi Silfa, Granny, even my mom. Any one of them could be Abuela Claudia. They all are. So when she dies I’m devastated – sobbing so loudly in the studio my sister is embarrassed sitting next to me! Everyone else must be thinking what the hell is going on with this girl. But they don’t understand. It takes them all show long to get the Usnavi joke that I understood the minute I see the playbill. Because they’re here for this play just because it won a Tony 2 years ago, I’m here in this play and I’m watching my life story play out before my eyes. And all of a sudden I’m thinking why the hell am I moving to Geneva, I want to go back home to Puerto Rico, I miss it so much it hurts me, but for now I can only dream of being buried there, somewhere in Rincon. There’s no rest for the weary and I’m definitely weary – for now I will keep living my life of the traveler, the ex pat wife willing to go wherever her husband wants, knowing that Puerto Rico is not the right place to raise my family, but knowing when my day comes that’s where I want to spend the rest of my days.

During intermission right before Abuela Claudia dies I am seeing the program and I see that one of the songs coming up is called “Alabanza”, which of course makes it even more obvious that someone is dying and that there’s a high likelihood it’s her. And I start remembering the old song by Roy Brown about Puerto Rico and patriotism and independence. God I loved that song, “Alabanza, alabanza, para ellos y para su patria, alabanza”. Which is of course making me miss PR so much more. And I tell myself God if the song in the play is anything like the Roy Brown song I will all but lose it. So here comes the song and Abuela Claudia is dead and I miss PR and I’m moving to Geneva God knows why and there is no stopping the tears now.

The flight attendant is asking us to turn all electronics off and it’s a good thing cause I don’t think I can keep writing anymore. Maybe some other day I’ll have the presence of mind to keep going. But going where? To a place where I’m not grateful enough for the beautiful and happy family I have and for the chance to spend time abroad and have the kids learn another language and another culture because I miss my Puerto Rican life too much…my family, my friends, my food, my culture, Titi Silfa, Titi Maria Eloisa, everything. So for now it’s “suck it up and be grateful for what you have”. Amen. Alabanza.

Househunting in Geneva

2010-04-08T17:31:00.002+02:00

I hadn't really come up with anything "blog worthy" until I read the notes from my house hunting experience during the last couple of days....I beg you to please guess what my priorities are based on this posting.

Day 1:
1) Great layout, 4 bedrooms, bathrooms OK, zero closet space. Great kitchen. Need armoires. 2 bathrooms only. Rocks in common area, stairs (hard for strollers). Art store/courses right next door. Big park, close to late. 15 min. walk to school.

2) Not as good set up but 4 bedrooms, smaller bedrooms, nice bathrooms, newer (3 1/2), weird washer/dryer, weird set up but huge dining room/living room. Much more storage. Common areas seem a bit easier to get around. Weird parking/storage/laundry room in basement. Pretty good kitchen although not as comfortable. Pediatrician next door. Park next door.

3) NO

4) Gym, beauty salon. Great kitchen + baths but living room/dining room uncomfortable. 4 bedrooms, OK closet space.

5) NO (beauty salon)

6) NEW!!!!

7) NO (Great kitchen, super old fashioned baths, small rooms)

8) $10,000 swiss francs

9) Too small :( but beautiful

10) OLD LADY!!!!

Then we decided we were between #1 and #2 so I started a list of pros and cons...

Champel	Aux Vives
Park	Lake/beach
Closer to school	Park
Bathrooms	Area lively
Storage	Big rooms
Common areas	Set up
Landlady directly – makes things easier	Kitchen
200 m2	Bathrooms (-)
1^st floor	Closet space (-)
Pediatrician	Things around – bakery, gym, stores, groceries, baby gym
Balconies	Very bright
	Washer/dryer

Day 2:

1) New house, basement for nanny with kitchenette

2) NO

3) OMFG!!!!

Now we are torn between #1 from Day 1 and #3 from Day 2.

Another helping of "Help"

2010-03-02T17:03:00.016+01:00

So last night I'm up for hours and hours reading more of The Help. I just can't put it down. It's 11 pm it's way past my bedtime but I want to keep reading and finish this book it's so good. Every bend on the road leads me somewhere unexpected. But I definitely wasn't expecting the reaction I had to a particular page of the book...It hurts so much just to think about it but here goes...

There's a part in the book where Skeeter's mom is telling her about an old nanny they had called Constantine who basically raised Skeeter but unexpectedly left 2 years before and Skeeter doesn't know what happened to her. As the mom reveals all the details of what happens to her she says to her daughter: "They say its like true love, good help. You only get one in a lifetime". And all of a sudden I find myself sobbing, sobbing uncontrollably, like I couldn't stop the tears from coming, never in a million years could I stop crying. I have to put the book down (or the Kindle anyway!) I'm so upset (I'm trying to find the quote today on the Kindle and I was so upset I didn't even mark the damn page where the quote was!). I'm almost afraid Gabi's going to wake up. I start racking my brain -- where is this coming from? Why is this book producing this reaction in me? And I sit there sobbing for another 5 minutes and all of a sudden it hits me...

As some of you may know, I am a child of divorce. On top of this, my mom was a flight attendant (for many many years) which means she was gone 4 days out of the week on most weeks and had two daughters to take care of (with no husband). So she did the best she could and she got us nannies, nanny after nanny paraded into my house. Black ones, white ones, fat ones, skinny ones, educated ones, non-educated ones, you name it. There were so many I can't remember the names. ALL I know is they weren't the help, they were my family, and I was theirs (or at least I thought I was). I have memories of riding in the backs of rickety old vans going to their homes (if you could call them that), hanging out with their kids in their neighborhoods, poor neighborhoods right next to our "well off" neighborhood. I didn't think anything of it. Granted, we weren't "well off" by any stretch of the imagination, so maybe I had more in common with them than I had with the people I went to school with every day, but because of my mom's work/life situation we forced ourselves into that group of "elite" who have help. Ironic isn't it, poor people who have help!

In any case, like I said, these women were my "mamas" for years and years and years, and I only remember the name of the last one "Dona Carmen", a highly educated, incredibly firm and serious elderly woman who showed us right from wrong. I heard of Dona Carmen years later, supposedly she was still around, "alive and kicking". Someone who knew our family saw her she asked about us casually I guess, etc. I wonder if they know how much they meant to us. I wonder if they considered themselves family, I wonder if they think of us as "lost loved ones" too. And then I wonder much more than that. I wonder if this is what I want for my children, to leave a trail of "lost loved ones" everywhere they go. I almost can't bear for them to go through that pain of loving someone and losing them after a few years. I decide in a crazy moment I want to be a stay at home mom, shield them from all that pain. But then it hits me, I've ALREADY put them through that. With the opening of the new day care here in downtown which forced us all to leave the old day care they have all gone through this already, left a bunch of teachers (you can change the name but it's the same thing, the "mamas" who spend most of the day with them) who they loved dearly so that they could pick up their little lives and build them somewhere else. And then it hits me again, puzzle after puzzle of this piece starts coming together. That's why I've been so sad about leaving that day care behind. That's why I cried from the day I found out we were getting kicked out to the day I took the kids for the last time to a day two weeks ago when I dropped by to say hi. I am sad for MY "lost loved ones" -- it brings up feelings from my childhood, from loving a Dad from afar, loving a Mom who wasn't there most of the time, loving nannies that came and went, loving a sister who became a mom (my mom) when our last nanny left and then left herself for college. How many more times do we have to go through this? At least once more apparently, for we'll shortly be leaving this day care and moving them to Geneva, perhaps with a nanny. In the middle of my crying fit last night I decide no they will not have a nanny, I cannot do this to them. But then I am powerless to stop it. They have already lost, and sadly they will lose again.

Through my work I've recently been in involved in this "Thank you Mom" campaign, a very moving tribute to moms all over the world. Well, I would like to now extend that definition just a little bit... Thank you Nannies. Thank you Teachers. Thank you Caretakers. Thank you strong women who help shape our children, and who helped shaped me. I may have forgotten your names, but I will never forget your influence over me.

The Help

2010-03-01T04:38:00.004+01:00

I should really be sleeping right now because Jose is off to Geneva for the whole week so I should be saving up all my energy for dealing with the munchkins for 5 more days all by myself (have I ever said how much I appreciate single moms after having kids?) but I can't stop my mind from thinking I'm in the middle of reading "The Help" and I thought I would be so "been there done that" with another book about civil rights (hasn't it all been written already) but for some reason this book is really getting to me -- it's making me angry, sad and happy all at once. Angry about how cruel human beings can be (not necessarily borne from evil but maybe just sheer ignorance) but it's also showing me that deep down this is a story about humanity and love and relationships just like every other wonderful story that has ever been written and I think that's what has me all tied up in knots. It's about souls in need reaching out to other souls in need and if that isn't what life has taught me in my 35 years I don't know if I'll ever learn anything worth learning.

And Gabi is sleeping here in my bed (that's her treat when Daddy's out of town -- well OK let's face it she's always sneaking into my bed whether Daddy's out of town or not!) and we are all uncomfortable here in this bed -- we are all gathered in about 1/3 of the bed (me, the cat, Gabi, and her new bunny doll who apparently has multiple personality disorder because her name changes all the time, although at least we know it's a she so that's comforting). So anyway we're all curled up in a 1/3 of the bed so I know I will barely be able to sleep tonight and Jose's half across the world (or in process of getting there) but right here I know I got my loved ones so close to me I can hear their breathing (except for the bunny doll of course) and that's all I need to know. I am also already starting to face the sadness we'll feel in leaving Cincinnati behind in a few months after it's been so kind to us for the last 6 years so I guess I'm overly sentimental. Well let's face it I'm always overly sentimental, I just have different excuses for it every day....

And if you are in town and want to help with the kids so I can get some exercise done this week (although not nearly as trascendental a task as integration it does feel almost monumental to me to make it through this half-marathon in one piece) please drop a line...I could sure use the help. :)

To their moms, they'll always be kids

2010-02-11T18:26:00.003+01:00

This is another effort I've been involved with at work which I'm really proud of. When the Mom stands up from the stands I ALWAYS get teary eyed, no matter how many times I watch it. As a mom I find it so insightful.

Happy New Year

2010-01-15T21:31:00.002+01:00

Haven't written in forever, just before the holidays things were absolutely crazy at work with the relaunch of the web site I'm responsible, then we went on vacation for almost 3 weeks. What a wonderful time it was. Warm weather, family, and good food. I've decided that's all you need in life. Of course that conflicts with having to work, and that's the struggle I go through every New Year, when my husband and I ask ourselves "what are we doing here?", "why are we not closer to family?". Every year we make an effort to make those things happen, and every year it seems to slip by without us getting there. But at least we have our immediate family and jobs that are interesting and always keep us on our toes. And this year we were a little extra lucky that we found amazingly prices tickets to go back to Peru at the end of March. So at least that brings us a little bit closer to family, if only for a few days. So for now, Happy New Year and may all your dreams come true in 2010.

CSDW Holiday eCard

2009-12-15T22:42:00.001+01:00

I worked on this project as part of my new job and I'm really proud of it. If you have some last minute holiday cards you need to send go to csdw.pgecards.com or llt.pgecards.com and send an environmentally friendly one! Pass along to everyone you know so that we can keep doing great stuff like this.

Back from Disney

2009-11-30T18:14:00.004+01:00

We got back from Disney yesterday. It was such a fun but exhausting trip! Kids melting down all the time due to lack of sleep and overexcitement. That's what life is all about!

We went to Hollywood Studios on the first day, got totally rained on at Animal Kingdom on the second day, did Magic Kingdom on the third day (Thanksgiving), to be later joined by Jake, Titi Ge and Uncle Tommy for Thanksgiving Dinner. Then on Friday (4th day) we hit Epcot with Jake, and finally on Saturday we went back to Magic Kingdom with everyone to be topped off by dinner at the Cinderella Castle for the grand finale.

The kids were exhausted yesterday, Sebastian slept like 14 hours and I couldn't move after 8 pm. Poor Abuela Patty was in bed a good 2 days and not able to go to the parks with us. Everyone is coughing like crazy, and we're home all alone for a few more days until motorcycle Grandpa comes to visit on Thursday.