Boricua en la Lima

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.   :)

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 w...

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!).

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...

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...

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 th...

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 ...

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. ...

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...)

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...

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". ...

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...

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?

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 Gab...

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.  L...

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 ri...

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.

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 ab...

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 thro...

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...