Boricua en la Lima

Yesterday we went to La Clusaz again for the last skiing of the season.  Since Sebas did so well with his first lesson and Gabi is doing so well overall we decided to only have Sebas take lessons and everyone else ski as a family. This was my first time skiing since Thanksgiving of 2010 because in Thanksgiving 2011 I got the flu on the days I was scheduled to go skiing. So as you can see in the video I'm basically back to basics and look way worse than my kids do!  Gotta love it when your kids pick up things so much faster than you do.  Ah well. This week is my last week at P&G and next week the kids are off for Spring Break so we're taking another once in a lifetime trip to Vienna/Prague/Budapest.

This weekend we took Sebas for his first skiing lesson.  We weren't quite sure what to expect but it seems that he absolutely loved it and did pretty well with it.  So much so that we're thinking about going next weekend.  Gotta take advantage of the snow as much as we can before we possibly get shipped back to America.  :)   Here's a little video clip of him during his first lesson.  After his lesson he was so hungry he ate a whole Snickers bar (which he'd never tried before) in like three bites. Anyway, since he did so well I promised that if we go next weekend I would ski too so that the four of us would actually ski.  Here's hoping I don't break anything!

On Friday we headed down from Cincinnati to San Juan to go to Jose's buddy's wedding in Dorado, PR on Saturday.  I keep telling people that when we lived in Cincinnati we would've NEVER made the long trip from Cincinnati to Puerto Rico just for a weekend.  But now living in Europe it puts everything into perspective, an 8 hour trip to Puerto Rico doesn't seem long at all!  While the weather forecast was supposed to be rainy and dreary, our friends got super lucky as they got an absolutely beautiful day!  Sunny but not too hot, beautiful sunset and an incredibly simple yet beautiful setting.  My highlights for the weekend were: A little bit of time in the beach/pool  A little bit of time with abuela from Peru   An incredibly beautiful wedding ceremony   Getting to catch up with old friends (barely but still enough time to see what they're up to!)    Incredible food (not pictured!), and Finding th...

So Jose's been in Cincinnati quite a bit since the beginning of the year.  After missing the kids (and the kids missing him) for so long we decide to take a trip to Cincinnati to come visit him.  We're having a great time going to the places they loved to eat, going to Target, getting manis/pedis, seeing old friends, etc.  We're staying at friends' which has been great too because it's like a kids' birthday party every day (and it's not my house ha ha!). Best part was that Jose's brother and father came to visit us for one night this weekend and we were able to have the four cousins together for the first time.  A photo shoot ensued, while not all the pictures came out as we'd hoped it was great to have memories like these...

Not much to report here except that this weekend in Geneva felt like Spring and we even saw the Swiss version of lady bugs start to crawl out of the ground on Saturday which is a clear sign of Spring so I hope for our sake the lady bugs are right because after having that taste of Spring I can't go back to Winter, especially the Winter we've had here in Geneva this year!  Taking advantage of the awesome weather (the SUN makes all the difference!) we went to our favorite Peruvian restaurant on Saturday where the kids could actually play outside. And on Sunday we went to the Museum and then to pizza with friends of ours who were celebrating their kid's 3rd birthday.  After that my always-prepared friend had brought loaves of bread to feed the ducks and swans so my kids squealed with delight at the birds eating their bread.  On Saturday we are traveling to Cincinnati to meet up with Jose who everyone has missed terribly.  I am also looking forward to getting cheap hairc...

Last week the kids were off school for their "mid term break" (seriously they have so many breaks I don't even know what's the purpose of each one) so we went to Barcelona to spend the long weekend and meet one of Sebas' heroes, Messi.  What can I say...amazing food, amazing weather, super relaxing time, and getting to see your kid's face jumping up and down when Barcelona made 5 goals (4 of those were Messi's)? Pure joy.  Now Jose's gone back to Cincinnati for a few more weeks which kinda sucks but the good part is we are going to visit him in Cincinnati for a week and then head to PR for a weekend wedding of one of his buddies from high school.  I don't know how to feel about the trip to Cincinnati part of me is really excited to see old friends and eat at our usual places the food that the kids have been missing so much (Friday's, Boston Market's Mac and Cheese) but another part of me feels like it's going to be sad to see everyone a...

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.

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. :)

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 be...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 tha...

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...

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. :)

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).

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 ...

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!

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 musi...

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...