The (long overdue) First Week

   I knew there would come a time when I had not (as) interesting things to write about and I would get around to our first week here in Switzerland. That time has come. Unfortunately, that was 7 weeks ago and I have mommy brain which means that MUCH has escaped me. I do have a few memories that stick out that are worth jotting down.

    Flying with 3 children 4 and under is a feat, let me tell you. We flew from Chicago O'Hare International Airport, which means a 4+ hour drive to get there. We arrived at the airport probably 3 hours before flight time (for international flights you are supposed to arrive 2 hours early) but that was a very good thing because it took an hour to get our tickets. I didn't know then and I don't know now what the problem was, I just know the lady spent a lot of time typing. So by the time we got through security, changed some money into Swiss Francs, and got a little food, it was time to get on the airplane.

    My mother flew over with us so we had a one to one ratio with kids. This was good, but we really could have used a fresh team to step in. The kids were wired (except for Eli) and the adults were all drop dead tired. Eli was the best flyer- he slept through all of the first flight and some of the second. Jackson was the worst flyer, but he did have a pretty bad cough at the time so when he did try to sleep, he just coughed the whole time on the first flight. He sat by Grandma on the second flight and she says he was out before the plane took off. Johanna slept some on the first flight with her head on my leg and her legs on Kenny's shoulder- it was impressive.

    As I think back on it, the first flight (we had a layover in London) was a foreshadowing of my time here in Switzerland. Across the aisle from me sat an older Indian (dot, not “How”) couple that just kept staring at me. I felt like they were saying with the eyes: “Go ahead and let your kids get too loud. Do it. I dare you.” I believe I was reading into it. Just a bit.

    We brought Eli's car seat, primarily so that we would have one for the car ride from Zurich to St. Gallen. When we got to baggage claim in Zurich, we picked up all our baggage, except the car seat. It was coming in on a later flight and the airport would deliver it to us in St. Gallen. I was already prepared for the Swiss persnicketiness when it comes to rules and totally expected to be told we would have to wait for the car seat. But our driver did not seem to care. I kept Eli in the Boba carrier (the driver had car seats for the other two) and we were on our way.

Our first evening in St. Gallen.

As I mentioned, my mom flew over with us, and my dad was already in Switzerland on business so they both stayed for our first week here. That was great because they watched the kids while Kenny and explored and took care of some basics setting up house things. They also took us out to eat almost every night and my dad knows a fair amount of German so we relied on his communication.

On Tuesday we all went to Constance, Germany to swim in Lake Constance, known here is the bodensee (see is lake and boden means something like low I think). The lake was invigoratingly cold. If you were going to swim laps it would have felt great, if you have a two and four year old hanging on you, it's not so fun. There was a little wading pool that the kids loved and we even stripped Eli down. He was tolerant of his first swimming experience.

One more story. We were all out to eat and Jackson wanted pickles. Dad, our Communicator, kept telling the server he wanted “gerken.” The server did not seem to understand and left. We had a conversation at the table, that maybe that wasn't the word for pickle, but Dad was pretty sure that was right. A few minutes later, the server brought half a cucumber on a plate. It did taste slightly pickled, but I also noticed in the grocery store that the sign over the cucumbers says GERKEN.

 An attempt to take pics with the brother/sister shirts by Lake Constance...not the best, but there it is.

A note on this weekend:  All we did was work on our lazy weekend skills. We did take a couple of hikes= - one each day- despite the rain and fog.  The big event is that we are weaning our children from oral fixations.  No more pacifiers, no more snugglies (the unstuffed giraffe that Jack has sucked on while sleeping since being weaned).  The funny thing is that I have thought about this and pondered when is the best time to do this? When will it be the least stressful (on me and the kids)? Kenny takes one look at Jo's teeth, sees a slight irregularity in the way they are growing in and BAM! no more paci. Well, if we take paci away, we should be fair and take snuggly away-BAM! that's done too.  2nd day has gone better than the first, we just might all come out unscathed.  I'm stopping giving Eli his paci now. No sense in going through this again someday.