In the Foreign Service we have lots of transient friends. I find myself saying frequently to overwhelmed moving friends “don’t stress about keeping up right now, we will touch base when the dust settles”. It seems with 2 little ones and trying to dive in to get life established that it is taking longer and longer for the dust to settle as the yrs go on. There is the unpacking, that takes time, but really it’s more the getting back into routine and creating a new normal.

Kids are flexible and resilient, or so they say. I see flexibility and resilience but I also see struggle and resistance.  Jackson is very aware this time around of the friends and family we left. He is a social little guy and has been on the lookout for new friends but he misses his buddies. In addition he has added a fear of moving to his fear of monsters and the dark. At night he often has questions about when the packers will come again and if he will have to leave this house. Over the past 6 weeks or so we have seen behaviors that we never knew possible for him. Some maybe because he’s 3 but most seemed to be an outcry in his transition. Sounds dramatic but let me tell you it’s been dramatic around here. Culturally here kids are expected to be quiet and orderly. The grocery store and really any store we go into is SILENT minus some soft music. People speak very softly to each other. Imagine Jackson, Mr. Social and full of enthusiasm, experiencing his new world with constant shushing.  Recipe for some tension. We are all learning, slowly but surely. The Swiss will have to accept this American fireball of a little boy and he will have to learn when and where he needs to hold back a bit. So, I can say that for the last 4 days or so we have seen our Jackson coming back. Slowly he is softening into his normal self.

Owen’s transition has been smooth minus normal age appropriate stuff like being insane about getting down and trying to crawl, cruise, and ultimately conquer the world. He has also been in teething mode since arriving here. He is now eating table foods in addition to his baby food and he is feeling like he is so grown up having a little control with his feeding. He started signing “more” a couple of days ago and signs it with such vigor. I am so relieved that he learned it because it reduces so much of the fussing during our meals!

the face of teething

cruisin’ for a bruisin’

Seth has jumped into work here and helped them to make up for lost time with our delays. He has very interesting cases here. I know he enjoyed his work in Bogota and in particular he misses his colleagues but I think here he has more variety to his work. He will have to write more about that later. I don’t want to even hint at some of his stories because I know he will want to tell them.   Overall he is settling in and the best part is that his commute is like 15 mins max! Can’t beat that! On Friday nights we often take the tram down and meet him for dinner downtown. Downtown Bern is all of 10-15 mins away.

the view at the end of our street

My transition has been tough this time. I find myself being overwhelmed with my own transition and helping everyone else in the family to get settled. I have started going to a Wed morning playgroup and joined an expat mom’s group on yahoo to get connected. We have not yet settled into a church and that I find is where I normally do a lot of my networking.  I realize since we have done this before that it is all just a process to make friends and for this to feel like home. It takes time. I miss my girl friends and in particular realize now more than ever how I relied so much on times with girl friends to get advice and feedback on parenting and life in general.  I find some days I feel like living in such a beautiful place as Bern is similar to having a really good baby. I feel like I can never complain about having a bad day because people would just laugh like how could we possibly not just be in heaven living in Switzerland. It is gorgeous! I agree! And we are enjoying it tremendously. But it is lacking our friends and family so for a people person it can feel very lonely! Our car comes tomorrow so I should feel a little relief in terms of daily tasks like having to hike for groceries with 2 boys!   We had a visit from our friends the Towle’s from Bogota when we first arrived and the Bowen’s spent the past weekend with us so that has been nice to have some friends on our same continent!

Over the coming days I will backtrack and put up some posts to catch us up on home leave pictures and our first weeks in Switzerland. Oh yes, and the house. The dust is finally settling around here!

We said our final goodbyes in VA which was just not fun. We loved our time in VA so although we are excited about this new chapter of life we were very sad to go.  We made it out of DC relatively in one piece….or maybe more in 4 pieces with lots of luggage. But sane nonetheless. We flew to Houston last Friday and have been in Friendswood since then. We have had a nice relaxing time with Seth’s family. Jackson has had lots of great time playing with his cousins. They all seem to have endless energy and have gotten along really well. Seth’s parents have a large window by their kitchen table and during meals Jackson can spot some of his Grandan’s turtles outside the window. This is proving to be a challenge in keeping Jackson in his chair to eat, but he can’t get enough of the turtle entertainment.

This afternoon we will drive to the Ft Worth/Arlington area to be with my family. We are looking forward to our time there. This trip is faster that we originally planned but we are trying to make the most of every minute! We plan to pack in the fun! It’s hard because with limited time we can’t do everything we would normally do and see everyone we would normally see.  If you are some of our friends that we aren’t getting to hang out with because we have been kidnapped by family, that is just a good excuse for you to come to Switzerland!

I will add some pictures when we get our camera and hook ups in the same place at the same time We also want to blog about Jackson’s 3rd Birthday that was this past Friday the 23rd but want to do it when we have time and pictures! Happy Birthday to our little big boy!

Seth and I had a fabulous trip to Aruba over the weekend. We had been planning it for months and were so excited! We had a few hiccups in the airport when we got kicked out of a restaurant (Crepes and Waffles) because Seth insisted on bringing in McDonald’s to eat while I ate there. That was against policy! We made our way to immigration and security and learned that Colombia has adopted the liquid rules and almost lost about $100 worth of toilitries and makeup. (The day before I realized I was out of contact solution…here in Bogota it was $20 USD!) I could not lose that! Anyhow, they saw our diplomatic passports and quickly returned everything to the bag that they had spread out on the counter. Phew.  We also got dip privileges of getting to wait in the VIP lounge which they pronounce (VEEP).

We made it to our hotel and had a great weekend! We ate lots of yummy meals complete with full conversations uninterrupted by an enthusiastic boy, soaked up the sun by the pool and went on a snorkeling excursion. We ate in outdoor cafes which we can’t do here and walked freely around without worrying about security! It was very relaxing and much needed after a few huge life events over the past few years that have been less than easy…the main things being Jackson’s cancer diagnosis and 2 moves! Our only complaint was that our hotel room was so noisy because of the room above ours.  Sounded like they were moving furniture and doing construction all the time. Seth called down to the desk and they lied and said it was a vacant room. After 2 nights of 24 hour noise Seth went upstairs to find a kitchen. Hardly vacant. The floor above us had a 24 hour buffet for elite customers so they never stopped chopping, blending, etc! They knocked off the cost of one of our nights when they realized the tiny white lie about a vacant room hadn’t been true enough to trick us! In addition they had added new fire alarms and we had a few false alarms, one at 2 am!

We missed Jackson but he had a blast at home with his Mia. He was very excited to have us back and closely watches when we leave the room to ensure we don’t try to sneak away again anytime soon!

On our way to the airport we went to Taco Bell. We had both been looking forward to it since we can’t get it in Bogota. When we walked in we both looked at each other like “this isn’t exactly the cleanest place…”, we proceeded to say over our food “gosh, I sure hope we don’t get sick.” We ate, rushed to the airport and I got hit with the worst food poisoning ever at about 8 pm. I am just now starting to feel a little bit better. If you ever have those gut feelings (pun intended) about a restaurant do not eat it!!!! I won’t be eating Taco Bell again for quite some time!

Despite the few hiccups we had a great time together! Here are a few pictures!

Texas de Brazil! We highly recommend it but maybe not before wearing a bikini!  You really want to get the most out of the “all you can eat.”

the beachfront

Crystal clear water

One of the iguanas we met running freely

Guns up the day Texas Tech beat OSU!

watching our last Aruban sunset

Look at that white beard…we pretend we are still young! 30 is creeping up on this guy!

Overall a fabulous trip! A nice break from bleak Bogota!

Jackson and I are still in Houston for another week and a half.  Seth is holding down the fort at home, trying to dodge tear gas at the embassy and scrounging up meals as he can.  We miss him so much!

Life just isn’t the same without him…

-Seth must be the person that keeps the toothpaste tube clean and not gooey. I have discovered that since he has been gone, it is a mess!

-Whenever I pick up the phone Jackson says, “Dada?”.   Seth is so involved in Jackson’s daily routines that he has really missed him and Seth him.  I am going to have to video when he sees him again because I think he might go a bit crazy. He might try to skip naps for a week to catch up on lost time. Jackson that is.

-Cyber-parenting is the new norm in our family. We try to have Seth and Jackson visit every day if possible via webcam. We laughed the other day when Jackson headed for the electrical outlet and Seth said, “Jackson, NO”. Jackson turned, furrowed his brow, and huffed at Seth.  I don’t think cyber-parenting will work when spankings are necessary but in the meantime it is working!

-Even if home overseas doesn’t feel like home sometimes, it feels more like home when you are away for a long time. I miss our home. Our things. Our routines. Our market. Our time together as a family. You get the idea.

-Saturday morning “daddy son time” is special to all of us..especially me!! I miss getting some rest while Seth and Jackson bond. They usually walk down the hill to get bagels or croissants while I get to sleep a little extra.  I am looking forward to the next daddy day!

-Our lifestyle involves SO MUCH packing! I am in the process of repacking us right now! People have asked lately how many children we want to have. I was driving along the other day and thought…Take the number of kids we might want to have and multiply that number by 3..that is the number of pieces of luggage…2 suitcases and 1 carry on per person. That’s right…if we have 2 kids that equals 8 suitcases and 4 carry-ons for our family (10 bags total), and for 3 kids it’s 10 suitcases and 5 carry-ons (15 bags!) and yes, for 4 children it would be 12 suitcases and 6 carry-ons (18 bags). There are quite a few years until Jackson will be able to pack or carry his own luggage (car seat, toys, snacks..you get the idea)!  We are going to have to start renting a city bus to get the the airports when we go on home leave.  Don’t misunderstand…we are NOT planning on having 4 or 5 kids at this point, and we would NEVER choose not to have kids because they would require more luggage! However, Seth might have to start investing in those big flat carts with an attendant at the airport!

That’s all for now.