Recently I sold my Mummy Bike. It was bought when my son was just over a year, complete with bike seat and basket. At that time we were living in a small town not far from the Dutch border so the sturdy frame, big wheels and huge handlebar were more important that the weight of the bike. Particularly as we had no hills to climb, I could cruise along nicely. Since moving to Geneva I had only used the bike a couple of times and it was so damn heavy. We had a trip last year to Lac d’Annecy which was fun and not too hard going (except getting the…

It is Mothering Sunday today, although we are not really celebrating it. Having spent the last 18 years abroad, all of my Mother’s Days have been celebrated on a different day. It is getting very complicated now as UK celebrate on one day, the Swiss and the Germans on another and the French on yet another day. So it happens that I can be wandering around a town centre and am struck by the cards and signs in the shop windows advertising the approaching Mother’s Day. At which point I fall into a short-lived panic that I have forgotten before realising that it is the wrong country. My mum should…

I recently took the children to Manor in Vesenaz to buy a comic each. They hummed and hawed and the old lady who works in the newsagent came over. I was worried that she would be annoyed at them taking so long and looking at all the comics. She started to chat to my daughter about what kind of comic she liked and if she liked Barbie. I listened fascinated as I always do when my children speak French, I cannot believe how fast they have learnt. When we were leaving my daughter asked for sweets and I said that since we had already bought comics, we would buy sweeties…

Son caught in the act by daughter using my mobile phone. Yesterday we were invited to husband’s colleagues house for Kaffee und Kuchen and in that time DS managed to terrorise our dog, draw on their glass coffee table with felt tip pens (wiped off luckily) and then finally hid the key of the loo. Soon the colleagues and I were outside in the neighbours’ garden, searching the hedge where he told us that he had hidden in, while husband tried to get son to tell us exactly where he had hidden the key. I was on my tummy on the ground searching the undergrowth when daughter told me that he…

… as a hairdresser since son does not like going to the salon  

As I have posted, DD was soooo excited to finally be a Wackelzahnkind. She spent ages wobbling it back and forth, hoping it would fall out. We went out for a meal with Oma and Opa when the visited and when DD bit on a bit of pizza she said that her tooth was really sore. She stuck to the spaghetti bolognese after that, but was very happy to note that her mouth was bleeding. On our way home in the car, DD gave a shout, “MEIN WACKELZAHN IST DRAUSSEN!” and proudly showed off her tooth and the resulting gap. She was even more excited to realise a day or…

DD had the results of her first test in school, Evaluation de Mathematique. We were delighted to see that she got 37 out of a possible 41 points. Considering that she has only been at the school for a month and the lessons are in French, that is absolutely fantastic and we are very proud of her.

… endlich! In Germany the wobbling of the first tooth tends to coincide with the start of school, so it is an important rite of passage. They call the pre-schoolers the “Die Wackelzahnkinder”. DD has been waiting (im)patiently for aaaaages, as many of her friends in Kindergarten already had lost teeth. Even S. who is a year younger had a Wackelzahn. It was most upsetting. Recently she began complaining that her mouth was sore and after some investigation we discovered that one tooth is wobbly. She was so pleased. Since then the questions have ranged from, “can I eat this apple or will it make my Wackelzahn fall out?” to…