Adwoa und Ama

We had a really nice week in Massachusetts, which included introducing J to lots of people, including her Aunt Deb, her Uncle David, and her great-grandmother, Nana.

On Thanksgiving day, there was a big crew at my Aunt Margie & Uncle Peter’s house in New Hampshire– everyone was there from their family and ours. Four generations enjoyed a delicious meal and a chance to catch up on all the changes in our families.

This time, E was big enough to play with her second cousins, Big E and H. They had races around the kitchen on “motorcycles.”

Here is a picture of the two Lizes (the other is my cousin Doug’s wife), and our daughters who are a week apart. Although you might guess that J is the older of the two, baby S is.

You can also see that Wrigley, S’s older “brother” got into the picture, too.
(Thanks to my brother, Dave, for the two pictures above…. )

Before we headed to New Hampshire for the big feast, we were able to see a bunch of our feathered friends up close at my parents’ house.. and some furry ones, too. We hope that E didn’t make the connection between the turkeys we saw walking through the backyard in the morning and the thing we called “turkey” at dinner…
If you are interested, you can see a video of turkeys here.

Overall, it was a really nice trip. It was great to see everyone and to have a chance to relax in an English-speaking environment again! We enjoyed our trip to Target, as you can imagine. And reading the paper was a great simple pleasure. E was on a bit of an odd time schedule while we were there, which meant that she got up early. Lucky for her, Nanny gets up early, too. So E would ask to “play with Nanny” as soon as she woke up, while Mommy & Daddy still slept. She and Nanny had their breakfast together each morning. Later in the morning, E would “exercise” with Granddaddy, which included even going on his treadmill. We were all spoiled on the trip, not least E. She had a lot of fun.

We got home very early Sunday morning and took a big nap for the rest of the morning. We’re all pretty much finished with jet lag now, I think. Michael developed a fever and congestion just before we got on the plane in Boston, but he seems to have recovered now. We are all well.

We owe you all some pictures, but here’s what we’ve been up to….

Matt, Becky, & K left on Monday, October 30th. We had a fantastic visit with them and miss them already. E is still asking about them, almost every day. Wednesday, November 1st was a holiday, and it was nice to relax and get our lives in order a bit. Thursday, November 2nd was J’s first day at the Kinderkrippe (daycare) where E has gone since April. E definitely likes having her sister with her and it certainly has been easier for us to just drop off and pick up at one place, rather than two. On Friday of that week (November 4th), E and J’s “school” had a Laternenfest. This is a celebration of St. Martin. (I copied this description from a website:)

“According to history and legend, St. Martin was a Roman mercenary who encountered a beggar one freezing night. He had nothing to offer him, so he cut his cloak in half to share with the beggar. His tale of compassion spread throughout the country, and later Martin was nominated Bishop of Tours.

The celebration commemorates St. Martin and marks the beginning of the winter season. The lanterns that the children carry through the street are meant to protect them from the darkness of winter. ”

E had made her own Laterne at Kinderkrippe, and they had made one for J, as well. We walked through the neighborhood around the school holding the lanterns (lit by bulbs, not candles) and then came back to the school for a small bonfire with Laterne songs. E knows a few of these and it was really fun to hear her sing with the whole group of adults and children– much like Christmas caroling. There was “glühwein” (hot spiced wine) for the adults and a warm spiced orange juice drink for the kids. They also had some traditional sweet rolls which we enjoyed. We saw some of the parents of E’s friends, all of whom are really nice to us. Many speak English really well. It was a very nice evening.

The next morning, we went to Brussels. It is a 3.5 hour drive without traffic, but we did run into some on the way. We went to an Up with People show and alumni reception in Brussels but also took some time to walk around the city. It is a nice city with some interesting architecture, especially in the Grote Markt which was the main town square hundreds of years ago. We drove back home Sunday afternoon and were making really good time when E got sick. Poor girl. She got sick 3 or 4 times in the car and was pretty miserable, but really brave. No tears, even. Each time, we stopped the car and changed her clothes– a bit of a challenge, given that we were only gone overnight, so we didn’t have a lot of clothes with us. I was beating myself up for being a bad mom by letting her eat too much chocolate in Brussels… since Belgium is famous for its wonderful chocolates, we all had more than we normally eat… I thought that must be the reason. We got home just before 7 and literally 5 minutes after we got home, Michael got sick. Ugh. Somehow, he managed to give E a bath and get her to bed in between trips to the bathroom. I got the stuff unpacked from our trip, cleaned up the house a bit, and was feeling quite lucky that I had dodged a bullet. Then, at 10:00, it hit me, too. E was not sick again after we got home, but Michael and I were up all night making quick trips to the bathroom. Not fun at all. We all stayed home on Monday and Michael felt well enough to go back to work that afternoon. I did not. But by Tuesday, we were all fine and went back to our respective places for the day. We were very lucky that J did not get sick, too. That can be really scary. Because J didn’t get sick, we are inclined to think that we three got some sort of food poisoning. The only thing that all 3 of us had, though, was hot chocolate at the hotel for breakfast. E had a pot, but Michael and I each took some of it. It is possible that it wasn’t food poisoning, but was a stomach bug. If so, J has some really great protection going on.

Over the past week, J’s sleeping had gotten even worse, waking up every hour or so to fuss a bit. That was not fun. But last night, she did really well– sleeping from 7:30 to 6:15 with one bottle at 2 AM. That’s doable. We will be glad when we don’t have to get up at all in the night, but once is manageable. (Easy for me to say, Michael got up last night… tonight is my turn).

So… we are all well. Sorry we haven’t posted in so long. And yes, we owe you some pictures.

We had a really laid back and slow weekend this past weekend, which we really needed.