stones and flower shaped moulds

How (weird) am I?

Today three different people asked me how I was. I mean really asked me - not just a reflex question or polite reply to me asking them.
Isn't that weird? Weird that I noticed (although to be honest, people are mostly asking about Emma or family abroad these days...) weird that it happened, weird that I felt weird being asked, just weird.
I figure, either I look really awful/scary/worried/sad now or I actually look less so, meaning I guess that I look more approachable and people actually dare the question now.
I'm not really sure which one it is. Nor am I sure which option I like better.

Emma eating away

In case you're wondering those are veggie ravioli with yogurt sauce.

some perks of an expat spouse life

Last year, mainly because of the disaster area our first flat in Vienna turned out to be and Emma and I consequently spending 5 months in Geneva, we didn't really get out and about much as a family. This year, we're planning on visiting a few places and people before we head off for our yearly sea-side in Croatia hopefully in sunny September.*

Like for example, this month, Emma and I will be visiting family in Belgrade (I hear it's as snowed in as Vienna is) and more family and friends in Geneva in March (hopefully spring will be right around the corner by then) and then, in April, we're going to join Steph and extend his working week abroad to a week-end play... in Istanbul. **
The exciting thing is that Emma and I can take a day to visit friends in sunny Izmir!!!

After all, Emma-in-my-belly spent quite some time there and it's only right that she should meet the friends whose voices she heard, taste the salads at Café Brownie's once again (...and maybe even a delicious cheese börek by our then obgyn's office or any of the yummiest fresh fruit and veg... I'm getting hungry must be dinner time!)
I knew this not-working-outside-the-home-expat-spouse status had some advantages...


* and maybe even somewhere sunny and warm next year so as to make the winter seem ever so slightly shorter ... but that's for 2010...
** oh and April in Istanbul 5 years ago is when we decided to get married! Seems like it was at least a century ago so many things have happened since!!!

the novelty of a walking toddler

Even if Emma started walking pretty late - apparently, doctors start worrying at 18 months - and hence is not exactly small at around 80-85cm her new found mobility has made her seem like such a big girl to me! Now more than ever she can unmistakably show that she has a mind of her own- like turning around and walking in the opposite direction whenever she feels like it and having us chase after her, which she thinks is absolutely hilarious. It also means that getting back from kindergarden takes forever as she tries to follow each person who responds to her "hallo"s, touches leafless branches/ holes in the wall/dents in benches and stops to exclaim "baaahh!" at the cigarette butts and chewing gum blobs on the sidewalks.

At home too, she will alternatively follow Dad into the dressing room and sit by the mirror as she watches him dress for work or come and get me in the bathroom or the kitchen.

Walking also helps her breach the communication gap when she is at a loss for words for her wishes; when she wants us to "read" with her she walks to "her" shelf in the living room picks a book and brings it to us or takes it to our "reading chair" tapping the seat with her hand so as to indicate we should sit; when she wants to go out she taps the bench at the entrance where we sit her down to put her shoes and coat on and sometimes say says "shushur" (chaussures = shoes in French) or "ko" (for "école" = school in French).

Her newest thing is to carry our empty chip bowl to the kitchen and plonk it on the counter -even if she can barely reach it- or to pick up a carrier bag and wave bye bye as she carries it off down the hall as if she were leaving on a mission or maybe just to go to work or to run some important errands...

Walking changes everything for Emma and for us.