Potty, dolphins, biking and the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

In all honesty it has not been the best week-end: mainly the kids were just crazy impossible (pink marker on the couch and poo smeared in the toilet bowl for the billionth time made me crazy) and whiny despite a really nice visit to the zoo and the dolphin show followed by an afternoon at the beach. 

The dolphins at the Attiko Parko show

 flamingos at the Attiko Parko Zoo

I think we really need to get some time away from them -  we are so tired of repeating the same things over and over again that it's just driving us nuts (and how crazy am I to be going to Geneva with them for 2 weeks on my own with no camp or day-care huh???!!!)

They say it takes a village to raise a child and being expat parents makes that difficult.  Sure we have kindergarden and all the International friends we make along the way and a bi-monthly baby-sitter but I could just really use a week-end without kids from time to time... (sigh) We could just sleep in, talk around coffee for an hour in the morning and read a magazine or just spend hours wandering on Internet...(sigh again) and just be in SILENCE.  Just some time-off. And the kids would love to spend a week-end with their grand-parents too I am sure!

Still, Steph and I had a lovely night out on Saturday (thanks to that baby-sitter I mentioned) ; we discovered a place that actually makes real Italian Pizza (with a thin crust - not the hut or domino's stuff) and enjoyed normal conversation without 30 billion interruptions, spills and wipes and then watched a truly delightful movie: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel which was really uplifting and colourful. It practically made me want to be a healthy pensioner ;-)

Back to the kids with more positive news: on Friday, Emma did a fantastic job and biked on her own and without the training wheels. Yay! We've been going out for 20 or so minutes every day after (and sometimes before) dinner first with the training wheels and then without. At first she was just screaming in panic but once she felt comfortable that she could touch the ground and catch herself (and that I was running next to her holding the handle bar) she started to calm down enough to make progress. She still needs to practice of course but at least she now knows she can do it! Poor Will on the other hand has been left very much on his own on his balance bike and ended up getting rather upset so we'll have to make it up to him.

 Emma and I went for a Saturday morning 

orange juice and saw snails for sale!

Will is still pouting and steering away from me if I am not the one to get him out of bed (i.e. if Steph is). I then have to go out of my way to cajole my way back into his heart with songs and tickles and all kinds of tricks. He does this both mornings and after nap time if Steph gets him out of bed and not me. Of course if I do get him then he is absolutely fine with Steph. Isn't that weird?!! What a character!!

He has also been peeing in the potty! Only once a day so far.

 

It all started last week after he woke with a dry nappy for a few mornings in a row and I suggested we try the potty. It is summer after all and he seems to like the idea as he is always wanting to sit on it prior to bath time. 

 

So off we went and now we go there every morning.  So far he has only peed in it in the morning but I guess gradually he will use it before bath and when we come home.

I'll keep you posted.