A snack in an air-conditioned cafe

Bye bye Geneva (and cousins)...

(from left to right) Emma, Sasha, 

William and Lana with Tara presiding over them all ;-)

It was really nice to see you and get to know you a bit. And thank-you for happily keeping yourselves busy and thus giving us some child-free time ;-) 

See you next year...

Actually one of the best developments of this summer has been that William and Emma have actually started to play on their own now - together but also each by themselves - leaving me a bit more time when we are home. Ah. Finally.  I can just picture it. I will come home and once shoes are off and hands are washed I will send them off to play and serve myself a drink and look through the mail or flip through the latest Living etc. and only 20 minutes later begin making dinner. Sigh. Bliss. 

Visting cousins in the south of France

About this time last week we drove down to the south of France near Avignon to a little village called Apt to visit my sis and brother in law and their three little ones, T, L & S (who were on hols there from Singapore). 

The drive down was quite quick (we left early to avoid traffic) but the weather on the way way horrible!

 

Luckily the very next day, the sun was out and we could enjoy the local colours and smells at the farmer's market

William enjoying Daddy and his hat

The buildings are all quite charming if run-down

Emma and her cousins T & L

The house (of which I have not even got a pic for some reason?!) 

and garden are beautiful!

My sis and brother-in-law L & D (with William peeking in the back)

Our fish chef and selector of all yummy things (from tapenade to rosé); D.

The girls and S. ready for lunch while William is still playing

All 5 cousins! Aged 8 to 2

 We had a lovely and relaxing time- And now for our last week in Geneva before we head back to Athens!

Happy Birthday Emma!

On Sunday we celebrated Emma's fifth birthday (for the third time) with family here in Geneva and Emma was delighted and lovely.

There was a tiny bit of squabbling as to who (Emma or William) would hand out the cake  but they managed to both be very helpful in the end. 

Here are Emma and William at Emma's (second) birthday celebration at the French language summer camp in Athens last week. Emma first celebrated her birthday in June with her classmates before summer break.

I love Greek take away dinners!

Mint meatballs with lemon juice, tzaziki, roasted aubergine salad, zucchini fritters, stuffed peppers or vine leaves... Yoghurt and fruit. What's not to love?!

Oh these Greeks! or how not to name your baby in my opinion

Emma has befriended some Greek girls in her French language summer camp here in Nea Erythrea, which is great because a) she really missed spending some time with girls and b) it's good for her to spend some time with other children than her best (boy)friend F. c) she is eagerly picking up some Greek. 

Anyway, back to my point; she has been telling us about these girls but some of their names sounded quite strange to us and we were not sure whether or not she was getting them  right. Last night she was telling us about a young girl called Geopat - this didn't sound very Greek to me but Emma insisted. 

Today, once the correctness of the name had been confirmed,  I asked the teacher whether Geopat meant something in Greek (as is often the case with names here). As it turns out, it does not and it is not even Greek at all; the little girls parents could not decide on a name for their young baby girl and so decided to make a medley of theirs GEOrge/PATricia.

I wonder if Emma would have liked to be called SteSan?!

Negroponte resort Eretria

William and Steph enjoying the pool

Siblings

Emma and William happily competing for sharing their apple juice.

Holiday fun at Evia

Apero (chips) by the pool

Hot Sunday

It's 10: 20AM Sunday morning and 30.7°C !!!  So here's how we roasted through it:

Some arts and crafts indoors...

 ***

Some Mediterranean veggies for lunch... & BBQ

 

Freshening up in the pool... oh sorry, no pics of that one ! was too busy in the pool!! but I can tell you that Emma is nearly swimming all by herself and that William needs nearly as much time to get into the cool water as I do!

 ***

Frozen yogurt yummmy! I could have it 3 times a day!!! Luckily you can top it with loads of fresh fruit and make it relatively healthy ;-)

 ***

 cuddles and kisses

Hope you had a good Sunday too!!!

Week 2 in Geneva

Week 2 in Geneva is proving slightly less stressful; for one thing Emma is no longer vomiting, the garbage chute is empty and clean (which means I can use it for nappy disposal - yay!!!), the shower drain unplugged and the washing machine running again. (That all added up to a LOT of stress last week!!)

Emma and Will have also gradually gotten used to spending more time together, sharing me as well as a bedroom and attention from family and friends. I am getting used to managing them all on my own - even if it means getting up extra early to shower and get at least a sip of coffee before having to answer a million questions as to what we will be doing today and who we will be seeing all the while trying to persuade William that honey puffs taste just as good when eaten with a spoon. 

Emma seems happier and less anxious and is at least expressing jealousy openly now (I want to stay with XX alone and you take Will to the park!) which I think is a positive sign. 

Also, we have gotten into more or less of a routine here I guess and while we go to a park or pool every day I am working hard on managing a bit of "me time" whether it's a phone call or meeting up with a friend or stopping by a shop I like or walking a bit.

Today the weather was really heavy and cloudy but we stopped by the Carouge fountains after ice-cream at Gelato Mania to cool off a bit. 

Steph is due to join us on Friday and we will be flying back together. Phew! I hope things will continue to improve and go smoothly throughout the summer.

Update from Geneva

So, the weather has not been as awful as the weather man had predicted, but it has been humid and heavy and we are looking forward to the predicted storm to break the tension in the air. 

Other than that, Emma has turned into William's Mum - sometimes helpfully but often annoyingly as she is obviously not equipped for the job at the grand age of nearly 5. This frequently results in her fighting his growing independence; not letting him put "his" groceries in the fridge or his things in the laundry basket but taking them from him and doing them in his place which ends up in William having a massive fit.
I am finding this exhausting and no amount of explaining that helping is good but that he needs to also learn to do by himself/ he has a Mummy/ asking her to do her own "jobs" is getting through. 

I think part of it is jealousy (because he is requesting more attention) and part is wanting to compete with me or replace me (as in be a Mummy herself - don't all girls play that?) which I think is part of development of push/pull loveyou/love you not in between a mother and daughter. But I am struggling to have enough praise and energy to fill Emma's cup on my own. It's as if no matter how much I listen, answer, explain, encourage. play, tease, tickle, it's never enough - she always needs more of me. And then I just can't anymore. 

Will on the other hand is increasingly independent and so requires running after and catching and also frequent saving from the mischief he has gotten himself into.  Actually, I often need to save a house-hold object from Will as he unplugs/dismounts/ opens everything! 

Oh well. 

 Anyway, Will decided to poo in the potty all by himself for the first time yesterday. 

Here he is just afterwards

and here are Emma and Will on the merry-go-round in the centre of town

Tomorrow is Friday and Steph will be joining us for the week-end! Yay!!!!

Thank-you & have a great summer!

Today is the last day of school and so yesterday Emma, William and I made some thank-you cards for their teachers and other staff. 

The top row are William's and below are Emma's.

Tomorrow we fly to Geneva! Boarding at 6h20 am!!! AGH!

More pics of Emma's end of year show

Emma's french group performed the hare and the tortoise fable - Emma played the totoise.