This week.

 

I’m pretty glad January is over.  January is a pretty worthless month.  Actually I shouldn’t complain- I was busy planning our trip.  Which is in only 18 days!!!  Sometimes my stomach actually tingles I am so excited.  

On Monday I took Orrin in (late) for his 1-year shots.  They call them vaccinations here instead of immunizations, which makes me feel like we’re going to the vet instead of the doctor.  He didn’t appreciate his shots or the finger-poke, but he was almost just as traumatized having the doctor check his height and weight and poke him a bit.  The poor boy does NOT like strangers. 

Yesterday we had to go into Bern to get our pictures and fingerprints taken to get a new card to live in Switzerland.  I was not prepared for how cold it was outside, and so our walk from the parking area up 3 or 4 blocks to where we were going was a pretty distressing one.  Orrin didn’t have a hat, so he borrowed Hazel’s since she had a hood on her coat.  Neither Jethro nor I had a hood or hat, so our ears were freezing off, and even though Talmage did have a hat, he started crying almost as soon as he got out of the van.  The wind was just icy.  Brett met us there, and on the way back to the van, he chivalrously gave me his hat.  :)  I guess it’s finally winter here?

 

You know, it’s one thing for one of my children to be hard on clothes, but it’s entirely different to have to plead with her not to CHEW holes in her clothes.  grrr.

 

So last night Brett and Jethro went to Jethro’s parent-teacher(-student) conference.  They were gone quite a while, and when they got home I heard Brett say in a really upset, angry voice, “Get your pajamas on right now, Jethro!”  and then he came in and shook his head and muttered, “I am so ticked off with that kid.  I can’t believe it."  I was wondering what in the world?  Then I saw Jethro walk down the hallway and he was crying and Brett started to say something else, and I said, “We can talk about it later,” (as in, not in front of all the kids), and I was seriously thinking ‘what is going on?!” and I was getting so worried.  And THEN, they said, “JUST KIDDING!”    Apparently, they schemed together to trick me, and I was totally taken!  Jethro even put water on his eyes and his face was red just from being out in the cold.  Rascals!!!

Jethro’s teachers only had good things to say- they said his German (BOTH Germans, they pointed out- Hochdeutsch and Schwyzerdütsch –High German and Swiss German) is just soaring.  Brett and Jethro took sleds on their way to the school, and on their way back they sledded down the hill several times.  Jethro said, “I wish parent-teacher conferences were every night.

Last night Talmage whacked his head on something and started crying and he said, “Now one of my superpowers is dead!  But just one.  I have lots of superpowers in my room.” 

 

Jethro has been into jets lately.  He has written a couple different ‘reports’ on different jets, complete with pictures, like the F-14 Tomcat, and the F-22 Raptor.  He even made versions in English AND German so he could show them to different friends who speak one or the other.

I should be doing the dishes or cleaning the bathroom.

 

On Tuesday Ethne’s class went to the forest, and apparently she got really cold and so the teacher called Brett, who called me, to go pick her up.  Her feet were wet and she also wet her pants, and Brett said she was throwing a fit when her teacher called.  It’s true that her boots are a bit too small, but I kindof don’t want to buy new ones just for the last bit of this winter, when we could possibly be moving this year.  Does that make me a bad mom?

Migros (one of the main grocery stores here) started a new promotion-thingee (remember Nanos?) called Animanca.  Every time you spend 20 francs, they give you one of the little stone-thingees that you can collect or put on a string around your neck and you can get special ones only on certain days.  So yesterday was one of those special days, so Jethro begged and begged me to go to Migros to buy groceries and get the ‘joker.’  There were sticky notes all over the house reminding me that Feb. 1 was the day for jokers at Migros.  I kindof love the ads they have.  I can only find one online, but if I can get a picture of the other ads sometime I will- it has more wild children/animals :

Seriously, if you run a business, you should start some little collection gimmick targeted to kids.  It works!