Dan and Em's Blog

Last week, when my mom was visiting, she and Benjamin had a sleepover in the living room.  It made me a little jealous, so tonight, Benjamin and I are having one too.  Although I don’t know how well either of us will sleep, I’m really looking forward to the chance to curl up with my wonderful baby (who already isn’t really a baby) and have a camp out/sleepover.

It’s already been a great day — we took the boys to see their first movie since we’ve been here (Liam’s first ever).  It was really fun, although we probably won’t repeat it for a while.  (Liam got charged full kid’s ticket price of 9 Euro, making it a rather expensive adventure.)  I think we’ll probably wait to take Liam again until he’ll actually appreciate it and not sleep through most of it.  That said, of the four children in the movie theater, he was by far not the most disruptive, so it was a success.

A movie and a sleepover in the same day — sounds like a good Saturday!

People in Austria are very forthcoming with their disapproval — be it stares, scowls or comments.  This seems to be especially true when it comes to kids and dogs.  If you’re out with a dog or a small child, it’s open season for opinions.  This is actually relatively true at home, too (more so with kids than with dogs) and it starts as soon as you’re visibly pregnant — other people (typically, but not always, women older than yourself) will confront you with advice about everything from your beverage of choice to your choice of footwear to prognostications on the sex of the baby.  I remember the frustration of being confronted by complete strangers about my choices or behavior when I was pregnant with Benjamin, and thinking that it would go away once he was born.  It didn’t — and now it’s followed me to Europe!

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The changes I’m experiencing here happen slowly.  In a given moment, I usually feel like I’m still pretty much the clueless, overwhelmed fish-out-of-water I was when I got here in April.  But really, things have changed.

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I had a super mom kind of a day.  After Dan left for work, I did some laundry, vacuumed the house, got the kids changed and dressed, got myself dressed, got out the door and down the elevator, got back IN the elevator and came back up (forgot a paci), got on the train, got on another train, went through security at the UN, was only about 5 minutes late to Benjamin’s haircut appointment, dropped the boys off with Dan, did my homework and made it on time to my German class.  Whew.  And that was before 11:30.

After class, I got two fussy and tired kids onto the train, then onto another train, picked up lunch, left the train station by way of an escalator (with a stroller) because the elevator that was working at 10:30 was now broken, got them home, got B down for a nap and then entertained Liam quietly for 2 hours while B napped.  Oh, and Liam can now crawl at nearly warp speed.

I’m tired, but it was a good day.  Tomorrow:  no plans.

I love the fall — it is, without question, my favorite season, and always has been.  But, I wasn’t really prepared to greet it in August.  Waking up this morning, there was a definite change in the weather.  We’ve had cool, even chilly, days throughout the summer, but this feels less transient — this feels like fall.  Our other cool days have been gray and rainy.  Today was bright and sunny, but crisp and cool.  At the warmest part of the day, it was a little warm in the sunshine and perfect in the shade, but by this evening, it was chilly even in the sun.  Feels like October to me.

Maybe we’ll have a really long fall that fades gently into a snowy winter (because that would be GREAT).  Or maybe it will feel like January here by the time we get to mid-October.  The light is changing, the weather is changing, the wind is changing — I think summer in Vienna is winding down.

My mom left today to go back home.  I miss her already.  And, I’m a worrier, so I won’t really feel relaxed until she gets home tomorrow.

I really, really, really liked having her here and wish she was still here.  I love watching her with my kids — playing with Benjamin and getting to know Liam.  I love her company.  It is so great to be able to talk to her all day, about big and small things.  I feel like we did too many chores, too much cleaning, and not enough talking, playing and sightseeing – it’s a lesson learned for next time.  She was a great help, and a great comfort to me.  I wish she could have been here twice as long . . . or more.

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Every so often, I’m fortunate enough to have a moment where the people, the place, the circumstances all come together in just the right way.  I try to hold on to the way these feel — it’s my goal to live my life such that I experience them more and more.  (I don’t know if it’s “reality” or my perspective, but I do feel like I’m having them more often.)  Today was a great day — I had more than one of these.

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We went out and had a lovely dinner this evening in honor of Dan’s birthday at his favorite Viennese restaurant.  (Turns out it’s also now my mom’s favorite restaurant in Vienna so far.)  Good food and good company.

Afterwards, we decided to go (literally) next door to walk around the grounds of the Belvedere Palace for a few minutes before it closed.  It was a beautiful evening.  There’s something about summer evenings at dusk — the warm, moist air, with just a hint of the coolness of the coming fall — it really gets to me.  There’s something . . . exciting, expectant, about it.  Tonight was one of those evenings.  The moon was up, the sun had set, but it wasn’t quite dark yet.  We walked around a bit, showed my mom the gardens and the fountains, let Benjamin run around a bit, and then started to head out.

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One of my favorite things to eat is grilled cheese with tomato and tomato soup.  My mom offered to make it earlier in the week, but it has been a little too warm for that kind of meal.  Yesterday, however, was a little cooler, and rainy, so she offered again, and I accepted.  We had purchased everything we needed, except for bread — the bread here has so few preservatives that it won’t last more than a day or so.

So, after getting Benjamin down for a nap, and giving up on getting one for Liam, I left my mom to supervise the kids and I went down to the bakery to purchase some bread.  This isn’t as easy as it was at home.  I don’t know what kind of bread I want, there are a dozen or so options, and they’re all back behind the counter, so I can’t get a really good look or squeeze or smell them — and even if I could, I struggle with pronouncing the names.  I contemplated the options for a moment, and then gave up and decided to try my luck with English.  It actually worked out — the guy behind the counter spoke excellent English and was kind enough to use it, and to make a recommendation on “something dark and good for sandwiches”.  He thoughtfully chose a loaf for me, and I nodded gratefully, and then asked, with accompanying pantomime, if he would be able to slice it for me.  (I may not learn a lot of German while I’m here, but I will be great at charades by the time I go home.)

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After a relatively quiet day and a disastrous encounter between a glass Snapple bottle and our kitchen floor, we decided we had spent enough time in our kitchen and opted to eat dinner out.  We went to one of our favorite restaurants, which is in the next building over from ours and has a nice outside patio area, and enjoyed a lovely meal.

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