Dan and Em's Blog

I’m working on turning over a new leaf in terms of being flexible (especially with the family schedule), so when Dan suggested that we eat breakfast out this morning, I went along with it, even though it totally blew our busy schedule of chores and house cleaning.  We had a lovely time, and still managed to get to the grocery store and do a bit of laundry and organizing before nap time.

It was important, after all, that we keep our afternoon free, because we had plans to go to the zoo today.  I mentioned it to Benjamin earlier in the week and he has been talking about it non-stop ever since.  He would wake up in the morning and ask if we were going to the zoo today.  Then, all day, he would periodically tell me that we couldn’t go to the zoo today because we couldn’t go without Daddy, and Daddy had to work.

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I am constantly being asked for directions.  Without exaggerating, I’m probably stopped and asked for directions 30-40% of the times I walk out of my front door.  I think it’s because I live in a very touristy area, I kind of look like I could be Austrian, and I don’t look intimidating (usually).  But it really happens all the time.

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When you’re a stay at home mom, you don’t get sick days.  I knew, when I started staying home with my kids, that this was one of the benefits of a “regular” job that I’d miss the most.  When I’m sick, I only want to curl up on the couch, watch mindless tv and drink ginger ale until I feel better.  Not a lot of opportunities to do that in my current occupation.

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We don’t have as fixed a schedule here in Vienna as we did in the US.  I was pretty strict with our family schedule at home — here, I’m trying to turn over a new leaf in terms of flexibility, and we’ve also been here for not quite two months (during which time we’ve lived three different places) so we just don’t have things settled yet.

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Benjamin and I have a ritual in the evenings.  Sometime between dinner and bedtime, I’ll turn to him and say, “Benjamin, what was your favorite part of today?”  And he’ll say, “Um . . . my favorite part of today was . . .” and he’ll tell me.  It’s usually something we played together, someone we talked to or something really neat that we saw or did.

It’s always interesting to hear what he picks out from his day.  I love seeing him contemplate it, and the huge smile that lights up his face when he tells me.  (It’s also a great exercise, for both of us, in putting our mental energy towards the best parts of our day, rather than the alternative.  I can only imagine the wonders this will do for his psyche if he starts now.  Imagine a lifetime of remembering your favorite moment in a day, every day.)

After I ask him about his favorite part, he asks me about mine, and I tell him.  But, truthfully, one of my favorite moments is having that conversation with him.  That would be a boring answer every day, though, so I usually pick something else.

We went out this morning for coffee and breakfast, which is fast becoming a weekly tradition here.  After a rainy couple of days, today was beautiful:  sunny and cool, so we decided to walk “the long way” for breakfast (i.e., a 10 minute walk instead of 2) and we came upon the Stadt Fest Wein (Vienna City Festival) at the Hofburg.

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In French, they don’t have “dust bunnies”, they have “moutons” (sheep).  I feel this is a much more accurate description of what we have rolling around our apartment these days.  (They’re beginning to approach the size and aerodynamics of tumbleweed.)

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What a day.  I woke up this morning to my first humid day in Vienna.  (That is something I do NOT miss about home.)  It made the heat so much more unpleasant.  The kids and I were all sticky and grumpy by 10:00 in the morning.  It was forecasted to get warmer, and I was imagining just being miserable by mid-afternoon.

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