June

Well here we are halfway into July... but I'll do a quick reprise of June.

We went to Germany and to Switzerland in conjunction with a talk J. was invited to give in Geneva, visiting my aunt and uncle and two of my cousins (and their families). Sam and Frida met all 7 of their German second-cousins, saw castles, a cave, and two zoos, enjoyed train rides through Germany, and ate a lot of sausage and a lot of ice cream.

My aunt and uncle's house is well set up for young children, due to frequent grandchildren visits. We spent a couple of days there getting acclimated and seeing some local sights, and my aunt and uncle took excellent care of us:











We then took a train to Munich and visited the youngest of my three cousins. Sam and his cousin Lea, who's the same age, got along famously despite not knowing any words in each others' languages:









Meanwhile Frida and her cousin Hanna, who's two years older than she is, also hit it off:






Frida never fully adjusted to European time, and napped at odd times in odd places (often on benches while we were out for lunch)... and stayed up til midnight most nights. We didn't push it, figuring it'd just make things easier once we were back home.



She really enjoyed the zoos-- something we haven't done for years at home:



We took the train back to my aunt and uncle's home in southwestern Germany, and met the middle of my three German cousins there with his family. My uncle's model trains are much admired by his grandkids ansd now also by Sam:







After another couple of days, my uncle drove us to Zurich, where the oldest cousin lives with his family (and J. caught a train to Geneva). I didn't take many pics til the last day there, when J. joined us again for a day of sightseeing before we caught a plane back home:





And then... we saw Grandma and Grandpa for a couple days (they were here for Uncle D's residency graduation); J. and I celebrated our anniversary; Sam had his last week of kindergarten; we all got sick at various overlapping times; we spent a nice weekend in New Hampshire with friends (though J. spent most of it coughing and headachy); Frida settled back into daycare; Sam lounged around for a week then started camp; I got a year older; and two days ago I finally stopped feeling sick every evening after three weeks of blah. Apparently being in my late 30s includes taking longer to kick viruses out of my body. Let's hope not.

Two days before camp started, we scheduled a playdate with a former preschool classmate of Sam's, who'd be in his group at camp, but whom he hadn't seen much over the past two years since starting kindergarten (his friend goes to another school). J. and Sam met Eli and Eli's mom for ice cream, and then J. drove them all back to Eli's house where Sam stayed for a while playing. On the way over, Eli's mom asked Sam what he'd like to play with there (Sam has had quite a few playdates over there, it's just been a while). "Whatever Eli wants to do," Sam said, gallantly, then explained, "That way we both get something good. I get to have a playdate, and Eli gets to choose what he wants. It's kind of like a relationship. Actually, it's like a symbiotic relationship." Yep, that pretty much captures it.

Sam's camp involves an 8AM bus pickup on campus, where he's dropped back off again after 5, totally exhausted, tanned despite a thorough application of sunscreen every morning, and happy. Frida and I pick him up every day-- I leave work early and pick her up first, because he's too tired to do much of anything by the time I get him-- and she has been really intrigued by his school bus. "Dadah go Vam bus?" she asked, one day. "No, sweetie," I said, "The bus is for big kids." She thought for a moment. "Dadah go beebee bus? (baby bus)" she asked, hopefully. (Frida loves buses, and our bus rides are always highlights for her. But she hasn't gotten a trip in a big yellow bus ever. One day soon enough...)