Let's start at the very beginning....

Immediately after we got the big kids to school, Joey recommenced yesterday's campaign to go to the "train store."  And in my e-mail box was a mission from my Dad: go to the toy store and find a birthday gift for Alex from him.  I suspect collusion.  Well, they both got their wish, and Joey and I returned to Franz Carl Weber for the morning.

Grandpa suggested getting a kite or some other flying toy for Alex, which I love: not only is that just the sort of thing my soon-to-be 5-year-old would adore, but these toys are coming from Grandpa and Momsers Flugan.  “Flug” means “flight” in German, so a gift of flight from my side of the family is just perfect.  So I picked up a kite and a wooden helicopter and a funny wooden mobile that rather reminds me of both of Alex’s extremely playful grandfathers, the lucky child.


And Joey, he got to play with the trains.  But not to his heart's content, oh no.  I let him stay and play for a good long time, but we had to get home in time for lunch. I gave him our little "say bye-bye to the trains" routine, but instead of crawling into his stroller as he usually does, he gave me a look of absolute incredulity: "N-n-no! Train store!" And that was the beginning of the biggest fussy fit I've ever received from Joey. Back arched, screaming as I wrestled him into the stroller, screaming some more the entire length of Zürich's most fashionable street, over and over and over: "No mommy! Please! TRAIN STORE!"

Oh, that's right. He's two.

He finally settled down halfway home, to the intense relief, I'm sure, of all of the other train passengers.  I could see it in their eyes: they were thinking a little swaddling and a pacifier might be just the thing.

Well, Joey earned himself an afternoon nap, and he stayed down for a full three hours.  To Alex's intense delight: he got an afternoon all to himself, with endless books and games and coloring.

Ella didn't make it home until 4:00, about fifteen minutes later than she usually comes home.  I figured she'd had another forgetful spell and turned around to get something, or else she was playing in the snow on the way home.  But still, I was nervous, and I was just on the verge of waking up Joey to take the boys out looking for her when I saw her little pink hood bobbing over the hill.  She came running, breathlessly: "Mom, I'm so sorry I scared you! I know I did!"

Do you want to know what happened? Today she remembered her math book, and her coat, and her shoes...but she forgot to bring her own little self home.  There's a study hall after school each day, and Ella didn't realize, somehow, that the class had been dismissed, so she stayed at her desk, working on her homework, until her teacher finally thought to question her.

I mentioned her homework ritual yesterday: I thought you might be curious as to what her textbook looks like, so I scanned one of her homework pages for today. She had to learn the Swiss way of making 1s and 7s, you'll see.


This evening Dennis set our plans for our winter "sport vacation" from school.  I think I've mentioned before that hotels here seem quite unfriendly to children, with rooms to small for a three-child family. The notable exception seems to be the Kinderhotel conglomerate, located mostly in Austria, which cater especially to children.

The one we chose, in the southwest of Austria, has playfully decorated hotel rooms, an art room, indoor and outdoor playgrounds and pools, and all sorts of scheduled, price-included activities for the kids: wood-working (again!), pottery, sledding, a children's theater and dress-up corner, and a Harry-Potter themed magic class are a some that were listed on the hotel we chose. They even have ski school for ages 2 and up. I asked the three of them if they'd like to learn how to ski. Ella gave an "Ummm, that sounds scary! Probably not." But Joey was most enthusiastic: "YES! Ski ski SKI!" He managed to convince (or shame?) Ella to changing her mind.

But, and please forgive us for this, the best part is they have free babysitting during the day, while the kids do all these activities, so Dennis and I can take a day or two to ourselves to go up to the nearby ski slopes.  There are a lot of things there that we're looking forward to doing with the kids (particularly a 7 km toboggan run and ice skating on an Alpine lake: neat-o!) but oh, it'll be nice to have a couple of afternoons off.  The meals are all included as well--it sounds a little like a cruise ship, plopped in the middle of the Austrian Alps.  And at Austrian prices.

Our train trip there will take us through Saltzburg, and so we decided to pause there for a night and take the Sound of Music Tour.

Tomorrow is Friday, movie night in the Geels house.  Guess what we'll be watching!