Bern, and Suisse Toy

Dennis and I were worried about what that sedative might do to Joey, so we kept his door open last night and only slept fitfully.  I needn't have bothered: I would have heard him with ear plugs in, even, when Joey woke up, screaming that he wanted to go home.  I couldn't convince the poor little guy that he was home, in his pajamas, in his bed. He was out of his mind with fatigue.

And after that restless night, Dennis had to leave at before 7:00 to take Joey to the hospital for his operation.  Joey was beyond resistance at this point, his head on his Dad's shoulder, eyes at half-mast...until Dennis tried to put on the analgesic bandaid that would numb Joey for his iv. Joey was not amused.

The sedative they were giving Joey was only supposed to put him to sleep for twenty minutes, so the doctors administered it as soon as the doctor entered the room...and, in the end, twenty minutes ended up being much too much time.  With Joey still and silent, the doctor easily popped the ball out and sealed it up in a little canister: an unwelcome souvenier.  But although it was a very fast procedure, Dennis had to stay at the hospital until Joey woke up, and Joey ended up sleeping for over two hours, exhausted as he was.

When Joey did wake up, he much more cheerful but also completely stoned. "Daddy," he breathed, as he held his hand out in front of him, "my arms are REALLY long!"

When the boys finally came home, at about 2:00, Joey came into the apartment, calling "Mommy! My ear is better!" But where was Mommy?

While all of this was going on, I had taken Ella and Alex to the annual Suisse Toy convention in Bern.  And yes, it's totally fair that I got to go to a toy convention while Dennis spent the day at a hospital.  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Bern: We couldn't waste this beautiful day

A new playground car, with
moon buggy, space capsule,
and shooting-star slide.

It was better than sitting at home, wringing my hands.  Susannah had gone yesterday, and she said that it was totally worth the trip to Bern, so I talked it up to the kids: an enormous building, with toys and boardgames as far as you can see, and you can play with all of them.  Ella started bouncing up and down: "That must be what heaven is like!"


All of Switzerland was out and about today: the ride to Switzerland's capital is only an hour, but the train was completely full, so we spent most of the ride looking for seats and finally taking ourselves to the crowded playground car, this one outer space themed.

We haven't been to Bern yet, and I wanted to see more of the city than the interior of a convention hall, so firstI took the kids on a tram across the Aare river to Bern's famous Bear Park.

The former bear pit, which now can be rented as a venue for
cocktail parties.

The bear is the mascot of the Bernese, and they have had at least one bear in residence since 1513, almost continuously.  (In 1798, when the French invaded during the Revolutionary Wars, they had the gall to jack the bear.) But until three years ago, the bears of Bern lived in a small cement pit.  Only in 2009 were the bears finally moved to a more comfortable home along the slope of the Aare.




We spent a half-hour watching the bears and haming it up,

and then made our way back to the train station by foot.  Once again, I found myself exploring a new city on a Sunday, when everything was closed.   But the scenery was much more fun than the shuttered shops would have been.

The Bern Astrological clock

The antiquated Swiss standards of measure

This brings to mind a bit of trivia Dennis told me recently:
did you know that Napoleon wasn't really short at all? He's
only so considered because his measurement (5' 2") was
recorded in French units.  In modern units, he was about 5' 7",
which was above average at the time.  However, even during
his own lifetime Napoleon was considered short, but only because
he was always flanked by extraordinarily tall bodyguards.

The outtakes from the fountains flowed threw
open channels along the middle of the
city, into which we managed not to tumble.

The main pedestrian zone, with another decorative
fountain. The buildings were so pretty, many covered
with long, flowering vines.

The Bernese Bear, atop one of the city's elaborate
drinking fountains

Almost back at the Hauptbahnhof, we spotted a tram bound for the convention center and hopped on. The event spilled out of the exposition hall, with a carnival and some toy vendors out in front, but I urged the kids forward, promising them even bigger delights.  I wish you could have heard their gasps when the entered the building.

Want!

The convention was divided into four main halls: video games, arts and crafts, toys, and board games. I shepherded the kids toward the last, since that's my personal passion.

Each of the manufacturers had its own area, with samples of their best games out and aids there to teach you how to play. We didn't feel confident enough of our German to ask for instructions; instead we lurked and watched others play the simpler games, then taking turns for ourselves.

Of course, each manufacturer had their own games for sale, usually at market price. But Kosmos, at the end of the afternoon, set out a large table of games that they hadn't been able to move over the last few days, marked down to twenty and ten francs.  So we didn't go home empty handed.

We wouldn't have, anyway, though.

I remember, when I was small, my parents took  us kids to the Home and Gardens convention in Cleveland.  My sister and I were very easy to please: we got an enormous kick out of watching the demonstrations for miraculous dustbusters and vegetable choppers.  But better still were the tables with the free stuff...this was my first brush with the wonderful world of swag.  We ran around with our plastic bags, tossing in bottle openers and booklets and cardboard fans and, in one memorable score, an entire wooden yard stick, each (which, for years after, we used to retrieve toys from under the refrigerator).

If I had gone to Suisse Toy when I was that age, it would have blown my mind.

My lucky, lucky kids got to fill their plastic sacks with toy catalogues and paper hats and stencil key chains and little puzzles and memory games and balloons and tiny versions of real board games and badges and tattoos and special edition legos and toy cars and coloring books and dvds. I really don't feel so bad, anymore, about the kids missing out on Halloween this year.

After we'd cleaned out the board game section, we moved across the hall to the toys.  Things stopped being fun for me there, as the floor was twice as large and incredibly crowded. I was terrified of losing my kids, especially as their attentions were grabbed by ever-increasing wonders. Oh, but the kids had a wonderful time, particularly over by the legos, where they had lego games to borrow, and in the Playmobil section, where they had dozens of large play sets out for the kids to manipulate.

Juggling toys

My favorite section, "making-things-out-of-cardboard"

Building marble runs

Alex makes a fort out of Jenga bricks

We pushed and peered our way through the entire toy section and then finally escaped to the quieter arts and crafts hall, where we crouched in a corner and had lunch.  The kids were just about done for the day at this point, but Ella had enough energy to run down the aisles, one at a time, report back after each on the wonders that she'd seen.

All through the hall they'd set up stations where kids and grown-ups could do prepared crafts: things to paint or sew or assemble.  The kids were eager, of course, but Joey was on my mind and I wanted to get home. We found a place that had little paintable piggy banks (but, this being Switzerland, the banks were in the shape of cows). They were cheap, so I bought three, and the kids happily added those to their swag bags and allowed departure.

Of course, there was an added incentive to move on: that tantalizing last hall, the one with all the video games. Dennis and I brought our wii along with us when we moved to Switzerland, but we've never plugged it in.  That's not to say the kids haven't played any computer games in the last year, but it's been nice to have had a break from that particular time sink.

Deprived as they've been, the kids couldn't wait to get their hands on those games. I'd put it off until last, hoping it would be too crowded to be interesting for Ella and Alex. Well played, me: there were giant crowds around every game console. Not even Ella and Alex wanted to wait in those lines.

The video game hall

Before we went home, we made one last stop by the board games and bought some gifts for ourselves. Only then did I learn that the shops in this convention were cash-only.  I hadn't brought any with me, but Ella had her trusty purse with her and proudly loaned me twenty francs.  Only, after I'd handed over the money, she started to feel a little nervous.  "You will pay me back, right mom?" I assured her I would, but that didn't stop her from making nervous jokes for the rest of the day about the money I owed her.

Heading home on the tram, I had my eyes peeled looking for an open coffee shop.  The only thing I could find was a Starbucks with a twenty-person line, but even though I wasn't willing to wait, I was glad we'd gotten off the tram. Right around the corner was the beautiful Federal Palace, the seat of the Swiss Parliament.  

The square in front of the building had a large fountain, with several kids darting around the water jets in their underwear.  Ella stared at the fountain and then took off for it, calling back "Watch this!" and wove her way through the jets to the center of the fountain, staying completely dry except for a few splashes on her ankles.

"All right, Ella. Come on back. It's time to go home."