Friday 28 September 2012

Technical Difficulties

Hi folks,

It seems that my old blog articles from 2009 and 2010 have - for some inexplicable reason - lost the photos that I had so lovingly selected to use to break up the monotony of reading a screen full of text.

I have no idea what caused this problem, although I lay the blame squarely on Blogger. Seems odd that photos shown in articles published since the beginning of 2011 are unaffected, but I guess that's what you get with modern technology.

Please bear with me while I attempt to dig out the original photos and restore them to their rightful place in my old articles.

All the best,

Paul

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Meet Globear

This is Globear. He is a teddy bear that glows. OK, so it isn't the most inventive name I've given to Lydia's fluffy companions, ranking up there with the likes of Mr. Cow (a cow), Pingu (a penguin), Giant Penguin (a rather large pengion) and Violet (a dolly dressed in purple clothes), but it's a name that seems to suit him well. 

In all honesty, his name is a misnomer as he is really a mouse (verified by his distinct mousey tail), but this was unfortunately overlooked in the quick-fire naming process.

Globear lives with us. He is Lydia's teddy bear, and accompanies her pretty much everywhere. He is a simple bear, relatively low maintenance and never causes trouble (partly due to his machine-washability).

He is also, in my eyes, a hero.
 
Globear joining a game of
Pin the Tail on the Donkey
at my 30th birthday party

Globear is Lydia's favourite bear (even though he is a mouse). Wherever she goes, he goes with her. At night times he is the one thing she cannot sleep without. We have tried replacing him with Yellobear (a actual bear that also glows but is yellow), but Lydia can tell the difference. She needs her Globear.

Wherever Lydia goes, Globear has to go with her. He's been to England and France as well as numerous locations in Switzerland.

Once, we accidentally left Globear at Chris' sister's house, and Lydia refused to sleep without him. She screamed and cried in her bed, knowing that her little friend wasn't with her. I had to make a late night dash to get him back from Chris' sister, just so Lydia would go to sleep.

Ever since this episode, and seemingly unbeknownst to Lydia, we have kept a team of Globears. There are 4 in total, collectively known as the "Gloteam": 1 in her bed (that should never leave the house); 1 travel Globear; 1 Globear at the creche; and 1 at Chris' parents' house. The Gloteam are in place to make sure Lydia can be comforted whenever she needs it.

Globear helps Lydia to sleep on a plane (l) and at home (r)

If the entire Gloteam was ever to disappear, we would have a very disgruntled little girl on our hands. Fortunately replacements are not too expensive, provided they have the right colour in stock. That's how we ended up with Yellobear - the shop didn't have any pink ones left.

Up to now, Globear has been our go-to bear for emergencies, ranging from soothing boo-boos to helping a grumpy, tired monkey fall asleep. Globear has given us so much and asked so little in return (except the occasional wash to get rid of sticky things). He is unquestionably one of the world's greatest unsung heroes.

Thank you Globear. Thank you for everything.

Sunday 16 September 2012

Circus KNIE and Rolle playground

This weekend we took Lydia to have a look at the Circus KNIE, which was in Nyon for a couple of days before heading on to Yverdon, Bulle and Bienne before spending a couple of weeks in Lausanne. Fortunately the weather was good, so we were able to spend time outside.

Finding the circus was really easy; it wasn't signposted from the motorway or as you enter Nyon, but we headed for the centre and suddenly the circus appeared on our right. We found a space in a nearby car park and walked over.

It cost 6 CHF per adult to get into the circus grounds. That's the price for entry only - the circus show is an additional 20 CHF. We didn't bother paying for the show as we know that Lydia doesn't sit still for long and so it would be a waste of money as we would no doubt have to leave early or suffer the looks of disgust from the rest of the audience at our failure to stop our baby from crying. If only we could find the off switch... (see Travelling with Babies)

Pony ride #1
The circus had a good variety of animals, which was the main reason we went there. Lydia seems to have started taking an interest in animals, so we thought it would be nice for her to spend some time looking at various different species.

We started with a pony ride (partly because Lydia saw the ponies as soon as we walked in!). She had already been on a pony ride during the Bimbadaboum festival in Geneva a few weeks ago (see Bimbadaboum!), and sge seemed to really enjoy it this time round as well, giggling with delight at the bouncing motion and happily waving at the watching crowd (they were actually other parents watching their own kids ride the ponies, but Lydia didn't care).

Monday 10 September 2012

Lunch at the Lac Noir

Sometimes it isn't easy thinking of things to do at the weekends. For a childless couple, it isn't so difficult. A typical weekend might involve a bit of shopping, lunch in a restaurant somewhere, maybe a stroll in the town, possibly a romantic meal together and an evening out at the cinema and/or bar hopping and night clubs.

For parents, it's not as simple as that. Whenever you consider going somewhere or doing something, you have to think of the kids first. "Is there a playground there?", "what can they eat?", "is it expensive?" and "will she like it?" are just some of the questions you have to ask yourself. You have to put yourself in the kid's place as well - museums and shops are boring for kids, so those are out. Restaurants can be tricky as well, as kids aren't great at sitting in one place for a reasonable period of time.

It's even worse when it rains. Unless you dress your kid up in waterproofs, most outside activities are out of the question. On those days, you have to pray for a break in the rain that lasts long enough to go outside for a while, and let the kid burn off some of their seemingly boundless energy.

Lac Noir, Fribourg
Fortunately, this weekend the weather was nice. The sun was shining and the forecast predicted around 20°C, so not too shabby. We decided to head over to the Lac Noir in the Swiss Canton of Fribourg, as we hadn't been there before and it would make a nice change of scenery from our usual trips to towns along the edge of Lac Léman.

The drive to get there was fairly long, although it may only have seemed long because Lydia got a bit whingy. We bought a CD of French children's songs, as well as French spoken versions of Pinocchio and the Little Mermaid. These were played on a loop during the drive, and for the most part kept Lydia entertained. From a personal point of view, I found the stories to be a bit repetitive at the third time of listening.

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Scary Dolly

Lydia has quite a lot of toys (far too many if you ask me), and also a lot of fluffy bears and other assorted stuffed animals. She doesn't have a very long attention span at the moment, so she will generally play with a toy for a brief few minutes before moving on to the next one.

Each toy will be played with for a while, and then either be left on a table or the sofa, or simply be thrown away by Lydia (she has quite an arm on her, potential baseball player in the making).

The exception to this rule, however, is her dolly Dorothé. This doll used to belong to Chris when she was a little girl. It is a basic plastic doll that closes her eyes when laid on her back. She has an unusual haircut, with her strands of dark hair cut short all over, making her look like a kind of brunette version of Yazz (brownie points to those who remember that one!).

Lydia does not like Dorothé.

In fact, it might be fair to say she hates her, and is terrified of her.

I wanna be like you (ooh-ooh)

Did that make you think about Disney's The Jungle Book, with King Louie singing his orangutan heart out?

This article isn't about the animated classic though. Instead, it's about how kids want to copy those around them, particularly their parents. They learn through imitating others, so it's only natural that they want to do what we do.

Recently, for example, Lydia wanted to read a book that she found in a cupboard. The book in question was actually a paper-back recipe book, so not really something she would find interesting. Nevertheless, we read it together. I noticed that every time Lydia went to turn the page, she would lick her finger. Neither I nor my wife do this, so I can only presume she picks this up from her grandparents during a recent stay at their house. Quite a surprise to see she had learnt that as it isn't something you really teach a kid to do.

Grocery shopping
Another recent example was when I took her to the supermarket the other day to buy groceries. I picked up a basket and went inside with Lydia only for her to start complaining about something.

I asked her what was wrong and she pointed at the big pile of shopping baskets. It turns out that she wanted her own basket to carry, having seen us and other adults do this many times in the past, and not wanting to miss out on the fun.

I thought this was really cute, although I had to help her choose what to put in her basket (she immediately went for the chocolate aisle!).

I know everyone tells me that kids grow up too fast, and that's a saying that I believe rings true. My daughter is only 16 months old but wants to do things she sees adults doing. It's no wonder young girls want to wear makeup, as they no doubt want to copy their mothers.

Wonder how long it will be before Lydia wants to watch football and drink beer like her Dad?