Intro to Me

So I'm not really much of a blogger, but I have extra time on my hands...why not give it a try?? Besides, everyone asks me questions about my life here in Switzerland, and it's rather droll repeating myself so much, so here are some glimpses into myself, my life in Europe, and the family I live with and work for. :-) Enjoy!

I am saddened by the possibility that I might not be having eggnog this Christmas. I haven't looked in a great many stores for it, but my host mom, Charlotte, says that people in Switzerland don't really drink it. What they do drink a lot is hot, spiced wine (vin chaud)...apparently Arnaud, my host dad, is a huge fan, so there might be some of that around the day of. But I'll be missing my eggnog and scrabble games with Daddy.

Jules is sick this week. Poor kid just turned four years old and was so excited...but now he has a virus that has him begging to go to the doctor. I've been breaking the number one au pair rule and letting him watch lots of TV...otherwise he'll be crawling all over me all day and I'll get the virus too...although I'm not altogether sure I haven't already. But I feel so sorry for him...he's a classic sick boy begging to be babied.

In other news, we got two golden labs a couple weeks ago. Their names are Jenny and Teacake (a boy...but apparently "cake" is masculine in French, so it works. Felix explained it to me like this: "Teacake! You know like you drink tea and eat cake??? Just put them together!! Tea...Cake...get it?? Teacake!??) and they are just as adorable as they can be. They're brother and sister - a little over seven months old, and they speak both French and English...lol...at least according to Felix...but I'm not so sure...they don't really respond to my English so I have to yell at them in French and hope I get the pronunciations correct. It's great fun!

My kids are great! Felix is six and he knows everything. He spent a bit of his time today teaching me how to make a cappacino...lol...and it was really good! (Only thing was...he's already taught me this skill a number of times.) The detail he puts into his tutorials is amazing! He might grow up to write how-to-do it books...but right now he's stuck on wanting to be the guy who picks up the trash (cool trucks, etc). He's a really focused little boy - today we spent over two hours playing with a set of magnets. Every time I said, "Felix, are you sure you don't want to play an actual game?" he would say, "No, of course not. This is fun!" He's a super fabulous, super polite child and I love him so much already!

Jules, on the other hand, is about as hyper a kid as you can imagine. He has this habit...if someone accidentally (or on purpose) bumps him or hits him, Jules will scratch that person on the face. It hurts like crazy!!! Jules likes to refer to himself as Indiana Jules because he's an Indiana Jones fanatic. Sometimes I'll listen for him during the day, just to know where he is, and often I can hear him humming away the Indiana Jones theme song...hmm hm hum hmmmm, hmm hum hmmmm...Jules is amazing. The other day he said he wanted to tell me a secret, and when I bent down to let him whisper in my ear, he said in his broken English, "Heather, you're good. I love you."

My boys make my day everyday.

Will post more soon. Am off to help Charlotte cook supper.