On Thursday, August 16th, we said farewell to Cincinnati. We had never travelled with so much luggage before. Then again, we had never travelled with 2 kids and moved to another country before either. Check out our new double stroller. I realized that we couldn't go with a double wide in Geneva, with how narrow everything is, so we opted for this beast. It came in handy during the flight, given the huge basket underneath. It's pretty modular, which worked well, as Hayden wanted to watch baby Beckham and face inward.
The first leg of our trip was to DC. Hayden loves planes, trains, automobiles, etc. so he was excited to watch us take off. We also had our iPad handy so he could stay entertained with various learning games. At just 3.5 weeks old, Beckham was really easy and just slept.
I had been preparing Hayden for our move by turning bedtime stories into stories about our flight to Geneva. So he was prepared and knew we were going to be on a really big plane "this HUGE," the seats would lay flat and he would have his own TV to watch. Overall, the long flight to Geneva was okay, except he skipped his nap and was too wired to fall asleep when they turned out the cabin lights. Eventually, he fell asleep watching Cars. :)
Beckham didn't make a peep during the entire flight. It was amazing and I'm sure the only time that will happen!
Once we got to Geneva, I felt conspicuously American with our big stroller. We kept getting all sorts of looks as we wheeled through the airport. Really, I think about half of the looks were because of how big the stroller was and half were because of how tiny Beckham looked in it.
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| In the GVA airport with all our stuff! |
We headed straight to our new flat to let the movers in with our rental furniture.
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| Sitting on the new furniture with Dad...and like Dad |
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| And now I will perform my next trick, in my sleep! ;) |
Once we got the rental furniture into our new place, we headed for the hotel to stay for the night. Hayden was clearly tired - he fell asleep pretty quickly for an afternoon nap.
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| Taking a nap - check out the flip flop tan! |
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| I'm 4 weeks old |
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| The boys, all freshened up and happy |
We ran into one of our neighbors when we stopped by our place and she invited us to a grill out that she and other neighbors were having. Turns out, they only do this once a year and it happened to be the night we arrived in Geneva! How fortunate for us!
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| Breakfast in our room the next morning |
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| Hotel lobby on our way out |
We spent the weekend getting our bearings, picking up some groceries, etc. so would be relatively set for when Marty had to return to the states just a few days after our arrival. It was an interesting couple days, on my own, with two kids in a new country. Hayden and I went to a nearby park both days. Of course, he decided to jump off the platform at the top of the slide instead of sliding down. What compelled him to do this is beyond me. He landed on his face and arm but thankfully, wasn't hurt. Then I realized that if something had happened to him, I would have been at a loss for who to call. I'm sure I would have been able to get help, but as a mom, less than 5 days in a new country, it was a scary thought.
Thank goodness for our wonderful neighbors. They checked in on us and offered Hayden some of their toys to play with. Simple things are much more difficult when you don't know the language. For example, I tried to call around to find a pediatrician to get Beckham's 1 month check up scheduled. ALL the offices went to a recording first and they talked so fast that I couldn't understand what they were saying. Thankfully I was able to ask our neighbor, Lucia, to listen and she helped me figure out what to do. She also took it upon herself to look up pediatricians in the local area and even scheduled a back up appointment with her kids' doctor. I'm still trying to come up with a way to thank her for her thoughtfulness.
It stayed pretty hot most of our first week in Geneva. People kept telling us it was the hottest week so far, with 90 degree temps, and we just happened to arrive in time to experience it. It was impossible to keep the house cool with all our windows and no shades so Hayden, Beckham and I stayed downstairs as much as we could, where it was a little more bearable. Still, it was pretty miserable. Thankfully, it only lasted for about 5 days and then the rain came and cooled everything down a bit.
Marty returned Thursday and Friday was Hayden's school orientation. Hayden is going to be in a French immersion classroom, where most kids speaking something other than French. It will be interesting to watch him soak it all in and start speaking in French.
On Sunday, we drove to Annecy, France for a little day trip. Annecy is right on the lake with the mountains as a beautiful backdrop. The old part of town is really quaint and there is a big market every Sunday. It was a perfect day to visit and we enjoyed having lunch outside and walking around. During lunch, I gave Hayden some of my leftover bread to feed the ducks. He got so excited that he came back and said, "I going to give them some of my chicken nuggets. I think they will like that." I had a hard time keeping a straight face and trying to convince him that breat was better than to subject the innocent ducks to a cannibalism.
I think riding the carousel was Hayden's favorite part of the trip. You can't beat the view!
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