Is it possible, little one, that there will come a time when you don’t know how special you are? Your open mouth, your tightly curled fingers, your little body snuggled up against me. Here, while you sleep in my arms, is a perfect moment. I wouldn’t change a thing. I love to feel your soft breath and see your eyelids flutter while you sleep. My sweet baby. I am awed and grateful to have been given the responsibility of being your mother. When you are awake, you embrace life so thoroughly — running, laughing, cuddling, smiling, demanding what you need. And as you sleep, you are so content. You are such a happy child, and so comfortable and confident in who you are.
Category Archives: Adventure in Vienna
Tax time
Doing your taxes is like vacuuming. It doesn’t matter what country, zip code or time zone you’re in, it’s not fun. I don’t object in principle to having to file my taxes (nor to having to pay them) but I do find the process of preparing and filing my return frustratingly complicated and supremely unsatisfying.
Sitting outside
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It’s still chilly in Vienna. When I went out to get coffee (and an hour to myself) this morning, it was about 40. Not too bad, but not yet quite springlike (especially with the nearly ever present wind). But it must be almost spring here, because when I got to Starbucks, they had set up the outdoor seating area.
I hadn’t expected it, so I wasn’t dressed for it — I was dressed to spend an hour sitting inside drinking tea, which calls for significantly different attire than sitting outside in the wind drinking tea. But I got my chai and grabbed a spot outside — not under an umbrella — I wanted to absorb every small bit of sunlight that managed to straggle through the clouds. (I was surprised and impressed at how popular the outdoor seats were. I don’t know if the rest of Vienna is as glad as I am to be able to enjoy their coffee outdoors again, or if all the smokers are just grateful to be able to drink their coffee and smoke at the same time.)
I was cold. By the end of my hour, I was wrapped in my coat, had pulled my wool hat on as far as it would go and struggled to turn the pages in my book with my thickly gloved hands. But it was glorious. I hadn’t realized just how much I missed getting to enjoy the center of the city with a cup of tea and a good book. My hours spent on my own will be more therapeutic and restorative now that they get to take place in the open air.
I had forgotten, too, how quiet Vienna has been in the winter. It’s like the city has been hibernating since Christmas. The squares have been sparsely populated. By contrast, today was bustling — tourists with cameras bumping in to each other to get the best shot of the dome of the Spanish Riding School; bicycles flying up and down the streets, with and against traffic; horse drawn carriages, full of bundled people taking in the sights. It reminded me that this is just a fraction of the activity that will fill the square as the weather gets warmer.
Being out on the square, being able to take all of this in while I relax and enjoy the city, is really why I love being able to sit outside. I feel like I’m able to see and experience so much more, and, since I’m just sitting, I’m able to quietly observe the sights, sounds, smells and feel of Vienna much more deeply. Sitting outside at Michealerplatz every week is part of what helped me fall in love with living in Vienna, and I’m so excited to have that back.
It’s beginning to look a lot less like Christmas
It’s March 3. It was about 50 degrees outside today — we kept the door to our terrace, and the skylight, open almost all day. The sunlight comes in to our apartment in the morning AND the afternoon. The birds are out and singing (loudly). It was light until almost 6:00 today. And, I finally put our Christmas decorations away.
I guess that means it’s nearly time for spring! It’s been warm the last few days here in Vienna, but I’m not fooled — there’s still snow in our forecast for later in the week. (And, really, I could use one more really good snow.) But the days are undoubtedly getting longer (and warmer — our toilet hasn’t frozen in a few weeks, at least). Benjamin got to play outside at school the other day — it’s one of his favorite things about school, and I think his overall enjoyment of attendance may increase significantly once outside play time once again becomes a daily occurrence — and going to the park will soon become a regular staple of our schedule. The farmers markets were open this morning, and Dan has seen some of the restaurants and cafes setting up their outdoor seating areas again (which is extra exciting for us because we find it so much easier to eat out with the kids when we’re sitting outside — they’re entertained by the activity of the city and no one notices when they get loud). In a few short weeks, the Easter markets will be going again. (They were up when we arrived last spring. Which reminds me, too, that we’ll shortly hit our one year anniversary of living in Europe.)
I’m glad I got the Christmas decorations put away — it would be weird to have them up for Easter . . . even weirder than it was to have them up for Valentine’s Day.
Obsessively . . . cleaning?
I am . . . . kind of particular . . . (ok, shut up and stop laughing) about lots of things. I have a way I like to do things, and I prefer that they get done that way. Brushing my teeth, sorting my laundry, only eating at the table, putting things away in the cabinets (or in the grocery cart), taking shoes off in the house, cleaning my kids after they eat — I’m picky about all of it. It’s all for good reasons — I didn’t pluck any of my particularness out of thin air, and it all makes good reasonable sense if I explain it — but taken as a whole, it’s a lot, and I am grateful to my friends and family who are amazingly understanding about it.
Outside the lines
I am 35 years old and just a *little* particular . . . about many, many things. So, when I color, I color inside the lines. I distinctly remember coloring with one of my older cousins when I was 6 or 7 and being impressed and envious of her coloring. Not only did she stay inside the lines ALL THE TIME, but her pictures had shading and contour. They were lovely, and I couldn’t replicate it. Now I’m all grown up, and I can, so I do.
Leap Day
I think Leap Day is cool. No matter what claim any other day can make, no day is more rare — we’ll all have fewer February 29ths in our lives than any other day, and we’re currently experiencing one of them.
Dreaming of the beach
It’s cold, rainy and windy (very windy) here in Vienna. My boys are sick. (Liam’s diagnosis is two separate viral infections at the same time — one causing diarrhea that he’s had for 10 days, one causing croup. Lucky kid.) I’ve been in the house, nearly constantly, for a week. Benjamin *might* go back to school tomorrow. Maybe.
Fevers and fussiness
Every day for over 2 weeks we’ve had at least one sick kid. Not anything simple like sniffles, but energetic vomiting, explosive diarrhea, high fevers, coughing that keeps them up at night (thankfully, not all of those symptoms at the same time). There was exactly one day (last Saturday) that both boys were well at the same time. It was a nice day.
Someone still loves a Christmas tree
If there’s one thing I learned today, it’s this: if you leave your Christmas decorations up until the end of February, your children will continue to celebrate Christmas. At least, mine will.