Wednesday 19 October 2011

Sit Ups

Last night Lydia did something that really surprised us, something totally unexpected yet an inevitable part of human baby development: she sat up by herself.

Christelle had been playing with Lydia on the sofa and noticed that she wanted us to make her sit up (as she very often does), probably so that she could see more of what is going on around her. Lydia has always been a very curious baby in this respect, and often gets annoyed and irritable when laying down - I think this is because she is worried she will miss something.

Anyway, Chris said to Lydia, "If you want to sit up, you will have to do it yourself". I then served dinner (a nice chilli con carne that could have done with being a bit spicier) and we started eating. All of a sudden I heard Chris give out a yelp of surprise - I looked up and was amazed to see Lydia sitting up next to Chris. It was probably just coincidence that she did this after Chris challenged her to do it, but even so it really was remarkable.

My cheeky little monkey
She had a kind of blank, "I do this all the time" look on her face, which I imagined was her way of showing us that it's no big deal to be sitting up. For us it was such a surprise to see our little baby, who marks her first six months of being in the outside world this Friday, sitting up through her own volition. It serves as yet another reminder that Lydia is growing up.

I love seeing her develop and learn new things, but part of me is worried that it is all happening too quickly. I look back at the past six months that have positively flown by and I wonder where the time went. I won't glamourise it and say it has been easy; we have had more than our fair share of tantrums, sickness and other tough moments. But they all pale away compared to the happy moments when Lydia began to smile, to laugh, to rollover, to discover her feet and her hands. She even plays "peekaboo" with us, showing that there is intelligence behind those beautiful blue eyes.

My little baby will be a toddler before we know it...

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Pushy people

Manners. Being polite. Consideration for others.

...do these words mean nothing to the youth of today?

Every day I get the bus to and from work, and am shocked by the brazeness of people who simply push their way onto the bus, usually by cutting in front of me and various other people, just to suit their own needs.

It might be my British upbringing that has taught me to queue and wait politely for pretty much anything, but these old world values don't seem to have carried over to the present day.

Just when the bus arrived and stopped right in front of me, I stood to the left side of the opening doors - maybe one metre away from the entrance - to allow people on the bus to leave before I climbed on board. I was amazed and shocked to see the other people at the bus stop, who were behind me, brush me aside and force their way onto the bus, without giving a second thought to the departing passengers.

I've seen old ladies brushed aside as well, so I'm not the only victim. Earlier this year when I was on crutches after an operation on my knee (see my blog entry "So...What's New?") and my wife was heavily pregnant, we headed down to the local shop to get some supplies. Walking up to the entrance, people exiting the shop literally pushed past us and expected us to move out of their way, despite our very obvious handicaps (I know being pregnant is not a handicap, but you know what I mean). The nerve of these selfish bastards!

Has society now decided that we don't need to wait for anything any more? Is it now socially acceptable to be an ignorant git?

Friday 14 October 2011

Ah, young love...

Yesterday I babysat someone else's child. On my own. For the first time. Ever.

The child in question - Matys - is 6 months old, and therefore requires a good deal of attention to keep him occupied and happy. His mother, Sandrine and my wife Christelle headed off to a zumba class for an hour or so of exercising fun, leaving me in charge of little Matys and Lydia.

Normally I would have panicked in this situation and probably been a bit useless. Fortunately for me, Matys is a very calm baby. He was born a couple of weeks before Lydia and has always been surprisingly calm and easy going, which is a stark contrast to our little Ms. Curious. He makes Lydia look hyperactive in comparison.

Friday 7 October 2011

Another year goes past...

It only seems like yesterday that I was desperately cramming all my possessions into my tiny Peugeot 106 - like playing a real-life version of Tetris - and setting off on what was destined to be the biggest adventure of my life so far.

In reality it has now been more than two years since I left England.

These last two years might have absolutely flown by, but when I look back over all that has happened during this time gives me an appreciation of just how much my life has changed since I boarded that ferry: I have lived in three different apartments, bought a new car, found a job I enjoy and seen many, many beautiful things. But above all that, the biggest and happiest change was the birth of my daughter Lydia, and watching her grow a little more (both in size and in character) with each passing day.

I only realised this morning that my two-years-in-Swiss anniversary had just gone, and that prompted me to read through what I wrote this time one year ago about my first year in Switzerland (see my blog entry "12 Months Later"). To be honest, I still feel the same about everything I wrote. For example, I'm still a bit annoyed about the shops not being open on Sundays, I still hate Swiss TV adverts and I still believe Switzerland is not that expensive when you live there. Granted, with the current exchange rate it's not going to attract the more stingy tourists, but for those of us lucky enough to live here it really isn't too bad.

Having read through what I wrote about my first twelve months here, I thought I would offer up a few more thoughts on what life is like in Switzerland, should anyone else look to follow in my footsteps, as well as some thoughts on life in general.