It’s the little things

Looking back on the past couple of weeks of school, work, and life, it’s hard to come up with any big things to write about. But, a few of the little updates are…

Emily lost two (yes two!) more teeth in the past couple weeks. It turns out the tooth fairy also comes to Switzerland. Emily’s smile looks like a checkerboard. James, who is 6 years old and hasn’t lost any teeth yet, is quite jealous. We tried to explain to him that Emily doesn’t have many more teeth to lose, whereas he has a goldmine in his mouth that is sure to start paying off at some point.

Henry no longer needs his precious nookie. The plan, as recommended by our dentist, was to poke a hole in it and gradually make it bigger until its functionaly was lost and he gave it up on his own. Joe didn’t quite catch the gradual concept, and basically mutilated it right off the bat. It caused a couple of painful bedtimes, but it worked. It’s yet another thing that shows what a big boy Henry is becoming.

We got library cards at the local library. The kids were starved for new books after a month of reading the small selection we brought from home. The collection of English books is pretty sparse (even in the “big” library in Bern), but we immediately maxed out our limit of books we can check out. Emily was thrilled to find quite a few new “Rainbow Magic” fairy books, even though they are in German. I am still impressed that she can read chapter books in two different languages!

We attended some community events, including a festival at the swimming complex, a 5K run (didn’t run, just watched), and a marching band parade. I also found the Catholic church, though the mass was in Swiss German, so I only understood about 50% of what was said.

So why write about the little things? You know how, when you see other people’s kids only occasionally, they seem to grow so much? Yet, when you see your own kids (and yourself) everyday, its a lot harder to perceive the growth. It’s all the little things everyday that are adding up to big changes.