16 Months

My personal highlight of the past month was a visit from Ben's uncle, Larry Pond. We knew Larry was in Paris on one last hurrah. The night before Ben was scheduled to fly to Utah for a week, we heard from Uncle Larry -- he wanted to come to Luxembourg! 

Really unfortunate timing for Ben (and Larry), but I was really excited to have a visitor, especially while Ben was away. 

The Monday morning he was supposed to arrive, I drove to a mall called La Belle Etoile to buy a GPS. Larry had been in Europe for nearly a week and had suffered a series of mishaps, one I could help fix with a GPS. As the day passed and I still hadn't heard from Uncle Larry, however, I became concerned. Ben was able to connect with him that evening and learn he was still a ways from Luxembourg and would find a hotel for the night. 

The next day, I waited until noon before I started worrying again (Paris is 3.5 hours from Luxembourg). Then I started texting and calling Uncle Larry. He called me when he was 15 km outside of Luxembourg and said he would call again when he made it across the border. An hour later, Uncle Larry called with cross streets. He had driven into Luxembourg City and parked his car and walked around until he could find two identifiable street names. 

I called Star and asked her to come help me find Uncle Larry. With Uncle Larry on speaker phone, together we were able to figure out what the street names were and where they were on a map. Then we jumped in the car with Otto, Aksel and Ingrid and drove to meet him. By the grace of God, Uncle Larry had made it to within two miles of our house. 

There's pretty much only one thing you need to know about Uncle Larry: he's a survivor. And if he thinks you've overlooked this fact for one minute, he'll be sure to remind you. And he's right. He is a survivor. He survived a massive stroke twenty years ago that forever changed his life and the life of his wife and six daughters. Doctors told him he'd never speak or walk again. It took him five years, but he conquered both. Like he said, he's a survivor. 

We spotted him in an adjacent neighborhood called Merl and I got out of the car to greet him. Star drove my car and the kids back to the house. I offered to drive Uncle Larry and his car back to our house. He was really grateful; he said he was sick of driving. His rental car was a tiny hatchback. Uncle Larry is a very tall man. As we drove, he shook his head and told me: I thought I could speak French. I can't. It took me five years to learn English. It's going to take me another five to learn French again. 

When we were all inside the house, and I was able to introduce Star to Uncle Larry, she told him that she, too, was from Idaho, that she knew his brother, Ralph Pond, and that they all share a love of running rivers. Uncle Larry lit up. He was so excited. We talked about dry suits for a solid 10 minutes. 

Uncle Larry looked tired, hungry, and in need of a shower. He had suffered a series of unfortunate events on his trip thus far -- driving without a GPS in Paris, getting his rental car towed, sleeping in his car (I could go on). I felt an immense amount of relief to see him in the flesh, to know he was safely in our house and that he was able to speak English to someone about running rivers. 

He didn't appreciate my lecture about traveling in Europe without a GPS and without a local cell phone, or that he needs to spend the extra 300 euros on an automatic rental car and he let me know it. But he loved my muffins!

Each morning, Uncle Larry would walk to our neighborhood bakery for pain au chocolat, walk with me to pick up the boys from school and then set off on an adventure we had meticulously planned the night before (with maps, diagrams, and role playing). 

He spent one day touring all of Luxembourg City by bus and foot, the next day visiting Vianden Castle and the Mullerthal region, and the next day driving to and exploring Nancy, France. 

Each evening, he expressed his wonder and amazement at the beauty of Europe. He kept telling me, Nancy is a city I could live in. I could live in France. I used to be able to speak French as good as any Frenchman. 

I loved having the company and listening to him talk about his time in Paris as a 19-year-old missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he didn't need a GPS because he knew the city by heart. He said: I used to drive a VW bus all over Paris on Tuesday nights to pick up kids from church and take them to primary. 

He also told me about a trip he took with his father to France right after his daughter, Noelle was born. Then he said: I wish Cindy was here with me. I immediately texted Cindy and told her what he said. Then he told me not to hover. 

Uncle Larry would observe the nightly bedtime struggle with Otto, Aksel and Ingrid and say: I love kids. Our kids argued with us at bedtime too. Tara (his daughter) was the worst. Bo (his grandson) is a really good kid. I think he lives at our house on the weekends.   

Then he would leave each evening and return with a local newspaper that he would sit and read on the couch next to me. He had a translation guide and would pause every few words to look something up and then chuckle as he remembered or re-learned a French word. He reassured me that if I had three months without children I could learn French, no problem. Then he would tell me about his son-in-law problems and lament Ben's absence. He would say (each night): Ben remembers what I was like before my stroke. I remember what I was like before my stroke. I was brilliant. I really like Ben. He's a different kind of guy, but a great guy. Ben needs to feel the river again. You need to have Ben come run a river with me this Spring. He'll need a dry suit. 

The kids loved to have him around. Aksel would sneak in Uncle Larry's room in the mornings and tuck his own beloved bear underneath the covers for Uncle Larry to snuggle. Otto would ask every 90 seconds about the location of Uncle Larry and Ingrid liked to give him high-fives and have her head stroked by him. 

On Saturday, he took one last walk to the bakery and then we confidently sent him on his way back to Paris in the hands of his new TomTom. I love Uncle Larry. I loved having him around, even when he was mad at me for asking his political party affiliation. 

We filled the void Larry left by getting ready for a church Trunk-or-Treat event (I volunteered to coordinate) later that afternoon. We made soup, found our halloween decorations, and opened our skeleton costumes (pjs from gap.eu).

The Trunk-or-Treat was a total success. Loads of people came dressed in costumes and with their car trunks decorated. We had plenty of soup and the new park, adjacent to our parking lot, let all of the kids run around eating candy and feel unsupervised. Otto, Aksel, and Ingrid especially benefitted from lack of supervision this evening as I juggled passing out candy, taking them from trunk to trunk, and overseeing the flow of the activity. 

Aksel visited four cars and became disinterested in the work involved to get the candy and spent most of his time playing on the playground equipment with his bag slung across his shoulder wearing my witch hat. 

Otto dutifully went to each car alongside the Packer boys and then hid his bag of candy in the car for later consumption. 

Ingrid rode her bike all over the parking lot returning to me only for a piece of candy or a roll. 

It wasn't America, but it was pretty darn close, and my children felt like we had celebrated Halloween in a great way. It was as good as it gets that day in Luxembourg -- the weather was perfect, we were surrounded by friends, the kids loved the park, and we ate an obscene amount of TWIX. 

It's a little perplexing trying to figure out what holidays are celebrated here and how. For a week, Otto talked about witches ("hex" in Luxembourgish), black cats and all of the art projects he was doing at school. Otto made a wand at school and loved to "cast spells" and turn everyone and everything into a cat. 

When he told me his class was having a party on Friday, October 30, I basically forced his teacher to let me bring pumpkin bars to the party. She acted surprised and confused (people don't eat pumpkin in anything but soup here) but I did it anyway. When I picked him up that afternoon his face was painted like a witch (I incorrectly guessed spiderman) and the pumpkin bars were being talked about on the playground. 

America (1) - Luxembourg (0). 

Aksel's class wasn't having a party, making witch hats, painting faces or talking about hexes, but I demanded to bring pumpkin muffins that Friday too. When I picked Aksel up, his teachers said the muffins were an explosion of Autumn and Christmas in their mouths. 

America (2) - Luxembourg (0). 

THEN one of his teachers asked for the recipe. I feel like I represented America really well this month. 

The next week was the half term holiday. We spent the week off of school resting and playing at parks. 

On Monday, we went to A.S. Adventure Sport and bought new water bottles for an obscene amount of money. Then we went to Cactus and looked at toys for Christmas and bought Schneiimanchens ("snow men" in Luxembourgish -- sugar covered donuts in the shape of little men) to eat. 

We spent the afternoon at the Airplane Park. It was freezing and foggy. The sun set at 5:10 pm and we didn’t leave the park until after 5:30.

On Tuesday, we spent the morning doing chores, reading and worksheets until I was brave enough to head to the grocery store, Colruyt. At first, it’s exciting for Otto and Aksel to sit in the cart with Ingrid while I push it around the store, but by the time we enter the refrigerated section, Otto and Aksel want to jump out and chase each other around. Ingrid always makes it to the checkout line before she wants to get out and join the boys. I let them pick out santa hats (that cost 1€) and watch a dancing Santa hat if they agreed to stay in the cart. Best 3 euros and three minutes I've ever spent. 

After Colruyt, I wasn’t ready to head home and be strong enough not to turn the TV on, so we drove to Provençale (a big warehouse restaurant supply store). As we entered, the employee at the counter told me the store would be closing in two minutes for the lunch hour. I told him I only needed two things and that I would run. I kept my word. The kids thought it was so fun to be whirled around the giant warehouse hanging onto the cart. We bought two containers of American yellow mustard and one package of bacon-wrapped sausages for Ben. Then we headed home for our usual routine of lunch, naps, quiet times, reading, name-writing and worksheets. 

We met the group at the Castle Park that afternoon, and again, the boys had such a good time. I love watching my kids have a good time. I love watching the giant pack of boys run around playing tag, digging holes, watching each other pee and making up games. 

After two hours at the park, we headed back to our house and Star came with us. She helped me feed everyone and kept us company. After dinner, we read scriptures and the kids ran in giant circles around the room and jumped in Star’s lap over and over again. 

On Wednesday morning, we drove Ben to the airport and then I filled up the car with gas for the second time since coming to Luxembourg. Otto was really impressed and asked me 100 questions. Mostly questions I didn't know the answer to. In the afternoon, we met the crew at the Farm Park. 

On Thursday, I dropped Otto, Aksel and Ingrid off at the Packers for the morning while I ran some Christmas errands. Becky said Otto played really well with Ryan and Bennett. I feel like Otto has finally found his rhythm with friends and as a little boy with other little boys. Learning how to play with others has been a skill a long time coming to him. He's worked really hard at it, done a lot of observing, and it's been well worth the wait. 

I felt so overwhelmed with gratitude to Becky for watching my kids that I cried as I drove back to her house to pick them up. I didn’t realize how much I needed a break.

That afternoon, we played at the Pirate Ship park. Unfortunately, I dented the front end of the bumper of our rental car (yes, our stolen car has STILL not been released by the Belgian police) while parallel parking. The kids played hard again for two hours. Otto bonked his head twice and fell off a ladder once. Two of the injuries drew blood. Poor kid. Aksel conquered his fear of going down a really tall slide. It was a beautiful fall day. I kept looking at the leaves and the happy children and felt  overwhelmed with gratitude for the good weather. 

Luxembourg (1) - Tasha (0)

On Friday, we watched the Packer kids while Becky did some shopping. We watched Rescue bots and played in the attic and then played rescue bots. After I put Aksel, Ingrid, and Eliza down for their naps, I came downstairs to see Bennet, Ryan and Otto playing soccer in the backyard. They stayed outside for three hours playing, finding worms, chasing each other with sticks, kicking balls into the street and running around. Once Becky returned, we went to the bakery and then to the school playground. 

We played hard every day. All of the 14 kids in our group played better than they've ever played together. There was something magical about the week, the weather, and the parks. It all came together beautifully. 

I feel like we have turned a corner of independence. My children can keep each other happy. My children are safe and don't melt down if left unattended while I shower or put a load of laundry in the basement cellar. I’m so glad to be where we are and feel like I can blow dry my hair or poop or pay attention to one without the other two crying, or walk up stairs without carrying three toddlers or walk home from a park without carrying three toddlers, three bikes, and a bag of sand toys. It’s not always pretty, but it’s getting better and easier. I’m so happy to be where I am and that every day my children get older and happier and more independent. 

Sometimes, when one of the boys try to climb into my lap or I try to pick them up, I feel the awkwardness of their body trying to fit with mine, and I feel a pang of sadness. But I love sitting at the kitchen table with them and playing Sorry or Chutes and Ladders, and I love how our relationship is evolving. I love watching my little babies grow into something wondrous in Luxembourg. It’s a good life. 

Other things I want to remember about the past month in Luxembourg:

Megan bringing me dinner when I needed it most. 

Aksel being a bear at home and at school. 

Meeting the Packers at the Jardin de Circulation in the rain. 

Saying goodbye to Tessy (Otto's preschool teacher) when she left the school for her maternity leave. 

Otto playing at Edgar De Kerchove's house one Saturday afternoon. When I picked him up, Edgar's mother said to me: I did not hear the sound of his voice. 

Slipping down a few stairs and hurt my foot. I went to the doctor and her diagnosis was: I think it is a fissure. Make no running for 10 days. If it still hurts after 10 days, go to the hospital and get an X-ray. Wear sturdy shoes until then. 

Early morning runs with Megan and Martha and late morning runs at Parc Merl with our babies.

Playgroup at Naomi Turner's home. 

Daylight savings. 

Hugs and kisses from Aksel. 

Going without screens on Sundays. 

Making pumpkin bars for the missionaries' district meeting in Metz. 

Otto calling me, babes. 

Helping Tracey Oliver pack up her kitchen. 

Going to Bambesch Woods on a Tuesday afternoon to play with friends. My heart burst with happiness to watch Otto and Aksel run through the woods and across a giant park amongst a pack of little boys, carrying sticks, throwing rocks, climbing ropes and being the purest form of little boy I've ever seen. I want the image of them running with those other little boys burned in my memory.

Ingrid and I getting our hair cut by Yudri. 

Going to the Villa Vauban Museum with Martha, Megan, Becky, and Star one morning. We lasted about 45 minutes before babies started to squawk and make other patrons nervous. The museum was beautiful and the collection of 18th century history paintings, still lives and portraits was my favorite. 

Becky and kids coming over one afternoon so I could go to the hospital and have my foot X-rayed. 

Making and eating a lot of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. 

Searching for a venue for our church Christmas party with Star. 

Spending a Saturday morning in Dinant, Belgium. 

Getting together with friends on a Sunday night to talk and let kids make sugar cookies. 

Swimming at Les Thermes as a family. 

Setting aside a few minutes before church each Sunday to prepare for the Sacrament.

Otto and I learning the song, I am a child of God, in German. 

Ben traveling to London, the Netherlands, Madrid, Bristol, and London again.

Taking Ingrid to the pediatrician for a check-up and shots. She didn't make a peep during the entire examination or during the injections. 

Otto speaking much more confidently in Luxembourgish and hearing him express himself at home in Luxembourgish. 

Playing at the Jardin de Circulation with the Packers, Mullins, and Mackays. 

Meeting Hosanna at the library once a week. 

Moving Aksel from a toddler bed to a twin bed. 

Going to Parc Merl one afternoon and having to take a time out 20 feet from the car. 

Our washing machine breaking. 

Running on Saturday mornings with Megan and Martha. 

The terrorist attacks in Paris. 

Meeting Becky and her kids at the Farm Park one Saturday morning while Nate was in Seattle and Ben was in Nancy, France. He picked up KFC on his way home. It was glorious. Outside Luxembourg is not the same as inside Luxembourg. 

Going to Auchan with Ingrid one morning to do some shopping. She loved the little bears, lights and Christmas decorations. I do too. 

Aksel sleeping past 7 am. A true miracle. 

Walking around La Belle Etoile with Becky, Megan, and Mandy (and babies) one morning. 

Reading to each of my children. 

Playing at the Mullins one afternoon. 

Listening to the Christmas Monkey album in the car and all three kids singing at the top of their lungs. 

Visiting teaching. 

Meeting the Packers, Wares, and Mackays at the Bus and Trams Museum one afternoon.