The Latest Injury Report

Friday afternoon I got a frantic call from Kim. The mother of a friend of Xavier's called. He crashed his bike on the way to their house and she was bringing a bloody boy in the car and then to the doctor. She picked up Kim and off the ran to the doctor. The doctor examined Xavier and was concerned that he injured something on the inside with how deep the would was. After what Kim described as both a painful and painful to watch examination, the doc stitched him up and sent him home.

Xavier and a buddy were riding their bikes down to another friends house. This friend lives pretty much at the bottom of our mountain and Xavier had too much speed going to make the turn. He slammed into the curb and somehow crashed taking the full impact on his neck into his handlebars. Isaac, the friend he was with, rode up and asked the gasping Xavier "Are you almost dead?!?", it translates something like that anyway.

His voice was shot the first day. It wasn't until Sunday that he had anything other than liquid to drink. Monday he missed school but at least ate solids. He is still puffy and his voice gives out if he talks too much, but he is recovering. It was a freak result to the crash and luckily wasn't any worse than it turned out.

Photo Description: Regular Look, Day Of Crash Super Puffy Look, 2 Days Post Crash Bruises

Izzi Loves Her Icecream

Izzi after finishing her after dinner ice cream bar.

8 Hours in Milan

Last Saturday, I took the high-speed train to Milan and spent 8 hours exploring the center. I climbed to the top of the Duomo, Milan's cathedral and the fourth largest in the world, had a yummy lunch and browsed Milan's Quadrilatero d'Oro.

I even took my 3 turns for good luck, like many other tourists. On the floor of the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele, there is a mosaic of the coat of arms of Turin (the bull). A local tradition (or tourist hype) says that if you put your right heel on the testicles of the bull and turn yourself three times, this will bring you good luck. There is quite the hole worn in the tile housing the bull's testicles. Lots of people trying to get lucky:)

Mouse Trap Times Two

Xavier got a strange homework assignment this week.

On Monday, he burst in the door after school and told me that he had to go straight to work...that he needed his building supplies from the storage room. He said that his teacher had asked the class if anyone could bring a mousetrap to school the next day, either home-made or purchased. Xavier said he was the only one that volunteered. He new immediately what he wanted to build, and he went right to it.

From what I was able to get out of Xavier, his teacher had been talking about her previous school in a small mountain village that was infested with mice. He said she also described several mouse traps that they used.

When I saw Xavier's finished design late Monday afternoon, I was a little worried. It was two thin wooden posts about 5 inches apart with a small, weak stick running between them. Underneath this entire area where the posts were, he had pounded nails from the bottom of the board where the posts were mounted, about 25 nails or so. He then tied some cheese to the stick running across with some thin string, so that it was dangling from the stick between the two posts. The idea being that the mouse would jump up to get the cheese and land on the nails. Gruesome!

I wasn't sure I should let him take this to school, thinking he might freak out some of the other students. But earlier he had told me about one of the traps his teacher had described, guillotine-style.

I went with him in the morning to help him carry his things to school. He had a huge, proud smile on his face when he walked toward his teacher with his amazing mouse trap.

That afternoon, Tuesday, he said that the teacher had assigned everyone the task of drawing or building a mousetrap for Wednesday. Xavier built a second model that afternoon, again equally enthused. This model was a much more efficient design: a single post mounted to the board with a nail sticking out from the top to hold the cheese AND poke the mouse as he jumps for the cheese.

Not sure if we should be proud that these designs came so easily to him and that he was able to build what he had imagined. Or worried about how excited he was about finding a way to end the mouse's life.

If traps ever make it home from school, I'll post a photo. And if I ever find out WHY the teacher is having the children build mouse traps, I'll post that as well.

The Blame Bucket

I've recently starting trying out some listening skills that are described in one of my favorite child-rearing books, "Your Child's Self-Esteem". Todd and I both read it when the kids were babies, and I had decided I could use a refresher.

On Saturday, Xavier was upset and I had the chance to practice. Xavier talked for about 15 minutes, not only about the one incident that upset him at that time, but also about many things that have been happening at school these last couple of weeks. At one point, in this outpouring of feelings, he said "I just feel like a big Blame Bucket". After he shared this, he paused and said quite matter-of-factly, "I'm not sure where I got this word, but it sure sounds right".

Most of my attempts at this listening method have not worked, but I thought I'd share this snippet from Xavier.

Comin' Around the Mountain

Isabella came home from school today red-faced, and feeling quite proud of herself.

At the end of this year, the fifth class will hold a Pentatholon, or Olympics. Their teacher, Herr Lippuner, has begun training them by having them run and jump and things like this.

Today was a running day, and Isabella ran around the Mannenberg, the tiny mountain we live on, without stopping. A first for her. She rewarded herself by purchasing an icecream after school.

A small glimpse into Izzi's world :)

Under Repair: Stage 2

Holes drilled and dryer with multiple hoses installed. This coincides with the hottest days Switzerland has had since we arrived. This monster, we call unwanted house guest or sometimes pet, creates a ton of heat.