Cookie-ohs

I felt like a real mother last Sunday when I packed Cheerios for Rebecca’s snack. All the times I’ve seen little kids with their Tupperware containers full of Cheerios in the church nursery flooded my mind. Rebecca, like most other kids who have tried them, loves them, and I love giving them to her.

But, I also felt like a real American mother last Sunday when Dan reported what the lady in charge of the nursery asked him. She commented, “What are those little cookies you brought for Rebecca? She just loved them!”

P.S. If I ration just right, I have enough Cheerios to last us until the end of the year.

Routinely

It’s funny how quickly routine sets in for me these days. Over the last 3 years, I’ve learned how to adjust quickly and get along with whatever I have at a certain moment. I can’t say I always do this happily, but maybe the next three years will teach me how to be more content. Anyway, while in Moldova, I do the smart thing and drink bottled water. While in Holland, I do as I prefer to do and drink tap water. Oh, there are a multitude of other examples. In Moldova, Dan sighed, “I haven’t had to take an umbrella with me for the last two weeks!” I got quite used to the lack of rain as well. Then there is me on Monday, trying predict when the rain would stop long enough to make an (absolutely necessary) mad dash to the store. The excitement of using a dryer when we are in the States is almost too much for me to handle, but the simplicity of hanging the clothes out on the line when in Holland is really nice, too.

No matter how quickly I establish a new (or re-adopt an old) routine, it’s amazing how a previous one grips me when I least expect it. Today, I felt funny turning on the tap to fill Rebecca’s sippy cup. Yesterday, I just didn’t have the patience to wait for the damp Dutch air to dry my clothes, so I borrowed the neighbor’s dryer. But on Monday, I just couldn’t bear the thought of bringing an umbrella. Rebecca and I both ended up sopping wet.

Back

Ahh…exhaustion has set in. It’s difficult to travel with a baby, to get home and immediately have a deadline for work to meet, to find time to unpack with a baby who takes great pleasure in undoing everything that has been done, to have to cook again, to help the baby remember how to nap in her normal room.

I give all the credit in the world to all expats who travel abroad with 2 or 3 or 4 or more children. Even 10 days later, sleep sounds so nice…

It – the traveling and the experiencing – is worth it, though. And it’s so nice being back in Western Europe and being able to turn on the faucet and have drinkable water come out of the tap. It’s the small things, you know?

Moldova in Bullet Points

Today we leave Moldova. Bittersweet. We came here for work, and work we did, making a lot of progress (in our minds, at least) about what the next steps are for our work and our life.

In between work, we had a lot of fun, in an American-family-with-10-month-old-baby-visiting-Moldova-for-three-weeks kind of way...
-I finally mastered the fine art of getting a stroller in and out of an elevator so small (or was the stroller so big?) that there was less than 1 cm of clearance.
-Americans to talk with - AMERICANS! People like us!
-Being reunited with our Moldovan friends.
-I can now negotiate taxi fares in Romanian. Dan can now negotiate taxi fares in Romanian AND hold a decent conversation with the taxi drivers.
-We introduced Rebecca to the minibus, and then we decided to stick with taxis after contemplating the chances that during the ride she would either pick up a communicable disease or get a head injury.
-On a related note, while we were here, we also learned that most drivers believe that carseats belong in the trunks of their cars.
-Babushkas seeing Rebecca, holding Rebecca, and taking her away to show her off.
-Visiting underground wine cellars, villages, and monastaries.
-Big Lapiks! Ice cream in a bag! Watermelon!
-I learned how to make mamalyga (and it was goooood....)
-Air conditioning! Of course, to keep the neighbors below us happy and to give ourselves a chance to sleep, Dan "rewired" our air conditioner. (Can you tell he is the son of a surgeon and the grandson of an engineer?)