landing
The past few days in Geneva have been productive ones, even the weekend where everything shuts down. The Bun handled the fog of jetlag the best amongst the three of us, probably because he napped on and off in the first two days and was usually too exhausted at the end of every day. I've also been enjoying my sleep, partly because it is so quiet here, but mostly because there are no early morning feeds for the baby! So being here is sort of like being on a busy working holiday.
The Bun did better than expected on his first long-haul flight: sleeping 7 hours stretched out over his seat and my legs and then quietly watching cartoons or playing games on the inflight system. I didn't even need to take out any of the distractions that I'd packed for him, and he only got fidgety as we approached landing. I can only hope he behaves well on the flight back, which is during Swiss daylight hours so I can't count on him sleeping half the flight.
He also did very well as we transited in Zurich - waiting for us to get our rail cards (love how kids under 6 ride all public transport for free) and then staying close by and listening to instructions as J and I wrestled our three massive suitcases out of Geneva train station and walked to our hotel.
Overall, I think The Bun has loved being the centre of his parents' attention again - no baby to compete with! It's like being on a vacation where the only child status is reverted. As I predicted, his behavior has improved with lots more attention, although we do have moments where he is unreasonable, sulky, and endlessly demanding, but I guess that is just typical 3-going-on-4 behavior. I'm also very happy to spend this quality time with him; back in Singapore, juggling 2 kids and housework, it's inevitable that he is left to fend for himself more and that tempers are also more likely to fray. Being on this trip with him has reminded me to take time out to really be with him, instead of treating him as one more item on my endless to-do list. One can only keep trying.
We have been busy mostly with housing matters. I'll write about our apartment hunt in another post, but in summary we have seen two places we really like and today we're making applications for them. There are still some places to view this week, but hopefully we get one of our top two choices and the paperwork goes smoothly. Now it's time to hunt down some furniture! It's been broiling hot here and since J has started work this week I'll take The Bun shopping with me, checking out boring things like furniture and appliances. I wish we brought a stroller with us because there's lots of walking and he usually wilts after lunch, but we didn't think of that since its been a couple of years since he last sat in a stroller.
Tomorrow is The Bun's school tour. I'm quite curious to see what it will be like.
Will write more soon. In the meantime, I'm doing most of my updates on Instagram.