16 posts tagged “freya”

The forest crèche was quite another matter though. I've been driving her there every day, Monday to Friday, for almost a year and a half now. When she first started going, she hadn't started to talk yet and then I would listen to podcasts or my Ludlum Bourne audiobooks. Soon she started talking and then we started listening to music in the car. I remember one of the first things was the Yellow Submarine, and she would come home and tell mummy "rine, rine" - that was all she could say to say that she'd been listening to the Yellow Submarine. It's funny to think that she couldn't say those words back then. Fast forward to her last day and she's now fluent and able to express herself very well not only in English but in Luxembourgish too.

The music grew and she soon had several playlists strung together (one of which I posted about back in February). Then I rediscovered All Aboard, a tape that I had when I was a youngster and the Laughing Policeman soon became a firm favourite, along with the Hippopotamus song, Goodness Gracious Me, the Bee Song, Granddad, My Brother, Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, etc. And, of course, the last week has been taken up with Christmas songs.


The forest crèche is such a wonderful concept and she has learned so much there. The building itself is right in the middle of the forest, right off the beaten track, and every day they go out into the forest, rain, hail or shine. You should see them all dressed up in their snow suits, gloves and balaclavas or their boodlebox and raincoats (boodlebox is Luxish for waterproof trousers - no doubt I'm spelling it wrongly but I really must write it down lest I forget as I'm sure I would very soon!) And in summer it's t-shirt, had and sunscreen and off they go. She's learned a lot of confidence by going there. I remember after her first week Lorraine telling me that they were throwing rocks off a sheer drop and laughing, but I thought she was exaggerating. She stayed with Freya for her first few weeks you see in case she got upset at being left on her own at the tender age of two. I went along with them one day, and, sure enough, the drop was as sheer as could be. They would climb trees and slide down muddy slopes on their behinds. You should see the state that their clothes got into. It must be great to be so carefree and be able to have such fun.

She's made a lot of friends there, one of whom we're spending the morning with on Sunday as it happens - a little boy with a Russian mother and Lux-ish father, so Mikhail is one of the few other kids there that I can actually talk to! (I speak Russian, for those who didn't know).

It was terribly difficult saying goodbye to her teachers, well, difficult for me and the teachers anyway. One of the teachers was in tears and I admit that I was having to fight them back myself (and am now, as it happens). We're so fortunate to have got a place there and that Freya was able to go for so long. It's such a pity that Hamish will never know such a place, but when we move we'll have the beach and mountains on our doorstep and an au pair and mum will be home every day too, so, although it will be different for him, hopefully it will be just as good. I must say though that I'm feeling terribly sad about it, but nostalgic and happy for the memory of taking my little girl to crèche every day. Once we move I'll be working every day and not even home for lunch so I won't get to spend the afternoons with my little boy at home either. It's all going to change and I know that we will all be much happier being back home and being by the sea again.

We're lucky parents to have such great kids and their whole lives ahead of them. I can imagine now how my mum and dad must have felt when Brian and I were that age, but it's something one can never really imagine until one becomes a parent. I'm grateful to have found out the secret of true happiness and the love of a parent. I couldn't be without it now.

<sniff>

So thank you everyone at the bëschcrèche!

And a nice one of wee Hamish sitting up. He's rolling onto his front and back again a lot. How long before he starts crawling I wonder? He's a happy wee man and we're very lucky.

We eventually managed to find a swimming pool that was open, although it did involve waiting until 11.30, dangerously close to lunch time and crèche starts at 2 p.m. Welcome to Luxembourg. She had a lot of fun though, and that's the main thing. It was also Hamish's first time at the pool and he seemed to enjoy himself too.

It's too bad that I didn't get any shots of the birthday cake that mummy made for Freya to take with her to the crèche:  lovely carrot cake with a ring of baby carrots to decorate it (the supermarket was out of sugared carrot decorations, or maybe they just stopped stocking them, like they seem to do with most things that we like - again, welcome to Lux). Carrot cake is rather alien to the Luxembourgers, so it's nice to introduce them to it, particularly when it's as nice as mummy's is. Here's the one she made for F's first birthday.

So, while the day was not without stress, Freya had a lot of fun. And now she's our big three-year-old. Wherever does the time go?