Beautiful Italy, Beautiful Elba - a Family Affair

(This was written a couple of weeks ago. We're now back in Zurich.)

I'm currently sitting on our balcony with the most beautiful view towards a well-maintained garden, three pools and a little bit further out, the sea. After some discussion over a bottle of wine last night, I finally worked out which sea. Or did I? Maybe I just managed to boil it down to not being the Baltic Sea. Paul knows but he won't tell me and I don't trust the information on Wikipidia about Elba since it said that the population of the biggest town here is 500,000,000. Anyway, I can see a lot of water and a lot of sky. It sounds as if Paul has managed to get Stefan to sleep, so all I can hear are the birds doing their thing and a man carrying a ladder (yes, it's THAT quiet!).

We arrived on Saturday and will be leaving on Sunday. Driving. I love the fact that we can just get in our car and six-seven hours later (depending on traffic and strength / weakness of the passengers' bladders) we've exchanged a cloudy sky, sweaters and scarfs for sun, sandals and swimwear.

As a mother in possession of a mobile phone and no shame, I have minutely recorded Stefan's first proper meeting with the sea (last year, he had only learned to walk, so we were a bit worried about letting him too loose near the water), Stefan discovering sand, Stefan discovering sand in his shoes, socks, between his toes (his parents later discovering it in his hair, body, nappy...), Stefan eating ice cream, Stefan sitting on his dad's shoulders part 1, 2, 3, etc. Stefan playing in the sand with his dad part 1, 2, 3, etc. Basically a never ending series of pictures and videoes of Stefan and Stefan and his dad. I'd sent some of the pictures to some family and friends and one of my friends said, it would be nice to see some pictures of me as well. And I agree. Because I'm actually also here. But behind the camera. Which I think is quite often the case with mums.

Luckily, my sunny disposition and always positive attitude meant I found a solution to immortalise myself in pictures along with my son and husband:

Stefan and his stalker mum

A crazy big footprint in the middle of this picture

There's no stopping her

We might use this for our Christmas cards 2015

And the good old selfie 

Toddlers - the New Breed of Forensic Detectives?

After having spent yet another 45 minutes on a walk with Stefan which resulted in us exploring, minutely, an area the size of an A4 sheet of paper, I suddenly had a thought: Why don't the police train toddlers to become forensic detectives? They are naturals. Yes, there might be slight communication and behavioural problems and yes, it might not be entirely legal, but apart from that I really can't see why this isn't an amazing idea.

Here are some reasons why (based on my, yes, I will admit, perhaps rather limited experience, but still, I don't think Stefan is any different from other toddlers his age when it comes to the explorative nature of our walks).

• No stone, not even the smallest (including grains of sand), is left unturned, unstudied or in the cases of the younger toddlers, untasted. 
• Nothing escapes their gaze: Cigarette buds, rotten fruit, plastic lids, insects - so my argument would be that this were also to be the case with: Fingernails, minute body parts, hair, earrings, teeth, smaller bones.
• The same small area will be looked at from all angles more than once.
• Gloves are not necessary when it comes to examining any wet areas.
• When they're in the field, they're totally in the zone: They hear nothing and don't let anything stop them from for example digging into brown mud, not made out of soil, with a stick (if one is lucky!).
• Everything excites them.
• Confidentiality isn't a problem for them as they're unlikely to be able to talk. 

However, as in all employer-employee relationships, there are likely to be a few negatives and drawbacks when it comes to employing toddlers (in addition to the ones mentioned above):

• They might not understand the seriousness of the matter and laugh at inappropriate moments.
• They'll need longer and more breaks than older workers.
• They'll need help to go to the toilet and eat.
• They might ruin the evidence found and not want to hand it over.
• There is a chance that they'll suddenly get bored with the task at hand and nothing, no kind of bribe, that being monetary, extra annual leave, gym membership, monthly flowers, is going to make them change their minds.
• There might be more tears and hissyfits than with older colleagues.
• They will need a chaperone.

Over the next couple of months, I will do some more research. I have already started writing a questionnaire about Exploration Habits Among Toddlers When Going for Walks and in General (title to be shortened), which I 'm planning on handing out to the parents in Stefan's nursery to start with. Once a result has come back, I will make a pretty powerpoint presentation including loads of impressive slides and try to get a meeting in place with Herr Top-Police-Detective-Guy here in Zurich and see what he says. I think this could lead to something big. 

Actually, I have so much faith in this idea, I'm going to start designing appropriate forensic detective outfits for toddlers.

Chocolate Cookies with Chilli

Since I saw the recipe for these cookies a while back, I've wanted to try them out. But due to a disaster with some store-bought, ready-made cookie dough a couple of years back, I've been shying away from throwing myself into the art of making cookies, as I was convinced this was something I would never master.

Stage one: Getting the ingredients ready (which includes my mixer wearing a collar).

Stage two: The dough is being mixed using the correct tools and expert folding technique.

Stage three: Yumminess on a plate (with the mandatory glass of milk).

I decided to subject one of my therapy groups to my first batch of homemade cookies, and their comments were very encouraging. I didn't necessarily understand everything they said, but I returned home more or less empty-handed which in this case is a positive. And one of them asked for the recipe! Personally, I must admit I was a bit disappointed. I'd been looking forward to the chocolate / chilli combination but didn't think it worked that well. However, I am so excited that I managed to make cookies which didn't need to go directly from the oven into the bin...