So yes, it’s been a while. A long while in fact. A while as in a whole beautiful summer in between this blogpost and the last one. So to tie the two together I thought why not do a “summer-summary” of its greatest hits:

Baditime

• The first time (yes) I actually went to the Badi (Swimming baths) with the Mimis. Twice, in fact. I know I know there are Mums who spend their entire summers there but I’m not (yet) one of them. For various reasons but mainly because I’m a lazy parent and I find getting there and back again bloody exhausting. It means moving a shedload of things to that place in the blistering heat. Like enough towels, sand toys, foodstuff, rubber animals on top of the usual crap a parent takes with them. Not to mention the suncream.
  

  Thank God, Grandma thought of preparing some food other than chips & ice cream!

  

  See all that crap behind us? Yes, I carried that… ALL of it.

  So that should explain I believe. Although I am painfully aware that my kids will only learn to swim when they actually get to be in the water and only once they swim, the Badi experience will be more enjoyable for the parent involved, it’s a vicious circle guys!!!!

• Tied very closely to 1.: The re-emergence of me in a bikini, something which last happened when I was pregnant with Mimi 1 so about 4 (!!!) years ago. Not entirely sure if that is a good thing for people watching, but you know what? I decided to not care about what people think that much anymore. I have spent already too many years of my life worrying about “what people think”, and I still do it way too often, so if it’s me in a bikini, it’s just me in a bikini and that’s that. Really, I think this world has much bigger worries than that. Full stop. (and no, no Pictures here, I am still working on that one!)

Eco-Sins

• A giant baby pool in our garden which almost flooded the grass in the evenings. I think the bugs and ants must have started to think it was monsoon time in India… And I’m quite sure that in our absence they did fire-drills on how to evacuate the lawn in case of an emergency. Plus my conscience went hiding under the covers every time we emptied those litres upon litres of water in the evening. Is there any Co2 compensation available for that?
  

  See, if you’ve got this, you don’t really need to go anywhere else, right? Right?

   

  An actual Holiday abroad

• A great Holiday in the UK again. Since this was probably the main attraction this summer, I am going to spend some lines on it. We were in Devon again, meeting our dear friends with kids, enjoying beach life all the while I was gathering courage to not wear a jumper at the beach.
  

  Dresscode has to be Jumper, shorts and no shoes (or Flipflops). That’s summer in Britain for you. Beach is lovely though!!

  

• Mimi 1 going “Surfing”. Unfortunately I failed to take a photo of her in her wetsuit, but I assure you she looked adorable. And also, she seemed to really like the sea and lying on the bodyboard, being pulled through the waves. I wish you saw how proud Twomimidad was of his badass daughter. I could just tell that he was actually waiting and acheing to buy her a totally overpriced wetsuit. But that look was entirely worth it. Mimi 2 was put in a borrowed wetsuit for a test only, and she hated it so much, she started crying “noooo” every time we simply mentioned it. So she was left in peace and played in the sand very happily.

City life

• We got to show London to the Mimis which I absolutely loved.
  

  Covent Garden, totally rocking the sparkling shoes.

  Of course it helped that weather was brilliant almost every day (I have never before actually worn a short dress and open shoes in London!!!). If you’re interested in what we actually did in London, check out my Instagram account where I gave a short summary every day.

  All I can say is: London with kids is totally great. It also helped that our Airbnb flat was located in St. John’s Wood, a part of the city I hadn’t previously ever visited but which was great for being with kids. It is, of course, a location which is utterly inaffordable for normal mortals but hey, that’s why you go on Holidays! It offered a nearby park with a great playground, a cute highstreet with a great selection of child-friendly restaurants and even some quiet roads where Mimi 1 could practice her biking skills plus a direct bus to Oxford Street and Covent Garden.

  

  Spending a day at the South Bank was one of the unexpectedly great experiences.

   

  

  That’s London Zoo with some added non-animal related cuteness.

  I think back to that time with a smile still. The only thing I would change in hindsight is to bring a proper pram, not just the crappy travelbuggy. You walk a lot in a city and it would have been much easier with our Bugaboo… and it might have saved Twomimidad getting a really bad spell of his hip ache which would have made me much less angry at him for having left his medicine at home. But apart from that, it was AWESOME and we’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Proud parenting moment

• And the best thing was when we asked the kids if they had liked the beach or the city better and they said “both”. These are our kids. Makes me so happy for the Holidays ahead. They are really up for the ride and they did equally great on the plane as in the car. Thanks Mimis!!! 
  

  She’s looking like a pro already. And since screentime at home is so limited, having lots of it at your hands is a huge thumbs up for flying…

  Riding that bike!

• Mimi 1 got the hang of biking! To be honest I didn’t even think about when kids start to bike, but she got quite interested in it this summer and especially Twomimidad shows insane amounts of patience with such things (thanks TMD!!!). So really, by the time we got back Mimi 1 actually started riding off on her own. I was -am- so proud!!! And so was she, obviously, she had a huge grin on her face.
  

  Me-week, the short version

• Oh – almost forgot- I had a whole week to myself in the Engadin. And you know what? it was way less transforming than I thought it would be. In a good way. I started off with the drive to Schuol and a hike to the Lischanahütte where I stayed for the night. The plan was to then hike to Sesvennahütte via the Fuorcla d’Aua and Passo Sesvenna for another night and then all the way back the day after. That was the plan. After a crappy first night in the cabin, I hiked to Fuorcla d’Aua and about a third down my legs just could not take it anymore.
• 

  This is where I hit rock-bottom. Quite literally.

  They weren’t hurting, but they just weren’t holding me up properly . It was a very strange feeling for me not being able to control them the way I’m used to anymore. So gingerly, gingerly I made my way down in babysteps. It really was about the same speed as if Mimi 2 were with me, that was as fast as I could go. So I went down all the way to S-Charl, called the Hotel and told them I would come one day early. After a nice lunch in S-Charl and a Postauto ride (I really had to do my best not to fall out of the Postauto when I climbed out at the stop) I drove to Pontresina and “home” to the Hotel Saratz. And there I stayed for the rest of the week.

  

  The mandatory selfie with Piz Palü backdrop

  It was thoroughly un-spectacular in a very soothing way. I feel at home there and I did not do much apart from going to Alp Languard innumerable times, doing some hikes, read a lot (!!!) everywhere, going to the Sauna and having nice dinners with a beautiful view. I had a really good time just by myself and realised that I haven’t changed as much as I’d thought I had. I’m still totally ok to be by myself. I didn’t miss the Mimis. I missed my husband a couple of times, especially when having an Aperitif on the beautiful terrace, but that’s a good thing. It shows I care and I really just like being together with him. And that was that. Thoroughly un-spectacular.

  

  Dinnertime view

  The takeaways from my time to myself

• What I have learnt from my week alone, and especially from my forced plan-change is that I will, more than ever, have to learn patience. Patience, first and foremost with myself. I will not be able to do it all at once. I will do “it” (whatever it might be at that point in my life), but one step at a time. I would love to do an MBA, and get a new, more challenging job and do more crafts with the Mimis, and learn them how to swim, and travel the world, and spend time with TMD alone but I cannot have it all at once. I will have to allow myself time for things to happen. Good things. Maybe different things than I had planned for, but the Universe will eventually help me along for sure. I know that right now I’m in a good place and I do not want to spend more time away from the Mimis than what I do now. So I will not be able to focus on studies on top of my job, that would just break me. Also, if I decide to take something extra on, it should be something extra just for me. Such as probably one Yoga class more per week, or a really cool seminar on digital marketing, or more blog-writing, or whatever I feel fills me up with joy. I am usually just too tired for everything by the end of a day so I just collapse in front of the TV, but eventually this has to change somewhat. Else I will end up empty of passions (apart from the Mimis, who are the passion of my life, for obvious reasons) and passions are what we are made of, they are the glow from within, and I need to replenish that. I want to glow more, become more full of different things again, so let that journey begin. In babysteps, let’s just do babysteps since, eventually, they will bring you where you want to be, in one piece.