Buckingham Palace

Dio flew to London by himself today to meet up with his cousins, aunt, and uncle. He and Eric had to get up at 4 am for a super early flight. They visited Buckingham palace today, ate delicious Indian food, and were watching the Minecraft movie when I last hear from him. Crazy that he is off in another country having adventures!

Our big adventure for the day was finally receiving our countertops and backsplash. The delivery company refused to drop them off in front of our building with the pallet jack, as they were supposed to do. They wheeled the whole pallet 100 meters from the truck to the tram stop, but wouldn't go a few blocks more to our building. So we had to carry all 6 heavy pieces, one by one, with Ivy guarding the pallet.

Later in the day, when we'd gotten some energy back, we carried them up to our apartment, with assistance from our guests in Le Chateau. (Thank you!)

Ivy and Inga babysat during lunch for our guests downstairs; they have two children ages 4 and 9 who are enthralled with our girls. Ivy is especially popular, probably because she's still a kid and loves to play.

Ivy left mid-afternoon for a sleepover, so the house feels extra empty.

Inga and Eric are playing soccer. It's close to midnight and they are still not home!

A picture of me and my friend Erica (a midwife & epidemiologist who has helped BWB with our data collection project) posing yesterday afternoon for some breech pictures. She and her family are staying in Le Chateau.

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Lots of soccer, lots of friends, lots of fun

Everyone but Ivy had a soccer game this morning through early afternoon. I went to Inga's. Her team won 10-0 and I was filming to try to catch Inga scoring a goal. Somehow I missed her goal, which was the first one of the game! She was frustrated because she was on midfield during the first half but then put on defense during the second half, even though she was clearly not needed on defense. It was a weak team and Cavigal had possession most of the time.

Dio's team lost 0-1 and Dio had a shot on goal at the very end, which was blocked. Zari's team "only" lost 4-0, which is much better than some of their other losses!

Then we got together with my midwife friend and her family who are staying in Le Chateau. The soccer player teenagers were tired, so they stayed home while the rest of us went to the chateau to play and socialize. Then we came back to our apartment for dinner and got treated out to ice cream at Fenocchio.

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First swim

We got together with some friends of ours, a family from New Zealand. He's a professional rugby player here in Nice. They have 3 kids ages 2 and up. Ivy and Inga adore their two youngest girls and the feeling is definitely mutual! The littlest one reminds me of Boo from Monsters Inc.

We had a late lunch together at our apartment and then headed to the beach. We walked a bit further down to the area where there is some sand (volleyball pits during the summer and in the offseason, it's open for anyone to sit/play on). Ivy and I went swimming, along with their oldest.

The water was brisk but very refreshing. I stayed in for 5-10 minutes.

I also had a fun run with my Canadian midwife friend, who is staying with her family in Le Chateau. We're hoping to go running together a few more times before her family leaves.

We finished watching the 4th episode of the new season of Wheel of Time. It definitely helps that I've read the entire series.

We have 3 soccer games tomorrow, then another get-together with our friends in Le Chateau. A fun & friend-filled weekend!

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I started the day with a "coffee group" with some of my friends. It's so nice to sit at a cafe and catch up with each other's lives. Then I got to work in a serious way, hammering away at a huge grant application that we're trying to put together before the deadline. I had several meetings as well.

We're officially on school vacation for the next 2+ weeks!

We're doing things with friends both tomorrow and Sunday and I'm super excited for socializing and a break from work.

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Aabenraa, Denmark

I'm back from a short trip to Aabenraa, Denmark! 🇩🇰 I was there for the Upright Breech Seminar on April 2nd to observe and write up a conference report. (You can read it here if you're interested: https://www.breechwithoutborders.org/aabenraa)

I flew direct to Copenhagen and then caught a 3-hour train to the nearest train station in Rødekro. The hospital is actually in Rødekro and not Aabenraa proper, so I stayed in a hotel just a few blocks from the train station.

I had a 50-minute walk in the morning to get to the hospital auditorium. I walked most of the way along a network of bike paths, which was amazing to see. I started getting blisters on the bottom of my feet at the end of the walk home. My shoes were very comfortable and broken in, but it was still well over 20,000 steps.

Today I did the same travels in reverse, getting home a bit before 11 pm. Ivy and Inga were already in bed when I walked up the staircase to our apartment, but the opened their windows and whispered out to me as I came up.

Our 2-week school break starts this weekend! Dio will be visiting cousins in London and then my sister arrives from California with her family (4 kids). We'll be visiting the Gorges de Verdon--Europe's Grand Canyon--for 4 days. I'm so excited!

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