Uncle Patrick!

Uncle Patrick arrived yesterday afternoon. The kids are loving having him here. Ro and Muriel were friendly right away, though Niamh took a little bit of time to warm up.

Yesterday was also a milestone day for Rowan. He sat down at the table to eat raclette for dinner instead of hiding in his room because he couldn't stand the sound of the bacon and sausages sizzling and popping. And how was miraculous feat accomplished? Earmuffs.

Uncle Patrick was kind enough to bring over a small duffle bag of various American items for us, and among those was a pair of earmuffs for Rowan to wear when noises are too much for him. The earmuffs worked even better than I anticipated. By the end of dinner Ro was not bothered at all by the sizzling and popping, and had ditched the earmuffs.

On another note, the above picture demonstrates Ro's own take on the best way to eat raclette which I'm sure elicited a collective gasp of horror from cheese lovers across Switzerland: scrape the melted cheese on top of raw carrot sticks and allow the cheese to harden before picking up with your fingers and eating.