I have begun to compile a bucket list of things to do/see while we live here in Europe. I will continue to add to it as more ideas come to mind and as I do more research of what's out there and I would love any ideas you have out there. You'll know its accomplished with its written with a line through it.
Les Peces de Saint-Ouen Market in Paris (largest flea market in the world)
Bern LDS Temple
Lay out on an Umbrella boardwalk/beach
Disneyland Paris
Nice
Cruise from Barcelona
Greek Islands
Crazy people art museum in Lausanne
Roman baths/Hot Springs
Sing Alanis Morisette in a Karaoke bar and totally ROCK IT!
Sit and sketch some beautiful scenery for hours (no, I'm not an artist)
Buy some beautiful ornaments for my mother from at Christmas market
Return to St. Malo
Romont Switzerland (I always pass by train)
Rent bicycles with baby seats for the day
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Swiss Lactating Manequin
3 plastic manequins stand on display on the 2nd floor of Manora, a clothing department store in Vevey, Switzerland. With Spring around the corner, they pose in a group as if laughing and having a lighthearted conversation about the weather or their new Spring attire. Two of the women stand and 1 sits on a bright pink lawn chair spread over some fake grass. This seated manequin, who I will call Gloria for no other purpose than to seperate her from the others, poses with a plastic cup of what looks to be lemonade and is showing off her new brightly colored capri pants and purple tank top. She has a light smile on her face, and is gazing up towards her friends. So pleasant looking and relaxed........
SO. I take the little boys clothes shopping with me in Vevey. With the weather warming up I want to get some new European T-shirts. I go up to the 2nd floor of the department store and past some manequins to where the shirts are on display and begin to browse....I pick up a shirt from a hanger and look it over. I hold it up, cocking my head from side to side, and then put it back on the row with the others. I pick up another shirt just as I begin to hear some snickering from nearby.
I look up and find 3 or 4 women with thier hands over their mouths giggling in my general direction. Of course I take this personally and begin to nonchalantly look myself over and find that I am all in order. I have nothing exposed that shouldn't be, no toilet paper hanging from my pants...
With my eyebrows drawn I look back at them as if to say, "What's so funny?"...But in French, of course.
They continue to giggle and pretend to be looking away so I slowly turn around to my children...
At this point I see my 4-year-old boy straddling a seated manequin. Trevor has her shirt pulled down and is nursing from her plastic breasts not like a baby might do with its own mother, but like a cat might do with an ice cream cone. He sits on her lap, licking her non-existent nipples with the look of complete confidence as if this is something he does on a daily basis.
You can imagine the look on my face of sheer horror, I don't feel the need to describe my surprise....
The women shoppers now have their hands off of thier mouths and are no longer giggling, but laughing out loud and shaking thier heads back and forth and talking amongst themselves. I really can't blame them. I would enjoy watching it myself, if it were someone else's child....
Mortified, I grab the stroller and Trevor's hand and walk away from the maneguin display at a very fast pace. You could describe it as a power-walk. Just as I am leaving I realize that I have left the manequin's naked chest exposed. For a moment I consider going back to fix her shirt, but it is a fleeting moment, and I continue my walk out the store with my lips pursed, thinking just as I have a million times before, "What am I going to do with this child?"
Maybe we'll just go to the park today instead...
SO. I take the little boys clothes shopping with me in Vevey. With the weather warming up I want to get some new European T-shirts. I go up to the 2nd floor of the department store and past some manequins to where the shirts are on display and begin to browse....I pick up a shirt from a hanger and look it over. I hold it up, cocking my head from side to side, and then put it back on the row with the others. I pick up another shirt just as I begin to hear some snickering from nearby.
I look up and find 3 or 4 women with thier hands over their mouths giggling in my general direction. Of course I take this personally and begin to nonchalantly look myself over and find that I am all in order. I have nothing exposed that shouldn't be, no toilet paper hanging from my pants...
With my eyebrows drawn I look back at them as if to say, "What's so funny?"...But in French, of course.
They continue to giggle and pretend to be looking away so I slowly turn around to my children...
At this point I see my 4-year-old boy straddling a seated manequin. Trevor has her shirt pulled down and is nursing from her plastic breasts not like a baby might do with its own mother, but like a cat might do with an ice cream cone. He sits on her lap, licking her non-existent nipples with the look of complete confidence as if this is something he does on a daily basis.
You can imagine the look on my face of sheer horror, I don't feel the need to describe my surprise....
The women shoppers now have their hands off of thier mouths and are no longer giggling, but laughing out loud and shaking thier heads back and forth and talking amongst themselves. I really can't blame them. I would enjoy watching it myself, if it were someone else's child....
Mortified, I grab the stroller and Trevor's hand and walk away from the maneguin display at a very fast pace. You could describe it as a power-walk. Just as I am leaving I realize that I have left the manequin's naked chest exposed. For a moment I consider going back to fix her shirt, but it is a fleeting moment, and I continue my walk out the store with my lips pursed, thinking just as I have a million times before, "What am I going to do with this child?"
Maybe we'll just go to the park today instead...
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