This my first post after many months if not a few years. Certain things in life have taken some major turns in the recent time - we purchased a small house, our youngest is now 9 year old, the eldest is 14 and the middle one 11, we adopted a tabby kitten and he's 3.5 year old (that's likes 20 in human term if I'm not mistaken), we sold our Toyota Verso having got the gearbox repaired and got ourselves a 4 year old VW Touran and wife got her license! We now live in a small "row house" or "terrace house", with two small sized adults, one petit teenager, and two pre-teen kids and a big tabby cat. It's pretty crowded which makes me regret ... why the hell did I pay so much for such a small place. There isn't even enough room for everyone - the girls have to share a room that bothers me so much ... :( sigh. I tend to either make no decision or stupid decisions in life. Looking back I wish I could have given more thoughts and not rush into making decisions on certain things. We now have an overpriced small house with appalling built quality and no saving.
On the positive note, the kids have been doing very well in their less complicated life.
My eldest girl is still very active in her sport - artistic gymnastic (no guys, it's the not the one with balls and ribbons, that's Rhythmic gymnastic!). Though she once trained to break into the "Kanton" junior team (equivalent to state team), she didn't make it, which we as parents were probably partially at fault depending on how one looks at it. She now trains at and representing her Club and in this context she's done very well. She was a few times times on the podium which includes once as the Kanton (Aargau) champion and most recently third place in team event at the Swiss National Championship (despite being sick during the tournament). On the academic side, she's on track to go to the "Kantonschule" (Translated Kanton School), which is like a college that would prepare her for university.
My youngest followed her big sister's footstep and is also in artistic gymnast. I must say she's done beyond our expectation, given the fact that she's for the past two years in the Swiss national junior group. At 9, it'd probably take another 7 years or so if she's ever to make it (by this I mean competing at the highest level internationally and finger cross at the Olympics - it costs nothing to dream). She trains 6 times a week Monday to Saturday, each day for about 4 hours. It's a tough, long journey which makes me wonder sometimes whether her study will eventually have to take a back seat (though she's up to this point does well in school).
The middle one is the one that surprised us the most, which makes me sometimes think, buying that small overpriced house had probably a silver lining to it. Since our place is close to a badminton club (the Badminton Club Gebenstorf), he rejoined it (he had tried it once earlier but had stopped due to distance from home). Since the first day of rejoining, he has not stopped improving and as off Jan 2020 he's joined his small sister in the Swiss national junior group. Somehow he has a very natural movement, handling of racquet and footwork on the court. In his first Swiss national championship, at 9 year old he got a bronze medal in Under 10 category, and in 2020 got another bronze in under 11. In 2019 he almost became the Kanton (Aargauer) Champion for Under 13 (when he was just 10!) ... Olympic (tough, but free to dream). In school he's so brilliant with Mathematics, picking the top score in almost every test as though his brain is gifted for anything mathematical and logic.
