Back From the States

Last month we spent 2.5 weeks back home in the US visiting family and friends. It was an amazing trip and a sucky trip all at the same time. First we flew to Philadelphia to visit the husband's family. Would have been great had all 12 of us not contracted the stomach flu. Not one of us was spared but fortunately the bug only lasted 24 hours, except for the babies who fared the worst.

My kids have 2 cousins, one turned 8 on our trip and the other is only 1.5. Big girl had a great time playing with them and was introduced to something called a Bakugan. No idea but she loves it!

We met up with a friend who lives in Washington DC while we were there. He took the train up and we met him in the city. The husband had to eat a cheesesteak and then we went to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell so the big girl could see some of Philadelphia's history. Both the Liberty Bell and a tour of Independence Hall are FREE and I got a good story out of it later.

It is always fun to ask kids for their take on whatever you do and I asked S what she thought of Independence Hall. She said that there used to be a princess and king but then the colonists got together in the castle (Independence Hall) and told them to go away because they were too bossy.

Puking babies made us miss our plane to Texas and US Airways in their sucktitude charged $150 change of plans fee plus the difference in airfares. Because we don't know when we will get back to the US, I sucked it up and put it on the credit card. Not my favorite thing to do but it happens. Next time I will buy cancellation insurance for our flights. Oh well.

Texas was as good as Texas can be. My big girl and I both have wonderful friends there that we miss tremendously and we had a good time chatting and playing. No sight seeing, just friend visiting and eating cheap American food.

From Texas we flew to New York City where the husband had a conference. We spent a few days walking around NYC and had an incredible amount of Chinese food. I took both kids on the subway, which is just not as clean as Swiss trains, but runs more frequently.

S charmed the ticket taker at the Empire State Building. She was telling him some random story about Switzerland without telling him we live here. Then she went on to tell him about her kindergarten. I blushed and apologized for taking up his time but he said he really enjoyed talking to her.

Although I have been to NYC several times, I have never seen the Statue of Liberty so we made our way to the ferry dock. That was an adventure by itself but when we got there it was relatively late and the ferries to the statue weren't running any longer. The Staten Island ferry was though! Also FREE. It was sunset and we took the ferry round trip. Lady Liberty was beautiful standing there with the setting sun behind it. S loved it and danced around looking at her both ways. I did notice on the way back from Staten Island, a coast guard boat followed the ferry with a huge machine gun mounted on the front.

After NYC, we took the Bolt Bus back to Philadelphia and back to the inlaws. We spent one last night together before heading back to Switzerland.

Epic trip - too long for the kids. Jet lag was horrible and the baby just started back on a decent sleeping schedule. I think from now on everyone can come visit us. :)

The Farmer's Market at Hauptbahnhof

Today the kids and I went to Zurich's Hauptbahnhof (Zurich's main train station) to check out the weekly farmer's market and see what was in season.

For those in the Zurich area, the farmer's market is upstairs in the huge hall every Wednesday. 

The girl, who has never voluntarily consumed a grape in her life, begged for me to buy grapes. I didn't think there was a chance of a snowball in a hot place that she would eat them but I bought them anyway. She ate a significant number of them. Win!

I also picked up some Swiss chard, an eggplant for baba ganoush, some orange carrots, purple carrots and REAL CHEDDAR CHEESE. Yes, I am yelling, that is how exciting cheddar is.

Before I move on to the cheddar, I must tell you about the brilliance of the farmer's market. The produce vendors really know how to get kids to eat new things. S doesn't eat carrots. She just doesn't. At one organic stand, the woman asked S if she wanted a carrot to eat. She seemed dubious but took it anyway and ate it. Then the woman asked her if she wanted a purple carrot! Yes, she did. So I bought both. We'll see if I can recreate the magic at home.

Now for the cheddar. Switzerland has a lot of cheese but not a lot of cheddar. I miss American cheddar - specifically Tillamook. That is unavailable here but at the farmer's market, the British Cheese Centre has a stall and sells real cheddar.

What's Going On In Here?

Tonight I made Stella's Banana Brownies because I had bananas and no baked chocolate products. This happened after big girl S went to bed and I saved some for her for tomorrow. The husband came into the kitchen to see what I was doing and commented that every time I bake something after S goes to bed, she comes into the kitchen the next morning and asks, "what is going on in here?"

The husband was puzzled. Where did she pick up that phrase? I told him that is what I say when I come in to see that she is doing something she shouldn't be doing. The husband's theory is she uses it exactly the same way but the thing that I shouldn't be doing is baking without telling her first. :) Sounds about right.

Last night she spent the night at a friend's house for the first time. She loved it and cried when I took her home. When did my baby get so big?

Waiting for the S-Bahn

Some company (radio station?) was giving away roses, orange juice, champagne, and tote bags at the train station today to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Flower girl played with her rose as we were waiting on the platform. All and all it was a nice day.

A Built-In Audience

That is what babies are. At least to my 5 year old big girl, S. This morning as we sat around the table, I was holding the baby and she was doing something goofy - in other words her usual - and the baby started laughing hysterically. The big girl got excited the baby was entertained with her antics and she upped her goofiness a bit more and more until she was almost manic performing for him. He found all of this to be the funniest thing he has seen in his 4 short months of life. <3

I also learned something about Swiss parenting culture today. It was warm and sunny out and the kids were outside. S and her friend wanted to go into S's room and play with her Playmobil zoo. Fine and dandy with me but S's friend had to ask her mom because they were supposed to be playing outside. Friend's dad said no, play outside. Apparently the Swiss get almost angry when the kids want to play inside on a nice day. I've been sending S out all along when it has been drizzling out being a Washingtonian and all so the weather was no matter to me.

The girls played outside all day and S collapsed shortly after dinner. We are reading Little House in the Big Woods and it was at a particularly scary part so S took a while to fall asleep. Hopefully she will sleep in. LOL Right.

Not about Jamie Oliver or Food

I have some sad, sad news. I had to give the baby an emergency poopy-blowout bath and while I was in the bathroom, big girl S broke my laptop. Right now I am sharing a computer with the husband and plotting a way to get a new computer. The husband has been nice about giving me plenty of computer cycles but I am old and stuck in my ways and like having my own operating system.

Now we are off to meet a colleague of the husband's and his wife for coffee. I really need to get out more.

Jamie Oliver has nothing on Switzerland

There is a lively discussion on a message board I visit about Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Usually I don't watch anything that isn't a fake crime drama but I was interested to see who this Jamie Oliver character was and what he had to say about school lunches and processed food.

Toward the end of episode 2, Jamie tells the cooks and the principal that the kids would need a knife and fork. The reaction was priceless. It was like he asked them to give the kids a machete, not a butter knife. This brings me to kindergarten life in Switzerland.

Every Friday, big girl spends the morning (8:15 - 12) in the forest. They build a fire (the kids drag sticks for firewood), play games, sing songs, and all those other things kids do in the forest. A couple of weeks ago I went with because big girl was upset about leaving me. That week the lesson was "whittling a stick with their own Swiss Army knife." I have to admit, I was a little shocked by the idea of giving my 4 year old a Swiss Army knife and sending her into the forest with a little - but really not much - supervision.

All the kids were taught how to open the knife, cut away from their body, and close the knife with their jacket sleeve. I am not sure how much my big girl (age 4, nonspeaker of Swiss-German) understood so I will be going to school with her until her Swiss-German gets better or the end of the year.

Oh, and the Swiss eat everything with a knife and fork. Even pizza. The kids definitely know how to use one by age 4.

I have a cold and really need to go to bed but next post will be about the kids' food.

My Baby, Budding Photographer

Yesterday we took a walk to the post office to pick up a package and my big girl asked for my camera. See, next door to the post office is a farm with baby cows, ducks, goats, and chickens and she decided she wanted to take pictures of it. I gave her a quick tutorial on the proper way to hold and take pics with the camera and off she went. At some point she snickered and said, "I take beautiful pictures." Yes she does, and here are some of them. 

A horse painting in a train underpass.













A goat hoping for a snack. He was denied.











Some random house that captured her eye.

Things That Come Out of Mommy's Mouth

Why are the toothbrushes and toothpaste in the bathtub (with you)?
You need to be calm to push your brother in the stroller. (said mid-tantrum)
Why did you color on your face?

If you ever want to hear what you sound like, forget a tape recorder, get a 4 year old. You will hear them say something and ask, do I really say that? On the plus side I found out that I say please and thank you regularly and I don't swear too much. Last night I heard the girl say 'good lord' after she spilled a glass of water. Oops. That one is on me too.

Note to self: be a little more careful of verbiage and no more Rolling Stones.

The Other Shoe Drops

Big Girl S was adjusting a little too well to being a big sister. She still loves helping bathe and diaper Baby E but she has some obvious hostility toward him now that he has been here a month and I haven't sent him back. Poor girl. She wants to play with him too but he can't really play yet. The transition would probably be a little easier if babies emerged ready to play soccer.

Baby E also has some reflux so after every feeding I have to hold him upright to help his poor tummy and throat for at least 20 minutes. This means I am holding him a lot and not holding her. :( I am trying to do special thing with her every day. We took a day trip to Lucerne and had a blast (stay tuned for photos) and tomorrow we are going to a book swap at Starbucks.

Baby E is trying to alert me to his presence. Gotta go.

A Small Brag on the Girl

Following in her parents' footsteps, S can now add certain numbers.

There are pieces of paper floating around the house that look like this:

1 + 1 = 2
2 + 2 = 4
4 + 4 = 8
8 + 8 = 16
16 + 16 = 32
32 + 32 = 64
64 + 64 = 128

Look familiar? Now we just need to teach her binary notation.

Magic Tree House - Not a Good Bedtime Story

The kid was gifted the first four Magic Tree House Books because I thought they would make a good introduction to chapter books. The good news? She loves them! The bad news? She couldn't fall asleep because she was busy asking a billion questions about dinosaurs.

One concept she had problem grasping is that dinosaurs do not reanimate at the museum and eat people. I explained that they were just skeletons and not complete dinosaurs but she doesn't yet have the permanence to understand that death is forever.

Another thing. We are atheists so we have told her about evolution but we never related any sort of story that sounds like Adam and Eve. Well. She asked who the first person was if dinos all died before people existed. That one was a bit tougher. In her mind, the first person must have been a baby without a mommy - but where did the mommy go? Good question.

Like I said, good stories, just not good bedtime ones.

Moving, moving, moving

Tomorrow S is starting kindy at her new kindergarten. I didn't find this out until a couple of days ago but her teacher does not speak English at all. Oh boy. There is a little girl who S knows through daddy at her school that does speak English so that is good but I am still a little nervous.

Why are we moving already? We sublet an apartment for 3 months in Zurich proper through a relocation place. I didn't want to sublet for any longer than that because the relocation place charges an increasing percentage depending on the duration of the lease. What I didn't count on was how much this pregnancy would kick my ass. So I didn't have enough time to settle in, let alone get to know the city, before finding a place. The husband's colleague recommended the burb he lives in and it almost seems perfect. We will see, I guess.

If we stayed where we are now, we'd have to buy a car because it takes upwards of 30-40 minutes by bus to get anywhere. The place we are moving to is remote but there are a couple of grocery stores, a post office and bakery within 5 minutes walking.

Hopefully internet will be turned on soon so I can post pics of the Christmas parade we went to tonight.

Bonding Over Chaos

S had some problems making friends with the kids in the neighborhood because they speak Swiss German and she speaks English. A couple of days ago, we heard a couple of the neighbor girls outside our door giggling uncontrollably so I suggested S go out to see what they were doing.

Obviously, they were dropping stuffed animals in a bag from our floor over the railing to the basement floor. S decided to take out a couple of her stuffed animals and join in the fun. The girls seemed to have a ton of fun and spent a couple of hours running up and down the stairs.

First Week of Kindergarten Down

and many more to go.

S started at the Swiss, public kindy last Tuesday and she loves it! The students all speak Swiss German, which S does not speak, but she seems open to learning it and is excited to make friends. On Thursday, the class had gymnastics at a center away from the school. The kids all walked to the center with the teacher, participated in gym, and walked back to the school to sing songs until it was time to go home. The next day S had a bit of a fever and leg pain so she stayed at home.

The kindergarten is so different than the kindys in the United States. There aren't any academics. The school is outfitted with a bunch of Waldorf-esque toys to encourage imagination and the teachers have a very independence-minded attitude. It almost borders on a Montessori attitude.

Before the first day, the teacher and I had a chat about S starting school and she encouraged me to prepare S for walking to school by herself. Well, without an adult but with other kids that live in the building. She is only 4.5 years old!

All the kids in school are given large, orange reflective sashes to wear to and from school so drivers will see them and S has been dutifully wearing hers. As soon as I can, I'll get a pic.

Happy Birthday S!

My baby girl turned 4 last month. Things have been craxy around here with the husband finishing his PhD dissertation and me doing things like making Hello Kitty graham crackers for the girl's school.

Let's catch up. Yesterday S got her first bike from Craigslist. The ad said it was a Care Bears bike but it turned out to be a My Little Pony bike (her fave!) so she has been going around saying she loves mistakes.

Did I forget to mention we are moving to Switzerland?

I've been reading up on the subject because all I know about Switzerland is chocolate and cheese. Well, the husband (when he was just the boyfriend lol) and I went to Basel for 1 day.

OK, my last batch of Hello Kitty graham crackers are out of the oven and it is almost 2 am. Gotta go to bed.