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.

An Interesting Idea

My husband would say I like to kill plants. That simply isn't true but I have a hard time remembering when I watered them. So when I came across this article on using plants to improve your indoor air quality, I was intrigued. Then I thought about the poor plants and how buying them would, in fact, doom them and I decided to wait until I started taking ADD meds or something.

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.

Today was a tough one. The newbie started crying and the big girl started sympathy crying so I started rethinking my unofficial "no hard alcohol in the house" policy. Then the baby fell asleep and I decided to pee which obviously meant the big girl had to get frustrated with building her marble run and she screamed - waking the baby.

The buzzer rang - it was the big girl's friend asking if she could come out and play. Well, she might be a big girl in her mind but she isn't yet 5 so I told her to stay by the playground. I went to the window to check on her and I saw her running back to the apartment crying. Her friend took off, probably expecting her to follow but I told her to stay at the playground. Props to my girl - she didn't follow. I made hot cocoa and commisserated but not before her wailing woke... that's right. The baby. *sigh*

The big girl is asleep and the baby has been handed off to daddy so I am drinking a glass of wine. Tomorrow will be better. 

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.

Slowcookers in Switzerland

The Swiss apparently don't use crockpots. I say this because it took me months to find one. Then I did and it was devoid of features. I used a nice programmable slowcooker in the US that allowed me to set a timer and ignore it until a buzzer went off however many hours later.

The only reasonably priced slowcooker (under 100 CHF) was available at Migros City in the electronics department. For the low price of 50 CHF, I picked up an unknown brand (Mio Star) that has a manual switch and four settings, off, low, high, and warm low. It does have a removable liner for easy cleaning and it seems to work pretty well although the high setting seems to run a little hot.

Today red beans and rice was on the menu and my apartment smells spicy. Yum.

Bretzel Konig - Lucerne

It isn't just American businesses that have silly names invoking
royalty. This Pretzel King is located in Lucerne, Switzerland.

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.

Oh and by the way

I don't know why this is but every time I've had a baby (all 2 times lol), my computer has broken immediately afterward. So I am borrowing the husband's computer while I figure out if mine can be fixed. This is not a recipe for a happy marriage so I will have to either fix mine soon or come up with a netbook. Or something. Who knows?

Baby E - Hold Me!

The last few weeks have been simultaneously very busy and not busy the way a household with a new baby generally is. I forgot how time consuming newborns are. Every couple of hours E needs to be fed and he has some reflux so after that I hold him upright so he doesn't spit up all of the milk. He does eat less often at night than S did but he makes up for it in the evening time when he nurses all the time.

We still like going out and about. Yesterday we went to a Fasnacht celebration for kids in a nearby village and S had a blast. I put E in the Moby wrap I bought from Peppermint when I was in Texas. Let me tell you, he loves that thing! I put him in and he sleeps for a good couple of hours. Wraps can be kind of intimidating but I found a video on Youtube on how to tie the wrap and after a couple of tries, I got it down.

Let me tell you, I have somewhere around 7 baby carriers (none of them are Baby Bjorns) and I bought a stroller when E was 2 weeks. There is a reason I spent more on all my baby carriers than on my stroller even though Zurich is the land of expensive Bugaboos, and that is because baby carriers get more use IME. Baby E has been in his stroller twice and he screamed his head off both times. Put him in the wrap or ring sling and I have a quiet, sleeping baby. It is like magic.