Let's Make More Steak Mommy

My big girl started eating steak on her fifth birthday.

Ever since she started solids, she had some texture issues and meat is a big one for her. It started with homemade baby food. Try as I might, I could never get it smooth enough for her so I went to the store bought organic baby food. I liked that stuff because it didn't have any hidden ingredients, what was on the label was the sum total of what was in the jar. Unfortunately, she could never eat the stage 3 (or lumpy) baby food. She'd gag or vomit or both.

As she got older, her protein sources were limited. She'd eat milk, cheese, eggs, tempeh, seitan, (the latter 2 are unavailable in Switzerland) and the occasional bites of chicken as long as the texture is destroyed in the cooking process. Oh and whole pinto beans from Freebirds World Burritos.

When we moved to Switzerland, she stopped eating cheese and Freebirds is too far away for take out so that reduced her protein sources further.

About a week before she turned 5, I told her that now that she is 5 I bet she is old enough for steak. She bought it. On her fifth birthday she tried steak and declared that she likes it. A lot. So I try and buy it so she gets protein.

Yesterday I made steak for dinner and gave her a decently European portion. She ate it and then we had the following conversation:

Big Girl: Mommy, I want more steak
me: I am glad you liked it but it is all gone
Big Girl: nooooooooooooooo Make more
me: (chuckle) I can't make more, it isn't like bread where I have the flour and can cook more.
Big Girl: We can go shoot a cow to make more steak.
me: (dying of laughter on the inside) I don't think the farmer would appreciate us shooting his cow.

So there you go. Run out of steak? Go shoot a cow.

Movenpick Swiss Ice Cream

Movenpick opened a new store near the lake and Bellevue tram stop. Yay! They have pretty much the best ice cream in Zurich, with Swiss Chocolate being my favorite flavor. Swiss Chocolate is a solid chocolate ice cream with ribbons of actual Swiss chocolate throughout. *yum* We picked up cones and headed to the lake to walk along the path and look at the water.

Spring Day Just Outside Zurich

It is a nice spring day here today so I went for a walk and took some photos of the countryside and mountains. These are fields of wheat and rapeseed crops.

Baby must. be. held. now. mommy.

gah

Before you feel too sorry for him, he was in the wrap for a few hours during the walk.

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.

Random Windows

Gnomes or Santa Claus?

And why are they playing soccer? It is a mystery.

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.

Swiss Omas, Babies, and Hats

A couple of days ago I put the baby in my Storchenwiege wrap and headed out with the girl to a coffee shop for some coffee and gelato. After we were done, I rewrapped the baby because it came a little loose and a grandmother-type smiled at the baby before offering to help. (hilfe - pronounced hal-fe) I was almost done so I said no thank you and finished up fixing the wrap.

I am a big believer in hats for babies because either they don't have enough hair to keep them warm in cold weather or they don't have enough hair to protect them from the sun in hot weather. Either way, my babies are always wearing hats. Except when I am putting the baby in the wrap. Baby E objects strenuously to wearing a hat while I am adjusting him so I had taken it off and set it on the table.

The grandmother stopped and made some comment about the baby's head being cold. I just smiled and said (in English) that he has a hat on the table and pointed to the hat.

Now a lot of moms I know would have been irked that this Swiss grandma was interfering as they like to do but I thought it was rather sweet. Maybe it is the fact that my kids don't have grandmas of their own, I don't know. I just like it when grandma-types fawn all over my kids. :)

Buying a Used Bike in Zurich

People in Switzerland love their bikes! Where we live there are several bike trails closed to cars for bike riding and bike racks are available at the train station, grocery stores, and well, just about everywhere. Unbelievably to this American, most Swiss people do not use bike locks.  Instead they just park their bikes and come back (sometimes months later) to find them still there. Usually.

I am all about bike safety. Unfortunately, babies cannot ride safely in bike trailers or bike seats until they are 1 year old. I was told the bumpiness can mimic shaken baby syndrome to their little brains so sadly I will sit out this biking season but we can still get one bike for me and the husband to share.

Like everything in Zurich, bikes are pretty pricey. We looked at buying a new bike for the big girl but I balked at spending 250 CHF for a 16" bike for a 4 year old. Instead we found a used one from a friend. Now we just need to find a cheaper used one for the grownups.

Veloboerse - Or used bike sale. There are used bike sales held each Saturday during spring, summer, and fall. We have been to a couple to get the feel for these. Couple of hints. Come early because the best bikes go quickly. Bring your photo ID so you can test ride a bike. Bring cash.

EnglishForum - This message board has a classified section where people periodically sell used bikes. You can also post an ISO (In Search Of) message. There is also a good post on English forum about biking in Switzerland that has info pertaining to buying used.

Used Bike Stores - There are many stores in Zurich that sell used bikes. I saw a few near the Brockenhaus close to Zurich HB.

Since there is a veloboerse in Zurich next weekend, I think we will try that. Now I just have to get up early enough to arrive by 9 am.

English Language Books at Pestalozzi Library

Ah books. Beautiful, wonderful books. Some women have shoe collections but not me, I have a book collection - in Texas. Of everything I left behind, my books were the hardest. My friends suggested a Kindle, but no, I like the smell and feel of paper and it is hard to curl up with a tablet. 

There are a couple of different library systems in Zurich and the Pestalozzi library is one of them. For 45 SFr per year, I can check out up to 25 books, DVDs, CDs or whatever at a time and they even have English language books. So I took the kids to the library hoping it would be a good find for my big girl who also obsesses over books (currently Magic Tree House) and first went in search of English language kids books. 

There were 50. I don't mean approximately 50, I mean 50. I counted them while S was looking at one of the books.  *sigh* She picked out one book and what I thought was a Globi DVD to help her learn Swiss German. Turns out it was a video game. Oh well. 

For the adult books, there was a larger selection of English books, about one and a half racks worth. All fiction and not very many new ones. I picked out Julie and Julia and The Birth House for myself, paid for my year membership and left. One perk of the Pestalozzi library - kids memberships are free until age 16. The kids membership limits borrowers to kids books only otherwise S would be checking out a lot of adult books. ;) 

Afterward, S was disappointed by the sparse selection so we stopped by the Brockenhaus behind Zurich HB that carries a limited supply of used books. The only book S found was a book on Babar going to America but it was in French. I bought it anyway and was able to translate it for her as I read it. I lucked out a little more and found a hardback copy of Stephen King's recent book Under the Dome. 

Tomorrow we are going back to the Pestalozzi library to return our books and get new ones. So excited!