Today = futon + baby walker

Today is Saturday, and I love Saturdays! It means that I get to hang out with both Andy and Carsten and since there's two of us wrangling the baby, things are easier to get done. So, today we built the futon that we got at IKEA a couple of weeks ago, and set it up in Carsten's bedroom, which is now completely done, so I'll post some pictures!

Our guest bed. It actually does have a real mattress, and there's even an empty dresser in the corner. So, come visit!

Carsten's diaper changing station/dresser.

Carsten's kinderbed!

Carsten! He LOVES looking at this. Thanks Aunt Shireen!

So, we might have had a bit of fun sticking the stuffed carrot in his mouth... He liked before we took this photo :).

So, after we set up the futon and had our morning fun with Carsten, we went to Zurich where we got a baby walker from the baby store. On our way back, we ended up having to get off the train early because there were protesters on the street. So, we enjoyed our walk back to our train station, which was somewhere in the vicinity of a mile walk, and I took the opportunity to take some photos.

We ran into some people in costume who were playing the steel drums. No joke. 

There are cows in random places, like this balcony. It reminds me a lot of Madison :).

We ran into some other people also playing the steel drums. Maybe it had something to do with Lent? Otherwise, I have no idea what they were doing. I should also mention that Carsten had fallen asleep prior to running into the drummers, and he actually stayed sleeping despite the loud ruckus. Amazing!

A Zurich street! This is a shopping area and is pedestrian only, which is really nice.

Andy carrying the baby walker. What a guy!

Grossmunster church. So pretty!

Fraumunster church. It's Reformed!

Carsten generally has a lot of fun on the train.

When we got home, Andy and I set up the walker!

Tah dah!

It's a hit! Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Hoogeveen for the long-awaited Christmas gift! We're definitely looking forward to trying it out more and more! :) And yes, I realize he only has one sock on. He pulled the other one off right before we put him in the walker.

Our church & building

There have been some requests to see the outside of our apartment building. It's rather a rather ugly cement monstrosity, which I feel is a bit out of place among the cute Swiss houses. Sadly, there are quite a few cement apartment buildings, especially in Zurich.

This photo was taken a few weeks ago when we actually had snow . We actually haven't had much snow at all, which has been nice because we take Carsten out all the time, so it's easier without all the fluffy white stuff :). You can see our building is kind of a white/tan with blue trim. 

Our church, in contrast, is quite beautiful, and it reminds me of Dimnet Chapel at Hope.

In other news, Andy worked from home today, which was quite nice. And this afternoon, for the first time I've joined a gym in Egg. For the most part I've always had free access to a gym since I was a student at Hope and the UW. I'm excited to be able to work out, and in addition, the gym has daycare included in the price :). So it's good for me because I get exercise and a break, and Carsten gets some socialization with many, many other children. Hooray! 

Peas Please!

Well, in honor of Carsten's 6 month birthday yesterday, we started his second new food, peas! Again, he seemed to enjoy them and he was even reaching for Andy's hands (and the spoon) while he was feeding him. We chose a green bib to honor the occasion.

Peas are disturbingly green.

'Peas please, Daddy!'

'Yum, yum, yum!'

Father-son bonding :)

And suddenly Carsten is 6 months old!

I know everyone says time flies, but I really don't know where the last month has gone. Carsten and I spend most of our days at home, which means that I get a lot of baby time, but somehow, I still don't feel like it's enough. He's just so cute and is constantly doing different things, which means our baby is growing up.

Here's a quick recap of this month in terms of things he's been doing:

-rolling like CRAZY in his crib and on the floor. He's always in a new position from when we set him down now, and this week he's been rolling more continuously (i.e., back to front immediately back to his back). So instead of always setting him in his playmat, I now have a blanket on our area rug where he can roll more freely. He also spends the majority of his time on his tummy as laying on his back is not the preferred position anymore.

-related to rolling, there's been a loss of sleep, and this has been happening both at night and during the day. He can now sleep successfully on his tummy, but if he gets into a bad position in his crib then he wakes up. He now wakes up 2-3 times a night instead of 1-2, and this is making a negative impact on our sleep. He still takes frequent short naps (3-4 per day), but we have had the occasional hour nap, so here's hoping for longer naps as a 6th month old!

-he now spits! When we lay him on his back now, he waves both arms and legs and holds his head up to spit pretty much continuously. It's actually a bit funny, but make sure you're out of the splash zone...

-he eats solid foods! We started him out on rice cereal two weeks ago, and this weekend we started him out on carrots! And he actually seems to like it. Unlike the sippy cup. We'll keep trying the sippy though.

-he likes to practice standing and sitting, although he really isn't able to do either by himself for more than a few seconds.

-he likes to skype! In the afternoons and evenings when he's getting a bit squirrelly, we sometimes will skype family and friends, which almost always results in a calm baby who sits with us to talk.

-he still likes the baby bjorn and is a champ when we go out of the house, especially for long excursions.
He loves to people watch and is constantly looking around and smiling at people, which often causes them to comment on our adorable baby, in German of course :).

-At church this Sunday, he was described as 'lively' and 'bright-eyed' by a Swiss grandmother who was taking care of her 5 month old grandson. And we agreed. The 5 month old was very happy to suck on his pacifier and lay on the floor on his back for quite some time during the church service; this would never be ok with Carsten. Our lively son loves to be with people and to participate in the action, which we both think is great. :)

Ok, things to look forward to this month:

-NEW foods! We'll be starting other veggies and fruits this week, so he'll soon be mastering many different types of foods.

-FRANCE! We're planning a trip in two weeks to Paris where we'll see Jess, my brother's girlfriend who's studying abroad there. Yay for people we know and yay for a French-speaking tour guide!

-Sitting up? We were betting that he would have mastered this skill by 6 months, but he's close so I think he'll get it this month.

Well, that's all I can think of right now. I'll leave you all with a few pictures because honestly, I can't help myself :)

Carsten and I having fun :).

I took the next few pictures yesterday, and I think he looks pretty darling in his outfit.

'What's over there, Mom?'

Baby dance time! This was right before bathtime and he was a bit warm, so we took off his pants and unbuttoned his shirt. He enjoyed dancing quite a bit :).

He loves hanging out on his tummy. :)

Carsten eats carrots!

So yesterday was a lovely Saturday because we were productive by building our IKEA prep table, ...

We couldn't resist putting Carsten on top after we finished.

He thought it was fun too :).

... cooking supper on our new prep table, ...

Andy made dinner using our new prep table!

Yummy vegetable beef soup!

... and making carrot baby food for Carsten. And yes, he ate the whole bowl of it and really seemed to enjoy it, despite the pictures we have here :).

Carsten eats carrots! This was his first 'real' solid food since rice cereal doesn't really count.

And, despite his face, he actually ate it all and seemed to really enjoy it :). In fact, I think he would have eaten a bit more, which bodes well for him because now there's a bunch in our freezer... :)

We love Saturdays! :)

Walking around Egg

It's been cloudy/foggy or raining for the last week with temperatures around freezing, so it hasn't been very fun to get out of the house for a walk with Carsten. Yesterday, it was finally sunny! So Carsten and I ran some errands downtown and took a walk. We began our errands at Rhyner, which is sort of the local hardware and home electronics store and is located under the Migros. After we got a couple of things at Rhyner, we took the elevator up to Migros, which is the largest grocery store in town and is typically where we go to get groceries (about a 6 block walk). Carsten was amazing through both of these errands and he just enjoyed looking around, and to be honest, I really never even heard a peep out of him. This was nice for me because I could spend some time looking for items in Migros that I usually have to bypass when he's getting antsy (like freezer bags, which are located right before check-out). Lately, I've been taking our really old, small digital camera with me on walks in case I want to take some photos, but I haven't had a chance to take some pictures before this between the weather and Carsten. So... here are some photos & a video from our afternoon!

We have quite a few flowers that have been out for about 2-3 weeks now, which makes the landscape very pretty. And, it also makes me think about people back home who would love to see the flowers such as Mom Huisman, Mom Hoogeveen, Grandma Hoogeveen, and Grandma Ranschau.

Carsten in his stroller. Love his expression :)

This video is of the beautiful Reformed church downtown. These bells were ringing at 10 minutes to 2 pm and I can't quite figure out when they ring the bells (other than to keep time). I frequently hear these bells at very odd times and they typically go on for 5-10 minutes. There were some people walking into the building, so maybe they had a service of some sorts. However, I will say that I'm glad we live a few blocks away because they are LOUD. Also, the bells seem to ring non-stop on Sundays, which makes me think that people are either going to church or are at church all day long.

On our way back from errands, we walk past this fountain & the building in the background in the library. All fountains in Switzerland are potable, so all you need is a waterbottle and there's generally plenty of water to be found. 

This is a close up of the sidewalk. I must admit that I try to plan my walking routes in town with the most brick sidewalks because sometimes it results in...

...a sleeping baby! He loves motion and bumpy roads (we miss our car and Madison roads for this reason :) ).  As Carsten slept, I took the opportunity to take some photos around Egg as we walked home.

This is a picture of some of the downtown buildings. Quaint, right? You can also see the ridge in background.

Our commuter train! This is the Egg train station; we actually use the next stop up that's closer to our house.

Downtown Egg. Yep, that's it. :)

View of one of the town streets.

This the square that has another small grocery store and the post office. Note the brick sidewalk...

I believe there's a meat market here, and the sign always reminds me of our friends Kayt and Kurt Frisch in Madison :).

Yep. There's a farm in the center of town. This is located right behind the square with the grocery store in the previous picture.

One of the cute houses I always walk by. It has a tree growing on it.

When we got home, Carsten stayed sleeping in his carseat for a total nap time of 1.5 hours! This is unheard of for him as he usually wakes up within 10 minutes of getting home, no matter how long he's been sleeping and his usual nap time is 30 min. Needless to say, I was thrilled! However, when he woke up, he was a very hot baby due to the carseat and extra insulation we have in there for winter walking. So, I took off his clothes and let him play - he was so happy about it! This is Carsten's play area in fine form...he loves his toys :).

Anyway, that was most of our afternoon yesterday! I'm enjoying our Swiss country town, and I should tell you that it is country as we do see tractors and horses around town. Hopefully you all like picture intensive posts because honestly, I think that's my favorite way to blog. :)

IKEA weekend!

Andy, Carsten, and I headed out to IKEA on Saturday for a much needed final IKEA run. We had a list of things to purchase: kitchen prep table to increase our counter space, chair, futon (that's right - we have a bed for guests!), coat rack, a small shelf, and some other smaller items like extra towels for guests. The good news: we got all of it and we had it delivered on Monday, so someone else had to bring everything up 2.5 flights of stairs. The bad news: now we have to put it all together. We're pretty excited to have the finishing touches close to being done for the apartment, and I think it'll feel a lot nicer once we're totally set up. I'll try to post another round of photos once we have everything put together and in the right place.

Once again, Carsten was a champ at IKEA, especially since we were gone from the apartment from 9 am - 4:30 pm and it took about 1.5 hrs each way on the train to get there. He's so good at sleeping in the baby bjorn and when he's not sleeping he really seems to love looking at everything and everyone, which is very nice for us. And actually, to some extent I think he enjoys being out and about better than he likes hanging out at the house with me. The picture below is Carsten in his winter snowsuit & hat while we were waiting at the train stop to go back home after IKEA. 

Carsten in his winter snowsuit!

In other Carsten related news: he's started trying forward motion, so when he's on his tummy he scoots out where he wants to go and he really tries to get there, which usually involves a slow scooting, army crawl. It's really starting to get interesting - he moved about 3 feet to some new sheets we got at IKEA and was sucking on them in the time it took me to put groceries away (about 5 min). So, I guess it's a good thing that we got a bunch of baby-proofing equipment at IKEA... :) He's also doing a much better job of sitting up by himself and I think he'll master this skill soon. He's also going to be starting other solid foods soon, like carrots and peas, which I'm going to prepare as we were also able to get a food processor on Saturday as well, so we'll be updating you about that soon.