socialization!

After spending most of our months in Switzerland without seeing many people except our wonderful visitors, we seem to finally be meeting people. I'm not quite sure why it's taken so long, but for my part I'm mostly going to blame our rural location and lack of German language skills. Last week I was able to go meet with other moms from church on two separate days, which was especially good since Andy was gone to Prague. On Saturday evening on our way home from the pool, neighbors from our apartment complex were having a bbq which they graciously invited us to join. It turns out that most of them speak English, which is a blessing! Hopefully this will open the door for hanging out with people in Egg a bit more too.

This week, I have a playdate at the nearby pool with another dad and his daughter who we know through Andy's work. And then on Saturday for the first time ever in Switzerland, we are having people over for lunch (woot!). It's this really nice couple we met at church and they have a beautiful daughter who's just a little younger than Carsten - so it should be a really fun afternoon. And then, to top it all off, we received an invitation from Andy's coworker and his wife to meet them at a movie theatre in Zurich to watch a movie in the evening. Since we still don't have a babysitter here in Egg, Andy graciously offered to stay home for the evening with Carsten while I go to the movie. I have never left Egg in the evening after Carsten has gone to bed, so it'll be a late but fun night! All in all, it's been fun to feel more integrated into Swiss society, and it's a nice blessing for all of us.

Switching gears... I'm not sure how Carsten knows that he's never played with object 'A' before, but he does know and it's pretty fun for me because it's one of the few times that he'll actually sit for a few minutes while he explores the new object. Yesterday I let him play with my pressed penny collection (they're in a book, don't worry) and he really enjoyed getting to open the pages. Here's a few photos:

"How does this work?"

"I must chew on it!"

"Mommy, I love your pressed penny collection!"

Prague!

Andy was at a conference in Prague last week, and from what I understand, it was a pretty good conference. He was able to take a bit of time to see the city, so I wanted to post a few photos of Andy in Prague :). I should also mention that he picked out a beautiful photo for me from a vendor on the bridge (pictured below), that I'm looking forward to framing someday. Thanks Andy!

Carsten, Andy, and I had a great weekend as a family. We went to a swimming pool that was only about 20 min from our house, which was nice a close. The pool had a great kid area and Carsten had a great time. We also found out that he doesn't mind getting his face wet and he also enjoys water slides :). It was a really hot weekend (90+ F), so we welcomed the chance to be in the cool water at the swimming pool. Carsten spent most of the weekend wandering around in his diaper or a onesie at home (no a/c :( ), so I thought I'd take a few photos :).

Love his little legs!

waiting patiently for lunch :)

not so good day

Today Carsten and I went over to a friend's house from Moms and Tots along with a couple of other moms. I had initially decided that we would not go since it would take 1.5 - 2 hrs one way by public transit. One of the other moms who lives near the middle of our train line offered to pick me up in her car to save transit time if I got myself to the stop closest to her house. This was a super nice offer and I did want to go hang out with other moms, so I accepted. I got to the appointed stop a few minutes early and waited for a little while for the other mom to pick me up (which was understandable since she has a 3.5 year old and a 8 month old). We were able to fit our car seat in the middle of her two seats and her infant took our car seat while Carsten took his since Carsten has out grown our seat. We got the two babies in their seats and the both pretty much immediately started screaming. And when I say screaming, I mean SCREAMING. I've never heard Carsten cry that hard before and he puked before we had even left the parking lot - that's how hard he was crying. Poor baby boy :(. The babies seemed to be feeding off of each other so we stopped a few minutes down the rode to get them out and cuddle them and try to calm them down. I took the opportunity to change Carsten's clothes and I felt really badly that he threw up in their car seat. We made it about 15 min and then the boys cried for about the last 10 minutes to our destination. Carsten actually fell asleep about 3 minutes to the house, which showed that he had completely exhausted himself out because the other baby was still crying right next to his head and he was still managing to sleep. Once we got there I carefully got him out of the car seat, but he still woke up relatively unhappily.

We made up into the house where I fed Carsten and he seemed to calm down pretty nicely (which was a relief). He played outside in the yard (yes, a yard which had grass!) for a while and really enjoyed sticking his hand in the kiddie pool (he couldn't get into the pool which was nice :) ). Carsten even played nicely while I ate lunch - usually when I eat he feels that he needs to eat. It was a pretty warm day with a pretty strong sun, so I pulled him under the awning to play. Despite the fact that he had a horrible trip over and it was way past his afternoon nap time, Carsten was happy and engaged the entire time, which was a nice blessing. My only complaint is that the house really wasn't Carsten-safe (open dishwasher and trash, nice big TV at his height, etc.), so I pretty much had to follow him around for most of the afternoon which meant that I couldn't converse with the other moms very much.

We started heading back to our respective homes around 3:30 pm and both babies fell asleep within about two minutes of getting the car in motion which was such a blessing :). Carsten fell asleep with a rice cake in his mouth (so cute!) which stayed there for the duration of his nap (~30 min). I actually got to talk to the other mom on the way back, which was nice :). Carsten woke up when we arrived at our train station and was a little unhappy to be awake, which was understandable. We left our carseat in the car so the other mom didn't have to switch her sleepy baby into another car seat, and then I didn't have to take it back with me on the train. I missed the train by about 1 minute, which meant that I had to wait about 15 minutes until the next train. It was HOT, so it really wasn't a fun wait or train ride back (unairconditioned train cars). We got back home at 5 pm, and let me tell you,  I was wiped. I carried Carsten, a heavy diaper bag, and food items back up to our apartment from the train which is about 2 blocks uphill, which made me realize that I really enjoy having a stroller to carry most of these items :).

This day made me realize a few things. 1) It could be an interesting time in the US where Carsten has to be in a car seat all the time since he's really not used to that. 2) If Carsten really is a sympathetic crier, things could get really interesting when with his cousins. 3) Even with the really nice mom who went out of her way to pick us up at the train station, we didn't save time compared to public transit, which is sad. 4) I really don't want to hear Carsten cry that hard again. 5) Even though Carsten really didn't get a great nap in today he did great at the other mom's house and at home, which proves once again that he really is a trooper. 6) It's hard for me to have a conversation with other moms when I have a toddler that likes to get into everything (this really isn't a problem at our home since we've pretty well baby proofed everything). 7) At the end of a day like this, I'm exhausted.

Food adventures

Last week marked our concerted effort to transition to 'Carsten's having what we're having' so we could start paying less in baby food. He did a pretty good job and ate things like curry, mushroom pasta, and stir fry meatballs. He seems to really enjoy the different flavors and textures, although I can say that the curry didn't seem to sit the best in his tummy (despite the eager tastebuds). We started out cold turkey at the beginning of the week (so only finger foods), however, we were uncertain that he was getting enough food because he woke up in the middle of the night several times last week. So in order to ensure that we wouldn't see him in the middle of the night we took a more hybrid approach later in the week which seemed to take care of the night wakings (we gave him table food plus a small jar of baby food that we fed him in between finger food bites). This is still making a lot of progress towards eliminating jars of food that we were buying, so instead of 5-6 jars of food per day (~15 CHF) we're down to 1-2 jars per day, which are the cheaper fruit or veggie jars. He's doing a great job of feeding himself with most of his self-feeding enthusiasm going towards trying to eat plums, peaches, nectarines, and melon. I should mention that he really doesn't care too much for feeding himself bite sized pieces of fruit that we meticulously cut up; instead, he would rather eat the fruit straight up and take his own bites, skin and all (except for the melon of course). We find this to be pretty convenient for us, and to be honest, it's pretty great entertainment :). So currently, snack time usually results in him eating 1-2 pieces of fruit all by his onesies (good thing it's summer!). Another change in Carsten's diet is the addition of egg, which we started a week ago. He generally has 1-3 egg yolks with cheese plus fruit for breakfast in the morning, and I think breakfast is his favorite meal of the day. Here's a photo of Carsten eating salmon asparagus spaghetti and another photo of him chowing down on a nectarine:

Spaghetti face :)

'Mommy, I want to eat it all by myself'

We had a great weekend as a family, and spent most of our time in Egg at home (you know, cooking, cleaning, groceries, and playing with Carsten :) ). Andy is leaving today for a conference in Prague (no jet lag, yay!), and won't be back until Friday night. I'm excited that he's only gone for business days, which means we still get to have our weekends with him :). I've made tentative plans with another mom from church, so hopefully we'll have some company this week as well :). Here's a photo of Andy putting Carsten in our shopping trolley, which was pretty funny :):

Best stroller ever! :)

Here's a photo of Carsten and I since we haven't posted one of those for a while:

Carsten and I :)

Happy 11 months Carsten!

Carsten is 11 months old today. Where has the time gone? I know it's cliche to say that, but seriously, he's always been changing and growing faster than we can keep up with. It's been a wonderful 11 months with Carsten, and this month has been a lot of fun. Here's the month in review:

Happy 11 months Carsten! :)

Physical Prowess: He now walks! He's been walking for 2 weeks now, and he's improved such that this morning he followed me all the way from the living room to our bedroom which means that he successfully navigated 2 corners and went quite a distance. In the past couple of days he's also started standing up on his own in the middle of the room, so I'm sure this skill will come along quickly as well. In the last week he's also been trying to perfect walking with objects in his hands (see photo below). Walking has also meant an increase in falling which has been associated with various head bonks, so we've had our share of crying and cuddling with Mommy time. With his newfound walking skills, it's getting even harder to take photos of him because by the time my camera is ready to flash, he's already made it to me, which means that he's no longer in focus and has just been blinded by the flash :).

Walking with objects. 

Baby on the move!

Something really adorable about your baby walking to you :).

Disposition: Carsten continues to be a happy baby with the over-riding comment that he's very 'busy' - which is true because he's rarely sitting still. For those of you who knew Andy and I as children, this is unsurprising :). He's pretty quiet around other people at first, but he does a generally does a good job of playing with other kids at church and the gym, which has been really nice for all of us. And for now, he doesn't seem to have a lot of stranger anxiety, which is a blessing. He still is making his 'baby face' and he is starting to make his wishes known more clearly. So far though, the only baby sign that he's doing is 'more', which I have found usually means 'Cheerios.' :)

Full smile (hard to capture!)

baby face :)

Playtime: Carsten does a pretty good job of entertaining himself, and lately, the construction project across the way has been really interesting for him to watch because they have big construction equipment out demolishing a building across the street. So in order for him to be able to watch it better, we moved our futon so he has full access to the window (see photo below). We've been trying to play outside, go to the gym, go to the zoo, and go swimming in order to change up playtime for him - I think he's really enjoyed the change of pace. It's actually been more difficult that I would have thought to go somewhere in July because for the most part it's been 60 and rainy for the entire month. This makes it by far the coldest July I've ever encountered, which has been nice because we dont' have a/c, but it's been a challenge to get out and do things with Carsten when the weather isn't great. We're working on finding out indoor activities, which will be useful for winter as well. His favorite toys have been the exercise ball (he chases it around while walking, which is fairly impressive), little red block which he carries around almost continuously, and books (caterpillar and hippos go berserk). We've also gotten to enjoy Carsten dancing to music this month, which has been really fun to watch :). He also will come and find you when you're 'hiding', and he really enjoys being chased, so he's at a really fun age :).

Sleeping: Carsten has been an amazing sleeper this month with him only waking up in the middle of the night a handful of times. He typically is in bed around 7:30 pm and is up around 6:30 am. This has meant more rest for all of us, which has been really nice. His naps have consistently been good, with his morning nap usually about 1.5 hours long at 9 am and his afternoon nap lasting about 1 hour at 1 pm. Yay sleep! :) We've also switched him to sleeping in his pack n play full time because for whatever reason, he was getting blisters on his mouth from chewing on his crib.

Baby in Training: We've begun behavior modification training which has meant using the word 'NO' quite a few times. We're trying to teach him to leave a few things alone in the house, such as the oven, and to sit down while in the bathtub and on the train. We've had reasonable success with everything except the oven. When our oven is on, the light inside the oven is on, and this really seems to attract Carsten. We've looked for baby gate options, but with our house layout, it just is not possible - so he must learn!

Eating: Well, Carsten has now had eggs, so we're moving on to eating all foods that Andy and I are eating. We've figured out that we're spending a small fortune on baby food for the last two months since I had switched from making baby food to buying it in jars from the store. Now that he's pretty adept at picking up food and can have pretty much everything we're having (no nuts yet), we're going to push to have him eat our food full time. This will require a bit better meal planning on my part and most likely we'll be eating even healthier as a result :). In other news we can also see 2 more teeth coming in on top, so that brings his total up to 6! So, I think we're going to expect more mess at dinner time with Carsten (please refer to the curry face photo that I posted before :) ).

Skype: Andy was gone for a week this month to the US for a conference, and he was able to skype us every day. Skype is not new for Carsten because we've used it to keep in touch with friends and family, but what was new was that he was SUPER excited to see Andy, which I'm pretty sure meant that he recognized Andy. Also, Andy and I both got to see Carsten walk for the first time because he did it when I was talking to Andy over skype (yay technology!).

Also, my blog is telling me that this is my 100th post. Who knew I had that much to say? Well, having a baby to talk about helps :).

The unassisted stand up is here!

Carsten just stood up by himself in the middle of the room! He's been standing by furniture, walls, and other objects for quite some time as well as walking now, but the unassisted stand has not emerged until now. Here we go!

Swiss National Day!

Andy came home around 9 pm on Saturday night and thankfully, he was able to have Monday (Aug 1) off of work because it was Swiss National Day. Swiss National Day is similar to our 4th of July and people were shooting off fireworks (really impressive ones really) all day. It would have been really fun to fly over the country at about 10:30 pm when many sets were going at once (we think most of these were private ones?). We spent the day spending time as a family, cleaning the house, and getting some to-do items off our house list (a bit of baby proofing and hanging a few things up on the walls). The highlight of my day was when Andy took Carsten outside so I could clean the bedrooms in peace (having a baby who moves really makes sweeping hard :) ). Carsten really enjoyed his new outdoor toys (gardening set) and basically just sat in the grass and played, which is astonishing because he's usually ALWAYS on the move. It was the nicest day we've had in a few weeks since the last few weeks have been rain and 60 deg F, and is without a doubt the coldest July I've ever experienced. We tried to get Carsten to walk to me as I was talking photos, but he was having trouble keeping his balance in the grass with sandals on, so here's a few humorous photos:

Happy Baby :)

Walk to Mommy!

'I'm walking!'

Please notice his hair and face in this falling action shot... :)

Try again!

Again, please notice his beautiful hair :).

Try #3, you can do it Carsten!

Just kidding - this is mid-fall :).

And, he bonked his head and is sad.... (poor guy).

We put Cartsen in the sandbox outside our apartment for the first time (it's been too wet the last few weeks to do this). He seemed to like it pretty well. Here's some photos:

Carsten exploring the sand :).

Of course, you must roll around in the sand to really get it in your overalls.

Dirty baby feet!

All in all, he enjoyed the sand box. :)

Also, August 1st marked 8 years since Andy and I started dating! Woohooo! I'd like to note that about 5 days after we started dating, I went to Switzerland for 10 days on a volleyball trip, and now, 8 years later, we find ourselves living in Switzerland.... It's crazy how things work out :).