Little Man Swim Pants

A couple weeks ago we took the boys to the indoor swimming pool. It was Brooks's first time to swim in a pool, and can you guess if he liked it or not? OF COURSE he did.....what doesn't Brooks like, except for bedtime? As Euro as we have tried to become, my boys have still not taken to wearing Euro swimming suits. Flashback to the first couple weeks of Brooks's life where I was just a continuous let down of a mother, always forgetting to bring to school with us something important that Chance really needed that day, and this one day it just happened to be his swimsuit for his school swim class. Luckily Linda had an extra one of Mikkel's in her car and let Chance borrow it. I'll never forget him getting into the car after school that day, telling me....."mom, Mikkel's swimsuit was UNDERWEAR. I had to wear UNDERWEAR to my swim class."

But poor Brooks can't object yet, and the Little Man Euro Swim Pants were just too precious to pass up. You can really get the full effect of the tightness here:


We forgot to take pictures that day, so we got out the camera and the little man swim pants this past weekend and starting snapping away. That promped a slewth of family shots. Never fear grandparents, we'll post these to Kodak once we have our computer back and I can Adobe out some imperfections, ahum wrinkles. You know, I am 33 now and that takes a little touch up work.

date

Poor Ryan had several days in a row, okay more like several weeks of working horrendous hours, but several of those days he left in the morning, and returned at 6 am to shower and go back to work. How one can sustain this, I will never know. He must be superman.

But even Superman needs a break, and so Clark Kent returned and we spent the day together while Chance was at school, strolling the lake and eating at our favorite sausage place for lunch.



And then Brooks just had to have his favorite frappuccino.

Herzlich

Best way to learn a new language is clearly to submurge yourself in it. Unfortunately, we'll be leaving here not so fluent but nonetheless, I do tend to learn a word here and there. This past week, I've heard over and over, mostly from old ladies on the street, that Brooks is so "Herzlich". I took this to mean something endearing. I mean how could you not call this face something endearing?


Brooks does have a way with the ladies. He's definitely a flirt and a charmer, and seems to be winning the love of the not so tolerant grumpy old women around here.

I looked up Herzlich on Leo and it came up with the following:

Affectionate
Cordial
Genial
Sincere
Precious
Hearty

So I take from this, they mean he's quite a cute little guy. Hopefully they don't mean he's HEARTY...like a soup would be. He's thick all right but those thighs are so scrumptous.

Evenings around here haven't been so Herzlich. It's Heartbreak Hotel for little man. As soon as you approach the bed, or sing Pappy's best Bye-O-Baby, the back arches and the protests begin. And lately the unconsolable screaming has been going on for upwards of 20 minutes each night. It looks a little like this face:


But in the morning it's back to grins and giggles and the day begins again for the little Herzlich.

Too Many Goodbye's Already

Packers are coming tomorrow, loading the sea container on Thursday. We've been so inundated with all this sorting of what is going on the ship, and what is staying with us in our suitcases for the last month, that I am just coming to grips with the fact that we are in the final countdown of our days here. And tomorrow they take away my stroller, so the walks along the lake front will now come to an end, unless I sneak in a kidless walk here some weekend. I've gotta say, despite the distraction of sorting for the packers, the walks I've had lately along this gorgeously dotted lake front have been very nostalgic, breathtaking, and tearful. Good thing for sunglasses to hide the watery eyes.

This town has been good to us. This experience can't be justly described in words. And the friendships we have made......how can I even begin.

2 Weekends ago started the chain of goodbyes. Karolina and her family were heading back to Finland, and Chance said bye to his good friends Eeli and Tuure.

Here's Big Man and Little Man all gussied up for the big party.

We love going to houses of our foreign friends to see what kind of delictables they conjure up. Here...bacon wrapped figs. YUM.

And this past weekend, we went for a very nice evening to the Stavast house. They just built a beautiful house in Pfaffikon and we enjoyed really nice food made by really nice company. Ole Brooks has really taken to Linda, he smiles so big for her every time. And the boy is not so giving with the smiles to just any stranger.

The boys had a blast playing Wii all night. Chance is really going to miss Mikkel and Felix. And I their parents!

So, next weekend we are off to spend Easter weekend meeting Baby Benjamin in Geneva, and of course saying goodbye to Josh and Katerine (for now). Fingers crossed they find their way back to Texas sooner than later (hint hint Katherine, if you are reading this!).

Long Overdue Post with No Title and Lots of Random Thoughts

Chance is off two weeks for school Ski holiday, and so we are roughing it at home most of the time. I decided to take the boys to the mall yesterday to get some grocery shopping done (yes, grocery store in mall), actually mostly just to get out of this house. The cold and snow leave us a little pent up and after asking Chance for the 100th time not to jump off the furniture and thud on to the ground, I thought it best to get the blood flowing. First stop was the promised kids hot chocolate at Starbucks upon entering the mall. I'm in line and Chance is out in the middle of the mall where all the chairs are, I look out and he's bouncing on the couch out there, wild as can be. So I come out, remind him that couches are for sitting, and here you go: here's your drink piped full of chocolate that's bound to make you sit still. Maybe I am part of the problem?

Next stop, grocery store. Let's just say I am trying a new approach to parenting....less talk, more action. I let the kid have his wishes to push the cart, and after running in to a bunch of apples and having them go everywhere, I decided that you know I really am going to miss the rude stares of Swiss old people (as if they have never had kids of their own). And boy am I really going to miss online grocery shopping.....and what on earth was I thinking today, not using the online grocery shopping? So speaking of missing Old staring Swiss people, I haven't officially announced that we will be moving back to Texas.....Dallas that is, Flower Mound precisely, on May 1. And I am proud to say that finally I think we are ready. Of course this place is amazing and we are so sad to see our adventure here end, but it's therapeutic to know that we won't be fighting it so much. And it's helpful that we have a contract pending on a great house with a great pool.....

It just so happened a couple weeks ago that the MAN COLD came to our house again, and in the 3 days that Ryan was laying in bed all day, he found us a great house, and soon it will be ours, fingers crossed it all goes well. Lately, with all this house and move stuff going on, let's just say my creative juices have been less than flowin'. They've been confiscated by the house buying police and thrown to the wolves. I decided that before I do anything else tonight, now that the boys are in bed, I must sit down and write. Seems like so many cute things are happening with the boys right now, that I can't let our chaos of a life get in the way of our memories....I mean, how can I tell the boys one day, sorry, I left that part out. Brooks you ate your first bite of food, are almost sitting up, and are such a bundle of joy giggling non-stop.......but I was too busy trying to move this family half way across the world to write it down. So here goes: first breathe woman, the inventory list isn't due for a couple weeks now. But I do apologize, this post is going to be all over the place, so pay attention.

Speaking of inventory list, let me start there. I had a babysitter lined up so that she could entertain the boys a couple days while I plugged away at that awful, daunting task of inventory.....yes, line item after line item: 3 misc glass cups: $10, 8 spoons, 9 forks, 10 knives $50. Moving back home: priceless. Nonetheless this process is very cleansing as I have been throwing out tons of crap we don't use, mismatched socks and gloves, and lots of McD's toys. But since we decided to buy a fabulous new home, I had to call my babysitter and tell her that she has been replaced with a house and a pool (yes, my dreams have come true!) and that if I really want this house to close come March 5th, I better not spend another penny..... So I enlisted Chance to help me with the inventory process this morning. 30 minutes later he came back to me with this in hand.

I mean, how cute can you get. And I can guarantee you he counted every pokemon card.

So, let's start with Chance. Ryan looked at me last night after I told him some story about Chance that I can no longer remember, and said "that kid is really complicated". Complicated he is. One minute he's sweet as a button, the other he's running wild after school not listening to a word I say as I try to get him to put on his shoes so we can please leave the building 20 mintes later. Very often I am the MEANEST mom on earth, actually that's pretty nice compared to some of the things he's said to me lately. And the next minute I am receiving beautiful drawings and notes about how great I am and how much he loves me. My compliant eater has been kidnapped, and I am lucky if he'll eat anything I put in front of him. But on the positive side, he's really blossoming in to a very independent, creative kid. The other day he asked as we were getting out of the car (mind you it's below freezing).....mom I want to dig a hole big enough to bury my basketball. I think to myself that this will go over about as well as it did for my mom when she went out back as a child to dig herself a swimming pool. So I complied thinking he'll be back in in 5 minutes...I mean the kid had on no gloves. But almost an hour later and he was plugging away. Never was able to fit the basketball down in there, but nonetheless he did a pretty good job of maring up the back yard. .

I was shocked when he cleaned all the tools and put them away himself!

He's also a bundle of questions. Several nights ago at dinner the questions were flowing so rapidly tha tI had to write them down. These will definitely be going in this years book:

Why are there so much countries? I wish there would only be Zurich, Texas, Australia, Nigeria and India. Then we could travel quicker and I could see my friends more often. Why cant we just skip ages? Then if we wanted to, Brooks could be 5 and we could play together. Why's magic not for real? Why is God always the boss? If God was born the very first, then how could he be born? Why would a baby ever want to drink water? Do germs feel? Are Sharks real? But dinosaurs are mean and they aren't real? Are sharks really in the ocean? Then I am NEVER swimming in the ocean.

But he loves his brother, and that's an understatement. I heard him whispering to Brooks the other day as he was holding him in his lap loving on him, "There's no life without you Brooks, no life at all". Where does a 6 year old come up with that?



So that's all I can write for now. I mentioned the man cold, and it is back yet again one or two weeks later. So I'm worn out from taking care of 3 kids today, and I best go get myself a drink....

Christmas Day Boredom At Its Finest

Daddy Santa brought me a camera for Christmas. Yes, my very own camera, and a little more advanced than I am used to, but still dumbed down enough for my lacking camera knowledge to handle. Daddy Santa got really excited checking out the features of my new little toy, and when left alone for a little while, pictures were taken in abundance........then I got a hold of them and had a little fun of my own.

No Books For Me

We started reading books to Chance in the rocking chair at a very young age. I believe it was around 3 months of age that he'd sit in my lap and just stare at the pages as I'd read to him before every naptime and bedtime. At 6 months, we had read so much he was pointing at objects that I would call out. And to this day the boy loves to read, and does it really well.

Now with a second child, I am constantly reminded of their individuality. Brooks associates the rocking chair with going to sleep. The instant you sit him in that chair he starts flailing his hands with anxiety, and smacking his lips, like somebody please find my nuky fast so that I can start to soothe myself about this awful situation. Funny thing is he loves his bed and doesnt mind going to sleep, it's just the anticipation of it.

Ole Chance, is always wanting to be involved and do things for Brooks. Yesterday he asked if he could read books to him and I let him have a go. It went something like this:

Oh That's Sort of Interesting


OH NO, I just realized I am in THIS CHAIR AGAIN

GET ME OUT, NOW

Funny thing was, Chance didnt seem to notice that Brooks was in dire distress. He just kept reading louder and louder as the screams got louder and louder. For a moment, it was so amusing I just sat there and let it happen. And then of course, I rescued the poor child from reading torture. Perhaps we'll try again another day, on the couch.

Happy Thanksgiving

(Click on the picture to see it bigger)

I sat rocking Brooks to sleep last night as he rested his little head on my shoulder. He was facing me and as I put my cheek to his soft squishy skin, I could hear him taking his little breaths. And I just sat there eating up the moment, feeling an overwhelming amount of happiness and appreciation for what we have been given. In 2 blinks this little guy will be as big as Chance.

This Thanksgiving we are really reflecting on our experience here in Zurich, thankful for the opportunity that it has given us, enriching our lives in more ways than we can count or express. On this day we miss celebrating with our families, but are so thankful for the amazing friends that we have here that make the day just as special in its own way.

Sunday we were able to enjoy a grand pot luck feast with all the traditional foods, and all our best friends. As always it was so much fun, and we are thankful for the friendships that we have made here.


We wish you the best to you and yours on this happy Thanksgiving Day!!!

Chance and I headed off today to a secret location to partake in a fun local tradition around here.....but we can't tell you cause it'd ruin a Christmas surprise. Nevermind the secret, the important part of the story is that while we were gone Ryan and the little one stayed home. Brooks has become a little more opinionated these days about not really liking the bottle....shame on me for being so lazy to at least prepare one bottle a day. But Ryan convinced him today that a bottle was better than starvation, and so he willingly chugged some formula. When I got home he made it known that I am the beverage of choice. Ryan said that to him, drinking from the bottle is kinda like drinking the New Coke. It's just not quite the original. Sadly I barely remember the New Coke....I was only 8 when it was launched!

This past week we've been a little camera happy, capturing our boys on video with our little camera as much as possible. Too bad on Friday when I ran back in to the apartment quickly to grab it so that I could film some of the school's Diwali festival, that it flew out of my hands, crashed to the floor and now will be forever broken. Hello $400, meet the toilet. Nonetheless I did salvage what was already on the camera and here's the video's we've compiled.

Ryan and I rounded the corner to find Mr. Wiggles himself in full force:

And Brooks has lots to say as well.....He's so cute, he's grown really attached to this little lovey he has and I always find him touching it when he sleeps.

He'd like to tell you about how his first 2 months have been treating him:

ALL My Time

I'm on the tram headed home Saturday afternoon, after being gone for a measly 2 hours to go to the store and hit the gym, and I check my phone to find the message "How far away are you.....boy awake and hungry". I speed home since the milk machine was being beckoned, and arrive to a husband at his whits end and a misbehaving 5 year old, and an awake hungry child. Later in the day Ryan comments "Man, you can't get ANYTHING done around here if you have to hold the baby". And so my story goes. NO, you can't get a lick of nada done around here when the baby is awake, and AWAKE is an understatement.

Let me introduce you to the never sleeping child:


I've gotta give him some credit, at least he sleeps thru the night - for the most part. Really, I can't complain on that end of things, he does wake usually once to eat and have a late night party for an hour or so, but during the day this little guy doesn't want to miss a beat. I wasn't kidding when I used to comment on how active he was ALL day long in the womb. I used to think he must be active but sleeping, like in the REM phase, but now I know the truth. He was awake. I know it.

Today as I was driving thru the amazing forest between our house and the school, admiring all the fall colors that you never get in Texas and feeling like this will be my last real fall ever to see again....(the depression over leaving this place is a whole nother story which I won't get into at the moment for fear of ruining my keyboard over the tears that would fall in to it). The colors are absolutely outstanding. Until living here I thought those colors were just make-believe, just sets of fake leaves on the Pottery Barn shelves. No, they are actually real, and more vivid that you could imagine.



And today, I learned why they actually call it FALL. Cause the leaves FALL off the tree after turning such lovely reds and oranges and yellows. Took me 3 years of living here to figure that out. The leaves blanketed the forest floor and we go to drive thru it. I'm sure they would have crunched when we drove over them had it not been raining. The past few weeks our drive has been enhanced by the fact that the sun shines thru the canopy and ray of light streak across the street as we drive through. Man I am going to miss this place.

So as I am driving in my state of awe, I think about all the times I've been asked by someone that doesn't have kids yet, or by a working mom that's never really stayed home, or by some woman whose kids are older and has apparently been out of touch from the land of kids for a long while....nonetheless someone who has not recently spent time with an infant, "what DO you do with ALL your time". All my time? Are you freaking kidding me? All my time? What time? Have you smelled me lately? I can hardly catch a shower let alone clean this place enough to not trip over stuff as I stumble out of bed in the middle of the night. Shall I again introduce to you the never sleeping child:



ALL my time. It cracks me up thinking about it, and at least for a couple moments in the car today I was laughing at that comment instead of grasping to my last glimpses of a real fall!

Come One, Come All......PLEASE!??!!!??

In the last month we've been so lucky to have a flow of Baganz family visitors come over from Texas to help us out. As I've mentioned time and time again, lack of sleep can leave a girl suffering from low brain activity, which still continues to this day. A small reprieve from that was welcomed and very much appreciated, not to mention we were just so happy that Nanny, Pappy and Aunt Beth were able to meet our newest little guy (and see our big one too!).

Aunt Beth came on the tail of a fun trip to Italy. She stopped by here on the way home for a week. We were able to spend a Sunday at Jucker Farms.


The day after our visit there was to be the Kurbis Regata, a race down the little lake there inside massive 400 kilo pumpkins. Not sure that I'd want to be that boatman....or shall I say pumpkin-man, sitting inside a slimy pumpkin in freezing cold lake water, but more power to them. Nonetheless it was great to see how large these pumpkins really were, and it left one wondering if they were given steroids to grow that big.

We spend the day admiring the hundreds of varieties of pumpkins

and had a nice little lunch while Chance played on the playground.

And of course no visit to Jucker is complete without their famous home-pressed apple juice and produce.

Our visit with Beth was really nice in that we usually only see Beth for several hours an occasional evening or two during our visits home, and it's amongst so many other people that we hardly get to spend much time with her. Selfishly we were able to get Beth all to ourselves and it was quite a treat.

And likewise with Nanny and Pappy. It was great to have them both here again, and all to ourselves!. The first day is always so hard having just arrived from 24 hours of travel. Nanny and Pappy went to take naps, and I went out to run errands while they slept. I returned home to find this on the door. I thought Pappy made a cute use of Chance's door sign:

Our week with N&P was layed back and less eventful than most visits. Chance was still on fall break the first half of their visit, so he and Pappy were able to hit the park together for some good one on one time, and even stopped by "their" piano store.


Luckily Ryan was able to take a couple days off work. The boys went ice skating one day - Chance tried it again for the first time this year and really took to liking it.

It's amazing what a year can do - last year it was all tears, this year it was determination. Ryan and his parents also managed to take his parents to see the monastery at Einsiedeln while I stayed home with the boys to have a quiet day. Did I just say that? Do those 2 words actually go in the same sentence together....quiet and 2 boys? Actually to my surprise it was quite a calm day.

Most of all from both visits we so much appreciated the help we received with the baby, especially me every night when I'd get to go to bed early and someone would do the 10:00 feed for me, usually giving me a good 5+ hours of uninterrupted sleep.
The day after N&P left, Ryan looked at me while we were eating dinner and said, who can we wrangle next in to coming over to help us with the 10:00 feed? I say, come one, come all, PLEASE. Sleep is a priceless commodity around here that's for sure. But who can deny this little face when he wakes up hungry in the middle of the night!

The Male Mind

See what happens when I go to bed early and leave Ryan to tend to the baby?

Define Sleep Deprivation

Ryan left Monday morning for a training in Engelberg, leaving me flying solo with both boys. All last week the sheer mentioning of it would send me in to tears. Ryan's been so helpful that I just can't seem to grasp the thought of doing this all by myself but to my amazement the days have been going off without a hitch. Probably cause of all Ryan did to get us ready for the week.

Did I mention I have the best hubby in the whole world? This past weekend he cleaned, he cooked, he laundered, he laid out Chance's clothes for the week, he tended to me and held the baby way more than me. He even got peed and pooped on numerous times between the spit up that would color his shirt. He came home Tuesday night to help out, and luckily just got pulled home on another job so he had to leave the training early (darn!).

Sunday night at 11:30 I fed the baby, changed him twice, rocked him to sleep and put him in his bed to have his eyes pop wide open. It was baby party time and I was having none of it at 12:30 as I lay in bed listening to the grunting and protesting going on in the other room, wondering as I lay there...is he bored, does he need a diaper change, maybe he spit up all over himself and has wet clothes. So at the thought of having to get up again at 3:30 I nudged Ryan out of bed to deal with the situation. Please just make the noise stop. Do I need to call the cops to put a stop the late night partying? Aren't my college days over? So my mind continues to stay active and I can't fall asleep to save my life. I decide to get up around 2 to find Ryan laying on the hard floor next to the crib with a tiny blanket covering himself. I wake him sort of and ask what he is doing....and he slurs something about needing to keep putting the pacifier in his mouth so that he won't make noise so that I can sleep. I am suddenly brought to the story of my mom saying she'd lay on the floor next to my crib early in the morning and toss cheerios in to the bed so that I'd stay occupied without seeing her, so that she could just get another 10 minutes of zees.

Which leads me to the current hot topic of the day.....DEFINE "SLEEP DEPRIVATION" the funny thing about this is that I have wanted to write on this for days, but I can't even find 10 minutes to sit and write.

So I googled a definition and found several to choose from. Basically it boils down to the fact that at this rate I might be getting more sleep as a prisoner at Gauntamo Bay.

1. a form of psychological torture inflicted by depriving the victim of sleep. Does averaging three 1.5 hour stints of sleep per night count? I think when it's broken up like that the equation changes to something like 3 x 1.5 = 0

2. Sleep deprivation is the partial or near partial act of depriving the needed amount of R.E.M. sleep to an individual or organism. Dreams? What dreams? I am not asleep long enough to even start to dream. The only dreaming I am doing lately is dreaming about one day dreaming again.

3. The condition of forcibly (by someone else, or by a sleep disorder) being kept awake, to the point of noticeably lower alertness. A dangerous amount of sleep deprivation can cause fatal vehicular accidents. You think? Actually this is so serious and I am such a hazard right now to myself, my kids and others that I am no longer allowed to back out of our driveway, or back out of a parking space at school. After almost killing a pedestrian yesterday......well not really, she saw me but I didnt see her and she banged the car with her hand and yelled Swiss obscenities at me as I was trying to BACK out of our driveway. This was a wake up call, no pun intended, and now I will be doing a 25 point turn everytime I want to leave our driveway so that next time it's not a kid I run over.

Other examples of "lower alertness" might include cutting off half my thumb with a newly sharpened kitchen knife. We have fingernails for a reason, otherwise my whole finger would be gone, not just half. Or does wearing your shirt inside out half a day after having numerous public encounters count? Or what about having the doctor ask me if I am getting enough sleep and I say "yes, I am sleeping quite well". Hmmmmm, I must have been asleep sitting up when I said that.

4. A chronic lack of sufficient restorative sleep. RESTORATIVE would be the key word here. I no longer have sympathy for people that tell me that they are tired cause they didnt get much sleep. If you are getting more than 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep at one time, please don't come knocking at my door. There is no sympathy here at the moment.

5. A general lack of the necessary amount of sleep. In science, sleep deprivation is used in order to study the function(s) of sleep. Anyone want to pay me to be their guineu pig? I could use some cash at this point to pay for the 20 diapers a day we are currently using. And at Swiss diaper prices, we may all be having to soon drink breast milk, it's the only free food around here.

Ok off to nap, hopefully.

Little Longhorn

Brooks is still quite a happy baby unless you make him too cold. He's so peaceful and inquisitive during his infrequent wake times, just looking and staring and taking in the world. He's already an avid Longhorn Fan, supporting his team at every possible opportunity. I even caught him already watching previous season games with Daddy.

Sometimes he and Daddy also like to read the posts and feeds about the Longhorns, but it often puts him right to sleep.

We've been so blessed by so many thoughtful gifts lately. Our friend Katherine Bothager handmade a gorgeous quilt for Brooks. I had to have taken her months to complete it. It's so fantastic.....we are trying to figure out a way to hang it on the wall in Brooks room to bring some color in the space. It's just too amazing to think of letting spit up stain it. But we have to figure out how to hang it without getting holes in it, and instead somehow get holes in to the cement wall without owning a cement drill. She even embroidered his name on it!



My friend Jane also gave me this Swiss music box I had been lusting after ever since she bought one for my friend Amy awhile back. It's so charming and fits perfectly in Brooks' mostly green room.



The other thing I am totally pumped about is my Rossi bag that the hospital gave me as a gift upon leaving. It's a Swiss designer bag and really love it!


Of course these are all just to name a few. We love everything we have gotten and really appreciate all the thoughtful gifts. Brooks is officially hooked up with everything he could need!

Big Brother is doing pretty well himself lately, considering that his place on the throne has temporarily been thwarted. We've really been trying to give him individual one on one time, with Ryan taking him to Alpamare on Saturday and me taking him to Starbucks Sunday morning for some coffee. Chance loves to kiss on his brother and constantly wants to check on him while he sleeping in his bed. This is how we found Brooks after Chance went to check on him. Pretty funny I thought.