Exploring!

Man, it's been awhile!  Time has been flying by!  Little dude is now 5 months old and oh how things have changed in such a short time.  Jakob is a rolling champion.  As soon as his back touches the floor, couch, crib, anything he flips to his belly.  This morning we found him sleeping soundly on his stomach rammed up next to the rail.  Not only is he a flipping maniac but he easily does 360's in his crib on his back.  He just picks up his feet and pushes along the rails to go around in a circle... even while he's sleeping.  I sure hope his sleeping calms down a little!  My ear plugs are definitely a life saver.

Ok, so since May... Our 3 year anniversary dinner was amazing!  Paul found this little restaurant called Kreis 6 and our friend put Jakob to bed for us.  It was the first time I've dressed up in Switzerland and it felt great.  Dinner was a full 3 course meal with wine and Prosecco and was super expensive but well worth it- dessert was my favorite of course!

Our visit with Carli was a lot of fun.  The first few days she was here we hung out around Zurich, Luzern, Braunwald (for the Alps), and then the second set of days we took off for a roadtrip and an overnight stay in Strasbourg, France and drove back through the Black Forest in Germany stopping to see a castle.  We saw so many great things and Jakob was a pretty good sport- although now we can tell he wants to get out of the car seat more.  We borrowed a car seat and it was nice and pink!  So maybe that had something to do with it.  ;)  I just love French pastries though... it's a good thing we do not live in France!

We finally put together Jakob's highchair and he loves it.  Whenever we eat dinner he is right there with us playing with his toys and watching our every move.  And when I say 'right there' his highchair is pulled right up to the table.  He has a mat that sticks to the table to serve as his 'tray'.  I love this family style highchair!  We've let him start holding food and doing whatever he wants with it but in a couple weeks we'll actually give him food at least at lunch and dinner.

I bought a book called The Baby-led Weaning Cookbook and love it so far.  It is a British based book and a lot of people here do it so I thought I'd look into it since so far I love the baby atmosphere in Europe.  I've always thought I'd just give my baby homemade puree until I read things that made me think twice.  Pureed food came about when doctors suggested starting solids before babies were able to grasp food and feed themselves.  But now that many doctors say 6 months is a fine time to start, babies already have the motor skills to start with solid food from the beginning.  Some people think babies are less picky and develop better eating habits this way.  But basically you just season your food with less salt and stay away from the bad foods and cut big enough pieces that they can grasp and naw on like they do with all their toys.  They eat as much as they want, taste a range of food and spices, and gradually with time they'll eat more and self-wean off of breastmilk.  I love the idea especially since I'm not working.  And this book's recipes... most of them seem easy and a creative spin on the things we eat already.  I'm so excited to start this!  (Excited for the experience but definitely NOT the poop!)  If it doesnt work out, I always have my baby food maker but I have complete confidence in this. :)

Anyway, June seems to be a pretty slow month and we're going to enjoy it!  Rain has come back and that makes things no fun but at least it brings cooler weather.  Nights have been very hot lately.  Oh, and I've completed about 8 books so far this year!  I have NEVER read this many books in less than 6 months before.  No idea where this reading thing came about but I love it!

4 months! Rolling over already!

Our little 4 month old:

* Weight: 15.5 lbs; Length: 25.4 in
* Sleeps 11-12 hour nights (9ish-8:30ish) in his crib. If he wakes up during that time, he puts himself to sleep again by sucking on his fists. He has been doing this since he was 9 weeks old! AND he wakes up with huge eyes and a huge smile. :) Sometimes he even wakes up in the early early morning and babbles himself back to sleep over and over. Cute but does not let us sleep very well!
* Takes three 30-45 min naps a day (unless in the stroller- then it's longer). Textbook cat napper.
* LOVES to stand. From the first month, he has enjoyed it and is now needing very little support. And he holds his head up perfectly.
* Finally is starting to enjoy tummy time. He is more interested in learning to crawl than rolling over. But he's already flipped himself from back to stomach! :)
* Eats breastmilk exclusively 5 times a day. The fifth is his bedtime bottle and that is precious daddy time.
* Still has a few red patches of longer hair although the new fuzzy hairs are coming in lighter. Eyes are still a beautiful light blue with a dark blue outer ring.
* Chews on his fingers and anyone else's that he can get in there. He likes fingers more than toys but would stuff fabric into his mouth any time of day.
* Finds his toes during diaper changes and holds on tight. And uses his feet to kick the hanging toys on his mat. Being reckless and crazy really makes him happy- I'm a little scared to see how this grows. ;)
* Has a freckle on the back of his calf. Super cute.
* Paci is not very important to him. He sometimes uses it for naps but that's it. We can forget it and usually be fine. He loves the fabric that clips the pacifier to his shirt so much more.
* Squeals like it's his job. He tries all kind of sounds from grunting, gurggling, and g sounds to screaming. But he's cutest when he belly laughs and slobber comes pouring out.
* When he's eating or lying down, he loves putting his fingers in your mouth and grabbing your lip. Very tasty when he's already slobbered on them! He also loves to yank and hold on tight to hair. Ouch.
* Loves to listen to you sing fast songs (like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious).
* Wears 3-6 months clothes but he's moving out of them fast.

Paul's relay race went well. We went to watch the finishing people and then headed to the after-party where little man finally got his fill of attention. He loves being around so many people which meant we stayed a little past his bedtime and he was out when we put him to bed.

Monday was Jakob's doctor visit with more vaccines. He cried for a couple seconds when they were administred but then just took one extra nap that day. Perfect! Oh and his name is definitely pronounced Yak-ob there. I think that's so fun. :)

Friday we met with the daycare people since they have an opening for Aug/Sept. They only spoke German so Paul basically did all the talking. I understood a lot and it looks like a really nice place. Luckily, we dont have to sign a contract until closer to August. So hopefully I'll find a job by then. I've already started applying to some and we are crossing our fingers that my Swiss reference letter will be the one thing that makes a difference this time around. It's 3200 CHF a month which means I definitely will need a job before we ever sign a contract.

This weekend was really good besides all the rain. Although we havent had rain in awhile and the storms were actually the strongest I've seen here which was fun! I miss big storms. So we had a couple over for dinner to talk baby stuff since they are due in August. I made a carrot cake from scratch (icing and all) and for not being able to find real cake pans here... it turned out pretty darn well. Paul grilled kabobs in the rain and we relaxed. Today we realized we had a lot of cake left and wanted to socialize more so we invited over another friend and had a nice afternoon. Jakob loved it since just loves attention.

Our 3 year wedding anniversary is Tuesday and we are actually having a friend babysit Jakob while we go out to a late dinner. He's only been babysat one other time about 2 months ago. Im sure it will go well though. Saturday Carli comes!!! Oh my gosh, I'm really excited to have a friend here. I can't believe one of my friends is actually going to be here with me. We are going to have a blast!

Easter baby

I was going to wait until next week to write but I decided to just do 2 blogs.

While we love the celebration and reason for Easter ours was not too eventful. When Jakob woke up (at the lovely hour of 8:30), we changed his soaked diaper and immediately took his picture next to 'his' basket and chocolate. I just had to get him stuff! ;) I justified my decision by telling myself he was technically getting chocolate milk. ha Yeah, right. We did have fun playing with the surprises in the Kinder eggs though! We relaxed all day, took a family picture, skyped family and ate lots and lots of chocolate. And pretending like I hadnt bought enough, I got sucked into the after Easter sale. Thankfully we have devoured it all now. Im telling you- there is NOTHING like Swiss chocolate.

I thought I'd give an update on our diapering situation. Besides our 3 weeks in the states and the 3 weeks it took for Jakob's umbilical cord to fall off, we have been cloth diapering non stop and I LOVE it. It has taken a lot of trial and error with different kinds but I think we've figured it out. Our main diapers are flat folds and prefolds. In the beginning we were just laying them in the cover but I got very tired of having poop on the covers (he used to go A LOT). So I found the fold that I love- the origami fold. We use this fold with a flat diaper when I think a poop is coming and it holds everything in! The other times I use a prefold since it soaks up so much but I just dont like how they are bulkier and sometimes dont get dry completely in the dryer. Once he started sleeping 11 hours at night we realized he needed way more absorption and that's when we use BumGenuis with 3 inserts! We only got 6 because they cost a lot more but they work like a charm at night. No leaks. I definitely think my research paid off. We love our system and love the fact that we paid so little for so many diapers that will last forever. And no diaper rash! Here are some pics!

Not too much else has been going on. We did buy a grill and are so happy we did. We've used it tons already and it makes dinner more fun. Tomorrow Paul will be running his race and we'll get together with everyone for dinner. Mother's day will probably be uneventful but that's ok because all I really need is a good belly laugh from Jake and that always makes my day. Then Monday little man gets his 4 month old shots. Im not going to enjoy it but luckily they are very good and thankfully give only 2 shots very fast. I'll update with all that next week! I bet you he weighs at least 15 pounds. He's a big, loud, happy boy. Oh and these pictures are from Easter when we tested out one of his gifts from the states! He loves it. :)