Hannah, a quick update

Always talking to her toys :)

This Saturday we fly back to the good ole USA :)  In light of this I probably won't get to an official 10 month update for our little lady, as she turns 10 months right before our journey across the pond.

This was at the last week of our weekly playgroup in Luzern.

 This past month she seems to have grown up quite a bit.  She definitly lets us know what she doesn't like, which is pretty much just getting her cloths changed. Thankfully that usually only happens once a day! Besides those 5 mintues of the day she is fairly happy.  That is if she is fed and gets her sleep- two things she typically really likes. I think she has a good mix of both John and I in her (he really likes to eat and I love to sleep).   :)

She has started to do a low crawl and every once and awhile a full on crawl up on all fours, but that can wait til after the plane trip :)
She also seems to be making more and more sounds this month as well. The latest is a Baa sound, which is obviously Bear.

 

Anyways that is a really quick update. We are looking forward to seeing a few of you in person soon! That is if we survive 20 some hours of travel with a baby who LOVES her crib to sleep in (I think airplane designers really need to install some cribs for travelling families).

Long weekend

This past weekend was a wonderful 3 day weekend for us, as monday was Pentecost Monday and John had a holiday from work.  Thankfully we were blessed with mostly sunny weather for the weekend as well.
On saturday we set off on a hike with the Espeland family to about the halfway mark of Mt. Pilatus. There is a cute little mountain restaurant at the halfway mark with a stunning view of Lake Lucerne. The food up there was lovely, and the men welcomed the break from carrying the babies up the mountain :)  The hike was fairly steep, but only took about 3.5 hours so it was a good one to do with the whole family. Hannah likes the backpack but it seems about 4 hours is her time limit. Actually neither baby cried, but Hannah really likes to talk loudly the whole way. Both babies only slept about 20-30 minutes as there was way too much to look at!


Top of Mt. Pilatus from the restaurant.

The hill to the left is the one we hike most often by our house

 

The next day the sun came out in the afternoon which I was happy about as I had a long run up the mountain scheduled. There is a run here 11 km long and climbs 1400m, up to the top of the Stanserhorn mountain. So, I need to do some test runs to see if I can manage to participate. I am fairly confident I would finish, but most Swiss people seem to only enter races if they are fast. There isn't as much of a "fun run" mentality- they want to be the best. Which is great and all, but after having a baby I am much more in "fun run" mode!  Anyhow, I made it fairly close to the top, then ran down, which for the race you get to ride the gondola down. I definitely had sore quads the next day!

View from the run:The hill to the right is the one we hike often from our house, opposite the view of where we hiked on Saturday

On Sunday John and Mark set off on a 4-5 hour mountain bike trip up (at least most of the way) and down Mt. Pilatus!  The after shots of John's bike depicts how fun it was. Plus they got cherry pie and coffee at the top.

 Hard to tell but John is very muddy!!

 

Now we are relaxing with a rainy week and hoping for more sun this weekend!

Perfect Day

Yesterday in Switzerland was pretty much a perfect day!  I promise not everyday is easy as we do miss family and friends (and good beef) A LOT, but yesterday was great! 
We started the day at the doctor for Hannah. Maybe that doesn't sound to fun, but I was so impressed by the medical care we received. It was just for a 9 month growth check and the doctor, not a nurse but a doctor, spent about 40 minutes with us. She watched Hannah play with toys, watched to respond to different noises and all sorts of other things. Plus they gave us all sorts of free things: toothbrush, toothpaste, special laundry detergent, Vitamin D... all for free. It is great, as far as we understand medical care for children is completely covered by your small monthly fee to have them added to your insurance. Plus, Hannah was a trooper through the whole appointment!

Crackers and swinging, what could be better!

Another thing that made it a perfect day was the weather, 65-70 degrees, sunny with a few clouds. Hannah and I got to play outside a bit, which makes both of us very happy.

 

Also, a family from the UK recently moved into our building and has offered multiple times to watch Hannah for us. We decided to take them up on it as it is so convenient and NICE!  So, John and I got to go on our first real bike ride together. Of course he took me up "hill" right by our house- 1,100 m of climbing :)  This was my first proper ride in 1.5 years as I was pregnant last summer, I thought I might die at some points. Really it wasn't that bad and the views at the top were stunning. We were happy to hear that Hannah was a happy little baby while we were riding and that she got asked back :)  I think we will be taking them up on that offer this summer!

 

 Our lovely view during dinner :)

Glückliche Muttertag

Happy Mother's Day!

Since Hannah is too young to really celebrate Mothers Day John blessed me with a fantastic first Mothers Day.
Yesterday He came home from the store with some lovely orange roses that matched some pink gerber daisies at some friends brought over (it is sort of a thing to bring flowers or wine when invited for dinner).
Then this morning he of course made pancakes and then he took care of Hannah before church so I could go out on a run. I really love to exercise in the morning, but it rarely happens as I also love my bed :)
Prior in the week he had made arrangements for me to go biking with a friend since it is harder for me to get out on a proper bike ride vs. a run. It is nice to have company when biking here in case something goes wrong such as a flat tire! Since we have no car it isn't as easy for John t come rescue me as it was in Iowa :) anyhow, the weather turned out to be rainy, sunny,rainy, sunny so we decided to go running! Mind you I had already ran a very hilly run in the AM so when my friends took me up more hills I thought I might die! But, the views were great and I was looking forward to John's dinner!
To end the day we had some friends over and their two children for Johns jambalaya. It was very tasty, Hannah really liked it! Having dinner with some friends was a great way to end my first MutterTag!

Auffahrt

Yesterday was Auffahrt Tag, in English Ascension Day, and it was a holiday for all of Switzerland.  There were some eating establishments open along with recreational places like swimming pools, but for the most part all Cantons (states) were mostly shut down. I may had said this before but all the Cantons are either Catholic or Protestant and then you get certain holidays off based on that, but Ascension Day is a holiday for both. There are actually 2 more holidays in May for John and as a newly stay at home mom I really like these random days off that he gets! 

Hannah enjoying her portable chair!

 

So we celebrated Auffahrt Tag by going to the swimming pool with a new family (from South Africa/France). This family has a 2 year old daughter and 6 month old daughter and have started to attend the church that we go to.  It wasn't quite warm enough to go in the outdoor pool with the little ones, but we enjoyed playing at the nearby park and sipping on a coffee.

 

Since John had off of work I also got to go on a run without Hannah! My arms thanked him :)  Since I didn't have the stroller in tow I decided to run up the "hill" close to our apartment. In 35 minutes I ascended 2,000 ft., the way down was MUCH easier.  There is a run here in July that I am trying to decide if I should do, the Stanserhorn Berglauf. Basically you run up the big mountain that is to the south of us. In 12k you ascend 1600 meters I believe!!  I might have to postpone attempting this race till we have been here a few years and I am better at running hills :)


The view after my hill run

 

The incoming storm we got stuck in on our Family walk!

 

We rounded out the day with John's homemade pizza.  He is getting very good at making the dough and sauce, thanks to a Swiss friend sharing his recipe.  The pizza looked beautiful but unfortunately I didn't take a picture.  So, I will leave you with a video clip of Hannah talking to her banana, a new morning routine :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFvNsSg1288

 

Snails

This past weekend was full of activity! On Saturday we went hiking for 3.5 hours up the small mountain (a hill for Switzerland) right by our apartment. Bear was in heaven!!

The days prior to this weekend had been off and on rain and thunderstorms. Typically in Iowa after a good rain you find a lot of worms out on the sidewalk.  Well here we see those too, but there are also huge snails.  John says that he now knows where the "cartoon" picture of snails comes from.

This snail was at least 3 inches long!

Hannah enjoying the hike as she is much to curious to sleep :)

This weekend we also went on a few good bike rides with the Burley trailer. One to Luzern to watch some local trials bikers. These are the bikers who hop on and off of crazy things while riding really small bikes without a seat!  It is actually really crazy. If you want to see some crazy videos search for Danny Macaskill on youtube!  Then on Sunday we went on a 33 mile ride around the lake that you can see in the picture with Bear. John rode his city bike with the burley and I was on my rode bike- needless to say John got a much better workout that me!!
We have started to count down the weeks till we are back in Iowa, I just hope Hannahs newest set of teeth have arrived by then so our happy little lady returns :)

9 months

I can't believe that our favorite little lady is 9 months!  She celebrated by going to Thursday playgroup on a beautiful sunny morning in Luzern.

Hannah has become quite the talker this month, or at least trying to talk. She has mastered Da Da although doesn't always say it just to John. She also says Ba Ba, so I think bears name is coming next. I am not good at deciphering all the other distinct sounds, but there are lots of them. Unfortunately she seems a bit shy when it's time to talk to the Grandparents because she often remains fairly silent during our conversations.

Luzern on a beautiful day!

She continues to be a good eater and has improved upon her abilities to feed herself. She can manage banana, avocado, and any steamed vegetable piece, and crackers. We have started to chop up some of the pasta and rice dishes that we eat for her and so far she has eaten them all!  I pray this continues through toddler years (wishful thinking right!).

Hannah remains a tall skinny little girl, I think she is destined to be like her Dad. She can eat and eat and the chub doesn't appear.  I am jealous :)

 

She still isn't crawling around and continues to prefer to walk with her wagon or with my hand. Up until 2 weeks ago she REALLY didn't like to be put on all fours, now she tolerates it.

 

We are always excited to see how Hannah grows, develops, changes and are very interested in seeing her personality develop.

We are off to a coffee date in the sunshine :)