Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.... Einen Guten Rutsch

Knee deep in snow in Chamonix

Yummy hamburger in Chamonix!

Opening her duplo train

So we are a little late wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, but right on time for the Happy New Year :)  This year we did not fly back to America since I was 37 weeks pregnant, so we had our first Christmas as a family, without seeing any extended family. It was nice and relaxed, well relaxed for us. That is one thing we have learned about ourselves this year is that we don't know how to relax very well and we like to be time efficient with our activities. Simply put we are not gemütlich people, but trying to learn just a little bit how to be!

Christmas morning walk

Hiking in Chamonix

John would typically have about two weeks off for the Christmas holiday, but his project at work had some deadlines this year so he worked 3 days of the holiday. Which works out good because of working those extra days he can take a whole week off after the baby arrives, without using vacation!  Since he worked some of the holiday and we didn't want to get too far away from home, being that I was 2.5 weeks away from my due date, we decided to rent a apartment outside of Chamonix, France. This town is an outdoor lovers paradise and is situated at the base of Mt. Blanc. We enjoyed a lovely hike, snowfall, snowshoe hike, shopping, and good food. We would love to go back in the summer for more hiking. It is also a very kid friendly area with daycares available for children on the ski slopes and in the town, so maybe we can take advantage of that next time :)  Plus it was a nice last trip as a family of 3.

As we look forward to the next year, the obvious thing that we are awaiting is the arrival of "Baby Brother" in January. We are excited, nervous, and realize that our fairly simple life is about to get crazy again..... oh the joys of the newborn stage :)

Enjoy the photos!

Snowshoeing yesterday... John and I had the day off while Hannah had fun at daycare.

Hungry for a snack

snow day in Chamonix

We hope you all have a blessed 2015!

Baby boy 34+ weeks

  I had just finished typing a nice long pregnancy update and for some reason it didn't save... Talk about frustrating. So this version will be much shorter. I haven't written an update since 25 weeks. To be honest not much has changed with how I feel: still tired (maybe getting slightly worse), still able to hike, run, swim, ride bike, and still nervous to be adding a second child into our family.... Especially since Hannah seems to be going through a stage... Miss independent we will call it. Her phrase is, "Hannah self." We just pray for guidance as we discipline and teach her and also pray that she wants to be very helpful when baby brother arrives. 

Some things/symptoms that are starting to develop: heartburn, slight difficulty breathing (I think his bottom is in my diaphragm), and the feeling that he can't possibly get any bigger and take up any more space. Nothing too awful, but definitely physically looking forward to the next 40 days going by quickly but not quite ready to experience the craziness of having two kiddos.... I am wondering what his personality will be like since he is much more of a mover and shaker in there than Hannah ever was. 

To wrap things up I finally have a baby bump picture and some throwback photos to my pregnancy with Hannah.

 34 weeks with baby boy

 35 weeks with Hannah 

  At a baby shower at 32 ish weeks

  Baby Hannah at 3 days old, I wonder if baby boy will look like her?

Big girl

I wanted to wait a bit before I posted about Hannahs newest step towards becoming a BIG girl. We started potty training about 3.5 weeks ago! We basically stayed home the first two days and let her run around with no diaper on. She really caught on after the first day as to when she had to go potty...as long as there were no distractions :) After two days we did take short trips out, but since she has a bit of a fear of big people potties we always were close enough to run home. Then after 4 days at home she went to daycare for 10 hours, diaper free (well they put a diaper on for nap time there), they were quite shocked that she showed up diaper free. She has only had 2 accidents at daycare which we think is quite good since the workers A) speak a different language as our home potty training language and B) the workers don't know her bathroom cues quite as good as us and C) she is there 10 hours. Now after 3.5 weeks she has very few accidents and also does pretty well at nap time (up to 3 hours) staying dry.

What she really had difficulty with in the beginning was pooping. For about 2 weeks before starting potty training she actually was holding it in, even with the diaper on. Thankfully, now after several tears she does quite well most days. She still holds it in occasionally, but it is much much better! That makes mommy and daddy also much happier.

She has even conquered going potty in the woods while we are out hiking! She is ready for backpacking!

I will leave you with one pregnancy photo that was taken on one of our hikes this weekend. I have my 34 week appointment this week, after that appointment I will post another baby update and pictures from this pregnancy as compared to with Hannah.

Favorite Activity

Hannah with her 60 piece Pooh puzzle

 I have mentioned before in this blog that Hannah has taken a liking to puzzles. It is fun and interesting to see what activities and skills toddlers start to excel in.  Our little Hannah has definitely taken an interest in puzzles and has quite amazing skills, I am not biased or anything :) But as an example, yesterday we were wrapping Christmas packages for an organization much like Samaritans Purse, for 3 hours. John went into the store to buy a puzzle for Hannah as an activity since wrapping presents doesn't really hold the attention of a 2 year old to well. We did the two puzzles with Hannah a handful of times and now she puts the puzzles meant for a 4 year old together by herself. She can do anywhere from 24-60 piece puzzle by herself. For a week or so, every time she completed a puzzle she said, "Picture!" So this is the reason we have so many puzzle pictures.

Same puzzle new ou!

 She may not want to try a run bike, but she definitely has mad puzzle skills....Maybe she will be an engineer like her Daddy!
I know I need to put another pregnancy blog update up, with a picture, but first I need to remember to ask John to take a picture :)



 

She really likes her Pooh puzzles!

Majorca, Spain

Sunrise from our balcony

Several months ago John and I started planning a vacation, without Hannah, the first in 2 years! John's mom and a friend were going to come and take care of Hannah and Bear, so we decided on a 5 day trip to the Island of Majorca. Unfortunately about 2 months before our trip John's mom broke her leg, right at the knee in 5 places. For a few weeks we weren't quite sure we would be able to take this much needed trip. Thankfully one of our good friends here offered to watch Hannah!! Her husband was (is) away on travel for work and she volunteered to even stay at our place so Hannah  would be more comfortable. What a blessing... thanks again Tammy!!

View from church out onto Palma harbor

Majorca is very popular destination in Europe, and can be quite touristic in the summer months. Since we went in October, it was not overly crowded and the temperatures were a bit more manageable for us, but still about 90 degrees.

Gothic church in Palma

We stayed about 10 miles outside of the big town of Palma de Majorca, a harbor town with tons of shopping and restaurants. The town we stayed seemed more touristy/cheesy, but again since it was off season the pools were still open but there weren't people everywhere.

Infinity and wave pool looking out onto the Sea

Majorca has nice beaches on the south side and mountains on the north side.  It is also a great place for road and mountain biking. There was actually a triathlon and marathon on the island while we were there. Of course I wasn't going to be doing any hard core biking, but we did enjoy two hikes, and a run. One hike was on Dragon island, which is on the southwest side of the island.

View of Majorca from Dragon Island

Selfie from the top of Dragon Island

Not a bad lunch view!

Hiking at 27 weeks pregnant :)

The second hike took us up the second highest peak on the island. The highest peak is private military ground and not open to hike up to.

 

View from 2nd highest peak 

The mountain we hiked is in the background.

The hiking was great as was swimming in the ocean. But the best part was just enjoying lots of time with John, eating good beef for reasonable prices, and being on the go all day long (although pregnant ladies like a short nap as well).

Refueling

Delicious beef

We realize that we won't be able to take another trip alone for quite a long time so we are SO thankful that we pulled this one off!

Weekend away

Three weeks ago I went hiking with one of my good friends Trini. It was my first weekend away without Hannah or John in a long time, and it was great.... A lot of German, but great.

We found a Swiss Alpine Club hut in the region of Grindelwald to sleep at in which you had to hike 3.5 hours up to and then there was a peak to hike up to 1.5 hours from the hut. The price of staying overnight in the hut included dinner, breakfast, and fresh water for the hike. 

This was perfect because then I didn't have to make the already challenging hike harder by carrying food. I was 25.5 weeks pregnant on the hike and definitely had to take a slower pace, but I am quite happy I was able to make it the whole way. We were rewarded with amazing views from the stop, gazing at Eiger and Mönch across the valley was breathtaking. 

There are Swiss Alpine Club huts everywhere in Switzerland and you can usually arrange to stay in a more private room or the dormitory, whichever you prefer, and they are quite reasonably priced. I would recommend finding one to stay in if you ever want to do a multiple day hiking tour in Switzerland!

Baby Patton #2, the first 25 weeks

I

It is crazy that I have been pregnant now for 25 weeks and I am just now writing a real update about this pregnancy. At times I feel like we are prepared for the little one and then I look at my to buy list and the state of the baby/guest room (yes when you live in a 3 bedroom apartment the crib and spare bed all go in the same room!) and then I think we will need some extra time! By the way one thing on my list is a fisher price rock n play sleeper, which was SO nice with Hannah, but they are not sold here, so if anyone has one they would like to ship to switzerland as a gift..... :) 

                           we obviously still need to clean the crib out :)

Really this pregnancy has not been much different from when I was pregnant with Hannah. This time I was 99% sure I was pregnant before taking a test and with Hannah I was just hoping for a positive test result. 

I never had morning sickness so bad that I actually got "sick", just a quesy stomach with both. But if I would have to say that one was worse, then this pregnancy I think I was a bit more nauseated, until about 10 weeks.

I have been a sleepy pregnancy person both times, with Hannah only until 14 weeks, so far the whole time with this one. This could be due to the fact that we rarely eat red meat and my iron levels are a bit low... I try to eat beans and dark green veggies, but a steak would be a whole lot tastier! I am sure having a toddler and working two days a week in another language doesn't help the whole tired symptom. 

I was active with Hannah and I have been blessed with no pain or negative symptoms associated with exercise this time around. I have probably been more active between hiking and running in the first 25 weeks as compared to my pregnancy with Hannah. Since we have no gym membership here, and limited pool access the last month or so might prove to be a challenge as I am guessing running won't feel so good then. We will see.

With both pregnancies my placenta has been anterior, which can make it harder to feel the babies movements. Hannah was a fairly chill in the womb, some days I didn't really sense her moving, this baby is a bit more active, but not crazy either.... I just hope the sleeping patterns of this baby will be as good as Hannah.

          Practicing feeding "baby"

The biggest difference with this pregnancy is not a symptom, nothing I sensed but what the doctors revealed to us. And that is, that baby Patton 2 is a Boy! Crazy! We are excited, but to be honest we thought it was going to be a second girl so we were a bit shocked! We are excited to see the difference between Hannah and baby boy P, and how she will be as a big sister.

Sorry I also have no baby bump pictures, but there is a bump, also similar to what I looked like with Hannah! I will post a picture eventually!