Hannah 14 months

Ready to play in the rain with my rain suit!

It has been awhile since I last blogged, and again about a half month late for my monthly Hannah updates. My biggest excuse is that we just got back from a 9 day trip and I didn't feel like blogging on vacation!

I think this is a tunnel like at the park, oh wait it doesn't go anywhere.

 

 

So, Hannah is now 14.5 months old.  Crazy. We are loving how she seems to be more and more interactive everyday.  She looks right at you is clearly saying something... we just haven't deciphered much of what it is yet :) I have been casually been trying to teach her the sign for more, but she just laughs and claps her hands. Hmm. It would be great if she learned it because I need to find a way to know if she is full.... cuz this girl seems to be a bottomless pit (she loves to put her 8 teeth to work!).  She has definite food preferences... no dried apricots, apples, much meat, or cheese please. She loves the carbs, tomatoes, peas, fruit besides apples, and of course peanut butter!!  She can also chug the beverages, usually water or milk but the one time she was given juice she downed that very quickly as well. Hopefully she gets her Dad's metabolism! On vacation we actually had a scale in one of the apartments and she now weighs a little over 21 pounds. Getting big, and heavy for hiking!

She is still a little sleeper.  We decided on vacation that Hannah had to cope with one nap in the crib. It went fairly good, although she was sleepy enough to catch about a 30 minute cat nap in the Ergo Baby every morning. I am hoping to keep working on the transition to one long nap as most playgroups that we could go to happen in the morning.

 

 

We have been working on walking lately, as in the physical therapist in me decided it is time for her to walk. She can sort of keep her balance to walk with one hand, but I think she is going to continue her trend of slower gross motor skill development. I am not actually worried since she is making progress towards walking! She has become more exploratory at all the parks though. She loves crawling through tunnels, trying to crawl up the slides, and trying to bounce on the in ground trampolines.
Enjoy all the pictures!

Morning at the Market

Farm Fresh veggies!

 

Last weekend we decided to go the the Luzern Saturday morning market instead of going on a big hike. We have been meaning to get the market every weekend but we just never got to it. Our little town of Stans does have a market every weekend as well, but the one in Luzern is MUCH larger!

It was full of fresh baked goods, fresh fruits and veggies, and all kinds of cheese stands. We ended up with basil and butternut squash- pretty exciting huh! I needed both of those things for recipes this week and they were cheaper than the grocery store.

"Dad, did you see all those baked goods?!"

 

We also had to have a coffee and play break. Bachmann's is a baked goods and coffee store (not American style) chain here and they are the easiest place to get a to go coffee from.
This weekend we start our vacation to Salzburg, Brno, and Bratislavia.... excited!!

Trifft Glacier Bridge

 

Last Saturday we headed towards the "big" mountains to do a hike that had been recommended to us. We drove to Meiringen and then headed up the valley from there towards the Sustenpass. The total drive time was about an hour which is perfect for a half day trip with a toddler (I guess Hannah isn't a baby anymore) and a dog.

 

 

From the parking lot we took the Triftbahn up the mountain towards the bridge with left us with about a 2.5 hour round trip hike. It was beautiful up there as we were at a bit of higher elevation than some of our hikes that we go on right from Stans.

 

The bridge was built to connect two mountains, that used to be crossable via the glacier. But due to melting, the glacier is now much too small to use to cross from one mountain to the next. So they built a bridge. The bridge that stands now was built in 2009, is 100m high, 170 m long, and .8m wide. It was a little scary to cross, but out of all of us Bear was definitely the most afraid.

 

There are numerous hiking options from this area, and someday when we have an all day babysitter we might head back and explore the area a bit more. It will definitely be a great hike to bring visitors on, as you get great views, not too strenuous, and it is a beautiful drive to the location as well.

Famiy Hike

 

Last Saturday we were blessed with a nice sunny day, even though the news predicted rain. So, we took advantage of the weather by going on a nice hike from Acherli Pass to Stanserhorn. The pass is on the south side of the Stanserhorn mountain, while where we live, Stans, is situated on the north side of the mountain. It was a beautiful hike and fun to experience going up the mountain from a different direction than the one I did during my mountain run up the Stanserhorn.

 

The weather has been so great here most of this week and is supposed to continue, so we are looking forward to some outdoor adventure tomorrow as well!

Too close for comfort?

When you go hiking here in Switzerland you can usually count on coming in close contact with several cows. I am always a little afraid of them, especially since we usually have baby and dog in tow! We have experienced so far that the females are ok and will let you walk by and the males will chase you at times.... Scaring me half to death. We try our best to avoid the males!
One other animal that John came across when hiking with a friend up Mt Pilatus was a mountain goat! They were pretty close to them when hiking and check out the size of their horns... I am confident I would have been scared.
At the top of Pilatus they had a chance to relax and listen to some Alphorn music before hiking back down.

 

 

Hannah and chocolate

I had good intentions of writing a blog post, well a week ago, but just never got to it! 


I love to hold toys in my mouth like bear

Hannah is 13 months as of 1.5 weeks ago, and each month she seems to becoming a little more like a toddler. I just love the age that she is at right now. I am guessing that is just mostly due to her personality (I hope it doesn't change). I am so thankful that she doesn't have stranger anxiety, although I have to keep an eye on her. Today at the park she crawled up to a stranger and let the lady play with her for a bit, not caring a bit that I wasn't right by her.

clap clap clap

She still loves the outdoors, especially riding in the bike trailer. It is perfect really she can have toys, snacks, and enjoy the view. Plus, we get a great workout pulling the trailer. She also likes the stroller and backpack carrier- but she usually only lasts for about a 4 hour hike and then she has had enough. One funny thing about Hannah is that she doesn't love the feeling of grass. It always takes her about 15 minutes of being at the park before she will feel comfortable crawling around on the grass :)

She has really been improving at communication. She is fairly good at waving at the right time and she definitely has several "words"- which are actually different sounds that we have put together to mean things like bear, bye, yes, ect.


Another thing that I haven't mentioned for awhile is how blessed we have been by Hannah's love for sleep!! She still likes 2 naps a day and usually is 3-4 hours total if split up into two naps. Some days she only gets one nap and then it is usually 2-3 hours long. And on top of that she is a regular 11.5-13 hour at night sleeper!!  I am praying that if we have more children they take after her. We also have been having her fall asleep in her pack n play one night a week at the apartment that we have small group at. So far we can wake her up, travel home and she goes right back to sleep- we pray this stays this way as well!!


Some day I will be big like those kids up there

Besides talking about Hannah I thought I would share a picture of the assortment of chocolate bars in the supermarket..... It upholds the stereotype that Switzerland is full of chocolate!

 

Lake Constance Germany

Last weekend we enjoyed a long weekend in Uberlingen, Germany which is on Lake Constance. It was a great weekend and I love Germany! It just felt comfortable to be there!
We found a Ferienwohnung about 2km off the lake.  The apartment was so great as the bedroom and bathroom was upstairs. Thus, Hannah could sleep upstairs at 7:30 and we got to stay up and cook dinner and sit out on the balcony and enjoy the view. This is much better than trying to stay in a hotel room and sitting in the dark by 7:30. Also, we were able to take bear with us! He was a little stressed out to be in a small apartment, but overall I think he enjoyed it.
We spent our time exploring the cute little downtown, sipping coffee, eating cheaper food, and biking around the lake. One of the best parts of our bike ride was finding an apple farm with fresh apples and apple bread- it was amazing!

 Enjoy the pictures!

Happy after a coffee!

Daddy, I am ready for a bike ride!

Winery in the background

 

Lake view

Happy Girl!

 

I love playing in the apartment

 

Yummy apple bread