The "Fourth Trimester"

Some books will tell you that the first three months of your baby's life should have really been the "fourth trimester" of pregnancy, meaning the baby could have used that time to develop and mature more emotionally before making his or her arrival. Yet, our bodies decide (thankfully) that it would be less than enjoyable to house a baby for an entire year and hence they come before their "last trimester." As we finished this fourth trimester this past week I reflect and think that in some ways it makes sense. There may have been fewer sleep deprived nights and less crying for unknown reasons had I carried her another few months. However, we would have missed out on so much fun! She would have been born smiling, giggling, rolling over and doing so many other things that we have thoroughly enjoyed watching her conquer in just these first few months. I keep saying to Steve that she is already just like a "little person," to which he responds... "well she is." But what I really mean is I can't believe how much she can already interact with us and show us her personality. She has already come so far from that little baby that we met at the end of June!

Practicing her Thriller dance

What?! Already reading?!

Keeping us busy this third month Emma has conquered her hands and is constantly grasping for everything within reach. She hasn't yet found her feet, but I expect that to happen very soon. She also can now roll over from her back to her tummy and thoroughly enjoys doing so. Here she demonstrated it for me right when I asked, http://youtu.be/JMxZqJwqdN8 . She rarely puts the whole sequence together of back to tummy, tummy to back, of which I'm secretly a little happy about as I know that signifies the start of her moving outside of my control! However, she has already become a tummy sleeper now that she can flip over when we put her down on her back. Just one more trait she has inherited from her dad.

Grabbing everything within reach!

All tuckered out from playtime...

This past month Emma also started a music class! You might think she is a little young (and she is the youngest in her class by three months), but that doesn't mean she's too young to enjoy it. After only a few weeks it seems she already knows where she is as soon as she arrives, and she absolutely loves it. It is fun to see her so intrigued, smiling, and giggling during the singing, dancing, and playing we do in the class.

Showing some attitude with those sunglasses, she thought taking them on and off was the best game!

Another "achievement" of the past month is that Emma has become as "official" of a U.S. citizen and Swiss resident as possible. The logistics of being born in another country meant a lot of paperwork, appointments, and phone calls, but I'm happy to report that I think they are all done now (and especially happy that taking posed open eye photos with a newborn are over). Here is a look at everything Emma needed to become official:

• Swiss Birth Certificate (looks nothing like a U.S. birth certificate at 3 pages in length and printed in 5 different languages)
• Swiss Residency Permit Card
• U.S. Consular Report of Birth Abroad Certificate
• U.S. Passport
• U.S. Social Security Card

Emma's at home glamour shot photo... not her passport photo

And on a side note, for any of you out there that have expressed concern over some of the violence going on near U.S. embassies abroad, there is no need to worry about us. First, the embassy is actually in another city (Bern, which is the capital). Second, to get all of Emma's U.S. documentation we instead visited the U.S. consulate in Zurich, which I guess you could kind of consider a satellite office to the embassy that allowed us to not have to travel to another city. It was the most interesting of experiences as you think that a place like this would be in a big official building, but instead this was a tiny 2 or 3 room office in a rather plain building. The security officer was incredibly friendly and comical, while the people we had to present Emma's paperwork to were quite unfriendly almost to the point of being rude. Let's just say if I were a Swiss citizen visiting this office as my first impression of the United States government I would leave fairly unimpressed!

Now that she's official to travel anywhere she wants... practicing sitting next to other passengers!

Finally, I have done a lot of reflecting over the past couple of weeks as I realized that if we were still in St. Louis and had Emma I would have recently headed back to work. I am not entirely sure what I am in for as I take on the role of stay-at-home mom for the immediate future, but I know in many ways it will be incredibly fulfilling as I get to be here to watch Emma hit many new milestones as she grows and develops. I also know it will be challenging like nothing else and there will (and have already been) days where I think "I wish I were at work right now because it would certainly be easier than this!" Yet I am so excited for this experience and I know I will look back and treasure it and this special time in Emma's life that I got to be so close to her. Oh the adventures we will have!

3 months old...

... and unusually serious on photo day.

I wonder what Emma and monkey are watching?

Arms up! Caught in the act of playing with her toy!

We found one smile!

 

Fall is here!

Is it possible, can it really be fall already? I keep asking myself where the summer went. Oh yes, that's right we had a baby! Although I'm sad to see that the summer has already come and gone, I could not be more excited for the months ahead. We have a lot of traveling to do, visitors to entertain, and a trip back to the U.S. for the holidays! The weather has been absolutely gorgeous recently and I'm hoping it holds out like this for at least another month. But just in case it doesn't we took advantage of one of the first official days of fall this past weekend to head out on a beautiful hike.

To just get to the start of our hike we had to take a variety of forms of public transportation... a tram to a train to a bus and finally a ride on a boat! It was Emma's first boat ride, and an old steamboat at that! As a result I think about the only mode of transportation Emma has left to experience is an airplane ride (which will happen in another 1.5 months).

Dad & Emma getting ready for the boat ride

Emma catching a breeze on the boat

What a cool boat!

The Swiss William Tell Path was gorgeous as it wound us along Lake Lucerne, which I think is one of my favorite lakes in Switzerland surrounded by some of the smaller, but nonetheless extremely beautiful alps. The start was little tough with about a 500 meter incline, but it was mostly shaded and well worth the views at each look out point on the way up as they just kept getting more beautiful. The views over the lake, small lakeside towns, and the mountains surrounding reminded us of photos of the Norway fjords - we can't wait until our trip there next summer so we can compare first hand! The stunning views also provided us with surreal moments of "do we really live here?"

Taking a breather before more uphill

Views over a "Swiss fjord"

Best view, but someone didn't feel like smiling...

As we made our way back down from the heavenly views back to the lake we found ourselves in the town of Bauen that had a Mediterranean feel complete with palm trees and salamanders. I was very surprised to see this in central Switzerland as it felt more like the Italian border cities. I later found out that this town is unique in it's more humid and tropical climate as it is sits in a relatively sheltered position. We were also surprised to find ourselves at the end point of our hike in just over 3 hours. It is the first hike we have finished in the actual time marked for the trail despite an Emma encouraged 30 minute break! I guess we must be getting in better hiking shape or maybe it is also because it is one of the first trails that we haven't wandered off the marked path!

Dad & Emma enjoying a break

Not a Swiss hike without some cows...

Needless to say by the time we returned home (once again using our many forms of transit) we were sufficiently tired and content with our day's excursion. It was indeed a great way to start fall!

My favorite two people

Call me crazy

Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I rarely sit down and do just nothing (although I did relish in doing nothing a few times while I was pregnant), let alone one thing at a time - usually I'm multitasking. So sometime awhile ago I decided that it wouldn't be enough to just focus on my new job as a mom, but I wanted to also try to train for a marathon that would take place 4.5 months after Emma was born. I know it's not going to be easy and I have absolutely no time goals - I just want to finish and make my daughter proud (even though she'll have no idea what mom just did). I also have always wanted to run the original marathon course in Athens, Greece, so what if it just happens to be a few months after having a baby?

 

As I anticipated it might be, running has never been more difficult in my life than it is right now post-pregnancy, and I even ran up until about 33 weeks pregnant (although I could hardly call those runs). Aside from it being physically difficult, never before has more planning been involved to get me out the door, I have to:

1. Make sure Steve is home. I know that's pretty obvious, but surprisingly enough Emma isn't quite old enough to stay by herself yet (there's another whole story there as to how young the Swiss let children do things on their own). This has been more challenging than I expected as almost every week since mid-July he has been out of town for at least a few days for work. So with the exception of a day here or there where a friend will watch Emma for a few hours I have limited options of when I can work out. Yet in the not too distant future Emma will be strong enough to safely ride along in a jogging stroller. It will be great to have the convenience of being able to go almost anytime I want, except that means I also have to push her, which could be especially challenging considering number three below!
2. Make sure Emma has either been recently fed or has food ready for her or both. Easy enough, but adds a good 30 minutes to preparation time (which is not fun when you're trying to get out the door at 5 am).
3. Figure out where I am going to run that isn't going to be terribly difficult considering there are A LOT of hills where we live. Ok, well really there is just one big hill. Zurich is in a valley and we just happen to live on the side of the hill. You can only run flat for a short distance and then it's either up or down (which of course means eventually back up.)

A few weeks ago with all three of these factors looming, one of my first "long" runs on the training schedule, and recovering from a cold I was feeling rather unmotivated. So Steve devised a plan to help me get my run in. He found a trail that was a short train ride away and the trail was just a little shorter in distance than how far I needed to run that day, and we decided that I would run the entire thing while he walked with Emma. Then, since it was a couple miles short of how far I wanted to go I would turn around when I got to the end and run back to where he and Emma were at before finishing the hike with them. Although I still wasn't feeling particularly excited about it, before I knew it we had packed up a small backpack with Emma's "supplies" for the afternoon and we were out the door.

Towering trees

Overall it was a good idea and provided a "fun" run with new scenery. However it ended up being a slight bit more challenging than anticipated because the trail was not marked as clearly as it could have been. I have come to the conclusion that it must just be assumed that the Swiss always know where they are going on these trails because when there are about 10 different directional signs it can be more than a bit confusing, especially as sometimes it points multiple ways to get to the same end destination. Luckily we decided it was best that I also run with my phone and I ended up having to "radio" back to my walking partners several times to make sure I was making the correct turn and they would go that direction as well. There was only one time with a significantly wrong turn that helped me run about an extra mile or so. The whole time I pretty much felt like I was on a scavenger hunt trying to get to the next check-in spot and not get too far off course.

The trail took us through a beautiful forest area with amazing trees that I likened to a what the Redwood forests in California must look like. We also had some sweeping views over Lake Zurich towards the end of the path. Once again leaving me in amazement of what a beautiful country we live in.

On the way back to Lake Zurich

At the end of the day I was happy we had done it (even if there was a huge diaper blow-out at the last minute as we waited on the train platform). I was happy and thankful I have my husband to help motivate me to reach my goals and keep me on track (I think he's just happy he was the one walking). And I'm happy to report that since that weekend my motivation seems to be increasing and every run is getting "easier" than the one before.

My motivation!

Road trip to Piedmont

I can't remember the last time I said that - probably well over a year ago? Although we have been on plenty of trips via public transportation over the past year I can count the number of times I have been in a car since last December on one hand, and all of those have only been short distance within Zurich (crazily enough I have not driven a car since December!). Anyways, last weekend was not only the first road trip in a long time for Steve and myself, the first road trip for Emma, but also Emma's first time ever riding in a car! Yes, it is true that for the first 10.5 weeks of her life there was never a car ride. If we had not decided to rent a car for this trip she likely would have gone until late December when we return home for a visit to the states without riding in a car. However we decided last month that we needed a little weekend trip away considering it had been since the end of April that we had spent a full weekend (both of us) away from home. In the U.S. we probably woudn't have thought twice about not having been anywhere for awhile, but living here we start to get the itch to travel if we have not gone somewhere for a couple weeks. 



So our weekend destination of choice was the Piedmont region of northern Italy. According to google maps it was only supposed to be a 4.5 - 5 hour drive and the region is home to some of our favorite wines (sweet, white & sparkling). We also thought it would be fun to be in wine country during harvest time. As a result the fields were full of people as the families that own the vineyards enlist help from all of their family members to pick the grapes. In the biggest town of the region, Asti (hence the name Asti Spumante) there was also a wine competition going on with a tasting festival to celebrate the harvest. I found it quite funny that while half of the locals are out working from dawn until dusk in the fields to harvest the grapes, the other half of the locals are in town drinking and celebrating all day!

You can barely see it, but this tractor is practically overflowing with grapes!

To our surprise the drive down on Friday evening was better than expected (at least I had kept my expectations pretty low considering we had a small baby in tow on her first car ride). It started a little rough when we arrived at Hertz and they said they didn't have our reservation, but lucky for us they found another automatic car (most of the rentals are manual) which also happened to be brand new with leather interior. It was as we called it the "SUV of Europe," a Volkswagon station wagon.

Steve's trademark photo with the rental car

Happy so far!

Once we got going it went smoothly and there were none of the infamous long delays as went through the tunnels that fill the roads of southern Switzerland, there is even one that is nearly 12 miles long through the mountains! And we only missed one major exit, which landed us driving through downtown Milan, oops. However on the bright side Emma did pretty well. She preferred not to sleep and instead was entertained with the contraption she was sitting in, and by her mother's crazy antics to keep her entertained in the back seat while dad played chauffeur. She even took her bottle without question while sitting in the car seat. Finally we were amazed that somehow we managed to find our bed & breakfast, which was about a 20 minute drive from the highway. However the directions from the highway really didn't include road names because names or road numbers don't really exist, or as we found some roads are numbered with the same number even though they intersect one another! Instead our directions went something like this... "Take the second right off the roundabout, go straight thru the next roundabout, and then go left. At the next fork in the road go right." Maps are completely pointless here and GPS can even only help so much.

Despite it being almost 10 pm when we arrived we were warmly welcomed and quickly directed to our room without even asking for ID or a credit card. We did later come to find out there were only four rooms so I guess they assumed we were the Joneses and didn't just randomly find our way there.




Beautiful flowers at our B&B

Sign for our B&B along with amazing views

The next morning we were blown away by the beauty of the place we were staying, which was situated at the top of a large hill surrounded by sweeping views of vineyard after vineyard. Not only were the views fantastic, but the service was excellent, food was great, and it was a bargain! After a leisurely breakfast we took off to enjoy the countryside and hit a few wineries in the area. We quickly found out that wineries in this region are not like wineries in the U.S. with distinct signage, opening times and big tasting areas. Instead we found ourselves wondering several times as we drove past one whether or not it was even open to visitors. We know this is partially just due to the fact that these are truly small family businesses and are not geared towards tastings as much as they do in the U.S. Also because it was harvest time we think the majority of the families were out in the fields, leaving the front gate/door closed, and us wondering whether we should even see if anyone was around. Lucky for us we didn't mind just driving through these tiny villages and past the wineries as the countryside was beautiful. After trying several wineries that we couldn't find anyone at we finally had success and we picked the right one as that morning they had won an award for their Moscato D'Asti, which just happens to be our favorite wine! It wasn't hard to figure out why, we may or may not have bought more than a few bottles...

Saracco vineyards - the wine that inspired our trip, but we unfortunately didn't get to taste

Happy with our exploration of the countryside, a lunch of ice cream in a small town, and making it successfully to one winery we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the glorious weather and soaking in the views from the place we were staying. Steve even enjoyed the pool and we both enjoyed some of our bed & breakfast's own wine and fresh picked moscato grapes! Needless to say we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day that was topped off by a superb five-course dinner - a first for me! And for those of you wondering as I was what could really be included in a five-course dinner it included a cold appetizer (carpaccio), hot appetizer (cooked eggplant and pepper with various sauces), small bowl of pasta or risotto, main entree of chicken or rabbit with salad, and dessert (cheesecake). Not only was the food delicious, but we ate outside on a beautiful terrace with the B&B's family pets (2 dogs and a cat) keeping us company, and our sweet baby girl sound asleep in her stroller.

Mother & daughter taking in the views

Emma enjoying the pool...

Dad & daughter

Our afternoon snack on the patio

Sunday came too quickly as it meant we had to drive home, but not before exploring the town of Asti and the wine festival going on to celebrate the harvest. At the festival each of the small towns and villages of the region sold some of their best food and wine products. So we tasted a few more wines and found a good Italian lunch of extra large slices of pizza (and to our delight our entire meal cost less than one slice of pizza in Zurich would cost).

Harvest festival in Asti

Unfortunately our drive home was not quite as enjoyable as our drive there. We had made relatively good time on Friday, but our drive on Sunday came in closer to 8 hours as we hit terrible traffic at the entrance to the longest tunnel. To say the least, with a couple hours still left in the drive Emma had had enough. But we all survived and made it home and Steve did a great job driving considering he was driving in Italy and how little driving either of us has done in recent months. We also didn't get checked at the border coming into the country, which was probably good as we know we were over the limit on alcohol allowed to bring back in the country (but how could we resist as the bottles were dirt cheap direct from the wineries?).

All in all it was almost a perfect trip. The only thing that could have made it better? Making it longer!

Still trying to figure out this sign at the Italian tolls - does it mean that trucks and cars can go thru at the same time - the truck will just drive on top of the car and pay above it?

Traffic before the tunnel... at one point in time there were more people outside of their cars than inside!

Growing so (too) fast!

So surprised that she's already two months old!

I used to think it was the most overused cliche in the book, but I am quickly coming to the conclusion that it is all too true - kids do grow up too fast. It's difficult to believe Emma's two month birthday has come and gone and now she is 10 weeks old. Although the first month was fun finally having Emma here and a part of our daily lives it is hard not to say that the second month hasn't been more fun!

Emma might have had her first smile before she was one month old, but now in her second month she is full of smiles and giggles on a regular basis. We also saw her roll over for the first time (and then in the first 24 hours following her first time rolling from her stomach to her back she simply could not stop doing it!). Her personality is developing more everyday and there could be no greater blessing than to have such a happy and healthy little girl who almost every morning appears simply ecstatic to see you!

Until you can meet Emma there is no better way to show her personality than with a few photos and a video - so enjoy!

I love to laugh - especially right when I wake up in the morning

I can also be very serious when I listen to mom

 

I'm already making good friends!

So much stronger than a few weeks ago

I love getting dressed up and looking cute!



The cats seem to love my playmat just as much as I do

Mom thinks I look even cuter as a naked baby

Loving my monkey now that I'm two months old

So happy!

And here she is rolling over... there were plenty of videos to choose from and many in which she rolled over quicker, but this one is fun because you watch her think about it and get prepped to roll over before she actually does it! http://youtu.be/U39vn-ZLkbk

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