Nine months going on...

Love to show off those clapping skills!

I better take a deep breath now because just as I thought life got crazy when Emma was born I think (or rather know) we were only crossing a small threshold. The real fun is really just beginning. And by just beginning I mean oh boy I hope we can hold on and enjoy the ride as we watch this baby quickly turning into what already seems like a toddler. Emma turned nine months old last week and if I didn't know better I would say she is much older. This little baby girl is quickly becoming a fast moving, attention seeking, very smart girl that loves wreaking havoc around our house!

One of Emma's biggest accomplishments in the last month was starting to stand on her own. Although she can still only stand without any help for short amounts of time, her balance is quickly improving and so is my fear as I watch her confidence and her boldness grow as she decides what she is going to try next! She is constantly reaching, grabbing, and testing her abilities and strength. She might be small but she's strong and quickly gaining especially when it comes to pulling the cats' tails!

Still a little wobbly... but doing it all by herself!

So cute when she actually plays with the cats! 

And I shouldn't forget to mention that Emma is determined. If she wants to get into something she is going to figure it out... which has quickly led to pen caps taken off, chapsticks opened and perhaps my most feared - drawers opened. Oh let the games begin when I see the delight in her eyes as she realizes she can open the bottom drawer of mom and dad's dresser and take out all of the clean clothing. And even better the bottom drawer of the printer cabinet where all that extra printer paper is stored! Unfortunately, not so great is Ikea furniture. It seems that many of the items we bought have drawers that slide closed very quickly and easily which means pinched fingers may be a constant cause of tears in the coming months.

A few weeks ago Emma had a friend come visit for the weekend... here she is explaining who's boss.

Lennon looked very serious about the instructions he received.

And here he is helping to create mischief just as the boss directed him to do.

Someone got caught red-handed without a partner in crime!

And again... printer paper!

And yet again, at least she was attempting to plan a vacation for us!

But this was perhaps my favorite... yummy cat food!

Sometimes curiousity gets the best of her! Those darn cat tents!

While Emma's determination has led her to quickly achieve many things, it also seems correlated to a stubborness that leads her to voice her opinions loudly and with persistence. She currently detests having her diaper changed and anything else that requires her to remain laying on her back. She had a week or two where she was being very picky when it came to eating, but luckily we seem back on track. And her stroller riding seems to be about the same as it's always been. If you catch her at a good moment (usually when she's tired and about to drift off into one of her mega long 25 minute naps, which on a sidenote I thought a couple weeks back she was going to transition into two longer naps a day from her three short naps but now I am fearful that she is actually just transitioning into two short naps) she may actually ride contentedly in her stroller for 10 or 15 minutes before falling asleep. Otherwise, most days her stroller ride is a brief ride consisting of some mild whining before turning into a full fledged crying fit. On Emma's unlucky days where we are just walking the streets near our house with limited people passing by, I make her ride it out. On Emma's lucky days (which are most) we are in a busy area with many other people and so she wins and I take her out of the stroller and end up carrying a baby and pushing a stroller. At least it makes for a good shopping cart!

Dad only thinks he is charge playing games with Emma...

It appears the tables have been reversed as Emma stands patiently while dad brushes her hair and holds her stuffed animals!

Oh and so much for trying to get her to dress up and look cute!

Despite these moments that give me a glimpse of what life might be like a year from now when we have a full fledged toddler on our hands, most days we have a fun loving baby that loves to smile, wave, clap, and is just genuinely curious about discovering life and everything around her. It is so much fun to watch her try to problem solve and look under the furniture when she loses an item in an attempt to try to figure out how to get it back. Not so fun to watch her drop an item on purpose in the bathroom wastebasket and try to get it out (or just try to get into a trash can with dirty diapers).

What fun this little girl is!

And you certainly can't help but love to hear her laugh. And boy does she have a lot of different ways to laugh. From her full belly laugh when you tickle her chin to her laugh that is a cross between hyperventilating and panting like a dog. I'm still not sure where that one came from, but I blame Steve. Just listen...

Another cute laugh at the dinner table...

And my favorite the full belly laugh...

At the end of the day, how can you not love that face?

Winter Adventures

I know many of you are sick of winter and are just ready for nice weather, and don't get me wrong I'm right there too. However, I really enjoyed the time we had to get outside and enjoy the snow and colder temps this year too. I'm even looking forward to hopefully enjoying a little more time skiing and playing in the snow here. That's one of the best parts about living in Zurich is that within just a couple of hours you can be in the heart of the alps and enjoying the snow at any time of the year if you would like to!


Steve and I both had the opportunity to get out and go skiing a few times this winter and we were both lucky enough to enjoy at least one day with bright blue skies. Although skiing the alps is fun no matter what the weather, it is truly beautiful and often beyond words to describe what it's like to be high in the mountains on a picture perfect day. Here's a look at some of those amazing days spent in the Alpine air.

 

Unfortunately so far we haven't been able to go skiing together as one of us stays at home with Emma (she's not quite big enough to put on skis yet - but soon!). Instead we have taken advantage of several warmer weather days to get out and do some winter hiking as a family. Emma continues to be a pretty good hiking buddy as she enjoys taking in the scenery like we do. One hike was even right along some ski runs so Emma got to ride on her first chair lift!

The first hike of the season was near Mt Rigi. It wasn't as ideal of conditions as we had hoped so it got cut short, but even with overcast and snowy skies it was still quite scenic.

Palm trees in Switzerland, bet you didn't expect that one!

Waiting to take the gondola up with dad

Hiking with dad

Love all the untouched snow

We enjoyed beautiful weather in Lenzerheide as we hiked right along the ski slopes in a gorgeous valley of the Alps.

 

And we even got an opportunity to go for a hike closer to Zurich on a beautiful day while we had our friend's dog along for the way - he was a great companion for the day!

Look at that ski jump!

King of the hill!

Based on this video it looks like Lennon had just as good of a time as we did...

And all in all, I think it has been a pretty good winter in Switzerland!

Swiss Hockey!

We finally went to our first Zurich hockey game... a playoff game at that! I have more than once heard the Swiss say that their hockey is nearly as good as the NHL and the game atmosphere is great. I had a hard time agreeing that the caliber of play was as good as the NHL, but perhaps it was deceiving as the hockey rink here is bigger and maybe as a result it appeared to slow down the speed of play? Regardless, the fans where we sat seemed to be enjoying it to say the least. Listen to what we heard the entire game... I didn't know if I was at a hockey or a soccer game!

Up, down and all around!



Love from daddy in the morning

For Emma's eighth month we decided to stay in one place (meaning Zurich, Emma on the other hand never stays in one place for very long!). It was tough but we didn't go on any overnight trips... I think the last time I could say that was her first month! Part of that decision was just the time of year and Steve's work schedule, but it was also an attempt to give this little girl at least a little bit of normalcy and schedule to her life.

I am happy to say that at least when it comes to her nighttime sleeping habits it has helped quite a bit to be at home. Just before she turned eight months old we started some sleep training with her in order to get over several issues - jet lag from our return from the states, sleeping back in her crib after being sick and too much traveling led to wanting to sleep only with mom & dad, and waking up fewer times throughout the night (or at least waking up and wanting mom or dad fewer times). It took one very tough week at the start of the month that involved me sleeping on the floor of her room, but it has evolved into fewer night wakings and rarely needing to be fed in the middle of the night. Now if I could only say the same for naps... but hey if that was the case then this parenthood thing would be way too easy.



As soon as she's awake she's standing in her crib...



...realizing that mom & dad aren't going to come rock her back to sleep she gives up and
slowly slides down the crib rails into the squatting duck sleeping position.

Even after a lack of sleeping at night she's ready to read the morning paper!
Notice she chose the Sports Business Journal, not the Journal of Accountancy...



Practicing her basketball skills despite having some tired eyes!

Aside from battling sleep issues the last month has been a whole lot of fun watching Emma learn how to not only stand up, but more importantly sit down without falling back down! Perhaps not the best timing with the sleep training as everytime Emma would wake up at night she would immediately want to stand up too and not be able to get back down initially, which resulted in many falls and bruises on her forehead. But nonetheless after many attempts and a few weeks time Emma can now sit back down quite gracefully as well. Her confidence is soaring as she learns all these new things she can do (and mom's heart stops many days as she watches her learn and test out these these new skills).


So proud of herself!

Showing off how well she can stand and sit back down! 

As if standing up and sitting down wasn't a good enough "trick" to master by the time she was eight months old one of her other favorite new "tricks" is clapping, and she loves to do it when she does something she's proud of or if someone else around her does something that delights her. Clapping is frequent when one of her favorite toys comes out, her favorite book is read, and especially when the cats come out to play and she can grab a tail to pull! It is especially cute to watch her clap for other children that she plays with in her music class or the new Mommy & Me Yoga class we started this month.

Loves to clap for her favorite things! 

 

You should see the other kid! Just kidding.. the first of what I'm sure will be many boo boos from playing with other kids. Yes those are teeth marks compliments of an affectionate little boy in yoga class. She quickly forgot about it and continued to play with him, next time maybe she'll even clap for him too!

While it has been an exhausting month helping Emma learn to stand, sit, sleep and chase after her everywhere in between (especially as she recently switched to regular crawling and not just army crawling), it only continues to become more fun to watch, learn, and play alongside her. And there's nothing better than getting a big hug or hearing her say "mama." Even if I'm not 100% sure she knows what it means I think she is getting a whole lot closer to understanding!

Of course no monthly update would be complete without plenty of fun photos and videos...

Just turned eight months old and switched to the big kids crawl.



What a sweet valentine!



Someone can be a goofy eater sometimes...





Emma and Faith playing in the morning

Too cute!

It's hard not to smile when you get to play with her everyday.

Starting to understand that dad leaves every morning to go somewhere but he comes back at night (right here he's just around the corner putting his coat on) but Emma was clearly thinking, "Where did dad go?"

"Mom, do you know where he went?"

"I found him!"

Eight month photo session, but Emma's ready to go to the grocery store instead with her rewards card!
What do you think? Should I send it to the grocery store to use for advertising?

Eight months old and she's too cool to sit next to monkey

She already took her headband off... why not take the whole romper off?

Sitting for a few seconds next to monkey since she is happy she has her hairbrush -
someone loves to have her hair (or maybe just her head) brushed!

Two hands are for amateurs!

Enjoying a beautiful February afternoon!