Chase turns 1 year (and some more!)

Chase's first year can definitely be described as the quintessential "longest shortest time." On one hand, some days (and especially nights because he didn't sleep through the night until he was almost a year!) felt like they were ridiculously long but on the other hand, it went by so fast! Now at 15 months, he is becoming a little person with his own personality quirks, wants and needs, and favorites. He loves cleaning, stuffed animals (his dogs Bagel and Dog), organizing and lining up things, and is especially obsessed with the "wheels on the bus song." He loves eating (almost anything although he does go through phases), baths and water, nursing, climbing (especially stairs), and saying "Bye, Bye." He knows a few words in English (mostly animals and animals sounds) and French, and we can't wait for him to learn more! Although at the beginning, he seemed to favor Nate, for the last 6 months or so, he seems to be so severely attached to me that he doesn't let anyone else hold him when I'm around. I am hoping that it wears off sooner than later, but I'm trying to appreciate it while it lasts.

Although everybody who knows me, knows I love babies and children, I was surprised to find out that I was a terrible mother to an infant. I didn't really enjoy Chase for the first year or so of his life. He was not a bad baby but babies by definition are not very interactive and caring for them is tedious and exhausting. Now that he is a toddler and can walk, feed himself, even talk a little bit, I find parenthood much more exciting and less tedious. Still exhausting, but less pointless, I guess. We'll see how I feel when he hits the terrible 2s...

To commemorate Chase growing up and changing, here is a picture collage of his first 15 months: 

Chase shorts!

Since we were having a heat wave and Chase had no shorts, I finally broke out my sewing machine to sew him some shorts. Unfortunately, even though my machine was supposed to be rated for 220-240 V, the pedal was not. Therefore, I had to buy a new IKEA sewing machine here in Switzerland. But, after that little disaster aside, I got to make Chase some shorts. It was a bit hard to figure out the measurements because most of his other pants were stretchy so using them as a template was not ideal. In the end, with a bit of trial and error, I made him a few pairs.

Below, he is wearing one of them (you can see him wearing another while kicking a soccer ball around in this video posted to instagram). He also had the chicken pox so you can see a few spots! Thank goodness he got a very mild case of the chickenpox with no itching! 

Here in Switzerland, as in most of Europe, air conditioning is very rare. Therefore, when a heat wave hits (and this summer has been a constant heat wave), it's pretty uncomfortable. Our apartment has a balcony on either side of our building so we have a nice breeze that flows through. However, in lab and in the daycare, with no air conditioning, it can get quite miserable. We're in another heat wave for the next few days so hopefully it ends soon and the heat stays away for the rest of the summer!

Trips around Switzerland (Part II)!

This year, we expanded our Swiss travel to Gruyere, Basel, and Bern.

We went to Gruyere on Chase's 1st birthday! We had a great time -- touring both the cheese factory and the Caillier chocolate factory! We ended up having fondue in the middle of the little walking town itself, which was a fun way to end an intensely Swiss day. We ended up renting a car that weekend because my mom, dad, and brother were all here visiting to celebrate with Chase. With the rental car, getting to, around, and from Gruyere was fairly easy. You can also take the train there but it's a bit of a windy route so it takes much longer on the train. We will probably visit Gruyere again as we host visitors in the future. 

The second place we went to was Basel. We went during Ascension weekend but only stayed one night. It's pretty easy to get to -- only 2 hours on the train with one change. This was our first time venturing into German-speaking Switzerland and it was kind of a shock. We walked around the old city and then met up with Sarah and Jeroen and had a fun time having dinner and walking around the Rhine. The next day, we met up with them again and went to the Basel zoo. It was a great zoo and Chase had a wonderful time, especially with the fish, kangaroos, and flamingos! Even though this trip was only 5 weeks after the Paris trip, it was as if Chase was a new baby. He slept through the night in the hotel and he napped when he was tired in the afternoons. He even tolerated his stroller for significant chunks of time. Being 13 months really helped! Since he was already walking, he also could walk around the zoo and old town and that seemed to have helped him feeling more independent and being less frustrated with himself. All in all, we had a great time in Basel!

The last Swiss trip we went on in the last few months was to Bern. When Sonia was here visiting, she wanted to go to the Swiss capitol (full disclaimer: neither Nate nor I knew this was the Swiss capitol! Oops!). Sonia, Chase, and I decided to take a day trip there the Monday of Pentecost. The Swiss rail system has amazing deals for young people, specifically all day traveling for those under 16 for only 16 CHF as long as they're with an adult ticket holder.

Another place that we went twice in the last few months was Chillon Castle. It's right outside of Montreaux and a great castle to visit.

Paris

When we moved to Switzerland, we knew we wanted to check out the major cities within a few hours of here. Nate really wanted to travel to cities he knew about -- not tiny towns in the middle of nowhere. Fair enough. So our first trip just the three of us was to Paris.

We went for Easter weekend and spent 4 days/3 nights there. Lots of walking around, going to museums (we found the best benefit of having a small child: skipping the insane lines at the entrance of museums! Who knew? We even accidentally got in free to one of them. Oops.), eating at real restaurants -- something we have still have not done in Switzerland because the prices are outrageous, going to chipotle (yes, this is so American of us, but whatever), and even some shopping (prices are not only much cheaper than in Switzerland, but tourists don't pay tax!).

Chase did ok although he didn't sleep very well the first night which was really stressful. Two days before this trip, he slept through the night for the first time (at 11 months and 3 weeks -- of course!), so we finally experienced some glorious sleep only to have it taken away from us. He also hated being in his stroller so we spent a lot of time having him walk while holding our hands and of course that took forever. On the subject of strollers, Paris is the least handicap-accessible city I have ever been to. It's actually kind of surprising how hard it was to walk around with a stroller, especially when the metro was concerned!

Having Chase with us made it more stressful and much more slow, but we tempered expectations accordingly and were able to see everything on our pared-down list. In the end, Nate enjoyed the freedom to go and see how things turned out, rather than my usual intense all-day scheduling of sights and experiences. It's hard to to say if it was easier to travel when he was 9 months (Spain) -- he was less mobile so he was more able to stay in one place, but he wasn't eating or sleeping as well so that made it harder. Overall, I think it's getting easier as he's getting older, but maybe he's also learning to adapt better to traveling in general. 

South of Spain

For Christmas, we met my parents in the South of Spain and then tacked on a few days in Madrid. We stayed in a nice resort outside of Malaga (technically in Marbella) for a week and made day trips to Granada, Seville, and Tangier. It was so nice to be able to travel somewhere new (where they spoke Spanish and not French!) and we got to visit Africa! In Madrid, we stayed in the center, went to a few museums, got lots of tapas, and walked around the city. All in all, it was a really fun trip and Chase did pretty well with all of the traveling.

Accidental Hiatus

It has been almost 6 months since my last post! I don't even know how this happened!! After this post, I am posting 5 posts that are catch-ups from the last 6 months (some will show up before chronologically because I started them a while ago). I don't know how people blog weekly or even daily! It's hard work!