2016 in Review

[Previous years in review: 2015, 2014, 2013]

2016 was a pretty crazy year, both in general and for us. Nate had crazy crazy work hours most of the year, which made life difficult for all of us, but we still managed to do a bit of traveling.

January - We started the year off in the US [San Diego for all of us; then for work: Boston for Nate and Houston for me later in the month]
early March - I went to Budapest
late March - We went to London
April - Chase and I went to Ukraine
July - We went to Interlaken & Bern with Nate's parents
August - Chase and I went to Ukraine again
November - We took a trip to Zermatt/Matterhorn
December - We are ending the year in the US [Nebraska for Christmas and San Diego for New Year's]

Just like last year, Chase saw all of his living great grandparents this year. He even saw his grandparents twice each -- once in the summer when our parents each visited and once during the holidays while we've been in the US. He saw all of his aunts and uncles, and actually a good percentage of all of his relatives. In terms of his country count, he got a +1 for Great Britain so he's currently at 3 continents (NA, Europe, Africa), 7 countries (USA, Switzerland, France, Spain, Morocco, Ukraine, and Great Britain), and 7 states (MA, CT, RI, NY, NE, CA, NV). Hopefully we can travel some more next year (maybe to Italy and/or Germany) to get those counts up a bit more.

In regard to Chase, I posted about him turning two and his development in the months since then.

For crafts, I made another book for Chase and knitted him a sweater. All of those sewing things I mentioned last year did not get done, but I have high hopes for the coming year. We also took some family photos again this year. I don't think we had any home improvements this year.

Next year, we hope to travel more and I hope to do some more crafts! Happy 2017.

I will leave you with an Instagram collage. Follow me on Instagram, or on Twitter if you don't have an Instagram.

Chase months 25-32

Since this post of Chase turning 2 years old, he has changed and developed a lot. His biggest leap has been in language. He now speaks very well both in English and French. He knows lots of vocabulary that we sometimes are surprised he knows (especially in English because all of his exposure is at home). He loves songs both in English and French and sings them to himself quite often. He can count from 1-14 and then gets a bit mixed up. He now really likes the colors red and pink; he likes to wear red shirts and asks for drinks only in pink cups. He enjoys playing with legos, usually building cleaning trucks. He actually enjoys vehicles of all types: police cars, taxis (he calls them taxi cars), ambulances, diggers (he calls them excavators), cement trucks, airplanes, and helicopters. He loves "reading" books -- his favorites are a french one about transportation, one called Dragons Love Tacos (thanks to Katie & Mike for sending that over!), and one about colors (thanks to Sakina & Aaron for getting that for him from the Museum d'Orsay). He loves his stuffed animals Bagel and Bear and likes to make up little stories for them. He always complains of bumps in his socks (as Nate used to do as a child) and is still resistant to some clothing. His eating is not great but he's still growing quite well.

Here are some pictures from the last few months:

On a merry-go-round near his daycare

Walking in my shoes and blowing kisses

Reading a book in bed

Chase's happy face

Trying out his balance bike

On another merry-go-round during August 1st (Swiss Independence Day) festivities

With his new big boy bike

Making a crane out of legos

Previous Chase growth posts: 2 years, months 15-20, 1 year +, first 3 months here and here. 

Sweater for Chase

I haven't had time to do too many crafts this year, but I really wanted to knit a sweater for Chase. I started in July so I was sure to get it done by winter. Thanks to Nate's mom, Amy, for bringing some yarn from the US when they visited. I searched Ravelry for patterns that I liked and found a simple one with a zigzag around the middle (free pattern: ravelry link and pdf [warning: There is a slight typo somewhere in the measurements but I don't remember where!]). It was mostly easy, but there were a few more complicated stitches that I had to use youtube to figure out. I adjusted the pattern by making some zigzags on the sleeves as well as the body.

Some progress pics:

Thankfully, Chase humored me enough to wear it on Christmas eve for the family gathering and to church:

As you can see, it's still quite large on him. I'm hoping he can wear it next year, too. He doesn't love wearing sweaters, especially ones that go over his head, so I'm not sure how much day-to-day use it will get. However, I am glad I was able to make it for him and that it turned out quite nice. 

(Annual) Summer Trip to the Ukraine

Previous trips to the Ukraine here and here (and mentioned here from before Chase).

This summer, Chase and I visited the Ukraine for about 10 days. We spent our time in the summer house eating good food, picking vegetables, and watering the garden.

My grandparents offered to babysit Chase for two days so my uncle, cousin, and I could take a trip to Lviv. I have never been to Lviv, so it was really cool for me to go and check out. We had a great time walking around and seeing all of the history. 

Before leaving, we took our yearly group photo. Look how much Chase has grown! 

Trips Around Switzerland (Part III)

Previous trips around Switzerland: Part I & Part II.

Throughout this summer and fall, we explored more of the sights that Switzerland has to offer.



On this map, I marked our home (black house; Morges), Nate and my workplaces (black) and our trips in the last 6 months or so:
- Brown: Arolla & hike up to see the glacier (Oksana's work retreat)
- Pink: Rochers-de-Naye & hiking around
- (No symbol): hanging out by Lake Geneva
- Purple: Interlaken, Thun, & Bern: trip with Nate's parents
- Orange: Huge hike up to Col de Milon from Zinal
- Red: Ascona & Italian side (Oksana's conference)
- Green: Zermatt & Matterhorn

We hiked up to the Arolla glacier from the town. I had to use an arrow above to actually show the glacier because most of it is melted and gone.

We took a scenic train from Montreux to Rochers-de-Naye and did a bit of walking around. Such beautiful weather and nice sights!

Throughout the summer, we visited the lake quite a lot, even swimming in the nicer beach area. The lake is about a 5-10 minute walk from our apartment, so it's quite convenient.

In July, Nate's parents paid us a visit, and we took the opportunity to do some traveling. On one day, we visited Interlaken, Thun, and Bern. It was interesting to see a different side of Switzerland (both in language and architecture). Interlaken was stunning -- the water was really that TEAL!

At the end of August, my friend Elsa and I took an ambitious hike in the Valais region of Switzerland, in the Swiss alps. We hiked up 1.3 km to 3 km above sea level at the highest point. It took us about 8 hours, but we saw beautiful sights and some animals along the way. 

In September, I had a conference in the Italian speaking region of Switzerland, specifically Ascona. To get there, it was faster to go through Italy than to take the train through Switzerland, so I stopped for lunch in Domodossola. It was so interesting to see how similar the Italian region was to Italy. 

Finally, in November, we took a trip to see the Matterhorn in person. We went to the tourist town of Zermatt, where Chase fell in love with the snow (we don't get much snow where we live since we're quite low in altitude and in a temperate climate). From Zermatt, we took the tram up to the Matterhorn, but it was -9 C so we only stayed for a few moments for some pictures before going back down again. It was a great trip. 

Overall, from all of these trips, I highly recommend Zermatt/Matterhorn and Interlaken. I think both were beautiful and worth seeing in person. The hikes were nice too, but not everyone is willing to do an 8-hour hike. Although it was a wonderful experience, some of the same views can be seen when you take a train up (like Rochers-de-Naye... although that place specifically is quite overpriced for the train). Our next step is to explore more of Switzerland to the east -- specifically Zurich. 

Family photos (again)

We had the opportunity to have some more family photos taken by a start-up photographer. Since the last ones were so much fun and turned out great, we were excited to do some more. We like how happy everyone was (especially Chase) and the bright colors everywhere. We wish the day was sunnier and clearer so we could have seen the mountains behind us and had some better light. Here are some of our favorites:

Chase's latest trip to the Ukraine

This spring, we decided to take a short trip to the Ukraine for my grandfather's birthday. My father was flying in from the US to celebrate, so it seemed like a nice time for a family gathering. My grandfather's birthday is just 6 days after Chase's so it also gave us a chance to celebrate the tail-end of Chase's birthday. We only had 4-5 days so we spent most of it in Kiev, but we did take a short trip to the summer house (last summer, we only went to the summer house while we were there). Chase did a great job of picking up Russian while we were there and even started saying a few things in Russian! He was a very good traveler and adapted well to all sorts of conditions. He was still a bit more clingy with me while other relatives were around but he really bonded with my grandfather (who he has seen 3 times now in person), which was nice to see.

We played in many playgrounds in Kiev (left was right before getting our haircut!). 

We spent two days and a night at the summer house (dacha) where Chase helped plant flowers and (of course) clean everything. 

Chase posing some more while at the dacha -- here feeding the fish and eating something. 

Back in Kiev, I had bought some bubble mix, which Chase grew obsessed with. He was surprisingly good at blowing bubbles himself!

Finally, we had a nice large dinner out for my grandfather's actual birthday. I was asking Chase something about his grandfather in the top pic, and on the bottom is the whole family that was there (4 generations!). 

Another homemade book for Chase

Since Chase loves letters, I wanted to make him another book. I bought these letter buttons while we were in the US and wanted to put them together into the alphabet and some words for him. I actually spent quite a while formatting it so that the alphabet would make sense color wise and that I had enough letters of each color to spell out some short but diverse words. A cute detail is that the front, which has Chase's name, has every color incorporated. Even further, the back which says "The End," somehow also has a letter of each color (this was not only a coincidence but quite surprising since there weren't many letters left when I decided to add that last bit to the book). To make it, I sewed all of the letters on black fabric (which I actually bought at IKEA). This took a surprisingly long time and was not easy since I had to make sure the spacing was ok multiple times. I, then, used the sewing machine to turn the sewn letter patches into pages. I stuffed each page with a black foam piece which was rather simple since the spine was left open. Finally, I sewed each page together at the spine using multi-colored thread. The back page actually has two foam pieces in it to make it a bit sturdier than the rest of the pages (especially because it has letters on both sides).

Chase is a big fan and especially likes the O, W, and S. It's a nice size to have in my purse at all time so Chase and I can look at it on the bus on our way to and from the daycare. The letters are a bit weird in that they are a mix of capital and lower-case letters, but I think that makes it even better because he can identify variations in the letters.

Chase at 2 years old!

Chase turned 2 years old on April 12th. Most of his interests are still the same as before, but now he's talking more and having more of a personality. He can identify quite a few letters (specifically O, M, S, and W being his favorites), count to 10 pretty well, and knows the words to many French and English songs. He has started speaking more French at home. His new obsession is chocolate and he asks for "chocolat" too often. He also likes to tell us when things are broken (casse) or dropped (tombe). He has some interesting misunderstandings -- such as "snowman" referring to accumulated snow of any type and "bathroom" referring to actually having a bath.

He is a pretty chill kid, usually sharing very well. He is very worried about others and likes to makes sure that everyone is taken care of. He loves play-doh and can play with it for hours. He can be good about playing on his own, but often wants mommy or daddy to play with him, which is quite exhausting for us. He has started this new thing where he gleefully runs away from us when we're in public (something my brother used to do at his age). He is a very good traveler, somehow napping instantly when getting on airplanes, and being able to nap in his stroller or even a car seat on the off chance we happen to be in a car. We transitioned him to a big boy bed around 22-23 months and he has enjoyed the freedom of being able to get out of bed and walk to the door of his room when he's awake. His sleep is still good (knock-on-wood), and he sometimes even ends up sleeping in until 9am! His eating is ok overall, but his weight could be higher and the variety that he wants to eat could be better.

Here are some pictures from the last few months:

Picture of Chase hanging at the daycare, in which I think he is so funny and adorable.

Chase trying to learn to play foosball while visiting the lab. 

Checking out the ducks, swans, and boats on one nice spring day. 

Wanting to bring his stuffed monkey to daycare one day. 

Finally, for his birthday, we gave him a scooter (called trotinette here). He loves that thing and is impressively good at riding/steering it!

Easter in London

This year for Easter we decided to explore another large city in Europe, so we set our sights on London. We had a great time there -- walking to see Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the London Eye; exploring the National Gallery and the Tower of London; having lots of great food (although we somehow completely failed at eating Indian food -- oops!); and enjoying being in a country where people spoke English! We even coincidentally met my aunt and uncle there and hung out with them and their friends for an evening.

In the end, while we did enjoy it, we have to say we were kind of disappointed with London. A lot of the main attractions were in a small-ish area so there wasn't as much to explore, the parks were not well kept, and the Tube was ridiculously dirty with a thick layer of dust everywhere. We had a much better impression of Paris when we went there last year, so that also clouded our judgement a bit. The weather was not great as it rained most of the time we were there (not shocking, I know). Interestingly, we found the prices on par or cheaper with Switzerland, so that was a nice surprise. It's definitely more expensive than the US and the pound is deceiving due to the exchange rate, but we spent less money than we were expecting to spend.

Some selfies in front of Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. 

Chase and Nate across the river from the London Eye; Chase and I at the bottom of Big Ben. 

Our hotel was in Leicaster Square, right next to a small China town-area (I totally got boba and some red bean paste sesame seed buns almost every night - so yummy!); Chase and I at the London Tower -- with the Tower Bridge to our left. 

We ran into Anton and Lyuba who were in London for business; Chase and their goddaughter, Shay, hanging out with some dogs in a pub.