Sunday Run Day

Sundays are quiet days around here.  Very quiet, actually a little ghost-town quiet.  All stores are closed.  Some restaurants and gas stations are open.  No errands to the grocery store or any shopping, for that matter.  Even pharmacies are closed.  If you get sick on a Sunday, you have to drive to the airport to get medicine at the pharmacy there.  It has been strange to get used to, but at the same time, so refreshing.  Sunday mornings, we have been listening to sermons from Riverwest, our church in Oregon.  We miss the people and the church incredibly.  Then we usually go for a family run or a long walk at some point during the day.

There are great paved and gravel trails that go all over.  Nearly everyone walks and/or bikes on a regular basis.  Trails go through woods connecting towns and through farmland giving walking routes to people who live farther out of town.  It's beautiful countryside all around us.

On the south side of town here in Kloten, there are extensive trails that go through the woods.  There are benches and fire pits with cut firewood for free use to cook a picnic lunch (brats, anyone?).  Sunflowers grow wonderfully and fields are all over.  It's very picturesque.

On the north side of town, past the church, the school, and fields or corn, a trail goes uphill into the farmland.

These water fountains are all over the place.  Bryce said that they are fresh drinking water, so no need to pay for water in Switzerland.  I have yet to drink from them.  Maddie loves to cool off and splash the water on hot days.  Even yesterday, it was cool and overcast, and when we passed it, she was sure to say, "Hi Wawer! Bye Wawer!"  Most of these fountains have dates on them when they were constructed.

On most runs (which are around 30 minutes or so for me these days), Maddie almost always says, "Nannie run! Nannie run! Down, Mama!"  Then she runs for less than a minute and I put her back in the stroller.

Going out for a run or walk is a daily activity for us.  It's been good to get out of the apartment as much as possible, especially on nice days.  It's amazing what getting outside can do for everyone's mood.

But oddly enough, it's been cooler and overcast or raining about 3 days a week.  Those cooler days are even better for a run.  I love Fall weather, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to say goodbye to summer.

Tomorrow, August 1st, is Swiss National Day, which means today is Friday for Bryce!  We're trying to figure out what we want to do.  We were planning on going 2 hours to the Bernese Oberland area (Interlaken, Murren, Lauterbrunnen) for a long weekend to explore the Alps, but the weather forecast doesn't look great for that area, so we rescheduled.  Eat some Lindt chocolate or Emmental cheese tomorrow!

Carter: 3 months old!

I woke up today and all of a sudden, he was 3 months old!

[and because I missed the 1 month and 2 month updates, this post is quite long and full of photos!]

A few days old.

He napped in our bed a lot during the first month.

This was one of Madison's favorite toys when she was little.

1 month old here

Eating

The first 4 weeks were quite a blur, which seems to be the norm.  The first 6 weeks went by quite fast while Madison's felt slower.  I think the first 6 weeks with a new baby are probably the hardest.  Carter was eating every 1.5-3 hours.  Usually it was every 2 hours, 24 hours a day.  He has been a great eater from the start.  Breastfeeding has been great for both of us.  He had a great latch from day 1 in the hospital.  His feedings now take 10 minutes or less.  In the beginning, it would take around 25 minutes to feed and burp.

He has had horrible acid reflux.  Really bad.  For weeks, it was so bad that he was wheezing and coughing like it was stuck in his throat.  He would spit up even 2 hours after feeding.  But he was never super fussy.  After researching, all the symptoms lined up and around 7 weeks, I called the doctor in Oregon from the beach in North Carolina and had her call in a prescription for ranitidine.  It's been helping especially at night.  He still spits up a lot, but not nearly as bad as it was.  We are almost out of it so Im wondering if we should get more or see how it goes.

This little cutie is definitely putting on the pounds.  We haven't had an appointment since 6 weeks old, but he has some cute rolls on those chunky legs!

Sleeping

With all of our craziness moving, going to 2 different beaches for a week each with both families, then moving into temporary housing and soon into our permanent apartment, we haven't had him on any kind of schedule.  In fact, I barely even watch the clock anymore to see how long and when he is napping.  It's been more of a "motherly instinct" where I think, is he hungry, is his diaper clean, when did he last sleep?  I've been so much more laid back with him and it's been great for both of us.  Just the past couple weeks, I've noticed patterns.

Around 6 weeks, he started going for one longer first stretch at night.  It was 3 or 4 hours, then because 5, 6, now almost 7 hour stretches.   For a long time, we thought he didn't prefer to be swaddled.  he would sleep all stretched out.  Around 7 weeks, when we were at the beach with the Whiteds, he wasn't falling asleep as easily as usual.  Genius Uncle Brett swaddled him tight and made him sleep for a 6 hour stretch!!  From that day forward, we have swaddled him for naps and bedtime.

Now I put him down around 7:30pm when Madison goes down, then I wake him up to feed right before we go to bed around 9:30 or 10pm.  He wakes up around 2:30-3:30am to eat, then wakes up again at 6:30/7am.

He's been sleeping in the rock n play at night and for most naps either in our room or in the bathroom.  It's at a good angle so he's not flat on his back with bad reflux.

He usually takes 3 naps a day, morning, around noon, and late afternoon/evening.  The naps are anywhere from 20 minutes to 1.5 hours.  not usually longer than that.  I have somehow miraculously been able to get both him and Madison taking the noon nap at the same time which has given me a decent amount of sanity and free time to blog, wash dishes, or research things like how to say "baking soda" in German for my next grocery shopping expedition.

She likes to make sure he has enough blankies. 

The usual.

She is more excited than anyone for him to grow up so that he can be her playmate.

What's new

He is smiling and giggling all the time.  It is so easy to make him smile.  He is easily ticklish, on his neck especially, so we enjoy hearing that sweet giggle.  He is grasping toys and kicking a lot.  He really likes to be held up and use his leg muscles to (sort of) stand up on our laps.  His legs seem pretty strong.  I remember Maddie also enjoying that around 3-4 months old.

Even though he is 3 months old, he still seems so little.  However, he is definitely out of the newborn phase (which I am okay with).  He is the sweetest little guy.  Every day, we are saying "He is so sweet!" or "Aww look at that smile!" or "So cute!!"

He is FULL of smiles.  I mean, all we have to do is look at him, smile, and say "Hi Carter!" and he is beaming.

 Phone pictures!

It's fun to see the differences between the two little ones.  A look at Maddie at 3 months old, if you'd like to see.

Grocery shopping here

Living abroad, it seems that every little thing is a big accomplishment.  This includes a successful grocery shopping trip or baking a loaf of bread--and getting a decent meal on the table for dinner each night, which doesn't always happen, mind you.

The first few times I went grocery shopping, I felt like an idiot.  It took 4x as long to go, especially with 2 kids, one in the ergo and one in the umbrella stroller because our BOB double stroller doesn't fit through the tiny aisles.

I've taken on grocery shopping and meal planning as my new challenge.  I know it will continue to get easier, and it has already, but I still sit during nap time spending awhile researching translations such as "baking powder" versus "baking soda", flour, vegetable broth, canola oil, vinegar, etc.  You would be surprised at the time it takes to look at a recipe from the States, then try to translate each ingredient, go to the store, try to find said ingredients, then try to cook the recipe with no measuring cups.  Recipes here are measured differently in grams and too difficult to translate (i.e. the back of a muffin mix box in German).  Add into that the witching hour between 5pm and bedtime at 7:30pm when everyone seems grumpy and hungry and nearly intolerable.  We've gotten into a groove now, though, and things are getting much easier all around.

The last couple weeks, we've gone grocery shopping in Germany as an entire family (Daddy duty with the kids while I run around and grab things).  Mainly because we were driving around sight seeing.  Then I go every 2 or 3 days for restocking milk and produce.

Speaking of which, milk comes in 1 liter bottles.  Our fridge is small so we only buy 2 at a time usually and just replenish after a couple days.  Madison drinks quite a bit of milk and with eating cereal in the morning, it goes pretty quick.  Produce goes bad quickly because I think there are much less chemicals and preservatives on/in anything here.  It tastes wonderful but you have to plan wisely to use it all up before it goes bad especially since the price tag is higher, it makes you want to use up every last lettuce leaf because you paid for that leaf!

There are a few different stores that are common here.  I've been trying to check them out.  Migros, Coop, Aldi, and Lidl are a few that I've visited.  Aldi and Lidl are German discount stores.  It's crazy, but Aldi gives me a "home isn't so far away" feeling since they are found in the States.  But it's been 3 times now that I've grocery shopped in Germany.  There's still not a grocery store that I go to regularly and know well.  Don't take for granted going to the same grocery store every trip and knowing where to find the jelly (or anything for that matter)!

There are little things that I have yet to figure out, like sour cream versus cream cheese, versus creme fraiche.  I haven't baked anything yet, but that's my next feat.  I did make pizza crust which was a good first step.  Zucchini bread will be next.

Update: I made zucchini bread and it turned out well!

That's hand shredded zucchini, folks.  She looks disgusted.

Zimt=cinnamon. No vanilla extract, so I used a packet of vanille zucker (vanilla sugar).  Natron=baking soda which comes in 1 teaspoon packets.  Backpulver=baking powder which comes in large packets of maybe a couple tablespoons.

But I don't quite understand the flour yet because there are a bunch of different kinds and they have different "type" numbers which I don't get.  I need to research it.

They DO know how to make bread.  Even the small grocery stores have awesome fresh bread.  Croissants, pretzel rolls, artisan bread, and other baked treats.  It's fun to grab a couple goodies for dinner or breakfast the next day.

The Brot section.  (brot=bread)

I don't have time while in the grocery store to get out a smart phone and look it up because I have to avoid a toddler meltdown so I research before.  I'm telling you, there's a method and strategy to it all.  Parenting requires precise planning.  Speaking of which...

This is the entrance to Migros just a 2 minute walk from our apartment now.  Whoever decided to place this motorized car toy obviously didn't have toddlers who had meltdowns.  Every.  Single.  Time.  I have to use a cookie or the park to bribe her off of it...or just let her get very upset.

The tomatoes here have been delectable and garden fresh even from the grocery store.  The strawberries taste sweeter with more flavor than the ones I used to buy in the States.  I've read that groceries are much more seasonal.  You pay a pretty penny for out of season produce if you can even find it.  Even now, in the summer, strawberries in a small container-not a full pint- are around 6 CHF (almost $7 USD).  At the same time, some things are comparable in price considering the exchange rate.

One interesting thing was having to weigh your produce.  I made the common foreigner mistake of picking a bunch of bananas and then at check out, the cashier had to go back to the produce section, weigh them, the sticker prints out, and then you stick it to your bananas.  Most produce is like that, but some aren't, like lemons and cucumbers.  You can just take those to the check out and they know how much each one costs, regardless of size or weight.

When we went grocery shopping for the first time, it felt like everything cost money.  It cost to park in the parking lot at the grocery store.  It cost to use a cart.  If you don't want to use the super cheap, easily ripped plastic bags, you have to buy or bring your own reusable bags.

You put a franc in the black thing to get a cart.

Meat is pretty expensive, so we only eat it 2 or 3 times a week.  If you buy it in Germany, you can only bring back 1 kg per person over the border.  I don't think they check closely, but we did have to stop at the border and "claim" what we were bringing back in.  (Just get our receipt with a tax form stamped.  The grocery store gave us the form and stapled it to our receipt.)  They also have limits on tobacco and alcohol but that isn't so much a problem for us.

Someone asked me, "well what kind of meals are you making?"  I have been trying to make meals that are easy, quick, economic, with simple ingredients, and enough to have left overs for lunch the next day.  That's a lot of requirements but it's been kind of fun to think about and plan.  Bryce would say, "you call that fun?!" But for me, again, it just feels like a challenge and gives me confidence if I can figure it out and find some mainstays like we had in the States.  I've started with easy things but I'm trying to branch out and try more.

Some meals that I've made so far:  BLTs, stuffed peppers, a big salad, BBQ chicken breasts with a side salad, spaghetti, pizza, soft tacos, hamburgers, pasta with peas and bacon, and veggie stir fry.

[Stuffed peppers: mixture of white rice made with vegetable broth, can of diced tomatoes, pinto beans, salt, pepper, and chopped onion and red pepper.  All cooked and put into a red pepper and baked with gouda cheese on top.]

[BBQ chicken breasts: we found "Stubbs" BBQ sauce at the store!  I couldn't resist.  They actually love to barbecue and grill here.]

[Big salad: we have this once a week.  We love big salads.  Sometimes we get fancy and put things like a hard boiled egg, bacon, or feta on it.]

[Soft tacos: it's hard to find good Mexican food here.  I brought my own Mexican type spice mixture to make tacos and fajitas.  AND I found decently price flour tortillas.  All 3 of us were excited.  Maddie loves tortillas.]

[Hamburgers: It's harder to find actual hamburger buns.  I actually saw some today and we made the hamburgers last night with sandwich buns that were similar to hot dog buns.  Funny, but still American-ly delicious.  Also, I like the potatoes here.  They made some yummy fries, too.]

The beef from Germany is also tasty.  I have no clue if it's 80/20,  90/10, or what.

[Pasta with peas and bacon: Pasta is probably the cheapest base for a meal any where in the world.  I have been really into Jamie Oliver lately.  I found this recipe and it was so good!  Simple, good leftovers, and even a toddler approved.  I didn't have all the ingredients-no mint, no creme fraiche-but it was STILL good.  I'm sure it's even better with those things.]

[Veggie stir fry: White rice. Soy sauce.  Chopped carrots, onion, broccoli.]

Here are some pictures of products that look different here for your humor...

Mustard comes in a weird metal squirt thing that reminds me of a caulk gun from Home Depot.

The closest to Hidden Valley Ranch.  And it comes in a plastic water bottle.

Is it Miracle Whip or MiraCEL whip?

And our small 1 liter bottles of milk.

A small thing of flour.  Oh, and in case you were wondering, it's type 1050.

We found wheat sandwich bread!

Anyone have any go-to meals that meet our criteria?  Please let me know!  I'm getting braver by the day.