Random musings today

I can't decide if I think living abroad would be an introvert's worst nightmare or dream come true. For the record, I'm not an introvert, which is sort of why I pose the question. It seems like being an expat, and especially a trailing spouse, you have to be an extrovert. I've spent most of my day today networking and finding new groups to be a part of. It feels like I've spent my day saying, "Will you please be my friend?!?!"

I'm sure if you have a job or children in school, this might not be so hard, but when I'm at home with Baby K, I could seriously go all day and only have contact with her and BK. It just seems a little hermit-like to me. And I'm sure I'm overwhelming to BK some nights when I need to get all my words out for the day and they rain down on him. I have been told before that I don't need to take 40 minutes to explain something that happened in 10.

***

Related to this, part of the reason I've been doing this is so I know when things happen. I'm so not good at being spontaneous. So when I see a message come across that there is a meet up or something that I didn't know about, I have a hard time fitting it into my day because I hadn't really planned for it. Boring and somewhat inflexible, I know.

BK even unexpectedly left me the car one day last week, and I didn't really put it to use. When I get the car during the week I like to be prepared to go to the store and get bulky stuff, run to places that are not so convenient by train and other random stuff, but if I don't even know what might be on my list I struggle to get out of what I had planned in my head of how the day would go. Yes I know, it's a little ridiculous.

I have the car tomorrow, but don't worry I have both my grocery list and the list of other random stuff that I want to get done ready to go and have sort of mapped out how Baby K and my day will go.

***

French is not coming back to me quite as quickly as I had hoped, but I'm still excited to get to use it. I met with a French school today about enrolling in class, and as soon as I have Baby K situated I can get started.

I am very excited about getting back into language class. I'm also excited to speak English and French to Baby K as she starts to develop language skills. She will get it while she's in creche (nursery) as well, but I'm excited about the possibility of reading children's books and doing other activities with her in French.

And to think...everyone said taking French in Texas was useless! Little did they know!

A new set of wheels

Well, we took the plunge here in Switzerland and bought a car. It was no easy feat, with about a three month processing time after we ordered the car and all kinds of financial what-not involved, but we are now the proud owners of a new Volvo.

Now, if you know BK well, you may be thinking that never in a million years would you see him own a Volvo; it's just so sensible. I never thought I would see the day either. And plenty of the guys at work have given him such a hard time about this purchase.

But in the end, practicality outweighed everything else. Volvo has a special deal for expats, making purchasing a Volvo more attractive than other cars in Switzerland. Cars are very expensive here in general, so any break you can get is beneficial. The primary thing it's being used for is for BK to commute to work, so it needed to get good gas mileage and to be safe. Don't worry though, I think he added every possible feature available. He hasn't completely lost touch with his old self.

I kept the car last Friday so I could do some running around, including getting some bigger items that are not so easily handled with Baby K in tow, either in the stroller or being carried on me. BK was eager to hear what I thought about it and how it went. I really like the car, and it has all kinds of great features, but the best one for me is probably the parking sensors.

I say the parking sensors because parking is not my best skill in life. In my past two cars I never had a fender bender, but I did have some unfortunate run-ins with our garage. The bumpers nearly always had a black scrape on them from me coming and going out of the garage. In my defense, we did have a garage that had two separate doors, and since I had the smaller car I had to use the one that required a bit of a turn to get in.

Here's how our new car fits in the garage.

Okay, so it doesn't look like such a tight fit here, but I swear I feel like I have to hold my breath while I'm pulling in. I also told BK that the parking sensors don't really help in this situation because it's just one constant beep at me when I'm parking. He laughed at this and let me know that they did not do that when he was parking. Let's just say we apparently have different methods. I try my hardest to let BK drive as much as possible, and you better believe I won't be parking with him in the car. No one wins in that situation, trust me.

So we're off and running! It has been kind of fun to have a car on the weekends so that we can explore around the area and up and down the mountain. If you come visit us we might even come pick you up from the airport too.

Is winter on the way?

Just after I posted about the amazing weather last weekend, winter seems to have said hello to us. Yesterday is was cold and rainy. Today is was beautiful and sunny, but still cold, with a high around 50.

Yesterday Baby K, the dogs and I went out for a walk, but I apparently did not pay close enough attention to the weather. When we were nearly back home we got caught in out in the sleet! I totally did not expect that! Before that on our walk we wandered through Montreux old town, up and down windy cobblestone streets, just to see what we could find.

All bundled up!

Church on the way up

Old Town

Old Town

Blurry, but it's the only way I could get the sleet on Tobs

There is snow on the mountains now!

Baby K stays warm in her slippers

Today the sun was out again, but it was still cold. We did get out and enjoy the "fresh" weather and had lunch with BK at a local Tea Room. It was nice, but pretty chilly!

Not sure how she feels about the cold weather

It looks like the weekend will be sunny, but still on the cool side. I'm sure we'll be up and out exploring, but as always, home to watch Frog football!

A wonderful weekend

Fairly often I am taken aback at just how beautiful it is here. Basel had its highlights for sure, but waking up each morning to an amazing view of the French Alps is pretty awesome. This weekend BK, Baby K and I did a little bit more exploring around our area, specifically visiting Glion and Caux.

Our view...it never gets old

But first things first...my deal with BK for the weekend. After a hard day last week I asked him if we could try something this weekend. Our deal was that each of us had responsibility for Baby K until noon one weekend day; BK had her Saturday and I had her Sunday.

The person who did not have Baby K could do what ever they wanted with their time. Saturday morning was glorious for me! I really didn't do anything specific, but it was just nice to be able relax and do whatever. I mean, I laid in bed and read a magazine, enjoying our view- crazy.

BK did a much better job than I did, but I think that's in part because I will let Baby K fuss a little more than he will, so she may have disturbed him more than I heard her, whereas I didn't hear a peep on Saturday. Lesson learned for next time.

Ok, so onto the rest of the weekend. Saturday we got out and had lunch on the lake, then did some shopping. We ran into Baby K's nap time in the afternoon, so after she fell asleep in the car we decided we would just drive around for a bit so she could sleep. Glion and Caux are up the mountain from Montreux, and we always see signs by our house for them, so I suggested we see where they go.

They are both tiny villages; you hit Glion first, then Caux further up. They are not necessarily what you think of when you think 'mountain town', but just old Swiss mountain villages. It's not high season, so there were very few people around. When we made it up to Caux we got out and decided to look around a bit. It is well worth the drive up.

The weather was perfect all weekend- sunny and around 65. Sunday morning BK decided he wanted to get out and hike, so we decided we would try to getting up to Glion and Caux again, this time on foot. The hike was challenging; no rock climbing or anything, but having Baby K attached to you adds 15 pounds more resistance.

To get up you walk through part of Montreux old town, including over the stream above, which runs into the lake. It was a steep climb up, and we only made it to Glion, but we really enjoyed being outside and trying to figure out where we were supposed to go. 

We stopped at Hotel Victoria for us and Baby K to have lunch and enjoy the view. It was nearing nap time so we took the funicular down the mountain and walked about 20 minutes back to the house. It was a great workout, and again, so nice to just be outside and enjoy the perfect weather.

I'm not sure what next weekend holds; Frog football obviously, but it doesn't start for us until 9 or 10 at night, so we have all day to do stuff. I'm sure we'll be out and about trying to make the most of the area while the weather is still nice. I'll share as we do more exploring!

Baking, baking, baking!

I've been doing some baking in the past couple of weeks, and actually think I have sent some sort of treat with BK the past three weeks in a row. No occasion, typically just me baking one afternoon while Baby K naps, keeping a couple of whatever I made, and then sending the rest to work with BK.

The first couple of weeks I did some oldies, but goodies: chocolate chip cookies and cream cheese filled snicker doodles. They went over really well. Probably partially because they weren't expected by BK's new group. On top of that, I've never really met anyone he works with now, so they have no clue who is sending these treats, outside of BK's wife.

I was pleased that this is the response that I got though...

Thursday I set out to try something new: Better Chocolate Babkas. I think I wanted a challenge and to try something that was not my norm. I actually didn't even know what a babka was. It was just on a blog that I follow, looked interesting and challenging, so I thought I would give it a go.

Here's my finished product. Looks tasty right? It was.

Based on googling what is a chocolate babka, it is traditionally a Jewish dish, apparently with roots in Eastern Europe. I would describe it as a sweet bread with chocolate swirled throughout. It can turn out quite dry, but mine came out moist, with chocolate well distributed throughout. It's also best if eaten warm, so I told BK he needed to tell people to microwave it for best results.

It is quite a labor intensive process though, as in you need two days to complete this. Obviously not two full days of working, but you make the dough one day, let it rise over night, then carry on with the remainder of the recipe. I'm a firm believer that dough made from scratch is so much better that buying store-made dough and putting it into a recipe.

So here's how it went...

I tried mixing the dough with my hand mixer, but that didn't go so well.

So I ended up hand kneading the dough- an arm workout, but it turned out much better.

Then you let it rest overnight in the fridge so it can rise. The recipe I used makes two loaves; this is half of the dough.

Then you roll it out on a well-floured surface...also known as, make as big of a mess as possible in the kitchen.

Then you make your chocolate filling. It turns out like a paste that you spread on the dough. Nothing I make is low-fat, so don't be alarmed by the huge amount of butter.

Roll it up like a burrito, then stick it in the freezer for a few minutes.

Cut it in half and turn up so the chocolate insides are showing.

Then twist it together in the pan. This is easier said than done, but if you let the dough warm a little it's easier.

Bake for twenty-ish minutes, and voila, two days later you have your chocolate babka!

Yum; it was really good. I cut off about half of one loaf for us and sent the other one-and-a-half loaves with BK to work. Hopefully something new and interesting will come across in one of the blogs I read or on Pintrest this week and I'll try another new recipe.

For those of you who read my post the other day about trying to figure out what to do with myself, if you're wondering why I don't start baking as a job- that just takes the fun out of it. I would much rather it just be a labor of love and give stuff away, trying new things as I go and coming up with new favorites.

International travel with a little one

Our little stowaway

I've had a number of people ask about how the flight and time change were for Baby K, so I thought I'd share how everything went. Overall, I really could not have asked for anything better. I even traveled by myself back to Switzerland with Baby K and survived! I was relieved for this, seeing as I am traveling by myself with her for all of our trips back to the US from now on.

Like many other things involving Baby K, I read numerous blogs and advice about how to handle international travel with a little one. Despite going on numerous trips within Europe with Baby K, I was a little worried about a 10-hour flight and seven hour time difference.

Here are my big takeaways from our first international flight with her:

• If you can rent or borrow baby things at your destination, do it. We did not take a stroller, pack-and-play or carseat because we knew we would have these things to use in the US. It just makes it a little easier to get through check-in and security.
• Flying from east to west is harder than west to east because it's a daytime flight; people tend to have their window shades open and the lights may or may not be turned off. This makes nap time a little bit more difficult.
• Baby K is not used to being held for hours on end, so we had to figure out a way to let her wiggle a little bit. For us, the solution was making a pallet under the seat (in business class) and letting her roll and kick around (see above). She also ended up sleeping down there, as we could make it dark by hanging a blanket over the area. I think you can also ask for a Moses Basket as well.
• We always put her down for bed/nap time when she's awake, so the pallet worked well for that as well.
• We tried hard to essentially stick to her usual schedule that she knows of eat-play-sleep. We acted like it was Swiss time on the plane the whole way there so she knew how the "day" would go.
• When she was awake, we took turns holding her, so that we could both have a chance to eat and rest some. When I was by myself, I ate before getting on the plane so I didn't have to worry about how that was going to work.
• Traveling from the US to Europe was great! It is a nighttime flight, so I essentially did her nighttime routine, including giving her a baby wipe bath and changing her into her pajamas, fed her, then put her down on her pallet. No joke, she slept the entire flight; I had to wake her 30 minutes before we landed. This also gave me a little bit of time to snooze as well.
• If you can make the diaper bag your only carryon, that's ideal. We have a backpack as a diaper bag, so even when I was by myself, I had my hands free. I wore Baby K on the front and had her diaper bag on my back.
• Most importantly, relax! I know it's hard, but I've decided babies are like dogs, they can smell fear. If you're stressed and frantic, they will be too.

Now...on to dealing with the time change. This one was a little rougher than flying- probably because it lasted more than a month!

• When we arrived in the US, we immediately switched Baby K over to Texas time so she could start to get acclimated. We didn't plan anything the night we arrived, as I had no clue what state Baby K would be in. My family came over, but other than that, we were at home.
• Keeping in mind that it was the middle of the night for her (and us, but you kind of have to forget about that) she was really fussy when I woke her from a nap around 6pm (1am in Switzerland). We kept her awake and did bath and bed time as normal, then put her back down.
• I would suggest bringing a blanket and possibly a sheet with you from home so that things smell and feel a bit familiar, even if they aren't.
• Baby K never slept normally (for her) the entire month we were in the US. She's been sleeping from 7:30pm to 7:00am, without waking, since she was about 12 weeks old. This never happened for us in the US. She pretty much woke at least once per night the entire time we were there. 
• The first few nights, Baby K woke around 1am, 3am and 6am. In the middle of the night we gave her a little snack and put her back down, otherwise we just put her pacifier back in. Many people recommend going ahead and getting up to play with them when this happens, but I just couldn't. We typically kept it dark and put her right back down.
• People also typically recommend not planning anything big the first few days, but that just wasn't possible. Baby K was dedicated at church the Sunday after we got in, so it was full speed ahead pretty much from the time we got in. Besides...you're traveling, what's the fun in taking it easy??

And back to Switzerland...

• It took Baby K a full 14 days to get back to our time zone.. For those of you who are keeping track, that's six weeks of time change stuff.
• When we came back, we switched her back to this time zone immediately, just like when we arrived in Texas.
• For the next week or so, she would wake up a couple of times after we put her down for bed. She initially woke up around midnight or 1am, wanting to play. I got up with her the first few nights, typically staying up for 30 minutes to an hour, but then moved to just putting her pacifier back in and letting her roll around until she went back to sleep.
• She was pretty sleepy, and sometimes cranky, during the day when we first got back. As it was the middle of the night in the US, this was understandable. I think making her stay awake during the day made her sleep better at night and switch back fairly quickly.
• As the nights went on she woke up earlier and earlier, moving to 11pm, then 10pm, then around 8 or 8:30. Finally after about two weeks, she stopped waking up at all. Woohoo...back to normal!

Ok, so now you have my two cents on long-haul traveling with an infant. I'm sure things will change as she becomes more mobile, but hopefully starting her early will help in the long run. We are headed to Prague in a couple of weeks, but then back to the US for Christmas, which means two more long-haul flights for Baby K and me. Here's to hoping everything goes as well!

On a lighter note

On a lighter note from my post yesterday, thought I'd share what we've been up to these past couple of weeks. We have been watching Horned Frog football on the weekends, but the games don't come on until around 9pm our time, so we have plenty of time to do other stuff on the weekends!

A couple of weeks ago we went to this little wine place near Lausanne (Rivaz), Vinorama. It was a nice little spot to enjoy a picture-perfect Saturday.

People have been out on Lake Geneva enjoying the fall weather we're having. We woke up to this a couple of weeks ago.

We spent some time in Vevey as well, as they have a market on Saturday mornings. 

We also finally got a babysitter one Saturday night and enjoyed dinner and drinks out. We were watching the Frogs on the iPhone via Slingbox.

During the week Baby K and I are just making our way around, out and about doing stuff. Two times a week we go to 'Fit Mama' boot camp in Lausanne, held in Parc Milan. This past week it was rainy and cold. But, we did as the Swiss do, and abided by the saying, there is no bad weather, only bad clothing and worked out despite bad weather.

On off days we may run down by the lake.

We've worked a little bit on the garden as well. Baby K likes to be outside and help when possible.

Baby K and Tanner have also become best buds.

Last weekend we had some friends who just recently moved to Basel from Texas down to Montreux. We strolled around a bit, grilled hamburgers and watched college football. It was really fun to do something so familiar to all of us.

J&M have a daughter who is just over a year. She and Baby K got along great, squealing at each other quite a bit. I see much more hangout time for Baby M and Baby K in the future, including some travel, I'm sure!

So that's just a brief update, but now you're in the know about a little bit of what we've been up to. This weekend holds more college football in store and enjoying the great weather we've been having.

Hope you all have a great Friday and a happy weekend too!

What am I doing?

My loves!

I haven't blogged in a while, and I'm not quite sure why. We've been getting into a routine and making Montreux our home for a couple of weeks now. I think I keep saying we're working on getting settled because I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing. Not with the blog, not with Baby K, but more just with my life in general.

I'm a stay at home mom now. That is a little strange for me to write, and not something I thought would ever be part of who I am. These past couple of weeks have really been the first time that I've admitted this to myself and acknowledged this is what I'm doing right now in my life. Even now, when people ask me what I do, my response is usually that I'm a social worker. That may sound strange to some, but no other response has ever even crossed my mind. It's like I can't let that part of my identity go (nor do I plan to).

I'm struggling though. Even though I very much recognize we're so fortunate to be where we are right now, including me not working, I just don't think the not working part is for me.  I want to do something. And not that taking care of Baby K is not important work and doing something, but I think I need more.

Typically during the week I find myself trying to get into various social activities with other moms and expats in our area, just wanting to get out to meet and interact with other people in a similar situation. Those have been good, and I have met some new people, but most things are purely social. I've noticed this desire within myself to solve problems and make a difference somehow; maybe it's just the need I have to contribute to something bigger than myself, BK and Baby K. BK is becoming more and more relevant in his career and I know I also have a fear that I won't be relevant when we return to the US.

But of course, I'm assuming like most moms out there, I go back and forth. Do I really want someone else looking after Baby K so I can get a job or at least volunteer on a regular basis? What happens to the lifestyle we've led for the past year-and-a-half? Would we be able to travel as freely? Would Baby K and I still be able to go to the US for a month at a time, so we really have quality time there? Can I have it both ways?

I feel certain some of my frustration comes from feeling like I am hitting a wall getting answers about childcare and being able to volunteer my skills somewhere. People pretty much look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them that I want Baby K to be in creche two days a week. Not to mention that as a family unit with one parent not working, we fall to the very bottom of the priority list.

I'm not really sure how things will play out. BK and I have started the conversation about what we want things to look like, so hopefully we can figure out what works best for us as a family. It's the age old question of how to have time individually, as a couple and as a family too. How do you make it work?

Don't worry, I'm sure I'll share what's happening with us and how things are working out. Until the next time!