Baby K's favorite food

Our closet: one of the best places to find dust bunnies

I'm sorry to say that the vacuum cleaner and I have become much more well-acquainted than I would like in the past couple of weeks. Why is this? Because Baby K has decided she has a new favorite food: Dust Bunnies.

Yuck, I know. And yes, dust bunnies, as in what you're thinking. The little balls of dust/hair/dirt/general debris that collect in the corners of your house and under your furniture. They are also known as the things that recollect approximately two minutes after you've just finished vacuuming. Annoying, to say the least.

Anyway, I swear she can seek them out like nothing I've ever seen. And typically when she finds one, she holds it up in the light to make sure her dad and I can see it, then proceeds to head straight for the mouth. Again, I reiterate, yuck.

With an open-plan house, hardwood floors, and a long-haired dog, dust is not hard to come by. So vacuuming it is. BK was probably shocked this week when I vacuumed twice in about three days. Hopefully he noticed...

Gotta run now; it's time for Baby K's dinner. Hopefully she didn't fill up on dust bunnies while I was in school today.

They're plotting against me...

Baby K loves Tanner

I think the dog and the kid may be out to get me. Between Baby K and Tanner, I have yet to get a full night's sleep since we've been back from the US. It's like they discuss, then decide which one of them (if not both) is going to get up in the middle of the night. This does not bode well for me. Or BK, if I'm being completely honest. I'm not one who "loves to sleep", but I do appreciate a full seven to eight hours uninterrupted.

I've had numerous people tell me how lucky I am that she sleeps through the night, and did so very early on. Even when she was really little, her waking at night was never that bad, but I think because I was mentally prepared for it, I handled it better. Whereas now, all I want is a full night's sleep. One where no one wakes up until 6:30, when it's time to get up.

BK usually asks me why I think Baby K woke up. Ummm...I have no clue. Remnants of jet lag? Teething? Growth spurt? Your guess is probably as good as mine. I just know I need it to stop.

Tanner on the other hand, I know what his problem is. Just before we left to come to the US for Christmas, our little brown dog was diagnosed with diabetes. It's unfortunate in general, but the timing could not have been worse, as we were leaving him for a month. Ultimately, we came back and he had lost a lot of weight and his sugar/insulin levels are still not stable. All that said, he drinks a lot, then subsequently has to go outside a lot at night. One night last week he seriously got up about every 30 minutes. I was not such a nice person the next day.

After sleeping on the couch with Tanner for part of the night last night, I woke up and told BK that I was dreaming about us getting a hotel for the weekend. Romantic right? Nope, my dream was that he could stay there one night, and I could stay there one night, then each of us would get one full night of uninterrupted sleep. And yes, it has come to this.

But tonight's a new night, so here's to hoping it gets a little better!

Snowy Switzerland!

Today was really a great day. I'm including all of our pics from our time outside today, but we also had a really good day at home. Baby K slept through the night (although I can't say the same for the brown dog), the three of us had breakfast and lunch together at home, we napped when she napped, had some quiet time to read, and enjoyed the great, but cold, weather together.

Walking along the lake today

After Baby K got up from her afternoon nap we decided to get out and head up the mountain from our house. Our area got quite a bit of snow yesterday and last night, so the scenery has completely changed. Montreux is low enough that we haven't had any snow stick yet, but hopefully this week we will see some. Of course it won't be anything like Texas; life goes on and you just dress accordingly for the weather.

Headed up the mountain- about 5 minutes drive from our house

Here are some pics from today. Glion comes first and is about a five minute drive, and then comes Caux, a little higher up the mountain. It really feels like winter, and I can't get over how different this area is from Basel! I'm excited for the month's to come! We plan to ski soon, which will just be a day trip from home!

After walking around and playing in the snow, we headed inside to have a drink and warm up a bit. Baby K was curious about the snow, but didn't like it so much when her hands got cold. We forgot to take our sled up the mountain, but maybe next weekend we'll go back up and take Baby K sledding. And don't worry grandparents, we'll hold on to her tight!

The way back down was really pretty as well. I caught this one of the lake when we were between Glion and Montreux. Crossing my fingers for a beautiful white week!

Oh yeah, I forgot about the most ridiculous part of our day...when we left the house I put the key in my coat pocket. Then, when we got back home I couldn't find it. I'm assuming it is in the snow somewhere on the mountain about our house. I put my gloves in my coat pocket and I'm guessing it fell out getting my gloves/camera/phone in and out. Not the greatest way to end the day, but we were able to go to the babysitter's house and get the extra. I guess at least we didn't end up in a hotel...

All that said, still a great day. Hope you all have a great week!

Caught in the rain!

Ready to go!

I can tell that we've been in the US for almost a month because, I am so out of my ways of always being prepared when out and about here without a car. This morning Baby K, BK and I got our day started the way we like- by walking out with BK then heading off for a walk with the pups. Then we come back, have breakfast number two, and head out to wherever we have to go.

Today we headed to Lausanne for Fit Mama workout class. It was a bit cloudy in Montreux, but it didn't look too bad. Not even thinking, Baby K and I put our jackets on, got our stroller out of the garage, and got on the train. What did I leave home without that I always say I should have?? My sunglasses and my umbrella!

I know, seems strange that I would want both of those things, but it just seems like it doesn't typically stay either sunny or cloudy all day; things will change. This morning though, it was the umbrella that really got me, and I forgot to reattach my hood to my coat as well. Grrr...I felt so out of practice!

Obviously I'm not going to go back home because of this. Baby K was all snuggled up (and napping) in her stroller and covered by the rain shield, so I just tried to be quick walking to where I was going. At least I was going to workout, so it didn't really matter that my hair was all wet. And for the record, it cleared up and was sunny on our way home around noon.

On a completely different note, I've been excited about getting back to cooking this week. I cooked a few times in the US, but not much. Last night I made a great soup and salad: Smoky Lentil & Quinoa Soup and a salad with field greens, pears, walnuts, pomegranate seeds and feta cheese. The soup is super healthy and actually tastes similar to chili, but with a different texture. Kate even likes it!

Our lunch today

She had fun helping cook dinner last night too! And yes, I will come up with any excuse to post more pics of her :)

Such a happy girl!

Back in the swing of things

Well, we're sort of back in the swing of things around here. Baby K and I arrived back in Switzerland on Friday night to a very happy BK. Baby K and I are still fighting a bit of jet lag, but are working on recovering and will hopefully be fully back on our time zone in a few days. We also came home to a sick Tanner, so between her waking up at night and him needing to go out, sleep has been somewhat scarce.

My laundry "helper"

Baby K became more mobile while we were in Texas so now she's crawling all over the place, and BK and I have quickly realized that we need to do some serious baby proofing and find some gates that will work with all the open space in our house.

Our flights home went well and were fairly uneventful, which is what you want during a 10 hour flight with a 9-month old. She only slept about three or four hours, but was not fussy or anything the rest of the time, so that worked out well.

The whole sleeping-under-the-seat thing is done now. As soon as you put her down there she rolls right over and attempts to crawl off. The space does still work well to let her sit and play with toys though. On the positive side, her only getting three hours of sleep on the plane meant that she slept though the night the first night we were home. It was just a tease, but was still nice to get a night of uninterrupted sleep when first arriving home.

She was so worn out from the first flight and from playing in the London airport, that this is how she spent the London-Geneva flight, sprawled out on my lap:

I say we're getting back into the swing of things because we had a fairly uneventful weekend, including a date night on Saturday, and have pretty much gotten the month's worth of stuff we brought back put away. I went back to French class this morning while Baby K stayed with her babysitter.

Even though I'm sure it's not the case, this is how I felt in French class this morning, running on not so much sleep:

Have to run now...apparently Baby K didn't get the memo that I had things to get done while she napped, as she's up an hour early. I'll look on the positive side and hope that this means she'll be really tired tonight and sleep really well during the night. We can hope!

The real deal

Now that I'm rested and somewhat recovered, I'll share with you my actual New Year's resolution. In 2015, I'm going to try hard to let our life just happen a little bit more. I really like to have a plan and know how things are going to go in our life; this year I'm working on relaxing with all of that. I won't go as far as to say I'll be spontaneous all the time, but I should unclench a little bit.

I tell you this not because I think you've been waiting on the edge of your seat to hear what my resolution is or anything, but more to put it out there so that I'm more accountable now that people know it, and because I feel certain it will provide some humorous reflection throughout this year as I try to be a little bit less structured.

Of course, I started January 2 by asking BK what the plan was for the day, when he wanted to leave for the airport, what all we needed to do before he left, any last errands to run in the morning, and on and on. So let's just say it's a process. Every day is a new day, right?

Only one resolution today...

Today I can only think of one New Year's resolution. Next year, I resolve to join the thousands of other parents of toddlers and infants and NOT stay up until midnight. At this stage in my life it might just be a little overrated. I also resolve to not give BK a hard time when he doesn't want to stay up until midnight either.

Baby K was so pumped for 2015 she decided she wanted to get up at 1:30am and celebrate. She enjoyed this so much that she decided to keep her (and my) own personal party going until 3am, then go ahead and get up at 6:15am. Needless to say, I was not at my best this morning to start this new year.

I would much rather welcome in January 1 feeling good and with a full night's sleep, which also makes me a much more pleasant person to be around. This morning I was cranky, then I was frustrated on top of that because I was pissed that this was the way I was starting 2015. Just not what I had in mind for the beginning of the year!

I do actually have a real resolution, but I'll be back with that later. For now, I'm going to bed. For everyone's sake, lets hope that Baby K needs to sleep her wild night off by sleeping through the night tonight. Here's to a new day tomorrow!