Baking for Baby K

I'm excited to report that I have someone new to bake for...Baby K! I didn't really think about this possibility until recently when either my mom or sister asked me if I had teething biscuits for Baby K. Oh yeah, I forgot about those things.

This is my first time baking for Baby K, but it's not my first time cooking for her. I've been making her baby food since she started eating solids. I'm not opposed to feeding her store bought food, but I figure, I like to cook, so why wouldn't I cook for her? Not to mention that each packet of baby food is 1.95 CHF (about $2), and I can buy 2 pounds of fruit for 3.50 CHF; not much of a comparison there as far as cost goes. Every two weeks or so I spend a couple of hours making food and then we're set.

They were easy to make, and Baby K sat in the kitchen with me while we were baking. She wasn't always this excited about baking with me, but at least I caught a good one.

I used this recipe, which is made up of things she's had before (my main requirement). In addition to the other couple of ingredients, I used banana and avocado as my "pureed fruit". Doesn't sound too appetizing, but it works; they were easy to mash up and I didn't have to use another cooking utensil.

After I rolled my dough out, I was all excited to get to use my cookie cutters, as I don't typically make cookies that require a specific shape. I somehow overlooked the fact that all of my large cookie cutters seem to be in shapes that are related to dogs. So I have a dog bone, dog paw, dog house and a dog shape. All of the cute ones I have are miniature cookie cutters, which I did not want to use, as they would be too small for Baby K. For easy handing we went with the paw and bone. I apparently need to work on my collection of cookie cutters...

Regardless of what they look like, I think they were a complete success. They occupied her and stopped the fussing for quite a while. I think her favorite part of the biscuits was that she "got" to share with the dogs. Of course, the second I put her in their vicinity, they were all over that. They seem to think it looks like a dog treat as well. She was delighted to go ahead and give Toby the majority of the biscuit below. On the upside, at least he gently removes it from her hand, being gracious and all.

So when you see pictures of us out and about, and on our trip this weekend, don't be alarmed thinking she's eating a dog treat. Nope, just a teething biscuit that looks like a dog treat.

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.

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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.

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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.