I should be napping...

Although, I am eating lunch as I write this, so that's something that I need to do as well. Eating and sleeping rank pretty close together on the priority list when thinking about what to do with my "free" time. But I've missed blogging, so here I am!

Wow! So it's been over a month since I blogged last, but I think I get a pass. If you're reading this I'm assuming you're at least familiar with BK and me, so you know that the biggest thing yet in our lives happened…Baby K arrived! She graced us with her presence on Thursday, March 20 around 11 in the morning. She was a week early; thankfully she didn't come late like everyone kept guessing. All I could think when people said she would come late was, "Why do you want me to have to be pregnant longer than necessary." I guessed (and hoped) early.

Baby K's first picture

First family picture

Where to even start? I've often thought about various things to blog about, usually while washing what feels like the 20th bottle of the day. So here it goes, some highlights of our first month as a family of three:

• I've read that having a baby is like throwing a hand grenade into a marriage. It hasn't been that extreme for us, but I could see how it could happen. We're navigating our way through this parenthood thing and figuring out how it works for us.
• Baby K is a pretty easy baby, with the exception of when she's hungry. Let's just say the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.
• The boys have adjusted surprisingly well, and Baby K to them as well. They don't bark when she cries and she doesn't cry when they bark. The boys pretty much just follow us around and stick close when she's awake. We haven't made it back to three walks a day, but can usually manage to get at least two in.
• Thankfully, all of the parents have been cycling through since Baby K has been born; my mom was here first, then my dad and stepmom, and now BK's parents. It's nice to have them here regardless, but also to have the people with us who have 35(ish) years of experience.
• I know people say to ignore what needs to be done around the house and rest when she rests, but sometimes I/we just can't. BK and I don't function very well in a chaotic house, so at some point stuff has to be cleaned up…we're much happier this way.
• I know we've had a bad day if I haven't had a shower. When the first one happened and BK asked how my day was, I said, "If it tells you anything, I haven't had a shower and I can't remember if I have brushed my teeth." Not good. And yes, I know these days will happen.
• I've figured out that while pushing the stroller or having Baby K tied on to me, in Switzerland I can do no wrong.
• We do have Baby K on a schedule. I tried to just go with the flow and do what she needed whenever, but I just can't. I need structure (surprise, surprise) and with the schedule I can anticipate eating, sleeping, etc. I've learned to schedule the other things that I need to do throughout the day during nap times.

Ok, now it's a couple of hours later, and I do need to get in a quick nap before she wakes up again. I'll leave you with some of my favorite pictures from this month. I hope to be back soon on a regular basis!

Leaving the hospital…yes we walked there and home

Happy after eating

Fighting sleep in the evening 

Protector pups

Multitasking: baby, dog, FaceTime and champagne

Here comes Dad!

One month old!

P.S.- If you find typos or something doesn't make sense, I blame the baby brain.

Fasnacht 2014!

The festivities have started; specifically they started at 4am on Monday morning! Fasnacht is the Basel Carnival, held every year starting the Monday after Ash Wednesday. Most Swiss cities and towns have some sort of Carnival celebration, but Basel's is probably the most well known in the country. I've been really excited to see what all the hype was about, so here's a bit about what we've experienced so far.

Street before the lights go out at 4am

Fasnacht lasts exactly 72 hours- from 4am Monday morning until 4am Thursday morning. This year's theme is "Keep Clean," with a badge to wear that points to rubbish on the streets, but also to unclean activities, sharp practices and even abuse of power. Most lanterns, floats and costumes this year are some sort of play on local, national or world politics, with many of them poking fun at the US and EU as well.

Costumed participants

Morganstreich means "morning prank" and is when all of the participating groups go to their specified spots throughout the old town and start playing and marching at 4am on the dot. The city electric company turns off all the lights in the city at 4am as well, so all you can see are the lanterns and lit up floats being presented. Here's what it sounds like when everything starts:

Monday was a holiday in Basel, so BK had the day off. In the afternoon the first processionals started. The same groups from the morning follow a large ring around the old city, crossing a couple of the bridges. It seems like complete chaos, but the participants seem to know what they are doing and where they are supposed to go. You can't picture a parade in the US, because it's really nothing like that.

Poking fun at the Catholic Church and Swiss Guard

Dressed up as the NSA

The fun continued today, and you can pretty much constantly hear the tweet of piccolos and beat of drums throughout the city. We went to the lantern display tonight and tomorrow will probably go see another processional. The party doesn't stop until 4am Thursday morning!

Does this thing float?

Today was our last day with the trainer, and boy was it an exciting one! No, I didn't go into labor or anything, but we had some serious excitement out on the river.

First thing when the trainer got here, we headed out to the river to work with the stroller and do some recall work as well. To change things up we walked toward the city and stopped just after the nearest bridge. I "parked" the stroller so it was just out of the way so that we could work with the dogs without the stroller for a few minutes.

Next thing I know, the stroller is rolling down the embankment and into the river!

This wasn't today, but you get the idea

Luckily right now the river is really low, so the stroller caught on some rocks and stopped just after going into the water, and landed wheels down, so it didn't even get that wet. It also seems that it is very durable, since it survived and works just like it did before- virtually no harm done. I'm not sure what I would have done if I had to call BK and inform him that our stroller floated down river and now we needed to get a new one. Yikes!

The dogs were a little excited, and I felt really bad that the trainer had to get her foot wet to pull it out, but in the end all was okay. There aren't many people out on this cloudy day, but one guy did come up to us extremely concerned that there was in fact a baby in the stroller. The trainer reassured him that we were, thankfully, just practicing with the dogs.

I figure, let's look on the positive side. At least this happened before Baby K came along; no harm done to the stroller; and many lessons learned on dealing with the dogs and stroller…the main one being, don't forget to make sure the brake is on really good!

The pups are wiped out after all the excitement and continuing our training inside for the remainder of the hour. Let's hope for a day with a little less excitement tomorrow!