2 and a half

Dear Alex,

You turned two and a half just a few short weeks ago (okay, more like a month ago)! I’m trying to figure out where the time goes because I very clearly remember you turning two, but now you’re already half a year older. Let’s slow down just a bit, okay? You continue to surprise me each day with what you know, what you say, and everything you can do.

Two and a half is all about:

Having fun! You’re always up for an adventure!

Staring (esp. at older children)

Being independent stubborn. You insist on doing everything your own way, no matter how difficult.

Climbing to the highest point of every playground. You scare your mommy half to death, but you find every play area a challenge that must be conquered (side note: you usually wear more clothing while doing so, this was just one of those days where you got completely soaked in a water fountain).

Current Favorites:
Books– “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?.” You know it by heart! You love pointing at all the animals on the last page and calling each by name. We read this book every single day for an entire month. All other book suggestions got an offended response, “NO! Bear Book.”
Fruit– berries (raspberries), stawbies (strawberries), and apes (grapes).
Food – Pasta with red sauce and pizza = definitely an Italian at heart.
Activity – Playing outside. You love it so much that you dread coming back indoors. I either have to bribe you, or let you bring a piece of nature back inside (ex: a rock or pine cone).
Shoes – Rain boots on sunny days and sandals on rainy days.

More about you at this age:
-Around others you’re very shy, which is funny for me to see because I know how crazy you can be at home with us!
-You’ve been using the big potty consistently for the past month and a half! YIPEE! You still wear night time diapers, but you’re great about taking them off first thing in the morning.
-You love washing your hands.
-You have days where you speak to me only in a high pitched tone. I love those days 😉
-You combine English and Swiss German words, which makes us smile. (Schoggit = Chocolate + Schoggi)
-You also make German words into English words langsam (‘slowly’ in German) suddenly became ‘lump sum’. Please don’t take after your mommy and papa by going into the Accounting/Finance field. 😉
-You think it’s funny to call things by the wrong name, for example, calling a cat a dog, or saying something is green when it’s really yellow.
-You love getting a piggy back ride, but even more so when it’s called a “donkey ride”.
-When reading “There was an Old Lady that Swallowed a Fly,” you can’t wait to be tickled at the part where I read about the spider that “wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her”
-You’re still very fascinated by trains, both the real ones and your play ones. You proudly announce at the train station when a train is coming.
-When it comes to eating, you insist on having the same as mommy and papa, such as having Parmesan cheese sprinkled over your pasta.
-You always want to bring both a ball and skoosh (skooter) when we go outside. It becomes a juggling act for your mama when she has to carry everything home.
-You love balloons! Every time you see one you get so excited and just can’t wait to play with it.
-When you see a candle or cake, you immediately start singing “Happy Birthday” to whoever is near you.
-Your ask about Papa all throughout the day, even though you know he’s at work for ‘monies’
-You love singing! I love hearing songs you make up from every day words we use.

My sweet big boy, we’re so extremely proud of you for all of your advancements. On top of all those things, you have such a big heart and always smother us with many hugs and kisses. I live for those hugs and kisses. It’s so exciting to see how much you change month by month and watching your little personality bloom. We’re so happy to have you in our lives. Happy half birthday!

Love,
Mommy

P.S. I recently read this article about two and a half year olds. It seems to fit you to a “T”!

Mother’s Day

My boys were so sweet on Mother’s Day weekend. Saturday evening Claudio took me to one of my very favorite musicals, Grease, performed by a travelling troupe from Germany. They were absolutely fantastic! Sunday morning I was able to have one of my big wishes granted.. to sleep in (a whole extra hour and a half). It was pure bliss! Then I was treated to a delicious breakfast with fresh croissants, butter bread, strawberry jelly, cheese, fruit and mango juice. Claudio wrote me an adorable card and Alex colored me a picture, alongside a big bouquet of flowers and chocolates.

If you couldn’t tell, it’s a picture of “fish eating carrots” as Alex explained and was signed by my “Diaper-free, pasta and donkey loving fun son.”

I hope all moms reading this had a wonderful Mother’s Day! You all work so hard!

Paris Recommendations

I’m usually not one to give recommendations, but I thought I’d share a few things that really made our stay just that much more enjoyable while in Paris.

Hotel

The Louvre Rivoli Hotel Paris is a fantastic if you want to stay somewhere very reasonably priced, with friendly staff, modern rooms, and in close proximity to the Louvre (7 minutes walk). It’s right on the metro line and in a quiet location due to being on a little one-way street. We loved this hotel! Side note – I’d say skip the morning breakfast (it isn’t complimentary anyways) and head to a little cafe instead – there are tons just around the corner.

Metro App
It really helped to download an application, such as KEMTRO for the iPhone. It only costs $1 and doesn’t need an internet connection. It helped us tremendously to be able to see where the nearest Metro stations were and to know the connection we needed to ensure we were heading in the right direction. The Metro station itself can seem like a maze, and it can be extremely confusing while walking through a foreign city, so it’s great to have a bit of guidance without incurring any additional roaming fees.

Purchasing Tickets Online
Before heading to Paris, we purchased tickets for the Louvre. It eliminated standing in line completely, which saved us at least an hour. The Louvre website can be found here. The same would have held true for the Eiffel Tower, except one elevator wasn’t working during the time we were there, so tickets weren’t available to be purchased ahead of time (under normal circumstances it is entirely possible to purchase in advance). The website can be found here.

Restaurant

Le Salon des Vedettes serves the BEST food at the most reasonable prices esp. for being located right at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. I highly recommend ordering the salmon. This is one restaurant you cannot miss out on! As a side note, I’d say don’t spend too much time investigating which restaurants are the best to go to. We ended up finding a few great ones just by luck, including Le Salon des Vedettes. I recommend this one though since it’s very easy to find.

Those are just a few little tips that came in handy during our stay. I hope it helps someone at some point in time.

Paris!

Claudio and I visited Paris the last 5 days in April, while Alex stayed home with Oma and Opa (C’s parents). It rained every single day (except for the few hours we had of the last day), but we were fortunate to have a few beautiful breaks from the rain and regardless of the weather, the sights were simply breath-taking. I’ll break down our trip based on the days and hopefully won’t bombard you with too many pictures.

Day 1
We took the TGV train from Zurich’s main station to Paris (total travel time : 4 hours). We checked in at the hotel and were excited to explore the city. Since the hotel was situated within a few minutes walk from the Louvre, we headed there first. We walked through the gardens behind the Louvre (the Jardins des Tuileries) which were beautifully landscaped with many grassy areas, flowers, sculptures, and fountains.

I loved seeing children playing with sailboats in the fountains, which were guided by the wind and long sticks. The ducks didn’t seem to mind too much either.

The French are all about relaxing. Check out these laid-back chairs by the fountains!

After this moment, it started down pouring. Luckily we spotted a tour bus and were able to hop on to get a 90-minute overview of the city. By the time we were dropped off by the Seine River it had stopped raining and we walked to Notre Dame.

We came after hours, so it wasn’t open, but it was really something to stand next to this humongous cathedral and take in all of the Gothic architecture. We finished up the day by watching the sun set and by chance we walked through the Modern Art District (Centre Pompidou) and saw the Stravinsky Fountain.

The fountain is filled with sculptures made by Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely. Interesting fact: Niki de Saint Phalle also made L’Ange Protecteur – the angel hanging from the ceiling of Zurich’s train main station, which many use as their “meeting point”.

Day 2

We were off to see the Eiffel Tower first thing in the morning.

What a special feeling to be there! I kept thinking of those who stood there before me, esp. my grandmother (mom’s side) who visited Paris decades before and I never had the opportunity to meet.

One of the elevators wasn’t working, so the line to ascend the Eiffel Tower was very, very long. We opted for climbing the stairs, where we only had to wait 20 minutes.

We reached the first tier and were SO glad we took the stair route. Just look at that line (and that was only half of it!).

From the second tier

We walked to a restaurant on a docked boat where I had the most delicious piece of salmon with pesto sauce and spring onions (Claudio had the same and loved it too). My mouth is still watering just thinking of that meal! If you ever happen to be in Paris, visit this amazing restaurant. The prices are very reasonable, esp. for being located right at the foot of the Eiffel Tower!

With full stomachs we walked to the Palais de Chaillot, on the opposite side of the Eiffel Tower on the Seine. We took a few pictures and then took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers from the first World War

One of the avenues leading from the Arc de Triomphe is Champs-Élysées, coined as “the most beautiful avenue in the world” and is lined with trees, stores, restaurants, and hotels.

As expected for France, we saw many motorbikes (mopeds, vespas, etc.), but one of my favorites had 2 wheels in the front (in my opinion, a bit like training wheels). 🙂

We also saw many, many vendors selling crêpes. I couldn’t get over the size of the Nutella jars!

Walking from Champs-Élysées, we were looking for a metro station when we met up with an avenue full of embassies.

American Embassy

Flower shop on a street corner

We continued walking to the Galeries Lafayette (3 buildings in total), filled with high-end department stores on each of the 8 floors (7 above-ground and 1 below). We went in the main building called ‘Lafayette Coupole.’

Day 3

We spent the morning and early afternoon in the Louvre. There’s such a massive amount of incredible paintings and every square inch of every wall seemed to be covered. We managed to go through one wing, but would have needed much longer to go through all of it.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace

Mona Lisa

One painting I was very excited to see was “The Wedding Feast at Cana” (as it’s one of my very favorites from the Book of John) by the late-Renaissance painter, Paolo Veronese in the 16th century.

Day 4
We decided to see the two big churches this day, since it tied in nicely with Sunday mass. We went to Notre Dame for mass and it was one of the most beautiful masses I’ve attended. The choir, in combination with the organ was fantastic.

We took the Metro to Montmartre to visit The Sacré-Coeur Basilica (Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). We were so happy to have beautiful sunny weather there.

Everywhere we went, we seemed to have little reminders of Alex.

Interesting fact: The highest point of the Sacré-Coeur reaches even taller than the Eiffel Tower, due to being built on a hill. It literally towers over the city.

I had to laugh as I was going through these pictures and saw Claudio made my head fit exactly in line with the Basilica’s center arch

View looking out from the Sacré-Coeur

Below is Rue de Steinkerque, leading from the Basilicia. This avenue was lined with souvenir shops, cafes, and swarming with tourists.

Gourmet candy/cookie/pastry shop.

We took the Metro from this point to Centre Pompidou, where we had been before but didn’t realize where we were (haha). This is where the National Museum of Modern Art of France is (pictured below).

For the evening, we had dinner near the Eiffel Tower and were able to see it by night, which really creates a much different atmosphere as opposed to in daylight. At exactly 11 pm the Tower’s lights blinked on and off for about 5 minutes.

The Louvre at night

Day 5

Our last day we had a few hours to do a bit of shopping, and enjoy a few rays of sun outside, before heading back home on the train. Lucky for you, that’s the end of the pictures. 😉 We arrived back home in Zurich at around 7 pm and were excited to pick up Alex, who supposedly turned into a salad and asparagus eating, world-famous chef (from all the practice he had in the kitchen with Grandma) while we were gone.

We loved Paris!!

Swiss Traditions : Sechseläuten

Sechseläuten, a public holiday and traditional festival here in Zürich took place on April 16th this year. Sechseläuten means “ringing of the bells” and has origins dating back to the 19th century. The festival began in the afternoon with a parade of 26 (all male) guilds on horseback, marching, or playing instruments.* It was a cold and rainy day, but luckily that didn’t seem to stop people from coming out to celebrate and the guildsmen simply wore a poncho over top their traditional costumes. From what I’ve seen, many people go up to greet the guildsmen they know and hand them flowers, usually roses. When a chariot comes by, younger boys and girls on board throw candy and bread rolls to the audience. Alex was excited that I managed to catch a roll thrown our way.

Following the parade was the burning of the Böögg; a 10-ft high snowman, made of straw and cotton wool, and is a symbol of winter. The burning took place at Bellevue and was set on fire at exactly 6 pm. Legend has it that the length of time until the snowman’s head explodes is meant to predict what type of summer we’ll have (quite a difference from the U.S.’s version of Groundhog Day). This year it took the Böögg 12 minutes and 7 seconds, meaning that summer should be soon on its way.

After watching the snowman burn, Alex and I went up in the tall Ferris Wheel overlooking the city. Alex had no fear of how high up it went, instead he enjoyed laughing at me as I had trouble to even look over the side.

As much as the Swiss love to have a festival, nothing brings more joy to their hearts than cleaning up afterwards. Less than 1 hour after the event, several street sweepers were already busy tidying up. Swiss efficiency at it’s best I’d say!

*Side note: The women’s guild was not “allowed” to march alongside the male guilds this year, but had a separate parade before the main one. Last Sechseläuten marked the first year women marched in the same parade.  You would think that by the 21st century the mindset would have changed. Let’s hope next year proves otherwise!