Euro 2008

The famous soccer tournament, Euro 2008 hosted by Switzerland & Austria was fun, but I'm sure glad it's over. I'm glad Spain won, even if the Southern half doesn't seem to care. Today I decided to drive up to Zurich to my German lesson thinking it wont be too crazy now that the tourney is over. Whoops. It was full of oversized trucks taking all the Fan Zone equipment, decorations and displays down. Tons of parking places were marked no parking from June 6th to June 30th. Why couldn't my lesson have been tomorrow? I was stuck in traffic and only made it to about 20 minutes of a 40 minute lesson. Nevertheless, the tourney was fun while it lasted.

There were people dressed up everywhere, horns honking after games and nightly fussbol game watching in our home. Romania had some of the craziest fans - they were covered from head to toe in their colors! Behind them was the Dutch. My friend Dianne sprayed her hair orange for one of the games. I really thought they'd be a contender but they were out in the quarter finals.







In the Zurich train station, there was a giant display of one soccer player from almost every Euro team in a huddle. It was cool to see. Italy was disgruntled they were not included! I wish I had gotten a picture of the Spanish guy since they won and all, but who saw that one coming?




We got Kelsey her own soccer ball (the final game ball) and she loves it! Maybe she'll grow up to be a soccer player like her daddy. Don't you dare try to take it from her!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TALLY!

On Wednesday we celebrated Tally's 27th birthday. He wouldn't let me do a party or even take him out to dinner. He said his ideal would be spending it at home with me and Kelsey. So, we grilled up some pork and wieners, cut up some watermelon, and had a nice dinner on the balcony.


We talked to friends and family and Tally opened his present from me and Kels - Rainbow sandals and gummy bears. We're going to Italy/Croatia next week so that will be BOTH of our birthday celebrations.

And as a side note, Tal keeps a few pairs of shoes at work and I guess he must have been in a hurry to come home because he left in the morning with the same shoes but came home with two different ones!
We love you and hope to celebrate many, MANY more birthdays with you!

Top Ten Reasons to Visit Us in Switzerland

1. You love us and want to see our baby, or just us. Either way we love you too.

2. Zuerich was voted The World's Best Places to Live, once again (thanks April for the link). Bern & Geneva are in the top ten as well and they both within a couple hours from us.


3. The Euro Cup 2008 will be over by the time you come, and trust me, that's a good thing. Tickets are too outrageous to buy and there are way too many crazily dressed fans all over the place. At night for about an hour after whichever game has just ended, we hear people honking down the street as they drive by. When we look, it's usually a car decorated in flags of some country.


4. We live by beautiful Lake Zurich with a view of the Alps.

And close still close enough to the city.


5. We have a few upcoming trips planned and we would love to spend them with you.
September - Prague, maybe Poland
December - Zermatt (Matterhorn)
Next Summer - Spain
We still need to plan France (Paris, Normandy, & Riviera), Austria (Vienna & Salzburg), Italy (Rome), Greece, and anywhere else cool.

6. Germany, Austria, France, Italy & Lichtenstein are all only a short train ride away.

7. You can frolic in the hills and pretend your name is Heidi. There's even a place we could take you called Heidiland. It's not touristy or anything. ;)


8. It would be a great place to practice your Swiss German. Oh they don't teach that in America? Don't worry, they don't teach it here either. It's a spoken language, not written. Oh well, you could try to practice your German, French, or Italian and if you're lucky, Spanish.


9. Health care is rated number one in the world. Not that you'll need it, but it's good to know just in case.


10. This may be our last full year in Switzerland. You never know where the road will take us next.

Dear Madison Miller,

Thank you for the Big & Little Nutbrown Hare you got me for Christmas. My mom detached them and little Nutbrown Hare is the perfect size for me to carry around. I just LOVE it! I love to swing it around, eat it, and give it kisses. It comforts me at night or nap time or even when I don't want mom to change my diaper. See how much fun we have together!?








My mom tells me you and Aunt Paisley are going to visit me soon, but she doesn't know when. Will you PLEASE come visit so we can play again? I miss you so much. Love you,

Kelsey

P.S. I miss you so much, it brings me to tears!

Kelsey is 9 months!

Could it be possible that she is another month closer to being a one-year-old? Tally called her a toddler on Sunday and I almost cried. Here are some things she's been up to this month.

PEEK A BOO, KOO-KOOS, WHERE'S KELSEY?

She loves playing this game now and can either do it with her hands or with a blanket.


BUNNY KISSES
Tal & I got this bunny piggy bank for Kelsey in Italy before she was born. Now, every morning when she wakes up (and even after naps) she spots her bunny, points to it and makes the "I want that" noise. We go over to the bunny and she gives it a kiss on the nose. I of course taught her to give it kisses but now she does it on her own. It's cute and I finally captured it on video.

SKILLS
Her vocabulary consists of "dada" "baba" "mama" "nana" and other babbles. She can also clap (which has been the case for a few months now, but now it's an open hand and with more purpose), play peek-a-boo (as of June 17th) where she covers her own eyes, feeds herself with her hands (very messily), and scoots/crawls. She scoots half on her butt, half stinkbug walking. Every time I try to put her on her hands and knees, she points her toe and goes to a sitting position. She's pretty set in her ways and she can get around quite well, just not from her room to the kitchen. She tried that today and stopped at her doorway and just cried for me. Too difficult I think. But when she adds a "mama" in that cry, my heart melts and I come running!

BUMPS & BRUISES
I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but she has THREE big bumps or bruises that she got in two days.


June 17-I put her on the bed and stood right next to it while I grabbed her burpcloth. Next thing I knew she was inches from the ground falling head first and my hands were on her chest and ankle. It happened so quickly - I was standing right in front of her! She is just so active and more mobile than ever before - even more so in the last few days.

Later that night we were watching one of the Euro 2008 games and Kelsey was roaming the living room. I had an eye on her, but she was holding onto a kitchen chair while I sat on the couch. She took one hand off the chair and faced out, then took her other hand off the chair and started to take a step, but her head was just too heavy. She came crashing down with a thud. She cried pretty hard and has a bruise on her cheek to show for it. I couldn't believe she tried to walk! This is what caused the bruise on her left cheek (see above).


PLAYTIME
There is this cool ship playground right next to the lake near our house. Everytime we walk/run past it, Kelsey stares up in awe at the other kids playing. One day, I decided to let her play on it and she loved it. She especially loved trying to eat the wood chips. Some of the older kids came up to her and played with her (talking in Swiss German). It was cute.



The expat ma-mas at Starbie's.

Here we are at story time. She loves when we read books to her at home, but I think there were too many distractions at the American Women's Club story time. Instead she resorted to one of her favorite pastimes - PULLING HAIR. She LOVES pulling hair. It's funny when she stands next to Tally's leg and pulls his leg hairs but it's NOT so funny when she pulls my hair - or worse - when she pulls other kids hair. Like on Wednesday morning when she pulled her friend Emily's hair so hard it left a bald spot! How do you discipline a baby? I told her no and she just gave me one of those gooey, toothless smiles and my heart melted. Which brings me to my next item.

She looks as though to ask, is it okay if I pull Emily's hair? She KNOWS it's not okay.


STILL NO TEETH. But enjoy that toothless grin while it lasts, she starting to get her bottom teeth! And I think they're coming in crooked...only time will tell.


ANIMALS
We have sheep by our house and we pass them on our walk to the train station. She's never really noticed them much until recently. Now she loves to watch them, pet them through the fence, and when they baa, she looks up at me and smiles. This sheep was eating the neighbor's plants through the fence and I thought it was kind of funny.




SLEEPING
She's becoming much more mobile, even in her sleep! Tally and I just have to laugh when we see how she falls asleep. We even go and get each other..."honey, come check out how she fell asleep tonight!" Speaking of night, she mostly sleep through the night (9p-6a, nurses and falls asleep until 7:30 or 8), but sometimes I get a 4am wake-up call. She never stays awake because I bring her into bed with me, nurse her, and we fall asleep.


Sometimes she falls asleep in daddy's arms while watching TV


EATING

She loves to eat! She's still mostly breastfeeding but she likes just about what ever we give her. Obviously we've given her too many chocolate chips as she seems to know what those are now. 






WATER BABY
She loves the water!