33 weeks & 3 days and growing

Tis the season for boys.

My friend Jennifer just gave birth to twin boys (she was 10 weeks ahead of me), my friend Ashley is 10 weeks behind me, also expecting a baby boy. My friend Rachel would be delighted with either sex, but since she has two girls, a baby boy would fun. In my Swiss branch, there are at least 3 boys under one year (no girls). However in nursery right now, it is 5 girls against 1 boy. Thus, it depends on the year or "season."

I have a few friends back home who are due mid July - two named Ashley and both are also expecting baby boys (yes, three friends named Ashley, currently prego, all having boys). Is the Lord sending out his army?

Our little guy is still a boy, as noted below:

The arrow is pointing at the tip of the penis and the two testis are left of that.

Here's his darling little profile, well, you'll just have to imagine how darling it will be since you can't tell from the ultrasound. The "bubbles" is actually the umbilical cord and he was making a "kissy face" with his lips and opening his mouth.

At 33 weeks he weighs 2.25 kilos (5 lbs.) and is in the 80th percentile for height, weight & head size.

The baby is moving around a lot, especially at night. His head is down and his feet are up. Great news, except that I'm pretty sure my ribs are bruised. I love feeling those little feet move back and forth and watching my tummy distort with each poke. He's not as much of a kicker as Kelsey was, more of a "roller." I think he's already scared and curious about Kelsey because he really starts moving when she's around (especially when she hits my belly too hard or jumps on it/him). Poor guy is going to get both beat up and smothered by her when he comes out. See my friend Jennifer's post with Kelsey holding one of her twin babies. 

I have heartburn quite often, especially when I eat bread and chocolate (which we had Pain au Chocolat or chocolate filled croissants at least once a day in France this weekend). It's all in my throat though, not in my chest. 

I started getting Braxton Hicks contractions on our trip to Greece and now I have around 7 a day (normal). They make it hard to breathe and are very uncomfortable and it reminds me of the finale yet to come.

45 days or 1.5 months... July 12th will be here in no time and I can't wait to meet our little boy! We are still up in the air about names, so now is your chance to make a suggestion (comment or send me an email)! 

Beginning of May Happenings

Whenever I upload pics from my small camera, I am amazed by how much we have done and how much I DON'T blog about.

Kelsey loves going on walks and can now say, "I wanna walk."


I just bought her a used trike that is still a bit big for her, but she loves it. However, I have to bend over and push her most of the time. It is one of those sturdy metal ones so sometimes I push it and then stand on the back.
The Schwimmbad by our house just opened for the season and is newly renovated! It's great, except the lake is still pretty cold (17 degrees c). We went on a very uncrowded opening day. As I was walking away from buying ice cream, I saw a sign that said "glaces gratis," which means free ice cream. So I walked back to the counter and asked the guy about it. He then gave me three fruity ice cream cones...but with yummy cream in the middle. Kelsey thoroughly enjoyed hers until it melted away.

Running around, towards the outside shower
She is picking up quick and figured out what makes the water turn on. That was all she asked for after that. Then it was fun to watch her run through the middle with a face of shock as soon as the water hit her face! 
Laying out at the "beach." Kelsey didn't end up napping, but let us take a small nap while she played in her stroller. 

Giving daddy kisses


We had a play group at my friend Eva's house one day. She was brave enough to get out the paints and frames and let the kids to a craft. While the smart moms just undressed the kids down to their diapers, I used one of Tal's old GS shirts for Kels. Well, let's just say pink acrylic doesn't come out of navy blue and Tal claims he really likes(d) that shirt.  I swear he hasn't worn it in years. 
I took over Kelsey's frame so that I could actually hang it up in her room. She got bored of that real quick and started painting herself (and even tried to eat it once - yuck!)

I grabbed another frame and gave her the rest of my black paint from writing her name and let her at it. I'm so glad I did. While it may not be the most darling thing in the world (partly my fault: genes + black paint), she is so proud of it. Almost everyday, she picks it up and says mine and wants me to praise her for it. I'm glad my friends convinced me to take it home. Now to finding the right picture to put in it...
When I came in to get her from her nap, this is what I found.
My happy baby playing hide and go seek with her baby doll in her quilt my mom gave her. She's never played with it before - it just hangs on her crib so I was surprised to see her having so much fun with it. I pointed out the part that says her name and spelled it out for her. She repeated me and said, "Y, Y, Y..." We'll get the other letters soon enough. 
Daddy put my pajamas on backwards!

We celebrated my friend Jennifer's 25th birthday tonight. She just had twin boys a month ago, has a daughter Kelsey's age, and her husband just left on a business trip for several weeks. We've been able to take her daughter Emily for the day a couple times and Kelsey loves it. In fact, she asks for Emily (Emma-dee) at least twice a day now. 

The Twins

She's not smiling b/c she's not sure about the sling yet. Jennifer's friend made it for Emily and it matches her baby sling. Isn't that adorable!?
The Party Clowns
Still clowning around, "riding" the little wall
Now we're off to Paris, our last trip before the baby comes. Hopefully then I'll finally have time to post Greece and France! 

Project 16/52

It's Sunday night and I should be editing our photos from our trip to Greece, or even the photoshoot I did of this darling newborn baby girl - but instead I found myself editing a photos Tal and I took of Kelsey yesterday. It was a gorgeous day and I have been saving this dress until it fit Kels and I could find the perfect shoes, bow, and backdrop. Well, it's still a bit big and the bow doesn't quite match but I couldn't ask for a more beautiful backdrop. Although I might try to put her in it again if I find the perfect vintage/60's backdrop.

This photo is featured on a Zurich expat blog called xpatxchange.

Anyway, here's a few of me and my bab(ies) playing during our shoot. Kels and I have a lot of fun laughing and playing together so I'm grateful to Tal for taking these shots for me. 



PS...these photos look way better quality-wise in Aperture than they do on the blog (like usual) so if anyone has some tips for me, leave a comment! 

Project 15/52

Our friend Rob's girlfriend Desiree came to town with her cousin, so we had to show them our favorite sites. We went to Zurich, Lucern, and then Rapperswil for dinner. The girls were fun to hang out with, very helpful with Kelsey, and very grateful - they paid for our dinner and more. They took a pic of Kels and I at the Lion Monument in Lucern. Kelsey is giving me a big kiss.

Lover's Weekend in Nice, France

First off, I'd like to dedicate the song at the top of my playlist to my hubby. He's my "Tally-HO!"

Tally and I finally took a VACATION, not a TRIP. Let me explain the distinction - A trip is with kids, a vacation is WITHOUT kids. Or KID in our case. Of course the kid in utero came with but he's pretty easy going at this point. We drove down to the French Riviera over Europe's "labor day" weekend. The GPS said it would be 5.5 hours, but with all the crazy Italians out there also going to the beach, it took us 8 hours on the way there. At least we didn't have to worry about having Kelsey in the car all that way. And despite the traffic, it was well worth making the trip. We've been doing a lot of sight-seeing since moving here and it was great to just relax and not have an agenda.

We stopped in Monaco on the way to Nice. We had to pull over before driving in to get a pic of this view.

An unobstructed view of Monaco

Tal in front of the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco. We went in, but no gambling.

More views of Monaco

View of Nice from our hotel, Le Meridian. It was nice and best of all, it was right across from the beach.

On Friday night, we took the advice of our hotel receptionist and took the train down two stops to Villafranche. We LOVED this quaint and beautiful little town which is set in a small cove. The strip was lined with nice restaurants and you could look out at all the yachts parked in the marina.

Plus, there was this cool lighthouse across the bay.

More Sights of Nice

We walked up to Le Chateau that overlooks Nice. It used to be a castle but now it just has a big waterfall.

A kiss at sunset, looking at the waterfall

Looking from the waterfall out over Nice at sunset.

Me and my pregnant self

For dinner on Saturday night, we made reservations at the Grand Balcon. Le Petite Mansion was booked and we were a bit bummed about that. However, we really liked the food at Grand Balcon and the atmosphere was cushy elegant with Renaissance self-portrait paintings on the walls. I wish we had gotten a picture of our food! This was after we finished off the shrimp-avacado appetizer.

The Market

The rocky beach. This part wasn't very crowded at all. That was the great thing about going in May. That's Tal's shadow and I kinda like the look.

The UPs and DOWNs of DRIVING

On the way home, there was so much traffic that we went up through Torino and then over to Milan. However, this "shortcut" took us through the mountains (beautiful, and cool towns along the way) and added 2 hours to the trip. We think that actually saved us time b/c we would have sat in more traffic. It was much better to be continually driving instead of sitting watching tail lights.

Can you believe this is considered a TOILET!? For the most part, I'd say Europe has toilets much like you'd find when driving across the states (some even better, but you may have to pay a bit). That's why I was floored when we pulled up to a relatively nice gas station and I walked into the bathroom stall and saw this:

Do you know how hard it is to squat when you're 7 months pregnant, have stiff legs from being in the car, and can't see over your huge belly? And to top it off, I was wearing sandals. Yummy.

Once we headed North again for a few hours, we sat in traffic at the Gotthard tunnel for 3 hours (great Swiss engineering - It's the 3rd longest tunnel in the world. There's a light at the beginning of the 16km tunnel and it only allows a certain amount of cars in at a time. There's only one lane going each way and it is the only way from the Northern canton of Uri to the Southern canton of Ticino.). Once we got through, there was no more traffic and the scenery was too gorgeous for words. I love this time of year in Switzerland. We didn't get home until 11pm and Jenna was great to keep Kelsey for another night.

It was our first time leaving Kelsey, and she did great. My friend Jenna and her husband and two girls took great care of her. They are like her 2nd family now. She was still glad to see me when I picked her up on Monday morning.

Here are some pictures of Kelsey's weekend. The Todds took her with them to Konstanz, Flower Island to meet up with the Perry fam. Looks like they had a lot of fun!

Breakfast with Mia

Chocolate Fondue - made with avacados!

Popsicle treat

A Kiss for Baby Eden

Playing with Elisa

Down the slide with the girls

Fun on the boat

Can't take her eyes off Eden

Kels with the beautiful flowers

So curious - what a cool boat ride

Mmm...ice cream

Jarrod quickly became Kelsey's favorite

For more photos, click here.