Laowai

The weeks are flying by – what have we been up to?

– Brian is away this week – he went to Zurich to start some of his work over there and to look for an apartment for us. He may have found a place – we’re keeping our fingers crossed. Here are couple photos. Hopefully I don’t jinx our chances by showing the photos. It has a great view of the lake, three bedrooms, a fireplace and it’s close to the train.

News Flash – I just got an email from Brian – he said we got the apartment. Of course we have to go over all the paper work and such but YES!!! It looks like we really do have a home in Switzerland.

– Bea and I went over to the Wonderland Express at The Chicago Botanic Garden again yesterday. There are a bunch of model trains in a wintery mini landscape with mini Chicago landmarks. There is one little train that looks like a ladybug and they have it set up so it pops out of a tunnel at regular intervals. They have the same ladybug train outside in the summer and Bea gets very excited about it. Well yesterday as we came around to the area with the ladybug train I was telling Bea to start looking for it and I noticed some of the “engineers”  down on their knees peering into the tunnel with a flashlight. Apparently the ladybug got stuck somehow in the tunnel. Bea was so engrossed – she wouldn’t move from that spot and she asked over and over “what happened to the ladybug train?” We never did get to see it, we just talked about it all the way home. She’s still bringing it up at random times today and I don’t expect it to stop any time soon. Here’s what the train looks like: 

– Suddenly Bea seems to have become a candy fiend. I guess it’s my fault – I just wanted to set a cup of candy canes out to look at. I guess I can’t do that anymore. If it’s in sight she can’t stop thinking about it. It also doesn’t help that there are so many holiday treats that are fun to introduce her to (starting with Halloween). Things like PEZ and decorated cookies. You should have seen Bea and Jenna shoveling the sprinkles into their mouths when we were decorating the cookies over the weekend. We had to watch them to make sure they weren’t putting their mouths on the shakers. Uhg. I think I need to set up some rules about treats… Maybe after the holidays.

– Baby number two is, according to my baby book, about 5 or 6 inches from crown to rump. Translation: my little bun in the oven is about 5 or 6 inches from the top of it’s soft head to the bottom of its cute little bum. I can feel it moving around now and then. I’m almost half way through my pregnancy and I feel much bigger this time around. My belly is just very willing to pop out. After next Tuesday, if all goes well, I can call it a her or a him. I can’t wait.

– Here’s a little craft that Bea made. I picked up these wooden shapes at Micheal’s for around fifty cents each. I love the free brush strokes that she makes with big globs of paint. It’s similar to the free way she waves her arms around. She’s not afraid to stick her arms up in the air at any time to show her excitement. I mean do you throw up your arms when you are at a restaurant and you find out they do have mac and cheese? I drilled holes, painted them with Modge Podge and put her name and the date on them. I know I’ll have these little trinkets of toddlerhood forever.