Laowai

No, that’s not what Bea said, that’s what I’m feeling. I guess this is what we get for moving out of the country. I’m missing my family – my mom, sister, grandma and aunts in particular. I have been going to a local mom and tots group for the past couple weeks and the moms are completely friendly and inclusive and lovely, but there’s nothing like hanging out with your own tribe. Nothing quite as comforting as sitting around eating food that mom made and going on and on about the minuita of my life while she listens. I’m not the most socially outgoing person so it’s hard for me to go out and be with a group of moms that speak Swiss German. As I said, they are really nice – most of them can speak English and I have talked to some really nice ladies. But of course they are mostlhy sitting around the table chatting away like moms do and it’s all in Swiss German – and I’m just gazing around smiling like an idiot. I have to give myself a pep talk each time I go. And I know I have to go because I must get Bea out and around some Swiss German speaking kids before she enters kindergarten a year from now. So I will keep going and try to not think about all the pleasant times that I used to spend with my mom and Jennifer – just chit-chatting and laughing the day away. 

I cannot wait ’till we go back to Michigan for a visit in August – I am counting the days and daydreaming about the things I’ll do. Things like spending time with family and eating a take-out chinese meal for less than $65.00.

 

Also… are you noticing a trend? Bea in a pink dress for several weeks. Bea in a blue and white polka dot dress for a few weeks. Then Bea in a bumble bee dress for a couple weeks. And now she’s in her pink and yellow dress that mommy made for her period. What’s next?

She started out watching the ducks and wading in her new favorite dress.

 

 

But the water felt so nice that she was soon swimming in her underwear.

 

I collected some striped stones.

 

I think we are starting to really love Lake Zurich.

This is not a very exciting video. It’s just our baby Claire lying on the table next to the Chinese takeout menu and the stapler. And she’s wearing a stained hand-me-down onesie. But I thought some of our baby-loving relatives would like to see her wiggles and coos. 

Enjoy.

It was over ninety degrees here this weekend. I have a drawer-full of long sleeve onsies that Bea wore. We are obviously not using them so I converted one into a sleeveless little number. I used the same bodice and bias tape straps as the Popover sundress that I made for Bea the other day. They take such an itty bitty of fabric – I want to go make six more right now.

 

 

 

Oh it’s my sleeping beauty. 

Apparently dashing around in the summer sun, butting heads with Mommy and running in the hose makes a girl tired. So tired that she falls asleep in a box right before dinner and doesn’t wake up ’til morning.

And those are bug bites on her arm. They are on the mend but the band aids that she wears at night are also hurting her tender skin. Looks worse than it is I promise.

 

I made another Popover Sundress from Oliver + S. This time I let her pick out the fabric. She completely surprised me by giving me a big hug as soon as she tried it on. Wow.

Or at least I want to have a badmeister t-shirt. We went to the strandbad (swimming park by the lake) last night and Brian and I both noticed the badmeister walking around in his badmeister t-shirt. He’s the bath master – or the guy in charge – like a lifeguard. We had to snicker, he even had a special room to go in and the door was labeled badmeister. 

The girls and I made a trek out to IKEA and picked up some popsicle makers. Bea poured the juice in all by herself and then proceeded to ask me about one hundred times if they were ready to eat yet. She was very proud when they were finally ready to eat. Drip, drip, drip…

 

 

Look who has transitioned to her crib. She had been hitting the sides of the bassinet with her arms and waking herself up. So now the sight of the bassinet in the corner of my room makes me sad every time I glance at it. Stop growing so fast baby! And yes, yes – she’s on her belly – don’t worry it’s just a nap and I was in the room with her listening to her little snorts the whole time.

 

The nectarines and peaches have been so good – I had to make stone fruit tea cake from this book. 

And here’s Claire fresh from her bath with some crazy hair. She’s saying hey I’m the babymeister and I’m just chillin’ here on Daddy’s shoulder.

We are drawn out to our patio in the evenings. Especially when we’ve had a hot sticky day, the cool, soft breeze is such a relief. And the sky – it’s always different – always beautiful. Last night it was white and orange to the north and the mountains we’re truly purple to our south. How lucky am I to be able to pace back and fourth waiting for my babe to fall asleep while watching this show.

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday USA!

Here she is – our two month old bundle of warmth, wiggle and sweetness.

I have lots of help when I take these calendar pictures. 

Seems like everything with the second baby happens in relation to the first child. 

The other night Brian came into the room and declared “I’ve subdued the baby”. Bea doesn’t know the word subdued but somehow she knows the word dude. So she started calling Claire Dude the Baby

Claire is getting much easier to handle in the last week or so. Her smiles are making us all happy. They are still infrequent enough to be like little gems in our day. I’ll often hear Bea exclaim “she’s smiling mommy!”

 

Claire has been spending lots of time concentrating on her fists and trying to move them to her mouth. She works so hard at it. The more she concentrates the more she tenses up and it gets harder to accomplish her goal. Then often she’ll end up bonking herself in the forhead and Mommy will laugh at her. Mean Mommy. She also bonks herself in the head with both fists every time she sneezes – ouch.

Here’s a comparison of my two girls at two months: