3 Days 'till Christmas...

...really? Wow. I just got the stuffers for Sofia's Advent Calendar (it gets more and more fun to find little things to put into the little boxes with each year she grows up) and now there are only 3 left! I am pleased to say, that I've completed my Christmas shopping today and am ready to wrap everything. All the overseas packages have been shipped and so have the ones for our closer relatives (I hope the Jam and Chutney made it to Connecticut in one piece, Betty?), the tree has been chopped down and decorated and the Christmas cards have been written and finally sent out. Phew!
I vividly remember Sofia decorating our tree last year. We were potty training her at that time, and have a picture of her sitting on her potty in front of the tree, decorating it! This year she was equally involved if not more. She didn't want me to see that she was starting to decorate, even though I told her to wait, because we hadn't put up the lights yet. This is what she did to me, so that I couldn't "see" what she was up to:



She actually taped the thing onto my forehead!
I literally had to fight to be able to put a couple of ornaments (or ordaments, as she calls it). She has become quite the decorator, she loves helping me and I let her to some extent. She's also become quite skilled in her cutting and wrapping and has helped me with all our presents going to Switzerland. It's so much fun getting her involved. Like for example, my mommy group had another cookie decorating extravaganza and all of the kids were super involved in decorating this year. What a difference from last year, where it was rather chaotic! Here are some pictures of that event:




Her "blinged-out" gingerbread man!


I love our baking tradition and our dear friend Karen, even though she was three days away from giving birth, hosted it again this year and provided us with a mountain of already baked cookies that were screaming for some frosting and sugar sprinkles! She even made us dinner that night! Seriously woman, you were on such a baby high that night! How else could you pull something like that off, hugely pregnant! You rock and we love, love, love you!!

Santa Claus also came to Sofia's Preschool and she was utterly surprised by that event. I hadn't told her in advance and so when he showed up, she was so excited! She was the first to go up and tell him what she wanted from him for Christmas and I bet you, the poor guy had no idea what she was talking about, haha. She told him she wanted a "moving cat". This is what she meant by that.
It's creepy. It moves, and purrs, and miaows, and blinks at you...I, er Santa, got it for her and now I pray she won't have nightmares because of that! Anyway, she mentioned it so much that I felt I had better got her one! We'll see how she'll do with it, I guess? Haha.

Aaanyway, so Christmas is coming and there is no denying it anymore. I'm going to miss my family back home, as always especially this time a year, but we'll probably do a web chat with my mom on Christmas day, which is always nice.

And of course, the year is coming to an end and I think both Joe and I are glad this time. We've had a rough year, financially and emotionally. He got laid off from Ebay in July and I shortly after miscarried at 6.5 weeks. Luckily, he found another job very quickly. As for me, I'm still emotionally suffering a little over that lost pregnancy, especially since we've been trying for about 1.5 years now. It's not something I've been talking about with everyone, and I thought that maybe writing it down would be some sort of therapy for me. Thank you for listening.

So, as this year comes to an end, we will hug and kiss our daughter just a little bit more, because we're reminded once again that she truly IS a gift to us!

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Samichlaus 101

We went to this year's Samichlaus again and it was a blast, mostly because Sofia is so much more into it this year, she even sat on Santa's lap with no fear whatsoever! They brought in "snow" so that the kids could play, mostly snowball fights.




This essay that was published in our Peninsula Swiss Club Newsletter by a man named Roger Bonner and it captures our "Saint Nicholas" tradition so well, I just had to put it in here to share. Enjoy:

Fröhliche Buon Bellas Noël!
By Roger Bonner

Christmas in Switzerland must be a paradise for children because there are so many different ways of celebrating this festival. In Catholic areas the season begins on 6th December, St. Nicholas Day. Now Samichlaus, San Nicolao or Père Noël, as he is variously known throughout the country, is not the obese, materialistic hohohooooing Santa Claus of North America who can barely make it down the chimney, but a lean, bearded bishop-like figure who comes round with a donkey and a fearful companion dressed in a dark cloak and hood called Schmutzli, also known as Knecht Ruprecht in Germany.“Have you been good boys and girls?” is the grim question and, if not, Schmutzli could in the past haul them off in a huge sack or even dispense corporeal punishment with his bundle of twigs. Usually the kiddies have tried hard to behave in the past few days and will receive cookies, tangerines, nuts, and, perhaps, even a chocolate cell phone.

Very important is the Adventkranz, a decorated evergreen wreath with four candles that families place on the dining room table. The first candle is lit on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. The ceremony is sometimes accompanied with the singing of carols, and more eating of sweets - to be repeated on three more Sundays! Little children love Advent calendars, glittery posters traditionally depicting the Nativity, with angels and shepherds in the background. There are 24 tiny doors concealing Christmas pictures that they can open each December day, the last and largest being on Christmas Eve. And again each time they are rewarded with sweets.


During the season the land is overcome with a veritable baking mania. Housewives (and increasingly househusbands) break into a cookie fever to produce tons and tons of Weihnachtsguetzli with such lilting names as Brunsli, Mailänderli, Zimtsternli and Anisbrötli. They give them to friends and relatives who in turn present them with their own confections. The left-over glut of sweets may last well into February and be secretly fed to pigeons, a reason why so many of them have difficulty becoming airborne in the New Year. All of these elaborate preparations culminate in Christmas Eve.

The tree, not yet the giant, overloaded variety of North America, is decorated and lit with real candles and even sparklers, which keeps the firefighters in the country very tense. Children are not allowed to see what’s going on behind closed doors until their parents reveal the splendour and gifts to them. In many parts of Switzerland it is Christkindli, the Christ Child, and not Santa Claus, who brings the gifts, which are opened on Christmas Eve. The meal on Christmas Eve is usually kept simple: salmon on toast, cold cuts and pâtés are favourites. On Christmas day you hardly ever see a turkey or goose with all the trimmings. A Schüfeli is the fare, a rolled ham. In many households eating a cheese fondue or fondue bourguignonne, in which pieces of meat are dipped in hot oil or broth, have become increasingly popular, and then guess what’s for desert? Cookies!

French-speaking Switzerland, except for Fribourg, is predominantly Protestant and therefore Christmas is lower key. December 6 is hardly noticed. Père Noël climbs through the window on Christmas Eve to leave presents for good little boys and girls (if this were a condition for grown-ups no one would ever get anything!). In some families, he makes a personal appearance to hand out the gifts, but first the kids have to sing and dance and recite poems. As a reminder to be good throughout the following year, Father Christmas might conspicuously leave a bundle of twigs within easy reach.

Across the St. Gotthard and San Bernardino Passes lies the beautiful canton of Ticino. Here the spirit of Italy prevails. Although most families put up a Christmas tree, the Nativity, or presepio, is greatly cherished. Little stables made of twigs or wood are put under the tree. Family members go out to gather moss for lining the
manger. Then they place figurines of the Madonna, Giuseppe and angels, along with sheep, mules and oxen, in the presepio. The Gesú Bambino, the Baby Jesus, is lovingly added at midnight of Christmas Eve. The children in Ticino receive their presents on Christmas Day, and many believe it is the Gesú Bambino who has left them.
Some may even put out a bowl of milk for him before going to bed on Christmas Eve as an incentive to bring plenty, something which the cats love. The Ticinese enjoy their traditional meal of polenta with brazatto, a braised beef dish, or risotto on the afternoon of Christmas Day.

For sheer beauty and variety of landscape nothing beats the canton of Graubünden, where Romansch, an ancient Latin tongue, is mainly spoken. The mountains above the small town of Maienfeld are the home of Heidi, the classic tale which has delighted children the world over for more than a hundred years. As in the Ticino, most of the families of Graubünden decorate their homes with both a Christmas tree and a nativity scene called a purseppen. However, Christmas traditions can vary from place to place. In Catholic towns, St. Nicholas comes dressed as a bishop. In Protestant towns he is called Sontgaclau and he assumes the terrifying role of Schmutzli elsewhere. Children often receive their presents from Christkindli on Christmas Day. For the Christmas meal, each family prepares its own traditional menu, featuring ham or Bündnerfleish – air-dried beef cut in paper-thin slices.

However the customs may vary in Switzerland, a good Christmas spirit and joy of life is common to them all. And where else in the world can I you wish a Merry Christmas in four different languages?

Fröhliche Weihnachten, Joyeux Noël, Buon Natale, Bellas Festas!

A pretty stinky mess (...and I'm not even talking about Sofia)

About three weeks ago I decided it was time I tried a compost. We had just carved the pumpkins for Halloween the night after the garbage came, which was really bad timing on our part. But the garbage comes Tuesday morning, and I didn't think our Jack O'Lanterns would make it until Saturday.

So, where was I? Ah yes, my glorious idea to start a compost. All those pumpkin "guts" had to go somewhere and I wasn't going to throw it into the trash or leave it out and let it rot. I decided I couldn't spend much money on something I 1)didn't know how to do, and 2) didn't know whether I would be religious about it. So I decided on a simple green plastic garbage bin with a lid. I had researched it a little and at the time, it seemed a great idea. I even got out the drill and drilled some holes in it myself! That alone was worth the project! So empowering! Then I needed to fill it with stuff. Well, I had the pumpkin guts for starters and some leaves and other "brown" material, like junk mail, news paper, and an egg carton. When I dumped the pumpkin onto my "brown" material, I had a flight feeling that since it had already started to decompose in the bucket I had it stored in, that it somehow was going to be a bad idea. Bravely, I continued my quest and day by day I diligently collected my kitchen scraps, avoiding the meat, because I heard that the fat would attract all kinds of bad things.

Well, I don't know what happened, but the next time I opened the lid, I was greeted by Maggots! *Shudder* I know! I tried to ignore my gag reflex, which immediately started to act up. I am by no means a squirmy person, and thought that once you've changed a poopy diaper, you'd be pretty much immune to such things. But that's where I draw the line. Maggots? Come ON!! There weren't a lot, well, I don't really know because who in god's name would count them? But immediately I went online to see what I could find on this subject. Nobody had ever warned me about them. It's like when you're pregnant and everybody just always tells you the fun and exciting things but somehow decides to ignore to tell you, that the body you once knew, has gone bye-bye, and I'm not just talking about the visible parts, if you catch my drift.
Apparently, I was not the only one with this problem. I found more on "it" than I ever wanted to know about, but my problem seemed simple. My compost was too wet. This attracts the flies and I will not go into detail what exactly happens, but if you google it, you will find out, trust me on that!
I decided I wasn't going to give up so easily. After all, what was I going to do with it now? Throw it onto the streets? I was going to buy wood shavings, the kind I used for the Guinea Pig cage, but again didn't want to spend any more money on it than I absolutely had to. So I chose dirt. That should dry things up quickly, right? Besides, our backyard has plenty of that. Still. But that's a whole 'nother story.

It helped. I got rid of "them" for a while, but they came back as soon as I added more kitchen scraps. Then I read that you should wash out the egg shells, especially the fresh ones with the egg white still in it, because "they" like that, too. Good grief! So I wash the damn egg shells, crush them and THEN put them in, right? Right. Sounds like a lot of work, but OK. Believe it or not, I haven't seen "one" since! Again, I do not necessarily go look for 'em but at least they're not visible. I do understand that "they" help break down the stuff and make it what everybody loves so much, organic, nice earthy smelling compost. But if I have a choice, I'd rather not see "them" or know about it. Hello!

Two weekends ago, Joe mowed our puffs of green grass in the front of our house. To call it "lawn" would be an overstatement. I got really excited, because that's good stuff for a compost! I told him to just go ahead and dump it right into the bin. The next day, when I opened the lid, I was greeted by a delicious smell of cut grass! I was in compost heaven! I felt like I could DO THIS! So I continued what I was doing, all the while desperately trying to avoid for it to get too wet. I turned it every once in a while, because I read that you should do that.

Then came today. Sadly, I am now almost at a point to kick the stupid bin into the street and let the raccoons, skunks and whatever else wants a piece of it have a go at it! I opened the lid, always being cautious since the "m" disaster, and was greeted by a foul smell, which almost made me throw up! What the HELL happened?? Even Sofia, who was standing about 30 feet away said, "Phewie, mommy, what's that smell??" That, my dear, would be mommy's friggin' compost, that she just HAD to HAVE! Did I give up right then and there you wonder? No. I grabbed a bucket, stormed out to the front and got as much of the leaves on our street, as I could, marched back there, dumped some of my mess out (thank GOD we haven't done our backyard yet!), put the leaves in, and filled it back up. Repeated the whole thing twice!

The bin with all its smelly contents is still in the backyard as of now. I seriously doubt that it will ever turn into compost at this point, but I'm not sure as to what to do with it now? Do I handle it too much? Should I put much, much more "brown's" in it? Should I add worms? WHAT? I so want a compost. But if that's what I have to go through EVERY. SINGLE. TIME then I don't want it! Maybe I am delusional to think that this can ever work. I don't know! I don't know. I've almost lost faith. I really do want to help the environment, do the right thing.

So, if any of you out there reading this, have any idea, PLEASE let me know, before my neighbors call the Department of Health, or worse the Police on me because they think I've buried a dead body or something. Anyone? Please?

Happy Birthday Sofia!

We celebrated Sofia's birthday with a big Princess party last Saturday. Her actual birthday was on the 20th, but with the weather being a bit unpredictable these days (so unusual for California for this time of the year) I chose not to wait and celebrate it the weekend before. It was really adorable to see all these little princesses running around the park in their costumes!
Joe had bought her a Cinderella dress for the occasion, complete with staff and tiara. I went and got her her "glass slippers" aka. silver sparkle shoes, to complete the look. Oh, you should have seen her face when we presented her with the dress the morning of the party! The look on her face was priceless as you can see in this little clip we took of her.

I love surprising her like that, it makes my day. And Joe admitted having had a lot of fun buying the dress and accessories for her!

Preparations for her party had started about a month before, or maybe even more, because I started researching online, what type of cake I should make for her. Some of you know, that I really like baking, but for her birthday I chose to do something I had never done before. I was debating between a Princess cake or a Castle cake, in 3D, meaning standing up, not lying flat. At this point, I had no idea of how many people would be at the party, but as my preparations got more specific, I realized I needed a bigger cake, the Princess cake wouldn't cut it. The worst would be to run out of cake at the party, right? So I decided on the Castle cake. I asked Sofia what color it should be in, and naturally, she said, "Pink!"

I decided that I needed to do a cake trial first. I was going to work with fondant, and for that I needed to practice. This turned out to be a good idea, because on my first attempt, I failed miserably. I had rolled it out too thin and it started tearing everywhere. I also needed a really delicious cake, that wasn't too dry but dense enough for me to cut and shape. I decided on a Victoria cake, which basically consists of flour, butter, 6(!)eggs and sugar. That's it. This cake is really easy to flavor, which I did, because even though Sofia said she wanted a Vanilla cake, I felt it necessary to also make a chocolate one.
Working with fondant turned out to be such a fun thing! It's basically a sugar mass (you can buy it already made by Wilton) that is very soft and malleable. Some day I'd like to try making my own, which will probably taste much better. It's also super easy to color it any shade you want, by kneading in some food color gel. I decided I needed some little flowers and leaves to decorate the cake later on, so this gave me good practice in coloring and shaping. The best part of it all, it's edible!
Thursday came around and I needed to start baking my cakes. I was really happy, that for part of this, Sofia was in preschool, because she ended up being a little neglected by me for all the cake preparation.
Friday morning the electronic Babysitter (aka TV) had to come on, because it was time to shape and fill the cakes and also coat it with a delicious vanilla butter cream. I chose a simple whipped cream filling, in which I added frozen mixed berries for the chocolate cake and fresh strawberries for the vanilla cake. I also used a red currant jelly to coat the bottom layer of the cakes. I really wanted raspberry jelly, but couldn't find one (I didn't want the seeds) but the red currant turned out really nice. It gave a little bit of a tangy, fresh kick to the whole cake, very yummy! Coating the cakes with the butter cream turned out a bit of a challenge for me as well. Again, I had never done this before, and actually doing it versus just reading about it was a whole different story! I did a fairly decent job, but it could have been smoother. I didn't bother with it, because it was going to get covered with my fabulous pink fondant.








Setting up the fondant for the side.





That same night it was time to decorate my cakes. I had a 9x13 sheet cake, two 3 layer towers, two turrets, made with cake filled ice cream cones, and a 5 inch topper to cover and decorate. With the help of Joe and Carmen (our Swiss exchange student, who is staying with us until the end of the month) we rolled, cut, squeezed, colored, shaped, and "glued", until about 1am in the morning! The end result was quite a sight to see, in fact, I was REEEAAALLLY happy with the whole cake! It turned out so beautiful! My biggest concern though, was would it also taste good? It did! The cake was really flavorful and moist, but dense enough to hold shape, mmm, so delicious!

Mommy and Papa at work.



One of the towers up close. I piped on some vines with chocolate frosting. Pretty!



Here is the whole cake put together the day of the party. I have to say, I'm proud of myself. It turned out really beautiful, and most of all, Sofia LOVED it!

Happy Birthday Switzerland!

August 1st is our National Day, our Independence Day, the day the first three Cantons (Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden) swore "a bond of brotherhood, and agree to act jointly if their freedoms were threatened by outside aggressors". Believe it or not that was in the year 1291. Yes, my country is over 700 years old, 718, to be exact! It's a time to feel proud of my country, even though I have not lived there for over 12 years. America is where I live, but Switzerland will always be Home.

We did quite a bit of celebrating today. First we went to Sofia's friend Sadie's 2nd Birthday, and after her nap we went to Los Altos, where the Peninsula Swiss Club hosted its August 1st celebration. We were greeted by little Swiss flags all over the place, including one for each of the 26 Cantons. They offered a traditional Swiss dinner of "Fleischkaese", delicious bread, and different salads, followed by an extensive array of desserts, of which most of them were home made, of course! It was simply delicious. They also had a band playing traditional "Laendler" music. I have never really been a fan of it, but I have to say, today it warmed my heart! Of course, Sofia took to the stage as soon as she was able to, and amused many of the guests with some of her dance moves! Unfortunately, I ran out of batteries on my camera, but not before I could at least capture some of it:



We had a good time, and as always it reminded me of home and how proud I am to be a citizen of such a beautiful country!

Most Embarassing Mommy Moment

...so far:

Daughter of 33 Months blaring "Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light" (by The Police) into her newly acquired microphone/stereo (that we had JUST bought at a garage sale and thought didn't have any batteries), at the FARMERS MARKET last Sunday morning!!!!

I could have just died! But of course, it's all our fault, because at home, we laugh when she sings it, so she thought it was OK. She also sings "this used to be a fun house, but now it's full of evil clowns" (P!nk)

I think it's time to re-introduce her to the itsy, bitsy spider or something...

Dude, we're so toast!!!

"I Can Do It Myself"

That's the phrase I've been hearing most often from my 33 month old these days. In fact it happened about 3 days ago and has just been increasing ever since. It's actually kinda cute; she's figured out how to get herself dressed in the morning (with VERY little help getting those pants over the tush), putting her PJ's on at night and so on. She's also trying to "help" wherever she can, like doing the dishes, pouring a drink, opening the fridge/freezer (she seems to be particularly proud of this one), as well as, opening "her" mail, and she is determined to cook! OK, it mainly consist of putting her food in the microwave to heat up, but she loves to help me prep and I will let her help wherever she can. She is getting really good at mixing that pancake mix on Sunday mornings, let me tell you! It's so cute to see how proud she is of herself when she accomplishes something.
Today for example, we were at the library and as usual, she wants to sit on the computer and "play". Well, this is very boring for me, because I usually end up playing her games because she's too young to operate the mouse. The darned computer was free when we got there, and sure enough, like a magnet she got pulled to it. So I told her she'd get 5 minutes and then we'd go check out some books. I told her, like I always do, to try and get that little cursor to a certain spot and then clicking on it, which as of now, she could do either one OR the other. But today, she grabbed a hold of that mouse and actually hit those buttons! Needless to say, we played for more than 5 minutes. I was so amazed, that I just had to write this down in here.

Joe and I think, she's going through a big cognitive leap right now, and it's just so much fun to watch! Her speech is improving more and more, and her thoughts are really complex sometimes. I feel so unbelievably fortunate to be able to stay home and see her develop like this! It's incredible. Thanks hon, for making that possible!

Anyway, this is one of her latest shots:

A Legend Lives On

I just watched the last part of Michael Jackson's Memorial Service on TV. I didn't see all of it, of fear that I would start crying in front of Sofia. She gets upset too, when she sees mommy cry. So I decided, I could catch up online later, if I wanted to. But the part where his daughter, Paris, said a few words, just pushed me over the edge! It's really sad to think that the only parent they knew is gone. I can imagine, he was a wonderful and caring father to them, and that even though it was questionable sometimes how he behaved with them in public, he did the best he knew how. Protecting his children was his main priority, because he knew first hand what the media can do to you!
I start crying every time I hear about him or I hear one of his songs, it's crazy! I think the fact that his death came so sudden, makes it harder for me to process, because I can imagine, he really would have had a huge comeback with his upcoming England Tour! I was equally shocked when I learned of Heath Ledger's death, too, and it still brings me to tears, when I see him in a movie. It makes me wonder what our real purpose here is? Who is it really, that gets to decide when we have to go? Is it fair to blame anyone? Do we just have to accept the fact, that one day we're here, and the next we could be gone?

I was never a huge fan, collecting everything about him, or buying all of his music or anything like that, but I grew up with him, most of my teenage years were filled with MJ's music. I can clearly remember staying up late with my brother, watching the premier of "Thriller" on MTV. It was on at midnight and my mom let me stay up with my brother to watch it. It was amazing and I knew that I wanted to see him in concert, should he ever make it to Switzerland.

He did, finally and I think it was in 1992 when I got to see him live in Lausanne, Switzerland. I had originally bought two tickets to the show in Basel, but decided to exchange those with someone who had tix to the Lausanne show. I was working retail at a Jewelry store back then, and the Basel show was on a Saturday. Too many of us wanted to go (and had already tickets, without wanting to let go of them, for obvious reasons), so I decided that I needed to find a way to get Lausanne tickets, if I wanted to go. Magically, I did! My then boyfriend (aka. "The Narcissistic F#@*er" but that's a whole 'nother story) and I drove the 3.5 hour drive to Lausanne that Tuesday. I have to say, it was one of the most exciting, breathtaking, most awesome concerts I've EVER been to. And even though, it was rumored that he was in bad health at the time, he gave his fans his absolute best! We drove home, knowing that we had witnessed history! So friggin' cool!
Well, it turned out that I went to work the following Saturday, with about four of us missing, because they too, were on their way to the MJ concert in Basel. Around noon, we heard the rumor that the concert was canceled! I was shocked and a little bit sad that the others wouldn't be able to see him perform, but deep down inside I felt a bit of "Schadenfreude", because had I not given in and exchanged my tickets, I too, would have been the one disappointed. But I did and so now I can be the one saying, "I saw him once in concert!"

I love all his music! It's timeless, full of love. It's meaningful, his lyrics make you want to listen and understand what it is, that he's trying to say. Even when I didn't know English yet, I dissected every line, trying to figure out what he was saying, mostly, because I didn't understand his slang, but also to know, what it meant.

I hope that secretly, he has written many, many more songs for us, that will appear in form of other artist, so that he can continue to give us hope for a better world. Rest in Peace, Michael. I hope that you can finally Rest in Peace!

"Bunnies in the Grass" Cupcakes

I just wanted to quickly show you guys my newest addition on cupcake artistry that I made for my little birthday get together a couple of weeks ago. My dear mother in law gave me this wonderful book called "Hello, Cupcake!" by Karen Tack and Alan Ridchardson for Christmas last year and I finally had an opportunity to try something out. I know, why need an opportunity for baking cupcakes, right?

Anyway, we had a cake but I thought that maybe the kiddies would enjoy their own cupcakes. This is what they looked like (I only made fifteen, instead of the twenty-four, so the effect isn't that great but good enough). I thought the bunny/grass cupcakes would be cute, because my birthday was the Saturday before Easter.


And this is what they looked like, being eaten by Sofia and her friends Nicholas and Zoe! I guess they liked them?


The cupcakes were chocolate, for the grass I used a green tinted, basic vanilla frosting and decorated it with malt eggs and flower sprinkles. The bunnies were first coated with chocolate frosting, and then rolled in crumbled Oreo cookies (for the fur effect). I didn't use the the Oreo filling, just the cookies. The feet I made with white fondant and chocolate frosting decor, the tail a sugar covered mini marshmallows.

It was so much fun to make!

Spot the Doves

Two lovely doves were lounging in the shady part of our dirt patch in the backyard this afternoon, and I thought it was just lovely to watch. Unfortunately, they flew off once they realized they were spotted by me, but not before I could take a few pictures of them!
I'm starting to think that maybe we should keep that dirt? Because, not only do the doves find it comfy, but we also "rent out" that dirt patch to finches and other flying friends for their nightly "dry dirt bath". Never thought that dirt would be so attractive...hmmm.

Ps. The two doves returned shortly after for more lounging ;o)

4 Years and Counting...

Joe and I celebrated our fourth anniversary yesterday! Wow, I seriously can't believe it's been four years already! We've been quite busy during that time. Some of things we've accomplished are:
* moved from our tiny appartment in Palo Alto to our rental house in Sunnyvale,
* bought a house in Nampa, Idaho (just for the heck of it)
* had a beautiful baby daughter
* visited Switzerland for 6 weeks (well, Sofia and I. Joe joined us for the last 2)
* lived through Joe's kidney stones
* and finally bought a house for us here in San Jose, CA

To celebrate our fourth year together, he surprised me, by arranging a date night, organizing a babysitter (thank you again Bigi and Angi!), making sure they had something for dinner (which is like, a huge deal for me, not having to figure that out), making a reservation at the Left Bank in Santana Row, and taking me out to the movies later on. This might not sound like a big deal to some of you, but to me, it means the world! I have been so busy digging up our backyard that I almost forgot about our special day! I mean I knew it was coming up, but did not even attempt to arrange anything...and certainly didn't expect anything!

We had a great night out, enjoyed each other's company, without the monkey's interruption (as cute as she is!) and I thank my husband for taking charge, and surprising me like that! Love you, babe!

Puzzle Champ

I am so proud of Sofia. She has just completed her first 24-piece puzzle! I was at Long's Drugs with her today and had picked it up, thinking that even though she's very much into puzzles lately (she's just "graduated" to floor puzzles about a week ago) that she would still a bit too young to complete it (it says 3+ on the box). She was very excited when I told her that it was a puzzle and she wanted to get to it right away. I only had to help her a little bit, like telling her to turn the shape to make it fit, or to look for the characters to try and fit them all together. And she did it! Not once did she get upset or frustrated! I personally, love puzzles and I'm so happy that she is into them as well. Looking forward to many rainy day puzzle days with her!!

Sofia's Special Star

The dreadful day, the day that I was trying to avoid for the past few days has finally arrived. Here goes the story of the passing of our first family pet, and having to explain it to my daughter Sofia ( almost 2.5 years old).

One of our guinea pigs, Pirate, died last week. She was old, about 7 years, which is ancient for those critters. I knew it was coming because she had been acting weird for about two days. I noticed one morning, that she wasn't able to hold her head up for very long without it bobbing around, and she wasn't eating much anymore either. I think she may have even suffered a stroke. Then, the day of, she refused to eat AND drink (I even tried to put water into her with a syringe but she wouldn't). She was also starting to get seizures, which was not a pretty sight :( . I covered the cage up a little after I put her into a padded shoebox, so she wouldn't hurt herself, and to be safe from the other pigglet we still have, so Sofia wouldn't see her. She died soon after. Luckily, it happened while Sofia was taking her nap, so I could really take care of her (the guinea pig) in her final hours.

I couldn't bear telling Sofia right after, and thought it would be best to not bring it up, unless she did on her own. Well, the dreaded day finally arrived today. She was painting on her little table in the kitchen and when she turned to put one of her art pieces on the big table (where the cage is), I suddenly heard her say, "Where is the guinea pig?" I pretended I didn't hear her right away so she repeated herself once more and spoke very clearly, as clearly an almost 2 1/2 year old can speak. So I took her into my arms, and this is how the conversation went:

Me: Remember when I told you that Pirate was very old and not feeling well anymore?

Sofia: 'nodding'

Me: Well, Pirate became a little star and is up in heaven now. And tonight, when we go to bed, we can say hello to her!

Sofia: I'm sad. (as she's leaning on my chest, with tears welling up)

Me: I'm very sad, too, sweetie, but she is in a really nice place now and she is all better! And whenever we want to talk to her, we can!

Sofia: (looking up in the sky, waiving) Hi Peanutpirate (her way of saying her name)! She's all better now. She's up in 'evan', up in the sky!

Me: Yeah, hi there! (waving as well)

Sofia: Peanutpirate all, better now. She's up in 'evan', up in the sky. (repeating it over and over again, for about a minute or so)

It just melted my heart, when I heard her talk about it and explain it in her own words. I knew the subject wasn't resolved, but at least started and I was glad she took it relatively well.
Later on that day, when we drove to music class, she waved to the sky and said "hello peanutpirate!" I heard her tell my friend about it and then she brought it up again on our way home. Each time I acknowledged it, but made sure to only talk about it as much as she would let me.

Then, Joe told me just now, that when he turned off the lights in her room, she looked up to her stars on the ceiling, and said "look at the stars, papa, pretty!" and I'm sure it was another way of her processing.
Suddenly, the song "Twinkle, twinkle little star" has become a whole new meaning to her, I'm sure...

The "star story" was adopted from my mom. She uses it with my sister's kids whenever an animal dies and for all the animals (and people) that have passed on. Every now and then, they want to look at the stars, find "theirs" and connect. I realized that saying anything else, explaining anything more, would have probably confused Sofia much more. I was glad I could use something that was easy for her to understand.

It was the first tough subject I had to talk to her about and I'm sure it's only the beginning, but I hope I did a decent job.

I think it's actually a very nice way of remembering the people and animals that are no longer with us. Sometimes I, too, look up to the moon and the stars and I remember them, wondering what they are doing right now. And maybe one day, when you're feeling down, you will look up into the night sky as well, and find your very own, special star you can talk to, and maybe it will make you feel better, too.

No Time For Mommy To Be Sick!

CAUTION: DON'T READ IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH!

Well, sorry for the hyatus...I've been under the weather. My daughter decided to pick up another bug last week! A Rota virus to be exact. Mind you, she didn't do it on purpose, nor did she intend to give it to me or Joe, but it happened and so we were all out the last weekend!
On Thursday morning I took her to the doctor for another issue, and while we were driving there, she got sick in the car. Poor thing didn't know what hit her, it totally caught her (and of course myself) by surprise. I pulled over immediately, and saw that she acutally managed to throw up into her lovies, what a trooper! Luckily I had an extra undershirt with me to change her into, but no sweater, so I just turned up the heat in the car, cleaned her up as much as I could and continued driving to the pediatrician. We even made it there in time. She was fine until after the visit, when she decided she didn't want to leave, nor sit in her car seat. She just kind of listlessly hung out in the car and no bribing helped to get her back into her seat. That's when I knew something was up, so I opened the windows for fresh air, and just held her for a while. All of a sudden, she said "here it comes again" and I was just in time to hold a towel in front of her so that she could puke in it. When she was done, she said "I feel better now, let's go home!" I just wanted to cry, because she sounded so grown up! Gosh, I LOVE this little one!

Well, you may have guessed, this wasn't the end of it. We had a rough day on Friday, stayed in and just pretty much spent the day doing laundry, and going to the bathroom a lot. Later on that day, I started to feel a little queasy, but was hopeful it was only in my mind. It wasn't. Sofia only threw up twice after that, and both times it landed on me... I don't think I have ever experienced anything more gross in my life! But, what can you do? You don't show it and you praise your baby for letting it all out! That's what you do. Then you take of your clothes, wash yourself off, and hope for the best. You also don't get sick. Because mommies can't be sick, they have to hold up the fort, and keep on doing what they do. Like getting up the next morning, after you've had the worst night of your life with cold sweats and other things I can and will not mention for your own good, to tend to your little one, while husbands sleeps until noon (because he too caught the bug and was up all night). To give him some credit; he did get up a couple of times for Sofia to change her after she had soiled herself involuntarily during her sleep, right before he then got sick as well.

We all were able to take a nap on Saturday afternoon, but it was me (and Sofia) who went out to get some groceries that would hopefully help speed up the health of our intestinal bug, while hubby continued to sleep... He finally got up when we got back, took a shower and was somewhat useful.

On Sunday we finally started to feel a little better, after having a relatively good night's rest, and even managed to go to the Famer's Market. Even though it was my turn to sleep in, dear hubby and baby woke me up at 10am to get ready for the Market. While I was silently cursing him out for having woken me up, I later was glad to get some fresh air into my system and enjoyed the time with them very much! It was also Joe's birthday on Sunday, yeah, great timing to be sick. Needless to say, that we weren't in the mood for celebrating. We barely were able to sing "Happy Birthday" to him! I felt bad, on top of everything else. I promised him a Do-Over next weekend, which all in all will work out just soooo much better for all of us. So hang in there, honey! You will get your Birthday celebration, I promise!

All is so much better now, even though we're still trying to keep Sofia's bowels under control. But man, it was quite the weekend!

The lesson I've learned during all of this? Don't get sick. Ever. And if you do, continue with what you're suppose to be doing, especially if everybody else is sick, too. But most of all: Be thankful that you are this strong individual who can take it, and of course be thankful that this, too, WILL pass!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY honey, I love you! ;o)

Helloooo 2009!

Wow! It's 2009 dude! I can't believe it's already January. Christmas and New Year have come and gone, and so has my husband's time off :o( I like having him around, because we get to do things together, duh. Yes, but also, we get to work on the house, which we did. We painted the hallway green. I know, it sounds kinda weird, but I actually like it. Of course it would look much better if there were better lighting, a nice rug, and maybe some art, but hey, it's a start. You'd like to see our handiwork? OK, I'll post a picture:




Christmas was really nice. It was so much fun to introduce Sofia to the whole Santa story, and she really enjoyed making cookies for him and put them out on a plate together with a glass of milk and a carrot for the reindeer. You guys should have seen her face the next morning when she saw that they were gone, and instead there were presents! When it was time to unwrap the presents, she made sure we each had one to open. It was so nice to see that she wanted to share, which all of you who have toddlers at home know, is unheard of! It warmed my heart and it made it that much more special to me. Then, in the afternoon we had some friends over for Christmas dinner. We made a ham and potatoes and our friends brought something to share. It was nowhere near the event we had for Thanksgiving, but I so enjoyed to have them here and share some of the holiday spirit. We also had a good discussion about religion and what to do when you have children. Joe and I are spiritual, but not dedicated to one religion, and we both want Sofia to grow up exploring this subject herself and figure out where she feels comfortable. It is something that we both need to spend some more time discussing, and exploring and I look forward to doing that together with our daughter!



At this point, I'd also like to acknowledge some sadder news; after Christmas we learned that Joe's grandmother of 97 had passed away. She had a very rich life, living on a farm in Connecticut, being a teacher and a mother of two warm, loving and most of all caring daughters. After her health had declined, those two women took in upon themselves to care for her, which was a 24-hour job in itself. They made sure she was well cared for until she peacefully passed away in her sleep. I am very proud of them, because I know how much work it is to care for an elderly person.
So Joe flew out there for four days for the funeral. The poor guy was sick going and even sicker coming home! But we were glad he was able to go and be a moral support for his mom. It was nice having some time to myself, but I have to say I wouldn't want to be alone for longer than that. As for Great-grandma Margret, I'm positiv she is in a good place now, where she can enjoy all the things again that she couldn't do anymore here on earth. We love you and miss you!

Alright. So now that we've moved into 2009, I am, of course wondering, what it has in store for us: will it be a pet? a vacation? some more home improvements? a brother or sister for Sofia? Who knows. All I hope for is that all of us will stay healthy and the rest will fall into place by itself, I'm sure.

So thanks for being in my life, all of you! I look forward to doing lots of fun things this year, watch our daughter grow up, and cherish family and friends.