All Aboard!

I was reminded this week that I hadn't yet written about Brady's fascination with trains. We both got a bad case of the stomach flu and we are not yet quite back to normal. The reason this reminded me of my lack of post is because this stomach flu created the need for a strong movie/TV day. Similarly, back about 3-4 months ago, I had a cold one day and was pretty much laid up on the couch. I was feeling so bad that Brady pretty much was relegated to watching German cartoons the whole morning. Although Brady had shown some interest in trains due to our daily public transportation use, he was only mildly interested. That is, until that sick day 3-4 months ago. Then he watched an episode of Thomas and Friends. Now he LOVES trains. About every other word he speaks has to do with trains. He loves going to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), he loves riding on trams, he loves playing with trains...he LOVE trains. In fact, last night, Bill and I checked on him after he was asleep and he roused a bit and said, "Thomas!" really loud. (He was asleep!) It's amazing and Bill and I have learned lots about trains. It's actually been fun to take in this interest of Brady's and it also makes travel pretty easy. We can just search for trains (if we are in the car), or we can talk about the train (if we are on a train ride). And his trains are easy to take along with us for play. He now sits for about 15-20 minutes playing with his train track moving his Thomas and Toby engines back and forth along the track. And in a pinch if he's getting antsy, Mom's arm becomes an inpromptu "Mommy Tunnel" or "Mommy Mountain" for his trains. The other neat thing is that other than trains/trams being a large part of living here in Zurich, Switzerland also offers nice transporation museums. We've been to the Zurich tram museum once and I literally had to tear Brady out of there kicking & screaming while they closed. It's close by and is basically a big bay of old trams that the kids can get in and look at. They even have a huge Thomas and Friends train track set up for kids to play with. (great rainy day activity, moms!) There is also a Swiss Transportation Museum in Luzerne that we are planning to check out one day soon.

Here are some shots of Brady enjoying his new hobby

Playing with his tracks at home.

Playing with the train set at the Zurich tram museum

Steering a kid's train at the Tram Museum

Riding "Thomas" at the Geneva train station

Playing with Thomas on the train to Geneva

Playing with Thomas on his track at home - and introducing a huge block tunnel

Keeping up with the Joneses

The entire month of May felt like it was 2 seconds long for us - but although it went by in a flash, it was lots of fun. My parents and brother came for a visit towards the end of May. Since the Jones family has already spent a lot of time in Europe due to our military days in Heidelberg and Stuttgart, Germany, we decided to embark on a vacation of relaxation in Tuscany instead of doing the whirlwind tourist approach. Aside from a few van-related mishaps, we had a wonderful time. We rented an apartment at a Tuscan farmhouse that was situated on a mountain overlooking a Tuscan valley and many olive trees.


Although we had fully intended to do some sight-seeing in Florence and neighboring towns, we ended up all enjoying the relaxing (and pool) so much that we stayed pretty close to the villa.


After 5 days under the Tuscan sun, we headed back to Zurich to do some sightseeing, market visiting and chocolate-buying before my family had to head back to the US. It was a fun trip and we are very thankful that my parents/brother were able to make the trip. Below are some of our favorite photos of Brady with Mamoo, Granddad and Uncle Brian!

Reading "Go, Dog, Go"

Hamming for the camera

Lounging on the couch - trying to beat jet lag

Rainbow Over Hottingen

We've had some strange weather lately - tons of thunderstorms and weather that changes on a dime. As I was coming home the other day after running some errands, I noticed a rainbow over the Gold Coast side of Zurich. I rushed the rest of the way home in order to be able to take a few photos. The rainbow was gorgeous and was probably the most complete rainbow I've ever seen.
These photos are taken from our neighborhood (Hottingen).

Another Mc

I spotted this one last week. I thought I would add it to the collection...

The Conversationalist

As you can see from the previous post, Brady has become a wonderful talker. He's also singing full verses of songs. Although I unfortunately have been unable to get him to sing for the camera, I did get his Hokie escapades on tape.

He's also taken to recapping his day for us when we put him to bed. Bill is usually the one who gets Brady ready for bed, and so he hears a lot of stuff that doesn't generally make sense to him as he wasn't there to experience it. However, the other night, I put Brady to bed and was astounded as he recapped an entire party's events in his few words. I will shamelessly copy my friend's way of blogging her children's conversations (thanks Theresa!).

As some background, we attended a party at one of Bill's co-worker's houses this past Sunday.

Brady: "Mr. Martin" (One of Bill's coworkers who provided some entertainment for Brady)
Rebecca: "Yes, Mr. Martin was funny."
B: "Outside"
R: "Yes, we were outside until it started to rain"
B: "Baby Alex, water" (one of the children was playing in the water sitting in a flower pot)
R: "Yep, Baby Alex got dirty playing in the water"
B: "Baby Alex messy"
R: "Yep"
B: "Happy Wedding" (A couple of Bill's coworkers recently got married)
R: "You did a good job telling Mr. Jared and Mrs. Julie Happy Wedding"
B: "Desiree"
R: "Desiree was at the party too...you like Desiree, don't you?"
B: "More grapes" (He said this at least 10 times during the party - he ate TONS of grapes)
R: "You ate SOOOO many grapes at the party!"
B: "Emily, no no" (Emily babysat for Brady a couple of times and apparently she disciplined him once for doing something. He now says this anytime he sees her.)
R: "Yep...were you playing with Emily at the party?"
B: "Gumpe" (The Swiss-German word for jump - he was jumping with Emily)
R: "Yes...jump"
B: "Hurt"
R: "You're okay...you have to be careful when you jump"

Brady jumped off a little step and hit his shoulder on the table at one point. No major deal...but apparently he remembered it enough to mention it in his recap. It's amazing! Now, you definitely would have to have been there to get the gist of this recap, but he does this all the time. Amazing!

A Hokie in the Making

Brady the Snitch - Part 2

We've really enjoyed Brady's ever-increasing verbal abilities. We seem to have full conversations now - he's easily stringing together 3-4 words at a time. He is a big parrot and is constantly saying things that Bill or I have said (or other little kids, adults, TV, etc.) Even if his words aren't always perfect, his inflection is usually right on. We really have to watch him. ;)

He's also started talking about people and usually snitches a bit on them. We were skyping with Bill's family over Easter weekend and he saw his Aunt Beth. He said, "Aunt Beth...cookie" over and over again. Apparently when Brady was being babysat by Chris and Beth over the Christmas holidays, Aunt Beth was the one who gave Brady some cookies. Brady also says, "Rosie...cookie". Rose is one of the babysitters in our Moms N Tots group...apparently she has also been a provider of cookies in the past!

I also feel like his Music Together classes have really payed off - he sings all of the time, and recently has even started singing songs that we don't actively sing with him. (He picked up "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" off of a music toy, and often sings songs that Mommy is listening too.) He is a big fan of Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" (although it sounds like he's saying "wok n roll") as well as Locomotion. (This has to do with trains...another blog post soon.) It's very cute and is usually very amusing. Unless, he parrots something inappropriate that might have been said. Not that I would ever say anything inappropriate. Yeah, right. ;)