Brady's Expanding Vocabulary

Brady still is not walking (and hasn't seemed very adventurous over the last few days as I've tried to get him to take those first few steps on his own.) However, his growing vocabulary has just amazed me. Here is the list of the latest and greatest:

Real Word - Brady's Version
Cat - Maw (his version of Meow)
Bubble - Bubble
Baba - Bottle (or cup or anything holding a drink)
Keys - Key
Hi - Hi (all purpose greeting)
Uh-oh - Uh-oh (used when things drop or move out of eyesight)
Mimi - Anything with buttons (elevator buttons, light switches, etc.)
Cereal - Ereal
Banana - Nana
Blueberry - Boobear
Dog - Woof Woof
No - No-no-no (yes...he repeats it several times...don't know where he got that.)
Cookies - Cookee

Pirate noises and lion roars also make the list of oft repeated "words". We are both a bit depressed that "Mama" and "Dada" don't make it to the list. He has said them before, but I don't think he uses them repeatedly and with context. Boooooo!

More updates as we have them!

Sunday Picnic at Zürich Uetliberg

After having survived a week of chilly/rainy Zürich weather since our return from the States, we decided on a short outing this weekend. We travelled by train 20 minutes from Zürich's main train station to Uetliberg, Switzerland.

Brady enjoys making fish-faces while on the train.

This is a mountain just on the border of Zürich, from which you have amazing views of the city and lake. Although today was a bit overcast, we still had beautiful views once we reached the top of the mountain after about a 20 minute hike.

From this photo, you can see where Lake Zürich starts (in the middle-left of the photo). This is where the Limmat River joins the lake. We live in the general-vicinity just east of the start of the lake. This photo was taking facing east, so look just a little bit over the top of the lake in the photo - and that's our "neighborhood".

Even with the overcast weather, the top was still relatively crowded. And there were even a couple of para-gliders enjoying the day. I cannot believe how close these guys got to us on the top of the mountain. My question is this: how do you get down when you're done?

After surveying the views, we walked a few feet from the top of the mountain and ate a picnic lunch we brought. For those foodies out there, we had salami, two types of cheese (Manchengo and Rahmkӓse), homemade hummus (yes - homemade...how awesome is that!!!), toasted pita bread, and olives. It was spectacular. Below is a picture of the view from our picnic table.

Lastly, after walking back down to the train station, we had about 20 minutes to kill before the next train was due. They had a cute little playground right next to the train station. We enjoyed some teeter-tottering before catching the train back home.





The afternoon was tons of fun...and while I write this, my two boys (Bill and Brady) are taking mid-afternoon naps!

"And go get yourself some cheap sunglasses"

This ZZ Top classic song came to mind after we took this photo during our summer vacation in the US. We bought these baby sunglasses for Brady at Target and although he loved them, he always tried to take them off after only having them on for about 5 seconds. This was actually one moment we caught on camera before he ripped them off again. Mom's sunglasses are relatively "cheap" too, having been purchased at TJ Maxx. :)

We're back!

Hello again everyone! We are now back in Zurich - coming back yesterday to a very rainy/very chilly town. It was a good flight, Brady slept really well and so far the jet lag hasn't been horrible. Knock on wood...Brady should be back on schedule tomorrow.

Our summer was very eventful. We attended 2 weddings and 1 vow renewal ceremony. We went to Nag's Head (our yearly beach event) and we did lots of shopping. It was also a very eventful summer for Brady - full of milestones. He is just about to walk (he stands independently and can walk behind toys), but has yet to make his own steps without the aid of toy or parent. He had his first haircut. And he is now saying a few words and actually knows what they means. (He pointed at a bottle of bubbles today and said, "bubba".) He can say bottle, blueberry, uh-0h consistently and has definitely gotten the knack of "hi". He is really cute. He is also pointing at things and exclaiming when he likes it. (birds, planes and thermostats - actually anything with buttons usually get this treatment) He had a great summer, spending time with his grandparents and other relatives. He is just so cute when he is learning something new. He gets so excited and has such a joy for life and learning.

We will post some photos and new posts soon. But for now, just wanted to let everyone know we were back!!!! Hope you all had a great summer too!