Happy Holidays from the Coyles!

We had some issues making a decision on the best photo for our holiday card photos this year...so I'm including both versions! Happy Holidays Everyone!

Move Over Thomas - It's M.I.C.K.E.Y

I have to admit before becoming a parent, I always thought it was over-the-top how it seemed like parents catered to their kids whims when it came to new toys, fads, etc. I especially didn't get how people would go crazy at the holidays to get their kid the "it" toy. As a parent of a 2 year old, now I get it. When Brady first started showing interest in Elmo for the first time, we got him Elmo PJs, Elmo books, Elmo toys, etc. He LOVED Elmo and loved this stuff. It made us so happy to see his face light up when he saw Elmo that we were happy to get these Elmo items for him.

And then Brady moved onto trains. He LOVED Thomas and everything Thomas related. He still does...but when it comes to what show he'd like to watch in the afternoon when he's allowed to watch some TV, it's no longer Thomas & Friends, it's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I'm a little sad when I see that we have 20 new & unwatched Thomas episodes on our DVR waiting (sad & lonely) to be watched by Brady. Meanwhile, we only get 1 new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode every 2-3 days, so Brady has literally watched some of these episodes that we keep on our DVR 4-5 times. And the Mickey Mouse thing was a total fluke. I was scouring ITunes before our US trip this summer. I was looking for some shows to let him watch as I was worried about entertaining him myself for 9 straight hours in close quarters...with tons of other peace & quiet-loving people around us in the plane. I found Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and downloaded a couple of episodes. That was it. Brady has been mesmerized ever since. It's actually pretty cute. So, this Christmas he will be getting a few Mickey Mouse toys to go along with his collection of Elmo & Thomas toys. But still, I feel a little sad to think he'll be moving onto something new soon. I guess it's good to try to document these phases. They are all cute and allow him to learn new things.

An Addition to "A Cold in Any Language"

Back last February after a bout of nasty colds, I blogged about how some "sick" words are more fitting in the German language. (http://thecoyleconnection.blogspot.com/2009/02/cold-in-any-language.html) I have recently learned a new vocabulary word due to some issues we've been having with Brady. Once again, when I looked up the translation, I learned that the German word is much more fitting than the English word. Here is my new vocabulary word:

die Verstopfung - constipation or blockage

We Like to Move It

One of Brady's favorite songs is "I Like to Move It" by Reel 2 Real. He sings it everytime he hears it and often dances. Although I didn't get the best parts on camera, you can get a glimpse here of some of his patented moves.

Brady's Rendition of "The Little Drummer Boy"

Popcorn & Haircuts

Ever since I decided that Brady didn't deserve the inadvertent bowl cuts that I was was giving him when I cut his hair, we've been biting the bullet and paying the 40 CHF (approx. $40) to get his haircut at the toy store downtown. (See previous posts about haircuts.http://thecoyleconnection.blogspot.com/2009/01/business-in-front-party-in-back.html) The woman there is wonderful, does a great job, and Brady will actually sit still while watching videos (Thomas and Friends auf Deutsch) and eating popcorn. In fact, the first time Brady ever had popcorn was while getting his hair cut. He loves it.

The other day, Bill had a haircut for himself scheduled for Saturday morning. When he came home afterwards and sat down to eat breakfast with us, Brady said, "Daddy has popcorn." Bill and I looked at each other because we were not eating popcorn with our breakfast. I actually thought maybe Brady was confusing Bill's scrambled eggs for popcorn. Then it dawned on me. Bill had just gotten back from a haircut...Brady thought Daddy also gets popcorn when he has his hair cut. The present tense Brady had used in "Daddy has popcorn" had thrown me for a loop. So, we spent the next few minutes telling Brady how he was the only one who got popcorn with his haircut. It was so cute, and we were pretty amazed with the connection that he made. He continues to astound us.

Brady actually had a haircut yesterday and got his much beloved popcorn. He was also photographed to be used in potential marketing materials for the salon. They are supposed to send me a copy via email, so if I get it, I'll post it to the blog!

From 12/16/09 -

Here is the photo from the salon:

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

The Christmas spirit struck us early this year. We've had the tree up for a week and Brady was very serious about decorating it. We've also been listening to Christmas tunes for a few weeks too. The Christmas cards are done and last night Brady and I finished his letter to Santa. By request, here is the letter we are sending to Santa:

December 2009

Dear Santa –

My name is Brady and I am two and a half years old. This is my second year writing you, and I am very excited every time I see Santa or Sami Clause around town. I also have learned how to sing “Rudolph, The Red Nose Reindeer” and “Frosty The Snowman”. I think I have been a good boy (at least my parents tell me that I am). I love Thomas the Tank Engine and Mickey Mouse and hope I get some Thomas or Mickey toys for Christmas. I hope I do not get coal. I hope you have a good flight on Christmas. Say hello to the elves and reindeer for me. I have included some snowflakes that I made for you. I will make sure to leave some cookies and carrots out for you to snack on during Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas!

Brady

I drafted the letter and checked with Brady to make sure he felt it reflected what he wished to convey to Santa. In a show of agreement, Brady made his mark (by writing in yellow and green marker on the letter) and Brady mailed it this morning. We also included a snowflake for Santa that Brady decorated with glue and glitter. I think Santa will be impressed. Brady has had a blast spotting Santa across town on advertisements, store fronts, etc. He has also almost memorized "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" entirely - pretty impressive given that we just started singing it with him a few weeks ago.

Santa also visited our Moms & Tots last week. Although Brady was very excited to talk to Santa, he wouldn't get near enough to take a photo unless I was sitting with him. Maybe next year, we'll actually get a photo of Brady sitting happily with Santa. :)

I'm Sending out an SMS...

Aside from the normal communication issues we experience living in Zurich (read...different language), I have unfortunately stumbled upon another communication problem in the last few months as I've developed some friendships with Europeans outside of my Expat circle of friends.

Most folks living here have a cell phone (referred to as a "Handy" or "Natel") and text profusely. Given that I'm not a teenager and grew up at a time when my first cell phone was in a big black bag that was neither convenient or useful, (Only to be used in emergencies and it was stashed under the seat of my car.) I'm not really a big texter. In fact...I HATE texting. I find it ridiculous to be using one button to type 1-4 different characters. I'm also not up on my shortcuts, like CUL8ER for example. (I don't even know what these things are called...so I'll continue to refer to them as shortcuts.) I usually email or call my friends when I want to meet up with them. But here...some folks I know don't even have email accounts. They text (or SMS as they refer to it) people.

Now, there have been a couple of big obstacles to me using SMS'ing as a communication mode:

1. As I've already expressed...I HATE Texting
2. My cell phone is a Swiss cell phone and because my presets were all German, any shortcutting or prediction tools that my phone may have were not working for me and my English texts. So, before I realized that I could disconnect the setting, every time I typed anything, the predictor would put some weird German word in for me.
3. I'm super slow at texting and don't like using non-gramatically correct sentences/wording, etc. As some of you may know, a big pet peeve of mine is incorrect grammar in emails. Same goes for SMS'ing.
4. Since I quit the working world after the birth of Brady, I have avoided cell phones like the plague. I had to have a Blackberry for work and was TOO connected. So, I've enjoyed only having a cell phone for emergencies and the occasional meet-up phone call.

But one big plus SMS'ing has going for it, is in the case of Brady's spielgruppe teachers and some of my friends from German class, I'm just not as comfortable with my German speaking and so I've taken to texting. So, if Brady is sick or if I have a question, I just text.

For the longest time, friends from German class would send me SMS messages and I would have no idea, because I hardly ever checked my phone. But now, I'm slowly entering the world of an American teenager. ;) (Emoticon included!)

Here it is...your moment of zen

So, I've been trying to figure out how best to blog my feelings about Switzerland's 57% vote in favor of banning minarets. While I was pondering, I ran across the following clip from The Daily Show. I've decided to let them speak for me. So, without further ado...here it is, your moment of zen.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

One of These Things Is Not Like the Other

Clearly from the looks of it, these are all toothpaste tubes, right? Nope!!! Here in Switzerland, tons of stuff is sold in tubes. In the US, mainly toothpaste is sold in tubes. From left to right, we have: condensed milk, mayonnaise, toothpaste, mustard, tomato paste. And I forgot that I had a tube of liver pate that I could have taken a picture of as well. (Note...the liver pate is NOT for us...it's a gag gift for a friend.) The odd thing is that everything BUT the toothpaste is in a tube that holds its shape when squeezed. The toothpaste tube does not hold its shape which makes getting the last half of the toothpaste out of the tube very tough. As I mentioned before, the product packaging her in Switzerland is funny. (To be honest, the mayonnaise in a tube is a nice development - wish we had this one back home.)

On an unrelated note...I have not BLOGGED in ages. (As you probably have noticed.) In order to not feel stressed by the backlog of posts I need to do, I figured I ease back in with this easy post. Enjoy and hopefully more posts will be on their way shortly.

Do you? Are you?

Brady constantly amazes us with his speaking ability (and I know I've blogged about it often!). He still has some cute phrases that are clearly baby talk. While Bill works on correcting him, I have to admit I hate to hear these cute things go when he learns the right way to say things. So, in an effort to preserve these in my memory, I thought I would blog some of my favorites:

• When Brady tells us he is doing something, he says, "Are you... (i.e. running, eating, jumping, etc.) I guess this comes from the days when I would say, "Brady, are you eating?" So when he says this, he is usually in the process of doing it.
• Similarly, he also says, "Do you...(i.e. like it, etc.)" He uses this one a lot, and usually with new foods. Again, I'm assuming this comes from Bill or I asking if he likes it. So, if he says, "Do you like it?" He actually means "Yes, I do like it."
• Speaking of "yes"...Brady doesn't use this word. He says, "okay". So, if we say, would you like some dessert? Brady says, "Okay!" Brady, are we going to Music Class today? "okay!" It's cute...but we've already started working on saying "yes".
• On occasion of a temper tantrum, I'll usually hear Brady combine the two above into a two-way dialogue. "Did you get a time out? Okay." It's kind of sad...and makes me feel horrible, but I guess it's sinking in.
• "Lando" - This is Brady's way of saying "window". We will try to get him to say it correctly by stating, "W, w, w, w, w, window". He'll say, "W, w, w, w, w, lando." Cracks us up every time.
• And as he spends more time in his Spielgruppe, he's starting to mix German into his English sentences. Only a small amount at this time, but it's funny. The other day, Brady said, "I want das". And he occasionally says, "Das schmecht mir gut." (It tastes good!)
  

I'm sure there are more of these...but I can't think of them now.

Spielgruppe

Here in Switzerland there is no specific preschool for kids before they enter Kindergarten. Kids here go to their first year of Kindergarten when they are 5 years old. (And they do 2 years of Kindergarten.) So, in order to prepare kids for entering school, many parents put their kids in Spielgruppen. (Playgroups) These groups usually meet a couple mornings a week and have similarly aged kids. Basically it's a chance for the kids to play together with other kids and go through a preschool-like curriculum (singing songs, crafts, free play, playground time, etc.)

I felt it was time for Brady to join a Spielgruppe to get some opportunities to play with new kids and to help teach him more about sharing, etc. We did several visits to Spielgruppen and after some thought, picked one that a woman who ran the daycare Brady attended while I was doing my German lessons told me about. She also runs this particular Spielgruppe and we really like her. (Both Brady and I). Brady's playgroup is run in Swiss German, but unlike a few other groups I checked out, the leaders do speak English. (I just wanted to have the English background in case Brady said something in English, or for my own crutch in case my German failed me.) There are several bi-lingual playgroups, but they are very far away and didn't offer what we were looking for. There are also bi-lingual daycares, but in most cases your child had to be present for a minimum of 2 full days a week or 3 half days. I didn't really feel this much time was necessary.

So, we picked our group and Brady started 3 weeks ago. The first day, I stayed with him the full time. It was a very nice group of about 8 children. Parents are very involved in the group. The parents stay for the first 15 minutes of the group and sing the welcome songs with the children. One parent a week stays and helps out until right after lunch. So, it's a great way to meet all the other kids your child is playing with and to see how the group runs. The parents are also "officers" for the group i.e. financial officer, secretary, etc.

Brady has now had 2 days in the group by himself and has done very well. He now sings the welcome songs around the house and has even started saying more German. He occasionally says, "Nein" or "Ja". He's even said, "Mommy, my noodles are heiss." (hot) I think it's been a great opportunity for both of us and I'm excited to see how the rest of the year goes.

On a related note, it's amazing to me (again) how different Swiss German and German are. (I've made comments about this before.) The group leader hands out song sheets each week for the songs we sing. I can't even pretend to pronounce the words. For example, here are the words for the song Brady likes the best, "Schiffli Fahre" (boat ride):

Schiffli fahre
ufem See
ha-n-i schöni
Sache gseh

chunnt e Wind
und
chunnt e Schturm

gheit das
schöne Schiffli
UM!

Most of these words are NOT German. And the spellings don't even amount to anything sound-wise in High German. So, it's been interesting to say the least. The other parents in the group know that I can't speak Swiss German and have been very helpful in speaking High German to me (and oftentimes very slowly!). But they seem very supportive of me and Brady...and have made us feel very welcome. I'm very excited about this new chapter and Brady has been very excited about "school" when each Tuesday rolls around.

Airing our Dirty Laundry

Now normally I wouldn't think a blog post should open with a photo of underwear, but when it's a post about potty training, then perhaps it's fitting. I've been slowly getting my mind around the potty training that we will shortly begin. I've picked an approach...the 3 day potty training method. I've started talking to Brady about it. We've purchased several sets of "big boy" underwear to include Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder and Transportation themed undies. We've purchased the potty that we will use. (See below photo) I've purchased some prizes for helping to reward Brady for using the potty. So, with all this said...I still don't feel quite ready!

It hit me today (even with all the above preparation activities) when I was getting Brady's new undies ready for the wash (and thinking how super cute these are!) what we are about to undertake! I'm super nervous, but kind of excited at the same time!

We've decided to start the 3-day potty regiment when we return from our Rome long weekend vacation in early November. So, if I don't return phone calls or emails within this time period...you know what's going on. Wish us luck, folks!

Brady Alexander Coyle Counts to...18

Brady doesn't really know how to count. He points at things he is "counting" and just starts saying his numbers. However, he does know his numbers in order to about 18. I say "about" because this is what he says, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 18!!!!" "18" is always yelled proudly. He is so cute. So, if you ask him to count how many there are of something, he always ends up with 18.

Brady also knows his full name and is proud of saying it. He also kind of knows how to spell his first and last name...if you start him off with the first letter. Check out the video!

For some of you, this is old hat...and you've seen Brady do it countless times. However, it's still super cute and something I wanted to document!

Highlights of our US Adventures

Brady and I visited the States for a few weeks in early September. We had an action packed trip that and enjoyed spending time with our families. We were able to take in "Day out with Thomas" while we were in the US as well as spend a week in Nag's Head, NC during our normal beach trek. I've included a few highlights below.

Day out with Thomas - Strasbourg Railroad, PA

Nag's Head, NC

Brady's first Miniature Golf Game (after getting a hole-in-one on his first hole...no joke!)

Monkey...a Swiss Citizen?

Many of you know some of the hassles we underwent to move Monkey over to Switzerland with us. We used a pet relocation service (yes...they exist), because we lived in a hotel for a week or so before flying over to Zurich. We also knew that we wouldn't be completely settled in when we moved into our new apartment. So, to reduce stress on Monkey (and ourselves) we used the pet relocation service. He arrived safely (and relatively happy) without any incident. However, prior to having the pet relocation service pick Monkey up at our home in NJ, we had to take him to the vet for a full examination and have our vet fill out tons of paperwork regarding the health and vaccination history of Monkey. Swiss law also required that we have a microchip identification device "installed" in Monkey. So, we did all this and Monkey was allowed into the country. (Note...it seems most Swiss cat owners allow their cats outside most, if not all, of the time. So, these microchip devices must come in pretty handy.)

A few months ago, Monkey had some issues with one of his hind claws and since he hadn't been to the vet in over a year, I decided it was time to take him. We trekked to the vet via bus (an interesting side story all together) and had him examined. Now, first of all, Monkey's hind claw was perfectly fine (although dirty), and he was healthy. The vet gave him an immunization that he needed. Then he asked to see my cat's health book. Whoops - didn't have that. Also hadn't had his microchip registered with the appropriate Swiss authorities. And on top of being totally delinquent with the first two items, the vet asked me if I was aware that my cat's front paws were declawed. (Shock and dismay in his voice.) I know this might not sit well with animal rights folks, and although at the time, I didn't realize that declawing is pretty stressful/painful for a cat, I am still glad we had it done. Apparently in Switzerland it's illegal to have tail/ear cropping or claw removal done to a pet. I was getting worried that we were about to get the boot right out of the country. I asked the vet if I needed to get some documentation that this was done prior to our arrival in Switzerland. He made a note in his records and said that we would be fine, that it was a "known problem that the US has". Hmmmmm. Then he gave me a health book for Monkey to keep track of his immunizations and also had me fill out the paper for registering Monkey's microchip with the Swiss company that keeps track of these (and of course charging me 50 CHF for the honor of keeping track of his microchip data). The funny thing about Monkey's health book, is that it's a pet passport. See picture below. So, I guess he's legit now. It even has a space for a passport-sized photo of your pet. (The photo is at least optional.)


Now, back to the declawing thing. I feel bad that I had this procedure done to Monkey to make my life easier. But I adopted Monkey from the Human Society and feel overall that his life is much better, even with the declawing. I do think it's somewhat frustrating that my vet made me feel like the worse pet owner ever, especially when the cats here in Switzerland spend all their time outside, half of them are missing eyes or tails because of cat fights. (We hear cat fights about once a week, at least.) Brady and I have a favorite outside cat that we see when we go to the grocery store and he's always got burrs and ticks in his fur. I don't see how that's any healthier. I've read countless articles that say cats that spend anytime outdoors often have more illness and shorter lives. So, anyway, my feathers were a little ruffled by the attitude this vet had towards me and Monkey. But I still think it's funny that he's legit even while missing some claws!

We're back....

Sorry for the delay in new posts. Brady and I took a 2 week vacation back to the US and since have been getting back into the routine of life here in Zurich. I have a few more posts that I'll be doing shortly to get us up to speed.

Funny Signs

Driving (traveling) in a foreign country is always pretty interesting, but these signs made for a few laughs.

Who needs a GPS when you have all these signs to guide you?

Not really funny, but just really nice.

We saw tons of these cow crossing signs, and several crossing signs for sheep

I wouldn't want to live on this street in St. Andrews (sorry, immature, I know...)

This refers to buying a parking ticket for a parking lot, but it sounded funny to me.

From St. Andrews Golf Course

One of the hundreds of roundabout signs we saw. This was one of the first ones we encountered when we were still confused by them. We literally probably only saw 5 "Stop" signs the whole trip.

So, I guess this one isn't funny either, but it was interesting. This is displayed several times near the Cliffs of Moher.

Brady's Book Review - Freight Train

Brady loves pretty much any book...but Freight Train by Donald Crews is his new favorite. He pretty much knows it verbatim. We actually checked it out from the American Women's Club library a few months ago, and then rechecked it out the week before we went on vacation. While I was perusing the travel book section, he started reading it in the library. Here is his take on the book. (Sorry for the choppy edit job...I haven't completely figured out IMovie yet.)

What's on Brady's IPOD

In the spirit of other "famous" people who have made public what's on their IPOD, we thought we'd list some of the songs on Brady's playlist. Now, not to be mistaken, Brady has several playlists, but most of these include Baby Einstein songs (from when we played music for Brady at nighttime) or Music Together kids songs. The listing below is from Brady's first playlist of "real" songs. (The word "real" is used loosely here as you will probably think some of the below don't warrant the word.)

1. Old Time Rock and Roll - Bob Seger
I've blogged about this one in the past. Brady refers to this as "Wok and Roll". It was added to his playlist one day after naptime. When I went to get Brady up from his nap, he was wearing his nice white/nautical sweater he got for Christmas, but no pants. The way the sweater collar was up around his neck and coupled with the diaper/no pants/white socks look he had going onreminded me of Tom Cruise in Risky Business. You can probably figure out the rest. I started singing that song and he's loved it ever since.

2. Real Gone - Sheryl Crow
The first song in the Disney Cars movie. Brady loves this movie and loves the songs too. Mom and Dad love how Brady says, "Weer Gone".

3. 1, 2, 3, 4 - Feist
(See the blog post with the same name for explanation)

4. The Locomotion - Little Ava
I started singing this one day when Brady had played with his trains all afternoon and it (unfortunately) got stuck in both of our heads. I downloaded this from ITunes for Brady's playlist soon after.

5. Life is a Highway - Rascal Flatts
Also from the Cars movie

6. Take a Chance on Me - ABBA
Again, unfortunately, I had this song stuck in my head one day and was singing it. Brady loved it and now loves the song.

7. Golden Girls Theme Song - ???
This one is embarrassing. Bea Arthur died a few months back and I saw some synopsis of her life on the web that included the theme song. I got it stuck in my head and yet again, Brady liked it. He actually requests it by saying, "Mommy, Thank You". He even knows part of the lyrics. I actually found this on ITunes and downloaded it for him.

Lesson learned: I need to refrain from singing annoying songs that are stuck in my head. The upside is that Brady catches on to songs very easily and loves singing. So, we have some fun...even if they are annoying. We played in Playlist on the driving parts of our trip many, many, many times!

Travelling Europe - Coyle Style

We have returned from our 9 day Scottish/Irish adventure and will be posting lots of stuff over the next few days. We had a great time and really loved everywhere that we visited. We (Bill) did lots of driving (probably trying to fit a little too much into our 9 days). But we can't really decide on which place we wouldn't have nixed if we had to do it over again. Below is a map of the places we visited.


View Scottish/Irish Travels in a larger map

We started off in Scotland and then took a ferry from Stranraer, Scotland to Belfast, Ireland. These ferries are awesome. For those of you who are interested, this was a wonderful way to travel. The ferries are HUGE (holding tractor trailers and buses as well as passenger cars). We used the Stena Line. The passenger part of the ferry was wonderful and even housed shopping and a nail salon. After driving around Ireland, we flew back to Zurich via Dublin.

We do plan to make a long weekend trip back to Killarney because we LOVED it and because we didn't get to visit a lot of the places we wanted. And we loved the hotel we stayed in while there.

Bill did a wonderful job of driving on the "wrong" side - apart from one curb hit, a few choice words during the first few roundabouts and the tiny Irish/Scottish roads.

However, as we were driving along one day while Brady napped, we came up with a few observations of how we travel. We've traveled enough with a small child to know that we have a bit of a routine down.

Here are some that we have found to be true for the Coyles (especially when traveling with Brady):

Coyle Travel Tip #1: City Tour Times = 50% x Travel Guide Stated Time.
We don't like cities and tend to breeze through the sites. With a stroller we are usually stuck walking around - not using public transportation, which also limits how much we can/want to see. Oddly enough, afterwards, we are usually completely happy with the amount of time we spent in a particular town.

Coyle Travel Tip #2: Playground Tourism Times = 400% x Travel Guide Stated Times
We even have found playgrounds not mentioned by the likes of Rick Steves, Fodors or other illustrious travel guides.

Coyle Travel Tip #3: Child ACTUAL snack requirements = 350% x ASSUMED requirements
I CANNOT believe how many puffs/cookies/apple sauces/goldfish crackers/craisins Brady ate while on this trip.

Coyle Travel Tip #4: Read the synopsis of a historical site AFTER seeing it.
This tends to be how we roll in the Coyle household. Not sure why. This creates a situation where we know something is historical significant when we see it, but don't know why until later.

Coyle Travel Tip #5 - Arrive WAY early for everything.
No one could ever accuse us of being late, but we have the opposite problem of constantly arriving too early. We habitually seem to arrive 2.5 hours early for flights, ferries, etc. We were the first folks who were waiting to get on the ferry in Scotland. We were in line at Edinburgh Castle before it opened. The list goes on...

Coyle Travel Tip #6 - Scope out airports/ferries/rental car returns the night before.
Yes, we are nerds, but we are prepared nerds. See also Coyle Travel Tip #5.

Coyle Travel Tip #7: When arriving to a new European locale, immediately seek out Mexican or Indian food establishments.
Because we don't have a good selection of Mexican or Indian food in Zurich, we seem to habit these spots often in other European cities. We've hit up Mexican food places in London, Prague (it was excellent!), and now Edinburgh. We also had some of the best Indian food ever in Galway.

Anyway, our travels are always a bit crazy, but fun. Hope you enjoy the next few posts.

1, 2, 3 ,4

Thanks to Brady's fascination with trains, he has easily learned his numbers. All trams here in Zurich have their numbers posted very clearly on the front and sides of the trams. The trams in Zurich are numbered 2 through 15 (with the exception of the number 12...not sure why it's omitted). One of Brady's favorite past times is yelling the number of the tram and which direction it's going ("other direction" or "right direction"). He now can tell these numbers when not associated with trams. It's pretty cool! And thanks to Feist's song "1,2,3,4", he's even started counting and putting it all together. Amazing!

(Photo taken from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2005_zurich_tram_cobra.jpg)

Irony

The above sign means that the speed limit is no longer restricted to 100 km/hr. You are now allowed to go 120 km/hr (Swiss autobahn) or unlimited km/hr (German autobahn). Unfortunately at the time of the photo, we were going 0 km/hr.

Random Swiss Times - The Catch Up Post

So, I've had every intention of doing tons of posts about every little event or weekend escapade that we have attended while here in Switzerland. (And we really strive to do something every weekend!) I also like to scrapbook events. I'm pretty much double dipping on the family memories and not doing a great job with either medium. So, in order to feel "caught up", I thought I would post some cool photos from some of our smaller jaunts around the country. And I plan to keep the commentary light. Enjoy!

Zug Day Trip

April 14th, 2009 - Took a quick mini tour of old town Zug and ate lunch along Zug See

Island Mainau

May 17th, 2009 - Trip to Island Mainau (in Lake Constance - border between Switzerland and Germany)

Island Mainau is an island that has been turned into a botanical garden. We enjoyed a nice picnic and stroll around the gardens, concluding our visit with popsicles!

Ballenburg Open Air Museum

May 30, 2009: Ballenburg, Switzerland

This is a museum that homes actual historical buildings from various parts of Switzerland that were dismantled and reassembled here. The museum also boasts handworks (like linseed milling, weaving, etc.) that have been done historically in various parts of Switzerland. This was a really cool museum and a fun hike. The museum is located in the Berner Oberland, which claims to be one of the most beautiful areas in Switzerland.



While touring the Ballenberg Museum, we stayed in a small town called, Meiringen, which is "famous" because it's waterfall is mentioned in one of the Sherlock Holmes stories. We stayed in the Sherlock Holmes Inn (as was evidenced by the carpet). And we also came across the Guinness Book holder for largest cowbell. We want more cowbell!!!!

Bern, Switzerland

May 31, 2009 - Bern Visit

On our way back from Ballenberg, we stopped in Bern. This town is actually the capital of Switzerland. Bern is named for “Baeren” or bears. Apparently the man who founded Bern said he would name the town after the next animal he hunted...hence Bern. The town actually has a bear pit where bears usually are living - although during our visit they were held somewhere else. They are in the process of building a new bear pit. This city was beautiful and we enjoyed a beautiful day outside, walking around.

The Bundeshaus - Capitol Building of Switzerland (Flags denote that it is in session.)

Playground hiatus

Ye Olde Bearpits

Berner Oberland 4-Wheel Excursion

June 11th, 2009 - Rebecca participated in an American Women's Club excursion to the Berner Oberland where the group drove 4-wheelers into the mountains. (After trekking through Interlaken streets). I was not brave enough to drive, but had fun taking in the countryside. We were serenaded with Alphorns at lunch and even had the chance to experiment. (I am even including the embarrassing photographic proof!)

My attempt to play the alphorn ended in failure!

Let's leave the playing to the professionals!


Rapperswil Day Trip

July 5th, 2009 - We took a quick trip down Lake Zurich to the town of Rapperswil. We enjoyed touring the old castle (built in the 1200's!) and walking along the lake. It was fun day out!

Brunch Ship - Lake Zurich

July 26th, 2009

We've wanted to try this brunch boat for some and finally made reservations. And we had a wonderful Zurich weather day to accompany us on our voyage. We departed from the dock in Zurich at 11:00 and enjoyed a 2 hour buffet brunch which included eggs, ham, various breads, cheeses, hams and cereals. It was lovely way to take in brunch, while getting beautiful views of Zurich and its suburbs!