At long last

It's not easy to get our dog and our baby in the same picture. Actually, it's not easy to get Dog in a picture at all because he seems to bark every time we get the camera out. And until the last couple days, Dog and Baby have ignored each other in what I would call a peaceful coexistence. More recently, Baby has noticed Dog as he walks past her, and Dog seems to be concerned about Baby's well-being when she cries (which is A LOT these days). At long last, a picture of the two of them. Can you even see a dog or just his gray beard?

When you put it that way...

I'm sad to be leaving for Mexico this morning (and not just because of the prospect of spending around 20 hours traveling each way, although that doesn't help). When I get back, Munchkin will be 15 weeks old. So, by spending one week away, I'll actually miss 6.7% of her life to date! I remember a former colleague talking about the first time he went away for a long business trip and he came back so excited to see his baby daughter...and she cried as soon as he picked her up--I'm fully expecting a similar reaction. I'm also not happy about leaving Gretchen here alone. She already has about 99.5% of the responsibilities these days, but I like to at least help in little ways if I can. Between the baby, having to walk Grady, etc., I'm going to owe her big-time when I return! So I'll be missing them and thinking about them a lot. OK, no more sounding pathetic--I've got packing to do and then it's adios Basel, hola Mexico...

Travel mayhem

It's funny how my travels come in spurts--I can go a couple of months without ever leaving the office, then have a month or two packed with travel. There's no special reason for that; it just randomly happens that way. It's actually been really nice not having much travel lately because I don't like being away from my girlz for too long. But now things are about to get hectic.

Saturday I'm off to a week of meetings in Merida, Mexico, which should be nice to see (other than the 100 degree weather combined with stifling humidity) but a hassle to get to (three flights...what are the odds my luggage makes it?). Then I'm back here for a week, much of which will likely be spent trying to get the Chinese visa that I was so cruelly denied today because they wanted to keep my passport for a week despite my telling them I have to leave for Mexico this weekend. Then it's off to Beijing for a few days (assuming I can procure said visa), which I really do want to see. Then back here for the weekend and off to Rome for more meetings, but at least on that trip I'll be taking the girlz and we're planning to tack on a weekend on the Amalfi Coast. Then back again for a few days and off to London followed hopefully by a little bit of holidays, then off to a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. As great as it is that I get to see lots of interesting places, the travel itself is exhausting so I have to say that even though it's September I'm already counting the days until Christmas...

Kürbis Fest

This weekend was possibly Gretchen's favorite event of the year...the annual pumpkin festival at a nearby farm. The weather was nice, the pumpkins and squash were bounteous (allegedly more than 200 different types), the cows were cowish, the Kürbis soup was pumpkinesque, and a good time was had by all.

Geblitzt!

Last night. Driving home from dinner. Baby crying in the back seat. No...baby SCREAMING in the back seat. Hysterically. Needs The Boob. Gotta get home. Fast. Feeling the Angst. Driving along Bottmingerstrasse. "WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Hurry, hurry, hurry.

FLASH!

What the...?

FLASH!

Uh oh--I think I've just been geblitzt.

Luckily I was only doing around 60kph in a 50kph zone, so I'm hoping it's not too steep a fine. Still, it comes on the heels of recently arriving home to another ticket in the mail for doing 37kph in a 30kph zone within blocks of our home (where was the camera hidden?). Plus, while I've seen plenty of other people geblitzt (we have cameras near my office), there was absolutely no question in my mind that I was the guilty party this time. I don't generally think of myself as a fast driver here, but I'm afraid the local authorities may be thinking otherwise.

People watching

After spending a few days in Amsterdam with our little girl I've discovered one of her favorite past times... people watching! It's something we have in common, I guess, because I could also spend hours sitting on a bench watching the world go by in any given city around the world. Several times during our days of wandering the streets of Amsterdam we would stop at a outdoor cafe (thankfully we had beautiful weather), have a little snack (both of us), and then just sit and enjoy the surroundings. Often we would sit just long enough to put Baby to sleep. People watching is tiring work!

Home again

Gretchen may have more to say about Amsterdam (alas, I was working the whole time and so didn't really get to enjoy it), but our week there was a reminder that it's truly one of our favorite cities, and one where we could easily imagine ourselves living (but no, we're not looking to move). In the meantime, this picture Gretchen took during her wanderings around the Jordaan neighborhood sums up the charm of the city:



Now I have a week at home and in the office to prepare for a week of meetings (sans family, unfortunately) in Merida, Mexico...

Changin' times

This trip to Amsterdam is the first time I've tagged along on one of Kirk's business trips in our new, post-baby world. Once again, I'm reminded of how our lives are changed. Note to self: Remember that you are no longer the boss. Baby is the boss. One of the great luxuries of our Basel experience over the past couple years has been my ability to travel with Kirk and play while he works without having to worry about using precious vacation time from my own job. Thankfully, my employment in Basel as a Hausfrau has provided unlimited vacation time. But this trip is somehow different than all the others... and while I'm very happy that I came along, traveling alone with a baby certainly does present challenges.

Amsterdam is one of my favorite cities. It's such a great place to walk around. I love the people watching, the bikes, the laid-back attitude toward life, the variety in food (we've had excellent Thai and Indonesian meals), the canals, and the ability to speak English with everyone (without feeling guilty while asking "do you speak English?"). Plus, the shopping is great, people seem to have a very cool sense of fashion, and there are street cafes everywhere.

One of my main goals in coming to Amsterdam was to shop. I absolutely hate shopping in Basel (for clothes and shoes, etc). I can never find any stores I like there. And while I'm no fashionista, I find most of the fashion in Basel quite bizarre and unappealing. I remember from past trips that I love the shopping in Amsterdam. Reasaonable prices for good quality and unique styles. I desperately need new clothes because I'm in that ugly post-pregnancy stage. Nothing fits me. And I don't feel good in anything I wear. My self-esteem needs a boost.

Have you ever tried shopping in a foreign city with a 3-month old baby who no longer likes to spend much time in her stroller? Herein lies the challenge. I have to time it perfectly. The moment she falls asleep in her stroller I race into a store to find a few things to try on. No time for careful contemplation. If it fits and I like it, I buy it. My time is limited and I know that any minute she will wake and cry and want to be held upright so that she can see where we are and watch the people walk by (she loves to see her surroundings).

Have you ever tried to take a stroller (actually, a European-style pram) into a changing room? They don't fit. So I usually try to find a changing room at the end so I can leave the drape thing open. Otherwise I have to leave her out of my sight, which may actually be acceptable in Europe, but my American sense of paranoia comes out.

Have you ever tried to use a toilet while your baby is in her stroller and all the bathrooms seem to be really small? When I'm in Basel, I know where there are good bathrooms where I can take her along and fit into a handicpped stall (usually department stores). While in Amsterdam I have limited myself to very few pees during the day. This is not normal for me. I have a tiny bladder and usually stop several times a day. But now I have no choice! Yesterday, while having lunch at a small cafe, I managed to pee while holding Baby while I left the stroller (with all my purchases) outside hoping that only honest people would walk by.

Then there's the issue of public diaper changing. I've mastered the skill of changing a poopy diaper with her lying in her stroller on a side street (my attempt at being sort of out of view of the general public). Not that I like it, but I can do it. You can't always find a changing table when you need one. And there's the issue of public breast-feeding. Sorry if you don't like it. This baby refuses a bottle and the breast is the only way she eats so it's got to be done! Thankfully I've gotten very few stares while nursing in Amsterdam and usually it comes with a smile from other women who seem to be saying they know what I'm going through.

The bottom line is this: I still love traveling. I still love Amsterdam. My shopping has been successful. Most importantly, life is definitely different with a baby!

Doritos for breakfast?

Yesterday, while strolling through Amsterdam, I bought a bag of Doritos at a neighborhood convenience story. I also bought a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup at the American book store. These are two of my favorite decadent American treats that you could never find in Switzerland. I love discovering different American products in the stores while traveling in other cities. To be honest, I really never bought Doritos or Reeses when I lived in the US, but now these purchases made my day. I also bought a couple trashy American magazines (People and US)... just because I could! What is it about finding products from home that is so exciting?

Upon arrival in Amsterdam earlier this week, I stocked up on a few snacks to keep in the hotel room, knowing there would be times that I wouldn't be able to get out even if I was hungry because Baby would be sleeping, etc. Take this morning, for example. She has been napping for a couple hours now after initially waking up at 7:15. Not that I'm complaining. Thankfully I had a banana, and some cashews, and some grapes for an early breakfast. But now I'm hungry again. I ready to move on from the healthy snacks to the Doritos. They're just so tempting. Who cares that it's only 10:00 am? I'm getting desperate...

Rico suave

Taxi from Barajas Airport to central Madrid: 25 euros

Light dinner for two at Argentine restaurant near Puerta del Sol: 35 euros

Getting home and finding a napkin still tucked in your belt: Priceless



(Best of all, this happened at least twice more during in the trip...)

Lessons learned

Now that we've successfully completed our first holiday with a baby, we've learned some things that may be helpful in the future

(1) When your friend meets the baby for the first time and says "oh, she's so funny-looking!", something was probably lost in translation from Spanish to English so you shouldn't let it bother you.

(2) It's pretty much a given that the baby will poop at the least opportune moments: right as the "fasten seat belt" sign goes on, just as your food is arriving, in the middle of the Alhambra. She pooped and we (and by "we", I mean "Gretchen") changed diapers in some spectacular settings.

(3) Same goes for breastfeeding, which is all the more interesting since breastfeeding in public in Spain isn't really very common. But when the baby has to eat and won't take a bottle, what can you do? The highlight was probably breastfeeding in the most famous courtyard of the Alhambra...regrettably I only took a picture of the courtyard and not the actual feeding itself.



(4) Despite baby outfits generally being smaller than a pair of my boxers, for some reason we ended up carrying twice as much luggage as we would have in the pre-baby days.

(5) If you don't want to bring along a full week's supply, it's amazing how much time can be spent just trying to find the right size diapers.

(6) Traveling someplace where children are welcome makes a huge difference. (In other words, Spain is a better vacation option with a baby than, say...Switzerland.) People would stop to say hola to Munchkin and kids were regularly running around at 9:30pm like it was noon. That made it not so bad when people stared when it was necessary to change her diaper or breastfeed (and I think most of the starers were probably tourists, not Spaniards).

(7) Sometimes you just have to trust people. In the chaos of Atocha Station, Gretchen had to open the stroller to change Munchkin, which was a challenge since she was holding her in one arm and I couldn't leave my hard-earned spot in line. Seeing her struggle, an elderly woman approached and offered to hold Munchkin while Gretchen opened the stroller. Handing your baby to a complete stranger in a train station can be a bit scary, but it was just what she needed. Later at a restaurant in Sevilla, the manager asked if she could walk with Munchkin--next thing we knew, she was parading her back to the kitchen to show her husband.

(8) Spanish sounds beautiful to a baby. And to adults, for that matter.

(9) Spending a little extra on hotels that are comfortable for you and baby is money well spent. I spent hours looking at hotel websites trying to assess whether rooms would be large enough for a crib and seeing if it looked like chairs would be comfortable for breastfeeding (I can't believe I even think about that sort of thing now).

(10) You can still do things with baby in tow--you just can't do as much. Back in the days of old, we might have a list of things we wanted to do/see, and we'd be out from dawn to dusk. Now we know to have one or two priorities and anything else is a bonus.

Now, after surviving our first holiday, we leave tomorrow morning for Amsterdam, where I have meetings this week. Gretchen is looking forward to doing some shopping, especially at her new favorite store, HEMA. Let's hope it goes as well as last week...

Holiday in a nutshell

Day One: Basel-Madrid

Fly to Madrid. Luckily there are no problems with Munchkin's ears on the flight, and we get three seats to ourselves so she can eat in privacy. Her first flight is a big thumbs-up! Wander around Madrid during the evening.



Day Two: Madrid

Friends Beatriz & Julio and their new baby (just a few weeks older than Munchkin) have us over to their house for the day in the Madrid suburbs. It's great to get caught up with friends and to get a taste of suburban life Spanish-style. We go out for tapas, and what goes better with gambas a la plancha than a bottle of formula?



Day Three: Madrid-Sevilla

Wander the streets of Madrid in the morning, then catch the high-speed AVE train to Sevilla in the afternoon. Ignore advice to pre-book tickets and instead spend a chaotic hour waiting in line at Atocha Station. Temperature in Sevilla at 6:30pm is 39.5C/103F. When we comment on the heat to the hotel bellboy, he says "now it is not hot, but in the middle of the day it is like hell." Resolve to wake early.

Day Four: Sevilla

Sleep late. Oops. Still, what's left of the morning is noticeably cooler and refreshing. Visit the Alcazar, which is really impressive. Return to the hotel to escape the heat. Decide to go for a cheesy horse-and-carriage ride. Driver omits half the tour, but we don't care at that point because the horse is so slow we just want to get out.





Day Five: Sevilla

Visit the Cathedral, which is alleged to be the largest in the world. Unfortunately much of it is closed off for ceremonies, but it's still quite impressive. Wander shopping streets downtown. Learn from experience and book tickets for train to Granada. Try to escape the heat. Spend the evening wandering the old Santa Cruz neighborhood and gawking at sights like the Giralda, which was once the minaret of the mosque during Moorish rule and then became the bell tower for the cathedral.



Day Six: Sevilla-Granada

Bid farewell to Sevilla. Overall impression: uncomfortably warm, but beautiful and well worth a visit. Take train (NOT high-speed) to Granada with countless other tourists doing the Andalucia circuit. Walk downtown and encounter ladies aggressively trying to scam tourists, street punks, semi-crazy people, etc (interestingly, we are warned about this in Sevilla but encounter nothing like it--they seem to have made some sort of exchange with Granada). It's 5:00pm, yet every shop is closed and we can't find food anywhere. At 5:30pm, all of a sudden all of the shops open and people pour into the streets. Effort to find food takes so much out of us (we're like foraging animals preparing for hibernation) that we call it an early evening.

Day Seven: Granada

Wander the charming old Albaicin neighborhood and catch our first panoramic view of the Alhambra across the valley. Take the bus up to the Alhambra. The whole site is impressive, but the Nasrid Palaces in particular--wow. No, really--wow. Words can't do it justice (at least not that I can come up with).







Day Eight: Granada-Marbella

Rent a car and say adios to Granada. Impression: not a great start, but in the end very positive (Gretchen may even prefer it slightly to Sevilla). Have heard mostly negative things about the Costa del Sol, so have low expectations (but Malaga is closest airport to Granada, hence our visit there). Stop for lunch in Nerja--sun is shining, water is blue, palm trees are swaying in the breeze...what's so bad about this? Drive on past Malaga and realise why the area gets a bad rap. Finally arrive in Marbella, which seems somewhat less cheesy than the rest of the coast. As long as we look at the water and not the buildings it's all good. Hear jokes on two different BBC shows about the type of people who fly to Malaga for holidays.



Day Nine: Marbella

The one day of our holiday that is actually devoted to nothing but relaxing. Hang out by pool. Walk along beach. Eat fried fish. Witness much topless sunbathing (there are more nipples than a pacifier factory). Wish most would not sunbathe topless (you may see an example if you look closely enough at our self-portrait).





Day Ten: Marbella-Basel

Up at the crack of dawn for the drive to Malaga Airport. Impression? Nicer than expected, but not rushing back. Remind selves to try never--ever--again to find ourselves at Malaga Airport. Smooth flight, no problems. Sadly, back in the office by afternoon as if we never left...

[Come to think of it, that was a pretty long nutshell, wasn't it?]

Our little traveler

We've returned from a wonderful holiday in Spain. I'll let Kirk fill in the details of our adventures later, but for now I want to share just one little (albeit important) fact... our little girl is a superstar traveler! Despite any anxiety we had about spending 10 days traveling around Spain with a 11-week old baby, it couldn't have gone better! We've even perfected the art of taking family self-portraits, this one taken in the back of a horse-drawn carriage in Seville.

Olé, olé olé olé...

There's been no time to post anything interesting this week (or perhaps it's more accurate to say that nothing interesting happened this week), but now we're just about ready to leave this afternoon for our adventure in España. Here's hoping we have easy and safe travels, a happy baby (early indications from our voracious little eater this week have not been good), and sunny-but-not-sweltering weather. (Unlike The Big Finn, who has been a dedicated blogger on his holiday with Mrs TBF in Italy, we have no intention of lugging a laptop around Spain and posting from the road...)

Typical

Pretty much every little Alpine village has an achingly quaint church like this, and I have to say it still hasn't gotten old to see them...

Success, Part 2

You'd think it would be hard to match the excitement of the cowbell, but little did we know that a second quest would soon be over shortly. We noticed an antique place (or, rather, a Brocante) near the cowbell shop that we decided to check out. As we were walking up, Gretchen reminded me that she was really hoping to find an old pair of wooden skis from back in the day. I think it's a Swiss regulation that every Alpine hotel has to have a few ancient pairs of skis as part of the decor. Every time we go to the mountains, it's all I can do to keep Gretchen from prying them off the wall and smuggling them out in her ski bag.

So what was the first thing we saw when we walked up? An old pair of skis! They had not just one, but two pairs out in front, with more in the back. We opted for the relatively newer pair (he figured they were from the 1950s), in part because unlike the others they would (barely) fit in our car.

So when we get back to the States, our house is going to be seriously rocking the Stübli style. (On a related note, we decided that our acquisition of the cowbell and skis, combined with my earlier purchase of an old-school broom, meant that a cuckoo clock would a bit too over the top.)



On top of that, the place was called "zum Bebbi", so we asked the guy running the place if he was from Basel (Baslers are known informally as Bebbis). He said he was, but that he had to get out of Basel because there was "too much noise, too dirty, too much stress". Which just goes to show that everything is relative, since when people ask us what we think of Basel, among the first adjectives that tend to come to mind are quiet, clean and relaxed. (Then again, we've been cautioned that parts of Basel are basically ghettos--y'know, where the immigrants live--that should be avoided, especially at night, yet I wouldn't hesitate to walk in most of those areas at 2:00am.)

Success, Part 1

At long last, our quest for a genuine Swiss cowbell is over! Friends of ours were in a typically tiny and quaint little town at the foot of the Alps called Erlenbach im Simmental a few weeks ago and told us they had stumbled on a place that appeared to have a good selection of genuine old-school cowbells.

That was all we needed to hear. Since car trips are getting easier and no rain was in the forecast, we decided to load up the car and drive down to see what we could find. We didn't really know what we were looking for, but as we were driving through town we passed an old shop with big cowbells in the window and we knew that had to be it. We approached with a mix of excitement and apprehension...only to find that, despite a bunch of old cowbells available for browsing outside, it appeared to be closed. DOH!

Just when it appeared all was lost, a little old lady came out and started speaking to us in Swiss German. Eventually it became clear that not only did they have bells in front, but they had a bunch back in their workshop as well (Gretchen saw a flier indicating that the guy who owned the place was an expert on Swiss cowbells...what are the odds we would find him in tiny little Erlenbach?). So I had my pick of at least a dozen old cowbells in different shapes and sizes, all with the original leather belts. It was almost too much to choose from, but since the couple who owned the place seemed old enough that there was no guarantee they'd still be around if we managed to return, I knew I had to choose something right then and there. I ultimately chose one from the region--she complimented me for picking one with a "good sound". I have no idea what we'll do with it when we get back, but I can assure you it was worth every Franc...

What we've learned

As she grows bigger and older, we are learning more and more each day about our Baby and her personality. Now that she's reached 10 weeks, I can make the following conclusions.

Life is primarily about eating, sleeping, and growing. She seems to be in a constant growth spurt. She often has a couple days of nothing but eating (which is not much fun for me), followed by a couple days of nothing but sleeping (during which she is presumably growing). Take today, for example. Last night she slept 7 hours (10:00 pm to 5:00 am), woke up to eat a bit, went back to sleep 'til 7:00 am, ate a bit more (and played with Daddy for a few minutes), then took a 3.5 hour nap! Here she is working really hard at growing during this morning's nap.



She is a social butterfly. Seriously, she gets bored of me after being home with me all day. We MUST do some socializing each day, or else we both go a little bonkers. She likes to be the center of attention at all times (hmmm... who does this sound like...) and doesn't mind being passed around to be held by all her admirers. Last week, at a coffee gathering with my "spouses" group (organized through Kirk's work), at least 6 different women held her and she LOVED it! She even likes to smile at strangers who talk to her while she's riding around the city in her stroller. Here she is with our friends Jeff and Marlis (her best friend) at a BBQ last night. A happy girl!



As a baby, there's a lot to think about. Although she does give us the occasional smile, she is generally a serious baby. She is often very pensive, with a furrowed brow, looking as if she's contemplating the troubles of the world (hmmm... who does this sounds like...).



She likes animals. OK, perhaps it's a bit too early to reach this conclusion. But she doesn't seem to mind sharing her bedroom with an aging, albeit handsome, 70-pound black lab. And she really likes staring at the animals in her mobile while lying in her crib. Sometimes she even talks to them! I'm sure she'll enjoy the Basel zoo as much as her Mom does... if I ever get around to taking her there!



She also has a couple very important dislikes that are worth mentioning. So far, she refuses to take a bottle, and is not too crazy about being carried around in the Baby Bjorn. I keep telling her that I'm not giving up on either one, so she might as well give in. But she's a bit of a stubborn girl who, at least so far, is not into negotiating. Imagine that, a girl with her own independent mind.