Katherine is 7 months old!

Well she is 7 and a half months already, I've just been really slow in posting this update as always... Oooops...

Wow! I know I keep saying that every month, but MY GOODNESS! How is it possible that our little baby is already 7 months old! I am amazed. It has been another fun month around here, filled with milestones, cuddles and giggles.

Stats:
I went in for a nurse visit just to have her weighed and measured. I am such a silly OCD mom. But since we've met our deductible for the year I figured what's the harm in that...

Weight: 19 lbs and 12 oz!! This girl is almost 20 lbs!! - 90%
Height: 27.5 inches - 90%

So she is a pretty big baby. Not fat just large overall. When I was undressing her the nurse kept saying "oh my you are so big..." and I kind of started feeling self conscious for her. What, is she fat or something? But no, she is absolutely perfect and proportional. She is just a big baby. It's not like her own parents are tiny people... I noticed on the nurse sheet I got they listed her body mass index which is around 18 and that's IDEAL!

Eating:
Katherine likes her solids a lot. She started the month with carrots and avocado and by now she has tried acorn and butternut squashes, sweet potato, green beans, parsnips, peas, apples, pears, peaches, apricots, plums and prunes, bananas, veal, chicken, turkey, egg yolk, yogurt and oatmeal. I've also given her some mixed grain cereal to slowly introduce gluten. I make all her food including meat and freeze it in ice trays.

By far her favorites are green beans and the two types of squash. When she first ate them she just kept gobbling them up and I kept bringing out more and more and more and finally I had to say enough. I think her least favorite ones have been parsnips (my guess because of the distinct nutty aftertaste) and peas (because I messed up on the texture front. I did not strain them and so even with a long cooking time they were just too tough and gritty and she kept gagging).

As far as fruit she initially did not like apples and she's kind of iffy about plums (again I think this is a texture thing, the plum skins don't grind up as fine as I would like). But she loves banana. She would eat it 3 times a day if I let her.

She now gets 3 solid meals per day, one small one of oatmeal with a bit of fruit after her morning bottle. Then at midday she gets fruit with yogurt and some cereal, and in the afternoon she gets veggies with meat and egg.

She has also had and loved puffs. I've been giving those to her to practice her pincer grasp and she is doing great with them. At first she would stuff her entire fist in her mouth to get them in but she is getting more and more precise and she's learnt to use her tongue to help scoop the puffs out of her hand.

This month we've been experimenting with doing a 4 hour feeding schedule. She started it by giving me a few days of excellent naps - as in she slept for 2 hour stretches. That lucky streak is unfortunately over but I am still sticking with feeding her every 4 hours. She seems to be doing great with that. She never cries or fusses for food so that tells me that she can last 4 hours between feeds. She eats at 7:30, 11:30, 3:30 and 7pm.

She gets a big bottle on the morning and evening and the other 2 times, the bottle follows the solid meal so she takes as much as she needs at that point.

But I was worried that she would get dehydrated so I gave her a 10pm dreamfeed a few times (we started with that the last week of the month).

Sleeping:
Well, it's an interesting situation. She still takes really crappy short naps. But she has had days when she's gone from 3 naps to 2 naps per day, 1.5 hours tops, normally 1 hour long.
As for nighttime sleep, that has definitely deteriorated somewhat. She still goes to bed just fine at 7pm. But a few times during the month she would wake up at night and cry, so I had to feed her. Perhaps it was a growth spurt. Then around 6am she'll wake up and start playing in her crib but a lot of the times now, she won't go back to sleep like she used to before. She still normally does not cry or fuss. She'll play till I go "officially" wake her. But because she's been up since 6 she then acts super tired by 9... That kind of led me to start with the 10pm feeding. Since then, she's been staying asleep a little longer.

Also I am experimenting with nap times. Since she now sometimes refuses to take the 3rd nap, I am having to try to push the 2 remaining naps a little later in the day so that there is not such a long and drastic stretch of time where she's up in the afternoon. My latest thing is putting her down for her morning sleep around 10am (she'll then sleep till 11 if I'm lucky) and the afternoon sleep at 2:30 (and she's supposed to sleep till 3:30). Then she can typically make it to 7pm without too much fussing. For a short while I would give in and put her to sleep at 6:30 but then I think that partly contributed to her waking up earlier in the morning...

Ughhh I hate sleep issues....

Milestones and Randoms:
This has been another month of milestones and new achievements. her second bottom tooth came in about a week after the first one. And it was rough! She was screaming, crying, she couldn't settle down to sleep. She was unhappy and exhausted. I had to give her Baby Tylenol a couple of times, which made such a huge difference. The first time I gave it to her she literally passed out in my arms in a matter of minutes. She was soooo tired, the poor thing, and the relief from pain finally allowed her to fall asleep... And now I am having to slowly get her used to the idea of brushing those chompers. We are nowhere near perfect yet but we are working on it.

Then the week after she got her tooth, she started rolling from belly to back. Now she will roll over several times, one roll after another, to get to a toy she wants. Sooo cool! And she is using her new skill for all kinds of crib acrobatics. This kid seriously changes sleep positions a hundred times each night. She loves sleeping on her belly and I feel totally comfortable with that now since she can roll both ways so easily.

About a week before she turned 7 months I finally got her to sit unassisted for however long she chooses. I have been trying to teach her to sit for a couple of weeks and she finally got it! She can sit really well now. But then when she gets bored with it, she will either fling herself backwards or sideways and conk her head on the floor, so I have to watch her. I got her some toys which promote sitting - like an activity table, where I took off 2 legs so it is resting at an angle and she can lean on it a little.

I also got her a little walker and she has quickly learned how to push herself around. She does it all the time, except she can only go BACKWARDS! But I hear that this is normal and that forward motion should come soon. It is fun to see her so mobile. She likes to push herself to the window and mess with the blinds or to the kitchen oven and pull down kitchen towels which are hanging at her grabbing level.

And here are some pictures from the month.

And her official 7 month photo, this time without the bear because we were on the road and were not able to get it done this time.

Jumper!

She loves her Bumper Jumper...

Motorcycle road trip

Posted by CJ -

With summer coming to an end it dawned on me that if I was going to ride a motorcycle across parts of Europe I need to get after it or I would lose my opportunity to weather, and then have to wait till next spring. Geneva had a bank holiday recently on a Thursday, which made for a perfect opportunity to take a Friday off and go on 3 day ride and still have a weekend day to be at home.

 

The story starts on Wednesday night where Anton (my co-worker that is joining me on this trip) and I attended a going away party for our Graduate Interns who are wrapping up their program and moving on. We knew the party was going to be late so we planned for a 10am start. Well, after a 3am bar closing, we were underway just before 11am heading out of Switzerland into France. We rode through some ski villages and all back roads until we got to Chamonix (home of Mt. Blanc tallest mountain in Europe) where we decided to stop to have a beer and a rest. I can tell you the beer helped us both and tasted great!

We then rolled through the rest of the French Alps and back into Switzerland, into the town of Matingey, this was the first flat land we saw and it was a welcome change for about an hour or so as we headed through the valley onwards towards a high mountain pass that would take us up and over and into Italy. On this part of the ride we got above 10,000 feet and above all the trees, and it got cold! However, as we dropped back down on the other side, it warmed up a little. As I mentioned we left later then we planned, therefore we were running out of sunlight and had to “find” a campsite which we did off a country dirt road.

Oh yeah, the plan was to save money and spend nights camping. We had tents, sleeping bags, etc. We setup camp, made a fire, cooked dinner, and had just cracked open a bottle of Jameson when the owner of the land came by and gave us hell in Italian! I didn’t understand much, however I did understand the Italian word for Police, so we decided to pack up and move. The good news is we had seen another place just 10 minutes away on the ride up that looked good, and indeed, in the morning when we woke up, we realized how beautiful our campsite was. The next morning we packed up and got on the road for day two.

We rode through some small Italian towns and took a ferry across a large lake. Then we had breakfast and then cruised along the lake road, which was about 1.5 lanes wide and made it fun when oncoming traffic approached... The ride was nice and relaxing as we headed towards Lugano, the largest Italian speaking Swiss city. Upon entering Swtizerland we made a few laps through downtown Lugano before heading towards 3 Passes. We rode up the highway for about an hour or so when we stopped for lunch and prepared to go up and over the highest passes in Europe. The cool part is these passes are very old, like Roman old, and are rarely used today due to the modern tunnels under the mountains. This means the only people on the pass are there for fun. We saw tons of motorcycles and hardcore cyclists. The ride was a lot of fun as we were above the trees right next to glaciers, alpine lakes and crazy switchback roads.

I can say for certain that the foot pegs on my rental bike are worn down and all scraped up along with the soles of my boots. After the third pass we headed down to Interlaken where we had a dinner in the center of town and picked up some cold beer before heading out to “find” a campsite. We ended up in the mountains above the lake. This time no one bothered us and we had plenty of time to setup camp and make a fire before darkness came, which then gave us time to enjoy our beer and finish the Jameson.

Morning came early on day three, as we needed to get our ride in and I needed to turn in my rental bike before the shop closed for the weekend. We rode from the Swiss German side of the country through some nice country roads and into the Swiss French side. On one of the curvy passes we came around the corner and came to a quick and unexpected stop, and we just missed hitting a herd of cows heading down from the high meadows to the farm after their summer grazing. We had to come to a complete stop and let the cows all come past us before we could continue. Thankful we didn’t hit any of them as I would never hear the end of it from UJ!

After a nice ride along the lake we arrived in Geneva and my odometer told me our three day trip came in just over 1,000 kilometers and about 90 percent of that was done on country roads or high mountain passes.

A very cool ride through France, Italy, and Switzerland and something that I will always remember. It’s not often on a motorcycle you can go from sitting outside in the hot sun drinking a beer, riding along a crystal clear lake and then hours later being right next to a glacier and then enjoying a fire in the forest.

Chateau de Chillon

One Sunday back in June we took a quick train trip up the lake to the Montreux area (read about another trip we took to Montreux here) and visited a medieval castle/former fortress Chateau de Chillon. It is one of the most spectacular castles in Europe and it is featured in one of Rick Steves' European tour guides (see here). I am shamelessly copying a paragraph from Steves' guide to give you a brief description.

Château de Chillon (pron. shee-yon) was the Savoys' fortress and residence, with four big halls (a major status symbol) and impractically large lakeview windows (their powerful navy could defend against possible attack from the water). When the Bernese invaded in 1536, the castle was conquered in just two days, and the new governor made Château de Chillon his residence (and a Counter-Reformation prison). Inspired by the Revolution in Paris, the French-speaking people on Lake Geneva finally kicked out their German-speaking Bernese oppressors in 1798. The castle became — and remains — the property of the Canton of Vaud. It has been used as an armory, a warehouse, a prison, a hospital, and a tourist attraction. Rousseau's writings first drew attention to the castle, inspiring visits by Romantics such as Lord Byron and Victor Hugo, plus other notables including Dickens, Goethe, and Hemingway

Some more information...

Excavations carried out from the end of the 19th century, in particular by the archeologist Albert Naef (1862-1936), affirm that this site has been occupied since the Bronze Age.
In its current state, the Castle of Chillon is the result of several centuries of constant building, adaptations, renovations and restorations.
The rocky island on which the castle is built, was both a natural protection and a strategic location to control the passage between northern and southern Europe.

The history of the castle was influenced by three major periods:

The Savoy period (12th century to 1536)The oldest written document mentioning the castle dates from 1150; it says that the House of Savoy already controlled the route along the shores of Lake Geneva.

Explicit reference to the castle is first made in 1150, when it is said that the Counts of Savoy controlled it, having acquired the rights to it, or sharing them with the sires of Blonay. As a result, they also controlled the route along the shores of the lake. In this document, Chillon is referred to as a castrum: given the mediaeval meaning of the word, this proves that there was a settlement associated with it. During the 13th century, the Counts of Savoy conquered most of the territory of Vaud, divided as it was into a number of small seigneuries. This marked the beginning of Savoy domination over approximately two-thirds of the territory which makes up today’s French-speaking Switzerland.

The Bernese period (1536-1798)
The Swiss, more precisely the Bernese, conquered the Pays de Vaud and occupied Chillon in 1536. The castle retained it's role as a fortress, arsenal and prison for over 260 years.

The Vaudois period (1798 to present)
The Bernese left Chillon in 1798 at the time of the Vaudois Revolution. The castle became the property of the Canton of Vaud when it was founded in 1803. The restoration of the historical monument began at the end of the 19th Century and continues to this day.

It was a cloudy at times rainy day as you will see from the pictures but we had a lot of fun. We explored the castle for a few hours and afterwards we had a lovely lunch of fondue at a nearby restaurant. It was the perfect way to spend a lazy Sunday.

This map with show you Chillon in relation to Geneva (which is in the left most tippy tip of the crescent shaped lake).

 View of the courtyard from the castle walls.

 I don't think this place was meant for tall people.

 Emergency exit medieval edition...

 Guess they used to roast oxen in these... Plus CHEVRON stripes from back in the day!

 Pretty furniture. I was tempted to take some home.

 Again - not a bed for tall people...

 Castle toilet...

Pretty views.

 Armory

It was a fun fun day!

Hiking in the Jura

Posted by CJ -

 

So a few days ago it was a nice Sunday in Geneva and what to do? Let’s go hiking!

 

Since the first time we flew into Geneva and every day from my office I look at the Jura Mountains. These are the mountains just across the border in France and are very pretty. They are covered in pine trees till they get too high, and then they are barren grass and cliffs.

 

It’s amazing we have been here 1.5 years and we have never been over to hike or ski on them. But that is because the Swiss Alps are on the other side and they are a wow factor as you have seen from other blog posts.

 

To put this in perspective the Jura highest point is 5,600 feet which would put it among the top 20 in terms of height in the NC mountains, still not as pretty as the Blue Ridge though.

 

After a quick 40 minute ride from our flat we arrived at the parking lot for the ski area and took the tram car to the top.

 

From there we set off on a hike across from one peak to the next, the fun part is that the ridgeline drops and then rise again, fun if you want a lot of down hill and then up hill, it’s like a roller coaster.

The view of Geneva and the Lake was just ok as there were some clouds in the way. However if you look closely you can see the famous water jet coming out of the lake. (it's that while spike where the lake juts into the land...)

The pictures don’t do this mountain justice it is much steeper than it looks, and the rock cliffs are very impressive.

 

After lunch at the highest peak we made our way back and decided to hike all the way back including down the ski slope.

It was a great afternoon and nice to have a mountain so close to go for a fun Sunday hike on.

Walking around Geneva - Stunts at Baby Beach

So in addition to Geneva Plage (beach) where I am a member, there is also an open public beach called the Baby Plage (baby beach) where a lot of families with babies and children come out on the weekend. I have not done it myself but we've walked by there often and recently this is what was going on there....
Yes crazy stunt bike jumps INTO the lake!! NUTZ!!!

Walking around Geneva - Big screen TV

This is how Europeans transport their massive tv's when there are no delivery trucks... haha... Just to be fair - when we bought our wardrobes at IKEA (6 foot tall) and had to transport them home in our temporary company car, we had to stick the boxes out the side window too as the back seat did not recline and we couldn't put them in the trunk. Too funny!