Happy Birthday Cora!

Wow. I'm in disbelief that an entire year has passed. I know how cliche it sounds, but it's true- kids grow up soooo fast. While some individual days (and many, many nights!) seemed to have lasted a life time, in a strange way the year has also surprisingly gone very, very fast. 

It has definitely been the longest, most exhausting, scariest and hardest year of my life but in the same sense, Cora has also been the most wonderful and indescribably beautiful thing that I have ever been unexpectedly blessed with. All the long hours of feeding Cora tiny ounces from her special bottle, constantly worrying about her weight, worrying about her cleft palate, rocking her to sleep most every night after fits of unending crying, or just being completely exhausted from long, long days, I wouldn't trade it for the world. When she laughs, smiles, or gives me a little head hug, I know this is exactly what I am supposed to be doing at this moment in my life, and I'm so, so lucky.

Starting from trying desperately to feed her only 5-10 cc's of milk at once during each feeding, to now having a hard time cutting up enough bananas, avocados, meat and beans to fill her little belly, Cora is growing like a weed, and I am stoked. She's still tiny though- I haven't weighed her in a while, but I bet she's still only about 16lbs probably. But, I'm trying my best to fatten her up a little bit before her surgery (which we will have a better idea of the date next week after we meet with the doctor in Bern). 

Cora is also running around like a crazy little thing. She walks around, turns on a dime, runs (although it's a little wobbly), speed crawls and pretty much is ALWAYS on the move, which makes my job watching her in an un-baby proof house, very, very, very challenging!! She's becoming pretty independent though and she signs when she's hungry, and I can tell easily now when she is tired or needs her diaper changed, which is pretty cool. She points and squeals until she gets what she wants, which is great, but can be incredibly frustrating as well, especially if we are on the bus and I can't get to whatever it is she wants outside and she keeps squawking louder and louder until I can finally distract her with something else.

She also almost always sleeps through the night (from about 8:00 p.m to 6:00-7:00 a.m.), and takes two naps a day, one at 9:00 for about an hour and one at around 2:00 for about two. The afternoon nap changes though on occasion depending on what we are doing that day. Now, sorry if I'm boring you with my daily schedule, but I'm worried if I don't write it down I'll forget it someday, and I never want to forget all these little details. At a year, she also has six teeth- four on the top and two on the bottom, although I think she is getting one more on the bottom left because she is a drooly mess and is really fussy. She still smells like sweet milk mixed with passion fruit (from her Burts Baby Bee's soap) and her skin is the softest, warmest skin I have ever touched and snuggled.  Her white blond hair reminds me of silky corn husks, and I have high hopes her hair will curl, just like it is starting to do in the back.  Cora is such a little spitfire and loves to be the center of attention. As a friend noted, she is "As tough as nails" and I think she walks around like she owns the place, kind of like a little house elf from Harry Potter (or a little Piglet, I can't decide), she gets into everything and isn't phased by much as she steamrolls over all the big boys to get what she wants during play groups. I'm pretty sure we have our hands full for the rest of our lives with this little one. She's pretty damn awesome. Before we know it, she'll be blasting by us on skis or bikes and I'll be completely exhausted in a whole new way just trying to stay in good enough shape to keep up with her :)

Okay, now I'm done bragging about my kid (sorry), and here are some photos.

 

Birthday Gifts! (All wrapped in the same paper because it took me three trips to the stores here to find any paper ... I'm not even going to talk about the damn cup cakes because that endeavor here made me so frustrated I cried a couple of times. In the end though, they turned out ok.)

A rocking horse!!

Time for her first cake!!

Yumm!!

Here are a couple more photos of the past week :)

A view very close to home.

Down town Bern.

The Bear Park.

First funicular ride!!  

The playgrounds here are AMAZING. American Lawsuit City!!

Helping mom vacuum (with our little Euro vacuum that she thinks is a toy).

Helping mom figure out what the packages say at the grocery store. (She kind of looks guilty about something here though, or, she might be taking a poop. Not sure.)

Posing. 

Fun little Euro swing. We both fit on it and have so much fun!

Halloween and Settling In

The last couple of weeks have been tough adjusting- I've been super homesick and Cora has been adjusting to her new schedule, but she is doing her best to be as cute as possible to make this transition much better. We've been busy exploring, failing at many things (like opening a bank account, getting groceries besides wine, cheese and bread, signing up for an international phone, getting Nat a parking pass, getting our Visas completed, etc. etc. etc.) but we are slowly working out all the complex pieces of the puzzle. If anything, when we move home, all the little moving details will be a breeze! Cora just hangs out in her buggy like a good little girl while I tromp her all around town trying to figure out these silly, complicated details. Then, if we fail or not, we usually end up at a cute little cafe together for a coffee and bottle and watch all the stylish Europeans stroll along the quaint cobblestone streets.  Cora likes to smile and wave at all the pedestrians, which is pretty much adorable.

Last Thursday we found an English speaking play group to join, which was one of the highlights of our week! We met a few people and were able to speak English, which was WONDERFUL. Most people only speak Swiss German around my neighborhood, and although I can read and understand a little German, Swiss German sounds like an entirely different language. I guess we will learn eventually.

Also, even though Halloween isn't celebrated here, Cora dressed up as a cute little devil and we played around the house. Someday, hopefully, we will be able to take her Trick-or-Treating in a land where all the little kids are dressed up :) We really missed our neighborhood Thursday evening, but had a good time together instead up in our little Swiss penthouse. 

Alf Hunting.

Cora's trick of climbing through the coffee table.

Walking like crazy- hilarious because she is so tiny!

Thursday English Speaking Play Group!

Sad Devil.

Little Steps

This week's been about taking baby steps and getting into the rhythm of our new life.

Cora's completely off schedule and doesn't sleep well at night currently, so Nat and I have been exhausted trying to deal with her, get over our own jet-lag and figure out our new surroundings.

While Nat's been busy at work with sales meetings all week, Cora and I've explored our neighborhood- finding the grocery stores, the bus stops and train station, a couple good little coffee shops (which without more than 4 hours in a row of sleep and without a coffee maker, these adorable coffee shops are a life saver!) and today we explored the nearby forest on our morning run.

Yesterday Cora and I took the bus to the Bern bus station then got on a train to Fribourg to see dad at work. Considering we haven't taken a bus or a train yet, this was quite an adventure! Tromping around and getting lost in a foreign country solo is one thing, but with a needy baby things get a little more complicated. Never thought I'd be running around getting lost in Europe worrying about little baby hands getting too cold or running out of formula or frantically looking all over for misplaced baby shoes which were pulled off in the middle of the train station ....

Overall though, I'm still pretty homesick and really miss my animals, but I know it will get better. And Tanner will hopefully be here in a month or so when Nat's parents come out to help with Cora's surgery (which is still not scheduled yet, but hopefully we will know more next week).

Off to the market now!

Playing in the drapes again, urgh.

Our place is the top left attic. We have the 3 out of 4 pop out windows and the small balcony on the very end.

Cora is getting into EVERYTHING!