Camping with a Baby

We are going camping for a week on Corsica next month so I'm gathering pointers on camping with a baby. So far we've decided that Coco will be feasting the whole time on Ella's Kitchen. I was happily surprised to learn that Ella's are certified organic by Oregon Tilth and that their baby rice is brown rice instead of white. Won't it be easy? Nothing to worry about but spoons and bibs! 

Until a couple weeks ago, I thought that squeezing baby food out of a pouch and onto a spoon to feed your baby was a little weird. In fact, I was against store bought baby food altogether. But that all changed when Coco took a liking to Nestlé baby food after weeks of not touching my homemade purées. Now that we have a seasoned eater on our hands, I love store bought baby food and I think  that baby food from a pouch is pretty much completely rad. 

Have you gone camping with your baby? What worked out well and what didn't? I'd love to hear your tips and tricks before we head south in a couple weeks! 

{photo from ella's kitchen}

Zurich: Beautiful Old Doors

Tonight was a lovely warm evening so J, Coco and I took a walk through town. We enjoyed a nice little picnic dinner and then we strolled through Lindenhof. J is planning a photo-led scavenger hunt for his class. The idea is that within a boundary area and allotted amount of time, the children have to look for (and find!) 32 different doors, each unique and beautiful. As we strolled along looking for pretty doors, it was fun to see the area through a different lens and to notice all of the gorgeous exteriors and old houses. 

We saw people taking their dinner out onto their balconies, cats lounging on garden walls and people hanging out their windows smoking cigarettes. It was a great night to be out and on the way to the tram home, we saw the Zurich Musikkorps brass ensemble playing on the Rathausbrucke. Coco was blown away. 

I say if your baby has a late nap and wakes up at 5:30, don't bother fighting it. Just get out and enjoy your found evening. :) Here are a few of my favorite door photos J took. 

Zurich is such a pretty city. It's one of the things I love most about living here. What do you love about where you live? What makes it special to you?

Baby Gender Dreams

It's said that the dreams you have while pregnant regarding your baby's gender are never wrong. So far based on my one pregnancy, I can say that this is true. When I was about 15 weeks along, I had the most vivid dream about our baby.

I was going to the doctor for a routine check and found myself walking down the hallway of my doctor's office. No one else was there, it was quiet and warm evening light came in through the windows. None of the lights were on and the door to her examination room was open. I walked through the door. The windows were open and the curtains were billowing in the breeze. Then I saw that our ultrasound picture was projected on the wall, larger than life! I looked at it, felt a swell of motherly love and said to myself, "Look! There's our baby!" And then I noticed that emblazoned across the top of the ultrasound was the word Mädchen. 

"Oh no!" I thought in the dream,  now aware that I was dreaming, "Now I know that the baby is a BOY!" After all, M is for male, right? And with that, I woke up and was a little disappointed because J and I really wanted to keep our baby's gender as a surprise for the delivery. 

So that morning, while were getting ready for work, I told J about my dream and finished with the disappointing revelation that we now knew we were having a boy. :( But then J told me that Mädchen actually means "little girl." I was so delighted that it would still be a surprise! Plus, I really, really, really wanted a baby girl so badly I could hardly see straight the whole nine months. ;) 

It was the one and only dream I had about the baby while pregnant. 

In the end, the dream was right and we had a little girl. Isn't it funny that I dreamed it in German?! And I don't even really speak German! I suppose on some level we learn an unknown language more than we think when we're constantly surrounded by it. Did you have dreams of your baby's gender? Were they right?

Our Little Eater

I was so frustrated last week that I swore off giving Coco solid foods for a whole month. But something didn't feel right about that. After all, she is nearly nine months old and should really get used to eating since she'll be doing it for the rest of her life! ;)

So I decided to try lots of different things. I'd been making all her baby food with the Babycook and started to suspect that maybe she just didn't like it. So I picked up a few new things. I got a millet cereal with pear and apple. Winner! And then, when that worked two days in a row, I got some Nestlé meals and apple and banana purée.

Wow. My baby food has nothing on that stuff. Today Coco polished off 100 grams of garden vegetables and veal and then went on to have 65 grams of apple and banana purée. I was so surprised! And she was so satisfied an content and happy. Hurrah! I'm so happy for her. 

What a sweetie. I love her to the moon and back!

Father's Day at the Walensee

For Father's Day, we took the train to the Walensee and did a gorgeous, long hike through the forest, past the highest waterfall in Switzerland and along the beautiful lakeside. It was lovely. Coco started the journey with a nice long nap with her daddy in the Ergo. How appropriate for Father's Day! ;) Photos and more below if you'd like to see.

The weather was gorgeous, just this side of too hot and spectacularly sunny. This is the view from the dock  in Mühlehorn waiting for the boat, which we took across the lake to Quinten. Can you believe the incredible color of that water?! 

From Quinten we walked to Weesen. With the baby and stopping for a picnic and water and breaks, it took us about five hours. The trail quickly went up and we had amazing views. Coco rode on J's back in the Ergo and did so well. She was pretty content the whole time!

At one point, she fell asleep like this. Do you think she was trying to tell us something? ;) How priceless is that with her sweet chubby little fingers? Made me laugh!

All of these photos were taken with Instagram, our all time favorite app! My Instagram is @foliorose if you'd like to follow me and J's is @_j_n_y_ if you'd like to follow him, too. Lately, we're really into the hashtag #caughtgramming. So here I am caught Instagramming! What can I say? It's addicting. :)

We stopped for a little break and J caught me by surprise eating a granola bar. How cute is Coco playing with the wrapper? So darling! 

At one point, the trail went through a tunnel, which was super cool and such a nice break from the heat and sunlight. 

On the way home, I snapped this sweet pic of J and Coco in her "Daddy's Girl" romper. Is that not the most adorable father-daughter photo of all time? They are quite the pair those two! Now when he gets home from work, she is absolutely giddy to see him. Lucky baby and daddy!

We sat in the bistro car and got Coco all set up on a blanket to play. 

Her thighs just kill me. I am crazy for her sweet chubby legs!

While she played happily, and charmed the heck out of the staff and conductor, J and I enjoyed a well-earned glass of prosecco and watched the scenery go by.

Happy Father's Day, J! Coco and I think you're the bee's knees. xo

Busy Bees

I've been busily preparing for a webinar I'm presenting on Positive Discipline at the end of the month. It's so much harder than I thought it would be to bring all this wonderful information together in a concise and accessible way. My goodness! So that has taken up a lot of my energy the last few days. It's deadline time!!!

Here are a few pictures of our little darling. She has learned this week to move! It's so amazing. She slaps her hands on the floor in front of her and pulls! Then she goes places. Like today at my friend Karina's house, she went for a vase on a low shelf - and got to it! Luckily I got there in time, too. I guess this means we have about one week to do some baby proofing. :) What an exciting time!

Pink Dishes

It's a well known fact that I love pink. And perhaps it's going a bit over the top, but we now have pink dishes! :) Most of them are actually white, but I couldn't pass up these sweet pink bowls or the pink dessert plates, either. I love the delicate, flower like appearance of the bowls. They're dainty and have a sweet vintage feel to them. I nearly passed them up, but I'm so glad I got them in the end. I was standing there at IKEA, all ready to pick out some boring, utilitarian white dishes when I said, "Hey, wait a minute! We're not going to live here and eat off of these dishes forever, why not have something fun?" And that was that. I do think pink dishes will be very fun. 

IKEA has a lot of romantic, whimsical stuff right now, with floral patterns and scalloped edges all over the place! I used to prefer everything to be modern with clean lines. Now I find I like a touch of frill. What's your decorating style? Would you ever have pink dishes? ;)

Baby Essential: Nuscheli

The word Nuscheli does not have an English equivalent. I had never seen or heard of these genius little things until I came to Switzerland. They're the little scarves that Coco is always wearing. They're also burp cloths, sun shades, bandanas, bibs, washcloths, towels, basically anything you need them to be. They're the original cloth diapers here in Switzerland, and although some people still use them as diapers, they're much more commonly used for just about everything else. Last week I got a set of small ones in an array of bright colors for washing Coco's face and hands after she eats. When they arrive, they're perfectly flat and absolutely gorgeous.

Then, after you wash and dry them, they become wonderfully textured and dimensional. It's almost magic how they change!

Nuscheli have become my go-to gift for mamas-to-be and I have pretty much taken to stockpiling them for personal use. They come in three sizes. 30x30 cm, shown here, ideal for wiping noses when dry, or for cleaning faces and hands when wet. This size is also wonderful to tie one onto the pacifier chain as an added soother. Coco loves the texture of her nuscheli. The next size up is 60x60 cm, the perfect scarf or burp cloth size. Finally, the biggest are 80x80 cm, which is good for covering her pram while she's snoozing in there. When we leave Switzerland, I will probably take at least 100 nuscheli back to the States with us. They're indispensable and I honestly can't imagine having a baby without them!

See more after the break.

I like to match Coco's nuscheli to her outfit. She loves the way they feel and enjoyed putting them in her mouth for a long time. Now she's taken to sleeping with one. It's the cutest thing ever!

Here we are still in the hospital. Nuschelis everywhere! And doing serious duty. Like I said, impossible to live without. :)

Or, if you're J, you come up with silly little games and roll up a nuscheli to put on Coco's head. Precious! 

What's your favorite all-purpose-can't-live-without-it baby essential? I would love to hear. 

Matchy-Matchy Family Photos

I just ordered a kurtan and bloomers for myself and Coco from Rikshaw Designs for our family photos this summer. I'm thinking J can wear a white linen shirt and his turquoise J.Crew pants and we will all match. Is that just completely disgusting? Probably. But I love the idea, anyway.

Would you do matchy-matchy family photos? Have you? What would you have thought of the idea ten years ago? Or five even? ;)

Zurich: Babu's Bakery & Coffeehouse

One of my absolute favorite spots in Zurich is Babu's Bakery & Coffeehouse on Löwenstrasse. Their coffee is delicious: I always get a hazelnut latte macchiato. And they have fantastic food: My favorite is the Parma Schinken sandwich, which I think we'd just call a prosciutto sandwich in English, but in German they call it Parma Schinken. Isn't Schinken a funny word? Not to be confused with schminken. Look that one up and have a laugh. ;)

Today Coco and I went to Babu's with my friend Nina and her daughter, Lilja. We had a table outside that was just perfect. When we arrived, it was overcast and cool. By the time we left, it was full sun and blazing hot. It's amazing how the weather here changes from one hour to the next. In fact, it happened again this evening and went from sunny and warm to dark, stormy, windy and pouring buckets in less than 30 minutes! It must have something to do with the Alps. Regardless, Babu's is ridiculously charming and reliably yummy whether you sit inside or out. If you're in Zurich, don't miss out!

Volkswagen Ads

J and I just booked a Volkswagen Polo rental car for one week in July. We are planning a super cool trip up and over the Alps, through Northern Italy into Tuscany. We'll stop off to say hello to the leaning tower of Pisa, then hop on a ferry to Corsica. Do a little camping, drive around the Cap Corse and then hop on another ferry to Nice and drive back up the coast, over and through the Alps once again to Switzerland, and then on to Zurich. We love being in the car together. Our best conversations are always when we're driving or walking and, as of her last time in a car, Coco loves being in the car, too. So we are looking forward to a good old road trip, filled with beautiful scenery and camping.

Back in Portland, we had a VW Golf that we miss so much sometimes. I am a total Volkswagen devotée. I've had three of them! First, when I graduated college, I got a white Cabriolet with white leather interior that was my childhood dream car from the movie "Can't Buy Me Love." ;) Remember how 80's fantastic they all were? Then I had a black Cabrio with crazy confetti patterned interior, which we loved dearly until it was totalled. What a sad day that was. And then we got the Golf. It was a TDI and the exact car we had always wanted. When we got the job offers to come to Switzerland, we almost turned them down so we wouldn't have to sell our Golf! But, in the end, we passed her on to a loving owner in San Francisco and parted ways after just six months together. I do miss that car sometimes. I really do love driving a Volkswagen. 

Aren't these Volkswagen ads cute? I particularly love the Cabrio ad of the starry sky. There is nothing better than driving in a convertible. Do they make you want to drive a VW, too?

{Volkswagen ads via here}