Memorial Day Weekend Roadtrip

Louisa, Walter, Elisabeth, and I all piled into the VW Jetta this past weekend for a Memorial Day Weekend Roadtrip. We started off on Friday afternoon about 2:30pm from Sacramento and made it into Mammoth Lakes about 7pm.


We rented a room at the Motel 6 there and walked across the street to a pretty good Italian food restaurant (Perry's Pizza, I think was its name?). We brought along the playpen for Lulu to sleep in while we were gone and it worked out pretty well. After a quick stop at Von's for some jarred baby food and coffee/pastries, we were off to Las Vegas, baby!




Bristlecone Pines
But, on our way, we stopped by the ancient bristlecone pine forest and took some cute shots of a 9 month old baby and a 4,000 year old tree.








Las Vegas
We pulled in to LV early that evening. We stayed at the Luxor (the one built like a giant pyramid). Elisabeth wanted to get her picture taken in front of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign, so we all did!



After a walk up and down the strip, Elisabeth and I enjoyed a nice dinner at Todd English's Olives in the Bellagio casino while Walter took Louisa back to our room to put her down for the night because the next morning, we were headed to......

Death Valley
We drove into the park from the southern end, so our first major stop was Badwater, lowest point in the Western Hemisphere.



We slathered Louisa with sunscreen and put her sunglasses and hat on her to help protect her from the sun. We checked into the "resort" at Stovepipe Wells, had a nice swim in the pool (amazing how 108 degrees can make an 80 degree pool feel chilly?), and then enjoyed our picnic lunch of fresh fruit, chips, champagne, etc. that we brought with us from LV. The next day, we drove around and looked at more sights including Zabriski's Point and Golden Canyon.





There were at least 3 tour buses filled with foreigners at Zabriski's Point and an older Italian woman took Lulu's picture because she thought a baby in sunglasses was adorable. We stopped at the Visitor's Center and I bought Louisa a stuffed turkey vulture/buzzard to commemorate the trip, as well as a couple of books including a glow in the dark guide to constellations. I didn't get her "Who Pooped in the Park?" that talks about recognizing different types of scat, but I thought about it!

Mono Lake
We spent our last night away from home at the Motel 6 in Bishop and ate at a local pizza parlor across the street. In the morning, we grabbed some coffee/pastries and headed up to Mono Lake to look at the interesting geological formations called "tufas." Mono Lake is apparently 76,000 years old and has no direct outlet, so the minerals are left as the water evaporates into cool formations.



Louisa enjoyed helping her daddy take photos of the lake and its local wildlife (LOTS of birds!) before we got back in the car on our way to....

Yosemite
We decided that it was about the same distance to head through Yosemite National Park as to drive back up and around the southern edge of Lake Tahoe, the way we came down from Sacramento. Plus, Elisabeth had only seen Yosemite Valley, so this gave her a different vantage point of the national park. Elisabeth was kind enough to take a couple of cute family photos of us at Olmstead Point with Half-Dome in the background during our lunch-stop.



We pulled back in to Sacramento later that afternoon and I think all four of us were glad to be home. Louisa did *really* well in the car during the entire four and a half days. She started to get cranky and fussy after we left Yosemite and were headed home (about the last hour or so), but I think all of us were cranky and fussy by that point. We kept her entertained with a rotating series of toys, especially the Baby Einstein book that plays songs when you press the buttons. Hopefully her love of music will continue until she's a surly teenager in the backseat with a walkman, staring out the window and ignoring her parents' best efforts to teach her something. :)

Louisa's First Hike

Louisa took her first hike yesterday. The weather was *really* hot in Sacramento (102 degrees!), so we decided to escape the heat by gaining some elevation in the Sierra Nevadas. We went hiking around the Big Bend ranger station off I-80 toward the Loch Leven lakes.

We saw some gorgeous scenery, a river gushing with spring snowmelt, and Lulu got to experience snow for the first time!




Somehow, I don't think she liked it:



Walter carried her in a baby carrier on his chest and I got to put the pack (with our cameras and snacks, etc) on my back. Fun! I did shoot a quite a few cute pictures of the two of them though.





And a single picture with Mom:



Louisa was really excited by the hike and was squealing, giggling, and talking away as we set off through the pine trees. After a mid-hike stop for some nursing and a diaper change, she was worn out and took a bit of a nap:




She did wake up to give us her commentary on the hike on the way to the car:

Insert Jaws Theme Music here...

...ba-da. ba-da-dum....

9 Month Update

Little Louisa Marie-Josephine isn't so little anymore. We celebrated our first Mother's Day together this past weekend and I came across photos of her in her car seat as we were taking her home from the hospital (I was putting her Mother's Day card in her baby book for posterity). It's amazing to consider how tiny she was in her car seat--the one she's pretty much outgrown. She still seems tiny to me until I'm confronted with evidence of her growing size like old(er) photos or newborn babies.

Lulu is now officially crawling all over and getting into everything. It's become harder to do anything else while simultaneously keeping an eye on her. She loves chewing up paper--letters, magazines, catalogs, newspapers, you name it. Her daddy is learning he can't leave stacks of paper on the floor. She will follow you around the house and I've caught myself making doggie-kissie noises at her to encourage her to crawl toward me. Oops! She will crawl over to me, put her hands in my out-stretched ones and pull herself up to standing. So far, no "cruising" along the furniture yet, just standing.

She is also developing a love of books. Her favorite right now is a Baby Einstein book with buttons you can press on the side that play sounds and short melodies. She doesn't have much patience for someone "reading" to her, but I think that will come soon. Her Oma and Opa brought some books with them when they visited last week that used to belong to Walter and Roland. Elisabeth has also brought home several books from the library's book sale. I think I might start taking her to a weekly toddler story-time at the Carmichael Library branch this summer, too.

With the crawling, we have moved everything off the floor. Our living room looks like we're preparing for a flood. Our outlets all have little plastic covers on them and I removed decorative rocks from our houseplants. Dido has become an object of fascination, too. Louisa crawls toward her and Dido just walks further away before sitting down again. Dido has never been much of a climber, but I suspect she will develop a fondness for heights soon!


Solid food is going well, too. So far, we are up to peas, carrots, squash, apples, pears, sweet potatoes, spinach, cantaloupe, parsnip, jicama, banana, lentils, mango, peaches, and avocado. She tried zucchini and summer squash but was NOT a fan. She does love spicy mustard from the Rubicon and red chile enchilada sauce, too. I have also started introducing oatmeal, barley, and rye flakes that I have pulverized in the blender before stirring them into her food. I'm introducing them one-by-one before I start feeding her baby mueseli.

She typically takes two naps a day now and her bedtime is gradually getting earlier and earlier. We put her down last night about 9pm. She still takes to being swaddled, but she is better about wiggling out of it now. She has pretty much outgrown the swaddle blankets. She is also starting to figure out how to soothe herself to sleep. Most nights I nurse her and then put her awake in the cradle on the floor next to my bed. She fusses for a minute or so and then falls asleep, most of the time. If she's cranky or fussy but won't settle down, we can get her asleep in the sling. It has really been a God-send.

Lil Lulu is the "old lady" of our regular play-group and one of the interesting things I've noticed is how easily she can entertain herself, especially if other babies are around. I don't know if that's developmental or part of her personality, but it is something most of the other mothers have remarked on as well. Several of us are doing infant swim lessons this summer, so I recently bought her a 2 piece swimsuit and goggles/sunglasses to wear at the pool. Very cute!

Her 9 month doctor's appt is this Thursday, so I will have her growth stats and percentiles then!

Like a duck to....

....WATER!

Someone got to try out her brand new swimsuit in the baby pool this afternoon once she woke up from her nap. I also bought some disposable swim-pants/diapers and goggles and I think she looks quite fetching, huh?


She wasn't too excited about the goggles, but I did get a few pics worth sharing.



Lulu practiced her walking skills by taking BIG Paul Bunyan-esque steps in the water across the kiddie pool with me holding her hands. She was also able to sit up with her chin above water. Much squealing and bouncing in excitement!

Louisa is expanding her palate into the grains. She's a fan of oatmeal and barley so far. I have rye, kamut, and spelt to try on her, too. She's enjoying them quite a bit mixed with fruit as you can see:


She is also a big poseur for the camera. It's amazing how her mood changes as soon as you bring out the camera. I wonder how they learn that??


Over the weekend, we all had a good time in the backyard, enjoying the sun and warm temperatures.


Even Dido came outside and joined us. I have some pretty funny video of this encounter (and a few others) that I will try to upload soon, too. Suffice it to say that Dido's starting to figure out that her days of quiet solitude are numbered....



Just wait until she's walking and running around, Dido!

A couple of sweet photos

Louisa and I spent some time at the playground in McKinley Park yesterday afternoon. I took quite a few pictures, but these I think are the best of the bunch.


And a close-up of her current eye color (still greenish-blue/grey)


She wasn't in the greatest mood (as you can see in the photos), but I did think the clarity of the photos was nice (so many of the pictures I take of her are blurry from motion).


And the swinging definitely tired her out--she took a looooooong nap in the car and once we got home afterwards.

Another video

It's a little noisy in the background with Walter and his mother cooking dinner, but I think the sight of Louisa having fun with her Opa is sweet:



And here's one of her eating some solid food (that I shot while feeding her, so apologies for the video quality!):

Hereeeeeeeeee's Elisabeth!

So, I've been planning this post for a while, but there was some delay due to Elisabeth falling ill with a bad case of influenza and then pneumonia. I didn't think it was fair to take her picture when she was feeling so bad. But now she's recovered and I've got some cute ones to post.

Extended family has been curious about our Swiss houseguest and how well she's been working out for us. Elisabeth has been great--she's fit in well with our family and Louisa really likes her a lot. (Dido is a different story, but Dido doesn't like anyone other than me!) She watches the baby on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when I'm at school. She is visiting the US on a student visa and taking 12 units/hours at the nearby community college in a variety of classes. She is off-duty during the evenings and weekends and has been enjoying meeting friends from her classes and taking out of town trips to San Francisco, Yosemite, Napa, Lake Tahoe, and Los Angeles.

She was kind enough to answer a brief survey of questions that various folks have asked me since we decided to host Elisabeth this spring and I thought you might enjoy reading her answers in her own words:

1. Where are you from? (where were you born, where did you grow up?)

Eeehm, from Switzerland as everybody knows ☺. I was born in Zug but spent most of my life in Basel, mainly in the same area.

2. Describe your family. (What are your parents’ professions, how many siblings do you have, etc?)

I have one brother who is three years older. He is studying law and economy in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
My mum is in her mid-50’s and a nurse, last year she started her own business and is already very successful, so sometimes I can help her with “easy” clients or she can give me a tip whom of her colleagues I can call to get a temporary job or work as “springer”. That is great and possible because I did a course called “Pflegehelferin SRK” which allowed me to work in a nursing home during my studies.
My dad is living in Zug, Switzerland, he’s in his early 60’s and a lawyer and notary. My parents are divorced and my brother grew up with him after his 7th birthday and I stayed with my mum, so our relationship could be better…

3. What are your living arrangements like back home? (do you live in a house/apt, do you have a garden, do you still live with your parents?)

I’m still living at home at the moment and probably during my master’s too, as long as I do not have a noticeable own income. We’re living in an apartment in a beautiful and green part of Basel, in a quite big cooperative (Genossenschaft?) where my mum is president.

4. Why did you want to be in Sacramento with us?

Good question. ;-) There are multiple reasons why I wanted to leave Basel for a while and why I wanted to stay with you.

During a trip with my department to various law-relevant places in Europe last April the idea came up, not to proceed with my studies after the exams immediately, but to take a break and carefully consider what I want to do after my Bachelor. Why America? I chose between going to America as au-pair or going to India as volunteer with a non profit organization. I wanted to go check the India-idea in summer 2008 but I didn’t, so it fell through.

I can’t even remember when I met the Schwarms at an online agency for au-pairs, but they were my first and final contact and we kept on writing and solving A LOT of problems and questions during the following months. I had another contact in Alaska (God I’m grateful I didn’t do it, I’m missing warm temperatures even in Sacramento!) and in England but they luckily didn’t work out.

Admittedly I was really, really nervous when coming to the U.S. in January. And I think I’ve only NOT gotten crazy because all events happened so fast: last final exam and after that the last days carefully structured to hopefully get through with all appointments (everybody wanted something from me after my exams…?), a good-bye-party, doctor, clean my room, instruct my mum, pack my things etc. I needed to do so many things at the last minute, which was good.

5. What’s been the hardest adjustment to living in the US?

There have been no really big adjustments, although the first days here were not easy. It really helped that I already “knew” the Schwarms a little bit or at least I felt so but with the jetlag, another language, new school, classmates, professors, neighborhood, car, house, baby… Yes, it was a challenge, but Kace and Walter helped me as much as they could.

6. What’s been the most surprising aspect of living here that you didn’t expect?

Hm, I was not really surprised by anything since I have already been in the U.S. before – in Florida in summer 2003 I think. It was the small things that surprised me e.g. that “organic” food does not mean that the food is “organisch”, but “bio” and that having clothes and boxes in the closet is completely normal, because “closet” is not another word for “bathroom” ;-).

7. Where would you like to visit while you’re here?

I definitely want to go traveling in southern California, see all the famous places, probably during Spring Break. And Yosemite National Park.

8. What do you miss most from home? What will you miss most when you leave Sacramento?

I’m definitely missing my best friends sometimes, family and my cats.

I will miss my friends here, my completely duty-free weekends, “my” car with all it’s originalities ;-) and the whole Schwarm family.

Kace again: And here are those pictures I've promised!

Helping Louisa learn to pull herself up


Enjoying her FIRST (but not last) In-N-Out Burger!


Enjoying her FIRST (but not while on-duty!) Margarita!


Trying out the stroller's seat (rather than the infant car seat) with a walk around the neighborhood


And the best one of all--this is the sight that greeted me last week when I arrived home from my German class at the Turn Verein:

Isn't that sweetest?