Week by week 17

(October 18-24) A few pics to enjoy. This week was much more easily handled. We got dressed (at least for church).Doesn't he look so handsome in his suit?
We finger painted. Lots of fun and not too hard to clean up.
"Ta dump!"
We played catch at the Tennis club by our house. James picked the summer hat this day. I tried to get him to wear a winter hat but he wanted this one instead.
Happy, smiling baby!
A self-portrait with Johnny-Lu.
Bubba playing "leaf-blower," one of his favorite games.
On the merry-go-round. For once the camera actually got it right, the kid is in focus and the background is spinning.
Happy in the stroller again at Espace Junior. We got in the Halloween spirit a bit early.
Bubba and me on the go cart waving at Brian and John-Luke.
And here are two videos from this week. The first one is James jumping at Espace. I didn't mean to upload this one but since it is here you can see it anyway.

This one is John-Luke enjoying his bath. He really likes bath time. A lot!

Week by Week 16

(October 11-17) My second week without my mom is well documented. Lots of stuff happened. We started the week off with lots of nakedness. Some days it IS too hard to get the kids dressed. Not really, but James does love to run naked through the house. He says "nay tid."In addition to chillin' naked, James colored while John-Luke watched.
John-Luke's looking at me like, "Seriously? Do I really have to watch this?" I think he secretly questions my sanity sometimes. He does raise his eyebrows at me often.
But isn't he cute anyway?
I think as the winter continues to arrive here that there will be many pictures of Johnny in this exact setting. He will probably grow up and wonder if he ever got to do anything fun.
We also went to the park and played even though it isn't exactly Summer anymore.
Even Johnny-Lu got out to play for a minute.
James was so proud of this ginormous mushroom he found growing at the park. There he was happily running down the hill toward the slide with me strolling behind him and then he stopped and examined the ground for a minute. When he stood up he yelled triumphantly, "MUSHROOM!!" Can you tell how proud he is of it?
He carried it all around the park for about 5 minutes. Then he discovered he could slowly start picking at it. James loves to pick at things.
Picking the mushroom apart was good for about 10 minutes of lovely discovery. Yes, I was watching closely to be sure he didn't eat any of the mushroom as James loves to taste things too.
Also, this week we did some tickling of John. He is very ticklish on his ribs.
James did get into a bit of mischief this week. Here he is with a whole cup of butter that I had softened to make cookies. He found it and was eating--yes, eating!!--it. And he was also rubbing it all over his naked legs (he was in underwear and a shirt only). I was totally grossed out. I came in the room and he looked up and said, "Butter!!" When I gasped, he quickly started licking his fingers (he knew I was going to clean him up).
Luckily, after the butter incident we met some friends at Espace Junior. It is a huge bouncy-house-and-other-outside-toys place. It rocks and James loves it. He was able to burn a few of those calories for the next 3.5 hours.
Burning off the butter!
Looking cute and being very good in the stroller.
More calorie burning.
And more.
And more.
Some sleeping or non-calorie-burning.
We also did a bit of tummy time this week.
And a few self-portraits. James loves to see himself in pictures and we take them all the time.
This week we also discovered the joy of running through the leaves.
James has also become a big "helper." I used quotations because sometimes he is more hinder than helper but he is so cute as he tries to help.
Another raised eyebrow look. Not sure what crazy thing I was doing here but I'm sure it was crazy. Perhaps dancing and singing around the room.
This week I also broke into my stash of silly toys that I brought back from Utah. James got some goggles. He really loved them until he took them apart. They lasted a few weeks. What a silly boy!
More playing at the park. James was insistent that I take a picture of him and John-Luke on the slide together. James thought it was great fun and John-Luke did not.
This week we also made some recipes together. This is one of James' favorite past-times. He is always asking me to make recipes, especially chocolate recipes. Yep, he is licking the beater!
More Espace Junior to burn off those chocolate recipes. This time we took Brian with us. Fortunately, James was free until he turned 2.
Probably James' very favorite thing is jumping. He loves it. He jumps all the time.
John-Luke was happy in his stroller. I think he was just glad that the non-crazy parent was there to keep an eye on things.
A little break. James just layed down for a minute to suck on his fingers and catch his breath.
And we're off again!
Chillin' with daddy and watching James burn enough calories for all of us.
Brian and Bubba on the go-carts. James is good for about 3 turns around the track before he is done. The token usually gets you 4 or 5 turns around the track so he is usually saying, "done" before it is really over. Too much jumping to do at this place!
Brian decided it would be a good idea to let Bimmy go up the "6 years and older" toy. Duh! I was thinking that he was going to fall and break his neck. He didn't. Luckily. Of course, there was still the slide at the top. I thought we might have to go up after him.
Nope. He just turned around and was going to go down on his belly. Unfortunately, he was "helped" by a little girl. This, he did not enjoy. He didn't cry but he hasn't tried to go back up that one again!
Overall, it was a busy and crazy week. I think my capacity to handle 2 kids alone was greatly increased this week. Thank heaven for that! And I think that this week more than makes up for the lack of pics from last week. Hope the "grand ma mas" enjoy!

Week by week 15

(October 4-10). The first week without my mom around (yes, me alone with 2 kids!) was better than I had expected. We all survived. The CD player did not survive but we did. I also must admit that I did not take a single pic of John-Luke this week. I know, my whole point was to take pics of him each week. Well, I missed one. My excuse is that it was my first week as a mama of 2 with no help during the day. But I did manage to take some pics of James playing in his bubble bath.
Don't worry, I don't think I made that mistake twice. I have pics from all his other weeks of life.

The Cow Festival

On October 3rd, before the break of day, I dropped my mom off at the airport to fly home. Then I went home and went back to bed. Then....we got up to see...the cows come down from the mountains at the St. Cergue Cow Festival (not sure if that is an official name but that is what I'm calling it). It rocked!! They make a super big deal out of the whole thing. There are numerous cow festivals all over Switzerland but this is the one that is closest to us. They decorate the cows with flowers and HUGE bells.Then they parade them down the road with no barriers between the cows and the people (keep an eye on your little ones). There was poop all over the place and noise and food and friends. What else could we ask for?
Check out the video. The cows were really right in front of us and it was super LOUD. James was totally enthralled!


Watching the cows parade.
There was a "band" of cow bell players. They each carried an enourmous cow bell and went clanging down the street with an ancient old guy waving the Swiss flag behind them.
James got his own cow bell. Can you tell he is super excited? Actually, Brian was probably more excited about buying it for him.
They had the big horn blowing people do a little concert. (It is late and I can't remember what these are called. Swiss horns?) Anyway, it was cool.
They had some traditional Swiss dancing.


We had a bit of lunch with our friends and played at the park. They also had a parade of their tractors and then set them out for the kids to climb all over them. James liked that part a lot.
John-Luke slept most of the time!
I ran over a mega pile of poop with the stroller (not on purpose) (Brian cleaned it up). They also had some ponys and cows out for everyone to come look at. James petting the pony.
And they had a few kiddy rides set up that James could not resisit and Brian couldn't say "no."
Needless to say, James was asleep about 3 minutes after getting in the car. Yes, that is Swiss chocolate all over his face!
We will definitely be doing that festival again next year! It was a blast!