Aint She a Beaut?

Katherine made Brooks the most beautiful quilt when he was born, and I never wanted to use it cause it was just too beautiful for spit up.  So, she's finally found a permanent home.....it totally makes the room come alive.  And I can finally say that the room is done!  Thank you Katherine, we LOVE IT!

And Little Man thanks you too!

The Good, The Bad

And hopefully not the Ugly.  I'm going to try my darndest to ask Chance daily one good thing and one bad from his day at school.  We'll capture it here.......and you can find a new link to them all in the left hand column.

Best thing about school is.....riding the REAL school bus 

THE GOOD: I made 2 new friends today.
THE BAD: It was raining at recess so we couldn't go outside.

UH-HUH

The human brain is a piece of work, more like a masterpiece.  And it's amazing to watch it in action, somehow REPEATING things is a needed instinct to brain development.  Like, drop your special bear out of your bed, and watch mommy come back in the room 5 thousand times to pick it up off the floor here.  I think there's a case of the kettle calling the pot black here, cause you'd think I'd learn as well.  Today after the umpteen time of getting that damn bear so the never-sleeping child would fall asleep, I found him standing, leaning his chin against the bed rail, arm over it and pointing at Special Bear while the kid was half asleep. 

So after the one short sleepy time of the day, little man wants some of my yogurt.  He's standing in front of me as I am sitting on the floor watching the super high quality show The Bachelor Pad......good thing Brooks isn't old enough to comprehend the trash unfolding before him (and I'll also throw in there that Ryan probably will be jealous that I finished this week's episode without him).......Brooks is standing over me begging for yogurt.  At some level I felt like I was telling a dog to get out of my face.  DOWN BOY.  After each bite it was this satisfied UH-HUH.  UH-HUH.  Over and over. 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Chance and I were talking about him riding the bus home.  I mentioned to him that I remember riding the bus home, and my mom being there after school.  He said,

"You must have had a REALLY GOOD mom, cause it was Mimi"

Off to First Grade

Today was the big start of school.  I never understood what all the hoolala was about when I'd get asked the question.........did you cry when you dropped him off on the first day?  In Zurich I never had these emotions, probably cause the school was much smaller and intimate and I felt like my kiddo was in just the right place.  We chose the school and so there was some level confidence and buy in that a paying customer has.  Here, the school chooses you and it was so much bigger.  I didn't cry at drop off this morning, but I have to say I had a small lump in my throat as Brooks and I drove out of the parking lot.  My kid that seems so big at home just turned into a tiny little toddler for a moment as I said my goodbyes.  I left and threw him to the wolves.  I had to remind myself he's repeating 1st so that he's back on par age-wise with his peers.  His teacher seems great, and yes, I am somewhat confident that they will help him find the bus this afternoon.  He did seem so comfortable this morning when I left him, I am so proud of him for tackling things with an open mind and eagerness.

Well, back at home, I am over it now.  I don't have to argue over MY computer and there's a nice peace and quiet I haven't experienced since April of this year.  I am going to enjoy my new found freedom.  Brooks won't know what to do without his constant entertainment around but we'll make do.  I think some routines will help us get back in to the swing of things and I am eager for baseball to start.

Should be a good year! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN

Last Friday morning Ryan lay half awake in bed thinking to himself bitterly, "why on earth has she not wished me happy birthday yet.........today IS my birthday".  Some moments later still without birthday acknowledgements I think the birthday boy came to and realized that his birthday was actually NEXT Friday.  Wives never forget important dates you know.  Husbands apparently have a hard time keeping their own straight.

So a week later the REAL day came.  Chance was so distressed that morning, "Mom, WHY do they MAKE adults go to work on their birthdays?"  We spent the day wrapping gifts and blowing up balloons.  I think Chance called Ryan 500 times on his commute home, asking for the traffic play by play to see just when he'd walk in the door.  Of course, never trust a 6 year old with your secrets.  On the last call, Ryan said he was just around the corner and before hanging up the phone, Chance yells out "QUICK MOM, get your balloons and let's hide behind the couch"!  So we had a low key Friday evening full of birthday wishes and present unwrapping.

We held off having cake until the family party on Sunday.  Here's the birthday boy getting ready for the festivities next to the balloon sculpture Chance made him.  My favorite part was the old man socks he threw on just for good measure.

So the whole fam came over Sunday afternoon to have some cake and celebrate a little.  Happy Birthday, honey, I'm so glad your finally almost as old as me.

Guilt Trip to My Readership

Chance and I walked to the mailbox to get the mail.  "I'll get it, mom, maybe there'll be something in there for me!!" 

There was nothing in there for him.  Shoulders drooped, long face hung as he disappointingly went inside.

"Ever since we moved to Texas no one writes me letters anymore".

Any takers???

QUOTE OF THE DAY

(Put on your best whiny voice here....)

""I want food.

I need a diaper change.

I need sleep."

These babies, they are SO babyish.  I don't even understand them."

Butterzopf Takes the Cake

One of the things we miss the most being back here is the bread.....mostly the Butterzopf and the Shoggi Gipfeli's (the chocolate filled croissants).  It just doesn't exist here.  So,

Several weekends ago I busted out the "Taste of Switzerland" book that I got for Christmas and was determined to recreate our favorite Butterzopf bread.  To pronounce it right, I like to think of the word "boo-tay", in the sense of hey, you have nice boo-tay.  Boo-tayr-tzopf.  Get it right folks.  I am sure my Swiss counterparts are cringing right about now. 

After much research on the different types of flours and what to use, I was still left helpless and with conflicting information.  The Swiss book says to find a "strong" bread flour, while many internet recipes say that buttertopf is made with a low gluten flour.  Not sure where to go with this one......so to simplify things I decided to just go with Gold's "Better for Bread" flour. No where on any flour package could I find it list gluten content so I crossed my fingers on this one and hoped for the best.

First round wasn't so successful. I had some left over yeast I brought back from Switzerland (yes, I am THAT cheap). It apparently didn't survive the flight home, and so my first attempt didn't work.......the bread didn't rise and decided to wait until I attempted it again.  So this weekend after a somewhat depressing dinner outing last night (let's just chalk it up to bad food, expensive bill, fast service.......yes, we actually miss 2-3 hour meals), I decided to fill my Sunday with a little re-do bread making to widdle my sorrows away.  My favorite thing I got out of storage was my Kitchen Aid mixer.  No more dinky hand held mixers......no more bread kneading by hand.  This old champ does the trick and in under 5 minutes I might add. 

We let the bread rise for 2 hours, and then started the intricate process of braiding with 2 strands.  We practiced with towels for awhile before hand, and did pretty good on the first take, I must say.

We let her rise one last time and she was off to bake.  And what a beaut she was. 

It was about 90% spot on...the more you ate of it, the more I convinced myself it really did ALMOST taste like the real thing.  Next time we are going to try and dissolve the butter into the milk instead of cut it into the flour, maybe that will better evenly distribute it.  And maybe a couple tablespoons of honey will sweeten things up.  That'll be in a couple weeks.....take 2 coming soon!

The Super Defender

Here they all are at the recent basketball game saying the YMCA creed about playing fair, staying true to themselves and others, treating your teammates and opponents nicely.....wondering if the half hand across the heart is any indication that the boy probably had a finger on his other hand crossed behind his back.

Basketball has definitely been a humorous adventure in 6 year olds playing sports.  It's a brilliant concept...they pair the kids together by colored wrist bands, so throughout the whole game Chance knows that he has to defend the player on the opposite team with the same color as he.  The first thing to click was definitely the Defense......this week we saw a little too much hands in the face and grabbing with a mean little grin.  Think we need to go over the meaning of that little creed they recite.

Chance's biggest strength is that he can stay on his man like a hawk.  So much so that the first couple games he didn't quite realize that you don't have to stay on your man when you are on OFFENSE.  That week's home lesson: during offense you need to try and get away from your defender.  The next week's game was full of Chance running in circles around all his other teammates (who were trying to score) to get away from his defender....a concept taken a little too literally.  For some reason this brought back sore memories of me on the 7th grade team.  I was "A" teamed solely for the fact that I was tall, and spent most games stationed under the posts saying in my head, "please don't throw the ball to me, please don't throw the ball to me".  Think I would have been better off running in circles around the court! 

So this week's game we worked on getting open instead of getting away, which brought drastic improvements.

I've gotta give him credit for getting out there and trying his best now that we are back state-side and access to so many sports is at our finger tips. 

And of course at every game and practice, Chance's most loyal fan is there cheering him on, wondering when he'll be old enough to play too.