Well, we caught the end of the Swiss summer. We had some nice hot days and we are now full on into fall. We were originally arriving towards the beginning of summer so in the end I have felt a bit behind with the seasons. They are sneaking up on me.

Our swiss summer this year was mainly about settling in and finding our way around Bern. My mom came for a couple of weeks which eased our transition greatly! Friends from Bogota, Nick and Kima along with Ben drove over from Zug to visit soon after we arrived. My friend Leigh and her her husband, along with Katy Jo came to visit as well.  So all within our first month we got to see friends and family.

A few pictures…

In the Foreign Service we have lots of transient friends. I find myself saying frequently to overwhelmed moving friends “don’t stress about keeping up right now, we will touch base when the dust settles”. It seems with 2 little ones and trying to dive in to get life established that it is taking longer and longer for the dust to settle as the yrs go on. There is the unpacking, that takes time, but really it’s more the getting back into routine and creating a new normal.

Kids are flexible and resilient, or so they say. I see flexibility and resilience but I also see struggle and resistance.  Jackson is very aware this time around of the friends and family we left. He is a social little guy and has been on the lookout for new friends but he misses his buddies. In addition he has added a fear of moving to his fear of monsters and the dark. At night he often has questions about when the packers will come again and if he will have to leave this house. Over the past 6 weeks or so we have seen behaviors that we never knew possible for him. Some maybe because he’s 3 but most seemed to be an outcry in his transition. Sounds dramatic but let me tell you it’s been dramatic around here. Culturally here kids are expected to be quiet and orderly. The grocery store and really any store we go into is SILENT minus some soft music. People speak very softly to each other. Imagine Jackson, Mr. Social and full of enthusiasm, experiencing his new world with constant shushing.  Recipe for some tension. We are all learning, slowly but surely. The Swiss will have to accept this American fireball of a little boy and he will have to learn when and where he needs to hold back a bit. So, I can say that for the last 4 days or so we have seen our Jackson coming back. Slowly he is softening into his normal self.

Owen’s transition has been smooth minus normal age appropriate stuff like being insane about getting down and trying to crawl, cruise, and ultimately conquer the world. He has also been in teething mode since arriving here. He is now eating table foods in addition to his baby food and he is feeling like he is so grown up having a little control with his feeding. He started signing “more” a couple of days ago and signs it with such vigor. I am so relieved that he learned it because it reduces so much of the fussing during our meals!

the face of teething

cruisin’ for a bruisin’

Seth has jumped into work here and helped them to make up for lost time with our delays. He has very interesting cases here. I know he enjoyed his work in Bogota and in particular he misses his colleagues but I think here he has more variety to his work. He will have to write more about that later. I don’t want to even hint at some of his stories because I know he will want to tell them.   Overall he is settling in and the best part is that his commute is like 15 mins max! Can’t beat that! On Friday nights we often take the tram down and meet him for dinner downtown. Downtown Bern is all of 10-15 mins away.

the view at the end of our street

My transition has been tough this time. I find myself being overwhelmed with my own transition and helping everyone else in the family to get settled. I have started going to a Wed morning playgroup and joined an expat mom’s group on yahoo to get connected. We have not yet settled into a church and that I find is where I normally do a lot of my networking.  I realize since we have done this before that it is all just a process to make friends and for this to feel like home. It takes time. I miss my girl friends and in particular realize now more than ever how I relied so much on times with girl friends to get advice and feedback on parenting and life in general.  I find some days I feel like living in such a beautiful place as Bern is similar to having a really good baby. I feel like I can never complain about having a bad day because people would just laugh like how could we possibly not just be in heaven living in Switzerland. It is gorgeous! I agree! And we are enjoying it tremendously. But it is lacking our friends and family so for a people person it can feel very lonely! Our car comes tomorrow so I should feel a little relief in terms of daily tasks like having to hike for groceries with 2 boys!   We had a visit from our friends the Towle’s from Bogota when we first arrived and the Bowen’s spent the past weekend with us so that has been nice to have some friends on our same continent!

Over the coming days I will backtrack and put up some posts to catch us up on home leave pictures and our first weeks in Switzerland. Oh yes, and the house. The dust is finally settling around here!

We said our final goodbyes in VA which was just not fun. We loved our time in VA so although we are excited about this new chapter of life we were very sad to go.  We made it out of DC relatively in one piece….or maybe more in 4 pieces with lots of luggage. But sane nonetheless. We flew to Houston last Friday and have been in Friendswood since then. We have had a nice relaxing time with Seth’s family. Jackson has had lots of great time playing with his cousins. They all seem to have endless energy and have gotten along really well. Seth’s parents have a large window by their kitchen table and during meals Jackson can spot some of his Grandan’s turtles outside the window. This is proving to be a challenge in keeping Jackson in his chair to eat, but he can’t get enough of the turtle entertainment.

This afternoon we will drive to the Ft Worth/Arlington area to be with my family. We are looking forward to our time there. This trip is faster that we originally planned but we are trying to make the most of every minute! We plan to pack in the fun! It’s hard because with limited time we can’t do everything we would normally do and see everyone we would normally see.  If you are some of our friends that we aren’t getting to hang out with because we have been kidnapped by family, that is just a good excuse for you to come to Switzerland!

I will add some pictures when we get our camera and hook ups in the same place at the same time We also want to blog about Jackson’s 3rd Birthday that was this past Friday the 23rd but want to do it when we have time and pictures! Happy Birthday to our little big boy!

In late May, early June Seth’s sister Claire and her husband and baby Benjamin made the big trip from Oregon to DC! We had such a great time having them here. Jackson and Owen got to meet their new baby cousin and we got lots of time to catch up. Claire and Donnie had more energy for sight-seeing than any guests we have ever had. They walked their legs off and did it all with a little baby in tow! Impressive!

Here are some pictures from their visit!

A week after Claire, Donnie and Benjamin left Seth’s parents and Tommy, our nephew, came from Texas for a week. Jackson loved having Tommy around. He is a “bigger big boy” in Jackson’s eyes. He was so sweet with Jackson and Owen and tolerated a ton of enthusiasm from Jackson. Jackson did not give him a break the entire time he was here!  Jackson and Owen were excited to see their Mia and Grandan as well and I hate to say it but Jackson hardly talked to them for the first day because Tommy was so exciting! While they were here we went to Frying Pan park, drove to Annapolis and went to the Amish market and waterfront, went to Great  Falls,  and had time for lots of wrestling! Seth and I (along with Owen) took advantage of having grandparents here and snuck away for a night downtown.

Here are some pictures from their visit!

(when the tractor is occupied  don’t despair, simply hoist yourself onto the hood and make the driver uncomfortable with your presence)

Owen proud as a peacock at the hotel. He scored himself a getaway at a hotel when he continued to refuse taking a bottle!

Lots of visitors, lots of fun!