Fun at the Vogelpark

Last Sunday after church we took Cade to the Vogelpark in the town next to us. A Vogelpark is the German word for bird park. They have lots of birds from all over the world. The park is outdoors and the smaller birds are in huge cages and the big birds are in fenced-in cages. Collin and I have been wanting to visit this park since we found out about it. Sunday was such a beautiful day so we decided it was the perfect time to go. We had a good time and Cade enjoyed seeing and hearing all the birds.

Outside the Vogelpark

Eggs from various birds at the park

Cade and Marisa in front of a big bird cage

Cade and Collin in front of the big open area

Family picture

Cade laughed and smiled a lot while we were there

4 Months Old

Cade is 4 months old today. He has grown so much these past 4 months it's amazing. We took him to his 4 month well baby doctor's appointment Friday. He is now 18.6 lbs and 27 in. long! The doctor said he looks great and he is a strong and healthy boy. The doctor also said we should start him on solids soon because most babies over 18 lbs cannot get enough food from breast milk. That made me sad because I really wanted to breastfeed exclusively for the first 6 months of Cade's life. The doctor told me once he starts waking up in the middle of the night that we should begin then. Right now he sleeps on average 11 hours a night with the longest stretch of 7 hours between feedings. I read that for many babies sleeping 5 hours straight is considered sleeping through the night. I have felt more rested since he started sleeping longer. We went ahead and bought some rice cereal and several organic jars of baby food to have on hand. However, I'd really like to wait as long as possible before starting solids. If I can make it another month that would be great. I also don't want the poor baby to go hungry, so if it is sooner than another month or two then we'll give him baby food.

We recently sat him in his high chair at the table. Usually we either take turns holding him or put him in his car seat while we eat. The other night we decided to try his high chair since he's sitting up really well now and we want him to get used to it before we start feeding him solids. He seemed to like it.

Cade has also refused to take a bottle since we returned from our trip back to the States. So we tried a sippy cup with breast milk and he enjoyed holding it and drinking from it.

Cade has been smiling and laughing more. It's so much fun to watch him grow and learn. He has the cutest smile but once you bring a camera out he stops smiling and stares at it. We try and take pictures when he's not looking to get one of him smiling.

Here are some new pictures of our sweet little boy!

Cade and his tiger

Flying with Dad

First time to drink from a sippy cup

Sitting in his high chair

Just being cute!

Long Weekend in Switzerland

This past weekend we took Caden to his 6th country. We traveled to Switzerland and visited Interlaken and Spiez. This was our first time to visit Switzerland and we thought it was beautiful. We stayed in Spiez but spent most of our time in Interlaken. We stayed at a very European bed and breakfast and decided to pay for half-board for Friday night. Half-board just means you want dinner in their restaurant. We had a 3-course dinner which included spaghetti and tomato sauce, fish and potatoes, and ice cream for dessert. All for the price of Fr. 22 per person plus our drinks. I ordered water and it cost Fr. 4, which is around $4 for a glass of water, no refills. You would think in Switzerland water would be cheaper than beer and wine, but it's not. Even soft drinks cost more than most of the beers, wines, and soft drinks.

One of the most disappointing things about Switzerland is the inflation of the Swiss Frank (Fr.). Although the Fr. is comparable to the U.S. dollar when you convert your money most items cost at least twice what they would in the U.S. For example, there is no dollar menu at McDonald's. A happy meal costs Fr. 6.90 and the value meals cost Fr. 11.90+. So if Collin and I wanted to eat at McDonald's and both get a meal we would spend close to $25 for two meals. So we decided not to eat at McDonald's and go ahead and splurge a little more to eat real Swiss food.

We arrived in Switzerland Friday around 11am and had a nice lunch. It was raining Friday so we mainly drove around and explored the cities by car. We drove up several mountains and got our "bearings" so to speak. Saturday we woke up to more rain so we canceled our plans to visit an outdoor museum and went to the mall and had lunch. We had hoped there would be several restaurants in the food court but there was just one. The food was okay. That afternoon the weather cleared up and we walked around Interlaken and ended up eating at the Zum Baren, an old Swiss restaurant. The restaurant is over 200 years old and was built in the 1700s. I ordered cheese fondue (fondue is famous in Switzerland) and Collin ordered a meat and veggies dish. I was hoping for Fr. 25 I would get more than just a pot of cheese. But for that price I only got a pot of cheese and cubes of bread, which is typical. Thankfully, it was the best fondue I've ever had.

Sunday was a beautiful day so we drove around and went to the Trummelbach Falls. We hiked up a mountain to see 10 glacier-waterfalls inside the mountain made accessible by a tunnel-lift and illuminated. The Trummelbach drains the mighty glacier defiles of Eiger, Monk, and Jungfrau and carries 20.200 tons of boulder detritus per year. Its drainage area is 24 km2, half of it covered by snow and glaciers. Up to 20.000 liters of water per second. The only glacier-waterfalls in Europe inside the mountain and still accessible. It was an awesome experience. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Trummelbach Falls

Trummelbach Falls - lots of steps

Spiez, Switzerland

Jungfrau Mountain in Interlaken, Switzerland -

there is snow all year and is considered the top of Europe

Interlaken, Switzerland

Interlaken, Switzerland

Beautiful rainbow after the rain in Interlaken

Interlaken, Switzerland

Interlaken, Switzerland

Barbecue Season

Collin went to a German grocery store last week to pick up a few things for dinner. Collin has learned how to cook some really good German food. We also finally bought a grill in August and have loved grilling again. Collin wanted to get some German sausages to grill and asked a German man standing near the meat aisle what he would recommend for grilling. The man replied, "grilling season is over." Collin looked at him shocked and the man said since it was now fall, the season is over and there are not many good meats available to grill. And we thought people grilled at least through American football season. By the way, we still are grilling. We plan on grilling until there is snow on the ground.

3 Wonderful Months!

We can hardly believe that Cade is already 3 months old. Collin and I have really enjoyed being parents and having Cade as our son. He is such a joy!

Last Friday we started putting Cade in his room to sleep at night. He has done exceptionally well sleeping in his room at night. We thankfully have been able to get him down without crying. The first night he slept 4 straight hours! Saturday was a little harder, we couldn't get him to sleep until around midnight and we had to get him up for church so he didn't get much sleep, poor guy. He woke up at 4am and then 6am and then we had to wake him at 7:30am. Then Sunday night he slept 5 straight hours, Monday night 7 straight hours and last night 7 straight hours. So I have been able to get 4-6 hours of sleep a night which I am so thankful for. I'm not a napper so what I get at night is what I get and I have a hard time falling back asleep after feeding Cade in the middle of the night. Although last night I was so tired I put him back down and fell right back to sleep. Basically after his long stretch of sleep he then wakes up every 2 hours and will typically sleep for 10-12 hours a night after waking up to eat and have his diaper changed. I am really enjoying his new sleep schedule. Collin and I actually got to watch a movie last night. Cade went to bed at 9pm and after he went to sleep we watched a movie. It was wonderful! We're trying to put down Cade between 8-8:30.

A few new things Cade is doing include having better head control. He can put his hands together and grab things. He is doing wonderful at tummy time and can lift his head pretty high and turn his head from side to side in the air. He's laughing a lot more, is very chatty, and went for his first stroller ride Sunday afternoon sitting up. He loved it! Our German buggy allows us to have him face us or out so we had him facing us and were able to talk to him and he talked right back. His looks are changing and he's getting bigger. He's already doubled his birth weight and is getting longer. Praise God I been that I've been able to exclusively breastfeed Cade. My goal is for him to have only breast milk for the first 6 months. I am now halfway there! On the downside, Cade is teething and has been having a hard time with that. He is drooling a lot, biting everything he can, and is generally uncomfortable. It looks like his bottom two teeth are going to come in first.

Here are some pictures from birth to 3 months.

1 day old

1 month old

2 months old

3 months old! Sitting up in his stroller!

3 months old! We love his all gum smile!

Cade's First Flight and 5th Country

We just got back from a wonderful trip overseas. We went to Texas and were able to see lots of family and some really good friends. We wish we could have seen more! Hopefully next time we will be able to. The three of us all got sick and we had to cancel many plans which was disappointing. This was Cade's 5th country to visit. He's going to be a world traveler!

We were not planning on coming home this soon but Collin had training so Cade and I came with him. I agreed to this trip before I had Cade. If you can wait on the travel with an infant, do so. Overall we had a wonderful time but were just really tired and unable to see everyone we wanted to.

Cade did great on his first airplane ride. It was a long flight. The overseas flight was 10 hours each way. We didn't buy a seat for Cade but did pay for him to sit in our laps (AA makes you pay for an infant to ride in your lap, crazy, I know!). It was a full flight both times so needless to say on the way over neither of us got through a movie. On the trip back to Germany Cade slept half the flight so we did actually get to watch a few movies. We also took a shorter flight to see Collin's parents and thankfully our flight on Southwest was not full and we were able to give Cade a seat. That made those flights so much easier.

We had several firsts on our journey back home. This was Cade's first time to fly on an airplane, fly overseas, and visit America. Cade had his first blow out diaper right before we boarded the plane. Thankfully it wasn't after getting on the plane. Collin went to gate check Cade's stroller and I was holding him and heard something and realized my hand was all wet with poop. Runny poop at that. There were not changing tables around and so we had to change him there and rinse his clothes out and change him. Cade also had his first shots. Poor little guy, the nurse gave him 7! I wish we would have said something and had them wait, that's a lot of shots for a two month old. Basically since he didn't get any shots at birth or at one month they decided to give him all of those. It was hard to watch. Cade also started having neon green runny poop while we were on the airplane. We go through so many diapers with this little guy. I feel so bad for him. We asked the doctor and nurse if this was normal and what to do about it. The doctor didn't say much and later we talked with a nurse on the phone. She said one of the shots could make his poop runny. Three weeks later it's still runny. It stayed green the whole time we were in the States. When we got back to Germany it was back to yellow, runny, but yellow. So strange! I guess that's enough with the baby poop. I know fellow parents understand our concern.

Other firsts include Cade getting to meet all of his aunts and uncles, his three great-grandmothers, and his paternal grandparents. He also met several of his friends. Legacy also gave Cade a baby blessing at church. We were really excited about that.

Now we're back in Germany and trying to get a schedule going. Cade's been sleeping in our room since birth but he's about to be 3 months old and we'd like to start transitioning him to his room at night. I've been very consistent in putting him down for his naps in his crib but during the night he's still on Texas time and is up every 1.5-2 hours. Once his jet lag is over I think we'll start putting him down in his room at night. It's tiring being a parent!

Here are some pictures of our precious boy.

Granddad teaching Cade about investing

Great-Grandmother Dot, Marisa, Collin, and Cade

Marisa's family

One sleepy baby!

3 generations - Collin, Granddad, and Cade

Collin's family

Remember my friends Ashley and Jocelyn? We were all pregnant at the same time. See picture from a blog entry in April. Now all our babies are here.

Tracey and Cade

Grand Cathy, me, Cade, and Great WoWo

Aunt Michelle and Cade

4 generations - Granddad, me, Cade, and Great-Grandmother Charlene

Busy New Parents!

We have been extremely busy these past few weeks with Cade. He is growing so much and we are enjoying every minute of it! He is so much fun. We enjoy watching him smile and laugh. We thought we would post a few new pictures of him and us. I think we have the most handsome boy in the world! He loves exercising in his gym, meeting new people, smiling, talking, riding in his stroller, and looking at people. He is now 2 months old.

One of our German friends from church gave us this outfit.

Here's Cade playing on his gym. He's quite the athlete! He has great eye, hand, and foot coordination. He also focuses really well.

Here is a picture of some corn growing in the farm fields by our house.

Here I am on one of our walks with Cade with our European buggy.

The tires are awesome on this stroller!