Bluebird's Nest

Ikea 3 stage bed

Around the time that the wee babe turned 2 we transitioned her into the teenager’s big girl bed. I had many reservations around this. The main one being: how many times a night is she going to get out of the bed and annoy us.

Here’s what happened.

We set the bed up in her bedroom AND kept the crib up in her room too for a week. Her room is tiny so this left it very cramped.

During that week, I got some books out from the library about kids sleeping in big beds now. We talked about the bed and every night we gave the option for her to sleep in either her crib or the big bed.  The first couple of nights she slept in her crib. Then she said she wanted to sleep in the big girl bed! Success! Something we didn’t anticipate was the fact that she would want her stuffies to sleep in the crib and not with her.

In the beginning she didn’t really realize that she could get out of the bed. But that didn’t take long  for her to figure out.

There were two bonuses to having this bed.

1. You could get in the bed with her and read her a story. And fall asleep for a bit with her. (Also a downfall. More on this later.)
2. She can get out in the morning and come to your room to snuggle. (You don’t have to get out of your bed to get a crying baby).

Of course the obvious happens: she gets out of bed in the middle of the night. Not very night, but some nights. And sometimes multiple times stating “I told”. Translation: “I’m cold”. We just take her back to her room and climb back in bed with her until she falls asleep.

Some tips that we’ve had to learn the hard way:

1. Don’t fall asleep with her and stay with her until she falls asleep. We’re now stuck in this trap and if we were to leave before she’s asleep it would be a war of her not staying in bed for probably 2 hours until she’s so exhausted she’ll fall asleep. We’ll have to do this soon, but I’m going to put aside a weekend or so to get ‘er done..
2. Don’t make the room pitch black. Then when they wake up in the middle of the night and cant see anything, they scream bloody murder until you come and get them.
3. Our bed has sides so you might want to invest in sides for a bed. Ours cruises around the bed all night long sometimes fully inverted.

After 6 months almost, we have no qualms about our transition to the big girl bed.

As for when the right time to do this is? The perfect time for your child and you to be ready.

You’ll know when that is

Have you transitioned your child to a big kid bed? What was your experience? If not, what are your concerns? Do you have any other tips?

A couple of people have asked me “how did you find childcare?” and “how did you know that childcare was going to treat your baby well?”. This blog post will hopefully answer some of these questions.

Research first

The first thing I did was research. You want to know about the ins and outs of licensed vs unlicensed. Unlicensed usually means that they have less kids to look after, it’s home based and it can be cheaper. If you go with unlicensed, you want to ensure that their daycare is safe, clean and well maintained.

If you go with licensed, you will have the peace of mind that the daycare will have at bare minimum a yearly inspection and the daycare is required to meet certain criteria. These establishments can be in the home or in a facility. They generally will have more kids per adult.

Ask for references in all cases whether it’s licensed or not.

More info on choosing childcare here. 

Where do I look for daycares?

You could look online (I didn’t find very many websites out there for daycares in Victoria – a possible market for daycare websites?). Or go to Usedvictoria.com. I heard that some people have had good success with usedvic, but we didn’t go this route.

I went straight to CCRR. Their mission “Victoria Child Care Resource and Referral, in partnership with the community, strives to enhance the availability and accessibility of a range of quality child care options and services to meet the needs of children, families, and child care providers.”

Here you can fill out a free online form to request all the different types of childcare that are located in Great Victoria. I believe there is also something similar for different parts of Vancouver Island.

Once you fill in the form, you will receive an email back quite quickly giving you a list of all the childcare that is in the areas you specified. And a bunch of helpful information on how to determine good daycares. All free.

Within that information you will find a lot of info pertaining to each daycare: contact info, address, hours, license type, price, what kinds of activities the children do on a typical day, training from the provider, availability, and sometimes the provider will write a small helpful write up on a day in the life at the facility. Keep in mind this info might not be completely up to date.

What do I do next?

Critique all the daycares that were sent to you. Do they watch TV? Do they have ECE training (Early Childhood Education Training), is that important to you? Do they do training to keep their skills up? Do they do a fair amount of activities, crafts, music, dance, etc…? Do they go outside? Do they do out trips?

Narrow down your search and then you must phone them. This is the most daunting part. And if you think about it, daycares during the day are usually busy tending to children, so they most likely won’t answer the phone. LEAVE A MESSAGE. Record on your sheet those that you left a message for, so you can go back later and call them again if they didn’t get back to you. It could take them several days to get back to you. Don’t get discouraged.

Ask them some questions as outlined on this document. Ask them if they have space, and if they don’t, GET ON THEIR WAITLIST if they have one. There’s no harm. The worst that’s going to happen is they are going to call you back and you already have childcare by that time and then you say “no thank you”.

Don’t be alarmed if they ask if your child is a boy or a girl. Some daycares want to have a good mix of the different genders. This is allowed.

Viewing the daycare

If they do have space, arrange to view their establishment. Take this checklist with you. You’ll want to prepare for two visits. One when there are children present to see how the provider works with the children. And then one when there are no children present (usually after hours) when you would fill in the paperwork.

Do not skip this step of viewing the establishment! I can tell you we went and viewed a licensed daycare which was located in a coop after hours. The provider looked like she hadn’t had a shower for a week. The space where the kids played was their living room on couches from the 60s. Downstairs there was a concrete play area with no windows. There was a school across the street but her backyard was only dirt and so very small. We hightailed it out of there after only about 15mins.

I was very surprised that this place passed a licensed daycare!

When you’re at the daycare you want to come prepared to ask a lot of questions. I used this sheet for the questions. Don’t worry, the provider is used to it. And by the way, the provider is also sizing you up at the same time to ensure your family is a good fit for the daycare. Best behaviour y’all!

TIP: Bring your child when he/she is fully rested and fed.

Decision time

So you’ve got all this information now gathered, you’re nervous about going back to work, leaving your baby, and now you have to make a really hard decision. Which daycare do you go with (hopefully there are a couple to chose from).

The best course at this point is to call Daycare Licensing (if you’ve chosen a licensed daycare) – 250-519-3401. This is another bonus for choosing a licensed daycare. When you call them, you can let them know that you have a few daycares you would like some more info on. They usually will put you through to the licensing officer for each daycare. This officer can then go through with you the different visits they have made, how attentive the provider has been to making fixes (if needed), and the best part is they can tell you if the establishment has had any issues. Now, for privacy reasons they can’t tell you what issues they have had. One of the drawbacks though is that if the daycare has had an issue (lets say a neighbour calls in to say that the daycare is too loud), this will show up as an issue and the licensing officer can’t tell you what the issue is so it leaves you with a sense of, is this place really ok?

I can tell you from my experience that, the place we ended up putting our wee babe was a licensed place with zero issues.

I can also tell you that I had called for 3 other places and one of the places was pretty terrible (not my coop nightmare, I didn’t even call for that one).

Lastly, make sure you call those references! I’m sure they all are going to make glowing recommendations of the daycare but it’s great to finally get a first hand recommendation. Then you get to hear how loving, kind, gentle, and fun the provider is! Almost the best part of the process IMHO.

Next steps

Let the daycare know that you’ve chosen them (and let the other daycares know you didn’t chose them) and fill in the necessary paperwork and deposit.

Start your little bean on a gradual entrance to the daycare to get them warmed up (this is also for your separation anxiety too!!). The daycare is more than likely very used to new children and new parents leaving their children so they should be very accommodating and understanding.

Final thoughts…

Finding daycare is probably one of the most difficult, emotional things a parent can go through with many ups and downs (I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have shed some tears through this experience. At one point we had everything all lined up, just needed to go sign the paperwork and then the daycare provider called me to say she was having health issues and might have to shut the daycare down. I had to start my search all over again from the beginning! So frustrating.). I’d chalk it up to planning a wedding! It’s not easy. It’s time consuming. There are set backs. But in the end if you do all the leg work, you will find yourself with a wonderful daycare, perfect for you and your child.

There is a tonne of good information located here that helped me immensely. Don’t skip reading all of it.

Good luck! You’re going to find the perfect place.

Side note

If anyone is interested in starting a side business with me on doing all this leg work for parents (save for visiting the facilities), let me know. I’ve always thought that this would be the perfect business to get going as it just takes so much time to do all the research! Imagine if you as a parent could just pay someone to look for all the daycares, set up appointments for you to go and visit, call the licensing, call references if you really didn’t want to do that, all for a small fee. How wonderful would that be!!

It’s a bitter sweet milestone we’re passing today. I’m thrilled to be welcoming my wee babe into her 3rd year (2nd birthday) but it also means that she’s not a baby anymore. But she’ll always be MY baby.

I’ve put together a highlight of things she’s done throughout the last year taken most from my iPhone.

I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Ok, I’ll admit it – I haven’t blogged in AGES. But I’m feeling inspired to put together what happened for us this year in photos as I did last year.

Robin at Farewell Stranger has inspired me yet again to sweep away the bloggy cob webs and start anew. Nothing like trying to win a contest while you’re at it.

January

We came home from Switzerland after being gone for one month across Canada and then 5 months in Switzerland. My baby turned one, back to work for me, a new daycare for the wee babe, half way through grade 7 for the tweenager, and a new job for the hubby.

First steps are always really cool (and I shed a tear) so I think that this will be my memory for January.

February

February is a big month for birthdays in my family – mine included. My highlight was the Murdery/Mystery party my husband threw for me. It was flapper themed and so damn cool!

I don’t really like the photos of me that were taken so I’m going to post one of the two handsome blokes from the party. The guy on the left is mine. Hands off ladies.

March

March we were settled back into life around here. And the drab drab weather that the Wet Coast is here. When looking back on the photos I took in March, I found one wonderful day that I took some photos of my girls around Easter. This photo makes me smile.

April

Once again my tween competed in the Concours d’art oratoire and this time she won it in her age group! Definitely the highlight of my month.

May

We can’t have mind blowing things happen to us every month. So this month we just began to enjoy outside a little more and partake in welcoming in Spring.

June

I started a new job. I was freaked out, excited, nervous, elated, joyous, and thinking I was downright loco. A little like a new born goat. We visited goats during this month, so this photo is appropriate.

July

Two largish things happened in July so I can’t just post one photo.

My 20 year grad reunion happened. I got pretty drunk at the dinner cuz that’s what you’re supposed to do at a grad reunion party right? (sshhhh… don’t tell anyone) and then the next day we had a big family BBQ at Beckwith Park. I don’t look a day over 17 if I do say so myself.

AND… my in-laws and my husband’s aunt and uncle came from France and Switzerland. We ventured to Parksville where the weather was crap. The stayed for only 10 short days… I hope they stay longer next time.

August

In August we travelled down to the States to visit with all of our cousins. After a cold trip to Parksville, it was beyond hot in Seattle. But we had a great time visiting all our family down south.

September

In September I was bound and determined to get my baby on the front cover of Island Parent by winning the baby contest at the baby fair. Unfortunately, she didn’t win but don’t you think this is the cutest pic ever and that she should have won? We’re just waiting for someone to “find” her and make her famous. She’s not just a pretty face people. She knows two languages. Any day now….

October

In October we headed to Pender Island for a get away. Another rainy get away. Oh well, we had a great time. We also headed to the pumpkin patch to take some anual photos with the fall colours. I couldn’t resist putting in two family shots for this month. The first is a photo on the Pender Island Disk Golf Course.

November

At the tail end of October was my hubby’s birthday and at the very beginning of November the Tweenager turned into a teen. I can hardly believe my once little sweet pea is now moving into her next stage. I love this photo.

December

Welcome to the end of the year. We took some nice photos of the girls but I’ll put the Christmas card photo of the teenager in here as I just love the colours of her hat. Joyeux Noel and Bon Annee tout le monde!

I was asked by a friend, the other day, how did I sleep train my girls. I thought I would share this with the interwebs in case others out there looking for resources. I’m not saying my way is right (I have many friends who do sleep train differently) but I thought I would share my experience with it.

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The wee babe at 4 weeks old

There’s a lot of info out there about crying it out but what I did was, I timed it. Like the Ferber method. You put her in her crib, sleepy but awake. Before that even, get the sleep routine down. Bath, book, (boob or bottle), bed. So she begins to know that bed time is coming. We say our good nights to everyone (sister, papa – if I’m putting her to bed). We even do a little sign language – the sign for sleep is taking your open palm and dragging it from the top of her head to her chin. It’s so cute because just a week ago she started doing it to herself!!

Anyway, after that, put her in her bed, rub her head, rub her tummy or back for a couple of minutes telling her that it’s time for bed. Night night, I love you, etc…

Then she cries. It’s so much easier if if your partner is with you. For a couple of reasons. Definitely support for you. But also, for him to go in and comfort her 2 minutes later. He DOESN’T pick her up but tries to lay her back down (if she’s standing or sitting), rub her head/tummy/back and again with the soothing words “it’s night time, sleepy time, I love you, good night”. When he gets back, make him tell you everything he witnessed (at least that’s what I did for peace of mind). Then 4 mins later, he goes in again. And I think it’s best if it’s him since she probably associates you with breast feeding and nurturing. Whereas, with your partner (if he’s like my hubby), there’s a bit of a different relationship there. She’s comforted and feels safe with him but it’s just not the same connection. And then 6 mins later. But you have to keep doing it until she falls asleep. Don’t give in and no picking up as then she knows that she just has to cry long enough and eventually someone will pick her up.

And again throughout the night. Same thing. You will notice though that she should get better and better and by the time 4 days has gone by, you aren’t so tender to the crying, you know and you should be able to see that the crying is lessening and lessening. It’s important though that someone goes in to reassure her and check on her. Once we had let her cry for 5 mins and when my hubby went in, he saw that she was under the blankets. So it was good he went in.

And each night you make the waiting longer and longer. Second night, you go in after 5 mins, then 7 mins, then 10 mins. Do what works but make the time longer and longer between check-ins.

9 months is definitely not too late. I had to do it a few times actually. When you get into a scenario like going away for a week or a few days and the sleep routine isn’t the same, you have to sleep train a bit when you get back to normal. But it goes more quickly then the first time. We started at 4 months but we did it again at 6 months (after our trip across Canada) and again at 9 months (after our trip to Egypt). And then loosely a bit in between those times if she was sick, teething, etc… It’s easy to break out of the sleep habit if mommy’s been sooothing for achy teeth or baby doesn’t feel well.

I’m not going to lie. It’s hard. Especially on you. So we did it on a Friday and made sure that we didn’t have much going on during the weekend (you need to do it for naps too – it’s training after all). Mark it on the calendar and think about it to be prepared for it: this is the weekend you’re going to sleep train! Then by the time Sunday night comes along, it’s hopefully not to much disturbance for your partner who has to work the next day (right?) But you need that support from him for when and if you’re crying, your hubby’s there to tell you it’s going to be ok and that you’ll all get through it.

And, it’s not for everybody. Sometimes it’s too hard on the parents, sometimes it just doesn’t work for the child. But I did it for both my kids and they are champion sleepers now. Sometimes the wee babe even giggles when I’m giving her kisses right before bed. It’s hard to imagine that the screeching will turn into giggles EVER.

Two more things as this has been very lengthy – if your baby is sick, teething, routine is messed up or sleeping somewhere else, in my opinion, it’s best to just abandon sleep training. And this is where you end up doing it over and over again (becoming easier and faster each time) because it’s easy for them to fall out of the sleep training.

The other thing is: once it’s done, it’s not done. For example: the wee babe’s been battling a cold for over a month now (ugh..), she usually sleep through the night (7:30-6:30) but for several nights she’s been waking up coughing and then she’s awake crying. We leave her for 5-10 mins and she will fall back asleep sometimes. Then because she’s sick, she ends up sleeping more throughout the day but that means that she’s not tired at 7:30. So I give her the bottle and she’s ready to party now. Wait – what? So I tried to put her to bed at 8 and she just cried and cried and cried. Now I could leave her there but I know she’s not ready (not rubbing her eyes, not yawning, not whining). So I got her up. Then a few minutes later I gave her a second bottle (less of an amount) and voila! She’s good to go. Head on my shoulder, limp in my arms, and when I put her into bed, she’s more than willing. So I’ve learnt from that and realize that I have to put her straight to bed after the bottle and say our good nights.

So it’s not always peaches and cream after you’ve done the sleep training BUT you’ve set her up for great sleep habits to come (hopefully).

I hope this has helped and sorry for the novel but from the info I’ve found online it just isn’t very thorough and I can’t express how much you need support there with you (when I was sleep training the tweenager I had my mom with me since there wasn’t a man around )

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Do you have sleep training experiences? Did other methods work for you? I’d love to hear all about them.

So, tonight, the three of us (me, hubby and tweenager) were walking around INSIDE our house with our bike helmets on.

If you had knocked on our door tonight, you would have thought that we all had a dose of the spins and we were protecting our noggin’s. But that wasn’t the case.

You see, a couple of months ago, we bought an AMAZING double bike trailer (don’t get any ideas, it’s only a double so we could carry more stuff – not another kidlet) that we had great hopes of the wee babe going in.

We envisioned us hitting the open road on our bikes, wind in our hair, tents, food and necessities on our backs/bikes/trailer and going where the wind may take us. We weren’t wearing our helmets to get into the mood but rather, to try to convince the wee babe, that wearing a helmet is a really cool thing to do.

It almost worked. I even told the tweenager that if she can get the wee babe to wear her helmet for 10mins without trying to rip it off her head, she would get a little something extra in her stocking this year.

The wee babe HATES the helmet. You just look at the top of her head with it in your hands, and she instantly bursts into tears. At one point, after a ton of manipulation, prodding, and making a really big deal about how great it was that each of us were wearing her helmet, she grabbed it and tried to put it on her head. She then realized what was on her head, and immediately tore it off.

We have big plans this year to do some biking and hitting the open trail! This baby better not screw it up for me! Ok, but in all honesty, my first wasn’t anything like this – I didn’t even know it was going to be an issue when we bought the helmet as the tweenager took to the helmet like a bell on a handlebar.

So now, I’m stuck. I don’t want to scar the poor thing for life – No! Not the pink and purple helmet! I’m having nightmares about it! – but at the same time, it’s really not an option not to wear it. She LOVES going in the trailer but she’s still too young to know that if she doesn’t wear her helmet, she won’t get to go in the trailer. 15 months is still too young for consequences right?

So what do you or did you do to try and get your kidlets to wear a helmet if that was the last thing they wanted on their precious curls? I’m open to ALL suggestions…

It’s been a while since I’ve done a wee babe update. Gotta catch up all up to what she’s been up to lately.

As you know, she’s been a walking machine for about 2.5 months now. She’s on the verge of running.

She easily goes up and down stairs (and makes me nervous every single time I might add).

She got up onto the couch the other day for the first time, grabbed the tweenagers iPod, got back off the couch, and then proceeded to try and plug it into the docking station for about 5 minutes. She’s definitely persistent. She likes tables too. She’s starting to walk up small stairs standing up.

She gets off the bed backwards no problem.

She still loves to play with doors, but mostly the kitchen cabinet doors so we have them ALL locked up. Lately, she’s been working at opening doors with door nobs. I’m sure this will come soon.

She’s not saying many words yet (mama, papa, JJ) but can sign more, hungry, thirsty and all done. Her delay in her speech must be caused by the fact that we speak to her in French, she is spoken to in English all other times, and we have been signing to her. 3 languages in not too shabby!

She’s big into dancing, and loves to sing a little song.

She’s a good sleeper. She goes to bed at 7:30pm and up at 6:30am without waking (usually). No crying when she goes to bed either – usually a smile.

She’s has 12 teeth. She’s working on her eye teeth (ouch!).

She adores swimming. It’s like she’s had about 4 red bulls when the water hits her skin. Legs moving, arms waving, and moving around like a fish out of water. I guess you can imagine that she loves baths too.

She picks up anything and everything that is the same size as her or bigger and absolutely must share it with you.

She likes most food. Not too picky.

She has an never ending cough and it seems that she gets better, then a random fever, then worse, running nose, cough, better, worse… Ahhh the joys of daycare and having a +1 year old.

She woofs like a dog when she hears a dog, blows raspberries, and tweets like a bird.

Up until just yesterday, I didn’t know she loves to garden (toddler gardening) but it was kind of a given since she adores to be outside. She likes to mow the lawn with her daddy.

She likes to show her tummy when she’s not in a onesie.

She likes to rearrange the shoes frequently and won’t hesitate to give them too you when she wants to go outside. You might even go as far as saying she has a shoe obsession.

She will give you a diaper if you ask her for one but still cries when you try to change her.

She’s beginning to be interested in books.

She likes being a menace, sitting on the tweenager’s stomach, punching her in the face, and she’s cute (so says the tweenager).

She likes to twirl her hair (like her mama).

She helps clear the table after dinner.

She’s obsessed with buttons. Phones, remote controls, VCR’s, washing machines, dishwashers, computer keyboards, etc… if it has a button, the wee babe needs to push it.

Detests her bike helmet (more on that tomorrow).

She gives great hugs and kisses.

She 98% joy, 2% handful. We love her to bits.

The wee babe started walking the day AFTER the big birthday party here, so January 22, 2012. That makes 12 months and 18 days.

It was a fantastic moment for our family. All of us just happened to be hanging out in the living room. We had a CD playing that our friends Kelly and Sarah made for her for her birthday the day before and it just happened to be a Bob Marley song playing.

She was holding two small board books – one in each hand – that our friends Jeffery and Lisa had given to her at her birthday the day before.

She took 3 steps.

My hubby and I cried.

We had a moment – our baby was growing up right before our eyes.

What were your baby’s first steps like? Did you miss it? Did you cry?

So that lucky wee babe. She had two first birthdays (that she’s not going to remember). One in Switzerland and one in Canada.

The one in Switzerland was held on her actual birthday at Maminou and Papinou’s house in the afternoon. It was considered a “Canadian Dinner” which translates to a potluck (I have no idea why we coined the phrase but I guess it’s probably like French fries.) There were many of our friends and family there. We shared wine, cake, presents and good food.  The wee babe did great. It also served as a bit of a going away party for us as it as 2 days before we left the country after being there for 5 months.

To be honest, it was a nice transition because as we said goodbye with a birthday party to one part of our lives, we came back to Canada and said hello to the family and friends we had been missing.

After a couple of weeks, we celebrated again at the Lion’s Hall just down the road from us with another potluck. Colleen had made the wee babe’s first birthday cake (It was only fitting since she made our wedding cake – and she did a fabulous job too by the way). We ate food, cake, opened presents and George snuck a beer (even though there was to be absolutely no alcohol in the building – there’s one in every bunch). And again, the wee babe did great.

After the party, a few of us went back to our house and had some fondue! I was all fondued out but it was nice to see our friends coming together under our house and celebrating with us.

The video captures moments from Switzerland and moments from Canada’s goodbye and hello parties.

And with this post, I think I’ve finally captured all the Swiss stories I wanted before movin’ on back to Canadian soil.

And thanks to Scott Rose for this video clip as well.

Robin at Farewell Stranger had a wonderful idea. Write a blog capturing the moments from last year by using one photo from each month. Since I take a lot of photos and I had a pretty memorable year, I thought this was a splendid idea.

January

Well, January definitely didn’t go unnoticed with the birth of our beautiful baby, Violette. It was a hard delivery (C-section) but our family was so ready to welcome her into our family and our hearts.

February

Even though February is FULL of birthdays (even mine), I could only find photos of Violette as we were well into getting to know our wee babe. (Yes those are bags of bread on either side of her head) and we had a freak Victoria snow dump as well.

March

In March we headed down to Seattle to spend some time with all the cousins on the Howe side of the family. Ok, not all of them were there but we had a great time introducing Vivi and also getting to know my cousin’s new baby, Ashleigh, who was only born 2 weeks after Violette.

April

In April I started this blog!! I had meant to start it when Violette was born to capture all the thoughts and feelings that I had been having as a ‘new’ mom (ok, I’m not new but after 11 years, I was definitely rusty). We also went on a hike up bear hill and managed to snap some great photos of my girls.

We also went up to Cowichan to spend Easter with one of our favourite families. Definitely a time to remember.

May

In May we took a trip off the island to Vancouver for the tweenager to participate in the “Concours”. Her speech was on bottled water (and delivered all in French) and she did a wonderful job. She says that next year if she makes it to the semi-finals again, she will do her speech on Switzerland!

June

We were madly getting ready for our big trip across Canada. One of the things we needed to do was plant a tree that the hubby had received when it was just a little sapling. It was now big and in a pot that was too small so he wanted to plant it somewhere memorable. We took him to the spot where we got married in East Sooke Park and named him Xavier. One of the things I want to do when we get home is visit Xavier and see how he’s doing.

July

Wow, July is an entire month filled with photos of our trip across Canada. How ever will I pick just one? I think we only have one photo of us all together so I’m chosing this one. We were on the beach on PEI watching the beautiful sunset. PEI is an amazingly beautiful place (dare I say the most beautiful place that we saw?) so I think it’s right to have this photo depict our journey.

August

August was no slouch either for getting out and about. We started our 5 month adventure in Switzerland at the very end of July so we tried to pack in as much as possible for the one summer month we had before the tweenager started school. We journeyed to the Mont Blanc in France, Valbella in Switzerland, Zurich, Thun, and to the Gewürztraminer area of France, Alsace.

Again, hard to pick just one, but this photo really speaks to me. We were in Zurich and it was so freakin’ hot. There is a really cool ground-fountain thing (I don’t know how else to explain it) but it’s jets of water that come up from the ground and you never know where it’s going to spurt up next. We were so relieved to have the water falling down on us.

September

We spent the majority of September getting to know our new digs and our new Ville, Vevey. We explored around the town, walked Jaedyn to and from school twice, sometimes three time a day and spent a few evening (and days) at the lake enjoying the afternoon sun, having dinner lakeside. This is a photo of Violette on one of these afternoons.

October

October was filled with a much anticipated visit from my mommy from Canada for 10 days and a lifelong wish to tour around Egypt. When my mom was here we walked to Montreux and enjoyed a traditional Swiss event, Desalpes.

November

In November we celebrated Luc and Jaedyn’s birthdays in addtion to Luc’s sisters. Luc had a crazy dance party and Jaedyn had some friends to our favourite restaurant, Pizza Taxi. We also visited with friends. The highlight of our month was spent during a weekend away in Bretaye, high in the Swiss mountains eating crepes and raclette. It was deliciously wonderful.

December

We were in full swing Christmas mode during the month of December making crafts, baking, checking out the festivities in Vevey (JJ skated at the local skating rink), and visiting Santa in Rocher de Naye. We spent Christmas with Luc’s family and then heading back up to Valbella to ring in the New Year under a lot of beautifully falling snow.

I loved being able to recap the year in photos. It sure was hard to pick the one that represented the month the best since our months were filled chock-o-block fullness.

Looking back on the year of 2011, we had an amazing year filled with some of the most memorable experiences I will ever have.