7 months old and a trip to Switzerland

As usual, I have been meaning to post forever. A fair bit has happened over the last few weeks, so I'll just have to do a major catch-up post in the spirit of Dana.

Avery is 7 months old now - and I am still astounded how quickly time is flying. She is continuing to grow, though she has definitely slowed down in gaining weight. She is about 27 inches now, and around 16 lbs 10-ish oz. She actually lost a little weight in September, but more on that later. She is eating a bunch of different veggies and fruit now, loves her cereal and yogurt, and tried beef for the first time today. She wasn't overly keen on it, but she didn't totally reject it. So we will try again tomorrow. She cut her first tooth (bottom front left) last week, and I think its partner is on the way. She is saying "mama" now - ok, not really, but she does say "mamamamama" and sometime she says it in my direction. :) She is sitting up pretty well, and is starting to push forward over her legs and feet - usually ending up in a face-plant. No real crawling, but she often sees something in front of her that she wants to get, pushes and pushes, and then gets really mad when she ends up farther away from it, rather than closer. Very cute! Sleeping continues to be a disaster, but I have resolved that it will work itself out one of these days. If I end up with a 3-year old that doesn't want to sleep on her own ever, I guess we will all know why!

The most major event from September was our trip to Switzerland. Avery, my mom and I went for two weeks and stayed with Aunt and Uncle in their small town between Basel and Zurich. Now that I have some perspective, I can say that overall it was a pretty good trip. Avery did awesomely well on all of the plane rides and most of the train rides. Jet lag was hard to cope with (I guess babies can't logic it out and stay up for the sake of getting over jet lag faster), as was Avery's teething, diaper rash and stomach bug that resulted in many, many, MANY diaper changes per day. Hence the aforementioned weight loss.

Regardless, we did manage to fit in a number of outings, to Bern, Zurich, Luzern, Lausanne and Locarno. We went to a really cool glass factory in Hergiswil where we watched glass being blown into vases, etc. Highlights of the trip were the free wine festival/tasting that my mom and I stumbled onto in Locarno (with Avery in the carrier on my back), and all of the awesome food we had. Most of it was cooked my aunt Ursula, but there were a few great meals (and desserts) to be had in restaurants as well. I was able to see all of my family there, which was great since it had been about 15 years since I had last seen some of them. And I really appreciate the hospitality of Ursula and Gil, as well as the chance to hang out with my aunt Barbara, my cousins and their kids, Sebastian and Clara-Elisa. Hopefully it won't be another 15 years before we go back and hopefully Greg will be able to come the next time. I don't think he would stand for staying home alone again! :)

Other recent events: Meghan and Dave's wedding last Saturday was a great time and Meghan looked gorgeous (ok, Dave looked pretty good too). I got a cool cover-up for the baby carrier so that I don't have to be so worried about Avery freezing her butt off when we go for walks. I have gotten back into my exercise classes through Mommefit, and started spinning class with Jammer as an instructor. She was awesome and boy, did my butt hurt the next day! However, that hurt was nothing compared to the bruise I got on my knee while curling last Friday night. Greg and I joined a curling team with my friend Rory and her friend Andrew. The three of them have all curled for years - I have not. So you can understand why I was a little nervous. Once we started, my nervousness about not playing well quickly turned into nervousness about falling and cracking my skull open on the ice. I did fall twice and the second time I completely schmucked my knee. That was when I went to buy a gripper for my slider foot and that made all the difference in the world. I am mostly looking forward to curling again this week, as long as my knee isn't as sore. Or maybe I will just have a perma-bruise until the season is over. It is a beaut, let me tell ya!