Everyone.

Jethro:

So lately Jethro has been cooking.  But not so much typical things like cookies, but syrups and honey from flowers gathered in the woods.  Apparently he was with his friend Lamin and his mom Renate (our downstairs neighbors) when they made Löwenzahn-Honig, which means Dandelion honey.  It’s thick and looks a lot like regular honey (not the creamed kind), and is quite tasty (they sent us home with a jar).  So then Jethro was into the idea and he gathered more Löwenzahn (that literally means lions teeth) and made sirup—which is kindof like a juice concentrate that you mix with water and drink.  People have sirup a lot here.  So here he is with his friend Marco at our house cooking their sirup.

He also looked up a recipe for a different kind of sirup that is made with a flower called Waldmeister that you find in the woods.  I’d never heard of it before, according to the internet it’s called sweet woodruff in English?  Anyway, he looked up this recipe (maybe his friend’s mom had mentioned it?) and looked at pictures of it, and was planning to make it, but I had no idea if he would find any.  Then we walked up the Gurten (Bern’s tiny mountain) on Thursday (Ascension Day so there was a holiday) for a ward activity, and he found a ton.  So he also made some of that.

He also got a new bike.  His class had a safety course taught by a police officer of how to drive on roads.  They had earpieces in so they could hear the policeman while they rode.  Now he likes to ride his bike quite a lot.  Before he didn’t so much because the chain on his old bike fell off quite a lot.

Also, he found a new favorite show.  Brett likes it a lot too.  It’s called Engineering Connections and the presenter is Richard Hammond from Top Gear.  It’s actually really interesting—check it out on youtube as they have lots of episodes.

Hazel:

    

As you can see from the pictures, her hair is getting long, but she almost always wears it in a low ponytail.  Also, she only wore that cute pink shirt because I begged her to.  She’s all about the comfort—she has a few nice, cute shirts in her drawer, but she never wears them because they’re not as comfy as her t-shirts.  She’s a lot like me (too much?) in that way.  Yay for being comfortable!

Also, in the pictures up there you can see she’s holding something—it’s a Harry Potter book.  She started reading them a couple weeks ago and just today finished number 7.  And said, “I wish there was more.”  :) 

  

Hazel is a great kid.  She comes home, does her homework if she has any, does her chores and marks them off, and then goes and plays with her friend Jamina or reads Harry Potter.  :)

Ethne:

Ethne is getting really good at reading, but I’m more frustrated than ever when we sit down and do her reading lessons because she still always gets distrated a hundred million times.  The book has 100 lessons and I think we’re on 94. 

Talmage:

Following Hazel’s example:

Talmage learned how to ride a two-wheeled bike –it was easy as pie since he’s had his little pedal-less bike for the last couple years and has been balancing for a long time.  He loves it and is has been outside a lot lately on his bike.

Orrin:

He’s cute.  He’s Brett’s favorite at the moment.  Cause he’s funny and cute.  He inherited Talmage’s balance bike, but even with the seat all the way down he can still only barely reach the ground with his feet, so he loves to “ride” it, but really he’s just walking—tiptoeing, really—while straddling the bike.  :)

Wyatt:

4 months old today!

I came into the front room one time and saw him reading a Friend magazine.  Genius.

What’s up Mom?  I’m just reading my magazine.

Cutest boy ever!

Wyatt is super cute, but to be truthful, he has not been an easy baby.  He does not take a soother (pacifier) ever.  Period.  For a long time he would not just sit in his bouncy seat and chill, ever.  Nor would he even just be held—he had to be jiggled or rocked just the right way the whole time.  Otherwise, he would scream.  Now, he’s not the hardest baby ever, because I know there are some babies that just scream and scream no matter how you hold or jiggle them, but still, it was a lot more taxing than some of my other babies who I wrapped up tightly, gave them their soother, and they would be pretty content until they really needed to be fed or something. 

Also, I think there is the issue (for me at least) of carryover—where you are out of patience from the last few times he screamed so that when he starts to scream later, you don’t start from zero, you start from already-stressed.  What I mean is, if you really just looked at one day, he doesn’t cry that much really, but because he’s cried many many days in a row, it feels like he’s crying a lot on that day because you’re still worn down.  Basically as soon as he starts crying you’re like- KID! Enough with the crying!

Okay, it’s not too bad.  And I’m glad to say that he’s already a lot better than he used to be, and will actually be chill for half-hours or so at a time now.  But when my sisters say things like their babies are sleeping through the night, I’m like --SERIOUSLY what the heck.  And putting him in his carseat is a nightmare, so that the thought of taking him anywhere still gives me a knot of stress.  I try to wait to go grocery shopping until he’s having a good nap and then leave Jethro in charge of him while I hurry.

Oh, and I was going to mention that the saving grace of him being a bit of a fussy kid is that I have older kids to help.  Jethro and Hazel hold him a LOT and it saves my sanity.  In fact, sometimes when they go to school in the afternoons I think –why do they have to go to school in the afternoon too?? How am I going to get anything done?  Also, sometimes I think they’re better at making him happy him than I am.  I think he likes me less—and once he’s full of milk from me, my magic is gone.  Brett is really good to hold him and help a lot too.  In fact, one night after I had put him in bed and tried to get him to go to sleep by patting his back, I went and laid down in bed and then he started crying again, and Brett went over and I didn’t know what he was doing because I couldn’t hear any patting sounds.  But Wyatt stopped crying and went to sleep and I thanked my stars and wondered if Brett had put a spell on him.  Later, another time I was trying to soothe him to sleep, Brett showed me how to put my hands on the mattress of the crib and jiggle it up and down.  Genius.  We use that trick a lot now.

ANYWAY- that was a lot of rambling to basically say that he has not been incredibly easy, but I really do think the worst is over and he is getting better all the time (although I am trying to avoid thinking about the plane ride to the US).  Anyway, he’s adorable and I love him to pieces.

As for what’s new with me, Brett and I went out to dinner with our friends Bill and Renate for our anniversaries.  Bill is the bishop of our ward, and he kept telling Brett to make sure we go out on a date, and finally he called and said that he remembered our anniversaries are a day apart and so maybe we could go on a double date while their daughters babysat for us.  Sounded good to me.  We went to a Mongolian Barbeque place that was tasty but really expensive (as usual in Switzerland, which is why we never go out to eat here (not that we ever go out to eat at all, because Brett hates to, but here even more so)).

I mentioned we had a ward activity last Thursday- and it was really fun.  Bill (who is American) brought a baseball and mitts, and Brett and I played catch which was the first time in years, literally, and it was sooooo fun.  We also brought along our football and played catch with that and like always, it made me feel like a new, happy, woman.  :)  We grilled sausages and ate and chatted with people and played, and after hiking up and playing catch that much and hiking down, I was really worn out by the time we got back to our van.  Brett said, “Just think—if you were a pioneer you’d feel like this every day.” 

What else?  At the end of April Brett was in France for about 5 days.  It was pretty hard, well, mostly on Sunday trying to get all the kids to church and deal with them all during Sacrament meeting, and then going to a baptism that afternoon, where there was a dinner served and pretty much it’s actually impossible to get dinner for youself and your little kids while holding a baby (who-see above—won’t just chill out anywhere).  So I just went through the line a few times, and I deposited Orrin with his plate at a table and luckily people looked after him.  :)  But yeah, I do not like the single mom scene and Brett’s never allowed to die.

In other news, the weather forecast for the rest of the time we’re here in Switzerland is rain.  It has been raining for the last two months.  We did have two days of sun – yesterday and the day before.  You know, I have something to say about Switzerland.  It is beautiful.  I mean, where I live, I can go on a two-minute walk past the farm and see THE MOST gorgeous, green, pristine springtime beauty- the buds are in huge beautiful pink clumps on the trees, the fields are amazingly green, there are flowers everywhere, and it’s just more beautiful than any storybook pictures.  But it seriously is only sunny—and therefore pretty like that—1% of the whole season!!  It’s a little frustrating.

Well, that’s enough yapping for tonight.  I’m off to bed.