Our new home!

Finally, you might think .... But here are the first pictures of our new home. I know that it still does look a little bit bare, but keep in mind that our 70 boxes are somewhere on the road. I think that it actually already looks good. And it is starting to feel like our real home. We are all adjusting. Andrin is still struggling and is waking up once a night. I had a chat with a typical Swiss neighbor today and she had to mention that she wakes up every night because he is crying and has a hard time falling asleep again ... Welcome to Switzerland! It is not that we let him cry for a long time .... We took quite a few trips to IKEA lately and I am getting sick and tired of it. I know, that is difficult to believe, but it is true. We still need to get some more shelves, and some lamps (they were remodeling the lamp section the last time I was there ...). And today, Clemens was able to return from work with his new bicycle. Andrin was so happy to see him and took a quick drive with him in the child seat (until it started to rain really hard and they had to turn around). The location of our house is great. It is close to the city (about 20 minutes to the train station), and we are in about five minutes in a big park area. The downtown (yes, there is a downtown) is cute and there are some nice and interesting shops.

Andrin is discovering new places to play. The furnice is perfect for train tracks ...

Andrin and his beloved bike. He is getting really skilled and does not even need a helping hand anymore. He also learned to get around corners ...

Some plays just stay the same: Mami had to put the paper together with some yarn ...

Empty house ....
The two men sitting in their chairs. Papi is connecting us to the world again ... with the internet.

Mami relaxing with Bigna on our wonderful couch ... (this picture is just for Becky :)

Andrin playing with Mami's ambulance. He is also showing off the new recliner for his baby and Mami's old baby stroller.

I know, we need to get a proper bath ...

Bigna going along with another of her brother's inventions and constructions.

Bigna relaxing on the couch. Our bean is getting so big.

Mr. cook is busy, please do not disturb and try to say good bye in the morning, Papi. I am busy cooking some eggs.

Enjoying a ride on his horse (it belonged to Mami when she was a baby and went to Opa's hospital before it joined us).

This is where the fun starts: Andrin actually is a help (at times) and loves to use the hammer (and has learned some proper techniques with Opa, to our surprise).

IKEA chaos ...

Assembly help from Opa Jumbo ...

But are you finally ready for some pictures of our house?

Entry way:
Stairs from the entry way to the living room (yes, we have lots of stairs and they keep us fit:):

The living room:

The dining area:

The kitchen:

Bathroom: One of our three (!) bathrooms. One with shower, one with bathtub and a guest bathroom.

Master bedroom:

View from the balcony from the master bedroom: (the playground)

The man cave (Clemens' office):
Femeke's and Bigna's room (work in progress) (on the top floor):

Andrin's bedroom: On the top floor.

The house from the garden:

Our garden:

Arth Goldau

On a expectional warm and sunny day, we went to Arth Goldau, a little town not too far from my parents' house. I remember going there as a child myself. Andrin was smitten with the deer, even though he did not like that they were pushy and took their food right out of his box that he was has holding. He also liked the goats, but they also were headbutting him. But the clear favorite were all the chickens. Do not ask me what is going on with our little boy and the chickens. He also continues to be highly fascinated by eggs ... Well, some things just do not change, even if you move across the ocean! Oh, did I mention that he was heart broken because we did not see the wolf? He could not stop saying that he did not see them. But we saw some bears, but he was not impressed at all ...

Happy Birthday, Opa Jumbo

We were lucky that we were able to congratulate Opa Jumbo this year in person. Andrin helped me bake a cake and he was fascinated by the fact that we had magic candles that kept going and going and going ... We also were all happy that Opa Jumbo's birthday coincided with Papi's arrival in Switzerland. Welcome home, Papi!

Catching up ...

I am sitting on our NEW couch, in our NEW house, and can finally blog again. For some reason, I was not able to blog at my parents' house and we waited for a week to have internet at our NEW house. It has been a busy time and you will have to wait a little bit until I will post the pictures of our NEW house ... But so much: We are all doing well and are enjoying our NEW home. Andrin still talks a lot about his friends. But he was in heaven today and completely happy when there were some children playing outside on the playground. He is by far the youngest, but they had him join in their game of soccer. It was wonderful since Andrin just went out the back yard and joined them. It gave us some time to do some more IKEA assembling. Today, we made big strikes in our NEW house (with the help of some professionals :). We now have a couch, a bed (yeah!), and a cabinet. We also got Andrin's room ready and he is currently trying to fall asleep for the first time in his big boy bed.
But let's back up ... We had a good trip. I was so glad to have Oma there to help with the children. Bigna was a big trooper and slept most of the flights. Andrin had more problems falling asleep, but he did surprisingly well. We took the time to settle at my parents' house. Thanks for hosting us and putting up with us and all the nighttime disturbance and loud child! I was surprised how quickly the children adjusted to the time difference. Andrin loved to be at his grandparents' house. We took lots of visits to our neighbor and his little farm. Andrin adored the little kittens and the chickens. It was wonderful to see that he was enjoying himself and being in nature.

...in case you were wondering....

Brief update.

We currently don't have internet at home, so at the moment Femeke is unable to update the blog (but she will pick up the slack very soon!).

Although 50% of the family is missing Oregon already, we are all happy and content, albeit stressed out at times.
Last Friday we moved into our new place. A detailed description and pictures will be posted soon.
My lab is currently being remodeled and should be done next week. It is still devoid of equipment and reagents but I inherited a ton of stuff from another lab (which saves me $$$).
If you want to check out the view from my office you can do this through the official Biozentrum webcam (which happens to be located in my office): http://www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/webcam.html

To sum it up: we are alive.