Happy 2009!

The Crouches meet the new year in Switzerland with Familie Bamert. On new years eve it snowed which created a beautiful white blanket which sparkled in the moonlight. At midnight the local spa on the hill above their house let off a grand display of fireworks. Our celebration included an authenic Swiss fondue, dress up, dancing and a tischbombe! A tischbombe is a kind of firework that spits out toys and party favors rather than sparks. The pirate themed tischbombe was a hit with the kids, in fact Mathia wanted to sleep with his eyepatch and mustache! Lulu even learned to 'Cheers' (of course with kinderwein)!

On the Slopes

One of the highlights of our trip to see cousins Sophia and Mathias and Auntie Sarina and Uncle Markus was our days up on the sunny, snowy slopes around Lake Zurich. There are small sledding and beginner skiing slopes all over, many within 20 minutes from their house. Each park has rustic little restaurants which serve basic Swiss faire, most complete with 90 year old grannies working in the kitchen. Lu had a great time sledding and was really brave on the long slopes. She was squealing with delight!

Je suis Lulu!

Lu said her name for the first time today. It's funny how her self recognition has added a whole new dimension to her personality. She's now little Lulu and now longer the bebé. We are a family of babbling double syllables; Mama, Dada and Lulu. She also calls herself and other little girls, la petite, which is the French for little girl.
With Christmas just around the corner I've especially enjoyed our tree and the advent calendar that Gramma Jan made for Lu. She seems to recognize Santa, often calling him papa. There isn't as much commerical presence of Christmas here so she doesn't see much outside the house. We are showing her some of the classic shows, Rudoph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and Santa is Coming to Town on DVD.

Sinterklass

The Belgians and the Dutch have a wonderful tradition on Dec. 6 which celebrates the arrival of Sinterklass and his helpers Zwarte Piet. Children leave their shoes near the fireplace or the door with carrots for Sint's horse and a note telling him that they've been good. During the night Zwarte Piet sneaks down the chimney and replaces the carrots with kruidnoten cookies, candy, clementines and little gifts for well-behaved children. If children have been bad they are whipped with a switch carried on the belt of Piet. Sinterklass makes a long voyage from Spain each year to bring the treats for the children by boat. When he arrives in the low countries (a different port each year) he mounts his horse and heads out to do his work with many Zwarte Piet helpers.

The fun continues when families work to create poems which poke fun at each other, in the most harmless way, teasing about habbits, love interests or mannerisms. The poem is accompanied with a home made gift which is sometimes only found by decifering a treaure map or series of clues. I love the fact that everyone, young and old, is involved and much work goes into working out the perfect poem and special gift. Kevin and I organized a Sinterklaas treat for Lucienne this year. The carrots and shoes were temporary play things and the cookies and chocolate were a big hit, not to mention the clementines which she loves!

Yada yada yada

Lucienne is quite the conversationalist these days. Some of the new words are coat, tree, boat, cookie, flower among many others. She also tells us when something is "gone" or she wants "more" and is forever asking if we are going to "go" in the "car". We love the cute names for things that aren't quite accurate, but make sense to her. Meemo is for fish, mee for money and due to the shape of her piggy bank, for pigs too. If Lucienne hasn't found the right word for something she will do a little sound effect. Bunnies are a flip of the tongue which is the sound of munching on carrots, she flaps her arms for a duck and meows for a kitty. Lu is learning her colors and can identify and say red, purple, green and blue. It seems each day a new word comes out of her mouth.

Around the house

Lucienne has been developing in leaps and bounds. She also seems to have an organizational streak which becomes obvious when she sits at her table and uses her pens. It's very cute how she makes sure the cap is back on before she picks up a new pen to draw. Even when it's time to put the pens away and get ready for lunch or bedtime, she'll put the pens neatly back in the box, all with the caps point up!



Her skills of matching and identifying are very strong. We brought her a book in which pictures have corresponding sticker and she is able to match them every time...even orientated the right way. She is very good at her puzzles, in fact we need to get her some more complicated ones.



She's talking all the time now and can ask questions, "Where dada?" and is endlessly trying to make conversation with her limited vocabulary. I can see her expanding the meaning of words when she recognizes when something is empty by saying "gone". Blue's Clues has become a favorite, in fact it's the only show she watches. When Lucienne asks to watch it she opens and closes her hands saying "Clue, Clue" or sometimes "Joe".

Lu is forever imitating us and she understands basically everything I ask her to do. In this picture I had removed the batteries from her toy to recharge them and after watching me she was determined to used the screwdriver to remove the screws herself. Luckily she wasn't successful. She loves to look at her books and will study them for quite a while. Her favorites right now are the Dr. Seuss books, specifically "Go Dog Go" which she can say...well short of and "I'll Teach My Dog A lot of Words". It's not surprising that both have dog characters since that seems to be her favorite animal. Kevin and I are daily waiting for something new our little Lulu will come up with!

All Saints and Pink Eye

With Kevin in Morocco on a mountain biking trip for the school, Lucienne and I had grand plans for the mid-term break. Unfortunately this was not to materialize. Monday it became apparent that Lu had conjuctivitis and from that point on we were battling that and colds. The only hightlight was a trip to London, Wednesday on the Eurostar. It looked like we were on the mend so I decided to go ahead, but throughout the day Lucienne's pink eye didn't get better, it got worse.
The borough of Kensington and Chelsea is a fantastic place to walk and window shop. Very stylish cafés and shops with maticulously kept rows of apartments painted perfect white. I was on the lookout for Cath Kidston's shop where I hoped to find some modern print fabric for some sewing projects.

In the afternoon we had a nice stroll through Kensington Gardens. The fall color was vibrant and the day was clear, though cold. I had planned on having lunch at The Orangery, but there was quite a wait. We then walked the length of the park, then the length of Hyde Park looking for a place to duck into for lunch. Finally at Oxford Street we came across a Starbucks where we shared a cheddar and pickle sandwich. At that point Lu had had it so I hailed a taxi to take us back to St. Pancras Station.

The Eurostar couldn't have been more convientent with Lucienne. I arranged to sit in the family section of the train where the doors didn't open automatically and the handles were out of toddler reach. The other passengers sitting around us were also families so this kept the annoyance factor to a minimum.