“The Napping House”?..you know the one where EVERYONE is sleeping. Well, I am seriously considering writing a sequel to the book only my title would be “The Napless House” where NO ONE is sleeping.

I don’t know if it is the excitement of Christmas and an approaching visit from grandparents but our kids are living in crazyville. Not that the house is in a state of craziness, just them. Maybe the current running through our transformer to feed Swiss current into our American-made tree lights is just getting to them. Maybe it’s that they aren’t getting to run around as much because of the snow, no better maybe it’s because of the excitement from the snow. Or maybe it’s that they are too warm in their fleece footy jammies or too cold in their footless pj’s.  You see where this is going. When one tries to figure out what causes small people to be disrupted you drive yourself INSANE. So, to preserve my own sanity I am embracing this obnoxious disruption and mustering up every ounce of strength to pray that my little boys go to bed early and sleep, WITHOUT a PEEP!

Tomorrow we go to the Embassy to meet Santa! Now THAT is for sure going to calm my kids down!

We are enjoying lots of off and on flurries and that big snow at Thanksgiving. Seth is getting the snow tires put on today so I am feeling much better about all of this white stuff!

I miss baking cookies with my mom! Last yr my mom was with us while we waited for Owen to make his debut. We made cookies with Jackson together. It was so much fun. Almost daily I tell her I wish she could hop a plane and come on over!

I miss Chickfila. I would love to pack my kids up and head over to Chickfila for a good old lunch with a clean play area! Sounds silly, but I miss it!

I miss being able to go to the store and buy some jeans…or things in general    . Everything is Switzerland is ridiculously marked up!!! I mean ridiculously! For example, a starbucks tall hot chocolate is $7.80.

I miss being able to Christmas shop in person. I know we are spoiled, we have a mail system and lots of online shopping but I love getting to pick out gifts in ways other than sitting at a computer.

I miss people speaking my language. I had a really annoying morning and mostly because I don’t speak German! I am spoiled in that most people in Bern speak English, but it’s just not the same.

I miss Tex- Mex food. I wish I could hop over to Lupe Tortilla!

Enough of the things I miss. I am thankful for where we are! Just a little homesick!

In one week our baby will be ONE!!!! No way. This year has flown. I vow to never again move during the first yr of a child’s life. It makes time go even faster.

Owen has blessed our family far more than I could have anticipated. I knew having another child would be wonderful but I really can’t imagine our little family without him.  I have to think hard to remember times before him.  He is a sweet-tempered little guy but has enough fiesty-ness (wonder where he gets that) to stand up to his brother and let his opinions be heard.

Owen is a great little sleeper and loves cuddling. He often dives towards his bed when he is tired. When he wakes up and gets rescued from his bed we tell him to get rid of his pacifier. He energetically yanks his pacifier out and tosses it into his crib with a laugh.

I think I expected Owen to hold out on talking a little longer just because he’s the second child and well, even if he wasn’t, it’s hard to get a word in edge wise. But Owen makes every attempt to outshout Jackson and has a great little repertoire of words these days! So far he says, “Dada, “mama-sometimes mommy”, “JackJack”, “cracu” for cracker, “nana” for all fruits, “milk”,  “bye bye”, “more”, “all done”, and his latest word is “touch” which he learned from Seth when I was out of town and Seth had to keep saying “no touch” with the Christmas tree.

Owen appears to have a very particular palate. He is a good eater but is particular about textures and tastes. He wants to be independent so often resists being spoon fed. Resistance from Owen is often a tight-lipped grin! No amount of coaxing opens those jaws so we move on. When he is done eating he cheerfully tosses piece by piece onto the kitchen floor.

For those of you that worry whether or not we have photographed Owen or taken any videos of him, rest assured we have captured this first yr! Although we have worse than slacked on the blog the documentation continues!  We are hoping to get up a video before his birthday!

Owen is quite the comic. There are some in our family that are banned from telling jokes in any language they may speak (we won’t name any names but he is the only one in the family to speak German, Spanish and English and gets paid for it) but Owen is going to be our naturally funny guy. He has a hysterical laugh and when he and Jackson get going he just can’t stop himself.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from his first yr!

We love you little guy and we can’t wait to celebrate your 1st birthday!