adventures with my baby: this is NOT a food blog.

What we mainly do is walk and eat: me pastries, C breastmilk. Before we arrived, J asked me if she could get anything for us like diapers or baby food. They also borrowed a crib for us.

I didn’t have any preconceived notions about what kind of parent I would be. However, I have gravitated naturally towards what’s called “attachment parenting”: baby carrying rather than using a stroller, cosleeping, breastfeeding, etc. What I didn’t realize as I made each of these decisions instinctively is that they make us a highly-mobile family unit. I never need cribs or bottles or really any extra equipment. I brought toys for her, but she’s really just as happy with a crinkly piece of paper as any rattle.

In the meantime, all this walking, or just my shift in hormones, helped me lose 20 lbs. Congratulate me for being back in the range of my normal weight after gaining about 45 in my pregnancy. (BTW, I personally think the doctors’ recommended 25-35 lb. gain is major BS. Nearly every healthy woman I know gained 50 lbs, and the last thing you need to get hung up on when growing a healthy human is your own size.)

As my body got smaller, C began looking like a baby chick with a tuft of blond hair newly grown on her head. It’s unbelievably cute! Of course, this began the debate about what her hair color will ultimately be since her eyes are surprisingly blue (!!). I remain absolutely certain that she will have dark brown hair, but not everyone we know is convinced.

The next stop in our big adventure was Switzerland to visit Dan and family. The train ride lasted a whopping 6 hours the primary event of which was C turning my éclair over onto herself resulting in one clothing change. (And I tried so hard to be careful! But a woman’s need for chocolate pastries can be powerful.) Then a massive poopy blowout which proved that poop and chocolate do not look the same at this age.

Every time I go to Switzerland, the clarity of the water in the cities’ rivers amazes me. Lucerne is all about its river and bridges to cross it, doll-house town centers surround. We missed the famous lion sculpture. A few minutes on the bus brought us to Dan’s little neighborhood where we wandered through a quaint school before finding their building. Wide, natural lawns were everywhere – the entire US is trying to emulate this look with lawns they must support with constant watering and chemicals.

Dan’s wife, A, is a wonderful cook, creating each meal for us like it was a work of art. Their daughter is 9-months old, a long skinny little dancer who loves to look around, sit and wave her hands in the air. (C, on the other hand, has very little interest in sitting. But she’s much younger.) A made baby food for her daughter with spices, ginger, garlic, herbs, to get her used to the flavors. We spent a magnificent afternoon walking through an idyllic valley to work off all this deliciousness. By the time we got back to Paris, C had outgrown the clothes I brought on this trip for her.

[We've been back for more than a week, but I still have one more post on our trip forthcoming....]