Sebas has a camera

Since I started being serious about photography Sebastian has seen me a lot with my camera, so it was only natural that he finally said: "Mamá you comprar una cámara for me, fo mi mor (por favor)"

We looked around the apartment and found an old digital camera, loaded it with batteries and gave it to him to see what happened. We truly expected to see it torn in pieces in a couple of hours, but my secret wish was to see the first photos taken by Sebastian :)

A little later we were being chased by a little man and a flash, he was unstoppable :) so here is a little selection of his work.


Collection #1: Feet
Well seems like Sebastian spends a lot of time looking at legs, it might be his height ;)

Collection #2: Home
He seems to be quite keen on his home .. there are many photos of our bathroom too

Collection #3: Giraffe
No description needed

Collection #4: Mamá y Papá
Our fronts and backs

Collection #5: Table
Here are a few snapshots of our meals, there is ketchup of course, fruit, pizza, maple syrup, Mickey Mouse pancakes and a cow.

Collection #6: People
We found out that Sebastian is not shy about getting people to pose for his pictures, so so proud ...

Sebastian's first solo photo album is loaded in flickr. Click here to see all his work :) and click on slideshow.

- Alessandra

Our summer holiday

Our little summer escape took us to Sicily. Beach, sun and blue blue skies ... and of course some wonderful food.

We spend a few days at a beautiful hotel in Palermo and then headed to Cefalú for a week where Sebastian met a beautiful Sicilian - Gloria - and proceeded to have his first summer fling :)

Chuck and I got so tanned, (hey we did use 50+ protection!) we are having trouble remembering how pale we were before the trip.

Our highlights:

1. If you get a chance stay at the Villa Igiea in Palermo, you'll be treated like a king
2. Italians love children so you'll never feel bad about taking your small child to a restaurant
3. Try a new flavour of gelato every day and don't be scared of the brioche gelato!
4. Meet the locals and do as they do, like coming back to the beach at 5pm and stay until past 7pm  ...

And if you need any details about our trip just email us, I will be happy to give you all our tips.

- A

A birthday plan

Lately I have been working on Sebastian's third birthday ... THIRD!? I am shocked ...
We have a little theme going on: animals from the jungle, and Sebastian seems quite excited about the whole thing. He keeps saying: "my birthday con mis amigos" a sweet mélange of English & Spanish as usual :)

We are expecting a lot of people at the party and we hope they all enjoy the day with us. In the meantime, I am off to collect ideas and recipes from friends to make sure there is entertainment for the soul and the stomach.

À bientôt!

Etsy, what's not to love?

I feel like I just discovered the "world", for a while I have been looking at Etsy but lately I think I have actually LOOKED at Etsy.

(*) photos downloaded from Etsy.com

The site has some wonderful products, the photos look professional always, it's all crafty and pretty stuff... and the prices are great! I mean, what's not to like about Etsy?

Here are a few of my favourite (recent) finds:

I am including the links for each so you can find them easily: Apron, Necklace, Sailor hat, Bag, Cupcake cake decoration, Chair and Tree print.

Maybe this is a cool opportunity to explore, anyone out there interested?! I am up for a partnership!

-A

Papá is back!

And he brought this wonderful gift - sent by a friend from Logitech for Sebastian (Thanks Sheldon :)
It's a pretty **awesome** (and I never use this word) remote-controlled-Hong-Kong-Taxi-Cab and, of course,  Sebastian loves it. Proof below:

and I got to practice a few shots with my new 50mm lens (Thank you amor)

- A

Taking on French

I love French, I have always dreamed with speaking fluent French. The kind of French that lets you slip into a conversation and make interesting remarks, or at the very least understand what's going on. The truth is, some people think I do speak French ... fluently. Au contraire, all my native French speaking friends know that I don't really speak french that well.

It's all relative ...


So I want to come clean friends ... I can speak what I call "transactional" French. I can ask for things, order stuff, do a few exchanges of pleasantries and pass as a very polite foreign French speaker (with a weird Spanish, English accent). In fact, if you see me talking you might even think I am quite good (unless you speak French fluently). But honestly, I cannot consider myself good at this. I cannot, for example, write a letter to complain to my landlord that I do not have a place to park my bike and that they should make an arrangement, since life in an apartment is already lacking convenience. [any interest out there in helping draft one in French?!]  I cannot explain (in less than 15 minutes) to the uniformed man asking for my ticket why I missed my stop. And so a lot of things go undone in this life.

That's why, I have all my trust in Sebastian. My master plan is to wait for him to get a little older and fluent in French - which should happen in a few months - so that we can catch up on all those "French to-do's". Ahh, landlord, wait until I show up in your office with my translator by my side, which happens to be a very charming young man. We should be able to find a solution for my bike ... and little-by-little my French to-do list will disappear. 

In the meantime, I have my French lessons to look forward to. Every Tuesday at 2pm for an hour.

An hour a week!? yeah, that will get me far ...

- A

Trying to be a good hostess

Maybe a dinner party is not the best time to try a new recipe. I should now better. Last week I hosted a dinner for a few girlfriends and after much debating (Chuck loves good complicated food and I like simple flavourful stuff) chose to make "The Thinnest Crust Pizza with Ricotta and Mushrooms": simple, interesting and full of flavour (it has Asiago and shallots too, yummm).

Chuck was off in the US so that meant I had to get everything ready, play, bathe Sebastian, play more, feed him dinner, read books and have him asleep by 8pm. He was as sweet as always and stuck to his "program" without a complaint, 

My friends arrive, I am all set, having pulled out champagne, glasses, made dessert and had all the ingredients for the Thinnest Pizza ready. To ensure that the pizza was a little bigger (the original recipe called for sandwich wrap) I used pre-made thin crust pizza dough, I followed the instructions and put wax paper between the cooking sheet and the dough and then covered the dough with the cheese, mushrooms and shallots.

All is going great, we are having some apetizers, and I pulled out the first pizza out of the oven (I had made 2 just in case we were VERY hungry). It looks and smells delicious ... surely it will be a hit! Until ... I notice that the wax paper has become part of the pizza! You get it, stuck there like a second skin.

[insert your laughter here]

I basically start peeling the thing off the base of the pizza to very little success. That's when I notice the second Thinnest Pizza, which thankfully I had not put in the oven yet , my savior! or so I thought. The soft dough is already stuck to the paper (or the other way around), whatever, they are one. I turned the pizza upside down, really, upside down, although I had the presence of mind to put cling foil under it and proceeded to try "peel" the thing off my pizza. Chunks of soft dough were coming off along with the wax paper. I was sweating (and I don't sweat, ... a joke) and worried for my friends who I am sure were wondering what was going on inside the kitchen?!

Believe it or not, it worked, partly.

The girls were very sweet and did not make a big deal about "The Thinnest PAPER Pizza (Pizza #1). I am sure they all ate their share of fiber for the week. Pizza #2 turned out ok, but by that time I had lost my appetite due to all the worrying.

(update: I had the left overs of Pizza #2 the next day and it was so good I am including the recipe. It's a keeper and a hit with Sebastian! Amor, I can't wait to make one for you.)

They DO check your tickets

When my sister Carla was last here in Lausanne she was very surprised to find that in Switzerland there are many life activities that are based on trust and that people do as they should. For example, we went out and parked our car in a "blue zone" where you can park for 1 hour for free. In order to do this, you need to display a blue card indicating the time of arrival. Now, my sister was puzzled: how does that work? what if you put a later time to get more time? etc. So I explained how it worked and that sometimes there is a parking man who will do some checks and that you could get a fine, but that a lot of times places go unchecked and it is down to people to be honest. OK ... she looked at me in awe ... (I totally understood her, having had the same reaction when I moved away from my country!) but people change!

We then got on a bus and bought the tickets in the electronic kiosks at the bus stop. She got her ticket and tried to give it to the driver. She and I laughed when the driver looked at her quizzically!? Same thing, the driver will not check, you only need to keep it as proof in case there is a "surprise check". Ahhhh, ok, said Carla. The entire journey she was waiting for the famous "surprise check" ... it never happened.

In fact, I have ridden buses in Lausanne many times and I have never been checked. Sometimes I get a little tempted to be mischievous (or maybe it is that I am really not used to this whole TRUST thing) and want to try going without a ticket. Just to see if I can make it, will they actually do a check in a bus? I have never seen it! They check the metro, they CHECK the trains, but buses?? too many I thought, no way. But still I bought my ticket and of course there were no checks.

A couple of days ago I decided to take Sebastian for a walk downtown Lausanne. We were going without the stroller, so I figured it would be better to take the bus and maximise Sebastian's walking time. After our stroll and a stop at the toy-store (for a donkey a goose and a sheep), we decided to head back home (again by bus). Now a little note here: in Lausanne you can buy a cheaper short-distance ticket (court parcour), which allows you a maximum of 3 stops from your departure point. We got our court parcour ticket since our stop was exactly the third down from the center and got on the bus.

Right before our stop, I try to get Sebastian ready but he's too busy chatting to the grandpa (I mean this in the nicest way, there was a sweet old man sitting next to us). I am already loaded, carrying our shopping and flowers, so I call Sebas but of course he does not move. The doors open, the people get out and I am still frantically pulling and trying to get Sebastian out. Of course the doors close and off we go. Missed our stop... Shoot now, we are going to have to get out in the next one and walk Sebas, I think. Oh yeah, humph, walk with a tired son and the shopping. We get to our NEW stop and what do I see?!! an army of uniformed men and women, a "surprise check" frick- frick- frick, let the explanation begin in my head, we missed our stop, and our ticket is only valid for 3 stops, and I am very annoyed at the driver because he saw us trying to get out and did not wait and now we are going to get a fine (CHF 40.00 I think or more) ... and shoot I am going to have to explain all this in French .. and I cannot even find my ticket.

Laughing too much

My sister Carla was here and we laughed and laughed.

It was such a sweet visit because we did what pleased us: a drink at the Deck, dinner at Kai Zen and a visit to the Zoo with Sebas.

At the zoo we spotted this contraption and decide it to test it as a duet!
Oh my poor soon was too confused watching her mom and aunt Carla drown themselves in tears of laughter whilst trying to make this thing go round (more like it made us go AROUND and DOWN)

Too funny ... just click the pictures :)

Did you say peanut butter?

I have become an addict of peanut butter, there, I said it!

It all started during my pregnancy. Right around the seventh month I developed a crazy craving for peanut-butter-and-jelly toasts (I used Wasa crackers, or any multigrain toasted bread I could get my hands on). Since this addiction started when we were living in Luxembourg, I had no trouble finding GOOD peanut butter. I know ...  Luxembourg?? You see, Luxembourg has these huge supermarkets, and my favourite one - Cactus - carries a Dutch peanut butter named Calvé.

It was deli-i-i-i-i-i-cious ... I had it for breakfast every morning.

Given that I had never showed any interest for peanut butter, I began to think that, in some strange way, my pregnancy had something to do with it. I had a little half-American half Peruvian growing inside me and so the only possible reason why I had begun to have peanut butter cravings was because I had been "Americanized".


Seriously.


During our year in Orlando I was in peanut butter heaven. I became a peanut butter "connoisseur" -  if there is such a thing - and gave my verdict that Simply Jif was ... simply the best: low in sugar, the right texture and the right amount of salt, and not too bad on the calories :)

So forward to today, we live in Lausanne, Switzerland, Sebastian is almost 3 years-old and I am STILL having peanut butter Wasa crackers for breakfast. I love my little routines.

The problem is I cannot - and I cannot stress this enough - I cannot find good peanut butter in Switzerland. I have even "imported" a couple of Calvés from our last visit to Luxembourg. My husband still thinks I am totally insane for having made a stop at Cactus to get the stuff, but I tell you, I am an addict. I have tried every single brand, submitted myself to the extremely sweet "American style" peanut butter from the local supermarket chains (migros and Coop), I have visited all the Bio shops in town and bought all those "just peanut" cream, but sadly they don't do it for me.

I have gone so far, there is even a new budget line called "Peanut butter research"  in the family budget. I am not too proud of that.

A couple of weeks ago, Sebastian and I went to Madrid to meet my parents and visit my sister Brunella. I, of course, escaped to the local Corte Inglés and found a peanut butter brand: Capitán Maní ... I cried (I was laughing too much). I mean, the name was the funniest one I had encounter in my search. Unfortunately for me, this was a pretty good peanut butter and one that was again not available to me in Switzerland.

So, tomorrow during breakfast I will just spread one of the "too salty" (they use sea salt in one of them!) or " too sweet"  or "too creamy and flavorless" brands I have recently accumulated and picture myself having Simply Jif, Calvé or Capitán Maní (laughing really loud now)...

No more eggs ?? !!

Saturday is Sebastian's favourite day of the week.
Saturday is pancake day ...  and Sundays and every day that Chuck does not go to work. We are in trouble if he decides to stay home for a week or more!

Last Monday, a holiday in Lausanne, we had used up all our eggs for pancakes and eggs & bacon. We could have gone to buy some, but you see, here in Lausanne, all shops are closed on Sundays and on any holidays.

No more Eggs meant No More Pancakes. Sebastian was not happy.

Magic! (or desperation) between Chuck and I, we concocted a solution, bread cut in funny shapes which we then proceeded to drown in maple syrup.

What a fantastic** set of parents we are!

** We hope Sebastian does not grow to be a maple syrup addict, much like his peanut butter addict mother.

A little spring hiking

A holiday today, so we jumped at the opportunity of a short hike near Lausanne. 

Parked the car and up to Chexbres we headed. It was sunny, warm and fun.

Passed the vineyards, passed Dezaley, and the many small wineries...

We made it to The Deck and on our "trekking clothes" ... we looked odd, but really, we did not care much

Chuck had a beer, Ale a glass of wine and Sebastian played in the infinity pool the whole time...

Spring weekends in Lausanne, stay like this for a long long time ...

I love these shoes

Since our move to Lausanne I find myself dreaming of new shoes ...
I just saw these Marais in the NYT style section I get delivered here every 2 weeks (a real treat!)

(*) Espadrille Emerald Marais shoes at  Marais USA

The thing is, here every pair of not- super-cute shoes cost me no less than CHF 200 (that's about US$ 172 at 1.16 CHF per US$) so I am not too keen on going shoe shopping.

I miss the Orlando outlets, sometimes (to my husband's horror and surprise) I wish I were there so I could do a little shopping with my friend Ana.

In the meantime I get to dream and (perhaps) order shoes online when Chuck gets a business trip to the mother land of online shopping & bargains, that is the US of course.

Spa day

towel, water, salts, creams and time ...

I treated myself to a home-made spa

you see, I have stopped battling against rugby

and little by little embraced it

for us

now I get a few hours a day to myself

a wonderful breakfast and a family Sunday

and it's a bliss

so a home-made spa day was part of my treat to myself

no so glamorous ...

since I was the one working hard through that rough skin

but the outcome was glorious

and my feet and hands are happy again

and my boy sleeps

and my love is rolling in the mud, being kicked and punched

running after a ball .. and all the while smiling

The snow is glorious

We hike, we go up

we bought this new contraptions and all the gear needed to climb

now we go and discover new places

happy

Our friends Amy & Ryan show us the route, make plans

and are usually very well organised

we trail behind, loving every moment of the ascend

Sebastian enjoying being in a backpack

Chuck feeling like a proud dad showing him the mountains and singing along

I look up, look down and see good photos everywhere

sometimes I don't have enough energy to keep climbing and snap a shot

I have to keep up ...

maybe I should do a trip just for photos,

but it would not feel the same

so I snap a few on the way ...

for our memories

Burning the Snow

"Snooooowwwwwmaaaaaaaan" shouts Sebastian
every time he sees snow
he wears a little Papá Noel hat that his friend Sarah gave him
and sings "jingle bells" wherever we go

Too bad is the end of winter
(I cannot believe I am saying this)
and there are no more snowy days until next winter
or maybe is that I will miss the "Snowmaaaaaan" shout

His "Jardin" has a cute way to mark the beginning of Spring
and so off we went to burn the poor Snowman on a sunny day
Pauline, Alba, and all the little ones
dressed in colorful outfits
and a big smile

"Au revoir bonhomme de neige
au revoir à l'hiver tout blanc
bienvenue les petits oiseaux
bienvenue les fleurs multicolors"

until next winter ....

And Sebas is two

Right after unpacking in Lausanne we headed to Munich to meet Lora & Tony, and to celebrate Sebastian's second birthday. I hope our little one gets and enjoys the idea of celebrating some of his birthdays in a non-traditional way. This year happened at a beer garden!

Sebastian, Chuck, Lora, Tony & I got a lot of walks, beers (not Sebas really!), chocolate cake and plenty of beautiful Munich to last for another year...

I have to say, I would live in Munich again anytime.