trippingdifferently

Yes yes once again i’m late putting up Tobias’ Birthday Parties photos. This year he had 4 small parties – all at the various classes he attends.

The 1st one was at K. Club – i made little cup cakes for each child (there are only 12 of them) – they celebrated it with him. i was not there, the teacher very kindly offered to take photos with our camera 🙂

Here’s Tobias with his cupcake & the K. Club birthday candle (it’s a special one they use for the kids’ brithdays):
   

The second party which was on his actual birthday day was at Chinese Class – but i only baked a very simple lemon cake, no deco, hence no photo & we just gave out sweets & cut the cake for everyone to eat during break time – so it wasn’t quite a celebration or party at all.

The third party was at the Krippe (Daycare) on Friday that week – that one i did a big cake with icing & deco & big monster truck – it was the last one he was to have with the kids there. He starts Kindi in Aug & will no longer go there.

So here’s the monster truck cake (the icing is a light green, thot you can’t see it from the photo) & a shot from the garden party:
   

The fourth & final party was at church. For this one, i baked the cake which Tobias had asked for – a racing track cars cake – it did not turn out as my cake deco book showed. The center part of the cake (white icing) was supposed to be one big circle but i did not have a cookie cutter that big, on hindsight i could have just used a big bowl to cut the circle from the icing … ahhh… hindsight, if only it came before an event…
Anyhow, the pink icing around was supposed to be red (did not have enough colouring or more like made too much icing). It was also supposed to be a clean line around but i did not have enough icing sugar to make it sift enough to hold the shape. So it was all improvished! It turned out ok – but i would really really have liked the pink icing to be bright red – sigh! But it made no difference to Tobias – it was a race track & it had cars on it – that was all that mattered. i simply love the way kids see things – so simple – i wish so much for that point of view sometimes.
So enough babbling!
Here’s a pitcure of the cake & us singing Happy Birthday to Tobias (as well as to my friend Jacquelyn):
   

Here’s a couple of photos of Tobias with his stash of presents:
   

He is consistently spoilt by 2 sets of grandparents, a doting uncle, 3 sets of godparents & of cos us, his parents, not to mention all the other uncles & aunties in his little life.
Thanks to all of you for your love for our little guy 😉

syc

Yep that’s right we are moving … moving to another apartment … just across the courtyard (playground) – basically the same place, just the next block. This new place is on the second floor, with a pretty view of the mountains on a clear day 😀
There will be no terrace/backyard/garden in this new place, just a balcony but it’s ok – seeing how we did not use the terrace as much as we should have. The kitchen is much smaller but it is an open concept plan living/dining/kitchen so i think it will be fine. Overall it is a smaller living area but i like the fact that the apartment is the top one so that means we have a little area outside, near the stairs, where we can put all our shoes & other potentially muddy things.

We have been looking for another place since April – so it is nice to at last know that we got one! *grins from ear to ear*

For those who are not familiar, apartment hunting in Switzerland is much dependent on whether the renters like you or not, or whether you are the first in with your application, or whether you qualify under certain conditions (eg no debts, no pets etc…). So this means that you don’t necessarily get the first apartment you apply for. And sometimes you need to wait up to a week for a reply as to whether you got the apartment or not. Needless to say, we have been rejected, we have also missed out on a couple as we were too late. All in all i think we viewed about 5 apartments & missed out on about 3 others. It was frustrating at times to have found a nice apartment, only to find out at the viewing that there is no play area for kids & or the play area is not safe or the rooms are way too small or there are no other kids in the building etc…

There was also the consideration that we wanted to stay in our village if possible & ours is a very popular village so there is very little available – this makes it even more precious that we not only managed to stay in our village but we got a place in the same quartier 😀 – this means that Tobias will get to keep the friends he has made over the last year at the playground & would be going to school with some of them as well.

i also think it is definitely God’s provision – we had viewed this apartment a couple of weeks ago but i was in doubt as there is no lift – which might mean lugging my heavy book boxes up & down 2 flights each time i had a sale to do. Then we asked about a Bastelraum (hobby room) which is located in the basement but was told that none was available. Then darling Walter came up with the idea of getting me one of those tall dolly trolley (like the ones they move bottles drinks with) – mainly cos there were a couple of apartments we were looking at which had no lifts. So i felt better about it & as the days passed, i felt better & better about this apartment.

After waiting almost 5 or 6 days for a reply, i finally got hold of the lady in charge who then said that the apartment was available only 1st Aug – not 1st July as stated in the ad. There was a mistake in the ad. We had already given notice & had to be out of our current place by end of June so… God had it all planned – this lady was also in charge of our current place so she said that she could give us 1 more month in our current place & then we can move over to the new place. And when i asked about moving in & getting more time to clean our current place (we need to give it a super thorough clean, as is the law here), she said we could possibly move in near the end of July & she could give us a week more to clean our place as the people interested to take over from us here will only move in 1st Sept.

So it all worked out!! i can’t believe how well it has worked out. Thank You God!
Now we are just waiting for the contract & letter to come so we can sign & confirm the new place is ours 😉
Then it’s onto packing, moving & cleaning – praying hard that all goes well & that there will be no problems at our apartment handover (cleaning inspection).

syc

That’s right – exactly 2 days & 14hrs ago, my little boy turned 5. i’m not sure why … but this birthday of his seems to hold more significance than the others … maybe cos he will be going to Kindergarten in August, the start of another chapter in his little life … maybe cos i have just realised, truly am aware of how much he has grown, from that chubby baby of 3.5kg, 52cm to this constant bundle of energy of 19kg (i think), 115cm.

Here’s the birth story, which i have never recorded in written form before:
So exactly 5 years, 3 days & 16 hrs ago, i felt the 1st labour pains … they weren’t actually pains, more like a tightening of muscles … didn’t think much about them. Had breakfast, quietly told Walter about it (we had Tobias’ Godparents staying with us, they came especially for his arrival), rang the hospital – they said stay at home till labour is closer. Took his Godpa to the pharmacy to get medication for his gout, then came home for lunch. Labour by this time was 15mins apart but still not strong, however there was greenish discharge so we decided to ring the hospital again – the nurse decided they needed to see me as it was a sign that baby was in distress – so we told his Godparents & went to the hospital. Spent the rest of the day just walking around the ward, trying to induce faster labour & dilation. Didn’t work, had to spend the night. They gave me something to allow me to sleep. Twice in the night i felt the need to push but the nurse said not time yet. Then finally at 6am, they said we were ready to go. So off we went. Now i had wanted a water birth (i love being in the water) but cos of the signs of distress & less than strong contractions, they won’t not let me in the water at all. Anyhow, so on the birthing bed i was, pushing for about 2 hours, by which time my doctor had arrived (before that it was the lovely midwives who took care of me), she decided that labour had been too long & baby’s heartbeat was not ideal, so they pulled him out (vacuum). They asked Walter if he wanted to cut the cord, which he did & then he was allowed to give Tobias his very 1st bath. Cleaned & wrinkled he was given to me & my heart swelled 😀 All in all it was a great experience!

Here’s a pictorial view of Tobias from birth till 4 years old:

At birth                                          At one month                               
        

Sleeping with Daddy (1 mth)                   In the bath (6 mths)
    

At 1 year old                                 At 2 years old                        
         

At 3 years old                                                At 4 years old
    

i can’t believe how he has changed & grown – i miss my little "fat cheeks" – sigh!

i’ll post up pictures of him at 5 years old & birthday photos next week once i am done with all the baking & parties he is having this week ;p
syc