Celebrating Jonas

Today we celebrate the adorable little boy that captured our hearts even before he was born on September 15th, 2007.  Jonas is 4 now!  We are so proud of him and so thankful to God for blessing us with this precious gift.  Here's a look back at some of our favorite pictures of him.

2007 - First Precious Moments

2008 - First Birthday

2009 - Life is about to Change! 

2010 - Three Years Old!

2011 - European Adventures

 



Well, it was a Knight party, until the Superheroes crashed it :-)



Swiss Summer

It’s hard to believe that summer is over. It was great!  There were even 2 very hot weeks, by Swiss standards, considering that we have no air-conditioning.

Auntie Wendy and her friend Sarah came to visit us in July.  The kids enjoyed showing Auntie Wendy some of our favorite places: Seefeld, Zoo, Preschool, etc.  Their visit would not have been complete with a trip to Germany.  We took them to Konstanz and rode the ferry over to Meersburg.  Jonas is really into knights lately, and Auntie Wendy treated us to a visit to Meersburg Castle.  Jonas stocked up on some knight attire J.  Oh, and here's documentation that Andy is my knight in shining armor :0).

 

My Knight

 

One day, we all journeyed to Mt. Pilatus, outside of Luzern.  The weather cooperated beautifully.  We took the world’s steepest cog wheel to the top, which offered a spectacular view along the way.  We rode the cable car down so that everyone could take a ride on Switzerland's longest Sommerrodelbahn.  They flew by so fast, I had a hard time getting pictures!  Jonas was very brave and rode too (with Andy).  I was so proud of him.

Coolest statue I've ever seen :-)

In July we attended a Knight’s Tournament outside of Munich.  It was so fabulous that we plan to attend it next year.  We spent some time eating and shopping our way through the medieval market.  Then we watched the 2 hour professional production of the Dark Knight’s battle with King Arthur - amazing costumes and action.  Jonas loved it!  Sara handled it much better than expected.  Andy and I feel it was our best family day-excursion to date.  I now spend a lot of time playing jousting knights with Jonas, but I suppose that is better than having to be a dinosaur!

Jonas had a 5 week summer break from Preschool.  Connie and I took turns, each watching all of the kids one day/week.  I biked around the 2 lakes nearby often, and enjoyed some time to myself.  In addition to the beautiful mountains and lakes, I saw men practicing their Alp horns and people foraging for mushrooms in the woods.  We also alternated weeks babysitting on Wednesday evenings so that we could each have some quality time with our spouses.  (Have I mentioned before that Connie and her family are a God-send for us?).  Lenora and I also worked out a few alternating play-dates with Aari and Sam.  Another friendship that has been such a blessing in so many ways.  

We also enjoyed another precious visit to Ur-Oma & Ur-Opa's.  The kids were really warm with them, from the beginning.  Ur-Opa was able to fix the door on Jonas' space shuttle, which was recently broken.  Ur-Oma kept us fat and happy with her delicious cooking!

I also attended a few ladies nights this summer with moms I met through Sara’s playgroup.  Angie was a very gracious hostess, and we all had a good time catching up and enjoying some wine and dessert.  I have been so blessed to meet so many wonderful women through the school. 

A friend asked me recently if it has been hard to transition here since I know that my stay is so temporary, noting that I’ve done a good job of involving/integrating myself.  I expect that when the time comes, the goodbyes here will be just as hard as the ones I had in Charlotte.  These women have provided wonderful friendship and a great support system to me and the kids and my life would be incomplete without them.

The highlight of the summer for me relates to speaking, for both kids.  Jonas has started speaking German with Andy sometimes.  Andy really buckled down this summer and consistently spoke German with him.  Also, when Connie watched him, she spoke German.  It was all reinforced by some Franklin (the turtle) videos auf Deutsch that Judy loaned us, the knight’s tournament and time with Oma & Opa.  A huge thanks to all of you!  He still has a long way to go, but Jonas will initiate German conversation with Andy and one of his little friends from Oma’s house, Joel.  He even addressed me in German a few days ago.  Very exciting! 

Sara has started speaking!  It seems she says something new every day.  She says the word, or  something recognizable (by me at least J), for the following (more for my record than for your interest J):  Mommy, Daddy, Jonas, hello, baby, bear, water, drink, juice, washcloth, bib, cookie, ice cream, dog, quack, moo, stroller, good night, bye, no, yeah, bee, shirt, again, monkey/affe, book, shoe, look, cereal, waffle, apple, bike, scooter, roar, peacock/pfau, fish, vogel (bird in German), nein, zebra, diaper, outside, dirty, potty, poop, snack, slide, oh, wow, uh-oh, run, mund, nase, auge, (Santi)ago, more, flower, Jack, coffee, row - and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few.  Andy reads to her in German every night that he is here before she goes to bed, and she seems to understand him.

Sara loves to dance, climb, and look at her little princess book.  She regularly begs me for the foam from my morning lattes (I made the mistake of letting her try it) and loves her nightly reading sessions with Daddy.  Auntie Wendy initiated Sara's first pedicure, and she loves having pretty toes - and wearing lipgloss :-).  She wishes she could go to school with Jonas, but is also happy with her weekly playgroup.  She has her first best friend, Santiago (Angie’s son).  She loves him and mentions him often.  She’s the sweetest little girl - always happy and smiling and quite the little snuggle-bug.  I love her sweet personality and affectionate nature.



Sara & Santiago


 



Jonas & Joel



Jonas Comments:

Recently, I signed Jonas up for a pizza class with his friend Sienna.  He refused to participate and when I asked him when we got home how he was going to learn to cook so he could feed himself someday, he replied, “I don’t need to cook.  I’m going to be too busy flying around. (He’s going to be a pilot).  The co-pilot will cook.  Will you be my co-pilot?”  When I explained to him that the co-pilot wouldn’t be cooking, he said, “Well, those people that give the passengers their food can give me some too.”

J: Mommy, Jack and I were born in America, right?  M: Yep. J: That’s why we’re English, huh?

During a recent visit to Ikea, we asked Jonas if he wanted to stay in the children’s play area while we shopped.  J: No, they only speak German, Swiss-German, there.  M: That’s a valid point.  J: What does that mean? M: I see where you’re coming from. J: America!

On a recent trip to Oma’s house, Jonas had to go to the bathroom shortly after leaving.  We reluctantly stopped.  While using the bathroom, he said to me, “When I’m a dad, if my kid wants to stop and use the bathroom, I’m going to say no.” M: You will?  That’s not very nice.  Why?  J: Because, then we’ll get there faster!

And one from Sara:

Upon seeing my morning latte on the kitchen counter last week, she stands up on her tippy-toes, trying to grab it off the counter, and yells, "Coffee!!  Coffee!!"

through the middle ages to Bella Italia

After we got back from the US, time was flying by and before we knew it, it was time to go on vacation! Despite what some of you might think ("These Koller's are always on vacation, living the high life..." ;)) we actually both have a pretty busy schedule. April is juggling all the responsibilities of the household: getting kids ready on time in the morning, getting Jonas to school, running errands in between picking Jonas up, going to the grocery store with not always cooperative kids, fixing lunch for everybody, then trying to get them to nap at the same time... only to get them up again after a much too short nap, feeding them some snacks in between them fighting over who gets to play with the toy motorcycles or airplanes and wanting to ride bikes outside. And when it is finally time for them to go to sleep and her having some well deserved quiet time, the hubby comes home and unloads a whole day's worth of frustration at work... Sometimes I wonder who's actually more work for April, the kids or the hubby ;) Either way, she is such a blessing to all of our lives!

We do manage to get an occasional weekend trip in, like this one to a Medieval market in Zurich downtown at the end of May, with good food and drink, as well as many medieval attractions and contraptions. Oh, and the sword and weapon makers are a vital part of the festival.

All in all a fun family experience, leaving Jonas dreaming about when we can go to a real knights festival, with sword fights, jugglers, harlequins and all... We'll try to make that happen later this year. 

Once in a while we also still make it down to Zurich Seefeld, to our old stomping grounds when we first arrived in this strange alpine nation. On a beautiful day, the park in Seefeld right at Lake Zurich is always worth a trip. And not only because Jonas absolutely loves riding the train on the way there.

Sara is growing up incredibly fast. I find it hard to believe that while she doesn't talk much, yet, she seems to have an opinion on everything she does already! And most of the time she knows exactly what she wants. Which is usually what Jonas is playing with at any given moment.

Isn't she adorable? She's got Daddy wrapped around her finger already...

Jonas is growing up almost too fast. The conversations we have with him make me almost forget that he is not even four, yet! I think his vocabulary is more extensive than Daddy's...and he uses it constantly. He is displaying a wide range of interests, one day it is Dinosaurs (and for a lot of them he still has the names memorized), the next day it is airplanes and airports and yet another day he wants to know everything about Motorcycles.

Talking about Motorcycles, I was watching "Red Bull Fighters" the other night.  If you haven't seen it, it is a motorcycle competition with guys on dirt bikes doing loops and flips on their motorcycles. I DVR'd it, because (contrary to April's explicit wishes ;)) I had to show this to Jonas. Of course he is loving it, and he's been talking about buying a race motorcycle, and a dirt motorcycle, and a road motorcycle ever since...

One of the following weekends, Oma and Uncle Toby came to visit, and we took a fun trip to the Rheinfalls at Schaffhausen, Europe's largest waterfalls (I think), basically a European Mini version of Niagara Falls...

It was a fun time for everybody, and we got to spend some quality time with Oma and Uncle Toby.

Then, finally, it was time for our long awaited vacation to Bella Italia.

After an overnight stop in Milano (which other than the Duomo is really not all that great, April and I agreed), we arrived at our quaint Fattoria Castiglionchio, a medieval farm in Tuscany, 10 miles outside of Florence. In the middle ages it was semi-fortified farm, which was owned by different weathy Florentine families. Tuscany has quite a few of these Fattorias, which were organized as self-sufficient communities, where many families lived and worked the surrounding vineyards, olive groves and other land. The place we stayed at had a Tower (which was part of a wider defense system in this part of the country), community kitchen and even a small church.
The current owners bought the Castiglionchio and surrounding land in the mid-1970's and over time started to convert the quarters for the farmworkers and their families, as well as the owner's quarters into vacation apartments. Beautiful place, if you ever plan a vacation in Tuscany, we can highly recommend it!

From our Fattoria we took several day trips to Pisa, Lucca, Florence, Siena and a few small cities along the road. We'll just post pictures, that says it all about how beautiful Italy and in particular the Tuscany region is.

The kids enjoyed the trip a lot as well. Oma and Opa spent the week in Italy with us, which was a lot of fun, and the kids got a lot of quality time with them. The grounds around the Fattoria had quite a bit to offer for kids, and made for a perfect backdrop for some beautiful pictures as well. Take a look...

Then, after we got back from our Italian vacation, our dear friends Jessica and Tyson arrived! They spent a week here in the Zurich area, where April showed them around Zurich and Luzern. It is amazing that while they were here, we went to downtown Zurich for dinner one night, and we finally found a really good restaurant with French and Swiss cuisine. It was great!So good in fact that not even the check at the end of the meal could ruin the experience any more... It was worth it, and we will definitely go there again. Not too often though, because if we haven't mentioned it yet, eating out too often can break the bank real quick in these parts...

And then, to end a perfect week, we drove to Oma's house near Stuttgart to drop off the kids and headed to our favorite city in Germany. Or for April maybe in Europe outside of Italy :)

We had a great time showing Tyson and Jessica around our old stomping grounds, enjoying the streets of Munich, the English Garden, the Viktualienmarkt and other sights.

 A mandatory stop was the famous Hofbraeuhaus, where we enjoyed some Bavarian food and drink. They always have live music and it is a unique atmosphere. The waiter was quite unfriendly, and even more so after saw his tip, but luckily that guy does not brew the beer, which as a matter of fact is excellent there.

The next day we went to one of our favorites, the Weisses Braeuhaus. We love it there, food and beer are wonderful, and the place itself is beautifully decorated. If you happen to be in Munich, definitely check it out.


Oh, and last but not least, April and I ventured into a "Trachten-Shop" in Munich, where we found a great deal on some Lederhosen outfits. April looked adorable in the "Dirndl", however in the end decided against purchasing it.

I on the other hand, after much deliberation and repeated  encouragement from friends and spouse, am now the proud owner of an original and complete Lederhosen outfit. Expect to see me show up in style at the Charlotte Oktoberfest once we are back. And I guess I will have to go to the Munich Oktoberfest again this year :) Anybody want to join?

This was our eventful month of July. Many great memories and great time with family and friends.