Baby Aboard!

Baby Gaga was born a healthy little girl this afternoon. I have not met her but have seen pictures. She has a healthy head of black hair. Mama C and her will be at the hospital until Friday (not because anything is wrong but because we are in Switzerland where the baby hospital is like a hotel . G is off to Paris and P is at a day camp all week.  That means I too am off for a solo adventure to Italy!

I was with G all day today and while she is getting over being sick and was a bit moody all day (which is very unlike her), when Papa B called to tell her about her little sister she lit up! She was very excited and wanted to go meet her new sister immediately!

I distracted her for a bit. We played cards and then made a "Welcome Home" sign to hang in the house.

We have Mama C's Dad, sister, and Dad's wife-ish person are all visiting. It was a little odd being around today one they were all at the house and the baby was here.  I felt like I was watching a movie of an excited family but instead of watching from afar I was awkwardly standing there. Not sure what I was supposed to do.  They invited me to the hospital but I declined. I will meet her on Sunday when I get back from ITALY!!! (really excited!)

It is an exciting yet oddly normal day! That will of course immediately change on Monday morning!

Lady Gaga

So Mama C and Papa B are off at the hospital. Mama C spent the day waiting around for her appointment to give birth. It was a little odd. It was like a normal day but there was a lot of unspoken anticipation and awkwardness.  She starting the day at hospital around 8pm tonight.  Papa B called around 9pm and P informed us that there was still no baby...which I thought was cute. If only it were that easy!

I am hoping it will be make it by midnight for the 10/10/10 birthday but know that is very unlikely!

Baby Watch 2010 - She is coming!

Mama C is going to be induced tomorrow if Baby Gaga doesn't start the process herself before that! So after a month of waiting for nature to take its course, doctors are going to force her out. The P and G are on holiday this week. G is going to Paris on Tuesday and P is going to a day camp all week. I will in in Florence, so it is either the best time for the baby to come or the worst! I am not entirely sure!

I am leaving to go to Italy for 6 days on Tuesday!! I am going to Florence for most if it. I am going to do a Bike Tour in Tuscany and then go to Cinque Terre for a day and half then head back up to Zurich where the new baby and Mama C will have just gotten home from the hospital! Looks like I am getting a vacation a week too early!

French - Rosetta Stone Style

When I was convincing myself that quitting my legit job in Washington DC to move across the world to take care of kids was a good idea, I told myself I had to learn French. It was a selling point. I need another language to go to GradSchool. I should just speak a second language and since Spanish classes went so well (7 years and I can bearly form sentences) I decided to start anew.

French. It is spoken around the world. I can do this. It will help me for life.

I convinced the host family to let me get Rosetta Stone instead of taking private lessons. Since Zurich is part of the German speaking portion of Switzerland, they teach French in German.  Learning a language you don't understand..nearly impossibly..at least for me. Private lessons are expensive!

Rosetta Stone means I can go at my own pace. It is interactive. I will learn to speak, write, listen, etc.

What have I learned so far?

1. It is difficult to motivate myself to just do it. 
2. Once I am working with the program it actually usually enjoyable...except when
3. I cannot make my mouth make the right sounds. I have literally tried to say car (luckily you can also just say "auto") which is voiture.  When it is broken down to 'voi' and 'ture', I get it right every time. No problems there. Then I combine the syllables and I fail miserably. 
4. The French don't pronounce 50% of the letters in every word. 
5. Words are masculine and feminine. Now, this is not new. While my Spanish isn't all that great (Meredith will tell you!), I do know the basics. The difference is that you change the adjective to match the word you are describing. Example: Les fluers sont petite. (The flowers are small.)  or Le chien son petit. (The dog is small.)  Not extremely complicated but there are 2 problems that arise with this:
1. Petit and Petite sound EXACTLY the same (I confirmed this information with the Mama C whose first language is French so I am not crazy)
2. Often times there is no real reason why a word is masculine or feminine.  Voiture (car) is feminine. So if you were looking at a car you would say "She is yellow." (Elle son jaune). 
3. This is fine and all but there is no reason why we shouldn't invent the work "it" inanimate objects.

Rosetta Stone does seem like a pretty good program. If you aren't saying a work properly you can listen to it slowly and say it your way and have them play both back for you. There is no translation involved which is key.  So I didn't learn that un chien is a dog because they told me it was a dog but because they said the word, showed it to me all with the picture of a dog. You have to discover what things are through pictures.  I think this is key to learning a language.  

With Spanish, the most intimidating this was speaking it because I knew my accent was awful (and I couldn't quite conjugate very well but that I blame 2 years of bad Spanish teachers for).  So I need to start speaking it at the house a bit soon and I have a few friends here who speak French so hopefully this will work! 

*** If you speak French please note that the above statements may often be wrong... I am just beginning!

Baby Watch 2010: Still no baby. We are getting very impatient.  By "we" I do mean everyone but Mama C looks like she is ready to pop now and is tired often.  She is sooooo done being pregnant so maybe Baby Gaga will realize this tonight and join us already!

Baby Watch 2010

So as many of you know, my host family expecting a new one. The little girl was dubbed Baby Gaga by the previous aupair! So she is due 10/10/10, which I think is an awesome birthday! Totally waiting out until your due date for!

Mama C has had her previous two kiddies several weeks prior to her due date which means we have started the waiting game. This week Papa B went into high alert! On my train ride home from Munich on Sunday night I got a phone call and I thought it was game time. It wasn't.  Papa Bruce just had a "feeling."  Whatever that means.

So each day Papa B has been concerned with my whereabouts most of the time. He makes me nervous so I have become someone who has my phone on extra loud whenever I am out and in my hand.

Monday night I thought it might happen. C was on the phone with the hospital (which is apparently a challenge because she doesn't speak much German so can have trouble finding a good person to talk to if her doctor isn't in). It didn't happen.

Tuesday Papa B told G that if he isn't home in the morning it is because her parents are at the hospital with her new sister.

Wednesday, Papa B brought Mama C's hospital bag down to the car before they left for work. Mama C didn't seem concerned and didn't understand why he was doing it. He did it anyway.

Mama C is ready to go. She wants Baby Gaga out and Papa B must be freaking out internally and it shows in pieces each day! So who know when we will reach the day of birth but I am hoping we can wait until 10/10/10!