Daddy's reprieve from a long day

Noah: Week 2

I prefer Mommy & Daddys' Tempurpedic!

The many faces of Noah

Thanks Auntie Jenn- I love my new CD (although I'm not sure about Mommy's tone deaf addition of the lyrics)

Chillaxin' in the swing

QT with Vóvó

Noah's First Week

Nipple confusion

Matt has clearly been playing too much rap in front of Noah

Kisses from Boston

Daddy & Noah get to relax

and Mommy gets stuck with the dirty work :o(

Vóvó is here!

My mother came on Monday to meet her new grandson and to help relieve some stress :). It is so nice to have her here!

Noah's Infamous Chair

So way back in late March when my sister came to visit, I asked her to bring a bouncy chair for Noah that I had ordered. Blame it on pregnancy brain or just not really thinking- I didn't bother to look and see how big it was... I just knew that it wasn't that heavy. The day before she is leaving my sister calls to tell me there is no way for it to fit in even a big suitcase- it is just too tall. We decided to risk it and see if she could carry it on the plane with her even though it is far outside of "carry-on" size rules. She was so sweet to lug it all around the airport and on the plane with her. We even got update pics:

We are happy to report that the lugging was worth it. Noah loves his chair...

Leaving the Hospital & Boston Meets Noah

Last time in the hospital bed 

Waiting for the train

Sniffing...

Boston says: 'he's okay with me'...

... but she is still so curious

Noah: Day 2

Daddy skill #1: Multitasking

Noah Quinn Leis

We are actually parents! Holy cow!
Noah luckily came out a bit smaller than predicted weighing in at 3.5kg, 55cm in length.
He was born today, 7/17/2012 at 1:33pm CET! We are over the moon with our new baby boy.








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Location:Trichtenhauser Strasse,,Switzerland

Our Wonderful Friends...

Matt and I are feeling so lucky right now to have such wonderful friends, both at home and now here in Switzerland. In my last post, from my friend Jen's visit, I mentioned the wonderful baby gift we received from my college friends. Then, a couple of weeks later, we got a big box in the mail from Matt's high school friends (and their significant others), or as I like to call it, "virtual baby-shower #2".


Then, the following weekend, we had lunch planned with some friends at a favorite restaurant/beer garden here in Zürich. Turns out our friends here planned a baby shower for us. It was such a wonderful surprise, and so, so, so nice. So many thanks to Karen and Mike Siwicki for putting the whole thing together. I can't express how much it meant to us. We feel so lucky that we came here with such an amazing group of people who we genuinely enjoy spending time with!

Jen's Visit

Also going back in time.... in early June my dear friend Jen came to visit. It was so so so wonderful to have her here. 

We went to Mt. Pilatus (which I went to back in March when my sister was here)- its amazing the different views you get on different days. The day Jen and I went there was no cloud cover. The views were equally as spectacular (with a fantastic view of Lake Luzern) but so drastically different!

It was the beginning of the Eurocup, so we went to go check out a little 'Fussball'

On behalf of all the girls from college, Jen got me a giftcard to the babystore here in Zürich. I got to have a wonderful 'virtual baby shower'. It was so so thoughtful and sweet!

Poland: Part II

So belated, I know... let's travel back in time to mid-May.

We spent the second half of our time in Krakow seeing the Salt Mines as well as Auschwitz I & II.

 Wieliczka Salt Mines

These salt mines have been in existence since the 13th century. They no longer produce salt (as salt is not as expensive as it once was, these production facilities are not so economically viable), but are open for tours (which is much more economically viable). The tour is a mix of explaining how they mined the salt as well as showing off some of the many carvings made by miners and by artists into the salt. The walls, the floors are all salt- though not in the pretty white crystal form we use on the table. Its more of a greyish substance, but it's definitely salt.

These carvings are all in salt.

Salt

The tracks from the old mining carts built into the salt floor.

They actually used horses way down in the mines- which is amazing to me. We had to walk down some 300+ narrow steps to get there. How on earth did they get the horses down there!!?

Matt helping with the demo

The miners built chapels within the mines as they were very religious and their work was quite dangerous (ie. they had a lot to pray about).

The Last Supper... carved in relief... in salt. In person it looks very deep, but it is really only a couple of inches deep.

Floor 'tiles' carved in salt

King Neptune

The deepest point, 130 meters or about 426.5 feet underground.

Auschwitz I

 After visiting the salt mines, we went to tour Auschwitz I & II. It was an extremely sad and disturbing tour, but we certainly felt it was somewhere important to visit. Auschwitz I is almost entirely intact, with many of the buildings repurposed inside to be more 'museum' style with various exhibits.

Infamous entrance sign: Arbeit Macht Frei (Work makes free... yeah right)

One of the 'dormitories'-  aside from the barbed wire and the knowledge of what went on here, you might think it was some sort of college campus.

This map shows how far the Nazi's went throughout Europe to capture both Jewish and other Prisoners held at Auschwitz.

This exhibit was all eyeglasses taken from prisoners as they arrived at Auschwitz.

Prayer shawls taken from prisoners.

Luggage taken from prisoners

Shoes taken from prisoners

 Seeing all of these items (and the sheer volume at that) taken from prisoners was extremely disturbing. In addition to these items we took pictures of, there was one room containing tons and tons (literally) of hair that was shaved off of the prisoners. The Nazis used the hair to make blankets among other things, but the hair in the exhibit was never used.

Punishment room. 4 people would be 'punished' (as if everything else weren't punishment enough) by being forced to stand together in one of these small compartments. Two are shown here, and obviously the walls at the time went all the way to the ceiling. With 4 people there was not room to sit or lay down. After a long day of labor they would spend the night in this compartment then be forced back to work the next morning.

Dormitory Room. Each bunk was said to have held 10 people.  

Gas chamber

Hole in the ceiling where the poison was dropped.

Crematorium

Auschwitz II (aka Birkenau)

Birkenau is 25 times the size of Auschwitz, and is approximately the size of the city of Hoboken. There is not a lot left here as the Nazis attempted to eliminate evidence once they knew it was over for them.

Entrance- you may recognize from movies such as Schindler's list. Unlike other camps, the Nazis built the railroad to run directly into this camp.

Some of the still existing buildings 

You can see in these pictures how vast this camp was. 

This was an actual car used to transport prisoners. It was found in Hungary. 

Remains of one of the gas chambers/crematoriums

Dormitory. In this camp testimony was given that one bunk (not the whole bed, just one bunk level) would hold up to 14 people. New prisoners were forced to sleep on the lower bunks and were able to move up when prisoners on higher bunks died. 

 In summary- seeing these camps was horrifically disturbing, but extremely important. I will never understand how any human could have rationalized this treatment of other humans.