A Visit to our Ex-neighbour's New Apt

On Sunday, our ex-neighbour, Anna, has kindly invited us to their new apartment at Ziegelstrasse, another beautiful place in Zurich. It's like a quaint little town, peaceful and quiet. There's a playground near their apartment which overlooks the lake. There's even a farm nearby where you could buy fresh milk from the cows on certain days which is open on certain days. Their apt is a nice cosy apartment with 3 rooms (including the living room - somehow their living room is really like a room, with a door) and a kitchen and a balcony and little Denes has his own room now.

Still remember this cute little guy? He actually sat down and pose for Uncle Tan before he got up and continue to walk to the children's playground. He's a pro now hehe ;p

The playground overlooks the fields (maybe the cows have gone for their naps) and the lake.

Besides collecting and playing with stones, Denes likes to pick up sticks and break them.
He almost picked up a dead earthworm thinking that it was a stick ;p

On our way to the lake, we saw a live earthworm, so pinky :) and we saw a slug too.

A nice restaurant by the lake selling seafood.

Denes starting to collect the stones for his 'stone throwing' session by the lake.

He simply loves throwing stones into the water. His daddy and mummy had to go round to collect more stones for him to throw :)




We went back after he has finished throwing all the stones in the bucket as it was also time for Denes to have his nap.


Whilst Anna was cooking the chicken with carrots, the smell of butter was really aromatic. This is the salad which Anna had made for us. It tastes good!

Oh yes, for those who have seen the email on Zurich Google's office photos, yes, it's confirmed that the it looks like that and they provide 3 meals to their employees which comes with a variety including sushi. And you know what, it's not stressful working there as many of the staff are happy there and most of them stay with the company. The only time when you feel stressful is that when you haven't really started work and have yet to contribute anything since you've been given such good benefits :) Ok, all of you can start to envy envy now ;p

Enjoy your meal! That's what the Swiss will usually say :)

See this fig? It's fresh! I've never eaten a fresh fig before. Guess I'll be popping by to the supermart to get one of these cos it tastes sweet. Hmm... I'll be getting one of these and see if I can grow a fig tree when I go back to Singapore.

Little Denes just woke up from his sleep and he's ever so smiley :)

Warning: The following pictures might limit your vocabulary to 'Oh so cute!' and 'His eyes are so big!' or even make you decide to have a baby soon, like him :)

This was one of his favourite actions for the day - squinting and trying to wink. His mummy says this 'performace' was specially for us cos he didn't do this before ;D

2 clips for you to have a peek at his meal time...





I've noticed that Denes' meal time is pretty fun and watching him having his meal is an enjoyable experience. There are toy animals, papa and mama and guests to 'eat' together with him. This is unlike the noisy and chaotic scenes in SG where we see mummies, daddies, grandpas, grandmas or even maids chasing after the little darlings, trying desperately to feed them. Some had to force them to finish their food by using canes even though the child is crying away and resisting to be fed. The parents in SG go by the motto that 'The child has to finish the food or else he/she will be hungry.' I must admit that I was such a child who had gave a hard time to my grandparents trying to feed me whilst I was on my tricycle during meal time. I too had my fair chance of trying to feed my little cousins who refused to eat or simply were not interested to eat at all. It was a tiring task.

Well, Denes' parents tried to get him to eat his meal via some tricks such as introducing toys during meal times where they'll have pretend play where the toys will nibble at his food or papa and mama pretending to munch on his food. That got him eating alright. They allow him to use his hands to feed himself, something which parents in SG would not allow their child to do. Probably they feel that it'd be messy. But I thought it's a good way to train them to feed themselves and for them to also explore with their senses as they pick up the food and put it into their mouth. I suppose if a meal time is enjoyable for the child, he/she will definitely look forward to it.

His parents have also read up on how to discipline a child and showed us a picture with a child trying to get out of the feeding chair - in such a situation, the parent should not continue feeding until the child is seated back again. This will send the signal to the child that if he/she wants food, he/she needs to be seated. If the child continues wanting to get out of the seat, it means that he/she is full already as they would know better than daddy and mummy that they've had enough.

Denes' mummy isn't worried about him being choosy on food as she has her ways to make him eat a balanced diet by using various cooking methods to mixing the food that he doesn't like e.g. vegetables into his favourite food e.g. meat. Guess parenting requires not only patience but also creativity and sometimes, allowing nature to take its course...and not by force :)