The summer is Berlin was busy. I can't believe it's already over!!! Here is what's been going on since our last blog…

1 - Our friend Karine made a stop in Berlin during her European tour. Although the weather wasn't great during her stay, it didn't stop her from seeing the city. It was really nice to see her, to catch up with what's going on back home, and to introduce her to Kaleia.

2 - One week later, Dom's sister, brother-in-law, two nieces and a friend of the family also came for a short 3 day visit. Our apartment suddenly felt smaller, but we were able to accommodate the 5 guests. They also met Kaleia for the first time and tried to see as much of Berlin as possible within their short stay. We hadn't seen our nieces since February, so it was really nice to spend some time with them. It was also cute to see Kaleia interacting with her older cousins, her aunt and her uncle.

3 - Once the visitors left, we did a little visiting ourselves. Domenic had a business trip in Zurich and decided to extend it by spending the weekend there, so Kaleia & I went along. This was Kaleia's first flight and both parents were extremely nervous, but Kaleia showed us once again that she's a trooper. Of course we spent hours and hours on the internet researching tips on flying with 3 month old babies and we concocted a brilliant plan. Timing was key!! The plan was to breast-feed during take-off; bring along her favourite toys to play with during the flight, and breast-feed during the landing. The first part went well…but she slept throughout the remainder of the flight, including the landing, so we didn't even need the rest of our plan : ) Lucky for us, the return flight was identical. Although this doesn't mean it will always be this easy, it does give us more confidence for our flight to Montreal (on September 20th !!!).

Zurich is a lovely city; very clean, old, picturesque, but fairly small (and really expensive). We walked around the cobblestone streets in old town visiting the most popular sites (Lindenhof, Fraumünste and Grossmünster) and climbing some tight & nerve-wrackingly steep steps up the church towers (with Kaleia in our arms) to get a better view of the city. We also visited Uetliberg mountain for a panoramic view of the Alps and the city. Although it wasn't planned, we also found some rustic hiking trails; so we decided to embark on some hiking (both of us wearing our flip-flops)! On the last day, we went for a stroll along the beautiful and clean Lake Zurich. Imagine swimming in Lake Zurich with the snow-peaked Alps in the backdrop…truly breathtaking.

4 - The Zurich trip also served as a distraction from the operation. Kaleia's surgery was on August 18th. Although we tried to not think about it too much, what we had to go through and put Kaleia though was inevitable.We read that these would be two weeks of hell. You can't always believe what you read, but in this case, it was true. We're just glad we can finally put this behind us. Kaleia was amazing throughout the whole process, earning a promotion from trooper to Master Commander Trooper!!!! We are truly blessed to have such an amazing baby. Check out the pictures of Kaleia after the operation.

5 - Next big thing on our agenda is our return trip to Montreal. After being away for more than 7 months (224 days to be exact…but who's counting???), we're VERY excited to see our family, our friends, our city, and to introduce everyone to Kaleia!!!

We hope to see as many of our close friends and family as possible. We will also be coming back in December for 4 weeks, so if we don't see you in September, maybe we can see you in December.

We hope everyone had a great summer. Hope to see you soon!

Big hugs & a sloppy smooch from Special K!

Chantal, Kaleia and Domenic