Liam Has His Passport!

The fantastic news is that as of about a week ago we have a passport for Liam.  During the week of Academic Travel (14-19th Feb) James stayed home so we could be together as a family.  We also managed to take a day trip up to Bern with Liam and all the paperwork in hand, to apply for his passport, social security number and certificate of birth abroad.  Despite getting up at 4:30am, and more than 6 hours total driving in the car, Liam did really well.  I guess he's probably pretty used to 4:30am!

  Liam takes the wheel

The passport process was as smooth as it could be.  Once we figured out how to get the Swiss Birth Certificate everything else seemed fairly basic to us.  Besides having to wait our turn at the US Embassy, all was in order and we were all set by just about 11:30am.

James and Liam soaking up some Bern sunshine

This may be the last time Liam gets to wear his snow suit!

After the passport stuff was sorted we were pleased to even have a couple of hours to spend in the sunshine wondering around part of the city.  Bern feels a lot more accessible and city-like to us after spending so much time in Lugano where you find yourself facing one jeweler after another followed by watch stores and other designer labels.  We even found a charming food court or markthalle (not a US mall kind of fast food court) offering such delectible food choices as Indian, Mexican, Japanese, Turkish, and more.  What a treat to be able to feast on some pretty good Indian food, and even with Liam in tow it was an easy enough sit down lunch.  After a quick stop in to Starbucks and a pop in to a bakery for German Bretzels we were back on the road by 3pm.  It was definitely a whirlwind day, but mission accomplished and at least we had the rest of the week to recover!

Liam having his diaper changed in the front seat of the car!