Fast Forward 4x

22 February  –  When we returned to Germany, we made sure that we went to the regular Friday playgroup, but unfortunately, no one else made it as kids naps were all haywire.

Missing E :*(

C had also gotten CD a gift – to help him continue his love affair at home.

B & E Buds

All MINE!

23 February  –  We learned to climb on the chair to get to the radio…and brought Bert with us as a co-conspiritor.

Music and Men

25 February  –  We had some donkey fun and showed off our locks after a sweaty nap.

Rody the Donkey

He looks a little sleepy still- or contemplating a hard question

26 February  –  We went shopping and stood in the little bit of snow that was left.  Of course I didn’t have his boots on, so we played and then got inside to dry off his feet.

Still a winter wonderland

28 February  –  We hung out with some friends.

They’re Back!

Can’t WAIT to take him to Sesame Place!!!  That will be SO much fun!

Young love

J and I were strolling the kids next to each other and then we look down and what do we see?!?!?!  They are holding hands.  Sweet!

1 March  –  Am I SOOOO glad that this day is in my past!  I have been trying to find a travel stroller for CD for some of our upcoming trips but don’t want to spend a fortune on one.  They are really expensive here or you get the kind that looks like they are only meant to hold a baby doll and you see a 4 year old crumpled up in it trying to “look” comfotrable as mom or dad wheels them along.  Not going for either of those.  So I did as much research as possible and found one that seems like it would be good.  I scoured the Internet to try to buy it online- non available.  Then I went to the manufacturer’s website- they only sell to stores, you can’t buy direct from them.  I then emailed and called stores in Germany and within Europe to see if they have/will ship to Germany.  Found one in UK and put them on my “wait” list if I couldn’t find it in Germany.  Called Toys R Us here, since their website said they had them but I needed someone to put the order in for me as my bank card here literally lets me do nothing online.  So, I bundled CD up and headed on the long journey to Toys R Us to have them order it for me.  I got confirmation over the phone that they could do this prior to legging it to the place.  Needless to say after 2.5+ hours in the store “waiting”, I voiced my disgust with them and left.  I will not get into further details because my “southern” mom taught me that if I don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything.

CD did however make out on this trip.  The one store clerk felt bad for him as he was screaming and squirming a lot.  She gave him free bubbles, balloon, tokens to ride the rides.  I made sure that I told her I was not angry with her as she was just the poor pawn that the manager “put out there” so they would not have to deal with me.  Good idea on their part.  🙂

Free balloon- free static

Little Ferris Wheel Type Ride – YouTube

And what do you do after a stressful morning and some new fun?  You pass out on the ride home.  🙂

Napping Joe Cool Style

And after you have rested and regained your sense that it was in fact a CRAZY morning, you then go and tell your friends about it.

Listening buddy

Oh yeah, and you take another friend’s dummy (pacifier) to help soothe the reliving of the morning.

2 March  –   I have started to let CD walk, as he doesn’t enjoy just riding in the stroller too much anymore.  He wants to be out there, touching everything and exploring his world.  I will usually let him walk back from the stores as we go on the non-busy streets.  He has been a champ at doing this and I usually give him something light to carry to slow him down a bit.

Carrying his groceries

This day was also one of the birthday parties of this year.  Birthdays Galore

4 March  –  We decided to meet up with J and L to have lunch since we would not be seeing L for a few days as she was going on holiday.  This was an awful plan as it was right at CD’s nap time.  I decided that I would wear him in the baby carrier so that he would be more likely to fall asleep than in the stroller.  He did not.  We got our food and as we were all enjoying it, CD THREW UP.  And I did what any mama would do.  I stuck my hands under his mouth to catch it.  And you know who was right behind me to do the same thing????  L.  She grabbed the napkins and put her hands under mine!!  Kinda gross but that’s love.  🙂  All I could think was, “we are about to eat, CD puked in front of a pregnant girl.  I bet she still has her appetite.”

CD had been under the weather due to teething again.  His bottom left far back tooth popped through and now we are just waiting on the last three.  They are swollen lumps in his mouth right now so I know it is going to be a tough time.  He then finally fell asleep in my arms as the other girls were having their coffees- I don’t drink coffee so I declined it.

Self portrait

We did however have some fun on the way back to the apartment.

Park Time- Come here Mama

Driving the firetruck

Picking Daisies

And after a hard day of playing, as boy needs to eat.

Forget the stick, I’m going straight for the hummus!

What?!?! The “stick” is a breadstick?

Ok. I will eat that too!

5 March  –  I had found another indoor play area that is meant for older kids but on Tuesday mornings, they shut the place down so that only 0-2 year olds can go and play.  And not fear getting trampled by the older kids.  Plus they give out free coffee.  That was what I used to lure my friends to go with me.  I also told them that they could draw sticks to see who would get my cup as I don’t drink coffee.  We had been trying to go for a while (since January) but never made it.  First, I was incredibly sick and could not peel myself off the bathroom floor let alone go and bounce around with CD.  I was glad that we finally went.  J and her daughter E came along for the journey along with M and her son O.  We also explored a new area of town as none of us had ever been there.  After the play area, we headed back to the city to grab lunch.  No throwing up this time, phew!  Then we went to the park because this week’s weather had been wonderful.  Sun, warmer temperature.  Lovely!

Riding the car

Car up close

“Slide”

Germany has these “slide” type things where it is a conveyor belt with tubes that roll.  Then you put your kid in a plastic carton and send them down the belt.  We were introduced to these last year at the Frankfurt kids fest.  CD loves them and has a good time doing it.

Then there was trampoline time with O.

Come on O, let’s jump!

I bounce you!

I have a daredevil on my hands.  Other kids are wary of some things, CD, eh, not so much.  O didn’t really make it on to the trampoline, so I jumped on and helped CD bounce.  He enjoyed it and let out his full belly laugh.

And we found the mechanical rides as well.  🙂

Lightning McQueen

Kangaroo!

And we push the chairs here too.

Chair pushing. Loads of fun!

Then we nap.

Sweet dreams

Then we play while moms try to eat.

Boy time

Park time

So here are CD and O in the sand at the park.  O is covering himself with sand and CD is helping him.  CD decides he wants to eat the sand and get messy too.  Oh wait, J and E were with us too.  Where could E be?  She has on her new shoes and refuses to touch her feet to the sand in fear of getting her feet/shoes dirty and grimy.  J ends up carrying her.  HA!  Boys and girls.

And after a long day, Mama finally bought her spring flowers.  On the walk home a lady commented on how nicely I decorated the stroller.  🙂  P.S.  The flowers look awful now.  There is no point in “buying” flowers.  ARGH!

Primrose

6 March –  We again went to the park with M and J as the weather was gorgeous.  I walked around in only a tank top and thinner sweater, but still bigger boots.  (Need to pull out/buy spring time shoes as I don’t really have transition shoes).  We had a fun time and CD has been enjoying the use of other kid’s sandbox toys.  Little does he know what he is getting for Easter!  Mama asked the Easter Bunny if CD could have some sand toys!

More flower…picking.  🙂

Flower time

Park truck

Pinwheel Pose

I had bought CD a pinwheel and he loves it.  Great use of a Euro!

March 7  –  Busy, busy day.  I picked up a used toy for CD that I thought he would like.  Then I had to go to the bank as my card was not working much anymore and that is my only way that I pay for things.  Then it was off to the main train station to get a train card since we will be traveling by train a bit in the near future.  Now, everyone talks about how seedy the train station area is.  I didn’t really notice it on the walk to the train station, but when I left is when I noticed things.  Europe doesn’t really sensor nudity so imagine bilboards in seedy areas without nudity sensors.  🙂  Not wild but still a little shocking.

We then went to meet M and J for lunch, however it got prolonged since J took awhile to get to us.  M and I let the boys run around a bit as it was nice outside.  CD enjoyed the music guys that we see a lot and he got a few dances in before J arrived.

FYI: Not CD’s cup

“Helping” O take a drink

Dance time – YouTube

Dance Time 2 – YouTube

Dance Time 3 – YouTube

And then there was entertaining O, who HATES to be out of the stroller.  Peek-A-Boo – YouTube

Lunch was fabulous!  The food was good, the service was fabulous and fast that we all decided we would be going back to the location again.  J and I have past it many times and kept saying we should go there, but never really made it definite until today.  Sorry we waited so long.

Sharing toys

The boxes that the kids have were part of the kids fun box that the restaurant gives out to children who eat there.  It contains a few toys, a drink, snack and some other things I don’t remember.  Well worth it even if it is just for them to play with while you shovel food into your mouth.  🙂

Stinky Toes – YouTube

March 8 – I finally went to the mom and baby workout group that I have bookmarked on my computer ages ago.  We made it just in time and had a good time.  It is nice because the instructor doesn’t speak much English so she says everything in German.  I just follow the moves for the most part and remember key words.  We did the warm-up and CD was fine with it.  Then the second group of exercises we did was when CD started to not like it.  I basically begged, pleaded, whined to him to let me get through the hour-long session and then we could play in the park.  He wasn’t buying it (even though it was the truth).  My only option was to get him out of the stroller and pray that he stayed close to me.  Well, he did.  When we were doing lunges, he was holding my hand and doing them right by my side.  All of the other moms thought it was cute- all of their kids were still little and not rambunctious.  We made it through the workout…kind of and then I let CD play in the playground.  By this time it was close to being lunch time so I wanted to walk home….well, CD wanted to walk home too and not be pushed in the stroller.  It was a LONG walk out of the park and onto the first road as CD pointed to everything and said “I see”.  He gained a walking stick for the long journey and also tried to break into a BMW car.  He apparently thought we were going to go for a drive.  He walked right up to it, put his hand on the handle and pulled it.  No alarm went off, thankfully.  CD then made it home to have lunch and nap. Then it was our regular meetup at the restaurant with the girls.

Meeting at the usual spot

Look Mama!

Yup, that is CD standing on the chair, O looking at CD knowing that he is going to get into trouble.  Then CD looks as us as to say “what are you going to do about this Mama?”.  Then O looks at us with a concerned look on his face.  And O then does what any upstanding friend would do when you are going to get into trouble.  He bolts and leaves CD standing on the chair to get into trouble by himself.  🙂

Mode of Transportation – YouTube

March 9 – CD woke up in a BADDDDDD mood.  Gave him some medicine and he just was not happy.   Loved to throw everything at me.  CD got his first haircut from C and did pretty well with it.  We went out to get some groceries and then came home for lunch and nap.  After his nap I got to go out and work on the blog while C watched CD.  This sounded like a great idea, but the blog work never really happened as I could not connect to the Internet.  So in the end I just lugged extra weight (laptop) around that I did need to.

Home haircut

Yes, we did it during snack time so that CD could have something to focus on while the haircut was happening.  It was a good idea in theory and it did work, however, I did have to replace a few snacks before he ate them because they got covered in hair.

Happy Hair!

He looks like such a big boy now it’s crazy!

March 10 – Chatted with GM, N and Aunt C.  Busy FaceTime day.  Went to park.  Started raining on walk to park.  Stayed to play at park and then rode bus home…about 2 blocks!

Snack- Go Temple!

Up close and personal

Park- with someone else’s shovel!

March 11 – Cleaning lady came.  CD so excited to see her.  Went to meet L and E at bakery to catch up after their trip.  Bitter cold outside.  Did I say bitter?  I meant BITTER COLD OUTSIDE!!!!!!!  So we spent most of today inside doing this:

Shape Train

March 12 – Snow overnight.  Decided to go out and get groceries since there were no open spots to have them delivered.  Got out, bitter cold, got groceries and then on walk home, BITTER COLD and felt awful.  Almost passed out when got home but was able to sit before it happened.  Stayed in and watched the snow pile up outside.  Then went out for a late trip to see Ernie and Bert with J and E.  J was locked out of her building so she had to wait a bit to get in so we also had dinner.  Was tasty, but tough with two toddlers that new it was bedtime.  Lift was out at Ubahn station and had to lug stroller up 2 flights of stairs.  We saw tons of places where the snow fell from the rooftops and they had the sidewalks marked off in tape so that no one would walk under them.  That was how much snow fell, how quickly it fell and how heavy it was.

Snow Time

Street in the morning- before most of the snow fell

Our balcony which NEVER gets snow on it. Now had it piled up.

Thankful for the big-wheels!

B & E Again

CD, B and E squared

Ball Pit

Climbing

Escape the spiked ball!

At night we booked trip to Brussles online with the friend that we were going to travel with.  Looking forward to it.  Look for that post soon!

March 13 – Headed out in the morning to meet with J and E and M and O to have the kids play in the snow that fell.  It was still pretty cold but it was a good idea.  We headed on the bus there so that we would not be out in the cold too long.

CD, O and M

“Deep” snow

Playing with someone else’s toys

Halfway through our outing, we decided to warm up and get something to eat.  The kids had just as much fun inside as they did outside.

E entertaining CD – YouTube

Sporting Mama’s sunglasses

Borrowing a friend’s sled

Side note:  Someone needs to make waterproof GOOD gloves for toddlers.  Yes, toddlers DO play with things and will also play with snow.  Their hands WILL get wet if companies ONLY make fleece “gloves”.  Another million dollar idea.  Who is willing to do the brunt work??  I will definitely back you!!!  Along with other moms of toddler BOYS….because guess what??  E was here too and she refused to stand in the snow.  J had to put her in the swing so that she would not be upset.  🙂

Building…

…our snowman!

Heading for the slide

SO hungry after a big day!

14 March  –  We headed out to meet friends for lunch.  Grown people sit at tables to eat.  Toddlers sit…well…in the middle of everything!

Lunching in the middle

Or they hide in corners!

We then went “shopping” to see ALL the SURPLUS of BOYS clothing that they have out there.  Um, what?!?!  What I really meant to say is the 5 shirts for boys aged 0-10 and the whole departments set up for girls aged 0-3 months, 6-12 months, 12-24 months.  Not really but you get the picture.  Boys clothes?  NOTHING.  Girls clothes?  Masses to choose from.

We did however see this shirt…none the less in the GIRLS section.

Miss you Brother Bear

L and I then had Girls Night.  Since no one else could make it, we did not want to cancel and headed to a small little place near her apartment.  We had an amazing time and it was actually really nice just being the 2 of us as we learned a lot about each other.  Another good night with L!

15 March  –  We cleaned as we were preparing for our trip to Brussels.  I had an AWESOME video of CD vacuuming, but he deleted it from my phone before I could put it on my computer.  Argh!

I’ll help Mama

16 March  –  I walk out of the kitchen to find…THIS…..!!!!!

Being a boy. I must climb!

Throwing my first snowball

Also had a great video of CD with the snowball, but yes, he deleted that one too!  🙂

 

Watching Toy Story

I should have placed a drool rag under his chin in the above picture!

17 March  – Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  CD had a BIG breakfast that he used both hands and big spoons to shovel it into his mouth.

Yummy!

And then CD had HIS FIRST REAL BABYSITTER!!!!!!  I went to the movies with L to see Les Misérables.  It was great! I did keep thinking about CD, but as I know the babysitter and L has used her for over a year with her 2 kids and J has used her with E- who is cool with her and not many other people.  I knew CD would be ok and she would not harm him. They only thing that did not work is it took him a long time to fall asleep, but he did with her, which was good.  L and I then got to have a quick bite to eat before heading home in the snow.

Irish Flag Lunch- Green beans, chicken, sweet potato

I had told the babysitter that he may eat more than what was on the above plate so there was more in the fridge.  She told me when I got home that he ate his plateful, and then half of everything in the fridge.  She said he was a “good eater” as she meant he will eat you out of house…I mean apartment and home…I mean flat.  

CD was happy to see me when he woke up, which was literally as soon as I was finished talking to the babysitter and was taking my shoes off of my feet.

Lucky Irish Shirt

 

We then made sure all of our things were in order as we were heading to Brussels, Belgium the following morning!

 

***Please excuse if I ended my sentences in prepositions.  I hate that with a passion, but I fall into the BAD habit when I’m tired, or hunkering down and weeding through stuff…as I am doing now.  Also, I know I have switched how I list the dates (# first or after the month), but let’s face it, I’m not going back to check it.  If something doesn’t make sense, breeze over it as I also have not proof-read it.  I am praying that I don’t have any obscene typos.  If I do, please let me know so I can fix those.  Also, I must go and rest as I gave myself Carpal tunnel syndrome in my left hand.

Look forward to the Brussles post!

USA “Quick” Post

So I have been away for awhile.  I am trying to get back in the swing of things with the posts.  Lets face it.  When I got back to Germany, I started watching movies at night instead of doing my “homework” and posting in the blog.  Well, I’m back to the grind and will try to get a lot of posts out to catch everyone up on what we have been doing.  Just be aware that with this post there was no editing or anything.  I just had to post it to move on to the next set of posts.

We were in the States from the end of Novemeber 2012 to the beginning of January 2013.  If there is a picture or event missing, blame it on my weak memory or the fact of doing the post over multiple weeks..ahem I mean months and trying to go through all of the pictures I have…or I didn’t have a picture for it.

Pre-flight

On our flight to the States, CD stayed awake on flight.  This is no biggie as he does this every time.  He was well behaved but just awake.  Meanwhile, in the bassinett next to him was a little girl.  Now here is the differences between little girls and little boys: she fell asleep right after take-off and had to be awakened for landing because she had to sit on her mom’s lap.  At one point during the flight, she rolled over and CD was like “whoa, there is someone in there” and rightfully so because she barely moved.  Crazy!

We had gone to the doctor right before our flight to the States because CD was sick and I’m terrified of ear infections since I had them when I was little and remember them.  There was no way I was going to get on a plane with him if he was congested or had any sort of problems with his ears.  The doc cleared us for take-off.

We first went and stayed at GM and G-D’s house.  Here we saw Santa, got professional pictures taken, went to the park, went to My Gym and got new shoes!  These were fantastic shoes!  They fit CD’s foot and were SO easy to put on his foot.  Thanks GM!!

“Thanksgiving” @ GM & G-D’s

Yes, we thought we were going to the States for Thanksgiving, but found out we were a week late- November had 5 weeks in 2012.  Ugh!  Still got to celebrate and CD loved the new experience.

He did what any true American does after a Thanksgiving feast:

Naptime on the floor

The above picture wasn’t really after the feast, but I thought it was cute and it was at GM and G-D’s house.

 

Jungle Gym

Getting ready to tumble

Swinging

Swinging x2

Circle Time

On our drive to N and GP’s house, we decided that it was time to flip CD’s carseat to face forward.  I wanted him rear-facing for as long as possible because it is better for them if there happened to be a car accident.  CD had a blast and it was a whole new world for him riding like this.

Forward Facing

While at N and GP’s house, we went shopping a lot.  Got a lot of clothes and stocked up on some things to bring back to Germany.

Mama LOVES Tar-jay

In the beginning of December, CD got his first haircut.  Let’s face it, it was a crazy time.  He was cool with the flying airplane at first but not cool with the scissors and buzzer near his head.  In the end we stopped the haircut a little early and decided we would go back for a touch up at a later date.  I also cried.  It was another milestone in little CD’s life to becoming big CD.

Airplane- precut

Help me…during the cut

A lolli makes it better- after cut

And a park visit…even better after cut

CD also started to teethe again and got a relapse of being sick.  We took him to a doctor to check him out and make sure everything was ok.  Here is where I saw a real difference in the treatment of children in the States vs. Germany.  Right away the doctor in the States said he should probably be on steriod treatments while the doctor in Germany is more in line with my way of thinking- aka hippie- and said we will watch and monitor it and go from there.  No harm was done to CD and I went with my motherly instinct and did what was right for my baby.  And the States wonder why there are so many sick people and issues???  Well, at least the people who are aware of it do.  No worries of pumping our bodies full of chemicals and gross things just because.  WHEW!  Ok, over that rant.

One of the best parts of being home was seeing Sampson.  CD had SO much fun with him and loved feeding him, taking him for walks and just playing with him.  Best buds for life!

Brother Bear Getting Snacks – YouTube

Snack Time

“Walking” Brother Bear – YouTube

Happy walk time

Jail Break

Buddies

Let’s scribble

Snuggle Pumpkins

Brother Bear: “I thought this was my bed.”

CD: “Nope. What’s your’s is MINE!”

Looks like Timeout, but not.

Give Me Paw

Give me kiss

And yes, that is the tried and true way to babyproof your house.  See the paper towel cardboard tube holding the cabinet doors closed???  Works for both CD and Brother Bear who also likes to open cabinets when no one is paying 112% attention to him.

We sat down to be small (above pictures) and stood up to be tall (below picture)…inside joke.

Standing up with Great GP’s help!

Step Up To Be Tall

I SOOOOOO want one of these (below) and it would be fabulous to have here in Germany as I am starting to get back into cooking and want to have CD near me to help.  Great for him to see stuff prepared in the process, but unfortunately Germany doesn’t have anything like this.  I will wait until we are back in the States and then see if he would still be interested in it.  I like it because the kids can be counter level height but still contained so they don’t hurt themselves.  I have tried multiple times to pre-heat the oven with CD in helping me and he is just too fascinated by the oven light and wants to touch the oven.  This is a BIG HUGE NO in our apartment as the outside oven door gets as hot as the inside of the oven.  I have burned myself multiple times just by grazing it.  Needless to say cooking has not taken place much when CD is around.  Just look how happy both the mom and kid are in the picture!  Have no idea if they are as great as they are made out to be, but would love to try a version of it!

funpod

See how much CD likes to help in the kitchen?!?!  He is picking out the ingredients for some meal…or getting ready to shake the spice.  🙂

Getting the goods

And here he has set the table!

Table Setting

Tablescaping

I even got some cuddle time from Brother Bear.  🙂

Cuddles!

Mama and her boys

Growing up, we celebrated St. Nick.  I will continue that tradition with CD.  He arrived at N and GP’s house and CD got his little goodies in his shoes.

St. Nick Shoes

St. Nick Surprises

My birthday came and I was surprised at night by Aunt C coming home for the celebration.  I should have known that she couldn’t stay away from seeing us!  Thanks for the lovely surprise!  I didn’t get to celebrate much on the day as I had a meeting in the morning and then at night CD was fussy.  CD got to check out the trains with C in the morning of my birthday and had a good time.

CD and C Train

P.S.  CD’s shirt even had a little train on it for the experience.  🙂

Train hat and whistle

Conductor’s Hat

Birthday Cakes…Yes, Plural

CD had a blast playing with my birthday balloon.  He LOVES balloons as he enjoyed his, Aunt C’s and now mine.  🙂  I just feel bad for the poor balloon.  Towards the very end of the video you can hear CD say one of his famous words- “Wow”.  Balloon Fun – YouTube

And then this is what happens after the balloon attack….However I have NO IDEA what Brother Bear was tired from besides he saw an opportunity to nap with someone.  🙂

EXHAUSTED!

CD doing a Brother Bear sleep position- head off the couch

Finally, both on the couch!

CD had a blast helping to decorate the Christmas tree.  Every few days he would decide he needed to change his design and would go back and move things around.  He was so gentle with it and I liked that the tree had a little bit of CD touch to it.

Decorating the tree

CD loved the decorations.  He would say “Hi” to the Santa decorations inside and outside of N and GP’s house.

Hi Santa

I took CD on the Santa Trolley and he had a blast.  We will be doing this again, as it was a fun little ride and cute too.  The only thing that had me confused was that Santa kept saying his “tree” elves and I had no clue what they were.  Growing up I never heard of Santa’s “tree” elves.  I guess I have been gone too long as “tree” was meant to be “three”.  🙂

Trolley Train

Mama Fav!

Ghost Train

Santa Time

N was sick so I took over making some Christmas cookies.  I only made a few but they were good.  CD had fun helping me make them.

Baking

Peanut Butter Kiss

Chock-O-Chip

Christmas came and the best present happened.  Uncle TS and Aunt P showed up at the doorstep!  This brought me great joy because they were able to meet CD and Brother Bear.  I still get teary-eyed thinking about spending time with them.  It was wonderful.

Finally getting the keyboard!

CD Christmas 2012

Meeting “Andy’s Toy” for the first time – YouTube

Meeting Woody – Hi – YouTube  CD tells Woody “hi” in the video.

N had bought CD a little truck to ride around the house and as she was unpacking the car, CD happened to see it and freaked out until he got it.  He enjoyed it and had a good time with it.

New Wheels

Here is CD installing the amped up stereo system into his new ride.

The radio obsession continues

Taking Brother Bear for a spin…not really but it looks like it, right?!?! 🙂

Popper

CD also turned 18 months old.  Happy Birthday!!!  A whole year and a half!  WOW!

18 months

We also got candy from the firetruck Santa!

Santa Firetruck

We celebrated Christmas at GM and G-D’s house too.

Christmas Bow

Caterpillar

Christmas Gift

There was SO much snow!  I had lost track of how many days it snowed in a row.  Made a perfect visit for a little one to ride on the sleighs and for the warm weather folk to enjoy a white Christmas.  🙂

Bundle Up

Snow pants

Bundle Me

Snow Stance

Who is going to pull me???

GP will!!!

Or Uncle T

Or Aunt C

Sled Time

So sweet!

Look at me smirk

Riding with Mama

Brother Bear got to have some fun in the snow too.

White beard

Agile creature!

Shoveling

Shoveling…indoors

Snow Time

Uncle TS Time

Hide-n-Seek

Found him!

Photo Op with Aunt P

Notice who is holding Uncle TS’s snowball 🙂

Aunt P and Uncle TS

“European” woman 🙂

We went to see the famous house near us with all the Christmas lights.  However, the first time we went, they did not have them turned on at the time.  We needed to return to see the splendor of it.  It really was amazing!  And of course we took Brother Bear with us.  He wanted to see the shiny things too!

We’re off to see the w…winter lights! The wonderful winter lights!

You can’t quite grasp how splendid it is unless you see it in person.

Christmas House

Christmas House 2

We played with friends.

Little L

And family.

Headbutt

N Silly Play – YouTube

We ate yummy food while in the States.

Pancakes!

Good Ole Cheerios

Banana!

Rocking to the Rolling Stones – YouTube

Black beans and cheese

Spoon

So proud- big boy meal

And got to drink from a Big Boy Cup.

Thomas the Train Cup

Double!

Cup Cap

We danced and made some good music.   CD dancing while mixing the tunes! – YouTube

We also got to puddle jump!  This is a TRUE difference between boys and girls.  Girls would want NOTHING to do with the water, mud, mess in general.  CD, a boy, however found it fabulous!

Check out the still splash

Puddle Jumping – YouTube

Puddle Jumping and Wandering – YouTube – Yup.  And you can even see the girl – ME- jump away from the muddy mess with my NEW boots.  HA!

CD stole my slippers!  He has a habit of doing this.  Slipper Steal – YouTube  And also got a hold of Uncle TS’s shoes.

Walking in Uncle TS’s Shoes

New Year’s Eve came and CD had a little celebration…just a bit earlier than most as he was in bed for the real one.

New Year’s Eve Streamer Pop – YouTube

New Year’s Eve 2012 Stomping Poppers – YouTube

New Year’s Eve 2012- So Happy – YouTube

We then said goodbye to Uncle TS and Aunt P.  CD got one last haircut fix and professional pictures before we headed back to Germany in the beginning of January.

It really was a great trip back to the States.  Some things were different but in all the joy that was had was amazing.

Happy Halloween!

If ever kids wished for weather on Halloween, this would be it.  It was sunny and cool today!

We started our Halloween activities by visiting C at work.  CD’s costume was The Incredible Hulk.  Yes, I didn’t know it was a HUGE costume for kids in the States…as I don’t live in the States.  I had picked it because he is so strong and wants to lift things up and put them down.  Ha!  Anyway, it fit perfectly and he looked awesome!  P.S.  The side view didn’t show off his fit abs, just showed a protruding belly!  So cute!

The Hulk

After the visit to C’s work, we headed to the playground.  CD didn’t really want to play so we just stayed for a little bit and then headed home for lunch.  I wanted to show CD’s costume to the concierge and got a chance to do it.  CD was proud to show him it as he walked into the building.  He continually gave him high-fives and had a good walk to our building with the concierge.  Since it is Halloween, I made sure we had pumpkin for lunch as CD likes it.  He of course ate all of his lunch and then he headed off for a nap.

During CD’s nap, I got word from a new friend we met at the park a little while ago that there was trick-or-treating happening near us tonight so we said we would go.  Another chance to wear the costume!  I started to realize that Conor is really starting to fall into the pattern of taking just the afternoon nap.  This is good and bad.  It is good because he sleeps for a longer stretch of time (today was from 12:30 to 3:15) and this is the normal progression that kids take with their naps.  The bad thing is that this means if I need to get anything out, I have to be ready to go in the morning and have the timing JUST right so that we get everything done and back in time to eat/relax/nap.  The other bad thing is that this is going to alter my friendships.  Not really, but just seeing people.  CD is one of the oldest kids (besides the siblings that are in school and we don’t see them anyway) so this means that everyone else is still on a morning nap and can still go out in the afternoon.  O is the only one older than CD and he is on the afternoon nap and we have only seen them 1 time this month…and that is because I forced CD to miss his nap so we could actually have the kids play together.  We will see what happens as we only have about 3 weeks before we head back to the States.

When CD woke up from his nap, we decorated his pumpkin that we bought.

pumpkin decorating

pumpkin decorating stickers

We did what any normal kid would do…pile the stickers on top of each other.  Why would we spread them out all over the pumpkin?!?!?  That doesn’t make sense.  🙂  Thanks for the stickers N!  Much less messy than markers!

We watched The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.  Side note- I had actually first wanted CD to be Charlie Brown for Halloween as he has a musical toy that is Charlie Brown and he liked it when I had been thinking of costumes for him.  But then he would just lift things in the apartment that I couldn’t imagine him being able to lift, so I went straight to the Hulk.

watching the great pumpkin charlie brown

Throughout the day CD likes to sit by himself in his nursery chair while I hand him books to read.  So today we made sure we read the Halloween books we have.  We read them every day as he loves to read and we cycle through them, but I made sure we paid attention to them today.

Halloween books

When CD woke up from his nap he wore his daytime Halloween outfit.  N and GM had the same idea.  Love that I had a duplicate outfit, so if CD spilled something, I could just take one off and put the other one on him.

Halloween outfit

N had sent CD a play phone a while ago.  I had made the executive decision to wait until Halloween to give it to him as a present.  I had just left it on the table for him to “discover” and he seemed to enjoy it.  We took it trick or treating with us as I couldn’t get it out of CD’s hands.  He would actually put it up to his ear to listen.  🙂

phone

At least with this one I know he can’t phone the States at unGodly hours like he has done in the past with my phone.

Yes, it is true.  I inhaled all of the Smidgens that were sent.   YUM!  Thanks!

At the end of the day we put our Halloween costume back on for one more trip outside- to go trick or treating!  We trekked to an area I had never been before but had always wanted to explore.  It was funny because you knew everyone was American due to the location and for the fact that Germans don’t celebrate Halloween.  When we got there, we never met up with our friend so we didn’t stay long.  It was a weird area, not scary or unsafe, just different.  You knew EVERYONE you encountered would speak English perfectly.  There was also an area where armed guards checked cars…like checked IDs, had them lift the hoods and used mirrors to check underneath the cars.  We may investigate the area again…in daylight.  Here is a picture of our trick or treating.

trick or treating

Overall it was a fun-filled Halloween for both of us.  Again another day under our belt as a “Best”.  We hope everyone on the East Coast are fine and safe!  This time last year, there was a snowstorm?  Remember Grandparents????

What a long, splendid trip it’s been (part 2)

We had PLENTY of pool time.  It was one of our favorite activities.

Pool Time

This is how we introduced the big pool.  CD had no fear about it and wanted to jump right in.  What a water baby!

Pool Side Fun – YouTube

We also became fast friends with Brother Bear S.  It took each of them a little while to warm up to one another…I think Brother Bear S was not too keen on someone taking his cuddle time with N away, but in the end, they loved each other.  Brother Bear S started allergy medicine because he itches constantly.  CD picked up on us telling Brother Bear S “no itch” and he started squealing on Brother Bear S when no one was looking.  CD would let us know that Brother Bear S was itching.

Everything that CD had, Brother Bear S couldn’t help but want it too!

N would take Brother Bear S out for his morning walk with CD.  Here is one of CD enjoying the walk.

CD learned to feed Brother Bear and knew the routine to get him ready for his walks.

Bubble buddies: CD and Brother Bear – YouTube

I too got some quality time with Brother Bear.

We went to Claws-n-Paws where we got to see a lot of animals.  Again, CD loved the LOUD birds and he got to feed the giraffe.

Our trips that we took were exhausting to CD too!

Speaking of sleeping, CD could not really adjust to the time change, so every day for the whole duration of our trip to the States, he was wide awake at about 5am each day.  He spent LOTS of time with GM and N during those early morning hours.

Plus we got LOTS of snuggle time!

What a long, splendid trip it’s been (part 1)

***Disclaimer:  I might have missed some things, have things spelled wrong, grammatical errors, have the order incorrect but I hope you enjoy the post.  It is a long time coming and took a very long time to organize all of the information and actually have the time to get it into the blog.  I am now chasing a TODDLER!  In the end, I have my fingers crossed that I don’t crash the WordPress website and lose all of the work that I put into this post.  I already had a few heart stopping moments and think some things are not configured correctly because I lost the info twice and had to change some things in order to get it back.  I now have to post it in multiple posts instead of one.  Fingers crossed when I hit the “Publish” button!  If you hover over the pictures, you will be able to see the captions that I wrote, as they are not coming up when I post them…RATS!

We started our trip at the airport where and I did the unimaginable…I allowed CD to CRAWL ON THE AIRPORT FLOOR!  I cringed at it but I knew he would be cooped up in the plane and then have a long car ride to C’s parents’ house.  I also thought it would tire him, but it didn’t.  We got on the plane only to find out that we did not have the bassinet seats that we had reserved and the flight attendants had to beg people to move since the people in our seats refused to give them up to us.  Well, in the end CD didn’t use the bassinet as he was wide awake the whole flight.  When we got to the USA, we found out our stroller did not make it and we would have to wait for it to arrive at a later time.  In the end CD was awake for a total of 17-18 straight hours.  Poor little guy.

Since we were in the States for a long time, I’m just going to do some highlights of our trip.

We had our first Father’s Day and attended a baseball game.  Happy Father’s Day C!

CD also decided to give C a Father’s Day present and he STARTED WALKING!  He just up and went…well with a few falls, but that didn’t stop him!

We also went to the beach and had a great time.  CD loves the water and enjoys being nosy, so being close to people at a beach was a cup of tea to him.  We all enjoyed the experience.

CD also had 2 birthday parties.  What a life for a 1-year-old!  🙂

You can see the reason for the theme of CD’s first birthday in the background of the picture.  Ever since he was little, well, not that he is full-grown now 🙂 he has LOVED the book Barnyard Dance by Susan Boynton.  That book has been through the ringer with him and is still one of his favorites.  Also, I know the size of the haystack is not to scale to the barn, but it was a cute idea.  Thanks N!

Here starts the progression of CD inhaling the pig cupcake.  He SO enjoyed it!  At first he thought it was cool that everyone was staring at him and he didn’t want to end that so he just held the cupcake.  Then it was all over in a matter of seconds.  Poor Piggy!

CD Eating His B-Day Cupcake – YouTube

CD made it all the way through his birthday party being a good boy.  He even got to open a few presents.  And like any kid, he had more fun with the bag and wrapping paper than the presents themselves.  🙂

This was not a birthday present, but GM bought us a pinwheel to play with while we were in the States and that was one of the best things.  It lasted the whole trip after being used a TON and was indestructible…since both CD and Brother Bear S both played with it.  Thanks GM for a great $0.99 find!  See, not everything needs to have a big price tag.  (Remember that when you are older CD and asking for something outrageous).

CD also turned 13 months old!

We also celebrated some other birthdays while we were in the States.  Happy B-day Aunt C and Happy B-day Uncle TS!  Hope you both had great days!  We had dessert almost every night for birthdays or holidays.  No wonder why I now have to get used to walking all over again.  🙂  Every dessert was delicious!