My apologies

Hello all! I just wanted to apologize for the long absence. Just when I was getting good at blogging more regularly, October was crazy. I had a big paper due 1st of November that made me feel like I should be working on if I ever had free computer time instead of the blog. We had a lot to blog about, though, in the past month and a half, and hopefully I will start updating you all on at least a few of those things very soon. Michaela is over a half a year already...crazy! My mom is here right now. She came for two weeks to keep me company while Michael was deployed, but he never deployed, so she is just enjoying time being a grandma, and I am enjoying time catching up on sleep and cleaning and more schoolwork while she is entertaining. More to come soon....promise!

Halloween Week

Just came in from handing out candy with Mom.

Earlier in the week, Michaela got to go the pumpkin wagon with one of her little boyfriends. Christopher is 3 days older than her. Their grandmas sent them the same exact froggy costumes, too, so we also got pics of them together as frogs, but I don't have those pics on this computer so you will have to ask (or see FB) for those.

(Thanks for the CUTE outfit Auntie Susie!)

Also earlier in the week (or month...I can't even remember now since I am blogging soooo much later than what the date of this blog says)...Michaela and Mommy in their pumpkin pajamas.

6 months!

Michaela is 6 months old already!! In this picture, she is all set in her new high chair to try baby cereal for the first time. We tried it this morning, but it didn't go so well. We'll see if she is more into it again tomorrow.



A few days ago, she sported her first ponytail!!

Walker

My parents are strong supporters of baby walkers, and although they are made differently nowadays and not always recommended, I decided to try one. Found this one at the thrift store for $8, which made that decision easier. Michaela's not so sure about it yet and gets frustrated quickly when she moves backwards instead of forward, but she likes playing with the toys and playing with the little steering wheel. I think she will like it sometime soon.

Check out that crazy face.

The walker definitely does not compare to her most favorite fun all day...the jumper.

This is one of my favorite faces...the crinkled nose, heavy breathing (excited) smile. She does it OFTEN.And just another cute one. :)

As promised

Finally got a good shot of those little teeth. :)

Drumroll please...

We have grass growing!!!

This has been long awaited (by me, at least). When we first arrived in Germany and signed the agreement for this 3rd floor apartment, I brainstormed this idea to make a pee box of grass for the dogs (while we were still in the hotel) to use on the balcony in case of emergency. After almost a year and a half of hearing how I still wanted this box so badly for times when the baby is sleeping or it's just too early and the dogs want to go out, my handy hubby went to work. He thought that stones would be easier to keep clean and care for (and that it was too late in the season for grass to grow), so we perused several hardware stores (on and off-post) for a hard plastic rectangular base. We figured it wouldn't be too hard for the dogs to figure out since they had a big yard of stones to do their business on in AZ. So, Michael drilled some holes in the side of the plastic for the urine/rain water to drain off and immediately poured a small cup of water over the stones to try out his handiwork. When the water splashed both balconies below, that plan came quickly to a halt. So, back to my grass plan...2 weeks later, Michael encloses the plastic with a wood frame and plants grass seed. The box says that the grass will grow within a week all the way until the middle of October, but after a week, no grass. However, when I awoke this morning...look at that beautiful grass growing on our balcony!!! :)

Our Visit

We had a great visit with Michaela's great-grandparents and Uncle Gary this past week. Michael had a busy week at work but is now a pilot-in-command (yay!) and got a day of leave yesterday so that he could accompany us to Strasbourg, France. We all enjoyed it. Thank you, Gary, for all your help this week.

Teeth!

Michaela awoke with not one but 2 teeth this morning! All of the previous week's fuss and constant suckling at night are explained! I thought the bottom right tooth had erupted by Monday but then it seemed to go away, but this morning, both bottom teeth are definitely through! She kept pushing her tongue over the area the past few days so we couldn't see them when we tried, but this morning, I felt those sharp little teeth and have been able to see them when her mouth is open too. If she allows us to get a picture sometime soon, I will post it. She does like to cover them with her tongue though. Other news is that Michaela's great grandparents and Uncle Gary arrived this morning and will be here for a week, so we are excited about that. Also, she will be 5 months old already tomorrow. I can't believe I have a big 5-month-old baby with 2 teeth!

Jumping Queen

Michaela has figured out how to really jump in the past week and now LOVES her jumper. She will jump and jump with a smile on her face the whole time. I can get stuff done while she is jumping, so I love the jumper too. I tried to upload a video of her jumping yesterday, but it didn't work for me, but hopefully you will enjoy this one. She was jumping while I was washing dishes. I started clicking Michael's grilling tongs to entertain her, and she laughed a lot when they got her. This was after the game lost its novelty a little, but she was still enjoying it a little. Please ignore the cluttered laundry/trash closet behind her.

Latest Teething Toys

TOES! (for some reason she switches them out for the fingers whenever the camera appears)



COFFEE TABLE (which I have been pushing to get rid of for awhile...I guess we will have to hold onto it a little longer since Michaela is putting it to good use)

Check-up

The clinic on-post lost its pediatrician recently, so after weeks of calling for an appt, we finally got a referral off-post, and Michaela saw the German ped. today. I hope we can stick with him. He is the one that examined Michaela in the hospital when she born and did the ultrasounds of her heart and hips. Anyway, the office visit is just a lovely experience. We walked in at 10:00 and out at 10:25, were offered water and coffee as soon as we entered, only waited about 3 minutes for the doctor who also did the vaccinations himself so no waiting in the middle for that either...wonderful. Oh, and it was a Saturday!

Anyway, Miss Michaela is still very healthy. She weighed about 14.5 pounds (6.61 kg), and they measured her at 67 cm (which I think was a little off cause that is like 26.5 in., and I measured her last week at 25.5 in.), with a head circumference of 41.5 cm. According to my charting of these measurements, that would put her at 95th percentile for height, 75th for weight and about 65th for head. She got more shots and did okay with that. She did the thing where she cries so hard that she pretty much stops breathing for a second or two. Michael had never seen her do this before and did not like it. She was fine as soon as he picked her up though. After hearing about her bowel changes this week and feeling her gums, the doctor seems to think that teeth are imminent. Michael and I both got our first teeth at 5 mo., so we'll see what happens. She definitely exhibits lots of signs and symptoms of teething, but I know these can last for a long time before a tooth actually appears.

AMSTERDAM!

Last weekend was a long weekend for Michael (being Labor Day and all), so we took a nice little family trip. We were planning on going to Denmark to see where Michael's dad was born and meet some family members, but Michaela really HATES the car after about 15-20 minutes of driving (forgot to mention that one before when I said she is only fussy when tired). When we found out the cousins live VERY far north, we decided to postpone that trip until a time when Michael can take leave and we will have more than 4 days to do all that driving. So, at the last minute, we decided on Amsterdam instead. We drove Friday and Sunday nights (with me in the back with the baby the whole time) so that we could do most of it while baby was sleeping. It worked out pretty well with only a few minutes of crying before sleep time each way.

While we were there, we were able to see the Anne Frank House (truly amazing that they were in hiding there for over 2 years), the Van Gogh museum, another museum with a lot of Rembrandt, some hidden churches (catholicism was outlawed for awhile), lots of bicycles, a nice tour of the canals by boat (didn't know Amsterdam was the Venice of the north, did you?), and many other things. Michaela did great on all the touring through the city. She loves being outside, seeing new things, and being worn by us, so it worked out pretty well. Michael LOVES taking pictures and took over 300 over the weekend, so it was hard to choose which ones to include here, so there are many below. :)


We are about to get on the tram, which we took many times (no subway as the city is built on water).


You can see where our modern rowhouses in NYC originated.

One of the nice views from the boat.

We are in a hidden women's colony (on an island) where dogs, roosters, and human males over the age of 3 were forbidden (at one time, not anymore, obviously).

On the boat tour, we went under several bridges. Michael got this one right before or after one of the bridges. He was trying to capture Michaela's face, because whenever there is darkness suddenly, her eyes bulge.

After the first long day of hours of walking and touring, the little chicky was still smiling and happy to be back in the warm hotel room.

Urinals right out in the middle of the main square for all the drunkos who can't hold it.

LOTS of bicycles. In Thailand, we saw entire families on motorbikes, here we saw entire families on old-fashioned man-powered bikes. The wagons for the kids were awesome (in front of the bike, however, they came with a hefty pricetag...we saw a used one for sale for like 1800 euro).

You, too, could be the proud owner of a cannabis starters' kit.

Or buy as many tulip bulbs as you can carry.

A quiet, pretty canal near our hotel.

Some nice park near the Van Gogh museum.

How Michaela spent much of the walking tour...

Michael and Michaela at the Italian eatery where we had lunch. Michael had to get some Pizza Margherita, of course. :)

More Michaela, of course

Here a couple pictures of Michaela with some of her favorite toys. The first one is her sleeping on the way home from church Sunday holding the yellow measuring cup. She likes my measuring cups, which are made from silicone and different sizes and colors...and perfect for little fingers to hold and little mouths to gum.



This next one is Michaela playing with the very best toy, a fisher-price story rhyme book, affectionately called the baby ipod in our neighborhood. If you have a baby of any age, you should look into getting one. Michaela loves this thing EVERYDAY. It has been a lifesaver in the car, when Michaela is tired, and when I am just plain worn out and need a little helper. My friend's 18 mo. old loves it too....although he just really wants to hear Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Michaela loves the music, the light up face, turning the pages, and pushing the buttons.

Sitting pretty...

or is it sitting angry? Michaela sat unassisted for the first time today (since I am always behind in posting and am doing them in retrospect by changing the dates...now a week and a half later, she is getting really good at it!). Now, back to Sept. 1st, she was feeling pretty steady when I was helping her...she had been kind of fussy early, like way before her normal bedtime that evening, so I was trying to find ways to entertain her. I was helping her sit and let go when she was feeling so steady and started supporting herself with her hands. I grabbed the camera and instead of being all smiley and proud of herself like I thought she would be, she got very mad! To my surprise, she was utterly exhausted that early in the evening, and the poor thing just wanted to sleep while I was making her use all her muscles to hold herself up. She fell asleep about 5 minutes after these pics were taken.

Happy Anniversary...

to us! We celebrated our 4th anniversary tonight by going out for a late (truly European) dinner downtown at a nice, little Italian place. We waited until Michaela was fast asleep at our friends' house and then took off for a couple hours before she would need the milk machine again (she does not take a bottle well and definitely not at bedtime!). It was nice to have a little date night...thanks Loefferts!

4 months!

Michaela is 4 months old already! It is amazing for us how much she has grown and changed. When people say to enjoy the time while we have it because they grow fast, they are so right! Michaela is growing to be a happy girl. Now she is usually only fussy when she is tired and falls asleep much easier than she used to. She loves standing up (which is why she loves her new jumper!), grabbing anything she can in front of us, and being outside. She also still loves music and movement. If you will dance for her, she will definitely smile for you, and if you dance a little more crazily, she will definitely give you a delighted giggle! She also continues to love her books and is getting more coordinated with her hands that she can hold onto her toys better and even started trying to turn the pages for me as we read her little hard cover books. We are enjoying her more and more everyday. I have not taken specifically 4 month photos yet, but a couple mornings while Michael was gone, I entertained myself by having some mini photo shoots of her. Below are some of the photos from this past week.

Check out these monkey feet! She loves trying to hold onto things with them! (and kick, kick, kick, of course!)


Right after bath time, check out the little bum back there. :)

These are her two favorite fingers...

And if you are wondering about the outfit in the above (and several below) photo, yes, it is old school. I wore it in 1981, and it now fits Michaela perfectly...including the little matching shoes. The neck ruffle was the best part of the retro outfit, but I'm not sure any of these shows it well.

Of course, the little wiggle worm wiggled her way down and the hair bow off.

So, in person, the little girl looks EXACTLY like her daddy (with a hint of me in her every once in awhile), but in a few pictures that we have, she looks exactly like my baby pics. This next one would be one of those, and she is wearing my outfit, so I like it and can't wait to hear my mom's reaction. The weird thing, though, is that I really don't think she looked like this in person.

Here she is in her new jumper! I think this was only the second day she was in it. The first time I put her in it, she stood up tall and gave me a big smile like she was so proud to be standing on her own. She also loves being on the same level as the dogs and smiles and giggles at them whenever they are near her in it.

My mom gave me a few more outfits from when I was a baby so there may be some more retro baby pics in the future. :)

Michael is Back!

Michaela and I made it through our first TDY/deployment since her birth, and Michael is now back safely to us. We are grateful it was so short and excited to all be together again! Thank you friends and family for helping me stay entertained and offering some adult conversation while he was gone!

HOT, HOT, HOT!

Yesterday was the hottest day of the year and possibly the hottest day of several years here in Wiesbaden. According to weather.com, the average high is only about 75 and yesterday's high was 95! We used the heat (and welcome invitation from Kathrin) as an opportunity to experience a German pool for the first time (and first pool experience period for Michaela). The pool was VERY crowded as it seems everyone in town had the same idea since it was so hot, and they don't believe in A/C around here. The water was very cold compared to the air temp so Michaela didn't like the water much, but she loved watching all the big kids running, swimming, and splashing. And believe me, those German kids do all those things BIG (they aren't really disciplined). Michaela did very well considering the amount of splashing going on. The first pic below shows the bigger girls loving on Michaela. The second one is only added so you can get a sense for how busy it was there, and the last shows my sweety conked out in the midst of the craziness. It was fun!