Fun in the sun.

Today is cool. You can feel fall coming, the leaves changing, the smell of fresh baked bread filling the house.

Why is it you don't really miss something until it's gone? I think the days of summer are behind us. We really didn't have much of one in all honesty. It was a mild, wet summer- but those days of sunshine? We made sure to enjoy them. Even if it was just a trip to the "Selbst Schneiden Blumen" or Self Cut Flowers.

We miss Dad. Thankfully rotation is thiiiis close to being over with a four day weekend coming up to boot! Travel plans you ask? Next weekend: Strasbourg, France!

Still here.

Bite?

Dinner around here is a little crazy. Especially with Andy working ALL the time. Literally. He didn't even make it home last night. Anyway. Dinner by myself is a little nuts because I'm trying in charge of cooking (while entertaining Jackson); feeding Jackson and myself (usually this happens later); and trying to keep the mess to a minimum. Jackson, of course, is feeding the dogs while I try to juggle these tasks. Sigh.

To make things slightly easier, dinner is naked. Not buck naked, but down to a diaper. Often times even without a bib.

Jackson thinks it's great fun to 'feed' me. And it started out when he offered me some of his watermelon. I gladly took a small bite and he went back to munching. NOW he wants to feed me everything. Tonight it was a piece of sweet potato pancake. . .covered in chicken pot pie and smashed peaches.

Yum. (Gag). I do find it incredibly endearing and have gotten very good at pretending to eat his sweet offering. Pretty much anything to get one of his million dollar smiles.

After dinner it's rub-a-dub-dub, Jackson in the tub.

I feel like I’ve won the lottery...

...a million times over.

Longing for Chaos

Do you have any idea how long I have wanted this?

or longed for this?

and yes, even dreamed about this.

I've wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember, seriously. I was that girl in high school that wanted a baby, that girl in college who wanted 20, and now I'm that MOM who thinks 4 sounds about right. Ok, maybe not four, but you get the picture, and speaking of picture don't show this one to my husband just yet, ok?

Sometimes I feel like I should have it more together, and one day I hope to. Be more organized. Keep a cleaner house. Cook from scratch more often. But all it takes is one quick reminder as to why I'm so lucky to have this chaos. Remind me what REALLY matters. . . .and it isn't clean floors, streak free windows, or folded laundry.

Adding to the chaos, we have these two living with us. Don't get me wrong they pull their weight, ALWAYS volunteering to clean up after dinner and 'help' with the dishes. The downside is that I have to vacuum every day.

Every other day at a bare minimum (and I'm not saying I haven't gone more than that..). This process of vacuuming includes picking up all the toys from the floor and moving them somewhere the vacuum won't try to eat them. Unfortunately this ended up being their primary location.

Obscuring our wedding picture, a bowl of fake lemons (don't ask), ipod docking station, and my digital picture frame that hasn't been updated since Christmas. Obviously this isn't ideal. How to solve this problem? IKEA.

I've never been to an IKEA before Germany. I guess we don't have them in Kansas? We moved here and everyone suggested going there for the random household stuff we would inevitably need. We were told basic directions and that it was "right off the highway" "look to the left- you'll see it" and "can't miss it." But we did miss it. The first day we went to IKEA all of Regensburg was covered in a dense fog. You couldn't see 20 feet in front of you, let alone a giant blue building with big. yellow. letters. Now it's a frequent favorite and the place we turned to when we needed a big sturdy piece of furniture that could take some abuse and offer some organization and relief to our bookcase.

This is what we ended up with. I love it. Yeah, I know it's not incredibly classy. There is NO hiding what it is. It's a toy shelf. (Assuming everything is put away somewhat nicely) I never regret looking over at it and reminding myself why it is there, and that in a few hours my little love will return from dreamland, bringing beautiful chaos with him.

And in other IKEA related news have you all tried the Allmondy? I LOVE it- I LOVE Daim too, for that matter. Ah, Sweden. (This is also me being IKEA ignorant, and assuming they all have a food section, right?) Go check it out.

Ikea always has great things. Here are three more things we ended up with. Yes we only NEEDED a shelf, but how can you pass up gems like this.

Creepy spider puppet. I guess if you don't know what spiders are and how terrifyingly scary they can be, you might think this is the coolest toy.

Cups. Why spend 20+ bucks on a toy with noises and flashing lights? No really, why? These cups are probably his favorite toy. ever. (Except maybe books, they just taste too good.)

Awesome alligator bath mat. Makes ME want to play in the tub.

Oh and last time we were at IKEA Andy and I had the best .99 Euro cent hotdog ever. No picture, just wanted you to know.

Yeah, I know

I need to blog more (you miss me, right?). I need to take more pictures (I agree). However, most of the time(and by most I mean EVERY time) I try to take a picture of Jackson it goes like this.

I'm not sure if I'm the popular one or my camera is. Four is pretty much the max number of pictures I can take before he 'gets' me. And, of course, he thinks he's hilarious. So do I. Screw the well focused, properly lit pictures. . .I'll take a happy baby over a good picture anyday.

July Family Pictures

I had originally planned on wearing these shirts for the 4th of July holiday. What better day is there to sport the classic year-branded Old Navy American flag shirt?

However we spent our first Fourth of July as a family of three hopping from Germany through Austria and Slovenia to Croatia, remember? I wanted to make sure we got some family pictures though because we are Americans, through and through. Sometimes painfully obviously to our European counterparts, but that's ok because I'm proud to be me, proud to be us. Proud to wear blue jeans and t-shirts.

 

 

The best part of these pictures. . . because I'm assuming you haven't noticed the big 'ol wet spot on the front of Jackson's jeans? Go ahead, look back. Jackson is growing so fast the only jeans I have for him are beyond tight. The only way I could get them on was to have him 'go commando'. Yeah, sans diaper. I mean I thought he could make it through the 15 minutes of pictures without whizzing all over.

Oh, how I was wrong. BUT I found it hilarious- Andy, not so much. I think he was just afraid of getting peed on. Me? I'm used to it.

Parsberg Metro: Take Two

Another day trip in the Parsberg Metro Area. This time we headed north. The König-Otto-Tropfsteinhöhle (höhle = caves) are located just outside of Velburg.

Our story with the caves. Apparently the cave tours are only at certain times. We arrived late but didn't realize it. We bought our tickets in broken German and he told us back in broken English that we were to follow him. We did and after going 100m or so we came to a door. The man unlocked it and sent us down into a dark entrance with a reassurance that our 'guide' was in there and we would find him, locking the door behind us. Uh. Scary.

Our guide WAS in there, and was very accommodating to our lack of language skills. He was constantly miming and trying to explain things to us. We mostly nodded along but sometimes we understood what he was saying. Like this frog-shaped stalagmite (on the left). See it? And the bones of what we understood to be an enormous bear (on the right). I swear he said something like 9 meters. Yes, I realize that is like 30 feet. Maybe my German isn't as good as I thought...

After visiting the Postojna caves, which were ENORMOUS, these caves were neat, but without the grandeur of the larger ones in Slovenia. It was nice and cool in these caves as well, again a welcome break from the heat.

(Have I mentioned I love my Ergo?)

Any day trip is better with an outdoor lunch with friends!