Heidelberg

Since our husbands are in the field, the girls and I decided to keep ourselves busy for the next three weeks! I had never been to Heidelberg, and when I discovered it was a short two hours away from where we live, I proposed a day trip to the ladies. So last Thursday Misty, Kelly, Jenn & Addie, Hayden and I packed it up for a road trip! We carpooled and double checked for sunscreen, filled up with gas and hit the road around 8:30. We made good time, stopping once for an autobahn catch-up and feeding, and found the parking deck we wanted pretty easily. We vetoed the strollers since the main attraction in Heidelberg is the castle and we figured it wouldn't be stroller-friendly. Jenn and I strapped our babies into their front carriers and headed towards the castle. Unbeknownst to us, it was a grueling 303 steps to the entrance! But we'd come too far to let a thing like that stop us, and pushed on through it. We couldn't have asked for better weather, or a better group to be with!

We made it up to the top, stopped for a pretzel and a drink, and walked into the castle courtyard. We bought a small guidebook, vetoed the guided tour and checked it out on our own. We enjoyed the views of the city and the famous "old bridge" and did our best to read the signs in German. We went in search of the "great tun", a giant wine cask that attracts many visitors every year. We walked in and saw a huge barrel-like structure, and were impressed with its size. We had a nice waitress take our picture and continued our self-guided tour of the castle grounds. There was the german Apothecary Museum, the fountains and terraces, beautiful ruins and amazing views. It turned out to be an amazing city!

A little while later we headed back inside to share a glass of wine and feed the babies. Misty walked around for a few minutes and came back to report that what we THOUGHT was the great tun was, in fact, not the great tun. We walked into another room and were stunned at the sheer size of this wine cask. Constructed in 1751, it holds 58,000 gallons of wine and was made from 130 tree trunks. It's hard to convey the actual size of it, but it's 8.5 meters wide and 7 meters high and has a full size dance floor on its top. It is MASSIVE and we laughed all day about the "small one", which was still pretty big!

We vetoed a tour of the inside of the castle, which was an hour long and not baby friendly. We walked all around the gardens and enjoyed the beautiful weather. The babies did really well, dozing off here and there but overall they enjoyed the day too! There's an Army post in Heidelberg, so we made our way to the food court and checked out the PX. Since Misty, Jenn and Kelly are all my scrapbooking friends, we decided a visit to their craft store was in order. We were on our way to the other post to check it out, when Misty called. They had been in a fender bender, which was extremely unfortunate since Misty's car was less than a week old! They got rear ended at a stoplight, which put a damper on the trip. After two hours, the baby car had to head home, and Jenn and Misty were fine but didn't get to leave until almost 10pm! Jenn, the babies and I got home around 10pm, let Misty's dog out and made our way to our respective houses. After a full day of traveling, Hayden and I both were pretty worn out. Four hours with a 17-lb baby strapped to your chest plus driving four hours round trip will do that to you!

Aside from the unfortunate accident, we had a blast on our road trip and can't wait to go somewhere new! We have two more trips in the works for May, I'll let you know how they turn out!

Happy Mothers Day!

What a fabulous day we've had already! Last week Jay surprised me with an early gift, since he'd be in the field. I had an adorable framed picture of me and Hayden from the states and a cute card from Hayden, so my Mothers Day started early!

Today we slept in a little and relaxed around the house. At noon we picked up Jenn and Addie and headed to Wurzburg to our favorite Thai place, Rainbow Garden. We had a fabulous lunch and enjoyed being moms with our sweet babies. We took the scenic route home (on purpose!) to enjoy some of Germany's beautiful countryside and then stopped at our favorite antique store in the town we live in. We picked up a few things for some friends and then headed back to Jenn's. We took a few pictures of the babies in their sweet spring outfits, but it was too bright for Hayden's light blue eyes, so that didn't last long. The babies had a good time touching and pulling on the grass, and even dodged a few bugs.

Now we're back home and enjoying this beautiful day. Hayden is napping and I'm getting some scrapbooking done. I feel so lucky to be a mother and to have this beautiful son whose smile melts my heart. I hope all the mothers out there are enjoying their day!

Hayden's first veggies!

Once we were back home and settled we decided to start Hayden on his first veggies! We got out the high chair, the bibs, the baby spoons, the baby wipes, stage one veggies and baby bowls. I decided since green beans are both mine and Jay's favorite we'd try those. Since it's what I ate most of while pregnant and breastfeeding, I figured it would be the one he might recognize most. We were pleasantly surprised that Hayden not only gobbled them up, but seemed to digest them just fine! We let him play with the spoon a little and he managed to get it in his mouth most of the time.

We did green beans for three days to make sure he didn't have any problems with them, and then moved on to green peas. He ate them but definitely didn't care for them as much as the green beans. Just like mommy and daddy! After a few days of those we tried out squash today and he seemed to really enjoy those. We'll see how they go! Thanks to the green veggies we had our first "green diaper" a few days into the process.

We also decided to start weaning him from breastfeeding to formula, and he's doing very well with that. It's a long process, for both of our bodies, but we're taking it slowly and it's going fine. After we test out all the veggies we'll move on to try oatmeal (we vetoed rice cereal) and fruits. Our little buddy is growing up!

Hayden is getting very good at pushing up on all fours, rocking back and forth and moving around. He's scooting, usually backwards, and has had a little bit of forward movement. He's not quite to crawling yet but he's close! He also loves his new jumperoo, and has a blast with all the lights and music and things to play with. The weather has been nice, so we got to take a few walks with Oscar in the field, where everything is in bloom. Unfortunately the bugs are out too, which means ticks for Oscar and mosquitoes for me. Luckily Jay and Hayden both escaped any little critters.

Jay's graduation

Two days after we got back, we packed up one more time and headed to Grafenwohr, which is about two hours away. Jay completed his 30-day class and we wanted to see his graduation and bring him back with us. We headed down with Jenn and Addie following us and made it there just in time to park and head in. Jay made the Commandant's List for his performance, and we're so proud of him!

The graduation only lasted about an hour, and we were finally back together after a long month apart. Hayden immediately recognized daddy and was definitely glad to have him back. We grabbed some lunch, did some shopping and headed back to Schweinfurt to enjoy the four-day weekend together before Jay left again on Tuesday. He's doing field training and will be back in about three weeks. Don't worry: we have plenty to keep us busy until then!

Our visit to the states: Week Two

Monday morning we were able to sleep in and relax a little at Katie's house, repack the suitcases and car and get organized. It turned out to be a day full of babies! We met Jessica and Adam for lunch at Panera in Clemmons and had a good time catching up and introducing the babies. After lunch Hayden and I headed further into Clemmons to see Jen and her babies, Bryson and brand new Leah. We had a great time with all the little ones, and I haven't seen Jen since she was pregnant with Bryson so it was a much needed visit! Then we headed to Charlotte where we met Ashmac for a quick coffee at Starbucks. We headed to dinner with Watts, Elisabeth, Bryan and baby Camden. Hayden and Camden have a lot of mutual friends and almost-family, so it was great to finally get them together. We had a fun dinner on a beautiful evening in Charlotte, and then it was time for the hospital!

Stephie gave birth a whole four weeks early, so we were able to meet baby Lily! We hung out at the hospital with less-than-a-day-old Lily and her very proud parents. Everyone always says "Oh I can't remember when my baby was this small", but for me Hayden was never so small! She was just over six pounds and Hayden was almost 8 and a half pounds, so she's the smallest baby I've ever held. We talked babies and nursing and labor and daddies, and are so glad Lily came early to meet us! Monday night we spent the night with Watts and caught up on old friends and new adventures.

Tuesday morning we headed back to Greensboro to see more family. I picked up my mom and we grabbed take-out from Mayflower so I could have their chicken tenders, and we headed to my aunt Carrie's house. Hayden got to meet his other great-grandmother, two of my aunts, one of my uncles, cousins, second cousins and two more feisty dogs. We had a blast with the Cecils and Martins, and even had some good American pizza.

On Wednesday we did some shopping (finally!) and stopped by Cook-Out in High Point to meet Bre for a milkshake (banana pineapple for me, my fave!). We headed to Eric's to spend the night after picking up some things for Jay at Best Buy. Ryan and Zoe had a good time playing with Hayden and even Oz got in on the action a little. We had Krispy Kreme doughtnuts and Chinese food, two of the must-haves on my list. We got up early on Thursday to stop by my parents' house before we headed to Virginia. We made pretty good time on the ride to Virginia, and survived the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnels. We got to Mel and Carol's house where Hayden met his other grandparents, Aunt Marcie, Jenny and his cousin Shawn. We had lots of fun trying to get all three kids to pose for pictures and some of them came out really well.

Friday we went shopping at the outlets and Hayden got a ton of clothes and toys from his grandparents. Luckily there was a post office right next door to Carter's so we were able to ship them straight to Germany. Our suitcases were already overflowing! We had steak & seafood for dinner; I couldn't leave without at least one crabcake from somewhere that's actually close to the water! On Saturday we had a barbeque and Hayden met his Nan, more of Jay's cousins and uncle Kevin. Jenny was very excited to put Hayden in the swing outside and push him, and the sun wore him out as usual. We had so much fun hanging out with everyone and talking about all the fun things we've been doing in Germany.

Sunday came early, since we had to be on the road in the morning. We were out of the house by 7 and on the road, and luckily Hayden slept for most of the ride back. We dropped off most of our stuff at my parents' again, to make the rental car drop easier later. Hayden and I headed to Ham's for lunch, where we met Liz, Dayna and Nick D. He drove all the way from Mississippi through the night on Saturday to see us. He wins the Champ Award from our visit. After lunch we had a little more shopping to do and met Katie at Friendly Center for a Juice Shop smoothie and a visit to a whole section of Friendly I've never even SEEN. I resisted the urge to do LOTS more shopping since we'll hopefully be coming back this summer with Jay. We dropped off the rental car amidst Hayden's loud protests at being back in his car seat yet again.

We finished off our trip at my parents' for the night and headed to the airport around lunchtime on Monday. We stopped off at the post office to mail a few things and pick up boxes, and made it to the airport by 1:20 for my 4:30 pm flight. By 1:35, we were already through security! We enjoyed the rocking chairs at the Charlotte Airport, made a last minute round of goodbye phone calls and settled in at our gate. About an hour before the flight I approached the counter to ask about the bulk head seats with bassinets. They weren't available, so I told him how our last flight had worked out well with an extra seat for us. Since we were on another flight that wasn't at capacity, he was able to give us an entire row of four seats to ourselves. Needless to say, this flight was even easier than the first! The 8.5 hours passed pretty quickly and in no time we were landing in Frankfurt. Our journey ended with our friend James picking us up as soon as we got out of customs, Hayden had been asleep since we landed and slept the whole way home.

Our American adventure was great, and we're so glad we got to see and meet so many people while we were there. Thanks to everyone who made the effort to come out and see us, can't wait to see everyone this summer!

Our visit to the states: Week One

In the interest of space and time, I've divided our trip home into two blogs!

What a fabulous time we had in the states! We started off with a nine and a half hour flight from Frankfurt. We were checked in and waiting long before our flight, and made it through security despite the hurdles of one-handed mommy and Hayden's explosive diaper. Initially we had a window and aisle seat on a 2-4-2 seat plane. After we took off, a nice lady offered to switch with us because she had two empties beside her and that would give Hayden a seat to lay down on. That was a tremendous help! The flight passed by pretty quickly, Hayden was fussy for about 45 minutes of the whole flight but never cried. He only slept about 3 hours of the flight, and of course not all together, but overall it was a great experience for his first flight.

Watts picked us up from the airport and we met my parents at Concord Mills, to avoid some traffic since we came in late afternoon. We headed to the Greensboro airport to pick up our rental (since it was a whopping $250 cheaper there than in CLT) and my dad picked us up Country BBQ sandwiches and hushpuppies for dinner. Our first night was pretty uneventful, as we were exhausted! Tuesday morning we got up and headed to Walmart for a pack-n-play for Hayden to sleep in, and picked up a few things. We went to lunch at Olive Garden with my friend Trinady, after stopping by the Pavilion to show off little Hayden. That night we went to dinner (back to the Pavilion!) with Eric, Erin, Ryan and Zoe but Hayden slept through almost all of it, so he didn't get to see much of his cousins.

Wednesday we headed down to Fuquay to see Mamaw Benson and lots of family on that side. We had a great lunch, spent the night and got back in the car for a little drive back to Greensboro. We did a little shopping, went to visit Salem and my old co-workers and ordered Jay's replacement wedding band (that he lost forever ago). I ran into some old friends by chance in Old Salem, and we had lunch at the Old Salem Tavern and had a great time catching up with other fellow new Salem moms. We made it back to Greensboro in time for a hot dog at Yum Yums with Liz; a stop by Eric's to see the kids; and dinner with Gloria and some more of Jay's family at Outback, who had a blast meeting Hayden. We spent the night with Gloria and as usual, woke up nice and early to start our day!

We added a little surprise to our weekend by meeting my old friend Brandi for lunch. Brandi is an admissions counselor and was in Winston just for the day. She was supposed to meet our mutual friend, Monique, for lunch at the Filling Station but Monique was unable to make it. She called me and had me go in her place, but didn't tell Brandi. Hayden and I arrived first, secured our table and let the host in on the secret. When Brandi came in she was so surprised and excited, and we had a fabulous lunch. Monique was able to join us at the end of lunch and the four of us had a great time.

Friday afternoon we kicked off Reunion Weekend with registration, where Hayden finally got to meet Katie, Melissa, Meigh and lots of my classmates. We headed to the May Dell for Founders Day and were not particularly enjoying the speaker when Hayden decided to go into full-scale babbling. He kept us pretty entertained for the rest of the speech, and we enjoyed the beautiful weather. We met up with some of Those Girls on Clewell Patio, where we also ran into Kathyrn and Graham! It's so much fun to see these babies in person. In all the excitement of seeing everyone, I had forgotten to check into the hotel, so Hayden and I headed over there to check in and settle ourselves before heading out for dinner. We met our friends at La Carretta for enchiladas and stayed as long as Hayden would allow. We went back to the hotel room, and after a few rounds of back-and-forth between myself, the loud kids and their rude parents in the hallway and the front desk, we went to sleep late and had our room taken off our bill for the night. Lizard shared the room with us, and was willing to rough up some pre-teens if necessary.

Saturday came bright and early, one of our busiest days at home. We ate breakfast in the hotel lobby, got dressed for Reunion and headed to Salem for our 10am class picture. There were at least 40 of my classmates (out of our class of about 110) so I was excited to see so many faces I hadn't seen in five years. We shopped a little at the Salem bazaar, talked to old friends and then Liz took some fabulous black and whites of Hayden. We went to lunch in Bryant Hall, where all the classes gave the big reunion checks to Salem and our classmate, Meenal, won the Young Alumnae award. We had our class meeting and got to go back to the hotel for a few hours to relax and let Hayden nap. We went back to the Filling Station for our class dinner and had a blast with my classmates. The food was wonderful of course, and Hayden allowed himself to be passed on and on and on to almost everyone that wanted to hold him. By the end of the night he was definitely ready for some mommy time! The adolescent baseball players had an early Sunday game, so we didn't have the same problems as the night before. We got a much needed night of sleep.

Sunday morning Hayden and I both woke up with a little sniffle but saline pushed us right through it. We checked out of the hotel, packed the car and headed to brunch at Hutch & Harris with a few friends. We had great food and sub-par service, waited until the stroke of noon for our mimosas and had a fun time mostly at Katie's expense. We headed to Salem for some more pictures but Hayden was feeling crappy so we nixed the idea. We got a surprise phone call saying that Stephanie was in a labor a whole four weeks early, which would most certainly change our Monday plans from dinner to a hospital visit! We went to visit Monique at her new house in Clemmons and got to hang out with Mary Hilliard and little Edward, who was just a doll. The babies didn't really do much, but we had a blast talking about pregnancy, labor & delivery, and the merits of adoption. We spent the night with Katie and enjoyed her yellow lab, Emma. It helped me especially, who was missing Oscar terribly.

That concludes week one! Check back soon for week two, surviving jet lag with a baby, and Hayden's first veggies!

We're back!

Hello to our faithful readers! We got back from our whirlwind trip to the states on Tuesday, and have spent the past three days recovering from jet lag. Yesterday we went to Jay's graduation from WLC (Warrior Leaders Course) and I think we are finally getting back to our normal schedule. This weekend I promise to update you all on the fabulous time we had in the states, but for now I have to get our house back in order! Jay is home for the weekend but leaves again on Tuesday for three weeks in the field. It was SO great to see so many of you while we were in the states, Hayden enjoyed meeting all of his family and friends!

Here's one picture to hold you over, taken by my friend Liz during Reunion Weekend at Salem College.