What have I gotten myself into?
Two days ago my son managed to get around one heck of a lot more. First off, instead of going backwards while crawling, he now tries to go forward. He also scoots around on his butt when no one is looking. Secondly, he can pull himself up to standing now. Lastly, he loves to walk with support now too. All of that in one day! It had me shaking my head and feeling a tad overwhelmed the other day.
Now I am embracing it. I love that he wants to get around more. I’m sure there will be a time he’d stop, but it makes me happy that he’s excelling so well. Yesterday while I ate lunch, I sat him on the couch next to me while I ate my cottage cheese and apple sauce. I fed him a little bit here and there. When he thought I wasn’t giving him enough, he reached for the bowl, pulled himself up, and got his fingers in my bowl. 
Oh and before that, I sat him on the floor a foot and a half away from the couch thinking he’d stay there and sit while I made my lunch in the kitchen. Nope, when I came out of the kitchen I saw him standing up against the couch with the silliest smile upon his face. I loved it!
*hugs*
~Jen
Brigade Ball
For the first time in two years, Bry and I went to a military ball. I was a little unsure about it because I figured we wouldn’t know anyone there and I was dreading my 4.5 inch heels. Despite how tall they made me, I still fell short of Bry’s height…grr.
After an hour and a half of getting my hair curled, twisted, braided, and pinned, I was near ready to go. I just had to get home speedily and get into my baby blue satin gown and those killer heels. Thank goodness I did my makeup before I got my hair done. Our taxi showed up 25 minutes early and the babysitter came right in time. Quite awesome if ya ask me. Bry looked quite snazzy in his Class A uniform with all of his shineys.
Bry definately brought out his gentleman side last night and I loved every moment of it. There was a great delay from the very start. Apparently there was an accident on the autobahn (later we found out there were 3) and it held up the receiving line being that the people that were supposed to be in it we stuck in traffic, behind those three accidents. After an hour of standing around and waiting, they decided to get everyone into the dining room and we’d pass up the meet and greet.
Sure there was the boring speeches that went on but they didn’t last all that long. We did get to feast upon chicken breast in a tomato cream sauce, pork in mushroom sauce, pasta, spinach lasagna, herbed baby potatoes in olive oil, tiramisu, tons of salads, parma ham, and so much more. Yes, it was a buffet to my disappointment but I still enjoyed it. When you think of formal events, you’d think you’d be served your food, it’s ok though.
Oh and it turns out we were at a table with three coulples we know and it was nice getting to know them more. We even met another couple and they gave us a ride home instead of us paying another 21 Euro cab fare. We did enjoy some pretty good wine. I had a Pinot Grigio and a Riesling (my fav!). They also had a Cabernet, but that was sipped down so fast by everyone else, I only got to try a sip of Bry’s.
After the dining and seeing a slide show of pictures, we got to ditch the formal part of the evening and dance a bit. There was a lot of rap to my dismay and it took two times of requesting a slow song for it to finally happen. We just danced along to the rap to pass the time away until we could get a little more romantic. We danced to, “You look wonderful tonight” and Bry sang it to me as we danced. I felt like a princess! Silly to say, but I did. The compliments from everyone I came across, my husband, the dance, the singing…it was magical to me. It was like falling in love all over again, not that I ever fell out of it.
So today I sit here wishing I could upload photos, but my printer is being rather tempermental. I might get desperate and use Bry’s computer and use my USB stick to transfer the pics to my comp. When I do get to have them uploaded, you betcha I will post them.
And, yes, my feet still hurt from last night. I never want to wear those sexy silver heels again.
*hugs*
~Jen
Finding more to do
As most of you know, I am now active in the church choir. I’m thrilled to be a part of it. Well, Saturday we had a going away dinner for one of our memebers. Father Victor decided that I should take her place as cantor. I was rather stunned by this. I mentioned that I need a lot of practice before I’m comfortable standing up there and singing solo. It’s been since my Junior year of HS since I’ve had to solo at all. Even then I found it nerve racking. I told Bry yesterday before church that if Father has faith in me, I need to have faith in me. So, tonight at practice, I will give it a shot. We will see how I do I guess.
I am now also going to be “hostess” for RCIA (Right now my brain can’t grasp what the acronym is, but it’s what I went to to learn about the Catholic faith). My duty will be to serve snacks and set up the table with the crucifix and candle. Easy peasy and it’s just the sort of thing I love to do. So, if any of you have snack recipes, pass them on, please! Mind you, the parish only shops every 3 months, so fresh stuff is kinda out unless I usually have it on hand.
The cross stitch for my sis-in-law’s future kiddo is not going so well. I’m finding it boring (only about 12 colors, I like working with 40) and I have messed up quite a bit…so far back that I can’t even fix it unless I just start completely over. I’d rather just buy her a new kit (I also don’t like working with kits) and send it back with an appology. But dare I do that to a woman who has quite a bit of hormones surging through her as she approaches her last month of pregnancy? I dunno…
*hugs*
~Jen
George is home!
No, not the George 2 and George 3 but the real George! We went on a walk today and out of the corner of my eye I spotted a grill and on the side of it lay George. I looked at Bry and asked, “Babe, is that George?” He went over for closer inspection. Indeed, it was the one, the only, George. The one horn sucked longer than the other, the tag that was mostly torn off but a strand of thread hanging there. When we got home Bry showed it to John and he had such a huge smile on his face. In the morning George shall have a bath and then he can return into the arms of the little boy that loves him so much!
*hugs*
~Jen
P.S. G2 and 3 are in the mail now.
A mix
Last night, four hours into sleep, John decided to wake up. After several attempts in a two hour period, we had, had it. We even did the let him cry in the crib for a while thing and that really didn’t work for long. He cried it out, woke up and screamed again 15 minutes later. Bry decided to sleep on the couch so I brought John into our bed where within 30 seconds he was passed out on my chest so I rolled him onto his back on our bed. Despite it being a frustrating time for the whole family, the sweetest thing happend twice through the whole ordeal. In two different attempts to have him sleep on my chest and then lay him back in his crib, he laughed in his sleep, the type of laugh he gives when he’s being tickled. Too friggen cute. Needless to say, we all slept a bit better after the new arrangement. I just hope it does not become a habit. Usually he only snoozes with me when Bry’s pulling a 24 hour shift.
In another part of the day…driving + bad German drivers = very irritated me. Bry decided to carpool today and leave me the car. Which was nice since I needed to get out to MZ Kastel to get a b-day present for a friend’s kid. I really shouldn’t have gone out today…seriously. First off, despite me going the speed limit or about 5km/h faster than the limit, I got tail gated to and from my destination. While leaving there, two lanes merge into one. The left lane (the one I was in) merges to the right. Germans have a nice zipper rule that they sometimes follow. Today happend to be the day when the person behind me on the right decided to not follow that rule (mind you, she also toyed with me, slowed down first and then sped up rather quickly to cut me off at the end of the friggen merge). I held back my finger and I held back blasting my horn. Then about two exits away from where I was going to get off I get behind some slow trucks and signal that I want over to the left, I look behind and all is clear. This nice black car was far enough back that I could get over. Soon as I start to move over, hello black car, you almost hit my side! I had to swerve to the right and just take some deep breaths knowing my exit was soon. I endured being behind the slow moving trucks because it just seemed safe at the moment…and it was. I’m considering vowing to never drive here again. C’mon, we had an accident (wasn’t our fault either, whole other rant entirely) this time last year. I’d rather not have another one.
May the rest of the day got a bit more smoothly. It’ll be busy but it’ll keep me from fuming even more.
*hugs*
~Jen
Yay, flowers!
Well, for the past few days I have been working on getting a flower garden started outside our stairwell. It is finally done! It’s all fenced in so the gardeners won’t weedwack them this year. We only bought a few flowers, the rest are the free ones from self help. I’m quite content with our snapdragons, our fairy looking flowers (forgive me, I do not know their names), and marigolds.
Yesterday, I get home from RCIA to find a note planted on our door about housing cleanup…that someone from every household has to be out there at 9am. Well, Bry had Staff Duty last night, today is his day off. So I called our Building Coordinator to let him know what’s going on. He said that someone still has to be out there. John’s managed to time things to where he’ll have his nap here in about a half hour so I can’t be out there at 9am. My hubby needs his sleep and I did the garden as our share. It’s only us and one other family in the stairwell so I don’t see what the big deal is. I guess we’ll see how it plays out when Bry gets home. I will get photos up of the garden soon.
*hugs*
~Jen
When one goes on walks, one is bound to lose things.
Saturday Bry and I went out for a walk and when we got home John’s favorite blanket went poof. Bry drove around where we walked 4 times and no luck. Maybe his Oma and G-pa can get him a new one since they were the ones that got it for him. Poor Classic Pooh Bear blanket.
Then today I went to the store and when I got halfway up the hill from there I noticed George the Giraffe was gone. It was another one of John’s favorites. Being that the sucker is $16.50, he won’t be getting a replacement one. John will have to find a new replacement.
I’m not too worried about it. He’s got tons of other toys and blankets. It just sucks when the ones your kiddo and you love most disappear.
On another note, I caught two boys playing in a construction zone on Virginia and kindly asked them to not play there so they wouldn’t get hurt. One asked me if I had a daughter because she said that she hoped he got hurt and died because he was playing there. Apparently this girl looks just like me. Frankly, I think I’m too young to have two kids. Anyway, I reminded them to not play there and went off to the store. On the way I found an MP, so hopefully those kiddos won’t play there anymore.
*hugs*
~Jen
First date since baby came
Yeah, you read correctly, for the first time, in what Bry and I narrowed down to about a year, we went on a date. I was anti movie my last trimester due to needing to pee every 15 minutes. We were long over due for some alone time. It felt strange not carrying/pushing a baby along with us, but it was really nice after a while. We were out for four hours, the longest either of us have spent away from him. His longest time in care with someone other than Bry or I has been one hour when we’re at church.
We went to see The Spiderwick Chronicles. I loved it! My favorite character was the lil’ brownie who hulkifies in an instant, but calms on down with a bottle of honey. Too cute! And of course, I loved the fairies. 
Bry and I want to get the books. Our bookstore only has the 5th one.
After the movie we went to the mall and Bry bought me chocolates. Yay Hussel! Since we were already in the downtown area I suggested we try to find an Italian place I know I saw before on Rhine Main Strasse. Granted, that was about two years ago I saw it there…it’s not there anymore. It was supposed to be a pizza date because I got him Valentine’s Scratchcards and that was one particular thing he won. Instead, we decided to try out Asia Family for their Sushi. It all tasted lovely, but most of my Sushi fell apart. For that reason alone, I like Sushi World better. I even relaxed a lil’ more at dinner thanks to a Tequila Sunrise. I kinda wanted to try a Sex on the Beach but I likes me my tequila better than vodka.
When we got home John was screamin’ his lil’ head off. The sitter thought he was too hot and started stripping him down. I asked how he ate and he barely ate with her, like a half ounce, so I had Bry make a 9 ouncer. John’s never had that much before in one feeding and he sucked it down in 5 minutes flat. He was in a better mood after that.
We want to make going out a once a month thing. Hopefully, we can go out twice this month. At the end of the month is the Brigade Ball, that’s if we can get tickets…I hope so. I have a nice dress and shoes picked out on Amazon, cheap too. John’s Godmother will be watching him then.
*hugs*
~Jen
