Wordless Wednesday

Meeting Cookie Monster

Cookie Monster

Today at the community center on base Cookie Monster was making an appearance. I took Colin because I thought he would have fun. When we got there at 5:30 Cookie Monster still had about 30 minutes before he would arrive. Colin played and had a blast with all the kid stuff they had out. There were bouncy houses, hula hoops, balls, basketball and lots of other stuff out. Colin took a real interest in the microphone when the old lady was letting everyone know when Cookie would be arriving. He saw her talking and insisted that he sing on the mic. I tried to explain he couldn't have it, but the old lady overheard and said sure why not. She turned down the music and announced that someone wanted to sing (gasp!) and handed the mic to Colin. He got a tad bit of stage fright but finally decided to sit down on stage next to her and squeak out a few lalalas. Once he had a chance to hold the mic for a few minutes it had lost its charm and he was off bouncing around again. He ping ponged around the room at least a dozen times and then it was finally time for Cookie Monster. He was so excited when he saw him and waved frantically. He would get a few feet away from Cookie but no matter how many other kids went up and hugged him Colin would not. He kept a careful distance for a while and then waved goodbye and ran off to play again. He had a great time and talked about Cookie the whole way home.

Happy Easter!

After such a long day yesterday I had hoped the boy would sleep in...no luck. When he woke me up just before 7 I tried explaining it was still night time and the Easter Bunny had not come yet and we needed to go back to bed. He wasn't buying that. Urgh...awake for good.

Here he is discovering his basket...


He quickly went digging into his basket. He was very excited about his new flashlight and books and of course, all the candy. Before polishing off two cinnamon rolls for breakfast he ate an entire Pez rabbit full of candy, two Reeses eggs, 2 Peeps and a marshmallow rope...should make for a great, bouncing off the walls, kind of day!

Easter Sunday

Easter Saturday

Easter Saturday

Whew what a long day! I just don't get why my child insists I don't need sleep. Weekdays I have to get up at 5 and I drag him out of bed whining and fussing about 6:30 and he is so out of it when I go to wake him. On weekends however, it's a whole different story. This morning at 5:55 he was wide awake and my hopes of sleeping in had gone down the drain. After getting up and getting ready we went to a squadron Easter egg hunt/brunch. Colin had a blast, he bounced in the bouncy castle for two solid hours. He ate a little bit of breakfast goodness and a whole lot of chocolate and candy. He got the whole egg hunt thing really well this year and ran all over. He waited until he had several eggs in his basket and then decided to snack on some of the candy inside.

After the egg hunt we went to the base community center to see the Easter Bunny. I wondered how this would go because Santa was still pretty scary last year. He would inch close enough to snatch candy from Santa's hand and then take off. Well the Easter Bunny visit went pretty well despite the community center has no air conditioning and it was almost 80 degrees outside and at least 95 inside. I felt horrible for the poor person inside the costume. After an hour of standing in line we got a decent picture and then I sat in on one, since Shelby was deployed the camera man thought it would be nice. I was so glad to be out of there!

We spent the afternoon at the next door neighbor’s house so Colin could play with his friend. We ended up staying for dinner too and didn't get home until about 8:00! We still had to dye eggs and take a bath so I knew it was going to be a late night. Colin did well dying eggs, he was interested but it went fast so he didn't have time to make too big a mess. When we were done I told him we had to put them out for the Easter Bunny so he could hide them in our yard. Colin got very mad about that and told me no, the bunny could not have his pretty eggs. That eggs do not go outside! LOL At this point I just said ok and talked him into going upstairs to take a bath.

He finally went to bed about 9:30 and then I got to work making is Easter basket. I decided when I bought goodies that since he really doesn't need to be eating a ton of candy that I would buy a few sweets and then put some toys in there instead. Then Shelby went a little nuts on Amazon ordering books and movies and bubble guns. Then, I kept buying stuff every time I went into a store and saw something good. Then grandma sent some more candy and goodies. Then the babysitter sent home a big bag of chocolate stuff....and now the basket is huge, full of candy AND toys, and totally over the top. Oh well...he's too little to remember this every year and expect the same next time around.

**Side note, pollen...OMG! Horrible!!! There is a layer on everything. I washed my car last night and this morning it was totally covered in yellow again. My sidewalk looks yellow and my back patio balcony tile now has yellow grout that is filled with pollen. I definitely do not remember it being this bad last year. My eyes itch like mad all the time and Colin's nose will run if he's outside in it a lot. I can't wait for the pollen to be gone!

Wordless Wednesday

Counting Down

Shelby made a paper chain for Colin to count down the days until he comes home. He mailed it here to us and we got it all hung up. I explained to Colin that every day we take a link off the chain and when the links are all gone is when Daddy comes home. I think he understood it as much as his little two year old brain could possibly understand. I think as the days go by and we take more and more off the chain he will understand it more.

Spring Break Finale

Garmisch Finale

Thursday it was still pretty cold outside but at least the rain had moved on and there were just some clouds left behind. Colin and I slept in until after 8 again...I am getting soooo used to this! When we did get up and going we decided to head to downtown Garmisch and wander around there for a while. There is a large garden park in the middle of downtown which I thought Colin would enjoy running around. He was thrilled to discover there was a stream running through the park and collected rocks until his jacket pockets couldn't hold anymore. Then he filled my jacket pockets with rocks too and insisted I hold what wouldn't fit into either of our pockets...heaven forbid we leave rocks behind! We walked around the park twice before it got pretty cold and so we headed back out to the pedestrian strip to find a place to eat lunch. Colin wanted pizza, surprise surprise, so we went to a nice Italian place for some real pizza. I was really glad I ordered a salad for me because if I'd have planned to share my pizza with Colin I would have gone hungry. He ate FOUR pieces of pizza! Big ones too, these were not skimpy pieces!

After lunch I drove over to a village nearby called Grainau. The last time we were there was last summer when Shelby's family was here to visit. We hiked to Höllentalklamm which is in Grainau. When we were there last I remembered there being tons of cows with big cow bells around their necks in the field next to the parking area and I was hoping they would be out again so Colin could see them. We didn't find any cows but we did see some sheep on our walk. Colin rode his toddler bike while I walked and we went for a good long way on one of the walking trails through the forest there. He had a ball and on the way back to my car he said "Mommy you tired?" I said "A little bit, are you tired?" His reply was "Yes, Colin reeeeeeeeal tired, Mommy." Mission accomplished son!

Spring Break - Tues & Wed

Bike riding in the Alps

Well in typical German springtime fashion the weather changed just like that. After two days of beautiful warm, sunny weather, overnight rain came in and it got cooler. Tuesday morning we woke up and it was cooler, windy and drizzling most of the day. We didn't mind and headed out for a bike ride anyway. We wandered the walking/bike paths for what felt like miles and enjoyed the countryside. Colin visited with some sheep and horses in the fields and enjoyed riding and splashing in the abundant puddles. I quickly learned not to walk too close to him if I didn't want to be splashed...rain boots are a wonderful thing! Around lunch time we headed back to the hotel and apparently it was perfect timing. When we headed into the hotel it was just the drizzle it had been all morning, but by the time we made it back to our room it had turned into a decent rain shower. I'm so glad we made it back before we got totally soaked!

As if Tuesday's weather wasn't crazy enough, Wednesday morning we woke up to snow! The ground down here in the valley was not frozen, so nothing was really sticking, but you could see a good amount on all the mountains around. It flurried pretty much the entire day with random periods of heavier snow and then sunshine. Wednesday morning I was treated to a nice spa day courtesy of Shelby. He had called the hotel earlier in the week and made me a reservation for a facial and a massage and surprised me with the news. I arranged for a babysitter that morning and was very excited about my child-free relaxing morning. The facial was great but the massage was the best. I chose a hot stone massage, which I had never had before...awesome! I am hooked on those now! In between treatments I was able to enjoy a child free lunch too...had a delicious soup and salad without any little fingers poking at my food or having to remind a certain someone 200 times to "sit on your butt and eat!"

Wednesday afternoon Colin and I bundled up and headed out in the cold to play. We went to the playground for a while where Colin found some kids to play with. I love how he is so innocent and clueless as to what is going on. The kids, which ranged in age from 6-15 were playing tag and Colin had no clue at all what was happening but joined right in and ran and screamed with them as if he was part of the game. Thankfully the kids didn't mind him in the way and let him have his fun "playing" with them. Later on Colin and I kicked the ball around and played some games outside before coming back in to warm up. While we were outside the weather was so strange. It went from flurries, to sunshine, then flurries again, and then big, chunky flakes blowing and falling fast in a decent snow shower, and then ten minutes later the sun was out bright as could be. Not even ten minutes after that it was cloudy and flurrying again! After dinner Colin and I relaxed in the pool for a little while and hit the hot tub. We have been in the hot tub before, but always during the day. Last night we went in right as it had turned dark and Colin thought that was pretty cool. The hot tub is outside and since it was very cold there was lots of steam coming off the water and it was lit up underwater. He got so excited about it being dark outside. After the pool we got some ice cream and came back to the room to watch a movie. He didn't last but a few minutes before he fell asleep in my bed, while eating ice cream and watching the movie...I guess I successfully wore him out today!

Wordless Wednesday

Spring Break!

Plansee and Linderhof Palace

I really wanted to head to the States for a couple weeks this spring, but my new job took care of any extended vacation time I was planning to take off. So I had to make new plans...I really, really wanted to head to the beach for Spring Break. I found insanely cheap airline tickets and discounts on amazing hotels in Mallorca, an island off Spain. Then I realized the weather was warm enough to sunbathe and hang out on the beach, but it wasn't warm enough to really go in the water just yet. Which was fine with me, however you just don't take a two year old to the beach for the first time ever and tell him to stay out of the water. So I had to toss that idea and come up with a new one. I contemplated Amsterdam, because ever since I found I out we were moving to Germany I have wanted to go to Keukenhof and see the tulips. But, Amsterdam just didn't sound all that exciting without Shelby around, and I know the photo opportunities will be endless at that place and I cannot watch Colin and focus on photography at the same time. Scrapped that one too. Finally I decided to go with old faithful, Garmisch. It never disappoints and is one of my favorite places in the world.

The drive over should only take 4 - 4.5 hours. Throw a Colin into the mix and it should take about 5-6 hours. An hour into the trip I'd heard "There's a snake in my boot!" at least 250 times and I had to pull over and remove Colin's very stuck finger from his Woody pull string ring (thank God for lotion in my purse!). I was thinking this could be a looong day. Turns out I had NO idea! The Autobahn was shut down in a section for tunnel repairs (welcome to spring and road construction season in Germany) and it created a HUGE stau (German traffic jam) while traffic had to exit the Autobahn and detour through villages. It was some detour and traffic was stopped like a parking lot for 9 kilometers before you even got to the point where we had to exit! We sat on the highway for almost 5 hours. Colin was a trooper, he didn't nap AT ALL, and only mildly complained and cried. Hey, I wanted to cry too so I can't blame the kid! We walked around and counted cars, blew bubbles, waved and said hello to every person willing to look his direction, talked to some truck drivers about their big trucks and who knows what else to pass the time. Every hour or so we'd get to hop in the car and creep forward a few meters and Colin would sit on my lap and "drive" thinking he was the coolest kid ever. By the time we made it through the stau and the detour we had been in the car for 9 hours and both of us were beat. We were only an hour and a half away from Garmisch, but decided to call it a night and stop somewhere. The iphone proved handy again as I went to booking.com and found us a great little Gastehaus and reserved us a room.

FINALLY Sunday morning we made it to Garmisch. We drove in the long way through Austria since it was early and spent a while at the Plansee. It was warm but a little windy and the water was still ICE cold. We sat on the beach and threw rocks in the water for over an hour. Colin could do this for days on end I am pretty sure. He had a blast tossing rocks in the water and putting his feet in. He got a little too brave though and took a tumble and fell in the water. He was soaked and cold and I of course was snapping pictures, so this didn't help his mood so much. I wrapped him up in our beach blanket and we headed to the car to change clothes and then went off to find some lunch. He was very upset about leaving the lake and cried even though I promised we'd go to more lakes in Garmisch.

We stopped by Linderhof Palace to enjoy some lunch overlooking the beautiful palace grounds and then walked all over the trails there. Colin loved the swans and ducks and tried to feed them rocks, he was so disappointed they weren't eating them and some kind person shared her bread with Colin so he could stop tormenting ducks with rocks. We walked and walked and walked all over the place and Colin had a BLAST in the forest... Collecting rocks, checking out bugs, gathering pine cones, throwing rocks in the water and admiring the castles. After that it was finally time to head to the hotel and check in. I had promised him swimming and he must have asked a hundred times on the trip when we were going to the pool. The night before when we had to unexpectedly stop and spend the night he was very upset because I told him we could swim at the hotel. Of course when I said this I assumed we'd made it all the way to the hotel in Garmisch....so as soon as we got to the Gastehaus he asked "where pool Mommy?" Oooops. When we got to Edelweiss he recognized it and knew we'd go swimming and I had told him yes we would. Until I discovered that the pack of swim diapers I had packed had been removed AGAIN by him and didn't make it to the hotel. Uh-oh. I had packed them three times while getting stuff ready for the trip and he kept taking them out because he was excited about swimming. He must have pulled them out again when I didn't notice and now we didn't have any. The commissary and BX were already closed for the night and being it was Sunday...all the German stores are closed all day. Thank goodness there was ONE left for sale in the gift shop and it was close enough to his size I could squeeze him in it. Damn thing was THREE dollars for ONE diaper! I suppose three bucks is worth avoiding the meltdown that would have occurred had I tried to explain to him he couldn't swim for a second night in a row.

We didn't make it to bed until almost 11pm and he hadn't napped in two days...he was one tired, but happy, little boy. Day 1 = success!

Wordless Wednesday

Finally the Dino Park is Open!

Gartenschau Opening 2011

April 1st the Gartenschau in Kaiserslautern opened for the season and Colin and I couldn't have been more excited. Yesterday the sun was shining, it got up to (gasp!) 70 degrees and, dare I say it, it was HOT! It was a perfect beautiful day so we packed a picnic lunch and headed to the park to buy our season pass, because we will spend a lot of time there this season before they close the doors again on October 31st. Colin was excited about seeing all the dinosaurs and playing on the numerous playgrounds. Of course the biggest hit was the sand area, I hate sand! But, Colin loves it so he played there digging and dumping for a long time.

There is a huge play area with a GIANT tower that has probably 100 stairs to climb to reach the top and there are about 5 different slides coming off it at various heights. Colin of course went straight for the top and I thought surely he won't come down, he'll get up there and chicken out like usual...he can be a little scared when it comes to slides. Apparently that fear is history because he sailed down the slide squealing and laughing all the way and when he shot out the end I think a few German moms choked on their seltzer water. He was a little small for it probably, but he loved it and as soon as he got off it he ran up and did it again, and again, and again. He spent a good 30+ minutes climbing stairs and sliding down the huge slide.

We ate lunch and watched kids play, did a little swinging and some rock climbing and after a few hours it was time to head back home so we could go to a party at the neighbor's house. Before we left we bought some ice cream at the park, which Colin was very excited about. The eis stand in our village just opened up a weekend or two ago and we've only been over there for a visit once, so ice cream is still a big novelty so far this season.

The Gartenschau is a big garden park that also has a ton of playgrounds, dinosaur exhibits and water/creeks to play in. It would be a great park even without the flowers, but the flower displays are fantastic. The grounds are beautiful and there is also a big indoor exhibition hall that they change out the displays in seasonally. Right now it is all done up for Easter and it was really pretty with all the bulbs and springtime flowers, Easter eggs and rabbits. The Germans are really big on Easter, in fact the Easter Bunny idea originated here and decorating eggs and all is popular here. Most German homes have an Oster Baum, or Easter tree, in their home that is decorated with eggs. I loved the ones in the garden hall exhibit, so pretty! I would have liked to have snapped some more pictures, but Colin was far more interested in getting outside to the dinosaurs than he was in the Easter decorations. Oh well...