Bulbs and Buttheads

Crocus

We've finally had some nice weather and days where the temps go above freezing. Today is a perfect sunny, gorgeous day. About three days ago I came home from work and noticed a few purple flowers in the yard. Yesterday I came home and noticed there were lots of purple flowers in the yard. By this afternoon my entire front yard is a sea of little purple flowers and when I got up close to inspect them...they are crocus! I can't imagine someone throwing crocus bulbs all over an entire yard, but I can't think of any other way they got there and they are no doubt crocus flowers. Apparently we don't have grass, we have bulbs...who knew!
The bees are thrilled to have some flowers and on the sea of flowers we also have a blanket of bees. I think the only flowers out right now are in our yard and every bee in the county has come to visit. Walking around my yard all you hear is this lull of buzzing going on, very peaceful.

This morning I woke up to bright sunshine beaming in all the windows, birds outside chirping and eating and a squirrel in the plum tree out back. It looked and sounded just like spring. I wish it wasn't only February and it was safe to say it really is spring. Sadly, I know this is just a mean joke by mother nature and we'll be back to freezing in no time. I'm so ready for spring, especially after this little teaser.

The better part of our morning was spent preparing for and attempting to take family pictures for Colin's 18 month birthday. I was a photographer for many years, I knew it would be a challenge, but I seriously underestimated my darling little child. Forget the photographer, I should have hired Jesus because getting anything remotely decent was going to require a miracle. I have no idea how they turned out...the photographer, Shelby and I all get an A for effort and hopefully within a week I'll get my disk of pics to share. Toddler Colin has a mind all his own, is fiercely independent, and pretty much wants to do the opposite of what you want him to do. We probably got at least 50 pictures of him throwing a fit and another 50 with the Twizzlers we tried to bribe him with hanging out of his mouth. These should be interesting, I sure hope the photographer is highly skilled in Photoshop.

Random Stuff

To make up for the absence of Wordless Wednesday...





This morning we left him to eat his Kix and came back downstairs to discover he had inched his way over to the junk drawer and helped himself.


On his tray was a lighter, a pair of scissors, no less than 100 balloons and probably a half dozen other things you aren't supposed to let your kid play with!

Colin's first hair cut

I've trimmed the back of Colin's hair once or twice to get the long whisps off his neck. Aside from that he has yet to have a hair cut, and never a real all over cut by a professional. I thought this day would never come considering how long it took for his hair to actually grow. Remember this bald beauty?

Well lately his hair has been a mess. Poor kiddo has got some serious cow licks on his head and combine that with uneven baby hair grown in all over the place....yikes! He was starting to have quite the mullet going on in the back it was getting so long. Next Saturday we are having pictures done again so this weekend we decided it was time to get the hair cut.

Colin did great, he sat right there in his chair and let the lady cut his hair without any fuss at all. We were armed with craisins and gummi bears, two of his favorite treats and we fed him while she cut as fast as she could.


He looks so handsome and grown up with his new big boy hair cut. No more baby fuzz back there :( After his hair cut we grabbed some lunch and let him play in the playground for a while. I tried to snap some pics of his hair be he was far more interested in playing than cooperating for pictures. Here are a few bad shots but you can see the back of his hair in them.

Frankfurt Zoo

Frankfurt Zoo

Colin loves fish and Shelby said the other day we should take him to an aquarium. I got to looking online and couldn't find an aquarium that was close by, but the Frankfurt Zoo claimed to be one of the better zoos in Germany and have an aquarium. So Saturday we headed over there to check it out. Definitely not an aquarium but they did have a few fish tanks. Certainly not one of the best zoos I've ever seen either. Because of the cold weather a lot of the animals were housed in indoor pens which were very small and old compared to their outdoor habitats.

Colin still had fun and liked looking at the animals. I think he liked the little rodent kind of things the best, they scurried around and were easy to see. They had a bunch of them in various exhibits. He also liked the monkeys that would swing around and play. One of the monkeys took a serious liking to Colin's shoes. He came over to the glass and was inspecting the shoes, which Colin thought was hilarious. Colin held his shoes up on the glass for the monkey to see. The monkey really tried hard to get the shoes but finally gave up after a while. I think Colin enjoyed it but he was ready for lunch and a nap by the time we headed out of there.

18 months

Today Colin is 18 months. It's hard to believe he's that old already! He's grown into quite the little man. Ever since he was a baby he's always had a very mellow and happy personality, I'm so thankful that hasn't changed. He's still a very happy boy most of the time. He's starting to show his momma's stubborness and a little temper here and there, mostly when he can't have his way. He's very independent these days, he wants to do it all and all by himself. He has a very outgoing personality and charms people everywhere he goes. Just today in the BX he ran up to a little boy and started babbling his Colin talk and the boy looked at him funny and walked away, Colin stood there looking confused and crushed, like it hurt his feelings. Luckily another kid caught his attention and he was off to make friends with that one, forgetting about the other boy.

Speaking of talking we have quite the little chatterbox on our hands. His vocabulary has really grown and he is getting very good at repeating and copying you. His says mama, daddy (which is more like dah-deeeeeeee), dog, cow, car, fish, baba, thank you, airplane, up, down, get down, no, nein (German for no), bitte (German for please), hi, bye, baby, poopoo, eeeewweeeee, P.U., this, and I know I'm forgetting at least a half dozen more.

We haven't done the 18 month check up for his height and weight stats but last time he was at the doctors about a month or two ago he weighed 27 pounds.

He is obsessed with cars. He loves to play blocks. He's fascinated with airplanes and can spot them from pretty far away (you know his daddy is proud). He loves staring at the fish in our tank. He loves to be outdoors, in the snow especially. He is also obsessed with talking on the phone. He will pick up just about anything and pretend it is a phone. When he gets his hands on a cell, real phone, or a toy phone he will walk around babbling up a storm on it. He will come hand it to me and squeal like mad when you talk on it and then hand it back to him. He loves to be chased and tickled and is equally as fond of pulling up our shirts and ticking out bellies. The best treat in the world is for us to put him on our bed and throw him around. He loves it when we throw him on the pillows and bounce him on our bed. He will fall backwards or forwards on to the bed and laugh hysterically as you try to grab him or tickle him while he pretends to get away. He loves to stand on his stool in front of the window and watch outside as people walk and drive by. He will wave and yell "hi" and "bye" to them as they go down the street. He gets super excited when someone sees him and waves back.

Time has defintely flown by. He loves to keep up laughing and on our toes.

Wordless Wednesday

Valentines Day

Valentines Day

Colin got a Clipo Activity Table to go along with his Clipo blocks and hippo for Valentines Day. He got it a little early because he has very impatient parents who couldn't wait to see him play with it. He loves his blocks and we keep them put up so that he can't lose them or have them all the time. It's a Mommy & Daddy activity that he looks forward to doing with us. We keep them on the buffet in the living room out of his reach. He will take our hands and drag us in there and point to them and say "car". We will tell him "no, blocks". Then he sighs impatiently, still pointing and says again, "car". LOL What can I say, the kid is OBSESSED with cars right now.

Sunday morning Daddy was a little hungover from our night out so Colin and I had breakfast, opened cards and played. Colin was busting to go outside and kept trying to climb up the elliptical machine to get in the window to see outside. He likes to hang out in the window and wave to the cars and people that go by. Somehow this morning he managed to get himself stuck in between the bars on the elliptical. I kept telling him he was going to get stuck and to get down when he was climbing. He would just laugh at me and repeat "get down" and crack up lauging. OK fine then, have it your way. Soon enough he was squealing for help after he'd got himself good and stuck. Of course being the mean mommy that I am I had to photograph it before getting him out.

After that we got dressed and Dad was feeling a little better. He decided to help Colin out and get his step stool from the bathroom upstairs for Colin to use to stand in the window and look outside. Colin was pretty happy with that idea. Since all of Germany packs up and shuts down on Sunday we are pretty much limited to the BX for entertainment on Sundays. We did the usual Sunday routine of lunch and letting Colin play at the playground.

I have to work at Chili's tomorrow so it's not really a day off for me. Shelby and Colin get to stay home. I'm bummed I have to work because there is a huge parade in Mainz Germany to celebrate Fasching (what the Germans call the Mardi Gras season). There is another big parade in Ramstein on Tuesday for Fasching, but I can't go to that one either because I have to work at school. The kids get the day off but it's a teacher workday. Normally I could slide out early in time to make the 2 pm parade, but the genious planners at my school must not have an interest in Fasching because they scheduled us to be in workshops until 3:15 Tuesday afternoon. This work stuff is really messing up my fun! I just completed week 6 of classes...only 10 more to go!

Bitche and Super Dubber Kinderland

Bitche and Super Dubber Kinderland

Saturday morning I was told to be ready in 30 minutes and given no other details aside from dress warm. We ended up in Bitche, France, which is about 30 minutes from our house. Yes that is the name of the town and yes it's pronounced like you think it is. I wonder if the residents are referred to as bitches? Anyway, there is a large old fort/citadel there that is supposed to be pretty cool. We got there and were able to walk around the outside but it was all closed up so we couldn't go inside. I'm guessing it was closed for the winter maybe. There is a nice view from up on top of the hill where it sits. We'll have to go back and check it out in the spring. The town of Bitche is supposed to have some nice shopping and pastry shops too. We didn't spend too long there because Colin was seriously pissed off about not being able to play in the snow at the fort and melted down when he was put back in his car seat. So being the sensible and responsible parents that we are, we did what any good parents would do and rewarded his meltdown by heading to the indoor playground close to our house after we left Bitche. We figured he needed to run off some energy.

He had a blast, we had lunch and coffee and killed about two hours before heading home. I'm amazed we don't have more of these indoor playground places back in the States. Maybe there are and I just never noticed since I didn't have a kid back then. I know about Chuck E Cheese but this is WAY different. It is a huge warehouse with foam and gym mats everywhere, trampolines, bounce house type things, and crazy playground stuff with toys. There are good views of what it looks like inside here Click the link, then click "Video Super Dubber" in the green box on the left and then press play to watch the video. You can see how fun it is in there. I'm guessing there aren't many in America because it would be such a liability the way people sue if you look at them wrong. It's a lot of fun though, Colin loves it.

Snow day with Mommy

Friday morning we were treated to more snow! School was called off for the kids, but the teachers and staff were just given a late in instead of a day off. I chose not to take them up on their oh-so-generous offer and stayed home. No way was I going to work with the snow making the drive three times longer than it usually is, only to sit around and gossip all day. Especially when I could be at home with my kid who I hardly see anymore. Oh and because two hours after everyone got to work, they were told they could go home.



So Colin and I had a nice fun morning together. I made us eggs for breakfast, he ate TWO! Oink oink! Then we painted a Valentines card for Shelby while he was off at work. It was Colin's first time painting and he was very excited. He wanted to taste the paint really bad but I managed to keep him from eating any.




He called Daddy on the cell phone and was most pleased with himself. He carried on quite the conversation the entire time the phone was ringing and didn't even care that Dad never answered, lol.

After that Shelby came home early. He was supposed to go test for his next rank up, master, that morning. He had called the day before and asked what the weather policy was for the test and they assured him that the test would be administered on time. That if road conditions went red, and a late in was issued for non essential personnel, that the test would begin at the new late in time instead of 7:25am. So he reported at 9:30am, the late in time due to all the stupid snow and when he got all the way up there in the horrible weather there was a sign on the door... "testing cancelled due to weather". Nice. So he got to come home early. Score!! Colin gets a rare snow day with Mommy AND Daddy! Woohoo!

So we bundled up and walked to the döner kebap haus for lunch. Colin was so excited to have his snowsuit on, he knows that means he's going out in the snow, that he ran down the sidewalk, stepped off the front walkway, and face planted into the snow! LOL The several inches of snow on the ground hid the drop off between the walkway and the driveway, so he stepped into the snow expecting to hit ground and instead sunk right in and fell over. We laughed, he was not as amused.
If you look close you can see the imprint in the snow of his head and hands, lol.









Standing back up...












And falling on his butt again!








After that we put him in the wagon and pulled him across the village to get lunch. He worked his charms on the döner guy who gave him a whole apple to eat. Mommy likes the döner guy, most of the business people give him lolly pops or gummi bears, they need to take notes from the kebap haus. I've never given him a whole apple before but he knew just what to do with it. He sat in his wagon and ate his apple the whole way back to the house.

The rest of the day we played and relaxed, enjoying an unexpectedly early start to the long weekend.

Please hold.

I know....it's Thursday and I didn't post yesterday. Sorry. It's been a busy week and I've hardly spent any time with my kid this week let alone taken pictures. I did get home a little earlier than usual today courtesy of more %!&*!^!* snow. Possibility of a late in tomorrow or no school at all...we shall see what the powers that be have to say about it at 5 am tomorrow. If I get a day off tomorrow I might get some pics to share.

Black and blue!

PLayplace

This weekend has been hard on Colin's head. Yesterday it was the corner of our bed he tripped and fell in to. Today he was playing hard at the indoor playground at the BX mall and tripped again. He smacked his forhead right on the end of the slide and got a nice big goose egg above his eye. He cried for a few minutes but quickly shook it off and went right back to rough housing with the other kids. He looks like a mess now but I guess that's the look of a rough, tough, fun loving little boy.

Disco Fun

Disco party

Shelby's boss had a big disco birthday bash thrown for him by his wife Saturday night. Shel and I didn't have anything appropriate to wear so we headed down to the costume shop Saturday morning. MADNESS! You see in America we celebrate Mardi Gras...in Europe they celebrate Carnivale, Karneval, Fasching or whatever else they may call it based on your region. Here in our corner of Germany it's referred to as Fasching and it is hugely popular and everyone dresses up. This weekend is the last weekend before the big event so you can only imagine what the costume shop was like. If in doubt think Christmas Eve at Walmart! The party shop was torture on Colin because everything looks like a toy to him and it was far too crowded to let him run around. We grabbed some tacky outfits and got out of there as quickly as possible.

Our regular night time sitter was celebrating her own birthday and couldn't watch Colin so he had to come along. We have him a super late nap hoping he'd cooperate long enough for us to have a little fun that night. We had no idea what a little party animal we have on our hands! He had a blast at the party, held out until we left about 10:45 and still sang and danced the whole way home in his car seat! lol

He loved the lights and the music and was dancing all over the place. He'd go right into the middle of the dance floor and push his way through the adults to get to the center and just break it down out there. He ran around with a couple other little kids that were there and had a great time. We almost had a little cake disaster when he spotted a VW bug sitting on top as decoration (the kid is OBSESSED with cars right now). He reached for it and almost took a handful of cake with him, luckily I caught his hand just in time. After that he would grab anyone willing to come with him and take them to the cake pointing to the cake and shouting car. Finally he got a hold of the birthday boy himself who took it off the cake and gave it to him...he was in big time heaven after that. He was the life of the party and was making everyone laugh with his dancing.

Wordless Wednesday

It's my blog...

…And I’ll bitch if I want to! It is definitely a Monday, no doubt about it.

I started off the day getting up and getting on the scale, probably not the best way to start a Monday but it needed to be done. The holidays are over and I’m out of excuses for pigging out and soon enough I won’t be able to hide under sweaters anymore. Oh. My. God. Seriously??? I haven’t seen that number since I was being pumped full of ass fattening egg stimulating hormones for IVF. Motivation perhaps?

Shelby woke up late and was rushing around which meant I had to help him get ready and get Colin ready. Which meant even though I was up on time I am now late and rushing around. This meant I didn’t have time for breakfast, which I suppose is a good thing because according to the scale my fat ass doesn’t need to eat anyway.

Shelby left me two drops in the coffee pot after filling up his thermos and heading to work. Jerk.

It didn’t matter because he didn’t leave me any creamer to go with the two drops. Die Jerk!

No breakfast and no coffee. Look out!

I did find a couple minutes to sit and check email, which pissed me off. I got back a paper from my professor. I got an EIGHTY ONE! I haven’t seen a grade that bad in over two years woman! WTH! If I deserve an 81% because the content of my paper is lacking or because I didn’t follow assignment directions that is one thing. Giving me an 81% because you “think the format is hard to follow” then perhaps you should have been more specific on what formats your little pea brain can handle and then I could have accommodated you better. She also had several comments in there that pertained solely to her personal opinions about my writings…sorry if you disagree with my perspective dear but that is what the assignment asked of me…get over it!

I went out to the road to find my car under the mountain of snow. Screw the ice brush thingy, I went for the push broom…yea it was that bad. I soon discovered there was about an inch of ice on every window underneath all that damn snow. So to add to the late and starving now you can add cold to the list.

I finally get on the road and my check engine light is on, has been for months…who has time to drop it at the shop when they are gonna tell me I just had bad gas in it or something anyway. I drive a little further and DING….washer fluid is low. No shit…it just took two gallons to get the ice off my windshield! A little farther and DING…gas light is on. Lovely…I hate pumping gas in the snow and the weather today is supposed to suck again, surprise surprise. Any other lights want to come on and add to the display?

Of course because I’m late I get behind a line of stupid semi trucks. And of course they want to go 50 kmh (30 mph) the entire way. The roads are not that bad you morons….DRIVE! I spend the next 45 minutes cursing them and wishing they would hit a patch of ice and slide their big ass out the way!

So now I’m at work and I just can’t deal with 8 year olds until I take a little frustration out on something (thank you blog readers). Thank God for specials first thing in the morning so I have a little down time to go beg for coffee and raid some lunchboxes for breakfast.

So, on this lovely start to the week it occurs to me to just shut up. It could always be worse. At least I have a car to be covered in ice, I can afford coffee, and I live in awesome Germany (despite the snow)… I could always live in Haiti .