10 Days

Jon and I are just finishing up 10 days apart.  

It all started with what was supposed to be a family trip, but turned into a Girls only trip back to Leipzig to visit some friends and see the Christmas Markets.  

Alessandra and Sophia Enjoying the "Classic Car Carousel" in the Leipzig Hauptbahnhof

Jon had to cancel due to some last minute business trip changes.  But the good news from Jon not being with us was that he was able to add a quick trip to Colorado where he was able to see his family and drop Ripley off with Stan and Mary Kay.  

If you have been keeping up with my blog at all, or have talked to me in the last two years you probably heard me mention that Ripley hasn't been doing well.  She wasn't able to settle into city life.  She was always stressed, at first her stress was coming across as barking, panting, and pacing but in the past six months that stress was starting to turn a bit more aggressive.  We needed to get her out of the city, so that all of us could be a little less stressed.  Well, it happened.  Jon stopped by Colorado for a quick visit with his family and to get Ripley to her new/old home back on the Ranch with Grandpa, Oma, and the horses.  I am happy to report that Ripley seems to be settling in quite nicely and Dotty has only had one setback in the form of an "accident" on Alessandra's pillows.  Dotty has been quite clingy but I have to say the stress level in the house has gone down considerably.  

Okay, back to our Leipzig trip.  

It started out and ended a bit bumpy but all in all it was so relaxing.  We had some plans fall through with one of our friends but it ended up working out perfectly because it gave us an entire day to sleep in, enjoy an awesome breakfast, get into town, wander around the city center which is essentially one big Christmas Market.  Then we went to check out the new mall, and then one more quick trip through the train station and then back home.  Saturday we spent the entire day with The GKS's.  And Sunday we traveled back home.  

The beginning of the week was slow enough, I purposely cancelled our usual routine so we could be home with Dot.  So that translated to all of us going over to My-tilda's house on Monday afternoon, and My-tilda and her mum Alice coming over to our house on Tuesday afternoon.  But then it all turned - and quite suddenly too.  Alessandra got really sick, and really quickly.  In the matter of a few hours she went from this...

 to this... 

it was horrible.  And it has only been in the last half of today that I would say she's back to normal.  And when I say that please read, asking for ice cream for every meal.  :o)  

Well, luckily for us, or maybe just me, Jon will be back home tomorrow.  And I will have another person to take care of.  No just kidding.  I will have another person to help take care of everything.

Charmian 

I Believe!

Alessandra has been sick and I've been dealing with her and the rest of the household responsibilities solo.  Last night was just like all the others.  I finally got her settled into bed, and I took Dotty out for one last bathroom trip before I tidied up the house and turned in myself.  

This morning I opened up the front door to get Alessandra's boots - I left them out because they were all muddy.  And that's when I saw this.  Sitting quite perfectly on the top of our doggy potty shoes and muddy rain boots.

I wish someone was recording my reaction because if it was half as good as what it felt like, it was pretty darn amazing.  I felt like I was 6 again.  Like I just walked out and saw the one thing I asked Santa, and only Santa for.  

There Is A Santa!

But then I got really confused.  It's the beginning of December.  I asked one of my neighbors who said "Oh yes, Sankt Nikolaus comes last night.  I hope you were good all year!"

My response was, "I must have been, our shoes were filled." 

I came inside, got online with the intention of looking up this holiday and it's traditions when of course I got a bit distracted by facebook, and that's when I saw all of the posts between my expat-parent-friends from the night before.  Warning each other not to forget about this German holiday.

I guess I didn't need to worry about forgetting because the Eich's were just that good that the 

REAL SANKT NIKOLAUS

came and filled our shoes.

And just like that...

I'm still a

  BELIEVER!   

It's a Zoo in Here!

Big Girl Bed

On Wednesday night I was getting Alessandra ready for bed and as I was finishing up our normal routine of saying goodnight to all of her toys, fairies, butterflies, her frog, and angel.  I mentioned saying goodnight to her pretty big girl bed.

That's when she looked at me and said, "A-sandra bed."

"Yes," I told her, "this is your big girl bed."

Then she pointed to her bed and said, "Mommy bed?"

I went on to tell her no this was just her bed and that my and daddy's bed was in the other room.
She then pointed to her bed one more time and said, "My bed!?!"

"Yes sweetie, do you want to sleep in your big girl bed tonight?" I asked.

She smiled and shouted, "Yes!"

We then cuddled up in her bed, said our prayers, sang a song, and listened to a story and then she said, "All done Mommy - Ba-bye."

I was a bit confused by this but I figured if I got it wrong she would tell me.  So I gave her a kiss and walked out of the room. She went on to sing songs quietly in her bed for about an hour before falling asleep.  She woke up that next morning at 4 a.m. saying "poop, poop."  So I picked her up took her to the potty, got her some water and tried to snuggle her back to sleep in the family bed but she had no intention of going back to sleep.  UUGGHH - but her first night in her big girl bed was a success.

The next night we had a few tears but she went to bed pretty easily on her own.  She woke at 3:30 but fell back to sleep after we did our trip to the bathroom, got a drink of water, and snuggled together in the family bed.

Tonight was just like the first night; no tears, no problems.  Just prayers, song, story, and some snuggles and she was asleep.  Hopefully she'll make it passed 4 and if she does wake up hopefully she'll go back to sleep once she comes to bed with us.

So it looks like Jon and I may have our bed back.  Well, at least for a few hours every night.  ;o)

Charmian

Happy Horsey Halloween

Halloween isn't as big of a deal here in Germany as it is in The States but we still wanted Alessandra to have a good experience.  

So we bought some candy, took it to Jon's work, handed it out, and sent Alessandra from desk to desk to go trick or treating. 

We taught her how to say "trick or treat" and "candy please" and sent her on her way

.

We reminded her to say "thank you" and Alessandra added kisses and waves to her repertoire.

Zero Degrees

Jon and I finally caved.  It hit zero today so we turned on some of the heaters.  It has been feeling more like winter and less like summer these days.

This weekend Jon and I made another trip to Ikea to get the stuff we need to have overnight guests.

Lisa and Ben are just a couple hours away by train and it's taking everything in me not to just pack a bag and go see them.  

Jon got all of our Ikea stuff up and even found time to 

hang a little project I've had sitting on the sidelines windowsill for a while now.  

We will be meeting up with them later this week.  Jon is taking most of the week off and we'll be heading out.  Now we just need to figure out the logistics - YAY!!!

I Pinned It!

I had heard about Pinterest but I had no idea what it was.  On top of that I didn't really think I was that interested in finding out.  My initial thought was confirmed when I first got on yesterday.

It was awful!  There wasn't anything to see unless you click through to the different topics.  I didn't know how to find people or pass along the pins I found.  Then I read the how to's and started looking around and it started growing on me.  I figured out how to search and found my friends and family.  And then it started to get more Pinteresting - hee hee.  

Today, I found some cute hairstyles I can try on Alessandra.  One of them I actually attempted.  Now, let me first start off by saying it didn't turn out nearly as cute as the picture but, 

I DID IT!!!!

Yup, I attempted my pin.  

 As you can see the couple pictures of her hair turned into a big fall time foto fest.  

Have any of you actually attempted something you found on pinterest?  

If so what was it?

Did it turn out?

Charmian

Daddy's Birthday

Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday Dear Daddy!

Happy Birthday to You!!!

The Things I Don't Want To Forget...

...23 months.

Alessandra is 23 months old today and before I got to busy with the hustle and bustle of the day I decided to do Alessandra's birthday post.

This is the first of what I'm assuming will be a long tradition of interviews.  I decided that this edition of "The things I don't want to forget" would be best suited for video because they are all things that she says and does.

Alessandra says most things really well but there is one word that isn't even close.  And it is so cute when she says it.  Oh, and don't you just love the way she says her name?!?

VIDEO

In this video I tried to catch Alessandra doing her faces.  It didn't really turn out very well but you can get the idea.  Then she takes us on a quick walk.  She is so funny and only a little bit bossy.  ;o)

VIDEO  

That's that.  She is still as tiny as tiny can be.  But she is constantly going, going, going all day long.  She still loves to dance and sing.  She likes to read books, play with her friends, go for bike rides, go to the pool and park.  She is such a character, chatter box, sweet heart, and cuddle bug.  She's our little Sweet Pea and we couldn't imagine what life would be like without her.

As you can see there are no videos.  

Somehow between filming and uploading they got corrupted.  

:o(  

I will re-film and upload as soon as I can.  

UPDATE:
The videos are on my Facebook page - can't figure out how to get them from Facebook to the Blog.

Bobolino's

Here it is...

Drum Roll Please!

BOBOLINO'S!!!

Due to fall break and the over abundance of big ones we quarantined the little girls to the ride section.  Luckily they were having so much fun protecting their covered wagon from THE BOY that we didn't actually have to put any coins in the rides.  The poor little guy just wanted to play with them but I guess these two little girls already have it figured out that boys have coodies.  

Here I am hiding in the sagebrush chairs watching the battle go down.  

Spoiler Alert!!

The girls were triumphant.  

Although they did get a talking to about sharing with the other kids though.

Bobolino's has a baby section, a bounce pirate ship, a giant volcano, trampoline room. race track,

and yes even inoperative massage chairs.

It's got it all!  

The best part of bobolino's is about 4-6 hours after we leave Alessandra is asleep.

Gotta Love It!!!

Tea Party!

What?

Not what you were expecting?

I thought this was how everyone played tea party?