Tomorrow Is Another Day...

Baby Bumping Round Two

So, suffice it to say, getting pregnant was a bit of a shocker.  If you've followed along here for any length of time, you probably already know that we got pregnant with the girls through a pretty intensive IVF protocol which included a special process in which the sperm was injected directly into the eggs, because we couldn't even trust our own genetic material to know what to do when placed in a 3 inch across petrie dish.  Special.  I have fertility problems.  Colby has fertility problems.  We definitely would have been the first ones voted off of caveman survival of the fittest island.

Still, we decided in the late summer to go ahead and stop preventing a pregnancy, but it was more of a lark than anything.  Neither one of us really thought that anything would come of it.  We thought we would try for a few months, then when we moved back to the States, either decide two was enough or talk about pursuing further fertility treatments.  Then, just about three months later, after a week of feeling totally run down, I decided to just go ahead and test.  Just to prove to myself that all those weird pains and twinges I'd been feeling were nothing.  And it was positive.  One dark line and one very, very faint, but definitely present, line.

The only complicating factor was that it was 11 PM on a Thursday night.  And we were leaving before the sun was up on Monday morning for the States, where I would be staying with family for the next five weeks.  The clinic on base was helpful for once, and let me do a walk-in blood test just to confirm the pregnancy then get me into the system so that we could temporarily switch our insurance over to the Stateside branch and I could see doctors in Louisiana.

I went in for my first appointment at what I thought was probably around 6 weeks, and while they couldn't see much yet, there was definitely a sac and they scheduled me to come back two weeks later to make sure their dating estimate was correct.  We'd been so busy, and I'd been paying so little attention to my cycles that I truly had no idea when we could have conceived.  It couldn't be a more opposite experience than our first pregnancy.

Two weeks later, we spotted this little bean, and I started feeling like I could actually celebrate.  We'd been awkwardly keeping things a secret from family up to the point that things were starting to resemble a British farce, with us sneaking around having secret phone calls while random family members popped out of the walls to ask us questions.  My sister actually thought that we were setting up a surprise puppy adoption for my mom's Christmas present, bahaha!

Everything had been so planned and clinical with our pregnancy for Charlotte and Annabelle, we never really had the exciting surprise announcement for our family.  This time we printed out a photo of the girls, and put it in a double-sided picture frame with a little note on the other side breaking the news, "Hey Annabelle, have you heard the news?  You're going to be a big sister too!"  It was really fun watching the jaws drop and seeing the shocked reactions from our families.  Not that there hadn't been a great deal of suspicion each evening I'd said no thank you to the offer of a glass of wine.

This pregnancy has been different in a few ways.  Morning sickness was a little worse, though fortunately still not terrible.  I've been much more tired throughout, probably more a function of having two 3-year-olds than gestating.  And my back has started hurting much earlier than last time.  It's crazy to me that I'm actually in more pain with one baby than I was with two.  I'm sure this has something to do with the fact that I'm four years older and also have the aforementioned toddlers who want me to cart them around 48% of the time.  Also, it was free.  That's a very good difference.

It's also been different in that we know exactly what we are getting into this time, and are having a little more anxiety about the introduction of a baby into our lives.  I wouldn't change anything, but I'd be lying if I said I never stressed about how we're all going to handle this huge upheaval in our lives.  I think back on that first year of motherhood and how unlike myself I felt.  It took me so long to feel like I had a handle on things, and like I could successfully leave the house without disaster befalling all of us.  I wonder how this third little one will throw off our center of gravity.  I wonder how the girls will handle it and how they'll all get along as they grow older.  

I worry about dealing with post partum depression again and how I'll handle the exhaustion if I can't just nap throughout the day because I have other kids now who need me.  I worry SO much that we'll have to deal with colic again and I'll have another 4-5 months of incessant screaming ahead of me.  And probably the most vain worry of all, what if all my hair falls out again???  Oh lord, that was so awful.

But perhaps most different is how little I actually find myself thinking about this pregnancy at all.  I guess things have been pretty busy, but in fairness we were moving to a brand new country, traveling the world, and keeping pretty busy the first time too, and I surely was obsessing over registries and diapering options and the perfect nursery theme (okay, maybe I've been obsessing over the nursery a little).  It's just this thing that I realize all of a sudden from time to time.  Oh yeah!  I'm pregnant!  There's an actual baby in there!  Which sends me into my panic spiral.

So... overall, things are good!  I'm hoping to get into a new doctor here soon, and find out whether this wee little fetus of ours is of the male or female persuasion.  I am hitting the halfway point, 20 weeks, tomorrow, and am a little bit in shock at how quickly this is flying by.  I'm so scared to meet this little human, and also so, so ready.  I've said before that I'm not really an infant person, my favorite age with the girls was 6-18 months (Two was also pretty great, three can die in a fire--can't we all just skip three??  Send them away to a Swiss boarding school that year or something.), but I've also really missed tiny baby cuddles.  Watching all of those incredible firsts.  Knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that you somehow managed to score the cutest baby on the planet.  I think it will be okay.  I know we'll get through it.

I'd feel a lot better about things though if I had a floor.  And a couch.  And a bed.  But that's another story...

Life Updates

So, how do you like my every five months posting schedule?  I'm thinking about writing a tutorial on the worst possible ways to operate a personal weblog.  I've finally found my calling!  Anyway, insert empty promises about updating more often, blah blah blah... moving on.

Actually, life has been rather exciting over the past few months.  I mean, exciting in a way that only a suburban, married mother of two would find to be a thrill, but busy nonetheless.  Since October...

We had a spooktacular Halloween with two of the cutest rag dolls I've ever seen.

I met up with these beauties in Paris for a girls' weekend that included a boat ride down the Seine, the best steak and frites I've ever tasted, a mentally unbalanced young man sketching us in a bar, shopping on the Champs Elysees, and did not include children.  I insisted that there be candles and sharp knives on every table we dined at!

We celebrated the 3rd birthday of those aforementioned rag dolls, also known as Charlotte and Annabelle,  Three has been a bit of an awakening in terms of how difficult parenting can be (and I don't kid myself that it gets any easier), but they really are the sweetest girls, and so freaking smart and hilarious it blows my mind on the daily.  We're pretty convinced we should keep them.

 

We hit a few Christmas markets for our last holiday season in Germany and time marched inexorably on as I turned yet another year older.

   

We visited Louisiana for Christmas and New Year's enjoying a flurry of family time, and finally getting to experience the magical Christmas Tea at the Roosevelt in New Orleans.  We left the kids with my inlaws for a weekend to spend a few days in the Big Easy with our dear friends, Tim and Nicole.  And Annabelle also survived the trauma of her first haircut, finally ridding herself of the dreaded mullet she'd been rocking for far too long.  Now when I go get my hair done, the girls ask me if I get to sit in a pink car and watch Frozen--I wish!

I stayed in Louisiana for a full five weeks, while Colby had to return to work, but he joined me for a week in the Northern Virginia area so we could find a house at our new assignment.  We landed on this diamond in the rough that we got for a great price and will spend the rest of our born days renovating. 

 

My mom accompanied me and the girls on our flight back to Germany, and as well as being a huge help to me while we prepped for the move, we snuck in another pottery shopping trip, this time to Nove in Italy with a side excursion to fair Verona.

 

Colby and I took a Valentine's Day kid-free weekend trip to bid farewell to our favorite city, Paris.  We stood in the rain for an hour so we could finally visit the catacombs, accidentally spend the equivalent of a new hot water heater at a fancy dinner, sipped on decadent hot chocolate, and visited the gorgeous palace of Fontainebleu.  It was a delightful way to end our time in Europe.

We had all of our belongings packed up, then spent the next month living at a friend's house and two different temporary apartments, had going away lunches, coffees and dinners, and finally made it to a couple of Easter markets where my obsession with hand painted Easter eggs was fully ignited.

 

We made the flight back across the pond, and have spent the last week closing on our house and working furiously to make it at least habitable, if not beautiful before we move in tomorrow.  More on this later, hopefully with at least a couple of afters to show for all of our work!

A whole host of family including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins big and small celebrated Colby's birthday with a chocolate cake from The Swiss Bakery, because we found ourselves in need of a little taste of... home???

 

And oh yeah, found out we're having another one of these little things!  Coming August 2016.  Eek!

Where Did You Come From? Where Did You Go?

I've recently heard a little phrase coined to describe the massive problem I'm about to share, which I'm positive will evoke an ounce of pity from absolutely no one.  I'm finding it nearly impossible to stay up to date on trip recaps.  Now that the girls are fully insane during the day, I get very little blogging time aside from the couple of hours that they nap and the maybe one or two hours that I'm awake before them in the morning.  That's also when I have to squeeze in things like exercise, chores, random bits of paperwork, and of course keeping up with my demanding Hulu queue.  Unfortunately, this old blog of mine gets the shaft most of the time and in the meanwhile, we just keep on visiting amazing places!  I know.  Don't you feel sorry for me?  Yeah, that's what we like to call #USAFEproblems (that acronym stands for US Air Forces in Europe for the uninitiated.)

Anyway, I still have to wrap up our Croatia getaway with our day trips to Mostar, Bosnia in Herzegovina and Ptuj, Slovenia, our trip to the Loire Valley in France, our weekend in the Netherlands and Aachen, Germany, and most recently, my sister/sister trip to Marrakech, Morocco.  That's not even including Copenhagen and our Baltic cruise last summer since I'm still scared to look at the pitiful number of photos that were recovered from a tragic SIM card failure... moment of silence, please...

So, for today, let's hit a quick and easy one and finish up our winter trip to France.  I already covered the amazing chateaus we toured, but we also took the time to do a little ancestor hunting and a quick day trip to Paris for a macaron baking class.

My mom has been very interested in our genealogy for as long as I can remember, and has managed to amass quite a bit of information about where we come from, dating back to the 1600s in France.  My grandparents moved from Quebec, and settled in New Hampshire amongst many other families who had also moved from Canada.  My mom's oldest brother and sister grew up speaking French, but as was the way of most immigrants at that time, by grandparents stopped teaching it to their three younger children as a way to make it easier for them to assimilate (feel free to correct any of the details for me, family!).

However, we knew that though we had been in North America for hundreds of years, our family originally came from a rural region in France called Perche.  When my mom was looking into the area that we would be visiting during our trip to the Loire region, she realized that we were just a 1 1/2-2 hour drive away from where the two original brothers that we descend from on my grandmother's side had lived.  So, it didn't take much convincing to decide to devote a day to visiting our past.  

And it truly did feel like a step back in time.  The roads that we drove along were back country roads that few tourists would purposefully travel, and we passed through sleepy ghost towns that seemed to have no residents, thought there were Christmas lights hung and lacy curtains in the windows.  After driving up and down the same stretch of road a few times, we finally located the old mill in Guemencais where the brothers had made their living before sailing to the New World in a group known as "La Compagnie des Cent Associes" (The Company of One Hundred Associates), recruited by representatives of the king to settle New France.

This group of men was memorialized in a stained glass window in the town church in Tourouvre, and we also had another lucky find in a different church in Ige when we stumbled upon the priest who invited us into his house to show us his book about the Gagnier (one of MANY spellings) settlers and the scores of people he has met over the years who have traveled to find their ancestors' home.  He was such a lovely man and it was a truly special experience to share that moment with someone who has so much passion for their town's history and legacy.

We also managed to find this cottage, La Giguererie, where my grandfather's family line originated from, the house they lived in before they also took part in the emigration to Canada.  It was a once in a lifetime experience to be able to tour my own history in such a personal way, and I'm so glad we took the time to drive out there and see it for ourselves.  It made me feel extra Frenchified!

Our last excursion was to Paris where my mom and I took a macaron class with La Cuisine, the same school through which Colby and I did our market and cooking class for our anniversary trip.  It was much more intense as macarons are shockingly labor intensive--even splitting the work amongst eight or nine people--but so fun and rewarding.  We couldn't believe how gorgeous and delicious our macarons turned out--salted caramel with chocolate ganache and candied chestnuts with cinnamon chocolate ganache, all fillings also made from scratch.  I've got an application in at Laduree, but for some reason I haven't heard back from them yet!

We also took a little bit of time to take in the Christmas windows at the Galerie Lafayette where I had a super tasty birthday lunch (oh French cafeterias, you are magnificent) (and yes, that is red wine in a juice glass) as well as the Marche Noel at La Defense.  As much as j'adore Paris, I must admit, the Christmas decorations were a bit of a let down.  Maybe they think they're just a little too cool to get totally into it?  There just weren't nearly as many sparkling lights and trees as I had been dreaming of.  So I still maintain that Paris in the fall is absolute perfection!

So, that was it for France.  I suspect it's probably the last long trip we do there as we've traveled it so extensively over the past few years.  Maybe we'll do one more trip to Paris, or possibly a weekend in Lyon, but we still have so much of the rest of the world left unexplored.  Onward to the next big thing!!

Weihnacht Memories

The Christmas season went by in an absolute blur this year--we didn't sit still for a minute and it took me well into the new year to recover from it!  My parents arrived in early December and overlapped with Colby's parents and his grandmother who stayed until early January.  But even before the visitors arrived, we started celebrating the season with Germany's famous Weihnachtsmarkten.

After celebrating Thanksgiving on Wednesday and Thursday, we left the following Friday to visit the Christmas markets in Passau and Wurzburg, two lovely towns along the Danube.  Passau is an incredibly charming town filled with enough half timber buildings to populate an entire book of fairytales, and Wurzburg is home to the imposing Wurzburg Residenz which looms over the city.  But we weren't there for sightseeing so much as shopping, eating and gluhwein drinking!

I had plans for visiting many more Christmas markets in light of this possibly being our last Christmas living in Germany, unfortunately, the weather, immune systems, and carsickness conspired against me to severely limit the number of markets visited.  However, I did manage to get to what ended up being my favorite market yet, in Strasbourg, for a girls' day with one of my besties.  My stomach was not too happy with me that day, so unfortunately I didn't get to eat many market treats, but I did bring home an amazing escargot, garlic and butter spread that we gorged ourselves on at Christmas, and saw one of the most beautifully decorated cities in Europe.  The sheer number of lights, trees and adorable ornaments and holiday scenes was overwhelming.  And at the end of the night we watched a beautiful animated short projected onto a building in a square with a Christmas tree rivaling that of the one in Rockefeller Center.

I mentioned the weather previously, and oh, the weather outside was frightful!  We had more snow over the course of a couple of weeks than we've had in my two previous winters here combined.  I'm not the biggest fan of that frosty precipitation, but Colby and the girls loved sledding and building snowmen, and I even had to grudgingly admit that it was prettier than rain puddles.  Right up until the muddy slush accumulated, froze and refused to melt for weeks!

One of my favorite annual Christmas traditions is torturing my children with strange men dressed as Santa Claus.  This year, I thought it might go a bit better since they seemed to be gaining an appreciation for the many works and wonders of old Kris Kringle, but our squadron Christmas party proved me wrong when we couldn't even get them to release their little girl claws from our shoulders to take a present from Santa.  Annabelle did enjoy singing Jingle Bells with Hershey's Kisses and Charlotte got more comfortable with the present concept when we were a safe distance from the jolly old man in red.

Christmas and New Year's Eve were both low key affairs as we were recently returned from a week-long vacation in the Loire Valley where we had spent more than enough time wandering around in freezing mists.  Colby and his parents braved the faaaaaar below freezing temps a few times for some daytrips, while my parents and I hunkered down inside where we have access to a thermostat.  I also went on a girls' date with my Momsie to see Into the Woods, which we both very much enjoyed.  My parents were already back in Louisiana by New Year's Eve, but the rest of us spent a lively evening playing cards and popping the cork on one of our nice bottles of champagne from our trip to the Champagne region before the local fireworks show exploded in our village.

We wrapped up our time with family with a quick hop across the border into Switzerland for an overnight in a beautiful old house built in 1819 and daytrips to Zurich and Lucerne.  Colby and I had visited Lucerne previously, but Zurich was a first for us and it was a beautiful city, still decorated with Christmas lights, and I mostly enjoyed our time there despite the pouring rain!  We said goodbye to Colby's parents the day after our return and then began a week-long marathon of laundry and cleaning.

And because we just can't seem to go more than a few weeks without importing a new family member, next up is my sister who is arriving next week for a quick (for us!) 10 day trip.  We're making time for a weekend in Marrakech, planning another daytrip to Luxembourg to get our Laduree fix, and will be enjoying every minute we can get together before she leaves me again.  After that, the guest room's open, so get your booking in as soon as possible!

Happy Merry HalloBirthGivingVersary!!

Oh my lawd, I feel like I've been recapping trips since the dawn of time, and I still have to finish Croatia and get to our Baltic adventures at sea!  But I'm going to take a little break from that and hit some of the highlights of the fall before we're officially into winter!

September and October were super fest-heavy--as it should be whilst in Germany!!  We drank wine at Bad Durkheim, ate a variety of pumpkin delicacies at the Hitscherhof and Ludwigsburg pumpkin fests, imbibed beer at the Stuttgart Volksfest (in traditional German tracht, natürlich), and picked apples at the aptly named Appel Happel Apple Fest.  And miraculously, we had gorgeous weather for all of it except Bad Durkheim, which wasn't too much of a tragedy since we managed to score some seats in a tent.

Then we rolled on into Halloween, which we celebrated with a trick or treating event at Colby's squadron and later that day with a neighborhood block party.  The girls were pretty excited about being LSU tigers, but not so excited about wearing their hoods.  But then they rolled right back around to excited when they realized that CANDY.  It was a really fun day, and all of my stress about potential almost-two-year-old-girls tantrums was for naught. 

Just a few days later, our almost two-year-olds actually went and turned two.  And with a stunning sense of timing, they have been behaving like two-year-olds ever since.  What a blast!  But they really are learning and growing with alarming velocity, and I have to remind myself at times to have patience because they're still so young.  When so often they can tell me what they want or need, I struggle to keep in mind that sometimes they still just need to cry and lash out, because even as an adult, expressing yourself constructively is no easy task.  And fortunately they provide me with plenty of love and giggles throughout the day to survive the hard parts.  We had a wonderful circus-themed birthday party for them with many of our nearest and dearest local friends, and were able to Skype in both sets of grandparents for the cutting of the cake.  Technology man.

Our next big event was Colby's and my seventh wedding anniversary.  He told me a couple of months ago to hold the weekend before our anniversary, but wouldn't let me in on any more of his secret plan.  Then, on the Thursday prior, he sent me a weather forecast and packing instructions. telling me that we'd leave on Friday.  Just as I was finishing up packing and asking if we should load the girls in the car, who should show up, but one of my best friends, who unbeknownst to me, was TOTALLY IN ON IT!  She and her husband ended up staying at our house with the girls and the dogs while Colby and I headed to Paris for the weekend!  He had booked an apartment between the Louvre and Notre Dame, and planned a cooking class as well as a string quartet concert at St. Chapelle Cathedral, and we also squeezed in a whirl through the Louvre.  I don't think I've ever been more surprised or impressed by anything in my entire life.  The whole weekend still feels like a perfect dream.

And that brings us up to our most recent holiday, Thanksgiving.  We were lucky enough to be able to spend the holiday with a number of friends, and it definitely took some of the sadness out of being so far from our families.  We had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night with my sweet friends from one of my book clubs, then on Thanksgiving proper we had dinner at noon with another group of friends from our squadron, which led perfectly into family nap time, before heading out for Thanksgiving desserts with our neighbors.  I often feel very disconnected living overseas and spending the vast majority of my time with two foot tall terrorists whose idea of communication is screaming, so it's always good to be reminded of how thankful I am for the friends we have connected with over here on this crazy adventure abroad.

Next up is Christmas, which we have already begun celebrating with Germany's famed Weinachtsmarkts, and we will be opening up our home to both of our families starting next week and lasting through the New Year.  I am so excited to have a full house, and to share this, my most favorite time of year, with our loved ones.  And maybe I'll even get around to blogging about it!

Wrapping Up Garmisch

After the dismal rainy days that had been plaguing us for the first half of our trip, the weather finally decided to cooperate and we were gifted with blue, sunny skies for the remainder of our time in Garmisch.  Imagine our surprise at discovering we were surrounded by mountains!  I actually snapped the photo above of the Zugspitz as we were driving out of Garmisch, on our way back home.  Just as we were leaving, we finally got the most stunning view of the week!

For our last full day in Bavaria, we decided it was time to go full tourist and take on the town of Oberammergau.  Frequently dismissed as being nothing but an overrun, cheesy tourist trap, we were surprised at how delightful we found this village of woodcarvers and painted houses.  We had a delicious lunch at a restaurant that could not have been more kid friendly, complete with an amazing playroom and coloring pages.  It didn't hurt that the food was also epically delicious.

If you've heard of Oberammergau, it is likely because of their massively famous passion play, which has been held every 10 years since 1634.  It was last performed in 2010, so we were a little late for the show, but we still had a lovely time viewing their gorgeous painted homes.  These frescoes, or "Lüftlmalerei" auf Deutsch, are depictions of "traditional Bavarian themes, fairy tales, religious scenes or architectural trompe-l'œil found on many homes and buildings....its name may be derived from an Oberammergau house called Zum Lüftl, which was the home of facade painter Franz Seraph Zwinck (1748–1792)." (Danke, Wikipedia!)  Zum Lüftl is pictured on the top right.

We also had a chance to roam around the Rococo church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.  It is another frenetic display of gilded curlicues, and had the bonus feature of the glittering fellow displayed above.  Unfortunately, the only information on display was in faded German, but upon a little internet digging, I think I've identified him as Saint Amandus.  And they say you can't take it with you...

Our next stop was at the Ettal Abbey, another church in the... come on, you must know what's coming... Rococo style.  As well as being ridiculously ornate and pretty imposing from the road, the Ettal monks are well known for their beer, so it only made sense to pick up a sample pack.

We wrapped up the day with a quick swing through the town of Garmish-Partenkirchen itself.  It wasn't much to see, but it seemed silly to be staying there and not at least check it out.  We did a brief drive through the middle of town and pulled over for a stop at the parish church of St. Martin, because we just weren't Rococoed out yet.

The next day, we waved goodbye to the beautiful Zugspitz, and began our drive back home.  Because no visitor should come to Germany without at least a glimpse of the much vaunted Schloss Neuschwanstein of more recent Disney princess fame, we made a detour to Fussen for a hike up to the castle.  (The squat, yellow castle is Hohenschwangau, where Ludwig spent his childhood.)  I had already toured the inside of Neuschwanstein a few years ago, and found the rushed 30 minute tour pretty underwhelming, so we decided that since we had the girls with us, we would just view the outside.  The exterior truly is the most breathtaking part of the experience.  They make it very easy to explore the grounds without buying a ticket, which I thought was quite generous.

And so, with the perfect cap to a Bavarian vacation, we headed back home and I went into recovery before leaving for Provence with my sister a week later!

Garmisch in the Mist

Continuing on my completely out of order recap of summer travels, this installment brings us to one of the most well-known regions of Germany.  Bavaria, the land of lederhosen, cowbells, majestic peaks, and curlicue churches.  Since Colby's leave balance was scraping the barrel, my parents and I traveled without him and battled some pretty miserable wet and chilly weather, despite the fact that it was the middle of July (oh, Deutschland).  But we still managed to get out and see the sights in this beautiful part of the country.

We began our trip with an effort to dodge the raindrops by taking in as much of the indoor sights as possible.  Our first stop was at the Wieskirche in Steingaden.  The breathtakingly rococo church was built between 1745 and 1754 as a pilgrimage site to house the wooden painting, "Scourged Savior" which was said to have wept real tears in 1738.  The church is set in the middle of a rolling green field amidst cattle and wildflowers, and the interior, while certainly not to everyone's taste, is one of the most spectacular displays of architectural frothiness I have ever seen.

Our next stop was at the Schloss Linderhof, another of poor old Mad King Ludwig's palaces of loneliness.  Ludwig's much better known palace is Schloss Neuschwanstein, but unlike that project, Linderhof was completed during Ludwig's lifetime.  The more I learn about Ludwig, the more heartbreaking I find his story.  He is so obviously a man born at the wrong time in the course of history--if only he had been born today, he would undoubtedly be the most fabuloooouuuus monarch of our time.  He had a great passion for art, music, and the French, as well as flamboyant style in spades.  Linderhof was constructed as an homage to Versailles and the Sun King, Louis XIV, and is gold leafed and jewel encrusted within an inch of its life.  

Unfortunately, we couldn't take photos indoors, so I don't have a picture of the most incredible room in the palace, his take on the hall of mirrors.  Standing at just the right spot in the room, you are reflected in an infinite tunnel of gold and glass.  Ludwig ate at a private table that was raised through the floor of the dining room from the kitchen where it was laden with platters, and he would dine completely alone, surrounded by opulence.

On our second day, we stayed a little closer to "home".  We spent the week at the Familotel Leiner, a chain of kinderhotels in Germany.  Included in your stay, you receive up to 30 hours of childcare per week, as well as two evenings if you choose to use them, and all of your meals, which were amazingly delicious.  It is an absolutely brilliant business model, and one I wish we had been able to take advantage of a bit more successfully.  Unfortunately, we were only able to use the childcare once as Annabelle was not so pleased with the option of being left behind and spent a few hours letting everyone in the hotel know it.  But my parents and I were at least able to fit in a child-free visit to the stunning Partnach Gorge, just a fifteen minute walk up the road from the hotel.

That afternoon we took advantage of the sunshine and walked across the street from our hotel to the 1936 Olympic ski jump.  After taking in the views of the jumps and the stadium, we strolled around the beautiful meadows and fields that our hotel was situated beside.  We were particularly surprised to come across a herd of Alpine Alpacas!

The following day, the weather was not so much in our favor, but we were able to squeeze in one outdoor activity before the rains came.  We headed across the border into Austria for a leisurely stroll around the beautiful Plansee, a large lake nestled amongst the mountains in the Tyrol region.  As you can see, Charlotte and Annabelle had two very different reactions to their surroundings!  It was a rather exhausting week for everyone...

I'll take a pause here, but still ahead a world-famous wood carving town, a bejeweled skeleton, the highest peak in Germany, beer brewing monks and a fairy tale castle!

A Week in Provence Part 2

Lest I give the impression that our magical week in Provence was completely without disaster, let me be very clear, when faced with the combined presence of Brittany and I, there is absolutely no experience safe from the potential of absolute calamity.  In our short six days alone together we: held up a toll booth because none of my credit cards would work in the machine, smashed my phone to smithereens though a freak GPS incident, lost a parking garage ticket in the pay machine which vanished into oblivion as even the parking attendant was unable to locate it after dismantling almost the entire contraption, scraped the paint off of the side doors to our car which had thus far managed to survive ten years of existence without experiencing such misfortune, and missed the same exact tunnel exit no fewer than three times resulting in a battle to the near death with the black, rotten core of Marseille's rush hour traffic.  I just want you to remember that when you're looking at all of my carefully framed vacation snaps--there is always more to a story than meets the eye!

That said, all was certainly not as fraught as those moments, and the fact that we managed to make it out the door each morning clothed and fed meant that every day began with a minor miracle.  After our whirlwind tour of Marseille, and our trip back in time to the height of the Roman empire, we spent our next day in Avignon, most notable as home to seven popes and two delightfully dubbed "anti-popes" of the Avignon Papcy from 1305 to 1403.  While not our favorite stop in Provence, we did enjoy the East Villagy vibed Rue de Teintures, home to a number of organic, vegetarian, gluten-free eateries, artists galleries and the tie-dyed filled windows of tiny boutiques.  The massive chocolate chip cookie did not fail to raise Avignon in my estimation.

The next day, we donned our finest artist's smocks, and headed to Arles for a tête-à-tête... à-tête... with the ignoble, misunderstood Vincent Van Gogh.  Arles was the setting for perhaps Van Gogh's most prolific artistic period, (those sunflowers!) and was also, unfortunately the site of the mental breakdown which led to his eventual death in a hospital just a few miles away.  His artistic inspirations have been marked by a delightful "easel tour" which winds throughout the city.  Each easel shows the piece that Van Gogh was inspired to paint from its vantage point, undoubtedly the most famous being his Cafe Terrace at Night--now a garishly yellow tourist trap.

But, not to be outdone by that hapless artiste, the Romans once again stand seemingly impervious to the ravages of time.  A recently restored, glaringly white amphitheater rests majestically on a hill in the center of town, and a somewhat less intact Roman theater nearby still plays host to musical acts and performers.  While dismissed by many as grubby and workaday, we were charmed by Arles and counted it among our favorite stops.

For our final day in Provence, we crammed in as much of the hill villages as possible.  We started our day in the red-ochre hilltop village of Roussillon, arriving just in time to catch the end of its market before lunch.  The terracotta colored buildings reminded us of nothing so much as the American Southwest--feeling at some points as though we had been suddenly transported to New Mexico.

From Roussillon, we made our way to Lacoste with a brief stop at one last Roman ruin located just off the highway, Pont Julien.  This graceful bridge dates to 3 BC and unbelievably was used for car traffic until 2005.  Those Romans, man, they knew what they were doing.  In Roman days, this bridge was a part of the Via Domitia, a highly traveled road which served to connect Italy with its territories in France.

Our final stop on our journey was in Lacoste, where mysteriously, there was not an alligator or polo shirt to be found.  Instead, we discovered a near ghost town of winding alleys, grey stone buildings, the Marquis de Sade's crumbling castle, and of course a charming cafe just begging to be Instagrammed.  And so ended our unforgettable holiday in Southern France just as a it should--avec café et une belle vue!

A Week in Provence Part 1

Here in Germany, we are already leaving summer in our rearview mirror.  Temperatures are beginning to drop, days are becoming noticeably shorter, the commissary is consistently out of canned pumpkin--fall is truly upon us!  So, it seems only right to talk about what I did on my summer vacations!  It was perhaps the busiest summer of my life.  From the south of France, to the Alps in Germany, from the Baltic coast to the Dalmation, I managed to hit twelve countries in a little less than three months.  Then I came home and was immediately struck down with the absolute worst cold I have ever experienced.  Two weeks straight of voicelessness, hacking coughs, an excruciatingly sore throat and fevers.  But now, at long last, the time has come to recap my summer sojourns--before I forget everything completely!

Choosing completely at random, I'll start with my sisters' trip to Provence at the beginning of August.  My sis and I ditched Colby and absconded with the girls for an exotic, ruins-filled trip to the Mediterranean coast.  We stayed in a beautiful apartment in Marseille for the week, using it as a base to explore the city and the surrounding areas.  Having already experienced the French Riviera for a week last summer, we zeroed in on western Provence, and I must say, I found it far more interesting and worthwhile than the Cote d'Azur.  (Though the infinity pool and views of the cerulean Med from our vacation home last year are essentially unbeatable for relaxation purposes.)

Marseille has gotten itself a pretty negative reputation in the vacationing world, but both my sister and I fell in love with it.  While it is certainly quite different from the surrounding quaintness that is the calling card of most Provencal villages, we loved the hum of electricity that buzzed through the town, the exotic, enthralling miasma of Turkish, African, Mediterranean and European culture.  On our first day we visited the Arab market, a Tunisian bakery, the waterfront, La Charité Museum, the Cathédrale de la Nouvelle Major, and took in the view of the majestic Notre Dame de la Garde, perched on the highest point in Marseille.

We also had a bit of an adventure when a not so slick pickpocket strolled casually by us while we were consulting a map and attempted to palm my sister's cell phone.  Eagle eyed, bold as brass Brittany spotted the move instantly and tore off after the guy, grabbing his wrist and wresting the phone back from him with a snarl as I shouted "Nice try!" from the safety of 10 feet back!  Hoo boy, it is always something when you're traveling!

The next day, we headed out into the countryside to visit the Pont du Gard, a 2000 year old Roman aqueduct.  The entire aqueduct was once 31 miles long, and ran largely underground, but this bridge is the only portion remaining today, preserved after the fall of the Roman Empire largely due to its purpose as a toll bridge and now as a UNESCO Heritage site.  Incredibly, this bridge still stands without mortar, and up until the year 2000, traffic still flowed across it.  Now, traffic has been diverted,  there are gorgeous visitor's centers, a lovely beach area and it is among France's most visited tourist attractions.

We continued our tour of Roman history with a stop in Orange to visit the Théâtre antique d'Orange, one of the best preserved Roman theaters still in existence.  It was built early in the 1st century AD and functioned through 391 AD when it was abandoned due to an edict from the Christian church.  It went on to become a defensive structure during the Middle Ages, a refuge for townspeople during the religious wars of the 16th century, and now functions once again as a theater and major tourist draw.  Before entering the theater, we hid out from some bad weather in a charming cafe, then when the coast was clear, entered the theater just in time to catch an orchestra practicing for a performance taking place later that night.  History and a show--what could be better!

Ahead of us was still a visit with the former Palace of the Popes, communing with Vincent Van Gogh and a surreal visit to the red rock, Southwesternish village that we dubbed "New Franxico", but I'll save that for my next installment of the travel journal!  À bientôt 

Meanwhile, Back At the Homestead...

Despite the fact that all I've been talking about lately is traveling, there have been some breaks from the excursions for us to have a little bit of a life at home this summer.
I never talked in any detail about my half marathon, but it was a really great experience that has only left me wanting more!  I enjoyed my training a great deal.  I was fortunate to have family in town for the latter part so that I was able to do my longer runs without the jogging stroller.  As physically tough as it is to get out there and run for hours, it was an amazing sanity break.  No one crying, trying to climb my leg, asking for a snack then pushing it away and shouting "NO!".  Ahhhh, blessed peace!

The run is a very popular one, so I had no worries about being the last one across the finish line.  It was almost entirely flat and paved, and I liked that I didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn since it was a night race.  The drawbacks were that there were a couple of parts on the course that weren't terribly well marked, and there was one sickening half mile where I was reasonably certain I had missed a turn and ended up on the full marathon course.  Then once the race was over and the runners were funneled into the finisher's festival, it was very difficult to figure out how to meet up with Colby who was not a part of the race.  It took us about 45 minutes to find each other, and by the time we got home it was close to midnight, and everyone else was snoring peacefully in their bed while I was trying to quell the endorphin rush I was still riding!
But bottom line was that it was a great experience and I met my goal of running sub 12 minute miles.  I finished in 2:36:09, averaging 11:54/mile and beating my previous half marathon PR by over 2 minutes (previous PR was 2:38:37).  Yay me!

In the realm of big life events, Colby and I have been having lots of talks about where life and the Air Force will likely be taking us next and what our long term visions are for the next ten years.  It's so hard to believe that this summer he reached 12 years in the Air Force.  I can still vividly remember watching him swear his oath of office for the first time.  It's remarkable to me that we're likely closer to his separation from military life than the start of it.  So, no news on that front yet, but we hope we'll have some answers or at least narrowed down the options within the next couple of months.

We enjoyed the remainder of my parents' visit to Germany, and had to say goodbye to them on Tuesday.  Of couse, that was also the day that Coby left on a trip, leaving the girls and me to try to remember how to function with just the three of us!  Answer:  Lots of help from Elmo.  But that is not to last for long as Colby gets home tonight and MY SISTER ARRIVES TOMORROW!!!!  I'm just a wee bit excited.

Her arrival kicks off our last furious explosion of travels as we wrap up a pretty epic summer.  Brittany and I are taking Charlotte and Annabelle and heading to Marseilles next week, and then after a week of recovery and on the job training at home, Colby and I are ditching her with the girls while we jet off for a kid-free vacation to Croatia and Bosnia.  I am feeling equal parts glee and terror at the thought of being without my babies for 9 days.  I'm not sure I remember how to eat dinner without a meltdown from one of my table companions (usually a toddler, sometimes me) or how to go to bed without at least two snuggles and a rendition of Old MacDonald sung in three part harmony.

So, it may be another bit of time before I get my next post up.  We had a terrible incident with the SD card containing the majority of our Copenhagen and Baltic cruise photos, but hopefully we'll be able to complete at least a semi-recovery soon so that I can write up that recap as well as my trip to Garmisch with my parents and the girls.  I should have plenty of time for all of that come September when we have nothing planned.  Nothing... nothing... nothing... I almost find myself looking forward to it!

More Than Mustard

Time, you slippery beast!  Try as I might, this summer is slipping from my grasp faster than I can find the time and energy to document it.  But I want so much to remember all of our adventures from these past few months, so please bear with me as I take a trip back in time to our early summer getaway with my inlaws to the Burgundy region of France, along with a little hop into Switzerland.

We departed on June 1, the morning after my night half marathon in Mannheim--I got home from the run around 11 pm, to bed just after midnight and was up at 5:30 the next morning to finish packing and hit the road!  We checked into a beautiful two bedroom, two story apartment overlooking the rooftops of Dijon, and set out for a quick wander around our environs as well as a delicious dinner in the stunning Place de la Liberation.  It made for a lovely evening as the sunset turned all of the buildings a warm golden hue and the girls found some playmates in the square.

For our first full day of sightseeing, we set out to explore Beaune and a few other small Burgundian villages.  Beaune is probably best known for its remarkable mosaic tiled roofs, best exemplified at the Hotel Dieu.  This former charitable hospital was founded in 1443 by one of the wealthy chancellors of Burgundy.  It is still functioning as a modern hospital off-premises, and these beautiful old buildings are set up as they would have been found hundreds of years ago with rows of beds, cabinets full of herbs and medicines, gleaming copper pots in the kitchen--and of course, those beautiful tiles!

After a quick picnic in a park, we set off for the countryside, weaving our way through vineyards and charming towns.  Our first stop was in Chateuneuf--not to be confused with the more famous Chateauneuf-du-Pape in Provence!  We were some of the only people wandering the streets rife with old stone cottages, manors, flora, and of course, the obligatory castle.  Fortunately, we were able to find a lone restauranteur who was happy to serve us ice cream!

Our final stop for the day was in the much more bustling town of Semur-en-Auxois.  This was the perfect counterpoint to the sleepy enchantment of Chateuneuf.  From the banners snapping in the breeze to the smells of the variety of restaurants, and the numerous souvenier shops along the main street, we knew we were back in tourist central.  We made our way up and down the streets and narrow alleys, stumbled upon ramparts, and gazed upon perhaps our frillionth Notre Dame before deciding to call it quits for the day.

Typically, our m.o. for any trip is to get there and do whatever Rick Steves tells us to do.  However, in Dijon, we were flying blind in terms of Uncle Rick, so instead we stopped by the TI to pick up a little booklet that led us along the "Owl Trail".  This is a Best Of tour, stopping at the many highlights of Dijon, and our merry band of travelers made it last almost all day, though I am assured it is possible to complete in a couple of hours!  My particular favorite stops were the market and the elegant Darcy garden.

For our final stop of the trip, we detoured through Switzerland on the way home for a quick spin through Bern.  Colby and I had been once before, so the fact that it rained on us almost the whole day wasn't too much of a bummer!  We walked through the center of town down to one of the highlights, the bear park.  It actually ended up being helpful that the sun wasn't out since it got the bears up from their naps to enjoy the cooling rain with their lunch!  And of course, I got my Swiss chocolate.

After that, it was back home for a little break from traveling, with another wonderful trip in our rear view mirror!

Adventures in Daytripping

As this is posting, we are off exploring beautiful Copenhagen, Denmark and preparing to board a ship for a Baltic cruise!  I decided instead of packing (how boring--much better to do that some time around midnight the night before we leave), I would get myself caught up on the old blogeroo.

We've had lots of exciting adventures over the past few weeks, first with Colby's parents who visited for about three weeks, and now my parents who are here until the end of July.  It has been positively WUNDERBAR having all of the extra help around the house, and I have been taking full advantage of all the free babysitting by being a social butterfly as often as possible.

Of course, the most exciting part of people visiting is the added pressure/incentive to take more daytrips around our little part of the world.  I think we do a good job of getting out and about even when we're on our own, but when we've got family or friends in town we get kicked into traveling high gear.  Our first daytrip was out to Thionville, France for lunch and then the Ouvrage Hackenberg, one of the largest fortifications along the Maginot Line.  It turned out that the fortifications were a pretty major fail during World War II, as fighting styles had changed so much in the decades since World War I, but it was still a fascinating sight to see this underground battlestation.

Our next adventure was a big day starting in Trier to hit the highlights from the Porta Nigra to the cathedral to the Roman basilica and baths, then up along the Mosel for another stop at Burg Eltz.  Since I had already toured the interior, I let my inlaws go in for the tour while I stayed in the courtyard with the girls.  We had lots of little adventures of our own from trying their first suckers, which were so kindly bestowed upon them by a German lady, to bombarding any oncoming foes of the squirrel variety with Annabelle's snack cup!

Then it was off to Wissembourg, France and Baden Baden.  My inlaws like to really pack a day full, as you may have noticed!  Wissembourg was absolutely adorable, and I would highly recommend it all on its own as a daytrip from the KMC area.  And if you go, you must stop at Patisserie Daniel Rebert for some of the most decadent pastries you will ever taste in your life!

Baden Baden was a repeat performance for Colby and me as it was part of our first weekend away after moving to Germany.  But it felt much different this time as I was no longer lugging two babies around inside my stomach!  It's a truly beautiful resort city that has a very unique vibe from the rest of Germany--much more turn of the century cosmopolitan.

Once my parents arrived, we had a couple outings of our own, at a somewhat more relaxed pace.  We hit up Trier again and ate at one of the best restaurants I've found in Germany, Kartoffelkiste.  Sooo yummy!  From there we visited the same major highlights, but also added the old Roman amphitheater which was a bit of a walk from the main tourist area, but worth the trek for the cool descent below the old "stage" to see where the actors/gladiators/workers could move around behind the scenes.  Charlotte and Annabelle's favorite part was the refreshing splash fountain!

Aside from the daytrips, we also took a quick weekend trip with Colby's parents to Dijon and the Bordeaux region of France, but more on that a bit later.  Now, I'm off to see what other items I can add to my "to do" list to avoid packing!

Fun With Memere

Just a few days after we returned home from the Champagne region, I was headed to the airport.  But not for me--I was picking up my most favorite momsicle on the entire planet!  After scooping up my mom at the curb, we headed into the city of Frankfurt for the day.  As many times as I'd been to the Frankfurt airport, this was my first time visiting the city.  And it was... okay?  There was a cute little main square surrounded by half timbered buildings, but the city was so heavily damaged in the war that much of what is there today is rebuilt after the 1950s.  But we still managed to have a great day and it helped in staving off the looming jet lag sleepies!

It was so great seeing the girls interact with their memere for the first time since November.  Even though they hadn't seen her in person for about 5 months, they recognized her and were so excited to see her all because of our weekly Skype visits.

The first weekend of her visit, we went to the Luisenpark in Mannheim for their Easter Egg Market and fell totally in love with the park.  It is the most beautiful park we've found so far in Germany.  The tulips were at their peak, there were large grassy fields for the girls to run in, a gorgeous Chinese garden, peaceful meandering paths--there was no way we could fit everything into a single day.

Our next big adventure was the Easter Egg hunt that our squadron put on for all the little kiddies.  They made the very smart move to have a separate area for the littlest kids to hunt eggs, where the eggs were just scattered on the grass.  I was a little skeptical about how it would go down since this was the girls' first hunt, but Charlotte was an immediate natural.  The minute we released her into the grass, she was snatching up plastic eggs and hurling them into her basket like a champ.  Annabelle took a little longer to get the hang of it, but by the end of the hunt, she had collected her fair share.  As for the poor Easter bunny, Charlotte was absolutely smitten and couldn't take her eyes off of him, but Annabelle reacted like a cat to a big tub of water--hissing, scratching, yowling--she was not having it!

 

After that Easter teaser, the real day arrived and the Easter Bunny brought their baskets during nap time.  The girls definitely didn't fully understand why they suddenly were presented with baskets full of candy and bunny related paraphernalia, but they seemed pretty excited about the whole thing.

The weather was playing nice, so we decided to head to our favorite local park, the Gartenschau, for a picnic and to give the Easter Bunny--or Oster Hase since we were amongst the locals--another shot.  The picnic went smashingly, the creepy Hase about the same as before.

We put the cherry on the top of my mom's visit with a wonderful trip to the Netherlands, but that's another story, for another post.  The weeks with my mom went by so quickly, all of us girls were pretty sad when she had to head back home.  But the good news is that she is returning with my dad in 5 weeks and they'll be here for a month and a half--woohoo!!

15 Months of Madness

Just a little over a week ago, Charlotte and Annabelle turned 15 months.  It's not a conventional milestone age, but I feel like overnight my babies have undeniably become toddlers.  They keep me constantly on my toes, and every single day they seem a little bit different from the day before.

Charlotte is my little ray of sunshine.  She is rarely to be found without a smile on her face, and she has never met a stranger.  She started walking at about 14 1/2 months and went from stumbling one foot after another to full on running within days.

She is also my amazing eater.  Almost anything I put in front of her is met with approval, and she is a Cheezit FIEND.

Her vocabulary is starting to blossom, and she is particularly obsessed with dogs.  If she's awake, she's probably chattering about something.  The words we've been able to pick out so far are dog ("DA?") and ball ("BA?").  We were watching a bunch of the Superbowl commercials, and she squealed with excitement when the Anheuser-Busch beer ad with the horse and puppy came on and kept pointing and shrieking "DA?  DA? DA?"  It.  Was.  Adorable.  Of course, she also pointed at a picture of a kangaroo in the German vocab book we were reading last night and shrieked "DA?", so it's a work in progress.

And when you ask her "Where's Charlotte?" she'll stick her chest out and proudly point to herself.  She also points to herself in response to "Where's mama?" and "Where's dada?", but she always knows exactly where to point when you ask "Where's the dog?"  Glad to know where I fall in the order of importance in her life.

At her last weight check, she had gained 2 pounds in two months and moved from the super duper 0 percentile in weight to on the chart at zero.

As you can see in the picture, one of her favorite things to do is climb into any available buckets or basket--usually bringing a book with her which she will "read" to herself.  And the girl loves her some Sesame Street.  We've never been a strictly anti-television household, the girls just didn't get interested in it until recently.  Now, I know a pretty surefire way to get some snuggles out of this one is to put on some Big Bird and let her sit on the couch with me.

Annabelle is my wee mama's girl.  I think she would pretty happily spend her entire babyhood confined to my lap if she had her way.  But my little bird is beginning to spread her wings and fly.  She takes a little bit of warming up, but once she knows you, she's probably going to be equally happy on your lap as on mine!  She is our resident queen of the dramatics, and I'm having to learn a lesson about when to jump to her aid and when to let her work things out on her own.

She is an old soul.  It's not always so easy to get a laugh out of this little enigma.  I cannot wait until she can talk and tell me what she's thinking.  I have a feeling Charlotte is going to be my kid with all of the crazy questions, and Annabelle is going to be certain she has all the answers.

But just when you think she might be the most serious baby to ever walk the earth, she will wrinkle her nose and throw her head back in the most glorious giggle-fit.  She also loves to talk, and her favorite phrase right now is "bye-bye".  It's really not a requirement that she be going anywhere.  She'll throw it out any old time.

She had also gained two pounds in two months at her last doctors appointment, and she's been a great eater since then, so I'm hoping maybe she'll get on the charts at her next appointment.

She started walking a little bit before Charlotte, at 14 months, and is also sprinting around the house now.  She can frequently be found carrying around her little felt knife and bread slice, which cracks us up because she looks like a tiny American Psycho.  We didn't teach her that a bread and knife go together, but she always looks like she's in search of a little butter to spread!

  The girls are starting to act more and more like sisters, rather than two babies who happen to orbit within the same sphere.  When one is crying, the other will often offer a snack or a toy.  The fight over toys that they don't want to share.  They run after each other giggling and play a sort of peek a boo between the legs of the tables and chairs.  They "hide" behind the lace curtains and laugh hysterically when they're "found".

As the days are getting longer and marginally sunnier, I'm really looking forward to a spring and summer of days at the park and getting out for walks around our village.

They're sleeping amazingly at night--usually 7ish to about 9:30--and down to one nap a day.  I feel like we're really long past the worst of the baby days, and I am trying to fully enjoy this stage before we get to the tantrums and attitude that comes with the desire for autonomy when they get a little older.  It's not as though every day is filled with butterflies and rainbows, but we've got a groove going, and I'm really digging this age.

 

2013 Wrap Up

Another year has come and gone.  I feel like I'm constantly harping on how fast the time flies, but is it just me or did 2013 go by REALLY REALLY FAST.  I mean, I'm trying to look back on it and reflect on all that we experienced, and it just seems like such a blur.

We had an amazing time in the States for a little over two weeks.  We spent four days in Massachusetts (Could someone please come up with an M-I-crooked letter-crooked leter-I song for MA so I don't have to google its spelling EVERY time I want to write it?  Thanks.) where the girls were finally able to meet my last remaining grandparent, their 94 year old great-grandmother.  It was so sweet, and although her short term memory is shot, and we had a lot of circular conversations, I hope that she's able to remember meeting them.  We also spent time with my aunt and uncle who live nearby, and road tripped up to New Hampshire to see an honorary aunt and uncle.

We then flew down to Louisiana, where we did our best to split our time evenly between our families who live 45 minutes apart.  We were able to see my parents, two sisters, niece and nephew, aunt and uncle, tons of old friends, and Colby's parents, brother, two grandmothers, and cousin and her family.  It was such a wonderful way to spend the Thanksgiving holiday, being so grateful for such a loving group of people to call our own.

Our international flights were both fairly uneventful--the grand finale was when Charlotte barfed all over me three times about 15 minutes before we landed in Frankfurt.  Poor kid.  Poor guy sitting behind me.  But aside from that, everything went very smoothly.  The hard part was the jet lag once we returned home.  It was pretty brutal for me and the girls, though Colby seemed to sleep pretty peacefully through it all!

Our house was stricken by the dreaded stomach bug the week before Christmas, putting a halt to most of our fun holiday plans.  But it still ended up being a nice, quiet Christmas as we all recovered by Christmas Eve, and we were able to watch quite an onslaught of holiday movies.  New Years was another quiet night at home, until around midnight when quiet went right out the window and a reenactment of the London blitz took place in our village.  Miraculously, the girls slept through it all and we only had to soothe our two anxious dog beasts.

And now, here we are, a week into a brand new year.  Since I didn't blog too much over the past year, I thought I would sum things up in this old questionairre I used to fill out at the end of every year.  So without further ado, 2013 in review.

1. What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before?
Visited a couple of brand new to me countries--The Netherlands in March and Czech Republic in June.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions and will you make more for next year?
I didn't make any resolutions, and I don't plan on making any for 2014 either.  There are things I'd like to do, but while I'm still figuring out this ever-evolving parenting thing, we'll just see how things pan out as the year goes on!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
It was the year of babies.  So many of my sweet friends near and far gave birth to sweet little bundles of joy.  There was a definite uptick in the birth of twins as well.  I'm such a trend setter!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Happily, I can report that we made it through a year without any deaths of those extremely near and dear.  I hope for the same in 2014.

5. What countries did you visit?
We took daytrips to: Worms, Germany; Bitche, France; Burg Eltz and Colmar, Germany; Bacharach, Germany; Nancy, France; Trier, Germany; a driving tour of the villages along the Rhine; Hinzert Concentration Camp in Germany; Ludwigsburgh and Hitscherhof, Germany for their Pumpkin Fests; and Rudesheim and Speyer, Germany for their Christmas markets.  Our longer trips abroad were to Amsterdam and Haarlem in The Netherlands; Nice, Antibes and Monaco on the French Riviera; Nuremberg, Germany; Prague and Kutna Hora in the Czech Republic; Berlin and Potsdam in Germany; Cologne, Germany; Paris and Giverny in France; Brussels, Belgium; and 'Merica!  Phew.

6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you didn't have in 2013?
More of a sense of belonging.

7. What dates from 2013 will be etched in your memory, and why?
November 1st as it was Colby's first promotion in the Air Force that required more than a pulse, and November 3rd as it was the girls' first birthday and the culmination of an incredible first year of parenthood. 

8. What was your biggest achievement of this year?
Surviving 16 days alone with two four month olds.  I wouldn't recommend it, but we all survived and came out of it sleep trained. 

9. What was your biggest failure?
I really wanted to get back into running more regularly, and I did well for a few months, but then fell off the wagon when we went back to the States.

10. Did you suffer illness of injury?
i was lucky enough to contract both walking pneumonia and two bouts of stomach viruses this year, on top of the usual colds and allergies.  Joy!  Rapture!

11. What was the best thing your bought?
Our travel.  That's where most of our expendable income has gone over the past year and a half, and I have treasured every moment of it.

12. Where did most of your money go?
We've done really well with our savings, and put a chunk away for savings for Charlotte and Annabelle that we add to monthly.  Aside from that, the aforementioned travel.

13. What did you get really excited about?
Charlotte growing out of her colic!  Best moment of 2013!

14. What song will always remind you of 2013?
Lumineers, Ho Hey.  Evidently it actually came out in 2012, but whatever.  I'm not cool, I'm typically about a year behind on everything.  Anyway, seems like I heard it constantly, and I like to sing it to my wee ones.

15. Compared to this time last year are you a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?
a) Happier
b) Thinner
c) Richer 

16. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Blogging.

17. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Facebook.

18. What was your favorite tv program?
Favorite premiere in 2013...  Sleepy Hollow maybe?  I feel like I've watched a lot of really good shows this year, but none of them premiered in 2013.  Favorite discoveries of 2013 are Scandal and The Good Wife.  The most consistently amazing show on television is Parenthood.

19. What was the best book you read?
I read a lot of great books last year.  My favorite was probably The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. 

20. What did you want and get?
To begin to enjoy being a mom, as opposed to just surviving it.

21. What did you want and not get?
I feel pretty good about the fact that I can't think of an answer to this. 

22. What was your favorite film of 2013?
Saving Mr. Banks

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned thirty-onederful this year!  I had muffins for breakfast, lovingly prepared by my husband, then stayed home with a sick baby instead of going to a hair appointment and then getting dressed up for our squadron holiday party. Yay, mommyhood!  Glamorous.  We did order in from one of our favorite restaurants, and I ate two desserts.  So, not bad overall.

24. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2013?
Uh.  Pajama pants.

25. What kept you sane?
Colby. Honestly. Could not do it without him.

26. What political issue stirred you most?
I'm still pretty pissed about the new budget screwing with miitary retirements.

27. Who did you miss?
This list grows longer by the year.

28. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013.
This too shall pass.  That was my answer in 2010 and it holds true now more than ever.

29. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
I suck at song lyrics, so I'll leave this one to Carrie Bradshaw:
"After all, seasons change. So do cities. People come into your life and people go. But it's comforting to know the ones you love are always in your heart. And if you're very lucky, a plane ride away."

The Inevitable Mom Guilt

I wasn't raised Catholic, and I'm not a religious person, but I did inherit a fair bit of "Catholic guilt" from my maternal side of the family.  Over the years, I got pretty good about brushing off that immediate instinct to feel utterly terrible and responsible for every bad thing that happens in life, but then I became a mom.  And the minute those two girls came screaming into this world, I instantly became afflicted with a healthy dose of "Mom guilt".

The baby is crying?  It must be my fault--I'm not producing enough milk, or holding her comfortably, or changing her diaper the right way, or putting her to sleep properly, or dressing her in the right clothes.  We can't make it out the door in time to show up fashionably dressed, fed and happy for a playgroup--I'm failing at motherhood and obviously can't keep up with every other mother who is somehow able to find the energy and ability to leave the house.

A lot of those feelings were PPD related--I beat myself up about pretty much everything for months, and was pretty sure I'd made a huge mistake thinking I could be responsible for one helpless human, let alone two.  But as the fog lifted around 6 months post partum, and the babies stopped spitting up or pooping all over me and themselves anytime we tried to go anywhere or do anything, life started to get a little bit easier, physically, mentally and emotionally.  I think getting more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep in a stretch helped out a lot.

But even now, there is a certain amount of guilt that I can't shake.  About something that has worried me ever since that day six weeks into my pregnancy when we heard two heartbeats.  Am I ever going to be as good a parent to two babies as I could have been to one baby?

How can I give them both enough attention, enough patience, enough cuddles?  I know that I am fully capable of loving them both with all my heart.  I realize now that I could have fifteen babies and I would love them all with my whole heart--differently, of course, but fully.  But the other aspects of parenting are harder.

I am guilty both for feeling envious about friends who are able to experience one-on-one bonding experiences with their babies and for not being equipped with enough arms to engage in them myself.  I wish that I could bring Charlotte and Annabelle to swim classes, music classes, dance classes, but with only two arms and hands, it seems both unsafe and quite frankly, unfun.  

I know that in just another year or so, it will get easier to provide them with classes and activities that will engage and educate.  I know that they won't even be able to remember these first years and hopefully won't hold it against me that I wasn't able to do everything that I might have wanted for them.  I just can't help but wonder how they might have developed differently or have been better off if I had been able to give them my entire, undivided energies and attention.

But then I see them playing together, working out the concepts of sharing and social interaction, without even having to leave the house, and I know that they're learning things now, important things, that they might not have been able to learn as easily if they didn't have each other.  Maybe the twin relationship will help make up for whatever might have been different if it were just me and one child.

I love having my two girls.  I would never, ever trade this experience for another.  I don't wish for them to be any different than what they are, I just hope that I can be enough for them.  And really, I suppose that's every mother's hope.

Early this morning, when they woke up to eat, I got them out of their cribs individually.  I brought each girl back to my bed, in turn, cradled her in my arms as she nursed.  Gently stroked her head.  Held her tiny hand.  When she finished, I placed her on my chest and held her for a few silent minutes, listening to her soft breaths, and feeling her heart beat next to mine.

We don't have many one-on-one moments of silence, and the older they get, the fewer and further between those moments will become.  But just in that moment, I felt like maybe I was enough.

A Multitude of Celebrations

Phew.

We survived the fun!  Fun is such a joy, but it's downright exhausting at times, isn't it?  Particularly when you're the self-elected president of your one-person introvert club.

The end of last week right on into the weekend was one exciting event after another.

We kicked things off with a celebration of candy, zombies, and Despicable Me minions (pop culture costume phenomenon of the year, don't you think?) with Halloween on Thursday.  We went to Trunk or Treat on base with some friends and their adorable little girls, then came back home for a street party in Little America.  We couldn't hang for too long as it was pretty chilly and Charlotte and Annabelle's fun-o-meter had about hit its limit, but it was a really great first Halloween.  No melt downs and everyone kept their hat on--I call it a win!

Friday, we got ourselves all cleaned up and presentable and went to Colby's promotion ceremony where he finally got to pin on Major after finding out he'd been selected for the rank almost two years ago.  It was a lovely, and more importantly, short, ceremony, and we followed it up with a party in the squadron, and later went to a schnapps distillery for dinner with some friends for some more celebration.

Saturday we spent the day cleaning, decorating, and doing food prep for... the girls' FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!  Yep, on Sunday, November 3, 2013, they made the transition from infants to toddlers.  I suppose they've been toddling for a while now, but I feel like it's pretty official now.  I was actually awake, staring at the clock at 12:17 am, thinking about how exactly a year ago our lives were turned upside down, inside out and made epically more fantastic.  Surreal.

We had a bunch of fabulous friends over on Sunday to help us celebrate, and it couldn't have gone better.  The kids all seemed to have fun, and Charlotte and Annabelle were first birthday party champions.  They went to town on their birthday cupcakes, played with their friends, and went an astoundingly long time maintaining a cheery disposition sans-nap.

As if that weren't enough excitement, last night, right after Colby got home from work, Annabelle took her first real steps.  Both girls have been cruising around using their walker and the furniture for a while now, but last night, AnnaB took the couple of steps from the ottoman to the sofa without holding onto a thing.  Colby and I sat in silent shock for a moment, then looked at each other and simultaneously shrieked, "DID YOU SEE THAT!?!"  

Y'all, this parenting gig.  It's pretty freaking stellar.

The Road to Toddlerhood

The last we heard of Charlotte and Annabelle, they were wee little six-month-olds who looked something like this:

L: Charlotte, R: Annabelle (Photos by Talita Springer Photography)

Charlotte (Photos by Talita Springer Photography)

Annabelle (Photos by Talita Springer Photography)

Now, they are less than two weeks shy of their first birthday and look like this:

L: Charlotte, 11 months, R: Annabelle, 11 months

Five months ago, they could barely sit up without toppling over after a few seconds and now they are giving me near constant heart attacks by doing stuff like this:

L: Annabelle, R: Charlotte

Should I ever again be struck with baby fever, I feel fairly confident in saying that it won't be because I am dying to hold a squishy newborn of my very own in my arms once more.  It will be because almost one year olds are FANTASTIC.  While I do have brief moments of nostalgia for the early days when I could rest a baby on my chest and she would stay there, mostly I'm still battle-scarred from the colic, what was likely undiagnosed PPD, constant diaper changes, and broken sleep.

I can't speak to anything past the one year mark, but from 6 months on?  Perfection.  They're still little babies who need me and love me and think I'm pretty much the most amazing thing they've ever laid their beautiful baby blues on, but they're also exploring their world and growing in independence and learning to play with one another.  Every day my heart grows a little bit fuller with love for these girls, and I don't know how it won't just explode one day.

Charlotte is my little tasmanian devil.  She is constantly falling off of some piece of furniture she has sneakily climbed up on, or tumbling into the toy boxes or the dog bed.  She always has a grin at the ready for everyone who crosses her path.  She loves to eat... well, everything.  Haven't found anything she doesn't like yet.  She has her two front bottom teeth, and seems to be working on a couple of more that may pop through before her birthday.  At her 9 month appointment, she was in the 3rd percentile for growth, but since then I think she's really taken great strides in catching up with her peers.

Annabelle is my mama's girl.  Throughout the day, when life gets a little too overwhelming, she just needs to get pulled up into my lap for some cuddles until she can decompress, then she's ready to get back to it.  She is much more choosy about what foods pass through her lips, but in the past month, she's gotten much more adventurous, eating oatmeal, pasta, banana chunks and even a few mandarin oranges, hopefully getting herself a little above her 0% weigh in at 9 months.  She's a tougher nut to crack when it comes to getting giggles, but you know when she smiles or laughs at you, you've truly earned it.  She just had a top front tooth cut through after a fairly agonizing couple of weeks, and will have her very own jack o' lantern smile soon.

My babies could not be more different, and they challenge my notions about nature versus nurture every day.  They have already formed a bond with one another that I hope only grows and strengthens with age and experience.  It's fascinating to watch them learn from one another--shortly after Charlotte started crawling, Annabelle followed suit.  Annabelle started pushing her walker around the house, and while before, Charlotte had shown no interest, she suddenly wanted to push it with her.  I think our greatest parenting challenge will be helping them to walk the fine line between inspiring one another and competition with one another.

Cheez-It Addicts

My little girls.  There's no one else like them.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Well, that ended up being a rather long break from blogging--more like a sabbatical really.  The days are getting shorter, colder and drearier, signaling the end of summer and beginning of fall.  When I'm living in the south, I love fall--the slightly cooler temperatures, football, wearing boots whether they're called for or not, pumpkin flavored everything--what's not to love?  But during my time in the Pacific Northwest and in Germany, fall is more like a harbinger of doom.  Winter is coming!

So, instead, let's relive my magical summer!  My sister, Brittany, arrived at the beginning of June for a three month stay.  And while there was a teensy bit of concern on both our parts that we would be driving each other up the wall by September, it was, in fact, a fantastic experience, and a time spent together that I'll always treasure.  She watched the girls for me so that I could go to lunches with friends solo, get my hair done, get back into a regular workout routine.  She cooked a delicious and nutritious dinner for us once a week.  And we traveled, oh, how we travelled!

Prague

Kutna Hora, Czech Republic

Berlin

Potsdam, Germany

Strawberry Picking in Homburg, Germany

L: Trier, Germany, R: Cologne, Germany

Paris

Giverny, France

We hadn't spent that much quality time together in close to 13 years.  It was fantastic, and I miss her so much, even after a month and a half of her absence.  We also had a visit from a couple of our best friends from our Washington assignment, as well as a few weeks with my mom so that she could get her baby fix!  I wish I could go back and do it all again.

Fortunately, despite the impending gloom of winter, there are a few bright spots still lighting up the future.  Some way, somehow, we have managed to keep Charlotte and Annabelle alive for almost a year, and their first birthday party will be on November 3rd.  I can't believe it.  More to come on those stinkers in my next post.

Then, we're packing up our herd and heading stateside for a couple of weeks at the end of November, beginning of December.  I'm so thrilled to be able to introduce the girls to their 95 year old great grandmother, as well as many other members of my and Colby's family who have never before seen them in person.  I want to cry tears of joy just thinking about it.

I went ahead and signed up for two more years with Typepad, so while it was touch and go there for a little while as to whether or not I wanted to return to blogging, i'm pot commited!  I still haven't figured out a solution to the Google Reader abandonment issue, but I'm stealthily keeping up with many of your blogs and lives through Facebook, and I'm looking forward to getting back to it.  Until next time!  (Which won't be five months later--PROMISE!)

I Want To Go Back To There

It's becoming somewhat routine to come back to my blog after a few weeks away and toss out the excuse that life has been SO CRAZY lately, and then promise to try and do better.  Would it help if I brought you flowers?  Or chocolates?  What about baby photos?  I guess it's finally starting to sink in that crazy is just the status quo now, and I can probably stop referring to it as such.  Life = Crazy.  Moving on.

In the past three weeks

• My parents arrived for a visit
• The girls turned 6 months old, started sitting unassisted, "eating" solid food (still a work in progress), went swimming for the first time, and were supermodels at their 6 month photo session
• We spent a week on the French Riviera with my parents and my aunt
• We had a lovely weekend in the beautiful city of Nuremberg

That's an awful lot of excitement, and life won't be slowing down much any time soon.  My parents are on a cruise now, so we have a slightly quieter week, then they and my inlaws will arrive on the 26th.  My inlaws will stay through June 9th, then my sister arrives for the summer on the 11th.  We're planning trips to Prague, Berlin and Paris, and some of our bestest friends are coming to visit in July.  I guess I should amend my previous conclusion to state that Life = Crazy = Awesome.

Our week in France was absolute magic.  We rented a villa in the little town of St. Aygulf, about an hour from Nice, which meant that we were close enough to take in all of the touristy sights and far enough away from the hustle and bustle that we were able to completely and entirely decompress with a stunning view of the Mediterranean from every window.

We spent a couple of days just lounging around the house in pajamas and out by the pool, and a few days touring Nice, Antibes and Monaco.  I fell even more in love with France on this trip.  I love their approach to life--they work just as hard as they have to and are serious about relaxation and enjoying the good things in life.  My kind of place.

And now, for a little armchair traveling:

Monaco

Antibes

Nice

Twin FAQs

One of the aspects of having twins that we weren't expecting is how very curious people are about them.  I can totally understand it of course, I've been fascinated by twins since I was a little kid (I actually used to tell people that when I grew up, I was going to have twin girls.  So.), in no small part due to The Bobbsey Twins and the Sweet Valley series.  So, I honestly don't find all of the questions, comments and stares we get offensive or annoying, but Colby and I do joke that we've had to start building "gawking time" into our schedule when we go out.

There are a few questions that I get over and over again.  So, I thought I'd spend a little time here on the old blog answering them.

via

Are they twins?  Are they identical?  Do twins run in your family? Are they natural?

This is pretty much the litany we get when a stranger approaches us.  So, the most basic response: yes, they're twins, no they're not identical, no twins don't run in our families, yes they're natural, but not spontaneous.  As regular readers know, we conceived Charlotte and Annabelle in our first round of IVF, so our pregnancy was achieved through artificial insemination.  But I can assure you, our babies are all natural.  No pesticides or fertilizers here!  And while twins don't run in our families, there is another set of fraternal twins a couple of years older than the girls in my family.  I can't wait for them to meet some day!

How do you tell them apart?  Which one is which?
As the girls have gotten older, and grown out of that squishy, generic newborn stage, we don't get asked quiiiite as often how we tell them apart, but there are still the odd remarks about getting them mixed up.  The more frequent question now is just which one is Charlotte and which one is Annabelle.  The easiest way to tell them apart is face shape and hair.  I call it the Bert and Ernie Rule.  In the picture above, Charlotte is on the left.  Her head and face is rounder (Ernie), and she has longer/more hair.  Annabelle has a longer, thinner face (Bert), and is proof that bald is beautiful.  Of course there are a million other differences that I can see because I spend almost every waking minute with them (different eyes, skin tone, toes, body shape, mouths, ears, etc), but I think those are the most readily apparent differences.

Do you feed them at the same time?

When they were brand new, and feeding almost hourly, I always fed them simultaneously.  I'd use the football hold on a Twin My Brest Friend pillow (stupidest name ever).  It was perfect, because otherwise, I would never have done anything but feed babies non-stop.  Starting when they were about two months old, I began feeding them one at a time in the more standard cradle hold.  Feeding simultaneously went quicker, but it was fairly uncomfortable, and I didn't have that lovely feeling of cuddling my precious baby.  I felt like a cow.  I still feed them at the same time in the middle of the night though, as long as Colby is around to help, because I love my girls, but sleep is takes priority over cuddles at 3 am.

Are they on the same schedule?

I try to keep their schedules as close as possible.  I always change both of their diapers at the same time (unless there's an emergency poop situation), feed at the same time (well, one after the other), and put them down for naps and bed at the same time.  I think since we started from the very beginning with syncing up their schedules, now they just naturally fall into similar rhythms.  There are certainly times where one is less tired than the other, or more hungry, so I have to adapt, but overall, yes, I would say they're on the same schedule.  The few times when one sleeps longer than the other makes for nice one-on-one time for me and whichever girlie is awake.

Do they sleep in the same crib?

Nope.  In their first couple of weeks of existence, we had them in the same crib.  Then we discovered that Charlotte would sleep much better in the Rock n' Play, so we set that up right next to Annabelle's crib and  that's where she's been for naps and night time ever since.  In the past week, I've been working on transitioning her to a crib, and while I initially tried putting them together, they've gotten too big and mobile for it.  Annabelle, in particular, tends to flop around like a fish on dry land, so, inevitably, as soon as Charlotte would drift off, Annabelle would kick her in the head or swat her face, and we'd have meltdown central.  So, they share a room, but I guess we're just skipping the crib bonding time.

I also get a ton of questions about cloth diapering, but I'm working on a separate post specifically addressing my love for the fluffy bums!  I know there are lots of other twin mamas out there, did I cover the basics?  Any other burning twin questions?  Feel free to ask, there's not much I like more than talking about my babies!

Try A Little Honesty

It's hard to believe that we're already at the end of February and the girls are almost four months old.  The last month and a half or so has been so much fun.  They know who we are, and give us the brightest, happiest smiles.  Annabelle's eyes light up and her mouth opens wide into the most adorable expression of glee.  Charlotte raises her eyebrows, crinkles her nose and gives you a sideways glance and a mischievious grin.  They're rolling over, trying to sit up, playing with toys, giggling at the baby in the mirror, trying out their voices, chewing on their hands.  They take naps in their own room, giving me a much needed few hours to myself throughout the day.  It takes ten or fifteen minutes to get them to sleep at night instead of three hours.  They interact with the world around them, and even seem to be beginning to notice each other as they'll suddenly stop what they're doing and stare intently at the baby across the way.  In short, I am loving this mom gig.

But full, brutal, honest disclosure?  I didn't always.

It's still hard to admit that to myself.  To know how hard we had to try to get here, and how much I felt like we'd made a huge mistake for the first two months of the girls' lives--that I wasn't cut out for this.

It's strange, because you hear all about baby blues and post partum depression and how hard motherhood is, but it's something that you just cannot prepare yourself for or understand until you are in the trenches.  And once you're in there--the bullets whizzing by your head, in the same pajamas for the third day straight, a screaming baby in your arms and one ramping up, exhausted, sick to death of feeding your child--it suddenly seems like everyone around you is experiencing this perfect, rosy version of motherhood.

I think the world of social media has to take a lot of the blame for that.  Now that I'm coming out on the other side of the horrible "fourth trimester", I look back and realize that I projected--or tried to project--that same image.  Everything is perfect.  I couldn't ask for a happier life.  Look at this beautiful Instagram-filtered photo of my ideal life.  But don't look beyond it.  Don't really see me.

It took me time to fall in love with my babies.  That's another one I wasn't expecting.  Not only is motherhood hard, but either there is something very wrong with me, or not everyone forms an immediate, loving bond with their child.  I was caring for these tiny strangers who didn't care, or even know, one way or another about my existence.  I had a very strong protective instinct toward them--so strong that I experienced my first anxiety attacks after their birth.  So strong that I was physically incapable of "sleeping when the baby sleeps".  But I didn't feel an instantaneous, enjoyable love.

Combined with that, was the horrible guilt that I didn't feel like holding them all the time, that I resented the fact that they were attached to me every two hours--sometimes more.  I was almost angry about the fact that breastfeeding went so well because it meant that I never got a break, that I didn't have an excuse to just formula feed and not be solely responsible for their nourishment.  I actually do enjoy nursing now, and am so glad that I stuck with it, but it has taken me almost four months to get to this point.  It took me almost two months to learn to enjoy my children, and to love them in something other than just a primal way.  To enjoy their company.  To look forward to seeing their little faces when they wake up, and not dread the moment.

I still feel awful confessing these things, but I feel even more awful keeping it a secret.  Maybe this is normal.  Maybe other people have these feelings.  I don't know.  Looking back, I wish I had realized that I was experiencing a little more than just the baby blues.  I realized it in retrospect, but by then I was starting to come out of it and didn't feel the need for professional help.

I'm so glad that I had a supportive family here to help out with holding babies, cooking dinner, not judging me and my pajamas.  That I have a husband who could not possibly be more helpful.  Who changes diapers, gets up with me at night, rocks screaming babies to sleep, cooks dinner, helps clean the house, doesn't judge me and my pajamas.  That I have two beautiful baby girls who I have finally fallen completely in love with.

I'm still not at the point where I can say that I hope we have another baby some day, but I have gotten to the place where I can understand why people would want to do this again.  When I was stashing away the outgrown newborn and 0-3 month clothes, I actually found myself wondering if I should save it for possible future use.  So things have gotten better.  We're all doing better.  But I wanted to be honest about how I got to this point.  Maybe someone else out there is feeling these same things.  Maybe everyone else feels them.  Maybe no one else does.  But it was my experience.

A Baby Story

Once upon a time, in a faraway land... I gave birth to a couple of babies.  It really does seem like a surreal experience in retrospect.  Although, honestly, it felt like a surreal experience at the time as well.  I was expecting a painful, terrifying, potentially dangerous ordeal, and instead what I got was a few hours of being really hungry, some time to watch some Arrested Development, an excuse to eat an entire box of grape and cherry popsicles, a two hour nap and two perfectly healthy baby girls.  But let's start at the very beginning.  I hear it's a very good place to start.

After months of Braxton Hicks and weeks of true contractions, with one fruitless trip to Labor and Delivery in the middle of the night, it came to pass that no babies were born.  I'd been warned from day one that I'd be lucky to make it to 36 weeks and could probably expect labor to start closer to 34 weeks, but I was still lumbering along, with my uterine clown car at 37 weeks.  I think no one was more surprised than my doctor that not only did I make it to my induction date, but I was only 3 centimeters dilated when I came in.

We checked into Landstuhl Regional Medical Center around 9 am on Friday, November 2nd.  I was still incredibly anxious that I was going to be sent straight home without babies because Charlotte had to be head down in order for us to proceed with induction, and after spending almost the entire pregnancy banging on the door to be let out, the last couple of ultrasounds had shown her transverse.  The midwife rolled in an ultrasound machine, spent some time peering at my internal organs, and seemed genuinely disappointed to inform us that Charlotte appeared to have her shoulder presenting rather than her head.  I was thinking of all the ways I could stage a sit-in and refuse to leave until they yanked some babies out of me, when she decided, no, she did not trust the machine, she was going on an exploratory expedition of her own.
She pushed up her metaphorical sleeves, and proceeded to jam her arm up my uterus practically to my throat, feeling around for a baby head.  Lo and behold, either the machine had lied or Charlotte repositioned herself just in the nick of time, but it was decided that all was well, I was going to have some babies!  That was just the first example of how wonderful my experience with my medical team at LRMC was.  It truly seemed like they were just as excited for these babies to arrive as I was, and they did everything they could to help me feel comfortable, safe, and taken care of.  I could not have asked for a more fantastic group of nurses, midwives, and doctors.
I was started on a low dose drip of pitocin at 10:00 am and things progressed veeeeerrrry slowly throughout the morning and afternoon.  I had my first contraction at 10:30 and over the course of the next few hours, the pitocin was upped so that the contractions became more intense and I eventually started dilating more.

Given my circumstances, I went into labor knowing for a certainty that I would get an epidural.  There was a very good chance, given that Annabelle was still transverse, that I would need an emergency c-section, and I absolutely did not want to go under general anesthesia if that were the case.  But with my experience with contractions up to the point that I got the epidural at 5 centimeters, I do wonder if I could have handled a medication free labor.  The contractions were painful, but I never felt crippled by the pain and was able to breathe through them fairly easily.  Of course, the pain would have become more intense down the line, it's just something I think about from time to time.  Maybe if I ever have to deliver just one baby, I'll give it a try.  But I also had a fantastic experience with the epidural, so I don't know.  Why put myself through it if I don't have to, you know?
Anyhow, I got the epidural in the early evening, and contrary to what I expected, things sped up after that.  It had taken me most of the day to go from 3 to 5 centimeters, and then another couple of hours to get to 6 centimeters, so I figured I'd take a nap since I evidently had plenty of time before the ladies arrived.  I was rolled over on my side to help the epidural take better, and slept on and off for about two hours.  The next thing I knew, my doctor was in the room to check me and announcing that it was go time.
Because it was twins, I delivered in the OR so that they could move immediately to a c-section if necessary.  It was quite a party in there, and that's when I started freaking out a little bit and my body started going into a mild form of shock.  Colby had to suit up while they were prepping me for delivery, so for the first few minutes, I was by myself in a room full of almost all strangers.  There was my doctor and a girl he was training, two baby teams, the anesthesiologist, a nurse from the NICU, my nurse, and possibly some others--I know there was a total of 14 or 15 people in the room all hustling and bustling as I laid there staring at a giant OR light, shivering like crazy, without any pants.  

And that is why I will always love my anesthesiologist.  He noticed that I was proceeding quickly into a silent freak out, and after covering my upper chest and arms in a deliciously warm inflatable blanket, he leaned over me and in his soothing anesthesiologist voice introduced himself, talked to me about everything he was doing and what everyone in the room was doing, and basically kept me from the edge of madness until Colby arrived.

Then my nurse came and took my hand and told me it was time to push.  Now, this was one of the craziest experiences I've had, because I could feel absolutely nothing below the waist, yet I somehow had to get these babies out of me.  So the nurse told me that she would tell me when a contraction was coming and I would need to push while she counted to eight.  Fortunately, I remembered a little tidbit we had learned at our birthing class, that I would need to push as though I were trying to have a bowel movement.  Gross, yes.  But effective?  Also yes.

I pushed for 15 minutes with Charlotte, and everyone in the room was my biggest cheerleader.  They made me feel like I was the champion of delivering babies.  At some point they put me on oxygen, but that was the only slight hiccup, and Charlotte Cecilia came screaming into the world at 12:17 am on November 3rd, 5 lbs 12.9 oz 18.9 inches long.  They placed her on my stomach so that I could meet her, and Colby cut the cord, but then there was more work to be done.

The doctor asked my nurse if Annabelle was still breech, but by some miracle, that little baby had flipped herself around and raced for the exit as soon as her sister checked out.  So, without further delay, another contraction came on and the nurse started the pushing count down.  I don't know how it's possible to not be able to feel something, but also be completely exhausted by it.  I am in awe of women who push for hours on end.  I'd pushed for 15 minutes, had a break for a couple of minutes, and then minutes later, Annabelle Claire joined the party at 12:22 am, 5 lbs 15 oz 19.1 inches long.

After that, everything is such a blur.  The doctor asked us if we wanted to see the placentas, and in adrenaline powered curiosity, I said yes.  It was actually really fascinating, and I'm glad I got to look at the organ that kept my girls safe for 37 weeks and 1 day.  I had a second degree tear, so once we were done with the science lesson, he stitched me up and I was transfered from the table back to the hospital bed for the ride back to the labor room.
I imagine we probably got back to the room, where my mom was waiting anxiously, around 1 am, and I have no idea where the next four hours went.  I know the girls got baths and we had our first breastfeeding session.  Both girls latched on pretty well for first timers, and the only worrisome part was that Charlotte had a hard time warming up to the right temperature.  They had me do skin to skin with her for a while, and finally she got the all clear and was bundled up next to her sister.

Then, I was under strict instructions to pee or I was going to get a catheter.  They'd been pumping fluids into me for hours, and I'd been drinking water like crazy, so my bladder was incredibly full, but evidently one of the side effects of the epidural can be difficulty urinating independently once the catheter is removed.  However, by then the epidural was wearing off, and the last thing I wanted was to be re-catheterized, so we turned on the water faucet and I tried very hard to think of waterfalls.  When it finally happened, it was like that scene in Austin Powers--I didn't think it would ever stop!  Finally, the epidural wore off enough that I was able to take a quick shower, then it was down to the mother and baby ward to try and get some sleep.
What I still can't believe is that when I was wheeled down to my room for the next two days, Charlotte and Annabelle were able to come with us.  It's absolutely amazing to me that our little peanuts didn't have to spend any time at all in the NICU.  That had been almost a certainty--just like the fact that they were going to come no later than 36 weeks--but my little troopers blew us all away by being perfectly developed and healthy.  We had a moment of concern when we were told later that morning that Annabelle had a slight heart murmur that they were monitoring, but by the time we checked out on Monday morning it had resolved itself.  I am so proud of my little miracle babies and love them more and more with every day that passes.

(Fabulous birth photography done by my wonderfully talented friend, Jennifer Winfrey of Jennifer Winfrey Photography)
 

Two Months Later...

Where shall I begin?  Well, life is certainly very different now from the last time I checked in.  We're getting a much better handle on how this whole parenthood thing works, though as I've learned, it's a constantly evolving process.

I'll be honest, the first month was... not great.  That's a big part of the reason for the radio silence around these parts.  After writing for almost two years about how much we wanted to start a family, I didn't know how to talk about the fact that I was not coping well with the reality of actually having babies.  Everyone talks about how hard babies are, and I never doubted them, but there's truly nothing that can prepare you for those feelings of inadequacy, overwhelming fear of doing something wrong, and the exhaustion.  OH THE EXHAUSTION.  I confess, I had more than a few moments of wondering if we'd made a huge mistake.

Thank goodness my mom was here to help--making me rest and eat, cooking us dinner every night, taking shifts with crying babies.  As hard as things were, it would have been infinitely harder on our own.  Then, once we got through that first month, things got a little bit easier, but a horde of family descended upon us, then it was the busy holiday season, and then everyone headed back to their mouseholes, and Colby and I were left alone to figure out how to take care of two little ones on our own.

Charlotte, 4 days old

Annabelle, 1 week old

The good news is that we've managed to keep them alive--and I think happy--for ten weeks now.  And as each day goes by, it gets a bit easier.  They've been sleeping long stretches at night, and just getting more than three or four hours of sleep at a time makes a huge difference.  On Friday night, they actually slept for nine hours straight.  The odds of just one baby doing that at two months old are pretty slim--but both babies??  It felt like an actual miracle.  I don't think I'd gotten that much sleep in one go since the first trimester sleep fest.

Two months old.  Can you tell who's who??

I have a great deal to write about--since my last post I've visited three countries, celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary, survived the Mayan apocalypse and turned 30--2012 definitely went out with a bang!  One of my New Year's resolutions was to get back to blogging on a more regular basis, and if it means taking time away from a Homeland marathon, then so be it.  This little corner of the internet has seen me through my single years in the Air Force, my engagement and wedding, three moves, two puppies, a struggle with infertility, and pregnancy--I have no intention of letting it fizzle out now that there are babies to talk about!  But for now, I'm going to get back to Downton Abbey.  Who knows how much time I have left with two babies sleeping and a hot cup of tea?  We'll chat again soon!

A Whole New World

My hat is officially off to all mommy bloggers, everywhere.  Seriously, HOW do you do it??  I've been writing posts in my head for days now, and never seem to find the time to actually write them out.  During the time that I don't have babies attached to my boobs, I'm not elbow deep in diapers, and I'm semi-conscious, all I want to do is sit on the couch and stare at the tv.  Or the wall.  I'm not too picky.

Taken at about a week old.  They already look so different to me now. (Annabelle left, Charlotte right)

So, our babies are almost two weeks old.  Two weeks.  That's already half of a month!  They're gonna be FORTY!  The days are just flying by in a big blur.  I have no idea where the time goes, one minute it's the middle of the night and I'm trying to get a baby to eat. the next thing I know it's night time again. My days revolve entirely around feeding babies.

I am pretty proud of myself, because we're getting the hang of simultaneous feeding and so far, my supply has been excellent.  I was able to get a hospital grade pump on loan from my hospital, and we're hoping to start bottles soon so that I can get a break from the round the clock feeding marathons.  It'll still require pumping at feeding time, but I can pump, then go to bed and get some sleep before the next feeding.

Cuddly Charlotte

The girls are absolutely amazing.  They're still in the sleepy phase, in part due to being born a few weeks early, so they're pretty zonked out most of the time, but they're starting to be a bit more alert and taking in more of the world around them.  Night time has been something of a challenge, but so far not nearly the nightmarish experience I've heard from a lot of my friends.

The many faces of Anna-B

Annabelle is the most placid baby I have ever seen.  She is quiet as a little mouse--even her fussing is barely audible.  She can sleep through her sister's screaming fits like there is nothing going on.  Charlotte is my spicy baby.  She makes sounds like a baby velociraptor, grunts and whimpers in her sleep, snorts, and when she's upset, her temper flares up and she screams with the rage of a Banshee queen.  But she's only had a couple of marathon screaming sessions, and for the most part, she'll calm down within a few minutes.  The hard part is that she really just wants to be held and cuddled 24/7, which is really a problem at 1 am.  And 2 am.  And 3 am...

We actually had to move the girls out of our room and into their nursery at night their third day home with us, when they were only five days old.  Charlotte is just too noisy, even in her sleep.  I'm such a light sleeper, and it's already so hard for me to fall asleep with the perfect conditions, I couldn't fall asleep between feedings and came this close to a total breakdown.  I had my very first experience with an anxiety attack.  I felt like I was going to throw up, like I couldn't breathe, like I had no control over my body.  It was horrible.  I'm still having trouble sleeping at night, but overall, I think we're all doing much better with the current set up.
We're going in tomorrow for their two week appointment and to do a weight check, but I think that they've been gaining pretty well.  At last week's weight check, the doctor was concerned about Charlotte's weight gain.  Annabelle had been gaining about 60 grams per day, but Charlotte was only at 25 grams per day and the minimum they want to see is 20.  So, even though she's meeting the minimum, the doctor, in his blunt English Second Language way informed me that her weight gain was "no good... it is lousy".  So, of course, I spent the next hour crying and feeling like a total failure.  I'm optimistic about better results tomorrow.  It kills me how tiny they still are in their clothes though.  They're still swimming in a lot of their newborn stuff, but they are starting to fill it out a bit better.  SOB!!

I still can't believe I have babies...

The Storm Before the Storm

Well, we certainly had an eventful weekend around here.  We spent Saturday afternoon running around trying to find a replacement for my mom's computer that had decided to die on her a few days ago.  In a frustrating turn of events, a few months ago, a new regulation was put in place that lithium batteries can no longer be shipped to APO (overseas American military) addresses.  And pretty much EVERYTHING electronic has a lithium battery.  That means that we are basically restricted to what we can find in a store on base or on the economy.  Unfortunately, unless you want an iPad, there are about four options for tablet computers in the stores, and as hard as it is for me to accept, my parents just aren't Apple people.

Just as we were giving up hope, I remembered my old standby--German Amazon.  I did a quick search and lo and behold, they had the tablet she wanted and the docking station in stock--unfortunately, for a lot more than most American stores thanks to the exchange rate, but we aren't in much of a bargaining position.  So, we made the order and all was well.

Except, all day I'd been feeling a little off.  Achy.  Tired.  Crampy.  Lots of Braxton Hicks.  So, when we got home, I put my feet up and tried to relax for the rest of the evening.  Then, just as I was getting ready to go to bed, I felt something new.  An intense cramping feeling low in my stomach combined with the feeling of my uterus tightening up.  I brushed it off, but about 15 minutes later, the same thing happened.  So, I hesitantly told Colby that I miiiiight be having real contractions.  Over the next 3 hours, the contractions continued, some with the achy, cramping feeling, and others that didn't hurt.  I went into panic mode around midnight and decided that we needed to do ALL OF THE LAUNDRY so that I could pack my hospital bag.

At 2:30, Colby convinced me to go to bed, and I was woken up twice with the painful contractions, but I had my last one around 4:30 in the morning on Sunday.  Since then, I've had a fair amount of Braxton Hicks, but fortunately, nothing painful.  It did light a fire under me to start knocking out those final "to-dos" on my Get This Done Before Babies list, but it seems like for now, the ladies are pretty content staying inside for a bit longer.

Happily, this also meant that I was able to attend my shower on Sunday where I had a great time eating yummy snacks, doing a fun craft and opening prezzies!  Last night, I made a massive Amazon and BabiesRUs order, using up all of my gift cards, and at this point, everything that we're going to "need" when the babies arrive is either in the house or on its way.  So, I'll feel a lot better once everything arrives, but I feel good knowing that at least we know we'll be getting it shortly.  

And in the meantime, I'll just keep reminding Charlotte and Annabelle that they are much more comfy and cozy swimming around in amniotic fluid than they will be out in this big, crazy world.  No need to make an entrance too soon!

Fall Has... Fallen?

I cannot wrap my head around the fact that today is the first day of October.  It is officially fall.  One of my all time favorite seasons, made all the more special by the fact that it is the season in which MY BABIES WILL ARRIVE!!!  It's so unbelievable.  And so wonderful.  And so terrifying...

Last week was pretty hectic with trying to get the house in decent shape for my mom's arrival.  I've gotten to the point where just running the vacuum cleaner on one floor just about does me in, so I've been majorly slacking in the "cleaning house" department.  I've got to get serious about finding a cleaning lady.  I try to keep up with the dog hair tumble weeds, run a dust rag around every week or so, and wipe the bathrooms down with a Lysol wipe when they start getting scary, but this place definitely needs a deep clean before I bring the girls home.  But happily, my mom made it in safe and sound and is firmly ensconced in the basement.  We're not going to let her leave for a very long time... and I promise the basement is actually very nice!

The first couple of days she was here were pretty yuck, but fortunately the sun decided to grace us with its presence starting over the weekend, and we've had some beautiful days since.  Friday, we had some friends over for dinner.  Then on Saturday we enjoyed the beautiful, crisp weather at the Gartenschau Pumpkin Festival in Kaiserslautern.  We walked around the park, admiring the award winning pumpkins, beautiful flowers, pumpkin sculptures and, of course, the food!  I had to try the pumpkin soup, and my mom and Colby each had a wurst and there was flammkuchen for all.

The theme was "Under the Sea" and all of the sculptures were made out of a vast assortment of pumpkins and gourds, with accents of rocks, wood and wicker.  At one point, while we were walking around I was "accused" of trying to smuggle a pumpkin out under my shirt... oh, people are just hilarious!

Sunday was more of a bummer, as we had to drop Colby off at the base to leave for an eleven day trip.  We're very happy that due to some scheduling changes, he won't be gone a full two weeks like we'd originally thought, but I'm still not thrilled about him leaving so late in the pregnancy.  I'm sure there's still plenty of time before there are any signs of imminent arrival, but he installed the carseats before he left, and we've been giving my mom driving lessons, just in case we need to head to the hospital before he gets back home.  But hopefully they'll stay in there baking for a few more weeks!

What's In A Baby Name?

When I was growing up, I wasn't so madly in love with my name.  My first name was too uncommon, and I didn't think it sounded girly enough.  I went through various phases, but I think the name I wished for the most was Stephanie.  I don't know what exactly it was I liked so much about Stephanie, but to me it seemed like the perfect name to ensure that I would grow up to be pretty and popular, the two things most nine year old girls care about most in the world.  My middle name was also fairly uncommon, and inspired people to serenade me with renditions of The First Noel.  I was not terribly impressed.

However, as I grew older and the desperate desire to be exactly the same as everyone who surrounded me passed, I learned to love my name.  Especially the flow of my first and middle names.  I think it's beautiful, and meaningful and given my birthday around Christmas time, I'm not even bothered if people want to sing The First Noel at me.

That said, having to come up with a baby name--two baby names at that--has given me a lot of heartburn.  I want to love their names.  I want Colby to love their names.  I want our family and friends to love their names.  I want THEM to love their names.  And oh, there are SO MANY NAMES.  When I was a little girl, imagining that I had twin daughters, I went with matched sets like Denim and Lace.  Or Stacy and Tracy (I wanted to be a Stacy almost as much as I wanted to be a Stephanie).  I'm pretty glad that I'm not obligated to stick with any of those early life decisions.

We talked a lot about what we wanted our baby's names to say.  We wanted them to be classic and meaningful.  Nothing cutesy, matching or even starting with the same letter.  We had to make sure initials didn't spell anything bizarre or inappropriate, and that we weren't making playground taunts too easy.  It was a tall order, but we finally settled on two names that we both really love.  So without further ado, I'd like to introduce you.

Charlotte, the artist formerly known as Baby A, was the first name we came up with--almost two years ago now--and we've loved it consistently.  Not only is it a beautiful name, but Charles is a family name on Colby's side.  My only surviving grandparent is Cecile, and she's an incredibly strong woman who managed to hold a demanding job as a nurse as well as raise a family of five children, and she never leaves the house without a fresh coat of lipstick.  When we shared the names with Colby's parents, we discovered that Cecilia is also a family name for them, making it even more special.

Annabelle is a name that I fell in love with after we found out we were pregnant and started researching names more purposefully.  I love that it has a Southern vibe to it, and my mom's name is Ann, so there's a nice bit of family connection there.  Colby took a little longer to come around on this one.  He kept saying that he liked it, but he imagined a Southern belle in a hoopskirt sitting under an oak tree.  To which I say, I should have never made him watch Gone with the Wind and WHAT'S WRONG WITH HOOPSKIRTS AND OAK TREES???  Anyway, when he came home from his last trip, with no prompting from me, he declared that he'd decided he liked it, and thus, Baby B became Annabelle.  I've always loved the name Claire, and it's a variation on Colby's mother's maiden name, so again, family connections are important to us and we managed to tie them in without overtly using a family member's name.

For some reason, giving them names makes me even more excited about meeting them in a few more months.  Not that I wasn't already over the moon, but they seem even more humanized now, and I love thinking "Charlotte must be sleeping" or "Annabelle just kicked me in the belly button".  So, there we are, another baby-related decision down and only fourteen frillion more to go!

Ein Shön Wochenende!

Oh what a wonderful weekend!  We packed so much fun into it, and somehow still had plenty of relaxation time on the couch--I don't know how it's possible except that we must have discovered a time warp.

Friday, we went with some friends to see The Dark Knight Rises and then went for ice cream at a great place in Landstuhl--Dolomiti.  They're probably best known for their spaghetti ice cream, a strangely popular thing in Germany, but I always get a decadent sundae with two scoops of chocolate, one of vanilla, fudge sauce and chocolate shavings... yummmm.  I thought the movie was really well done, but I thought it was kind of strange just how much the ending seemed to be begging for a sequel after all the talk about how this was the final installment of a trilogy.  Oh, and Colby and I are now contemplating inviting Anne Hathaway to be a sister wife.  Girl was looking good in that catsuit is what I'm saying.

Saturday, we finished painting our great room and I looooove it.  I know painting a rental seems silly to some people, but I think a coat of paint on the walls goes such a long way toward making a place feel like home, and it only took about five hours total, so it wasn't a huge time suck.  The house is so close to being done, and I can't wait to take you on a little "tour" soon.  That afternoon, one of our Charleston friends was in town for a mission and had some free time, so we had him over for a couple of hours, then headed out to another friend's birthday party.  We met some more great people who've lived here for a while, and enjoyed some awesome flammkuchen and birthday cake.

Sunday, we had a very relaxing day, starting out with a super delish brunch at the Officer's Club on base, then I worked on catching up with this season of Army Wives while Colby did some work on the Air Force school he's taking by correspondence.  We wrapped up our weekend with marathon Skyping and Google Video chats with our parents.  I have a steady phone date with my parents every Sunday, but it was so great to be able to see them and have a conversation that almost felt like we were in the same room.  I can't wait until they can come for a visit--we've got some awesome parental units!

This week is shaping up to be another good one--I'm still not quite over the PTSD brought on by late June and early July, so every time the phone rings or I check my email, I brace myself for horrible news, but so far things are going well.  I do have to bring my car in to another shop to get a second opinion on that check engine light though, so I'm sure THAT will be a blast.  Hope you all had great weekends as well and that Monday is treating you kindly!

Counting Down the Days

Two days until my first hair appointment in WAY TOO LONG.  These roots are seriously out of control.

Four days until I drive to Baton Rouge, then onto Houston with my parents to visit my sister and her family, and my aunt and cousin.  It'll be the last time I get to spend with them in the States for who knows how long, and I'm already sad about leaving them.

Eleven days until Colby finally gets home from his training in Seattle.  He'll have been gone for 7 weeks--hardly our longest separation ever, but almost as long as he was gone for his last deployment since he got to come home early!

Twenty one days until the first day that the movers show up.  They're scheduled to pack and load over the course of three days, and I can't wait to have it behind us.  We have to separate all of our possessions into three categories: Storage, Household Goods (which will arrive in Germany 2 or 3 months later), and Unaccompanied Baggage (900 pounds that will be shipped by air and should arrive within a couple of days--so everything we'd need immediately).  Of course, since the house always has to be "show ready", I haven't been able to start separating things out, and I have a feeling it's going to be an incredibly chaotic few days making sure all of the right stuff goes with the right people.

Twenty seven days until we load up our car and leave Charleston behind.  It's incredibly bittersweet, and the reality that we're actually leaving has started to really sink in.  Yesterday, it was in the upper 70s in Charleston and there was snow falling in Germany.  Yikes, never ending winter!

Twenty nine days until we will be residents of Deutschland!  And then the adventures will really begin!