Easter 2016

Easter happened and it was beautiful.

First, PJ insisted on gifting me my favorite flowers all throughout the blooming season.

Together we colored gorgeous eggs.

And we hunted for eggs and chocolate at Oma & Opa's house,  organized all by the beautiful Tante S.

Welcome spring!

Xo

Christmas Eve 2014

Christmas this year was ever more magical than last year. Per tradition, we spent Christmas eve with the Mr.'s family where glorious things were prepared in the kitchen.

 

You wish you could have eaten with us.

While the rest of us played and goofed.

Jelly Bean practiced her hide-and-seek skills with her brother, papa, uncle, and aunt.

Then she discovered some accessories that she insisted we wear.

 

So I insisted on a picture of the handsome girls.

 

We tried to get a picture of our handsome boys as well but...

My handsome husband.

PJ was way too busy playing with his uncle.

 

And leading his uncle and his sister around the house on some sort of complicated march.

Finally, after we had eaten dinner and were (impatiently) waiting to open gifts, I managed to snag a picture of my handsome fellows.

We even got a somewhat fun picture of the whole family!

Once the gift giving got going, pictures become scarce. I did manage to get this picture of my ridiculously beautiful sister-in-law.

This year PJ made star decorations for his family. Opa and Tante got necklaces. Uncle got a bowtie. And Oma got an apron so she can "stay cooking" (told you the food is good).

Then we managed to snap some of the family pictures.

Our clan with the gift of the year:
a talking Lightning McQueen.

The super handsome siblings.

The almost-entire family, just missing
my newest sister-in-law and baby-to-be.

After the food was eaten, gifts were opened, and the kitchen somewhat cleaned up, we headed over to the Mr's grandmother's house to meet up with the rest of the family.

Jelly Bean was all over the "prost"ing
with her sippy cup.

Together, we sang songs, enjoyed some beer or wine, and made another set of memories.

Jelly Bean was impressed with the singing; PJ was pretty bored.

After the singing ends, the younger generation (meaning my husband, his siblings, and all his cousins) tends to drift upstairs to play board games and drink schnapps. Most years there is also arm wrestling.

This year, however, "younger generation" meant my three-year-old, dressed in his full suit, proudly playing Looping Louie, drinking milk schnapps (just milk, I checked) while the others drank the harder stuff and showing no signs of being tried at 11:30pm.

If he can party this well at three years old, I'm pretty sure we are in for a major ride in just a few short years.




xo

Christmas 2013

Our first Christmas as a family of four has come and gone. As usual, we started at my parents-in-law house. Christmas is celebrated in Germany on the 24th; so we spend that day with German family. Then on the 25th we have American Christmas with our family.

German Christmas
We headed over to my husband's family's house at some point in the afternoon. There we shared a wonderful, multi-course meal. Afterwards we posed for pictures and opened gifts.

Pickles and Onions

The two pickles!

The entire Christmas Eve group

Lets be honest, gift giving is more fun when kids are involved. The surprise and excitement that little kids bring to the party is unique and so much better than us jaded adults. PJ was, of course, no exception. First PJ got a huge tractor from his aunt and uncle.

Then a massive fire truck from his oma and opa.

It took a while for him to be able to play with his new gifts alone...he got a lot of "help" in "opening them" from both of his uncles. 

When that was all done, we went over to the Mr's grandmother's house to meet up with the rest of my mother-in-law's family. As usual, we sang, we ate, and there was arm wrestling. 

Jelly Bean wasn't very comfortable with so many people, so I spent a lot of time in a dark kitchen trying to help her relax. I understand it was a great evening; my highlight was when my son - for the FIRST time in his ENTIRE life - came to me and said, "tired. go home now." 

Priceless. 

American Christmas

The next day was magical! PJ slept in way longer than he usually does since we were up until almost 11pm. I was the first person awake in the entire house and I woke up to a Christmas greeting from my family that included this adorable picture.

When PJ finally woke up, the adults scrambled to get downstairs with him. My brother made an awesome video of PJ seeing the tree and the gifts for the first time but the damn thing won't load. Boooo! I'm telling ya, kids on Christmas is the best.

PJ had a blast opening up that mountain of gifts. Most of them were for Jelly Bean or himself, so he got to open up the vast majority of them, and insisted on "helping" us with our own gifts too. 

The adults got to open up coffee. Lots of coffee. 

Lots of coffee. 

Jelly Bean was cool with her brother opening up her gifts, cause she was rocking the themed outfit.

"Yup, I'm adorable."

At some point the gift opening got a little silly, but its all good:

And, honestly, we had to take a breakto read books ...

PJ in his Christmas outfit. What a handsome guy.

There were some really great books.

... and dress up as Batman to capture some bad guys.

Or to learn how to drive a remote controlled truck (damn, this kid has it way too good):

My brother, explaining how the whole remote-controlled truck thing works.

Afterwards, those with no kids crashed for a few more hours of sleep. And those with kids, either snuck in a short nap (me) or cooked a feast that included goose (the Mr).

The Mr. and his first ever goose

My brother carving said goose

The food was incredible. Dinner took a while and there were tons of leftovers. Win all around!

All in all, Christmas 2013 was a wonderful, family-filled affair. Jelly Bean gave it her highest rating:

Highest possible rating: Jelly Bean's toothless grin with sparkling eyes

Me too.


xo

Happy Half Birthday!

Wow, it has been a crazy week. Must have been because I haven't blogged since Monday. The short version of the story is: started off quiet, took a turn into Sick City, rebounded with a wonderful visit at friends', and is now ending with little man turning six whole months old.

The longer version is: turns out little man is willing to spend time in his (previously hated) stroller as long as he can sit up and comment on just about everything that goes past him.



And: Holy moses - I found my ab muscles. Turns out ten hours of puking my brains out and then dry heaving for about another five hours should be considering one hell of an abdominal work out. Not one that I would really recommend but highly effective for locating stretched out abs. No gym membership needed - just eat something off.

I had been curious how nursing would work if I got sick. I learned earlier that during a cold I needed to drink extra, extra water and that sneezing really pisses PJ off. This time I learned that my body will still create enough nutrition for my son even when I cannot keep water in my body. That just seems miraculous to me. I also learned that while sneezing still pisses PJ off, he could seriously care less if I lean over his body to vomit while he is nursing. Seriously, people: my boy is already ready for frat parties. And, no, there is no picture of that one. Your welcome.

Thankfully, Opa was able and willing to come over on both Wednesday and Thursday to help take care of PJ. On Wednesday I was thankful that he could come but I also sorta expected him to come: he lives less than 30 minutes away; loves PJ; his wife, son and daughter are all out of the country; and he is retired. What else was he doing that could outrank our PJ?

Then PJ was ready for his nap, I was too sick to rock him after nursing, and PJ - who loves his structure - got more and more tired but was unwilling to sleep until I came over and did my job. I could almost hear his little voice chanting, "It is so difficult to find good help these days, dammit."

In my absence, Opa tried everything he could for over an hour, including singing, back rubbing, carrying, until PJ pushed his little arms off Opa's chest, looked him right in the eye, and then shrieked into his face without end.

Shrieked into his face. Without end. To know what that looked like, remember this blog entry?

I finally gave in and called the Mr to please come home, hoping that PJ would put on a more subdued performance for his papa. I also got a short reprieve and somehow managed to hold it together just long enough to finally rock PJ to sleep.

After all of that, imagine my (sheer) surprise when Opa was actually willing to repeat the performance on Thursday. Seriously, that is grandparent love right there. Kid shrieks in your face for an hour and you still give up your morning to spend time with him? And smile about it? Awesome.

Seriously awesome.

Opa, Oma and PJ in happier days.

And, we got to spend a nice afternoon with Little Precious's parents and younger brother (who is adorable beyond words). For one glorious half hour all three kids were asleep and the parents went wild....drinking tea and a beer and chatting. Mostly about kids.

There we are, wild and crazy:



And today my worm, my little man, my most precious PJ is six months old. Half a year. To celebrate, he is strutting his stuff in his little (borrowed) tuxedo and showing off his skills:

Six months old. Insane.


xo