Blustery Day

Today started out alright. The boys and I got up early, ate some breakfast, watched some Sesame Street and then headed out early to my postpartum appt. The wind over here was crazy today and was pushing us all over the road. I hate driving on the autobahn when it gets like that. We got to the clinic an hour early ... perhaps a little too early. Caleb wasn't doing bad while we were in the waiting room. He kept the other people waiting in there entertained by pretending he was stuck on the sign outside the door so he wouldn't have to come sit down and then kept saying "come on!" and trying to get them to follow him around. He even behaved himself in the exam room while the nurse took vitals. It was only after she had left that he decided he was going to be crabby. That was also about the time that his diaper decided it couldn't take anymore and he ended up peeing all down his leg and into his shoes ... it was lovely. We finally finished up and left the clinic. It's a pretty long walk back to the car from Women's Health ... especially with a 2 yr old who feels the need to scream and cry through the hospital while you are trying to push a stroller with a 3 month old who wants out of his carseat. Being outside didn't make it any better. Once at the car he fought getting into his carseat and threw his cup on the floor. Thank goodness there is a tv/vrc in the van or else mommy probably would have gone crazy.

On another note, the search for housing without the dreaded interior wood paneling continues. We've found some that we really like but no reply back from posters. Hopefully we will hear something soon so we know what we need to have money-wise. Aaron should be getting Housing paperwork for over here done tomorrow and our household goods get picked up on the 21st of April. Seems like it's coming so fast!! Money when PCSing is so stressful since you have to pay for everything upfront. The military reimburses you later but it's still hard having to pay for the things you will need before you leave and once you get to your next duty station. We are looking at DLA (which is basically free money to help with expenses) and a couple other options. I'll be so happy when this move is over and all of ours things have made it over safely. Right now we are just taking it a day at a time and trying to de-clutter the place before the movers come.

Oh The Places We Will Go ...

With our PCS coming up in less than 2 months, I've been thinking about all the things we didn't get to see and do and all the things about Germany I am going to greatly miss. I've loved having the opportunity live in a place as amazing as this and, while others have taken their time here as a prison sentence, I have most defiantly enjoyed it (rough patches and all). Of course there were times when I wanted to be home due to things having nothing to do with the country and everything to do with the military ... that's just the way it is. I don't remember having culture shock after coming over here (we are probably going to be in some major culture shock going back). It just felt so easy to slide into the pace of German life. They only thing with culture shock was probably our bank account ... poor thing still hasn't recovered from it. There are very VERY few things I dislike about it here (crappy exchange rate aside) and the majority of them have been American/military related (housing neighbors, lack of ANYTHING at the BX, gaint, pointless trucks, people who can't park to save their lives, ect ...).

I always thought that, when it was finally time to PCS, I would be excited to leave here. While I am excited about being close to family again, I find that I'm almost equally saddened by the fact that I won't be coming back soon. Germany won't be the place that we come home to after a "vacation in the states". Home in Germany feels the way I always imagined your home should feel. I'm going to miss getting lost on endless country roads and driving through 4 different villages to get to some fantastic little spot. I'm going to miss being able to drive 5 minutes down the road to hike up to a castle for a picnic. I'm going to miss festivals that are held for every season in each town. I'm going to miss watching a little piece of junk car pass a flashy audi or bmw on the autobahn at 200 k. I'm going to miss the autobahn :) 220v plugs, push-button toilets, schnitzel, a sign for doner every 5 ft, gluhwein, Christmas markets, friendly smiles, Alpine hats, the fact that I cannot recall having my car pooped on by an sort of animal in the almost 3 yrs we've been here, the excitement I feel when I'm able to touch a bullet hole from WWII or walk through a castle that's somehow survive the test of time.

I'm going to miss Germany in more ways than I can count ... but with any luck we'll be back again someday.

Little Climber

Loud bangs and screeches coming from Caleb's room are nothing new in the mornings and after nap times, but this morning he sounded sneakier than usual. I walked in and found him standing in his closet which sits about 2 feet off the ground with drawers beneath it. I'm still not exactly sure how he manages to get up inside it since the last time he did it there was a chair near it but he seems to have mastered the art now.

He managed to throw out every article of his and Jensen's clothing and then lifted out the shelf that divided the space in half so he could fit comfortably. Guess we will be going to Toys R Us for another lock.

In other news, we finally got Jensen's passport application sent through!! Such a headache, but I'm glad it's finally done. It should be here just in time for Aaron's out-processing.

Playing Catch Up

So, it's been a while since we've updated anything on here. We've been a little busy with little Jensen and getting ready to PCS that the blog has taken a back seat. So for people who just don't pay attention on FB or who like the condensed version, this is what has been going on for the last few months.

This November we said goodbye to Midas. It was a hard decision but it was best for him. He's now living with a very sweet German family not far from here who have a yard for him and 6 kids to play with. The family was so excited to get that they didn't even mind his crazy antics. While we miss him, I'm pretty sure he's much happier with his new family :)

 In December we had a couple things happen. On December 7 at 1834 we welcomed Jensen Illidan Crawford. He was 6 pounds 9 ounces and 20 inches long. Caleb wasn't too fond of him in the beginning but he's warmed up to him a bit now and gives him a kiss every night before bed.

On December 27th we celebrated Caleb's 2nd birthday!! This year we skipped out on a party and will have one for him once we get back to the states and visit everyone in Florida. He's getting so big and sometimes I wish he would just stay this little forever ... sometimes.

Caleb also got to sled for the first time this winter. He wasn't so sure about going on his own, though Daddy didn't give him much choice the first time around and sent him down the hill. He liked it much better sledding with Daddy the second and third time. The activity was short lived since Caleb refused to keep his gloves on and then started complaining about his cold hands. We tried a couple more times after that day but he just wasn't that into it.

Finally, we come to the present ... Jensen is now 2 months old and Caleb has been working very hard on vocab and sign language. He's being a bit stubborn with both. He'd rather play with cars than listen to Mommy and look at flashcards/books/or educational videos. Hopefully we'll see some more progress soon. Caleb also got a brand new do ...

Nice little Mohawk courtesy of Daddy :) 

Baby bump and Achievements in October

This October Aaron left CID and went back to the 230th. For his time as a driver he received the Col's coin and an Army achievement medal. They look so nice and it was his first "official" coin.

 

In other news, the baby bump continues to grow ...We can't wait for December so that we can see little Jensen and have Christmas with both our little guys!!

Baby Swinging

Before Caleb's haircut we brought up Jensen's swing and bouncy seat hoping Caleb would get all of his curiosity out before it was time to keep out of them for good. He thought it was fun to sit in the seat and watch tv and since he couldn't get up into the swing I wasn't really too worried about it. A couple days later I walked in to see what he was up to and found him like this ...

He though it was so funny. He sat there while it I took a video of him kicking off of the dresser so he could rock from side to side.

Caleb's Haircut

So I'm a bit late with this. Caleb got his hair cut 9.15.2010 for the first time by daddy. We got a little fed up with hearing about what a "pretty little girl" we had (not to mention it was getting dirty looking and he sweat a lot) so we buzzed it all off. I was so sad to see it go but I'm sure it feels loads better for him. I nearly cried when Aaron was doing ... he went from baby Caleb to a big boy. Below are the photos of the actual cutting ...

He actually didn't fuss too much. Just sat in the sink brushing his teeth with his brush. Looked up a couple times probably wondering what the heck daddy was doing and why there was hair all over the place. He looks so big now. Good thing we are having #2 because I would have gotten the baby blues after this :)