Beach holiday

We went to the beach with Fabian’s family today. It was the first time Emma was at the beach, and she was so stinkin’ cute! She slept in the car on the way to Heddesheim, and when we got there she insisted on riding “explorer style” in her kinderwagen (she’s too big for the bassinet thing, but not quite big enough for the sportwagen thing where she can sit, so we put the sun shield all the way down so she can ride facing forward on her elbows).



Once everyone was settled, I took her over to the water. First, she stood on the wet sand, then tentatively stuck her foot into the water.



The water was a little bit cold, but she giggled and started kicking and splashing.



Then, Fabian came over and took a turn holding her in the water. Fabian adventured with her and stuck her in calf-high! She was less convinced that it was fun, but she was still a happy girl.



When her feet felt a bit too cold, we went back to the shade to play, and Emma entertained us all!





It’s so cool to see Emma experience all these new things for the first time, and I absolutely love it!

Today, I learned that I’m a terrible rower. Fabian’s brother Paul has a raft boat, and I went on the lake with his sister, Lilly. We were beached, and when I finally got us out, I could only successfully paddle in circles… Hilarious!

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In other news, I’m working on our curtains! I promise to post pictures when they’re finished.

An afternoon in Ladenburg

We went on an afternoon jaunt to Ladenburg this weekend. My birthday is tomorrow, and since we won’t have time to do a whole lot on my actual birthday, we went on the weekend instead.

To get to Ladenburg, we had to take a hilarious river ferry, which cost us 1,20€ each way, and each trip took all of 6 minutes. While we were waiting for the ferry on the way to Ladenburg, we watched a family encouraging a well dressed older woman to get into a canoe and row down the river. Just before the ferry arrived, there was a great big commotion, and we realized that the canoe tipped and the woman fell in! Everyone in her family (well, I don’t actually know if they were her family, but I can assume…) jumped to help, and the disgruntled lady climbed out of the river. I have to say, this woman must have quite a sense of adventure. I quite enjoyed being an onlooker. :)

Ladenburg is a pretty town from the late Middle Ages with history dating to Roman times. We walked around for a few hours, and when we finally decided to sit down for an afternoon coffee and cake, the café was out of cake! I was sorely disappointed, and we ended up at a weird Italian restaurant/ice cream bar and had traditional German “Eiskaffee” (a coffee and vanilla ice cream drink, topped with whipped cream).

It was a nice afternoon, and a fun excursion for my birthday weekend.

Busy, busy!!

So I’ve been  really busy, and neglected my blog. I missed Emma’s 3 and 4 month birthdays, and I finished the chairs and the table. Here’s an update!

Emma at 3 months:



Emma at 4 months:

Her favorite trick is rolling over (back to front), then wiggling her butt and kicking her feet—she’s trying so hard to crawl! She wakes up in the middle of the night to practice rolling over and holding her head high, but she usually gets pretty upset because she’d rather be sleeping; I’d prefer that too since I’m not a fan of waking up six times every night!!

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Next, we finally have a place of our own, even if it’s in the basement of Fabian’s grandma’s house. We now live in a 2 room (1 bedroom) apartment. We spent a bit of time cleaning and painting, and I must give Fabian’s dad a bunch of credit because he was a total champion to help us get things done. (And by help us I mean he took it upon himself to do most of everything…) We did do some painting though, really! I even had a super duper painting outfit. :)



I really wanted to help paint since Fabian’s family has already done so much to help us. So, I was put in charge of painting the edges in between the wall and ceiling.



Fabian helped when I had to stop to feed Emma. He got wicked frustrated!! (I thought it was hilarious, even if that’s not terribly nice of me…)

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I finished the chairs (they all have nice comfy cushions) and I refinished the table! To do the seat cushions, I took some foam, and cut it to the same size as the original seats. Next, I got really handsy with a staple gun, and pulled the fabric nice and tight to create a nice, rounded cushion on top.



Next, I cut the excess fabric to make it look nice on the bottom, and so that you couldn’t see the mess hanging down if you looked at the chair from the front.



And, ta-da! I think it looks pretty damn awesome…



Next, the table: This nice, old table from Fabian’s grandma needed some love. This is what it looked like (sans drawer) when we got it.



And, this is how it looked at the end:



After sanding the table, Fabian’s dad helped me replace the linoleum table top (a thing with old German tables) with extra linoleum he had from a previous table project. If we’d bought our own linoleum we would have chosen a different color, but since it was free, we took it.

I think it looks pretty cool with our chairs. :)

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The first morning we were in the new flat, Fabian made me an amazing pancake breakfast!



I promise, as soon as we’ve finished unpacking and have a presentable space, I’ll share pictures with you.

Till next time!

Chair restoration project, part 1

One thing Fabian and I are doing is preparing for our move out of his parents house. His grandma offered to give us a bunch of old furniture; some of it is nice, some is not quite our style, and some is just really old and ratty looking—like the set of kitchen chairs.

Enter old, vintage chairs.

In their original state, the chairs look a bit sad. The chairs had a horribly faded red tweed seat that was covered with an equally sad looking piece of light yellow fabric. After popping the seats out, the first step was sanding each chair.



After sanding the chairs, I got to paint them with a nice coat of primer.



Next, the chair gets the first coat of epic green paint.



Then, a second coat, and they’re ready for some seats. I simply loved working with the green paint!! It was SO much fun!

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Moving along, I started working on the chair seats. First, I destroyed the old cushions, which were literally made out of straw and animal fur. The dust storm I created when tearing the seats apart was really disgusting.



I have cut the foam and fabric that I will use for the cushions, but I haven’t been able to get my hands on a staple gun to put them together yet.



Right now the great chair fiasco is about 80% complete. All the chairs have been sanded, primed, and painted green. Three chairs need a second coat of color, the fourth chair needs to be spot checked. I have the seats ready to assemble. I am just waiting on some good weather to get things moving again!

Feeling crafty, among other things

I’ve been in creative mode the past two weeks. One project finished, one in progress, and two in the queue!

No. 1: Chalkboard

Status: Complete

So, this project started on a a whim. We were at a craft store in Mannheim with Adrienne and Todd, and Fabian saw contact paper that had a surface similar to a chalk board. We both thought it was cool, and Fabian had been interested in having a chalkboard for a while. A few aisles over, there were plain wooden frames. So, we bought one frame and this contact paper. I was in charge of decorating the frame.

At first, I thought about paint, but I couldn’t decide on colors, or what look I wanted to go for. After looking online for ideas, I decided to decoupage the frame with amazing robot wrapping paper (we found the wrapping paper after Christmas, and I’m thrilled to have it immortalized!).

 

Right now, the chalk board hangs next to Emma’s changing table. When we move, it will go in the kitchen. :)

No. 2: Kitchen chairsStatus: In progress

I have a detailed post in progress about the kitchen chairs, and I will post it as soon as the chairs are complete. But, here’s a sneak preview!


The back story is that we have kitchen chairs from Fabian’s grandma, and they were in desperate need of fixing. I’m hoping to finish them this week!

No. 3: Kitchen table
No. 4: SofaStatus: In queue

The kitchen table and sofa are also a hand-me-downs from Fabian’s grandma. I don’t have any pictures of them yet, but they, like the chairs, need some love to shine. I’m going to use the same process I’m using with the chairs to restore the table, and I’m going to attempt to reupholster a 1960s sleeper sofa.

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In other news, Emma is getting a lot more interesting! She loves to practice standing (with our help), she coos, giggles, smiles, sucks her hands, kicks like nobody’s business, and is curious about things!
We bought her a play mat with things that hang overhead, and she will sit there and kick while concentrating on the toys above for 20 minutes at a time! It’s really bad, because I can use this time to get other things done, but usually I can’t help myself and I sit to watch her play…


What else has happened recently? Hmm… well, Fabian and I went to see Men in Black 3 (in English), and it was our first “date” since Emma was born. I was almost crying in the car because I didn’t want Emma to miss me too much, but I knew that Fabian’s  mom would take care of Emma. When we came home, Emma was sound asleep and Henriette said Emma was a champion.

We are making a mini weekend vacation to Frankfurt this weekend. Our friend from Canada has a 25 hour layover in Frankfurt on Sunday with her grandma on their way to Russia, and we’re going to meet her and introduce Emma to her Erasmus Auntie Natasha. Then Monday, the three of us go to the US Consulate in Frankfurt to register Emma’s birth, then apply for her US passport, and social security number. She’s a US citizen too! Fortunately it’s not too much paperwork, but it is obnoxiously time consuming and bureaucratic.
Speaking of bureaucratic things, I am practicing driving stick a bit more and I’m going to apply for my German driver’s license by the end of June. It’s great, because Illinois has full reciprocity with Germany, so I don’t have to take any tests (driving/written) as long as I apply for my German license within three years of being in Germany. I think I’m supposed to get it within six months of receiving my German residence permit, but that didn’t happen… All we need to do is get a photograph, translate my Illinois license, and go to a doctor who can verify that I am mentally and physically fit to operate a vehicle. This process certainly beats the 1.500,00 € cost of German driving school.

Emma is almost 3-months-old, and I think her internal schedule is changing. I really can’t say if that’s what her normal schedule is, since we’ve been letting her set her own schedule, but I think she’s sleeping a bit more than she used to. Also exciting, she finally sleeps through (most of) the night! She usually goes to bed between 9:30p and 10:00p, and is content to sleep until 4:00a! Then, she eats for 30 minutes, and sleeps until 7:00a or so. It’s AMAZING not to be woken two or three times in the middle of the night and feed her for an hour each time. The only really hard part is between 7:30p and bed time, because she is obviously tired but desperate to be entertained.

I also discovered that the mei tai-style carrier we received as a gift worked really well until two weeks ago. Emma is at an in between size where she is too big to sit comfortably in the carrier with her legs bent like a little frog, and too small for her legs to come down around the carrier. It’s got to do with the shape of the carrier—it’s a big rectangle, and she isn’t big enough to stretch her legs farther to the sides to wrap around me from the front. One of Henriette’s friends loaned us a Moby carrier, and Emma is now the perfect size to fit in it comfortably with her legs down. With the Moby, the wrap makes an X for her to sit in, and it’s small enough her for her hips. I’m glad to have options, and I think the mei tai will work again in a month or so.
I have an American friend who had her daughter three weeks after Emma was born. She’s going back to work and asked me if I would be willing to nanny her daughter 2-3 days a week. I’ve conditionally agreed, but I asked for a test run first! The thought of spending the day with two super young babies is exhausting, but I think (hope) I am up to the challenge. Maybe it won’t be so bad… I start in two weeks, and I am going to try paying more attention to Emma’s cues so I have an idea of what her schedule is in the hopes that it makes working with two unpredictable infants a smidgen easier.

I’m also taking a post-natal class and baby massage class offered by the midwife who helped us with Emma. The post-natal class is an exercise class to restore good posture after sticking my belly out for 9-months, and to strengthen the muscles that were weakened/pulled out of alignment by the pregnancy (stomach, back, thighs and butt) because of my changing posture. I’ve been really bad about doing my exercises, but Fabian reminds me ten times a day so I will have to do them. The baby massage course has potential to be fun, but the time spans when Emma wants to be sleeping. We made it through the first 30-minutes of class before she dissolved into inconsolable tears from being tired. We spent the second half of class nursing and cuddling. I have five more weeks of classes, I’ll let you know how it goes.

I think that’s all for now!

Learning how to smile

Emma is 9-weeks-old already!

A lot has happened since I last had the time to write anything. My parents came to visit, now my other sister is visiting, Emma learned how to smile and pick her head up, and she’s grown a TON!

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The past month was a month of “firsts” for Emma—she had her first international trip, first BBQ, first train ride, and first visit with her Erasmus family. We discovered that she is a fantastic traveler! I am extremely pleased as it means that I get to go many places and visit friends. :)

First international trip: April 25, 2012, Strasbourg, France



Fabian offered to take my parents on a day-trip to Strasbourg. Emma was really relaxed and slept in the car, but when we got there, she needed two diaper changes, a meal, and quite some time to wake up to be content.  We were able to walk around the city for for almost five hours before she decided she wouldn’t sleep in the stroller anymore. Considering that she was just 39 days old for her first international trip, I am super proud of how good she was on the excursion.

First barbecue: April 28, 2012



On the second to last day that my parents were in town, it was sunny, hot, and an excellent day for a barbecue. We invited the Great Grandmas to join us, and had a nice day with representation from all four generations in Fabian’s family.. The day involved a Frisbee, baby bunnies, American style burgers, and pumpkin champagne. Emma even got to wear her tu-tu onesie from Grandma Betty all day long! Excellent (but exhausting) day.

First train ride: May 4, 2012, from Mannheim to Passau
I had an incredibly hard time coping right after my parents left, and in an effort to cheer me up, Fabian suggested I come with him to Passau for the weekend (he had to use the library and meet with a professor). We packed five days worth of things for Emma (which turned out to be almost more than we could carry) and hopped on the train to Passau. Emma slept for most of the ride, which gave us the opportunity to watch four episodes of PSych. Emma even tolerated being changed in the train’s small bathroom! We had a nice time visiting with our former flat mates in Passau, and Emma really hit it off with her (honorary) Tante Hannah. :)

Also in Passau, Emma graced us with her first “real” smile! It was so amazing to see my daughter look up and smile at me. :)

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A week and a half after my parents left, Adrienne and her boyfriend, Todd, came to visit! I’d been having problems with the dates of appointments (one day off for the dentist, when my parents were coming…) and I followed my winning streak by waking up at 5:30a with Emma to get ready to go get Adrienne and Todd at the airport at 8:30a. We got to the airport, Fabian waited in the car with Emma, I walked through the arrival halls for almost 40 minutes looking for them until I decided to call Sarah to find out if she’d heard anything. Turns out, they didn’t leave until later that day. I felt absolutely HORRIBLE that I’d made Fabian get up so early and drive in rush hour traffic all the way to Frankfurt for absolutely no reason at all. :( Fortunately, Addie and Todd were willing to take the train into Mannheim the next day to be picked up.


(It’s hard to tell in the picture, but Emma was wearing the dress my mom made me when I was a baby!)

First visit with her Erasmus Family: in Würzburg, Germany, May 13, 2012
On the third day of Adrienne and Todd’s visit, we took the regional train to Würzburg to visit some of our Erasmus friends. Emma met her Erasmus Auntie Melanie and Erasmus Uncle Michael. Auntie Melanie was nervous to hold such a small Emma, but Uncle Michael was totally game! I think Emma is excited to meet more of her Erasmus family sometime soon! :)

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A few days later, Emma had her second trip to Strasbourg, this time with her Auntie Adrienne and Uncle Todd. Emma did relatively well on her second trip to France, but she had another day with many poops (the first time in France she had an epic three-poop day). What is it about her and France?!



Adrienne and I had a good time hanging out (for the most part, anyway… sisters are always sisters, and siblings are siblings…). One afternoon, we made chocolate covered pretzels! Adrienne’s hunny (did I mention she’s dating a professional chef??) melted us an excellent chocolate concoction, and we spent a half an hour dipping pretzels. When we were almost out of chocolate, we just dipped and ate the freshly chocolated pretzels. :D

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Ooh! I also had my first truly epic adventure with projectile pooping. It was disgusting, but also freaking hilarious! I couldn’t be mad at Emma, she looked so relieved and happy after her poop. It was just a challenge to keep her kicking feet out of the mess.

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I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with my parents and sisters in the last two months, but their visits were much too short. I can’t help it, I really want to be home. It’s one thing to live in another city or state, but when I’m a ~$1000 flight and 7-hour time difference away, it’s incredibly hard. I feel so disconnected from my family, and I am sure I am missing out on a whole lot of things. I would really like to be able to call up my sisters and talk to them every few days instead of the every few weeks I get now, and it’s important to me that Emma gets to know my family too. Hopefully when we move and have better internet I can set up regular times to video chat with people back home. I am so glad that I was able to spend time with all of my family in the few months right after Emma was born. It meant a lot to me that I could see them when I was going through such an enormous transition in my life!

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Emma wishes you a wonderful day! Peace out, world.


PS – Spoiler alert! I’ll be crafty in my next post! :D

One month

Emma is one-month-old today! She’s grown from this…



to this! :)



The feeding issues have (mostly) resolved themselves, and she is getting really fat. At the last visit with the midwife, Emma weighed 3.3 kg. She gets weighed again on the 20th (and we think she’ll be at least 4 kilos!). The absolute best improvement is that she is finally sleeping better during the night—4 or 5 hours at a time! :) It certainly beats the 1.5-2 hour apart feedings that she had for almost two weeks during a growth spurt!

Along with getting nice and fat, Emma is getting more hair! She is looking less like an old man with an unfortunate case of horseshoe hair. When she’s awake and not screaming, she looks around and it’s just awesome to see her take everything in. We got this squeaky zebra toy, and it was hilarious to watch her react to the squeaks the first few times. She looked so surprised!

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Last week, I spent a few nights alone with Emma when Fabian went to Passau to meet with a professor.  The trip to Passau was very last-minute (less than 24-hour notice!!) and I definitely had a melt down at the dinner table from being so sleep deprived (this was when she was up every two hours to eat, and eating for 90 minutes each time) and stressed about being alone with Emma for three days.

Fabian’s family was really great about helping me so I could do things like take a shower and brush my teeth. In these few days I decided that I could absolutely never be a single mom. It is SO much work! I’d never be able to do anything if I didn’t have someone to help at least once in a while. I love being a mom, but if I don’t have a few minutes of time for myself each day, I’d really lose my mind.

Being alone was hugely challenging because I’d gotten spoiled having a teammate for the 3am feedings. It was a really strange feeling to leave her alone in bed for two minutes in the middle of the night so I could wash my hands after changing her. It was always a gamble whether or not she would close her eyes and be asleep when I came back, or if she would freak out that she was alone and start crying. I felt really lucky that she didn’t cry.

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Before that, Emma had her first Easter! She was really upset when Fabian broke the news to her that the Easter bunny isn’t real (kidding!).



After breakfast, we went into the garden to search for our Easter baskets--we had to help Emma a little bit. ;) Easter was also the first day we thought Emma was finally big enough to test out the carrier from the Imhoff’s!

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After one exhausting month, I am thrilled to be with my two favorite people an the end of the day. <3