A Day in the Life: July 2011

Monday, July 18, 2011

Heidelberg Castle

We took our first European family excursion (with the exception of an outdoor restaraunt dinner outing at which Hailey dumped 2 Euro worth of water in my lap, Levi got dumped on his head out of the stroller, and the kids chased pigeons all over the cobblestone courtyard - it was a fun and eventful evening, but we forgot our camera) this past Saturday and had a great time. We had several people think we were German, but I guess it makes sense - most tourists don't bring along small youngsters to run around ancient castles.

All the streets are so compact. This "playground" was right off one of the streets, right in between houses, etc. This was the steepest slide I've ever seen at a playground. Hailey and I went down together and I barely caught us from a face plant as I stumbled to get footing after the speedy eject. We took the kids down three times each and they LOVED it.

This is looking across the Rhine river at some houses on the way back from the castle.

It was a fifteen minute walk to the castle from the parking garage and we came to this plant with the most beautiful huge flowers. I'm sure they're not unique only to Germany, but they were still beautiful.

Levi thought the railing made a perfect peeping hole. He kept peering through and exclaiming "I see!"

This was what he was peeping at.

It's been so nice having Matt around again.

Another part of the castle.

Matt has created another blog strictly for our European travels. It's butlergermanchocolate.blogspot.com if you care to take a look at a few more photos of the castle as well as our little village we'll move into in August.

Big Changes

For anyone that didn't read the beginning text of the last post, we moved to Germany a couple of weeks ago.

For the past and next two weeks, we've been living in a one-bedroom hotel with a kitchenette and a pull out bed for Hailey and pack n'play for Levi. It's been an interesting transition, but has gone better than I expected. The kids have actually done pretty well sleeping in the same room.

The kids and I got to the airport about 6:30am and arrived in Frankfurt about 8:30am the following morning (or 12:30am MST). We met Matt in TX before the over-seas flight, thank goodness, but he didn't even get to sit by us. He was just a row over and back so he was still close.

Haileyisms

I always love reading the funny things kids say or do and I don't want to forget the things that Hailey does. So, I'm going to start a list - hopefully I'll come back to add to it more often than I have been. :)

4-18-10

In her bed yelling out to me (even though she's aware of the rule that once her door is closed we don't come back until morning...)"MOOOOOOOOM.....MOOOOOMMMMMYYYY.....DO YOU HEAR ME? I CAN'T HEAR YOU. YOU NEED TO SPEAK LOUDER. DO YOU HEAR ME? "

Every morning when Matt is leaving she stands in the doorway and says the cutest things like, "I love you, Daddy. Have a good day. Seed ya waiter. Be safe." She always reminds him, "Kisses, hugs."

Unfortunately Hailey has learned lately (by watching other kids) to be afraid of bugs. We keep telling her that bugs are nice and wont hurt her, but she persists in SCREAMING every time she sees one, or hears one (bees and grasshoppers, especially). And I'm not being sarcastic on the scream - it turns heads from neighbors. One day she got so upset she even threw up. It's so sad. Anyway, she says, "buggies go inside." This is her solution - because that's what makes the neighbors scary barking dog go away. What a thinker. :)

3-11-10

Hailey loves to do the same things Levi is doing. I was practicing sitting up with Levi and put my hand behind him as support while he was getting his balance. Hailey said, "you help me sit, Mommy?" She sat down and pretended to fall back. I was amused by her observations.

A few weeks ago during FHE we decided to teach Hailey to play hide-and-seek. She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to play. Several times a day she'll say, "count to 20 and come find me." or "I count to twenty, you hide, and I come find you." It's so fun. She'll even play with Sandy, her bear. She even looks in a few places before finding Sandy, even though she's the one that hid her. It makes me laugh.

"Daddy, I don't want you to go to school. I just want you to stay with me."

"I sure love you mommy/daddy."

We've been potty training the last few days and Hailey has done incredibly! She has had a few accidents, but she definitely gets the idea and is doing very well. One of the fun things is that she loves the shapes/colors of her panties. Yesterday I had to laugh when she said, "hurry, I gotta pee in the potty. I don't wanna pee on my apples."

1-27-10

Hailey has really been into making up songs lately. Sometimes she does different words to tunes she already knows (Twinkle, Twinkle is a favorite tune) or most recently she's tried making up the tune and the words. So, today after church she's sitting in her chair at the table singing, "Jesus for me....Jesus for me..Jesus for me," over and over - higher pitched then lower. Later Matt told her to sing it for me so she ran through the living room (pigtails and hands flying) singing, "Jesus for Mommy, Jesus for Mommy."

Sitting in church today Hailey was looking at her Gospel Art Book from Grandma Stevens. She would turn to a picture, hold it up for me to see and say "what's this?" (Can you tell that's how she learns at nursery and FHE). One of the pictures was of Jesus when He was 12 and teaching in the temple. When she asked "what's this?" I told her it was Jesus when He was young. She said "no," and pointing at the man behind Jesus with a long white beard, "it's Santa."

"Maybe later" is one of Hailey's favorite phrases as of late. When I tell her it's nap or bedtime she says "maybe later nap" or "maybe later bed." I had to laugh when we were discussing in the car on the way home that we were going to have spaghetti for dinner and she replied, "maybe morrow spaghetti. We have macacheese for dinner."

If Hailey was older I couldn't tell this one - so thank goodness for sweet innocence of toddlers. We haven't 'officially' started potty training, but she knows when she needs to go poop. This morning she and Matt were enjoying cold cereal for breakfast when she started making her poopy face and moaning. She said, "I can't poop"...moan..."I can't poop. It's stuck." Matt grinned and they finished. A few minutes later she was running around with her little stroller and found Matt and exclaimed with great excitement "Daddy, I got it!"

Matt was walking out the door for school, and Hailey sent him off with, "Love your guts!!" (Yes, Matt says that to her.)

When Hailey first started going to nursery we'd chat with her in the car on the way home about nursery. One Sunday I was busy chatting with Matt instead of following the normal ritual. I heard her announce in the back seat, "Bubbles, fish, Addie (her friend), learn about Jesus."

A Day in the Life

Monday, July 18, 2011

Heidelberg Castle

Big Changes

Our Sweet Baby

The Whole Family

Our Little Lady

Our Little Man

Blog Archive

Link to the website selling Matt's "Best Seller" choral piece!

Haileyisms