Busy busy busy!

So where the hell have I been all week?! Who would've known that I've actually been busy. And by busy, I mean doing more things than just taking care of William and cleaning my house.

Craziness.

So I'm just going to throw my whole week together in one post, because I'm cool like that. And because I can.

 

Let's start with InstaFriday, because from there I can go on to telling WTF I've been doing.

Top left: William on the way to Forchheim in Bayern, Germany. He was rockin' his new Rolling Stones tee that I bought from H&M last week. I thought it was a good steal at about 6 euros each. (He also has a KISS tee. haha. LOVE it!)

Top right: That would be what William eats now when he's not on the boob! Kid doesn't want to eat ANYTHING that is pureed anymore! He wants to feed himself. So that day I had cut up cucumbers and avocados into pieces that he could grab easily and "eat." I say "eat" because he only has his two bottom teeth, and none on top, so he can't really chew anything yet, but he loves to try!

Middle left: My lil' homey watching out the window this past Tuesday when we took the train into Dresden for the English speaking playgroup.

Middle right: The playgroup met at a playgroup this week because the weather was GREAT and it won't be for much longer. (boo.) And there was a baby swing! That's pretty awesome, because in the town where I live, I have yet to see one. Lil' homey LOVED it! 

Bottom left: This was after the playgroup. Lil' homey was pretty pooped from playing with the other kiddo's, in the swings and in the sand, he just needed to eat and pass out! So I fed him in the middle of the park and enjoyed the sun on my face and grass in my toes. His hat kept his face out of the sun, and kept the creepers from staring at he tits!

Bottom right: TEEFERS! I finally got a photo of his lil' teeth. SO adorable!

So about my week: BUSY!

Last Saturday we drove to Berlin to pick up my brother-in-law from the airport. He lives in California but is here and staying with us for a couple months now (for reasons that I will not go into on my blog as it is his life, not mine). His plane was to land at 11:35 AM and we left the house with PLENTY of time to get there. What we didn't know, was that there would be a HUGE traffic jam on the freeway heading into Berlin due to a stupid construction and an accident. We were stuck in the traffic for 1.5 hours! O.M.G. We ended up getting there late but he was OK. Picked him up and headed home, which included another hour in the traffic on the way out. Oi!

Sunday we drove to Forchheim, Bayern (as mentioned above) to visit family. My BIL hasn't been back to Germany in 8 years, so it was time to see some family and friends. We threw him a little surprise BBQ with some friends at a park, and once again the weather was perfect.

Monday - I have NO idea what I did! But I obviously wasn't here! haha.

Tuesday was our English playgroup day in Dresden. It's about a 40 minute train ride from my town into Dresden, but it's really nice to talk with someone in English other than the husband and kids! And seeing William interact with other kids is priceless! I've made it a priority for me to go to the English playgroups at least once per week now.

Wednesday I had a German speaking playgroup at MY house! There were five other women from my town and their babies here and it was a blast! Again, watching William interact with the other babies is awesome. I really think that it's helping him develop more, especially verbally. When he's around other kids who babble ("talk"), he talks more, too. And for anyone who has a bilingual home, you would understand how important that is! It will most likely be longer for William to speak his first words because of the English/German mix at home, but I see progress already. And it's adorable.

Wrappin' up the Weekend

My weekend didn't really start until Saturday afternoon. Which is actually pretty normal around these parts,  because my husband works so much, including Saturdays until about 1 or 2 pm.

So when the husband got home from work, we drove to the mall in Dresden to spend some time together and, get this, buy a plane ticket for his brother.

 William got to try out his new car seat for the first time!

Yes, that's right. His brother. The one who's lived in California for about 8 years now is coming "home" on "vacation" for about 2.5 months. He basically just needed a break from a lot of stress in his life and is coming here to stay with us and is going to be working with my husband. (He's a German Citizen but has a "Green Card" for the USA.)

Anyhoo. We currently only have a (very) big couch and a another smaller couch that folds down into a bed. So we got him his ticket and then bought a bed and a dresser for him to use. (Side note: Sorry mom for not buying you one when you were here! But, in our defense, Sven will be here a lot longer than you were! haha.) We enjoyed our time shopping together, and then drove to eat dinner. We ate at the place that my husband actually built ("Gasthof Alma Kasper") because their food is VERY good and almost all of the food there is home made. Husband is there a lot for work (tying up loose ends and whatnot) but we still enjoy eating there every now and then.

Saturday morning I got my daily work out in (Day 9 of the 30 Day Shred) while husband took the dog on a walk and bought some fresh bread rolls for breakfast. He works so much so we try to really enjoy our Sunday morning breakfasts together.

After breakfast he got all of the furniture put together and got a text from our friends Falko & Marie asking if we wanted to go to the Dresden Zoo with them. Seeing as we had no other plans, the weather was great, and we hadn't been to the zoo in YEARS (about 16 years for me, and 10 for husband), we decided to join them.

Would you believe that we forgot our camera at home? All these photos I took with my crappy little phone, that's why the quality sucks. Yeah.

The lions were camera shy yesterday, and the pandas recently had a baby and, because of that, they had the areas fenced off to give them their privacy. Good, but boo. I wanted to see a panda baby. 

Afterwards, we all went out to ice cream to chill and take a break from the sun. It was an unexpected but really nice way to spend our Sunday.

Weekend Wrap-up and a halfer!

So if you haven't noticed, my weekends around here are pretty bare. That's because *usually* I'm busy doing something. Ya know, something other than house cleaning or chillin' with William.

Friday night husband, William, and I went out to dinner with two of our good friends. We went to this place Kedo in Dresden. The only thing I knew about the place prior to going there was that they have "big hamburgers" which is top priority in Husband's brain, as well as his best friend Falko. Turns out the place is an American restaurant. They even had Budweiser! Of course I declared my beverage of choice for the night Budweiser, just so that I could have a taste of home. (Forgive me for the last of pictures, the lighting was rather dim, and my awesome phone doesn't have a flash.) In any case, the food was delicious. We were pleasantly surprised and declared it our new favorite hamburger place.

So like I said, the bigger the burgers the better, right? Right. Of course I love my big burgers, too. Well I stumbled across this photo on Facebook Saturday and it perfectly describes our friend Falko. He will continuously order the biggest, fattiest, and most expensive burger on the menu, and then declare "One diet cola please!" hahaha. Cracks me up every time.

Saturday husband worked until about 1 PM. And what I did before then? Well! Of course I slept until about 10 AM. ALTHOUGH, Saturday was September 1st, for anyone who didn't realize it. And I started a challenge!

I am in a group on Facebook, which is dedicated towards the "February 2012 Mother's" (even though William was born in March. haha.) We all had due dates in February 2012 and we were each others support during our pregnancies and we still are today. A lot of us are not feeling too hot about our bodies so we decided to do something about it. We decided that on September 1st we would start Jillian Michael's "30 Day Shred." So Saturday was the first day! I ran through that shit with no problems, however Sunday my legs were KILLING me. I did, however, finish Day 3 today and my legs feel better and I feel better about myself already.

I also joined a group on MyFitnessPal (though I've been on the website for a while now) for more support. And I love seeing the "Before & After" photos on the Success Stories there. (I'm also trying to get back into the habit of logging my food intake.)

After my husband came home from work we decided to do some shopping. We both were in dire need of some new jeans and set out in Dresden looking for some. We are both pretty picky people so imagine my surprise when the husband finds two pairs of pants at the first store we stop at (TK Maxx). And my pants? It took a lot longer to find! I prefer bootcut jeans and a super-low cut waist. But did you know that those style of pants are not "in" right now? So I tried on some skinny jeans to see if I would like them. Ya'know, to be in the "cool kids" crowd, but they were definitely a no-go. My beloved H&M came through for me. The one and only pair of bootcut jeans that I found in the place also happened to be super-low cut and I actually liked them.

Long story short, after about 6 hours of shopping and just enjoying the day together, we came home. Husband had two pairs of jeans, two sweatshirts, about five shirts, and a pair of shoes. I ended up with a pair of jeans, two shirts, and a pair of shoes.

Sunday was another morning of my 30 Day Shred and husband went to the gym. (Note: I would go to the gym, but I have nobody to watch William! So home work outs it is.) Afterwards we had a big breakfast (which is sort of our Sunday ritual) and then chilled on the couch and enjoyed each others company. We cooked a big dinner last night (which I also failed to take a photo of), but it was delicious.

We watched a movie together on the couch that Husband's brother had recommended. A movie called "Machine Gun Preacher." It's a very good movie, too. When that was over a friend had asked us if we wanted to go to a Wine Festival a couple towns over. I had declared myself too lazy (from both working out and eating so much at dinner), and stayed home. I was talking to my mother on the phone at the time, anyhow. So Husband went to the festival and watched the fireworks with his friend, and went on a ride or two. He did bring me home a sweet present though. :)

It says "For my princess" in German, obviously.
For anyone who doesn't know, these are very popular and made from gingerbread.

MONDAY: Today! Today William is a big ol' 6 month's old! Half a year old! HOLY CRAP! Time seriously flies. He has grown so much both physically and developmentally. He now rolls over to his tummy almost immediately any time he's set down. And then he'll continuing rolling over to his back and back to his stomach to get what he wants. He's not crawling yet, but he's scooting around and it's pretty adorable. Luckily he has not fallen off the couch or bed (yet - *knock on wood*), but I'm pretty sure most babies do at some point. He's had some bumps and bruises from face planting into my laptop and/or the arm rest on the couch, but they cleared up pretty fast.

My theory: He's a boy! A kid! I'm sure MUCH worse will happen. Sure, I yell at myself and feel horrible because lil' man is hurt, but I know he is okay and this is only the beginning of these types of things.

Weekend wrap-up

Well, today's plan was to link up with Destiny @ Rockin' Mama, but she had a family emergency over the weekend and, because of it, there is no "I love me, Monday." My thoughts are with your family, Destiny!

Instead, I can just update about my weekend.

My days all pretty much run together seeing as I am a SAHM. But when the husband is home, it's typically the weekend. He usually works 6 days a week, and has been working 7 days a week for a while now. Of course, I complain, but he provides for our family and for that I am truly blessed.

Friday, though, he had taken a day off of work. Amazing! He had gotten a gift certificate for a massage from Kev & Chris for his birthday, which was August 12. The old man is 40 now! ha! In any case, his massage was at a Thai place in Dresden. I declared that I was going to get out of the house that day and made plans to go to an English Playgroup in Dresden. The playgroup is typically aimed at kids that can already walk, but seeing as I've only made it ONCE to the English BABY Playgroup, I just said fuck it. And they were perfectly fine with me coming.

About the playgroup: IT WAS CHAOS! And I loved it. hahah. I don't get a chance to speak English outside of my house very often, seeing as we live in Germany and in an area where there aren't many immigrants. But in Dresden they have the International Women's Group and they have playgroups for all the SAHM's and their children. So, first of all, I was happy to speak English with other grownups. And second, I really love watching William interact with other kids. Clearly he isn't around other kids enough, and it makes me really, really sad. So after an eventful two hours of that, I declared I really need to make more of an effort to go to the baby playgroups. (I don't normally go because it's a 30 minute train ride and there are no elevators at the train stations for my stroller. So I must rely on help from strangers, when I'd prefer to do things on my own. Ugh.)

That was Friday. Saturday husband worked. Big surprise. That evening he finished the job that he was working on and there was a little "party" afterwards with the owners of the place. They had champagne and some food there. Husband did the traditional toast that Germans typically do when they finish building something. Unfortunately, my camera was not fast enough and I didn't get a picture of it! Boo.

Sunday we drove Chris and his girlfriend home, which is a two hour drive and a state away. They were visiting while on their vacation from school. Chris starts his "ausbildung" (which is basically like a specialized training for a particular job) in a week or two, and his girlfriend starts school next week. After that we drove to a friends house from my husband. He is building a deck in his backyard and asked my husband to help him out. So we hung out with him, his wife, and their daughter (who is about 20 months old) for the afternoon. Again, more time for William to hang out with children. It was fun! They have a little blowup pool full of balls (which you can buy together in a set, but they bought separate and saved a buttload of money), and William LOVED it. So that's definitely on the list of things to buy for William.

If you're clueless as to what I'm talking about, here's a random Google image that I just found that is similar:

I also think that William has been "talking" more this weekend. And I'm sure being around other children has something to do with it. He has some new sounds he's working on, and it's pretty adorable. ha.

What did you do this weekend?