introducing Tobias Paul

On Tuesday, 16 Sept., Tobias Paul joined our family. He was 9 lbs. 1 oz. and was 21 inches long. We will have more details later, but here are a few photos of Toby for now...

Welcome to the world little one!

Proud Papa

Charlotte loves her baby brother.

Goethestrasse 5

Well, we signed our lease today! Hurrah! We still have a few bureaucratic hoops to jump through- but we should be able to move in (with loaner furniture) next week. It will still be 3-4 more weeks before our furniture and other belongings arrive via slowboat. We hope the baby comes after the crib- but it's gonna be close! Here is the grand tour---

Rob & Charlotte in front of Goethestrasse #5. There is a kindergarten around the corner- Germans begin at age 3, so our landlady is looking into registration info for me. It is only for 3 hours a day, and I'm guessing Charlotte would love that next year! Oh, speaking of the landlord/landlady- they treated us to a very nice lunch today and already adore Charlotte. Their daughter (who lives next door with her 2 children) is named Julia-Charlotte. lol

Let's start at the top floor. Charlotte has claimed this little cubby space for a playhouse. The closets for this room are right next to her.

This is part of the upper floor as well. It has been semi-divided into 2 rooms- you can see the space at the top of the wall here. I think Charlotte will be in the one half and the baby in the other half- once he moves into the crib in a few months.

This is the view from Charlotte's soon-to-be-room. :)

One of the things that we really like about this house compared to most German homes is that 2 of the 3 stairwells have closed risers. It makes it a lot less scary for little kids. This stairwell is original to the house-- it was built in the 1920s! (Most of the house has been drastically updated since then.)

The next floor coming down has the master bedroom and guest room which are divided by these 2 big doors. You can see the closed rolladen on the door to the balcony behind Charlotte.

This is the view from the guest room out the balcony... your room is waiting for you!!

Also on this floor is the master bathroom. Yay, I get my own sink! ;)

Charlotte and I are both really stoked about this tub! I bet Rob is too come to think of it. There's also a separate shower stall and of course a toilet.

Coming down another floor to the main level... this is the "terrace." It's basically a nice big deck area off the living/dining room. The bell tower behind Rob chimes very loudly and LONG I think 2-3 times a day. That will take some getting used to.

This is the living/dining room area with the blinds closed. Apparently we can set the blinds on a timer- to go up and down at certain times of the day. Sounds tricky. Thankfully, they can also be done manually. The windows wrap around the front and side of the house on this corner and this is where we access the terrace as well.

Finally, this is the kitchen. I can't wait to have a kitchen again! This one is much larger than many that we have seen and has TONS of cupboard space. It also has a dishwasher and fairly sizable European style fridge (they are quite a bit smaller than their US counterparts.)

One more look at the kitchen, just because it makes me smile. :)

There's also a bathroom on this floor. And there is an "unfinished" basement where we will be able to have an American style washer and dryer- hurrah! And also some storage space.

Anyway, we are very much looking forward to our new home. :) We're going to start making that guest room comfy as soon as possible- so get your passports ready! ;)

Having a baby in Germany: part 1

Today I saw my German OB for the first time! Since we've arrived here, I've been a bit anxious about this visit, and I am glad it is over. I've been trying to learn everything that I could about having a baby here and how it differs from the US, so I'm going to blog about my experiences so that others can have more info too. If you don't want to know- then just skip this post! :)

Rob had the morning off so that we could do paperwork for our house leasing here and I am SOOO glad that I didn't have to handle Charlotte as well as this visit- it was more than 90 minutes long!

The doctor and office staff were very nice, and all spoke at least some English. (This practice was recommended to me by other Americans partially for that reason.) I met with the doctor who reviewed my charts and issued me my Mutterpass. This is a little blue book that I am to take everywhere with me throughout the rest of my pregnancy. It has all of my pertinent medical info in it. Then she (the doctor) did an exam and an ultrasound. Contrary to what I'd been told to expect, there was a little curtained off area for me to get undressed- but it seemed kinda silly since then I had to walk across the room to the exam table. Whatever.

After the ultrasound I got re-dressed and was seen by the nurse/receptionist who took my weight, blood pressure, and urine sample. All very standard stuff. After that, I was taken to another room for a non-stress test. They didn't call it that, but I had a few toward the end of my pregnancy with Charlotte and it was the same thing. They put monitors on my belly for the baby's heart rate and any uterine contractions and I had to lie there for awhile. After that I met with the doctor AGAIN so that she could review the whole appointment with me.

All went well. :) The baby currently weighs about 3.4 kg or 7 1/2 lbs. He is head down, but hasn't "dropped" yet. I think this was the most thorough examination I have ever had! I see the doctor again in 2 weeks. In the meantime, we should be moving in to our home here and hopefully this weekend we'll be able to tour the hospital. I've heard they offer options such as birthing chairs and water births as well as epidurals and pitocin. I guess I have a lot of options to consider. ;)

Burg Frankenstein

Today we had our first "touristy" outing since we've been in Germany. :) We took a scenic drive to Burg Frankenstein- which is really not far from where we are at all. The castle was built before 1250, and has been added to and neglected in turns over the years. The results are some pretty cool ruins and grounds to explore. There is a theory that Mary Shelley was inspired here to write her Frankenstein story- but that is probably just good for encouraging tourists such as us to make the trip there. ;)

This is what you see as you walk up toward the castle.

Rob and Charlotte exploring the pathways beyond the gate... I think these trails through the Odenwald could actually be walked to from the house that we will be living in in a few more weeks. That would be a really long hike though.

These are some of the ruins beyond the entrance walls.

Charlotte and I looking out over Darmstadt- 36 weeks pregnant "belly picture."

This is a view of the previously mentioned Odenwald. Looks a bit like Pennsylvania, huh?

After our outing and a little rest at the Ho-Tel, we went to dinner at a VERY nice Greek restaurant down the street. Charlotte had a "kinder schnitzel" (I'm starting to think there isn't a restaurant in Germany that doesn't serve schnitzel!) And Rob and I shared a "festival of meat." That's what I'm calling it anyway. It had gyro (lamb,) steak, chicken, and pork, and seasoned potatoes. I don't even like lamb, and I thought it was awesome! In case we hadn't consumed enough decadent foods, we stopped in an eiscafe on the walk back to the Ho-Tel for some schockolade ice cream cones.

It was really fun to get out and have a special day exploring! Oh, and next week we should have pictures of the house to post- so be sure to check back. :)

making some progress

Well, we've been in Germany for about 10 days now and we are beginning to find our way around. Charlotte and I go to one spielplatz (playground) or another each day and usually take a walk to our local grocery store (Toom) as well. The German playgrounds are really different. Check out this swing-

Charlotte really likes it. The middle part is made of little rubber pieces linked together- so it's like a giant basket. We have to get some video of Rob and Charlotte on this crazy zip line near the hotel as well. Children's safety is clearly not as much of a concern here. ;)

Here is Rob showing off the BMW that we bought on Friday. Hurrah we have a car!! It is a '92 525i with European specs and very low mileage. We are enjoying exploring and getting out to church on our own and stuff like that. Oh, and Rob drove 100 mph on the autobahn yesterday- just to say he had.

We've also made some progress house hunting. We found a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house that we really like in Darmstadt. It would be a short commute for Rob and is near the Odenwald- a really cool national forest area with trails and such. There are some gorgeous views out the windows and a very large modern kitchen. It even has some crazy features like programmable rolladen (all the German houses have these metal or wooden shades on the windows that can be rolled down to block out all of the light,) closets (super rare in German homes,) a heated kitchen floor, woodstove, garden terrace... anyway, you get the idea. :D Hopefully all will go well and we will be able to sign a lease and move in September. Everything takes time.

Finally, I have made progress getting ready for baby boy to be born. :) I am going to see the doctor either this Wednesday or next Wednesday (there was some confusion while scheduling the appointment over the phone- so I'm just going to show up this Weds. in case.) This practice has been recommended to me by several American women. And I plan to deliver at Marienhospital in Darmstadt... less than a mile from the house that we will hopefully be living in. I should be able to schedule a tour of their facilities at my doctor's visit. From what I understand, having a baby here is quite different, but should be a good experience. I'm more nervous about being moved in and hopefully having our furniture arrive before the baby does than I am about actually having the baby. :)

Wie gehts?

How's it going? Sorry for the looong time since our last post. Our lives have been very, very hectic, and this post is probably going to be pretty scattered, but here we go!

We are now living in Germany!! We arrived on Friday- 08-08-08 and have been spending the last several days getting adjusted to the new time zone, surroundings, language, etc. The weeks before we got here were filled with making preparations and saying goodbyes to as many of our friends and family as we could. Unfortunately, my mom passed away rather unexpectedly about 4 weeks ago... of course we will miss her, but we are confident that she is in a better place now and no longer has all of the struggles that she has been living with in recent years.


Anyway... back to Germany. Right now we are staying in a "hotel" until we find our own place to live. It is actually the same place- and even the same ROOM that our friends the Hancocks stayed in earlier this year! Since it's raining today and I'm not sure where our camera cable is packed at the moment, I'm going to swipe a couple of pictures from their blog to show you around. ;)

This is the place!
Hopefully, we will be in more permanent housing before the baby is born.

This is the kitchen.
I hope to do very little actual cooking here.

This is the trash bin.
I think we've got it down- plastics, papers, compost-able, and other. Glass is recycled seperately into large containers on the street- green, clear, and brown.

Anyway, we are having fun, but we are still really tired. Charlotte had been sleeping well about every other night. On the others, she prefers not to sleep. (Rob and I are feeling the wear and tear bit.)

We could not be more thankful for our friends (and my fellow Pennsylvanians!) Kurt and Carrie! It would take me way to long to list everything they have done to help us so far- but we had a very nice dinner at their house last night and are going to start looking at houses and cars (with their help) later today. Woo-hoo!

We miss our friends and family- but we are really excited about this adventure. We hope you'll come visit us soon!!! :) I promise there will be more pictures coming later in the week.

cute to boot

I took these pictures of Charlotte today next to our back gate. She got these boots as a hand-me-down and has just started wearing them. She loves them! Last night we had tears because I wouldn't let her wear them to bed. Sheesh.

where we're at

We're still here! I've had some requests for pictures of pregnant me... ugh. So I quick took this photo using the timer on our camera- I guess it could have turned out worse. (In the background you can see that our basement is prep area for the yard sale we're having this weekend.)

I am shaped very differently with this pregnancy than I was with Charlotte!

And here is a current photo of Charlotte. The humidity this week is incredible!! It's making Charlotte's hair downright curly. I love this little curl that keeps happening "right in the middle of her forehead." It's too true that-
"When she was good, she was very, very good... and when she was bad, she was horrid!"

Visiting family and friends

We've been spending quite a bit of time lately trying to visit with our family and friends- near and far. Last week we went to Utah so Charlotte could meet everyone there.

Plane tickets have been SOOO expensive lately, so we ended up flying out of Reagan instead of BWI. It was a really long trip with a layover in Denver each way. Charlotte was a good traveler- for a toddler. She pointed out every plane she saw... in this picture she set up her pony to show him the planes too. We flew on Frontier- they have animals on the tails and wings of their planes- our first plane had a cougar on it and every time Charlotte looked out the window she'd point and say "meow." That got pretty old after 4 hours. ;)

Charlotte has so many people who love her! Here she is with her great great aunt Elizabeth. That's part of where Charlotte got her middle name. (It is also my mom's middle name.)

Charlotte worked on this puzzle with Daddy while visiting great grandma Nichols. Charlotte loved all of the socializing- but she did not like all of the riding in the car!

This is a view from the Alpine Loop. It's a scenic drive between Provo and Alpine that goes behind Mt. Timpanogos. Rob and I had both kinda forgotten how gorgeous Utah's mountains are. Charlotte would point out the window and describe the features for us, "rock. tree. rock. water." Oh yeah, she's an observant one!

Rob took this picture near the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon north of Salt Lake City. It had been snowing and the clouds were still really low, although this was in the afternoon.

Well, I will post more pictures from our trip when I get them from friends. Our camera batteries died after the first day or so and we kept forgetting to pick up some new ones!

Also, I had a check-up today and our baby boy is doing very well. :) He loves to kick the microphone when they listen to his heartbeat. According to our baby widget to the right of this post we have 99 days to go! Woo-hoo!!

Journey to World's End

As promised, here is a little recap of our weekend camping at World's End State Park in PA.


We had a beautiful drive north on PA-15... for a long time we were right next to the Susquehanna River and got to see some Amish buggies, a man plowing with a team of horses, and gorgeous handmade quilts for sale. We got to World's End and set up camp. The sites were pretty small, but also very wooded and felt secluded- which we liked. :) Also, the bathrooms and showers were clean and had hot water- way to go PA State Parks!

Charlotte couldn't get enough of collecting gravel. She was pretty much filthy all weekend. She also thinks that cousin Connor is the most fascinating person. If he was doing it, then it must be cool.

Just down the hill from our campsites was the Loyalsock Creek. The water was cold, but kids never care, do they?

On Saturday we went hiking. We hiked up the Canyon Vista trail (and I mean UP) to a beautiful scenic overlook and a massive rock garden. This is Rob, Charlotte, and I with Mark and Connor in the back there.

One of many break times. Leah and Connor were both good hikers, but the trail was harder than we had imagined it would be... we headed out around 10 am and thought we'd be out about 2 hours and it was more like 5 or 6!! Leah (a girl after my own heart) and I both had our cranky moments toward the end of the afternoon.

This is the view from the top. I have photos that my grandparents took from this same spot and my mom remembers coming here with her father when he was a travelling salesman. I believe they drove to the top though!

I've decided to call this picture "pregnant lady on the rocks."

Charlotte had a nice comfy ride for the hike (and Rob got a serious workout) but even she was pretty tired of hiking by this point on the way back down.

Allen and Robin joined us on Saturday afternoon.

And of course there were hot dogs and s'mores by the campfire and telling of stories and singing of songs. When we got back home on Sunday, Charlotte didn't want to come back in the house! I think she's a fan of this whole camping thing. ;)

Thank you Pam for the photos- although I've noticed that you're not IN any of the ones you sent me. hmmm.

a Memorial Day to remember

We had a great time visiting with friends and family last weekend! Friday through Sunday we went camping at World's End State Park in PA. We had pretty chilly weather (it was like 36 degrees the first night) but loved the time outdoors. Charlotte loved it- especially the abundance of sticks and rocks. I coped alright for a pregnant lady... but I didn't take a single picture!! My sister Pam took about 300 though- so as soon as she sends me a few of those, I will blog about it in more detail.

Then we spent a little time working in the yard-

Charlotte would like to point out how big her strawberry plants have gotten, and Rob and I have been pleased with how the flower beds have filled in more this year. the azaleas are new this year, and we hope they'll grow nice and big over the coming years.

Then we went to the Spiveys for a picnic on Monday. Lindsay pointed out that this was our third Memorial Day spent together! It's a little tradition we really enjoy. :) Our good friends the Hancocks were there as well. Charlotte loved playing with her buddies Josh and William. The fellas made awesome ribs on the grill, and the girls enjoyed chit-chatting about pregnancy- all 3 of us mommies are due within 5 weeks of each other! Lindsay has several more pictures and info about the day posted on her blog here.

This is just a bonus picture for Charlotte's fans of her doing one of her favorite things- "running fast!" She goes to the end of the walkway by the car and stretches (like her Daddy taught her) and then I say, "ready, set, go" and she runs as fast as she can (while giggling) to the house.

She cracks me up. :)

it's a boy!

Just a little update- in case you haven't already heard- we found out on Monday that we are having a baby BOY! :) We are very excited to KNOW. I've already started going through Charlotte's baby clothes to see what we can use. There's quite a bit more yellow and green stuff than I remembered. ;)

blah - g

I've been having a fight with blogger.

For some reason I had a really nasty time uploading photos for that last post. I had to do them one at a time, and even that didn't work after a while. Then our computer got an ugly virus. (Unrelated incidents).

BUT now we have a lovely new Toshiba laptop and I am trying to get back in blogging mode. :) Sorry for the extended absence! Here are a few more photos from our time in Georgia, and just a couple since then too.

Rob's mom made a fabulous black forest chocolate cake for Rob's birthday-- and Rachel's birthday too. ;) Johnny 5, Savannah, and Lizzy couldn't wait to eat it all up.

Rob's dad read many, many books with Joseph, Charlotte, and Elanor... even while being a jungle gym for Johnny 5. Rob introduced Becky to the game Peggle on msn game zone while we were there (here she is playing it in the background.) She and Rob (and also John) played a lot of Peggle.

Charlotte wants to do everything just like her Daddy. This was on the shuttle at BWI on the way back to our car. Also, yesterday she was "running fast" on our sidewalk and had to take a break to "stretch"-- just like Rob. It's kinda hilarious the things that she says and does lately. :)

Charlotte watering her strawberry plants. Maybe we'll actually get to eat some of the berries this year, if we can keep the rabbits away from them.

These are the beautiful yellow flowers that Charlotte picks for me-- just about every day.

I am a lucky mom. :)