Toby TV

Toby turned 6 weeks old yesterday! Time is really flying... and he is really BIG! He goes to the Kinderarzt (Pediatrician) on Friday, so we'll have some official measurements then, but I had time to video him today, so here's our growing baby boy. :)

PS- I know the video is sideways... I just don't know WHY the video is sideways. I promise I did not turn the camera sideways. Weird.

the circus came to town!

Last Tuesday we went to the Carl Busch Circus in Darmstadt with the Carley family. We sat in the first row and had a lot of fun! We were DIRECTLY below the guy in the trapeze act that catches the other acrobats... under the net... where a few acrobats fell and we got to see their faces when they let go of the bar (Rob thinks that look was concentration- I think it was fear.)

Anyway, neither Rob nor Charlotte had ever been to a circus before. Charlotte loved the elephants and "lions"-- there were no lions, only tigers. There was even a little baby tiger that really was quite adorable. Rob thinks this circus is better than the "big" ones where you expect all of the acts to go just fine... this one had real potential for people getting hurt. Rob and I both agree that we think it would have been better without the animal acts though- they aren't as exciting as the human acts and we just kinda felt sad for the animals the whole time.

Yay for the European style clown though- way less scary and more genuinely entertaining! He didn't wear a wig and had on similar clothes to the other performers and did neat juggling and audience participation gags.

Here are a few shots--

Charlotte's favorite thing about the circus.

This guy looks about the right size.

I don't think Michael and Charlotte blinked once during the trapeze act. Rob tried to get a picture of the acrobats... but it was hard being directly below the net and he wanted them to be facing us, since the women were in THONGS and we didn't really want a bum shot. ;)

Oh, one last random shot- Charlotte and her new friend Sammy playing "nap time" at playgroup on Thursday. I think Max is there as the chaperone.

2 years!

Charlotte celebrated her second birthday this past weekend! Boy, it was an interesting weekend too- we have officially entered the terrible twos.

Saturday morning we were getting ready to go for a walk and Rob took some trash out and came back in the house to brush his teeth before we left. The problem with this is that German doors are ridiculous. Our front door automatically locks behind you from the outside, and opens from the inside by just pulling on it- unless you lock it with the key, which we ALWAYS do, except when we're getting ready to leave the house like this. So anyway, I came downstairs and the door was open and Charlotte was gone. She wasn't visible anywhere on our street, so I took off in one direction and Rob in the other. Rob found her in the middle of the road a block and a half away with a woman holding her. She was safe and it was okay in the end... but it was a very scary experience for us.

So, after our walk, she was supposed to take a nap so we could clean up and make her cake, etc. The first time Rob checked on her she had climbed up on the changing table and pulled about 20 wipes out of the container. A while later I went upstairs to the bathroom and found Charlotte, who exclaimed "you scared me!" dipping toilet paper in the toilet and then wringing it out onto the bathroom floor. Are you kidding me? FINALLY we got Charlotte down for a nap in our bed- where there are no toys and fewer distractions.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the big second birthday weekend...

Charlotte loves looking at that last picture of her and Toby and wanted to do it again, so here ya go. She's a cheeseball! And you can see how much they look alike, and how much Toby has chunked up in just one month.

I made Charlotte a Blue's Clues "paw print" cake and blue cupcakes. She loved everyone singing to her and blowing out the candle.

Charlotte and Anna dig into their cupcakes.

After dinner and cake we all went up to play in Charlotte's room for a little while. (William, Jack W., and Charlotte playing in this picture.) Notice in the back all of those toys in "Charlotte's Playhouse." Rob asked her to bring him everything one day- and boy did she ever! Every toy, plus her bedding, and many books.

Since she loved it so much, and since we ended up only eating the cupcakes on Saturday, on Sunday we put the candle back on the cake and sang Happy Birthday again. :)

Charlotte is really her own unique little person. She is stubborn and strong-willed, usually happy and sometimes emotional, very affectionate with her stuffed animals, and loves to sing, dance, read, and do ANYTHING social. She has made our home a much more laughter filled place these past two years and we love our Peanut very much!

3 little pictures

Charlotte managed to squeeze her head into one of Toby's little hats. Rob and I both had to laugh at how much she looks like a little Mennonite. ;)

Sometimes Toby likes just hanging out on the boppy, sucking on his pacifier, and looking at the world. I'm so glad he takes a pacifier!

Cuddling on the couch. This is my new favorite picture!

video day

We are back online! Woo-hoo!!! :) It finally feels like we are getting settled into our new home here in Germany. Our furniture has arrived, Toby has arrived, and now we can communicate with the world. :)

Anyway, we are still adjusting to being a family of 4. And it HAS been an adjustment for all of us. Charlotte likes Toby most of the time, but has been acting up more than usual... is it the terrible twos??? Is it the new baby?? Probably a bit of both. I hope she gets over it soon.

Toby is a typical newborn I suppose... beautiful, brilliant, and perfect in every way! ;) Except, of course, that he doesn't sleep very well and he screams his head off when he has gas, which is often... especially at 1 am, 2 am, 3 am, and 4 am. Oh well, maybe I'll sleep next year?

Rob and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary on Wednesday very simply with Pakistani food, roses, and chocolate. :) I have been especially mindful since we've been in Germany of what a wonderful husband I have: he takes Toby for an hour or two each morning and gets Charlotte her breakfast if she is up so I can sleep uninterrupted, he comes home from the store with little treats that he thinks I'll enjoy, he calms my fears and worries when I have them and yet gently encourages me to be braver and to new things more than I would on my own. And he STILL laughs at my silly jokes and terrible puns. I am very blessed to have such a companion for life's journey. :D

Okay, okay, time for some stories and videos of the kids, since I know that is why you are really here! ;)

I took this video while waiting to pick Rob up from work yesterday. (We had the car to go to a playdate.) It's a little hard to hear Charlotte... I was trying to get her to tell me what Toby was saying, but it didn't happen. (Usually when Toby makes a noise Charlotte interprets for him... "says ehh," "says hiccup," "says cat" etc.) I thought the video was still cute though, and you can hear how verbal she is these days. She talks non-stop!

And this is a kinda boring video of Toby sleeping. ;) He is adorable though, isn't he? He looks very much like Charlotte did as an infant, but I see a lot more of Rob in him somehow. We'll try to get some video of him awake soon. :)

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.