Since it's busy season for James, we're not planning to travel until Easter weekend. So, what to write about??? Anna Joy is the first topic that comes to mind.
She's such a fun 19 month old; who is the size & weight of a 2.5 year old. She loves bubbles, animals (the 'neigh-neigh' is a current fav), chocolate, babies (any child under 7) and her Da-Da. One of her friends is named Emily, but Anna calls her Eh-mine, and asks for her at least once a day.
One of her most cherished books is a children's book of prayers, called the 'baby book' after the kids on the cover. Her favorite prayer is the Lord's prayer, and she really likes the word 'debts'. After most prayers she says Amen unprompted.
Her vocabulary is huge (or maybe I'm only saying that since I'm her mom). New words in the past few weeks are: smoosh (for when her yogurt cup collapses), IS (she likes to repeat it when she hears it), rayon (crayons) and Amen. There are more, but my mommy brain won't let me recall them.
Her favorite numbers are 2 & 8, and she loves to draw with her crayons (thank you Smiley's for that present!). She loves the park and has just learned about shovels in the sand-box.
She's extremely shy in new situations, but once she's comfortable, she won't stop talking! She still uses her adorable Anna-baby language, that James and I will be so sad to see go someday.
So, that's my Anna report. It's not complete, but it should give you a glimpse of how much she's grown since October!
She's up from her nap, not doubt she'll tell me that she's "All Done!"
~One Proud Mama~
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Stuttgart Report
We survived the 5 hour trip to Stuttgart and the 4 hour return trip (I sped up on the return a bit). I can now, honestly say that I'm not afraid to drive our car anymore. Do I love driving a stick shift? No, I don't think I'll ever be one of those people. However, the Autobahn has made me a more confident driver.
My favorite driving moment, was on the way to Stuttgart, after Anna's bed-time on Friday night, Anna was very cranky and needed to be entertained. So, James & I struck up a chorus of Old MacDonald had a Farm, where one person said the animal and the other had to do the noises. We had just run through all the normal animals 'pig', 'cow', etc. and the choices were becoming increasingly bizarre. James chose something like "emu" for me to sing, and at the same moment I was cut off by a semi going up hill. Needless to say, the song feel apart, as I frantically down-shifted and cut over to the fast lane. James was dying laughing singing the song and watching my circuits reach overload very quickly and finally ask, "WHAT animal am I supposed to be?" And really, who knows what an emu says?
Stuttgart was good. We stayed at Le Meridien, the nicest hotel in town, booked at 50% off on their website. I throughly enjoyed the big bathroom and loved the big room. The indoor swimming pool was enjoyed by all! The reason we chose Stuttgart, was a work associate of James' is from there and had encouraged James to go to a football (= soccer in America) match. Unfortunately, she had to work, so James ended up going to the match by himself :(
While we were there, we enjoyed the beautiful park, old & new churches combined (restored after WWII bombing), the Mercedes Benz museum, the Art Museum and the biggest zoo & botanical gardens in Europe. Whew... we were busy in the 1.5 days we were there. We put some photos up on the website, under the winter folder.
Also, James found a new love at McDonald's, which we have eaten only as travel food. A Big Rosti... a horrendous looking combination of burger, hash brown patty, bacon, onions and a white sauce. I took his word for it that it was fantastic.
One more comment on the Autobahn... there are speed limits on most of it, and all of the sections we drove on. I did feel pretty speedy on Sunday when I got up to 160... km/hr which was 30 km/hr over the speed limit. On accident though, really! You do have to be careful of the multitude of speed racers that care nothing about the speed limits though. I stayed in the right lane and let them fly by us as much as possible!
Thanks for your prayers.
My favorite driving moment, was on the way to Stuttgart, after Anna's bed-time on Friday night, Anna was very cranky and needed to be entertained. So, James & I struck up a chorus of Old MacDonald had a Farm, where one person said the animal and the other had to do the noises. We had just run through all the normal animals 'pig', 'cow', etc. and the choices were becoming increasingly bizarre. James chose something like "emu" for me to sing, and at the same moment I was cut off by a semi going up hill. Needless to say, the song feel apart, as I frantically down-shifted and cut over to the fast lane. James was dying laughing singing the song and watching my circuits reach overload very quickly and finally ask, "WHAT animal am I supposed to be?" And really, who knows what an emu says?
Stuttgart was good. We stayed at Le Meridien, the nicest hotel in town, booked at 50% off on their website. I throughly enjoyed the big bathroom and loved the big room. The indoor swimming pool was enjoyed by all! The reason we chose Stuttgart, was a work associate of James' is from there and had encouraged James to go to a football (= soccer in America) match. Unfortunately, she had to work, so James ended up going to the match by himself :(
While we were there, we enjoyed the beautiful park, old & new churches combined (restored after WWII bombing), the Mercedes Benz museum, the Art Museum and the biggest zoo & botanical gardens in Europe. Whew... we were busy in the 1.5 days we were there. We put some photos up on the website, under the winter folder.
Also, James found a new love at McDonald's, which we have eaten only as travel food. A Big Rosti... a horrendous looking combination of burger, hash brown patty, bacon, onions and a white sauce. I took his word for it that it was fantastic.
One more comment on the Autobahn... there are speed limits on most of it, and all of the sections we drove on. I did feel pretty speedy on Sunday when I got up to 160... km/hr which was 30 km/hr over the speed limit. On accident though, really! You do have to be careful of the multitude of speed racers that care nothing about the speed limits though. I stayed in the right lane and let them fly by us as much as possible!
Thanks for your prayers.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Salzburg Trip
Okay, this is old news really. But, since I promised myself I'd blog on all our adventuring here in Europe....
We went to Salzburg, Austria the day after Christmas with James' mom. It was a great trip. We took a sleigh ride in the Alps (awesome!). One of my favorite moments was either Anna snoring on her grandma in the sleigh or her looking at the next sleigh's horses and saying 'neigh, neigh' repeatedly. Also, James & I also had an Anna-free day where we skied in Flauchau, site of the Winter Olympics in 2014. We have never experienced such LONG ski runs. Our final run of the day was from the top of the mountain to the bottom and it took about 25 minutes. By the way, Anna and grandma had a great time running around the hotel :)
The actual town of Salzburg was quite charming. The Christmas decorations made the old streets look even better and there were several old churches to explore. Even the Salzburg museum was a fun experience. We all agreed the layout of the museum was the most interesting and inviting that we'd seen. Also on the plus side, we were able to find good food for way less than we'd spend in Luxembourg. In Lux, we expect to spend about 30 Euro a person on dinner with leads to a bill of $90 for 2! And that's just for an average meal... nothing special. Needless to say, we don't eat out as much as we used to. But, I digress.
The only bummer about the trip were the long travel days. Thankfully we took the train, so Anna could move around. But, traveling 10 or 11 hours with a 18 month old isn't very fun no matter how you slice it. Thankfully, James' Mom wanted to take the lead in Anna's care... and we didn't want to stop her!
And tonight we take our 4 hour drive to Stuttgart. Thanks to your prayers and my increased practice time, I now have faith that we can make it there in one piece. We're planning on going to the Mercedes Benz museum, and zoo in addition to James' football match. I hope to be more timely in my trip review for Stuttgart :)
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