3 months old

Our baby is getting so big! He loves to talk to us now and just started laughing out loud. He is even ticklish now. I *think* we are in a pretty good sleep pattern now. He has set his nap schedule and for the most part he wakes only 1 time throughout the night. Maddox is starting to spend some time on his side so we'll see how long it takes him to roll over to his tummy. By the way he kicks the upper leg, I don't think it will be long.

Breastfeeding survived the thread it was dangling by much to Maddox's delight. When he was 6 wks, I had switched to exclusively pumping since we were still struggling with it and that was working well for us for a couple of weeks. Maddox then let it be known he wanted to start nursing again. Hard to say no since I am pumping and he can smell me. He doesn't nurse as well as he takes the bottle though. He will drink 6 ozs at a time and not need to eat again for atleast 3-4 hours but when he nurses he will nurse enough to get a few ozs and then is hungry again in an hour or so. So he nurses throughout the day and then its bottles before bed, during the night and first thing in the morning. It's not really what I had in mind for us but it seems to be working out. And since we are moving, I am having to throw out breastmilk - atleast 10 ozs a day. Yep, liquid gold down the drain. I wasn't happy about it at first but I have come to terms with it now. I am eager to get to the states and start freezing it so Maddox will have it until he is atleast a year old.

Halloween Party

We took Macen to a Halloween party here on post. There was lots of games and his fave: a bounce house. He had a blast and even ran into the boy from German kindergarten that he played with all the time. They were so excited to see each other.

Macen's baby

Macen is still holding strong to the proud big brother status. It's pretty amazing how the brotherly bond was there for him the minute Maddox was born. He shows him off to his classmates atleast 1-2 times a week and to anyone else he thinks hasn't seen Maddox.

Today as we are getting ready to walk to school in the rain, Macen got upset and said "I don't want my baby to get wet."

And then tonight as I came back into the living room to pick up Maddox, he said "Come here and watch my baby."

When in Rome....

Maddox did fantastic on his first flight. On our return flight, he cried for a few minutes before take off and then went to sleep. So all in all, he did great on both flights.

Trevi Fountain

Legend has it if you throw a coin into the fountain, you will return to Rome one day. There were so many people, we didn't even attempt to throw a coin. It was definitely beautiful even with all the people surrounding it. Next we headed for Hard Rock.

Vatican City

St Peter's Basilica first thing in the morning. It was great to see it before the area filled up with people. From here, we did a tour of the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's. We booked a 3 hr tour and I was pretty sure we were insane to do it with a 4 yr old and 2 mo old. But it was something we really, really wanted to do while in Europe so we were going to give it a shot. We had total success! Maddox fell asleep within the first 15 mins of the tour and slept the entire time. Macen was on his best behavior almost the entire tour. The last 20 min in the Basilica were wearing on him but he did great overall (could have had something to do with the fruit snacks we fed him every 20-30 mins). We did the tour with about 30 others and I was afraid they were going to be cursing us by the end of the tour. Instead, we got several compliments on how great both boys did. That felt great!

These 4 pictures are from the Vatican Musuems.

The 4 pics above are inside St Peter's. It was pretty amazing! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pics in the Sistine Chapel.

The Pantheon

Outside of the Pantheon.

Inside the Pantheon. It is over 2,000 yrs old and has hardly needed to be renovated.

Piazza Navona

Rome is full of fountains and the Piazza Navona this had 3 in it. We were there first thing in the morning before all the tourists arrived and I am so glad we got to see when it was peaceful.

The Colosseum

Roman Forum/Palantine Hill

The 2 above pics are from where we ate lunch. Macen was all about taking pics this weekend and he isn't half bad with them. We need to work on the focus a bit but I love that he enjoys being behind the camera.

In my research for Rome, I found there was a pyramid here. There are only 2 in Europe so I thought it was great we'd be visiting Rome to see 1 of them. For months now Macen has been telling us he is moving to Egypt and he will see the pyramids. We have no idea where this statement came from but he always talks about it. So I thought he would get a kick out of the pyramid since we won't be making it to Egypt.

These last 2 pics you can see where Piazza Navona is quiet in the morning and bustling in the afternoon. We found some gelato here and enjoyed watching all the people for a bit.

Overall we had a great time in Rome. It is not stroller friendly though. We brought the stroller and it sat in the itty bitty hotel room all weekend. Maddox had to be carried/worn everywhere and it was kinda exhausting. He did great with it though and it ended up not being too bad. James got sick during our Vatican tour so after that was over, we did absolutely nothing the rest of the day Saturday. It was kinda nice to relax. There is so much to see in Rome, you just can't take it all in. If you go there with the mindset that you aren't going to see it all then it can be very enjoyable. Even with missing out on sightseeing time on Saturday, we didn't rush to do a bunch Sunday. We just covered the things we really wanted to see and enjoyed the day - even getting in a carriage ride. We enjoyed a whole lot of gelato. Macen even branched away from the only flavor he will eat (strawberry) and had some blueberry gelato. I'm pretty sure it was only because the color purple was acceptable to him that day. He later tried grape gelato as well since it had a purple tint to it. We found what is suppose to be the best gelato place in Rome but I don't think we'd agree with that. They did offer different flavors than the normal gelateria offered but it wasn't the best. Definitely a great way to spend a 4 day weekend.

Traveling with a baby is EXHAUSTING.

That.is.all

Oktoberfest

We don't have many pics this year. James had the camera since I was holding Maddox most of the day and the guys took the kids on the rides. While they did that, the women (and Maddox) held down the table we managed to snag. These tables are very hard to come by with the thousands of people around so we weren't letting it go. All of the picture comments are James'

This was the big sign at the entrance.  The entrance where we were told we couldn't come in because they didn't let strollers in on the weekends!  It took us awhile but we found a place to check the stroller and after a couple of hours we finally understood; it gets way too crowded on the weekends to even think about having a stroller.

Macen on one of the rides that he just had to ride.  He's gotten more adventurous riding some of the faster rides.  He doesn't cry now if he doesn't like them, he'll just tell you that it wasn't very fun.

James posing with one of his beers.  Don't just notice the Cardinals gear he's sporting on the first day of the MLB playoffs, but check out the girl behind him dressed in the traditional dirndl.  Virtually all Germans were wearing either lederhosen or dirndl.  We couldn't get into the beer tents where the big 1 liter helles beers are served, so we made do with a small outside beer garden that served hefe-wiezen.  The beer drinkers didn't mind.

Here is a picture of the crowds from one of the rides.  This was pretty early and it got more packed as the day went.  Luckily there are enough rides so that you really didn't have to wait long.  Just imagine that all 70 some acres of the theresienwiese grounds are packed like this.  It got really crazy.

This was a really long day.  We started at 7:30 am and spent 3 hours on a standing room only train from Vilseck to Munich.  Then we got off the train found the street we needed and proceeded to follow the crowd......the wrong way.  We finally got turned around and then had the stroller drama.  Got the stroller drama taken care of.  Tried to cram into a beer tent with a whole lot of drunk Germans and decided that wasn't the place for the kids.  Finally found a beer garden and a table and everyone relaxed and had a pretty good time.  Then the cycle started all over again as we missed the early train by about 5 minutes.  Waited for the next train which was also standing room only and then finally made it home 3 hours later at about 10:30pm. 

Here's some advice if you are going to Oktoberfest.  GO DURING THE WEEK AND GET THERE EARLY.  I'll say it again GO DURING THE WEEK AND GET THERE EARLY.  Do you get the picture.  If you are taking the kids FORGET about the beer tents.  If you aren't taking the kids, MAKE A RESERVATION for the beer tents.  Overall it was a good day and a good experience, but as James says the juice probably wasn't worth the squeeze! 

Amberg Fest

We went to a local fest twice last week with our neighbors. Nicole and I took the kids during the week and then the guys joined us Friday night. Macen loved going with his friend Gabi. They both loved riding the horses.

While I finished up feeding Maddox, Nicole grabbed the kids a treat. Macen came running around the corner yelling that his lollipop was healthy. I thought Nicole had told him that but come to find out he came up with it all on his own. He had wanted one that was licorice flavor and Nicole told him he probably wouldn't like it and pointed to one that was fruit flavored. He has been asking us a lot lately about what foods are healthy and such. So since fruit is healthy and she told him it was fruit flavored, he put two and two together :) We got a big kick out of the "healthy" lollipop.

When we went back on Friday night, Gabi and Macen were able to do a little more since the guys were there to help. Nicole and I were outnumbered with 4 kids, 2 of which being babies. Macen was happy to finally get on the bumper cars and go through the fun house.

Fest season is coming to a close so it was nice to get out and enjoy this one before it gets cold and we move back to the states.