Rothenburg

 Mike and I recently took a two-day trip to Rothenburg, a medieval walled city.  Our friends watched Ben for the weekend.

 

 The balcony outside our hotel room.

 

 

 This monster of a pastry is the specialty of the town.  They come in all kinds of different flavors, but of course Mike got the one covered in chocolate, with chocolate filling.

 

 It was HUGE.  And very heavy.

 We took a tour of the medieval crime museum.  This is right outside the entrance.

 

 These are called shame masks.  The museum had four floors, and three floors had collections of shame masks.

 I made Mike pose for this one, but I didn't exactly have to twist his arm.

 

This is where we had lunch on our first day there.

 

 The big building in the town square.  We were there the week before their Christmas market opened and they were already setting up booths and putting up decorations.

 

 Where we had dinner.  That's my wine and Mike's beer.

 

 I have to admit, it was nice to travel and sight-see without a toddler.

Hard at Play

 Using the Sit & Spin (from Nana & Grandpap) for the first time.  He didn't need a bit of help.

 

 This must have been during the play-offs.

 

 All bundled up and read to go for a stroll.  As much as he runs around, sometimes he crawls into his stroller and waits to be pushed.

 

 At the park with Daddy.

 

 This kid went for months and months getting ticked off whenever I tried to get him to stack his wooden blocks.  He'd stack a couple, then knock them down and run away.  Then one day a few weeks ago he started building these tall towers.

 

 I wonder how long he's been able to do this but refused to give us the satisfaction of seeing him do it.

 

 Speaking of Ben being stubborn...I'm always so glad to see him "reading" a book because he refuses to let me read to him anymore.  I can't remember the last time he sat through even two pages.

 

 We found the table and chairs at Ikea, and I'm so glad we got them.  He loves his little area of the living room and has started to really be interested in those puzzles now that they're on his table.

 

  I was driving to the store and looked back to see why Ben was so quiet.  He had put this hat on himself (or tried, anyway) and fallen asleep.  I snapped the picture while waiting at a traffic light.

"Oh Boy" Moments

The goose egg that his forehead got after he fell into the corner of our coffee table right before bedtime.  It was shocking how quickly that bump appeared.  He cried hysterically for awhile, but by the time I got off the phone with the nurse advice line (they're awesome, we've called them twice) he was tuckered out.

Proof that he was okay after that accident.  He is fascinated by TV & movie credits because of the letters and the music.  We were so relieved to see him behaving normally.

The next day.  The bump went down to nothing, and it only bruised slightly.  Amazing, considering how awful it looked just hours before.

Mike keeps his beer in the basement, in the same room as some of Ben's toys (it's a big room).  When given the opportunity, he takes every bottle out of the crate.

Like I said, oh boy.

A slighlty less dangerous endeavor.  The employees at Dino's, the Italian restaurant I love, give him ice cream popsicles.

It takes him so long to eat this thing that half of it ends up melting and dripping all over him.

I don't even know what to say.  He did this completely by himself.

Halloween

Yes, I am aware that it's almost Thanksgiving and I'm just posting Halloween photos.  Keep your complaints to yourself, please.

Our little devil exploring my costume box.

He loved shaking the beaded necklaces and throwing them around on the floor.  Quite noisy.

He actually wasn't digging the pink feather boa as much as I thought he would.  Guess it's not loud enough.

Either in mid-babble or about to eat the beads.  Never can tell.

We dressed him up in this monster costume and all three of us went to a costume party thrown by one of Mike's coworkers.  Unfortunately Ben didn't wear the monster head long enough for us to get a photo.

Running around the host's house.

Checking out a weapon.  He is such a boy.

We didn't take him trick-or-treating this year since not many houses in our German neighborhood do that kind of thing and I didn't want to take him to base housing without knowing where I was going (plus I didn't want to burden all those people living on base who have to give out tons of candy to tons of kids who don't even live on base).  Right before we went to the party, several groups of German kids came to the door for candy - they find the American houses.  Instead of saying "trick or treat" they say "sweet or sour".  Hopefully we'll find a way for Ben to walk around and get candy next year, when he might understand it a little better.

At Home

Getting ready for bed, wearing the pajamas that Nana sent him.  He likes to play with the polar bear footies.

Rounding up the shapes from his shape sorter.  He still won't put the shapes through the lid, but at least he's doing something with them.

Last-minute babysitting gig.  They're both eating snack sticks, not smoking cigars like it might appear.  It's not easy keeping a five-year-old girl occupied with a toddler boy's toys.

He is obsessed with this jar of mustard.  He goes to the fridge just to take it out and walk around with it.

I tried and tried to encourage him to stack these bricks, or do anything besides throw them.  Then some school-age girls were at the house (tagging along for girls' night) and they were all over these bricks.  The next morning, he started stacking them.  Cuz all the cool kids are doing it.

The view down the street from our house, overlooking part of our town.

The view from our front kitchen window.

Bowling Alley

In October, the son of one of Mike's coworkers had a birthday party at one of the base bowling alleys.  Most of the kids were school-age but of course Ben didn't mind.  Here he is clapping along with everyone when one of the kids did well bowling.

Much of our time was spent chasing Ben while he ran and ran and ran around the bowling alley.

Hanging out with the son of another of Mike's coworkers.  He's a year older than Ben and they seem to get along pretty well.

Eating a hamburger bun, the only food that passed his inspection.

This obviously wasn't taken at the birthday party but I had to post it.  I had put all those seashells in that basket, and he took them out one by one.  He put each one up to his mouth to bite them.  I can't imagine they tasted very good.

Little Man

I was putting together a wooden shelving unit for our pantry and Ben saw me using the screwdriver.  Whenever he sees me using tools, he grabs them.

Trying really hard to turn the screw.

Checking out the kiddie cars at the BX.  He looks a little too comfortable in this thing that we will never buy for him.

Pink Cadillac.  Yep.

Hanging out with our friends' little boy who's a month or two younger than Ben.  We've babysat him a couple times.  While they look like they're getting along famously here, it's really just that they're distracted by the strawberries.  Ben loves hanging out with older kids but apparently sees kids his own age as the competition.  There is much fighting over toys when he is with his peers.