December Catch-Up

Ben's Aunt Katie sent this penguin to him for his birthday.  They were fast friends.

Just about every day, Ben takes the linen cart from the guest bathroom (even when the bathroom is occupied) and wheels it into the living room.  Sometimes he takes the spare rolls of toilet paper and stacks them like his blocks.  Sometimes he takes out all the towels and magazines and throws them on the ground.  But he always wheels the cart back into the bathroom at some point.

Waiting for his birthday balloons to fall.

He was so cute doing this.

Loving one of his birthday presents, a flashlight that he seemed to tire of in two days.

Another gift.  He has seen a puzzle just like this at the library, but I didn't think he would be able to match up the pieces so quickly.

Comparing his new computer to his Daddy's.

Chomping on a Christmas Eve cheese quesadilla.  No, he is not wearing pants.  We have our own way of doing things around here.

Ben got the camera again.

Next up: Christmas!  And Second Christmas with the grandparents!

Birthday Present

Ben's own "computer" so he can stop playing with ours so much. He's eating pumpkin bread that I made in place of a birthday cake since he doesn't like cake anyway.

Ben Turns Two!

Apologies for the sideways video...it's still really cute.

Holiday Things

The Dixie group that Mike's in charge of played at a Christmas market in Kaiserslautern last week.  I didn't get to do a whole lot of shopping, but Ben & I walked around for a few minutes before the performance. It was so pretty.

A really bad picture of Wings of Dixie.  I am terrible at taking pictures in dim light.

It was quite cold that evening, but Ben wouldn't keep gloves on (again).  He was fairly calm - lots of music, lights and people.

Eating a candy cane, maybe for the first time.  It was given to him by a German Santa Claus.  He was walking around handing out candy canes to kids at the market.  Ben smiled at him.

This was a Christmas market in Ramstein, where I hung out with Mike before a concert band performance.  Yay, babysitters!

Inside the performance hall.  I didn't get any pictures of the band.  It was a neat concert with a couple of choirs.  I got to hear Stille Nacht sung by a German men's choir.

There was a Christmas dinner for Mike's squadron at a really nice German restaurant.  Ben wasn't thrilled about the crowd of people so we had to sit up on a balcony away from most of the activity.

Our friends and Ben's babysitters.  We call them Aunt Ally and Uncle Drew because they're like family and Ben loves them.

This dinner was well-organized.  A couple older kids helped keep the younger ones entertained with games and playdough.

Our friends' daughter was one of the helpers and took super-good care of Ben.

Ben's World

Coloring with Daddy.  We were trying to encourage him to draw in a coloring book.  Nope.  Ben took out crayons and sorted them into different piles.  He had a system and was very focused.

This thing in Mike's squadron looked like a huge washboard to Ben.  He ran back and forth, scraping it with his fingers and making a loud sound.

If I had to sum up Ben with one picture, this would be it.  Notice the perogie stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

He loves climbing into this but sometimes can't get back out.  He has been reaching his hand out like this when he wants something.  If I ask him a question and the answer is "no" he shakes his head.  If the answer is "yes" he does this.  In this case he was just reaching for the camera.

I swear, I don't make him wear this monkey backpack.  He asks to wear it and gets very upset if we try to take it off.

Looks like he's playing the piccolo.  That's the key to our guest bathroom.  And that's my hat.

Every day I put the magnetic letters on the fridge.  Every day he violently pushes them off.  Sometimes he piles them into the lip above the freezer door, then throws them out. 

Christmas Markets

 

This was the market in Mannheim.  Apparently we didn't take very many pictures and while this one's not flattering it shows some booths.  There were lots of vendors, and most of the shopping I did ended up being for myself.  Oops.

 

Ben wouldn't keep his hat and gloves on, so Mike tried his own gloves.  Ben spent half the time like this.  People were very amused, and it takes a lot to amuse German strangers.

 

My first taste of gluhwein, which is hot red wine and the spices you'd find in mulled cider.  They sometimes also add fruit and rum or other liquor.  This one was basic and very yummy.

Fried calamari with garlic sauce, one of the many foods we ate.

I forgot what the name of this food was, but it was some sort of flatbread dish and Ben liked it enough to eat it.

Some big monument in Mannheim, sure don't know the name of it.  This was one of the bigger markets in Germany, but we only saw a portion of it because I didn't feel like wandering around the whole city.

Moving on to the market in Winnweiler, our village.  It opened on a Saturday night but some booths didn't open until Sunday so we went both days.  I got gluhwein here, too.  It was a challenge because only one booth was serving it and Germans don't like to stand in line.  That's not just my opinion, it's a scientifically documented fact I heard on NPR.  But seriously, they don't like to stand in line.  I had to push my way to the front of a pack of middle-aged men, while pushing a stroller.  I got my gluhwein, darn it.

Gluhwein and flammkucken, possibly the perfect meal.  Flammkuchen is a flatbread pizza that's often topped with onions and bacon and has a creamy sauce.  They baked it on a fire right in front of us, took just a couple of minutes.  It's served at every festival and market I've ever been to.

When Mike gets beer here, it's Bischof.  They have a brewery right outside our village and it's the beer that every restaurant in our area serves.  Notice that Mike is drinking a beer in public at lunchtime on a Sunday - sure is nice to be out of Georgia.  Also check out the sheep in the background of this photo.

Found another food Ben likes: waffle on a stick with powdered sugar.

I actually shopped for other people at this market...but I did find a few things for myself again.  I got a Christmas wreath to put on our door like our neighbors do, and I got a small flask of honey schnapps.  Many of the people in our village don't (or won't) speak English so I got to butcher the German language a bit during my shopping transactions.  Doesn't help that they have their own dialect that's different than my beginner's German books and CDs.  I'm still working on getting more than a cold stare from many of the townspeople I encounter.  Too bad we don't have a dog, they love dogs.

Thanksgiving

One of Mike's coworkers and his wife invited us and some other folks to their house for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was great to be with friends, and the food was fantastic.  But Ben was...well, Ben - meaning we did a lot of running around with him.  Mike and I never got to sit down at the same time.  So this is really the story of what Ben was doing while everyone else was eating.

We were relieved to see that he found a relatively harmless activity.

And this was even better.  He was very systematic about putting the chips into the slots.  You can see how hard he was concentrating by how wide open his mouth is.

Getting into the danger zone.  He tried taking ornaments off the tree several times.

I think this bacon-wrapped water chestnut appetizer was just about the only food he ate all night.

And this is when I started to get nervous.  The hostess had decorated her house beautifully for Christmas, and Ben just went down the line playing with everything on the windowsill.

Then Ben got hold of the camera.

While everyone sat down for dinner, Ben went to the basement and found the host's drumset.

This was the main activity during dinner.  Mike and I took turns watching him.

While everyone was eating dessert, Ben went back to Connect Four.  What we didn't get pictures of was Ben trying to mess with the DVD player while the other older kids were watching a movie.  But you really had to be there to get the full effect of the screaming.

We thought we'd take the opportunity to try to get a picture of the three of us to include with our Christmas cards.  Yeah.  It took several attempts to even start taking pictures, and when he was finally calm enough he refused to smile.  Or look at the camera.  I printed out the best one of the bunch anyway.