Thursday, September 23, 2010

Gartenschau

This week we went to the Gartenschau in Kaiserslautern, which is pretty much a big park with seasonal flower displays, dinosaur sculptures, several playground areas for kids, and a bunch more stuff.  Plus right now they're having a Noah's ark exhibit with animals made of pumpkins & gourds.  This was our first time there.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (because I'm too tired to write captions).












We spent less than two hours there and didn't even cover the entire grounds, but we found a ton of stuff for Ben to see and do.  I look forward to going back in the spring.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Bedtime Reading

 
This is a great example of how distracted Ben gets when we try to take a video of him.  He has many of his bedtime books memorized and "reads" them himself but we have yet to capture it on camera.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Sneak Peek

I have had more ultrasounds with this pregnancy than with my first one because I've been seeing the high risk doctor this time around (trying to avoid another run-in with preeclampsia).  This week they surprised me by printing out some 3-D pics of Baby Girl's feet and hands.  Here is a foot, with the other foot hooked behind the ankle.  The umbilical cord is on the right.  The cord was always in the way of the face, so no face pics this time.
 
Here are both feet with toes up, and on the left is a hand.

Here's a face pic from two months ago.  I love being able to see her eyes...but I'm still hoping to see a 3-D view at another appointment!

Everything seems to be moving along fine for now.  No blood pressure problems (yet) and they're keeping an eye on me to make sure I don't become diabetic.  They took a bunch of measurements of Baby Girl from the ultrasound.  All the numbers are within normal ranges, but they said she has short legs and a big head.  Since Big Brother also had a big head, we're not surprised!  But that means there's a very good chance I'll have to have a repeat c-section instead of attempting a VBAC.  My doc has indicated that I'll probably need to deliver before Thanksgiving.  Better get moving on the nursery!

Friday, September 3, 2010

August

It was a pretty hot summer here.  When the weather was mild enough, Mike took Ben out to the parks to play (aka "park play").

Climbing the steps all by himself...

...and going down the slide by himself, too.

He always has to find the "Ben spot" under every slide.

Enjoying having the tire swing all to himself.  Some days the parks are packed, other days he's the only kid around.

He used to avoid these springy seats like the plague.  Until he found out how much fun they are.  He's hit his forehead on the handlebars several times.

Teasing Calvin with a new cat toy.  At first Calvin got bonked on the head a lot by the toy fish, but Ben is figuring out better ways of playing.

Unfortunately for Calvin, Ben is easily distracted while still holding the cat toy.

This is the "suitcase game."  Ben invented it.  I don't think I need to explain.  Oh, he does like us to close the flap on him, and then he pushes back open and yells, "here I am!"  Or "there he is."  He parrots everything we say lately.

Polar Bear joins the suitcase party.

At a squadron picnic, hanging out with Uncle Drew.

There was a dunk tank at the picnic.  Ben desperately wanted to be involved in some way.  He got to play with one of the softballs until he had to be removed from the line of fire.

Playing with Miss Meredith.  They are looking at an old bottle of bubbles that has Winnie the Pooh on it, one of his favorite characters.

At the end of a particularly long day, he just wanted to eat a big bowl of spaghetti (hence the sauce-face), curl up under a blanket and watch a DVD.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Monday, August 16, 2010

The "Elephant" at the "Circus"

Earlier this month we took Ben to a "circus" on family night at the community center at a nearby base.  It took him a few minutes to warm up.  Once he did, he ran and ran.

This was a huge blow-up maze.  Air was blasting out of this end as the kids piled in.

Ben finally got the courage to crawl in.  Unfortunately, he took off down one of the paths and couldn't find his way back and started to scream and cry.  Another kid found him, took him by the hand & led him out.  Ben got over his tears in about five seconds & tried to go back in (but we didn't let him).

Coloring a clown with MARKERS!!  He only gets crayons and pencils at home.  That green band on his right wrist bugged him the whole time.

Discovering the bean bag toss game.

He was thrilled to play with all these balls.  He didn't even care when he got konked on the head a few times.  Daddy helped him slam dunk, too.

And we're back to the bean bag toss.  Soon after this, someone announced that a special guest would be making an appearance....

...an ELEPHANT!!!  Ben was the first kid to run up to this poor guy.

But Ben wasn't the only little kid to swarm the elephant.

I should mention that it was really hot in this room.  Can't imagine how hot it was in that costume.  Notice which kid is front & center.

Ben was pointing and saying "elephant" over and over.

They announced that the elephant couldn't stay much longer but would be playing a game of tug-of-war with the kids before leaving.  We had to drag Ben away from the elephant.  We bribed him with pizza.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Ostend, Belgium

After visiting Brugge, we drove half an hour to the North Sea coast.  Mike got a great hotel for us (with air conditioning!) just a couple blocks from the beach.

Yep, Ben still loves the ocean.

Our hotel room was very nice, especially for a European hotel (rooms here can be quite small).  We had this huge shower stall AND a nice big bathtub.  There was a living room area with a fold-out couch that served as Ben's bed.

The boardwalk near the fish market had a bunch of food stands with a ton of great seafood.  There was also an ice cream stand - every day Ben got a cone.

This jungle gym was downtown just past a restaurant where we had a great lunch of fish I've never heard of.

Playing peekaboo with Daddy.

Hanging out at the hotel swimming pool.

I've never been in an indoor pool area this dark!  And it was just off the lobby.  Ben insisted on getting out of the pool just to go back down the pool steps over & over.

Walking around downtown, we found a waffle stand.  Oh, those delicious Belgian waffles.