See you guys later...

Hey guys, Susannah here, coming to you from cold and rainy Strasbourg. I have had it with the weather in Strasbourg and I finally convinced Mommy that we should head for the sun of southern Spain.

It was a lot easier to persuade Daddy to take a vacation...
To keep up with the fashion on the Costa de Sol I had to try on a couple of bucket hats.

After spending my whole life in Strasbourg, France I can't wait to see the world. First stop, sunny Spain...see y'all in a week.

Love, Susannah

My new big girl stroller and a changing table discussion with my Daddy

This week our new umbrella stroller arrived and we are all very excited to have something other than the big jogger to take into town. Most of the restaurants and stores in Strasbourg aren't big enough to fit the jogging stroller, so our options have been limited. With this spiffy new ride though, Susannah will be able to go anywhere. (which is a good thing for mommy considering she is still refusing the bottle.)



She looks so small in it, doesn't she? She loves it though. And if she didn't feel completely comfortable, sucking on her fist always calms those nerves. :)



I can't seem to figure out how to put videos on this blog, but we are dying to share some of Susannah "talking." So I broke down and just did a youtube video instead. Here is one of Susannah's many chats with her Daddy on the changing table.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM2IY2qVnZE

My apologies to any of you who are motion sick now......mommy isn't the best camerawoman. Pretty cute though, huh?

We are heading to sunny spain next week. So pics of Susannah's first plane ride and first time at the beach coming soon!

Big Girl Beds, Study Time, and a Hike through the Black Forest

Susannah's 10th week of life has been eventful, sunny and fun. One of the big events of the week was her move from the infant attachment on her pack and play. (She is still sleeping in our room in the pack and play, but now she is in the "big girl" part.) She managed the transition with no problem. I think she is happy to be able to stretch her legs.



Daddy is taking his last final exam EVER tomorrow, so this week Susannah has been "helping him study" (aka giving him an excuse for a cat nap in the rocking chair.)


Sometimes Susannah and I had story time as a way to keep from disrupting Daddy's studying.


We went on our first family hike last Saturday in the Black Forest. In honor of the event, Susannah wore her "What an Angel" onsie. Hard to see the writing, but the front says this in German. (at least, we think this is what it says.)


We went with some friends who wanted to show us their favorite lunch spot in the Forest. It was the perfect place for a sunny Saturday. A cozy German restuarant with beautiful mountain views and hiking trailheads right outside its door.


It was a great spot, offering not only a beautiful view and good food, but baby goats aussi.



After a delicious lunch, we headed out for a walk in the sun.


As we followed the trail up, we found more and more snow.


There was just enough snow for the kids to make a few snowballs.


We weren't the only ones enjoying the beautiful day. We saw these paragliders taking advantage of the clear blue sky and mild temps.


After our hike, we were ready for some coffee and the world famous Black Forest cake. Embarrassed to admit it, but after living in this area for 2 years, it only just occurred to me that Black Forest ham and cake were from the Black Forest just across the border. Lucky for us everyone was willing to entertain Susannah while we enjoyed our cake. Thanks Leah!


Mommy and Daddy were supposed to end the week with their first date night as new parents, but our precious Susannah has decided she doesn't like bottles after all. This means mommy is on a 2 hour leash. :) I'm sure she figures what date night could top a night at home with this face?

2 Months!

On February 4, Susannah, you turned 2 months old. Look how you have changed!!

1 week:

1 month:

2 months:

You have lost hair and gained lbs and inches!!

Today at the doctor you were 12.1 lbs and 23.2 inches. What a big girl you are!

You have done so many new things this month. Watching you is our favorite thing in the world.

Here are some of things that Mommy wants to make sure and remember about you at this age:

1. You LOVE to be on your changing table. This is your absolute favorite place.



(Thanks to Uncle Hollis and Aunt Christy for my adorable Valentine's Day outfit!)

2. You have done several firsts up here, such as smiling and now, lately, you have started laughing as well.



3. You also talk to us now. You especially love talking to your daddy when he changes your diaper because he is brave enough to let you air out for a little while and you guys talk and talk during this time. In honor of the death of UGA's mascot, he has been trying to teach you to say "uga".


4. You are still a wonderful sleeper. Last night was a total of 10 hours with only 1 feeding!!! Usually it is more like 7-8 with 1 or no feedings, so Mommy is a happy camper most mornings. You still love to be swaddled and you are out within 5 minutes of being wrapped up like a little baby burrito. Notice the little box on the bottom of your sleeper........there is a magic sleep button there that almost always puts you back to sleep when you wake up in the night. It turns on a vibration that works like a charm in lulling you back to sleep.



5. Sometimes, if you are in a really calm mood, you let Mommy read you stories. Your favorites are "The Hungry Caterpillar" and "Pat the Bunny."

6. You also respond really well to music. You love the songs on your activity mat and your swing. You even like the classical music that plays on your bassinet. Most surprisingly though, is that you like Mommy's voice. We sing the ABC's in English and French, but your most favorite songs are randomly, "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Mighty to Save." When you are fussy in your swing or bouncer while Mommy is cooking, if she sings one of those two songs, it almost always calms you down.




7. You are sucking on your fist more and more. We have tried giving you a pacifier, but you HATE it and spit it our immediately. But lately, you have found that fist and it helps keep you content in the car or the swing or your crib.



8. You are holding your head up really well, despite your dislike for tummy time. This was one of the few times that you didn't cry when we put you down.




9. Your legs are getting really strong too. You love to "stand up" on your own. Here you are holding up all of your 12.1 lbs by yourself (almost).



10. You are still, in general, what the french call une sage bébé (a calm, happy baby). But, of course, you have your moments. Although, after your first shots yesterday, we realized that we had never really experienced your actual "I'm in horrible pain and think I might die" cry, which I guess means your daddy and I are doing our jobs. You were laughing and smiling at the doctor, completely unsuspecting, when that shot went in, and then, one second later, you were SCREAMING . You had big huge tears running down your cheeks and I was almost crying with you. I had no idea how upsetting it would be for me to see you so upset. This photo doesn't even begin to illustrate the tears that happened in the doctor's office, but this is what you look like when you aren't happy:



11. You finally made it to church successfully, lasting through the entire service, even Communion!! You wore this sweet outfit.


You so rarely wear anything other than footed onsies, we had to make a photo session out of our successful church day, so here are some more shots of you pretty in pink.




12. Like I have mentioned in other posts, you really like to dance. You love to swing your arms and lately you have been grabbing lots of things, such as your toys on your activity mat, your toys on your swing and bouncer, and even your mommy's hair. Mommy's favorite dance move of yours is when you hold your hands like you are doing Micheal Jackson's Thriller dance. Here are some pics of you dancing.









13. You are very expressive already and we love trying to capture all your many faces with the camera.

Here is your sweet and innocent face:

Your stunned face:

Your sleepy face:

and your "I'm slightly suspicious" face:


Thank you, sweet Susannah, for the best two months of my life. You are truly a blessing from God and I am so lucky to be your Mom!.

First Roadtrip

We just returned from our first official roadtrip as a family of three. It was a great success. Peter is starting research for his thesis and had the opportunity to do an interview at the NATO base in Belgium. We have friends from Jacksonville who are stationed there currently and offered us a place to stay, so we decided this weekend trip would be a perfect trial run for our weeklong ski vacation at the end of February. Our friends have two adorable children who were so sweet to Susannah. We loved staying with them and catching up so much that we forgot to take any pictures. Oops. We did manage to take some shots of the other parts of our adventure though, so here are a few.......

We decided to cut the 5 1/2 hour drive in half by stopping at Ramstein Airforce Base. Usually Peter and I stay in the great new fancy hotel there(okay, fancy may be a little too far...maybe fancier than most military lodging is more appropriate.), but when we tried to make reservations, we were informed that families with children had to stay in the "family lodging." Welcome to parenthood. :) It turned out okay though because we had more room to spread out the carload full of necessities that traveling with an 8 week old includes. We had a full kitchen, living room and bedroom for the same price as one of the small rooms in the new hotel. Here we are hanging out after dinner.


Susannah loved the family apartment........lots of room to stretch out and watch a little TV.


Daddy even let her choose what to watch......


Since we were staying only a 25 minute trainride from Brussels, we decided to head into the city and meet up with a fellow Olmsteder for some sightseeing and lunch. Parking at the station was tough though, so we ended up missing our train. We spent the 30 minutes until the next one in the café across from the station where we discovered that Belgian café s do not serve croissants, or any breakfast for that matter. Only coffee and beer. It was 9 in the morning and the only other customer was having a cold one as his breakfast. Luckily Daddy came to the rescue by walking to a gas station to buy us a snack and some water.

Despite the lack of food, it was a fun spot because of the scary guard dog, snoopy, that met us at the door before resuming his spot at a table next to the window.


We managed to catch the second train. Susannah slept through the first part of her first trainride.


But woke up halfway through the ride, ready to check things out.


Our Olmsted friend Brian met us at the train station and we started our tour with the Brussel's cathedral:


It was beautiful inside and out:


Brian showed us several more of Brussel's main highlights. Here he is explaining that this beautiful arched hall is actually just a fancy shopping mall.


We saw the stunning Hotel de Ville (town hall) in the Grande Place


And the famous Manneken Pis, a Brussells landmark that is actually just a little statue of a little boy peeing......


On our way to lunch in the Petit Sablon area we were rewarded this great view of the city. (Peter and Brian earned it by carrying Susannah and her stroller up all the steps.)


We had a delicious lunch complete with two things the Belgians are famous for: french fries and beer. (Susannah is having her lunch in this picture.)


After lunch, we bought some chocolate and took the metro to check out the European Commission. Peter has studied so much about this, he had to have a photo in front.

I mention the metro only because it was a rather bizarre experience. The machine didn't take bills or credit cards that weren't Belgian. Nor do they have a ticket window or a coin machine. So if you don't have enough coins to cover your fare, you are walking. Luckily the security worker was nice enough to go over to the homeless xylophone player and ask him if he could break our 10 euro bill. He agreed and we managed to buy our tickets.


Robert Schuman is from Strasbourg and another focus of Peter's studies, so we had to snap a shot in front of this as well.


Overall, I would say the trip was a great success. Peter had a successful interview, we caught up with old friends and met a new one, and managed two train rides and 11 total hours in the car without any major drama. Thanks to the Flecks and Brian for your hospitality! And thanks to Susannah for being such a calm and happy baby. (most of the time at least.)

Stay tuned for Susannah's two month birthday blog coming soon. She has a doctor's appointment next week and we can't wait to see how much she has grown.