Paris

Hey, I'm back. (let's pretend you noticed I was gone)I've been putting this post off for a while, because I've been busy-ish and also because, you know, it's a big subject to cover.
In a nutshell, my parents and brother came here to visit us and together we went to Paris, Rome, and London.This was a pretty huge undertaking. 5 adults, one toddler, and an infant for one week of constant travel with minimal luggage, a LOT to see and not much time to see it. There was a lot of walking involved as well as a lot of public transportation. Subways aren't really family affairs, if you know what I mean. I feel like it was a pretty grand accomplishment. There were definitely some challenges but I wouldn't have done this trip any differently (except I wish my other siblings and their families could have come)

Looking very much like tourists

I was going to blog all three in one post, but nobody in their right mind would ever read that much rambling. So I'll ramble in three parts.
Paris:Oh, Paris. I randomly decided some time ago that Hollywood, or whoever, had sort of ruined Paris. I thought that surely I had been so over exposed to all things Parisian, that I would be utterly bored by that dang tower. I also just expected it to be kind of..dirty. A friend semi-confirmed my suspicions when she reported that while Paris was great, it was pretty "urban and gritty."Well, I did indeed find Paris kind of...gross. It was dirty, customer service was awful (but in general, Parisians were very kind) and there were pick pockets everywhere. Everywhere. And they were quite literally aggressive. All that skewed my Paris experience a little, on top of getting to spend very little time in the Louvre, but I'll tell you what I did love about Paris, particularly what exceeded expectations. 
The Montmartre District: This is one of the very Paris-y parts of Paris. Montmartre "Mount of the Martyr" is basically a big hill crowned at the top by the gorgeous Sacré-Cœur Basilica, with winding cobble stone streets leading you past a million little shops. If you've seen any movie filmed in Paris, you've seen the streets of the Montmartre District, and probably that adorable carousel right before you reach the Basilica.  It's very touristy and crowded, and it is a dang long walk up a heck of a lot of stairs to reach the church, but once you reach the top, the view of the whole city of Paris is worth every step. The Basilica might just be the prettiest church I've ever seen.

Paris from halfway up the hill

The Basilica from halfway

That cute carousel from Amelie ;)

Notre Dame: After Sacré-Cœur, we headed to Notre Dame. It was everything you'd think it should be, with the beautiful art and impressive architecture. It was overwhelming in a good way. It was pretty dark inside and I don't think the pics are really blog-worthy, and photos couldn't do it justice anyway. We sat outside for a while listening to the bells and watching elderly people feed pigeons that sat atop their heads and shoulders in the shade of a huge statue of Charlemagne. Daniel loved that statue.

The family. You can sort of see Notre Dame in the background

Notre Dame

Side view of Notre Dame

The statue of Charlemagne that Daniel went nuts over

The River Seine: We walked along the river for a long time on our way to the Eiffel Tower and it basically offered a constant perfect view with its statues and stone bridges . This is another site you've definitely seen if you've ever looked at anything that had anything to do with Paris.

The River

The Eiffel Tower. Did I say I was bored with the Eiffel Tower? Oh. Well, I was wrong. I'm not sure why I thought it wasn't that big, or impressive, and it's "not that old" and so it's basically a glorified radio tower, right? Gosh. I ate my words in the lawn of the Eiffel Tower.The area around the tower is so beautiful with the rose bushes and the perfect lawn full of people being super happy, lounging, napping, sipping champagne, chasing their children. We got there right before sunset and laid in the grass for nearly two hours, just soaking in the atmosphere and eating Cheez Its (classy, no?) The tower is beautiful, in case you ever doubted. I told Daniel before we went on this trip that if he really loved me, he would kiss me in front of the Eiffel Tower, even though he is not big on PDA. He does love me, by the way :) 

The kids are disgusted.

Chilling in the lawn of the tower. 

The Louvre: The Louvre was super cool. I could not believe how massive it is. We were only there for a couple of hours and were pretty rushed, so needless to say we saw just a tiny fraction of it. That was sort of disappointing. The girls fell asleep before we got to the Mona Lisa.  I tried to wake them up, but they were out. So someday if anyone should ask "have you ever seen the Mona Lisa?" They'll just have to say "no, I haven't, but she has seen me."

Bell being cute at the Louvre

Mona Lisa

Hey, it is World Breastfeeding Week.

Food: French breakfast was nothing special, and I had some mediocre sandwiches at touristy cafes, too. It was near 9pm as we were leaving the Eiffel Tower looking for a place to eat and we found that everything in Paris closes at 9ish (including the bus back to our hotel, but that's a different story) so we were forced out of the main tourist area and found a cute little restaurant that was still open. Most of us had the steak tartare which thoroughly disgusted my mom. It was good. It was chilled, which makes sense but still surprised me a little. It was also sweet, because of sweet pickles or something diced up in it. I think I prefer my steak warm and savory but it was still good,especially with the house wine we had. Near the Louvre we went to a cafe for coffee and crepes. I skipped the crepes and had creme brulee instead. I ate the whole thing all by myself and it was delicious.  

Steak Tartare

Creme Brulee

So that's it for Paris! I'll try to finish my post on London tomorrow :)

Just an Update

Here's what's coming up on our calendar in the next month: Move to a shiny new house, have 6 house guests, travel the world, and throw an epic 3rd birthday party. Those mega tasks all overlap, and I really can't prepare for much of it. It's not like I can make the cake in advance. The moving guys will pack everything, so I'm not boxing things up. And because we won't move into the new house until the day half of our guests arrive, there's no sense in scrubbing the guest bathroom to prepare. So basically waiting is driving me nuts. But I guess that's better than saying "there is so much I have to do!" We're getting acquainted with our new town. (the one we're moving closer to) Yesterday we went to church there, and during confession I taught the very elderly priest how to use an iPhone app. Afterward we tried out a restaurant nearby. Daniel asked Bella to taste the "Kraut Salat" and then she shouted "MM! I LOVE CRAP SALAD!"

No, even with impending chaos, life goes on as usual. One steady ritual we have, that I enjoy very much, is listening to Daniel tell stories to Isabella at bedtime. Jonah and the Whale is her current favorite, and she usually tells it to him.  But Daniel decided to switch it up a few nights ago and tell her the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. You remember the story. With the troll? "who's that tromping over my bridge?!" Yeah, that one. Anyway, like a typical three year old, any new story is interrupted by a "why? why?" about 487 times. Which leads to Daniel explaining tons of stuff that has nothing to do with the story, really. So he starts the story about the billy goats, and he pauses to make sure she remembers that a goat is "kind of like sheep, but with horns" or something. She says yeah, and he continues the story. About two minutes in she says thoughtfully "daddy? Goats are fatter than mommy." Daniel pauses for a second and is like, "uh, yeah. Yeah they are"
They sure know how to make a girl feel nice.

Isabella has some tricks up her sleeve. Some might call it "manipulation" but we figure it is sheer brilliance and call it "bargaining." She has pink, round cheeks, and ginormous blue eyes. She gives hugs and kisses and pops off an "I wuv you mommy" at all the right times. I think most toddlers are probably pretty good at that stuff. She is trying to master the art of compromise with things like "Ok, but how bout I stay in the bath just one more minute, then I get out?"  It's a fair question, but unfortunately she has no idea how long one minute is, being not even three years old yet. Sometimes she will offer such a fantastic explanation of why she has done something she knows not to do, that our heads are left spinning as we grasp for some way to salvage a learning opportunity (aka discipline) out of it. Her fool-proof method, though, is to do something bad while looking very cute, and right as we catch her, make us laugh hysterically. You might remember this story. It works every time. Sometimes, when we're about to give her a talk, she'll just quote a movie. One of her favorites is a line from the movie Rio. "look, I know you're just doing your job" she'll say. Serious moment ruined. I'll give you another example. We have lots of rosaries, and Isabella LOVES jewelry. But she knows that the rosaries are not toys and are not to be played with. She is still often tempted to play with them. So a couple of days ago we were all in Daniel's office, playing with the dog and chatting, when Bella suddenly leaves the room for several minutes. When she returned, she was wearing every rosary in the house. And nothing else. We stifled some laughter and I was about to say "Isabella, you know you may not play with those, and why are you naked??" but right as my mouth opened she broke out into the most wild dancing. She was trying to make the rosaries swing back and forth and it looked like some crazy pagan moon dance. It was literally the most hilarious thing I've ever seen. We completely lost all composure. Daniel finally managed to remind her that rosaries are for prayer, not for hip thrusts.

So that's what's going on here in Germany, just enjoying our family in this gorgeous spring weather. We also went to Cologne recently and it was SO beautiful. I got a few pictures, but I'll probably just throw them in with my next travel post. Happy Monday!

Pilgrimage to Trier!

The best part of being stationed in Europe is (obviously) the fantastic travel opportunities. We live in an awesome location because so many of the places we want to visit are in a reasonable distance, and we plan to knock lots of great places off of our list when my parents visit next month. So far, though, we've only visited a little of Germany and France. Which is nothing to sneeze at. Whatever that means.

This weekend we went to one of our favorite cities in Germany, Trier. We've been to Trier several times because it's very close and very cool.
 A few fun facts about Trier: Trier is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC. Several reminders of its time as an important city in the Roman Empire remain such as the Porta Nigra, which is the huge Roman city gate, as well as the ruins of Roman baths, which you can tour. There is a fabulous Roman museum with all sorts of fascinating artifacts and art from the time. Unfortunately, the city was hit hard during World War II but is nevertheless a beautiful city today. Trier is also home to a monastery where you can visit the tomb of Matthias (as in, the Apostle.) One of the popular sites is a basilica built by the emperor Constantine, which still functions as a church. (I should totally get a job with the City's tourism department, don't you think??)

The City Square. Here you'll find European treasures like McDonald's, Starbucks, H&M, and  Subway. 

Porta Nigra, The Roman City Gate

This is the tomb of Matthias

Replica of the city after World War II :(

Bella, at the top of the Porta Nigra

Terrible photo of the inside of Constantine's Basilica.

Anyway, one of the coolest things about Trier is that in the beautiful, ancient cathedral there is a tunic, said to be the robe of Christ. You know...this one:

²³ Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.

²⁴ They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. (KJV)

Yeah, that one. Now, legend has it that St. Helena (she was the woman Constantine the Great referred to as "mom") traveled to the Holy Land to find the cross. Not only did she find it, but she found the seamless robe, which she gifted to Trier in the year 327ish. (along with a piece of the cross, which is now in that monastery I mentioned earlier.)

For a long time, nobody could view the robe. It was (and is) kept in a reliquary. We saw the reliquary on our second trip to Trier and it was like, "oh, look, a box??" but exactly 500 years ago, the robe was put on display for a short time. Since then it has only been displayed 16 times (I got that tidbit from Wikipedia), at very sporadic intervals. Millions of pilgrims have traveled from all over the world to view the robe on the rare occasion that it is displayed, and to mark 500 years since the very first pilgrimage of the robe, it was put on display during April and May 2012.

 So, back to Trier we went. Our priest had mentioned something along the lines of standing in line to see it, in the pouring rain, for like six hours. When we arrived, I knew he wasn't exaggerating. The crowd was massive. A huge line of people, chatting, laughing, praying, and singing. It was worth the trip to just see the crowd. However, in typical Heather fashion, I started to panic a little. "How would the babies handle waiting in line so long? What if they had to pee? What if I had to pee? What if Sophie pooped in her diaper??! What if we ran out of water?" and in typical Daniel fashion, Daniel said "chill out babe, it'll work out." So we got in the back of the line.
About 2 minutes later we were approached by a nice man wearing a lanyard and tag to denote his position as an official event worker who informed us that there was a special line for strollers and wheelchairs. So we followed and he led us straight into the Church! To a very small line! We ended up only waiting about 45 minutes to view the robe. Sophia sent a group of elderly nuns into a fit of giggles by showing them her grumpy face. I didn't get a picture at the time, but it looks a little like this.

I think she was trying to get them to be a little more serious. We were in a church, after all. That's old ladies for you, though.


 Anyway I got a few pictures of the tunic. 

Doing a pilgrimage was a really interesting thing for me. Having been raised protestant, where we put zero emphasis on relics, and now being a very new Catholic, I was sort of looking forward to the six hour wait to work out how I felt about the robe, or relics in general. Do I think this is the real robe? Does it matter if it is the real robe? What is the significance of it, for me? For all of us? Alas, turns out I only had 45 minutes to contemplate such things, during most of which I was breastfeeding an infant and chasing a toddler. So before I knew it, bam, there it was, and we were off. One of the guards told me that Sophie "must be one of the littlest pilgrims we've seen!" 
So I wish I could tell you a more interesting story, with deep thoughts and profound meaning, but not today.
 The robe is seamless, "woven from the top throughout" and was not divided among the soldiers. This fact was a fulfillment of prophecy and also a lovely representation of a unified Church, don't you think?
Tune in at the end of this month for MUNICH and VIENNA! (I may throw in Augsburg before then, if the children nap excessively!)

A very small glimpse of the crowd as we were leaving. Thousands of people were outside.

Dear Jesus

Sunday at church, Isabella suddenly got out of the pew and got on her knees, hands folded in front of her. As usual, she forgot to whisper, and said "MOMMY! Pray with me!" So I got on my knees and folded my hands. I whispered to her "Would you like to thank God for your mommy, daddy, and sister?" she stared at me. So I offered "maybe we can ask Jesus to help us be good today?" she stared, blinked and said, "Mommy....just...pray with me."
Oh. Sorry. My bad.

So we bowed our heads, closed our eyes and Bella began to pray. "Dear Jesus," she said in a tone that certainly must have warned Him to brace Himself for disappointing news, "there are no toys in here."
Then she got up and got back in the pew.

Well, now He knows.

Baby Sign Part Two

In my previous post, I went over "What is Baby Sign?" (it's not learning a second language) and "Why bother?" (uh, because it is super fun.)  So now that we've had a recap, I'm challenging myself to be brief and to the point to talk about how to go about signing with your cute little bundle of joy.

I'd like to mention again that besides first hand experience from signing with two babies, most of my information comes from this book.

Whether or not babies have the memory required to learn signs very early, I don't really know. But it doesn't matter because before around 6 months, they just don't have the strength and control required to make signs with their arms and hands.
So you can start signing earlier (like I did with Sophia) but don't expect them to start signing back until at least close to 6 months. (Super Sophie started signing "milk" and "potty" just shy of her half birthday)

If you do wait til 6 months like I did with Isabella, you still can't expect baby to sign back immediately. It takes baby a while to figure out what the heck mommy is doing with her hands. I think Bella was signing back around 7 1/2 months, but I don't really remember. Bell got really good at it really fast once she figured it out, whereas Sophie is really just now getting into it (she just turned 8 months) which is probably because now that I have two kids and a puppy, I'm just not as good about signing to her as I was when I only had one baby.

Once baby starts realizing that a certain action follows a certain sign, and that you respond appropriately when they sign, they will be eager to learn more.

So here's how to do it: You just...do it.
Using an American Sign Language (ASL) dictionary, (or just find out signs onlline) Pick 2 or 3 signs at a time, and do them every time you see that thing/action, and also SAY the word. For example, when you're feeding the baby, you might say "Milk! Baby is drinking Milk, do you like Milk, baby?" and be sure to do the sign every time you say "milk."
 If you see baby noticing a picture of daddy, sign daddy, say "daddy" etc.
You can even do the sign "on" baby. Meaning that for signs like mommy and daddy that involve touching your face, occasionally sign it on baby's face.
I don't add more signs until baby initially starts signing back, (which, as I said, may take a month or so in the very beginning) but once Baby has the general idea, you don't have to wait until they're great at every sign to add another sign or two.
You should, however, only add a couple of signs a week, for your own sake. You need to be consistent, and it's impossible to remember to sign everything if you add too many at a time as you learn them yourself.

It is also really important, especially in the beginning, to make an effort to do what baby asks so that they will know that signing works, and that you understand. So let's say baby signs "milk," be quick about letting her know that you understand what she wants. If you don't respond to her signs, she won't bother to do them. Of course, you can't always "obey" when a child demands something, but just let them know you understand. Maybe your 10 month old keeps signing "outside" and it's way past bedtime..You can say/sign "outside" when you say "mommy sees that you want to play outside. See the window? It's dark now. We will go outside tomorrow." Kids are smart. They understand these things.

So really, that's it. That's how you do it, but here's a few more tips

• You should stick with official signs using whichever Sign Language is used in your country. Sure, you can make up your own signs, but what if you forget what sign you used for "ball" and you can't just grab your sign dictionary to remember what it was? So sometimes it's ok to make up your own, but I wouldn't recommend doing it for everything
• To keep baby interested, when you add a sign that YOU want baby to learn, be sure to add a sign that HE wants to learn. So some practical/convenient signs for you might be hurt, milk/nurse, potty/diaper, more, eat, mommy/daddy. Babies seem to love everything about outside, and some of Bell's favorite signs were: Book, ball, dog, cat, tree, outside, moon, car, hear, see, airplane, hat, glasses.
• Be sure to make sentences once baby starts learning. "more cheerios" or "see cat outside?" are some possibilities.

So, I failed miserably on the brevity thing, but oh well. That's how you do baby sign.

Baby Sign Language

Fun fact. I wrote this post, almost in its entirety, during breakfast the other day. While I was refilling my coffee in the kitchen, my toddler got out of her chair, walked over to the laptop, and held down backspace while I was gone. Deleted the whole thing. So, here we go again.

I had a request to do a post about baby sign, and I think that is a great idea, because A. it's a great subject and B. I like to talk about it.
I feel like doing baby sign with Isabella was one of the best things we've ever done for her. She would probably argue that giving her ice cream is the best thing we've ever done, but we're all entitled to our opinion.

First, the good news. You do *not* have to know sign language to do baby sign language. Does your mind = blown? Now for the bad news. Oh wait. There is no bad news. Baby sign is easy, fun, and beneficial.
 I learned everything I know about baby sign from a little book that you can pick up for about $8 called Baby Sign Language Basics by Monta Z. Briant.
http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Sign-Language-Basics-ebook/dp/B001LNNRCS
I super duper highly recommend this book, but honestly you don't really need anything to do baby sign, except hands and a baby. (preferably your own baby. Its weird and inconvenient to try to sign with a stranger's baby)

Ok. I'm going to break this topic into two posts, because a lot can be said about baby sign. There's the what, why, how, etc. For part 1 (HINT: that's the post you're currently reading) I'm going to cover what baby sign is, and why one might want to do it.

What is baby sign language? Well, I'll tell you what it isn't. It isn't teaching your baby a second language in the form of American Sign Language (ASL). That would probably require you actually knowing ASL. Baby sign is simply learning only signs that you and your baby might want to use to communicate with each other while your baby is pre-verbal. Your child will, in all likelihood, forget these signs once she becomes verbal. Ours did, and that's normal to drop the signs once they learn the spoken word for it. If you want your child to continue to learn ASL, you should probably look into learning ASL yourself and be sure to stick with it even after baby becomes verbal.

Why would you want to do baby sign? I'm so glad you asked.
I'll start with the obvious. Babies want stuff. Babies can't talk. This presents a problem for the baby. Of course, most parents are very good at knowing what their baby needs, but I can tell you from experience that it is really fun when baby can instantly communicate whether they want milk or a diaper change (or to be taken to potty), sleep or a ball, or a book, or whatever. It just cuts out some of the guesswork on your part, and frustration on baby's part. So to me, that is the most basic, simple reason one might want to do it.

Unfortunately, I no longer own the book I recommended. I lent it to someone and, well, you know how that goes. I would love to have it in front of me to quote the research on the developmental/intellectual benefits of baby sign for babies, but I can't. So I'm going to be vague about it. The gist of it was that the benefits of baby sign may be similar to that of any bilingual child, even though the baby doesn't actually learn ASL completely. Perhaps it sharpens their thinking skills and linguistic skills, basically. There also may be emotional benefits for a baby who feels a sense of accomplishment at successfully communicating to an adult, being listened to, understood, etc. blah blah, it's probably good for baby, but obviously not a necessity in raising a happy, intelligent child.

So that brings me to the BEST reason to do baby sign. It is really, really fun! There is so much more to it than what your baby needs. Because honestly..babies don't need much besides love, milk, cuddles, and clean bums. It's easy to think that babies don't think about much besides "I'm hungry" or "I crapped my pants" but of course that just isn't true. They simply are physically incapable of verbalizing their thoughts. Sure, they may not be contemplating the mysteries of life, but they still have something to say. They are people, after all
It is so rewarding as a parent when one day your baby is hanging out, being a cute, drooling baby, presumably not thinking about much besides how to get to the dog food bowl, then not long after they are signing things like "hear airplane outside" or "where daddy?" or "more eat" or "hat, glasses" when someone walks by. Or "moon" every single time you pass a streetlight at night. Or "grandad" every time a bald man walks by. You will be blown away at how incredibly observant very young, pre verbal babies are. They LOVE to show off what they know, too, and are always ready to sit in your lap with a book so that they can sign puppy, tree, hat, bird, etc when you come across one.

We had so much fun signing with Isabella, and we believe that it was really helpful in developing her awesome vocabulary. Now we sign with new little one, and it is just as rewarding!

I'm finally done with part 1, and I'll add a link to part 2 on HOW to sign with your baby once I get it written ;) Happy Friday everyone!

The post where I blog about blogging.

Hey mom.
heh.
So, I was kind of thinking I probably wouldn't blog anytime soon. Nothing "of note" is happening, I guess. Although I am considering , for the sake of memory keeping, making a post with some recent fun memories/funny kid quotes from before I started the blog, even though I've already told those stories to everyone.
Then I thought about if for two seconds and realized there is a lot of stuff going on.

Well, the point is, I'm sitting on some ideas for future posts. I get a lot of questions about what brands of cloth diapers I use (well, actually, I graduated to big girl panties a few years ago, but Sophie wears them sometimes) and about babywearing, infant pottying, and just some other mommy stuff.

I've also considered that maybe people are curious about life in Germany, or Army life in general (General <--Army pun!)
ahem.

I have some craft projects in the works, a huge birthday party/cake I'm planning, a MOVE, and some super cool upcoming trips that I may bore you with. But hey, you should come take a look when I post pictures from Paris and Rome, at least. You can skip the needle-felting-little-animals posts, but at least come for the travel blogs, ok?

What I'm getting at is that this is the customary "new blog disclaimer" where I assure you that keeping a blog doesn't mean I have a huge ego, or think that what I have to say is intelligent or important, (but also that if YOU have a blog I certainly don't think that you have a big ego) and that I realize I probably have very few readers, yet making sure not sounding so humble that it sounds like I'm fishing for people to say they love my blog and of course they read it. WHEW! Did you get all that? The point is, whether you are there or not I'm going to continue blogging as if you are, because maybe someday, if I stick with this, my sweet precious babies will come read this blog and laugh together at what a dork mommy is, then I'll tell them to hush and go clean their rooms, and it will be good times.

But if you are there, lemme know what you'd like to hear about. German beer? French cafes? How to properly wash a cloth diaper? Or perhaps I should stick to what I came here for, to tell funny stories about my kiddos. And with that, I'll leave you with this.

The kids are being their usual cute, funny selves. Sophie continues to try to eat the dog, and her toothlessness continues to be a major obstacle. Bell is witty as always, though I can't think of any laugh-out-loud bloggable moments in the past few days except that when husband came home very sore, moaning and groaning from playing sports with  his co-workers (I'll skip the Army jargon for now) Bella asked me, very concerned "mommy, what's wrong with daddy??" I told her nothing, he's just getting old and decrepit. She rushed to his side and said "aw, daddy! Are you crepit?" and patted his arm. hehe. Poor crepit daddy.