Rome

We flew from London to Rome for the last leg of our trip and went straight to the hotel to check in.
Daniel did a great job picking hotels in good locations, but this was my favorite hotel. It was just so pretty. European hotels are so different from American ones. It's the little things, you know? Real, antique keys instead of cards, winding staircases in old beautiful buildings... The location was perfect, because we could see the Castile de San Angelo from our balcony and and St. Peter's Square was very near as well. We did have to pay extra to have air conditioning in our room, and let me tell you...it was worth every penny. Rome is hot. We ate at a nearby restaurant (more on that later) then mom, dad, and Nathan went back to their room to sleep. Daniel and I decided we couldn't wait until morning to see St. Peter's Square so we walked in the dark with the girls. I am so glad we did. We were able to see the square lit up at night and almost empty. It was so peaceful and lovely. They closed it for the night about five minutes after we got there.

View of Castile de San Angelo from our balcony

St. Peter's Square at night

Swiss Guard outside St. Peter's

 

The next morning we had a sad choice to make. We wanted to go to mass at St. Peter's Basilica, but Mass ends at the same time that the Sistine Chapel closes! So we'd have to do one or the other. We went to mass, and my parents and Nathan went to the Sistine Chapel. I'm bummed that we missed it, but it was really cool to attend mass at St. Peter's and get a close up view of the inside. Plus some sweet old nuns got to pinch the kids' cheeks, so that was fun. As soon as mass was over we looked around for a minute then went straight into the square, where we were able to see Pope Benedict giving a speech to the HUGE crowd from his window.I think he spoke in 4 or 5 languages, including a little English.

inside the basilica after mass

That's the Pope!

St. Peter's

Castile de San Angelo

random street

some government building?

Daniel took me back to the hotel so that I could meet up with my family, and he went to hit some sites on his own, since he had a much bigger to-do list than the rest of us, and a lot more energy left than anyone else. This worked out well for everyone except that I hate that we don't have any pictures of us all together in Rome. 

Colosseum: The first place we went was the colosseum. I had a wicked headache while we were there and spent most of the time sitting in the dirt with my eyes closed and my head resting on a rock. I found that it was not a very cheerful place. Anyway, if you go to Rome...go to the Colosseum. Duh. It's very cool. 
   

Constantine's Arch

   



At this point, we were a little tired of the miserable heat. It's hot in Oklahoma, and humid too. So hot and humid that I thought no other heat would faze me.  I don't know what it is, but the sun in Italy is brutal. Nathan had a travel book that recommended we search out the world's best gelato at a little place near the Trevi Fountain. We thought this sounded like the perfect place to cool off, so we set out for the Trevi Fountain. The fountain definitely lives up to the hype. It is really beautiful. The water comes out little spigots that are safe to drink from so we filled our bottles there. (most Roman fountains are this way) We found the tiny little gelato place, then decided to head home. We had pizza on the way back to the hotel, then immediately afterward we accidentally stumbled upon the Pantheon. It was late in the day so we weren't able to go in (it's a Catholic church now), but I'm glad we got to see it. We all hit the sack early in preparation for our early departure back to Germany the next morning.

with the girls, Trevi Fountain

Pantheon

   
 

Roman Food: Our first night, we ate at the first place we came to after checking into our hotel. The concierge assured us that we could not go wrong eating on that street, so we just picked one. 

We were a little out of place there. Travel-worn, casually dressed, exhausted, and with babies in tow. I think that's why they put us in the back room all alone. It's a good thing they did because we got a little silly. (perhaps it was all the free prosecco or the fishbowl sized glasses of red wine.) Dad ordered an appetizer of Italian cheeses with bread and fruit for the table. Yum, yum, yum. Mom ordered spaghetti with bacon, but by bacon they meant prosciutto. Mom did not really appreciate the aroma of the aged meat, so the rest of the family ended up eating her food. I had a veal meatball stuffed with spinach and cheese with veggies and some fantastic sauce. For dessert I had something very like tiramisu, except instead of powdered cocoa on top, it was covered in a hot chocolate sauce. Mom had fruit and chocolate fondue. YUM!
That was one of the best meals I've ever had, but unfortunately it was really the only good meal we had in Rome. Everything else was the equivalent of frozen pizza and canned Chef Boyardee pasta. Not exaggerating. You really get what you pay for in Rome I guess.

Oh, except for the gelato. We liked the gelato.The famous gelato place we went near the Trevi fountain is called San Crispino. There were magazine clippings all over the walls of rave reviews in food magazines. Apparently the character in Eat, Pray, Love stops by there on her trip to Rome. Anyway, it was really delicious gelato. Particlarly the peach and strawberry.
So that's all, folks. It was a great trip.

London

London

Yesterday I blogged about the Paris leg of our Paris/London/Rome journey, so if you missed that, you can read it here

I was pretty relieved to leave Paris behind when it was time to get on the train for London. It was a pleasant train ride other than the thirty minutes we spent under the English Channel. That part was sort of creepy. The train station in London was decked out in Olympics 2012 stuff and as soon as I realized we were at King's Cross Station I had a minor Harry Potter geek out moment. We exchanged our Euro for British Pounds and had a moment of silence for all the money lost in that transaction before heading out into the cold rainy night to find our hotel. London was meant to be our rest between Paris and Rome, and it was. London is beautiful and clean and shiny and friendly and... not Paris. They also get points for speaking English ;) We only had a handful of things we wanted to see in London, so we slept in and took our time and wandered leisurely through St. James park. Our hotel was in a really charming old house in a pretty neighborhood owned by a family. It seemed like most of the other hotel guests were not really guests, but people who lived in the flats long term. The whole house was very crooked, which I thought was kind of fun. I also liked the kettle and large quantity of tea in our room. We saw the double decker buses, Big Ben, the red phone booths, and of course some royal guard. With that out of the way I think it's safe to say we saw London, but we saw a few other things as well.




Olympic circles at King's Cross Station



Our adorable hotel







Big Ben and the London Eye



The British Museum: This is a must see if you go to London. It's just a really nice museum. The Sutton Hoo exhibit was really cool. Not to mention that ol' Rosetta Stone thing. Also, as this was about 3 weeks before the 2012 Olympics in London, the museum had some of the gold medals on display.



Sutton Hoo ceremonial helmet


2012 Olympic Gold Medals


Rosetta Stone

Buckingham Palace: We didn't go in, although there are tours available, so we just saw the main entrance of it. Unfortunately we were not able to have tea with Her Majesty the Queen, due to our busy schedule.



Buckingham Palace




Buckingham Palace (and uss)
St. James Park & Westminster Abbey: We really liked this park by the Palace. There were gardens and a bridge over the lake where we fed the baby swans. We walked through the park to get to Westminster Abbey. You can't go into the church after like..2pm, so we just saw the outside and played in the front lawn before heading to the cathedral and Starbucks.





Ugly Ducklings at St James park ;)



Shrubbery at St. James park




Side of Westminster Abbey




Nathan needed a beard rest, Sophie needed a wig.

Food: We ate at a cool Fish and Chips place where I had more tea and a pretty good Shepherd's Pie. Everyone else got fish and chips I think, except for mom. She probably had something weird. (feel free to chime in here, mom) I guess we didn't get any pictures of the food though. Check back soon for pictures of Rome! Muah!





Nathan and his beard.







Being touristy again







Riding the Tube







Mommy-ing at Westminster










Being silly at Westminster Abbey

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.