Sorrento, Italy

We made it ... Al arrived home Saturday night, I was able to catch a breathe ... and we made it! I am now sitting in the sun on our terrace, overlooking the Bay of Naples in Sorrento, Italy. Al and I plan our itinerary day-by-day based on Kelty's mood. The attitude we've taken on this trip is "enjoy what we can do and don't get upset over the things we can't". Kelty is a busy, active little guy ... sitting at a cafe, overlooking the water, sipping our drinks and nibbling at our Italian dinner is really not an option. :o) Instead, we plan a little excursion in the morning ... get back for Kelty's nap ... take a little walk into town ... swim in the bay or hotel pool ... rest .... early, quick dinner ... Kelty goes to bed ... then Al and I get to sip our wine sitting on our balcony of the hotel looking out over the Bay of Naples and Mt Vesuvius. When we made our trip plans we deiced to splurge on a hotel with a breathtaking view, built directly into the side of a cliff ... we knew we'd be spending a lot of time in the room/hotel so we wanted to REALLY enjoy it! Ok ... onto the photos!

The View From Our Room

Bay of Naples

Bay of Naples ... along the coast of Sorrento

Mt. Vesuvius

Our trip to Pompeii ....

Entering the Pompeii archeological site ...

Pompeii was a city buried under ash when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. It is an active archeological site. BIG LESSON LEARNED ... do not attempt to take a toddler and especially a stroller to Pompeii. We barely lasted 1/2 an hour but it was amazing none the less! I am still washing "Pompeii" out of Kelty's clothes! If you want to attempt to bring a toddler to Pompeii ... ditch the stroller and carry them or bring your "carry backpack" for them to ride in.

Kelty running amongst the ruins

Taking a breather and drinking some water ... it's 100+ here ... we're not used to the heat anymore! Plus ... Al was carrying Kelty and I was carrying the stroller (yes, carrying ... it was impossible to push a stroller!).

They have "storage" areas where the archeologists store their "finds" ... some areas have plaster cast molds of the bodies they have uncovered from the ash ... I believe some of the actual bodies are in a museum in naples.



We have a lot more to share but the computer is running low on battery life .... I'll catch up again later. We head to Rome tomorrow, we'll be there for 3-days. Ciao!

Readers BEWARE .... Vent Session!

I am completely DONE with Al's flying schedule ... yup, no more tolerance. Allow me to vent in a bullet format since it will be easier to follow:

- It is normal for the guys to fly every day here ... OK, I can accept that ... it's just unfortunate that Al is gone ALL DAY ... most days he is out the door by 6:30 and does not walk in the door until 7pm (if at all the same day). I understand this is not an enjoyable schedule for him either.

- I saw Al one day this week ...lovely.

- This is Al's 2nd overnight trip this week ... his plane broke down in Sicily today ... lovely.

- The plane cannot be fixed until at least NEXT Wednesday ... lovely.

- We leave for our vacation THIS Sunday ... lovely.

- Arrangements have been made to get Al home early. I do appreciate the fact that he was not forced out of his leave and our planned vacation .... however I am truly annoyed at the circumstances right now. Lovely.

- I finally decided to make a hair appointment for myself in an attempt to look nice ... oh, that appt is for Saturday ... oh, Al will not be home yet ... oh, I must bring an antsy toddler to a hair appt where I will attempt to keep him entertained in a chair during a cut and color ... SUPER lovely!

- We have NO iternary or plans for this vacation ... I have tried ... there is only so much I can do during Kelty's 1-hour nap time. I have to squeeze that in tomorrow too ... lovely.

- The yardwork needs to be done before we leave, as we will have houseguests taking care of the dogs. I do the yardwork ... I have pretty much since we got here. Lovely.

- We are not packed for the trip ... at all ... not one sock, not one pair of undies. I will add that to my "to do" list for tomorrow. Lovely.

- I have to get the house ready for our housesitters ... I refuse to leave the house anything shy of emaculate for our houseguests ... that just wouldn't be right. Lovely.

- I have to go to the grocery store and stock the house with food and buy "Kelty" food and supplies for the trip ... tomorrow. Lovely.

- I HAVE to go the post office tomorrow and mail a package before we leave for Rome.

So ..... tomorrow's TO DO list (which I am solely responsible for) looks like this ...

* Pack for 3 people
* Clean the house (bathrooms, floors, fridge, kitchen, etc)
* Finish laundry
* Grocery shopping
* Post office
* Hair Salon
* Yardwork
* Build some sort of itinerary
* On-line check-in for flight
* Confirm reservation info for 3 hotels and 1 rental car

And 1 more thing ... I literally have NO clothes to wear ... I'm really not exagerating. For my Bday (over a month and a half ago) Al gave me the awesome gift of a shopping spree. I made an attempt to go shopping one Saturday afternoon but had to end my trip early because Al got called into work on a Saturday ... and this is why I am EXTRA annoyed that I have no clothes to wear. I have not had 1 day ... not 1 single day ... can I just have 1-day to make myself feel better ... I'd even take a few hours?

There ... I'm done! :o)

Sigh ......

It's no fun posting a blog when you don't have much in the way of pictures! For some unknown reason I haven't taken too many pictures the last several weeks ... not acceptable mommy! I do wish I had my camera to capture some of my "idiot" encounters at the BX this week ... if I were to share these encounters this blog would turn into a rant ... a comical rant ... but a rant. So this is what we have going on here:

~ We are heading to Rome, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast! We leave Sunday for our first vacation in Italy since our move to Europe. We are anxious to see how things will work with Kelty.

~ We are wrapping up swim lessons for a bit. Session 3 ends this Fri and then we are gone for vacation ... we'll pick back up in Session 5.

~ Al flew to Greece and had an overnight stay ... I'm glad he was able to enjoy a location they stopped at, even if only for a few hours! Plus he brought home olive oil, wine, and olive oil soap! And .... he may have gotten his hands on the new Harry Potter, Transformers, and Angels & Demons movies ... you know how the back ally's work!

~ With Al's little overnight trip I was able to finish up one of my sewing projects! I've had this idea for about a year now but finally sat down to experiment and make the 1st one ... it's called the "Watch Me Grow" Onesie! It is a 12-months onesie with interchangable 0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 month patches that velcro to the front of the onesie! Dress your baby in the onesie on their "birthday" and 3, 6, 9, 12 month anniversary's ... take their photos ... and capture how they've grown into that onesie through their 1st year! I've heard of putting your baby in a 12 month onesie and snapping their photos every month but I have never seen or heard of a product with the interchangeable numbers. Think I should shoot for a patent? I would love to hear your comments on my new product .... I plan on marketing it in my ChichiKids shop on Etsy.

Wondering where the "9" is? Flip the "6" upside down!

And of course let's save the best for last ... snapshots of Kelty ...

Where are my goldfish?

Picking through breakfast ... the fruit always goes first.

Shoo Fly!

Kelty has a strong dislike for fly's ... it's actually quite funny. Everyday he has me chasing around a fly with the fly swatter and relentlessly whines until the fly is gone ... there's no pretending to kill a fly either (he know the difference). This video is a month old but I had to post it .... especially since I just finished my morning fly hunt with Kelty's finger pointing frantically at the offender.

In our attempts to get Kelty to say "bye" to the fly ... he waves instead! Oh Kelty!

Is The Dry Spell Over Yet???

I really hope my blogging dry spell is over ... sorry everyone! Al's work and school schedule has been crazy which has prevented us from doing much as a family the last 2 weeks so I guess I haven't felt like blogging much. Hopefully I'm out of my funk now!

Last Sunday Al and I met at the circus for Kelty's first circus experience! Kelty loved it but we had to leave early because he wanted to run around ... there was NO containing him! You'd swear all I fed my child was coffee and chocolate based on his energy level! Here's a bit of what we were able to enjoy before we left ....

Kelty 1st pony ride! This was during intermission; funny little story here .... The performances were going strong, everything was great and then the "ringmaster" came out and made an announcement (in German of course) and everyone started to get up. Al and I were looking around like "what the heck, it's over?" ... we finally found a couple that spoke English and they told us it's intermission and everyone is going back to see the animals! Phew ...... we almost left!

In other news ... Kelty just started his 3rd session of swim lessons! After the 1st session he was bumped up into Parent-Tot Stage 2 (even though he didn't meet the age requirement yet) ... that's our little overachiever! :o) Kelty is an "Angelfish" ... awwww. Each session is two weeks long, 4-days per week ... we are at the pool alot! It really is a nice start to our day and Kelty loves his time in the water ... which really makes me happy too!

Speaking of which ... time to throw on the swimsuits and head to the pool!

Ciao!

Alstadt Festival

Ok ... so still haven't cleaned off the memory stick so no brand new photos but I do have couple photos from the weekend. Al is "stuck" in Spain ... I know, tough! They flew to Spain the other day and took a bird in the engine during landing, yikes! They had to wait for a maintenance crew to get there and check things out and he should be back sometime today. I totally had time to clean off the memory stick last night while he was gone but I got sucked into watching a M.J. tribute ... quite touching actually.

Anyway ... here are a few photos and a video from the the Alstadt Festival (old town festival) in Kaiserslautern last weekend.

They have an open-air produce market every Tues and Sat. Very nice!

This vocal group sang "a capella"... they were fabulous ... Kelty thought so too!

So ....

Sorry for the lack of posts this last week ... it's due to several reasons:

1. Al's laptop crashed and has been sent in for repairs ... that means we are both fighting for time on the same laptop! Loooooong story here! Thanks to Al's dad and his new friend "Mayukh" at HP we were able to coordinate getting our laptop fixed even though we no longer live at the address we registered the laptop at 3 years ago ... like I said ... long story. Apparently the tech staff at HP doesn't quite comprehend the fact that people actually change addresses! And how we bought our laptop new but it was registered to a women by the name of "Kimberly" has us all completely baffled ... we were seconds away from scanning our original invoice to prove that we were the owners of the computer and yes ... we can read the digits on our computer!

2. Al is in the midst of writing a paper for one of his Master's classes and also completing Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) ... that means that Al has the priority on computer usage folks! :o)

3. My digital camera memory stick is full and the batteries died ... it takes AA's (I didn't have any back-ups). This means no pictures for the last 3-4 days which means no cute stuff for a blog entry.

So ... I should be back with the ya making regular updates in the next day or so!

Hang in there! :o)

Pee in the Potty and Poo on the Floor

That's right ... tonight Kelty pee'd in his potty and then pooped on the floor ... I'm sharing this because I find it hysterical! We aren't potty training Kelty yet but I did get 2 potties (one for the main bathroom and one for the upstairs bathroom). Kelty has taken quite an interest in his potties ... he has used them to hold his goldfish, used the insert as a hat, used them as push toys and loves to sit on it. Despite all these other uses he has found for his potty (which I am discouraging) he does understand what it's for. The other day I walked into the bathroom and Kelty ran and got his potty, carried it into the bathroom and sat on it.

So .... onto this evening's activities .....

We were getting Kelty ready for his bath and asked if he wanted to go pee in his potty; he nodded "yes" so we took his diaper off and he sat ... and then pee'd!! He looked so surprised! Al emptied out the "goods" while I quickly finished filling the bath with Kelty by my side. I looked over at Kelty ... he was wide-eyed and shaking his head "no" while "dropping poo" on the bathroom floor! If you can visualize a dog chasing his tale in a circle .... that would be Kelty spinning in a circle trying to figure out what was dropping from his little butt!

Al wouldn't go get the camera .... I'm sure you are all thankful for that!