Time for Wine ...

Once again our German neighbors have shared a bit of Germany with us, the local way. On Sunday (I know, that was 3 days ago!) they took us to the vineyards in St. Martin. It's harvesting season in the Pfalz wine region and they wanted to take us to "the most beautiful vineyards" in the area ... one more reason why we LOVE this place! After the hour-long car ride we parked in a little parking area off the side of the road and started our hike into the depths of the vineyards ... we didn't even know you were allowed to do this! This particular vineyard had the row-ends marked with the type of grape they were growing ... that way we knew what grapes we were sampling ... I mean that way we could read information about the type of grape that was growing. I never imagined there would be such a difference in the flavor of grapes ... before "getting into" wine a few years ago I knew there were red grapes and green grapes ... and ummm ... they go through a fermentation process and you get wine.

About 1 1/2 miles into the walk we stopped at a small stand and enjoyed some "new wine". While enjoying our "new wine" our neighbors brought over a piece of bread with some sort of white spread, onions and salt. Hmmm ... they told us this is a normal dish to eat with your "new wine". This yummy little slice of bread happened to be layered with pork fat, onions and salt. The layer of pork fat was about as heavy as you'd put peanut butter on a sandwhich ... and it was really good! I turned off the calorie counter in my head and just enjoyed this bit of German cuisine.

After our stop we walked back through the vineyards and into the town ... which was BEAUTIFUL! We ate a quick lunch (that's the only way we can do it with Kelty), stopped off at a winery and then headed home. It was an AWESOME AWESOME day that Al and I both wish we could have shared with friends and family.

A look across the vineyards

Ooh, grapes!

This one looks good ...

Yummy!

Al's turn ...

My turn!

All About Kelty

As if this blog wasn't really about Kelty normally, I thought I'd share with you a few of the things he loves "so much" and "not so much" ...

So Much!

Blueberries, Tangerines, Raisins (new), Yogurt, Graham Crackers, Peanut Butter, MILK, Spaghetti, Chocolate (ok, sometimes I share my Hershey bar with him!), Chicken Nuggets, Salami, French Fries, Nectarines, Peas, Ice Cream, Cheerios, Goldfish Crackers, Bananas

Trains, Cars, Trucks, Tractors, Airplanes, Balloons, Bubbles, Balls, Whistles, Peg Board Games, Books, Big Blue Car and Train to ride on, Step Stools, Blocks, Elmo Tickle Hands, Shoes, Trecking Poles, Stickers

Elmo, Sesame Street, Backyardigans, Disney/Pixar Cars Movie

Snuggling in blankets, Hiding under pillows, Throwing himself in a pile of pillows, Throwing rocks in the Koi Pond, Running around on the playground, Slides, Jumping, Climbing stairs, Throwing toys at the dogs (sigh), Baths, Showers, Hugs, Kisses, Teardrop (his stuffed dog he sleeps with), Blankie, Walks in his backpack carrier, Looking at our blog and pictures of his friends on their blogs, Greeting daddy coming home from work, Blowing raspberries, Smashing food in between his hands (grrr), Blowing Bubbles and chasing them

Not So Much!

Mac-n-Cheese, Cheese, Chicken (unless it's a nugget), Meat (most meats), Carrots, Broccoli, geez ... this could go on and on. Basically the only things he will eat are in the "So Much" food list!

Finding Nemo (seriously, he's scared of it!)

Any animal toy that suddenly "comes to life", Most activities that require him to sit still, Getting his ears cleaned, Brushing his teeth, Diaper changes, Going to the store (sigh), Most car rides, "Time-Out" in the corner, Mommy on the computer

Family Tree

A family tree that grows and moves with you!

** UPDATED - 7 Feb 10 **

Family Tree - It's over 5 feet tall!

In an attempt to "warm-up" one of the walls, I had remembered seeing removable, peel-n-stick "wall art" back in the states. I came across the the Roomates Tree Branch Wall Sticker and new I had a perfect place for it. Waiting impatiently for my wall stickers I had a "Whoa! What if I do this!" moment ... turn the wall sticker into a family tree! Not sure what to expect I waited until it arrived and put up a few test branches to see what options I had. After literally weeks of trying to find the right mini-frames (and trying to be cost-conscience) I stumbled across the Puzzle Photo Frame ... not quite sure if it would work, I ordered it anyway ... 8-frames for $7.49 (I ordered 3 for a total of 24 mini-frames)! I waited 3-weeks for for this shipment ... all the while staring at the "test-branches" on my wall and overlooking my husband's "what the heck is that" look. I'd say, "trust me, it's going to be AWESOME"! So ... I finally received the frames, tore the large frame apart to get to the "mini-frames" ... and perfect!

Construction of the Tree

Tree Branch Wall Sticker: The wall sticker does not come "assembled", the branches, leaves, little twigs, etc are all separate stickers. After trial and error I decided to place the tree branches the way they were on the package. They really do hold up well to removing and "re-sticking" ... we have highly textured walls and though they do not recommend textured walls for this product ... they work great! The leaves were the last touch ... after the photo frames!

Frames: These frames are about 3x3 and weigh next to nothing. For ease of positioning and to avoid excess nail holes I used thumb-tack putty to stick the frames to the walls!

Pictures: The most time consuming part of this project was finding pictures of each family member ... in fact if you look close you'll see a few "blank" frames. After finding the right pictures, I edited them to black and white, brightened the photos and cropped them down to approx. 2.5 x 2.5 inch squares.

Letters: Just added! During our recent trip back to the U.S. I spent a considerable amount of time "stocking up" on craft supplies ... the letters being one of them. I bought these paper mache letters for 50% off, spray painted them black and used thumb-tack putty to adhere them to the walls. I would have preferred slightly smaller letters for this project ... but I used what I could get my hands on!

Photo Placement: After a lot of deliberation (of which I will spare you) .... the right side of the tree is "my side of the family", the left side is "my husband's side" and the center branch is "us". Each sibling and their family has their own branch. The tree progresses from the "bottom up" ... grandparents at the bottom, followed by parents and then siblings in birth-order. From there the tree grows "out". The sibling towards the base of the branch and their children in birth-order growing "out" from the branch base.

Supplies: If you want to create your own family tree with the supplies I used, save yourself hours of internet shopping! Here are the sites you can order your supplies. The thumb-tack putty can be found in just about any store.

Roommates Tree Branch Wall Sticker

Puzzle Photo Frame
Paper Mache Letters

My Thoughts: No doubt, next time we move I may display our family tree a little different, change around the placement, maybe play with colored photos. What I really like about this project is that it is versatile and easily changed! You can literally do whatever you want with this tree to make it your own.

If you like this project ... share it, blog about it, link to it, comment or just grab my button! I'd love for you to share your Family Tree project with us!

I'm linking this too ...

Sumo's Sweet Stuff (Market Yourself Monday)
Tatertots and Jello (Weekend Wrap-Up Party)
Making The World Cuter (Making The World Cuter Monday)
A Soft Place To Land (DIY Day)
Blue Cricket Designs (Show and Tell Wednesday)
The DIY Show Off (DIY Show and @ Tell)

Look up ... then over ... click

I blogged about our Family Tree project! Just click on the Crafting tab.

Pain in My Butt ...

No seriously!  Last Monday I woke up with horrible lower-back pain; something was out of whack ... it has migrated down into my right "cheek" and hip.  I've given up on the Motrin and dug out some leftover percocet from my c-section recovery ... yeah, apparently I don't clean out the medicine cabinet enough ... or I do but just keep the "good stuff".  Anyway ... it temporarily relieves the pain but after the meds wear off, so does any relief.  It's been a week so if it doesn't get any better in a couple days I guess I'll go to my PCM ... ugh.

We are wrapping up a nice 3-day weekend, we kept this weekend low-key ... did some nature-walking, took Kelty to the park, worked on a craft/home project, watched movies every night and now I'm trying to get Al to go to IKEA.  Ha!  I may lose that battle!  I'm also desperately trying to figure out my new "MacBook" that Al surprised me with.  My issues right now are with IPhoto .... not quite sure if I want to use it for organizing the photos ... the application has some great features but right now I find those extra's a little frustrating.  I also needed a new mac-compatible photo editing program so I purchased Photoshop Elements (my friend Michelle T. will be happy to hear that!).  So I'm dealing with a lot of computer changes that right now I find frustrating and confusing .... that's why posting is slow!  "Safari" the internet browser that Mac uses does not support the "compose" function in Blogger!  Hello!  I had no way of uploading photos and video's, etc.  So I had to download Firefox and change some settings in Blogger to get all my Blogger editing options back.  Let say my "potty-mouth" emerged this weekend while working from my new computer!

Helping Daddy takes his boots off

Running at the playground.  Oh!  We "met someone" at the park!  We were the only ones there and a mom with her 17-month old son and 3-year old daughter came to play.  Kelty bonded with the little kiddo's and the mom and I had a really nice conversation ... we traded numbers and we're going to set-up future play-dates!  

On a little nature-walk

In his new "Indian River" sweatshirt ... thanks Nana and Papa!  I think Autumn is in the air!  We are soooo excited!

My latest project ... our Family Tree!  The tree is over 5ft tall.

This evening I'll make a dedicated post about the Family Tree under my "crafts" tab.

Let's Talk

Some of you may have noticed that I have never posted anything about Kelty's speech, words or sounds ... well, that's because our little stinker isn't talking yet! Yup, almost 21 months and the extent of his vocabulary are noises like, "uh", "ah", "mmm", "pa", "da", "ma" ... that pretty much sums it up. So let's talk about it.

At Kelty's 18-month pediciatric appointment I discussed our concerns about his speech development; the pediatrician didn't seem too concerned as it's not uncommon for boys to talk later. To ease my mind he referred Kelty to Audiology for a hearing test and to EDIS (Early Intervention Services) for an assessment. Audiology result came back fine and because Kelty's non-verbal communication and cognitive skills were so high he didn't qualify for services with EDIS. The folks at EDIS did however work with the pediatrician to get Kelty referred to a speech pathologist.

We've been working with a wonderful speech pathologist at Lanstuhl Regional Medical Center for a couple weeks now and Kelty responds so well to her! She is actually blown away by Kelty's cognitive skills .... he just needs a little boost with his verbal communication. She has not "diagnosed" him with any oral-motor or auditory-processing disorders and I am not looking for or want a diagnosis ... so don't worry! I do believe that children are "over-diagnosed" and "labeled" way too early and too often ... don't get me started on that topic! But anyway ...

We are using a few different techniques with him during his sessions and at home and they seem to be working very well: Communication Temptation, Auditory Bombardment and Imitation of Oral Movements. She also recommended a few specific books which we FINALLY got in the mail!

So that's the story on the surface. Let me tell you how I really feel ...

Nothing breaks my heart more than watching my baby struggle to communicate ... he gets so upset when he can't get the words out ... you see the intensity behind his eyes but the sounds aren't making their way out of his mouth. He usually breaks down and cries ... which makes me cry.

I'm a stay-at-home mom .. it's my job to teach and educate our child ... let me just tell you what a hard blow it to see your child struggle with a developmental milestone ... can we say self-blame and guilt?! I beat myself up every day ... what am I doing wrong, what am I not doing right, I must not read to him enough, I'm not able to "teach" my child, I haven't kept him interactive enough with kids his age ... and the list goes on. I know I shouldn't feel this way but, well ... I do. Why is it that a stranger, our speech pathologist, can get him to make sounds that I can't? Let me tell you ... this is a hard thing to swallow!

So there you have it! We have a smart little tot that struggles every day to communicate verbally ... breaks my heart ... but I've put it out there.

Waiting for his appointment ... eating blueberries

Hooray! It's time!

We have a few video's of our exercises but our "upload" speed is so slow and I haven't been able to post any videos for a few weeks now.

Paris

Al had a 3-day weekend so we decided to take the opportunity and head to Paris for the long weekend! We drove, as it was only 4 1/2 hours away and the hotel we chose had parking. We didn't try to jam-pack the weekend because Paris is close enough that we know we'll be back. We arrived Friday late afternoon and started our "weekend in Paris" ....

Friday Night: We walked from our hotel along Champs Elysees to the Arc De Triomphe. We didn't "go in", just viewed it from the exterior. Then we took a nice stroll toward the Eiffel Tower and found a playground along the way for Kelty to burn off some energy. Our first view of the Eiffel Tower was from Trocadero Square. We grabbed a hot dog for dinner and chased Kelty around the grass; took a ride on a carousel and then headed to the Eiffel Tower for a view from the second level ... we didn't go to the top ... we took advice that the best views were from the 2nd level so we were content with that. We were on the Eiffel when they lit it up for the night ... it was amazing! Around 9:30pm we left and took the metro back to the hotel, found a market that was open, grabbed a sandwhich and salad for dinner and sat on our hotel room balcony and ate dinner with a view of the Eiffel.

Arc de Triomphe

View of the Eiffel Tower from Trocadero Square

Well, you HAVE to kiss in front of the Eiffel Tower when in Paris!

Kelty drinking his milk and daddy eating his hot dog

Saturday: We started off our morning with a Metro ride to Notre Dame. Again, we didn't go in but we hung out in the square for a while ... Kelty fed the pigeons and Al and I did our best to avoid the plethora of gypsies begging for money. After our brief visit we walked to Luxembourg Garden so Kelty could run and play for a bit. Al and I grabbed sandwhiches and chased Kelty (again). The park was huge and also had a dedicated children's play area. After a couple hours we headed back to the hotel for Kelty's nap ... he slept for 3 hours! After his nap we headed out to Pompidou Center where Kelty got a kick out of the "street acts". He met a little girl who was 2 days older then him and ran around the square while Al and I took turns drinking wine/beer and following him around. After our little break we took an evening walk around the Louvre ... Paris at night was amazing and the favorite part of our trip.

Too many gypsies around to trust anyone with the camera in front of Notre Dame ... extend the arm .. smile ... click!

Cimbing in the children's play area in Luxembourg Gardens

Fun on the slide ....

Kicking leaves and getting dirty

Popping bubbles near Pompidou Center

Kelty gave the little French girl his teddy bear to push in her stroller ... awww ... he's already trying to romance the little girls!

The Louvre at night ... it was nothing short of breathtaking! The camera had a hard time capturing pictures at night ... especially with Kelty moving so fast! This is the best we could get; Al had to pretend to point out a bug on the ground to get Kelty to stop moving!

The Louvre was larger that we could have imagined ... it seemed to go on forever. We spent about an hour that evening just walking through the courtyard. At one point we came across a man playing his violin in a dark corner under one of the arches ... it radiated throughout the courtyard ... just a musician doing his thing but it really added to the experience.

Sunday: Because of Kelty's 3-hour nap on Saturday, we weren't able to tour the inside of the Louvre that afternoon. Instead we decided to stop by and see what we could on Sunday before we left. By Sunday morning Kelty really had enough of sitting in his stroller ... and really ... the Louvre is not child friendly (as you can imagine). So Al and I navigated our way straight to Venus de Milo (Aphrodite) and Mona Lisa. Without a child the Louvre was overwhelming ... with a child it was near impossible ... but we were happy to see what we did and decided that we'll see the Louvre again maybe when ... (uh hum, grandparents visit and Al and I can sneak away for a couple hours).

The Mona Lisa! You can't get close and you have to fight your way throught he crowd to get a good look ... but it was truly amazing.

And that's a wrap on this trip to Paris. Kelty is sick with a cold ... you can only keep a child so clean with wet wipes and hand sanitizer ... public bathrooms ... clean public batrhooms are not easy to come by in Paris. I paid 2 Euro just to change Kelty's diaper in bathroom!

Chasing the Garbage Man ...

It's 6am, Al and I hear the "Bio Truck" coming up the hill ...

Jaime: "Al, did you take the Bio out last night?"

Al: "No!"

Jaime: "S**t!"

I proceed to run down 3 flights of stairs in my PJ's (which is an adult romper, onesie ... by the way) and of course bra-less and sprint outside .... they already passed us! I grab the bio bin and starting running up the hill ... Al runs out, chases down the truck and .... they make a special stop and take it! Thank-you German Bio Trash Guys! In case you're wondering why it was so important ... Bio only gets picked up twice a month. This Bio bin contains ALL food scraps, used napkins, biodegradable stuff and yard waste. Trust me ... you don't want food scraps hanging out in this bin longer than neccessary!

I prepped for our weekend-excursion to Paris yesterday and therefore stayed home all day. Kelty and I spent a good chunk of time outside in the yard ... we've been working pretty hard lately to get our yard and koi pond in shape for Kelty .. this includes me going on "poop patrol" daily to pick up the dog poo so it doesn't end up on our shoes ... one more thing on my "to do" list during Kelty's nap time.

The New Digs!

Check out our new digs!

So .... I came across April Showers Blog Designs back in Feb when we were mid-PCS! I fell in love with her portfolio ... especially the custom illustrations ... plus I really got a kick out of her posts (she's got quite the sense of humor) ... I don't know whether to add her site to "Great Sites I Visit" or "Blogs to Make You Laugh"! Finally after getting settled in Germany and watching in horror as her "wait list" grew and grew and grew ... I finally submitted a request for a blog makeover. After waiting 2 months for "my turn", April and I started coordinating on a blog design. I sent her pictures of Al and I, Kelty, Pogo and Piper and a description of what I was hoping for ... think "The Sound of Music". Her first draft was pretty spot-on but also inspired a few changes, like the grapevines (we live in the heart of the wine region) and I decided to add the menu bar to expand my blog and keep it organized! April is finishing up our "button" and then we'll be set!

I'm in love with the cartoon illustration of the family ... and Pogo and Piper are super cute! Kelty loves to look at the blog and point us all out separately ... he actually identifies Pogo from Piper!

Speaking of April and her blog designs ... she is hosting a FREE GIVEAWAY for a Custom Blog Layout! Follow the photo link and read her "Finally A Giveaway" post ... just add a comment and you'll be entered!

Keep your eyes peeled as I continue to tweak and build-up the "secondary" pages ... I've already started: they are formatted and have little descriptions of the pages along the right column .... the left columns will remain consistent throughout each page for ease of navigation and "cleanliness".

I also think I know why I am addicted to blogging now .... besides the fact that it keeps family and friends across the globe updated on our lives ... it's also my way of staying connected to the "outside world"! Building a network of friends in a foreign country has proven to be a bit more challenging than I anticipated ...

P.S. We are heading to Paris tomorrow! Wish us luck on the 4-hour car ride with Kelty! I hope the 2-years of French I took, ummmm ... 15-years ago ... gets us through the trip!

Stay Tuned .....

As you can see ... our blog is going through some AWESOME changes. Please stay tuned while April over at April Showers Blog Design finishes up our new layout! Whoot whoot! I'll tell you all about my journey with April and the blog makeover once it's all been tweaked. It's almost 11pm here so I'm excited to see what I'll wake up to in the morning!