A Sad Day

I have to interrupt my cruise posts with a life update.  While I love living in Germany and have a lot of great friends here, most of them eventually move away.  One of the hardest things for us when we moved to Germany was leaving our wonderful friends and family in Texas.  It has taken a while to finally develop closer friendships with some people here.  Today I found out our good friends Jon and Kristine Miller, are moving tomorrow!  That is Army life.  While we are not a military family, most of our English speaking friends are part of the military.  Kristine called me this morning to tell me.  Caden and I went to her house and said our goodbyes.  We ate lunch with them and left.  Her son, Matthew, is one of Caden's friends.  It's hard when people move away.  She is one of my few friends over here who also practices attached parenting and is financially savvy.  I like talking about finances and it seems like a lot of other ladies don't.  So when I find a friend who is interested in that topic we bond quickly.  We were also in MOPS together.  I wish you the best of luck, Miller Family.  Although I doubt they will ever read this post - I have never shared this blog with my friends in Germany.  Maybe when I move back I will.  Anyway, it has been a sad day for me.  On the positive side, they are moving back to the States because Jon was accepted into flight school.  So congratulations, Jon!

Helsingborg, Sweden

Our first port of call was Helsingborg, Sweden, on May 31st.  Since we are traveling with a toddler we decided it would be easier for us to do our own shore excursions.  It's cheaper and we can tailor them to our needs.  We look at the shore excursions offered by the ship and then we decide what we want to do from there.

The Swedish people were very kind and welcoming.  Most everyone spoke English.  We decided that going to the open air museum would be the most enjoyable for our family.  Caden loved it and it was one of Collin's favorite activities we did.  the open air museum is called the Sofiero Gardens.  We took the local bus to the gardens and walked up the hill.  It was about a 15 minute bus drive from the town center, very easy to get to.  The bus driver even told us when to get off.  The gardens had a lot of neat things in it.  You learn about farming and how to grow a garden, there are farm animals, a children's activity house where kids draw pictures of what they saw, we even got to hang Caden's picture on the wall.  It was a beautiful place to run around and explore, perfect for a little guy with a lot of energy.

After touring the gardens we headed back to the town center.  I wanted to buy a dress from Sweden. Lucky for us there was a H&M.  H&M has less expensive clothes than many places and the style is usually more alligned with what I would wear.  Sweden is expensive, not as expensive as some of the other places but more expensive than Germany.  I lucked out with finding a beautiful blue and white dress for half off. 

Collin enjoyed going in one of the electronic stores and seeing a 3-D TV.  On the ship we met a man who had a 3-D video camera, which was neat.  I'm not a big TV person so it will be a long time before we make a purchase like that but it was neat to see.

Baltic Cruise

We just got back from a wonderful vacation.  We took a 7-night Baltic Cruise on Holland America Cruise Line.  We sailed on the Ryndam.  I have been wanting to take a Baltic Cruise since we moved to Germany.  I am so glad we finally were able to go.  This was the "last" big vacation I had on my list of things to do while we lived in Germany.  This was our second Holland America cruise and mine and Collin's 4th cruise, Caden's 2nd cruise.  We sailed from Rotterdam, The Netherlands.  Before our cruise we spent one night in Delft, The Netherlands, which is about 20 minutes from Rotterdam.  Delft is known for their pottery and we actually were given four Delft pottery coasters for free as a gift from Holland America since we were past guests.

We were blessed with a deluxe suite on this cruise.  We really lucked out as we were upgraded for FREE about a week before our cruise.  We are past guests and did pay for a balcony suite (which on this ship was just a balcony).  So when we were upgraded to a deluxe suite we felt very blessed.  Our room was beautiful and spacious.  I will do a post just on our room with pictures to share.  If you ever get a chance to stay in a suite on a cruise ship, I highly recommend it.  Not only was our room twice the size of the balcony cabins but we had special privileges such as free laundry and dry cleaning throughout our cruise.  We were also able to have special breakfast in the specialty restaurant, priority boarding on and off the ship, a nice lounge just for suite guests, and more.

Holland America, the Ryndam

I will write about each country we visited in a separate post.  As an overview we visted Rotterdam, The Netherlands (which is a beautiful city); Helsingborg, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark (where we spent the night); Skagen, Denmark; and Oslo, Norway.  Caden has now been to 17 countries.  Not too bad for someone who is almost 2.  He is becoming a world traveler and picking up new words from different languages all the time.

A neat thing we did before our cruise was visit the Noah's Ark replica in Dordrecht, The Netherlands.  We were hoping that it would be open but it is not quite finished yet.  So we drove by and took some pictures.  It is really neat looking.  The man behind the ark is filling the ark with life-size animals and is going by the measurements used in the Bible.  Once it's finished he is going to sail it around the world so many others can enjoy it.  We hope to go back once it's finished in The Netherlands since it is only about a 5 hour drive for us.  Hopefully by the end of the summer or fall it will be completed.

Noah's Ark is behind a tall fence

I also have to mention that we have some of the best neighbors.  When we arrived home last night they came out and greeted us.  They asked us if we had had dinner.  We had not.  They had made dinner for us and were waiting for our return.  We felt very loved.

Get Me Out of Here!!

Collin has been at a conference all week which is 1.5 hours away.  He has been leaving before we get up and on a couple of evenings returns after Caden is asleep for the night.  For the most part Caden and I are spoiled because we get to see Collin a lot of times for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  So when he's gone like this it makes things a little hard on both of us.

To keep us busy we try and have an outing everyday, usually involving an errand or two I need to run along with something fun for Caden.  The other day we went to the library.  After the library I took him to the big park next to it.  We played for a long time.  He loves the park.  I needed to go to the grocery store on my way home and it was lunch time.  I have learned, don't ever take a hungry child to the grocery store if you want to keep things sane.  So I decided to take him to Burger King since it was right next to the park.  I'm not a huge fast food fan and normally don't eat at places like Burger King but I knew it would be quick and cheap.  Sometimes that's a good combo for a busy mom. 

This is the first time I've gone to eat somewhere with just the two of us.  Usually I meet up with a friend or Collin eats with us.  Of course there was a long line and toddlers are not big fans of lines (but who is?).  We are working on self-control and staying with Mommy.  He is doing very well and I was happy to get our food ordered without a major fit or a little boy wanting to run away. 

After we get our food we went to sit down.  He is a pretty good eater.  Sadly after one of his friends offered him a french fry that is all he asks to eat if he sees them.  But he ate a few chicken nuggets as we bargain with eat a bite of this and you can have a bite of that.  When he was all done, he looked at me and said, "get me out of here!!"  He was sitting in a high chair and I looked at him and said, "where did you learn that phrase?"  He smiled and said it again.  That night I was laying in bed and thinking about some of the things he says.  He doesn't watch tv shows and then it hit me where he got it.  He learned it from the book, Are you My Mother? about the bird who falls from the tree and looks for his mother.  At the end of the book the Snort (crane) carries him back to his tree and the little bird says, "get me out of here!"  I love how much he learns from books, which by the way, it had been over a day since we had read that book.  But he remembered that the bird was up high and wanted down and he was up high and wanted down. 

On the Cusp of 2 Years! 1 month to go!

In just one month our little boy will be 2. Time does seem to pass faster as we're getting older. He continues to be a joy to have and I can see why the Bible says in Psalm 127:3: "Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him." It is very rewarding having a child and the more time we spend around Caden the more we would like to have more.

Some new fun things he is doing!

Language! One of Collin's favorite things to watch (and mine) is seeing how Caden puts words and sentences together. Collin is passionate about languages and speaks several so it is fun to see first hand how a young child learns a language. Caden is talking in more complete short sentences. His has a great memory and remembers things quickly and is always willing to repeat things as he's learning more.

It's manners time!  Caden has great manners. I'm a stickler for manners. I was so happy when I picked him up from the childcare at MOPS the other day and one of the lady's told me she was impressed with his manners. I don't let him have juice unless we are out and it's 100%, so still mostly milk and water. He eats plenty of fruit which is why he doesn't need juice. Anyway, the other kids were drinking it and so before I left him I said I brought water but if he seems to really want some then it would be fine. She said that he went to each childcare worker and said, "Juice, please. Juice please." As they were passing out the juice. He's also getting good about saying "thank you." We are still working on using an inside quieter voice when needed.

Reading and spelling! He still loves books but doesn't want to sit still as long as he used to. So we mostly read twice a day. 15-20 minutes after lunch and 15-20 minutes before bed. I think his vocabulary has increased significantly because of all the reading we do. We like to read for at least 20-30 minutes a day. For the most part we achieve this but sometimes we're out during the day or he falls asleep too fast at night. He learned to spell his name a month or so ago and we are working on more words. Now he's confident that when almost anyone asks him how to spell his name he proudly says, "C-A-D-E-N, Caden!" I bought this neat letter/word puzzle around Christmas and have been saving it for a rainy day and for when he was a little older. Well, we've been working on Phonics and occassionally I'll bring it out. He enjoys "spelling" words. If you haven't noticed I love teaching and am a fan of educational toys. I (Marisa) worked in an educational toy store my junior year of high school.

Numbers and more numbers! He loves counting and numbers. He can count to 10 in German. He picked it up so quickly that Collin and I were both very impressed. He can now count to 20 in English. He goes back and forth between counting in English and German. He loves to count things and is pretty good at it.  We might have a math guy on our hands.I'll ask him how many crackers does he have, how many blueberries, how many cars, etc. He points and counts.



Early birthday gift.  Caden loves his log cabin!



All I want to do is play!  Caden enjoys playing with his friends and is enjoying more independent play at home. He will pretend to cook, drive his car, build houses, etc. and has a great imagination. He also loves playdates and playing with other kids of all ages. Of course playing with Mom and Dad is lots of fun too!  He loves having a house his own size.  All of his friends love it too!

I know that song!  Caden loves singing and has memorized more songs. His favorites are "I'm in the Lord's Army" and "ABCs." But he'll also sing, "Jesus Loves Me," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Row, Row, Row, Your Boat," and pieces from other songs. It's cute, we'll be driving along and he'll start singing. Or he'll be playing and start singing.



The 2s are coming and some people refer to the 2s as terrible. I like to look at these challenges as growth opportunties. Not just for me but for my child. After reading Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood by Jim Fay and Charles Fay, I have become more confident in how I react and discipline Caden. A few new things we've been experiencing over the past few months are tantrums. I stay calm, sometimes pick him up and talk softly to him. Other times I let him have his space as he cries because he doesn't get something he wants.



New car bed.  He loves it!

Sleep baby sleep!  Sleeping is going better. Caden now falls asleep in his bed unless Collin falls asleep while holding him for a few minutes then they may both fall asleep in the chair. Nap time is rare, maybe once or twice a week but he sleeps 11-12 hours at night. When he takes a nap he only sleeps 9-10 hours. It's a tiring trade-off but it's working for us. It seems like he mostly needs 11-12 hours of sleep a day with some quiet down time in the afternoon.  Below is a picture of him taking a nap in his car bed.  He asks to sleep in his car bed at night sometimes but we're not quite ready to move him over.



We really love Caden.  He is such a wonderful and happy child.  Everyday he is learning new things and exploring the world around him.

Holiday Park

We took Caden to his first amusement park last Saturday called Holiday Park.  I grew up going to amusement parks and love roller coasters.  This park is only about 30 minutes away and was our first German amuseument park experience.  There was a little area for younger kids that had about 4 rides that Caden could ride by himself.  He was not sure what to think when he road his first ride, but as he continued riding them he didn't want to get down once it was over.  We had a great time and look forward to taking him to more amusement parks. 

On a side note, we made the mistake of going inside a building of what we thought would be a boat ride.  We were thinking of the ride at Disney World where they play "It's a Small World."  Well, this was not a boat ride but a haunted seat ride.  It went through the dungeons of castles, providing us a visual history of various ways of torturing and killing people, think of a "live" torture museum.  There were also robotic people dressed up as prostitutes, drunks, etc.  We had no idea that it would be like this.  It was truly a very different cultural experience.  It was quite scary and I kept trying to cover Caden's eyes because the ride and sites freaked me out.  Needless to say, we will not be going in the dungeon again if we go back.  Collin and I both felt horrible for taking him on that ride.  Thankfully, he made it out and didn't seem to be too scared. After the ride was over, Collin and I said to each other, that there would be no way a ride like that would be in the States, especially geared toward small children. 

Here are a few pictures from our day at Holiday Park, not including the scary ride.  I thought I had pictures from all the little rides Caden road but I guess they got deleted.  Anyway, this can give you an idea what a German theme park looks like.

Caden's first ride - he road the boat all by himself

I got to ride this one with him.  He loved spinning around.

Collin teaching Caden to pump water.  Caden just wanted to drink it.

He loved the carousel and kept asking later to ride the horse.

Caden pushed the gas pedal while Collin steered. 
It looks like someone was a little too big for this ride.

I'm going on the big swing. 
Caden said to me after I got off this ride, "Mommy goes way up high."

Collin coming down one of the roller coasters.

Caden playing at one of the playgrounds in the park.

Creative Wrapping Paper

Does your child like to draw?  If so, you probably have coloring books and pages of beautiful art work to show for it.  As I was getting my parents' birthday gifts together to mail today, I realized I didn't have any wrapping paper.  So rather than spend the time and gas to go to the store, I looked around my house and saw Caden's Melissa and Doug Jumbo Coloring Pad (which is really great, by the way).  He has colored several pages and so I decided to wrap his grandparent's gifts in that.  They looked really cute and it made them more personal since their grandson colored the pictures.