Happy Birthday Collin!

Today is the love of my life's birthday.  I thank God everyday for bringing Collin and I together.  He is my best friend and the best dad to Caden.  Before we started dating I remember thinking to myself, I really want to marry this man!  If I don't marry him then I hope I can find someone like him.  God answered my prayer and Collin and I have been married for 7 years.  Collin is not only Christ-like but also funny, loyal, smart, handsome, a hard worker, respectful, a great leader, provider, protector, super dad, my husband and best friend.

Today holds another important day for us.  We started dating on his birthday 8 years ago.  So this is also our dating anniversary.  In honor of Collin's birthday here are a few pictures from our early days together, ending with a few recent ones.  Happy birthday Collin!  Thank you Jim and Reba for raising such a wonderful man!  I know many of his good qualities came directly from you two.

First picture together in 2003

White Rose Ball, Austin, TX

College Senior Banquet, 2004

Day Trip to Hamilton Pool - Austin, TX (college days)

My parents at our engagement party

Engagement Picture

Just married!

Newly married, at our first apartment - look how young we were!



Dinner at Joe's Crab Shack in San Marcos, TX - nice view of San Marcos River

Oasis Restaurant in Austin, TX - great restaurant on Lake Travis

Atlanta, Georgia - one of our first family vacations

Collin and his parents on Mother's Day in 2006

Collin and Mali, our first dog - what a sweet pup she was!

Collin and 1 month old Caden in The Netherlands

Collin and Caden almost 20 months at a castle in Selestat, France

20 Months Old!

He actually smiled for me when I said, "smile!"

Today Caden is 20 months old.  He continues to grow and learn on a daily basis.  I think we are going to have a young reader on our hands.  The first exciting thing is Caden can spell his name!  A few weeks ago he started taking puzzle pieces and spelling his name.  I would ask him what it said and he'd say, "Caden."  Then I would ask him, "how do you spell Caden?"  He will say, "C-A-D-E-N."  So a little over a week ago I thought I would start putting a few letters together and teach him words.  He seems to love putting three letters together so I thought I would start there.  The first word he knew was "zoo."  Besides Caden and zoo, he can spell CAT, AT, and DOG.  I am amazed.  I know it is most likely just rote memorization but I am amazed how easily he memorizes things.  The alphabet puzzle has been a huge educational tool.  As he is able to put letters together to spell words and show me what he knows.  I finally bought another alphabet puzzle with upper and lower case letters so he could learn lower case letters too.  When I gave it to him he was busy with it for a good 20 minutes.  Then we had to leave or he probably would have played with it longer.  We have been so busy this last week we have not had time to work on many new words.  Plus I don't want to push reading.  It has also been pretty nice outside, by that I mean the sun is out and it's in the 40s, so we go to the park and take walks.  He always wants to be outside and once we're outside he usually has a fit on our way back inside.  Those 2s are coming early.

Caden's vocabulary continues to grow.  He is putting together short sentences and vocalizing his wants and needs.  He also has quite the appetite.  Almost every morning I hear him wake up and say, "Mommy, eat!  Eat, eat....Mommy?"  Then when I open his door he says, "Hi!  Mommy, good morning!  Open window. Eat!"  This happens pretty much everyday.  He knows up from down and will say, "go upstairs, go downstairs."  He will also squat and say, "down" then push himself up and say, "up."  He loves going around labeling everything in our house.  He also seems to "talk" nonstop in the car.  He looks for birds, dogs, trees, cars, trucks, horses, letters, shapes, colors, and other things he knows. 

Physically he still loves to dance, run, and can now jump without holding onto anything.  He used to jump in his jumper as a baby but once he started walking I didn't let him jump in it anymore. Also he went through a stage of constantly wanting to jump on his bed.  But jumping freely is new.

Socially Caden is one of the happiest kids I know. When ever Caden sees another young kid he typically squeals really loud, runs over to them smiling, and laughing. It is fun to watch him look for other young kids when we go places. We went to France yesterday and were exploring a castle. When we finally ran into some kids, he was so happy and ran over to them. They were speaking French to him and he loved it. Not even language gets in his way from wanting to be around other kids. He is a social butterfly just like his mom and dad.

He can now distinguish several colors.  He recognizes blue, green, white, gray, purple, black, brown, yellow, orange, and red about 85% of the time.  Meaning he recognizes most shades of those colors.  He calls a light pink, pink, but a dark pink still looks red to him until I point out the color red in something else to him.  I honestly was worried about him being color blind because a few months ago when I would ask him what color something was he always said, "blue."  Then when I was researching color recognition I read somewhere that most kids can't distinguish colors until they are 3.  I'm not sure if that is true or people just don't teach them.  My Slovakian neighbor said she never even thought to teach her daughter at this age the things I teach Caden.  So I'm not sure which it is.

Another pretty cool thing he does is tell us what color the light is.  I probably read WAY too many parenting books and so therefore I am always talking to him and labeling things like many books recommend.  Anyway, he knows red light from green light.  He loves to tell us "red light" and when it turns to green he says, "greeeen!"  He also will say, "red light, stop" and "green light, gooooo."

Caden also loves to color. He colors almost everyday. The first two crayons he picks up are the blue and white crayon. I'm not sure why he likes drawing with the white one because he's drawing on white paper and it barely shows up. But he immediately grabs those two crayons first and says, "white, blue" and then colors.

His pronounciation is pretty clear.  He mispronounces some words but once you say it right he quickly repeats it.  Some German words are a little difficult for him to say but I think in a year he will speak German a lot more clearly than I do.  Collin has been teaching him Spanish too.  Some of his favorite books are picture dictionaries.  We have them in English, German, Spanish, and French.  Honestly those are my least favorite books to read to him. 

Caden is definitely a thinker.  He likes to get things right.  We have several shape sorters and he will only put the shapes in the correct slot.  One of his friends was over the other day.  He put a rectangle block through the square slot.  Caden removed the lid, took out the block, and put it through the rectangle slot.  I think he takes after his dad on being very detail-oriented.

Caden's brain is a sponge, he remembers people's names, will tell me what he wants to eat and does not want to eat.  We are working on consequences.  For example, the other day he decided to throw his peas on the floor.  So I asked him to pick up all his peas.  I had a bowl for him to put the peas in and he did it.  Sadly I think he enjoyed his consequence. 

Another new thing we are sort of working on is potty training.  He has peed in the potty a few times, yay! Last week he went and sat on his little potty with his diaper on and pooped.  I was so proud and part of me sadly was relieved he had a diaper on so it made clean up easy.  We are slowly transitioning to potty training.  It seems like many Europeans think we are not quick enough but I think the average age for American kids is now 3.5 years.  So I think we're doing pretty good.  I would love for him to be day time trained by his 2nd birthday, but I'm not going to be real pushy if he's not.

Overall he is still a pretty easy going and happy guy.  As long as he's not too hungry, tired, and his diaper is not dirty.  He also is back to taking and needing a daily nap, usually he'll nap for about 2 hours which is a much needed break for his mommy.

Our Road in Germany Continues

First of all God is awesome!  I cannot tell you how many times I have prayed and God answered.  Last December Collin was offered a job in Fort Worth.  We prayed a lot about it and accepted it even though we were uncertain if the time was right for us to return home.   I specifically asked God that if he didn't want us to move back to Texas now then to let Collin be promoted here and make it clear that we needed to stay. And, wouldn't you know it, he has been!  Silly me was doubtful that it would even be possible but God works in miraculous ways.  And a lesson to me is that God listens to my prayers and will answer them - sometimes in ways we don't expect.  This has taught me not to be afraid to pray and ask for specific guidance.

First of all I want to say congratulations to Collin.  He works extremely hard at his job and for our family.  This kind of thing is very rare that he got.  We are both blown away.  I commend his company for this promotion and reconizing the value he brings to his department.  Yet I also truly believe this is an answer to our prayers.  You see, I asked God to show us what He wanted us to do.  I specifically asked him if he wanted us to stay then to show us and let Collin get a promotion.  Well, Collin has, under extordinary terms.  Therefore, I believe God is telling us we need to stay longer in Germany.

This has been a tough decision.  We have not shared this with many people because of the uncertainty of it.  Overall I don't think we could go wrong moving back or staying.  Yet our family and some really great friends are in Texas so it is difficult being away from them.  On the other hand, there are a lot of great reasons to stay longer in Germany.  It has taken me over two years to really realize it but I finally have. 

Anyway, our big news is we are putting our trust in God and deciding to stay in Germany a little longer. 

I am still in shock over this.  In the back of my mind I was mentally prepared to come home.  I had gotten excited and even found a cool historical district to potentially buy a house in.  However, when God answers our prayer, even when we don't think what we are asking for is possible, I feel we need to listen and follow Him.  I'm still not really sure our reason for moving over here was in the first place.  Obviously it's because Collin got a job here and he really loves it.  But I mean beyond that.  What is my role?  I'm still trying to figure that out.

Now for those who were thinking about coming over and thought you didn't have time to plan a trip to Germany, here's your chance to stay at a Gasthaus with lots of Gemütlichkeit.

Something Needs to Change

A few weeks ago we started watching some interesting documentaries on food.  We have seen Food, Inc., The Future of Food, and Killer at Large.  I have always been interested in nutrition and have mostly bought organic foods when I could but up until I watched these documentaries did not realize the big difference between organic and non-organic.  Not to mention how much big companies genetically alter our foods.  The FDA does not mandate that companies label genetically engineered foods and big companies do not want to inform the consumers of this.  Therefore most of what we eat unless it is organic has been genetically engineered.  Something needs to change.

Not only that but the animals we eat are not healthy or active.  I remember going to Dominican Republic for a mission trip and noticing how skinny the cows were.  They lived off the land, they ate grass, not corn.  Of course most of us know that the majority of what we eat is not healthy.  Yet we continue to eat it.  After watching Food, Inc. I was convinced that unless meat is the main or best option for me to eat then I am going to try and avoid it.  If I do cook it I will try and buy organic chicken and beef.  We already buy organic milk and eggs and have for years but finding organic chicken and beef in Germany is challenging.  Thankfully Bio (organic) foods are easily available here.

These movies convinced me that something needs to change; not only culturally but for my immediate family.  One of the ladies who attends PWOC (ladies' Bible study) with me asked me about our diets when Caden and I both were sick.  She has been a vegetarian for several years and since she has stopped eating meat she has rarely even had a cough.  Caden seems to get sick everytime he goes to the childcare group at the chapel.  I told her for the most part we try to eat healthy.  But were we really?  Now I try and serve us at least one serving of vitamin C rich fruit per day, an orange, kiwi, or some berries. The Reformhaus (health food store) down the street gave us some mixed tea to drink every day.  At first we were to drink it 3x a day.  He also gave me and Collin a vitamin C and zinc supplement to take daily.  I don't take the supplement everyday but I try and take it a few times a week.  The Reformhaus is pretty cool.  It is similiar to the health food store my mom used to take us to when we were little.  In the States there's Whole Foods, Central Market, and more.  I'm jealous.  =)  But having a health food store that is only a 5 minute walk from my front door is not too bad and lucky for me the owner speaks a little English.

The biggest change I have made is that I have become a flexitarian, a semi-vegetarian.  Collin has not quite joined me on this adventure yet because he really likes eating meat.  In fact anytime I mention wanting to try to become a vegetarian or something similiar he insists on cooking bacon for breakfast, for himself that is.  Thankfully I don't care for bacon very much.  I am fine with Collin eating how he wants, I am not going to force my decision on anyone.  However, the other night he was feeling sick because of all the junk he ate and admitted to me that I was onto something.  He also enjoys the vegetarian meals I cook.  Sadly he has had to work late every night this week and many nights has missed dinner with us and not come home until after Caden was in bed.  This week has been stressful without him around.  Thankfully I have had several playdates and social outings to keep the days busy.

I have now gone a week without eating meat.  I have gotten plenty of protein through avocados, nuts, eggs, tofu, and other meat substitutes.  Not only that but I have not craved sugary foods as much.  I remember after eating brisket with two vegetables how Collin and I would seem to continue to be hungry.  So we'd eat a pie and ice cream or something similiar later for dessert.  When I cook a balanced vegetarian meal I am fully satisfied.  Which is strange because I'm consuming fewer calories. 

I am not against eating meat or people who eat meat.  Like I said, I will occasionally eat meat and even bought some fish today to cook.  I like the taste of meat which is why I am not able to become a vegetarian.  I am concerned though about the food industry and how 1 in 3 American children are now obese.  There is a strong concern that children born after the year 2000 will have shorter life expectancies than our generation.  I do not want my child to be part of that.  I encourage you to research for yourself and strive to eat as healthy as you can.  Encourage your children to eat healthy.  I struggle with this as Caden half the time doesn't want to eat what we eat.  So I have back up healthy choices such as fruit, yogurt, or whole grains.  I still give him meat a few times a week.  I know it is difficult to find the time to cook but it is worth it.  One thing I have to remind myself is that simple is okay.  Eating fruit and/or veggies, whole grain bread, and cheese for lunch is okay.  For those of you in the States, Amy's frozen meals are a healthier frozen meal alternative.  They are made with organic products and do not include genetically engineered foods.

One more tip that I have found helps us eat more vegetables, especially Caden.  In the morning when I make pancakes I add a vegetable, such as pumpkin or sweet potatoes.  You can usually buy them canned.  Or you can steam a sweet potato or carrots even and then mash them and include it in the batter.  I add cheese to steamed broccoli and brown rice, cheese can help most things taste better.  As you get used to the taste you can start cutting back on the cheese.  I also add flax seed and wheat germ to pancake mix, breads, and muffins.  Kids seem to eat so little so I find it helps to add extra nutrients when I can.  My friend made blueberry muffins today and added shredded carrots.  Caden could not get enough.  I'm going to try that and also shred some zucchini.  Creativity is key.  When you don't feel like baking, whole grain organic cereal is another great choice as is oatmeal.

Book Club

I joined my first book club!  I have always wanted to be in a book club but never had the time.  One thing I love about Germany is most of my friends, at least all of my mommy friends, are stay-at-home moms or work-from-home moms.  So while we are all very busy raising our children, we do have a little flexibility around naps, school, and our regular everyday responsibilities.  With that being said, eight of us decided to start a book club.  Some of the members have been in a book club before but I think the majority of us have not.  The first meeting was two weeks ago but Caden was sick so I missed it.

Here are the details of what we do. We meet every other Monday morning from about 10am to noon.  Since we are all in MOPS together and our MOPS group only meets every other week, we meet on our MOPS off week.  We drink coffee, tea, juice, and eat baked goods while we talk about the book.  Who ever is hosting creates a list of questions to start our discussion.  Since all of us have children our kids play while we talk.  Three of the moms children are in school so their children do not attend.  The rest of us bring our children along. 

If you do not have children and want to join a book club, I encourage you to do so.  I'm really trying to encourage people with small children that it is possible to be part of a book club. I have been stuck in a rut of mainly reading parenting and relationship books, so this was a nice change.  Plus it is fun talking about a book you have read with your friends.

The first book we read was The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.  You can read my book review here if you are interested.  Amazingly enough we finished the book in a month.  Our next book is Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen. We decide on which book to read by voting.  The majority wins.

Caden is 19 months

Today Caden is 19 months old.  Poor little guy has been sick off and on for the past few months.  It seems like every child around us is sick too including our friends overseas.  Thankfully he is in pretty good spirits most of the time but I know he is tired. 

His illnesses have greatly interferred with his napping.  Right around a month ago he stopped wanting to take a nap.  This has been very frustrating to me because during those 1-2 hours was the time I used to get things done around the house, laundry, cleaning, etc.  As well as writing and editing pictures.  Occassionally he'll still take a nap, even though he really needs one everyday, so on days he doesn't nap he gets quiet time.  This time is for me to get things done and for him to relax.  He was somewhat resistant at first.  Now we do the nap routine, I read for about 15 minutes, lights out, I tell him it's nap time and I put him in his crib.  If he's really fussy I hand him a few books and leave.  If he doesn't nap he usually gets upset about 20-30 minutes and so I go back in there.  By that time he has thrown everything out of his crib, stuffed animals, pillow, and blanket.  I say, "Caden, aren't you sleepy?  Or are you ready to get up?"  He'll say either, "lights, play," or "sleepy."  Then I either let him down to play in his room by himself for another 30 minutes or I sit with him and read to him a little more and try and again.  It's during times like this that I envy my friends who let their babies cry it out and they don't have to deal with this.  Meanwhile, I try and treasure the time I have with my little man.  It will be sooner than I want that he'll be too big to sit in my lap or he won't want to spend the time with me.

The biggest changes this past month include putting more than one word together and talking about people when they are not around.  Caden is also getting better at communicating what he wants.  His vocabulary continues to grow rapidly.  Here are a few 2-3 word phrases I can think of now that he says:

"lights, play" (turns on the light and sits to play)

"shoes, out" (will get his shoes, try to put them on to go outside)

"read book" (to read a book)
"up, eat" (usually points as he says this to his high chair because he's hungry and wants to eat),
"down play" (wants to get down from the table to play)
"Mama play" (when he wants me to play with him)
"Opa, Caffey, NeNe, up" (when he wants to go upstairs to Skype with his grandparents)
"Mischa play" (when he wants our next door neighbor's daughter to play with him.  He does this when he sees her or when he is just thinking of her.  He also will say other people's names too but he sees her the most)
"Daddy go bye bye" (when Collin leaves for work, sometimes he grabs his shoes and jacket because he wants to go with him)
"Sleepy, night, night" (when he's tired)

People he "talks" about when they are not around the most.  Daddy, Mama, Opa, Granddad, Caffey (Cathy), NeeNee, Shell, Mescha, Nate, Autry, Shawn, and Drew.

He loves "talking on the phone" whether that is the real phone or a shoe or toy that he pretends is the phone.  I think he is well on his way to being social like his parents.

He has strong opinions about what he is interested in eating.  He will clearly say, "no" when he doesn't want something we offer him.  He also will tell us what he wants sometimes.  So far he's asked without us first offering him the following foods: Cheerios, banana, yogo (yogurt), turkey, peas, cracker, cheese, milk, water, muffin, blueberries, and kiwi. 

He can walk up and down our stairs holding onto the rail by himself.  We're always right behind him or in front of him just in case he did fall.  

His favorite game is stop and go.  I'll take him by both of his hands when we're out and I'll say, "go" and we run, then I say "stop" and we stop.  He loves this game and it's a great way to help him burn off energy when we're away from the house.

Caden's favorite toys are puzzles, blocks, balls, and cars.  He enjoys drawing and having us draw a letter or number while he tells us what it is.  He also enjoys us asking him what sounds different animals make and pointing to different animals when we're out and "talking" to them in their language.

Most of the time he tells us when he has gone poopoo or peepee.  However, he has lost all interest and desire to sit on the potty.  I think we're going to wait until the weather gets warmer and then try potty training him then.  I have one friend that receommends letting him spend most of the day outside naked and he'll learn really quick that way.  Our neighbor's daughter was potty trained by the time she was 12 months old.  I know, can you imagine?!  The system works great if you don't go anywhere for several months.

Here are a few recent pictures of our cute 19 month old. 

7 Happy Years

Last week Collin and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.  We ate at one of my favorite restaurants, Skyline, located in Mannheim.  We went there for my birthday last year.  It is similar to the Reunion Tower in Dallas except the food is consistently good.  The view of the city was breathtaking.  Snow was all over the ground, the lakes were iced over, it was beautiful.  It costs 4.50 Euros per person just to go up the tower plus your meal.  So it is not cheap.  However, for special occasions it is worth the money if it's in your budget.

We thought about trying to find a babysitter to watch Caden but decided to just take him along.  We really should try and find someone and go out occasionally by ourselves.  It just seems easier and is much cheaper to just take him with us.  Thankfully he's easy going and used to eating out and so he behaves very well. 

This month my dad and step-mother are celebrating 17 years of marriage and Collin's parents are celebrating 58 years.  Happy anniversary!  In honor of all of our anniversaries I wrote an article featuring my top 7 secrets to a happy marriage.  You can read it here if you like.