Sina on Sunday

We didn't do too much today, except lounge around the house, eat pizza and watch movies.  We also had tons of fun with Sina, who was as happy as could be!

She even helped daddy unpack some of our boxes!

We hope everyone enjoyed their Sunday too.

Ugh...where do the weekends go?  Time to go back to work.  Have a great week everyone!

Salzburg

Last Saturday, we took a USO tour through Salzburg, Austria.  USO tours, although they can be expensive, are pretty convenient; mostly because transportation is provided and because you have a tour guide to assist you through whatever place you're visiting.  It kinda eases your mind of the stress of having to do all that stuff on your own.  It was kinda rough, though, because our bus departed at 0500 that morning.  We were the last to arrive.  We were also the only couple with a baby.  To our delight, Sina was a saint all the way to Salzburg and back. 

This is a panoramic view of the Salzburg city center.  We were told that Salzburg is the second most visited city in Austria behind Vienna.  It's also the fourth largest city in Austria. 

The Salzach river runs through the city and the alps provide a magnificent backdrop, although we could barely see them with all the fog, clouds and rain that day.  We definitely knew we were in the alps because it was so cold.  The upside to that is that, unlike the summer, the city wasn't too crowded so we could tour places with ease.  The downside was that we were cold and wet for most of the tour. 

For the first hour or so, our tour guide gave us an overview of the key attractions (all of which were within walking distance).  He then released us to tour the city on our own for the remaining five hours.  When people think of Salzburg, I would say that 9 times out of ten they think of two main things:

First, that Mozart was born there.  We actually saw the house that he was born in--a big, bright yellow building, smack-dab in the middle of a main shopping zone.

Mozart's everywhere...streetnames and buildings are named after him.  There's a huge statue of him in a square called the Mozartplatz.  Salzburg is even home to the mozartkugel, which are chocolate-marzipan balls wrapped in foil.  The foil wrapper has Mozart's picture on it.  There are a few versions of the candy.  We took a picture in front of this store with a huge mozartkugel out front.

I must add that I'd tried these chocolates a few years back and thought they were gross.  I had no intentions of trying them this time around!

Second, pretty much everyone knows that Salzburg was the setting for parts of The Sound of Music--a movie/musical that I grew up on and still remains a favorite today.  I think this is what thrilled me the most about Salzburg.  I recognized a lot from the movie.  Like the gardens of Mirabell Palace--where Maria and the von Trapp kids danced and sang the "Do-Re-Mi" song.

It might be hard to see, but in the middle is that famous fountain (which is missing the statue in its center) you also see throughout the song.  In the spring/summer, there are flowers all over this garden.  We're going to have to go back!

We also saw the church from the movie--not the abbey or the church Maria and the Captain were married in--but the church you see at the opening of the movie.  Recognize the steeples?  This is actually the Dom zu Salzburg--or Salzburg Cathedral.

We even heard those bells toll.  Beautiful.  The inside of the church?  Wow.

Most of our time, however, was occupied by the time we took to visit the Festung Hohensalzburg, or Hohensalzburg Castle.  It took us about 25 minutes to get up there and about an hour to see all of it inside (there is a museum).  Man, that darn hill/mountain was pretty steep.  I actually feared for Sina's life on her stroller, but more on the way back down than going up.  It was quite the workout.  Anyway, here I am before going up to the castle, which they also refer to as a fortress.

The fortress had some really cool tunnels and the view from above was amazing.

The castle even had a marionette exhibit within.  We stopped by and took some pictures of some really neat marionettes.  We also took some funny pics too.  Check this one out!

The rest of our time there was spent eating (no surprise) and shopping.  I mean, you can't really help yourself when at just about every turn is a street like this:

We were exhausted by the time we linked up with our group again.  The trip is a little over a three-hours one way, so we were dreading the ride back.  However, the tour guide gave us a treat on the way back--the opportunity to watch The Sound of Music!  I loved it.  Malu and Sina?  Well, they slept.  The movie ended right as we entered the gate to post.  A perfect end to a perfect day. 

Well, I didn't post all the pics that I took because this post is hella-long as it is.  The rest are going to be posted on Facebook!

Ritter Sport Chocolate Factory

Since I haven't sorted through all of the pictures from our trip to Salzburg, I decided to do this post on the small trip that we took to the Ritter Sport Chocolate Factory this morning.  So I'm doing this weekend's posts backwards, but oh well. We had such an eventful trip on Saturday, that we decided to take it easy all day yesterday and then take a short trip to the factory today just so we could knock it off our things-to-do-within-an-hour-of Stuttgart list.  Lucky us...this chocolate factory is about a 20-minute drive from our place, in a town called Waldenbuch.  Not only that, the drive was very scenic.  The fresh snow was a nice touch too.

Unfortunately, the museum was closed today.  Even more unfortunate is that we are not permitted to tour the factory.  Furthermore, I'd heard that when you drive up to the place that you can smell the chocolate being made.....not so.  However, the schokolade (chocolate) store made up for all of that...and more.  Besides, I think Malu and I have seen enough on Food Network's Unwrapped and pretty much know how chocolate is made anyway; so no big deal.  

When you see Ritter Sport chocolates in the states, you kinda steer away because it's, like, over $2.00 for even the smallest bar.  It costs about a third of that over here and, even more, they have more flavors to choose from.  So chocolate, cheaper, and more flavors--my, what a dangerous combination.

The inside of the store was just amazing.  Malu laughed when he saw how wide my mouth had dropped as we went through the entrance.  I mean, all you could see were those colorful squares of chocolate deliciousness.  It was intoxicating :)

They come in all kinds of sizes.  Mini ones like these--perfect for your office desk.

Medium-sized ones (which are actually the normal size) like these...which are perfect for me.

And large ones suitable for a big guy like Malu.

They had these grab bags, like the one Malu is holding in this picture for about 10 Euro each.  I swear on my life that they weigh about 10 pounds and are filled with enough chocolate to feed a battalion.  Some lucky friends and family will be getting these in the mail.  Or hmmm...I may have to go back to get some chocolates to do a giveaway on this blog!

Anyway, they also had buckets of hazelnut spread.  The Nutella fanatic that I am...I grabbed two.

People....I am NEVER going to lose weight in this country!  But hey, at least I can say that I've been there and done that...

...and got a cool Ritter Sport shopping bag to boot (since everyone here uses them--if you don't bring them to, say, the grocery store, you have to buy plastic bags).

Sorry...I had to play around with the photo just so you guys could see it.

Well, hope everyone had a great President's Day weekend.  Thank goodness it's a short week, huh?

I'll be posting our Salzburg pics the next time I have a free moment!

Ciao for now!

She's Got Money in the Bank!

T-Pain's song, Buy You a Drink, comes to my mind while making this post.  There's a long in the song where he says, "I've got money in the bank" and so does Sina!

This girl's been racking up the big bucks even before she was born with her baby shower, then Christmas, and most recently, her baby dedication.  She probably has enough to pay for an entire first year's college education (okay, maybe at a community college--ha ha). 

Years ago, when my Grandma Ines lived in Hawaii, she would collect coins like crazy.  She would store them in those round, blue tin cans that those Danish cookies come in.  She always tells the story about how she'd gone to the bank with all those coins (mostly quarters) years later and cashed in over $800 (or maybe more; I can't recall).  So it was a nice surprise when she had given Sina her first piggy bank as a baby shower gift. 

I didn't want to take it out of it's box until we got settled here in Germany.  So it's finally making its debut and Sina was so excited to see it.  She tried to eat it--no surprise there either.  Anyway, for her baby dedication, Grandma Ines had given Sina a $100 check and specifically gave me instructions to cash it in for that much worth in quarters.  Well, once we opened a local bank account here in Germany, I made sure to do it.  So I walked out of the bank with ten [heavy] rolls of quarters.  And Sina and I deposited them into piggy today.

Thanks to Grandma Ines for the piggy bank, which she lovingly signed in permanent ink on the bottom.  Now, we're going to save, save, save...and maybe it'll pay for a Harvard education one day.  Although...since I say she's going to West Point for free...she can use it on her wedding!

Toy Story

Wow, February's been a bad month for blogging.  I just haven't been in the mood.  And I have a complex about making posts without pictures.  Otherwise I'd be on here a lot more.  I haven't busted out my camera in a while; probably because I've been working a lot and when I'm not at work, I'm at home helping with the baby or still trying to unpack our household goods, which arrived on Valentine's Day. 

Speaking of V-Day, it was a nice one despite having to receive our stuff that morning.  The movers didn't leave until about 1630 and after that, we had to help my Soldier get a spare tire for her truck.  In any case, I'd woken up to find a new laptop sitting on our dining table that morning, so I was happy the entire day.  We finished off the evening with dinner at the Italian restaurant behind our house.

So remember when I took that tour of downtown Stuttgart?  Well, I'd forgotten that I'd taken pictures of this really cool toy store, called Spielwaren. 

When we were released to go to lunch, everyone scrambled around trying to find a good restaurant to eat in.  The first thing I did was run to this store.  I was told by a lady in the store that it's the biggest toy store chain in Europe. 

You would've thought I was about 5 years old again.  I LOVE this store.  They not only have toys, but they also have stuffed animals galore, costumes and party favors.  I just love how everything is displayed--bright colors everywhere.  They have tons of girly stuff too, so I really could have gone crazy buying stuff for Sina, but I kept my cool.  I knew that I had to take pictures...my sister is going to love this.

My sister and I grew up with Sanrio (Hello Kitty) stuff.  She still loves that stuff.  I'll have to go back and get her something.

Remember my love of lady bugs?  Well, they have this tea set and I'm dying to get it for Sina.

Stuffed animals with matching bedding.

They even have stuff for adults.  I love these colors and the polka dots.  They're so much fun.

This place was bleeding pink and red everywhere.

An entire top floor of teddy bears.  Craziness.

So what a fun place.  I'm sure Sina will love it too.

Tomorrow, we head out for a USO tour to Salzburg.  We decided to start out small as far as venturing out goes.  Salzburg isn't too far away--about a 3-hour trip.  Can't wait to show you guys some pictures!

Best Buds

A friend from work went out of town this weekend and I practically begged her to let us watch her two Yorkies for the weekend.  With Lucy back in the states, we've been missing having fur-babies in the house.  They were so much fun and sooooo adorable.  Their names are Kiki and Pepper.  I didn't get pictures of Kiki...she kinda kept to herself and didn't really want to have anything to do with the baby.  But Pepper...was all over Sina and they had a great time playing together.  I took a short video.  Don't mind Sina's bed hair.  It's out of control.  It just gets so knotted up overnight, I really don't know what to do with it.

I think Sina loved having a dog that was "just her size".  She'd play with Pepper's fur and just try to hug her, although my bet was that she was trying to put Pepper in her mouth.  I got a few pictures of them before we left for church this morning.

We were sad to see Kiki and Pepper go today and we'll definitely jump at the chance to watch them again.  Now, we're even more anxious to get our Lucy girl out here.

Just a quick little update on our progress here...we finally get our household goods tomorrow!  So bye-bye suitcases...and all this loaner furniture!  We're just so ready to have all of our stuff here and to make this place a comfy new home.  Our neighbors have been wonderful too and I hope they don't mind hearing Sina cry from time to time, especially in the wee hours of the morning.  Our neighbor directly above us brought us some chocolates and brownies to welcome us to the stairwell.  How sweet! 

We haven't ventured out to do any sightseeing.  With Sina and I being sick and the cold weather (although we've seen a few warm/sunny days this past week), it kinda made going out difficult.  Plus, we really haven't been in the mood.  But we've decided that they'll be plenty of opportunities to go places.  As a matter of fact, we're taking our first trip to Salzburg this weekend--which is a four-day!

Anyway, just want to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!  Let's see if Malu and I will be able to squeeze in something romantic tomorrow amidst the chaos of having all of our stuff delivered!

Yummmm!

Our unaccompanied baggage arrived the other day and with it came Sina's high chair.  When we shipped it out from El Paso, it was still in the box, unopened, because she wasn't old enough to use it at the time.  So it was quite exciting for us to let her use it for the first time.  At first, she threw a fit because it has a harness.  However, once she learned that she'd be given food while sitting in this chair (vice her carseat), she started to enjoy it.  We just started her on the Gerber sweet potato fluffs.  She hasn't quite nailed picking them up with her chubby fingers and putting them in her mouth, but I'm sure she will soon.  Check it out.

I know Grandma and Grandpa are watching this, so enjoy!

~6 Months~

Our little Sina is not so little anymore.  She turned 6 months yesterday.  Half a year and I have no idea where all that time went.  It truly seems like it was just yesterday that I brought her home from the hospital.  Today, I feel like she's a young lady already (I know, that's a lot).  She's grown so much and has been through so much since last month.

Today, Malu and I took her to the clinic on post (which is a nice, brisk walk from our house) for her 6-month check up.  It was my first time going with her on an appointment since her 1-month check up.  Malu's has been doing it since.  So it was my first time seeing her get shots, and I was a wreck.  Every other time, Malu said that she'd cry for a few seconds and then shrug it off.  I always thought he exaggerated, but I witnessed it for myself.  Our baby girl is such a trooper.  The doctor also said she's as healthy as can be, despite the nasty cough she picked up from her sickie mommy a week ago.  In any case, here are her stats:

Weight:  15.7 lbs (about 3 pounds more than 2 months ago) = 42.6%
Length:  26 1/4 in = 71.6% (she's going to be tall!)
Head Circumference = 17.13 in = 77.8% (she's still got a big noggin)

So what's happened these last few weeks?

• Sina made it all the way to Germany without any fussing.  As a matter of fact, she slept pretty much the entire way and woke only to eat and play for a little bit.  She even slept through the 7 total hours that we had been delayed.  People didn't even know we had a baby with us until they saw us de-plane.
• Her 3-6 month clothes are really snug on her, so I've put her in some of her 6-9 month clothes that are tons more comfy.  When our household goods come, I'm going to be packing away all of her small clothes :( 
• She loves, loves, loves to eat.  And when she wants it, she'll let you know.  As soon as she sees a glimpse of her colored bowls and/or her spoons, she starts flipping out and makes "mmmm" and "ma ma ma" noises. Sometimes she screams.  These days, Gerber has a really great selection of food with tasty combinations that Sina loves such as Turkey and Sweet Potatoes and Chicken with Apples.  The problem is, if you try to revert to the plain Chicken and Rice and even plain rice cereal, Sina literally gives you the "I-don't-know-why-you're-even-bothering-to-feed-me-this-bland-stuff" look and refuses to eat it.  Fortunately, she still loves her green beans and carrots.  We also introduced her to the Gerber Graduates Puffs so that she can learn how to feed herself and chew small pieces of food.  She just hasn't quite learned to put the puffs into her mouth after picking them up, which is funny because she pretty much does that with anything else she's given; then again, the puffs are tiny and her cute, chubby hands get in the way. 
• We've increased her formula intake to 7 ounces every 4 to 5 hours and have even introduced her to an apple-flavored Pedialyte juice.  Last week, we'd taken Sina to the doctor because she had gotten a nasty cough and became congested--her first time being sick.  He suggested the juice to increase her fluid intake.  She loves it. 
• Speaking of her being sick...you would never guess that she was sick at all the way she carries on, being smiley and giddy.  And when she went to see the doctor, even today, she had a grand old time.  The doctors love her. 
• We finally put her in size 2 diapers. 
• She is definitely talking a lot more these days, and the "ba ba ba", "mmmmm" and "ma ma ma" sounds are more distinct than last month.  And when we say "ma ma ma ma ma" over and over to her, she starts cracking up.  It's the cutest thing.  We just got the Your Baby Can Read program in the mail this weekend, so we're going to start it this week.  She already loves to read with Malu, and we get her several books a week from the library.  Hopefully, she'll be spouting off and/or recognizing words in no time.
• She went to daycare twice this month and loved it.  As soon as we handed her over to a provider, she forgot who mommy and daddy were and wanted to play with all the toys.  This is a relief, because with Malu landing a job here, we have no choice but to put her in daycare full time soon. 
• She loves playing with her toys.  We could leave her on the bed or in her crib and surround her with her toys and she'll just entertain herself for a good while. She has a ladybug Pillow Pet that she is crazy about.  When Malu dangles it above her head, she goes nuts.  And she eats the antennae all the time.  She's also head over heels for her Playskool laptop that plays the ABCs song and teaches her some Spanish too.
• She also has great posture, sits upright without assistance and moves into a crawling position a lot these days. 
• She loves watching TV, especially Playhouse Disney on AFN here.  Handy Manny, and Mickey's Playhouse keep her well-entertained as well as Baby Mozart DVDs and CDs.  She loves music.  Kelley Barracks has a pre-school music program that we intend to enroll her in.  Can't wait!

I can go on forever and ever about how much she's changing and how much we've enjoyed watching her grow.  And Malu is sitting here rattling a lot of other things about her that I am unfortunately too lazy to put into this post.  I know that he is impacted most by how much she has progressed because he's the one whose been watching her all this time that I've been back at work.  I know it's going to be hard for him to return to work and put her in someone else's care.  She is, after all, daddy's little girl.  And now, I'm going to end this post so that I can see him cuddle with his little girl as she sleeps. 

Happy 1/2 year little darling and may God continue to bless you.  It's sad to think that in six more months, you'll be a year old!

Downtown Stuttgart

This morning, I opened my Facebook and saw a message from my friend, Maddie, saying "FYI...you promised an updated blog post today".  Leave it to Maddie to keep me squared away.  What's cool is that Maddie will be moving to Germany in a few months, only she'll be about two hours away from us.  We're super excited.

Anyway, the main purpose of the downtown tour was to get us acquainted with Germany's mass transportation system.  Having used the eurail to go all over Europe (well, Germany, France and Italy) a few years ago while on R&R, I can tell you that it's fabulous.  I mean, you can take a train all over Germany and outside of Germany and at decent fares.  Paris?  Rome?  No problem. 

In any case, there are five means of transport here in Germany, aside from having your own car, of course, bikes, and the intercity trains that take you from city to city.  There's the subway (called S-Bahn), the streetcar (called U-Bahn), the cable car (called Seilbahn), the bus, and the cograil car (called Zacke). All modes are different, but honestly, to me, all of these things looked exactly the same.  They all look like subway trains.  I mean, when I hear cograil, I think about that slow choo-choo train that I've taken up Pikes Peak in Colorado.  But no...it looks just like the subway train.

This one actually did take us up a huge hill.  As a matter or fact, most of Stuttgart is hills and mountains.  A huge part of the city sits below in valleys and there are houses and buildings going uphill or up mountains.  I'll tell ya, the view coming downhill is just gorgeous.

So we rode on every form of transportation, which was really neat.  It's all kind of confusing, but I'm sure we'll get the hang of it eventually.  But really, we need to do it fast.  The people here don't have much patience for rookie Americans who wander around lost in the train stations or on the trains.  They'll literally knock you out of the way if you're not careful.  The main train station is in the heart of downtown and is huge and you can access both the U-Bahn and the S-Bahn.  It's called the hauptbahnhof and ours looks like this:

It has a couple of floors with shops and food eateries.  And it's busy as hell. When you actually get to the subway platform, you'd be surprised at how clean it is when you compare it to someplace like NYC.  They also have big flat screen panels throughout for advertisements and stuff. 

While we were downtown, our teacher showed us some really cool places.  Because I was so busy taking pictures and not quite listening to what she was saying, I've linked a lot of these places to Wikipedia so that, if you're interested, you can actually see what these places are about.

The Swabich are a hard-working people.  As such, Stuttgart is one of the wealthiest cities in Germany (as we've been told).  Not surprising that in downtown, you'll find a lot of big name shops along the konig strasse, or walking zone, like Cartier, Lacoste, and of course...

Louis Vuitton.  Yes, right in front of an old, beautiful and historic church.  I know my mom is getting excited right now.  And mom, it doesn't end here...they have big department stores like this one...

...called Kaufhof, as well as H&M and C&A.  Or this one, called Breuninger, which is comparable to a Bloomingdales and has floor after floor of merchandise...

I could barely contain myself.  Really.

There was a really cool toy store that we went to as well, but I'll save that for a separate post.  Also, I just thought about how crazy it was to see so many people out shopping everywhere in the middle of a workday (it was Wednesday morning).  Does anyone work around here?  Just kidding.

Here's that church that's behind the LV store.  She referred to it as the university church, but I'm not sure what it's called.  But it's gorgeous, inside and out.

We were also taken to the city hall, which is called the Rathaus (not rat house, but pronounced "rot-house"). 

It's smack dab in the middle of the city with a huge plaza outside of it.  Inside, it had a really weird (but cool), old elevator that our teacher wanted us to try.  I have a video here, but you have to watch sideways.  I didn't know how to rotate it.

You'd be surprised at how many people in our group were too mortified to try it. I thought it was a hoot!

Here is the altes schloss or Old Castle.  I know it's now a museum, but I think it also has a courthouse and a really beautiful church that I took pictures of.  The interior is just magnificent.

Here is the Schillerplatz.  Apparently Schiller (big statue) is one of the country's renowned poets.  I thought the plaza was stunning.  It's right across from the old castle.  A few feet away is where the flea market is held every Saturday.

Not too far from here is the new castle, which I didn't take pictures of.  But across from the new castle is the schlossplatz which is the biggest square in the middle of the city.  Oh, and that domed building to the left?  Another mall.  Craziness.

And, by the way, I can't wait to see these places in the Spring where I heard it's just beautiful, green and flowery.

Behind the new castle and beyond its gardens sits the opera house as well as the art museum behind it.

There are musicals, ballets, symphonies all year long. I'm soooo there!

And I believe these are all the pictures I took, as I'm sure you guys are tired of reading this post by now.

As glad as I am to know that we can travel all through Germany and out of it, I'm amazed at how much there is to do just in our own city, like the zoo, the spas and mineral baths, as well as the Mercedez Benz and Porsche museums.

All right friends and family....do you want to get on our waiting list to visit?