~8 Months~

Man, I thought last month was a big one.  The 7th month went by in a whirlwind and Sina turned 8 months this past Wednesday.  Right now, Sina is knocked out.  We had to give her some Tylenol because she'd fallen and hit her head up against one of the heaters in her room.  That's pretty much an indication of how this past month has been.  This. Girl. Is. Everywhere.

I guess I should back up a little bit.  For one thing, Sina has become quite the world traveler.  At the beginning of the month, she and her daddy traveled all the way back to Utah for Auntie Jewel's funeral.  This was her fifth time on an airplane in four months--three of those trips being from the States to Germany or vice versa.  On all trips, she was so well-behaved.  As a matter of fact, Malu said that on the way back to Utah, Sina would stare at all the other kids who cried on the plane.  She was an angel the entire time.  Go Sina!  During this trip, Sina met a whole bunch of Malu's family--including her Grandpa Vila--for the very first time.  They were all quite enamored with her and this made for a good distraction despite the circumstances that brought everyone to Utah in the first place.

They were only in Utah for ten days.  But in that time, Sina had cut her first two teeth (that she currently loves to sink into her crib rails) and spoken her very first word....Dada.  Really, no big surprise there.  When they returned, I felt as though she'd aged by three months.  Not only did she look like she'd gained three inches (and three pounds!) she had become more mobile--which brings me to my original comment of "this girl is everywhere".  Oh my goodness, she really is.  Really, she's just so curious about everything and has to see, touch, and taste things.  The bad thing is that she moves at warp-speed trying to get whatever object is tickling her facy and, not surprisingly, at least everyday she has some sort of fall or small injury.  Before we had the entire floor of her room covered with her rubber playmat, she would simply fall backward, hitting her head on the floor--a lot.  We started to worry and made an appointment to have her head checked just in case.  Luckily the doctor said she's fine and that she's actually developing (in terms of her motor skills) faster than other kids her age.  Still, I am beside myself everytime she gets a "boo-boo" and cries.  It's the most frightening and heartbreaking experience.  We're still working at getting the entire house baby-proofed.  All of the electrical sockets are covered and the entire kitchen (which she loves to play around in) is already done.  However, I feel the need to cover every sharp corner of every piece of furniture in this house.  And to put away every loose object that she could possibly get her hands on....like this lamp she loves (see pic to right).  Gosh, if I did that, we'd have NO furniture out in the open.

We're not sure how much she weighs at this point.  We'll know at her 9-month appointment coming up.  However, we know she's made gains this past month as she has transitioned to bite-sized solid foods.  Most of the foods, I steam in her Baby Cook and she likes pretty much....anything.  Some of the new things that she's tried this month (I'm talking in steamed, bite-sized pieces) are:  zucchini, squash, cherry tomatoes, avocado, green beans, carrots, asparagus, elbow pasta, chicken, ground beef, and even fish (salmon).  Her normal meal routine is breakfast--which consists of cereal and fruit--and dinner--which consists of meat, veggies and fruit.  Throughout the day, she gets 7-8 oz. of milk and sometimes she gets a few ounces of Pedialyte or fruit juice.  As a matter of fact, this month, we introduced her to a sippy cup!  She still primarily gets her bottle, but she LOVES to use the sippy cup and it's probably because she feels like she's drinking like mommy and daddy do.  We usually give it to her around dinner time.

Her personality is definitely coming out.  While she is predominantly a happy-go-lucky little girl who's all smiles and gets along with mostly everyone, she does have some kind of wild streak and likes to test her limits from time to time.  This personality pops out at certain moments:

(1) When she's in her high chair.  She can't stay in it for too long and starts crying until we eventually relent and let her out.  She gets antsy if you take too long between spoonfuls.  And sometimes she gets silly and blows bubbles as soon as you put a spoonful of food in her mouth.  Her food gets everywhere.  We've had to initiate a "time out" when she does it too much.  And that really just consists of us facing her high chair (thank goodness it has wheels) toward the window and being quiet.  Then we explain to her what she did wrong.

(2) When we dressing her after baths.  Man, if I got lotion rubbed/massaged on me the way I do it on hers, I'd be in heaven.  She cries until you pick her up.

Those are the two major times and it's usually not pretty.  Sometimes her attitude really makes you laugh because it's cute; like the times she fights sleep.  Most of the time she sleeps through the nights, other times (like last night when she fell off her sleep cycle because she was Skyping with my parents) she'll fight sleep tooth and nail! So one of us has to lay in our bed with her to put her to sleep.  When you do, she lays there in your arms and shakes her head "no" and grunts until she eventually succumbs to sleep.  But it can be about 10-15 minutes of her laying there shaking her head before it happens.  When it does, it's the most amazing sight to behold.  She really is such a cutie.

Other things....she's bumped up to size 3 diapers.  She can still fit some 3-month clothes that I've managed to dig out (still with price tags on), but mostly wears 6-9 month clothes.  Remember those big flowery headbands that bought in bulk and used to make her wear all the time?  Well, she hates them.  She pulls them off her head.  I have to grab them before she starts to tear them apart.  She at least allows me to put her hair up in regular ponytail holders or really small bows without messing it up.  Not only that, she hates wearing froo-froo dresses.  Malu's grandma had two nice dresses for her in Utah, both of which she apparently screamed bloody murder in until they were taken off.  That being said, I wonder what I'm going to do with all the fancy dresses she's been given.

And finally, Sina loves to listen to music, to dance to it, and to clap her hands to no end.  I can tell she's going to be quite the entertainer.

I tell you, Vaiosina is truly everything we live for.  She's an absolute dream come true.  There's nothing like coming home after a long day at work, opening the door, and seeing her face light up within seconds of seeing me and hearing her yell "mama, mama, mama!" It truly does my heart sooooo good. 

I love you so much Sina!  You're my everything!  Tomorrow, I'll try to post about our trip to the Wilhema Zoo!  This weekend was amazing and the weather was just gorgeous.  I hope you all enjoyed yours too.

Have a blessed week!

Ten on Thursday

I used to make Ten on Tuesday posts all the time, but somehow lost all motivation to do them consistently on Tuesdays.  Since it's Thursday and I'm actually in a blogging kind of mood, I figured I'd go ahead and do my "ten".

{One} We have a training holiday tomorrow and I'm so thankful for it! 

{Two} Thinking about the training holiday all week messed me up this morning and got my day off to a rocky start.  I didn't hear my alarm go off this morning, or maybe it didn't go off at all, but I was in la-la dreamland this morning when I woke to complete daylight, sunshine, birds chirping and Sina going goo-goo ga-ga from her bedroom.  All of a sudden, I sat up, looked at the clock and saw that it was 0740.  I tapped on my husband and asked him what day it was.  "Thursday," he says.  Holy crap!!!  I usually report to work by 0645.  Yikes.  I only had time to brush my teeth and throw my uniform on.  Bolted out the door with my hair a mess.  Lucky for me, the boss was out of the office all day today and heading out of the country on leave.  He probably only knows about this happening from reading my Facebook status.  Please don't ask me why I accepted my boss as a "friend" on Facebook either :)  He really is a nice guy.

{Three} Sina turned 8 months yesterday. I can't believe it!  I'll be posting about it tomorrow.  She'll be a year old soon, which I can't believe either.  We're still trying to decide if we're going to head to the States on leave (in August) to celebrate her big day with our families or stay here in Germany and do something small.  On one hand, my folks really want to do this party big (although my family never really does anything small--Filipinos for you).  Shoot, I want to do this one big just because it's her first birthday.  But is it worth going all that way for the sake of a birthday party?  She's already been to and from the states twice over the last three months and it took her a little bit to get over the jet lag and back into a routine again this last time (which was just two weeks ago).  What do you guys think?

{Four} Nicole at Flip Flops and Combat Boots is hosting a Spring Swap this month.  I've been paired up with Jackie at In the Life of the Lefevres and I've got my package all ready to go!  I'd tell you guys what I got for her, but it would totally ruin the surprise for her.  I'll let you guys know once I get her package in the mail.  I LOVE blog swaps!

{Five} I hope Congress resolves this government shutdown issue...and quick.  If the shutdown occurs and is long-term, troop pay can be affected.  Our family is lucky to have enough to get by if the shutdown is long-term, but not all military families can say the same thing.  I worry for them.  I worry about how our office here will operate without our government civilians.  I'd say about, if not, over half of our directorate (as well as the entire Command) is civilian! Straight up...it'd be a freakin' mess!

{Six} We're thinking about going to the Wilhema Zoo in Stuttgart this weekend, if the weather is nice (today had to be in the 80s; it was gorgeous).  We've heard such wonderful things about this place, which is said to be a botanical garden, zoo and aquarium in one.  I definitely want to see it.  And I know Sina would love it too!

{Seven} It frustrates me that after living in this house almost two months we still don't have everything put together.  We can't repair a part of our sectional that broke during the move until the claims folks back in the states approve our application, paperwork, or whatever.  So we're stuck with a partly-broken sectional until then.  We still need curtains in all rooms, Sina's clothes are still all over the place, and the guest room is far from done (we need a bed for it too).  I can't expect Malu to get it all done by himself either.  Sina keeps him tied up all day and when she's sleeping, he has to do his schoolwork.  And when I am off, I just want to relax....all day long.  So lazy!

{Eight} Although I love being in Europe, I'm too much a homebody and miss the states.  I miss my family and being able to fly or drive a few hours to see them. I miss our close friends.  Not that we haven't met cool people here yet, we just haven't established our "crew" of people that we're supposed to hang out with on a regular basis, like the group we had in El Paso.  I can see how people love extending their stays here in Europe, but I don't think that's in the stars for us.  Not to mention, I'm totally missing American restaurants.  What I'd give to have some chicken lettuce wraps from P.F. Chang's.  Yum!

{Nine} Speaking of missing stuff back in the states, we miss our Lucy girl.  We finally had a chance to get a power of attorney (our legal office is at another post in town) so that my parents can take Lucy to the vet and get all the paperwork done to bring her to Germany.  If you're reading this for the first time, Lucy is our 8 year old Shepherd mix who had to stay behind with my parents because it was too cold to fly her on the day we departed Colorado to come here.  I know she misses us too and is wondering where we went and whether or not she's going to see us anytime soon.  Pretty soon baby girl!

{Ten} God, help me, we're filing our taxes on line this weekend even if it kills me.  We just keep putting it off for no good reason other than we feel like we haven't had the time.  Now we're running out of time!  I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it!

Whew!  That took a while.  Thanks for sticking with me through it you guys!  Enjoy your Friday.  I know I will be!

On the Play Mat!

We'd been looking all over the place for the interlocking foam alphabet/number mats for Sina to play on since she's almost always on the floor rolling around (hence the constantly messy hair). When we first asked (like a week ago) a member of the PX staff if they had them, they said no.  We stopped by the PX yesterday and I kinda just stumbled upon them by accident...in the sporting goods section of all places.

We're soooo happy we found them.  Now that Sina's all over the place, we have no choice but to babyproof the house as much as possible.  This is one of many precautions.

Anyway...here she is, enjoying her new floor!

On the prowl!

I love those chubby cheeks!

"C" is for "Crown"

I have to have at least one pic of her trying to eat something!

It's difficult getting pictures where she actually looks at the camera.

Sina turns 8 months on Wednesday!  I can't believe it!

Precious Moments

Some of the most precious of moments are those shared by a father and his daughter--at least I think so.

Here are a few of those precious moments that I caught on film yesterday during our outing downtown last night.

These are my reasons for living.

Have a blessed week everyone!

Beautiful Saturday in S-Vaihingen!

Oh my goodness...it was the most beautiful day today in our neck of the woods.  We gave Malu somewhat of a break today, so it became a mommy and Sina day--and we just had to be out there soaking up some sunshine.  It had to be about 70 degrees out, if not more.  At about 0930, Sina and I set out for downtown.

Vaihingen is one of many towns in Stuttgart.  On traffic signs, you'll see town names accompanied by "S-", which stands for Stuttgart.  Hence, S-Vaihingen.  It's right outside the Patch Barracks gate.  About a mile and a half walk from our house will land you in downtown Vaihingen where there is lots to do.  There's a mall (the Schwaben Galerie) and tons of stores to get your shopping fix.  If you want to hop on a train or bus to downtown Stuttgart, you can do it from that area with ease.  On Saturdays, there is a farmer's market right across the street from the mall.  Today was my first day going to the farmer's market in Vaihingen and much like the others that I've been to--in Austria and in France--this one had fresh produce, flowers, meat, cheese, bread, pastries...the works.  I love living here.

Spring is here!  Flowers!

The farmer's market.  Right behind it, you can see the Schwaben Galerie (the big glass building).

Just looking at the crowd, you'd never know it was only 0945 or so in the morning.  The place was hoppin!  As a matter of fact, on the walk down there, I'd seen two maintenance guys (in the neighborhood) kicking back a few beers while on the job.  Yuck...in the morning?

After perusing the farmer's market, Sina and I wandered into the mall, had a chocolate mochachino and a breakfast sandwich, and walked back home. The walk back is interesting and scenic.  You go from the busy-ness of downtown, to a quiet, residential area (which itself, is littered with small inns/hotels, restaurants, and small businesses), to wide-open fields where there are sheep, horses and trails to bike and walk your dog(s).

On the way home!  It was so sunny, Sina couldn't keep her eyes open!

Just outside the gate, is a small flower shop.  Sina and I stopped by and bought some flowers as gifts for our neighbors before checking through the gate. You can get flowers so cheap over here.  Cheap enough to keep fresh flowers in the house all year long.  Love that too!  And I must also note that the entire time we walked, Sina muttered, "Dada, dada, dada."  Yup, mom's chopped liver, but we really did miss our third wheel a great deal!

When Malu got home a few hours later, he came home with roses for us :)  Then, we headed back downtown to have dinner at the chinese buffet.  Yum!  I mean, with all that walking, a huge dinner was necessary right?

It was still pretty bright out when we were done with dinner, so we did some roaming around over where the farmer's market had been earlier today.

Yes, there is some really interesting art downtown.

 On the way back, we had some good laughs and conversation--and ran into more furry friends in those fields I mentioned earlier.

Sina's lesson for tonight--"sheep say baaaaa".  And don't you love how there's an Audi dealership in the distance (if you look closely)?  There's BMW and Volkswagen place nearby too.

So pretty much a day well-spent.  Tomorrow is definitely going to be a rest day! 

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Rockin' Out!

Like all other first-time parents, we try to capture our little girl at every little moment even if it is something so seemingly mundane.  These last few months have just been a joy just experiencing Sina discovering the world around her and surpassing milestones in terms of her development.  So this is probably the umpteenth video clip I've posted on her between this blog and Facebook.  It's mostly to keep her grandparents and great-grandparents as updated on her as possible, but man, these cute moments are too cute not to share with the masses--at least to us. 

Sina LOVES music, mostly because Malu has exposed her to it since she was born.  Now she LOVES to dance to music...especially when, most of the time, mommy and daddy are dancing like crazies in front of her.  She loves to play copy cat!

Last month, Sina only recognized the word "clap" whenever she heard or saw it.  Now she claps every chance she gets and gets even more excited everytime we acknowledge her clapping with a "good girl".  Love it!

And apparently she loves Eminem too because if you turn the volume high enough (after you lower the background music from my blog, of course), you can hear him rapping.  Hey, everyone needs variety, right?

Oh, and most of the comments we get about these video clips have to do with her hair.  Yup...still out of control.  And it's not like we don't fix it....it doesn't matter what we do, she'll pull at it, roll all over the floor playing and mess it up.  It just won't stay neat.  And forget about putting clips and headbands and other accessories in...she pulls those out too.  I'm afraid we have a tomboy on our hands (thanks Malu) and I won't even go into how she hates dresses.

Enjoy...and happy hump day to all of you guys back home!

Gettin' Crafty!

One of the great things about being stationed at Stuttgart is that the post always has tons of events to keep Soldiers and family members occupied--whether it involves sports, travel, or in this case....crafts!  Patch Barracks has an award-winning Arts & Crafts center. I've never seen anything like it.

It's like a mini-Michael's!  Check it out!

All the scrapbooking supplies you will ever need, although you can't tell in this picture.  Behind these stands is a coffee bar.

You can paint ceramics and have little parties.

They have enough fabric for you to get your sew on!

And they have a framing shop.

They hold a number of classes for quilting, sewing, fused glass and so much more.  My friend, Zinda, and I decided to take a mosaics class!  Oh, it was so much fun...and relaxing.

Gluing on the tiles was the hardest and most time-consuming part.  I wanted to do something simple and went with a flower.  Here it is before grouting. 

Not sure why I didn't get a picture of the finished product, but I did snag a picture of Zinda and another person from the class with our pre-grouted tiles.



Using the grout was the fun part (I mean, who doesn't like to have a reason to get dirty, right?) and everyone's tiles came out looking great.  You really can't go wrong with mosaics.  Mine is sitting on our kitchen counter as a trivet.  Love it!

And I'm sure our husbands are just thrilled about us finding something new to blow our money on!

I'm planning on taking an intro to sewing class soon! I'll let you know when I do.

I'm also starting to get back into the kitchen again.  Last night I whipped up a really good porkloin recipe.  Check out my recipes blog!

Have a great Tuesday everyone!