The local dairy

Down the street from us is a dairy farm. It is owned and run by a guy and his son that have a cute little house right next to it. Peter, the son, does most of the work since his dad is pretty old. He is always friendly with us and is such a nice guy. He lets us go and get raw milk from the cooling tank whenever we want and only charges us 50 euro cents per liter. We go there quite often to get some raw milk for the kids. Sometimes Abe will drink it too, but I am not a fan of the super thick milk! The kids love riding their bikes down there and making their rounds throughout the dairy to see all the different cows. There is one little section with all the calves, one where all the cows are milked and fed, one with the bulls and another with the brand new babies and moms. Meika especially is always begging to ride her bike down there and has a small infatuation with cows. Pretty fitting since we always call her Meika Moo. The other day she begged me to go on a walk to see the cows so I took a couple pictures to document what we do there so the kids won't forget.

Photo shoot with Danielle

I am so overjoyed with the gorgeous photos that Danielle has taken of us over the past couple of months. I loved the ones of the girls and I when I was pregnant, was SO happy I had her do Anders' birth and now am in love with the handful she took of our family with Anders. She did such an amazing job!

Anders at 2 Months

2 Month Stats
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Weight: 4.7 kg or 10.36 lbs 24%
Length: 57 cm or 22.44 inches long 37%
Head: 40.5 cm 68%

Anders' 2 Month well baby appointment proved that he is indeed growing! It is nice to see, because it is super discouraging and stressful at times with breastfeeding. There are times that I feel like he eats well and is consistent and times when I feel like he is not nursing enough and fear that he is not getting enough food. I just have to go with my gut though and since he is pretty happy and is growing, I'm sure it is all good. It's crazy how feeding a baby can be so stressful!

At 2 Months, Anders:

-Loves to snuggle and nuzzle his face into your chest/armpit
-sleeps a 5-6 hour stretch consistently
-eats about every 3 hours, although sometimes isn't interested until 4 hours and sometimes wants to snack often. Not the most consistent!
-smiles
-finally loves his baths
-has small tummy issues, but is mostly happy and easy to console
-has a cute little frown
-can roll from his tummy to his back
-used to hate his carseat, but is getting better at being in it happily
-loves being warm
-has to be swaddled tight when he sleeps
-Is at the start of being very social
-was initially fine when he got his shots, but was super sad and cranky the rest of the day

Kabebs, Ice cream and farewell to the Petersons!

The Petersons have been such great friends to us. They moved here about 7 months after we did and ended up moving on our street. Kelsey and I have a mutual friend that I had met here and we also became fast friends. Our kids would run back and forth to each others houses to play, we would help each other out watching kids, lots of dinners together, borrowing random items from each other, carpooling, calling each other to meet up for ice cream, a shopping buddy, etc. Pretty sure we talked every single day that she was here and were constantly iMessaging each other. Living in a foreign country, it is nice to have a friend live right next to you. We were originally supposed to leave Germany before them to go back to the States, but they ended up getting out of the military and leaving early. It seems like a blink of an eye from when they found out when they were leaving to this point in time when they have already been gone for over a month. I miss them!

10 days before the Petersons left, they were staying in a little guest house. There wasn't a kitchen at their guesthouse and not very much to do, so they pretty much lived at my house for that period of time. My kids loved being able to spend more time with their boys and I with Kelsey. The boys were good sports to put up with my girls and always wanting to play princesses, have makeovers and dress up.





One of their last nights in Germany, we decided to hit up our local Kabeb Haus and get ice cream down the street. It is quite often that we go to both of these places and we have created lots of memories doing so!
Whenever we head to either of these places, the kids always hop on their bikes and take off. We adults usually walk and enjoy each others company while trying to make sure our kids don't get hit by a car and listen to us. I love walking around our little village. It is quaint and filled with beautiful flowers, trees, farming fields, animals, cobblestones, bricks, and unique little houses.











When we go to our local family owned ice cream "shop", the kids pile their bikes right outside the entrance. We go so often, that they know our kids names and dote over them. Adeline loves ordering for all of us in as much German as she can and then we all sit down at a table and socialize while eating our ice cream. The kids try to eat as fast as possible so they can run behind the owners house and play on a fun playground that reminds me of a secret garden. They also love to capture snails and slugs galore. One time when they were playing at the playground behind the ice cream house, they filled up a huge shovel full of ginormous slugs.

































Once we get back from ice cream, the kids usually run to the back of our house to jump on the trampoline while us adults hang out on the street and talk.





Petersons, we miss you! It is weird living here and you not around. I keep feeling like you guys are just on a vacation and I will keep telling myself that for the next month until we move!

First Day of School

Adeline enjoyed not having to attend school for the entire summer. In fact, she was not looking forward to going back. Last year was a little difficult for some reason and she didn't like school very much. Some days it was a big struggle to get her to go. She had begged me not to send her to school until we got to Colorado, but that would be a lot of school that would be missed. This year, Norah was eligible to attend IY1, which is a preschool program also at AFNORTH International School. I wasn't too thrilled with her going because it is an all day/everyday program. Essentially she would be attending the same amount of time as Adeline. The first couple weeks are scattered, so she wouldn't go everyday from the start. That is a long time though for a Preschooler to be at school. There is supposable an awful preschool teacher that I have never heard a good thing about. She (supposably) speaks to the kids unkindly, puts them in time outs for 45 minutes, etc. I told Abe that I would sign Norah up and then decide later if I wanted to send her; but that if she got THAT teacher, I for sure wouldn't send her! Well guess what? She got THAT teacher and I immediately decided I wasn't sending her. Abe had a different opinion and talked me into sending her and we can pull her out at any moment that we feel it is not a good thing. I was a little stressed out from the start about Norah attending all day, everyday and with this teacher AND I was worried how Adeline was going to handle school. To my surprise, everything has gone well so far. Adeline has a great teacher and has met a lot of new friends. She was initially really sad because all her best girl friends were in different classes than her. Norah has enjoyed school so far. She is extremely tired at the end of the day, but she hasn't complained too much. Her teacher really likes her and has said all good things. Her teacher also told me that she had a really hard group of kids last year and that it was quite challenging, but that she has one of the best groups this year. Hopefully the girls will continue to have a good time at school until we leave!

Adeline: Ms. Dittmer





Norah: Mrs. Geilen-Rosenberg




The girls together in front of their school