zauber-a

Posted at 07:24 pm by zauber-a
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So we headed off to the Island of Kos in Greece on July 14th, right? That's why I was gone for the past week (plus) as we were totally 100% without internet. I was browsing through pictures this morning and realized that although we didn't take as many as we should have, between the four of us, there are still an overwhelming amount of photos and so I'm going to go day-by-day, starting with the morning of the 14th.

Why is the carseat in the living room, without its cover? Oh yah, how could I have forgotten to mention that Georgia had a bout of nerves (or car sickness) on the day that her Auntie Kylene and Grandma arrived? We were up way too early to pick them up at the airport and Georgia had her bottle of milk (as always) and was drinking juiced water in the car.

We made it all the way to the airport parking garage before she lost it. I personally think it was her Daddy's driving around and around in the garage looking for that elusively exclusive parking spot that did it. Anyway, we heard a sudden horrible retching from the backseat, one, two, three...four?! Yep. curdled milk ALL over Georgia and all over the carseat. We peeled off her sweatshirt, t-shirt and skirt so she was standing there in the cold morning in a diaper, babylegs and shoes. Poor Baby. I took off my sweatshirt (huge maternity thing, mind you) and covered her up. She looked like a little mini witch out of Harry Potter in a too-big-for-her black cape. Yes, I was very irritated with myself for having forgotten the camera.

So the point being, we had washed the carseat cover once already before going, and then the evening before (Friday the 13th) we were packing and getting everything together for the trip the next day when we realized that the freshly washed carseat cover still smelled sickeningly of curdled milk. Back into the washer it went, with a nice strong dose of vinegar. In the meantime, the seat itself was getting cleaned to the last crack so it would not smell. And when Georgia woke up the next morning and saw it in the living room (that's not where it belongs!!!) she of course, crawled right into it.

Moving right along? Okay then. Saturday morning I dumbly remembered that I needed to buy a new NUK bottle since Georgia had recently stuck her fork through the ventilation hole in hers (and I wanted to have two anyway). So while she was napping, Kylene and I ran to REWE only to find out they didn't have any, so on to Tengelmann (where we did have luck) in the very very very hot sun (the weather finally warmed up the day we left) sweating and panting because we were slowly (and surely) running out of time!

Made it back to the apartment in time to pack up the car and off we headed to the airport, zoom zoom......TRAFFIC. We were over 30 mins late to our drop off appointment for the car.

Check-in wasn't too difficult, the wait was annoying, Georgia was so aufgedreht, we didn't know what to do with her. She wouldn't be held, was running all over the airport, as if she'd had three cans of Red Bull before we left!

Boarding the plane was late. Then, when we were finally squished into our seats (three together and one across the aisle), the pilot informed us that we would have to wait another half hour before we could take off.

Narrow much?

Yes, Georgia was miserable. She couldn't very well sit on my lap in that narrow space and was forced to stay in her Daddy's, but wasn't allowed to kick the chair in front of her. Then add in the delayed start and you have pure misery. I guess we're thankful that there were many, many kids on the flight and she can't possibly have been the only one fussing!

We finally, finally arrived on Kos, got our baggage, our bus and were about the 3rd group to be dropped off at our resort. We went into the dining hall where they had left out a meager offering of food for the late-comers (Kylene and Mom refused to eat anything) and then off to our room, which boasted ONE bath for the five of us and four twin beds (two in a seperate room). It was so dark, and windy, we had no idea what the place looked like, where pools or ocean were and were excited to find out the next morning. It was also so windy, it was even a bit cold.

Bed soon after, a restless, uncomfortable night on beds so hard, we got bruises on our hips...

And now Kylene really wants to make cards, so I have to end this here and come back later with a recap for the 15th. Stay tuned!!!

Posted at 03:06 pm by zauber-a
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While trying to make the beds for our visitors tomorrow...

Posted at 09:00 pm by zauber-a
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I'm feeling under-the-weather, and we've had a few disasters today, plus hitting, scratching, pinching and screaming toddlers. It was a little too much. So I'm canceling my dinner plans and going to bed early.

Until tomorrow then!

Posted at 06:37 pm by zauber-a
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Well, we planned on going to the Leiberheim Familienfest today. 10% reduced food and drink, a brass band and a magician for the kids. We got there and were there long enough to eat a plate of frenchfries, (long enough for Georgia to get herself filthy) before the downpour. We moved to a table under an umbrella (along with the rest of the biergarten!) and huddled for a while before someone came and informed us that due to the strong winds, they were going to have to take down the umbrellas. So we got ourselves together and left.

Georgia, who refused to stay under the umbrella, stayed relatively dry due to her rain jacket.

I love that first picture, the one that shows her curls sticking out from beneath her hat? I tried to get that picture on Thursday, but she took the hat off before I could...

Posted at 05:44 pm by zauber-a
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Yep, making up for missing yesterday, and Mom isn't even home to enjoy. After a rather terrible nap, we packed up to go check out the street-festival in Neubiberg. I told Sven there was no way I was walking (it's a half-hour walk to the s-bahnhof in Neubiberg when I am in good shape and far from pregnant...) and after a bit of a fight, we drove.

Once out of the car, Georgia wanted to walk and the first thing she discovered were her pockets, the ones in her sweatshirt, not her pants (which she had found before). You can't help but laugh at that little girl walking with her hands in her pockets, can you now?

It wasn't long before she preferred the stroller and on we strolled through the crowds. First thing I found to take a picture of were the Steckerlfisch (hate those, how disgusting anyway?) and shortly after, we ran into a merry-go-round and I told Sven to put Georgia on and let her ride. I'm glad I made him pay the €1,50 too, because there wasn't much else at the festival that she was big enough for. She got up on an elephant that did NOT hop up and down and had a blast. Too much of one, she didn't want to get off, and whined and cried when we left.

To the end and back again, this time grabbing a balloon for Georgia and that was about it. Writing about it, I'm reminded that I was supposed to make a reservation at a restaurant, but it wasn't open so I need to call. Better make sure and do that tomorrow.

Tomorrow we're off to a family celebration at Sven's favorite Biergarten, this time with Emma and Family...

Posted at 10:17 pm by zauber-a
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By the time I got around to taking a picture yesterday, it was way past someone's bedtime (and that is a more mild picture). It was like this: we wanted to do our weekend shopping yesterday so we'd have Saturday free to do whatever we wanted (not that it was that exciting, I just spent the morning doing the same stuff I do every morning, get up, get G dressed, get breakfast, clean-up breakfast, get myself dressed, change G's diaper, get lunch started, clean-up from making lunch, make the bed, eat lunch, change G's diaper....) anyway. What the heck is my point? We waited for Daddy to get home (about quarter to six) and hadn't had dinner (we shared a yogurt). Then Sven's arrival threw me off and the diaper I'd been intending to change (because a little girl had drank about 3 bottles of juice since her nap) was forgotten in the rush to get out and get the grocery shopping done. We arrived At Aldi and her pants were already wet...bad, bad sign. Did the shopping as quickly a possible, no leisurely browsing and no extra trip to the new Lidl. Back home, diaper and all clothes changed (thus the strange outfit in the pictures) and dinner. Dinner was leftover lunch out of the Ikea 'Cooking for Kids' book and it was pretty awful, I thought. I now know that I am not missing out on anything when a recipe calls for ham and I leave it out (been subbing turkey-ham for ham in all the recipes, but I think I'm going to stop). By this time, it is 7:30pm, the kitchen is a mess, I'm exhausted, Sven's tired, Georgia is beyond exhausted but still running around happily without knowing she's exhausted.

Phone rings, bedtime is pushed back still further. I realize I haven't gotten a photo of the day and try...you see the result. Meltdown. Someone needed her bedtime routine badly. She cried and wailed and kept trying to turn on the DVD-player to watch Shrek2. She did not calm down again until we were all in bed, she had a bottle and a face to scratch.

We all ended up going to bed and falling asleep. G had a few nighmares that kept waking her up and that was that. No time to get the ill-gotten photos online. So here I am now, while Sven tries to keep her napping (she's been up twice) updating.

Just a note on this morning - she did manage to ruin her one and only Nuk bottle by sticking her fork through the 'sauger' and making a big 'ol hole. Need to stop by Tengelmann or Lidl or somewhere and see about replacing it, if not the whole bottle. She then spent the rest of the morning throwing things.

Will try to be back later with today's photo.

Posted at 01:39 pm by zauber-a
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Pictures of Georgia that is. This Album is going to be pretty darn boring if something doesn't happen soon! It wasn't supposed to be an album of Georgia, rather an album of our lives in July of 2007. I guess my challenge is to take a non-Georgia picture tomorrow.

Uninteresting day today. Here are three pictures to tide you over until tomorrow:

so, which is your favorite? Pensive, silly, or spaced-out?

Posted at 09:09 pm by zauber-a
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Okay, so the exclamation point is a big lie. I am not excited, not has this been a fantastic day of any sort what-so-ever. I do think the fact that we WERE home last year for the 4th, home to do the parades and BBQ's and fireworks, makes not being home this year much more difficult. Since I wasn't home, I couldn't buy Georgia a cute 4th outfit and Grandma has had way too much on her mind to have even thought of it. So I did my best with what I had. See more pictures on flickr HERE (although there are only three additional pictures of a very grumpy face Georgia sitting on the couch...) Yes, because although we slept well as of midnight, and even slept until 8:30 this morning, someone was very very very grumpy. I sat down to eat my french toast this morning and she started whining, I thought she wanted a bite. I look up and she's all red-faced and big fat tears are rolling down her cheeks! So I took her out of her chair and let her go to her Daddy. I think she'd have had a much happier day if he could have stayed home.

After a tear-filled lunch of chicken noodle soup (hey, there was a lot, we gotta finish it all off) she went down hard for her nap at noon. In fact, she cried until almost 1 and was up again shortly before 2.

So anyway, in the process of making lunch, I melted my pampered chef measuring cup and now have NO way of measuring cups. I have two scales, but what good does that do me when I want to make chocolate cookies? And before lunch was ready, Georgia bit me. Hard.

Yes, a fabulous, wet, 4th.

Whatever. After her nap, we watched the end of Snow White and then I made chocolate cookies (despite not having a measuring cup) and Georgia burned herself on the rack when it came out of the oven because she wouldn't listen to my well-meant 'no'. She is now happily watching Scooby Doo.

Hey, why is that when she is awake and has taken cough medicine to MAKE her cough, she doesn't cough? But when she is asleep and has taken cough medicine to STOP her coughing, she coughs all night?

And now in case you were wondering, why in the world Georgia is standing in the window-sill wearing rain boots? Well the boots she loves and would wear always if she could, so since they matched so well with her little 4th make-shift outfit, I put them on her for pictures. The pictures started by her sitting grumpily and puffy-faced on the couch when Sven came in and said to put her in the window, I'd get her full outfit, boots included as well as the raindrops on the window. I told him with my luck today, she'd fall down while I was taking pictures, so he put her up and stayed while I snapped pics. Of course, with all the sun coming in through the window, she is mostly sillouhetted, but whatever. Photoshop actions so the rescue (somewhat).

And that's the boring story behind today's pictures. It's the things we don't get pictures of that are the most interesting, like Georgia standing at the kitchen counter (on a chair) stiring an empty bowl with the chocolate covered beater I had given her. Stir, stir, stir...LICK and back to stirring again. Ah well. Here she comes, better close this up.

Posted at 03:43 pm by zauber-a
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Well, as Cara so kindly reminded me today, we took on a project for the month of July: to take a picture a day for a very cool album that we made while in Holland. Well, this requires me getting out the camera every day for the month of July (already missed the 2nd) and adding a bit of commentary as well (otherwise what's the point, right?). I'm thinking the blog is a great place to get down the daily picture with words so that I can print them all out at the end of the month and not even have to THINK about what to write, or which pictures to use. So that means, you should be seeing a daily post from me (except while we are in Greece) and a daily picture! At least, it's certainly my goal. My excuse for lack of picture on July 2nd?

I forgot about the book until Cara reminded me today
Georgia and I both came down with seriously nasty colds and we've been miserable. At least, I've been miserable, she seems to be mostly as normal except for a runyn nose and nasty cough that won't allow her (and therefore me) to sleep properly.

The good news is that I took pictures a few different times on the 1st and she wore the same clothes on the 1st and the 2nd, so who I'll probably just grab one of those for the 2nd. And now to remember for the rest of the month!

As for today. Here are the best from the pics I took. Which one would you choose, if you had to choose only ONE for the album (because there really is only room for one)?

Quick recap? Got up after a rough night of coughing and being miserable. Had breakfast, got showered and finally got ourselves out the door to go grocery shopping. Yes, I've started meal-planning and had the whole week planned out, and EVERYTHING bought for EVERY meal of EVERY day this week. I did not take getting sick into consideration. Feeling rotten yesterday and went ahead with my meal-plan which was a banana-noodle salad, something that normally would taste quite intersting and different, but with a sore throat and runny nose, was just awful. So despite having no ingredients on hand for it, I decided that today was finally the day to try out Linda's Chicken Soup. Screw the meal planned for the day, it can take a new spot next week.

So, we went to Rewe. Socks on. Shoes on. The next thing I know, Georgia comes running BACK to me, shoes and socks still on, but her 'new' rubber boots in hand. She plops down and tries to put on the boots. I can take a hint. Off go her white shoes, on go the boots.

She marched all around Rewe while I got chicken and noodles and celery and carrots...and tissues! Yes, she marches in those boots (I'm seeing a very necessary page to be made in the future). Back home, it's already 11?! Made the soup, so we didn't eat until after 12:30. I do have to say, Linda if you are reading this: the soup was fabulous. I did noodles instead of rice and fresh chicken breasts instead of frozen, and veggie bouillon instead of chicken...but it was fabulous. Even Georgia ate it up (for lunch at least, it was less-interesting for dinner).

Naptime. Nap was interrupted by at least a half hour of coughing. So we got up and got ourselves dressed to walk into Putzbrunn to the Apotheke so I could finally beg them for some cough syrup that would STOP her coughing. Georgia marched most of the way there. The Apothekerin didn't want to give me the cough syrup. She asked how old Georgia was and whether I had anything from the doctor already. Well, yes, as a matter of fact, I DO! and it's something to MAKE her cough. I really need something to STOP her coughing at night so we can all sleep! She finally relented and gave me some medicine. When we came out, it had started to rain. So home we walked, in the rain (well I did, Georgia was nice and dry in her stroller under the rain cape).

And that was our day. Except now I have completely forgotten to integrate the photos! Something that was so very ordinary, it didn't even make it into my play-by-play! I was a little late with making the bed today, so while the soup was simmering, I went in to make it and Georgia climbed up, making it difficult to finish the job. She crawled up to the top and sat happily with the blankets all pulled up to her lap. The bed was made, except where she was sitting. She does like this game, as long as her head stays out in the open!

So I think that does it for today. It is her bedtime (past even) and I need to get her ready so that I can try and get back up and do some scrapping. Until Tomorrow!

Posted at 07:02 pm by zauber-a
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