Holy Toddler ...

So we have officially slipped into the realm of toddlerhood, and it's everything that nightmares are made of ... tantrums, screaming, attitude, and some severe clingy-ness. I don't think he's doing anything out of the ordinary from the expected toddler behavior, but holy crap ... he's a handful. My favorite is when we ask him to do something he doesn't want to do - he will cross his arms and do an exaggerated, "humph," and then give us the evilest little evil eye (nooo idea where he got that). He is very bossy and stubborn (again, noooo idea where this came from), and has such a sense of humor. As infuriating as he can be at moments - it is also very interesting to see his little personality developing. With all of that being said - Vic and I are in the process of interviewing some babysitters ... I think the occasional date night will be the saving grace of our sanity in the coming months ... and years. We're still waiting for a family member to offer to stay with him for two weeks while we go gallivanting around Europe ... I just can't understand why nobody has offered to watch this little angel :)

He loves to feed the dogs their food ... piece by piece ... by piece ... they are good sports ...

Look at our little basketball player!!! If only he had height genes on his side ...

Love these German swings ... he would lay in here for hours if we continued to push him ...

So weird ... this is a normal breakfast routine ...

We got a care package of much needed summer clothes from Nana Jen ... but he liked the box better ..

Eating dinner in the nearby center of Eschenbach ... so pretty ...

Molly came for a visit this past week, and in the midst of toddler-hell, probably saved me from shipping Elliott to America in the care of the closest relative. She only stayed for three full days, so we had our work cut out for us in the traveling department.

We had an effortless airport pick-up and spent her first day relaxing and then headed off for a dinner nearby. Elliott loved the empty beer garden while we enjoyed the beer - sans the garden. We did a lot of eating on this trip!!

The next day we headed to Nuremberg with some typical Germany weather. The rain put a damper on the day, but I managed to show her a couple of the sights and we ate some traditional Nuremberg sausages. That night we took her to a nearby doner spot, so she could experience the excellency that is a doner kebop.

On the fourth of July we headed to Regensburg for the day while Vic watched Elliott. I had never been to this city, so we were going in blind. It will definitely be one that Vic and I return to - there seems to be some good shopping restaurants, and a neat little boat tour down the Danube. Molly and I did the quick tour complete with a lunch in the main square, and some ice cream on our way out. We saw the amazing cathedral and took some pictures in front of the stone bridge (built in the 12th century). The cathedral was just massive ... very gothic with a ton of detail. I wish I would have taken better pictures, but for some reason I took very few pictures during all of our day trips. After we returned to Grafenwoehr we headed out to celebrate America by eating some Greek food. It was an early night for all of us, as we were headed to Munich in the morning.

A year makes a big difference!

Our trip to Munich started off a little hairy with an intense stau (traffic jam in German) on the Autobahn ... which turned our two hour drive into almost 3.5. We did arrive into the city with no issues and quickly found a fantastic parking spot. Our hotel was a cute little family owned joint ... very quaint, but the staff couldn't have been more friendly. Vic came along for the ride because he really wanted a pork knuckle from the restaurant we had visited during our Munich trip this past winter. We prepared to take public transportation as walking was not an option with Vic's foot. This turned out to be our biggest adventure of the trip. Once we got it down it was pretty simple, but Vic probably exerted more energy between changing trains and escalators than if we would have just walked. By the time we got to the restaurant he was ready for a pork knuckle and several beers.

After lunch we left Vic at a pub and headed out to see the sights. We were able to catch the glockenspiel show at the town hall in the main square. There was a huge crowd and the crowd was going wild ... I guess some people really appreciate a good glockenspiel? Again, I gave Molly the quick and dirty tour of some of the biggest sights and we stopped for some ice cream before picking Vic up for our trek back to the hotel. That night Molly and I went out for some drinks at a nearby restaurant while Vic stayed home with Elliott.

The next morning we headed out so Molly could catch her insanely long plane ride back to Dallas. It was such a whirlwind little trip, but so nice to have my best friend in town, and just have a normal, adult person to interact with!

Now it's back to real life ... I'm catching up on school work, and Vic is back to work. Elliott and I are going to try out a couple of playgroups this week, so we'll see how that goes. We are only a month away from meeting up with my dad and Reagan in Mallorca, so we are definitely looking forward to that! It's crazy to think that after we get back from Spain I will be gearing up to go back to work ... our time here is flying by!!

This cracked me up when I opened this letter in the post office. That is Vic speeding ... caught on camera somewhere on the German economy.

Luckily it was only 30 euro!

Our newest video of this crazy boy. This one is from a particularly grouchy breakfast ... or happy breakfast? He's kind of all over the place, but he definitely wasn't happy with me ...

Some of his daredevil behavior. Before I started to video tape he was saying, "I jump, I jump", but of course held back for the video. He is also saying, "one" ... he'll count "1, 2" if you give him objects ... I don't think he knows that he's actually counting - just more mimicking us, but it's still pretty cool!