Charlie Updates!

She loves Kobe.  Unfortunately the feeling is not mutual.

So just a quick little update on our current phase of life around here. 

Charlie is doing great.  She's learning more and more words all the time it seems.   Her current words are mama, dada, doggie, up (or uppy), no and baby.  And she's tried to say bye bye a couple times as well but it sounds like buh-buh.  Which is close enough in my book!

She's still not walking although she can.  I make her do it everyday and she will walk from me to whatever is closest to grab onto (about 6-7 steps) but the second she wants to come back to me she plops down on her butt and scoots over to me.  Either she's just a scaredy cat or she's really freaking lazy.  I'm going to go with scared.  :)  The thing that mystifies me is that when she does walk she is very steady on her feet.  She goes slow so she doesn't fall and doesn't waver at all.  So she can do it perfectly, she just chooses not to.  I guess probably b/c butt scooting is so much faster and efficient!  She is very good at climbing stairs though.  Unfortunately she has not mastered how to get down from the stairs yet so she'll climb all the way to the top and then I try to show her how to scoot down them on her butt and she screams.  Baby steps, baby steps.

She loves to give kisses.  I ask for a kiss and she'll give me one or I'll tell her to give her baby a kiss and she smacks one on her.  Her kisses are great although I'm sure most people probably wouldn't think so considering she comes at you with her mouth wide open and just plants her mouth on you and drools all over.  Very hygienic.  Probably the reason that whenever she seems to get a runny/stuffy nose I come down w/ one as well!

Daddy love. <3

She's been fighting her naps a little bit lately which is kind of annoying b/c then I've got a sleepy, crabby baby until she finally decides to go to sleep.  She must not understand it all.  In order to not be a total crab ass she needs to take a nap but she cries when I lay her down.  Luckily it's not EVERY nap time and it seems that it is worse for her at daycare than at home but still.  And if she doesn't have her little lovey (blankie) forget about it.  She will not sleep at home without it.  It's satin on one side and a really soft fuzzy fabric on the other and she rubs it all over her face as she sucks her thumb.  It's really pretty adorable if you ask me.

Her current favorite toys are cars.  She has a little pink one that she LOVES and pushes it around everywhere.  There is also a horse on wheels that she pushes around too.  Basically anything with wheels she loves.  She scoots around on her butt pushing them in front of her and I'll say "vroom, vroom" and she grins ear to ear.  She carries them around with her all the time.  She also likes her princess mobile too.  She'll walk behind it and ride on it and pushes the horn over and over and over again.  Honka-honka!

Everyone look out! Minor on the road!

She loves Word World and the Cat In The Hat on TV.  She dances to their theme songs and gets totally entranced by them.  I let her watch them b/c they are educational.  Haha, and mama needs some down time too who am I kidding!  Anyway, she's quite the good dancer.  Her key moves are head banging, raising the roof and spirit fingers.  She even threw some fist pumps the other day.  I was impressed.  She must have been paying attention when mommy was watching Jersey Shore the other day.  Ha!  Speaking of mimicking things, she loves it when we stick out our tongues at her and she promptly flings hers out and then pushes it in and out over and over.  Teaching her nothing but good manners in our house!

Totally not copying what I'm doing. Ha!

She's moved on up to a big girl booster chair.  We were sick of the huge high chair taking up so much space in our small kitchen so we decided to make the switch and she loves it.  We can all actually sit down and eat dinner together now!  It's great!  She's still a picky eater and doesn't eat much it seems.  I'm sure when I bring her in for her 15 month appointment she'll still be in the 2nd or 3rd percentile for weight.  I'm not sure what to do about it but I suppose she's healthy, just skinny.

Other than that not too much is new around here.  Wade is currently in Europe for the whole week.  He left Saturday afternoon and doesn't get back until Friday afternoon.  Luckily for me we have awesome neighbors who invited us over for a delicious dinner last night and my mom is coming up Wed afternoon and then Kara, Todd and my dad are coming up Thurs night.  Thank goodness b/c it gets to be a little much w/ just Charlie to hang out with!  (I love her and all but I need some adult conversation too as I can only handle so much mama, dada, uppy, doggie, baby speak.)

Okay, I guess that wasn't that quick but whatever.  I've got time to kill now.

Kel

And we arrive in Amsterdam

Ahhh...Amsterdam. I think this was my favorite stop of our trip probably b/c Amsterdam is so Americanized that it was just easier. There is virtually NO language barrier and it's very easy to grab a quick meal on the go if that is what you want. Plus there is SO much to do! (And it didn't hurt that Wade's hotel points got us into the Crowne Plaza which was just newly renovated and our room was not only huge and gorgeous but all new and clean, so it was perfect for our last stop!)

We got into Amsterdam around 8pm, dropped our luggage off and went to dinner at an Argentinian steakhouse. Wade was excited to have steak and a baked potato instead of the french fries that we had been eating nonstop. Wade is a new fan of eating his french fries with mayo though. The Europeans put mayo on EVERYTHING. I swear. I love mayo but even I have limits. It doesn't seem that they do. :)

After dinner we decided to head out to find a place for some drinks. We stumbled into the Grasshopper bar which is huge but it was such an overpriced tourist trap. It cost us $15 Euro for 2 beers. That is ridiculous. So we only had 2 drinks each and called it a night fairly around midnight. We figured that since we had 2 more nights in Amsterdam to party it up we'd keep it easy that night. The next day I wanted to go to the Van Gogh museum so we loaded up on their tram which makes the city very easy to navigate (but really you could walk it all which is what we ended up doing by the end of our stay). We get to the museum and see that it is $12.50 Euro per person! It was going to cost us $25 Euro (which is about $33 US) just to go into the museum (which Wade wasn't all that thrilled about in the 1st place I don't think) so we cancelled that plan and started wandering back towards the center of the city. We did some shopping and took some pictures and then headed toward the Anne Frank house. Fail #2. The line was INSANE. So we cancelled that plan as well and headed to a pub (that NEVER fails).

After a few beers we decided to try one more place. The Amsterdam Sex Museum. When in Amsterdam you've got to do something sex related right? It is the Red Light District city and all. So luckily, only a short line and only $3 Euro apiece and we're in.

We saw an American icon...

We saw some giant cocks...

And we saw some very disturbing things (seriously, WTF is that?!?!)...

But all in all a fairly interesting museum and hell it was cheap and we got to see peen and vag which is always a good time. Haha!

That night we headed to Teasers for drinks. We didn't know it at the time but every hour or so dancers would come out and dance around the bar. We ended up staying the whole night there before heading out to "explore" the Red Light District. I was a bit nervous that we'd be propositioned left and right b/c we're so hot and all but the area is really quite nice actually. Well, as nice as a prostitution area can be anyway. :) We only had one touch Wade's shoulder and say "I can do you together". The rest just put on their sexy face and posed in their doorways. It was pretty funny really.

Another odd thing in Amsterdam, these "toilets" that are out on random street corners throughout the city. Wade took advantage of them since it seemed more often than not places charged for the use of their toilets. Unfortunately they didn't have any for women! :)

This guy was in one of the pubs we stopped at and when the Baywatch theme song came on he started "swimming" in the air on the barstool. It gave us a good laugh.

Our final day in Amsterdam showed us the only bad weather of our trip (besides the small showers we had in Germany). It rained until almost 5pm so we went out to get some lunch and then holed up in our room for a bit, watched some TV, played some DSI and I took a short nap. When I woke up it was clearing and we headed out again. This time we found another Irish pub in the RLD and settled in for some beers. We had no idea we'd end up there for the rest of the night!

We ended up sticking around for happy hour and another hour and another hour and another until when we finally got up to leave I realized I could barely walk. Thanks to my hubs for helping me make it back to our hotel. I was super smashed! :) Wade said it was like a reenactment of our 1st date. He'd thought I was fine and going one for one w/ him until all of a sudden I was a drunken pile. Oops. At least I didn't get sick! :) And we made some English friends too! (Notice my drunk ass in this picture, yes, I look super cool)

Me & the bartenders

The next day we woke up early and headed to catch a train to the airport to head back home. I was ready to get back to the states. Although we had an absolute blast on our trip of a lifetime there truly is 'no place like home' and I really missed my Kobe.

Boogying in Bruge

Next stop on the Wessels European vacation was Bruges, Belgium. Wade was really looking forward to tasting the Belgian Beers so upon arrival we dropped off our bags at our hotel and set off to look for a place to try some out. Our hotel was right in the center of the town and everything was within walking distance.

We sat down for some beers and dinner and then decided to try to find some nightlife. Since we only had one night in Bruges we figured we had to hit it up! We found some little joint that was blaring music, (and can I just say that Europeans love Lady Gaga and Kelly Rowland a lot) ducked in and stayed the rest of the night. I slept like a baby that night. :)

The next day we decided to do a brewery tour at the only remaining brewery in the city of Bruges - Bruges Zot. It means the Bruges lunatics and the beer they brew is quite tasty. The brewery tour was quite interesting and the best part of it was the free beer you got at the end.

Since we didn't have a ton of time in Bruges we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around, taking in the sites and doing some shopping b/c there was plenty of shopping available! But who am I kidding, the majority of our time in Bruges was spent drinking beer! Isn't that what you're supposed to do??? :)

And then we hopped a train to Amsterdam!

Bacharach or Bust!

Moving onto Germany! With one night stay in Frankfurt we then boarded 2 trains into Bacharach. We selected this quaint little town on the Rhine river b/c of Rick Steve's recommendation in his book. I was looking forward to a quiet, romantic and picturesque stay and it definitely did not disappoint. This is obviously not the place to go if you are looking for nightlife though. :)


We stayed at Hotel zur Post which was run by a nice woman who kept it spotlessly clean. We asked for a room with a balcony which meant we were on the top floor and I think we were the only ones staying on that floor. It was nice and quiet and we bought a bottle of wine and popped it open on the balcony. By the time we were done with it Wade was drunk and happy and we went for some grub.


We had some schnitzel which was absolutely delicious. Wade said it was the best fried pork tenderloin he's ever had and I may have to agree.

After we ate we decided to tour the little town. I wanted to see the Werner Chapel ruins and we were pleasantly surprised to find that it is on a hiking trail that will take you all the way up to the castle on the hill which has since been turned into a youth hostel. Of course the weather is completely unpredictable and it would go from sunny and 80 degrees to raining and 65 degrees and b/c of my unrelenting luck while we were hiking it was sunny and hot and the second we were done and sat down for a cocktail it started sprinkling. Nice.

The town is surrounded by mountains on 3 sides and the river and on the mountains are vineyards. Wade and I are still wondering how the heck they harvest these grapes b/c it is super steep but it sure makes for some great pictures!

The next day we rented bikes for a ride up the Rheine river. There was a castle in St. Goar that I wanted to tour and St. Goar is approximately 10 miles north with small towns and castles all along the way. The ride was very scenic and beautiful!

Right before we got to the castle (as we are climbing a HUGE hill/mountain) it starts raining on us. We promptly ditch the bikes and try to find a place to hide out and stay relatively dry. Luckily, the weather in Germany seems to change very quickly and the rain only lasted about 5-10 minutes but we still managed to get pretty dang wet. Once it stopped raining we explored the castle which was very cool. It was huge and had little tunnels and pathways everywhere!

You gently cusp the balls...

As we were nearing the end of our castle tour we noticed some storm clouds quickly approaching. We thought we could quickly grab our bikes and get down the hill/mountain into the town and run into a bar until it passed over. But oh were we so wrong. It opened up on us and we got SOAKED for the 2nd time that day.

Once the rain quit we headed back to Bacharah and treated ourselves to some much needed delicious strudel. Oh yeah, it was gooooood.

Since the day was still young we thought we'd buy a bottle of wine and hike up the other side of the path that we didn't get to the day before. We reached what we thought was the top of the path and popped the bottle open and soak up the gorgeous view. We soon realized we were wrong (again) and that the trail continued up farther. Much much farther. So we continued on and enjoyed our wine.

We're classy in that we drink straight from the bottle.

Seriously, just look at that view for a bit. Stunning! We still aren't sure if we ever reached the end of the trail, but it was getting late, we were getting hungry (and drunk) and we still needed to get back down so we turned around and headed back for some dinner and drinks.

Bacharach was a beautiful little town that was a quiet and relaxing stop on our vacation. I'd definitely suggest it to someone looking for a little romance and relaxation, however I'd say 2 days max (at least for me, I like a little action after a bit!)