June 2012 USA Visit

It felt great to be back in the USA for most of June. It had been over a year for me and besides the obvious reasons of seeing family and friends, I really enjoyed the casual flip flop wearing openly friendly American culture for a little while. I got my fix of small talk in doctor's offices to stores to strangers at the park. I didn't have to work for the eye contact and the returned smile at all. Germans are also friendly but I've got to say that Americans smile much more easily walking by others and I really like that. Maybe Americans are just more open initially, if they see something nice they'll just smile versus keeping it to themselves?

I am having a hard time meeting moms of twins here in Munich and I met 3 moms with twins at a park in Chicago and met a mom with same age 6 month old boy/girl twins at a Portland boutique - got some good twin bonding talk in. I loved shopping where the customer service generally far surpasses Germany and shopping for food was fun again because it was a change of pace- buying a gallon of milk, having a real selection of chips, bulk food section - yes I was quite giddy shopping. The moment we stepped off the plane back in Munich, Nate said that you can be deaf and instantly know you aren't in America anymore. It's nice to be home eating pretzels, riding the bike, and slowly finding our groove again.

A lot has happened in the twins' development in the past month, going from 6 to almost 7 months old now. I definitely realized it more being home starting old habits like feeding in a bouncy chair, setting the playmat out and only putting one blanket down for both of them to play on. No more - they need high chairs now to eat, not as interested in playmat anymore because they are both now more interested in being on their tummies more, and need at least 2 blankets to play on because they are in the "not quite crawling but still moving a lot somehow" stage. They are babbling so much more, discovered their wrists so waving might be coming soon, and so close to sitting unassisted for long periods of time.

Attached the link to our photo album from the trip. Can't say enough how much we loved seeing all of you. So glad it worked out to see so much family in Chicago and Michigan. Portland felt like we just picked up where we left off thanks to great friends and a gorgeous city we know very well.

June 2012 USA Trip Chicago Michigan Portland