Portland Flashback Pics

Shortly before we left Portland, we had our friend Chippy take some 2 year pics of Lily as well as family photos around the Portland we love. We just got them the other day and wanted to share some of our favorites.

Hospital, Singing, and Opa

Woohoo - I am feeling better. I think this is my 3rd day in a row of not taking a nap and feeling fine in the evening. 16 weeks- are you my turning point? It's lookin' like it.


Hassel and Hof are getting lots of attention at the doctors. I have to go every 3 weeks and they do an ultrasound every time. I'm slowly starting to learn the differences of having a baby here. So far I've learned that the doctor I see every 3 weeks will not be delivering my baby. At the Hospital I'm going to (3 minute walk), each patient gets a doctor and midwife assigned based simply on timing. It's a University Hospital so I've been assured they all speak English. I do not want any kind of language barrier when push comes to shove (no pun intended :) ). Apparently it's the law here to hire a midwife after birth who will stop by for x days to do newborn measurements and I don't know what else yet. My current doctor spoke so highly of the Hospital I'm delivering at. She said something like "the staff is amazing, you will love it, the sanitation is a little low and the bathrooms are located down the hall but it's really great." I think she meant because the hospital is really old (1857) it may seem like it's a little dirty. I've heard too many positives. Here's a picture of the hospital - like a castle entrance.


Besides the predictable interests like playing with dolls, reading books, and swimming, Lily seems to be spending the most time simply singing. Whether it's in her crib or during meal times, she wants to either sing or have mommy sing. She doesn't speak much German yet but she has a book full of German kid songs memorized. I have to also give a shout out to Wimbledon for helping me give Lily lots of chances to practice her tennis moves in the living room. Her ready position is getting good.

Opa visited for a couple days earlier this week. He was all about unpacking boxes but we did find some time to just enjoy Munich. Thanks for coming Opa. Here are a few pics.

To Nate

Nate is in the midst of a lot of work travel, currently in Hamburg. Lily thinks he's on an airplane the whole time he's gone and randomly waves at Daddy in the air (usually indoors in our living room - who knew she had super power x-ray vision). We miss him a lot. I came across a few cute pictures that are with Nate or taken on Father's Day so thought this blog post should be for him.

I know he misses better home cooked meals, a cleaner home, and the happier and much more energetic wife that isn't in her pajamas exhausted by 8pm (ok 730 too many days lately) or complaining about a headache or stomach ache for the umpteenth time. I know he misses his friends, band time, and having it just be easier to get things done with the darn language barrier. And yet he doesn't complain because I know he's worried about me and works so hard on either picking up the slack that I can't get done, being even more present with Lily, or trying to make me feel better whether it's physically or mentally. Oh, and he's trying to build an entire "multiple bookcase - entertainment center" from Ikea on his own late at night.

He shows me his love and dedication to our little family so much lately; It made me think of an excerpt from my vows to him over 5 years ago -"....you have shown me what love truly means. Your selflessness, your thoughtfulness, your patience, the way you listen to me, the way you believe in me, and the way you look at me, continues to inspire me." Thank you.

Here are a few pics from recent days. Lily is obsessed with carrying the I Love Lucy umbrella these days.




Lily loving sitting on a motorcycle with Daddy on the BMW showroom floor.

Lily enjoying some of Daddy's Father's Day gift - movie theater popcorn.

Hans and Frans

I thought I'd be past the morning sickness at this point but I'm not. I'm 14 weeks so I'm antsy to get past these last 7 weeks of feeling so down, defeated, and sick. It's been a lot harder this time around. I'm much more tired throughout the day and I'm lucky if I have a few hours break sometime during the day when I don't feel nauseous. It does seem to have gotten better this last week with only feeling sick in the evenings now, I'll take it. Gosh, just getting ready in the morning is exhausting. I'm not even showing much at all yet (boobs are definitely growing at a faster rate, one perk for me :) )so I'm nervous what the level of exhaustion will be when I really get big. I can't even think about fish or most meat right now, the smell alone still makes me gag. Chocolate of all things doesn't interest me but sweets like Gummi Bears I devour right now. The only things that give me some respite are Gummi Bears and Coke. I wish it was something more healthy so I didn't feel like I was hurting the babies everytime but I keep doing it. Not proud of it.

As far as processing the news that I'm going to have 3 kids under 3 and the feeling that the newborn phase is going to be even harder this time around when I thought mine with Lily was hard enough, I'm not there yet. All the facebook comments and notes from friends have been a Godsend. Even though I'm not quite there with the level of excitement and joy, I know I'll get there. My family has been very funny giving me lots of suggestions of what to call them in utero. Hans and Frans seem to be sticking right now (We don't know the sex but we'll find out). Hassel and Hof cracked me up too.

Lily's start to her 2's have been a lot better than I expected. She is a lot more fun to hang out with and she'll play on her own now for much longer periods of time (the other day was an hour). I can have little conversations with her and she tries hard to entertain us. It just seems like the other day when I defined a good day with Lily as one where good behavior (minimal crying and no biting!) was pretty much the main criteria. Now, there's the added layer of her trying to entertain us and telling us her more complex thoughts that help make the day good. She wants to sing songs for us and tell us about the doll her friend gave her and the song she sang her to make her feel better when she was crying. I just love it. The picture I included is of Lily and her new friend Livy from the UK she helped feel better (she calls her Livay to mimic their British accent).

The other day, she ran down the hallway ahead of me to our front door, turns around, and proclaims "fabulous Lily at the door." I don't know where she got that. She also will put her hands on her belly when I least expect it and say "Lily's belly hurts from babies." I haven't hidden my misery very well from her. The funniest thing was when she was coloring a picture for a neighbor, Scott, who was home sick. While she was coloring, she started pooping and she said "I poop for Scott." Love it.

Thank you again for the kind and supportive word this past week. Nate is going to Portland in a couple weeks and even though I'm very jealous he gets to go, it's probably good that I don't because I'm not adjusted to Munich enough yet to get back on the plane to come back here. I miss you guys.

Surprise, Surprise

Ok, we haven’t been blogging as much the past few weeks. Sure, we’ve been busy getting settled and the work trips have begun. But the main reason is that we’ve just been holding back. Since Easter Nicole has been feeling like complete crap. Lower energy, tired, not much appetite, stomach cramps, etc. For those of you who have experienced something similar, you probably already know what’s going on. If you don’t, I’ve just described symptoms of morning sickness. Yes, we are having another baby.

So Nicole has felt like crap, we didn’t have health insurance until last week to even allow us to confirm the pregnancy with a doctor, and we didn’t want to say anything without getting some confirmation (as a side note, to get private health insurance all three of us had to get health exams including blood and urine. Yes, Lily had to get blood and urine taken, not so much fun). Well today we got our confirmation. Nicole got a doctor recommendation from a friend in our building and the three of us made the short trek to the doctor’s office which is just off of Marienplatz, the main square of Munich with a famous glockenspiel with dancing figures which Lily loves watching. Anyway, we all got to see the ultrasound, but Lily was mostly distracted by the ultrasound mechanism itself as opposed to the cool pictures on the screen. Right away we were able to see the head and spine. And then the doctor said “oh, there’s a second one.” Yes. A second one. We are having twins.

Frankly we are still in shock. Even before we knew there was a second one we were questioning what we were thinking, an early pregnancy while settling into new surroundings and a due date just as winter is setting in with an energetic little girl who won’t be getting out to the park as much as she wants. And then to hear there’s a second one… what the heck are we going to do? We never considered having three kids! Will three car seats even fit in the company car we just ordered? Will we ever leave the (suddenly very small two bedroom) apartment again? We had a great support structure in Portland. Sure, we didn’t have family close by, but we have a lot of great friends there who provided a lot of great support through the years. And now we have… Nicole’s parents three and a half hours away and not necessarily able to jump right in and take a super-active role in helping. We’re slowly starting to make a few friends in the neighborhood, but we’re a long way from anything approaching a support network. So yes, we’re freaked out about what’s going to happen in six months. And yes, at the moment we see a lot of down sides and no upsides (anyone have any for us?). At least we have six months to get ourselves composed. Deep breaths…

Big Lil' Is 2

It's been a while since we've written, and of course a lot has happened. Ok, not big things like our shipment arriving, but we've been taking a lot of little steps towards being at home in our new home. We have a bit more furniture, ok just one more piece, but that's like 50% more than before, right? And we've been adapting by making use of what we do have by doing things like turning our suitcases into a bookshelf and toy bin for Lily.

Speaking of the girl, she is officially two now. She made out like a bandit for her birthday, even getting delayed gifts by innocently giving her birthday cupcakes out to the neighbors and apparently making them feel guilty. I guess the cupcakes were that good. Her birthday dreams of hats, bubbles, candles, and two presents were realized. Of course there were a few more than two presents. And an interesting phenomenon occured when she was finished opening her official gifts she started finding things around the house that she had never played with before and suddenly wanting to open them.

Since Mothers' Day she seems to have hit her stride. There's less whining going on, she's learning lots of new words, and is able to express herself more and more. Tonight when going to bed she was trying to say "I love you Mommy", sort of said "love Mommy" and then when I asked her to say it again she said "no, I'm tired". She must have gotten that from her Mommy. :)

The work travel has begun, I spent a couple of days away this past week and Sunday I leave for a week of running around England visiting small customers. Nicole and Lily are taking the opportunity to hop on the train to spend a week with Oma and Opa so no one will get too lonely.

Here are the latest pics and videos...

Settling In to Settling In

We’ve been here in Munich for two weeks minus a nice long weekend in Leimen. The one thing that is crystal clear at this point is that we have a long period of settling in ahead of us. I’m mainly talking about our living situation, where we made a new addition to our collection of random furniture today by adding a rug. Besides that we’re still where we started, with a bed, crib, kitchen table and three chairs. Our apartment doesn’t feel like a home, and it won’t for at least another week. The main thing we’d like to get at this point is a couch, somewhere comfortable to sit besides our bed. Unfortunately the deck seems to be stacked against us for getting this done quickly. Most German furniture stores seem to take six to ten weeks to deliver a couch. Even buying a couch that is in a warehouse in the area and having it delivered takes three to four weeks. The best we can do is to buy that warehouse-bound couch and pick it up ourselves in seven to ten days, driving a rented delivery truck and carrying it ourselves up to our apartment. So we’re trying to scheme something in between, ordering the warehouse couch and hiring some guys to pick it up and deliver it for us. Sure, if we were twenty-somethings without an almost-two year old or even the thirty-somethings we are with friends to watch Lily, we would do this ourselves. But here we are, sitting on our living room floor moping.

While I’m at it, let me complain that both of us ordered cell phones at least 10 days ago and they have not shown up. Nope, can’t just pick them up at the store, they have to be sent. And our bank account took over a week between establishment and being able to receive a deposit. And the internet service we ordered will be set up four weeks from the order date. So all in all, yes, I am either very spoiled with my American expectation of customer service, or customer service in Germany sucks. Sorry Germany, I wasn’t able to plan every aspect of my life at least a month in advance. And where I could, your lovely restrictions like “you must have a registered German address to open a bank account” put a snag in my plans.

Yes, there’s some frustration at Maistrasse 45, we’re not feeling so settled or satisfied. We’re more wishing we could just hit fast forward for a couple of months to a time when we have furniture, phones, and internet access that doesn’t come from a USB stick accessing the mobile network. Yes, this probably sounds snobby and unappreciative, and yes, we eagerly signed up for this. But that doesn’t mean I can’t rant, does it?

Yes, this is all negative and yes there are some positives but this post is already long enough so let’s just get this out of our system and move on.