By George, I think he's got it!

Not the greatest footage- but it'll do!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving Nathaniel, William and I made the 4 hour drive over into Belgium to celebrate with our friends David and Rita. They were marvelous hosts and spoiled us with delicious meals and tours around their part of the country. I gave William a taste of turkey (Gerber brand) and he hated it. He might have preferred what we were eating, maybe next year. One of the places that David & Rita took us was to Ghent. It was very charming and beautiful. And COLD- though I guess I can't blame the city for that. It was so strange because the part of the country where David and Rita live speaks French. In Ghent they speak only Flemish! I felt even more at a loss for communication than I do here in Germany. We had a fabulous time and were very sad to leave vacation life behind.

The cathedral in Ghent. The inside was amazing with detailed art and sculptures everywhere.

This castle was soo neat! I'm not sure what's up with the spider-web thing though. In this castle they offer a tour of the dungeons and torture devices which, of course, was very intriguing! Unfortunately, William had just (finally) fallen asleep in his stroller and as you can imagine dungeons aren't especially stroller friendly.

William made friends with this Belgium Cow. I think this is the closest I've ever been to a cow!

Nathaniel thought this alley looked cool so he had me pose...

Nathaniel said "Oh see- they did have McDonalds in the 14th century."

Just us two goofballs.

Weekend Update

We had a pretty good weekend. Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon we watched our friends the Hughes' three boys while their parents went out to celebrate Teresa's birthday. It was quite the dynamic change to suddenly have William be the youngest of 4 kids! They boys were a lot of fun- with only a small handful of to-be-expected fights or breakdowns.
On Saturday morning we hit a milestone! William crawled after Ginger, the Hughes' cat! It wasn't graceful, but it was effective. I'm not sure that Ginger appreciated this new threat. She started to bat at him and then ran away when he moved even closer and grabbed her tail. What a big boy we have!
On Saturday night Nathaniel and I attended a Marine Birthday Ball. It was fun to get all dolled up. My friend Lisa and her daughter, Sarah did my hair and makeup. Sarah babysat William and I think that went okay. It was nice to get out and meet some people that Nathaniel works with, but in true Nathaniel and Felicity fashion we bailed out on the dancing segment that started around 930 to go home to bed. We like to dance, we just like sleep more... especially when we know our jumping bundle of joy will be awake and singing at 6am.
Sunday.....Sunday's are always a bit of a challenge. Church starts at 9 and William is well ready for a nap by then. This is usually somewhat of a battle with me missing all or most of Sacrament meeting or Sunday School (Julia, your talents would be a welcome relief-today too, W fought his nap for 45 minutes!!). This Sunday I brought along a babyhawk carrier that a friend had lent me. William made it through all of Sacrament meeting with only a brief breather out in the hall with Daddy. Before Sunday school I took William to the "mother's lounge" (aka materials center with ikea chairs) and strapped him in the babyhawk, put a blanket over his head and... he was asleep within a minute!!! I cannot even tell you how happy I was. Babyhawk will become a new Sunday staple for us. It helped in more ways than one because at his 20lbs+ size, he really gets too heavy for me to hold for his whole nap (and he's also nearing the weight limit on the Bjorn)! So... all in all, Sunday was a success. I got to actually participate in and enjoy all 3 meetings. Fabulous. Yesterday W was grumpy all day, but regardless it was nice to enjoy the day to just all be together on N's day off.

Among other things William loves these days, he especially loves to jump.

All dressed up!

William's new found mobility seems to be disturbing naptime!!!! Driving me nuts!

Can you just feel Nathaniel's enthusiasm here? I suspect this is why William wasn't feeling well yesterday! And- he waited until he could hit his favorite barf target to let loose. (I can laugh, because it isn't me!)

Watch Out

Not long after we moved here, we went out watch shopping. I'd been having a hard time finding one that looked good with my wedding ring. Finally, I found a watch I loved! I asked the clerk if it was waterproof. She said it was. Nathaniel pointed out then that I probably shouldn't wear the watch swimming anyway. I wasn't worried about swimming. I was anticipating about this:

Inside the box

Sorry- No fun travels to report from this past weekend. We've all just been tuckered out and trying to get William back on a nighttime schedule. Last night was a success! He was only up twice! Hopefully we'll get some fun things in this week.

Ha! Mom finally found a way to keep that ball from rolling away!
A sweet little smirk for the camera
I was trying to get a picture of William's bandaids from his shots last week. He kept moving his legs- and in this picture he's "singing"
"What the heck mom! Are you done yet?!"

November

The weather here today would have been perfect for yesterday. It's very foggy and spooky out!
Last night we did end out going out to the haunted hangar (cue scary music, screams and chainsaws). The haunted house was laughs- though I will tell you before Nathaniel does that I was chickening out up until after I had entered the craziness of streamers and people in masks hitting walls. Good times. It brought me straight back to high school.
William got very sick last night after we got home. He was already quite angry that we hadn't had him in bed at his bedtime and then he lost it. Screaming hysterically, refusing to nurse or take a binkie he finally crashed. Then he woke up 15 minutes later and puked everywhere. And again (on daddy). And again (on daddy- what a champ). The poor little guy was so congested and stuffed up that he could only sleep laying on either mine or Nathaniel's chest. If it weren't for the 11pm dose of Tylenol I don't think any of us would have had any sleep at all. And to top off sweet William's woes- today he had shots.
Yesterday afternoon- as if William wasn't having a bad enough day- I stuffed him into what were meant to be his Christmas pjs (which he'll well outgrow by Thanksgiving) to take pictures. He's so delicious!