Colin was full of spunk this month as evidenced by the bow-tie on sideways. He was not having it any other way.
Everything has become interesting these days. It's gotten a little hard to take pictures as many of them turn out like this....(must...hold...camera...in hands...now.)
Still as happy as ever with two more teeth on top!
And...drum-roll please.....Colin is finally crawling!.
Alright so it may only be an army crawl, but its his crawl, and he gets around quite well. He gets faster and faster each day. All that dragging on the ground makes his poor little skin red (I usually try to keep pants on him and of course he doesn't usually roam around the house in only a diaper and bow-tie.)
Colin's favorite place to crawl? Right up onto Mommy's lap:
Monthly sleep update: Our trip to Europe completely threw off Colin's "sleeping through the night" we had going for a little while before we left. We've been able to get it mostly under control since getting home. We have a feeling we are going to get him sleeping through the night again just in time for us to leave for Myrtle Beach in a few weeks. It makes me feel bad that it's going to mess him up again. One area we have never really been able to improve is Colin's crying to sleep. He still continued to do this every single night when we put him down, often 30 minutes to 45 minutes long. I feel sick to my stomach every time but it's really the only way Colin will stay asleep so it's the best thing for him. This is from a while back but most evenings I look like this, grinning and baring it.
What I really want to do is just go in and wrap him up in my arms but that will only do one of two things: cause him to wake up even more and try to start playing with me or cause him to fall asleep and wake up a half hour later crying again!
(Speaking of sleeping through the night, its 10:42pm and Colin just woke up...whats that I was saying about it getting better?)
Daddy spent most of Mother's Day weekend performing at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Airshow where he spent time with Nana, Grandpa and the Derry Family (Check out Aunt Jen's awesome post about it here). Thankfully, Daddy was able to get home for dinner on Mother's Day and since he was away all weekend he was able to stay home with us on Monday. We wanted to make the day special so after making Mommy french toast in bed, we decided to head to the beach.
We were a little unsure about whether or not we should have even made
the trip with the ominous sky. Luckily, we got to do
everything we wanted to do and the skies didn't open on us! It's best to take your chances in Charleston because you never know what's going to happen with the weather.
It had been awhile since the last time Colin was at the beach and he was more excited than ever. Can we say beach bum?
Checking out the water...
Who do you think he is looking at? Those eyes are for Daddy only!
Loving the sand! It turns out it is a lot easier to take Colin out to the beach as opposed to the backyard. He finds way too many things to put in his mouth in the backyard...one mouth full of sand and he learned his lesson.
Daddy decided to go test out the water for us which Colin thought was a total riot. Even though we were pretty far back from the ocean, Colin's eyes were locked on Daddy the whole time he was in the water. It made for some pretty funny faces.
Once Daddy got out of the water he was back on the move...
and of course, he found the only sticks around us.
Although, Colin could have played for hours, we took a break from the sand and got in the water. This was Colin's first time going into the ocean and words can not even describe the excitement exuding from his face as he felt the first waves splash against him. Colin was in heaven and quite fearless. It is a moment we will never forget. Those sweet giggles and smiles are priceless. We certainly have a water baby!
Cuddling with Mommy after a tiring dip in the ocean:
Barely able to keep his eyes open but still smiling while loving up on his bottle:
What a FUN day!! Since then, Mommy and Colin have spent many afternoons at the beach. Colin likes to sit at the edge of the water and play in the sand. He especially likes when other kids at the beach come play with him. We are looking forward to all the time we will spend with family at the beach this summer.
One more note about Mother's Day: Daddy and Colin each gave Mommy a beautiful bouquet of flowers. In the rose bouquet, all of the roses died but one. I always find this fascinating when it happens. It makes me smile thinking of what a little fighter the flower must be.
In April, we spent nearly two weeks traveling to Germany and France to visit our families. We had an absolutely fabulous trip and couldn't have asked for it to go any better than it did.
We began our journey by flying from Charleston to Atlanta. Our trip got off to a famous start when Mommy noticed Haley (Bethany Joy Lenz) from One Tree Hill with her baby girl in the tram while in the Atlanta Airport. She looked like she was trying to be incognito, but you can't hide from a crazy fan. She was standing right next to us so I couldn't help but to make silly small talk, even mentioning a comment about allowing a baby to cry it out from her twitter?! (who does that?) She was sweet and humored me. It was an exciting moment, although I'm pretty sure Colin will have no clue who "Haley from One Tree Hill" is when he reads this.
Back to the trip! In true Colin fashion, he willed himself to stay awake from the time we left our house till just before we boarded the plane in Atlanta (over 6 hours). At which time he only slept about 30 minutes...this was just the beginning of Colin fighting the sleep.
Thankfully, our seats were at the bulkhead and we were able to get a seat for Colin where we could put his car seat so we were all pretty comfortable (well that is besides the stench coming from the bathrooms!). We made sure we were stocked with plenty of food for our nearly 9 hour flight to Munich. Although Colin only slept a combined 3 hours on the entire flight, as long as he was being fed he was a pretty happy camper.
At last, we had made it to Munich! And of course, our little buddy was still going strong...
Uncle Hunter was there to greet us as soon as we got through customs. This was a very special moment as this was the first time Colin and Uncle Hunter were meeting. Can you see the excitement?
We bundled Colin up from head to toe and hopped on the train into the city. (Doesn't Uncle Hunter look good with a baby?)
It didn't take long till Colin passed out and remained sleeping until we got to our hotel. Although it probably wasn't even an hour, we were thankful he could get some shut eye. He REALLY needed the sleep. Uncle Hunter went into work to fix some bikes for a few hours while we got settled into our hotel.
We couldn't have been more impressed with our hotel. Hotel Mirabel out did themselves! We were able to check in at 10 AM AND they gave us a suite. Colin had his own room set up with a pack and play and blankets. It didn't take long for him to get comfy.
In addition to two rooms we also had an amazing balcony....
complete with a beautiful view!
After freshening up, we headed out on a walk to meet up with Uncle Hunter at work.
Colin succumbed to his exhaustion again and took another cat nap on our way. He finished up his nap surrounded by bikes at Uncle Hunter's work.
Brother and Sister shot with the new addition to the family:
To kick off our Munich adventure, Uncle Hunter took us to one of his favorite Bavarian restaurants. The atmosphere was right on point and the food was delicious! Best kaesespaetzle ever. Just one of the many perks of having a local show you around.
Colin was right at home in Uncle Hunter's arms:
We didn't last too long after dinner (literally couldn't keep our eyes open) and went back to the hotel to get some rest. Although, Colin woke up about 2.5 billion times we were able to get at least a little sleep.
The next day was Saturday, which meant Uncle Hunter's girlfriend Susann had off of work and could spend the rest of the weekend with us. We were so happy to finally meet her. Hunter is one lucky guy!! Since it was a gorgeous day we decided to all pile into Susann's car and drive to the town of Garmisch.
We enjoyed a relaxing lunch outside while Colin enjoyed gnawing on his hat.
Who could resist this view? Garmisch is surrounded by the Alps containing the highest mountain in Germany, the Zugspitze.
Colin posing in front of the Zugspitze....
Not long after we snapped the shot above he looked like this...how precious.
Turns out there was a car show going on in town. Uncle Hunter and Daddy admired the 2012 Car of the Year.
Back in Munich, Colin spent some time chilling in Uncle Hunter's apartment. Here he is "playing fort" with Uncle Hunter.
Night two (well technically three if you count the plane ride) proved even more difficult to get Colin to sleep. Daddy went out for a few drinks with Hunter and Susann and after nearly three hours of trying to put an exhausted Colin to sleep Mommy could not take it anymore and called Daddy to come home. All the strolling and rocking didn't put Colin to sleep but instead allowed him to relax for a little while so he could gather the energy he needed to play (at 1:00 in the morning). Yea, yea so it was only 7pm at home still that is past his bedtime at home and he hadn't slept in days! Daddy came home to one smiley guy. Seriously, what other baby could look this adorable and be this happy on no sleep?
The rest of the evening is a blur. We were all in and out of sleep throughout the night. The next morning, Colin was so tired he fell asleep in Daddy's arms before we had even left the hotel for the day. Our little energizer bunny can't keep going forever.
The forecast was rainy so we decided to hit up the art museum. As you can see Colin was far too interested in the paintings to look at the camera.
Our awesome tour guides took us to yet another winning Bavarian restaurant.
After dinner, we stopped into the Augustiner pub for a round of drinks.
That night, Daddy and Uncle Hunter continued the rounds while Mommy, Colin, and Susann hung out at the apartment and watched a movie.
On our final day in Munich, Susann had to go back to work, so Uncle Hunter took the three of us on our own private bike tour. Mommy was pretty nervous watching Daddy ride around with Colin on the back.
Colin, on the other hand, looked more tired than scared.
And tired he was! It wasn't long into the first leg of our ride that he completely passed out. Our poor baby's head was bobbing all over the place and there was nothing we could do about it. Although Mommy kept making Daddy stop to "fix" it with little success.
Once we got to the Chinese Tower beer garden in the English Garden our sweet boy perked right up. I think he was just really happy Susann could meet us on her lunch break so he could see her one last time.
So sweet...
We said our goodbyes to Susann and were back on our bikes. Colin was again passed out in no time. We hurried back to the shop so we could make our way to the train station. It was time to leave Munich and make our way over to the Hantz's in France.
Uncle Hunter boarded the train with us and it seemed he wasn't going to let us leave without him. Just seconds before we departed, he hopped off and while holding back tears we waved goodbye as the train left the station.
Colin was ready for the next adventure....
and thankfully, took a little nap on our way. Naps always make Mommy smile.
Aunt Erin and Sarah picked us up at the train station and we were so excited to see them. Since we got in after dark we didn't bring out the camera until the next day on our walk through their town, Bischheim.
Strapped in and grinning from ear to ear with excitement over spending time with his cousins...
Pierre all set on his bike...
Sarah ready to go on her scooter...
and Augustin enjoying the ride.
Augustin and Colin greeted each other with a handshake.
We were able to capture it on video:
Love these two:
During our walk, Sarah and Pierre stopped off at the library to check out some books. Colin killed the time playing with a stick (his second favorite "toy" after paper).
The next day was SO much fun! We spent the afternoon at an indoor waterpark...
Uncle Thomas enjoyed horsing around with Sarah and Pierre in the big pool...
while Mommy and Aunt Erin played in the baby pool with the little ones.
Colin was fearless in the water and so excited. We had him under mini waterfalls and going down slides. He couldn't get enough. What a fun boy we have!
Speaking of fearless, Sarah went down the big kid slide all by herself. She was so brave and Mommy had so much fun with her.
After the waterpark we headed over to Uncle Thomas's parents' house for dinner. We were able to capture a shot of all the kids:
During dinner, Colin tried some French cheese (not sure if it was actually French but hey he was eating it in France). A little unsure about that taste!
After a day at the waterpark and a fun night at the grandparents all three boys were passed out in the car by the time we got home.
Chipper and ready to go the next morning! Sarah is a natural.
Aunt Erin made Colin (and Mommy and Daddy) tons of yummy food while we were there. We also let Colin try a few more finger foods. Here he is trying a green bean.
Ironically, Uncle Thomas was actually headed to Munich for the weekend to attend a bachelor party. The day before he left we spent some time with him and the boys in downtown Strasbourg.
Colin taking everything in on the bus to downtown:
We stopped by a former monastery and spent some time in the cloister:
Augustin was pretty excited about the cloister...or maybe it was just all the space to run around:
Shaking hands with Pierre this time:
A trip downtown is not complete without a stop at the Cathedral...
Aunt Erin and Sarah stayed back at the house so they could prepare for this:
Woa! That's a lot of kids. The Hantz's were hosting a get together with another family that evening. The couple only had 3 kids, but the neighbors dropped their two children off as well. Add in the Hantz kids and Colin and there were 9 little munchkins to feed.
After dinner Colin shared a few giggles with Sarah:
After a late night of partying, we all cuddled the next morning while playing Angry Birds. (You know how some people can take or leave Angry Birds and others become addicted? It's safe to say Pierre was addicted.)
We had another day of gorgeous weather so the kids took a break from the ipad and spent some time in the yard. Colin was in his element.
Sandbox fun:
Love seeing these guys together:
Mommy, Daddy, Sarah, and Colin took a walk into the next town and back. We found an adorable little park with some just right equipment for Colin.
When we returned, Uncle Thomas left for Munich and Aunt Erin took Pierre to his very first violin lesson. Sarah and Augustin were left home with Mommy and Daddy. After getting way too dirty in the sand, Colin and Augustin got to bathe together. They were adorable.
What are these boys doing, you ask? Well, after getting them all nice and cozy in their somewhat matching outer space jammies, Colin and Augustin had a snack...afterwards they both became totally enthralled in the wrapper. No kidding, I think they both played with the wrapper for over 10 minutes.
The little guys took a break from their wrappers when Pierre came home so they could listen to all that he learned at his lesson. Check out that focus:
Later at dinner, Pierre and Colin got out all of their sillies (and rough housing) together. (Note: The giggles were going on for at least 5-10 minutes before this video even began. Colin could not get enough of his cousins.)
On our second to last day, Aunt Erin let us borrow the car and we ventured out just the three of us. Daddy was an excellent navigator and got us successfully to our destination, Ribeauville, a town about an hour south of Strasbourg.
We'd been wanting to have some tarte flambee before heading back to the states so the first thing we did was find the perfect little restaurant complete with outdoor seating to enjoy our Alsatian cuisine. Mommy got a vegetarian tarte flambee which was....interesting...
Colin was wearing a fitting shirt for the day because he sure was happy!
After lunch, we spent a lot of time walking the pedestrian street and window shopping. We popped into a few stores and even bought Colin some jingle bells.
Notice the castle in the upper right hand corner of the picture? This is one of the three famous castles just outside of the village. We decided we wanted to go check them out so we headed back to our car.
Once back at the car we had a pretty awesome view of a stork nest. The stork is a symbol of Alsace and was often the subject of legends told to children.
Using our super zoom we could see that there were actually two storks in the nest!
After admiring the storks, we hopped in the car in search of the castles. Daddy saw a sign on a street he thought might lead us to the castles. It was only wide enough to fit one car and we were getting strange looks from the people walking while we drove passed. The road stopped at a gate and we could go no further. We were up for an adventure so we got out of our car and started walking. We found a path going up the mountain but stopped first so the little guy could get some fuel before the trek.
While on the path, we ran into a couple whom Daddy spoke French to. They assured us we were headed in the right direction.
Colin was beyond excited for our journey.
All smiles once we made it to the first castle (Château du Girsberg). Behind, you can see the town where we had just spent the day.
A view of the second castle (Château de Saint-Ulrich) from Château du Girsberg:
Looking down into Château de Saint-Ulrich:
We were all beginning to get tired and couldn't make it up to the third castle. We flipped Colin around in the bjorn for the ride back down and he was asleep in no time. Its a good thing because he basically hadn't slept all day.
While heading back to our home away from home, we decided to make one more stop at the town of Riquewihr. It was one of the few villages in the area to escape devastating damages from World War II and is still surrounded by its medieval fortifications. The Dolder Tower, shown below, is often found on the cover of Alsatian guide books. Although I was unable to get it in the picture, in order to enter the village you walk through an arch in the bottom of the tower.
Each of the homes and businesses in the town decorate their doors and windows to reflect the seasons. This one was one of our favorites.
Ok, so we have to admit, one of the reasons we wanted to stop off in this village was the fact that its known for its wine, particularly its Riesling, Mommy's favorite! I snapped this shot while waiting to taste a few wines at a local shop. (check out the adorable windows)
I also snapped one of our number one dude, still grinning from ear to ear. What a HAPPY baby!!
(Not so happy in the car on the way home...)
Our final day was Sunday so we got the whole clan together and headed off to church. As usual, our reverent little Catholic was great throughout the whole service. On our way home, he actually fell asleep in the car - Hallelujah! A sleeping child! Our prayers had been answered.
I didn't want to risk waking Colin so I stayed out in the car with him until he woke up. Little did I know I'd dose off AND that Daddy would have some fun photographing us from inside the house, open mouth and all. Hey, you can't blame me, we were on day 11 of Colin barely napping and waking up every one to two hours all...night...long.
After we finished snoozing, which lasted all of 15 minutes, we went downtown to L'Orangerie (Strasbourg's Central Park). What an awesome park! There were storks just walking around. Mommy was totally amazed.
Seeing the storks is old hat to the Hantz kids:
Not really sure what Colin thought...
We experienced a few showers while at the park and one gigantic downpour. I'm talking huge hail balls, thunder, lighting, and a ton of rain. We survived by taking cover with several other families under the pirate ship.
We had an early flight the next morning so we quietly said goodbye to Uncle Thomas and the kiddos before Aunt Erin drove us to the airport so the fun could begin. By fun I mean 24 hours plus of traveling with a child who looked like this most of the time:
Ok, ok I know that looks like a happy face, and it was...but a baby has got to sleep some time! All of the traveling was just too stimulating for Colin. Our first leg was from the Strasbourg to Amsterdam. Fortunately, Amsterdam is a pretty big European hub and is fully equipped to deal with children of all ages. We had a lot of time to kill (five and a half hours to be exact) so we were thrilled when we found this Forest Playground complete with nature sounds. Our fearless little man enjoyed some trips down the slides...
and some "climbing":
Shortly after all our fun on the playground we found a "babyroom". Inside were little cubbies with a bench and a crib area closed off by a curtain. We were pretty excited about this find and REALLY hoped getting all of Colin's energy out might finally make him tired. Fat chance. Although the room was cool it ended up doing nothing for us...
Thankfully, we eventually got Colin to sleep for about 20 minutes in his stroller. With such little sleep before our 9 1/2 hour plane ride we were hopeful that he would sleep on the plane....
Instead we got this:
And this (we tried to cover up his car seat and give him a bottle to drift off to sleep with but he was pretty much delirious at this point):
We seriously pulled out all of the tricks in the bag to help Colin sleep but NOTHING was working. Fortunately, our child IS the energizer bunny and stayed relatively happy the whole time, flirting with flight attendants, eating, ripping apart an entire magazine, eating, batting his eyes at the woman behind us, eating, and so on. Thank goodness for Daddy who managed to bounce Colin around in the aisle and finally put him to sleep. In total he probably got a combined two hours of sleep...on a 9 1/2 hour flight after being up ALL day and he was only 9 months old!
After landing in Atlanta we were hopeful yet again that with all the strolling Colin would fall asleep...nope! It was now 2:20 in the morning Europe time and our little bunny was still awake. Finally, once we boarded the plane to Charleston he passed out, not before the pilot jokingly made a comment about screaming babies ~ our screaming baby! It was lighthearted and everyone on the plane was nice but we were soooo ready for him to sleep. I knew that by this point once I nursed him he would pass out. Thank goodness....because...once we got to Charleston it took over an hour before a taxi came to pick us up. By this point it was after 6AM Europe time and after Midnight back at home. The airport was deserted:
Except for us of course!
Luckily, Colin stayed asleep as we deplaned, got our luggage, waited for our taxi, road in the taxi to pick up our car on base, and all the way back home. Of course, he woke up as soon as we got home but it wasn't too long before we could get him back to sleep and we were able to get a few hours of sleep in before the little man woke up again. To sum up our day from the time we left the Hantz's house until we got to our house it had been over 24 hours...in that time Colin slept a total of 5 hours...maybe. More like 4. (Needless to say he came down with a cold and pink eye a few days after we got home...)
Whew! Now that was a long post. We just wanted to be able to remember everything about this trip. It will forever remain one of our favorite vacations. Colin was such a joy and totally in his element taking in all of the people and exciting places we visited. The time spent with Hunter and Susann in Germany was more fun that we could have imagined and our time with the Hantz's in their new home was so special. We can not thank both of our families enough for being such wonderful hosts. We're looking forward to our next European Adventure!
