My visit with Jen

It seems that so much has been happening lately with Jen, and not so much here, so I thought I would post a few photos from our last visit. I left the boys in St. Louis and hopped a plane for Jen's house, if only for a brief 72 hours. As always, though, we were able to do quite a lot in that time:

We celebrated New Year's Eve with Andy's sister and brother-in-law, ate fondue, and watched the ball drop.

We found time for a craft project or two...

There was even a surprise baby shower!

And of course there was lots of time for talking, catching up, showing off pictures, and most of all, taking pictures. Jen was happy to let me practice my photography on her belly! Over the few days we must have taken hundreds of pics, and some of them are on her blog. These are a couple of my favorites:

We had a wonderful time focusing on everything baby!

Oh, and if you want to know what she and Andy are naming the twins, check out her blog here!

Just a trim, please

A couple of weeks ago Zachary got his first haircut. He'd been getting shaggy for months, so on our holiday vacation we took him to a shop Frank had been to before. Just called "The Hair Shop." About the most exciting thing that happened was that it wasn't very exciting at all. A good haircut and no drama. Maybe he was still in a milk and banana coma? Don't be surprised if you can't hear much (but me behind the camera) on this video...like I said, not much happened.

So, if it's even possible, Zach looks cuter than ever. The other day he let me take some pics of the new 'do, freshly brushed, of course. He didn't quite understand why I was brushing his hair while he was eating lunch, though.

When he was done eating he wanted to have the brush, and he does a fine job, for a one-year-old. Seemed pretty happy about it.

Ahhh, he looks more like a boy and less like a baby!

We Are Fam-i-ly!

We had such a good time in St. Louis over the holidays! Frank is lucky to have a job that literally closes down for two whole weeks, so it was a no-brainer for us to take Zach-man to visit family. I know some of you we've not talked to wonder about the plane ride, and that, frankly, is a whole other story. Let's just say that I wouldn't recommend flying that far with a one-year-old. Now, I'm sure if/when we are blessed with another child we will be forced to do it again... But as far as Zachary goes, it can only get easier from this point, right? {I can just hear moms out there laughing.}

So, of course, I have lots of photos from family gathering and just general "hangin' out", which I finished sorting through yesterday. I think these are the winners for the immediate family group photos:

I'm seriously thinking that I should make flip-books for the series of photos that were taken in an effort to get "a good one", which doesn't really exist. I know the latest photoshop elements that I have advertised the ability to take multiple photos and (I can only assume) combine the best heads for a great composite photo. But, really, do I have the time to figure it out right now? No. Seriously though, a flip-book of Frank's family photos would be hilarious. First of all, we couldn't get our camera remote to work (or something wasn't set right, we never did figure it out). And I had an excuse (wiggling baby), but for some reason everyone felt the obligation to move between each picture, so the outtakes are kinda crazy. And not just fidget, I mean move around the room!

And my family photo is conclusive proof that, if a flash is used, Frank will have his eyes closed in the photo. Well, it's the best we've got.

I'm aiming to soon get an e-mail out to family and friends with a bunch of pics (and a disk in the mail for Grandpa!). And post a video of Zach's first haircut...good stuff!

Funny

I have SO much to update about from our holidays, but here is a quick video of our funny guy from yesterday.

I hope to share some photos and videos from the past few weeks soon, little by little. It is my resolution...um, intention, to blog a couple times a week this year. Now that I've told you, my dozen or so readers, maybe I will stick to it!

Where the heck is Bulgaria?

Hello everyone. Frank again. Sorry, no stories of mighty hunters and bug eating this time. Beth thought it might be a good idea to write up a quick little entry on my recent trip to Bulgaria and put some pictures up. I spent a week in Sofia, Bulgaria for a work conference. Yes, I did get out of the hotel a little bit. I managed to take a quick walk downtown with a colleague who had been to Sofia before so we could get some lunch/dinner. We walked a couple of miles downtown and saw some sights along the way.

I was able to find a few familiar things (like a McDonalds), but everything else felt very eastern European. (Being cultured now, I can tell the difference between Eastern and Western European architecture.) There were a lot of building-block style buildings that were most likely built by the Soviets in the 50's and 60's. There were also a significant number of buildings which were meant to be ornate and imposing.

One thing I have learned from this trip is that I am much better at puzzling out what something means when I can at least recognize the letters. I have several photos of buildings where I could not even tell you what the words sound like, let alone what they mean. For all I know, I spent a good chunk of time admiring the structure of the "Ministry of Waste Disposal".

am glad I took the opportunity to see the city when I did, the next day saw significant snowfall on Sofia and I decided to spend the rest of the time in the nice warm hotel room.

Oh, and for any fellow geeks out there. I saw Kevin Sorbo eating breakfast at the hotel. It was awesome. (sorry, I didn't have my camera with me)

Can you guess where Bulgaria is? Check out this map.

On Tuesdays

A couple months back I joined a group called Brussels Childbirth Trust. It's an English-speaking organization for anyone raising children here, and they run lots of kids activities, including playgroups every day of the week. Zach's age group (called "Bumps and Babies") meets on Tuesday afternoons, and we started going after I realized that the place is just down the street. It only takes us about 10 minutes to walk up there.

This week was the last meeting before the holiday break, so we had a little party. The kids got gifts (a bath toy) and we sang a few songs. Mainly the babies just sit there (ahhh, those were the days!) and the toddlers dig around in the toy buckets or cling to mom. Zachary is almost always more interested in getting ahold of cups of tea, cell phones, and diaper bags than any of the toys. And he is the biggest, but not the oldest, of the kids we've met so far. I try to keep him from taking toys away from others, but it doesn't always work. This is me showing him how the camera works...we took some pics of his shoes and then aimed for a self portrait:

It's pretty cold now, so we really have to bundle up to walk up to the playgroup. And many times we stop at the grocery store afterward because it is only a little farther up the street. Zach almost always falls asleep soon after we leave, and sometimes even sleeps through the grocery store, the trip home, and up to an hour after we get home. Hey, if he's out I don't move him!

Oh, and this also happened on Tuesday, but earlier in the morning. Tried on some new clothes from Grandma-very cute! When I wasn't looking, Zach reached onto my desk (a spot I thought was safe, of course) and pulled down a whole big mug of coffee on himself and the rug. And it wasn't hot, because I get side-tracked and never get a chance to sit and drink it while it is, but it made a heck of a mess. He had to get a bath.

But I washed the onesie and it's all good...he wore the whole outfit the next day:

Perfect fit, see Grandma?

Zachary's Big Day

Last Thursday was a good day. Not very relaxing, but is Thanksgiving ever relaxing if you are the one(s) cooking? Add on a first birthday celebration, and you've got one tired little family.

The birthday boy is awake!


It's time for cake!


Total destruction of the cake did not happen (sorry to disappoint!), and the little that did occur happened over about 10-15 minutes. I pretty much had to tear the cake up myself before he dug around in it, and then the lazy little guy just wanted me to feed it to him. We have most of it on video for posterity of course, but it wouldn't make for a good blog video...here are the photo highlights: