Villers Abbey

Ryan is so good about finding fun thing to do nearby. He found this Abbey that is about 45 minutes away. On our drive out there we also found a re-enactment of the Battle of Waterloo (apparently it was an anniversary). The weather wasn't the greatest, so we opted out of that, but we were still able to enjoy the Abbey for awhile in the morning before the heavy rain started.

I love that you are pretty much able to wander on your own. Climb up (or down) into little crevasses. Since it had been raining, some of the climb down type places were really really muddy but Ryan and Kherington still went into a couple.

Nap or Play?

Recently Kherington has decided that nap time is overrated. Sure she'll go in her room, but she makes sure to take a lot of toys with her and usually some snacks. They she just plays and plays and plays. Today it caught up with her. She played all through nap time then at 5pm she was exhausted.

I've never understood how someone can fall asleep in a sitting position, but she managed to do it. Lucky for me, her brother decided to join her so I got an hour of peace and quiet :).

Moments to Remember

Kherington...

• kissing each one of her SHOES goodnight...and saying goodnight to each other item laying around (table, toys, chairs, sock, etc)
• yelling "owwww, owwww" when Ryan or I sing along to her songs
• filling my body wash container up with water to create a bubble bath
• working out with us using her 1/2 kilo weights
• asking for chocolate first thing in the morning...every morning
• singing to all her songs at once by mixing the words for different songs together
• straddling Kevin whenever he's on the floor
• helping Kevin fold his arms for prayer
• feeding Kevin waffles
• coloring in the hymn books at church

Kevin...

• giving Kherington smiles when she does stuff that should make him scream
• being so cute and cooing...then spitting up all over the place
• sleeping all the time
• very rarely peeing while his diaper is open

London

Ryan had Monday off work, so we decided to do a short trip up to London. We left Sunday morning and got back Monday evening. We decided to drive and take the Eurotunnel (staying just one night make the tunnel cheaper than if you stay more than that and if you take the tunnel it only takes 35 min to cross the channel).

Ryan did ALL the driving...driving on the left side of the road made my head hurt. I found it interesting though that every crosswalk tells you which way to look. It's like they know it's strange they drive on the opposite side on the road. Anyways, we drove straight downtown and parked in the Marble Arch underground parking garage.

Since it was our first time in London, we chose to do a 24hr hop on hop off bus tour. I enjoyed it, however it did rain the whole time so that kinda stunk. The bus tour came with a free river cruise which was excellent. It gave us a chance to get out of the rain, nurse Kevin, and let Kherington use the potty. Kids under 5 were free which suited us perfectly. We had a little bit of an issue finding the stops to get back on because buses were on 'diversion'. Apparently 'diversion' is quite normal with all the events going on in London which cause roads to close.

Back to nursing...public nursing is not really my thing, but I was pretty discrete and it worked. The only really weird time was when we were on the top of the bus (part of it was covered) and another bus pulled up right next to us so even though I was facing away from people on our bus, I was right next to the people on the top of the other bus...yeah, good times.

Kherington got to enjoy some ice cream after the cruise and we tracked down Chipotle for lunch which was tasty. Both Kherington and Kevin were champs. It is definitely more work traveling with 2 kids, but we had a good time.

The next day we took our time in the morning getting ready but were still our the door around 9am. We stopped at the grocery store to grab some breakfast then drove down to the Temple. The London temple grounds are definitely the most beautiful temple grounds I have ever seen. We enjoyed wandering around and taking some nice pictures.

Next up was Costco :). I LOVE Costco. Costco in London was very similar to the US, however when you do the price conversion (pound to dollar) it was WAY expensive. With that said we did stock up on diapers and wipes (both of which were on sale), ordered some pictures and had some hot dogs and pizza. I had hoped to replenish my all-purpose flour, sugar, brown sugar and powdered sugar supply, but those supplies were just different/expensive so I opted not to.

It was a fun, short trip with two kids that travel great :).

So what would we do the same/differently?
I am torn between driving vs. taking the fast train (brussels to london). For the 4 of us to go it was cheaper to drive, but if Ryan and I go I think I would try finding a decent price for the euro train (we want to do another overnight without the kids and go to Wicked and a night bus tour). It was nice to have the car to go to other places (costco & temple)

We did like the hop on hop off bus, but I think next time I would just buy an all day bus/tube pass (fyi: apparently if you get the Oyster card it is cheaper) that way we'd have complete access to go anywhere and London's buses are double deckers anyways so it would just be a matter of finding the right one to ride.

We stayed at a hotel out by the Heathrow airport which was nice since we had a car and weren't planning on going into the city again, but if we took the train I would look near a stop on the Tube.

Ah yes, and I need to remember to change Kevin's diaper...when we got to our hotel we found he had completely pooed and peed out of it...oops

Kevin's 2 Month Update

Today Kevin is 2 month's old. Time has flown by! As I've stated before, he is the chillest baby on the planet. He still very very very rarely cries...and when he does he is usually hungry (and is very easily consoled with either food or a binki).

Lately he has been sleeping really well at night. He eats, then hangs out while Ryan and I do our workout (we started doing p90x again), then he eats about 11 or midnight (I feed him right before I go to bed so whenever that is) and sleeps until at least 6am. I do wonder how much of his awesome sleeping habits have to do with the swaddle. We didn't have one for Kherington and she could always kick out the bottom of a blanket swaddle, but got a couple for Kevin so we wrap him up and he goes right to sleep.

He puts up with all of Kherington's 'hugs' and 'helping'...as in no crying to be heard...we'll see how long that lasts. He loves to coo and if you start cooing to him, he will carry on a conversation (I just wonder what his is thinking). Hmmm...other random tidbitsl: he hold his head up on his own, doesn't mind a wet diaper, spends a lot of time in the bouncer or on his play mat, holds his head out in the wind like a dog when we go for walks and travels well :)

He'll have a doctor's appointment on the 14th, so I'll update with his stats then, but here he is:

Updated Stat:
Weight: 5.4 Kilos (11 lb & 14.47 oz)
Height: 61cm (24 in)
Head: 39cm (15.4 in)

Kherington's Stats (visit the same day as Kevin's):
Weight: 11.1 Kilos (24.4 pounds)
Height: 86cm (33.9 in...2ft 9.9in)

Germany for the Afternoon

My sisters family was going to come for a visit, but wasn't able to catch a space A flight out of the DC area (so sad). Since we weren't sure what exactly was going to happen, we were trying to stick close to home.

We got everything tidyed, cleaned, washed, organzied, etc which was very nice (okay...Ryan really did a majority of that while I either slept or fed Kevin)

One of the day's we headed to Aachen, Germany. On our way out we stopped at the Baby-Dump in the Netherlands (I had heard online that it had some good prices...as in good for Europe, not good for the US). We got some new bath toys that don't have holes (our previous bath toys had holes and they got mold on the inside which is way nasty).

We hit up Toy's 'R Us which Kherington loved running around playing with everything and I picked up a couple more items.

We stopped at Aldi so I could stock up a little bit...I don't buy that many things there, but it is significantly cheaper to get some things such as nuts, raisins and a couple other dried fruits (which I've been making home made larabars with).

On our way out we stopped at my FAVORITE kebab place. Honestly we haven't tried any other Kebab's in Germany but I LOVE this place and it is cheap (6-7 euros for two HUGE kebabs). This time, Ryan had a little miss communication and we ended up with the wrap version (a little disappointing b/c the ones in bread are AMAZING), but they ended up still being awesome and were way easier to hold. I think next time Kherington is going to need her own instead of sharing mine :).

Everyday Life

I think life is starting to get normal (hence the lack of posts). We do pretty much the same things each week.

• Grocery shopping - We go in the mornings...if I don't get gone by 10:00am, it's not worth it because then Kherington falls asleep in the stroller on the way home and won't take a nap.
• Naps - Kherington goes in her room (we lock her in) for at least an hour where she usually plays then falls asleep...if she's not up by 4pm, I go unlock the door which usually wakes her up and let her come out on her own
  
• Play Group - Still once a week and Kherington looks forward to it
• Park - We hit up the park on a daily basis (usually more than once a day) since it is so close...I put Kevin in the wrap and Kherington get to decide it she want to bring her ball or her motorcycle
  
• Laundry - I try to do it towards the end of the week, but I actually watch the weather to see when it's going to be sunny so the clothes will dry faster
• Workout - Ryan is awesome and is doing P90X again with me. This time at night and usually Kherington is up (she throws a fit if we try to put her to bed pre workout and she even has her own half kilo weights)
• Dinner - I usually make dinner 4 times a week and the other nights we have leftovers. Pizza is our standard Saturday night meal (one with a thai chili sauce and two marinara, salami/'whatever veggies we have on hand' pizzas)...this leave leftovers for Sunday (pre or post big meal) and snack for the beginning of the next week
  

Kherington has done really well adjusting to having a brother (Kevin is mainly referred to as 'brother' around here). She is still doing an awesome job with the potty (just one accident last week). She has gotten to the point where she just putters around and plays on her own while singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." She also loves it when I do playdough or match (her princess match game) with her. She eats everything in sight and currently loves almonds, kiwi, chicken, rice, peppers (prefers frozen), and salami. I just started giving her pbj sandwiches for lunch (I use a cookie cutter of her choice to make a shape then tear up the outer part and she eats everything). She is allowed to watch a movie after nap time...sometimes that happens, other time she opts for the park.

*I don't have nearly as many pictures of Kevin