When it rains . . .

it pours! . . . . Friends and water, both!

We were so lucky to have two of Jeff's dearest friends in town at the same time. Chris Neumann was on a business trip in London and bopped down for a short weekend in Munich. (Soooo nice of him!) Jeff Ota was in Munich on business and allowed us to hog him for half the weekend too.
Unfortunately, our fun Saturday plans were subjected to a Plan B as the Munich weather chose not to cooperate and pour rain all Saturday.
Our outdoor bike ride and beer garden plans were moved inside to the Hofbraukeller in our Haidhausen neighborhood.


The Schmidt family even joined us for some weiswurst and beer.

I know William loves me, but he really enjoyed this male bonding time on his playmat.

Jeff was missing his 7-month-old son Tanner, so got his baby fix with our little monkey.

Two pretty cool guys!


Thanks for bringing California sunshine (figuratively) to us, guys!
Let's do it again! . . . . Oktoberfest, anyone????? ;)

9 months old!

Here are some fun photos from our 9-month-old photo shoot.
As you can see, poor William was still recovering from that silly Hand, Foot, Mouth disease. His eyes may not be as sparkly as usual, but his adorable smile and attitude seemed to make up for it. What a guy!

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful

The other day Beth and I took the kiddos to the pool. The indoor pool was closed and we had to go outside. I wasn't planning on being outdoors, so I hadn't brought Will's hat. Beth to the rescue! She smothered Will's head in sunscreen. Phew! When we arrived home from the pool, Will immediately went down for his nap.

Sunscreen + pool water + head rubbing against a crib bumper during a nap =

Monday musings

Yet again, here's a post of fun pics previously trapped on my iPhone. :)

I love using my iPhone to capture anytime, everyday moments with Will. I've gotten into the habit of sending one to Jeff on almost a daily basis to break up the grind of the work day. I've also created a trend of emailing the grandparents and uncles a 'Happy Monday' email with a pic of something funny or an event from the week. Ya know, something to make you smile as you hunker down in your office on a Monday morning. Below are just some of my favorites from the last 5 months.

age 5 months?
Email sent to dad
"Sometimes I find working with cars frustrating too."




age 5 months?
Winter mornings can be so disheartening for a mom. Worrying how I am going to entertain this little guy all day despite the weather? Thank goodness for our 1st floor (that's 2nd floor in Americanese), bird's- eye view of the elementary school across the street. The students arrive right after William's morning bottle, so Will and I just hang out in the window sill watching the going's on. He bats on the window trying to make friends. Pretty cute!

age 6 months?
"Um, excuse me? Why haven't you brought this toy our sooner? It's spiky green stuff and mushy brown stuff! Too cool! I'm in heaven!"

Age 4 months?
Just going for a late afternoon winter walk in the Ergo. Making the long afternoons seem a little shorter . . .

Age 6 months?
Call me the Houdini of shoelaces. You tie it, and presto! It's untied before you can blink! Don't be jealous of my sweet skills, it's a gift really.

Age 5 months
Nacho Libre spotted in the Aldi supermarket!

Will gets sick of wearing his hat. While he now knows how to remove his hat and throw it out of the stroller, he wasn't as swift in the beginning. I rolled in to our local grocery store, walked around to the front of his stroller to unzip his coat to discover him like this. Best chuckle I've had in the canned goods aisle in years.

Location:Bazeillesstraße,Munich,Germany

KiWaFit!

Kinder Wagon Fitness, to be more clear. This is my fitness class where we put the kiddos in the center and do our darndest to back in to shape while retrieving pacifiers, rotating new and exciting toys to keep the kids entertained, and smiling and waving at the babies.

The last time we had gone to KiWaFit William just laid on his back and played with a toy. After a few week break for Ireland and Greece, etc., we were back. My big boy (in the pink shirt) sat up for the whole hour and completely entertained himself by hogging the toy bin and plucking out each and every toy inside. (Ahhh, all the comforts of home!)

Fun times!

Location:Bazeillesstraße,Munich,Germany

Haus Frau Hour

Here's yet another post with pics trapped on my iPhone. Sorry for the delay!

It's late afternoon. The long stretch between afternoon naps and bedtime. What does any smart Munich mom do? Head to the wine bar! Hey, it's 5:00 somewhere! This is our local wine bar just a few blocks from our house. You can't go wrong ordering anything here, it's fabulous! What's even funnier is the crowd of strollers around the tables and umbrellas in the late afternoon.

Beth and Isabella

Michele and Gus

Will and me

Location:Bazeillesstraße,Munich,Germany

Crazy Friday

Yes, I think even Will gets excited for Fridays! That and we think he is finally 100% after being sick for a bit.

We are all excited to have some more visitors as Chris Neumann and Jeff Ota are in town this weekend. Will is especially excited. Happy Weekend everyone!

Location:Bazeillesstraße,Munich,Germany

My fish

Germany has so many wonderful public swimming houses with indoor and outdoor pools for adults and children. So even when it's really hot and sunny outside, we can still enjoy some fun water time inside.

Here we are with Beth and Isabella at one of the indoor kiddie pools.

To say that William loves the water would be an understatement. Well, let me correct myself, he loves waist-high water in kiddie pools and bathtubs, for he has discovered that this is the optimal water level for his insane, hyper-turbo arm splashing. If you are sitting within an arms reach of my son in a few inches of water, consider yourself warned: you are in the splash zone.
As you can see above, Miss shy Isabella had had enough of this silly, splashy boy.

The larger indoor kiddie pool was closed for "re-chemicalization," (Does anyone want to venture a guess for what might have happened in there???) so we bopped outside for just a bit. We logged some good practice time with our arm floaties and enjoyed letting the current take us around the loop.

My Sandman

My friend Beth and her daughter Isabella are heading back to Indiana next week, so we're trying to log as much Molnar goodness as we can before they leave. :( Sniff, sniff.

Beth and I met up in a park late one afternoon for a quick playdate. Isabella's on the shy side, so sometimes this is as close as she lets cute boys get. She even has a stick for protection.

I thought sand would be a grave deterrent for my commando crawler. Sadly, I was wrong. If anything, it's motivation. He absolutely loves the sand: playing in it, crawling in it, anything! It doesn't bother him one bit if it gets all over his feet, in his hair, on his clothes, down his diaper. Sigh. Mom on the other hand . . . .

This much I have learned:
1. Overalls are like shovels in the sand. Onesies are a much better wardrobe option when crawling through a sandbox; they lend themselves to a lesser amount of sand in places mommies don't want to see sand.
2. A boy who is known for not putting things in his mouth will put sand in his mouth.
3. The perfect time of day for sandbox time is after the last nap of the day. That way, we can go straight from the sandbox, to the stroller, to the bath. Happy baby, happy mommy!

My Will is a genuine boy!

Gymboree Music

Our Munich Gymboree has opened all their classes to all their members for the months of July and August which means Will and I get to attend music class for free this summer! My mom and dad came along with us last week (We were doing a trial run using the bus so they could get there on their own the next day.) which allowed me to step back and take some pictures.


Once the drums come out, things get a bit more tame and focussed (as seen above). Normally music class consists of parents singing along while watching their children run or crawl around the room at will ripping musical instruments out of each other's hands. It's really kind of like herding cats and pretty funny to watch.
Otis is our young, energetic teacher. He's so great with the kids and really, really creative. I love the end of the class because when Otis pulls out his guitar it only means one thing: Jack Johnson! Who knew a Bavarian could nail any Jack Johnson song? Every Thursday afternoon Otis and Jack help quell my homesickness by reminding me of San Diego and California.

We hadn't been to music class in two weeks due to Will being sick, and it's so amazing to realize how much he changes in such a short time. In class, Otis was holding a musical instrument and Will wanted it. So he took off crawling across the class, straight for Otis. I'd never seen him do this in a class setting before! By the time he got there, the musical instrument had been put away, so I wondered what William might do. My little guy turned around in puzzlement, saw me waving at him across the room, put a huge smile on his face, and came crawling all the way back to my arms. That's Mama's boy!

Will's favorite toy

Balls were Will's current favorite
toy . . . or so I thought!

Location:Bazeillesstraße,Munich,Germany

Feringasee

A gorgeous Munich summer is in full swing. So what do Munich haus fraus do with such gorgeous weather? . . . to the lake!

We (some Gymboree moms and myself) thought we'd start small and drive 20 minutes to Feringasee, a small, man-made lake, for the day to see if the kiddos liked it. If it worked out, we'd broaden our horizons to farther destinations next week.

Our group ended up being a bit smaller than expected due to illness and last minute appointments, but that didn't stop the fun. In fact none of the kiddos were all awake at the same time! Ha! So, I promise to get more pics of other international babies in a later post. For now, we like to introduce you to Holly, Will's first love.


Will and Holly met when when Will was 5 days old and Holly was 2 days old. That's right, Rachel (Holly's mom) and I gave birth in the same hospital. It's always fun to compare mommy notes with Rachel. It's even more fun to watch Holly do something before I even get the chance to ask, "Rachel, does Holly . . . ?" Here they are "sharing" every baby's favorite toy: Mom's iPhone.

This was Will's first time in a lake. No waves? Sun-warmed water? Will loved it!

Goof balls

My love

Our day at the lake was a success! Stay tuned to see what lake we choose to conquer next week.

Wurzburg

With Grandma and Papa in town, my mom had the fun idea to take an overnight trip to Würzburg, a small, German town on the Romantic Road where she lived in the late 60s while teaching on the army base. As we toured around, my mom recognized the standard centuries-old landmarks, but it was amazing to realize how any city, even quaint, little German towns, really can change in 40 years.


One thing that hadn't changed was Würzburg's great wine. At lunch, we ordered every Würzburg wine off the menu and made our own little wine tasting. Yes, even Papa got a break from Will's lunch for a few swishes of wine.

Here we are in front of the Residenz. We, unfortunately, didn't get to go inside for a tour, for my parents got experience the slower pace of traveling with a 9-month old! Sometimes we have to bypass landmark tours for naps, diaper changes, feedings, or just moving on to better time the before-mentioned baby activities. :)

Jeff and I in a city platz.

On Saint's Bridge in front of the fortress

On the bridge looking back into town

Breakfast
(for one of us)

Once we actually found the right path, we walked up the hill to the fortress. It was a gorgeous walk (aside from the 47 steps with a kinder-wagon at the start) among Würzburg white wine grapes.

We all had a really fun time!