Some Christmas Cheer

We had a great Christmas with lots (well, for us here) of family to spend the holiday with. My mom was here as well as her cousin, Paula, and Paula's daughter, Alice. My mom was here for almost three weeks and Paula and Alice arrived on Christmas Eve and stayed until Monday. We had a wonderful time showing them around Bamberg and visiting a few of the local breweries. Christmas day was filled with lots of presents and a great meal (thanks for all the hard work Mom!). We also had three very dear friends over for Christmas dinner (Dan, Andy and Becca) so we actually had a crowd this year. Below are some pictures from the Christmas and the past couple of days. When my mom uploads her pictures I will try and add a few more since I think her photos are a bit better.

Christmas time is here!

A few recent pictures from the BFC. Here is Grinch Gus.

He is really into books these days (looking at the book, having someone read the book, eating the book, etc.)

We have been making the rounds of the Christmas markets. Here is the market in Coburg, Germnay.

Here is the market in Kulmbach.

A picture of Kulmbach castle up on the hill taken from the Marktplatz.

Bierathalon Revisited

Here are the professional pictures from the Bierathalon. Pat and Dan, running and drinking as Die Big Gulps ("The Big Gulps").

Grandma's Here!

My mom arrived last Thursday and we have been keeping her busy. Friday we all went to Rothenburg; it is a historic, walled city about an hour and a half from Bamberg. Pat had quarterly training there during the day so my mom, Gus, Max and I walked around the Christmas market. That night Pat had a work Christmas party there so we got rooms at a little guesthouse and my mom stayed with Gus and Max while we went to the party (love free babysitting--pretty new concept for us since my Dad and Janet where the first and only until now). Sunday we took my mom to a soccer match in Fuerth to see our team the Kleeblatt. It was a wonderful sunny (but cold) day and the shamrocks of Fuerth defeated Rot-Weiss Ahlen. I put a few pictures from the game below.

12 Month Check-up

Gus visited the doctor today for his 12 month check-up and he did a great job. He now weighs 26 lb. 5 oz. (90%)--his weight has finally slowed down a bit and this was the first time he was not off the charts. His height is now 32.5 inches (still off the charts on this one, above the 100%). His head is now 49.5 cm (again still off the charts and above the 100%). So I basically have a tall, skinny boy with a big head. He was very good for the doctor and even showed off his walking/getting into things skills in the exam room.

It was also time for the dreaded vaccinations and Gus received 5 shots (I had them go ahead with a flu shot for him). He did cry for a few minutes, but did a really good job. Since I was already there I went ahead and had the Flu-mist too--have to set the example, right? After his exhausting morning spent at the clinic, he fell asleep as soon as we got in the car to come home. Hopefully he won't feel too bad for long since his grandma arrives tomorrow!

Birthday Boy Gus

Gus had a great first birthday! He received so many wonderful presents and had fun opening them and playing with all the gifts and the wrapping paper. I made a birthday cake for him, but that wasn't quite as much of a hit. Here is a slideshow of some pictures from Gus' birthday.

Happy Birthday Gus!

It is a little hard for me to believe, but one year ago today I had my little ten-pounder. Gus is celebrating his first birthday today. Happy Birthday baby boy!

At the one-year mark, a few of Gus' favorites:

Foods: Cheese, all types of German bread, ham, yogurt, Cheerios, oatmeal, bananas

Books: The Foot Book and Go, Dog. Go! (Thanks to cousin Harper for the great picks). We read these over and over again.

Toys: Cars or anything he can push around the room and anything that makes fun noise, also the remote, cell phone, Wii remote (all the things we hide but he somehow finds)

Songs: Christmas carols like Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, also Oklahoma! (sometimes I am just at a loss for a song). He also likes the B.C. Clark song.

Other favorites: Bathtime, Max and when his dad comes home from work

We are having a little party this evening to celebrate so I will put up pictures of Gus with his first cake and presents soon.

Gam-Gam and Jimbo's Visit

Gam-Gam and Jimbo (Pat's parents) came across the pond for a Thanksgiving visit. It was wonderful to see them and Gus had the best time showing his grandparents around. We went to several Christmas markets (Bamberg, Nuernberg, Rothenburg and Munich) and visited the sights, including a forced march in the Hain (Max's favorite park). There was also plenty of time for Gus to show off his walking and talking skills. Here is a little slideshow giving a few of the highlights.

O Christmas Tree!

It is already Christmas market time here in Germany. In Bamberg there is a pre-Christmas market Christmas market (the real one opens on Thanksgiving day--this one runs the week and a half before). We loaded everyone up and walked over this weekend. It coincided with the first snowfall. It was a small market but we were still able to drink some gluhwein and look at all of the booths. Below is us at the Christmas market.

The big Christmas tree that was decorated for the market.

Gus checking out the snow. He didn't really know what to think of it at first, but he really liked the fires they had going in little braziers.

We also went ahead and decorated our Christmas tree. Since we are having lots of guests for Thanksgiving and Christmas we decided we would have it ready to show everyone. Unfortunately, we bought an artificial tree this year. I just couldn't see us hauling a real one into and out of this little apartment. Below you can see Gus helping Pat out with the boxes of decorations.

Gus is the one to do the tree-topper now (with a little help from Pat, of course).

The decorated tree.

Gus had a blast going through the boxes and playing with the lights.

Gus was more into taking the ornaments off of the tree than putting them on.

Go, Gus, Go

Gus' walking skills are vastly improving (so are his climbing skills--I turn my back for one second and he is up in the chair). In this video he is walking toward Max and you can hear Gus saying "og", his form of dog. It is funny when we take Max to the park and he sees other dogs and starts babbling "og, gog, og, gog".

More of Gus walking.

A few random pictures

Here are some pictures of Gus over the past week. He loves climbing into and sitting in his bathtub so I just brought it out to the living room and let him have at it.

He is everywhere and in everything.

He enjoys looking at books and not just eating them anymore, however, he still can't sit still long enough for a story.

Welde Bierathalon 2008

Pat always manages to find the unique stuff to do and the Welde Bierathalon is definately one of those things. This past weekend Pat and Dan ran in the Welde Bierathalon. So we packed up the entire BFC to go to Viernheim, Germany, and watch. It is an annual event sanctioned by Welde bier (a brewery in Schwetzingen, Germany) in which each team (2 people) run 6k and drink 12 beers. You run and drink the beer following the rules, course, since it is a German event. There was one designated drinking area where there were judges to make sure you weren't spilling, breaking your bottles or throwing up (5 minute penalty). So the runners can decide if they want to drink all 12 and then run, run and drink, or run the 6k and then drink. While you are running you and your partner must carry your rack of beer with the 12 bottles. Pat and Dan's strategy was drink one then run 1k.



This sounds funny, but the people particpating took it seriously--real runners involved. The winners finished in 32 minutes and Pat and Dan finished in a respectable 55 minutes. The event was a lot of fun since some of the runners dressed up in costumes (there were a couple of Borats, some bumblebees and guys in only their underwear). Pat had t-shirts made for their team that were pretty tame compared to others, but everyone loved the back of the t-shirts (Pat's said "Run, Pat, Run" and Dan's was "Drink, Dan, Drink"). There was a DJ playing music the entire time (loved hearing "Chariots of Fire" and the Rocky theme near the end). At the end there was a big after party. Gus, Max and I had a great time watching. There are some pictures in a slide show below.

Look who's walking

Gus has now entered the world of walking people. He started a couple of weeks ago by taking a step or two on his own. Now he can go 8 to 10 steps on his own, so I am sure he will be running very soon.

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a very happy Halloween. Unfortunately, Halloween isn't celebrated in Germany, so no trick-or-treating for Gus this year. However, we did have a costume for him. Gus was a player for the Azzuri ("Blues")--Italy's national soccer team--called Azzuri for the color of the jerseys. He looked ready to go right onto the field and play.

We had this jersey made in Italy while on vacation a couple of months ago, personalized with his name and the number 5, for his birthday (we couldn't think of any other number--guess we will leave that until he is older...).

So, of course, my Pat couldn't leave it at just one costume--we had to have others and here is one. I know you are thinking Gus is a ghost, but he is actually ET dressed up as a ghost for Halloween....leave it to Pat.

And, last but not least, the little Afghani boy. Somehow all of the hats and other Afghan clothing Pat brought home from his deployment (a couple of years ago) keeps coming out for special occasions.

Playtime with Max and naptime with Dad

Gus' favorite playmate is Max (although Max is sometimes an unwilling playmate!). Gus loves to hang out with Max over by Max's bed. Here are a few pictures of Gus and Max hanging out together (really, Gus going to bother Max, who tolerates it all pretty well).

This is Gus' look of "I am really not up to anything, but see how cute I am?".

I caught these two taking a nap on the couch this weekend--must have been playing really hard.

In the toy box

We recently emptied out this trunk and filled it with Gus' toys. He loves having all of his stuff in there and really likes sitting in the toy box to play with toys (it is a box, after all).

He also stands up in there (he is still working on climbing out, but he is so close).

And he has learned how to open and close the lid of the toy box.

Who you gonna call?

Gus' new interest is my cell phone. He has figured out how to open it and play with the buttons. Now I am just waiting for someone to get an unexpected call from Gus.

Big chair, little boy

Here is a little bit of Gus hanging out in the chair. Enjoy!

Boxes are better

It is a funny thing how babies prefer the box rather than the toy. Gus likes his Pizza Elmo, but the box is just much more fun. Here are a few pictures of Gus playing with the box (not the toy!). I am not sure how much longer the box can last, but at least boxes are easy to come by. I am thinking of lots of empty boxes wrapped for his birthday...

I just liked this one for the face and, of course, Max is never far behind.

Here is Gus in another one of his new hats while we were out at the park.

Fussball anyone?

On Sunday we took Gus to his first fussball (soccer) game. We went to Fuerth to watch the Kleeblatt (Clover Leaves) take on the team from Osnabrueck. Fuerth is a 35 minute train ride south. We arrived early to watch the fans parade into the stadium and see the teams warm up. Gus fell asleep shortly after we arrived and didn't wake up until right before the game started. The first half he was in awe of all of the people and the noise. By the second half he was more interested in flirting with the two girls sitting behind us (they were maybe 20 and loved him--such a lady killer). The final score was 4-2 with a victory for our Clover Leaves--hooray!

Dance, Dance

Gus is starting to figure out rhythm (let us all hope he doesn't have his mom's sense of rhythm!). Here is a little video clip from this week with Gus "dancing". He really likes to bounce to music--doesn't matter the genre, he likes it all.

Flower child and highchair monster

We took Gus on his first trip to Toys-R-Us this past weekend (yes, they do have them in Germany). I think Pat and I had more fun playing with the toys than Gus. It was a bit of a sensory overload for Gus at first. Once he figured it out he was all over the place picking up toys and trying things out. Now we are forever in trouble! We picked out this activity table for him. It lights up, talks (in German and English) and sings. He likes it so far, but as you can see from the pictures the removeable flower is his favorite part (because he can get it in his mouth--he tried to eat the table itself, but that didn't work out).

Here is a video I took of Gus in his highchair this weekend. He is making his monster noises and chattering.

A Grand visit

We had visitors the past week here in Bamberg. Gus' Mimi and Opa (my dad and Janet) made the trek across the big pond to visit us for week. We had a great time. Gus, Max and I took them all over Bamberg, showing them the historic sights, restaurants, breweries and shops. On Friday the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, was in town to speak at a political rally for her party so we stopped by the Maxplatz to watch her for a bit. That is probably the closest I will ever come to a world leader, so it was pretty cool. Saturday there was a street fest right on our street so we walked around and ate some good fest food. We also took Gus on his first train ride with a visit to Nuernberg (45 minutes by train). The Altstadt Fest was going on so we made a visit to that. It was a great fest in the old city. My dad and Pat then stayed in Nuernberg to go to a Nuernberg Ice Tigers hockey game.

The big event was on Monday when we boarded the train again to head down to Munich for Oktoberfest. We had a table reserved at the Hippodrom tent for lunch time. Gus, Pat and my dad were all dressed up in their lederhosen like good Bavarians--my little Gus with his rosy cheeks was the perfect Bavarian boy (he should be since he was born here). In our beer tent they were having a big luncheon for Munich's society women so we were able to see all kinds of female celebrities (talk show hosts and the like). It was interesting to watch them make their entrances with the paparazzi snapping pictures.

We had a terrific visit. Gus really loved all of the attention (Max too) and I appreciated a few extra pairs of hands.

New Hat

Fall arrived in one cool blast over the weekend, so we had to get some hats for Gus. Here he is modelling one of the new hats.

He looks so cool in his new outfit from Grandma.

Here is a blast from the past for his Gam-Gam.

Move over Max

Gus has now decided Max's bed is the perfect spot to wallow and play. Max has never really cared for the dog bed--until now. Max grumpily gives it up, but at least Gus will leave him alone for a few minutes while Gus rolls around. Max takes this time to find another spot to rest and try to hide.

A few new pictures from this week.

This is Gus' favorite new face--sucking in the top lip.

I thought this little squeal was too funny.

Bibione

The BFC just returned from vacation--one week in Bibione, Italy. We left last Saturday morning and drove down to Italy. The trip was supposed to take around 7 hours, but with all of the fellow vacationers on the road it ended up taking 11 hours. We finally arrived in Bibione at 7:30 Saturday evening. We picked up the keys to the house we rented, dropped our bags off (so much stuff for just one week) and headed out to find pizza and some much-needed wine.

Bibione is located on the northeastern coast of Italy, north of Venice, on the Adriatic. Basically our week was spent at the beach, which was located about 100 meters from the house we rented. We had our own spot on the beach the whole week with an umbrella and chairs. Gus had a wonderful time playing in and trying to eat the sand.

Gus wasn't thrilled with going into the water at first, but by the end of the week he was really enjoying going out into the water for a "swim". By the end of the week the waves were getting pretty big and Gus was a little unsure of the saltwater splashing him in the face, but otherwise, he had a good time--just like a giant bathtub.

Pat and Dan had daily beach bocce games (bocce ball played in the sand right across from our beach address). I actually had some time to read a book. I also went early every morning to walk on the beach and collect shells (yes, I know, old lady behavior, but I am practicing for my old age). Max was not allowed on the beach, but I think he had the best time resting and catching up on sleep without Gus chasing him all over the place. He did go everywhere else with us.

We were able to drive down to Venice one day--we wanted to show Gus a few of our favorite spots. Gus had fun looking at all of the tourists and pigeons (thank goodness you aren't allowed to feed those silly birds there anymore). About halfway through our walk around Venice, Gus had enough and took a nap in the backpack for the rest of the trip. Good thing we will have pictures to show him one day.

When we weren't sunning or swimming we were eating lots of pizza and gelato and drinking lots of espresso and wine. Gus liked the ice cream, although I don't think he has a favorite flavor quite yet. One evening we rented a four-person bicycle carriage (see the pictures in the slide show since it is difficult to describe) and we had the most fun cruising around Bibione. There was a child seat in the front and we strapped Gus in and off we pedaled. It was a terrific way to get around Bibione and we could work off a little of the food at the same time.

We headed home on Saturday and the drive up was pretty much the same slow, traffic-filled ride. We will be cleaning sand up for quite awhile, but it was definately a successful holiday!

If you have lots (and I mean lots) of extra time, click the link below to see more photos from our week in Bibione. (Beware--there are over a hundred pics).

http://picasaweb.google.com/rebecca.a.bryan/BibioneVacation?authkey=b7R3GRQ12VU#

Over and Under

Gus and I have discovered a new game. We basically play peek-a-boo with a small table, over and under. I was able to catch him on video today while we where playing and he was having a great time making noise and talking.

Rad-am-Ring 2008

Pat participated in the Rad-am-Ring, a 24-hour bike race, this past weekend. This was his second year and I think he enjoyed it just as much as the first, if not more, despite bad weather. The bike marathon is held at the Nuergburgring in Nuerburg, Germany, in between Cologne and Frankfurt. It is a Formula One/Grand Prix race track, but once a year they hold this bike/mountain bike/foot race there. This year they only had one team of four (they had two last year, but many were not able to participate this year due to deployments). Basically, they work as a relay team with each person doing one lap around the ring and then passing off to the next rider. The marathon lasts for 24 hours so they keep going through the night (during the night they each did 2 laps so everyone else could get a little more rest). Pat and his team arrived on Friday night and the weather was rainy and cool. They camp at their assigned spot around the ring. In this picture you can see the weather that night from their campsite.

When they woke up Saturday morning they were hopeful that the weather would clear off and they would have a good day. But the conditions didn't change much. Here is a view of the other campsites around them early Saturday morning.

This is their campsite--Racing Team Dratz. Pat managed to score a sponser before the race this year, so they had team uniforms. Their sponser was Fahrrad Dratz in Bamberg--a bicycle shop where Pat takes his bike to get serviced.

Here is a warm-up lap around the ring.

The race started at one o'clock on Saturday and lasted until Sunday. Here are some of the riders passing by their campsite during the race.

Here is the team riding in together for their finish.

Racing Team Dratz

From the left: Mike, Mark, Dan and Pat