Please Forward To: The Stanforths: May 2011

After my month long training exercise, I returned home and shortly after so did Erica and Penelope. Worked slowed down a lot (accommodating school’s spring break dates so parents could spend time with their kids). Knowing this ahead of time, we decided that this would be an excellent time for Oma and Pops to visit us here in the Deutschland.

Right away, Erica and I utilized their assistance by taking a weekend get-away to Munich while Penelope spent quality time with the grandparents. Erica and I went totally European by traveling entirely by train as well as only packing one carry-on size suitcase for the both of us (I was astonished myself).

We’ve been to Munich once before, but that was a BRIEF one day trip during last year’s weekend getaway to Garmisch. This time, we had Rick Steve’s book by our side, a weekend free from mommy/daddy duty and therefore determined and equipped to get it right.

Rick, what do we do next?

Erica is historically the vacation planner for our household, but I decided to take the lead on this one. My game plan was to book a grand hotel near the train station so we could easily find it whence we arrived, check out some night life after check-in, and the next day would be the full day to experience ALL of Munich in its entire glory. The third day would be dedicated to taking a morning trip to King Ludwig’s “Disney Land Castle” (Google it) and then relax/travel home. SPOILER ALERT: Things didn’t go exactly as planned.

We got to Munich with no problems. I thought finding the hotel would be a bit of a challenge, but the hotel wasn’t just close to the train station, it was more-or-less apart of it (which we did not know before we got there). Being a part of a train station should give you a bit of a clue of the ‘grandness’ or lack-there-of, of the hotel itself. Not that the hotel was bad (even though we did have to switch rooms after the first night due to smoke from neighboring smokers), but it definitely wasn’t worth what we paid for it. It was, however, a convenient location and it had a soft bed, so all-in-all, not bad. That night we rode the subway to the city square and had dinner in an excellent restaurant over-looking the Glockenspiele. (Thanks Rick Steves for the tip!)

The next day, we tried to do it all, but sadly, there just weren’t enough hours in the day, or enough cushion in our soles. We started out with a generic city tour bus ride. We bought both the tour ticket and the Ludwig Castle ticket, which I was hesitant to buy due to the STEEP price, earlier that morning at the Tourist Information Station, conveniently located outside our hotel. On the bus tour we quickly saw all of the big attractions.

After a few stops riding the U and about a mile-or-so walk, we caught the sound and smell of a good time. After following the sound of the Poka music we found the famous Chinese Pagoda Beer Garden in the middle of the English Garden. Here we enjoyed some German music, German Beer, and German Snitzel (delicious).

On the way out of the garden, we saw the infamous river surfers riding the waves in the park. This was pretty cool to see.

After lunch and the ‘nautical show’, we decided to do the historical aspect and hit up the Residenz Museum (A museum which holds the Electors treasury which was also their old residence turned into a museum). Not bad exhibits, though I don’t think we’d do it again. The original plan was to then hit up the Deutsch Museum (Germany’s Science and Industry Museum), but the Residentz took a little bit longer than anticipated and by the time we were done, we were already exhausted and decided to go take a nap instead. We had to have our strength if we were going to hit up the infamous and crazy Hofbrauhaus that night for dinner (and besides, we live close enough, we can go again and make a day trip out of it, probably).

The Hofbrauhaus is located in the center of town. A Munich MUST, as suggested by Rick Steve’s, relatives and anybody else who has ever visited Munich, not just for the beer, but also the atmosphere. Nothing is like it, was the review received, but…when we woke up, we were REALLY tired still, so we decided to eat at our hotel J (We live close enough, we’ll make a day trip out of it some other day,…maybe). Anyway, we had to wake up early the next day anyway to catch the bus that would take us to the Disney World Castles of King Ludwig.

So the next morning we did indeed wake up early, packed and checked out ready to take the trip, but when we go to the bus, we noticed we could not find the tickets, which were purchased the day before. So we decided to go back to the Tourist Information Station and just ask them to print out another receipt or ticket for us. However, no respectable German would ever work on Sunday, and even if they did, they would never, ever open before 10:00AM. And so it turns out the proprietors of the Tourist Information Station are indeed respectable Germans, and hence not open for us to get proof of our purchased ticket to the wonder that is King Ludwig’s castles. (It’s okay, we live close enough, we might make a day trip out of it some other day…maybe J)

After that crushing blow, we decided just to go home early. We did indeed miss the little one (these 36+ hours was the longest stretch of time Erica and Penelope have ever been apart from each other) not to mention I had to go to work the next morning.

Penelope and Oma in Weiden

Pops and Nellie!

Note: about 3 weeks later, we actually found the ticket…dang it. It was in my wallet-fail!

Yay! Nellie is 7 months. We just took her to the doctors the other day for a check-up. The pediatrician says that she’s a healthy, and smiley little girl! So true, Penelope was unusually happy during our visit(until she got her shots). I’ve got her stats here…

Weight…18 lbs

Height…26.8 inches

Head circumference…17.5 inches

This pediatrician was different from the one that we normally see(she was A LOT more friendly). The doc gave us her percentiles…for weight she’s in the 73^rd percentile (chubby-bubby), for height she’s in the 56^th percentile, and her head circumference is in the 95^th percentile(no surprise there; have you seen her dad’s head?).

Anyway, this month she’s been more vocal. She uses a high pitched squeal (she may give Mariah Carey a run for her money) to get our attention. It’s adorable. She also says “Hi”…sort of. She always makes this noise when we smile at her. It’s more like her version of a sigh, but it always sounds like she’s saying “hi.” It really impresses those who don’t know her too well.

There are no new developments regarding her crawling skills. She has no interest being on her belly, but she does like standing (with assistance from Mom or Dad). Maybe she’ll be one of those babies that learn to walk before they crawl. Devon and I don’t have any qualms about her not being able to crawl. The longer we post pone it, the longer we can post pone buying German baby gates(there 100euro-that’s $145 usd/gate!) Why can’t we buy US baby gates? Because no one will ship them to our APO address! The gates they sell on post are US, but they aren’t long enough-darn it!

We’ve started sleep training with her. Ever since we came back from the States, her sleep habits have been horrible. She’s been waking up every 3 hours wanting a bottle. So every 3 hours, day and night, we’ve been giving her a bottle. That’s way too much food. No wonder she is in the 73^rd percentile for weight. Anyway, with sleep training, we’ve modified her bad habit. Now she wakes up once during the night, and we only give her a 2 oz diluted bottle. She’s also been waking up less searching for her pacifier-woohoo! So now we put her down at 8:15pm (yes, 2 hours earlier than we usually put her down). Then she’s up by 7am for the day. Finally some quality sleep for Mom and Dad.

The weather here has been surprisingly nice, so we’ve been playing outside more. I’ll put the blanket out in the yard and bring her toys out. She’s really curious about the grass, and flowers. She’ll grab at them and put grass in her mouth (she’s still chewing EVERYTHING in sight).

We've recently bought P two new toys...this is big doings here. Devon and I are not fans of baby toys all over the house. But, because we sold her baby swing, we thought that we should replace it with something new. So we switched the the dust-collecting swing for a new Dino-walker. It's so cute, and it was 50% off. We thought that this would help jump start her standing and walking skills. We also bought her a new Vtech Winnie the Pooh book. My aunt bought her one of these books and Penelope LOVES it! Hopefully she likes listening to Pooh Bear as much as she likes listeing to Scout.

Okay…that’s enough text. Now for your favorite part, the pics!