My Once Upon a Time...

Re-capping the month of January, also known as cleaning off pictures from my phone to get them in our blog book! This month was so hard and seemed to be never ending. Morning sickness (although more like all day sickness) and Exhaustion got the best of me and it was rough. It still is, but the beginning of January was the worst. I didn't take many pictures, because I was too busy trying to make it through each and every day, but here are the few I have.  This was January 3rd, so I must have been around eight weeks pregnant and finally got a little bump going.  After school, Fox went with me to take my eight weeks pictures and we went for a special treat afterwards. They have a vegan gelato spot near our house, which is basically the only ice cream shop we can take him to, so I'm grateful we have this here. It always make me so sad when his classmates get cupcakes for birthdays or special occasions and Fox can never eat what everyone else is eating...

December seems so far away, but then again, we still have our Christmas Tree up, because nobody had the energy to pack it up (well, at least the ornaments are already packed up).  I did a lot of posts of our Holiday Activities during the month of December, but here are some random pictures I snapped on my phone that haven't made the blog. Katie got a foot massager, but somebody snagged it right up and has been enjoying it ever since. This is the life! Fox did a lot of decorating and re-decorating on our two trees this year. He was really into it and very proud of his work. And I think we only broke one ornament. Fox's preschool had their annual carnival one Sunday in December. It was such a hot day and we were all sweating. He had a blast in the bounce houses and on the slides though and still talks about the prizes he won. One day after school, we picked up Fox's best friend from school as well and took him home for a playdate. The boys had no idea t...

I always enjoy reading other people's "A day in the Life" posts, so I thought I would do one myself. It'll be fun for me to look back at this a few years from now and seeing how life was like with a two year old! So here we go with a bunch of random pictures from February 22nd, 2017! My day started at 4:50am, so I snapped a quick screenshot. I always start work at 5am, so I headed into the living room, let our dog out, put on the TV and got cozy under the blankets on the couch.  I worked for 1.5hrs before I wrapped up and went to take a shower and got ready for the day This guy got up around 7am that morning and we had breakfast. His wake up times are very hit and miss these days, it could be as early as 6:30am or as late as 9am, although we would usually wake him up before that if it's a school day! On this morning, I had an early doctor's appointment, so Katie took Fox to school and I left at 7:30am for my appointment. Holy traff...

I’ve always been very open on this blog. I wasn’t going to share this, simply because it’s been weeks and I’m still mad beyond belief, but a lot of people have asked me what happened with Matthias, so here is the (long) story. And maybe one day I’ll be able to look back on this and laugh about it, although I highly doubt it. We terminated Matthias’ contract at the end of November. While it all happened very sudden, there was a long built up to all of this. We almost terminated Matthias’ contract in early June. We had recently gotten security cameras in the house, which Matthias was aware of, but it was shocking to see that he ignored Fox for three straight days. We got the cameras because we had a feeling that something was going on while we were at work and it was sad to see that we were right. Back then, we had a meeting with our community counselor, where he told us that he was not acting himself and he will do better, so we gave him another chance. He was also takin...

When I got pregnant, and even before then, I always resented living in the US vs. in Germany because of the non existent maternity leave here. I would always fret how in Germany they would have to keep my job for three years, how you get paid from your employer for one full year to stay home and how you get money from the government on top of that. That could’ve been me, and it wasn’t. The fact was, that I went back to work three weeks after Fox was born, and although I was fortunate enough to take him with me and work reduced hours for 6 months, it was HARD. I should’ve been home, enjoying this sweet time with my tiny baby, but here I was, trying to juggle it all and dropping a bunch of balls in the process.  I didn’t want to live in Germany, but I just wished that the US had a more supportive system in place for new moms.  Leaving my baby with babysitters and touring daycares was tearing me apart. I wanted to cry, every time I left him and sometimes I did. I hated it....

We had a busy weekend, but I loved every minute of it! We had a three day weekend, so I took advantage and met one of my friends and her son at the Zoo.  The boys playing at the playground. They are about six weeks apart.  Later that night, Katie took over the bedtime routine. This is Fox's favorite book at the moment and my favorite part about her reading him stories, is that she always completely makes up the words based on the pictures.  Saturday morning, we had Fox's Cake Smash Session. My mother in law Sandie, made this amazing "Cat in the Hat" Cake for Fox, I can't believe how talented she is and can't wait for his Birthday cake!  After his nap he went to the "Junk in the Trunk" show, a local antique Show that takes place twice a year.  Followed by dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with my two Loves! Sunday morning the grandparents stopped in for a quick visit. In the afternoon we celebrat...