Full Time Mom

Its been a while since posting, and you might think that we were gone somewhere or something huge happened, but you'd be wrong. In between the last posting and today I have realized why being a full time mom is the hardest job in the world. Being a full time mom involves getting very little sleep-for long periods of time. It also involves getting very few breaks and dealing with monotonous daily schedules. Don't get me wrong I love being a mom and I know it's the most important thing I can do, but recently I have been so exhausted! Its been a rough week(or has it been two weeks since posting?-I've lost track of the time...). Tristan is such a beautiful, well mannered little guy, but one thing he is not is a good sleeper. This little one will get in a cycle of sleeping well (goes to bed same time everyday, in his crib without crying) and then out of the blue he will boycott sleep and act as if his crib were a pit of venomous snakes. I'm sure many of you out there have had those days where you spend chunks of your day just trying to get someone to take a nap. It's these days that I'm exhausted and just a little frustrated that I'm getting so little accomplished during the day. Maybe him not taking naps during the day wouldn't be so bad...if he were sleeping well at night, but he isn't. The little guy gets up every morning at 4:30 am and sometime earlier(this morning it was 3:30am). Sometimes I wonder how this crazy little guy is related to me-after all I love sleep! Well enough ranting (really I'm not ranting, I'm just tired).

Since last posting Tristan has gotten another tooth and we took a day trip up the Rhine to Burg Rhinefels. This castle sits on the Rhine overlooking the quaint little town of St. Goar.

Before putting any pictures of the castle in, I thought I'd put this picture in for April (she had wondered if I clean my house before taking pictures-which I don't of course). Here Tristan is making a mess of the shoe rack and you can see he's crawled out of his pants. I just can't seem to find a pair of pants that stay on him!

Paul and Tristan in front of Burg Rhinefels.

When we made the trip the fall colors were just starting to appear. It was such a beautiful fall day-just like the ones in NY!

Right across the river from Burg Rhinefels was Burg Katz.

Tristan loves flowers, but unfortunately he can't get too close without trying to eat them. In this picture I wanted Tristan to smell the roses, but he opened his mouth wide enough to devour it whole, then...(it would have been great if I got this on camera) he grabbed the rose and ripped it from the bush.

The catle had the nicest views. If you look left down the river you see another castle (I'm not sure which one),

If you looked across the river you saw beautiful vineyards,

and to the right of the castle is Burg Katz.

As we explored this castle I couldn't help but think of my brothers and how they would have loved it (I can't tell you how often we made castles and fortresses out of their waffle blocks). I also thought of our nieces and nephews and how they would have loved to explore the grounds.

Here we are at the top of the castle looking out over the river and valley below.

We had so much fun just tromping around and exploring all of the passage ways and little tunnels. It really was fun and not at all expensive (If you live over here and have kids, this would be a great day trip!)

I enjoy catching snap shots like these. It's always so nice to look down while carrying the little guy and see that he's just staring up at you, smiling. I know Paul really loves carrying him in the Bjorn and it was nice to be able to capture that.

So these last few pictures I had to put in because I really got a kick out of the bathroom. Actually Paul went in first and told me that I had to see the bathroom. If you can't see the pictures clearly, please blow them up. In this first shot, can you imagine how you flushed? And...can you see what's above the urinal?

Here's the sink,

the hand dryer (you hand to turn the wheel for hot air to come out of the pipe),

and finally the toilet flusher.