Ode to Tristan

What a sweet little guy, this blue eyed small fry

he may never cuddle or be a good sleeper

but his laughs and his giggles make him a sure keeper!

I've never professed to be a good poet, but my silliness is very much a result of this special day. It's Tristan's birthday! That's right, one year ago this crazy little guy entered our life. I can't believe it's been a year, and yet I feel like we've been together for much longer. In his short existence, Tristan has brought so much joy to our home and has taught me what true love is. Because of this little guy I have learned to sacrifice and also to relax (before Tristan I never would have stood for my dining room floor looking the way it does)! Our family's dynamic is so different and wonderful because of Tristan, and on this very special day I feel especially blessed because of him.



The following pictures are a few I took yesterday.


I got such a kick out of Tristan's post nap hair.

If your wondering, this is what happens when you take a nap with damp hair (after getting a bath from Dad).

Recently Tristan has enjoyed hanging out on the bottom shelf of this table.

Upon waking up, this was one of the first places he went to play.

The following pictures are some of my favorites from the past year. I hope you enjoy!

Big Blue Eyes

Just a few pictures of Tristan taken by Leslie. Paul seems to think Tristan looks sick (and skinny) in these pictures, but despite his mop top (and his slight frame) I love these pictures.

He's such a happy little guy and I thought these pictures really captured that.

Just yesterday (M. L. King day) while Paul and a friend (the famous "Leslie's" husband) were at a soccer game (stay tuned for that posting-Paul should be debuting that one soon), Leslie once again captured the little guy-but this time in live action. Here for the very first time is a video of the boy(I know I know, he's almost a year old and I haven't put video of him on here yet-I'll try to do better). FYI-Tristan is a happy little guy, and especially silly/giggly as he grows tired-as you'll see on the video. I hope you enjoy!

Fourth Picture

I decided to play along with a game of photo tag (you post the fourth picture in your fourth folder of pictures) I had seen on Deborah's blog. I was surprised to find this:

This is a picture from our trip to Cape Cod. We had decided at the last minute to take a trip before Paul went to OTS. This was such a fantastic trip, as we got a killer deal on a truly fabulous resort and had the Cape all to ourselves as it was just before the busy season. Looking at this picture reminds me of how beautiful the East is and how I'll be so pleased to go back-whenever that is.

Prague

Paul had a four day weekend after new years and so we decided this would be a great time to go to Prague. This beautiful city in the Czech Republic had long been on our to see list, and so we were so happy to be able make the trip.

This is another very long posting (I have a really hard time narrowing down the pictures), and so I'll try to keep the comments at a minimum. I hope you enjoy!

Prague is another beautiful river city.

Part of Pragues charm comes from it's beautiful Baroque buildings.

Almost everywhere you look you see steeples.

I don't know if we have one picture of Tristan while he was awake. To make a long story short I'll just say that Tristan did NOT sleep well when we were in Prague. Because of this he was a zombie during the day time. As you can see in this picture Tristan is bundled up so much that you can't see his face (Paul worried that he wouldn't be able to breath while I was just happy he was warm).

This was one of the royal guards at the gates of the Prague Castle.

We bought some warm cinnamon bread from this guy (its rolled up on that rotisserie/culing iron looking thing) -and it was delicious! It was perfect on that bitterly cold day.

Here is the Charles Bridge which has spectacular views ( I wasn't able to get any great pictures though because of the hoards of people).

This very interesting church is at the center of Pragues old part of town. Right across from it is this very interesting astronomical clock. (Below)

This city really did have so much character. This church is a good example of the architecture that can be found here, along side the beautiful baroque architecture. If any of you out there knows the term for this style (you know the count Dracula looking stuff) , please let me know.

This picture is for my Dad. One of my Dads favorite Chrismas songs (actually I don't know if its one of his favorites, but I only assume it is b/s we sing it every year) is Good King Wenceslas, and here the good king is. This statue of King W. sits at the head of a long boulevard named after him.

I got a kick out of this poster-I thought you might enjoy it as well.

At the end of our trip we got a wonderful sausage (it was huge, full of flavor and better than any brot I've had here in Germany) from this street side barbeque. It really was great!

Here's another view of the vendor. It was a popular spot as it was a cold day and the air was filled with the smells of these spicy sausages.

I know I didn't tell you much about the city, but if you have any questions feel free to ask.