Paris

I just realized I forgot to mention something that happened once we got into Paris. We parked our car in this parking garage that was very close to our hotel, but we really didn't know where the hotel was. So we come up the stairs to the street level, and just kind of stood there, looking around with really dumb expressions on our faces. This woman walked by and kind of looked at us...kept walking, then looked at us again. Then she said something in French. We replied "Parlez vous anglais?" (which became our favorite phrase to say), and we found out that she was an American. She pointed us in the right direction (we were headed in the opposite direction), and chatted with us for a bit. We found out that she had been living in Paris for about 20 years. Can you imagine? A random American walking by us right when we needed help? We called her our angel - because it was totally providential that she was there right at that moment.

Anyways, Wednesday morning, we woke up (later than we wanted, but we were seriously jet-lagged and Kendall-lagged, but more on that later), and got ready for the day. We walked out of our hotel, and saw this street vendor that had a very fancy stand, and he was making crepes and paninis, and all sorts of goodies. We ended up getting some nutella crepes for breakfast (Grant's was nutella and banana), and some ham and cheese sandwiches - which was this really long baguette with ham and cheese on it - for the road. This is where we ended up eating every single meal. We figured, that was expensive as it was, a restaurant would be way more expensive. Plus, it was really good food! The guy started to get to know us, and every morning he would point to me and say, "Nutella crepe?" and then he would point to Grant and say, "Nutella Banane crepe?" We were so predictable. So here I am waiting for our delicious food, and then there's Grant eating his crepe.




We made our way down to the metro, which was also right outside of our hotel. We eventually got to the train station, so we could catch a train to Versailles. After alot of confusion, we finally got our tickets, and took the train - which was maybe 20 minutes our so. Here we are on the train...and look, Kendall can stand already!




Once we got off the train, it was about a 10 minute walk to the Palace. On the way, I saw that Watley was watching us! Okay, so his face is white, and he's reading a newspaper and wearing a suit, but it reminded us of Watley.



We finally arrived at the Palace, and I was just so excited. I've always
been kind of obsessed with everything French, and always dreamed about coming here. It did not disappoint.











Just a side note, breastfeeding while traveling is a very interesting thing. It's not like you can just go back to your hotel every time you need to feed. So Kendall got fed in some really cool places - in the gardens of Versailles, underneath the Eiffel Tower, along the Champs Elysses, in the Louvre, inside Notre Dame - and thanks to the Hooter Hider that Jasmine got for me, Kendall ate in style.



After Versaills, we were off to the Louvre. We heard that after 6 pm, there was a discount. So being the "frugal" people that we are, we waited until after 6, which we actually unintentionally timed pretty well. We got there about 5:45, so we didn't have too wait long.










The next day was Valentine's Day, and I just thought it was so cool to be in Paris on that day. First we went to Concord Square, which is where the guillotine was set up during the French Revolution. But to me, the coolest thing was that when we came up from the Metro, I got my first view of the Eiffel Tower! It was breathtaking. It was also the first time we saw the Arc de Triomphe.





Then we walked down the Champs Elysses toward the Arc. We came across the Pont Alexandre III bridge, which was just beautiful.




After a lot of walking, we finally made it to the Arc. It was much, much bigger than either of us had pictured.







After the Arc, we got back on the Metro, and headed towards the Eiffel Tower. After waiting in the freezing cold in several lines to get to the top, we made it! It was a little hazy, but still - what a view! Please excuse the messy hair, it was quite windy.







Then, we went to the Notre Dame. Simply amazing! All the stained-glass windows, the architecture, everything about it was just amazing.






After such a long day, it was finally time to go back to the hotel and get some much needed sleep. Which reminds me. If any of you are wondering how Kendall did while travelling - she did awesome! Except for sleeping. We have this little travel bed for her (we call it her box), and for the first 6 weeks or so, she slept in the box on our bed. When we got back from Florida, she went in her crib. We took the box with us on this trip, and our first night in Paris, we quickly learned she didn't like her box anymore. Oh, and she also didn't like being swaddled. So, even though I was opposed to it at first, she slept in bed with us. After losing almost a full night's sleep the first night, I felt like I didn't have a choice. Thankfully, now that we're back home, she's gone back into her crib with no problem.



The next morning, it was time for us to leave Paris. I wished we could've stayed longer, but was kind of glad as far as the weather goes. We had 2 gorgeous days, and the day that we left, the typical Parisian winter weather returned.

The trip that almost didn't happen

The military has flights that are called Space-A (Space Available). I'm copying the definition of Space-A flights from Wikipedia, because it's kind of hard to explain it...

Space available travel is an administrative privilege that derives, in part, from United States Code, title 10, section 4744, which states, "officers and members of the Military Departments, and their families, when space is available, may be transported on vessels operated by any military transport agency of the Department of Defense". Space available travel is defined as "travel aboard DoD owned or controlled aircraft and occurs when aircraft are not fully booked with passengers traveling under orders"....Space A travel is not without its pitfalls. Unlike traditional commercial air traffic, military flights are not always assigned predictable or firm takeoff times. Many factors go into planning a military flight, with space-required cargo and passengers forming the basis of planning. There is no consideration given to potential Space-A travelers during the planning process.

If it's not clear in that definition, the most important thing to realize about Space-A flights is that they're FREE! With that being said, we've never flown Space-A before, because you do have to be flexible with your schedule, in case you don't get on the flight that you need, and we've never really been able to be that flexible before because of work. Since Grant is in school, and turned in his thesis, he had some extra time. And since I'm not working, I obviously had all the time in the world. So we decided to go for it.

Our base has flights that go out every Monday to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. So, on Monday, the 11th, we were all packed and ready to go. We were supposed to be there around 10 am or so, to be listed as present for the flight. Once we got there, they said the flight was delayed, and that we didn't need to be there until 2 or 2:30 to check in (we would soon find out that these kind of delays are very common on Space-A). To kill time, we decided to go see a movie. The movie got out right before 2, and we made it to the terminal maybe around 2:15 or so. Grant went in to go see if it had been delayed again, and they told him that we missed the flight. It hadn't left yet, but the engines were on, and once the engines are on, no one else is allowed on the plane. Obviously, we were very confused, because we were back within the time that they told us to be. Apparently, whatever was delaying the flight in the first place had been fixed, and the pilot was ready to go. They tried to call my cell phone to tell us to come back ASAP, but I had my cell off - not because we were in a movie, but because I didn't think I'd need it, and I was trying to save the battery, and they never said to be near a phone in case they needed to get in touch with us.

Anyways, to make a long story short, after a lot of begging on our part, and with the help of the lady that works in the terminal office, we were able to get on the plane.

Now, this was a military plane. A C-5 to be specific. It's a huge, noisy plane. We had to wear ear plugs the entire flight. But it's free, so you really can't complain too much about things like ear plugs.



We went from our base here in Dayton, to McGuire AFB in New Jersey, and then to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Here's a picture of Kendall wearing her ear plugs while we were waiting to get on the plane at McGuire.



We arrived at Ramstein about noon the next day.



The first thing we did was rent a car so we could drive to Paris. Once we rented the car, we were off. Which meant driving on the infamous Autobahn in Germany. Grant was definitely a little nervous, but he did great.



We kept seeing these signs that we soon realized meant "exit," but we still couldn't help laughing at it. Yes, we're parents now, but we're not above laughing at any word that has "fart" in it.



We decided, since we were close enough, to drive the longer way and go through a couple of countries. So, we were soon in Luxembourg, and then Belgium. But Belgium was kind of a mistake. But that's okay, we were soon in France, and we drove on smaller roads to get to Paris, and that fulfilled something that I'd always wanted to do - see the French countryside. It was so beautiful! We saw castles and cute little towns, and beautiful scenery.



We finally made it to Paris around 10 that night. Checked into the hotel and crashed. We were exhausted!

Jenn was so close!

Not Greece, but we've been in Europe for the last week or so. Grant was just asking me what the next place is that I want to go, and it is Greece. That's actually been my #1 for a while, but we can never seem to make it there.

Anyways, we're trying to get home now, so I'll post more details soon. But basically, we left last week to come to Germany, then we went to Paris for 3 nights, then to Bavaria, in southern Germany for a couple of nights. It's been an amazing trip, and I can't wait to post pictures.

Little Kendall is quite the world traveler for her young age - she has 5 European countries under her belt! Most of that was just driving through, but that still counts, right?

Coming Soon...

The reason why I haven't posted in a while. Any guesses? Anyone except for Pinky and Mrs. J can guess, because I've already told them (at least I think I told them). Oh, and Cara, if you're still reading my blog, you can't guess either. :)

Has it really been almost 7 weeks?

It doesn't feel like it! She sure makes the days go by fast.



A little explanation on this one. She was fussy, so I thought I would show her her reflection in the mirror. Not only did she stop crying, but she couldn't stop smiling! I even went downstairs to get the camera, came back upstairs, and as soon as I stood in front of the mirror, she started smiling again.

Joshua Radin

One of my favorite musicians is Joshua Radin. If you're a Scrubs fan, you've probably unknowingly heard some of his songs before. Apparently, he went to college with Zach Braff, they became best buds, and Zach has helped Joshua's career by putting his music on Scrubs and some of his movies, like Garden State and The Last Kiss.

Grant and I saw him last year when he came to Columbus. We got to meet him, and even talked with him for a bit, thanks to the autograph line stalling for about 5 minutes while we were in front of him.

He was on Ellen last month, and I missed it. But, thanks to YouTube, I was able to see his performance.



He's coming out with a new album soon, and I can't wait to get it!

Oh, and here's some pictures of when we saw him in Columbus. We were almost first in line to get in, so that meant we were right in front of the stage. It was awesome.

Little Kendall was just a fetus at this time. We found out about a week later that I was pregnant.


See, that's my stuff sitting on the stage!

Florida Girl

Kendall and I just got back from being in Florida for a week! Let me recap...

Grant, Kendall, and I left last Thursday for Pensacola. The purpose of the trip was to eventually surprise my mom for her 60th birthday, which was on Sunday. After two flights and a long layover, we were happy to find out that Kendall is a great traveler - she wasn't fussy one time! Here she is doing her best Uncle Rico impression on the plane.



Grant's parents picked us up at the airport, and we had a quick visit with them before heading to my brother's house to stay for the night. My brother and his wife are the only ones that hadn't met Kendall yet, so I was very excited for them to meet her...not so excited to see my brother's mountain man beard, but Kendall seemed to like it.





On Friday morning, my dad sneaked over to my brother's house to see us...well, let's be honest, he really just wanted to see his grandbaby. Then we made our way over to Grant's parents house for some more family time.




Saturday was the day of the big surprise. First, we went to Sears to take some family pictures, since it had been 5 years since our last one. My sister and her family came down from Columbus, Georgia, so we also got some good pictures of her two kids with Kendall. After that, we went to my parents house to surprise my mom. She was definitely surprised! Actually, she had suspected that I was coming with Kendall, but was still surprised to see Grant, my sister and her family. We had a great time! My niece especially loved holding Kendall.





That night, it was back to Grant's parents house, where we were meeting up with a friend from high school, and his wife and kids. Every time David and Grant get together, they have to play Mario Kart. This visit was no different. And I'm sure Grant would want me to let everyone know that he did beat Dave.






Sunday, Grant left to come back to his life in Ohio, while Kendall and I stayed for a few more days. We went to church with my parents, and my brother showed up with his attempt at a handlebar mustache.



It was a beautiful day, so after church, we soaked up the sun on the back porch. Kendall wasn't quite sure what this bright thing was that produced warmth, but she loved it. **Tink, check out the burp cloth you made me in the background**



The rest of our time there was spent just visiting more friends and hanging out with the family. We were sad to leave, but ready to get back to Grant - I'm pretty sure he missed us, and we definitely missed him!

All Smiles

She's still learning how, but lately Kendall has been smiling a bunch! It's getting to be less random, and more intentional - I can almost predict when she'll smile! And of course, we think it's the most beautiful smile we've ever seen.

What about this one?

This is my favorite time of year - American Idol auditions!! I missed it last night, and then last week on the 2nd day of the auditions I fell asleep before it was over, so I've been missing some good stuff. Mrs. J posted a great one that I missed, and here's another one...

'Nother one

Okay, so this one is a little better...it shows Kendall actually doing something!!

As Requested...

...by Mrs. J and Pinky, here's some video of Kendall. She's not really doing anything, except for being incredibly cute.

3 weeks

Sorry for the lack of posting. I guess I'm just adjusting to my new life. Anyways, here's some new pics of the little bug, so enjoy!

Her first "real" bath, after the umbilical cord fell off.



Her first real bath was closely followed by her second bath, when she decided to poop while we were drying her off.



Just being her cute self.



We actually had some warm weather last week, so we took a walk. It was great!



Wearing her robe after a bath.



With daddy and his sweet porn stache.

Story of her birth

I figured it was time to let everyone know how the birth went, so here goes...

Around 5 on Christmas morning, I felt a weird pain in my belly. I wasn't sure if it was a contraction or not, but when it came again a few minutes later, I was pretty sure it was. Sure enough, they started coming pretty regularly - maybe every 7 minutes or so. Grant was still asleep, and I didn't want to wake him up, because I knew this would be happening for a while. So, I just went about my business. I ate a bowl of cereal, because I knew if this was real labor, I wouldn't really be eating anything the rest of the day. My mom, who was staying at my neighbor's house, came over around 5:30 or 6, and I told her I thought the baby would be coming later that day. Needless to say, she got really excited. She went back to the neighbor's house to start getting ready.

Around 6:45, Grant kind of started waking up, so I told him, "I think you're going to get your Christmas baby today." Ever since I passed my due date, he predicted that she would come on Christmas day. So like my mom, he got really excited, too! He got up, and we both started getting ready - we took showers, packed our bags, etc.

The contractions started getting closer together, and we called the hospital around 9. They said that we could come in any time. We decided to hold off on going in for a little longer - I didn't like the idea of being at the hospital any longer than I had to be. Maybe around 9:30 or so, I threw up the little bowl of cereal that I had (alot of good that did), and Grant decided that it was time to go to the hospital. It was probably around 10 that we actually got in the car to go.

We got to the hospital around 10:15, and we made our way to labor and delivery. We were happy to discover that we were the only ones on the floor - as funny as this sounds, that was something that I had prayed about.

On a bit of a side note, we were planning on having a natural childbirth. We took some classes teaching us about the Bradley Method of childbirth (which is also called Husband Coached Childbirth). The base hospital only has 1 midwife, and she told us that she wouldn't be available on the 24th or 25th. When we got to the hospital, they asked if we had already called the midwife. We said we hadn't, and that we thought she was unavailable. They said they would call her anyway, and a little bit later, she was on her way! We were very happy about this!

So, I'm going through these contractions, and we realized very quickly that I liked it quiet in the room, especially during the contractions. Grant was great - if anyone was talking too loudly, or taking too many pictures, I never had to say anything - he took care of it for me. I tried different positions during some of the contractions - I would stand up, go for a walk, or sit on the birthing ball - no matter what I did, though, I would always squeeze the life out of Grant's hand. Poor guy.




Around 1 or so, I started feeling the urge to push. Apparently, I'm a noisy pusher, because every time I pushed, I let out this terrible wail. I remember thinking how embarrassing this was, but I couldn't control it.

Things were progressing really well. Around 2:45 or 3, I was sitting in the bathroom pushing, and the midwife had a portable heart rate monitor. She wasn't getting a good reading on the baby's heart rate, so she had me go back into the room, and get hooked up to the regular monitor. According to that, the baby's heart rate had dropped pretty significantly - down to the 60's - so she had to come out ASAP. The midwife had me try some different positions on the bed to try to get her out right away - on my sides, on all fours - but nothing was working. The baby wasn't far enough down the birth canal to come out quickly enough, and her heart rate wasn't coming up, so the midwife decided to call in the doctor. The doctor came in, and they decided that the best way to get her out would be to use the vacuum, and if that didn't work, they'd have to do a c-section.

So, out came the vacuum. The midwife gave me a warning that it would "hurt like hell," and she was right. The wails that I had done before were nothing in comparison to this! My dad said he could hear me all the way down the hall. The doctor said they'd give me 3 tries to push her out with the vacuum. The 1st and 2nd tried came and went with no luck. On the 3rd try, she just reiterated that if it didn't work, it would be a c-section. I pushed with everything I had, and out she came!

It's like they always say, once the baby is out, you forget about the pain. As soon as I saw her, everything was suddenly fine. My baby was out, she was healthy, and I was happy.



The downside is, because they had to use the vacuum, I had 3rd degree tearing (there's only 4 degrees, so this was pretty bad). The doctor spent an hour and a half stitching me up. So, I won't be jumping back into exercising as soon as I had hoped - I can only walk for exercise for about 4-6 weeks.

But I got my natural childbirth, just like I wanted, and am so happy I did!

Grant was a fantastic coach! During the whole vacuum episode, he stayed so calm, even though he told me later that he was really worried. It went from a very calm environment (it was just me, Grant, the midwife, and nurse in the room), to all the sudden being a very chaotic situation, with a doctor, several nurses, and some technicians in the room. He stayed positive the whole time, kept encouraging me, and telling me how good I was doing. Because of him, I never even realized how scary it was.

Week 1

At the end of my first week as a mom, I've come to realize a few things...

1. The Boppy is your friend
2. Sleep is a great thing - don't take it for granted
3. I have ankles again
4. It's true what they say - all newborns do is eat, sleep, and poop...but not necessarily in that order
5. Kendall is the coolest baby in the world (sorry, but it's true)