Hey! Guess what!

We actually did something other than sit on the couch and watch Heroes!

A little while back, I was thinking about Valentine's Day. We usually celebrate by going to a nice restaurant for dinner and exchanging chocolate (for me) and a scrapbook (for Ben). Our Valentine's Days are not full of surprises, but they're nice. Romantic, quiet, fun. However, having a baby complicated things a bit this year. Yeah, we could have gotten a babysitter and still gone out. But we had a lot of reasons for shooting down that idea. So, what to do...

Go to Brussels!

Brussels is no Paris, but it's a really nice city, it's only an hour away, and on the weekends you can usually score some pretty nice hotel deals. So we booked a fancy package at a fancy hotel, and on Saturday we took our sweet time getting ready, walking the dogs, going to the market, etc in the morning and then after lunch we packed up the baby and drove to Brussels. And it was fantastic.

Our room was great. It was huge, which is a pretty big deal around here because hotel rooms are often the size of a walk-in closet. Or a regular closet if you're going the budget route.

So you can understand Ben's excitement over the enormous bathroom.

And the equally enormous room.

I just like it when the bathrooms have telephones. I feel very important.

Our fancy shmancy hotel room also had bathrobes and chocolates

And a fabulous balcony

And it was just generally fabulous, minus the slightly dated wallpaper. I couldn't decide if I loved or hated the mint green wallpaper with hummingbirds on it. I think I loved it. The mint green bedspread I could have done without.

After taking about a million pictures of our lovey dovey Belgian Valentine's adventure in our hotel room, we went out walking and ended up shopping. We found and English book store! And a really great toy store! And chocolates! So many chocolates! And Ben's favorite grocery store that sells sugar donuts! And a huge, wonderful kitchen store!

And then it was getting late (sort of. Late for Wes anyways, since he goes to bed around 7:30) so we picked up food from my favorite place for a hotel room picnic and went back, put Wes to bed, and set up our dinner and a movie.

Perfect! Until about an hour into the movie when we had an uninvited guest to our romantic dinner for deux.

He was so cute we let him stay up with us for a little while. Really he was having a little trouble sleeping because he's been fighting a pretty icky cold, and we took pity on him. Poor guy.

The next morning was my very favorite part of our Fancy Hotel Weekend. Why?

Breakfast!

Lounging in bed! Comfy jammies for everyone!



This all sounds great, right? Well, it was pretty perfect. And then we had to leave, which was okay. But we ran into a teensy little problem.

After we checked out, we wheeled all our crap down the block to the parking garage where we had left the car. Ben starts gathering stuff to take to the car while Wes and I wait at the entrance so we can wander Brussels a bit more before going home. As Ben is pulling things from under Wes's stroller I start to look around nervously. Uh, why are all these other people with suitcases just standing around outside the garage? Why is nobody going in? Why does it look so dark in there? That sign that says "Sundays - Closed" couldn't be talking about the parking garage, right? Right?!?

Wrong. The parking garage was closed. Joke's on us. Our car was inside the closed garage. Ha. ha. Luckily we weren't the only idiots who neglected to read the sign when we parked there and one guy called the parking company and got someone to come unlock the garage, and since there was a whole group of idiots, we split the fee that they charged for this service between all of us, so it wasn't so bad. The guy came, he unlocked the metal grate of the exit ramp, and we all walked down to our cars, in what Ben and I came to refer to as the "Dumbass parade".

Then it was all good, right? Well, we had parked on a different level than any of the other people, so we were all alone down on empty level three. We felt a little nervous that the garage guy would forget about us, so we hurried to throw everything in the car and get out. I mean, surely he wouldn't forget us and lock us in, right? We were just a little nervous. And as our car made it up to the second level, the lights in the garage dimmed. Uhhh oh... and as we turned the corner to exit, we saw that garage man had indeed forgotten about us and pulled the metal grate back down and started walking off. Waaaaait! Ben started honking his horn and the guy came back and let us out, thankfully. We made a mental note to perhaps read the signs in the future.

So it all ended well. And then we got lunch before leaving.


and Ben got a waffle (or two).

So all was right with the world.

Hope everyone else had a lovely weekend, too!

This one goes out to Uncle Duck

Life has been pretty routine here lately. I haven't blogged about it much because routine is not really very interesting. It's walking the dogs, Ben going to work, doing laundry, making dinner, watching tv. Do you really want to know about how I scrubbed the grout in the front hallway today or what we thought of the latest episode of Top Chef? No?

That's right. Our life is boring. But we're surprisingly happy about that. We are content walking the dogs together at night and coming home to a bowl of chili and an episode of Heroes. And on the weekend we're even happier, because while our weekends aren't very exciting, they're satisfying and happy.

Yesterday was a pretty typical Saturday for us. Wes wakes up around 6 or 7, Ben gets up with him and they head downstairs to feed the dogs, check up on the internet, maybe have a bottle. I laze around in bed for a bit, until 8 or so (hallelujah!) and then join them for cereal and coffee and tea.

After we're all awake, fed, dressed and happy, we leash up the dogs and take a long walk. Wes loves walking the dogs. He giggles and kicks his feet when he sees us getting his stroller ready. The dogs might like it a little too. As we start to get ready, Bella gets excited and starts giving quick licks to everyone and everything at snout level.

After walking, it's market time! I've mentioned before that we have a really great big market every Saturday in our little town. We're really lucky, and we take advantage of all the great produce, meats, cheeses, etc each week. This week we didn't need much, so Ben just picked up some oranges (delicious! nutritious!), rotisserie chicken for lunch (delicious! greasy and not nutritious!), flowers for me (pretty!), and scallops for dinner (yum!).

After lunch, we head to Starbucks. Some of you may know about this weekly tradition, but for the few who don't, every single weekend we go to Aachen, Germany for the sole purpose of going to Starbucks. Yes, I know, we're living in Europe, surrounded by rich cultural experiences we have yet to enjoy, and each week we instead go to a good old overpriced, overhyped coffee chain. Whatever. It makes us happy. We like to take books and drink our overpriced coffee and tea and have a treat and watch people. It's fun. This week was especially nice because Wes fell into a deep, deep sleep and napped for an hour or so while Ben and I read our books and shared a slice of chocolate cake. Mmm, our Starbucks has the best chocolate cake. Better if you have someone to share it with. Shared cake tastes better, and you don't end up feeling sick from the massive slab of chocolate deliciousness that you just could not say no too.

Coffee and snacks devoured, we take a walk around Aachen, shop a little, explore a little. We've pretty much become Aachen experts, but occasionally we still find new and exciting things. Yesterday, for example, I spotted a huge organic grocery store. I was very excited because I'm the kind of tree hugging hippie type who sees this kind of store, tells Ben that I'm going to explore while he buys printer ink in a nearby electronics store, and then skips merrily into the grocery store and swoons over the soba noodles, billions of kinds of tofu, fair trade coffee, and fancy organic chocolates. When Ben and Wes came to find me I told him I was in looooove and wanted to marry the store. He looked a little hurt. But he's very understanding and forgave me after I got us a couple little pieces of organic, free-range, grass-fed, fair trade chocolate.

Saturday nights are even less exciting than the days. No parties, clubs, restaurants, adventures. Not even a movie. Nope. Just me and Ben, our kitchen, and then the couch. Saturday's are a nice night to take advantage of the little bit of free time that we get to cook dinner together. Sometimes we make one of our usual things - a stir fry, risotto, sandwiches, whatever - and sometimes we make something fun and new. Last night was fun and new, playing around with the scallops that we bought from the market and a recipe for corn fritters that I really wanted to make. It was delicious and I only seriously injured myself once.

And to end our day of thrills and excitement? Coffee and strawberries in bed while watching Grey's Anatomy.

All of this might be boring for you, but for us it's nearly perfect.

I know I said no goopy baby face pictures because it's gross and people don't actually want to see it. But I can't help myself. I think my kid is just too cute, even when his face is covered in mashed up veggies.






He likes peas.

Okay, for those of you who read the last post and were all, "Blah blah blah... Good for you. You're happy, you eat in fancy restaurants and take pictures of your feet at the movie theater, la di da, what about the baby?!? Who cares about you, show us the baby! Baby! Baby! Baby!" Here's a Wes update for you.

Wesley has started eating solids. In addition to his good old formula, he is now a happy consumer of oatmeal and sweet potatoes. Next up, peas! But just to be clear, when I say he's eating these things, I mean he has been opening his mouth, allowing food in, and then dribbling a lot back out. He ends up with a lot on his face and bib, but he actually eats (swallows!) more and more each day. And he absolutely loves it. He gets excited and smacks his hands around and opens his mouth. When the whole endeavor gets a little less gross to look at, maybe we'll share pictures or a video.

He also has been making great strides in baby mobility. He's not crawling yet, but he's sooooo cloooooose. He can get up on all fours, but can't quite get the motion. Or he can get the arm motion or the leg motion, but not both at once. One of these days, though, he'll put it all together and, bam, it'll be time to lock up the guns and cookies. Just kidding, no guns, but we will have to put the treats high up somewhere.

He is also sitting up pretty well on his own. He can balance for a few minutes before toppling sideways or slumping forward, face to ground. When we put him in his seat, though, he can hang out for quite a while. With that, a bunch of photos. You know you love the photos.

Decade

On January 25, 1999, Ben and I were 18. We were freshman at St Louis University. Ben was pre-med and I had was trying to decide between about 10 different majors. We were young, really young, and we were falling in love. Ben took a chance with me, and we've been together ever since.

Now, 10 years later... We're married, living in the Netherlands, have a baby, and are about a million miles from where we started. We're still lucky enough to be happy and in love, and fortunate enough to have this anniversary fall on our regular date night Woooo! We had big plans!

Okay, so our plans weren't so big. But for a couple of tired new parents, they were pretty special. We had our babysitter show up a few hours earlier than normal, kissed Wes on the forehead and giddily ran out the door and went to the movies!

We had some time to kill before the movie, so we played around a little...

My shoes match my water and my candy container!

Ben humors me...



We saw Revolutionary Road, which we enjoyed very much, but Ben thought it was maybe a little depressing for a romantic date night movie. Afterwards, we tried out a nice restaurant in Maastricht, Restaurant Mes Amis and ate lots of delicious food and had a nice bottle of wine. I had a carpaccio of salmon with a mustard dill dressing and then duck breast with a shallot sauce and Ben had a duck mousse wrapped in duck breast with a balsamic syrup as a starter and truffle stuffed chicken with a port wine sauce. And for dessert? We shared a small piece of mocha cake with white chocolate ice cream and chocolate mousse. Oh my gosh. So good.

Like I said, we're about a million miles from where we started - from Saint Louis, from eating macaroni and cheese in our dorm rooms, from the carefree life of a couple of college students.
1999

2009

But we're still us and we're still happy. So I guess we're pretty lucky.

Christmas, part 2

The day after Christmas, we loaded up the car early in the morning and drove to the airport for our loooooooooong trip home. I've always kind of liked international flights - they show movies, serve meals, give you a free glass of wine with dinner, and then I doze off for a few hours and wake up to breakfast or ice cream or something. This time, it just felt long and tiring. I guess that's what happens when you take a 4 month old on a 9 hour flight followed by a 3 hour layover (that turned into 5 hours when our flight was delayed) and then another 2 hour flight. Long.

Wes was actually pretty good, don't get me wrong. In fact, we had complete strangers come up to us in the airport and say that they had been on our flight and our baby was so great. So I guess that's good. But from where we were sitting, Wes was restless and wanted to stretch out on the floor as he usually every day. And then he barfed. I cannot begin to explain this instance of barfing, but let me just say that I had to take him to the bathroom to wash him off in the airplane sink and Ben had to run and get a huge stack of paper towels from the flight attendant. And also wash the carseat when we finally got to St Louis. It was no good. Poor kid. He was fine though, just celebrating his first international flight with overconsumption of formula. Too much food + immobile baby = gross.

Happily, when we got to St Louis, my parents and brother were there waiting for us, and we got to hang out a little with them that night and then we met up with them, plus my two nephews, for lunch at my grandma's house. It was wonderful.
My grandma got to meet Wes

Wes got to meet Ethan and Aidan

Gamma and Papa got to see the baby

And I got to be surrounded by the people I love most for a couple hours.



And then, we headed to the mall to meet up with with Ben's parents, who FINALLY got to love their sweet grandson in person.

Wes's Grandma had been waiting for this for a very long time.

Grandpa was pretty happy to meet him too.



The next day, Wes had a meet and greet with more relatives and family friends than his little baby brain ever imagined possible. A few of the highlights...

Wes with Uncle Greg

And Aunt Raegan

Great-Grandma Morrison

Great-Grandma Roseberry

Four generations of Morrison men

After that day, things calmed down quite a bit and we just hung out. Wes continued to meet people, went to a couple basketball games, and spent lots and lots of time with Grandma and Grandpa. He was one happy and spoiled baby, getting ton of "Granny kisses" and playing with tractors with Grandpa.



Ben and I were a little spoiled too, with good food and time with family, and even a baby-free night to go out to dinner and a movie (and Target!). As nice as it is to be sleeping in our own beds again now, we were very sad to leave the U.S. behind again. It's strange how living abroad can make up extra-critical of the U.S. and extra-appreciative as well. But no matter what, what we miss most is all our family and this trip reminded us of how eager we are to move back to Minnesota next fall.