Sun comes with new beginnings!

Spring is coming!!  We are so excited that the sun peeks through and warms things up for bit every few days or so.  The temperature has been shifting from 50's with rain to 70's with sun and back to 50's so many times but I think it stays 70's longer lately.  We are so ready. :)  Jakob got a summer hat and a bathing suit and he's ready to use them!

At the end of the March we took a short Easter long weekend getaway to Deiva Marina, Italy.  Unfortunately, the weather turned for the worse and it rained everyday except one.  So all we could do was walk along the beach in the rain.  Not exactly what I was hoping for.  There was a huge aquarium in Genoa and we thought Easter would be the perfect day to go because everything else would be closed and people would be with their families.  Well, we were totally wrong.  It turned out to be the place to go and was packed and not to mention the weather was beautiful.  A perfect day to play on the beach (not in Genoa)!  It took us almost an hour to find parking outside of the city and then there was a 30 min wait to get into the aquarium and inside there were so many people is was hard to move.  Luckily, Jakob is still small enough to slither through everyone and get up front so at least he had a good time. He loved the sharks and after learning the word everything was a shark after that. That morning Jakob got a small Easter basket with some goodies. We colored eggs the day before when we were stuck inside. So we had a good breakfast while Jakob enjoyed his goodies. Since I couldn't find any plastic eggs to fill with things I sewed some felt together on the drive over to make eggs with pockets. He found the chocolate inside and some even had toys! Nothing too big because we don't really want that to become the point of the holiday but he got some sidewalk chalk, scissors, a 1chf plastic flying disk thing and a small magnetic fishing pole with a few fish. Plenty and he knew exactly how to use the scissors and break into the chocolate eggs thanks to school. :) The drive up was actually pretty enjoyable but the drive home was terrible. We were told Easter is the worst holiday time to drive through the Gotthard tunnel and boy were they right. 2-3 hours later we finally got through and made it home a little after Jakob's bedtime. Not exactly ideal especially since we all had work/school the next day but we made it.

The weekend after we went to celebrate Easter again with the family of the 3yr old girl and our friend Sarah. We did a little arts and crafts, an Easter egg hunt, let the kiddos open a few more goodies and then had brunch. Luckily Paul's mom sent us a little Easter package that included some plastic eggs! So I was really happy Jakob could do a little hunt. They have metal ones here already filled with gross 'jelly beans' but they are a lot harder to open and are still not cheap. But I wanted to see him hunt so bad and he was a lot better than I expected him to be! After a few points he got the idea and kept looking. We had to direct him a few times because sticks are obviously more fascinating and at one point he decided he needed to get rid of all his eggs and just started dropping them out of his basket. But once he realized they had candy in them (one busted open) he decided he should probably keep them. It was a fun celebration!

The last couple of weekends have been pretty low key. Even though we haven't planned much we still can't seem to get all the cleaning and errands done. Since Sat is our only day for all of it, it gets old and exhausting. I don't mind that things aren't open on Sunday but when I can't do laundry or vacuum and the like it gets annoying. And I guess me feeling under the weather for the last month hasn't helped things. But there's an explanation...

Jakob's going to be a big brother! It's all becoming a little more real now since I told work but we are really excited. Everything points to a very healthy baby so far- so thankful. Hopefully, we'll find out if it's a boy/girl in a month (me and our moms are crossing our fingers for a girl against the odds). The baby is due November 3 when Jakob will be just shy of 3 years. A great age difference in our opinion especially since school is making Jakob an awesome walker. On a perfect day he can walk for 15-20 min. But I told work I think it's best I stay home for 6 months (16 weeks are paid) and they didn't seem like it would be unreasonable. I plan to also ask to come back at 80% for the cleaning/errands issue mentioned above and spending time with my babies of course. I'm so thankful I have a job to go back to. Because of it I can spend so much one on one time with this new baby while Jakob is at school/daycare. I'm really looking forward to it. Paul should be finished with his PhD no later than this time next year. So he's starting to plan what he'll do next. He's gotten some great leads/offers and has some things to decide about the direction he wants to go.  It will be nice though when he's finishing that I'll be a bit more flexible and he can stay late to work on things.

All fun stuff! I am so excited for my trip to the states in June. I know I'll be very tired flying with Jakob alone but it will be worth it. This will be the first time I've been to Tallahassee pregnant. I'm so happy I can have some memories of sharing/celebrating this pregnancy in my hometown with people I don't see very often.  And Paul is really excited for his guy vacation.  Our extended winter has probably made a few of his ideas not plausible but he'll still have a great time with his buddies.  I'm glad he can have this special time and I can do the same.  Lately, I have been feeling really lucky and blessed about where we are in life.  So thankful.  :)