6 Months...

Oh my how time has flown...!
Scarlett celebrated her 6 month birthday yesterday (Saturday). I woke her up and told her that we should throw her an "Over the Hill" themed birthday party. ha ha! Just joking, but we thought it was really funny. :)

Last you saw/read was that we went to the pumpkin patch and carved our pumpkins... Well, since then, we celebrated the actual holiday - Halloween! Joe's squadron hosted a luncheon on the 29th of October over the lunch hour, which was great fun! We were able to get together with all the families from his squadron, get dressed up and have some great food.

The night before the Trunk or Treat, I realized that we didn't have a costume for Scarlett, so Stephanie and I messed with the stuff that we had on hand to come up with a costume. ....and this is the way it went:

Macie Walker (Alyson's good friend from High School) sent Scarlett an adorable tutu and bow that was Halloween themed. We got this in the mail on Thursday and I knew right away it would have to be used for something, and well, this was it! The costume!

So, these were black, green and orange.... and Kaylie Baetsle (Alyson's other good friend from high school) sent the Halloween outfit that Scarlett wore the pumpkin patch, which happened to be orange and black -- super convenient. Well, Stephanie and I started manipulating the outfit and came up with making her into a BAT!

First we wanted to make the wings, but that was harder than we thought...

We though wire hangers and a black tank top would work best at first....

Shaped the wire hanger and taped it with electrical tape....

Then we realized the tank top was going to be to awkward to cut and shape around two wings, so we scratched that.

Instead, we thought we'd alternate the tape and fabric -- you know, coordinating colors! But, then that looked so bad, that we thought we'd just cover it in electrical tape...

Which just turned out to be even worse! lol We called it our little inkblot. It was just terrible - and looked nothing like bat wings.

So, what was the next best idea we had? ....the pizza box that was in recycling and electrical tape! Which, worked fantastic!

And then I took a white onezie, green fabric and velcro; sewed them on to it, which she could then wear as part of the bat costume...

And this was the final result of her costume... Ready?

Ta Da! Pretty darn cute, eh? :)

The other big happening on this side of the pond is that Steven and Teah (our friends that we met while Joe was in Tech School in California) had their baby girl on Tuesday, November 1. A healthy baby girl, 8 lbs 10 oz and 20.75" long named Annibelle Elaine. She is a beautiful little thing. 

And I had the pleasure of going up and meeting her, while running errands for her momma and poppa... She is so so sweet. Doesn't give me baby fever, but it does bring back sweet memories of when Scarlett was born. 

Shortly after Annibelle was born, Scarlett was able to meet her for the first time. Babies/Children under the age of 12 are not allowed on the recovery floor of the hospital, so Scarlett never went up to the hospital to see her. However, before we went to the holiday bazaar on base, we let them meet for the first time... 

She "pet" Annibelle just like a dog, and was so excited about it... it was sweet! :)

And well, the last bit of updates I have to add is from today! Today was a lazy Sunday around the Mahaffey house. We didn't do much, but Scarlett had a few new experiences. We gave her pears for the first time, she typed a love note on the computer and.....well, we'll save the best one for last! :)

We added a new food to her growing list of tried foods. We gave her pears for breakfast! We have been having problems with her digestive system (aka pooping) and I know that pears are great for constipation. So, I bought some pears...

And let Scarlett play with one pear...

While Lindsey cut up the rest of them....

And then we "steamed" them....

And then blended them up and placed them in the fridge over night.

Then fed them to Scarlett for breakfast...

She couldn't get enough of them! She seemed to really enjoy them! Pears were her first fruit, so the first "sweet" thing she has ever had. We took video of her trying them, of course, and it was rather entertaining. 

Here's the link to the video: http://vimeo.com/31687167 

Another funny thing that happened today: Scarlett woke up from her nap and was talking to her self in her crib, so Joe and I went in and looked at her, and she was on her tummy, playing with the one stuffed animal that is in her crib, a bunny. Well, little did I know, this bunny had a tag on it -- a paper tag. Well, Scarlett had been sucking on this tag for so long, that she had sucked it apart. Luckily she didn't choke on it or anything, but it was funny as she had it all over her face and hand - just like a dog.

the poor bunny!

And well, Scarlett wanted so badly to tell everyone how much she loved them, so we let her type you a love note, so she could tell you herself! Here it is:

Kopwdtptwyepkuy         n meo  kf j d mcc n n sc csjcjad uk d jd f fs   n98h7ynvh  nmm

G

    h mkmommv2  h xzxd  jk8

Love, Scarlett. :)

.....okay, thats not the real story. The real story is she was sitting with Joe as he was research some stuff, and well, Scarlett just loves our keyboard (as it lights up), so she was getting pretty angry that Joe wouldn't let her type, so he pulled up a word document and let her go at it. It was pretty cute! See the pictures below:

She will grow up to be such a good typist. :)

Well, in the world of teething, we offically have TWO teeth! We broke another one through a week ago or so. Its on the bottom, right  next to her other one. Makes for a super cute, toothy smile! 

Can you see it? Can you see it? right below the runny nose. :( 

...but, its there, I promise. :)

And are you ready for the big announcement?!

Ready?

Scarlett is scooting! Not crawling yet, but scooting! 

I am willing to bet that by the time we get home, she'll be crawling! And by scooting, I really mean pivoting in circles. Its rather entertaining. :) She wouldn't let me take a video of it. Every time I tried, she fussed. So, I cheated and took sequential pictures. Enjoy!

In these next pictures, she threw her rattler teether....so, she was working hard to get it back....

She got pretty frustrated....

Reeeachhh!

And frustrated again.... 

But, learned, in the end, that hard work pays off! :)

And the one other fun video that I got today of Scarlett was of her telling stories! She was having so much fun talking that I recorded her. Hope this gives you an insight into her daily stories. ...I cut it off earlier than I meant to, but then she stopped when I tried recording again, so this will have to do for now. 

Link to video: http://vimeo.com/31687065

But, time flying also only means one thing: We'll be home soon! In 13 days to be exact! So exciting! We are working out the final details this week as to how we're getting to the airport and such, but soon enough we'll be on that plane to Chicago! ....13 days.

A Halloween Kind of Weekend

Well Germany has found its cold streak. Its been in the 50s here, on a good day. And yesterday (Saturday) was one of those. We heard about a local pumpkin patch in a nearby village, so we looked them up and headed out to visit it.

Halloween here in Germany isn't like it is in the states. There aren't halloween decorations up in everyones yard, nor are there halloween seasonal shops where you can go and buy costumes. Its definitely an American thing. Therefore, finding a pumpkin patch that we could go to was great! It was run by a German farmer, and it wasn't anything like the states, but it made us feel at home -- you'll understand as you look through the pictures. :)

We headed out about driving with Josh and Lindsey (who is Scarlett's sitter from time to time), and drove about 15 minutes away from base before we arrived to this pumpkin patch. It was in a gorgeous area, full of rolling hills and cows on the hillside. There was just a small plot of land that the farmer had planted pumpkins, which became the pumpkin patch. Absolutely nothing fancy, but just a piece of land full of pumpkins.

When we first arrived at the pumpkin patch, Scarlett had her first encounter with a "Moo-Moo Cow," as quoted by Joe. At first, the cow wasn't sure about Scarlett, but soon warmed up to her, as he let her pet his nose and even slide a thumb into his nostril. That gave us all quite a laugh.

Josh & Lindsey with the "Moo Moo Cows"

Daddy & Scarlett 

After she had her fun with the "Moo-Moo Cows," we went up and went on a "Hay rack ride." However, this hay rack ride, had no hay in it. It was a tractor trailer that we stood in, while we went to the farmers farm. When we were at the farm, we were able to see pigs, horses, cows and chickens. ....this is what reminded us of home, as I'm sure you could imagine.  :)

Our Hay Rack Tractor Ride

Scarlett All Bundled up for the day! She had her Halloween outfit on from Kaylie, which arrived here just in time! We got it on Thursday and I made the headband for it on Friday night --I'll post this at the end of this post. It came together great. :)

More of the "Moo Moo Cows"

The pretty horsey at the farm

Scarlett wasn't so sure about the horse. She didn't really want to pet it, like she did the cows. She just kept chewing on her thumb. No, not sucking on it, just chewing on it.



Scarlett still nervous about the horse - as you can see she is starring at him.

The piggies, which love pumpkin apparently.

These next pictures are of Joe and Scarlett chasing the chickens. He found it necessary to chase the poor little chickens. But, of course took Scarlett with him when he did it. I should have recorded it, but didn't think of it at the time. My bad. But, here are the pictures. We were all laughing so hard. It was great fun!

After the chickens, we headed back to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins, but not before Scarlett fell asleep. She was completely tuckered out from seeing all the animals that she didn't even get to help pick her pumpkin --but, maybe next year. :)

Such a sweet 'lil thing. :)

After we got our pumpkins, we headed home and had a nice evening in, while we worked on some crafty projects that needed to get done around the house...

First Project: I put the sewing machine to Joe's uniform. He needed his name tapes and operational badges sewn on some new tops that a friend passed down to him that he had grown out of. So, now instead of Joe's one top that he had, he now has FOUR! :)

Joe ironing his operational badge to size

Second Project: On Friday night, I made Scarlett's headband/bow to go with her halloween outfit. All babies look like little boys right now according to Germans, which I do agree with on some level, so I had to differentiate her somehow. The bow worked great and no one thought she was a boy! :)

Found some great ribbon at the craft store for super cheap -- $3! 

Made little bows out of them...

Covered a barrette in orange ribbon, which then clipped on to
an adult size headband....

....and viola! Its done. And it only cost me $3. 

Project Three: Scarlett's Baby Food. I bought a Winter (Butternut) Squash for $4 and a can of pure (not pie mix) pumpkin for $2. Between these two, I was able to make 7 weeks worth of baby food for Miss Scarlett. So, here's the process I took. :)

     

After I cut the squash in half, I scooped out the seeds, and then placed the squash in two inches of water in a baking dish, then into the oven at 400 degrees for 45 minutes....

 After it came out, it was steamed and soft! Smelled great and kept the house warm. :)

 

Then I scooped out all the squash "meat," added it to the blender with a bit of breastmilk to thin it out and placed it into the freezer containers (ice cube - like trays). So easy!

 

 

The second part to the baby food was the pumpkin. Which, I cheated on, but it is just as healthy... I bought canned, pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix) for $2....

 




added it to a mixing bowl, added breast milk, mixed with a fork, put in the ice cube type trays, and when we ran out of those, put into muffin tins....

....and two hours later, I had 5-6 weeks worth of homemade baby food! So easy and tasty for Scarlett! :)

 

We took video of Scarlett trying Pumpkin for the first time this weekend too and we posted it for you to see. Its not super exciting, but we thought you might enjoy an "insider" look at feeding Scarlett. We fed her pumpkin for dinner after the pumpkin patch, which we found it fitting, but it took Scarlett awhile to agree with us.

Video link: http://vimeo.com/30975117

Project Four: An area rug for Scarlett's room. Scarlett's room is an awkward shape (5 walls, one at an angle) and has a lot of floor space. Our house is all tile and white walls, so anything we can do to add color, and create a sound barrier so it doesn't echo, the better off we are.

Scarlett has been putting her self to sleep since she was about 3 months old, but only after some snuggles, first, of course! However, this means that she cries for 5-10-ish minutes and we would like to have a barrier for this, as we have a neighbor, whose living room is opposite of Scarlett's room in our apartment building.

So, there is the need for one. However, I don't want to spend $250 on a rug that we may never use again and we won't get much out of it when we try to resell it. So, I came up with, what I consider to be a pretty ingenious idea. :)

First I bought a slip-proof rug liner for 18euro ($25) --you know, those things that go under rugs so they don't slip when on tile/hardwood? yeah, that thing. (Its below in the picture) Well, it has a great grid on it that I am using to tie fabric through...

 

Then I took left over fabric from the creation of Scarlett's nursery --aka Scrap fabric, which means I didn't have to buy it = free fabric. I cut this up and just started tying the fabric through the square holes and eventually it will turn into a rug, but for now, its a work in progress.

What is done so far.... Well, I actually have about 15 more rows done right now, but no pictures of it to post. I'll take them and post them again soon in a future blog. I'll keep you updated on the progress of it. :)

 

Last but not least, we spent last night (Sunday night) carving our pumpkins! Yes, it was Scarlett's first holiday! Well, other than the fourth of july, but thats not a big holiday over here, so we didn't count it. So, her first festive holiday is Halloween! And after our exhausting day at the pumpkin patch, we had to carve and celebrate the holiday!

This is Scarlett's little pumpkin this year. Its super cute and very Scarlett like -- tall and skinny. ;)

This is Joe and I's pumpkin. Big enough to carve a fun picture into! 

and the pumpkin guts!

....And of course we let Scarlett play in the pumpkin guts!

 

 

 

WHO COULD SAY NO TO THIS FACE?! haha! :)

We also took video of Scarlett playing in the pumpkin guts. We took this on Joe's phone, the only phone nearby, which equates to the sound not being good, at all. However, we did catch it and we thought you might enjoy seeing her play in it! It was fun. It seemed to be a love/hate relationship with her. I don't think she like the coldness of the guts, but loved the feeling of it.

Here's the link to the video: http://vimeo.com/30991222

Just an fyi: She does eat quite a bit of it, however there are no seeds in it. And she had pumpkin the night before. We figured its organic enough that it can't hurt her. :)

And here is the end result of the pumpkin carving:

"Trick or Treat" for the big pumpkin and an "S" for Scarletts. Fitting. :)

As far as updates for us, other than what we have been up to, there isn't much that is new. 

Joe & Alyson are still working and loving it.

Well, if you can believe it or not, I think that is everything that I had to update you on. Lots of pictures, but lots of fun events! I hope it wasn't a photo bomb that was too much to handle, but rather, we hope it was one you enjoyed! :)

Hugs to all across the pond.