Ischia.

JJ's new boots.  He's very excited for it to start raining : )

Since Brian felt bad for being gone for a week, that included my birthday, we went to Ischia last weekend and stayed at an AMAZING hotel right on the ocean.  We would have never been able to afford staying there during tourist season, but one of the best perks of living here is that you can visit all these places during the offseason when it's not as crowded and actually affordable.  Ischia is an island right next to Capri, but for some reason Capri is where everyone tends to go.  We actually enjoyed Ischia a lot more because it wasn't as crowded and was very laid back.  We hung out in our hotel, went for a few very long walks, and had a nice dinner.  It was a very relaxing weekend, well, as relaxing as it can be with two young boys with you.

Pity Party.

Soooo, I thought JJ was being cute and hiding behind Owen (do you see his feet sticking out?!) until he stood up and announced that he was pooping.  Great.  I guess we still have a lot of work to do in the potty training department.

Mmm, well balanced lunch.

Yesterday was my birthday and I threw a huge pity party for myself.  To begin with, my dear husband is currently in Venice for the week for "work."  They are staying at some super nice hotel that you can only get to by boat.  Today he was able to go out sightseeing all day and enjoyed the city.  Bleh.  So I had a less than amazing birthday : (  I went to bible study in the morning, where no one knew it was my birthday.  Then I picked up JJ from school and he announced that his ear hurt and he was feeling sick and yep, today I took him to the doctor and he confirmed that he has an ear infection.  And he also has, as the doctor keeps calling it, the "trifecta" of allergies, eczema, and asthma so whenever he gets sick he gets a bad cough from the asthma.  Luckily he doesn't fight me on using the inhaler anymore.  So, on to my birthday - 

What I did:  Made myself my favorite dinner, spaghetti, and had a nice glass of wine once the boys were both finally sleeping and read a book before going to bed early.

What I didn't do:  Dishes!  Which I'm now regretting because the sink is now overflowing since today I had to take JJ to the doctor and deal with Owen's diarrhea this morning which is probably my fault for drinking so much coffee to get me up and moving in the mornings.

 Last year Brian threw me an amazing birthday party with my friends and family and this year I was alone with two CRAZY boys; don't let the pictures fool you!!!  I really, really, really miss my friends and family sometimes and yesterday was definitely one of those days.  Yes, I'm still glad that we (and the Navy) decided for us to live here, but sometimes it's really hard to be away.  

Ok.  My pity party is officially over.  I'm going to head to bed and wake up tomorrow with a better attitude.  I promise.  I think.

2 Months Old.

We let JJ pick out his Halloween costume this weekend and he chose The Flash.  Now he wants to wear it all the time!

Apparently The Flash loves play dough and trains.

Owen turned 2 months old yesterday.  He smiles a lot now, but of course won't smile for the camera.  He has his doctor appointment next week so we'll see how big he's gotten.

Visitors.

Wearing Oma's glasses while she took his picture, maybe why it's a little blurry : )

Making cookies using the new Cars cookie cutters from my mom!

So after my parents visit, Brian's parents were here for a few weeks.  It was great having them here to help out, especially playing with JJ.  JJ loved having all the additional attention!  Brian's mom did a great job working on potty training with JJ.  It's still not "perfect" but we're very close to having him fully trained.  One piece of TMI is that they stand up to use the little potty at school and now JJ wants to stand up sometimes.  Let's just say that our bathrooms will now have to be cleaned a lot!  We definitely need to get him a stool for each bathroom.

Now that all our visitors are gone, we're getting used to it being just the four of us, until December when Michael, Krista, and Tristan will be here!  YAY!  Until then, it's a balancing act that we're all still adjusting to.  Luckily JJ seems to really like being a big brother and tonight even read Owen a book before bed.  It was super cute!  Brian starts traveling again this week, so it will be another big adjustment for all of us.  I'm sure we'll survive, but it will be a long week. 

Some More Amalfi Coast.

The view from our hotel room.

We took Brian's parents to our favorite tourist spot, the Amalfi Coast, last weekend.  This time we went to Paestum, Ravello, Amalfi, and we stayed in Minori.  We had a great weekend and enjoyed seeing some new towns.  Future visitors not to worry, we will take everyone there who visits us : )  Brian is becoming an expert on the extremely narrow roads and only half the passengers got carsick on the drive.  Each time that we make it home safely I'm extremely grateful to God and Brian's observant, cautious, and partly aggressive driving!

Oktoberfest.

Since Brian's German parents are in town, we took them to Oktoberfest on base on Friday!  It was actually pretty fun and Owen did amazing.  He was awake and enjoyed the music for awhile and then fell asleep.  Not sure how you can sleep through extremely loud polka music, but he did.  Brian and his dad went to Germany for the weekend and went to the "real" Oktoberfest and left me and his mom home with the boys.  Brian now owes me big time  ; )

Brian's mom has been potty training JJ while she's been here and it's going really well.  I guess I owe her big time!  I'm hoping to only be changing one set of diapers by the time she leaves.

More Amalfi Coast.

Owen really enjoyed the coast : )

We went down and stayed on the Amalfi Coast with my parents the last weekend they were here and had a very nice time.  We stayed in a beautiful hotel overlooking Sorrento and went to Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, and Maiori.  We rented a van so that we didn't have to take two cars and Brian seemed to have a lot of fun driving on the incredibly narrow road on the side of a cliff in the large vehicle!