THE GREEN(wald) HOUSE … (growing rosemary & raising a little wolf)

Rosie turned 1 year old on the 14th - we celebrated the anniversary of the actual birth by taking a family bath at 4:23pm - remembering the exact moment she came into our lives in that very same bathtub.

We had her official birthday party the next day - and we rented a big bounce castle for the kids to play on - and it was a huge hit! We waited until everyone else had left the party before we put Rosie in it - to be safe - and she LOVED it - she kept trying to jump and make herself bounce.

A lot of friends and family came to the party to celebrate- and Rosie had fun playing with all the kids - including her friend M

I made her a healthy, organic cake (from a mix) with applesauce and bananas added - and she had a great time squishing it in her hands and dropping little bits on the floor - I think she might have tasted a bit of it too…

I bought her a really cute party dress with pink and green polka dots - but she kept getting stuck when crawling -so we had to put some bloomers on her and tuck the front of her dress in so she could be mobile once again…


She is getting really close to walking on her own - she barely holds on to one of my fingers and we walk around the house. She also still loves the stairs - and can easily go up and down on her own. She is babbling a lot more and pointing at everything - wanting to know the names of things. She also kind of sings along when I sing to her or one of her toys makes a sing-song noise - she tries to copy it.
She is the most precious thing - and each day she seems more like a little person - and I am so excited each day to see her growing and changing and becoming my little girl.

We had an amazing time on our whirlwind trip to Europe. Rosie has now been to 6 other countries outside of the US - and all before the age of 1. She has been to Canada, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Monaco, and Italy. She was such a great little traveler, going with the flow - sleeping wherever and whenever she needed to

trying new foods

tolerating all the planes, trains, taxis, and all the walking and exploring we were doing.

Here is a very short summary of our trip.
Flew into Amsterdam and hopped on a train to Bremen, Germany. Jay and Mel (our friends getting married) picked us up at the train station in Bremen and drove us to Fischerhude - where Mel’s mom lives and where the wedding was taking place. It was a beautiful little German town -

everything looked right out of a fairy tale (no coincidence that the Brothers Grimm are from that area)- brick houses with thatched roofs were everywhere. We spent 4 days in Germany, the wedding was so sweet and intimate and Jay and Mel looked so happy

The weather was perfect and we all had a great time.

We also took a few day trips into Bremen and Hamburg and did a bit of sight seeing. Oh yeah, a little thing called the World Cup was also going on in Germany at this time, so the soccer (or football) hooligans were everywhere.

Their enthusiasm was infectious, all the pride in their teams - everyone waving flags and chanting songs and of course a lot of beer drinking going on. We watched the Germany/Argentina match with some other wedding guests and it was great cause for celebration when Germany won!

After 4 days in Germany - we took a train to Dortmund and hopped a flight to Nice - off to the south of France to lie on a beach and really relax. On the train, while Rosie was kind of standing and exploring, the train lurched and Rosie fell on the ground and got a rug burn on the left side of her face, near her eye. We just can’t stop this girl from looking like a white trash baby! We stayed at a gorgeous hotel in Juan Le Pins right on the ocean - and they upgraded us to an amazing suite (as Joe told them it was our honeymoon) - and we had a huge balcony overlooking the Mediterranean

and a huge room for Rosie to explore. We spent our first day just relaxing on the beach - and then spent a few more days exploring and going to Monaco/Monte Carlo, Nice, and Cannes.

When we were in Nice, we took a little break from walking around and sat in a park to let Rosie crawl around and cool off (it was HOT!)

and she decided to stand up on her own for the first time!

It was pretty cool, she has been pulling herself to stand for months, but this is the first time she went from squatting to standing all on her own with no support. She continued to practice this new skill all day and would clap with excitement when she would do it!

There were more World Cup games still going on and we were on the streets of France on the night that France beat Portugal to make it into the finals vs. Italy. Once again we got to celebrate with the locals and it was really fun!

After France, we hopped a train to Italy - staying at a small town called Sestri Levante - on the Ligurian Coast - the town was really pretty and we explored the area and took a ferry down to Cinque Terre - which is 5 small fishing villages on the coast.

We hiked from one little town to another (that’s the big draw to this area) and we took a ton of pictures. The area was a little too overrun with US backpackers for my taste, though. The towns that make up Cinque Terre have become a major tourist draw in the last couple years. We stopped in the largest of the 5 towns, Monterosso and relaxed on the beach for a while - and Rosie had a nice snack of sand

Then after 2 days we hopped another train up to Milan to prepare for our flight home. Milan wasn’t a very pretty city, except for the Duomo - it was mostly square, concrete, boring buildings - we walked from our hotel to the Piazza Duomo - where fans were gathering for the final World Cup match. We were there around 4pm and the game wasn’t till 8pm and there were already about 20-30,000 people gathered, all waving flags, blowing airhorns, screaming and chanting - it was crazy!

We bought an Italia shirt for Rosie to wear to show support for the game.

We went back to our hotel to watch the game and when Italy won - the entire town (and country) went wild! We left for the airport at 4am and there were still people celebrating in the streets and people driving around honking horns and waving giant flags. We decided that Rosie is good luck for sporting events, as every country we were in won their games. We had a great time - but we were glad to come home too…