For whatever reason, blogger is not letting me arrange the pictures. Sorry it's a little sloppy. Maybe I can come back later and edit it a little.

Ezra calls Jonas "Nonna". Which is pretty close. It gets the vowel sounds in there and everything but the beginning and ending letters. But it's funny because Nonna in Italian is grandma. Oh well. Another cute thing, is that to Ezra every baby or picture of a baby is "Nonna!". Even pictures of himself as a baby!

We passed our inspection with the landlord and will be getting our deposit back. Yea! We're hoping to be on our way to Germany on or about the 20th. We'll see...

We got 2 bikes for cheap. We're hoping to do a little more bike riding in Germany. Hopefully, they'll have trails there. There are always tons of cyclists on the roads here, but that's just too scary for me. Mike got a seat for his bike to put Ezra in and took him for a spin. The helmet is a little to big. Poor Ezra. He doesn't have much of a view ("please don't fart Dad!"), but he seemed to enjoy himself.

Today, Jonas is 16 weeks old. A week ago, I forgot to include the latest measurements. Jonas weighs 16 lbs 9 oz and is 23 in long. Ezra is 25 lbs and 32 in tall.

I decided to do a little photo shoot on the couch. You can see by the progession of the pictures how that went. :)

We are still awaiting orders for Germany. Everything as far as dates for packing and moving is on hold until we have Mike's orders. Our landlord is going to make

us pay for all of October, so we probably need to stay here for as much of the month as possible so we won't have to pay anything out of pocket.

Jonas is 15 weeks old. He is rolling over from tummy to back like a pro, but doesn't get very far in his attempt to roll back to tummy. His back and neck are getting stronger every day and he was able to laugh a little tonight with out getting the hiccups for the first time ever. He's a sweet boy. He still has the occasional tummy trouble that makes him cranky and uncomfortable, but I think he's growing out of it. He's not even close to sleeping through the night. The past couple of nights, he's been very tossy and turny and insistant upon sleeping with us. I think he may be beginning to feel his teeth moving up. He's getting kind of slobbery and prefers to bite his pacifier instead of suck.

Ezra is beginning to struggle more and more with having to do what we tell him. I think if he could stay outside 12 hours a day, he would always be in a good mood. But most of the time, he's a happy boy and makes us laugh.

I added a couple more pictures from our stay in Baltimore. There is one of Ezra sitting on a cannon near the USS Constellation in the Inner Harbor. The other two are of the boys at the Oriole game we attended. Ezra's eating a peanut, and I love the one of Jonas. Our friend Elizabeth took it with her fancy camera.

The ladies retreat that I was planning is officially over, so now I can turn my full attention to our upcoming move. I really am excited to be moving to Germany. It's a good thing, because I want that to be my overriding emotion; not sadness about leaving Italy. I'm also excited about the road trip with my family.

Jonas is 14 weeks today. What a cutie?! He can roll tummy to back, but still lacks the strength to go the other way. Smiles are frequent and he loves to watch Ezra. I don't have any pics of Ezra this week. These of Jonas were just too sweet, and I thought I'd let him have the spotlight for once. Ezra got blogs all to himself for 16 months. :) I saved the best picture for last. Mike said it looks as if Jonas and the caterpillar are having a conversation. Too funny!

Hope you folks in Houston can see these soon. I guess you'll have to catch up when the power is finally restored.

Our commercial flights were not not great. Both kids were fussy for the first few hours, but decided to sleep for the last few hours. Yea! We had a 4 hours layover in Frankfurt, Germany which was wayyyy too long, but was justified by the fact that I had an ever so brief converstation with Natalie Portman. We were waiting by our gate when she got off the plane. She was sneezing when I saw her the first time, and I said to Mike, "That chick looks like Natalie Portman". I always see people that look like someone else to me, so Mike was like, "Yeah, yeah..." She was dressed very casually, big carpet bag, no make-up, etc. This first picture of her was taken at the Venice Film Festival and must have been as she was arriving in Venice from the airport, because this is exactly how she looked when I saw her. I also included a nicer picture of her that's a little more recognizable. Anyway, as she walked away from the gate, I saw her face and I said, "Mike that's Natalie Portman". He was like, "Probably not..." and I said, "I'm like 98% sure that's Natalie Portman". She walked away and I thought she was leaving the area, but Mike said she just went in the restroom. Sure enough she came out and sat across the hallway from the gate. There was no crowd or anything and Mike said I should go over there. I said that I didn't want to be like that, but deep down I really did! So I got my camera ready and walked over to where she was sitting. I leaned down next to her and she was digging through her giant bag. I said, "Are you Natalie Portman?" and she said, "Yeah. Hi. How are you?". I asked if she was coming back from the Venice Film Festival and she said, "No, I'm actually on my way there." I asked if I could get a picture and she said, "No, I'd really rather not". So I said, "Oh, ok" and then walked away dejectedly". Both she and her bodyguard (?), that's in the picture with her both said "Thank you". I guess they were appreciative that I was willing to just drop it and walk away. She ended up being on our flight to Venice. As we got off the plane Mike said, "I bet Natalie Portman doesn't have to wait for her bags...". But sure enough, there she was at the carasousel with all the rest of us. Mike had Ezra and stood right by her to wait for our bags. I was behind them both so I saw her smiling at Ezra a few times. One of her bags even got lost and her assistant had to make a claim at lost and found. We know, because we were in line behind her to claim our carseats. But meeting a movie star almost made the plane ride worth it. :)

The boys did really great with the jet lag. As in, it was almost non-existant. Yea!

On to more important things. Pictures of my boys. Jonas is 12 weeks old. When he's not crying he likes to smile. :) That's sounds worse than it is, but the last two evenings he was VERY fussy. He's still cute though. He's down to 1 feeding at night. I need to get him in for a check to see how much he's grown.

Ezra is doing ok. That boy LOVES to be outside. He's getting 4 teeth, so some days are pretty rough. Going outside makes everything better though. It's coming in that makes him mad.

I'm still planning for a ladies retreat with my church next weekend. Organizing the whole thing sure is a LOT of work. It'll be fun though. Then, I get to focus on moving. Ahhh! I'm mostly looking forward to it, but it's not going to be easy. Just about 5 more weeks to go....