Ik ben zwanger!

That's Dutch for.......I'm pregnant! I officially start my 2nd trimester (14th week) today. Scott and I are thrilled for our new addition. Baby Eichenberger is "due" on May 18th. Everyone we tell seems to have lots of questions for us so I'll attempt to answer a few below.

Will your child have dual citizenship? Nope. Belgium doesn't welcome everyone freely. Scott or I would have to be a Belgian citizen in order for the child to have dual citizenship. Baby Eichenberger will just be an American citizen. I can only imagine the paperwork ahead for us!

Will you be coming back to the U.S to have the baby? Nope, again. The medical care is excellent in Europe, nothing to worry about. I have a great doctor who speaks English. The hospital is about 10 minutes away by car so it's really close. Plus, in Belgium, it is mandatory that you stay in the hospital 5 days for a normal birth and 7 for a c-section. I'm a newbie at this stuff so I'll need all the help I can get!

Are you ok with having a baby in a foreign country? Yes. You have to remember that we've been here a year and a half so it's not so foreign to us anymore. I'm sure there are a few American conveniences that we will miss but we'll make do.

Can your child be President? Yes! A previous co-worker of Scott's did the leg work on this for us and found out that even though he/she will be born in a foreign country because both parents are U.S. citizens then they are still eligible. We all can breathe easy now.

Are you going to find out if it's a boy or girl? Yes. We find out December 4th. Our doctor even scheduled another appointment for us on Dec. 17th just to re-confirm before we come home to the U.S. for Christmas.

Did you have morning sickness? Yes, it was horrible and I'm glad it's over!

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Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Household Duties

Scott and I aren't much of "handymen" when it comes to household problems. But, we had a recent plumbing problem in our shower and were left with no choice but to figure it out. Basically, we had a clogged drain and the Belgian version of Draino was not working. It had been clogged for about two months and finally it would not drain anymore. With confidence we decided we would unscrew the drain cap. Right when we took out the last screw the entire pipe fell underneath the shower, out of reach. We took some needle-nose pliers and pulled the drain back up and quickly screwed it back in so that wouldn't happen again. Talk about panic!Scott then started fiddling around with a side pipe and found a secret catch-all and tada...our problem solved. We were so proud of ourselves that we solved a plumbing issue! We were all smiles that day.

Barcelona, Spain

Sorry the blog is little late. My computer is on its last mega-bit. It lasts about an hour a day and then crashes. So instead of risking a lost blog I use my hour wisely and watch Days of our Lives or check emails.

The pictures below our from our Barcelona trip. We had a good time in Barcelona. Much to our surprise it was a booming European city. We were expecting it to be like southern Spain which we compare to Mexico City. We saw lots of great architecture (modern, old and weird) along our hop-on/hop-off tour. Barcelona is a major cruise port city so there were a lot of people in town to catch the cruise but because it was a European holiday lots of Italians, French, Belgians, Spaniards and other non-cruise folks came into the city for the weekend. It was extremely crowded. Not to worry though, we took shelter in the Hard Rock Cafe to get away from the crowds. Gaudi's famed house
Walking the boardwalk
It was windy on top of the hop-on/hop-off bus
The Barcelona version of the Arc de Triomphe
Row boating in a lake. Scott was rowing and I was snapping pictures instead of guiding.