St. Nicholas Day

Soojin, the biting culprit

 Well, last night was the little Adventzauber event at the Kindergarten. It was just Me, Vin and Trix. Andi couldn't get off of work to attend. I picked Vin up early from Kindergarten and got him a long nap in order ensure as best as I could that he would be in a good mood for the evening. I also cooked him an early dinner and fed him, then dressed him, then dressed Elsie and then packed everyone back into the car to drive across town back to Kindergarten for the event.

Adventzauber - we sat in a circle and lit the Advent kranz then sang songs

The decorated windows of the Kindergarten room

It was very sweet, but very short and there were only 3 families in attendance. Each family got a little notebook with copies of the songs the kids have been learning and some Christmas stores to read. After singing, the kids and parents got to decorate a little 'star' (two yellow napkins) on the floor. After singing and such, there was a little Christmas market in another of the rooms, but I had forgotten my money in the car and Vin was not pleased. He wanted cookies big time. It was hot, I had two whining kids, I was exhausted, and the entire event lasted about 30 minutes. Sigh.

Regarding the following photos...yes, I know there is a binky. On a side note...today while picking up Vin from Kindergarten, Soojin's sister Seojin ran up to us and stuck a note in my hand. It is a beautiful drawing that she made for Vinny. So cute! She is an older woman, and it seems Vin has two girlfriends in that family.

The kids goofing around on the couch this afternoon.

Cuties

Our Tuesday

Ouchy Kindergarten bite

Little man got a surprise today at Kindergarten. The littlest girl in the entire class, a sweet, darling, one year old Korean girl, took a bite out of Vin today. To be honest with you, its about time someone showed him how if feels. He spent a good part of the summer and fall taking bites out of our entire family, so maybe he has now learned how much it stinks to be bitten.

Today just kind of got away from me. Woke up to a cute little boy screaming for daddy on the stairway landing. Trixie-May slept through most of the night, we have her on a bottle of formula in the evenings instead of boob, and it is making a great, big, fantastic difference. We are all sleeping a lot better.

We had a nice morning with a fire in the fireplace (it is super cold and even snowed three times today) some coffee for me, yogurt and cookies for the boys. Then off to Kindergarten, some grocery shopping, back home for a bit of cleaning, laundry and playing with Trix, then again off to pick up Vin from Kindergarten. Vin was in a pretty bad mood most of the day today. He is really in a 'testing' stage. He knows that Elsie's binky is off limits for him, but he will spot it with his laser eyesight and say, "Whats dat? Whats dat? Whats dat?" I will say, "That is Elsie's binky" and he will say, "Blue, boat, binky Elsie's", "Yes" I say. Then he holds it up and pokes it at his gaping mouth and then pulls it out just before he closes his lips. So naughty.

He also will drive his cars on the tables and kitchen cupboards when he has been told not to...and then look at you like he knows he should be stopped. He will even say, "Corner?" Like, why aren't you sending me to the naughty corner?

Elsie was the same old delight today. She spent part of her morning in the baby bouncing, swing that attaches to the door frame. She doesn't seem to love it, but it kept her interested for a few minutes.

Tomorrow is an Advent event at Kindergarten, not sure what to expect there, but I will report back.

Our Monday

Nice hair, man.

It is already December around here. Is it December yet where you are?

We are going to try to hunker down and cozy in and enjoy a nice December, Christmas and New Years in our new home while trying to start some new holiday traditions. Now that we have a fireplace, we can have romantic and cozy fires in the mornings with breakfast and in the evenings with dinner and while reading Christmas stories and while we decorate the tree and such. It will be great to have stockings and to roast chestnuts on an open fire. Ahhh.

Andi even bought me a gliding rocker that sits right in front of the fireplace so I can rock little nursing babies and sooth grumpy toddlers.

Vinny update: Language is in full swing. He says the following -
what is that
who is that
water please mommy
vinny do it
vinny brush teeth
milk for mommy
vinny no go outside
its cold outside
fireplace is there (firepace iss derr)
and...Hey dude

He can identify the letters W, O, N, M, S, T. He counts to 10 in English, Slovene and German. This one blew my mind...he just started counting in German one day. Huh? He is super goofy and flips and flops and jumps and bounces and spins all morning before Kindergarten and at home in the evening...especially during Skyping (as some of you may know).

Elsie Update:  Little girl celebrated her 6 month birthday last week and she got a new plush pull toy that plays a lovely lullibay and she seems to love it. She is getting super happy about life. Her gums seem to not hurt as much and she is smiling like a crazy girl. She giggles easily when her neck is tickled. She is moving all over the place, but not exactly crawling. She just pulls and rocks her way around to get where she wants to go. She started on solid foods on the day before her 6 month birthday. She started on carrots (not her favorite) and moved on to pears (a bit better than carrots) and is now on to pumpkin (again not a favorite). She is very interested in our food and what we are doing, but she is not entirely on board with the flavor and texture of baby food. She loves when I sing to her, and loves when I dance around with Vin. She smiles great big grins of love for her brother, even as he is about to crash down upon her delicate little skull with a tractor as he tries to get her to play cars with him.

Our day:

On our way to music class

Peek-A-Boo on the train

Elsie enjoying music class

Bathtime

Too fast. Please slow down.

It is all going far too fast. I look at photos of just 4 months ago, and both Vin and Elsie look soooo much younger.

Vin in particular is just filling out, getting longer, getting all this hair. He is asking me for things, mostly candy. He pushes me and says 'Go' when I hold him too long. In the mornings he comes in, shuffling his feet in that over exaggerated, almost stomping way, with a huge grin on his face and says, 'Good Morning Mommy.'

We went trick or treating and got some good candy from a couple of local houses (of course I ran to all the local houses the night before Halloween and gave candy to the houses, in order for them to give it back to us the next night) and now he just wants to eat lollipops and sugar drops instead of real food.

The other night Andi and him had the following conversation:
Andi: Vinny it is time for dinner
Vin (going over to his candy container and pulling out a lollipop): How about lollipop?
Andi: No Vinny, real dinner
Vin (putting back the lollipop and pulling out a hard candy): Maybe this?
Andi: No Vinny, you need a real dinner
Vin (putting back the hard candy and pulling out a snickers bar): Maybe chocolate?
Andi: No no Vinny, a real dinner

He wants to play Andi's computer games more than anything these days, but I don't know how to play them, and he just kind of pushes the two main buttons, W for walk and spacebar - so the games are that exciting. He is really getting into books, which delights me. I don't get to read to him much at night these days because I am usually putting Elsie to bed at that time, but he will grab books for us to read during the day and even has started to insist on taking a book with us when we go out with the stroller. He is feeding himself really well, and mostly left handed. His hair is growing long and blonde and curly. He is starting to really hold on when we pick him up. He is really enjoying Elsie, now that she can hold her head up and smile and laugh, and even roll a ball every once in awhile. At kindergarten, he picks up his plate after meals or snacks, takes it over to the 'extra food bowl' dumps his food in, and then stacks his plate on the dirty plate stack. Such a good boy. He sings a lot now. Mostly, Alle Kinder rauhmen ein, das zimmer muss sauber sein - and Twinkle twinkle little star. There are a few others as well.

He still screams and throws quite a fit when things don't go his way, and he seems to always be a butt when we try to skype with my parents, but he is so sweet, and so soft and so smart and so, so wonderful.

Little Elsie, or Trixie May as she is knows as around these parts, is filling out really well, smiling and love love loves her Daddy and brother! They both can make her laugh like no other. She seems to be getting interested in starting some solid foods, she is eyeballing us a lot when we eat. She can roll over, but doesn't do a lot of rolling. She isn't interested in trying to crawl yet, mostly she just likes to be where we all are and likes to watch her family and luv up on us a lot. She is very very sweet and patient and very beautiful :)

I want them to just slow it down a bit.

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

One of the first outings with the double stroller, AKA The Titanic

Wait a minute...there is one extra here.

naughty boy during moving day times.

Armpit girl

Drawin', drawin', drawin'.