Bits and Pieces

- Remember our little baby bunnies? Well, they sure have grown quite a bit!

- It's December 21st and I spent half the day raking leaves in the backyard while the kids were running around naked playing with the water hose. Merry Christmas!

- We (re-) joined the Y last week. I am so excited! They have great childcare. There is a huge jungle gym for the big kids and a separate toddler and baby room. And they provide off site childcare for date nights! Unfortunately Lily doesn't share my enthusiasm for it. She did fine when we dropped her off on the weekend but today she spent 45 minutes screaming. She was so worked up she still had the hick ups when we were already back home. So I'll start dropping her off for just 15 minutes at a time and hope she'll get used to it. After all this is the same kid that doesn't care if I pretend to leave her in the grocery store!?

- Emmi is on an English language strike. According to the books I read on bilingual children this is normal around this age. She refuses to speak English unless she has to. She only switches to English if she is sure the person she is talking too definitely doesn't speak German. Before we met Santa she asked me twice if I was sure that he didn't speak German :) . She is on age level in both languages but her spoken German skills are about 6 months ahead of her English which makes her prefer German over English I think. It doesn't bother me and she communicates just fine in English but I wish she would speak English to me if we are around English speakers.

- We adopted a family this year through the Williamson County Brown Santa Program and we were matched with a two year old girl named Maria and her Mom. Emmi was so excited about picking out gifts for Maria and couldn't wait to meet her. We delivered our gifts last Sunday and it made all of us feel good to deliver some holiday cheer to this truly deserving family.

- Emmi has the weirdest food preferences for a three year old. She is quite a picky eater but with a very interesting variety. The only sweets she likes is anything chocolate or pudding. She doesn't like Fries or Pizza but loves Salmon and Broccoli. And the other day at Whole Foods she ate an entire package of Tuna Avocado SUSHI!?

- I think Christmas in Texas is finally growing on me. True, there is now snow and no Christmas Markets but I do enjoy all the Christmas Lights everywhere, Gingerbread House making, meeting Santa... . After all it's not so much about where you are, but who you are with. And listening to Emmi sing "Rudolph the red nose reindeer" and watching Lily dance to it would put me in the Christmas Spirit in the middle of August.

- I found 4 grey hairs last week. FOUR! I am not even thirty yet!

- Emmi hates seams in socks. She refuses to wear any. If I do get her to put some on she is screaming bloody murder if I try to make her wear shoes over them. "It's to TIGHT". This is really not a big deal in Texas since she can wear her Sandals most of the year anyway but I am not sure what we are going to do in Germany. I did order her some seamless socks and I am hoping it will solve the problem. She also has a problem with several other clothing items we are trying to deal with.

-I think Lily will eventually be taller then Emmi. And I already know Emmi will hate it.

- Es ist der 21. Dezember und ich habe den halben Tag damit verbracht Laub zu rechen waehrend die Kinder nackt im Garten rumgerannt sind und mit dem Wasserschlauch gespielt haben. Frohe Weihnachten!

- Wir haben letzte Woche unsere Mitgliedschaft in der YMCA erneuert. Das freut mich vor allem wegen der guten Kinderbetreuung. Fuer die groesseren Kinder gibt es einen Indoor Spielplatz den Emmi toll findet und fuer die Kleinen ein extra Spielzimmer. Und zusaetzlich zur normalen Fitnesstudio Kinderbetreuung kann man die Kinder auch Samstagabend abgeben und die Zeit zu Zweit geniessen. Leider teilt Lily meine Begeisterung ueberhaupt nicht. Als wir sie zum ersten Mal dort abgegeben haben war alles in Ordnung, aber heute hat sie 45 Minuten lang wie am Spiess geschrien und war so aufgeloest dass sie immer noch Schluckauf hatte als wir schon wieder zu hause waren. Jetzt werde ich sie oefter mal fuer 15 Minuten abgeben und hoffen dass sie sich dran gewoehnt. Immerhin ist das das selbe Kind das sich einen Dreck schert ob ich so tue als wuerde ich sie alleine im Supermarkt lassen wenn sie nicht zuhoert und kommt!?

- Emmi streikt und zwar auf deutsch. Englisch redet sie nur wenn es sich wirklich nicht vermeiden laesst. Als wir den Weihnachtsmann getroffen haben hat sie mich zweimal gefragt ob ich mir sicher bin das er nicht deutsch spricht :) . Ihr Englisch und Deutsch sind beide altersgemaess, aber in deutsch kann sie sich besser ausdruecken und bevorzugt es.

- Emmi hat ziemlich ungewoehnliche Geschmacksvorlieben fuer eine dreijaehrige. Sie ist ziemlich waehlerisch und bei wass sie sich dann manchmal so aussucht muessen wir nur die Koepfe schuetteln. Suesses mag sie nicht besonders, ausser es besteht aus Schokolade oder Pudding. Pommes und Pizza mag sie nicht, dafuer aber Lachs und Brockoli. Und gestern hat sie eine ganze Portion Tunfisch Avocado Sushi gegessen!?

- Ich hab letzte Woche 4 graue Haare gefunden. VIER! Und ich bin noch nicht einmal dreissig!

- Ich gewoehne mich so langsam an Weihnachten in Texas. Es gibt zwar keinen Schnee und Christkindlmarkt, aber dafuer gefallen mir all die mit Lichtern dekorierten Haeuser auch ganz gut. Und Weihnachtsmann und Lebkuchenhaeuser sind auch ganz schoen. Und wenn ich Emmi zuhoere wie sie Weihnachtslieder singt und Lily dazu tanzt wuerde bei mir auch im August Weihnachtsstimmung aufkommen...

- Ich glaube Lily wird mal groesser als Emmi. Und ich glaube Emmi findet das bestimmt nicht so toll.

Dear Santa... I've been good!

Emmi und Lily durften endlich den Weihnachtsmann besuchen. Emmi hat sich schon seit langem darauf gefreut! Ich dachte dass sie es sich es in letzter Minute vielleicht doch noch anders ueberlegt und sich lieber hinter mir versteckt, aber da hab ich falsch gedacht. Sie hat ihm ihr Bild ueberreicht das sie fuer ihn gemalt hat, von der Puppe die sie sich wuenscht und hat ihm mitgeteilt dass sie das ganze Jahr lang lieb war. (Ich frag mich ob er sich das wohl nochmal von mir bestaetigen laesst?) Dann hat sie sich ganz freiwillig zu ihm auf den Schoss gesetzt. Lily war erst nicht so sicher was sie von der Sache halten soll, aber nachdem sie Emmi zugeschaut hat, hat sie sich das ganze dann auch genauer angeschaut.

Emmi and Lily finally got to visit with Santa! Emmi has been anticipating seeing him since forever! And as Santa does every year he came to the Luminary festival at the Wells Branch Homestead. I thought Emmi might make a run for it once it came down to actually talking to him but she didn't. She handed him her picture she colored of the Baby Doll she wishes for from him and told him that she was nice all year. (I wonder if he is going to double check this with me?) She even voluntarily climbed in his lab. Lily wasn't to sure at first and kept her distance but after watching Emmi she decided to check him out too.

Picking a Christmas Tree

We went with Will and Audrey and picked our Christmas Tree a couple of weeks ago on Evergreen Farm in Elgin.

Emmi and Lily agreed surprisingly quick on a perfect tree.

Papa cut it down...

...and Emmi carried it home.

The End.

At least as far as Emmi was concerned.

She was super happy with her two feet tree but I wanted more.

I wanted something at least as tall as me and non native to Texas. And I got it.

If I can't have snow on Christmas I want at least a perfect tree...

Audrey, Will, Keegan and Avy picked too.

And after some fake tractor riding...

...and some real Marshmallow roasting...

...we took our trees home.

And next year I'll have to pick a taller tree since we were actually able to fit it IN our car, which means I didn't get a picture of a tree tied to the roof of our car. Bummer ;) .

Vor zwei Wochen haben wir unseren Christbaum von der Weihnachtsbaum Farm geholt. Emmi und Lily durften sich ihren eigenen Baum aussuchen was Emmi super toll fand. Ich wollte lieber was groesseres und auf jeden Fall keine Fichte. Und fuer Faelle wie mich gibt es zum Glueck auch "importierte" Baeume. Wenn ich schon keinen Schnee krieg zu Weihnachten muss wenigstens ein gescheiter Baum her :) .

Weihnachtsbaeckerei

Wir waren dieses Jahr schon fleissig und haben Weihnachtsplaetzchen gebacken. Emmi's Lieblingsweihnachtslied ist dazu passend "In der Weihnachtsbaeckerei" von Rolf Zuchowski. Am besten gefaellt ihr die Stelle im Lied wo sie ganz laut "Du Schwein!" rufen darf :).

Zum verzieren der Plaetzchen hat sie sich dann Hilfe von ihrer Freundin Lena geholt...

We have been busy making some Christmas Cookies!

Lebkuchenhaeuschen

1 1/2

Where should I start to describe our little girl at one and a half years old? There are so many little things I want to remember and she is changing so fast that I feel I already forgot half of the things I swore I'd never forget. I'll try to write down as much as possible so I can come back to remember.

- If I had to choose one word to describe Lily I would choose "hungry". She is constantly hungry and constantly eating. She comes all the time and takes my hand and I have to go with her to the fridge where she demands "auf" ("open" in german) and then tries to get me to hand her the desired food. If she sees me cooking in the kitchen she instantly climbs in her chair ready to eat. And if we are at the park and I didn't bring enough snacks she starts soliciting other people for food if she sees them eating. Surprisingly she is below average for her weight and according to her pediatrician just seems to have a very high metabolism. Lucky her! She is not a picky eater either and eats almost anything.

- Lily is still in love with her pacifier. She has bionic ears and eyes when it comes to locating one. She can hear the little click sound that thing makes if you pick it up, from another room and instantly comes running for it. She is totally deaf though if we ask her to come or hurry up, so now guess our little trick to get her moving :) ...

- We also have another trick to get her moving but unfortunately it never works. Know the old "You better hurry, Mama and Papa are leaving!"? This one always worked with Emmi and still does but Miss Lily couldn't care less. The only response we get it Emmi screaming "NO, we have to take Lily with us!" while she tries to drag her over to us. I have gone as fas as hiding from her to see what Lily would do if she found herself alone in a grocery store, but she only looks around delighted that no one is watching and goes straight looking for trouble.

-Lily loves babies. Both my girls definitely have the Mama gene. They rarely play with anything else but dolls and stuffed animals and at 18 months Lily is quite an attentive Mama. She cooks for her baby, gives her the bottle, pushes her around in the stroller, constantly wipes her down and NEVER forgets to take her if we go somewhere.

-And Lily's babies always drink out off a bottle, they never nurse and neither does Lily anymore. Emmi had such a hard time when I weaned her at 15 months because I was pregnant with Lily, so I was going to let Lily nurse as long as she wanted to. But at 15 months she was done and never asked for it again and her babies only take bottles. Emmi still "nurses" her dolls.

-Lily also loves dogs and her little beanie baby dog "Wau Wau" comes right in second after her doll and gets to go to sleep with her too.

-Lily has a quite impressive vocabulary of about 50 words she uses consistently and she just started putting words together into two word sentences like "Bye Papa". Most of her spoken vocabulary is in German but she understands English just as well.

-Lily is an attention craver. If Emmi gets hurt so does Lily. She will actually fall down or hit her head against a table on purpose to make it look more authentic before she starts fake crying. She also loves to make people laugh.

-Lily doesn't sleep through the night anymore. At least not in her own bed and she sure knows that her parents are push overs who will let her sleep in their bed if she looks real pitiful. And we are still really good at making excuses of why we should let her sleep in our bed (teething, nightmares, cough, Tuesday... ) We don't even try to make excuses for Emmi anymore whenever she comes in between 1 and 3 am most nights. We just hold up our blanket so she can snuggle up. Yeah, I admit it is cramped sometimes, but I sure will miss it someday.

-Lily loves to to hold Emmi's hand when we go for walks. I never want to forget how she asks Emmi "hand, hand!" as she is running after her. And Emmi is sure to comply. They love each other so much!

Almost Camping...

We almost went camping a couple of weeks ago with several of our neighbors, but chickened out last minute since the nights got a little chilly and we didn't have the appropriate gear. We still had a good time just going out to Guadalupe State Park for the day. Emmi and Lily enjoyed hanging out with the boys, catching bugs and throwing rocks into the river. Emmi loved holding hands with our 4 year old neighbor Zack and it didn't seem to bother her when he told her that he had another girlfriend called Isa who also lives on our street ;) . We grilled sausage wraps for dinner and hung out by the fire before heading back home. Emmi was already "freezing" despite wearing several sweaters and a hat while sitting by the fire, so we didn't regret our decision to not actually camp. We'll try again in the spring...

Happy Birthday Papa!

We celebrated Papa's 38th Birthday earlier this month and Emmi and Lily were so excited about the cake. Each in their own way though. Emmi was excited to decorate it and wouldn't eat a bite and Lily couldn't wait to eat it. And we figured out that Papa apparently reached the age where it isn't safe anymore to actually put the appropriate number of candles on the cake... If we do this next year we'll have a fire extinguisher handy ;) ...

Angel & Devil

Am Sonntag ist Halloween und Emmi wollte gerne eine Engel sein. Da gab es dann natuerlich nur noch eine Kostuemwahl fuer Lily... Erraten? Nachdem ich die letzten Jahre nie uebers Plaene machen heraus gekommen bin habe ich dieses Jahr endlich die Kostume selbst gemacht und bin auch ganz stolz auf's Ergebnis! Nachdem Emmi mehrer Wochen davon geredet hat ein Engel sein zu wollen und mir beim Kostum Basteln geholfen hat, hat sie sich jetzt auf einmal entschieden lieber eine Prinzessin sein zu wollen. Toll. Wir haben uns geeinigt dass sie fuer eine Halloween Party diese Woche eine Prinzessin sein darf und an Halloween dann ein Engel.

We are ready for Halloween! Emmi decided to be an Angel for Halloween this year, which means there was only one choice of costume for Lily... You guessed it! After making elaborate plans for the past three years of making the kids costumes myself, I finally did it this year and I am quite pleased with the result. Of course after wanting to be an Angel for several weeks and watching and helping me make her costume Emmi decided last minute she actually wanted to be a princess instead. Great. So we negotiated she'd get to wear her princess dress for a Halloween Party and the Angel Outfit for Halloween. I love my little Angel and my little Devil!

Snow!

After a full week of just perfect weather we also got to experience the first snow of the season. The kids could have not been any more excited! The moment the first snowflake hit the ground, Emmi informed us that she wanted to learn how to ski. And I am not sure what exactly Lily thought, but she did think something edible fell from the sky and was very busy trying to catch the snow with her tounge. It was still to warm for the snow to stay on the ground, but seeing the snowflakes sure did make for a great atmosphere on our last day in Colorado.

Nach einer ganzen Woche Sonnenschein und blauem Himmel haben wir an unserem letzten Tag in Colorado auch noch den ersten Schnee der Saison erlebt. Die Kinder waren ganz begeistert! Als die erste Schneeflocke vom Himmel fiel hat Emmi uns informiert dass sie bitte Schifahren lernen moechte und Lily war sich sicher es fallen Suessigkeiten vom Himmel. Jedenfalls hat sie ihre Zunge gar nicht mehr in den Mund bekommen so beschaeftigt war sie damit Schneeflocken zu fangen. Der Schnee ist nicht liegengeblieben, aber die Schneeflocken haben trotzdem fuer eine schoene Stimmung gesorgt an unserem letzten Tag in Colorado.

And are you wondering where those two are headed?

Well, Lily knows...

...because if there is a bakery open then she can find it!

She just knows. Period. Just like that. Sixth sense I believe!

What a good time we had!

They never caught a fish - but who cares? They didn't...

Why cry over not catching any fish if you can be swinging instead?

It's just downright impossible to get four people to look into the camera!

We did get them to look here, but what's up with the funny faces :)

They have great Hot Chocolate in Steamboat Springs!

It's exhausting to have so much fun...

Still no luck with the fish...

Ribs on the Kids Menu! Guess who wants to move to Colorado!