Hop! Hop! Hop!

"Hop Hop Hop" is one of Lily's favorite words right now. It's her word for any animal that hops. Our rabbits, horses, frogs... . And her favorite "Hop Hop Hop" at the moment is a frog Papa found in our garage the other day and that now lives in our backyard. And Lily loves to go find it. Every time she remembers it she stand by the backdoor requesting "Hop Hop Hop"! and wants us to go outside. And Emmi being the animal lover she is obviously loved this little critter too.

And who wouldn't fall for those big eyes looking at you?

Well, I didn't. At least not enough to let him live in our house like requested...

...because even though I knew Emmi would take could care of him...

... I thought he might make a run for it and we'd have a free-range frog living in our house...

...so now we have a free-range frog living in our backyard instead.

"Hop Hop Hop" ist eines von Lily's Lieblingswoertern. Sie benutzt es fuer jedes Tier das huepft wie z.B. unsere Hasen, Pferde, Froesche... . Und ihr Lieblings "Hop Hop Hop" ist ein Frosch den Papa vor ein paar Tagen in unserer Garage gefunden hat und der jetzt bei uns im Garten wohnt. Und Lily befindet sich auf staendigen Gartenexpeditionen um ihn ausfindig zu machen. Jedes Mal wenn sie sich an ihn erinnert steht sie an der Tuer und bettelt: "Hop Hop Hop". Und Emmi die eh jedes Tier am liebsten gleich adoptieren wuerde fand unseren kleinen Besucher eh ganz toll...

Aus Emmi's Mund

- Emmi macht mir essen in ihrer Spielkueche und ich will gerade anfangen zu "essen" da muss sie eines noch sicherstellen: "Mama, aber nicht richtig essen. Nur so tun okay! So wie Oma das immer macht!" Da bin ich ja froh dass sie mir das gerade noch rechtzeitig erklaert hat, bevor ich mir einen Zahn ausgebissen haette and meinem hoelzernen Apfel ;) !

- An der Kasse im Supermarkt. Emmi: "Mama, ich hab mich verliebt!", Ich: "In wen denn?", Emmi: "In dich Mama!"

- Dugan liest Emmi eine gute Nacht Geschichte vor. Mitten im Buch stellt Emmi fest (auf Englisch): "Papa das Buch ist in Englisch exra fuer dich!"

-Wenn ich Englisch mit Emmi spreche kommt sofort die Korrektur: "Mama, du musst deutsch mit mir sprechen!" Und umgekehrt wenn Dugan sein Deutsch mit ihr uebt: "Papa, you don't speak German!"

-Emmi: "Koennen meine Freunde heute zum spielen kommen?" Ich: "Nein leider nicht, weil ich bin erkaeltet und ich will niemand anstecken." Emmi: "Kannst du ins Krankenhaus gehen damit meine Freunde zum spielen kommen koennen?"

- Nach einem Monat in Deutschland war Emmi's Englisch ein bisschen eingerostet als wir zurueck gekommen sind und die ersten Tage haben wir einige lustige Kreationen zu hoeren bekommen wie zum Beispiel: "Papa, you can probieren on your shoes now!"

15 months old

Lily....

...loves her paci. If you pick one up on the other side of the room and it makes this little click sound she immediately notices it and comes after it. I am already worried about her going to College with her paci. Well, not really, but getting rid of that thing someday is not going to be pretty.

...is sleeping through the night but is an early riser unfortunately.

...can make several animal sounds when asked (dog, rooster, cow, cat, hen) and is saying several words but you have to know her to understand most of it.

...will tell you "no" at lots of occasions but acts like she doesn't understand if she is the one being told "No". She doesn't care. She doesn't even care if she get's in trouble. Emmi at this age would break out in tears if I would just raise my voice at her slightly, but Lily couldn't care less. She just throws a fit if removed from a situation and goes back to it as soon as she can. WHILE SHE IS GRINNING AND LOOKING AT ME!

...eats about three times the amount of food Emmi does, even though I have no idea where she puts it. I can't believe she doesn't weigh 50 pounds! She has a build in food radar. She will climb into her chair at the table as soon as someone opens the fridge. It's impossible to hide food from her.

...is a monkey. She climbs chairs and tables and can walk up and down a single step without any support.

...is still nursing in the mornings, but only because I refuse to jump out of bed at 6 am to get her breakfast ready. So she opts for the (in her eyes) second best source of food, which buys me about 20 more minutes in bed before she is ready for breakfast anyway.

...loves her big sister and wants to be just like her. She copies everything Emmi does.

...is an entertainer and loves attention. If she knows something will get her your attention she will do it over and over and over. You tell her "Bless you" after she sneezes and she will fake sneeze again and again. If you laugh because she has jelly all over her face, she suddenly can't eat a jelly sandwich without having jelly all over her face.

Heringsdorf

We used another rainy day for a train trip across the island to Heringsdorf where we walked the pier, fed the birds and ate some fish.

At the beach

The rain did clear up and we got to spent plenty of time at the beach. Lily loved digging in the sand and moved some serious quantities and Emmi loved building sand castles. They both enjoyed getting in the water too which was just a little bit to cold for me. How much fun we had!

A week in Usedom

From my grandparents house we went to the baltic sea for a vacation during our vacation :)

Four generations spending an entire week together!

It's not only a lot cooler in Germany, there is also a lot more rain. So instead of at the beach we spent our first vacation day "swimming" in the backyard. The kids had a great time and Grandparents and Greatgrandparents got to worry together about them freezing to death ;)

Visiting Uroma & Uropa

We are back in Germany trying to escape the Texas heat. Unfortunately Papa couldn't come with us and has to brave the heat at home. We miss him!

A few days after getting here we drove to my Grandparents house and everybody was so excited to see the girls again. Emmi was most excited about seeing my twelve year old cousin Maxi who she has talked about a lot after last seeing him in December. It's a lot cooler then back home but still warm enough to hang out at the lake.