Adwoa und Ama

Hi, Everyone.
Good news– J slept last night from 7:30-2:15, and then went another 4 hours until her next feeding. So she’s learning, we think! Now let’s hope that she can keep it up, especially since I leave for a trip to Siberia (!) in 20 minutes and Michael will be alone with the girls until Sunday.

Some more good news– E continues to be a terrific big sister and hugs and kisses J all the time. And she helps when we’re changing J by opening up a clean diaper for us to use. E is using a lot more German these days and mixing it in with English all the time. Her new favorite word, it seems, is “auch” which means “also” or “too.”. So if one of us goes upstairs and she wants to come, she says, “E___(her name), auch?” Or if one of us is eating yogurt (probably her favorite food, still), she’ll say the same. J is a very smiley girl, although she doesn’t smile for pictures very well. But neither does her big sister…. Anyway, J also can get herself to sleep (we can put her in the crib awake after a feeding and she won’t cry, but will nod off after a few minutes). This is new for us! And very nice. Because after the middle-of-the-night bottles, we don’t have to hold her until she falls asleep… allowing us to get a bit more shut-eye.

Some possible not-so-good news… I get back on Sunday and Michael may have to go to South Africa for work on Monday! A customer is having a problem there and Michael has been trying to figure out the cause from a distance, but hasn’t pinpointed it yet. He may have to go there to see if he can figure it out if he sees it…. So it may be a crazy week or so in our household.

Although we haven’t posted much, we’re all doing well. Don’t worry. We’re just getting used to our new and slightly hectic routine.

Here’s our “home movie” of our trip to Madrid and Segovia… those of you who hate home movies of trips have been forewarned! If you are interested, you can download it here. As always, it’s big and may be boring to all except grandparents. We’ll take it down in a couple of days.

It looks like it was all smooth sailing…. but rest assured, we had a very typical adventure with a 2-year-old and a 3-month-old. Some tears, some tantrums, some colds, long walks trying to control luggage, carseats, and kids… you get the picture.

By the way, we thought you might like to know that E’s (refrigeration-required) medicine was kept in the bar across the street from our hotel in Segovia. A really charming hotel of converted apartments…. with no kitchen facilities at all. But it did have TV. You’ll be pleased to know that The Greatest American Hero (dubbed in Spanish) was on. Believe it or not, we’re walking on air. We never thought we could feel so free-e-e!

Here are some pics from our trip.

Our tourguide kept us on track….

Although this castle in Segovia, The Alcázar, was breathtakingly beautiful, it was a 1880s rebuild of the original 12th century structure that was destroyed by fire in the 1860s. But the views over the valley were so nice.

Checking out the Plaza Mayor in Madrid is tiring!

Dinner outside in the shadow of the huge Cathedral in Segovia was wonderful. E ate all sorts of adventurous things, like some of Mommy’s raw tuna (Spanish sushi). J found it all very relaxing.

The Aqueduct in Segovia was just amazing. Built by the Romans about 2000 years ago without any mortar. Incredible. It is about 1 KM long.

As you can see, a good time was had by all.