Adwoa und Ama

This morning

The Lewiston Schlax clan gave this tent/ igloo to us a while ago. S & N had really enjoyed playing in a tent when they were younger. Michael recently pulled it out again and the girls are loving it. It stays in our living room.

Yes, E is putting Dora to sleep on a pillow in the tent. She chose a dish towel for a blanket.

We are enjoying some beautiful weather here…. seems like early summer rather than early fall. We had a fun time yesterday in the larger town next-door, Homburg. We were meeting our friends there for dinner, but got there early and ran around and played in the sunshine for a while.

You can see some video of Homburg running included in the mix of videos here. These videos were taken over the last month or so. It is a big file, so save it. We’ll take it down in a few days.

The video’s title refers to the the new routine Michael started while I was gone to make the transition easier when he drops off E at school. As we have mentioned before, E has had a somewhat challenging transition to Kindergarten. We think that a lot of the challenge comes from not knowing what to do when she walks into the classroom in the morning. Too much going on, too many choices. We drop her off at about 8:15 each morning and when we get into the classroom, some of the children are having a snack. Even though E eats breakfast right before we leave home, Michael started putting a small bag of dried apple rings in E’s lunchbag and designating this the morning snack. When we drop her off, we hand her the apple rings and she goes and sits at the table with the other kids. These days, E really likes routine and she really likes knowing what to expect. We hear from most other parents of pre-schoolers that this is quite familar to them, as well. This clear never-modified drop-off routine seems to help make it easier for her to get settled.

We are all well and it has been a nice weekend at home, all together.

Please check out this TV news coverage of the Loneliest Road Campaign, the bike ride that our friend, Alec, is doing with 6 other dads to benefit his daughter and others who are fighting Neuroblastoma. The guys are in Missouri today.

As for us– we are all doing well. I was traveling in the US for work last week, so Michael was on his own with the girls. They all did well, of course. Last weekend, before I came home, I was lucky to be able to attend the wedding of our friends, Jenny & Shaun. We met them here in Zweibrücken– they are both Deere employees and now live in the US. It was a beautiful wedding in Dallas and a lot of fun to meet their families and friends from all over… There were about 40 people at the wedding, and guests had flown in from the UK, Australia, Singapore, Germany (me!), and all over the US.

I also got to see our friends, Jacqueline, Steve, and their son, B-boy, during my visit to the Quad Cities. They live in Iowa City and it is only an hour’s drive. I spent my birthday dinner with them and we had a really nice time. You can see a pic of me holding B-boy here , on their blog!

J is an excellent walker now. She and E can really play together, including chasing each other (and Daddy), which is so much fun. She is STILL teething… so today I put a bib on her for the first time in months. Yesterday they had to change her shirt at daycare because of the drool…

E is doing really well in her new Kindergarten, although I think she is still not entirely comfortable there. It will take a few more weeks until she really internalizes her new routine, activities, friends, and teachers, I think.

We will post some pics soon….. it always takes us some time to get back into the swing of things after one of us is gone.

(Updated)

Hello, everyone–
This post is about our J. You may be wondering what she is up to since this is such a big developmental age…

She is still sweet and smiley. She is still teething… it seems like she has caught up for her slow start… she has at least 4 more teeth coming in now. Ouch. She is drooling up a storm and chews on anything in sight. Poor baby. But somehow she manages to be in good spirits at least 75% of the time.
She definitely has some words now, but only one seems to be used appropriately all the time… Habe…. the German for “I have”, being used as a question…. She points to everything and says, “Habe?” The other words that she uses are Mama… for both Michael and me…. and Baby… for anything she really loves, like her lamby blanket, her pacifier, or a doll…We think she also says “Up”… but that’s a little shaky. Since both Mama and Baby are also Deutsch words, I am quite confident that we can say that her first words are Deutsch. That will make an interesting cocktail party tidbit for her to use someday, I am sure… “Oh, you speak German? My first words were German!”
As for her physical progress, you can see her walking here. It is big so save it. We’ll take it down in a few days.
Wish we had some video of the girls, all riled up, chasing each other around the dining room tonight at dinner and squealing. It was really fun. And somehow, we ended the fun before there were any tears…. a difficult balance. The girls really are great companions and we are so glad about that.