The boys like pretending the couch is a drum and it cracks them up. They have so much fun!

Rowan loves gliding around like a penguin. He plops the wood puzzle pieces on the floor and then glides around with them. Too funny!

Today we went to lunch with Michael at the usual Schrannenhalle. It’s a great place to go because it’s not like a crowded restaurant or anything and it’s pretty cheap. The pasta was really good today and we also got a great dessert this time. Meeting Michael for lunch is always fun, we try to do it at least once a week.

Michael got really excited about making new recipes for some reason and chose his birthday to act on it. He recently got this book “Getting things done” and I think it has been a good thing for him. He is doing all kinds of things now! I wish it would mention something about “a clean house is a house that gets things done”. No such luck. But the great thing is that it has a cascading effect on me and I really am concentrated on getting those dang Christmas/thank you cards done!!!

Dinner was EXCELLENT, I was really impressed. I first was in the kitchen with him and I noticed that he was asking me questions about this or that so I just left, thinking he’d do better if he was left to his own devices. I was right! The only question he yelled up was “how do I core an apple?” and I didn’t even know that. I told him to just cut it up. He made a caramel apple pork dish. It’s not with real caramel, but with a little brown sugar. The pork with the apples were really good, a combination I wouldn’t have thought to try. He also made some mashed potatoes, which were good as well. He was so proud of himself and I was proud of him for doing it! And on his birthday no less!

Today’s daily video is of the boys playing with each other. This is a common scene nowadays and it cracks me up to watch them laugh together. I also have another one that I thought was funny, which is Rowan sliding around the floor with two wooden puzzle pieces in his hands. I had to take those away because he would make a really loud racket banging it on our heater and walls.

The boys like to entertain themselves by frequently screaming and laughing.

This morning I woke up feeling much better. I don’t know what the deal was yesterday. But I’m glad that a full day in bed got rid of it. We went to Sticky Fingers today to do a trial of a music class. It was a beautiful day and we went “plastic-less”. I had bad luck with the trains though, always seem to just miss it. It sucks when I just miss the U1 train, because it’s 10 minutes to the next one.

The class was kind of weird, I didn’t like it as much as the yoga. I guess a lot of singing and stuff doesn’t really interest the boys too much yet. Elijah surprised me though and he didn’t cry as much as usual. But Rowan made up for it. They were ok for the actual class and Elijah just stared at the teacher who was talking with a puppet and singing songs and playing kids CDs. It was like he was watching tv. I don’t know what it is about that place but they get so weird and clingy, and it’s only at that place, everywhere else (so far), they have been normal.

This evening Patty came over (Michael’s Sprach-duo partner). She is a nice lady and I talked with them for the English part, and then I put the boys down for bed and let them talk in German. I think it has helped Michael a lot, his speaking is becoming less broken and he can say complete sentences faster.

Today’s daily video is of The boys walking back and forth along the couch screaming and laughing.

This morning Michael got up early to go on a ski tour with our neighbor upstairs. She has a 5 month old baby and has been wanting to get out of the house, but only for 1/2 days. She saw Michael coming back from a tour last weekend, and thought it was a good idea to wake up early, go out and do stuff and then come back at around noon. That way, her husband doesn’t have to take care of the baby by himself all day. So, they went at around 5:30 this morning and had a great time. I think he came back at around 11:30. Michael said that she was constantly amazed at how empty it was and then as they were on their way down, that’s when all the crowds started to appear. I think it is a European thing to have a nice breakfast before doing anything, so most people arrive at a hike or climb or ski thing at around 9am.

In the afternoon, we had our babysitter come over to help. Michael put up a lot of pictures that we had sitting around and I worked on the thank you/christmas cards. Man, it’s a lot of work. Then as I was washing their bottles, I started feeling sick, very weak and cold. My temperature steadily climbed throughout the night, to about 102, and I pretty much slept all afternoon and night. I did manage to do about 25 cards, so it wasn’t that bad! I’m trying to get them done by the end of the week!

Today’s daily video is of Rowan going backwards and forwards on his Big Bobby Car.

After many days of only going backwards, Rowan finally figures out how to go forwards.

5 kids in our house!

Today we went to the Haus der Kunst for the “Click Double Click” exhibit. It was really good, I enjoyed it. I like it a lot better than paintings, maybe because it is “reality” to me. A lot of the pictures were so sharp and the colors so vivid! We met our friends the Knipples (all 5 of them) there.

After the exhibit, we came back to our place to hang out and have brotzeit (bread time). They brought my favorite garlic salami, it was sooooo good. I haven’t been able to find one that good yet. We also had our favorite pepper salami and Michael’s favorite speck (I don’t like it because it has a clove flavor - yuck!). We had 5 little boys and 4 adults in our house, quite amazing! They have twins as well who are 6 months. They are so cute and you can put them down and they don’t move! Man, I forgot what that is like. They also have a 2.5 year old son, who is really cute. I was getting a kick out of him entertaining our boys. He was sitting out on the deck with them and telling them all about “funny guy” from Bob the Builder. The boys were so enraptured by his stories, they listened and smiled and at one point Elijah was laughing.

I thought the boys would be more “protective” of their toys, but it turned out to be ok. Logan quickly dismantled and spread out all of their toys, which is something the boys take all day to do, and I was amazed at the speed at which it was done. The good thing about our place though is that we have minimal furniture in the living room and in the boys room, so it was cleaned up in 20 minutes. I think it is good for them to have other kids come over and play with their things, we’ll have to do it more often.

No daily video today, so I found one of some Japanese kids, they’re amazing! I especially like “Sabre Dance”, but they’re all pretty amazing, considering they’re 4 - 12 years old!

http://www.j-marimba.com/ponies210.htm

Rowan loves his stomach inspections!

There was a huge mixup with the yoga class today. Earlier in the week, I emailed the coordinator asking when the “skipped” class was, and she said it was today. She sent out a big email to the class telling them that today’s class was cancelled. Then this morning at 7:30, she calls me and says that it’s back on.

Today was such a nice day that I took the plastic cover off the stroller. I was a few minutes late and there was only 1 other mother and she hadn’t checked her email. I explained to the teacher what happened and she was very mad about the whole thing and felt bad for the other people who would’ve come had they known. There were lots of interruptions in the class, but it was ok. Elijah was still clingy, and Rowan was ok.

After class, we met Michael for lunch. We went to our usual place, and they had some weird thing happen with their equipment that the lady told me to come back 10 minutes later. Then the food wasn’t up to snuff, probably because of the faulty equipment. Ah, well, can’t win em all.

Elijah has been standing up a whole lot, without pulling onto anything. He is doing so good! Rowan hasn’t progressed much in his walking. He stands up but is so excited to be standing that he leans too forward and falls over.

Today’s daily video is of Rowan getting “stomach inspection”. He usually laughs a whole lot, but once I turn on the camera, it stops!