Elijah having fun with paint!

Today it was a perfect weather day. Not too hot, not too cold. I think the temps were in the 60’s. It was so nice and sunny! It seems like Spring is finally here. The last time we said that though a big snowstorm came through (the biggest for the year). But I really think Winter’s over.

My basil has been growing very nicely, they are about 8 inches high! I am so excited! I can’t wait to use it soon!

I got great mail today (how boring is this blog?) - one letter from my friend, Helen, who is an amazing person. She used to work at Microsoft, but now takes beautiful photos and sells them full time. Her and her husband are like us in that when they want to do something, they do it. Her husband still works at MS, but makes 20 custom snowboards a year and they pretty much have a factory in their garage. Ahhh, if only I snowboarded… She even spent over a year restoring a Karmann Ghia, but ultimately ended up selling it before she finished. She also paints too! People like them are so inspiring, we have such great friends!

The other mail was from my friend, Katherine, who I knew since my days at Berkeley. Geez, how long ago was that? From 1991!!!! Wow. I’m old. Anyways, she hasn’t written a newsletter since something like 1998, so it was nice and long. I love those things! I felt like her boys grew up in front of me (she has 2 amazing sons that are 1 year apart and now in their 20s). I only remember them from 15 years ago, and even though I have seen them since then, that’s the mental picture I have of them.

I also got a big box of macadamia candy from my Aunty Elaine! Mmmm… Sadly, that box will be devoured in no time at all.

I decided to take the next German class next month. I feel like I’m doing really well in class and I have so much momentum to learn. I really like the Goethe Institut and their teaching methods that I want to continue before I start forgetting. I don’t feel like I know enough to talk to people, so I won’t if I stop now. I want to get to the point where I can make casual conversation, then I can continue it by just talking to people. I am also taking a class in June, when my parents are here, to take advantage of the free babysitting!

I went to lunch with Michael today at Peter and Paul. It’s a place right next to his work place. I am always disappointed there. First of all, their service sucks, second of all, the food isn’t all that great. True to form, I was done with my meal before Michael even got his. I had to leave since I had to be home by 2, and he told me later that he had to wait an additional 30 minutes to get his food and eat it. That is just too much. Never going there again!

Melanie (the babysitter) and I went shopping after I got home. The boys need real shoes now, and they have none. We took them out in the stroller - with no plastic cover and no warm layer and bare feet. They were in short sleeves too! That’s how nice it was. I felt like people were kind of staring at us because they had no shoes. German peoople are so weird about that. We went to C&A and they had some pretty cheap stuff. Not shoes though. I think I paid almost 20 euros a pair. I also bought them more sleep clothes since they don’t have much. I don’t like the 1 piece outfits anymore. I do still like the onesies for day time, but not for night.

Since it was so nice out, I decided to have the boys do some finger painting out on the deck. They love the paint and getting messy, but actually painting was a problem. They didn’t want to put their fingers on the paper. They put it everywhere else though. We had a lot of fun though. Rowan loved splashing the cleanup water everywhere. They went straight into the tub after! They were my little green men.

I stayed up waaaaay too late doing homework (hausaufgabe) and surfing the web. Terrible! I should be sleeping!

I have two daily videos. The first one is of Rowan walking funny with his new shoes. The second one is of Elijah signing to me saying he is hungry.