Walking down the street with our lanters

Everyone is singing songs

Our kindergarten

Our morning circle

The boys had their first Laternefest - St. Martin’s day. According to history and legend, St. Martin was a Roman mercenary who encountered a beggar one freezing night. He had nothing to offer him, so he cut his cloak in half to share with the beggar. His tale of compassion spread throughout the country, and later Martin was nominated Bishop of Tours. The celebration commemorates St. Martin and marks the beginning of the winter season. The lanterns that the children carry through the street are meant to protect them from the darkness of winter.

Last week, in the afternoon, we made the lanterns. The boys didn’t really do much. Rowan just raided the food cart and Elijah did help a little with punching the holes. But I’m glad that he at least did something.

Then this past Monday, in the evening, around 5pm, we met back at the kindergarten and marched out to the English Garden and it was cold, cold, cold! The boys were troopers though and marched along. They didn’t want to let go of me though, and needed help holding up the lanters. Occasionally, it would blow out and Elijah would get so upset over it. It was hard to go out and sing songs because we were all freezing. The songs we practiced during the music class with Michael was “Ich geh mit meiner laterne”, “Laterne laterne sonne mond und sterne” and “Sankt Martin”. We only sang one or two songs and headed back. Then there was lots of food and drinks and the boys sat very nicely waiting for everyone to come in so that they could get cookies. They were so cute and well behaved, I couldn’t believe it was them!

I talked to several parents and all of them say that their kids always talk about Rowan and Elijah, I was really surprised. I wonder if because they don’t talk or say weird English words that they’re all mysterious or something. But it is really great that the other kids really like them, I was so worried about that.

I also included some pictures of the kindergarten so you can see what it looks like.

The boys will be 3 in less than 2 weeks, where does the time go? I wanted to have their party at Jogoli, this indoor play place that they really like, but I found out that it was 13eur per person!! So it would be outrageously expensive. So we’re going to have it the same place as last year, Frederik’s kindergarten. It is a really nice and big place with lots of things for the kids to play with, just perfect!

It’s starting to get really cold and has been snowing on and off the past week. I hope the winter doesn’t last as long as the first one when we got here! So I had to buy the boys gloves because the mittens I bought were too tight around the wrist area that it was hard for them to get it on. I bought 4 pair as well as a bunch of long sleeved shirts and pullovers. One of the parents told me that they should wear undershirts and stockings. Ummm…yeah, they won’t put up with that. They do, however, put up with sweaters. They are size 104 now, wow, so big. But they haven’t really grown much since August.

Other than that, we’re looking forward to our trip to the states, don’t know what to expect on the plane this year!

Today Elijah and I went to the movies together, just the two of us. We know we should do this more often, but we usually don’t have the energy to leave the house! Last week we all went to see Ratatouille but Rowan just could not sit for more than an hour. He was running up and down the aisle, climbing under the chairs (yuck!) and just was not interested. Also, I think the movie did have a lot of dialog, so that could’ve made it boring for him. Elijah loves movies, and he could’ve sat there awhile longer. We had to leave about 3/4 in, which I was so frustrated with. I hate paying for something and you don’t see the end, but we clearly couldn’t sit there very longer.

So yesterday, we decided to do something separate with them. I decided to take Elijah to the movies again, to the same movie (I had to see the end, dang it!). He is so well behaved when he is by himself, a total angel. He is extremely competitive and always have to have “it” or “be first” or whatever. So when Rowan isn’t around, he sits and doesn’t fidget, he listens and talks. I think Rowan is the same way, but not quite as extreme.

Elijah doesn’t like theaters, I think it’s the combination of dark with loud. We have to spend a lot of time convincing him to come in. He usually stays by the door or stays in the back and almost always refuses to sit down. Last week wasn’t too bad. Today, he spent 1/2 the movie at the door and I tried to get him to sit in a chair that was maybe 8 feet from the door. Wouldn’t do it. I even had gummi bears and popcorn, but still, didn’t want to. Finally he got tired of standing, so he sat down and then one of the theatre people told him to sit down. So he reluctantly sat on me and for the rest of the movie it was fine. For some parts of it, it was too bright and hurt his eyes so he would shut his eyes every once in awhile. But we did see it end (thank goodness!) and after it was done, Elijah clapped and said “yay!” And as we were leaving, he said “bye TV” and I told him it was a movie and he said “bye movie! bye mouse!” So cute! I really enjoyed going to the movies with him, just the two of us. But I’m hoping he will get over being scared of the theatre soon.

Michael took Rowan to the Transportation museum where he looked at cars and trains, his favorite things. He had fun exploring everything and especially enjoyed a big slide that they have there. I haven’t been yet, so I’ll have to go sometime.

We are going to try to do this more, where we take one child each and do something special. It’s just hard to muster up the energy to go out especially when it’s cold and rainy outside.

We had another speech therapy appointment, and it’s coming along. We’ve only had two, so it’s hard to tell. The hard part is that I have to entertain the other person and there really is nothing to do. We can’t really go outside because the doors lock so we just kinda roam the halls and that gets boring fast. I’ll have to take a few more toys with me next time. This week we have to work on making more eye contact and speaking in 3 or 4 word sentences. It’s hard to do!

Other than that, things are pretty normal. The boys will be 3 in a couple weeks and can’t believe how fast time flies!

The boys loooove riding their bikes. They are “laufrads” where they don’t have any pedals and it helps them with getting used to balancing on two wheels. So when they actually make the transition to a real bike, it won’t be so hard.