On Friday, H celebrated her birthday (next month) at school since it was the last day before a short summer break and they won’t be back until after her official birthday. I thought it would be fun to bring cupcakes since you never see them here, in the stores etc. Plus I had one box cake left from the US and it was H’s favorite flavor, Strawberry, so I saved a bunch of time and made that! I let H pick out the color of the icing, she went for purple over pink this time and then headed straight for the drawer of sprinkles. She got them all lined up, caps off and even did a little mixing of colors in the lids while she waited for me to make icing. It is such a hard idea to teach, sprinkles. I keep trying to think of a good way to explain it, don’t touch the frosting with the top, try to move it around, don’t dump it all in one spot….it’s a good thing kids love sprinkles!
I thought this might be a great chance to go to school and take some pictures of H with her classmates. Since I totally can not talk to the kids or the teacher well at all, I’ve been pretty hesitant to go into the class to take pictures. Dad usually takes H, but on Friday I did with cupcakes, camera and high hopes. Well, her teacher, took the cupcakes right away on the way to the kitchen. So, I realized I wasn’t going to get a class shot and quickly asked for a picture of H with her teacher. Over the months I have realized that it is a love/hate relationship that H has with her main teacher and I think this pictures says it all:
I picked H up from school at noon with an empty plate & container, a big “Danke” from the teacher and a smile on H’s face….she had 2 cupcakes that morning at school!
6 months old and so much fun!
- Rode in the shopping cart for the first time this month. I can’t leave him without a hand on him but he can ride pretty well.
- This month produced 2 lower front teeth! It was an exciting week when they came! He spent the 3-4 weeks leading up to it, pooping ALL the time and complaining a bit but in the end, they just showed up without too much trouble.
- Started to eat baby cereal and some fruit/vegis. In the last 2 weeks or so, he is eating 2x a day, lunch and dinner
- Absolutely loves to Skype with his family, just watching them move on the screen!
- Is getting up one time a night between 4:30-6:15 am for a bottle and then going back to bed until 8am
- Really working on sitting up more and reaching for things within his circle of reach! We have to be very careful with the dishes downstairs in the main dining room, he’s also turned up on the other side (rolled-over) a few times but there has been no official sighting yet.
Official stats at 6 months (taken at home):
Weight: 22.2 lbs / 10 kg
Height: 28.75 inch / 73 cm
There is nothing so cute as a baby laughing. Here is Matt from Wednesday being slap-happy. He does this from time to time where he just laughs and laughs. This outburst was probably due to a lack of sleep (or good sleep) the day before due to an all day trip to Vienna!
I’ve had these shirts for the kids since last August and I think I mentioned that the onsie for Matt wasn’t going to fit much longer. Finally on Sunday we took the kids outside for a mini-photo shoot. They were both in a good mood and we had a few more star burst left from the states to bribe Haley with! It was our first attempt at getting two children to smile at the same time…it went OK, but I can tell this could be a frustration for many years to come! Matt fit in his outfit perfectly! I pray this pair will be friends for life!
“Well, it doesn’t seem like you’re going anywhere soon.”
“Ok then, let’s be friends!”
She loves her some chocolate…in any form! This week we made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting for her cousin’s 5th birthday. We love good reasons to celebrate over here! It has made her whole week, eating a cupcake each day after lunch. By eat, I mean lick off all the frosting and somehow get it all over her hands and face, leaving all the cake. Normally I’m doing the dishes when she finishes and she always comes over to me, puts out her hands and says “Don’t touch me mom, I’m dirty OK?” then heads out to the bathroom to wash up. She loves to look in the mirror and see her chocolate beard, always a good laugh!
When I picked up H at school last week on Thurs at noon the teacher said “You are coming tonight right?” I had no idea what she was talking about but I said yes. I had figured there was something going on since there were picnic table set up all around the building outside. As soon as we got home I found the 2 papers from school that I hadn’t translated yet and figured out that “Sommerfest” was going on at 5pm at school. I was supposed to sign up to bring some food…oops. It was a time for the school to gather and celebrate summer coming, this year the theme was books. Luckily I had made M&M cookies that day, filled a plate and there you have it.
The kids started the evening in the gym with a song and a rhyme. I have to say it made me a bit sad at first when H wasn’t really participating, I kept wondering if she knew the words or was just being shy (of course it was all in German). Then she opened her mouth and sang the last line of the song. I got tears in my eyes! (Keep in mind this was our first school event!)
The kids would run back and forth to make an A.E.I.O or U on the floor during the song.
Each child at the school has a “symbol” at their coat hanger and it’s used on everything to identify what she has made etc. At this school her symbol is a tiger. They had made little flip books that listed all the “events” in the garden that we could do. Then at each event, after you finished you would get an alphabet sticker to put in your book.
We headed out to the garden and did all the events we could. At some stations we were unable to read the directions nor could we figure out what to do from watching others so we just skipped those! We still had a great time and H even mentioned it again yesterday, how much fun it was to play with mom and dad at school. All the events had to do with the alphabet and reading, we cut the letters of her name out of a magazine, made an H out of play dough, feathers, buttons & shells, rolled a letter dice and played hop scotch jumping to the letter on the dice….lots of fun alphabet games.
We had some snacks with the other parents & kids, met some new people. My cookies were a hit with the kids, probably a bit more sugar than they are used to! It was fun to attend our first school event for H…first of many!
We had yesterday off so we headed out to the zoo as a family. It’s always a fun day. They had a new South America exhibit that was interesting, H really liked the giant wood carved animals outside it. Here are some pictures:
Time is flying by. Matthew is 5 months old. This has been a big month with lots of new things to experience. This month, we’ll say it with pictures:
Really enjoying the Johnny Jump Up now that his toes can touch. We tried a phone book but he pushed it away with his feet.
We enjoy the walker everyday, sometimes more than once. Mostly when mom is cooking or doing dishes in the kitchen. He is getting so good at pushing backwards and his sister is getting good at saying “brother is stuck again” then pushing him forward so he start again.
Matt sat up on his own this month! He is practically bent in half when he does it and sometimes I swear I can see his feet turning purple. It is so fun to practice this. This is a pic from his first time.
He is started this month to be able to “participate” in reading book with his sister. It’s great, he really sees the pages and watching until the end.
This was Matt at his first school event for his sister. I had to laugh at this picture because I just know that it was the first in a long line of “school events” that he will have to attend and will not want to. Even at the age of 5 mo. he looks “bored” and probably wishing he were somewhere else!
He is now eating a full 6 oz. at each feeding. Still taking about 3 naps a day but they are getting shorter. He is watching everything, turning his head all over the place. And just these last few days of being 4 mo. old he has started to push with his right foot and look left, getting ready to roll over! He is in such a fun and exciting stage of life!
It seems like “we” get into certain things for a month or two, doing them almost everyday and then move on to new ideas & adventures a few weeks later. I just didn’t want to forget the small things we seem to do over and over these days or the exciting new things both the kids are doing. Some things going on around our place….
. We play with the “same” 12-15 water-balloons each day. They go in the tub at night with H and they get “washed” in the sink during the day. They come in all colors and sizes, “baby” size to “Daddy” size.
. We are enjoying our window A/C unit. Living on the 3rd floor of a big house with an industrial kitchen below that is always going, we are very thankful for our black blinds and A/C. It was so hot this last week that the pool went from hose water cold to refreshing in no time. H has gone in each day that she can and on her first outing of the year, she started to swim all alone from her daddy to Mr. Paul. (With her wings on) It was very exciting!
. M is really starting to get involved in life! He continues to “talk” to us but he has started to complain if he is laying on his back. We pulled out the walker and he loves it. He loves sitting up, seeing us and his world. He has even figured out how to “move” around in it by using his whole body. I have a feeling we will be chasing this guy real soon!
. “Mommy, let’s fight!” It’s not what it sounds like, but she does say it a couple times a day. She has really taking a liking to debating over who has claim to certain items. She calls it “fighting.” We debate over her blankie, her stuffed animals, the bathtub, food, really anything she can think of. It always ends in her running away from me with the item~laughing, wanting me to come chase her and tickle her to get it back. Good times!
I think this was the 4th time she came out of her room last night. The conversation went like this:
H to Dad: I have two questions for mama.
Dad: Ok, go ask mama, but then it’s back to bed.
H: Mama, I have 2 questions.
Mom: Ok, what are your questions?
H: My questions are…I don’t know my questions, because…I don’t know. One, Two (counting on her fingers). One eye, two eyes (pointing to my eyes)…how many teeth do you have?
At this point it was clear the stall wasn’t going to work and we headed back in her room again. I think for her age, she’s doing pretty well at the whole stalling for bed thing.
We went out to blow bubbles today, she is getting really good at catching them on her wand and can even set a bubble back on top of the bottle.
