Balonrad

cutting away, Emmett ready to help

The Haircut

The latest game to hone those fine motor skills is cutting with scissors. Stella wants to cut and cut and cut. We try and limit the cutting to just paper but sometimes it doesn’t always stay that way.

Petting the minature Shetland

Currently she is in a state of limbo. Not really wanting her afternoon nap although needing it. Sometimes when she does take it, it is all the harder for her to come down in the evening and go to sleep. On such an occasion I had trimmed her bangs earlier in the evening. After rearranging her room and packing her things for “work” she decided that her hair was still a little too long.

riding the big horse

She found the scissors (which have subsequently been moved to higher ground) and proceeded to trim her hair. Luckly just enough that it isn’t noticeable. When she was finished she went to town one of her puppets. When mommy came up to see what was going on Stella proudly proclaimed that maria can see much better now that the bangs are out of her face, holding up a doll with a huge patch of hair missing.

climbing after something

Snails Trail

Emmett the explorer. It is hard to keep him pinned down any more. He is all over the place, climbing up the stairs or chairs, leaving a snail’s trail or walking in your hands. Even trying to stand on his own. Today he stood up at the kids table, grabbed a cup of coffee that was sitting there, let go of the table and then turned the coffee cup upside down, spilling coffee all over the living room.

climbing around at Karls strawberry farm in Warnemunde

Bored with TV

A proud moment for a parent. While visiting family, the kids were sitting in front of the TV. Stella joined in. At first she enjoyed what ever was on the screen. A short while later I peeked in the room and saw her playing with the flashlight. Seeing that she was bored with the TV I asked her if she wanted to draw instead. With a quick yeah she dropped the flashlight and ran into the other room.

She’d rather draw, cut or create something.

Drawing and writing

Besides enjoying books Stella really taken to drawing and lately writing. Her scribbles are with a purpose. If she doesn’t proudly proclaim what it is when she is done she can tell you the details when asked.

Moreover She draws specific pictures for people now. “I made this one for Opa” This one is for you Mommy.”

experimenting with stilts

She has even begun to write messages. “This says I love you Daddy” just makes your heart melt.

She knows that Grandma and Opa’s birthday are coming soon. When we returned from our trip she said she wanted to pack something for Opa. Mommy thought she wanted to make something and gladly gave her the wrapping paper. Instead stella rounded up two books, a small rattle and a pen and tried to wrap it up as a present for Opa.

Keeping the carraige seat warm for the bride and groom

Balonrad (balloon wheel)

Last weekend we visited family in Ostfriesland (by the Dutch border). We learned of another innovation that is apparently only found in this area. Or at least we don’t know of it in northern Germany.

Maja’s cousin pulled a Ballonrad or balloon wheel as it is directly translated, from the shed. A hybrid bicycle/tricycle. This bike is for small kids and is a next step from the Laufrad to the bicycle without needed training wheels.

Stella hopped right on and gave it a go. She has the balance down from her time on the Laufrad but with her feet as brakes she doesn’t have a feel for the pedals and brakes. This offers her the chance to work on braking, pedaling and most importantly, looking where she is going before she combines this with the balancing part.

After three days of practice she was really able to take off. Maja’s cousin offered to loan it to Stella since it was collecting dust in the barn.

A proud Stella had to ride it over to show the neighbors as soon as we got home. And today she road it all the way to Kindergarten and back. The longest trek she has done with it yet and here it is hilly.

The real innovation is that you can convert this bike form the three wheels to two. Therefore they have the comfort of a bike they know how to handle and you can convert them to two wheels.

Stay tuned for progress.

Climb and Explore

A little something for our Monkey's to climb and explore on.
Before

After
...with plenty of room for expansion

What happened?

I blinked…

Only yesterday there was a baby

Now little flash lightning scurries everywhere,

With full platinum hair, he

Clears out shelves in a flash

He’s crawls, he stands,

He lunges forward

What happened, I blinked

He’s drinking out of a cup,

He’s waving hi

What happened, I blinked,

She’s in kindergarten

Overnight she turned into a little girl

Like a monkey she climbs and jumps

And she even pulls her own pants up…sometimes

The baby swing is now only a novelty

As she nimbly climbs in and out, showing her flexibility

What happened, I blinked

She’s formulating complex sentences

English ones too

Discussing and negotiating

What happened, I Blinked!

ps. I had a cool video to post but for the past 4 days I haven't been able to get blogger to process it. don't know what the problem is but I hope it is fixed soon. So for now you'll have to suffer through a couple pictures.

The'y Growing up so Fast

A conundrum which I am sure so many parents before us have faced before.

The old cliché “they are growing up so fast”

But even more the frustrating when you want to capture these fleeting moments.

So much is happening. Blink and its gone. Did it really happen?

Two weeks ago, I wanted to write “Emmett will be up and crawling soon.” He had the army crawl down, he could get up on all fours and then cry in frustration because he was frozen in space unable to move forwards or backwards.

Now the “bulldozer”, he’s all over the place. Nothing stands in his way. He just moves forward; over toys, people, through chairs, heading towards what ever has caught his eye.

We can’t trust him in our bed by himself anymore. He races to the end, not even peering over the edge to contemplate, just continues and would disappear if you didn’t grab his leg at the right moment.

And what has caught his eye? Most of the time it is some object that will allow to him to pull himself up. Precariously balancing, not knowing what to do next, sometimes not caring so fixated on the “object” of his focus. And sometimes plopping back down.
He doesn’t rest, he won’t let you rest, until you have got him in bed, then you can crash.

Vacation? Did we have one? From 7:30 till 8 at night they had us in check, then we collapsed.

I’m not complaining, this is a fascinating time. There are so many developments to watch on both ends. The strange phenomena…We can’t wait for Emmett to get out of this phase or that phase, to be a little more independent. On the other side, our daughter is moving too fast in that direction.

I’m such a proud father to watch as she makes these jumps and yet sad that that little piece has just left. Stella makes her own way. She watches, explores and does her thing.

There is a zip line on one playground we go to. The first time, I lifted her on to the seat and ran behind her. The second time, as I was steadying the seat, Stella grabbed it with two hands and hopped on. She told me to let go and she was off on her own. She even tried to bring the rope back for the other kids and made it is far as her little arms could reach.

The following week we were at the same playground. Her cousin who is one year older was climbing all over. I told Stella to watch how Lea was doing it. Two tries later and she was swinging around like a monkey.

She is processing and trying to figure things out on her own which funnily manifested this week. Stella is fascinated with the character Lola Langohr. This from the sandmänchen series. She has to watch it every night. (thank you youtube!) Lola is a sleuth and solves people’s problems. When the light bulb goes off, she dances around and exclaims “Ich hab sie, ich hab sie, ich hab die Losung gefunden”. (I got it, I got it, I found the solution). This is how Stella reacted the other day when she figured out something that she was wanting to do.

I’d have to say part stubbornness and part craftiness, if she wants something she’ll figure out a way. From bringing the stepstool from the bathroom to see out the window, to figuring out how to lay the cushions so she can jump on to them to many other things. This is not limited to doing things but also to having things.

She is a wheeler and dealer…let the negotiations begin. It is amazing the arguments that she comes up with. If she doesn’t craft a good enough argument however, she can loose which will cause her to flip.

We’ll see how her negotiation skills hold up as she enters the next stage of her life. On the first of August she will enter Kindergarten (our preschool). There are 18 kids in her group, 13 of which are boys. It’s time, she needs the stimulation, but I am a little apprehensive on what she will pick up. We’ve been joking that we need to send her to an anger management class. Being surrounded by boys isn’t going to help her hitting, pinching and kicking problems.

I can now relate to my cousin. I temporarily lived with him and his family when I moved back to the states. His kids were roughly the same age as ours are now. I remember him telling me “you know, they don’t tell you about the terrible threes. Otherwise you wouldn’t have kids.” I thought it a strange comment those 8 years ago but now I can totally relate. And I will admit at times I have had similar thoughts.

It is amazing how in a matter of 0.001 seconds a kid can turn from nice and sweet to an absolute terror. During my company summer picnic this year, Stella had a tantrum as we were readying to leave. After chasing her through the entire complex, I caught her in front of a colleague who has kids of the same age. He smiled at me and said “I am so glad we are not alone”.

And take that as consolation…everyone goes through this, and my heart lightens when I see other parents struggling because I know, we’re all in this together.

Have you ever heard of Cookie Monster? Well we’ve got an apple monster. Still with two teeth our youngest likes to munch. He’ll munch on bread, cereal, cucumbers, bell peppers and just about anything else that you give him. His all-time favorite however is apples.

Open up some apples in his presence, you’ll witness an interesting transformation. His eyes will get as big as cue balls, his jaw opens wide. No matter where he is, he lunges towards the box like a wild dog foaming at the mouth. And grabs as many apples as he can get.

He shreads the apples to pieces. gobbling them up like cookie monster, leaving in his wake a path of destruction, apples that once where and will never be again.

And so ends this chapter in the Bunny Chronicals. Time is flying and there just hasn’t been enough to write, but I hope I’ll have more time to write more and more often.