Mehr gesammelte Sprueche:

Olivia:

- Du hast das getaked?

- Ich blowe mein Stern!

- (to Jonah) Stop lutsching it, Mama said! (sie meinte, dass Jonah den Daumen aus dem Mund nehmen soll)

-Ich habe dem Jonah gehelft!

-Und dann war der Fisch gesterbt.

-Ich seie vorsichtig!



Jonah:

- You aufgegessen mein?

- Gepust! (soll heissen gepustet)

- Das tut mich besser.


Hoert sich jetzt wohl so an, als koennten die Kinder weder English noch Deutsch vernuenftig reden..aber keine Bange, koennen sie schon. Nur manchmal halt haben sie offensichtlich einen Knoten in der Zunge und diese Sprueche sind zu suess!!

Potty Training almost over!!

Jonah, our sweet little big baby boy bundle of joy is almost potty trained!! Finally!! After way more than a year he really got the hang of it just now I guess!

We are poopy-accident-free since about 3 weeks in a row and daytime pee training does go well, too! Only when we are out and about or being real busy at birthday parties he pees inside his diapers/underwear but at home he is only using the bathroom for all of his needs! Just now he came down from playing upstairs, pants and underpants at his knees telling me he needs to go pee...and THAT is an indication to me that he really got it!
During the night he still pees into his diapers, even he was already dry during the night for 3 weeks in November!

For every poop he got a toy (Matchbox car or such) and Olivia tells him to close his eyes before getting the surprise into his hands...here some facial expressions:



The toy really made a difference since candy definitely was not a big deal. He still gets one piece of candy for every pee he does into the toilet but even when I say 'no, we already brushed teeth (at nighttime), he does not mind to not get candy but an extra tickle from Mama.

By the way:
After the unsucessfull re-uniting of Jonah with his 'wishie (fishie)' I can happily report that Jonah definitely took to the fish again in January. His fish is everywhere Jonah is but we leave the fish definitely in the car and don't take it outside with us! Lesson learned!!

Oh, and here are the kids all dressed up and ready to go swimming...sad thing is that I never planned of going to the pool :-( But they have fun running around in their swim suits (and no, Jonah does not wear this to the pool, he wears normal swim pants but for dress up swim pants are just too unfancy!).

And to a real dress-up the right assessories need to go with it, too...duh!

I just found this picture I made on my PC and in case you have not seen it, here it is again from when Jonah was born:

I took today a tour at Olivia's Elementary School for kindergarten and I was not really impressed. But since this is the public school meant for our district we need to go there. The school is by all means not horrible - it is probably just me...coming from a preschool with 8 kids in the class to kindergarten where there are 20+ in the class...I don't know. I mean, I grew up with 20 other kids in my class so why do I think it is wrong for Olivia?

I don't know, probably just motherly feelings...

Besides that I think it is kind of safe to report that Jonah got the hang of using the toilet FINALLY!! I mean, I train him since a year and a half...but with getting toys for poopies and candy for pee pee in the toilet I think he really got it now. Even when he is running around naked he's calling me and runs to the bathroom when he feels that he needs to go! We have not had one dirty poopy diaper in about 2-3 weeks!!

Here and there little pee pee accidents in this underware when we are out and about or he is really engaged in something, but when I make him go to the bathroom he even will pee for me into the toilet!! So I guess we are on a really good way to get out of diapers during the day!

He was as well dry for a quite long stretch in November during the night but with all his night sweat issues and putting the kids together in a room for the night we did not work on that again. What is more important? A good night's sleep without leaving puddles of sweat on the sheets or pee into the diapers?

Kids are seperated for sleeping again since about 4 weeks and they both do great! Both were a little sweaty for about 2-3 nights and after that all is good!

Here pictures from Oliva with her Valentine's bag that she made in preschool. All kids gave their classmates a little thing (one piece of candy or a pencil or stickers) so that everybody could take home something. That was so cute!

And one picture of Oliva's artwork in school. There are just little white spots to be found since Olivia really tries hard to paint the entire paper!

Sprueche von Olivia und Jonah

Hier mal eine kleine Sammlung von dem, was meine Zwerge so von sich geben in Genglish:


Jonah:

- 'Ich gelauft weg!'

- 'Jemand hat den Baum broken gemacht.'

- ' Mama, Du hast ein spiky Jacke!' (damit meinte er den Reissverschluss)


Olivia:

- ' Jonah, you are not a princess! You always will be a queen!'

- 'I'm laying myself hin!'

Ein neuer Mann fuer mich!

Chris macht seit laengerem eine Diaet, damit er den 'Biggest Loser Contest' auf der Arbeit gewinnt...und er hat gewonnen!! Er hat 25 Pfund abgenommen (seit ca. November), isst gesuender und macht sehr viel Fitness unten im Keller. Hier die vorher (von April 2009) und nachher Fotos!





Way to go Mahn, just don't disappear!!

Olivia im neuen Reiteroutfit

Olivia hat neue Reithosen, Stiefelletten, Chaps, Helm und Sicherheitsweste auf Weihnachten bekommen. Jetzt endlich hatte sie die Gelegenheit, ihr Outfit zu tragen! Hose und Jacke sind ihr noch ein wenig zu gross, aber sie kann ja reinwachsen!





Ich habe einen neuen Sattel fuer Vanna, einen kaum genutzten Wintec Pro. Ich musste ihr den kleinsten Dressurkurzgurt kaufen, 50cm lang, damit ihr der Sattel ueberhaupt passt. Dazu natuerlich die passenden Socken...jetzt fehlt mir nur noch eine schwarze Trense.




Vanna traegt jetzt im Winter Frisby's Abschwitzdecke, weil wir jetzt viel arbeiten und sie natuerlich dementsprechend schwitzt. Die Decke ist ein wenig gross, aber sie erfuellt ihren Zweck!

Bald Eagles!!!

My nephew Nick was asking my Mom several times, if she or I have seen here any bald eagles...

Well, now I can say with proud: Yes, I have seen them here and they actually DO LIVE in the neighborhood!

I was doing the laundry upstairs, looking out of the bedroom window when I saw 2 big birds circling the sky not too far away.
Olivia came into the room and I told her that these are the birds (and I thought of hawks or such) that make this 'peeeeep' noise that she heard on 'Go, Diego! Go!' when I realized that these birds I looked at had a white head and a white tail!
Could that be our nation's symbol, the bald eagle?

I let everything fall, ran downstairs, grabbed my camera, got outside onto the patio and was able to take some pictures, right before they disappeared out of my backyard's view.

So I raced to the front yard through the house, still watching the birds.
I ran over to my neighbor Greg's house (he's working from home) and made strange motions with my arms towards the sky. Greg saw me being crazy outside his house and came out. He has never seen bald eagles in freedom as well!

So we were just in awe looking as the birds disappeared into the open space. We both thought that these must have been the mighty birds but just the internet brought me security:

This is the same shot as the above, just cut out the birs for better view.

Roaring the skies...

This is the internet picture.

Of course Chris did not believe me when I told him that I saw bald eagles and I told him that I posted pictures on facebook and that he should take a look at them.

He did not return and after 10 Minutes I did go into the study and said:

'Well, what do you think they look like?'

His comment:

' Of course they are bald eagles.'

Yessssssssssssssssss!!

Olivia ist krank

Seit Mittwoch hustet Olivia und sie hat auch ein leicht erhoehtes Fieber. Da sie 24 Stunden fieberfrei sein muss, bevor sie wieder in den Kindergarten darf, durfte sie also am Donnerstag nicht zur Schule.
Am Freitag morgen erbrach sie sich sogar durch den Husten auf unserem Spaziergang und daher sind wir am Freitag zum Doktor um sie untersuchen zu lassen. Ich bin eigentlich nicht der Typ, der bei jeder Kleinigkeit zum Arzt rennt, aber ich moechte ja nun auch nicht, dass sie eine Bronchitis mit sich rumschleppt und ich ihr nicht helfe.

So sind wir also am Freitag nachmittag zum Arzt. Wir kamen zwar recht schnell aus dem Wartezimmer in ein Untersuchungszimmer, aber dann mussten wir fast 20 Minuten warten, bis die Aerztin auftauchte. In der Zwischenzeit vertrieben sich Olivia und Jonah die Zeit mit Verstecken oder mit Spruengen von der Fussbank...

Wie sich herausstellte, hat Olivia eine milde Form von 'Croup'. Das ist eine Kehlkopfentzuendung, die einhergeht mit Halsschmerzen (was Olivia mittwochs hatte), Fieber und Husten. Aber alles klaert sich wohl von allein, ich sollte ihr heisse Tees mit Honig machen.

Gestern, am Montag, hielten wir sie noch von Preschool zurueck, weil sie sich am Sonntag morgen wieder erbrochen hat. Aber heute, Dienstag, habe ich sie wieder zur Schule geschickt. Sie war ja fuer eine Woche nicht mehr dort und hat es sichtlich genossen.

Olivia hat auch nur 2x gehustet und sie fuehlt sich auch viel besser und sieht sehr viel besser aus.

Se habla espanol!!

My gang can count in Spanish!! Yeah! Preschool on TV.........

Black Beauty

My all time children's favorite TV show!! My Mom brought it for Olivia and I am getting soo emotional in just hearing the music!!

This one is for all my riding friends!!

last painiting

Finally, we are done for now painting the interior on the first floor. Before and after pictures.