Trip to the Zoo

RHS hosts an annual birthday party at the zoo every year, and this time, I decided to take the girls.  Free tickets, and Vivian is old enough to enjoy the zoo now, so it really was a no-brainer.  This time, we started at the end (since we have always bailed before we got there) and visited the tigers, petting zoo, kangaroos, beavers, deer, playground (where we had lunch) and then headed over to the polar bears, with a detour through the tunnels to see the sharks.  Then, we headed over to the RHS party where we saw some of the staff, picked up gifts for the kids and watched the beginning of a puppet show before Annelee decided enough was enough and we left. Both girls were fast asleep on the way back in the car ... a sign of a good outing, I think.

Tiger cub, tired of playing

Vivian and Annelee are hanging with the 'Roo

Riding the camel at the playground

Watching the sea lions

Smiling

Watching the sharks

Shark attack!

Books are more interesting than sharks!

 Tiger cubs at play

Headdress

Wings. Repurposed.

Deja Vu

Apparently, certain clothes appeal to me for certain photographic situations. Here's one that I took of Annelee yesterday.

And here's one that I took of Vivian almost 3 years ago (May 2008), not far from the spot where I took the photo today.  I commented on the picture at the time that she was moving her shoulder, hence the funky blur.

Bed Time Routine

Since the girls have started sharing a room, our bed time routine has gone through several transitions and experiments.  I think we've finally found something that works, that's fun and that's manageable (read: doesn't take all evening).

Here's what usually happens. 

During dinner, Annelee starts rubbing her eyes.  So, once we are done eating (around 7pm - 7.15pm), I take her to make the rounds to say good night to Daddy and Vivian and we head upstairs.  Annelee's bed time is still super simple.  I take her clothes off, change her diaper, put her in her jammies and sleep-sack. 

Then we dim the light, make sure we have a binky and I sit down and nurse her.  She's usually drifting off before I even manage to switch her to the other side, and by the time she's done nursing on both sides, she's asleep.  So I simply put her in her crib, kiss her good night and leave the room.

While I get Annelee ready, Vivian gets undressed and puts on her pull-up and pajamas and then goes downstairs to play with Daddy.  I join them and - if I'm motivated - we clean up before heading upstairs.  Vivian does the rest of her bed-time routine with only very little help (but frequent reminders of what she should be doing ...).  Brush teeth, wash face, brush hair.

Then we curl up on the bed and read a book or a story.  It's often the same one many nights in a row until she finally tires of the book or I can't take it anymore and insist on a different book (usually the latter).

Then, we pick up the phone and Vivian calls Daddy (yes, we make a phone call every evening because we are too lazy to go to the basement ... ).  I actually like it because soon, she will have memorized his phone number and would be able to make a phone call independently.  My number is next  :)  Will answers the phone and Vivian says breathlessly "Daddy come up and kiss me, Mommy and I will hine [hide] for you".  Then we hide under the blanket until Daddy comes up.

He and Vivian will then kiss and cuddle and tickle and whatever else (none of that "winding down before going to sleep" stuff for us, apparently).  Vivian usually kicks me out for this part with the words: "Mommy, go downstairs".  Once they are done, I come back up, and Vivian tells me how many kisses and hugs she wants (great practice of counting in German, she more or less makes it to 20 these days) and then I tell her how many I want.

One last quick stop to go to the bathroom, then I sneak her very very very quietly into her room, tuck her in, lay down for a minute and then say good night one final time before walking out. 

It is now between 8.30pm and 8.45pm and if all goes well that's the last that we hear from Vivian until the morning, and some nights, that's even the last we hear from Annelee until she wakes up around 6am to nurse (for which she comes into our bed and often falls asleep again).

On days where Vivian starts whining and getting noisy when I walk out of the room (or when she gets up again for some reason), all bets are off, unfortunately.  We have instituted a sticker reward chart for not waking Annelee up and that has been working pretty well for the last couple of nights.

One final funny story about the sticker chart.  We visited with friends on Saturday and put Annelee down in their spare bedroom.  Bob, our host, forgot that she was in that room and walked in, turned on the light and woke her up.  Vivian's immediate comment was "Bob will not get a sticker in the morning because he woke Annelee up!".  I think we have drilled that concept into her pretty well, huh?  :)

Story Time

Vivian wanted to hold Annelee on her lap to read her a story.  She is a fabulous big sister! 

Reunions

We had a double reunion this weekend in Virginia.  Our games night group got together for dinner and a game for the first time in over 5 years:

L to R: Sam, Randy, Anne, Laura, Mark, Franziska (with Annelee), Vivian.  Will was taking the photo.

 And Vivian and Sam also reconnected almost immediately over a video, despite not having seen each other in about a year and a half.

Here are pictures from their previous encounters:

September 2009

December 2008

And, to round things off, here's a shot of how Annelee spent the evening:

Haircut

I've written posts dealing with "haircuts" here and here and here before ... but that was always Vivian's definition of a haircut, which is really just a hairstyle.  Today, however, she got to know what a real haircut is ... because at 3 years and 3 months she finally needed her first real one (I've trimmed the ends of her hair before, but that doesn't really count)!

Vivian now has bangs (which she pushes away just as if the hair is still long) and Michelle trimmed about 3 inches off the overall length.

I can't say that Vivian smiled while she had her hair cut, but she held still quite nicely, as long as she was facing the mirror and could watch.

Before

During

After - Back

After - Front

Compromise

The Vee and I appear to have reached a clothing compromise.  I don't tell her what to wear, as long as it is sufficiently warm for the current weather.  And she doesn't whine so much anymore about getting dressed.  Everyone is much happier.  As a bonus side-effect, the public at large gets to see a rainbow-clad girl from time to time.  It will either make them smile, or make them feel that much better about their own parenting skills, I'm sure!  :)

New Sofa

Yes, we have a new sofa.  Which, by the way, also converts into a comfy bed for guests (hint, hint ;)  ).  But I have a feeling you are going to be more interested in the shenanigans of the girls than the sofa.  I love it when they make each other giggle!  Bright morning sunshine means you can't always see Vivian very well, but who would say no to morning sunshine.  Enjoy anyways!

Trip To Germany - The Journey

The traveling was going to be the easy part.  I had already traveled to Germany with Vivian twice.  The second trip (previously known as "flight from hell", now known as "well, that wasn't sooo bad") took 30 hrs, such a freakish delay would never happen again.  The kids had just proven on a trip to Virginia that they are good travelers even when strapped in a car seat with no easy access to entertainment via their parents.  Delta had added a flight from Pittsburgh to Paris, leaving us with just one plane change.  Easy peasy.

Can you hear Karma laughing out loud as I type this?  Here's what really happened.

Plan

• Dec 22, 2.30pm.  Leave house to pick up kids from daycare and head to airport
• Dec 22, 6.20pm.  Depart Pittsburgh
• Dec 23, 8.20am.  Arrive Paris
• Dec 23, 9.45am.  Depart Paris
• Dec 23, 11.20am.  Arrive Hannover to be picked up by Mutti with the car
• Dec 23, 2.00pm.  Arrive in Sennestadt
• Total travel time door to door:   17.5 hrs

Actual

• Dec 22, 2.30pm.  Leave house to pick up kids from daycare and head to airport 
• Dec 22, 6.20pm.  Depart Pittsburgh
• Dec 23, 8.20am.  Arrive Paris (so far, so good)
• Dec 23, 9.45am.  Flight canceled.  Rebooked for 1.25pm
• Dec 23, 1.25pm.  Flight overbooked.  Bumped from flight.  Rebooked for 7.35am next morning
• Check into hotel at the airport
• Dec 24, 7.35am.  Flight canceled.  Rebooked for 1.25pm
• Dec 24, 1.25pm.  Flight canceled.  Booked on train to Koeln
• Dec 24, 4pm.  Train delayed.  Go to eat something
• Dec 24, 5pm.  Train missed.  Ooops
• Dec 24, 6.20pm.  Next train.  Depart for Cologne
• Dec 24, 11.00pm.  Arrive Cologne.  Too late to continue to Bielefeld
• Check into hotel at the train station
• Dec 25, 9.20am.  Depart Cologne
• Dec 25, 10.15am.  Arrive Hamm
• Dec 25, 11.00am.  Depart Hamm
• Dec 25, 11.45am.  Arrive Bielefeld to be picked up by Mutti with car
• Dec 25, 12.30pm.  Arrive in Sennestadt.  Hallelujah!
• Total travel time door to door:  64.0 hrs

I had a much longer post started with more of the details, but that would've turned into a book.  Suffice it to say the kids held up remarkably well and the train travel was made much easier by the fact that our luggage was MIA at the airport so didn't need to be lugged around.  As a sidenote, we never did get the luggage back while we were in Germany, it was delivered back to us in Pittsburgh more than a week after our return.  As I am typing this, there's a box full of Christmas presents on my desk, waiting to be taken to the post office to be mailed to Germany...

Here are some pictures we took during the trip.  Really, the only time we even contemplated taking photos was when the kids were sleeping somewhere.  Note that some of these are from our cell phones, so the quality isn't always as good.

Waiting for yet another flight to be called or canceled...

I don't even remember exactly which part of our airport adventure this is ...

Utterly exhausted - and we haven't even left Charles de Gaulle Airport yet!

Annelee in her sexy socks, spending Christmas Eve in a Parisian Cafe (sounds quite nice that way, doesn't it)

First class travel to Koeln.  We managed to snag four seats, even though we had only reserved two.

A little to tall to lie straight on her seat, but asleep nonetheless

Yum Yum Yum!

I had every intention of working on photos from our Christmas trip to Germany this weekend, but then Annelee finally convinced us to give her real(ish) food, so I of course need to document that first. 

For weeks now, Annelee has been grabbing at my plate, my mouth, the tablecloth, and anything else she can get her little hands on during mealtimes.  We were going to wait until her 6 month well-visit with starting solids, but she just plain wore us down.  So, this afternoon, the family sat down to feed her some oatmeal and cinnamon.  To say she liked it would be a huge understatement.  She absolutely loved it!

She was rather impatient, and always tried to grab the spoon (Daddy was spooning the food in too slowly, maybe?) and then lunged her whole body forward to meet the spoon half way.  Vivian was laughing almost manically at the whole thing, she clearly thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen!

She later told Grandma on the phone: "Annelee got baby oatmeal.  I'm a big girl and eat big girl oatmeal.  Annelee's face was all dirty".  Someone let her in on a secret:  Her face is still all dirty after she has eaten, too!

And here's a video of Will and the girls in action:

Last, but not least, here are some photos of Vivian's first taste of solids (May 15th 2008, so she was about 2 weeks older than Annelee).  Vivian, too, absolutely loved the food (rice cereal for her by the looks of it).  They are both clearly our daughters!

Ear Worm

As we take down the (very few) decorations and stash away Vivian's Christmas CD (in a very safe hiding place, lest she find it before next December), here's Vivian's rendition of "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer" just one more time ...

Nikolaus 2010

As in previous years, the German Nikolaus paid a visit to 745 Gypsy Lane this year.

Because Annelee doesn't yet wear shoes, I asked Vivian to pick out a shoe from the big box of outgrown shoes of hers.  Big mistake.  She wanted to try on every pair, no matter how often I told her they wouldn't fit.  She finally picked a pretty black one.

I then asked Vivian to pick one of her shoes to put out, too.  She kept telling me in a very worried voice that she, too, needed a "nicause shoe".  None of her own were acceptable.  I finally figured out that she needed a "Nikolaus shoe".  We settled on her tap shoe.

The next morning, Vivian went downstairs to discover the gifts the Nikolaus had brought for them (a stamp and coloring kit for her, a rattle for Annelee).  Both toys were a hit. 

Vivian immediately started stamping (yes, they are supposed to be used on paper, and yes, the ink is water-soluble)

Annelee immediately started a new work-out program

And then Vivian insisted that Annelee wear her "nicause shoe".  Maybe to prove the gift was really for her?  Kind of like the cinderella test?  I have no idea.  But I thought it was cute.

Bye-bye Binky!

Alternate Title:  Good Riddance!

Will and I had been plotting the demise of the binky for a while.  We were both tired of Vivian's constant need for binky as soon as "bed" was mentioned (binky had been banned for daytime use over a year ago), not to mention the night-time wakings and wailings of "broooowwwwwnnnnnnn binkyyyyyyyyy" because she couldn't find it in her bed.

At some point, Will casually suggested that Vivian should give up binky when she turned three and she totally latched onto that idea, repeating over and over that she was going to give up binky when she turned three.  And of course we encouraged that notion!

Could it be that easy?

We were going to visit Virginia for the weekend, leaving the day after her birthday, so thought it may be a good idea to let her have one last night with binky, get rid of it the next day, spend a few days in a different setting and then come back to a binky-free house.  But, no, Vivian insisted on her birthday to get rid of binky.

Will had come up with the brilliant idea of burying binky and having a lollipop grow in its place.  I took charge of the implementation (we make a good team).  A fancy lollipop and magic soil (also known as barley mixed with glitter) were procured in preparation of the big event.

That evening, Vivian collected her binkies from her bed, put them in the plant pot, covered them with magic soil and went to bed.  In bed, she suddenly realized what she had done when she asked for binky and we explained that she had planted it and couldn't have it.  But, she went to sleep without too much fussing.

Magically, overnight, a lollipop grew!

The next morning, we headed downstairs to see what had happened.  Vivian pulled the lollipop out of the pot and also tipped out the magic soil to check if the binky was still there (needless to say it was not).

And that was pretty much that.

We got a couple more requests for binky during the next few days, but they were few and far between, and there were no tears or tantrums when we reminded her that it had grown into a lollipop.  Funny thing is, she never ate the lollipop, it's still sitting in a kitchen cabinet...

Let's just hope this is going to work just as well with Annelee, because she is just getting to the point where she can keep a binky in her mouth and it is becoming part of her bed-time routine ...

PS: I'm sure that at this point, you are barely even noticing anymore that she is wearing a princess dress in the first set of pictures and a bathing suit in the second.  In November.  I've given up trying to enforce any kind of sensible dress code while at home.  :)

Gingerbread House

One of the reasons I wanted to do the Advent calendar with activities is that it actually encourages me to do some of the things with Vivian that I may otherwise think "Oh, I can do that tomorrow instead".  So, we actually decorated a gingerbread house this year.  Rowan and her Mom Jenny came over to join us.

Lots of fun was had, and we'll definitely do this again next year, however, there are some important lessons that I've learned  :)

(1)  Which Kit To Buy
I had initially bought a kit that contained several small gingerbread houses, but those needed to be separated first before the houses could be built. Apparently, I'm not very skilled in that department.  In fact, Will called me a home wrecker  ;)  So I ran out (literally an hour before we were going to decorate) to buy a kit for a single big house that came in individual pieces.  The kit also came with a plastic base with grooves to aid in the construction of the house. Definitely something to look for next time!

Exhibit A: Home-wrecker

(2)  Construction Timeline
Make sure the house is constructed at least one hour before decoration begins.  Or risk the roof sliding off and/or the walls collapsing.

Exhibit B:  Partial Building Collapse

(3)  Set Up
Instead of sorting the candy by type, give each child a bowl with a mixture of candies to decorate with.  Prepare enough icing (colored icing is a big bonus - see Exhibit B above) and cover the table in plastic.  Get the kids half naked.  They are not old enough to feel the cold yet. It all makes for easy clean-up.

Exhibit C:  Final Preparations

(4)  Icing vs Candy
As it turns out, the girls got even more into the icing than sticking the candy on the houses (although they enjoyed that, too).  Way too much icing and candy was consumed.  Record (and play on a loop): "Please don't eat any more icing.  It's the glue to hold together the houses, it's not for eating.  Please stop eating the candy.  It is for decorating."  Better yet, stop calling it "icing" and "candy" and start referring to "glue" and "decorations".  Oh, and you can never put enough icing, I mean, glue on a gingerbread house.  Ever.

Exhibit D1: Drown the snowman in icing

Exhibit D2:  Amount of icing = amount of snow forecast (but luckily not received)

Exhibit D3:  Icing, icing everywhere!

(5)  End Results
Fabulously decorated houses.  Next time, I'm going to let Vivian do the icing (I had started it this time, but quickly conceded everything) and the decorating.  Can't wait to see what the next house will look like.

Exhibit E: Vivian's finished products