Playdates

I just wanted to share a couple pictures of our playdate today. We went into an indoor playground in Speyer. It was the third indoor playground we checked out an I'm a little undecided about the ranking. I would say it's on the same level with the one in Eppelheim. The bad thing was, that it was a Friday afternoon and it was CROWDED... when I say crowded, I mean with older kids.
They have a ton of toys and attractions and they're all pretty new and in very good condition. But of course the toddler area was a little boring for my rugrat and he was running around mostly in the main area for the older kids. The older kids where driving around with all kinds of vehicles, bikes and things I've never seen on wheels... hahah They didn't watch out too much for the younger ones and Lucas got run over by older ones a couple of times. So it was quite a job to run after Lucas and watch out that he didn't get in the way of the other kids. But it was a really nice afternoon and I'm pretty sure that we will go back and check it out another week day, when it's not too crowded. We're especially hoping to take Sara and Beata with us, the next time. Unfortunately they couldn't join us this afternoon.
Oh yeah and what a crap... It says that kids under 80cm are free. Of course my tall son is 85cm and I had to pay for him. Only Laura had to pay as well and the other kids of our playgroup went through without paying.


That's the whole group. As I already mentioned, Sara was missing and another boy (Adrian) and his mommy couldn't join as well

Trying to escape

Menno, I almost made it

A very unique technique to get onto the bobby car

Like I said, there were things on wheels that I've never seen before... hahah

Mama built a toddler couch

Here's also some older pics from the past weeks (playdates with Sara)

Sticking that belly out

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Big Thanks from Lucas to Great Grandma A and Grandma Sandy!

Yesterday, we finally drove to Coleman to check our mail. Thank you so much great grandma Arlene and grandma Sandy!!! Lucas loves his new cars and the new books. Of course the tractors and the Jr car are his favorties right now. We already read two of the books as well. We haven't used the cereal bowl just yet, but we'll do that this week.

So I also finally got my replacement order from Old Navy in. I don't think I wrote this on here, but with my big Old Navy order in February, I also ordered two pair of pants. THe thing is, that I don't know with which American size I go. I used to believe that about three years ago, I was a size 7... now I know that I'm wrong. Of course my size 7 jeans that I have are way too big right now. So in Feb I thought I should order a 4 and see if that fits me... At least with Old Navy, they tunred out way too. So I sent them back and thought a size 2 should fit fine... Ok, they came back in a size 2 and still.... too big?!?! There is now way that I'm a size 0...

Anyhow, I'll keep the pants just in case I'll fit into them some day ;-p

Cars on the railway

Grandma went up the attic and took some of uncle Marius' old toys down. Of course Lucas had a blast.

Ninu aka Nudel aka Noodle

His most favorite food in the world... Ninu!! He could and would eat it all day long

Spring, where are you???

I really thought that spring was here already and it was so nice. Saturday was really sunny. I can't believe how much nice weather affects my mood and well being. Of course yesterday the sun went away once again and today is cloudy, rainy, windy and what not.... and I don't think I have to mention how my mood is. Spring, where are you?


I tried a new recipe for lunch and we both liked it a lot. It's a chicken-spinach pie with mashed potato crust topping. It turned out really yummy. I got the recipe out of the American Parenting magazine.






I definately have to say, that Lucas was a really good boy during the weekend. He was in a very good mood and even took his afternoon naps. Of course it all changed again today... After one hour of trying, he's still awake and not tired at all. So I guess it's just a luck thing if he goes down or not. Or maybe fresh air, but we have to wait until it gets warmer in order spend more time outside.


Oh and before I forget about it, here's another update in Lucas' language. I really have to say that he is learning soooooooo much. Everday he's learning new words or inventing words or pronouncing the words better.


His all time favorite is 'Ninu' aka Nudle aka noodle (He looooooooooves noodles)
kella - keller - basement
asteh - aufstehen - get up
asie - anziehen - get dressed
bitte - please
erdbaeh - erdbeere - strawberry
bisah - spielplatz - playground
billa - brille - glasses
bu - bus - bus
Nane - Banane - banana
mais - Mais - corn
schleisch - Fleisch - meat
Heia - Heia - nappy time
Dudu - Schnuller - pacifier
beiss - beissen - bite (I tell him not to bite my finger and he laughs and says beiss)


Okay, now my mind goes blank. I'm sure I forgot about a few, but that's all the new ones I could thing of right now.


Baby, I miss you so much and can't wait for Tuesday to come. I really hope that you will be able to call then. I hate it when you're on missions...


My mom just called to tell me that she made a cake for coffee time. YAY for that! I just changed our plans. Actually we wanted to drive to Coleman to see if the other box from Grandma A came in for Lucas, but it will have to wait until Thursday.


Our other plans for this week are


Tuesday - go to an indoor playground in Speyer with some other friends of our little 'playgroup' that meets up once a month
Wednesday - visit Sara and Beata. YAYYYY
Thursday - Coleman mailroom
Friday - no plans yet.... probably my parent's house *lol*
Saturday - see above
Sunday - visit Sandrine and Heiko to look at my tax from 2007 (*blush*... I'm lazy with that) and 2008

Hase

Sick boyo and some scrapbooking

Not too many updates to report for the past couple of days. Lucas is still sick. He is feeling better and all over the place, but he's got a bad cough. We go back to the Dr tomorrow and see how things are.

I'm so happy today! The sun is out. Can you believe it? It's still chilly and a little windy outside, but the sun makes it all better. I'm very positive and hope that the spring will be here very soon.

That's practically it for updates. We haven't done anything exciting lately.

Last night I had a little time and was in the mood to do some scrapbooking

Now you know, why I don't take any nice pictures of my son lately... That's what happend EVERY time I take the camera out

One year difference

Inspired by my friends Caro and Daniela, I had to post this as well.

Lucas a year ago, about six months old


Not a good pic, but Lucas today (18 months old)

This week

So what did we all do this week and what happened? Our week was quiet busy, which was nice. It went by really fast. I finally went to the town hall and put all the papers in for Luca's passport. YAY for that. At least now we know that we can go to Egypt in May.

Wednesday was a really nice day as well, as we went to meet up with Tina, a friend from the Forum in Heidelberg. Lucas got to play a little on the playground at PHV. He had me running after him for about an hour in the coffee shop, but at least he got some fun out of it as well. He was so worn out that he fell asleep in the car and slept a little on the couch after we got home (see pics below).

Unfortunatly Wednesday night he ran a temp, so Thursday morning I went to the Doctor with him. I'm really glad that he got it that day and not Friday afternoon, as usual, when the Doctor is closed. Unfortunatly the Dr found that Lucas has a bad cold and an ear infection. So he's on antibiotics right now. At least he went down for his afternoon nap on Thursday. Now he's doing all better though and refrains to take his nap again.... So this fight is still going. Today I gave in and didn't even try, because all that happens is him crying for an hour and me getting all nervous and feeling bad because of it. I don't know... maybe he really is okay with the 12 to 13 hrs of sleep he gets at night. Sometimes when he really wears himself out during the day, he naps for a few minutes right before bedtime though.

Lucas is talking more and more every day. We really have to watch what we are saying, because he repeats everything. Here are a few new words that I can think of right now, that he's saying now

Oma
Opa
Auto - car (finally he says the German word for it)
Hase - bunny
Haare - hair
Menno - something like the expression 'oh man'
heiss - hot
kal - cold
he says something like Daniel
piep piep fuer Vogel - for a bird
esse - essen - eat
unger - Hunger - hunger/hungry


ok, that's all that I could think of right now

Here are some pictures of this week.

His latest masterpiece of this morning


My sick boyo, feeling better already


That's how tired he was... open eyes and mouth


Looks like someone is walking the catwalk... hahah

Someone really wants to go outside

Here are a couple pics that my friend Jessica took on the night we went to a Greek restaurant two weeks ago.

Lucas and his very first and probably his last lollipop for a while... lol

He looooooooooooves lemons

Steve reading a German book to Lucas

The tractor

Whenever Lucas looks outside our window, he sees the tractor... It belongs to my cousin's kids Kevin and Dominic and is standing in their garage. Usually the garage door is open, so Lucas has to check every day, if it's still there. Last week I finally went down there with him and let him sit on it. He can't really drive it, because his legs ain't long enough. But he sits on it for a couple of mintues. It's about the only time he actually sits still for a longer time... ;-p

Arranging his cars once again

Lucas having a blast

Auntie Jess and Uncle Steve on RnR

Jessica and Steve were home on R'n'R during the past two weeks and we were really happy that we were able to meet up with them three times during that time. Lucas really loved his uncle Steve and auntie Jess. Sadly they left again today to go back to Iraq and Kuwait. But we're very looking forward to see Jessica back on May first and Steve will be back for good in July. YAY!!

Here is a couple of pictures I took last Saturday, when we had them over for dinnertime. Lucas had a blast playing ball and having Steve read a German book for him

Help!!!

Why won' t Lucas take his afternoon nap anymore? I have no clue what I can do, to make him sleep. I know he needs it... He started not sleeping anymore about two weeks ago. He falls asleep in my arms (don't ask me why, because at nighttime he always falls asleep on his own in his bed...). Anyhow, he actually falls asleep in my arms after about ten mintues, the minute I put him down in his crip, he wakes up and starts screaming. So I try to soothe him and bring him back to sleep... he actually falls back asleep but it's the same procedure once I put him down. So I think, maybe I should let him cry for a couple mintues and he'll fall asleep on his own.... wrong thought. He will cry so loud and long, I don't feel good leaving him in there. Sometimes he's so into it, that he sounds he's about to throw up, so I go in there every two minutes or so to calm him down. That game takes about an hour and then I think it's too late now anyhow and he's wide awake again.

I really don't know what happened. I don't know if he's old enough already to skip his naps around daytime. Usually he wakes up around 6.30 am and I would try to put him down again around 12.30 pm and he goes to bed at night around 7 pm. So I thought that was a really good cycle and he was very good with it for a really long time...

I'm still hoping that he might change again and he'll start taking his day nap in a little while. I really need a break of an hour during the day as well and I'm sure it would do him really good as well.

Scrapbooking

I just wanted to show some of my scrapbooking pages on here. I know, I'm still new to it, so they're no actual masterpieces just yet. But I guess some of them turned out pretty nice