A Merry Christmas!

XO

Jelly Bean is Two!

Our little lady is TWO years old! It was a wonderful day full of family, friends, surprises, Minnie Mouse, and "backe backe kuchen" (cake). 

This was the first time she got to help bake cupcakes. She did a good job and ate only twice as much as made it into the cupcake holders. 

After a morning of preparing the house and ourselves, Bean got to open the first of her gifts. 

PJ helped. A lot. 

After naptime we all got dressed into our party clothes. She got to wear a brand new "princess" dress. 

The dress didn't stay for long - not a big surprise - and she got to be quite the expert at present opening by the end of the day. A number of friends came as well as family. It was a relaxed atmosphere with good people and good food. 

As the evening came to a slow close, Bean finally got a quiet moment with Granny and Grandpa together. 

We have so many more pictures, even with us parents!, of our wonderful day together. 

Birthdays are special, an opportunity to celebrate the birthday kid as well as reflect on how lucky the rest of us are for that specific birthday kid. 

Bean, I love you and I'm so grateful you joined us. 

XO

Little Moments

Are everything. 

XO

Matilly, okay!

Recently Bean and I went to a small family party in a tiny village. There was a small cabin with a little kitchen right next to an extended batch of woods. After a short period of getting comfortable, Bean took off into the woods.

This was right when my foot was the worst and I could hardly walk, let alone chase an almost-two-year-old into the woods. I called out for her, asking her to come, to return.

Instead, she turned around, look at me, and yelled "MATTILY OKAY!"

Oh, this one, We are in for one heck of a ride. 

XO

Kinderwagon, Kinderwagon

During summer break, PJ, Bean, and I did some errands. The kids were awesome and a baby doll stroller was on sale, so picked it up.

Little did I know that it would become the Toy #1 for the Steinbach Clan on the way home and for the rest of the summer.

We weren't more than 5 feet outside of the store when this happened:

After ten minutes PJ declared Bean has been "eating good" and was "just too heavy, you know?". He jumped into the actual kinderwagon and Bean took over pushing her own. 

That lasted for about another 10 minutes before Bean managed to explain to PJ that she wanted him to push again.

Like the big brother gentlemen that he can be, he obliged. All the way home.

Sibling love. It sure is something special. 

XO

Little Moments: Stuffed Animals

That moment when your baby plays with your stuffed animal. 

Xo

LegoLand Adventures

Recently PJ and I took an adventure day to LegoLand with Super S and her mom. I had never heard of LegoLand before having my little guy. Turns out it is awesome. Smaller than Disney. Cheaper than Disney. Closer than Disney. Less crowded than Disney.

The drive down was longer than expected due to traffic. The kids were adorable, just like siblings. They loved on each other and they fought with each other the entire time. And not just during the drive, if you know what I mean.

Right at the entrance, there is an entire area built with real Legos. Here is a replica of the Munich airport. The planes moved. The lights flashed.

There were also models of Hamberg, Rome, Berlin, etc etc. I was too impressed to take many pictures. And since I was rushing after a very excited four year old, most of them are blurred. I did manage to catch him from time to time.

We cleverly decided to ride the train as our first ride. We got a good overview of the park and the kids got even more excited.

Yet, even after the train ride and arming ourselves with maps, we still managed to get a little turned around. The kids responded right along the typical gender stereotypes: PJ studied the map while Super S looked around and asked everyone where to go.

Not going to lie, the two mommies had a good laugh about that one.

Check out that rainbow. That thing is made a Legos! Crazy, right?

At lunch time, Super S and PJ played tag. Super S is super fast, PJ ended up being the one running most of the time.

After a few bouts, he got so tired, he needed a cuddle. Heaven! He still fits into my lap, mostly, and these moments don't happen often enough anymore. I enjoyed it.

When we got our move on, we discovered a super nifty playground with all sorts of creatures - including PJ's favorite animal - made (again) out of Legos and with water built into numerous elements.

For me the absolute best part was how my little man really relaxed and enjoyed a wonderful day. We don't get to see PJ this way too often. When I snapped this first picture and realized I had captured my little man happy, relaxed, confident, I teared up. With happiness.

On the little train.

In the canoe ride.

On the safari trip.

On a mechanical horse.

Our last ride was a water based pirate ship. Each boat was armed with eight water canons. We were soaked just from waiting in line and getting 'shot' by the passing pirate ships. When we got onto the ride, we discovered the canons were a little too high for the kids to reach, so the two mommies got to really shoot the canons with a little "help". 

We all laughed so hard. And got sopping, sopping wet. 

By then, a long day was coming slowly to an end. We wandered back towards the Lego cities to make sure we got in a visit to this guy:

And this ship:

And, of course!!, this guy:

Mommy and PJ shared a geek-out moment.

Thankfully, the kids were exhausted and it started to rain right when it was time to head home. The ride back was uneventful and quiet.

We will definitely get back to LegoLand again soon!



XO

PS. No worries about the Mr. and Bean. They had their own ice cream and fun ride adventure at home.

Who are these kids?

And when did they stop being babies?!?

XO

Star Wars, Learning Early

I don't want to brag. But....

While my four year old hasn't been exposed to the Star Wars movies, he sure knows how to handle a lightsaber.

"Like a REAL Jedi!"

Not to brag even more. But...

My not-yet-two-year-old can turn a fish net into a lightsaber and handle it almost like a real Jedi.

Not to brag even more. But...

They can have (almost) no-contact lightsaber battles, including self-made sounds like "Woosh!" and "Bam!" and "Aargh!".

Okay, yeah, I am totally bragging.

XO

Puzzles!!

Jelly Bean has taken to puzzles. Big time. It cracks me up when she dumps her four all out onto the floor at once and then completes them in parallel, clapping for herself at what appear to be irregular intervals. 

Though on second thought: shouldn't we all celebrate ourselves when our spirits move us? 

Xo

Christmas Day 2014

Christmas Day - finally! Also called American Christmas in our house. Santa made it to our house:

Jelly Bean got up at her usual time. So she and I went downstairs and enjoyed some play time together while the boys slept.

 

PJ slept in his suit until almost 9am! Partying makes you pay at some point. ;)

But he finally got up and remembered Santa Claus was suppose to come. It took a lot of persuasion to get him out of his suit and into his sleeping clothes.

 

But we finally did it. And then we had to wait for papa to get into his sleeping clothes as well. So we made Christmas faces.

This is the Grinch.

This is Santa Claus.

Finally we were all ready and PJ and Jelly Bean were allowed to charge the tree.

We took it really slow opening the gifts. We took play breaks and even stopped to eat breakfast. The kids didn't mind, in fact, they seemed a little overwhelmed by the newness and excitement a few times. I can't pick which pictures to post, so here are too many.

We started with the gifts from Granny and Grandpe. Both kids loved their new kindergarten bags.

 

Then we opened the gifts from mommy and daddy. I made the kids superhero caps. They were a hit.

 

We took a play break and opened the parent gifts. Building up on my birthday gift, the Mr. got me a lovely pendant with all of our names and birthstones. I was really touched. 

And I gifted him a piece of writing.

 The kids were still happy with the gifts they had opened, so we ate some yummy breakfast.

 

After breakfast, we opened the gifts from Santa Claus. We had just managed to meet Santa the Friday before Christmas. Thank goodness we did! PJ had been telling us for weeks he wanted a SpiderMan but when we met Santa, he clarified: he wanted a SpiderMan costume.

Santa, that professional, really pulled through.

 

I'm pretty sure Santa has connections with AmazonPrime.

Our music lover, Jelly Bean, got a walkable piano. This thing is pretty fantastic.

I may have been caught a few times playing on it myself.

Afterwards, I'm pretty sure we all took a nap and then enjoyed an excellent goose dinner lovingly and excellently prepared by the Mr.

 

Slowly a joyful, kid-filled Christmas came to an end. I'm realizing how much more fun and inspiring Christmas is with the wonder of a child. And ribbons, of course.

XO