A post about Lily

Playing in the driveway. We had to buy a second "Bobby Car", since both kids love riding them!

Cutie!

Lily fine-tuning her climbing skills while Finn is giving Piggy a ride.

Our little Lily - what can we say? She is sooo cute, and we couldn't be happier to have her in our lives. Just yesterday Neil said "Could you imagine Finn NOT having a little sister?". For the most part they get along very well. Every morning when they first see each other there is this little celebration of hugs and kisses going on that just melts my heart.

Lily is getting better and better at walking. Unlike Finn, who took his first steps and never looked back, Lily just kept on crawling. Only occasionally would she stand up and practice walking a bit. But now, at 13 months, she is walking to where she wants to go most of the time.

Lily is quite the character. She doesn't have many words yet, but she does say "NEIN!" (No) frequently, complete with shaking her finger. She says it when Finn takes a toy from her, when she doesn't want to get diapered etc. She can also throw fits already that make her parents fear the "terrible twos", not to speak of puberty :-) But, most of the time, she is a sweet, affectionate, outgoing little girl. When we go to the store she will smile, wave and say "hallo!" to everyone, whether they happen to look her way or not.

Lily and Finn love playing in our garden. This is a little video from yesterday.

Finn calls it "Rock me, baby!". Neil calls it "Hoppala, pumpkin". Lily calls it "My skirt is too freakin' long, mom!" :-)

Come and gone ...

... has the time with Kristine. It was just awesome! We did lots of fun things and the kids love their auntie to pieces. When it was time to say good-bye Finn kept on saying "But Kristine, I will be so lonely!" Here are some more pictures of her stay:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

KRISTINE !!
As Finn put it at the end of the day: "It was a good birthday, Kristine."
On Monday we celebrated Kristine's birthday with a nice breakfast, a lunch at Weltenburg monastery on the Danube (the oldest monastic beer brewery in the world), a hike along the Danube and sushi at night. We all had a great time!

Hooray, it's your birthday!

Getting started on our hike. Two kids in carriers, three adults - perfect for Claudia who had a slight sunburn on her back. She took all the pictures and carried some supplies.

Cheers!

Man, was I ever thirsty. Those monks sure know how to make good beer!

Skipping rocks while waiting for the boat to take us across.

Getting in the boat.

What a convenient way to travel - for the kids.

It was a long way up, but the view was breathtaking.

The "blue Danube" was green, but other than that it was perfect! (Well, I guess we could have done without the moskitos in the forest.)

Sleeping beauty.

After climbing up to the top of the cliffs from the river we went all the way down again halfway through our hike, so naturally had to go back up again. Our legs got a good workout.

Made it up again! (Kristine, being a personal fitness trainer, had to act tired for this picture, which took her a few tries. Neil didn't have to act QUITE as much :-)

Birthday sushi, yum! And to make you totally jealous: we also had champagne after the kids were in bed. I don't know if the kids slept through the night - I sure did.

She's here!!

The long-awaited visitor has arrived: Auntie Kristine! Finn and Lily are head-over-heels in love with her (a mutual feeling I might add :-) and we are all having lots of fun. Kristine is AMAZING with the kids, playing with them, feeding Lily, even putting to bed and changing poopy diapers - she's a keeper! Now all we have to do is hide her return ticket to Canada ...