YAWN!

This (see title) is my most used facial expression these days. We've always known our children are miracles, but now it's official. Lily has turned into the (drum roll please)

sleepless wonder.

Friday night we went to an Audi Christmas party, which was absolutely awesome. I'll post some pictures soon. Lily and Finn had both had a good nap that afternoon, so they were in good spirits and having fun. We left at about 10:15 and got home shortly past 11pm. Lily was out like a light in the car (not surprisingly since her usual bedtime is 8pm), and we gave her some milk and put her straight to bed at home. Finn was still going strong (he is always up until all hours if he naps, so I usually don't let him). He couldn't get over the poor mama pig who was looking for her baby pig now, but it got eaten - by us. (They had served a whole roasted piglet, complete with the head. I'll post about that later, too.) Eventually though we were all snooooozing, hoping that Lily would sleep in a bit. Which she did! Exactly 20 minutes, until 6:20am. And guess who got up with her? Right. I hadn't gotten more than 5 or 6 hours of sleep at night the entire week, so no biggie. Yawn. By the time (around 10am) the two male members of this family stopped snoring Lily and I had played with about every toy downstairs, gone shopping to two different stores, filled and changed two poopy diapers (one was Lily's job, the other mine), and set the table for a really nice breakfast. But, to be fair, I did get a big hug from Neil for letting him sleep and a 2 hour nap that afternoon. Was that EVER nice!

Then last night we were sure Lily would sleep like an angel to catch up on sleep. She slept exactly until we were ready to hit the sack, around 11:30pm. She is teething and woke up crying, but wouldn't go back to sleep even with pain killers. So we kept on trying to comfort her, but finally brought her into our bed so she wouldn't wake Finn. We'd never done that before and Lily thought it was so much fun. She was in such a good mood suddenly. First she sang us her new favourite song ("La la la la lalallaala LLLLAAAA!"), then she told us about her busy day. Then she switched to cuddle mode. (All this while her exhausted parents supplied a background noise of "hush Lily", "sshhh ssshhh", "I can't believe this", "lie down, Lily", "I'm going to sleep in the basement", "put your head on the pillow, Lily" etc.) And as nice as the cuddling was, at 1:30 or 2am or so we decided to just put her back in her own bed to see what would happen. And she fell asleep there, YAY! And while we had to wake Finn up at 8:45am the next morning to go to church Lily was up and singing again at 7am. Better than 6, but sheesh.

And yet. You know what?

A tiny hand stroking your head and the face of the sweetest girl in the world just inches from yours, whispering "Mama Mama" over and over is just too big for words. That sweet smelling bundle rolling right into her daddy's arms saying "hugg-ah, hugg-ah!" is something you won't forget. We'll take that any time, even at 2am. Because they're ours to love, but not to keep. Someone said "With children the days [and nights I might add] are long, but the years are short." That is just so true.

Snowy days

"Look at all the snow, Mama!"

"My, this looks slippery!"

About half a second later (she pretty much landed with her feet still in the air):

Our little snow princess:

Finn filling up a pail with "grain for the chickens and roosters":

"How come all the slides are so fast today, Mama?"

So much to do in the yard today!

Meet "Mary":

And afterwards some cuddling on the couch while waiting for the movie to start:

We've finally had some snow, and the kids had a lot of fun playing in it (all three of them :-). Well, Lily maybe not so very much, but Finn can stay outside for hours and play in the snow. It hasn't been very cold though, so some of it has melted again. Mary, the snowman (Finn's name choice) looks a little bit sad now, with the carrot and eyes fallen out of her face...

And here's another one of our conversations:


Finn: "Mama, there's THREE MONSTERS in Elmo's World! A blue one and two pink ones."
Claudia: "Um, okay, what are their names?"
Finn: "Well, the blue one is called Cookie Monster."
Claudia: "Oh right. And the pink ones are Elmo and Zoe, aren't they?"
Finn: "No, Mama. Elmo's skin is red!"
Claudia: "That's right! And Zoe is yellow, isn't she? But what are the pink ones called then?"
Finn: "I don't know. Maybe Karl and Kristin?"

:)

And here is Finn starring in: "This is a snowman and his name is Mary."

It is the season!

Well, the tree is up and decorated and the house finally looks "Christmas-y". I really enjoy this time of year; it is so nice to start our own traditions with Finn and Lily. We still need to bake some cookies, though. I will do that with Finn when Lily is napping. The two of them in one room with a bowl of cookie dough is probably more than I can handle. But I guess I could just open a bottle of Glühwein for myself and let them have fun. :-)

Nikolaus night!

According to German tradition, St. Nikolaus fills your boots if you put them out the door on the night of December 5th, but only if they are clean! So we had some boot cleaning action going on last night, in the hopes that St. Nick wouldn't forget little Lily and Finn. And guess what? He didn't. :-)

They were SOOO excited!

Finn carrying his booty inside. (How's that for a pun? :-)



Lily found a toy rooster and chicken in that shoe.

They love their new Lego. (Well, it's new to them anyway :-)

Christmas tree!

This morning we went to get our Christmas tree. It was muddy, but fun! After we did quite some wandering around we found a nice small tree that won't take up half our living room. (Three quarters of it are taken up by toys anyway.) Finn helped a lot - he even brought his chain saw!

Testing the saws on a practice tree (Finn brought a hammer, too - just in case):

Lily on a sawing break:

Found ya! Neil inspecting the top and Finn the middle of the tree:

Sawing in earnest:



Off we go!





And where were you, Karl and Kristin?

Gym class!

Neil came home early this Friday, so we made it to toddler gym class at the school across the street from us. I went quite regularly when it was just Finn (and Lily in my tummy), but now it pretty much takes two people (at least! :-) to watch them. Lily wasn't so sure at first, but then she loved the running games and everything else. They had a blast, and slept really well that night. :-)

More of what Finn says

The other day Finn helped me cook, which he absolutely loves to do. When he saw the ground beef he got all excited and shouted: "Oh, yes, Mama, let's cook all the wormies!"

So next time you're at our house and Finn tells you we're having worms for supper you'll know it's just ground beef. At least you can hope. :-)