We're moving!

Our blog that is.

Some of you might have noticed that an important member of our family was missing from the blog title. We finally fixed this and moved the blog to this address:

http://agermancanadianadventure.blogspot.com

See you over there! (And note we chose a title that allows for further additions to the family. You never know, right?)

A surprise from Canada!

After only 10 days in the mail we got yummy peppernuts today. We already ate half of them! :)

Thank you!!!

Sunday afternoon fun

Here are some pictures from today. It was sunny, about -2°C, and we had a lot of fun in the forest and on a frozen pond. Now all we need is some more snow, please!

Prince Charming

I just have to write this down before I forget. Finn says the funniest things sometimes. Here are some examples:

We're driving in the car.
Finn: "Where are we going? I don't wanna come!"
Neil: "You're coming because we're a family."
Finn: "But WHY do I have to come?"
Neil: "Because families stick together!"
Finn: "I DON'T WANNA STICK TOGETHER!!!"

Or this:
"Mama, STOP SINGING, you'll scare the people!" (Um, thanks, buddy.)

And then last night he was chilling in the bathtub and casually said to Neil:
"You're so ugly you make my eyes kaput." :-0

And while his little sister might not be as eloquent as big bro yet, she sure isn't boring either. I think I've mentioned that she has trouble staying in her bed lately. Well, she decided she really really likes Finn's bed. The other night Finn stood crying in the hallway, saying Lily had come into his room. She had kicked Finn out and we found her snuggled up under his blankets! Maybe we should just let them switch bedrooms?

February already!

And we can't wait for spring! I miss spending most of our day outside, and I think the kids do to. Whenever I say to Finn that it's not as cold out there today he asks me if we can set up his swimming pool! Lily doesn't like the cold and is not a big fan of snow either. Whenever I get her jacket on she yells "Mitts! Mitts!". She hates to be cold. Not that we have much snow though - right now it's windy and rainy out. At least Finn gets to play outside almost every day with his kindergarten class. He loves to roll around in the mud. He puts on a snowsuit or a mud suit for going outside and yesterday his mud suit and boots were COVERED in the stuff. Little boy heaven.

We are all healthy right now and I hope it will stay that way for a while. Finn really enjoys being a preschooler. It is AMAZING how quickly his German is improving. He is even picking up some Bavarian expressions like "pfiad di"(good bye) or "sapperlot!" (something like "goodness!"), which sounds hilarious coming from him.


Today we had to stay inside because it was VERY windy out, so we played dress-up. Next week both kids will have carnival parties (Finn at preschool and Lily at playschool), so we had a little practice run here at home. Finn is going to be a knight and Lily will be a bee, and they were very good about getting their faces painted. Lily is fascinated by mirrors anyway and she LOVES looking at herself in one, making faces and smiling (she is SO girly!) - so this was perfect for her. Here are some pictures I took:

Finn the knight wielding his dangerous sword (I hope it will survive until next week):

Lily trying to squeeze into the picture, pre face-paint (by the way, I tried to paint a helmet on Finn's face, it looked better/darker in real life):



Cutest bee around:

Lily put her arms inside her costume every now and then and got mad when she couldn't get them back out - it was so funny!

What else is new?

Lily has discovered that she can come out of her bed. It's not really a novelty, but somehow she just stayed put - until last week. Naptimes and bedtimes were a crazy hours-long battle for a few days, with her shuffling around in her sleeping bag like Maggie Simpson, opening her door and saying "helloooo?" in her sweetest voice or stomping into her (sleeping) brother's room to throw his wooden toys around. So I had to resort to this: when she can't seem to settle down but I know she is tired I lock her door from the outside. She will come to the door one more time to see if it really is locked, and then she'll climb into her bed and go to sleep. Then I unlock her door to see if she really is in her bed (yes, she is). Goofy girl. But this too shall pass I guess.

I'm still working out at the gym regularly and am thinking about participating in a few shorter races this spring. I started an 8-week-training program for a 10k (6.25 miles) yesterday. I was so bored with running on the treadmill at the gym that I needed something to keep me going. It's kind of nice to be told what to do, like a little speedwork today and an easy 4 mile run tomorrow etc. The 10k distance is not a problem, but I'd like to be able to do it in 50min or less eventually. I'm not sure I will be able to follow through with the program (we're sick a lot these days), but it's fun and something different. It calls for 5 runs per week, plus I'm also doing weight training two times, so I'll be spending quite a bit of time at the gym, at least until it's nice enough to run outside again.

Finn is a preschooler!

Since January 7th Finn is going to the local Kindergarten. He is doing great! "I live in the hedgehog group", he likes to say. His German is getting better by the day, and it helped that he spoke so much German in Rostock right before his first day of preschool. I usually drop him off around 8/8:30am and pick him up between 12 and 1pm. His teachers are very nice. (When I asked Finn if he likes them he said "Yes, but Mama, they are VERY old!" :) There is two of them for a group of 25 kids ages 3-6. That seems like a lot, but since the older ones are pretty independent already the teachers have enough time to commit to the younger ones. They say Finn is adjusting really well, is not shy, talks at circle time, and joins other kids at play. He especially likes to play outside on the playground.


I have to take pictures of his kindergarten for you who haven't been here yet. It is really close, right across the street from our house.

That said, Finn did manage to catch a mean virus there. He has been sick all this week. Monday was the last day he could go to kindergarten, and of the 25 kids in his group only 12 were there. Finn has had a high fever for days, and of course is coughing badly. Thankfully it's not pneumonia though. Lily of course caught it too, and Neil has had a sore throat for a week, but he's hanging in. So our nights are broken up and short. It seems someones is always awake and crying. Apart from a mild case of cabin fever I am doing all right still. I'm itching to get out of the house, though, maybe I can slip away to the gym for a couple hours this weekend.



Here is a pic of Finn on the couch yesterday morning. Poor guy!


I hope he'll feel better soon. We knew that once he starts preschool he would probably be sick more often, but I sure hope it won't be as bad as this too often! He'll be home more than he is there!

Pics from our time in Rostock!

It's taken a while, but here they are!

Even more presents!

Lily and Finn loved the beach, as always. Finn absolutely did not want to leave.

We did lots of other fun things, like going to fancy restaurants...

... or the zoo!

Watching the elephants:

We stayed at the zoo well into Lily's naptime, but she made do as you can see :)

Christmas pics!

Here are some pictures of Christmas Eve at our house. Lily and Finn loved it, and who wouldn't? They got so many nice presents. The Lego dinosaur world from Martina and Martin was an instant hit, as were all their new Schleich animals and the horse barn.

This picture was taken on Dec.21st, not on Christmas Eve, but I liked it so much I wanted to post it. (Lily's lip was still intact then, in case you wondered where the fat lip was on Christmas Eve :-)

Church on Dec 21st

On the last Sunday before Christmas (what Germans call the 4th Advent Sunday) the children in our church have their traditional Christmas Service. For weeks they practice their songs, the play, make little gifts for the adults and so on. And while Lily loved the whole thing Finn didn't really care about it at all. Maybe next year he'll be old enough to actually sing the songs and maybe play a little part in the Christmas play.

Lily seriously considering helping out Kathy with her drums:

Lily enjoying watching the play:

Meanwhile, her brother had found the chocolate cookies upstairs:

After the service:

And here's a little video of Lily trying to keep up with the song. It was pretty cute.

The wild one

Lily is a temperamental little girl, no doubt about it. On Dec 22nd she proved this fact again. She was jumping on the couch with Finn when she fell and managed to badly bite her lower lip on both the inside and the outside.
The accident happened at around 2pm, at 6pm she was put under to have her lip repaired by an oral surgeon, she woke up around 7:30 and we were home about an hour later. It was quite the ordeal, but all went well!
The outer stitches were scheduled to come out on the 29th, but by that time Lily had managed to remove all but one. That one was a bit grown in, but she lay perfectly still so it could be removed. Now you have to look closely to see her scar (it is on the bottom of her lower lip), so we are happy with that. It does get bright purple in the cold though.

Here are some pics of our little daredevil the day after her surgery:

Trying to catch up

There is so much I wanted to post about, so here we go. It might take me a while to catch up to the present, though!

First, some pics from the Audi Christmas party. I must say it was the coolest company Christmas party I've ever attended. The band was great, very funny and there were a lot of kids running around. After the roasted piglet ("Spanferkel" is a German specialty) was eaten the head was left on a platter, and Finn looked at it until I took him away. It was missing one ear (who would eat THAT!?) and looked, well, very dead. Actually, it was enough to make me stay away from meat for a while. On the drive back Finn wouldn't stop talking about the mama pig who couldn't find her baby pig anymore. But these are the facts of life I guess!

After a visit from Nikolaus:

Lily on her way to see the band up close:

She wants to be a drummer when she grows up!

Finn enjoying a glass of white lemonade: