Kiwi Crate-September!

I have a minor love affair with subscription boxes. The idea of getting something fun in the mail every month excited my inner child like none other. Lets not forget that I actually *have* children that share the excitement of getting the mail. Kiwi Crate has sealed the deal with getting my business! Most boxes cater to the 5 and under crowd, so they already win by providing items for my big kid. It is a monthly box full of crafts! They provide all of the supplies needed and all kinds of extra goodies! Take a peek!

Talking to the belly…

“Hi (nameeeee)! Its me, Nathan. Your big brother. I’m going to be a really good big brother and I love you so so much. I’m going to take care of you. Tomorrow is Christmas. Bye”

Kills me every time 🙂

The Big Brother

I think I’m the luckiest mom in the world. My little guy is beyond excited to have a sister. His reading has been not so great, and while me and his kindergarten teacher aren’t worried…he has taken a sudden interest on practicing his skill. It took me by surprise because frankly, reading isn’t something he particularly enjoyed or has much patience for. Until he explained that he wanted to get better at reading so he could read his sister stories. (cue the giant awwwwwww)

He says good morning and good night every day with plenty of belly rubs and hugs through the day. He is looking forward to holding her and giving her plenty of snuggles. In fact, he let me know that while he didn’t want to change her diapers, he will gladly load up the washing machine with dirty dipes!

Best. Kid. Ever.

Birthdays and Birth Videos

This needed its own post so here goes:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my super awesome 5 year old!

That’s better 🙂 His birthday was actually yesterday and I was far too busy with him in the evening to post on here about it. He had a great day. Presents and a dinner out followed by home made cake. “Plain” cake with vanilla icing and a red T-Rex. Sadly, I couldn’t get my little decorator tip to fit onto the tube of pre-made red icing, so I couldn’t be quite as fancy. Still, the dinosaur was more then acceptable by 5 year old standards and really, that is all that counts.

Ah, the simple pleasures. For his birthday he wanted the cake as described above (check), a “training” bike (check), and Legos (check). Of course he got a few other things. Monopoly Junior, Transformers, a Gyro Bowl. Gyro Bowl is an infomercial special that he has been flat out obsessed with. Its a bowl set inside of a bunch of rings so it can adjust itself with movement and not spill the insides. It is pretty neat, so I can’t blame him.

On another note, I have been watching tons of birth videos. It still amazes me how calm some moms are during the process. I just watched a waterbirth where the mom also used the hypnobirth method and it was amazing. I always cry when I watch the videos though. I love it.

Strasbourg, France -As told by Nate

Nate wanted to write in the blog, so I told him that I would type whatever he wanted to tell us about our most recent trip to France. Enjoy 🙂

All us were on a train and us went on a train journey to Wisemburg. Then I had a lot of fun. We got some baguettes and a ham sandwich. Jambon is how you say ham in French. Then we hopped on a train and we went to a town called Strasbourg and we got beignets! Beignets look like hamburger buns, they are squishy and sweet like donuts and they have sugar crystals all over them. We ate a lot a lot of the beignets and got some to eat on the train home.

We went to a big, big church and I had to be very quiet in there. There was a big clock and a skeleton rode around and hit bells on top of it. There were very cool statues, too. There was a lot a lot of people in there. Then we went out of the church and I got to eat more beignets ‘cause I like them.

We went to La Petite France. That means Small France. I got to play in a park there. Some kid was trying to talk to me, but I don’t know what he was saying. We had dinner in a restaurant and I had a yummy sausage and some French fries and some ice cream.

Then we hopped on another train and go home. The end.

Wisemburg Part 2

Daily life in Germany

We’re coming up on being here for almost a month and we’ve finally settled in to daily life. Our apartment is right on the edge of “downtown” Karlsruhe.

Our tram stop is right in front of the church. I honestly love the tram system. We don’t have a car and honestly, we don’t need one. We walk or take the trams anywhere we need to. Lots of extra exercise! We walk to the grocery store…can you imagine going shopping and only getting what you can carry? That’s the norm here, so daily visits to the grocery store are necessary! At least it means your things are fresh 🙂

We also visit the parks a lot. There are playgrounds and great parks everywhere with really interesting play things. My favorite are the huge sand pits. Remember those sand/water tables from preschool? They are essentially giant-sized for kids to climb and build on with 3ft water wheels to create all sorts of rivers in the sand. Really, really cool stuff. Nate is definitely a fan.

We’ve also been keeping entertained on the weekend with festivals. Almost every weekend we’ve been here there has been a festival to explore and we’ve taken full advantage of all of them. The best part is that even the children’s activities are free! Not like back in the states. Definitely a plus.

If you ask Nate what his favorite thing is though, its not the parks…its not the festivals…its the gummy bears! If its not the national candy of Germany, it should be. Gummy bears are everywhere and they have whole stores dedicated to them. Naturally, this makes a 4 year old very, very happy. Especially when ordinary shops happen to have a secret stash of gummies for cute little children that come in with their parents! Its quite the racket that he’s going on…being cute for candy!

We’ve also made some good friends. I’ve connected with an English-speaking mom’s group in town and have been able to do play dates with another mom that is new in town. We do want to integrate as much as possible, but there’s just something nice about having a conversation with someone in your native language. No searching for words or trying to “get the gist” of phrases you can’t translate properly. The boys like playing together too, since its also nice to have a friend that knows what you’re saying when playing games.

Things are going relatively smooth here. Its nice to be settled in!