Random developments

The last month or so has flown by. A few rounds of hand, foot and mouth disease swept through our house. Oh, and did I mention salmonella visited us also?? It was super fun.

We had a yard sale and literally sold Mason's car seat out from under him. But it was time for a new seat anyway. So we made a little money on the yard sale and bought THREE new car seats on the same day. The kids are sittin' pretty now!

We found out that our 14-year old cat, Sunny, has diabetes so we've been learning how to care for him and give daily shots. Frank has really stepped up with that. I'm very uncomfortable with needles and syringes, but he works with them all the time. Sunny actually likes the attention and (after he hisses) he purrs!

In between all the sickness, we had a ton of playdates. Maddie was averaging two to three playdates per weekend....We had a very messy house and a very happy little girl.

Maddie's friend Salem has a new little sister and we met her (no pics of that unfortunately). Noah had a big birthday party. And we belatedly celebrated Stella Dot's birthday.

Enough talking. Here are six weeks worth of pics -- just the highlights, of course.


Grandmama visiting with Mason. After the trip to Germany, Mason began doing a cool downward-facing dog yoga pose and progressed to sitting up on his own.

Yup, I'm still a good looking, friendly kid....if only I would sleep!!!
Check out these "teefies!"

Noah's Birthday party. After deciding that the water-filled pool is NOT for him, Mason is tremendously enjoying the ball-filled pool.

Alas, Mason's animal magnetism draws in more kids -- Noah and Eli.

Whoa there folks, not quite enough room for everyone in here.

Sheesh! The crazy kids are gone. I'm exhausted.

Of course, there was cake time for Maddie, Stella Dot and the rest of the gang. Apparently the prospect of icing is worth screeching about.


Mason is in boot camp for table food eating these days......here's documentation of the challenges of spaghetti.

Musical "edumacation"........Mason and the banjo.

Pulling up on animate objects as opposed to inanimate objects. If there is a person to crawl on, he's literally "all over it."

We've figured out that one foot needs to go in front of the other.....

And we got car/walker envy looking at Kylie's new ride during a playdate. I had to get him a blue one. It converts from walker to a very low center car (he's fallen off about 5 times already!)
Note: He looks about 7 years old in this photo but I promise, it's only because the shirt is a bit big!

Last weekend, it was hot enough to cook an egg, or a kid. So of course we headed outside and unrolled Noah's Slip N' Slide. We grew up with these, but they are much improved. They've finally realized grass burns hurt like heck and created an inflatable stop at the end of the slide. Maddie and Noah haven't quite figured out the run and belly-flop process, so Robin helped with hurling them onto the mat. It was so funny.


Maddie and Noah had a blast. Then came the treacherous swing time. One minute, the kids were laughing while Frank pushed them on the swings, and the next, there were screams and blood. Noah and Maddie collided while Maddie was still swinging and Noah was walking in front of the swing. She had a busted lip and it was a bit traumatic, but a Nemo ice pack and ice cream later, it was all good. I was really proud of her calming down so quickly. Noah was really concerned and hurt as well, but not bloody. They both recovered and quickly inhaled the cones. Some more pics on Noah's blog.

Maddie's newest obsession besides being a princess, being a mermaid, wearing her necklace and taking her wand to school: curly hair from sleeping in braids. She won't let me pull it into a ponytail because "then it won't be pretty." What?? When did this happen? Great, she's 16! At least she sits still for curly -haired photos.

Cleaning up the kid's kitchen after dinner.

Maddie's writing exercises. We write a word and she copies it. She tried hard to write OMA as well but her interest was waning after this...Still, we were impressed enough to take a pic.

We are trying to eat better; and I ordered some exercise DVDs and new weights. Maddie immediately grabbed the weights and followed along. I think she burned more calories than I did. Then she said "I need a rest." Me too!

Germany Part III: The finale....finally

I say finally the finale because life has gotten in the way of finishing the Germany trip posts, so I am finally finishing them now. The kids are not in college yet, but yes, it's been a while since I've posted.....here goes:

Maddie met a wonderful new friend while we were there. Sena and her family live very close to Frank's parents. So close that her family and Frank's parents are very friendly and visit often. Sena is the youngest and such a sweetie pie. She met Maddie and the rest was history. They played together every day for the last week we were there. Maddie even started walking over to Sena's house to play -- by herself.

Leaving Sena was so hard. Maybe more so for me than Maddie, because I knew of the friendship she would miss. She is so young, it's hard for her to understand what being apart from a friend means. It has been difficult to explain to Maddie that the next time she and Sena see each other, they will be much older. Sena cried when we left; I cried. Sena's family all came over to say goodbye to Maddie and give the girls one more play session together.

It was really a good experience for Maddie. She was such a big girl with a new big kid friend ....Sena turned 10 while we were there. We miss her and her family!

The girls eating strawberries on the patio. I should mention that Maddie speaks no Turkish and only one or two words of German. Sena's English is good for her age, but limited. By and large, the girls played well together because they had fun together, not because they spoke the same language. It was amazingly sweet.


Maddie loved the hometown park. Here she has a whale of a time...oh, I couldn't resist.
(Yes, it's a fish, not a whale)

Mason meets his other Ur Oma. Frank's Dad's Mom was so excited to see Mason. He couldn't keep his eyes off her either. She lives with one of her great-grandchildren and is young at heart!


Near the end of our trip, we traveled to Lake Constance to take a boat ride and see the city. It was Maddie and Mason's first boat ride. He slept for part of the ride and they both enjoyed all the water and wind. It was SO hot, so of course, we had to buy sodas immediately upon leaving the dock, per Maddie's request!

Ahoy!

Maddie and Frank at TuWass -- the town's natural water spring park. All the water was oh so warm. Definitely the nicest indoor water park I've ever been to. We went twice during our trip.


Mason and Opa. The kids spent so much time playing and goofing and strolling with Oma and Opa. Mason learned to army crawl (his tummy drags on the ground!) and Maddie took strolls through the apple orchard behind their house. They both had a blast, even if they were low on sleep.


I think this was taken on our last day there. Maddie's energy is unbelievable to me. She was like a little German Energizer bunny. Here, she's in mid-air thanks to Opa.

It was a great, fun and exhausting trip. I'm so glad Maddie will be able to remember some or all of it as she grows up.

Fishyface!!!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre