Vacation Photos Part II

The second half of our holiday, we went and stayed with Oma and Kurt. They live in a city not too far from the place on the North Sea where we were. They even visited us one afternoon during our holiday. Jay and Nils love it there- there are so many things to hear and see. They have a bunch of chiming clocks that they have staggered by one-two minutes so they don't all chime at once. They have some really interesting and beautiful artowrk on the walls as well. Of course, Jay and Nils' favorite is one of a cat.

The first photo is one of my favorites. It was taken the day we arrived. Jay had been having a hard time while we were away and was/is in a very whiny phase. I was a little worried about extending our trip, but decided to anyway since they know Oma and Kurt, as well as the house and they are a great help to me as well (Michael was working a lot since it is his busy season). But as soon as we arrived, Jay asked Kurt to go into the garden with him and they ended up on a bench in the back, talking and laughing.

The Sunday of our visit was a big event for children in a well-known local park. It started off with thunderstorms, but got beautiful afterwards. I had Jay and Nils in their Wellies (rain boots) and Jay in his ruber play pants. I didn't put Nils' on- but should have! He loves the water and got himself drenched in a water play area. Luckily we had enough with us to give him a warm, dry outfit at the end.

Jay also climbed to the top of an observation deck and yelled Hello, look at me! Can you see me Mommy? for about five solid minutes. He didn't take the slide down- I didn't think he would. If Nils had seen it, though, he would have screamed to do it.

Finally- Vacation Photos!

Well, here they are- our long awaited vacation photos! Sorry for taking so long, I hope they're worth the wait.

These first two photos are when we went to the beach in our town, Horumersiel. http://www.blogger.com/www.horumersiel.de The town is known for it's therapeutic air and, I think, water or mud. Anyway, during ebb tide, there is no water for hundreds of meters. It just disappears, leaving a bunch of mud. We literally had no fear that the kids would drown, so we could let them play on their own. The worst that happened was Emma's jellies (plastic shoes) got stuck. Oh, and the cleanup....

You can see Jay and Emma playing in the mud and showing off their muscles. Cleaning off the mud was traumatic though- there was only COLD water from an outdoor tap and Jay was not happy. Later on, he told me his favorite part was jumping (see next) and his least favorite the mud because he had to get cleaned.

Next we have some photos from the beach in the neighbroring town, Schillig. The beach there was larger and had more to offer. There was a playground, trampolines (1 EUR for 5 minutes!!!), and a bunch of other stuff for kids. We prefferred this beach and the drive was only 5 minutes. Here you can see Jay jumping on the trampoline- yes, I was suckered into paying that horrific price. More than once.... and Nils taking a nap under our umbrella- I love how his lips get so fat when he sleeps!

I will post photos at Oma's in another entry- I was rather verbose this time!

Whew!

I need a vacation from my vacation. Nils was into trouble and/or clingy the entire time, Jay was whining and having tantrums all day long, and I am exhausted (more emotionally than physically since Oma, Kurt, Andi & Maria were all a HUGE help). Anyway, I will post some photos and possibly video later- Nils is still clinging to my leg and I think he wiped some snot there. Ah, the joys of motherhood.

Glad to be back!!!

Bye-Bye!

We're going on holiday to the North Sea tomorrow. Michael will still be home, but I'm leaving with the kids. Emma's family is sharing their rented house with us (thank you!!). After that, we will be spending a few days at Oma's since she and Kurt live only 40 minutes away from where we'll be. So Tchuess and I'll blog again on my return July 23 or 24.

Surprise!

I discovered yesterday that Nils actually knows all of his letters except D, E (he mistakes it for F half the time) and K. With K, sometimes he gets it right, and sometimes he is too excited and would rather say LLLL instead. I never drilled it into him, he just watched some DVDs with Jay and took it from there. Only when he handed me a book to read (the Dr Seuss Alphabet book) and started announcing the letters before I read them did I realize what he knew. I started asking him various letters, going in a different order, and even used a different book (and newspaper this morning) and he still knew them all. I think he now likes doing the ABCs because it is a quiet time thing we do together. He sits on my lap and I point to a letter and he says it.

Embarassing Moment

When the priest finished his sermon on Sunday, it was completely quiet. Except for Nils clapping and saying "yaaaay." Since it's summer vacation, there were no other kids there we could blame it on....

Photos and Videos

I have been told that I haven't had enough photos or videos lately. Here are some new ones.

We had a house guest last week. He brought some gifts for the kids- a LOUD toy lawnmower (I disabled that noisemaker pretty quickly) and oversize boxing gloves. Jay and Nils have fun with boxing fights. And Michael too.

Tonight the kids were in a great mood after dinner. What can I say, I must be an amazing cook! Actually, they barely ate, so I can't take credit for their good moods.

Videos will be added later when MySpace isn't running so slowly. I have spent two hours trying to upload and I keep timing out. Argggh!

Jay's New Preschool

We had a meeting at the preschool and got to meet one of Jay's teachers on Friday. I learned how we will phase Jay into his group (the Blue Group) and various expectations. For example, I have to pack a little box with a healthy snack every day and we need to make sure he has a toothbrush for his cup, rubber rain boots, pants, and jacket for bad weather, and so on. We went on a mad hunt for rain boots on Saturday with no luck. Unless you want cheesy ones with a sailboat on the side...

Jay's group is a bilingual (German-English) integrated group. That means, instead of twenty kids ages three to six, there are fifteen kids. Some of them are disabled, that's why there are less. We actually are happy that he's in the integrated group. He will get exposure to people different from him and the group itself is smaller, so there is less of a chance he'll get "lost" among the wild ones.

Jay took really well to his teacher and didn't want to leave the playground at the end, so I think the transition will be okay. Nils didn't want to leave either!

Bright-Eyed and Bushy-Tailed

You know you can't say "five more minutes" anymore when your 18MO hands you your glasses and says "come."

Nils has woken at 4:30 am the past two days, inconsolable (until we bring him to our bed, of course). It's a borderline time- at 4:00 we would probably make him suffer and sleep and at 5:00 we would simply take him to us. There's something about 4 am that makes it so tiring. When you're awakened at 1 or 2, you still have a chance for a full sleep cycle. At 4, the night is gone. We still sleep, but it's not the same- interrupted and shortened. Needless to say, we are a little tired and cranky this week.