Typical Photo of Jay

August Photos

I don't have too much from August. Just a visit to the zoo and a visit from Oma. And Nils decided to stop wearing daipers. So of course I have to embarass (bare ass!) him.... But not too badly! He fell asleep with nothing on his bottom. I can't bring myself to post the other photos.

Ouch

I am almost ashamed (no, I am ashamed) of how long it has been since since my last post. I've got tons of photos for you and some info. Mostly photos since the stories and info are so after the fact that they seem inconsequential now. Don't tell the kids that though! Of course my sun rises and sets over them.

What is my excuse?-----No time? ----Computer problems? ----Work? ---- No...... plain old laziness. So here are some photos, enjoy!

Quick Update

No new photos or anything, but some news here:

The construction here is going pretty well. We have a room now (or at least the frame of a room) where the roof deck used to be. Laundry is a pain though- you have to trek through a temporary trapdoor to the upstairs, ducking and crawling while carrying your load because a basket is too bulky. Fine if the clothes are dirty, but you'd better be careful when they're clean! And of course there's no power upstairs right now and we operate the washing machine with about 10 extension cords strung together. The dryer keeps blowing the fuse out so we have to air dry everything on racks in our bedroom. Which means one load per day or else we have no place to dry it. And we can't do the load until the workers leave since they need the power from the extension cords. And there's no power, so no lights. So you'd better get the clothes from the washer before it gets dark or it's tough to navigate your way down and keep them clean!

On to better (but maybe not as comical) news--- Nils is completely toilet trained in quite a short time! We went swimming last week and today and the kids loved it. I want to get them into lessons during the school year. The pool is a public one but spotless and brand new. So we get cheap facilities that aer well maintained too- bonus!

Nils has been going through a bit of a rebellious period lately. He does a lot of creameing and shouting to anyone in his voice range (a lot of people then) and places his hands on his hips and says "go straight to bed!" or "time out on the sofa!" You know who he must sound like then- uh oh.

I'll try to get some construction photos in this week.

Smaller Handbags, Here I Come!

Nils chose this week to no longer wear diapers- yay! Of course, we've had crappy weather for 2 weeks and were trapped inside. And the day that it turned nice again he decided this and we're still trapped at home. And next week the work on our house begins, so it will be hard to take the kids out a lot. But I am still very, very happy that he decided, on his own, to wear underpants. And that he's doing very well with it too. Yipee!

We took our first outing today sans diapers and it was a success. Of course, it was just a walk for about 15 minutes.... we wanted to go to the playground, but ominous looking storm clouds and thunder scared us off and we took a quick spin around the main street here. Jay was the same age when I took away his diapers- it took him barely two days to get it down. But 2 years, 7 months- not bad!

Friday, we had the scaffolding put up on the house. The roofer comes Monday and we'll be fully underway. I cannot believe that it took six months to get a building permit for a new roof and to build a room on our rooftop deck. Until I spoke with my neighbor and it took them two years for a permit to tear down an old building and build a new one. It is the historical district after all.

Amusement Park

I've meant to make this blog post for about 2 weeks now. Or at least since I made my last posting, since we did these both on the same weekend.

We took the kids to their first amusement park. It was geared to younger kids and actually looked like a ten year-old would be bored here. Anyway, the kids loved it. Michael, Nils and I went on a pirate water ride- Jay chose to stay on shore. Smart for him because Michael and I got soaked. Nils stayed dry- he started crying so I huddled over him and then he loved it. Go figure, he's a fish and cried because he got wet. (It was pretty intense though).

Michael took Jay and Nils, individually, on the huge Ferris wheel too. They loved the view and everything. I can't deal with heights like that when I'm in a non-enclosed space (see the Switzerland entries for an angst-filled photo of me ready to go in a gondola- and that's closed!). We also went on a tractor ride, trampolines, massive slides, a train ride and a huge play/climb-ground.

Before I had kids (shoot, even three days before we went!), I always swore that I would never, ever be the type of mom who would let her preschooler run around in only a diaper and tee. Well, I became that mom! There was water on the playground and rather than try to limit Nil's playing, we just took off his shorts- we had more diapers but not more pants! Of course, I shall choose not document evidence of this alleged incident- no photos of Nils playing in his diaper!

Legoland

Since Michael was away all last week, we did nothing but family stuff over the weekend. I made sure our errands were all taken care of and he passed on his weekly badminton game. Saturday was beautiful and we decided to go to the newly opened Legoland in our area.

I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed when we first got there because I always thought it was an outdoor park for smaller children. Instead, it was inside- why would we want to be inside on such a beautiful day? Well, we went anyway and it was good because it was about 11:00 and we wouldn't want the kids in the sun at that time anyway.

Legoland had a ride through a castle with a dragon, an Indiana Jones exhibit (complete with quiz questions for the kids), a lego factory and more. Look at how thrilled Jay is to be next to Batman (!). Notice the cool Foos tee too! We even bought the photo of use that was offered at the end of the dragon ride- very unusual for us! I have to scan it in later this week so you can see it.

Of course the best part for the kids- the huge play area in the cafe at the end. Oh, and eating fish sticks and fries outside while watching ducks. After eating, we went on a paddle ride on the water. Nils, the fish, looks like he's about to fall in a couple of times, but he was safe. Notice that I have a photo of myself in the blog now twice within a one-month period! Amazing.