Taylor's new bike

We decided to get Taylor his own bike, since he is constantly trying to ride both Micah's and Sadie's. He also tries to get out of the house, so he can ride one of the bikes, that we keep in the carport. The other day he took off down the road with Sadie's helmet on. He made it around the corner 3 houses down. A neighbor brought him back.

Needless to say, we now lock the front door (The door has too be unlocked with a key. Taylor can't do that yet). He now has a bike that we have been keeping in the house, to decrease temptation. Although he has tried to ride the bike down the stairs twice.

Also, today I created a bike riding area in our carport by backing the car almost all the way out and putting up two baby gates on both sides of the car. That gives the kids a space to ride around and stops Taylor from taking off.

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Can you guess what word Taylor is saying? (natah?)

3 more days and counting

Greg has been out of town since last wednesday. He is in New York taking review course for his oral boards. He will take the test for real this wednesday. We have been on our own for the last 5 days and I must admit we have been doing pretty good managing on our own.

Here in Germany there are many families with deployed spouses. It has the highest deployment rate out of any military community in the world. In our ward alone there are at any given time 20 deployed soldiers and airmen. That isn't counting lose who are on TDYs (I am not sure what the letters stand for but it means they are gone.) In one branch in our stake nearly all the men are gone, for a 15 month deployment. Needless to say, there is always someone who has it worse then you, no matter who you are. So, there isn't much room to feel sorry for yourself.

For me, this is a good thing. It seems as if I allow myself the luxury of feeling sorry for myself, I start a downward spiral of self pity, which leads to a decreased capacity and increased resentment. So, this week hasn't been bad. Plus, knowing that Greg might be deployed in the future, helps with the shorter times of separation. (I feel like this is a practice run.) Before Christmas his unit gave him a heads up that he would be deploying for 12 months starting in March. I started to gear myself for the long haul. With the change in administration, came a change of plans for Greg's unit and his didn't end up going. Compared to this possiblity a week seems like nothing.

However, there have been some bumps in the road in the past week. Micah and Sadie have been fighting like cats and dogs. Sadie is constanting bugging Micah. She really likes to wrestle and in always climbing on top of him and trying to get his attention by tackeling him. She serious likes to torture him. Micah can stand it for only so long and ends up smacking her to get some space. It is a cycle which starts with some giggling on Sadie's part, Micah asking her to "get off" and ends up with Sadie crying. We go through this cycle about 50 times a day.

Micah also got in a fight with a kid on the bus. Both kids came off the bus crying and Micah was screaming, and the bus driver complaining. We smoothed things over and Micah went willingly on the bus this morning without any problems. (He and this kid are ignoring each other still, though.)

Sadie has also has also started having temper tantrums. It seems like about 5 a day. After the kicking and screaming are over, she ends up crying and repeating over and over how much she misses daddy. So, it has been hard on the kids and we will be very excited to have things back to normal in 3 days.

Legoland Deutschland

Micah's waffle sword. Yum....

Sadie in he new hat, we bought there. Again we didn't predict the weather correctly and had to improvise.

A planning session with Daddy. We had these quite often. We found it difficult to maximize our time with three kids. Both our kids needed to be accompanied by an adult and most rides had only two seats. We figured it out though and still had fun.

Every since we arrived, Micah has wanted to go to Legoland. He first learned there was one here from commercials on TV. We decided that we are kind-of sick of looking at old buildings, so we decided to do something fun, that the kids were guarenteed to enjoy. It was a great success and we think we might make it a yearly event.

Easter egg hunt at the Kindergarten

Look at the pretty flowers. So....tiny.

Taylor looking serious with his new haircut. That is not a binky in his mouth. Shhhh....don't tell Greg.

Sadie standing with the preschool kids, who were performing. She moved her mouth every now and then. I am just glad that she participated.

Taylor eating his coat at the playground.

On Sadie's last day of preschool before Easter break, the Kindergarten met for an egg hunt. The kids prepared some songs and poems. After performing they were released to find eggs, only hard boiled ones, no candy. Sadie didn't find any. They whole thing scared her. I am not sure why. Micah only brought back 4. They were both disappointed, but they don't even like hard-boiled eggs. Oh well....I had a good time. They weather was beautiful and it was nice to chit-chat outside.

A walk in the forest

We decided to go exploring today and see where the trials lead in the forest next our village. We found out that they make a circle that took us an hour to complete. The kids did great. Micah left us in the dust on his bike and Sadie was content to ride in the double stroller. I see many more walks in the future.

Prinzessin Lillifee

Today Sadie and I had a girls day out. We saw the new film "Princess Lily." It was nice to spend sometime together without the boys. We don't get enough of that around here. We went with some friends we met here in town. Sadie and Josephin get along pretty well. They communicate through pointing, nodding and playing chase. Sadie is not much of a talker in English even, so it works out great.

We came home and colored Princess Lily pictures.

http://www.prinzessin-lillifee.de/

The new purse

So, I set out this week to find a purse, easier said than done. I started at the BX, only name brand purses there. I don't need to loose a 200 hundred dollar purse, so I moved on. Next, I checked out a couple of German stores.....all of the inexpensive purses look like old Oma material. Where is a target when I need it? Cheap and cute? Ah....target online. This is what I found.

Buxton Bag Red : Target

The "as seen on TV" part is what sold me. Maybe it will beep when I clap, so I can find it when.....no...if....no...I am never going to lose it. I figure it should solve all of my problems. I chose red to be a little on the wild side.

We do a lot of online shopping over here. The BX caters to expensive tastes, name brand. Plus you see a lot of repeats of the "great deal" you found walking around. I bought a coat, which every other person on post is wearing. Taylor has a couple of outfits that other kids have too. German stores are expensive and sometimes the quality is lacking........ I am very glad for the internet.

Springtime

The weather has been beautiful the last couple of days. It is amazing how a little sun can lift my spirits. The cold dreary winter was getting to me. I have noticed it in the kids too. They have been excited and happy and have wanted to play outside. We found out that the Ice Cream lady visits our street regularly and has really good icecream, the kind that mommy's like too. (no spiderman or spongebob pops that turn your mouth red). Sadie commented on the weather while we walked to pick up Micah from the bus.

Sadie: "Is it summer yet?"
Nicole: "It is getting close. Spring just started."
Sadie: "I remember summer when we lived in Maryland."
Nicole: "Me too."
Sadie: "I really like the two sunny days here in Germany."

The two sunny days has turned into four and counting.....