Schmetterlinge

Our sweet friend Ruth invited us to visit the Botanical Gardens to see the butterfly exhibit. We had a fun time walking around the green houses and a little outside where we started to see signs of Spring everywhere! I can't wait.

 The Botanical Garden was also part zoo. James loved seeing the animals. He also got to pet a turtle until we saw a sign that said no touching the turtles. Ooops. He did only touch his shell very softly, so I don't think the turtle was hurt at all.

 One of the funniest thing was this large lizard/iguana that was eating all the flowers off these beautiful orchids. Who would have thought to put a lizard in the enclosure with all the beautiful flowers?

 The butterfly room was amazing. The butterflies were huge. As you can see in the picture below Hailee wasn't too excited about the whole thing. After a little while she warmed up to them but at first she was terrified.

Our family picture in Todd and mine's natural habitat....the desert. I remember thinking it was funny when I went to a botanical garden to see the desert areas. Who wants to see that? I used to love the beautiful flowers and amazing trees that it just seemed out of place to have cactus. Although this time it was fun to be there with Ruth. It was so different for her. And it was fun to have a reminder of home.

Ruth, the kids and I.

Ruth is such sweet lady and a fun German Grandma for the kids.

 It was a very fun day.

The Zoo

I love the Zoo. It has a way of making me feel like the best mom in the world. Look at these smiles. All it takes is a zoo pass and a little bit of ice cream. Come on. Ice cream and gorillas, there is nothing better.

Saturday came and the weather looked promising. It was so nice and sunny that Hailee insisted on breaking out her sun glasses.

I got so many pictures of James with the biggest smile on his face. Honestly with this many smiles and the super long nap he takes every time we go, we might look into moving in permanently to the zoo.

As we were walking around enjoying the zoo Hailee declared that she wanted to be a zoo keeper. What could be better? You get to go to the zoo every day and play with the animals. As we were walking out to go home she saw two zoo keepers in the deer exhibit. She was so excited. Then she asked what they were doing. They were actually shoveling up deer poop. It didn't take long for her to change her mind and decided that a professional soccer player sounded a lot more fun than shoveling poop. 

I didn't get a lot of pictures of Hailee, she was too busy wanting to take pictures of the animals. The thing I really love about zoo's outside of the US is the fact the animals are so close. Walking out we saw this peacock just walking around. Hailee was thrilled and told me all about "pea fowels." In case you were wondering a pea cock is the boy, a pea hen is the girl, and pea chicks are the babies. She cracks me up with all the information in her head.

The only problem we had at the zoo was James being able to get through a crowd faster than his mom. Thankfully Hailee is pretty good at keeping up and is squiggles through a crowd. He's not afraid of losing sight of me.

Piano lessons

Hailee started piano lessons this week. She was so excited. Her primary music teacher is giving her lessons. I know it's only been a week, and I'm sure we'll run into not-wanting-to-practice phases, but for now I'm loving the fact that she is so excited.

One thing I hadn't planned on was getting a two-for-one deal. She had her first lesson on Tuesday and that night her piano came in the mail after she was in bed (I was shocked when the DHL man showed up at my door at 9:00 at night). First thing in the morning, even before I had a chance to set it up on the stand she gave James his first piano lesson. And he sat and listened the whole time.

She was thrilled to play her two songs when her dad got home. I know at some point we'll have to upgrade our piano to a real one, but right now I love the fact there is a volume control. They both can practice for hours and it's not annoying when it's so quiet. I'm sure our neighbors are very happy that we have volume control as well. 

Just when I had decided not to give the boy away...

After a lovely couple of days spent outside, enjoying long naps because of all the play, we hit a rough patch. In fact Sunday was bad, Monday was worse, and Tuesday I almost gave him away to anyone that would take him. He had one huge tantrum after another. He also included biting and kicking and just generally being a naughty boy. 

Wednesday came around and he actually started behaving a little more normally. Then Thursday came and things were going along just fine. I was hopeful that we had gotten over that little tantrum bump and things were looking rosy. 

A little while ago I sat down to blog about our zoo trip after cleaning up the kitchen. It wasn't too long into the post that he came out with a huge smile on his face and said, "I made compost mom!" He was so pleased with himself. Upon further investigation I found that he had indeed made "compost" He dumped an entire bag of flour (dirt) on the counter. Found a few leaves, grapes and other compost items and mixed them all together. He was so pleased. 

I have decided that Curious George needs to be banned from our house. He "learned" how to make compost by watching Curious George. A show about a messy little monkey who usually makes messes before "learning" isn't a great idea for my little monkey. 

The Zoo

The weather at the end of last week was absolutely gorgeous. Considering we had been living with negative temperatures, the fact that it hit 50 degrees and then some felt like summer. We took advantage with all the outdoor time the kids could stand. Friday James and I headed to the zoo with some friends. We decided to go ahead and buy a family zoo pass. We live less than 10 minutes away from the zoo and both kids absolutely love it. Hailee was a little sad she missed out on the fun so we decided to go on Saturday morning while Todd was having to study for his German driver's license test.

 We started out at the monkey house while we were waiting for some friends to come. Hailee was our fantastic guide and kept us right on track. James had to get in on the map guidance as well. He loves doing what his "sissy" is doing.

 The gorillas were absolutely hilarious. I've decided that James is part gorilla. There was one little gorilla in there that just kept doing all kinds of things for attention. James was happy watching the monkeys for almost an hour. I really think he might be part monkey.

 I love these two little munchkins. Honestly they are the cutest pair. I am really looking forward to summer and all the time they will get to spend together. They are so great with each other....or I should say Hailee is so patient and sweet with her brother. James for his part loves his sister very much, but also love to tease her to death.

 Hailee loved these miniature kangaroos.

 I loved these giant tortoise's. Don't they look like cute little old men smiling at me. Adorable.

 Half way through we stopped at the play ground. It's huge. This slide is absolutely crazy. It looks like a pile of sticks that kids climb up and then come down a huge slide. The pictures really don't do justice to the madness.

 When Hailee and her friend Isobel went up, James was doing his best to convince me that he was big enough. I think he needs a little more time, or at least less big kids pushing him over.

 Hailee and Isobel made a great pair. Hailee was nervous about the climbing up bit and Isobel was nervous about the coming down bit. It was cute to see Isobel help Hailee up and Hailee to help Isobel down. They decided they liked it so much they went up and down a couple more times before it was time to see some more animals.

This came out a little blurry, but these two little girls had so much fun together.

One the way out we stopped to feed some of the animals. While trying to help James feed the animals instead of throwing the food at their faces I got my hand licked by a horse. YUCK! Then I realized that unlike my zoo back in Oregon that had hand sanitizer around, there was no place to wash your hands. I need to have Todd bring back some hand sanitizer when he gets back from the US for our next trip to the zoo.

Overall it was a lovely morning at the zoo. I think we're going to have lots of fun exploring it when the weather is nice. The other good news, thanks to all the studying that happened while we were at the zoo Todd was able to get 100% on his German driving test. Hooray!!! 100% is a big deal for the German driving test, you wouldn't believe everything you have to know for that dumb test. I am so proud of him.

Signs of Spring

 Friday on our way to pick up Hailee from school, James and I decided that the day was too nice and we needed to play outside. It felt like Spring was just around the corner.

 Once we picked up Hailee, James just couldn't wait anymore. He thought Hailee and I were going much to slow and ran ahead of us.

 Unfortunately most of the park had quite a bit of water from all the melting snow. Thankfully the fun see-saw and swing were just fine.

 The kids had a great time playing. Hailee and James love this see-saw. It goes up and down and around in circles. It's like a swing and see-saw in one. I just have to give it a push and they go up and down and around.

Then it was off to go pick up dad so we could have a nice relaxing weekend. There are definitely signs of Spring all around us. I wonder if we'll get any more snow this year. I am looking forward to a little bit warmer weather this next week at least.

Way-go's and other fun things....

James has been talking more and more lately. It seems every time we have company he starts talking more right after company leaves. This time was no different and been a chatty little guy lately. Some of the funny things he's been saying and doing lately...

• "I don't like it." Todd was working late so I got the kids some dinner before he got home. While I was getting their drinks, James came and brought me his un-touched plate of food. When I questioned what he was doing he responded, "I don't like it." When I told him that is what we were having for dinner he said again, "but I don't like it." They funny thing is that it was something that he normally would eat. I finally got him back sitting to the table and he ate a little of it, but I think he ended up filling up on yogurt when Todd got home.

•  "Way-go's." Not to be outdone by his big sister, James loves playing with Lego's. Also know in our house as "way-gos." One particular day he decided he didn't want to do anything but play with "way-gos." Any time I told him it was time to go somewhere he would quickly look up from his legos and say "No no no...I wan a pay way-gos." 

•  He loves playing with his legos, but sometimes his sister's legos look too interesting. One day when he wanted to play with them I made sure I stayed with him so he could carefully play with them. He did really good and we didn't lose even one little hedgehog from Hailee's Veterinary Hospital. I was proud of James for playing so nicely with her sets. Once Hailee got home it took all of 15 seconds for her to notice that something was amiss. "Mom, did someone play with my legos." It was so funny how quickly she recognized her things had been "played" with. She was happy that everything still seemed to be there, so she wasn't too mad and her mom and brother.

• "Strawp" (rhymes with drop).  Hailee has long enjoyed having straws for her drinks. James has decided that he too prefers to have a drink of milk with a "Strawp." Thanks to a late nap on Friday, wasn't ready to go to bed at 7:30 like normal. Todd and I decided to watch a movie while he finish droning off some energy. Half way in the movie just after eight he was starting to get tired and asked for his milk. We paused the movie and got him his milk, right after I got settled down again he started demanding a "strawp." Wanting to avoid the tantrum, have him drink his milk, and go to bed I got up to get him one. I told him he was a little toad and brought him back his "strawp." He just smiled and put his straw in the cup and proceeded to drink without the straw and a big smirk on his face. Which of course made his dad laugh and laugh. He is such a little tease. He then finished his milk with his straw and went to bed. He loves to tease.
• He has also decided to speak out of the corner of his mouth. I'm not sure when it came from and he doesn't do it all the time, but a fair amount of the time he looks a lot like L. Tom Perry when speaking. It's quite funny.
• We have thankfully had a sort of break through with the boy. He is finally understanding what a "time-out" means. He would always sit there, but her never really understood why he was sitting there. I think he mostly just thought his mother was crazy. The last month or so he is finally getting it. We've had lots of talks about what is "appropriate" (and there is nothing cuter than hearing him say "appropriate"). He's not perfect yet by any stretch of the imagination, but he is getting better. Now when I tell him he's done something wrong he understands and will always say "Oh sorry mom." It doesn't always stop the behavior, somethings are just too fun, but it's at least helping.
• "I want to try some pajamas." Saturday night Hailee was putting on her Christmas pajamas. My mom send the kids matching pajamas. For whatever reason, James thought Hailee was putting on his pajamas and became quite upset by it. I had to get his out and show him that he indeed still had his pajamas tucked away in his drawer that he refused to wear. He prefers to sleep in his underwear. Then he surprised us all by saying "I want to try some pajamas."  What? Voluntarily asking for clothes when he knows we're not going outside. True to his word he picked out some pajamas to try out. He kept them on until it was time for bed and then he stripped down again to go to sleep. At least it was progress....right?

He really does keep us on our toes with all his teasing and mischief, but none of us would know what to do without him. He keeps us all laughing all the time.