Two little girls

It happened a little something like this...

I was outside practicing child labor when we discovered that our neighbors have returned!

I know...I know...its kind of sad when the most exciting thing that happens is when your neighbor returns from their trip... 

BUT...Bella was so excited to see her playmate again.  We decided to put away the shovel (don't worry - I made her finish it later...) and head out to the backyard to let them play in the snow...where they decided to make snow angels. 

And at the risk of sounding uber-sappy and totally lame I do have to say they really were angelic out there giggling as they flapped their arms and legs around...

The other highlight of playtime was the fact that there is just enough room between the back door and the screen door for two little girls to stand and giggle at...  errr.....  I have no idea what they were giggling about, but apparently whatever was going on in the below picture it was incredibly funny to them.

Oh to be TWO!

Breakthrough with the big man...

That big fat man with the long white beard... you know...the peeper who watches you while your sleeping?  Knows when you're awake?

That guy who Ho Ho Ho's each year as he flys with his magical reindeer? 

Yeah...we had a MAJOR breakthrough with that guy last night.

Of course there is never a camera around when you need one, but little miss munchkin actually accepted a candy cane and agreed to sit ON THE ARM OF HIS CHAIR without throwing a complete temper tantrum. 

And, the polite little girl that she is, gave him a sideways don't look at me touch you as little as possible HUG when we were done.

And now Frosty the Snowman has been replaced by Santa as the all time favorite person to sit and watch for out the window of our little Army house. 

HO HO HO...Merry Christmas!

Oh Tannenbaum

Tonight was the annual Vilseck Christmas Tree lighting ceremony.  I had intended to walk with the girls to the parking lot at the commissary so we could see the program and watch the lights go on, but unfortunately due to circumstances beyond my control we ended up racing around like crazy people at the last minute as I shuffled them into the car and we slid sped toward the parking lot praying there would be a place to park the car. 

We should have taken our time.

Last year's tree lighting was P.A.C.K.E.D.  This year - meh...not so much.  Last year the ceremonial part took F.O.R.E.V.E.R.  This year - meh...about 10 minutes.  Last year was a 30 minute wait for St. Niklaus in a horrific L.I.N.E.  This year - meh...in and out after about 5 minutes.

And we had a great time.

We got pretzels to munch on and drank some nice hot wassail...

...sang and danced to some Christmas carols...

...listened to some Army guys and the Mayor of Vilseck speak and then watched the tree light up. 

And last, but not least...a trip to St. Niklaus.  We didn't even attempt to put Bella on his lap.  She grabbed the goodie bag and R.A.N.

Picky eating...

Just a quick public service announcement that I am sooooo thankful I do not have picky eaters.

I have been watching a little girl whose mom is moving homes right now...Dad is deployed and today was the big moving day so little "N" came to play at our house...

And the child does not eat.  She eats pizza and she eats yogurt.  And thats it.  Seriously. 

So I make this delicious juicy lemon chicken tonight and some rice to go along with it and she takes a look at it and says, "oh, I won't like that.  I can't eat it."  Sure enough.  She managed two teeny tiny bites of chicken and the complaining did not stopppppppppppppp....So I told her she needed to be done complaining and if she didn't like the food she didn't have to eat it.

And do you know what that little punk said?  "Well, I'll just have to complain at home because my mom would never make me eat this." 

Alrighty then....you just go ahead and complain at home. 

Her mom dropped by a microwave pizza (blech) that I nuked for her and she ate every drop.  **shaking head**

But, she wants to come back tomorrow.  Apparently even with my horrific lemon chicken and rice our house is a pretty cool place to hang.  :)

Here we gooooooo....

So, this week has started our (hopefully) short experience called Potty Training.

Woooohooooo!

We've been talking it up for awhile.  She's been sitting on the potty on and off, but this week we started to really push the potty vs the diaper.

And the results so far?  (Sing it with me...)

During the first week of potty training my little one gave to me...

12 million times of reading the potty book

11 pairs of little girl undies washed

10 thousand false alarms -- Mommy!  Potty!....wait....wait.....wait....wait....

 9 stuffed animals who showed her how to sit on the potty - Please applaud for kitty, puppy, owl, bear, bunny, dolly 1, dolly 2 and dolly 3 and last, but not least...Ms. Barbie...

8 (or more - ha ha ha) diaper accidents

7 days of potty training

6 minutes of washing hands - they LOVE soap and water

5 minutes in which I didn't pay attention and later discovered to be a stealth move on her part to abscond with the potty treat jar, which not only did she accomplish, but she managed to get it open, eat half the potty treats (M&Ms and Skittles) and spread the rest all over her entire playroom floor...

4 accidents in the bathtub...those toys and the tub have NEVER been cleaner

3 stickers on her potty chart

2 cheerleaders named mama and maddie

and 1 little potty training girl!

What ARE these and do I really want to be doing this?



Saint Nikolaus

For many, December 6th is a date that just comes and goes...but in Germany, December 6th is the beginning of the festivities for children. 

The tradition goes a little like this...  Children put a shoe or a boot (Nikolaus-Stiefel) outside their door and in the morning, St. Nicholas fills the boot with gifts or sweets if the child has been good and polite and helpful.  If they were rotten little kids then they get a tree branch or a switch instead.

This year, St. Nikolaus did come visiting to our house.

First, he wrote notes in his best St. Nikolaus penmanship on the back of two notecards.  One little girl got Santa's birdies...

And the other got a lion and a lambie... 

The notes he wrote on the back were very sweet, but got right to the point.  And, of course he ended them with - Ich Liebe Dich...I love you!

Did I mention that St. Nikolaus only writes in German?

Then he filled their shoes with what they deserved.  The first little girl will be sad to see she received a switch this year...but St. Nikolaus makes sure to let her know that if she works hard that he will bring her something wonderful on Christmas day...

And the second little girl who had such teeny tiny shoes...and whose only shoes we happened to have upstairs were her water shoes...got a little haribo gummy treat...

Now, the story goes that the children that got the switch were supposed to be beaten with it by their parents.  I think we'll probably skip that part of the tradition....this year...

What would St. Nikolaus bring you this year?  Gummies or a switch? 

Santa Claus is considering coal in a stocking this year...

Little Miss Madmad...has been particularly....uhmm.....trying this year...  In particular there are just some days I want to throw my hands in the air and give up.  Yell out that I'm DONE!  Stomp my feet and throw a temper tantrum of my own making...

And the issues all escalated since August - when we returned from our summer break.  And just last night I discovered a sneaky rotton hidden deed by the 8 year old that sent me over the top and tumbling down at breakneck speed.

It actually kind of reminded me of when my sister Sarah and I found about 30 buckets of cool whip in the downstairs refrigerator and each wanted to eat one...only once you've actually dipped your fingers into a bucket of cool whip a few times thats really all the cool whip you can eat...only, we KNEW how much trouble we'd be in if we didn't finish those buckets and toss them before mom found out so we sat down in the basement in our pajamas and each finished an entire bucket of cool whip on our own. 

I think we were sick for days.

BUT...the fact remains that had my mom caught us she probably would have felt much like I did last night...

And so after some prime time drama occuring in our home complete with tears and early bedtimes and the whole shebang...

We had a big talk this morning after breakfast about what had gone wrong in our happy little family.  At first it started like this... (paraphrased to keep this shorter than a novel)

Madmad:  YOU sent me to bed early and took my stuffies and I didn't even get to eat my chocolate from my advent calendar!
Me:  That is the most selfish thing I've ever heard...did you stop to think about how your actions affected me, or Bella or your dad?

Stare off...

And we talk for an hour or so...and after sending her up to her room about 20 minutes later I got a letter thrown down the stairwell...drifting down like a letter from heaven.  (hardly)  This letter was all  about how when St. Niklaus comes tomorrow (December 6th - a German tradition) she deserves for him to leave her the willow switch and not the candies and nuts.

I'm inclined to agree...

And then when I got up to my bed I found this gem...

Yep - she even has the "response with arrow" for me to write back to her.

So, while St. Niklaus WILL probably leave her a willow switch tomorrow night.  I'm also considering a strongly worded suggestion to Santa Claus for a lump of coal in a certain stocking this year.

Its better than some alternatives. 

Getting closer to the perfect smiles...

Today we took a trip to Weiden...which just happens to be the biggest city that is closest to Vilseck.  Weiden has a really neat little town square...I actually blogged about it last year (woohoo...I'm getting more savvy with my blog...just click that link and you'll go see the blog about Weiden!)

Anywho...we went there to see the Christmas market and I was quite disappointed.  For such a large town they had a rinky dink little market.  About 8 stalls - 6 of them food and two with ornaments/nativity pieces... This one in particular was where they sold the gingerbread and cookies and candies....

But, in the true spirit of sparkly lights, faux garland, red bows and slushy snow...the girls ooohed and aaahed at everything they saw...loved every minute of our jaunt around town and we had a good time regardless of its size.

**oh dear...I fear I may be morphing into one of those non-appreciative types...let me be clear that I LOVE living in small-town Germany and wouldn't give it up for the largest Christmas Market in Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, Ft. Polk, Louisiana or Ft. Lewis, Washington.  (hee hee hee...)  **

I  made it a point to snap some photos to see if I could find that perfect holiday photo for the smile contest...here are the contestants...


Contestant Ein (1)...  Cute, but the smile is a bit forced.  I do love, however, the snowy tree and the words Anno 2010 (Year 2010) in the background...

Zwei (2)- adorable except the small thingy sticking out of her nose.  You can barely see it, but its there.  :)

Drei (3) - Uh...that santa just freaks me out.  I'm not sure what either kid is actually doing in this photo...I'm not sure I'd call it smiling as much as I'd call it grimacing.

Vier (4) - This may have been the winner if those bags under my eyes weren't so big.  I do love this photo though and will definitely be keeping it in mind...

Thursday, December 2, 2006

Six months. 

John's been gone six months as of Thursday, December 2, 2006.  The eternity called deployment is now supposedly half way done.  I miss him so much. 

A friend of mine forwarded this to me and I thought it an appropriate song to celebrate the upcoming holiday season and John's 6 month mark...

Code RED

...and that means SNOW DAY!

We went to bed last night with the snow falling...and falling...and falling.  I figured they would end up canceling school today but look what we woke up to this morning...

A veritable winter wonderland measuring about 10 inches deep!  Check out this lawn chair that I failed to put away before winter hit...

And so after stalling as long as I could, the girls finally pestered sweetly convinced me that it was in our best interest to head outdoors to see what we could find.  I figured it was a good plan.  I needed to shovel the snow from the driveway anyhow...just in case I suddenly decided to drive in 10 inches of snow.

ha ha ha...

Actually, I've been very good about keeping the walkways and driveway clear of snow because it will turn into ice and then I can see it now...I'm walking outside to go to the car with my precious little 2 year old lambie and BLAM - we're flat on our backsides because SOMEONE didn't clear the walkway before the snow melted and now its iced over...

And wouldn't you know it...John's not here to blame these days.  *BIG GRIN*

So....anyhow....back to the snow day...out the door we went...AFTER we got on our great snow gear... I searched everywhere for a decently priced snowsuit for Bella with no luck....until a German friend clued me in on this great store that I'd never been to...we raced out there a few weeks ago when the weather started getting cold and I got this cute little snowsuit for just 15 euro....thats not even an "arm" in US dollars! 

The girls played in the snow while I dutifully shoveled the walkway and the driveway...

First, they tried to eat snowflakes that were falling.  I did, by the way, mention the "don't eat yellow snow" rule, but I don't know that Bella understood.  She was more interested in trying to get her gloves off her hand than me droning on about yellow snow...

Then we made snow angels...or I should say the girls made snow angels.  Me...I was outfitted in my cotton yoga pants.  No way I was laying my buns down in this frigid winter paradise.  I gotta get me some of those snow pants...

Bella just kind of fell down...It was a great first try for a snow angel, though.

And then we went for a walk...around the block to the park which was covered in 10 inches of pristine snow...

Do you know how hard it is for a toddler to walk in 10 inches of snow?  We found out today.  "Uh oh...Uh oh....I stuck, mama!  I stuck!"

So we hightailed it to the swings....

Before heading home for some delicious....

Macaroni and cheese.

You thought I was going to say Hot Chocolate...didn't you...?  Sorry, it was lunchtime and pre-naptime which meant no chocolatey anything...

Except for mama who *might* have nibbled on a handmade chocolate covered cherry...

Her first prayer

Always before we eat a meal, my little family of us three girls holds hands and thanks our Heavenly Father for what we've been given.  Its important to me that my children learn to pray and learn to be thankful and learn that things like food is a blessing and not an entitlement...

So...today at lunchtime it was just little Bella and I.  She held my hands and said, "I do it, mama."

Okay.... usually that means I tell her what to say and she repeats it, but today she wanted nothing to do with me speaking...

"Shhhh!  Shhh!  Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh...."  yes, my two year old shushed me.

Then she began... "Dear heavy father...lalalalalalal food.  Lalalalala daddy on 'puter and daddy safe!  lalalalala sissy and mama...  I love Bella!  lalalalalala Amen."

And tears rolled down my face and she looked at me, got a worried look on her face and said, "Sorry mama."  Oooh sweet little girl.  Nothing to be sorry about.  This is happy tears for mama. 

Reminiscent of Ramblin' Rod...

When I was a kid there was a morning TV program on called Ramblin' Rod.  I really don't remember much, but it was a local show so they always had local kids on the set and they'd do a smiling contest.  The camera would pan back and forth on all these kids who had that constipated look on their faces from trying to show the most teeth or stretch their cheeks the widest...  Ultimately one kid would just seem to shine above the rest and the camera would stay trained on that mugshot and a really bad neon graphic of SMILE CONTEST WINNER would flash on and off...

If I seem a little bitter its only because I always was jealous that I never got on the Ramblin' Rod show and that follows the thought that I never won a smile contest...

So here you go all you Ramblin Rod Smile Contest winners who got your face on TV...time to join the big leagues of Smile Contests.  I have just found a smile contest that results in $250 worth of Amazon.com holiday cheer.

So...for the next few days I'll have camera out to find that perfect smile in someone...somewhere...

Here's the blog to share the love.  I'd love a little healthy competition. 

http://parentingbydummies.com/2010/11/brighten-your-holidays-with-a-smile-win-250.html

Ich verfluche dich Weihnachtsbaum

...which in English translates to, "I curse you Christmas tree."  But, I needed to write it in German because the tree is German and I want to make darn sure it understands EXACTLY what I'm saying.

So, I get the tree in the tree stand and then cut the nylon netting they put around it and its STUCK in the exact same shape.  Literally frozen like that.  I just had to laugh.  How appropriate.

(They were cuter than the tree so I decided to take a picture of them instead.)
 

I took the broom to it.  Whapping at the branches to get the frozen beads off...and the snow off...and to make them start to pull downward and fill out some....and I got it pretty good...

But then started some of the other problems.  It was sooo cold outside that the snow and ice was jus stuck on the branches...I tried to let it melt off...but that didn't work so I knew I'd have to bring it inside the house and then let them melt off...

And so I did...note all the towels around the base?  It took about 2 hours, but it finally all melted and the tree dried enough that I felt comfortable putting on the lights.  Look...it filled out more too!

And then began the decorating...first the lights...

The girls INSISTED on putting the rope lights on the tree.  Normally I wouldn't do it...I mean it looks a little ridiculous, but beh...who really cares?

 And then it fell down.  Not once...not twice, but THREE times this dang tree fell down.

And broke John's Czech Republic Pilsner ornament...

And made Maddie cry.  And so I tied it up with yarn.  (you thought I was joking...didn't you...)

And then the "ornamenting" began.  (That was Maddie's word...she's been excited to "ornament" the tree all day.)

The box of ornaments...

Look Mom!  Sparklies!

Bella hanging her first ornament

The girls "ornamenting" the tree

And when it was all done I had to just stand back and laugh....check out the bottom row of branches...

How many ornaments can you fit on one branch?  :)

And even though this was a job that took the ENTIRE afternoon and left one child in tears and made the other extremely grumpy and hungry...

When our neighbor came visiting she said, "Oh wow....this tree looks very loved."

HA HA HA.

I'll take that as a compliment.

Ohhhhhh....you better watch out!

You better not cry...

You better not pout....

I'm telling you why....

Santa Claus is coming to town....

First holiday party of the season and SANTA was there !  Hoorah.  Its a good thing too because the party which was supposed to be a decoration party for us to make stuff to send to the FOBs for Christmas got scaled down to a single small table with some cheap crayons and white computer paper.  I was pretty irritated, but apparently they got a lot of stuff donated and after the donations they decided they didn't need to do any more craft activity.  BUT, there was nothing else for the kids to do!  Anyhow...lame.

This little girl asked Santa for a baby doll for Christmas.  I think she *may* just get her wish come true!

I've been debating the merits of having Santa add a small piece of coal to her stocking with a reminder to be good next year.  She's been such a pill lately...well, actually, she's much improved from September, but still...maybe some coal would remind her that someone other than me is watching? 

Then Bella met Santa...and she was NOT happy about sitting on his lap.  I think just about every kid has one of these scream your head off Santa photos.  And yes, thats a giant carrot in Bella's hand.  She insisted on a giant carrot - not a slice of carrot, not a smaller carrot...that giant carrot in its entirety.  Its cute...all nibbled up.

And a close up just in case you didn't get the full hilarity of her screaming face.  I was really pleased with how cute our santa was...doesn't he just look GREAT?!

Santa Claus is coming to townnn!