The Reasons

Sima's May visit

2011-10-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

My mom arrived early May for a three-week visit. We enjoyed seeing the weather turn warm and took advantage with a trip to Hunter's, the local ice-cream place with it's fun playground. I was still feeling morning-sickness at this point, but was getting better..

Nadia Birthday and Easter

2011-10-13T19:11:00.001-07:00

Still catching up from spring pictures! I would love to get caught up before our son is born!! Here are a few pictures of Nadia's second birthday.

For Easter we did some egg-dyeing and had a whole group over after church on Sunday, which was so nice. Sophia and Nadia spent part of the afternoon at our neighbors, Kathy and Bernie's, so Easter dinner was actually just adult time, which was also a special treat. Having a fancy meal with two toddlers is kind of an oxymoron :-) We spent the first part of the afternoon at our house, and then the late afternoon at Joanna and Gordon's, where we ate the famous 'lamb cake' and did an Easter egg hunt with the kids, which they loved..

A little bit later--fun dress up time with Phoebe..

Another birthday party

2011-07-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

Mid-April we had another birthday party for the girls, Phoebe and Orianna, whose birthday is one day before Nadia's. Lyn graciously hosted like last year and we did the same mac and cheese, veggies and fruit dinner, an easter egg hunt and a craft.

What an awesome rainbow cake!

The egg hunt :-)
People brought gifts, despite our urgings! Our girls didn't protest..

Sophia's preschool had an easter party on Nadia's birthday, so conveniently I told Nadia it was her birthday party :-) She chomped all the treats. The same morning I had my first midwife appointment, and it was great to finally hear the heartbeat!

Columbus cousins' birthday bash

2011-07-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

MacGregor's birthday is a day before Sophia's, so in early April I took the girls to Columbus so they (and Nadia) could have a joint birthday party. I was nervous about driving to Columbus by myself with the girls in the midst of morning sickness, but the girls did very well on the trip. Miranda threw a very cute pirate-themed party complete with accessories and a pinata. Mike and Luise came up from Dayton for the party too. MacGregor is so big, Nadia was able to borrow his sweatshirt for an after-party walk. Though he's a year younger, they wear the same size :-)

Some informal and formal dancing in May

2011-07-28T16:48:00.001-07:00

Sophia has been taking dance and tap since the fall. Her spring class was much bigger than her fall one. She had two performances in mid-May while my mom was here visiting. She improved from her first performance to her second, as you can see! And much better than the fall, as she froze up on the big stage and didn't move at all.. It's fun to see her progress.

Easter Egg Hunt

2011-07-27T18:45:00.001-07:00

The girls enjoyed an Easter Egg hunt with Abbi and Jack at Gordon and Joanna's house. I love Nadia's serious determination in the hunting :-)

Early Spring happenings

2011-07-27T18:18:00.000-07:00

We returned from Zurich mid-February and a few weeks later I started potty training Nadia. We did the 'hard core approach' with a timer every 10 minutes and naked from the waist down. She had shown some interest before we left for Zurich, even sitting on the potty on her own and peeing, so I didn't want the opportunity to pass. At the end of February, we also found out that I was pregnant (yay!), so that made me even more motivated to potty train. I didn't relish the thought of having two kids in diapers for a year, like I did with Sophia and Nadia. For almost three weeks, I minimized leaving the house with Nadia at all so that I wouldn't have to put a diaper on her. I would carry the potty with me, along with many changes of clothes. After a few weeks, Nadia became good at going potty on her own at home when she was naked from the waist down. More problematic was when she would have any panties or pants on, or if she was being asked to go on a public toilet. We pressed on through April and then in early May, my mom came. She babysat Sophia & Nadia for a weekend while Roth and I had a lovely weekend in NYC (amazing food, Broadway show, nice hotel, no kids--just great). Nadia got sick while we were gone and 'unlearned' potty habits and became really defiant. When we got back, we also starting having the girls sleep in the same room, in preparation for the baby and for construction on our house that was upcoming. That was a big challenge, so my mom wisely suggested I back off the potty training for a while. So Nadia was back in diapers through June (hard not to feel a bit defeated, but I know it was wise). Now, at the end of July, she is potty trained at home, when naked from the waist down, but that's as far as we've gotten. Also, after 5 weeks of late nights with the girls, and early mornings, we've separated them for sleeping again. Humbling when parenting feels like 2 steps forward, 2 steps back sometimes!

In other news, here's a picture of the new car! Shortly after we found out about the pregnancy, Roth found this car near us, a Toyota Highlander Hybrid. We've been wanting to avoid a van with its outrageous gas mileage, and this car has a small third row, and much better gas mileage than a van. We've been happy with it so far.

Playing with the last snow of the season..

Here celebrating Kathy's birthday mid-March

Here's a picture from April 5th, Sophia's birthday! We took the girls to the pub ( Brews n Bytes was closed).

She really enjoyed her peanut-butter pie

February trip

2011-07-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some very belated pictures from the last Zurich trip in February before we head off for our next one in August! Before the trip, there was some stress, as I had a sinus and ear infection, and Nadia had diarrhea even up to the day of the trip, and I was flying alone with the girls. Thankfully, I got strong antibiotics and pain meds and Nadia was fine on the trip, besides crying for half of it, but that was a relief compared to her being sick.

Zoo trip to the tropical exhibit with my mom and mom's friend and granddaughter, Sophie.

Sophie and Sophia :-)

A lakeside stroll with Lea and Umar

So exciting to meet my friend Vesna's men--Wim and baby Lieven

My mom, stepdad and the girls took a lovely hike about an hour outside of Zurich

At home with Oma Sima, Omi Chayka and Christina

Chatting with Omi Marianne

All the grandgirls going nuts over the I-phone

My dear friend Polly came to Zurich for a few days, which was so nice, although I was a bit sick during the time. Sophia kept begging Polly for stories, and Polly indulged her with stories from Early Modern English history :-)
The girls with lovely French braids made by Polly
We did get out for a lovely day of shopping and sight seeing around Zurich

The last weekend before we left, our family friend Wendi flew over for my sister Milly's gravestone-setting, which was sad and moving. I was so glad I could be there.

January visits

2011-03-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

Mid-January Roth's mom, stepdad and Delaney visited to post-celebrate Christmas with us. The girls got an amazing amount of gifts and we had a fun time at a Blues Festival at our downtown pub on Saturday. Sophia also got to go to Friendly's and get a sundae with the family--what would family visits be without presents and junk food?

Later that month we got to visit our friends Em & Phil and see old Philly friends Jeannette,, her brother Sam, and her two sons. We marveled at how big all our kids had gotten.. The big kids got to eat together at the kids' table.

At one point it got suspiciously quiet and us ladies in the kitchen finally ventured out to the living room to find all the guys and baby passed out asleep. It was pretty cute. We commented on how that would never happen to us women :-) We had to get all the chatting in we could.

A few more January videos

2011-03-09T18:11:00.000-08:00

Some January videos

2011-01-30T11:36:00.000-08:00

In early January Nadia started being fascinated with Sophia going to the bathroom, and kept saying "Potty". So to start increasing her potty awareness, I brought the potty out and she started sitting on it, sometimes with a diaper, sometimes without. on the second day of doing this, nadia peed on the potty! Since we're leaving for Europe soon, I'm not pursuing this now, but maybe in the early spring..

Although I haven't captured it on video, Nadia is really into kid songs and their motions like "wheels on the bus". Here's she's just in performing mode.

January 1st

2011-01-30T09:40:00.000-08:00

I was dreading January 1st as it would have been Milly's 22nd birthday. It was also a Saturday so Roth was busy all day and I'd be alone all day with the girls. Thankfully, our friends Jill, Chris, and Cora were able to visit for the day last minute on their way back from visiting family. It made for a really nice day in midst of the somberness.

I bought a swiffer sweeper on sale and made it a fitting size for the girls so now they can help me clean..

Christmas day

2011-01-30T08:15:00.000-08:00

Chilling with Opa Mike

With her favorite accessories

Oma Luise with the yummy Wolferman's English Muffins we got her

Modeling his new shirt

Mike built a cool Lego plane for Sophia with her new Legos

Christmas dinner: salmon, roasted asparagus, mashed potatoes and Kathy's mac & cheese.

Enjoying dinner with Mike, Luise, and neighbors Kathy and Bernie

The girls were so happy to have so many of their favorite people in one room

Christmas Eve

2011-01-30T07:54:00.000-08:00

We held our church's first annual Christmas Eve service at the House of Care on Geisinger Medical Center's campus. We had a really good turn out from our church but not as many guests from the House of Care as we'd hoped, probably because many had gone home for the holidays.

The candlelight singing with "Silent Night" at the end..

Christmas week

2011-01-30T07:08:00.000-08:00

Sophia helping me bake for our Christmas Eve service/party

Sophia cornered this bunny in the yard and it said there while she talked to it for at least 5 minutes.

The same day my mom left, December 23rd, Mike and Luise came for the rest of the week. The smooth transition between visitors made the goodbye to Oma Sima a little less difficult for the girls, although after I dropped my mom at the airport, Sophia asked where she was and when I told her, she said "But I need Oma Sima!"

Fun with the family

2011-01-29T19:59:00.000-08:00

Preschool Christmas Party

2011-01-29T18:59:00.000-08:00

Sophia would wear this dress every day if I let her. I usually don't let her wear dresses to preschool, but since it was a special party, she picked her favorite outfit.

Waiting for Santa.

And there he came.
Sophia was sheepish but did get right up on Santa's lap

Santa having fun with preschool teacher Miss Angela

Back to the safe arms of Oma Sima

And the gorging begins. Of course me the hovering mother confiscated half of their plates to take home for later. Plenty of sweets were still had :-)

Looking so grown up

Dressed up for church

First Dance Recital

2011-01-28T19:48:00.000-08:00

Mid-December Sophia got the chance to perform at two nursing homes. The first performance was in an auditorium on a big stage. I think the setting made Sophia nervous, so when it came time to perform, she froze and didn't move her feet. But the teacher comforted her afterwards and said she did a good job in not running off stage or crying. So it amazed me that when the second performance came around, she did all her steps even better than I'd seen her do them in class, as if it was no big deal. But I was a proud mommy :-)

Christmas & Channukah

2011-01-28T19:41:00.001-08:00

We celebrated Channukah together with my mom and the girls were enthralled by the candles and singing (although at first Sophia kept thinking it was someone's birthday :-)

While my mom was here in early December we got our Christmas tree, a Douglas Fir, and Sophia enjoyed decorating it with the 3 lbs of Swiss chocolate that my mom brought us. We had our own little advent calendar by getting to eat one chocolate ornament a day. I think we finally ate it all by New Year's (with some help from friends).

December visit with Oma Sima

2011-01-28T19:26:00.001-08:00

On December 3rd, my mom arrived for a three week stay. We were thrilled to have her and we had many fun times playing in the snow, with a doctor kit or reading stories. We also visited friends together and had our family friend Wendi visit for a weekend too. I was excited that my mom got to hear me speak at our MOPS group (Mothers of Preschoolers) when I spoke on "Redeeming our Routines" and participated in our discussion afterwards. The following week we co-taught our book club when we read a short story by Truman Capote and our leader got sick last-minute. It was both moving to see my mom's gifts in action and seeing how I take after her in some things.

Some winter dancing

2011-01-28T11:08:00.000-08:00

This was when my mom was visiting, December 3-23. Of course she joined in the daily dance party in the kitchen :-)

Thanksgiving

2011-01-23T18:26:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving we took our yearly trip to Columbus and Dayton. On Wednesday before Thanksgiving we had a first Thanksgiving meal at Miranda and Paul's house with Mike and Luise, who drove up from Dayton. The girls loved hanging out with their cousin MacGregor.

On Thursday we had the T-meal with Joy and the rest of the family. Joy of course went all out as usual with loads of delicious food..

With cousin Amayah and aunt Alisa.

MacGregor is a big boy--he weighs about as much as Nadia and is a year younger!

Thanksgiving isn't complete without Roth and Keaton's wrestling matches. I guess it's how brothers show each other love.

Here's a picture of our time in Dayton--Roth's dad took us to the Cincinnati Children's museum again, which was so much fun. We also loved stopping in Jungle Jim's, one of the largest international grocery stores in that part of the country. We brought home a 20 lb bag of Asian rice and lots of other goodies. We also got to visit Roth's old church with Mike and had lunch with Nathan and Melissa and their kids.

We broke up the trip back home from Dayton into two days, spending a night in the Pittsburgh area and visiting two sets of friends. We spent an afternoon with Becca and Steve and their three girls. Unfortunately, from refereeing the girls in the backseat during the ride from Ohio, I got really carsick, so the whole time in Pittsburgh I felt awful. It was still good to see friends (we spent the night with other friends Denise and Tim and their two girls), but I wish I had been able to enjoy it more fully.

Sweet friends

Becca and Tacy

Halloween

2011-01-22T19:42:00.000-08:00

Costumes are big in our household these days, so it kind of feels like Halloween everyday.

Our tradition is to go to the Halloween parade in Danville with our friend and former neighbor Cindy, as well as friends Dave, Nancy and Noah. Here we are having dinner at Brews N Bytes beforehand, also a tradition.

Nadia as a spacey ladybug

Sophia's horse costume was a bit bulky for the table, but see the pictures below.

Pigging out at preschool's Halloween party. Poor Nadia stuffed her face with a cookie and marshmallow (I tried to grab as much off her plate as I could), only to puke up some chocolate at home! I thought I was being good to be the more 'laid back mom' and not make a big deal out of an occasional binge. oh well.
Sophia in her preschool costume parade! One of my first memories of moving to the US in 3rd grade was my Halloween parade. Ah, how time passes!

This was actually Delaney's costume when she was little, as was the ladybug costume Nadia wore.
On the 31st, my birthday, we were invited to friends Ayami and Todd for a Halloween party. Roth couldn't come since it was Sunday afternoon, but me and the girls had fun.

More pumpkin season

2011-01-22T19:28:00.000-08:00

It's rare that we actually do crafts at our house (and now that Sophia goes to preschool and brings home beautiful crafts, I don't even feel guilty!), but I figured buying pumpkins without painting them was lame.
Ballet class
We went on our first preschool field trip to Whitenight's farm market. Here's Roth and Sophia on the big slide. Unfortunately it rained through our whole hayride, but the girls didn't seem to mind. After being thoroughly chilled, we took the girls out for hot chocolate at Brews N Bytes.

With her preschool class. There are 19 kids total.

A nice fall walk to the park.

Rohrbach's

2011-01-22T19:08:00.000-08:00

Fall isn't complete without one trip to Rohrbach's Fall festival with its pumpkin patch and corn pit. We actually went twice this year, once with friends Dawn and Scarlett, and the second time, with Joy and Delaney. Unfortunately my camera battery died on the second trip, plus the weather was so cold and windy that we didn't stay long. The first time was a sunny, warm weekend in October.
Fun in the pumpkin patch
It cracks me up that Sophia always has this solemn, stoic look when she's doing something she loves like riding the carousel or a pony. I haven't quite figured it out. It's as if she's saying "yeah, yeah, this is cool, but I'm an old pro at this, so no need to get all giddy about it."

The corn pit is always a big hit. It's also nice to let them be in a big mess and not have to worry about cleaning it up (except for digging corn kernels out of Nadia's butt later :-))

Fall pictures

2011-01-22T18:29:00.000-08:00

Here are a few fall highlights.. As Nadia gets more interactive, Sophia and Nadia have gotten more relational. Above are the nice moments, of course there are plenty of conflicts too. But the peaceful moments are more fun to take pictures of. September and October were big months for Sophia--starting preschool, starting dance, and finally giving up sucking her thumb mid-October. We used a bitter nailpolish on her thumb and she was amazingly nonchalant about the whole process, when I expected drama and tears. It's lovely when I get positively surprised by how easy things are sometimes.

Saying goodbye at our fall party to our dear friends Allen & Vicki, who moved to Indiana for Allen to go to grad school.

Sophia's first venture into ballet and tap. It took her about three weeks to start moving her feet in the class, but the teacher was patient with her, and Sophia has grown to love it. She's now into her second class and especially loves tap. Hardly a day goes by that she doesn't wear her tap shoes at home. She's also really into watching the show Angelina Ballerina.
Preschool took Sophia a while to adjust to also. She did not participate at first, and didn't seem to like being there the first few weeks. She slowly warmed up to it and now the teachers say she is happy and bubbly, though often still opts out of participating in circle time activities, probably out of shyness. Interestingly, she hasn't zeroed in on any particular group of friends. I'm kind of grateful for this, as there's plenty of time to be sensitive to social dynamics, and the longer she's oblivious, the easier for her, I think. She has become fixated on a little boy from church, Sam, which is pretty cute to watch. She always wants Papa to tell her stories with Sam in it, and whenever we go anywhere, she asks if Sam will be there. The other day, when visiting Sam, she walked in the door and immediately asked Sam, "Aren't my shoes pretty, and my dress?" Poor guy didn't know what to say :-) Thankfully, she's also pretty oblivious to his lack of reciprocated enthusiasm about her.
For Nadia, milestones in the fall included being weaned mid-November. Again, things were easier than expected, though there were a few dramatic writhings in my arms and grabbing my shirt and crying. We got through it, and since then, she has seemed more open to other people and not so much of a mama's girl anymore. It made it real to me that she's growing up so fast and isn't my little baby anymore, which is a bit sad, especially if we end up not having any more kids. But as one of my friends said recently, continuing to have babies is no solution to the problem that all your babies eventually grow up :-) Nadia still struggles with being clingy, especially before mealtimes, when she wants me to hold her all the time. I've started trying to put her in her room when she gets unbearable and I need to cook, though I haven't been very consistent about this. Ah, the joys of discipline..

Last Zurich trip

2010-12-22T19:27:00.000-08:00

In an effort to start catching up on the blog, I won't comment much on these pictures. We had a lovely time with family in Zurich and enjoyed Mike, Roth's dad, being there with us as well.

End of August

2010-11-06T20:14:00.001-07:00

At the end of August, we packed our car for Gordon and Joanna's wedding in Baltimore as well as our trip to Switzerland, since we decided to fly out of DC straight after the wedding. We stayed with a dear family friend Wendi (my mom and stepdad's first friend when we moved to the US in 1986). Wendi and her daughter even babysat for us so we could go to the rehearsal dinner. We also visited with old friends from my days in New Haven, Suzie and Jonathan and their kids. It was quite a full weekend, but the wedding was lovely and all the details and driving fell into place.

Roth was Gordon's best man. Here some major silliness with bling. Roth is the second from the left.

Unfortunately I didn't get to see much of the ceremony because of the girls being noisy, but they really enjoyed running around the beautiful grounds during and after the ceremony..

Sophia LOVES Joanna. Joanna lived with us on and off this summer before her wedding, and Sophia really formed a strong attachment to her. I had to watch lest she hog Joanna's time the whole wedding! Even now she loves to role play weddings and always wants to play 'Joanna' the bride and have Roth play Gordon.

Nadia of course wanted to be held by Allen all afternoon and promptly fell asleep in his arms (which she never does for us). This is a cute picture of Allen and Vicki. We really miss them!

Towards the end of the reception, Nadia whipped out some dance moves of her own..

Sophia the flower girl

2010-11-06T19:49:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying to catch up! Somehow it's getting harder and harder to carve out time for blogging, plus knowing I'm several months behind doesn't help the situation. I want to write about what's happening now, but there were still some big highlights from late summer and early fall I wanted to include, like two weddings, our visit with Polly and Andy, and our trip to Switzerland. Roth performed the first wedding and was in the second. The first wedding was of a young couple in our church, Matt and Megan, that decided to have Sophia as their flower girl. Sophia was SO excited to wear the 'princess' dress. The flower girl duties were another story, however. When she realized I wouldn't be walking down the aisle with her, she was not happy. Thankfully, the ring bearer was so little, he was carried down the aisle by his dad, who agreed to take Sophia by the hand. This solution made the situation less stressful for all of us!

Here's Nadia with her crush, Allen. She always begged to be held by Allen, even more intensely than with me or Roth. If he ever ignored her or passed her by, she would fling herself to the floor and cry pitifully. Sadly, Allen recently moved away (but for a great opportunity in Indiana), so Nadia has her first baby broken heart.

The girls had so much fun dancing at the reception. Sophia wore herself out so much she finally just collapsed and lay down on the dance floor exhausted!

July

2010-10-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

Usually the girls fight about who gets to sit in the chair, but here Sophia was feeling particularly generous, and it was too cute to pass up a photo opp!

You can really see how Nadia is darker-complexioned than Sophia in this picture.
July was somewhat of a difficult month. We battled sicknesses, and I especially struggled with a sore throat that lasted three weeks. I went to the doctor twice but nothing was found, and finally it went away. It was also very hot and I spent more time indoors with the girls than I would have liked. What made it harder was the fact that many of our usual activities were suspended for the summer--such as library activities and other preschool type programs. I notice that both the girls and I don't take well to too many days at home in a row. Especially now that it's fall, and we have a lot more structure to our week and activities about every day, all of our moods seem much better. Sophia gets up every day and says, 'where are we going, mommy?'. I like being able to tell her at least one thing outside of the house that we're doing that involves seeing other people.

A highlight of July was a visit at the end of the month from our dear friends Audrey, Josh and Ransom, visiting us from Oregon. It had been almost seven years since we had last seen them--Ransom was then only three months old! We enjoyed time around the house catching up as well as touring Danville and the Iron Heritage Festival and Knoebels.

Josh is famous for his pizza making skills. Roth would rave about them back in college. So Josh indulged us one night with amazing pizza.

Ransom got to practice what it'd be like having a younger sister, since he was preparing to get one--and mid-September Aletheia was born! We really hope it won't be years till we get to meet her..

Another higlight was Nadia finally learning to walk at the end of July, at 15 months. Once she got going, she improved really fast. She had been scooting around and crawling a little bit. Below is a video of her at 11 months when she had just started scooting. I don't think I ever posted one of her doing that, so we'll commemorate the last of the scooting here..

June-- a rare visit

2010-10-16T19:12:00.000-07:00

At the end of June, Miranda and Paul and their son MacGregor visited with Joy and Delaney. We hadn't gotten to meet our nephew and the girls loved their new cousin! They were moving back to the States and stopped in Danville on the way back to Columbus.

June--Sima's visit

2010-10-07T18:44:00.000-07:00

Straight from returning from Minnesota, we picked up my mom at the Philly airport. She jumped right in and became part of our daily life as if she'd always been here. She has a very laid-back manner that appreciates all the details and small beauties of life. For instance, she loved sitting on our front porch in the evenings, watching the sun set and reading a book. She'd say, "It looks just like a Hopper painting out here!" Seeing Danville through her eyes made me appreciate it more :-) Sima was also incredibly flexible with how busy our month of June was. During the time she was here, we had four other sets of houseguests besides her. Thankfully she loves people and was a great co-host. Here are some pictures from our outing doing strawberry picking, then raspberry picking another time, breakfast at our favorite breakfast place, Cherry Alley in Lewisburg, and hiking at Rickett's Glen with our friend Tom and Julia (Tom was Roth's roomate in college).

At the Bloom Park during a festival

raspberry picking
Here my mom gets to meet Cora, Jill and Chris' daughter. The last time Sima saw Jill was back when we were in high school!

We took a trip to Rickett's Glen, hoping that we could go swimming there and picnic. But suddenly the weather turned dramatically and we were freezing! We still got to go hiking but the swimming was out and the picnic very short due to blue lips all around.

strawberry picking

Nadia with Elsa in the background

I have to find a picture back from when Sophia was this age that is almost identical

At Cherry Alley
Knoebel's pool. I love this picture of my mom, fresh from getting doused by a spray of water!

A visit from old friends, Nathan and Melissa, who we haven't seen in a very long time. We had never even met their kids, and Melissa just recently had their third.. Nathan is also a church-planter so there was lots to talk about!

The four kiddos playing
Nathan had all the kids enraptured with his stories

Sophia & Abel hiding beside the couches.

The summer in review--May and early June

2010-10-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

It's been a five month hiatus in blogging and I'm sorry for it. The main reason was that everything was erased off of both the desktop and laptop hardrives, so I didn't have the program on the computers anymore to upload the pictures. It took me all this time to muster the motivation to brave the storage closet in Roth's office that contained the bin with all the camera stuff, including the CD with the photo program. So I'll attempt to recap the summer a bit. It started out with a WONDERFUL trip to Minnesota to see Will & Shawna & their daughter Miriam. Our dear friends Becki & Devin drove up to meet us for Memorial Day weekend from Missouri, and Roth flew in Sunday night. The flight went pretty well with both girls, and the first few days we did lots of fun stuff like visiting the free zoo in Minneapolis.

Triple Britax!

Fun in the backyard
Beautiful zoo & flower arboretum

The funniest part of the time before Roth came was that Sophia just acted like Will was her daddy too. This was pretty annoying to Miriam and she kept insisting "my daddy!" The height of it was Sophia climbing into bed with Will in the morning and squeezing between Will and her daddy, as the picture shows.

The best part after Roth came was how much we got to go out without kids due to Shawna's awesome babysitter. We hadn't all seen each other in a while and had a lot of catching up to do. The night we picked up Roth from the airport we preceded it by going to a modern adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House, which was really cool. We also went to Will and Shawna's favorite restaurant and on another trip to St. Paul sightseeing.

A scenic walk nearby Bethel College

Bonding with Devin over finger puppets

Potty power

2010-05-18T18:42:00.000-07:00

For the past week (since last Wednesday, to be exact), we have been in potty training mode. I had been hoping to start training when my mom would be visiting in June, but had been asking Sophia quite often if she'd like to sit on the potty. She rarely said yes. But last week she seemed more willing, and although the first day was a bit discouraging with three accidents and no going on the potty, the next morning we practiced potty training the doll (and giving her fake chocolate and blowing bubbles for her when she went on the potty). After that Sophia was willing to try and successfully peed in the potty, and kept doing it! We made a big deal each time with bubbles and chocolate and dancing around, and so she continued on. The first few days she often still wanted a diaper on, but she would pull it down to go on the potty. But the third day, I insisted that at home we don't wear diapers anymore, and after some protesting, she relented. What amazed me most was that as early as Saturday, she willingly peed when we were out, at first at a friend's house, and on Sunday even at church on the regular toilet. She hasn't yet had an accident while we were out (although she did pee and poop on our neighbor's lawn--but funny enough, their daughter had done the same in our house a few weeks ago, so we called it even). I am really proud of her and she is very excited too, shouting "I did it!" every time she goes (and sometimes when she doesn't ). She is definitely realizing that she gets a lot of attention with this potty thing, so we have to watch for her not so subtle attempts at manipulation, such as when she had to get out of bed three times last night to go potty. (She still has a diaper at night and naps). She still has trouble making it to the potty for pooping, but I know that's a common problem. I am a bit nervous since we are leaving to visit friends in Minnesota next week, and I will be flying alone with the girls for the first time. Hm, should the airport and plane be a special diaper zone? Still debating that...Notwithstanding some of those challenges, this process has gone much smoother and faster than I expected, as I have been dreading potty training for quite a while.

Nadia's birthday

2010-05-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some shots of my happy girl on her birthday, April 19th. She's still mainly scooting on her bottom to get around, but did crawl the other day. She likes to take steps while holding on and is cautiously cruising furniture and pulling up to stand in her crib. She is good with fine motor skills, stacking objects and putting stuff in and out of little containers. And she is still overall very cheerful, although teething has been making her more cranky lately. I can't believe she is a year old already!

And another party

2010-05-13T12:04:00.001-07:00

The weekend before Nadia's birthday, Lyn hosted a big birthday party for the three girls born in April last year--Nadia, Clara and Elsa (in that order above) Besides the birthday families, some other friends joined us for dinner, an egg hunt and Easter egg painting.

It was pretty cold so we only did the Easter egg hunt for about 5 minutes--but since all of the kids were 4 and under, they didn't seem to mind how short it was.

At the 'big kids' table

The beautifully decorated homemade birthday cupcakes (thanks to Erin and Phoebe)

Sophia anxiously awaits her cupcake

At last!

And to wrap the evening up, a little more mess to clean up!

Yet more birthday..

2010-05-13T11:40:00.000-07:00

On Sophia's actual birthday, we asked her what she wanted to do that day. She didn't hesitate a second, but immediately exclaimed she wanted to go to the park with Phoebe and Elijah. So I called Lyn and we were able to get the birthday girls together at the park--it was a beautiful day for early April.
The excitement of exchanging some presents.

Big thank you hug! Ahh, the sweetness of friends..

Doing whatever Phoebe is doing..

From above
and below
My mom likened this picture to a Soviet propaganda poster--go figure..

Being attacked by my two-headed monster :)

And Roth attacking

I love this picture!

More Sophia birthday

2010-05-12T19:33:00.000-07:00

In pre-celebration we went to Hunter's for dinner and ice-cream and the playground.

On Sophia's actual birthday we took her to Brews & Bytes for lunch. Sophia always eats an enormous amount of food there.

Then came the special birthday dessert. A week later Sophia got up one morning and as I was about to make breakfast, she said, "I want Brews & Bytes!" I said, "Me too!".

Easter

2010-05-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

In their matching Easter dresses from Grandma Joy

With her spoils!
I think Roth & Delaney look really alike in this picture. Maybe it's the similar mischievous twinkle in the eye :-)

Here the girls are enjoying Sophia's birthday present from Grandma Sima. Nadia can hold on well too, so they can play together.

Sophia's pre-birthday bash

2010-05-09T18:50:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting to the daunting task of catching up with pictures, especially the oodles of birthday pictures! We celebrated Sophia's three times so there are a lot of pictures! The first time was with Delaney while she was still here the week before Sophia's birthday. We baked our traditional Easter lamb cake and had a fancy Easter dinner on Good Friday, since Delaney was leaving before Sunday lunch. When blowing out the candles, it took us a long time to convince Sophia that she was no longer two, but three now. She was upset by the fact and kept insisting that she was still two. Since then, she seems to have accepted the fact, although quite often, she also claims to be 16. I didn't even know she could count that high... Besides opening presents, Delaney and Roth also organized an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Delaney and Roth were at least as into it as Sophia was, as you can tell from the picture.

I think Sophia looks so grown up in this picture... Sigh..

Thanks Auntie Delaney! Sophia and Nadia got four new matching outfits :-)

Helping Delaney decorate

Update

2010-04-19T04:48:00.000-07:00

It feels like an overwhelming project to chronicle what's happened in the last six weeks.. As most of you know, Roth, Nadia and I went back to Zurich a few weeks after returning from our first visit, since we heard that Milly was likely dying. We got to Zurich in time to see her before she died on March 24th. It has been a very hard month to say the least. I will post pictures of our second visit soon, but here are a few more from our first visit. Then I'll try to post pictures from the girls' birthdays. Above is one of the last pictures I have of Milly, when we all had dinner together back during our February visit. We had no idea what was coming.

Sophia hard at work eating her chocolate bunny..

Back at home, Roth chasing Sophia with Nadia in the doll stroller

Seeing the other side

2010-03-07T13:08:00.000-08:00

We got to see my dad's side of the family several times during the visit. This picture shows Sophia's pure state of satisfaction--ice cream, Ella, and later, even a bit of watching a favorite show with Ella

Enjoying some of Marianne's amazing cakes and conversation

All the ladies! It was impossible to get a picture with all of us looking, so this is one with my eyes closed, but everyone else looks good!

Fanina is so good with the girls, it's sweet

Sophia adores her cousin Ella. This picture is very similar to ones taken many years ago when I gazed admiringly at Ella's mom, Vera, also 2.5 years older.

My happy girl

Fun getting dragged around by Ella

That time again

2010-03-07T12:39:00.000-08:00

At the end of February we braved the skies again for a trip to Zurich to see my family. The couple of weeks leading up to the trip we were sick with colds, and Roth ended up getting sick right before we left. That said, the actual trip went very well. The girls slept most of the way to the Newark airport. The plane was quite empty and after initial crying, Nadia settled in for about 5 hours of sleep. Sophia wasn't interested in sleeping, but she intently watched Pingu on the Ipod for about 5 hours and I finally coaxed her to lie down and rest for about 2 hours. I stayed up, but Roth got about 3 hours of sleep. It was wonderful to be reunited with family and for Sophia to remember them better now. As soon as Sophia walked through the door, she asked where Milly was.

Squeezes for beloved Milly
My mom had gone to the library and gotten out books to read to Sophia. Before we got there, she had read a few of them to her in advance on Skype, so Sophia knew what to look forward to!

Of course Nadia had made a huge developmental jump since they'd last seen her

My grandma came the day after we arrived with her Polish helper Christina, who is wonderful with kids

Here's Christina with Sophia. Christina helped a lot with the kids so Roth and I could go out and see some friends during the day.

Unfortunately Thomas didn't have as much time as he would have wanted to spend with us due to the semester starting. Plus I think we ended up giving him our cold, so he wasn't feeling great! But he did get some time especially with Nadia, sometimes in the early morning hours while the rest of us tried to sleep some more. Jet lag was very difficult this time. It took us a whole week to adjust, whereas usually it's only 3 days or so..

Sophia with her great-grandmother Ruth.

Day to Day

2010-02-02T18:55:00.000-08:00

Last week our friends Em and Josie came up for part of the day to go to the Bloomsburg Children's Museum with us. Then they came home with us for lunch before heading back home. Sophia and Josie did really well together. They had fun hanging out in this big box. You can see Sophia is busy nursing her bunny :-)

Of course Bear has to nurse his baby too..

Here's my big girl. She has been growing and changing a lot. She decided her New Year's Resolution was to let me start sleeping through the night, yay! It has been pretty consistent since the beginning of January, though last week with both girls suffering from colds, she has woken up again some. She isn't very consistent about her waking time yet. Lately it has been quite early for me--between 7 and 7:20 or so. Ironically, there are perks to her waking up in the night--if I feed her in the very early morning, say 4:30 or 5, then she sleeps till 8 or 8:30. Otherwise she's starving by 7ish.

Other developments: she is starting to enjoy standing up and holding herself on furniture. She doesn't cruise yet though. And she is finally getting her first tooth! This past week she also started waving intentionally. And she says 'dada' all the time and makes crazy guttural sounds that I am convinced will help her immensely with her Swiss-German.

The posture is still a bit funny...

I've been baking a lot lately (a combination of not going outside much and getting up really early--wow, the day can seem long). I've been experimenting with adding more whole wheat flour to the bread, and even some rye flour. I love the texture, although I find I need to butter the bread to get a full enough flavor for my taste.

Today our friend Vicki came over, as well as Lyn with Phoebe and Elijah. Phoebe and Sophia did really well together. They cuddled together on the couch and read books together too. It is so sweet to see them grow up together.

Sophia has been really into singing lately. She learns songs in Sunday school and today kept singing "God is so good". It helped my mood today! She is also getting really excited about going in the airplane to see my family in Switzerland (in two weeks already!) I had to laugh because it seems she is most looking forward to having chocolate there. The other day she called my mom's house the "Schoggi huus", meaning "chocolate house". I'm concerned she'll be disappointed if the whole house isn't literally made of chocolate!

New Things

2010-01-26T19:10:00.000-08:00

Last week we had a little reunion with old Philly friends in E-town. We hadn't seen Becki since Nadia was 6 weeks old, and it was so good to see her (though we missed Devin, her hubby, who had to stay back in Missouri). Chris & Jill and Cora were there too. Cora is so adorable. I'll post some pics of that time later. While we were there, both Em and Becki were really encouraging me to try baking bread at home from the book "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day". I had been hesitant because I don't like dealing with dough at all and feel like I spend enough time in the kitchen as it is. But Em loaned me the book and I decided to try it. It really was easy and the bread turned out great--crusty on the outside, soft on the inside! I'm looking forward to trying some of the other recipes too.

Here are some pictures right around Nadia's 9 month anniversary. I like how Sophia has a 'protective' arm around her little sis

My mom sent Nadia some new outfits--the cute sweater above and the sweat-suit below

New Year's

2010-01-26T18:55:00.000-08:00

A few last shots Paul took of Nadia

New Year's Eve.. We had a nice cozy evening at home. In the afternoon we played Monopoly, then Mike made his special dish of crab-stuffed shrimp and we had our Tiramisu from the night before that Paul had made us (so good!). After the kids were in bed we watched Julie/Julia which was more entertaining than expected for all, and then watched the ball drop. We had been planning to go dancing that night, but were all too tired.

Last snow of 2009

2010-01-26T18:22:00.000-08:00

With so much snow we had to take Sophia sledding in the park with the family!

All bundled up and enthralled by the action

Snowball fight!
And sledding.. Sophia sort of liked it. Then she wanted to get off and run around.

2010-01-25T09:14:00.000-08:00

More pictures Paul took. I kept having trouble uploading them, and then realized the files are too big to upload more than two or three pictures at a time. That's what happens with such high-quality pictures. Here's Nadia with Opa Mike's gift.

Roth with what he called his 'two headed-monster'. They do kind of look like they're at least Siamese twins here.

A rare picture of us on a rare night out without the kids. Here we were at the bowling alley with Paul, Miranda and Delaney. Joy stayed home and watched the kids for us.

They have a lot of fun together

In Lewisburg

Paul's photos

2010-01-19T19:11:00.001-08:00

Here are a few of Paul's photos from their time here. These were taken in Lewisburg, at the Bull Run Pub where we had a nice lunch.

Sophia just LOVES her Opa Mike and follows him around. He's a good sport and lets her torture him.

Family Christmas

2010-01-19T18:20:00.000-08:00

Sunday night after Christmas, Joy and Delaney came with Miranda and Paul. Monday morning we opened presents..
Sophia fascinated with her 'monster' from Paul & Miranda. While Joy and Delaney were here, we went to Lewisburg for a day trip and showed Paul the charms of Target, where he had never been. I'll post a few more from Paul's awesome camera from those days in my next post. On Wednesday, Joy and Delaney left and Mike and Grandma Luise came that same afternoon.

More presents with Mike and Luise. Paul loved his Ohio shirt.

Mike chuckling over his Burger King gift card from Paul

Nadia amongst a sea of presents with Luise and Miranda

Story time with Great-Grandma

Some of the presents for the girls included matching outfits from Joy and Delaney. Really cute! But as you can see from below, it's not easy getting good pictures of the two wriggly girls.

Christmas

2010-01-18T17:40:00.000-08:00

Here are the girls dolled up for the holidays. The book Sophia is reading was a library book that gave illustrations to the song "Silent Night". I would sing it to her and we read the book often the few weeks before Christmas. Then I caught her singing it to herself..

Nadia in her dress sent from my mom

Christmas Day we spent with our friends Tesha and Bob and their 4 kids, eating, relaxing, and of course for Roth, chasing the kids

Helping Kathy decorate her tree next door

The evening of the 25th we enjoyed a relaxed dinner with Gordon and Joanna after the kids had gone to bed. Tesha had recommended a yummy salmon marinade that afternoon that I used for the fish that night, and I made orzo with spinach and parmesan and roasted root veggies on the side.

Holiday Party

2010-01-07T11:49:00.000-08:00

On December 18th our neighbor across the street and I hosted a neighborhood holiday party. We invited all the people we had met on our street and everyone on our block. We realized that being the Friday before Christmas, we would be competing with a lot of other parties that night, but it was the only date that worked for us, so we went for it. We organized it as a potluck, which meant less work for us hosts, which was a great idea. I did get help with cleaning my house the day before, which ironically, stressed me out, since the lady cleaning for me told me I was not freaking out enough about having a party in my house the next day! By the end of the day, she thankfully changed her tune and assured me everything would be fine after all. One neighbor, who has been living in this street since 1965, helped me make a trivia quiz for the party about our neighborhood. Sadly she couldn't make it herself, but it was fun learning about this area. We had a total of about 12 people come, and most people stayed at least an hour or more. We're hoping to do it again in the summer.

Here's Sophia with our neighbor across the street, Morgan. And a little closer..

Lots of food! In the background, some folks doing our quiz. The prize for the most right answers was a package of Lindt chocolates..

Some of our guests. It was so nice to get to know everyone and meet some people for the first time.
And Sophia's favorite guest, our neighbor Kathy.
By the end of the night I was exhausted! The night before we had barely slept because mysteriously, Sophia must have eaten playdough without our realizing it. She started vomiting in bed and did it several times that night, leading to lots of washing of sheets, baths, etc. I have a puke phobia, so Roth was kind enough to handle most of the clean up, and thankfully, Sophia was fairly calm throughout the whole thing. Hopefully this will teach her not to eat playdough anymore. Then the night after the party, I got a stomach bug, which kept me feeling unwell for 5 days or so, and then Roth got a milder version that made him really tired for several days, right up to Christmas Day.

Meeting someone new

2009-12-26T19:19:00.000-08:00

Here I am posting a things from a few weeks ago, anticipating many more pictures to come as Roth's family arrives tomorrow night for a week's visit. We are especially excited to see Miranda, Roth's sister, and her husband Paul, who are visiting from Amsterdam. We were shocked to find out yesterday, Christmas Day, that Miranda and Paul were aboard the flight that was attacked by the Nigerian terrorist, who attempted to blow up the plane, but was thankfully stopped by a fellow passenger. There was a fire on the plane as they were descending and it was very frightening. We are just so thankful they are safe.
Here are some pictures from a few weeks back when our friends Chris and Jill visited, introducing us for the first time to their sweet daughter Cora, then 6 weeks old. Em and Josie came too. Unfortunately Sophia was having a whiny, non-sharing day, but Josie handled it very well.
Sophia getting a closer look, and a snuggle with Chris of course

Josie getting some tickles
Jill, the natural, beautiful mommy

With newborns, it's such a treat when you get longer periods when they're alert, like Cora is here

Em admiring
Snuggles with daddyNadia looking extra big by contrast. Here she is showing off her ankle warmers which an older friend of my mom knit for her. I love them, as they cover that space between socks and pants that's always bare and cold in winter..

Holiday Activities

2009-12-24T18:43:00.000-08:00

Afew weekends ago the ladies and kids from our church got together for a cookie decorating morning in anticipation of the holidays and of a bell choir concert and reception the next evening at the church. Here are some of the impressive results. Sophia did a few cookies as well, but was more interested in the instant gratification of eating the cookies and decorations, rather than the hard work of decorating.. To see pictures from our annual cookie baking/decorating extravaganza with our neighbor Nancy and her friend Renee, see Nancy's blog post .

Cozy with our friend Vicki
A couple nights later we attended Bloomsburg's "Tree Fest" with our friend Lyn and her kids Elijah and Phoebe. Here are Phoebe and Sophia getting a closer look at one of the many displayed decorated trees.
And here's our neighbor Bernie helping Roth with our very own first Christmas tree! I didn't think I'd care much about having a tree, but as soon as we got it home, I got more excited and loved the fresh scent that immediately infused our whole living room. I then asked my mom to send us some chocolate ornaments from Switzerland, which she promptly did.

Here we are in front of the decorated tree (actually this was before the chocolates arrived, so it looks more full now). Sophia of course went nuts with the chocolate ornaments, but after the first discipline she got for eating three of them, she has not attempted to take any more from the tree :-)

And I can't resist a few more of Nadia..

Seeing Friends at Thanksgiving

2009-12-21T12:42:00.000-08:00

Here are a few shots from the Cincinnati Children's and Natural History Museum.

We've been meaning to get together with our friends Joseph and Jean as families for years now, and it finally happened. They visited us in Columbus with their son Esmond and we had a nice time catching up and watching the kids play..

This was a calm play time. Later that evening the two tried to hug and Sophia tackled Esmond and he fell to the ground and hit his head and cried.

On our way back home, we made a stop in Sewickley, PA. Providentially, our dear friend Jim, whom we hadn't seen in years, and is currently serving as a medical missionary in Uganda, was home and was able to meet us for lunch.

Then we stopped in to see our friend Becca and her three girls, the newest, Tacy, just born. Unfortunately we didn't get to see Steve as he was still at work. Here is Sophia with Hannah and Callie. It's amazing to watch these girls grow together--they could really play this time.

Admiring Tacy..

Thanksgiving Part 2

2009-12-13T17:32:00.000-08:00

Here's Joy working hard in the kitchen preparing the Thanksgiving meal

The feast begins

Delaney showing off her piled plate

Keaton and Roth's cousin Alisa with her boyfriend Cody, Nadia and her daughter Amayah. We missed having Roth's grandma Aggie and aunt Robin with us this year. They celebrated in Texas.

Grandma LaVerla, Nathan, Roth, Delaney, Joy

Nathan meeting Nadia for the first time

Sweet Amayah

Keaton with his baby Ruger

Tom getting some Nadia time. Nadia did pretty well our week away, although the few nights we had her in our room, we noticed again what a light sleeper she is. We had a noisemaker and still if we moved too loudly, she would wake up crying!

Can't stay mad long though, those cheeks are too cute :-)

Delaney is so good with the girls. She had Sophia sleeping in her room and once we got back home Sophia woke up asking for Delaney.

The First Thanksgiving Meal

2009-12-13T17:10:00.000-08:00

Mike did an excellent job preparing a whole Thanksgiving meal practically by himself! All I did was make some deviled eggs, he did the rest. It always feels like real vacation to me when I'm not doing most of the cooking.

Sophia devoured her plate of food, with help from Nikki. She still loves being fed.

After the meal we relaxed on the couch and Nikki got some cuddle time with Nadia before we left town for Columbus.

Thanksgiving Part 1

2009-12-10T19:05:00.000-08:00

Roth had a week off for Thanksgiving, so we headed to Ohio to visit his family. We drove down to Dayton first, which was a quite grueling 9 hour trip (with stops). There was definitely some crying from the backseat on the way, but thankfully also some sleeping (and enthusiastic watching of the Lion King--thanks again Nancy for the car DVD player!). The first few days there we just rested and enjoyed catching up with family and introducing Nadia to extended family. Sophia was definitely excited to see Opa Mike and Great-Grandma Luise, as you can see from the pictures.

Mike was also really sweet to give us his whole upstairs apartment so we could stretch out with the girls, and so sleeping arrangements worked pretty well. A few times we were able to leave the girls with Mike and Luise and Roth and I had a 'date' out to visit the Half-Price Bookstore and have coffee at Barnes & Nobles. It was quite a treat, especially since the nearest bigger bookstore to us is a 45 minute drive from Danville. Roth found my Christmas present there--a copy of Barbara Kingsolver's newest book, The Lacuna. I have read all of her fiction and have never been disappointed. I've only read the first page so far since I've been reading Hamlet for our book club in December.

Nadia meeting Amy, Roth's cousin's wife, and her daughter Jessie

So many girls! With the sisters Nikki, Emma and Jessie--Sophia and Nadia's second cousins. They were so sweet with our girls and could really play with Sophia. Last time they had seen Sophia she was Nadia's age. Sophia did not want to be in this picture...

but the others wanted to pose

Some crazy play on the couch

Horseplay with Roth's uncle Jimmy

Cuddles for Nadia with Aunt Tresa

Nadia 7 months

2009-12-10T18:45:00.001-08:00

A few pictures from before we left for our Thanksgiving trip, here with Sophia, Nancy, and Noah

My content little girl

Birthday and such

2009-11-16T16:50:00.000-08:00

Our set up on Halloween included this cute jack-o-lantern, carved by our neighbor Bernie, as well as Roth blasting scary Halloween music out to the neighborhood. He stayed home and handed out candy while Sophia, our neighbor Kathy and I walked down a few streets. Sophia's first impression of the night was when our first trick-or-treater came in the door dressed as a scary monster. She jumped toward me, hugged my legs and shouted, "monster, monster' in a panic. The rest of the night she was talking about the monster. She liked going up to people's doors and at one acquaintance's house, she marched past the couple in the doorway, through the living room and into their kitchen, demanding the cookies on the kitchen counter. Better the fresh stuff than the packaged candy, I guess. I was a bit embarassed, but thankfully they were amused..

Later that evening, our friend Tara came to wish me happy birthday and brought me a delicious orange-chocolate bunt cake! It completed a lovely day. Earlier I had gone to the Children's museum in Bloomsburg with our friends Lyn, Phoebe and Elijah and then out to lunch with them to a new vegetarian restaurant in the area (2 adults and 4 kids, quite a feat!).

I know this picture is blurred but it captures well the way Roth and Sophia wrestle and how she loves all the action. I like how Nadia is kind of oblivious to the whole thing.

My smiley girl

Nadia loves eating solid foods and Sophia loves helping. I'm amazed that any food made it to Nadia's mouth in this scene, but it did!

The hair getting crazier..
Both looking a bit dazed

Fall Days

2009-11-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

Sophia loves her pumpkin collection

..and her friend Kathy

My mom says Sophia looks like I did in this picture

They are getting more interested in each other

Nadia loves her back. It's cute--these days when Nadia and I approach Sophia's door, before opening it, Nadia gets all giggly and happy, anticipating seeing Sophia.

My sweet chubby one. She is currently giving me a hard time though. She has suddenly decided that her new time to get up in the morning is 6:45 rather than 8:15. I'm really hoping this is just a phase. I am really tired..

Parade

2009-11-12T13:06:00.000-08:00

I'm ready to have these pictures up! Here are some pictures from the Halloween parade. It took forever to start so we didn't stay that long, but it was still fun.

With Nancy & Noah
Hanging out with Erin & Elsa and the boys too!

Halloween dinner

2009-11-09T18:49:00.000-08:00

On our walk downtown

On the night of the Halloween parade, we did our yearly tradition of having dinner with our friend and former neighbor Cindy at Brews n' Bytes.

Our friends Nancy, Dave & Noah were at BnB as well and we had fun hanging out at the parade too

Halloween photo shoot

2009-11-01T17:31:00.000-08:00

Sophia's cat costume from two years ago was Nadia's first layer of costume. I was amazed it fit, considering how big Nadia is.

Then the ladybug layer..

I love how her cheeks are exploding out of the costume in this picture!

And the other ladybug!

I like how they both have these forced half-smiles in this picture

More real smiles

Papa wanted to match them too

Montour Preserve

2009-11-01T13:48:00.000-08:00

A few Mondays ago we went on a hike at Montour Preserve, with the weather being so beautiful for a change. We decided not to bring the backpack for Sophia, so it was our first attempt to have her hike as well (this trail is very flat). It started out well-Sophia was very excited to explore the bridge, the leaves and loved chasing the various animals we saw on the trail.

After a while, she started lagging behind and whining. It was funny to see some of Roth and my differing approaches in handling the challenge. I tried singing and taught her to play red light, green light. Roth got a big stick and chased her with it, poking her when she stopped. Both methods worked for a while. But..
..then she started sitting down and refused to walk further. (Granted, we had already been walking about 35 minutes or so).

So, Papa finally gave in :-)

6 months

2009-10-30T18:55:00.000-07:00

On the 19th Nadia turned 6 months, so time for a mini-update. We had her 6-month check-up and she is 17.6 lbs, which is in the 80% for weight. She is 65th or 70th for height,I can't remember. She started sitting up by herself that week, and shortly after, started rolling from her back to her stomach, though she doesn't seem to be able to roll herself back yet. It has helped make things a bit easier for me with both girls now that Nadia can sit, although she can still be unstable at times. The other day I sat her down in the kitchen with the diaper bag behind her head and ran out to the car to get the rest of the groceries, only to find she had rolled to the side and was on her tummy screaming. Roth would say it just makes her tougher, but I just feel bad..

Sophia picking up more mannerisms. I guess I do the chin in hands? She also started saying "Gosh" last week, and I definitely don't say that, so it must be from somewhere else. Lately she's been really obsessed with "angst" or "fear", from a library book about a scared bunny Henry, and from all the Halloween monsters around, though she doesn't seem scared of them, more fascinated. The last few days she has admitted that she has 'angst' of her potty. Sigh, not a good sign. I'm glad I just invested in a bunch more cloth diapers, now that I have two girls in them (I've switched loyalty from Bum Genius One Size to Fuzzi Bunz One Size, by the way, since I much prefer the snaps to the velcro that wears out).

Nadia loves playing with all her toys. Sophia is really sweet (mostly) and brings Nadia the toys that are for her, although she gets very possessive if Nadia has what she claims is her toy. Sophia chants "meins, meins" a lot of the day.

Fall fun

2009-10-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

The weekend after Joy and Delaney left, Roth's freshman year college roomate, Tom, visited us for the first time. We have visited him in California multiple times (the last time was our reunion at Sequoia National Park last August). It was his first time meeting our kids, and Sophia made him read him her boat book. He is a specialist on fish after all :-)

Sophia and Phoebe playing at our house. Sophia is in a big "mine" or "meins" phase. We ended up employing the timer to share disputed-over toys. Phoebe was clearly trained in this technique and readily gave up the toy after the alloted time. Sophia had a scream fest each time. It's a process, I know.
Because of the weather, our church Rohrbach's outing was turned into a Fall Party at Mike and Lyn's place, complete with pizza, pumpkin dessert, mulled cider, pumpkin painting and carving. We were really impressed with how quickly the party came together and how well it went despite about 20 kids running around.

Here was Sophia getting tutored in pumpkin painting. It's so fun that she's big enough to do these things. I'm already looking forward to Christmas cookie baking.

Chatting it up with Josie

2009-10-25T14:40:00.000-07:00

I loved eavesdropping on their little conversation. They were mostly discussing "Goodnight Moon."

Chocolate World and Friends

2009-10-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back (Oct 12th I think) we went to Chocolate World in Hershey, PA with our friends Em, Phil and Josie. I did feel a bit like a traitor, being loyal to my native Lindt and all, but I tried to suppress that. The ride was fun and best of all, free. Then we walked around a bit.

Josie and Sophia held hands for most of the time there--so cute!

Our big purchase from chocolate world--the world's largest Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. A few bites made us ill..

They loved hiding in the cupboard together and having giggle fests in the dark

Rohrbachs

2009-10-25T13:16:00.000-07:00

That Friday, we went to Rohrbach's together but were disappointed, since due to the bad weather, there was no hayride to the pumpkin patch, no games or corn play area. We walked around a bit anyway and tried to get some family shots. Sophia had been cranky most of the day, and you can tell from the pictures. This one below is the best we got from about 10 tries.

Sophia looks so distressed in this picture--as if she has just seen a ghost! She is so dramatic sometimes..

This is my favorite picture we took that day. Definitely our most photogenic family members these days.

A Fall visit

2009-10-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

Every year around this time, Joy and Delaney come visit and watch Sophia so I can go to my church's women's conference. I had hoped to leave Nadia with them as well, but she still hasn't taken to the bottle, so I took Nadia along. They arrived Thursday night, and Friday lunch, in pre-celebration of Joy's birthday, we took them out to the "Tea Shoppe" in Selinsgrove for a nice lunch, complete with tea and scones. The food was very good and the atmosphere very quaint. I was a bit nervous having Sophia around so much fine china, but as you can see below, Delaney kept her entertained.

Sophia loved helping put sugar cubes in all of our cups of tea

I can't get over how grown up she looks here..

Nadia was also her cheerful self

Another part of Joy's present was a bunch of different kinds of English Breakfast teas, since those are her favorite. We did blind taste testings two nights in a row to determine which were her favorites.
Delaney got lots of cuddles from Sophia

Bloomsburg Fair

2009-10-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

We took some friends to the Bloomsburg Fair last Wednesday-it was a lot of fun. We had already gone as a family the Friday before. I realized this year that we're starting to be true locals--even with the hundreds of foodstands at the fair, Roth and I remembered the exact locations of our favorite stands (Grotto's pizza, the fried veggie place with the Tiger sauce, Bissinger's peach and apple dumplings). It's a strange feeling...

Kirk is an old pro at the fair thing too. Here he is showing off his cotton candy eating skills for Gordon and Sophia.
This was our third visit to the fair this year. Mike wanted to go on Saturday, the last day of the fair, so we took the kids there while Roth was home working. Mike indulged Sophia with some kiddie rides.

Disturbing, I know. But still funny.

Sophia's first pony ride! She was stoic, but not scared, like I expected.

Sophia's an old pro at carousel riding, but this was Nadia's first ride :-)

Nadia

2009-10-07T13:56:00.000-07:00

Usually Nadia is more smiley that this--here she was on the verge of getting cranky, but you still get a sense of her expressiveness. I like how Sophia is talking the whole time too.

Rare Videos

2009-10-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

From this video you can see why I post videos so rarely. Sophia knows when I shoot a video and immediately wants to see it, and freaks out if I tell her to wait. And yes, she is pantless and carrying part of her potty seat around. But still far from potty-trained, though we have 3 potties in the house, a potty book and a DVD. It's ok, we can wait for now.

At home

2009-10-04T18:20:00.000-07:00

Being around Nadia and competing for attention makes Sophia act infantile all the time. Sometimes it's endearing, sometimes frustrating. This time it was cute, cuddling in the crib together. Other times, it's hard, like when she whines and cries almost every morning when I refuse to hold her while holding Nadia or while making breakfast.

Roth is sobered by all the pink in his lap

Ahh, the jowls.
A little photo session during Sophia's nap time

You can tell the 3-6 month clothing is getting a bit tight

This was actually the day before her 5 month birthday