Potty Trained!

Yup, that is right Jacob is potty trained. According to Chrissy Roecker, he could have been potty trained a long time ago (and I agree with her) but I was too lazy to do it. I actually prefer to wait until they are closer to 3. They can do more by themselves, they seem to pick it up quicker, and there just seems to be less mess involved. It was one year ago this month that Nathan was potty trained.

So, anyway here is the story of Jacob. We went to Walmart the other day to do some shopping while the boys were at school. He was walking behind me at a dawdling pace when all of a sudden he says, "STOP! I need to pee." Then he stands still for a couple seconds with an odd look on his face, and then says, "K, I am done." And keeps on walking like there was nothing out of the ordinary about that.

Well, you better believe we went straight to the underwear isle to get some new undies for him to start wearing. He was pretty easy too. With both Nathan and Jacob I just put them in underwear and tell them to tell me when they need to go potty. Well, of course they pee in their underwear the first couple of times, but it is never too big of a mess. Just coming out of diapers, they pee often, so it is never very much. After they have wet in 3 pairs of underwear, I say OK let's put a diaper back on and we will try again tomorrow, and I will wash all of your underwear. Then, I do the same thing the next day. And with both of my boys they have got it down before they get three pairs of underwear wet the next day. Jacob even went to church in underwear today, and did great.

Steven was a different story of course. I think he only had one accident, and he was not quite 2 and a half when he was potty trained.

Valentines Day-A little late :)

So, I know this is late, but at least we are still in the right month. Does that count for anything?

We had a wonderful Valentines Day. We had heart muffins for breakfast, and opened a little Valentine package that came from Mom and Dad the day or two before. Mom put some new Chocolate Valentine hearts in the package that I had never tasted before and they were Wonderful. Too bad Jacob ate most of mine later on in the day. Thanks Mom and Dad for thinking of us. We love you.



In the evening, Steve and I fed the kids at the normal time, then put them to bed. After they were gone, we sat down to eat together and then watch a movie. Steve made chicken alfredo, homemade garlic breadsticks, and cheesecake for dessert. I made the salad, and set the table. Steve is such a wonderful husband, and I am so grateful that he is with me. The longer we are married the more great qualities I see in him. I Love Him! :)


P.S.- the beautiful flowers came from Steve too.

Fasching a.k.a. Mardi Gras

Today is Fasching! which is the same thing as Mardi Gras in New Orleans. It is also Fat Tuesday I have been told. Which all means very little to me, except now that the kids are in German school they get to PARTY! They got to dress up as whatever they wanted on Monday, and then for today they had a theme for dress up. It was Wild West. So, they could be cowboys or Indians. The boys had a great time dressing up, and these kindergartens really know how to party.

These are the "before" pictures of the boys and our neighbor Ronya (Noelle's daughter from the last blog).



And these are the after pictures. I love the comparison. Nathan was crying when I went to pick them up because his teacher wouldn't give him juice. They only had water for them to drink, and the Germans drink bubble water, which is horrible, so he was thirsty. Poor guy. Steven has his treasure from the party (Nathan's hat full of candy). And the difference in Ronya just cracks me up.



Here are pictures of all the things they had for the kids to play with. The boy on the horse is not anyone you know. :)

They had a great time.

Fun Saturday

OK, so I will post my Valentine pictures eventually, but I wanted to blog about our Saturday activities first. The only sad thing about this is, I put my camera in the car so that I could post pictures with this blog, but we ended up taking the other car. HaHa!

So, on Saturday our neighbors invited us to go to the Christening of their 4 month old son. I thought it was so nice of them to think of us, and was excited to go. We went to their church and watched the ceremony, and it was very interesting. And although it was not a ceremony that I believe needed to be done, I think it is nice for all children to have some kind of ceremony that involves God. The poor baby cried almost the whole 45 minutes, and the Mom was quite frustrated. There was a lot of singing (in German) and some candle lighting, and then some blessing type of things. During one part of the ceremony they gave 5 of the children that were there, a candle to hold, including Steven and Nathan. Then, they just let the kids hold them until the kid eventually did something wrong and the candles got blown out one by one. There has to be many times that the preachers robe or someones hair has caught on fire. We were all standing by the little tub where the baby was getting christened in very close proximity with all these young children swinging their candles around. No disasters for us though.

So, that was very nice, and it was good for me to experience. Then after leaving the church they invited us out to dinner with them. Our neighbors consist of a German women, and an Irish man, and their three children. They are fluent in German and English, and both of their parents were here as well. The German parents speaking very little English, and the Irish parents speaking NO German.

Our neighbors own an Irish Pub in Frankfurt which is where they chose to go to dinner. They have told us to eat there so many times, but we never have, so we decided now would be a good time to see their Pub. The food was very good, and the kids had a great time acting like wild animals. Then when we were done eating, we stayed a little while longer to listen to our neighbor (Noelle) sing some Irish folksongs, and boy are we glad we did. It was so cool to hear him sing these songs, and I thought about the Buchanans although I am sure the Scottish are a bit different. His friend that was playing with him started out playing a mandolin, and after a couple of songs switched to the banjo. Noelle was playing the guitar. I personally liked the sound of the banjo the best. The boys who had been pretty rowdy, just sat and listened to the music, and really enjoyed it. I was also sitting next to Noelle's Mom whom I had been talking to for a while, and I got to hear her sing along to the music with her Irish accent, and on one of the songs she started clapping her hands to the music. It was so neat to be there.

Then when Noelle was done with a few of his songs, they convinced his Dad to go up and sing a song. He had an older, richer voice, and I just loved to listen to him. He was singing a song called "Streets of London" by Ralph McTell. Much to Steve and I's surprise not only did all of the Irish people there join in with the song, but the Germans also seemed to know all the words of this song. Both Steve and I had never heard it before. It was great. We just loved being a part of this cultural experience. I was very sad not to have my camera there!

Valentines Day Muffins

I just got done making the dough for some Fabulous Chocolate Banana Bread. I have made this recipe before, and it is great. I have a heart shaped muffin tin, and I am planning on getting up before the boys tomorrow morning, and making them heart shaped muffins for breakfast fresh out of the oven. And since I am ahead of most of you in time, I figured I would share the recipe in case anyone was looking for something fun to do. Here it is:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup margarine, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 6 bananas, mashed
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• a pinch of salt
  
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup lite sour cream
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, cream together margarine, sugar and eggs. Stir in bananas and vanilla. Sift in flour, baking soda and cocoa; mix well. Blend in sour cream and chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a loaf comes out clean.

This recipe came from allrecipes.com (of course), so in case any of you like to look at the reviews like I do, here is the link. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-banana-bread/detail.aspx


And since I have already done a blog with no pictures this week, I will share some lovely pictures of Jacob's binky collection. He collects them as he seems them laying around the house and then says he wants "all the binkies" when he is going to bed.

Rain, Rain

We got our new camera in the mail from Mom a couple of weeks ago, and are LOVING it. I was afraid I wouldn't like it because it was big, but it is the same size as my other camera so that is what I am use to, and it is so light. We really love it. So thank you Mom and Dad for the Christmas gift.

It has been raining here so much lately. This is usually when we get our snow, but it has rarely gone below freezing this winter, so we are getting rain instead. It has been the weirdest winter here. The typical highs have been in the mid 40's which is quite high.

So, of course the boys have found a way to enjoy the rain. This is in a lot next to our house that has a perfect puddle.
We were bored enough that I didn't even make Steven get out of the puddle when his whole boot was getting covered.




The outfit that Steven is wearing is what the German kids put on every time they leave their houses in the winter. It is a snow bib, boots, coat, hat and gloves. It seemed so weird for me at first, but once they are old enough to put it all on themselves it is quite nice. They stay plenty warm and when they play outside they keep their clothes completely clean. Nathan hasn't warmed up to the idea of adorning himself in all of that gear whenever he leaves the house. It is a good thing this winter has been warm or the teachers would have my head. They do ask them to wear rain gear when it is wet, but warmer. Which would consist of rain bibs, coat, boots, hat. Germans don' t like to be cold. :) They are great.

Jacob's understanding

So, Jacob and I went to the store this morning, and in the checkout line he keep asking me for candy after candy after candy. I kept saying No, especially since he was already holding a snack in his hands. I finally told him if he asks me again, I am going to put him in the buggy where he can't reach the candy. Well, of course it came to that, and once he was in the buggy he was being totally rude and acting like a brat because he didn't want to be there. I told him to stop or I am going to put him down for a nap when we get home.

So, then we are in the car and here is the conversation:

Jacob: Am I going to bed?
Me: If you keep acting Rude you are.
Jacob: I'm not Rude (pause, then breaks in to song)
Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer
Has a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it,
you would even say it glows.


Apparently he thought I was saying he is Rudolph. haha