Christmas Continued

Christmas

December was a full month. Ben traveled to Cali to work on a project for 10 days, so I was solo with the girls. We were thankful to have skype so that the girls could talk with papa each night.

Besides Ben's travel, we had all the usual hustle and bustle of the season . .. gifts to buy, Christmas cookies to bake for all our neighbors and church, friends to visit, and advent activities to keep us grounded and focused on the true meaning of Christmas.

Katie had been gearing up for Jesus' birthday since November when she first popped out of her room with a towel on her head and announced that she was Mary and that she had given birth to baby Jesus. As we sang carols, read the Christmas story, added stars to our advent calendar, and did Christmas crafts, Katie's excitement grew. By Christmas Eve, Katie was eagerly anticipating sharing cake with Jesus and singing Happy Birthday to Him. She drew him a birthday card and told me to write, "I love you. You are my best friend. Thank you for loving me. Happy birthday." The simplicity of her faith and love is so precious!

Christmas Day itself was spend first celebrating as a family and then with our dear friends, Amy and Brandon and their little girl, Charis. Certainly we miss being with family at this time of year, but we were grateful to have friends to celebrate with.

October and November with a Sprinkle of Early December

For the sake of catching up, I am going to compress October, November, and early December. Those months were a flurry of birthday's (mine and little friends of Katie's), Thanksgiving (which we have no pictures of because our camera batteries died :O), and little Christmas parties with other expat families. I will write a blog about getting ready for Christmas once I have uploaded our most recent photos.

For my birthday, my dear hubby surprised me with a picnic out where he works. Part of the surprise was that he picked up my dear friend, Amy and her little girl, Charis to enjoy the morning with us. (Charis is Katie's best friend, so needless to say, Katie was thrilled.) The birthday festivities continued as my friend, Patrycja, hosted a little birthday get together/play date a few days later. What a great way to begin my 36th year!

Without having a fall season to enjoy here (no foliage, pumpkin patches, apple picking, or cider), I learned how to use a Colombian squash to make a myriad of pumpkin muffins, cookies, breads, and cakes. Somehow having the "fall" smells waft through our house made it seem like we had a little taste of autumn here.

October and November were filled with baking (see above :-), our pre-school coop, "school," play dates, and just day to day living.

My Precious Katie

(Thank you, Patrycja, for these wonderful photos!)

A month after Emily's birthday, Katie turned 3 years old. For her special day, we invited four little friends to come to a princess party, complete with princess costumes, pin the crown on the princess, and princess picture frame making.

Dress up is but one of many activities that my beautiful little Katie enjoys. Playing in her kitchen, nurturing her dolls and bears (everything from breastfeeding them (ahem!), changing diapers, doctoring them, reading with them . . .), reading books, & singing made up and "real songs" are amongst the things that she enjoys doing.

After her birthday, in October, I began to do pre-school with her, and she really delights in learning whether it is a nursery rhyme, a Bible verse, a letter of the alphabet, or something completely different.

Katie is very agile; she loves to jump, hang, climb, dangle, and roll around in the park, in our living room, on her bed . . . . She loves to be outdoors whenever possible and is always looking for little friends to join her in playing.

Emily

(Picture taken by my dear friend, Patrycja)

Perhaps a birthday reflection is a bit past due, but my precious little Emily turned one on August 26th. At that point in time, she had taken her first few steps (at 11 1/2 months), but she much preferred the security of using furniture, walls, and adult hands to get around. Emily was also very attached to me, so leaving her, even with papa, had to be done with stealth. At the time, she was saying, "papa," "mama," "hola," and "bye bye," but Emily was much more in the observing and listening phase of development.

Who knew in the few short months since then how much Emily would change?! My dependent girl has become an independent explorer who loves to climb, run, ride on her sister's tricycle, and get into mischief. By 12 1/2 months, she was not just walking, but running (and she hasn't stopped).

Having an older sister to imitate seems to have helped in everything from learning to drink from a cup to picking up vocabulary. Having an older sister also means that Emily has learned how to defend herself and "speak up" when she feels Katie is taking advantage of her. I sometimes stifle a laugh as Emily pushes Katie, pulls her hair, and screams at her when Katie takes a toy away. It is quite comical at times to see Emily, half the size of Katie, staking her claim. And I also have the opportunity to give another lesson in sharing and kindness!

Emily loves music and will often try to sing or dance along, especially when I am doing school with Katie. Like her sister, Emily loves to look at books and snuggle with various bears and dolls. We love the personality, sweetness and love that Emily brings to our family!

August Continued . . . Finally :)

What can I say . . . this blog has been sadly neglected for the past four months, but I will try to play a bit of catch up to fill in the gaps. Life with an almost 16 month old and a 3 year old is non-stop!

The remainder of August was full. We travelled to the states for 12 days to celebrate Grandpa Leonard's 80th birthday. He thought we were having our first family reunion (which we were), but we were also gathered to celebrate him and his life. My brother-in-law, Andrew arranged for us to stay in his family's summer home in Duxbury, Mass. We enjoyed canoeing in the bay, playing in the sand, and re-connecting with our extended family. Of course, the highlight was the surprise birthday dinner we had for Dad Leonard.

From Duxbury, we headed to New Jersey where we stayed with my sister, Elizabeth, and her family for several days. During that time, my parents arrived from Japan, so we had a birthday celebration for Emily and Katie with many of their cousins, aunts, uncles, and Grandma and Grandpa Shore. We don't know when we'll be able to celebrate their birthday's with family again, so this was a special treat!

June, July, and a Wee Bit of August

Before we travel to the states for the Leonard family reunion, I wanted to write a little update. Emily at 11 months is fiesty, joyful, energetic (especially in the middle of the night :-O), and animated. As of yet, she is neither crawling or walking, but she is certainly cruising. You never know exactly where she will end up if you turn your back for a moment! Emily is full of sounds, shrieks, bounces, and lunges. She is remarkably adept at determining what her sister enjoys playing with and then trying to "steal" said object from her sister. It is quite funny to watch!

In the last few weeks, Emily decided that she is done with baby food and wants to eat almost everything we eat. That makes mama think carefully about seasonings and textures. Emily enjoys throwing things on the floor and having mama say "uh oh," waving bye bye, pursing her lips to make kisses, initiating peek a boo, cruising around the living room, and getting into mischief. She seems to hold her own when it comes to her big sister.

Katie at 2 years 10 months loves to take care of her stuffed animals and dolls. She swaddles them, nurses them, puts them on the potty, declares them sick and gets out her medical bag, changes their clothes . . . . She also loves playing in her kitchen and making soups (cookie soup is a favorite, go figure!) and coffee. It is amazing to me how much she imitates me whether is "washing" dishes, sweeping the floor, doing laundry . . . Katie doesn't miss a thing. She is still a voracious reader and often will sit down with a book and "read" it to her bear. I enjoy hearing what she retains and watching her choose more challenging books.

Because it has rained almost every day for the last month and a half (still hoping for a heat wave or some sunshine here! :), we have spent more time indoors. So we have done a lot of baking together, art projects (making wind toys for August--the month of wind here, caterpillars to go with Eric Carle's book, etc.), reading, making obstacle courses, and whenever possible inviting little friends over. As expats come and go, Katie is learning about saying good-bye and discovering where airplanes are taking her friends.

Even during the "summer," we have continued our weekly pre-school coop. Katie loves spending time with her buddy, Maria Jose, and enjoys learning to dance amongst other things. Come September we are hoping to have two other little girls join us on Wednesday mornings.

Well, before my two little ones get up, I am going to attach some pictures from the end of June, July, and bit of August.