the babies who couldn't wait

Letter to Santa

2011-11-27T20:01:00.004+01:00

I thought it might be a good idea to try and get some ideas what C and E want for christmas, so I suggested we start a letter to Santa.

Enya wants:-christmas socks
-a duck pond

We never got around to what Ciara wanted because really I was blown away by the duck pond. When questioned more closely. Enya wanted blue water and it has to have a duck in!

Daddy better start digging now ;0)

PS we did land up going to the ENT to get Enya's hearing checked, after a 3 hour appointment the results were, as expected, that she can hear just fine!

my green house with the clock on

2011-09-26T20:15:00.005+02:00

For the last few months everytime we drive past a house with scaffolding up outside (be it a new built house or an old one getting renovated)it gets claimed by one of the girls. It's gotten to the stage where they've started sharing the houses.

"This kapputen house is mine Ciara, but you can have the next one."

Before this recent development we often had floods of tears when driving, if all the building sites tended to be on one side of the car and were therefore all claimed by one girl.

The other intriguing part of this stage, apart from why it started (I don't know), is that claiming the house is always followed by the statement
"my daddy will fix it",

if Z is in the car he is always asked to confirm this
"won't you daddy?" (good daddy that he is, he always answers yes!)

Now don't get me wrong Z is good with his hands but building from scratch or ground up renovations? Not very likely!!

My girls (according to them at least) are proud possesors of at least 40 properties in Germany and England (come to think of it in Belguim as well- although that was a new office tower beside the motorway- good luck fixing that one Honey!!). Not least the green Town Hall with a clock on in Fishguard, Wales, which although we only saw it 3 or 4 times and have been back for more than a month, regularly pops up in Enya's conversation.

PS For those who link to the picture don't be surprised that it's not green. I think the scaffolding was up because they've just painted it!!

Quiet books completed

2011-09-14T20:35:00.006+02:00

So remember in April/May when I posted that I was trying to make quiet books for the girls..... well they are finally finished!!

They went with us to England and were great for keeping the girls entertained in restuarants and for short periods at my folks. The problem we had with them however was that Enya can't read/play with hers in the car as she gets car sick (poor kid gets it from me!). This of course meant that Ciara was not allowed to play with hers in the car either or tantrums ensue.

Without futher ado the pictures

The quilted front covers- my first attempts at free hand quilting
Enya spirals, Ciara hearts

Daisys we´re still practicing buttoning!

Shoes We haven't really started on these skills so not yet in use

Owls and Pigtails these pages are a huge favorite, clicking the leaves back onto the tree, tucking the owl back into his hole and playing with the girls hair

Clasps Ciara has conquored these 2 pages, Enya is still working on them

Cars Another huge favorite, probably the pages they play with the most for which I'm very grateful as these pages were very time consuming to make and personalise. My favorite pages too!

Letters Again not yet in use although they both recognise the first letters of their names as well those of my baby sisters and Z's.

If Z and I can just agree on the rules We'll start teaching them the rules for these games next: Noughts and Crosses (played with buttons instead) and Nine Mans Morris

A couple of friends have hinted they would like a quiet book for their kids for christmas, Given how long it's taken me and the fact I'm in the middle of knitting Ciara a jersey it certainly won't be happening this christmas!

PS had the 4 year old well child visit yesterday, need to go back in 6 weeks to get Enya's hearing tested again- they think she may have hearing problems, I think she just didn't want to co operate. She is great on non co operation!!

Eating update

2011-09-11T22:17:00.005+02:00

I've been meaning to do an update on eating forever but just never got around to it.

We've been making gradual progress recently- for the longest time C and E refused to eat ANY fruit or veg. Enya occasionally could be convinced to eat apple but THAT WAs IT!! Finito no other veg/fruit passed their lips.

I discovered a book which gave me some peace of mind- it is full of sneaky recipes to get healthy stuff past the kids radar. Brownies with spinach and blueberries and the like. The best part is I don't feel guilty when they ask for more, I quite happily let them try more (yes, I know the amounts per brownie are quite small but it's still more than they would be getting if they didn't eat them). This gave me the courage to branch out and try some other things- pizza now always has an extra layer of pureed veg under the tomato sauce and cereal always has a bottle of baby fruit in it. The best part of it is they like the baby fruit so much they get a bottle to eat at kindergarten instead of the normal youghurt at break time.

They have also rediscovered avo and banana puree which is now a hot favorite at dinner time and are even trying corn on the cob. Previously they would refuse to try anything new, now they are prepared to lick new things and if the taste agrees, will then try a spoon. I know it's baby steps but we are making progress. Enya has even extended to begging Z for his tuna jacket potato, potatoes were a huge no-no. I must have the only kids in the world that refuse to eat french fries and crisps.

So in summary we are slowly expanding the repertoire of fruits and vegs that will be tried although we still have a LONG way to go. Hey it took me over 30 years to start eating anything other than peas, corn, carrots and apple so I guess genes do breed true ;0)

PS the girls have shot up again: Ciara is now 109cm tall (43 inches) and Enya is
104cm (41 inches).

Monster Party

2011-09-07T21:27:00.003+02:00

Having celebrated C and E's actual birthday in England with my folks [photo and post still to come....maybe;0)], we had the german celebrations last weekend. The weather was surprisingly fantastic considering that this summer has been one of the wettest on record. After a horrible last week we had over 25 C with sunshine on Saturday, we even had to borrow umbrellas to shade the terrace so we wouldn't get grilled during lunch.

As you already know I often refer to the girls as monsters (my pet name for them- not meant as an insult) so I thought it fitting to give them a monster party- they were delighted!

We were once again up until 3am the night before (morning of) the party but I think the cake, biscuits and party treats were worth the effort. I'll admit I chickened out of inviting loads of kindergarten friends to the party, we had 9 kids there as it was! However next year I'm going to have to host a kiddys only party and I'm shaking in my boots already (any offers of assistance will be gratefully accepted- mom, Ren and Jax ;0))

birthday cake

The 5 candle and cookies is because one of the boys invited had his birthday actually on the Saturday (he is celebrating later as all his friends are still away for the summer holidays)

Sugar cookies my latest hobby

The kids are still to impatient for proper party games so instead we did a bit of gingerbread decorating, which was fun for young and old alike! The best part was when they got tired of decorating, they just started eating the deco instead!

Enya
Ciara

Other party fun was trampolining (the girls got an early birthday present at the start of summer of a huge trampoline) and harvesting our landlords plums and blackberrys for them. The kids had a great time climbing trees and filling buckets-isn't great when chores are regarded as fun!

We finally got to bed about 2am that night but it was a great day and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Planning has already begun for next yeat!!!

Beach shot

2011-08-26T22:35:00.002+02:00

We've jsut come back from a wonderful visit to England and Wales (our first since the girls were born). Contrary to the image portrayed here we didn't have such great weather but when we did manage to get to the beach the girls had a blast running away from the waves.

What we've been up to

2011-05-01T21:04:00.006+02:00

Time seems to be running away from me lately, there are not enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do and something had to give! I'm afraid it has been the computer time, I manage to get to my computer rarely nowdays and when I do I usually do a quick blog check and that's it.

What I have been doing though is lots of sewing (had to wait for my baby sisters birthday before I could do the big reveal on her birthday quilt).

The next photo shows the colours better

I also got inspired by another multiples mother to try make a quiet book

Needless to say still got lots of ideas that I need to turn into pages and at least some of the pages need to be put together by the end of the month as we are off to Munich for a weeks holiday with friends and it's a looooong drive there!

And before you all think I'm forgetting about the girls, Today was the opening of the german walking season again (May day = national german walking day). We were out with our Bollerwagen and a glorious day was had by all. We walked about 2km to a playground, spent the entire day there picknicking and playing and then walked the 2km back. The day was particularly memorable as we had no pram- the girls did it all on their own 2 feet, no lifts in the bollerwagen or carrying, they even carried their own drink and snacks. More importantly they were playing with out us having to get involved every few minutes, and we managed almost the whole day without any temper tantrums. I am so loving this age!!!

A new found love- SEESAWS

BollerwagenNo, we still only have the 2 kids, the baby in the middle belongs to friends. However I may have to steal her as she ate a packet of 250g of tomatoes all by herself! My kids still have to eat a single tomato!

Right now C and E love making beds everywhere- if only they would sleep in them (yes Ciara is still waking EVERY night at 2 am and crawling into my bed. The worst of it is if I take her back to her bed, she comes straight back to me and if I go anywhere else to get away from her, she follows me!)

Walking walking

PS sorry for the sideways pictures, for some reason the program I usually use to manipulate my pictures doesn't like the photos from our new camera so I can't do anything with them.

Whoops

2011-03-30T20:53:00.003+02:00

Did I fall off the end of the world or what?

Nope I just got busy with my life and had no urge to post. I was debating if i should keep this blog open but now that my elder sister has moved to THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD (I am so jealous!!) I suppose I ought to.

so what has been going on in the last 2 months........

....... not all that much really. Our camera is broken so I can't even pacify you with pictures ;0)

Ciara suddenly decided she was done with pull ups overnight- she just stopped peeing overnight without us having to do or say anything. So one child nappy free at long last.

Enya still has spells where she has multiple accidents everyday at kindergarten for a week or so and then is completely dry for next couple of weeks. Not really sure what to do about this and so we're not even thinking about doing the nappyless nighttimes with her yet.

The girls seem to be growing up so fast now, even Enya is losing all her babyness. They both have started telling stories about their experiences at Kindergarten. I do so love what sometimes comes out of their mouths, the different voices and sound effects often just crack me up. They learn so much from the older kids and it's hysterical hearing it all repeated. The latest favorite saying is "you're not my (best)friend anymore", or when the other does something for them "you're my best friend".

Did you know that if you fall over and bang your head (insert appropriate sound effects of a something hitting the floor) you get picked up by the "amblans" and taken to the "fignit shop".... yup that took me a while to work out too. We have since had a discussion about how people go to hospital and cars go to the fix it shop (thank you Finley the Fire Engine)!

Talking about speech: Ciara has cracked the word "yellow" instead of "lellow", she even gets the "th" sound right about 80% of the time, her speech is getting clearer and she does so love to talk. I can remember my mom saying once toddlers start talking people wish they would shut up again, it's not quite that bad but every so often I wish I had some earplugs ;0)

Swimmimg, sleeping and other stuff

2011-01-23T20:47:00.004+01:00

Warning: a heavy picture post follows!!

Now that the terrible two are no longer sleeping in cots they have gotten very possessive of their old travelling cot. We'd set it up for a visiting baby and our girls didn't want to give it up!

Peppa pig is absorbing even if you don't understand english (the sons of our best friends in Germany watched an entire 40+ min DVD and were fascinated)

Enya learnt how to put her jacket on all by herself (so what if it's on upside down)

Interesting surprise this morning walking into the bathroom

The mothering the doll phase has started, I love having daughters!

Last but not least we've had another weekend of yucky yucky weather so what did we do?

You got it, we went swimming ;0)

Cheers from the little one

Happiness is

2011-01-19T22:30:00.003+01:00

Better late than never, my Christmas present finally arrived last week. Despite being ordered at the beginning of December it took until last week for my Kindle to arrive, but now that it's finally here, I'm in luuuuvvvv.

Needless to say I've been playing lots and have already downloaded over 100 books, now I just have to find the time to read them all as well. I still can't get over how many free ebooks there are out there.

Will get back to C and E posting shortly ;0)

No surgery!!

2011-01-13T21:26:00.004+01:00

Her nose is still broken but, now that the swelling has gone down, her nose looks straight. THis means she does NOT need the operation as there is nothing to straighten, WOOHOO! I'm so glad we didn't have to make the call.

She is not to wear her glasses for the next 10 days and under no circumstances is she to get hit on her nose (CIARA!!). I did ask about Kindergarten but as the ENT said, she is as likely to fall at home as at Kindergarten so we will be sending her back there next week. We've got a doctors note for the rest of this week as the girls are still getting over their tummy bug and the paediatrician (yes we visited him too today- it was a long afternoon in various doctors waiting rooms- more than 3 hours with 2 bored cranky little girls) didn't want them going back yet. Ciara has some kind of rash on her hand which he is ascribing to the same viral infection as their tummy bug and so she is not to go back until that is gone.

So another day of watching Peppa Pig (the girls are addicted) and playing The Big Bobby Car Game or fishing coming up. Maybe we will even get a let up from the persistant rain and get to go ride the striders out on the terrace!

P.S. recently witnessed scene

Enya made a mess while eating breakfast and to try and hide it covered it with her bowl, Ciara witnessing this tattle taled to Z
C: "Enya made a mess"
E: "no I didn't"
C: "you made a mess"
E; "no I didn't"
C (getting a bit upset): "yes you did"
E: "no I didn't"
C (now almost in tears): "You did make a mess"
E (moves the bowl aside): "Did I?... " (peers over at Ciara with her head tilted to one side and smiles sweetly) "Okay"
Poor Ciara doesn't stand a chance

ENT visit

2011-01-11T18:56:00.002+01:00

S&%T!

We have until Thursday afternoon to decide if we let them operate on Enya's nose or not! They can't operate today as she is still sick and her poor nose is still swollen, but the last opportunity will be on Friday (if they do straighten it, it needs to be done within 8-10 days of the injury). I know that it's not a major op but it is still a general anaesthetic with the associated risks and there is also no guarantee that her nose will grow straight with the op. Right now though her nose is slightly skew so if we do nothing, she will have to get it straightened later if it bothers her.

The hardest part, I find, about being a parent is deciding what is best for the kiddies!!

First broken bone

2011-01-10T18:03:00.002+01:00

So broken it is!

I got to spend a fun afternoon at the hospital today with Enya, made even more fun by the fact when we first arrived Enya puked ALL over me. X-ray confirmed her nose is broken and they suspect a mild concussion. They offered to keep her in hospital overnight until she can be seen by the ENT specialist tomorrow (no ENT cover today) because of the puking, but given that she was feverish as well and was fine for the first two days, everyone thinks it is more likely she has picked up a stomach bug, so I brought her home. This of course means we get to have the fun all over again tomorrow when we visit the ENT specialist.

PS the stomach bug diagnosis was pretty much confirmed when we got home and Ciara was carrying her cough cough bucket around. Needless to say dinner wasn't on the agenda and both girls crashed about 2 hours before their normal bedtime.

Dangers of Kindergarten

2011-01-09T20:47:00.003+01:00

The results of a fall in Kindergarten

So what do you think, broken or not broken? It looks really painful and swollen but apart from telling us to only touch it gently, it's not bothering her at all and she is bouncing around (wildly) as normal.

Good bye 2010

2010-12-31T19:28:00.002+01:00

I won't be sad to see you go!!

As a fitting end to 2010 Enya woke up this morning with a gummy eye. Now I don't know what it's like in other parts of the world but in my corner of Germany life comes to a stand still between Christmas and New Years. Neither the Paediatricians nor the opthalmologists were open today, I landed up having to go to the emergency service at the local childrens hospital to get a prescription for eye drops (and even their service only started at 9am) which involved an hour and a half wait. Z is at his father's restuarant today so I had 2 bored girls to entertain and the waiting room is just chairs in a corridor- NOT FUN. THe only positive about this was that Enya got a thorough check up- yes, she has started another cold/cough having been sniffle free for about 3 days! At least I go into this weekend knowing her lungs and ears are clear.

Now hoping for a healthy 2011,

Happy new year to you all

A summary in pictures

2010-12-26T20:51:00.006+01:00

A brief summary in pictures what we've been up to in the last couple of months:

Our family autumn picture (Z and I cut, the girls glued), idea from Adventures in Mommyland blog
The girls love The smartest giant in town and when we won't read it to them, then they read it to themselves

We've been a couple of times to the indoor play centre

and Ciara has finally learnt that trampolines are not the devil,s invention she once held them for

We made slats for the Kindergarten fence

One of us tried on daddy's tie

C and E learnt to share their yogurt (which has now even extended occasionally to sharing their chocolate GASP!!)

Enya has been practicing her smiling

I made another duvet cover for a friend's daughter's first birthday (out of sleeping sacks and in to normal bedding)

Z and his girls have been baking

And last but not least some shots from Christmas

So after this picture overload I wish you all a merry christmas and a happy new year!

Belated Merry Christmas

2010-12-26T19:42:00.003+01:00

Sorry life has got a bit on top of me lately. When I've had the energy to blog, I've used the time instead to play with the kids. They seem to be coming on in leaps and bounds which I partly credit to the fantastic Kindergarten but also partly that they are getting bigger and older and are wonderful kids (what else is a mother to say?)

We've had a great christmas going to bed late and getting up late too (7 am in this household right now is a luxurious lie in!!). Z cooked Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve for us four (no family that lives close means christmas is an intimate family affair), and I recipricated by cooking christmas lunch on Christmas Day (I seem to be finally getting the knack of roasts as it was ready at the same time and even the roast potatoes were lovely and crispy). The girls loved it all especially the presents- for the first time they seem to really get the idea of presents being for them and opening them. Ciara has been helping me wrap presents (for other people) and everytime asked where her present was! Their favourite presents this year are their strider bikes and their Peppa pig DVD's. We want them hearing more english now that they are in a german kindergarten all day so asked for english CDs and DVDs from my english family and they've been a great hit- simple but riveting for 3 year olds. The striders (with obligatory helmets) are only being used inside right now as we have a solid 20cms of snow lying around outside with a serving of ice underneath the snow. Nonetheless the girls are getting the knack of steering them and it helps to relieve the cabin fever.

We've also invested in a couple of sleds and Z built a sledding track in our back garden which is also great for getting a bit of fresh air and good fun.

Anyway that has caught you all up a little with what we've done this week so with no futher ado
a belated Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year!!

Baking marathon

2010-11-09T21:01:00.004+01:00

One of the local bakeries opens it's doors the first weekend in November for a baking marathon in aid of a local charity. Basically it is a fun weekend, the bakery provides the ingredients for the cookies and mixes it all together, roll it out and provide the cookie cutters. The visitors (read the kids) then cut the cookies which are then baked on the premises and sold in all the bakeries' stores in the lead up to christmas. The profits are donated to charity in aid of local families in need. I doubt I need to mention a lot of dough gets nashed by the kids during the process. (I got reprimanded for stopping Enya eating the deco when she "working", BY ONE OF THE BAKERS!!)

We went on Sunday to have a look see and it was great fun. When we first arrived there was a brass band playing and both girls (but especially Ciara) were fascinated, I think we are going to have to revisit the music group again (can't find it in my archive but as brief recap about a year and a half we looked into doing music with the girls but it landed up being quite expensive and at that time the girls weren't interested at all). Then we did a bit of cookie cutting (an adult per kid is the minimum requirement) before going to decorate a ginger bread heart and getting their face painted.
Enya the flower field
Ciara Cat

All in all a fun morning that we'll have to repeat again next year!

First parent day

2010-10-31T20:28:00.003+01:00

Kindergarten was closed on Wednesday for Parents Day. Z had finally succombed to the tonsillitis that all the rest of us had had, so he got to stay home with the girls while I went to work and then, after leaving work early, to our appointment with their preschool/kindergarten teachers.

All in all it was a very positive meeting, they are very pleased with how the girls were intergrating in the group. Apparently our girls are very popular with the older girls (the curosity factor because they are twins? or because they are smaller?) who sometimes have to be reminded that Ciara and Enya are not babies and must learn to do things for themselves.

They are mostly speaking german at Kindergarten although they play "repeat in english, repeat in german" with their teachers too now (the teachers are enjoying the challenge of brushing up on their english!). They have definitely realisied that there are two different languages and not everybody understands both. Ciara in particular delights in confounding one of the teachers (Susannah) with new english words that Susannah doesn't know. If Enya notices the teacher doesn't understand an english word/phrase, she will try to find the german translation. Both girls are apparently quick to absorb new words and try to use them as soon as they are learnt.

Surprisingly the teachers feel Enya is further than Ciara developmentally. They feel she has generally better coordination and her fine motor control in particular is better (she uses a tripod grip when drawing and is going to be a lefty like her mom). She is also able to concentrate during activities longer than Ciara can and will seek out her own activities (in paritcular enjoys investigating how things work-this is a long standing interest). Z and I find this very interesting as at home we feel the opposite is true regarding concentration and coordination. We feel Ciara is more coordinated but is also a bit more cautious and therefore slower, where Enya moves so quickly so that the fine control of the movements is not necessary and is also almost reckless- she trusts herself to do EVERYTHING! Ciara is going to be a righty like her dad and she has a peculiar way of holding a pencil, uses all her fingers with the pencil threading up between her ring and middle finger.

Ciara is more social, going and joining the other kindergarten groups and joining in to play with the older kids without waiting for an invitation (they were a bit surprisied at how self confident she is socially). Enya tends to stay in her kindergarten group and is happy finding her own activities, she tends to wait for an invitation before she joins in playing with the other kids. C and E don't tend to play with each other although they do check to see where the other is periodically during the day. We have not as yet had to send one without the other yet and it will be interesting to see how they react when it does finally become necessary.

The best part of the meeting though was when I mentioned that it had been suggested that Enya would be better off with an intergration helper in kindergarten, I was told that Ciara and Enya were doing better than some of the older boys and were more than appropriate for their age. The teachers do not feel it is at all necessary for either girl to have any special assistance!

Groan

2010-10-19T09:01:00.002+02:00

Guess who got infected by her darling oldest daughter? While Ciara is galivanting at Kindergarten today, I'm creeping around at home, trying desperately to avoid swallowing. My beloved child has given me tonsillitis! I mean come on, tonsillitis is a kiddies sickness, I should be able to handle this. But instead it has knocked me for six and I've turned into a whingy monster.

Bad news is that Z is complaining of a sore throat this morning and if it has knocked me for six, Z will be down and out for a week!

The positives are Ciara was over it within 4 days and is back to normal (except for reduced sleep needs AGAIN, hello 5am wake up calls ;0) and Enya hasn't got sick (yet).

I don't know.....

2010-10-14T21:32:00.003+02:00

....perfectly articulated, is now Enya's standard answer to everything.

"Enya, where is your lunch box" " I don't know"
"What do you want to drink" "I don't know"
"Enya, can you fetch me two pull ups" "I don't know"

Ciara has only used it once this week, at Kindergarten:
"Ciara, where are your glasses" "I don't know".
Three days later the glasses still haven't turned up, we think she tripped while running outside and they disappeared under the masses of fallen leaves. Everybody is keeping an eye out for them but I fear that we will land up replacing them (and then Murphy's law states they will reappear!). The only question is do we replace them now or wait until next month when we have an opthomology appointment anyway, so the eyes can be remeasured for new glasses.

As fate would have it Enya stood on her glasses the same evening and flattened the nose pieces so both my girls are spectacle free this week!

PS S@%T! Ciara's just come through asking for a "cough cough" bucket and a temp of over 38 C, wanna bet she's caught the first tummy bug of her kindergarten career?

Autumn is here

2010-10-01T21:45:00.004+02:00

I love it when the leaves start to change colour and we wake up to crisp cool mornings. It's even better when we get a golden autumn when the sun shines and the blue of the cloudless sky is a striking contrast to the reds; yellows and oranges of the leaves. We've had a couple of days like that this week and now I'm getting the urge to snuggle in and prepare for winter. Winter coats are bought and the scarves are knitted, now I just need the winter boots to come in to the shops and we are all set.

Some shots from last weekend walking by the lake.
Family portrait

Running the autumn "beans" out

I love the running shots- the girls love to run and it shows!

the danger of baking with children.....

2010-09-28T20:39:00.003+02:00

....is that they get hold of the ingredients....

.....and spread them all over the floor.....

....OOOPS!!....

...not us mommy, we are little angels

Fairy Tale Evening

2010-09-27T19:23:00.003+02:00

Last week we had a fairytale evening at Kindergarten (fund raising for the Kindergarten). The kids have been hearing and learning about fairytales for the last month so it was the logical progression to have the autumn fund raising evening with the same theme.

The kids all came dressed up as their favorite characters (or in our case what we had in the closet!)as did many of the adults. As well as food and drinks we also got to do some crafting i.e. made hobby horses out of sticks and old socks. They even got some parents making elaborate wooden fence slats to replace the old rotten fence (engraved with the kids names on them), unfortunately Z and I ran out of time so we didn't get a slat with the girls' name on it.

So with out futher ado: photos from the evening
The only shot of a hobby horse

fairy princess Enya (plaster on Enya's face is from an accident at school)

Fairy witch Ciara

lots to say today

2010-09-19T20:02:00.007+02:00

Most important news first- the girls had another preemie follow up assessment at the Social Paediatric Centre (SPZ) last Friday and ..........

WE'VE BEEN DISCHARGED!! We're going back to see our beloved play therapist once or twice more, just to tie up the last loose ends but the doc says she is happy with how the girls are looking, they are not showing any major delays so get out and enjoy ourselves! We had the 3 year well child assessment on Monday and our paediatrician said exactly the same thing (he ran the SPZ for many years before moving back into general paeds so he's more like a developmental paed really) so we're going with the flow and will be therapy and appointment free for the first time ever. Well, except for the opthalmologist but that is a life long follow up so it doesn't count. Talking about eyes, we were at the orthoptician on Friday as well and I happened to mention to her that Ciara had had a corneal injury a couple of weeks ago, next thing I knew the prof was being hauled out of surgery to come check Ciara's eyes out- everything has healed well but how is that for service? It would never have happened at the Eye Guy's practice!!

Yesterday after a horrendous morning (Ciara decorated our lounge wall with pen, shredded our banking file and scratched Enya's face to ribbons), the sun finally came out so we took the girls out for a walk with their "babies" (the dolls don't have a name, they are both just called baby).

We were hoping to walk some of the beans out of Ciara and it seemed to work, we detoured past the park which for once was quiet so the girls had a ball playing on all the playground equipment the bigger kids are usually occupying.

I know this is a baby swing but it is just so nice to see Enya smiling on a swing especially when it is going high! She goes just as high on the normal swings as well now!!

Today (Sunday) we decided to go into the city as Siegen is hosting the NRW Day (celebrating 65 years of Nord Rhein Westfalen- the state we live in). We'd been warned that there were over 300 000 people expected to visit over the weekend (For comparison about 60 000 people live in Siegen!) and to use public transport, so we did. Busing in this morning was tedious with lots of waiting (thank goodness we had fortified ourselves with delicious choc chip waffles for breakfast ;0) or the meltdowns would have started even earlier) but when we eventually arrived in Siegen we lots to do and see.
On the blue light mile (emergency and military exhibitors)
Army helicopter up close and personal

Safety first

THW (Technische Hilfswerk) Bobby Car race course

After this I stopped taking pictures but there were 16 sound stages scattered around the city centre with free musical or kiddies acts on throughout the day, various free activities (eg. climbing offered by the German alpine club), loads of food and info stalls as well as all the shops being open.

There was so much to look at that the girls couldn't nap so we landed up having to leave around 4pm (we caught the train home- I can't remember the last time I was in such an overfilled train- thankfully the other passengers were all still in really good spirits and no one was drunk or it could have been quite unpleasant). Quick dinner, shower and the girls were fast asleep by just after 6pm and I'm heading for bed too now, sorry can't keep my eyes open anymore :0).

Beds and eyes

2010-09-13T21:59:00.004+02:00

2nd post today
Did I mention we had an emergency visit to the opthalmologist last week- Enya hit Ciara in the face with a piece of rolled up paper and injured her eye. Thank goodness although the cornea was injured, Ciara is young enough that it literally healed overnight, she was NOT a happy camper!!

The new big girl beds:
Enya

Ciara

The last photo is a good visual description of how the new beds are working out!!

Kettler Hof visit

2010-09-13T21:19:00.005+02:00

Last weekend we took advantage of some (long overdue) late summer sunshine and visited an adventure play park of a different sort. It was huge park divided into various play areas with loads of slides, swings and jungle gyms- so much more suitable for 3 year olds than a huge theme park. I was amazed by how fearless and agile both Ciara and Enya were- climbing rope ladders and going down 3 storey high slides provoked only laughter and cries of "again again".

The Bollerwagen fully loaded

Daddy's girls

The above photo was taken in this "castle"

Riding the race car Enya loved this car

Woohoo WATER!!

Enya's naptime she wilts at around 1pm and will literally crawl into any possible nest to catch some zzz's

Woodland playground

Ponies Kiddies thought these were great, may have to try riding lessons at some stage in the future

More water you noticing a theme here?

Aaaaah, the end of a successful day! Although what is not evident in this photo is the 20 minute melt down Ciara had when we tried to get her in her car seat. Ciara does not do overtired very well!!

sleep update

2010-09-09T20:32:00.002+02:00

Got lots of pictures that I want to post but no time to download and sort through them all.

I can't believe how few hours there are in the day now that I'm back at work and sleep is at a premium now that Ciara has discovered 5:30 am. Every morning without fail she crys at this time and then we have to get her out their bedroom as quick as possible before she wakes Enya.We have tried all sorts to get her to sleep longer but now that they are in their "big girl" beds, we have no way of keeping her in bed to "rest" in the morning. (we had to change the beds as they were both climbing out their cots anyway)

Ciara has also done away with the midday nap (she flat out refuses to rest) which means we have the 4-6pm meltdown again, where she is just so tired she doesn't know what to do with herself. Thankfully they are getting a hot midday meal at Kindergarten as she is often so tired in the evening that she won't sit down and eat properly (if we try and force it she has a tantrum) so we've taken to getting her to bed ASAP when the warning signs appear. We've tried pushing the bedtime later but the 5:30am start remains constant, so instead we've opted to putting her to bed a little earlier so she still gets a decent amount of sleep overnight (11 hours)

Enya continues to need loads of sleep and still has her 2 hour midday nap (she comes and tells us she is tired). My feeling is, if the girls didn't share a room, Enya would sleep until well past 7 every morning.

Where does the time go..

2010-08-31T20:50:00.002+02:00

I can't believe it is already the end of August, we only have the last third of 2010 to go. I haven't even got used to writing 2010 yet!

Ciara continues to boycott naps at Kindergarten on the 2 days a week that she is there after lunch, she mostly still takes a midday nap at home though. The plus side is that on the days she doesn't take her nap she literally collapses into bed at night with no prolonged bed time ritual required. There have even been a couple of days where I have had to stop her going to sleep on the floor before dinner!

Enya on the other hand needs her midday nap, no ifs or buts there! As a new development, on the few occasions where Ciara has refused to sleep at home, Enya has not flipped out. Instead she has gone down without complaint and not let Ciara's noise disturb her nap at all!

Talking about noise, both girls are now telling Z and I that we are "too loud" if we tell them off or raise our voices in any way, even clapping or dropping something provokes this statement. Unfortunately telling them they are too loud doesn't get them to stop whining ;0). We have been practicing "loud and quiet voices" with them but it is still a huge game for them and they are not carrying it over in practical situations.

I'm still enjoying being back at work but it really leaves me with not a lot of free time. I will keep posting but i fear it may be even more irregular than it has been up to now ;0)

SOB! Goodbye afternoon nap

2010-08-25T23:17:00.004+02:00

Ciara has now given up her afternoon nap. At kindergarten she just flat out refuses to lie down and encourages the other nappers (read Enya) to riot with her. At home I can still get her to nap but it often takes about an hour of taking her back to bed repeatedly before she finally falls asleep. She will usually sleep then for about 2 hours but as it takes so long to get her to sleep we run into trouble at night getting her to go down. If we let her go without her nap she is very whingy and dog tired in the late afternoon (as in a few times I've had to stop her falling asleep on the floor in her bedroom at half past five in the afternoon as she is so tired) but at least we're not fighting to get her to sleep at night.

Enya still needs the afternoon nap and we have arranged with the Kindergarten that she will still get it on the girls' long days. Today I was delayed at work and by the time I got there to pick them up, Enya was already napping so I left the girls there and had an unexpected free afternoon. She also sleeps in later than Ciara in the mornings so we are now encouraging Ciara to come and play in the lounge while the rest of us sleep in until half past six (about an hour unsupervised play) so far so good!

Amazing what a difference the child free time makes. I find I'm treasuring the time I have with the girls and trying to fill it with fun stuff to do with them rather than having to do household chores around them. I'm also loving the adult interactions at work, after 3 years everything child orientated it's nice to be able to chat with Z about something different.

More birthday photos

2010-08-18T14:44:00.002+02:00

The birthday princesses

BBQ in the rain

Presents

2010-08-17T19:34:00.004+02:00

We've been very busy the last 2 weeks.

Ciara and Enya are officially now Kindergarten kids and are LOVIN' it! They are there over lunch everyday and will be there twice a week for their midday nap as well. So far everything is going great, they have a fantastic set of carers who are amazing, patient and the girls love them already. We were really worried about the naps as the room is quite light and C and E are used to sleeping in pitch darkness but until today the girls have had reasonable naps with no fusses. Ciara today decided to boycott her midday nap and we paid for it this evening :0(.

At the same time I've gone back to work parttime, so far I'm really enjoying the interaction with other adults again and love being able to practice my profession again. I have noticed though my german is not as good as it was 3 years ago! We'll see how long it takes for the shine to rub off working again ;0).

The girls celebrated their 3rd birthday on Sunday, my mom and sister were here to celebrate with us and great fun was had by all, even though it rained ALL DAY and we had a house full of guests when we originally had planned to BBQ and celebrate outside. We had to make alternate arrangements but it all worked out in the end. I have only downloaded some of our pictures so I will be posting more later!

The theme this year was Clown/Circus

The homemade birthday cake

Birthday dolls and prams

Z with his 2nd set of twins he's looking a bit bleary eyed as this was late on Saturday night while we were assembling the girls birthday presents

Whew, another bullet dodged

2010-08-06T19:50:00.003+02:00

So 9 months later we have finally had our orthopaedic consult just to rule out anything squiffy with Enya's hips. She has incredibily hypermobile (too flexible) hip joints, in part no doubt due to her favorite sleeping position (best description is she looks like a frog with her splayed knees up near her armpits). He was amazed at how normal Enya is, given her long list of diagnoses/problems after birth (balm to this mothers ears). Anyway the upshot of the appointment is she still has a slightly insecure gait pattern but the physical exam was normal and X-rays only showed something that will need to be checked at a later date to see if it resolves (there is no therapy for it as it stands now) in the meantime we are to encourage her to be as active as possible- swimming, gym, and lots of load bearing activities like jumping. We go back for another check up in 2 years time!

I di however while I was already there ask about her feet, as her 2nd toe on the left foot tends to cross over the back of her third toe. His statement is it was purely cosmetic but we could try a shoe insert so that all the toes line up next to each other to remedy the situation. I don't know that I agree that it is purely a cosmetic problem as her toe catches when we put socks on Enya and it has a slight callus on the top of the proximal toe joint as well, which shows it rubs on shoes as well.

Other news, the days of the cots are nearing an end. As I've mentioned in the past the girls have been able to climb into their cots for ages but didn't trust themselves to climb out in the dark (we keep their room pitch black during naps and overnight for this reason), well that all changed this week!! Z eventually had to resort to turning the safety switch for their bedroom light off as they were climbing out of bed and switching the light on to play as soon as he left the room everytime last night. Thank goodness I was out gallivanting in town so I missed the fireworks- apparently they finally went to sleep 2 hours later than usual ! This morning, for the first time ever, Ciara came to our bedroom unaided to wake us up (at 6:15am!), she climbed out of bed in the dark and came to join us in our bed. I've left the gap in the bars on their crib open tonight as I'd rather they crawled out the hole than over the top if they're going to get out anyway. I think we'll be converting their beds this weekend!

Discipline

2010-08-04T10:59:00.004+02:00

Yet again I'm beginning to doubt myself. This is what Ciara did to Enya this morning! Enya's face is also a mess of scratches as Ciara keeps attacking her when Enya dosen't immediately give her what Ciara wants. I never thought I'd say this but thank goodness for the glasses, at least Enya's eyes are protected.

We are mostly doing time outs but I'm afraid when Ciara (or Enya for that matter) gets physical, we (I) do shout and even smack them. We also make the perpetrator apologise and kiss the victim better and later discuss (calmly) with them what they did wrong. Has anyone good advice about how else I can discourage biting and scratching as I'm open for most suggestions!

Gasp!

2010-07-30T20:28:00.005+02:00

During our pre-bedtime romp this evening Ciara headed over to the height chart and asked to be measured, so we did ..... she's grown a centimeter in the last 2 weeks!! Enya hasn't grown at all in the same time.

In case you were wondering what the pre-bedtime romp involves:
a little of this

a little tidying up and a book is usually on the program as well.

I sometimes wonder how different it would've been if we'd had boys, do you think they would've parked the cars as neatly as this?

Random photos of the various vehicles parked around our home that I've got in the last couple of days (of course I missed the one when the lego vehicles were all removed from the lego drawer and parked in a different cupboard-all neatly lined up one next to another)

Heard today

2010-07-26T21:17:00.003+02:00

"Mommy, ice bear"
"Ice bear? What on earth does that mean Enya?"
"Ice bear PUH-LEEZ" pointing emphatically at the freezer
"oh" light bulb goes on "you mean you want an ice cream"
"ja, ice cream"

I don't think I need to add anything about the look of disgust I received because it took me so long to catch on what she wanted!

I won't even try and type what she mangles out of the word "bridge". It took me about 5 minutes to work it out the first time she said it!

Pretty girls

2010-07-26T12:22:00.003+02:00

Princess Ciara

Princess Enya

I hasten to add: I had nothing to do with this "beautifying" exercise, I just took the photos when they were finished!

The bees have it in for us

2010-07-25T11:10:00.002+02:00

My foot is fine thank you very much, finally. I can't believe it took 3 days for the swelling to go down though.

Of course what made it even better (NOT) is the next day Enya got stung on her foot too. She was playing in the kitchen while I was in the bathroom, when she came through saying her foot hurt. Sure enough when I looked it was swollen and red but I coudn't see any wound on it, I suspected then that she'd been stung but couldn'confirm it until I found the bee lying on the kitchen floor. Thankfully the sting didn't detach from the miserable little blighter so Enya didn't get the full venom dose but she still had a sore and swollen foot for the next day!

At least allergies don't run in our family so we're not too concerned about allergic reactions to beestings!

Party preperations continue in the meantime, we'll have all the usual suspects over as well as my mom this year. Hopefully we'll have good weather so we can celebrate outside again.

Litle nurses

2010-07-21T21:24:00.003+02:00

Having grown up in South Africa, I'm used to wandering around at home barefoot. I still prefer being barefoot to wearing shoes even in these colder climes (in winter I will wear thick socks though). Being the super concious mother that I am, Ciara and Enya spend most of their days barefoot too (no it's not only because I'm too lazy to put their shoes on, it is better for the development of their feet to go barefoot-REALLY!!).

Today I was doing my usual, hanging up the washing outside and the girls were once again watering the garden with the water from the paddling pool, when I stepped on a bee. OUCH!! I forgot how much it hurts, a swear word or two may even have spilled from my lips while I was shaking my foot trying to get rid of the bee. Enya started crying saying "mommy's got an owwie", I mean real tears and everything, she is a very sensitive soul. Ciara started to head indoorsvery concerned, telling me "mommy wash"-her interpretation of us washing their scraped knees etc. is that water cures all hurts . I limped over to the paddling pool to stick my foot in the (barely there) cold water, thankfully that did do the trick and numbed the sting a bit.

Once the pain died down I went back to hanging the rest of the washing up but C and E kept buzzing around all concerned about me. My darling daughters/nurses even proceeded to wash my legs and feet down with cold water. Enya kept wrapping my foot up in a wet cloth, it's just a pity she kept wrapping the wrong foot;0). I even scored a couple of kisses for my poor foot!

I should add at this stage they are fascinated with plasters, bandages and germo.lene, all hurts need germo.lene and a "Nemo" (I made the mistake of buying plasters with Nemo fish on!) even if it's just a knock. Any and all cloth (be it face clothes or items of clothing) gets wrapped around their arms as a bandage, while they tell me in all earnestness about their imagined injury. I sometimes wonder if I'm raising a pair of hypochondriacs!

swinging

2010-07-19T22:17:00.004+02:00

Have I mentioned that Enya has (finally) progressed to swinging in the seated position. For the longest time she would only swing lying with her tummy on seat and then only she was allowed to propel the swing- NO Pushing thankyewverymuch! Now we are even allowed to push her (albeit with continual reminders of "gently mommy")

Ciara on the other hand is a higher faster more kind of kid. At least on the swing, just don't try and get her on a trampoline!

Glasses update

2010-07-19T14:12:00.004+02:00

So apparently we've had the glasses 6 weeks now. How do I know that?

Unfortunately not because I'm a calender obsessed mom but rather we had to take the glasses into be repaired today and the optician asked how it was going given that we've ONLY HAD THEM 6 weeks so far. Enya tried polishing the lenses, I don't know what she used but she got 2 super deep scratches in the lens, so we got a new lens for her. Ciara kept taking her glasses off, complaining they hurt her ears, so we got her a new set of ear pieces in a different design, hoping that will stop this habit. Anyway now that they are all repaired, hopefully we won't need to go back to that shop for a while!

Considering how much I was dreading the glasses they have actually not been that traumatic, Enya demands her glasses in the mornings so I know she really sees much better with them on, Ciara doesn't seem bothered whether she has them on or not. Both girls take their glasses off when tired and both throw them around when they are angry, bored or frustrated. As you can imagine, we've had to search quite a few stores for the glasses as they are quite sneaky about the whole removal and throwing act- I've had to go crawling under fixtures, burrowing into shelves laden with merchandise and rescue them from under other customers feet. The only thing they haven't managed yet is to throw them into water...girls, that is NOT a challenge!!

Growth

2010-07-16T13:09:00.002+02:00

I measured the girls last night before putting them to bed, Ciara is now 97cm (38.6 inches), she's grown 2cm in the last 2 months! She is still on the 91% percentile curve on the height charts.

Enya is 92cm (36.2 inches). She is sitting firmly on the 50% curve on the height charts.

Both girls are maintaining these growth curves now and if I look at their predicted growth, Ciara should end up around 172cm (5ft 8in) and Enya 164cm (5ft 4in). Not overly tall or too short either (Enya will be as tall as I am!).

PERFECT!

Finished!

2010-07-15T15:29:00.003+02:00

Going to do this in bullet point form as it's quicker:

-doll blankets are finished (note to self: next time you stay up until one am sewing make sure you have child care arranged for the next day- you're not very nice the "morning after", especially not when your darling oldest daughter wakes up at 5 am wanting to play!)

-prams are ordered and should be arriving at the beginning of next month (mom, the dolls are alredy here and packed away in my cupboard!).

-Enya is finally off her last bottle, she is however now addicted to Ovalmaltine (she hates plain milk in a cup but asks for "chocolate milk" all the time). We didn't want to start with sweet milkshakes but it was either this or fight every morning to get her to drink a cup of milk. The nappy changing pad is GONE. The bottles are GONE. The dummies are GONE. We now have a baby free house!

-boxes make the best toys and they don't cost anything.

-the puddle.jumpers have arrived and are great. I've even taken both girls to the pool by myself with them on. Although I think Ciara and Enya need a bit longer to really trust them as much as they trusted their old swim aids. The photos are from the trial run at home I didn't trust myself to juggle the camera as well as the terrible two at the public pool!

Hot hot hot!

2010-07-13T20:31:00.002+02:00

Quick post.

Remember when I was whinging because we hadn't had a summer yet, well summer came with a vengence! Today we're having a short respite, only 28C, but as of tomorrow we're back into 35+C (95+F)territory. Before anyone remarks about the fact I'm whinging about it being too hot and me a South African at that, let me add it is also very humid and we never had that during a highveld summer (very dry summers there). Plus I now have 2 little girls who most decidedly don't do well in the heat!

Anyway off to finish the 2nd doll blanket... have I mentioned we're having a doll themed birthday this year- only another month to go!

GAAAWW! My babies are going to be 3 in just over a month, the time is flying past!!

Craft bug

2010-07-06T14:12:00.003+02:00

I got bitten in a big way by the craft bug just recently. The fruits of my labour are....
6 bibs (4 long sleeve, 2 short sleeve). The best thing about them are that the girls now recognise the letters C and E, and know whose name starts with which. The not so good part is we now get all C's and E's pointed out to us when we are out and about, although at least we're getting a break from all taxis and cranes being commented on. I never knew there were so many taxis in Siegen!

a picture for the girls door. If I'd been a bit brighter I'd have painted the letters and then stuck them on, but I was having a dumb day so this picture took almost a week to finish as I had to paint the letters VEEERRRRY CAREFULLY and still had to do touch ups after! Surprisingly Z likes the picture (he is not as fond of rainbow coloured things as I am, so I'm going to hang it as a name sign on the door.

Kitchen cupboard, this was a spur of the moment project on the weekend. I was sick and tired of the box with the toy kitchen implements in our kitchen so I made them their own kitchen cupboard. Unfortunately not everything fits in it and I still need to paint it but it does mean that the box now only has the toy food supplies in it.

Of course I'm still trying desperately to finish the last duvet cover, somehow the enthusiasm is really hard to get up this time round! Oh well 3 butterflies down and another 8 to go.

Last but not least another summer shot because we are still enjoying a good stretch of summer weather. Long may it last!

Summer days

2010-07-01T13:58:00.004+02:00

I'm so loving summer!!

It just keeps getting hotter and hotter though, they are forecasting 36C (96.8F) over the weekend and humid as well. Thank goodness our flat is cool otherwise the girls would be impossible, they don't like it too hot!

May have to make our first visit to the outdoor pool this year on the weekend! (Need at least two adults until we get our puddle.jumper flotation aids!)

No dummy again?

2010-06-29T13:18:00.003+02:00

Long time visitors will know we had Ciara dummy (pacifier) free for about 6 months last year before she started up with it again (Z gave her one trying to comfort her while she was sick). Since then we've had phases where she wouldn't go to bed with out at least 3 dummies in bed with her, one for her mouth and one for each hand.

Unfortunately she took up chewing on them and refusing to give them up after she got out of bed, so they gradually all went walkabout or got holes chewed in them. We had one last dummy which I saw yesterday also had a hole in the latex, I mentioned this to Ciara and she then went to the bin and threw it away herself. I repeatedly told her that when she throws it away, it's gone and that we have no other dummies but she still wanted it in the bin. She only asked for it once last night but was satisified when I said we had none and reminded her that she'd thrown it away earlier. Today just before naptime she went and got it out the bin but allowed me to chuck back in the bin when I showed her the hole, she has also gone down to sleep with no fuss.

I think we may finally be dummy free (and we will definitely remain as I'm not buying anymore dummies). Now we just got to convince Enya that milk from a cup tastes just as good as milk from a bottle, so I can get rid of the last bottle and then we are free of all baby equipment!

Ladies out for a drive

2010-06-28T14:51:00.002+02:00

I love these shots of the girls.

Now please believe me there is nothing staged about these shots (except maybe the fact that they are still long enough for me to get a photo). They go into the bathroom and help themselves to the "gloves" (face clothes) all by themselves, they even sometimes use them as socks. Fantasy play is definitely another tick on the developmental scale!

England vs Germany

2010-06-27T21:07:00.003+02:00

Lets just say we had an intra family dispute this afternoon, despite my recruiting the terrible two as back up, we (England) lost. The traitorous two kept getting caught up in the excitement and cheering with all the others, everytime Germany scored a goal (and unfortunately that KEPT happening!).

Enya was all eyes

The kiddies all dressed up

our public viewing studio (the carport)

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-23T21:26:00.001+02:00

Strawberry fields

2010-06-21T13:28:00.004+02:00

Guess who has finally decided to eat strawberries

Ciara, not so much! She won't even bring the spoon near her mouth, in case the strawberry leaps off it and in to her mouth.

2010-06-20T20:48:00.003+02:00

Just back from visiting a new baby boy in Muenster, looks like a little cute yellow old man, an incredibily well behaved old man though. I find it hard to believe my big girls were once even smaller than him, he seemed so tiny and fragile. The girls were fascinated by him and kept wanting to stroke his head and hands (thankfully this is third healthy child and the mom is very relaxed about the whole thing) although we drew the line at them wanting to pick him up!

That being said for the first time in a long time I wasn't filled with envy for the new mom. I'm actually enjoying the fact that I won't be changing nappies for the next three years or waking up multiple times during the night to feed a baby (just to soothe a restless kid) and that I'm going back to work in 2 months so will have more adult conversations/discussions again!

Second day of kindergarten tomorrow!!

NRW Garden Show

2010-06-17T13:39:00.006+02:00

WARNING lots of photos

During my break from blogging Z and I took the girls to our state's garden show and had a brilliant day out. Not so much for the gardens and flowers but rather as the show had fantastic entertainment options for kids.

First of all they had the woodland playground- all the equipment was made of wood and one off constructions, it was set under huge trees so had the feel of a woodland grove (as we went on a hot summer day, it was wonderfully cool in the shade).

You can't see it in this photo but under the metal frame in the backgound is a sand pit with buckets and hoists, access to the sand pit is via tunnels

Next we went to have lunch and right next to the eating area they had a water garden, for some reason I didn't get a lot of photos here but we probably spent a couple of hours here. The girls were fascinated by the water way and I don't think climbed out of it while we were there. There were however lots of other fun equipment in this park: pumps; hoses and fountains, perfect for getting absolutely soaked!

After stripping the girls (thank goodness I had extra clothes because of potty training with), we then moved onto the actual garden area. It was beautiful but only covered a small area. By this time the girls were exhausted and they were shrieking up a storm to the delight of the other visitors!

We finally got the girls to sleep by me pushing them around and around the cool flower hall for about half an hour- it wasn't that big to begin with.

While the girls were sleeping we had to keep on the move so we walked over to the other side og the showground to the rock sea gorge, with it's wooden walkways in to the gorge itself, which was lovely. The girls woke up in the midst of the gorge and enjoyed the fresh greenery with us.

By that time it was getting late so we headed back to catch our bus back to our car (our girls love bus journeys, they cry everytime when we have to get off!).
We made a slight detour to crack the labyrinth before we left though

Needless to say after so much fresh air and movement it didn't take long for the girls to fall asleep on the long drive home. We woke them up to gobble a yoghurt down when we got home but then they were out for the rest of the night. Ahh, I love summer days!

Kindergarten

2010-06-16T13:26:00.004+02:00

First day in Kindergarten (for the Americans: In Germany kindergarten starts at 3 years) was on Monday. The girls had a blast, there were bobby cars and slides and did I mention the BOBBY CARS! I think the girls spent 2 of the 3 hours we were there riding round and round the building on the bobby cars. The grounds of the Kindergarten are even better than I thought (we visited in winter so didn't do too much exploring then), lots of up and downhills and plenty of shady spots with playground equipment. I think Ciara and Enya are going to battle with choosing what to play with first as there are lots of "new" toys there.

The best part about the day was they were taken under the wings of older kids (happened spontaneously with no adult orchestrating the shepherding) who then looked after them while everyone was playing outside. After the outside playtime was over, there was a circle time with songs and sitting games, unfortunately by this time Ciara and Enya were fairly wrecked so they didn't really participate- Enya actually laid herself down on the ground cuddling her Cuski and sucked her thumb, she was so tired. After we got home they both slept nearly 3 hours which is a long nap for them now!

We also had a trial run with their kindergarten rucksacks and they both suddenly love them. So much so that even after kindergarten the girls refused to take them off the rest of the day.

I can't believe my babies are getting so big! Ciara in particular looks like a little girl now, she has lost the toddler look completely now!

Summer

2010-06-11T22:26:00.002+02:00

I've been very absent this past week and a half, partly because I can't download pictures right now and partly because we've finally had a run of wonderful summer weather and I've spent most of it outside with my two sun loving daughters.

Poor teddies

2010-06-01T09:57:00.004+02:00

Now that we are no longer using them the girls are fascinated by nappies. They keep going to the nappy shelf in the bathroom and helping themselves to the disposables and cloth inserts and then trying to put the nappies on themselves, or more recently on their teddies.

So the glasses

2010-05-27T13:08:00.003+02:00

As we've had the glasses now for a week I suppose I should update how things are going. I imagine you have a fairly good idea, given that the girls are wearing them in all the recent photos and I haven't been whinging about the glasses.

The girls are really good about wearing them, they even ask for them when they get up in the morning or from a nap. When they get tired they do start taking them off and that is then a sign for us to start getting ready for bed. That they have taken so well to their glasses shows me that they do see a lot better with them and that they really are necessary (RATS!!).

The only problem we've had so far is at playgroup, one of the other little girls keeps ripping them off Ciara and Enya's faces. They'll have to learn to defend their glasses!

In other news Enya now has whatever bug Ciara had on Monday, so we had a morning just for us while Ciara went to playgroup. Enya and I bought the rucksacks for kindergarten which are adorable and have the breast strap so the shoulder straps won't keep sliding off during the Wedensday rambles. We followed that up by going for hot chocolate which turned into a cuddle and then nap session as the fever really began to hit Enya. Poor little mite is now curled up in her bed sleeping after a dose of para.cetamol. Ciara didn't do too well either at the playgroup as she missed her sidekick. They said she needed lots of cuddles and was very tearful, she perked up though as soon as she saw Enya and myself coming early to collect her.

Hopeful it will all be back to normal tomorrow for play therapy!

Nappyless

2010-05-26T12:38:00.003+02:00

Shh! I don't want to jinx it, but I think we've cracked the potty training! Enya is definitely finished with nappies during the day, she does everything in the potty or when we are out, she goes on a normal toilet! Ciara has the most amazing bladder control and only needs to go on the potty a couple of times a day (no, she is not dehydrated she drinks way more than Enya does!). Ciara hasn't quite worked out pooing in the potty yet but we're well on the way there.

There were 2 parts of motherhood that really concerned me, starting solids and then potty training. You know that solids were a bit of a nightmare with Enya not tolerating any texture or really solid solids for the longest time, so that just notched up my worries about potty training. I can however say it has really gone brilliantly. The month break between our first attempt and this time really paid off, at some point during the break it clicked with Enya that pee belongs in the potty (remember I was putting them on the potty at nappy changes if they were interested and Enya mostly was), and from Monday when we put her into panties she has been asking for the potty. Ciara didn't get it initially but through observing her sister and one accident it very quickly made click with her too. I've heard from other moms that they found potty training very stressful and the hardest part of parenting but it just all seemed to flow for us (perhaps because we have no carpeting to worry about?!).

Now don't get me wrong, Ciara and Enya are still having accidents but a maximum of one a day and we are only 9 days into this. The pull ups are only for night and naptimes and they are even staying dry sometimes during naptime. Although if we do have any long car journeys (this weekend we are going to Z's dad- 2hour drive away) I'll probably put pull ups on as well.

So in summary, my mom was right, the girls were ready to potty train and it has been a very successful painless transition. I am incredibily proud of how well Ciara and Enya have done and hope that this post doesn't jinx it all! (we learnt early on in the NICU not to praise the girls as everything usually went to pot after!)

The rest of the long weekend

2010-05-25T10:16:00.005+02:00

This weekend was Kultur Pur in Siegerland, it is a festival with live music acts, comedians and various street performers and that's just in the tents! The setting is a sports field in the middle of the forest. In the grounds surrounding the tent complex there are other forms of entertainment available, especially for the younger visitors (labyrinth or clowns etc.).

WE decided to take advantage of the glorious weather we were having and met up there with friends on Sunday afternoon. It was absolutely heaving but we had a great afternoon in the fresh air nonetheless. I was especially proud of Ciara and Enya as we survived the whole afternoon (including a fairly long walk from the car to the festival and back again) without the pram and we didn't lose the girls once! I did however put both girls into pull ups for the visit as we had a long drive to get there and the toilets, from past experience, often have long queues-my girls when they need to go, need to go NOW!

So without further ado: some photos from Kultur Pur
Enya meeting "Francois Blanc"

Enya in the Chime Labyrinth-all doorways had different objects hanging in them

Magnetic attraction between girls and dirt?

Ciara in the music garden, all "instruments" are made of everyday objects like pipes or pots or wheels

Poor old Ciara has one weakness and that is her stomach, on Monday she woke up with a temperature and was not herself the whole day, thank goodness it was a public holiday so I had help. She was exceptionally cuddily, hardly ate anything and kept saying she was sick. Finally last night she threw up after asking for the cough cough bucket, our warning sign that an eruption is imminent. She is incredibily good about telling us beforehand and usually gets everything in the bucket, for which I'm extremely grateful! She is still off colour this morning though.

Fashion statements

2010-05-22T23:07:00.005+02:00

I am not responsible for these fashion statements, blame my husband and daughters!

Yup we've hit the age where Ciara and Enya no longer wear what I choose but have their own ideas what is fashionable. Please note the wellies!

this is Enya's preferred method of swinging

Sisterly help

Ciara on the otherhand prefers the more traditional method of swinging

We took advantage of the wonderful weather and started weeding our front garden to the delight of the terrible two. Needless to say we went straight from weeding to the bath!

Nappy time (night time nappy)

All in all a lovely Saturday!

Whew!

2010-05-21T13:33:00.004+02:00

After phoning the neurologists practice for the 4th time, they finally admitted to having the results of Enya's blood test. The first 3 times they kept promising they would phone me with the results as soon as they got them, which was in the end a lie (they couldn't find the results the last time I phoned, although everyone there knew that they had come and there was already a medical letter written for our paediatrician so they had obviously been around for a while).

They wanted me to start dosing her up with thyroxine and then recheck her TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) levels in 2 months. I have however learned to be a bit careful about this practice in the past (the doc trying to convince me that Enya had high tone in her legs when in reality she is low tone all over!) so I arranged to get copies of the lab reports and made an appointment with our own Paed.

After picking up the letter this morning before play therapy I was very relieved to see that the TSH levels were the high end of normal (my research on Dr google had informed me kids normal values were 0.7-5.5, adults 0.3-3.0, the normal levels quoted in the letter were the adult values). After play therapy we had our paed appointment and he AGREED with me! So another worry is swept off our plate, Enya doesn't have any thyroid problems YIPPEE!

Why the other practice is using adult values for kids, I don't know. The scariest thing is they also are a paediatrics practice so I hate to think how many of their kids are on unneccessary hormones. As my paed said, once you start on the hormone supplementation path it can be very hard to get off it again. He has had more than one discussion with this particular practice about this issue but as yet no success in getting through to them. Thank goodness we don't need to go back there again.

They're here!!

2010-05-20T13:42:00.004+02:00

Yes I know you all want to see them on the girls' faces but first I have to convince the girls to keep them on! Shall we just say so far I'm not having a lot of joy.

Kindergarten report

2010-05-19T09:10:00.003+02:00

May I just repeat that I love love love the Kindergarten (for the americans here Kindergarten = nursery school in German) we've chosen for our girls!

We went yesterday for our first orientation visit and to meet the other new kids. Ciara and Enya will have three nursery school teachers in their group (2 of them are part time) looking after 20 kids. There are 3 other new kids starting and every new child has one older kid as a mentor. They are allowed to move freely around the Kindergarten building and can even join the 2 other groups for playing/activities if they wish (they have 60 kids in total and start taking kids from 2 years). Happily though there are the basic rules and regulations regarding only one toy at a time and cleaning up after themselves that we have at home. We have weekly visits now planned so that the kids are comfortable with the teachers, other kids and the daily happenings when they start full time in August.

We received our shopping list of things we need to buy(rain trousers, rain jacket, wellies that stay in the Kindergarten, rucksack for Wedensday walks, breakfast box and bottle etc.) and they couldn't emphasize enough that everything EVERYTHING must be labelled.

I'm not at all concerned how Ciara will adjust, we had to go looking for her a couple of times during the introduction (literally all 3 teachers and myself were searching the building) as she had gone to play with the other kids in another group. The fact that they have bobby cars at the Kindergarten just sealed the deal for her! Enya on the other hand stayed close to me pretty much the entire 2 hour visit, although at one stage she did go and sit on another mother's lap to read a book with her. The teachers were pretty impressed with how both girls could concentrate on an object that they were playing with. Yes, you read that right, my flighty girls were complimented on their concentration skills!

The girls even got one of the other newbies calling cars "cars" instead of "autos" (german), we may have to speak a bit more german at home for the next few months until they start Kindergarten ;0).

Another mega picture post

2010-05-18T18:50:00.006+02:00

Sorry, just downloaded my camera again, so you get the photo overload again. First of all
happy faces

and then
my orally fixated daughters

we also had Father's Day in Germany last week and Z got a Bollerwagen from his girls, as the weather on that day (Thursday) was dreadful, we took it out for it's inaugral trek on Saturday instead- a few shots from the walk

A bollerwagen is usually filled with kids or beer and is hauled out on public holidays, when as previously mentioned pretty much all of Germany goes walking ;0) (we went with the first option obviously)

Proud

2010-05-17T19:58:00.002+02:00

I am so proud of my two little monkeys!

You all know we started playing around with potty training about a month ago. I had them in panties (or nekkid) for a couple of afternoons while it was warm and we landed up watering the garden ALOT (they even once fertilized with more solid waste!). Well then I took a break as the weather turned cold and wet so we couldn't spend the day out into the garden and I wasn't sure if they were ready yet anyway. During this time I just tried to get them to sit on the potty during nappy changes. At some stage about 2 weeks ago something went click with Enya and she began weeing most times when she sat on the potty, until a couple of days ago when she suddenly stopped. I was having a chat with my mom last night about this and she said I had to be careful Enya didn't land up getting confused with potty and nappies and to just bite the bullet and put her into panties. She also suggested I start with just Enya, as Ciara was showing absolutely no interest in the potty at all, most times she refused to even sit on the potty. So the decision was made to start potty training Enya from today and to leave Ciara for another few weeks.

Fast forward to this morning: after breakfast, I was enjoying my tea before I went to get them dressed, when Enya walked in with Ciara's nappy. Ciara followed soon after, nekkid from the waist down and mentioned she wanted panties. My reaction was okay we'll do them both together then and so the serious Potty Training Day (PTD)began. Enya is a frequent but low volume "pinkler" while Ciara holds on for over 2 hours but then wees copious amounts. Despite me rolling up all the carpets (thank God for tiled floors) and blocking off the beds and sofas, they only had one accident all day (Ciara before she peed for the first time in the potty) and were both asking to use the potty without me having to remind them. A resounding success of a PTD which has left me incredibily proud of my girls.

I think my mom was right, I think they are both ready for this!! Although we still have a few big hurdles to get over (no one did big business today) it looks like we're heading in the right direction. I only hope tomorrow goes as well, as we have the kindergarten visit tomorrow afternoon and I don't want to put them back into nappies during the day again (well except for naps of course).

Busy busy

2010-05-15T21:31:00.002+02:00

My baby sister is here for a visit and we've been very busy doing nothing much. Baby sister is being called granny and we were asked if she was my twin (she's ten years younger than me!) so I don't think she feels very complimented-medical school obviously drains the life/youth out of one;0).

C and E are being delightful, exhausting and exuberent as befits nearly three year olds. They were discharged from cardiology last week! WOO HOO!! Both of their ASD/PFO's have closed. We're almost rid of all our specialists now!!

Our program for next week involves the first visit to kindergarten for a trial session (with parental accompaniment). I'm intrigued to see what is planned and how everyone (read Enya) copes with the session. I'm really excited about them starting kindergarten as I believe they will gain so much from it. I have already seen how much they pick up from the older kids when we have visitors and I can't wait to see what they learn when they are exposed to other kids everyday.

Gotta take my baby sister to the airport tomorrow very early, this week has really flown by !

Babee and a discharge

2010-05-06T14:09:00.002+02:00

Early morning this morning as Enya had a 8am appointment at the neurologist and she was DISCHARGED!! From a neurological point of view Enya is doing fine and her EEG was normal so we get to strike another specialist off our list. Unfortunately after our last appointment they gave me the incorrect results for her thyroid blood test (the values WERE abnormal) so we have to get it redone and it looks likely that Enya will be starting medication for her thyroid. Ask me why the neurologist is the one that noticed the signs and is the one leading the testing for this!!

I found Babee at the second shop this morning so that was huge sigh of relief. Ciara was delighted to see it when I gave to back to her after we got home and it is now tucked up next to her for naptime.

Gardening days

2010-05-05T20:14:00.004+02:00

We took advantage of the unexpectedly bright and sunny afternoon and got out into the back garden. Ciara and Enya decided to "help" our landlady with her planting of the window boxes, which gave me a few precious moments to catch my breath and do some gardening of my own!

Our terrace bed is now a riot of purple and pink flowers and the shrubs have been hacked back (warning: do not let me loose with garden shears, plants will be severely pruned) and all the weeds are history.

All in all a very satisfying afternoon!

Babee and the zoo

2010-05-05T12:47:00.003+02:00

We've lost Ciara's Babee! We were at playgroup this morning and as we were walking out the room I gave it to her, but by the time we arrived at the car after a brief shopping foray it was gone. I've already phoned the centre where we were but they haven't found it. I guess my 3 free hours tomorrow will be spent hunting for the darn toy or trying to find a replacement!

On to happier things: after dropping Z at the airport on Sunday, the girls and I went to Frankfurt Zoo. I mean, come on, if we are going to drive an hour and a half to Frankfurt we might as well make a day of it. The Zoo was huge and a mix of old and new style enclosures, but was in all honesty not as nice as Cologne Zoo. Enya was really disappointed as they had no elephants but at least we actually got to see the lions and tigers here. The girls lasted until 3pm, when we started to drive home, before they both crashed out and then slept for the entire drive home. Huge relief for me as both girls delight in freeing themselves from their shoulder straps in the car seats and solo in the car with them I'd be pulling off at every rest place on the Autobahn (believe me it's what happened on the 6 hour drive down to the Mother-Child Kur.

Rainforest

Lunchtime

Camels

as you can see by the looks of absolute fascination on their faces this could just as easily have been titled "time to go".

and so it continues..

2010-05-04T09:05:00.003+02:00

So has the universe smelled that Z is in the States this week and decided to pick on me. After the glasses bombshell yesterday, the next arrived this morning in the post.

We had applied for both girls to get a pension plan/invalidity insurance started a couple of weeks ago. We had to give medical details but part of the reason we were doing this now is the medical questionaire is supposed to be less detailed than if Ciara and Enya did this when they were adults. About a week ago we got the contract and I thought it was signed and sealed. Until this morning where I received a letter saying that they couldn't ensure my little nearly 3 year old Enya because of her medical history. Not only that but her name was going on a list the german insurance groups all have as having been refused this insurance. Which means even if we can clear some of the current issues on her medical sheet (for instance we're off to see the cardiologist next week to see if her ASD is closed) a new insurance company would still examine her application with a fine tooth comb and probably want extra details.

I knew there was a possibility of being turned down but I thought if they got turned down both would get turned down (the only major difference in their history being Enya's brain bleed). Now we have to decide whether to try find a comparable investment for Enya so she won't be disadvantaged, or if we look instead for something different for both girls so that everything is fair and equal.

The timing of this is the pits, I can't discuss this with Z until this evening so I'm going to be brooding over this all day!

Just shoot me!

2010-05-03T12:57:00.002+02:00

Remember when I said that I dreaded the girls needing glasses? Well we've just gotten back from an appointment with the Eye Prof (as opposed to the horrible Eye Guy) and BOTH GIRLS need glasses! I could just cry!

They are both long sighted and also both have astigmatism. The only plus about the entire visit was that we were out of there in next to no time as we were the only exam patients there, all the other were surgical.

Now I need to go spectacle shopping again. How the heck am I supposed to get them to wear the glasses and not break them. I've already checked a couple of shops and they only have metal glasses and as both Z and I have seen, the girls delight in bending even the hardiest metal frames.

This is so not FUN!

Things I've come to realise..

2010-04-29T22:59:00.002+02:00

1) Having gone through 5 pairs of panties yesterday and 4 pairs of panties today (with them only being nappyless in the afternoon no less), 7 pairs of panties per child is probably not enough.
2) Ciara can hold her pee in for over two hours, just don't run water where she can hear it.
3) We don't need rain to water the grass when Enya is nappyless.

.....This potty training is not as easy as I hoped it would be

Well, hello summer!

2010-04-27T19:06:00.004+02:00

The Z summer BBQ season has been officially opened on Sunday and may I just say it is fantastic to be able to enjoy our meals outside again.

The potty training was a mixed success with lot of watering the tiles and grass, the funniest part of it was once one of the girls had had an accident the other would follow within minutes. Once I realisied this I started putting the other straight onto the potty, but of course I only realisied towards the end of the day. At least I know for next time. I haven't had them nappyless for the last 2 days as it's been too cool for dresses, we quickly discovered panties makes them think they have a nappy on and leads to lots of accidents! By the end of the day though both girls had had one success with the potty though so I was satisfied (and boy am I glad we don't have any carpets!!).

I got lovely shot of the girls eating together outside on the lawn on Friday

but before you think I have the most cooperative children in the world, the next shot was taken seconds later

Last but not least Enya has been flitting around the fence next to our local child protection services officer, one guess what she is looking like......

....a poster child for abused children, thanks to her delightful older sister. Any good suggestions for how I stop Ciara scratching her when they are in the pram next to each other?

out of the mouth of babes part 2

2010-04-26T21:14:00.002+02:00

"Daddy mucky puppy"

"no sweety, that's Daddy IS a mucky puppy"

"Daddy mucky puppy"

"uh uh, Daddy IS a mucky puppy"

"That's right!" (very emphatically said by Enya)

Gulp!

2010-04-23T19:40:00.002+02:00

We're finally having some decent weather so I'm going to bite the bullet this weekend and put the girls into panties and dresses!

Z is off to buy pull ups tomorrow morning (no, he doesn't know it yet;0) and we are going to get this show on the road. My gut feeling is Enya may be ready for potty training but Ciara probably isn't quite there yet, however I'm open to being positively surprised.

getting old

2010-04-21T13:11:00.002+02:00

Having always had perfect eyesight it was with great regret that I had to accept a few weeks ago my eyes were no longer up to scratch. I went to a new opthalmologist (you all know how I disliked the Eye guy, we're now all at a new practice) expecting to just get glasses for reading but instead landed up with glasses to be worn all the time. Needless to say the new glasses have a flex frame as the girls love to play with glasses so my glasses need to be hardy. I dread the day someone says either Ciara or Enya needs glasses, it was mentioned by the orthoptician the last visit we had and we have the next visit to their new opthamologist in 2 weeks so it is geting a bit acute again.

Talking of doctors, I felt like a real Munchhausen by proxy mother ordering 7 doctors referrals for the girls. In the next few weeks we have appointments for opthamologist x2, cardiologist x2 (to check on their Atrial Septal Defects), neurologist (Enya for EEG check) and Preemie clinic x2 (for their play therapy). All important and necessary appointments but considering how healthy Ciara and Enya are, it feels excessive that they need so many medical check ups!

Bilinguilism in practice

2010-04-20T08:28:00.002+02:00

As you are all probably aware Ciara and Enya are being raised bilingual. When I was pregnant I ordered a book on raising bilingual children, to be honest I still haven't read it (what can I say my pregnancy wasn't as long as it should have been!), but I think we are doing an okay job so far even without the "professional" advice.

We speak mostly english at home, although I will repeat mself in german if it is very important. If I'm not around Z will speak german with them and when we are out we also usually speak german especially if we are with friends. So far Ciara and Enya have had no problems at the various play groups making themselves understood, but then most adults understand english well enough to get the gist of what is being said. It will be interesting to see what happens in kindergarten where the child/child interaction is more predominant- if the girls then only speak german or if the other kids pick up a few words of english.

Because Z and I mix our languages up when we are speaking to each other (we often swop languages multiple times in a conversation, heck multiple times in the same sentence!) I was very concerned that the girls would also pick up that habit. There are some signs of that, "ich (I) do it" being a prime example but for the most part when the girls are with me they speak english, with a few german words interspersed (because they don't know the english words).

Then every so often I see a demonstration of their awareness that there are 2 seperate languages: Enya was telling me something about her Igel (hedgehog), I understood she was speaking about the Igel, but didn't get the word she was saying before (it sounded like she was swearing!) after the third time I asked her to repeat herself she gave me an exasperated look as if to say "you stupid woman" and said hedgehog clearly. She tried to get me to understand her by repeating herself in the other language which I found amazing!

Z and I have already agreed once the girls are well settled in their kindergarten we will move to both only speaking english with the girls at home, as we don't want them to forget their english. We will still read both english and german books to them at bedtime as well.

Farm visit

2010-04-19T14:10:00.005+02:00

Yesterday we took advantage of the best weather we've had all year and went to visit a show farm. Unfortunately there were not many animals to see, in fact apart from some goats protected by a huge glass window, we didn't actually see any animals. The day was however not a complete flop as they had a very good restuarant and a nice playground for the kids too.

I honestly believe kids should come with an off button, for those moments when as a parent you just can't keep up with your everready bunnies anymore...

The girls had a great day, especially considering the fact they didn't have a midday nap. They also slept fantastically last night after their go go go day, for which I am very grateful!
Trampolining was a big hit with Enya she just couldn't get enough. We couldn't get Ciara to even put her hands on the trampoline, even we were right there with our hands next to hers! It's okay though, by the same token Ciara loves swinging and Enya...loathes it with a passion

Ciara preferred climbing on the logs, I don't call my girls monkeys for no reason.

And Enya enjoyed using the straw bales as an obstacle course...

With so much hard "work" being performed, everyone deserves a drinks break...

All in all a fantastic spring day!

Daddy work

2010-04-15T13:49:00.003+02:00

When Z comes into the kitchen in the mornings to put on his shoes, both girls start yelling daddy work daddy work.

This morning however we had a variation on this theme... Enya started yelling daddy airport. Do you think we may have been overdoing the airport visits just recently and it's not over yet. Z is off to the US again in a couple of weeks and my little sister is coming the week after for a quick visit. We will once again being doing the airport runs, now if only I can find a good spot to watch the planes taking off and landing, for some reason the Frankfurt and Cologne Airports don't seem to have viewing terraces (we do actually enjoy going to the airport!) . The girls are fascinated by all vehicles and I'd love to see (and photograph) their faces while they watch planes taking off and landing.

PS While Z is in the states I will for the first time have the girls all to myself for more than a long weekend, I really hope we all survive!

PPS I have already got my orders in what I want from the US, 2 more pairs of the super comfortable Levi jeans I bought last year when I was in Houston. They cost 3 times as much here in Europe!

picture day

2010-04-13T19:21:00.003+02:00

Not much to say so enjoy the photos instead.
Ciara

Enya

400th Post and other stuff

2010-04-12T13:10:00.002+02:00

Go me! I can't believe I've had so much to say.

While my mother was visiting, we started playing around with potty training and Enya began to show a real interest in it. Now don't get me wrong, we aren't talking miracles, we were just happy that she was wanting to sit on the potty for longer than the 5 sec we'd been managing up to then. However this morning we had a minor breakthrough- after Ciara had sat on the potty, Enya asked to sit on it too, so after duly stripping her off, onto the potty she went and then she PEED. She asked to go on the potty and then performed! Last night she peed on the potty as well but that was just lucky timing- we were getting them ready for bed and sat her on the potty before putting on a fresh nappy. This has really raised my hopes that we WILL get both girls potty trained before they start kindergarten in August. Ciara has also accidently gone once on the potty, unfortunately though she remains quite uninterested in the whole potty thing.

Now I just need the weather to warm up a bit so I can start putting the girls into dresses or shorts and make the getting to the loo in a rush a whole lot easier!

What we've been up to

2010-04-10T22:09:00.004+02:00

I've really enjoyed having my mom here this week. We didn't pack the days too full but at the same time everyday there was something happening, the girls got to spend lots of time outside as we finally had a stretch of decent weather
Picnic in the garden

We also had friends over for tea, the girls love playing with other kids and older kids always have such fun ideas....
like emptying every toy the girls own out on to the floor

putting stockings on their heads

stripping off (I'm told they were stripping off to go for a swim)

And climbing up the furniture

Unfortunately all good things do come to an end and we took my mom back to the airport today. After a really rough night (Ciara and Enya are both waking up multiple times during the night and while they don't need much soothing before they go back to sleep, they also don't stop crying until we come into their room and at least lay our hands briefly on their backs) which has left me (and my mom) exhausted I didn't feel like cooking dinner tonight. Instead I ordered in pizza and this is all the girls left of a 12 inch pizza. They've lost their appetites and found a donkeys! Finally!!

necklaces

2010-04-07T22:31:00.004+02:00

Enya with her beads in a bowl

Ciara with her granny

We love playing with these beads and laces right now. The girls get more jewellery to wear (what can I say, an ongoing fascination) and they get to work on their fine coordination making them at the same time.

obligatory spring zoo visit

2010-04-06T23:35:00.006+02:00

We made use of the wonderful weather today and finally got to the zoo. Spring is not complete without a visit to the zoo! The first request was to visit the elephants (which are on the opposite side of the zoo to the entrance!)

adopting the animal (elephant) spotting pose

Enya, elephant spotting at the outside enclosure

Playing RIGHT NEXT to the bad tempered rhino

Hitting the various zoo playgrounds

what can I say, slides are popular right now and jungle gyms even more so...you just won't see any photos of the terrible two on jungle gyms as I'm hopping around trying to keep them from breaking their darling little necks!

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T23:00:00.004+02:00

Easter morning at the breakfast table

Yes Enya is still getting a bottle-otherwise we'd be lucky if she drank 100ml in a day.

The great easter bunny hunt

Hope you all have (had) a wonderful Easter, we certainly made the most of ours. We had a lovely morning, first a easter bunny hunt and then playing outside enjoying the fresh air. This afternoon we spent playing inside as it was pouring with rain. Great fun was had by all, making bead necklaces and playing with lego and cars. Ciara and Enya are loving having their granny here!

This evening I finally finished lining the curtains for Ciara and Enya's room. They've started waking up when the first hint of dawn strikes their room, so I'm hoping by blocking all light I won't land up getting up earlier and earlier as we approach the summer solstice!

Now I've just got to finish their summer dresses and make some new bibs and start the last duvet cover and .......... the list goes on and on!

Watcha think?

2010-04-03T13:36:00.003+02:00

They've been early for everything else, is it too soon for them to start driving?
Enya

Ciara

(before anyone starts to panic: the keys were not in the ignition, the handbrake was on and the car was in gear. My mother and I were also standing next to the car- they weren't going anywhere!!)

Afternoon fun

2010-04-02T21:49:00.003+02:00

Having survived the longest walk ever this morning, the weather was still nice so after Ciara and Enya (and mommy's) nap we enjoyed a romp in the garden.

You gotta love a little bit of good clean dirt (sawdust in this case) as my mother said!

Good Friday fun

2010-04-02T21:27:00.003+02:00

We took advantage of the unexpectedly pleasant day and got outside to air our cobwebby brains. The girls are decidedly uncooperative when it comes to going for a walk. It took us 2 hours to walk what used to take me 10 minutes when I was on my way to work.

On the positive side though we got to.....

Gawk at the chickens

inspect the ground for creepy crawlies

play in the dirt

learn how to hide our tracks

discover a new lake in the neighbourhood

I don't believe it..

2010-04-01T15:16:00.001+02:00

it's SNOWING again! Come on, on Monday we had 18 degrees C and now it's snowing. I am so over winter!!

Airports

2010-03-31T13:27:00.003+02:00

Dropped Z off at the airport this morning, he's off to his beloved Scottish highlands for a bit of a mountain fix. Poor darling hasn't climbed any mountains for over a year and was starting to get very jittery!

While he is off hopefully destressing and rejuvernating (is that even a word?), my mother is here from England to help with the terrible two. The girls and I picked her up from Cologne Airport last night and had an enjoyable run around the airport while we were at it. Apart from the fact that all dogs in the terminal had to flee from the terrible two, Ciara and Enya were surprisingly good. We didn't even have the obligatory rolling around on the floor screaming temper tantrum which has become expected when we venture into public places just recently.

In her luggage my mother brought a very important book which will hopefully give me some guidance on how better to handle Ciara. Right now we are fighting a battle of wills with her and I'm very afraid at present she is winning. Everything we do or say, she tests/pushes the boundaries and it is wearing me down. I don't want to be one of those parents who always is threatening or yelling but right now I feel that is exactly what I am. I'll read the book and then post more on this topic.

What is going on?

2010-03-29T13:23:00.003+02:00

I've mentioned in the past that I'm very rarely sick, however since February (the Kur) every week has been something different. Last week it was a sore neck, as in pill popping so that I could function sore neck. It's finally on the mend but it's left an impression on Ciara and Enya. Both girls watch me and if they see me rubbing my neck or wearing the warm pad, they'll say "sore neck, kiss sore neck" and then of course I have to lift them up or bend down so I can get a soft gentle kiss on my neck. It is the sweetest thing out and I love it. They can be so gentle and caring some of the time, when they not hitting; scratching or biting one another!

Ciara and Enya have also learnt to fill in words in songs, our latest (to give you some idea of our weather at present) is:
it's raining it's pouring,
the old man is snoring,
he went to bed,
and bumped his head,
and couldn't get up in the morning
I sing it and they fill in the last word in the line. Both girls also sing to themselves when they are playing, although that is more like humming, without any words. They also try and sing the songs they've learnt in play group but as they only know two or three of the words, it's guess work what they are trying to sing. In fact I usually guess the song by the actions they are trying to do rather than the words.

Sshhh

2010-03-28T21:37:00.002+02:00

I took this after play therapy on Friday. Little Enya was so tired she couldn't even finish the biscuit and believe me this child loves her biscuits!

Photo time again!

2010-03-23T11:58:00.003+01:00

Photos taken this morning while waiting for the roller blind repairman to arrive- the second roller this year (the third in a year) broke and has been replaced. Only another 6 to go!
PS Not such good photos of Enya as she was very camera shy this morning

Sisterly love

2010-03-22T20:07:00.003+01:00

As well as the usual sisterly abuse that abounds in our house (isn't sad when the most common words out of Enya's mouth are "naughty sister hit you"- both girls use "you" when they mean themselves) there have been some flashes of sisterly love too.

Today Enya choked on a piece of fruit bar and I landed up laying her over my legs and whacking her on the back to get it out, I asked her if she wanted something to drink. Ciara standing nearby and watching all the action turned around and went to the kitchen and fetched a cup from the table and brought it back to her sister and gave it to her. After Enya had had a swallow, she gave the cup back to Ciara who then took it and put it back on the table, with the comment "cup on table". This interaction was so sweet (and unfortunately so unlike most of the recent interactions between them).

Both girls are also fascinated by tissues since they had that nasty cold last month, if they see a pack of tissues lying around they empty it and then wipe their noses on each tissue one by one before throwing them in the bin (ok throwing them on the floor- I can dream can't I). Today for the first time I saw Ciara wiping Enya's nose, complete with supporting the back of Enya's head to make sure Enya stayed still. Thank goodness Enya thought this was a big joke the 3 times Ciara did it, but methinks we're going to have to start hiding the tissues again!

No photos today as I'm only slowly getting back on my feet after my darling daughters shared their bug with me. A truly nasty tummy bug and having experienced it myself I'm surprised how well both girls handeled it.

Oy vey!

2010-03-19T21:00:00.003+01:00

Things got a little suspicious when Ciara asked to cuddle repeatedly this afternoon after we'd been to the carwash. She even came and lay on me when I went to sit (okay lie) on the sofa. However she didn't have a temperature and had eaten the same as Enya had all day so I wasn't worried. Things got a little more interesting when she got a wicked case of hiccoughs, but she still was smiling so I wasn't too worried.

Then she started puking.....projectile vomiting and retching so hard my stomach muscles were aching in sympathy. Poor baby cleaned her system out and then just wanted her bed. I'll probably have mattress duty again tonight!

I really had hoped all the sick bugs had left the house, we need a couple of healthy weeks now!!

Brrrrrmmmm brrrmm!

2010-03-19T13:55:00.004+01:00

We really enjoyed the first warm sunny day this spring. After play group yesterday morning (did you recognise the girls' version of the word "playgroup" -it was the title of yesterday's post ;0)) and a lovely long midday nap, we spent yesterday afternoon outside in the garden and riding bobby cars on the patio.

It is such a pity that today we're back to cold, gray and wet again!

Grayploop!

2010-03-18T13:44:00.004+01:00

Today we had our first playgroup session at the local Mother Centre (Mutterzentrum). It is childcare offered once a week for 3 hours run surprisingly not by a professional childminder but by another mom (we had a lovely chat before I entrusted my darlings to her) and her 2 helpers for 7 children. All the children were around the same age which is a huge bonus.

The girls had a ball playing with the other children and didn't miss me at all, I'll take that as a sign that my girls are secure enough in themselves and trust that I will always come back to them. They were happy enough to see me when I came to pick them up but also looked like they had had a fun morning.

I enjoyed the free time and had a wander around the shops (finally a chance to do some shopping with out the accompaniment of whinging). Next week though I'm taking a book and going to have a nice long read in my favourite coffee shop! I'm also planning to leave them there longer, as this week because it was the first time and I wanted to get a feel for the place and people, I only had an hour and half free.

Needless to say Ciara and Enya crashed as soon as we got home and I think, today, it might just be an extra long nap ;0)

Spring is in the air.....lalala (finally!!)

2010-03-17T19:06:00.003+01:00

We've finally had a touch of spring, on Friday the temperature is even supposed to reach 17 C.

I can't wait until the thick winter coats and stockings are no longer necessary. I have high hopes for this summer so it just better be a warm one! In the meantime the preparations for easter have begun!

Will I ever learn?

2010-03-13T19:17:00.002+01:00

We've had to start Ciara on the eyedrops! Thankfully the infection has barely started so it won't turn as gunky as Enya's but I really thought Ciara had managed to escape this one.

We had this problem in the NICU as well, if we commented that something was going well, it would come back and bite us in the butt!

Lesson now will be learnt. Keep my mouth shut!

So far so good

2010-03-12T13:00:00.003+01:00

I wish I had lots of new stuff to write about but we have been in hiding pretty much the last week as we don't want to spread our germs around (what can I say we're selfish that way).

Thankfully it looks like our sick period coming to an end and so long as Ciara doesn't develop the eye infection (which is looking increasingly unlikely) we will have a jam packed week, next week.

I did get an evening out last night (thanks Z, cabin fever was biting deep!) and have started summer preparations- Ciara now has a summer hat and some capri leggings. I even got to go to the movies, I watched Agora which I thought was brilliant- I love historical films. I just wish I had had a chance to watch Avatar
on the big screen as everyone has been raving about it.