Lukas First Time in Snow 2009

We don't often get a lot of snow in the city of Geneva (compared to Colorado), so whenever it does stick to the ground a bit, it's a real treat. It was snowing when we woke up this morning and this is the first time that Lukas is actually aware of what snow is. He sat by the window for a good 5 minutes just watching it fall from the sky! After our Gymboree class today, he wanted to go outside and play in it of course. So, I bundled him up in all of his snow gear (see photo below) and went outside with him for a little while. He loved it!

Dressed in his snow gear

Swinging on the "big boy" swing

Scooping up the snow on the sandbox cover and throwing it up in the air--apparently a very thrilling activity!

Once or twice, as was bound to happen, some of the snow landed directly in his face. Lukas seemed surprised by the cold, wet feeling of it, but never whined or cried. Instead, he immediately proceeded to pick up more snow and throw it up again while trying to keep his face somewhat covered up in his jacket.

My little snowman!

32+ weeks

P&G Children's Christmas Party

We took Lukas to the P&G children's Christmas party today and he had a blast! There were bouncy castles, an electric train, magic shows, tumbling areas and people making balloon animals as well as crepes, popcorn, cotton candy and plenty of other snacks to eat. Lukas' favorite activity was the train ride.

Lukas was scared to sit on Santa's lap so Santa stood to take a photo with him. Lukas still cried a bit even then. It was so funny because he seemed really excited to meet Santa and sit on his lap right up until it was actually his turn!

Lukas rode on this children's train and loved it. He waited (very patiently actually!) to ride in the engine of the train. Once his turn was over, he wanted to get right back on, but the crowds were enormous and waiting to ride again would have taken forever so we distracted him with going to see the magic show.

The Engineer

Pressing all the buttons on the train to see if they did anything (they didn't seem to), but it was worth a try!

Lukas playing with his balloon elephant (his request) during the magic show. The show was in French and mainly aimed toward teaching much older children how to do some magic tricks. So after watching the magician for 5 minutes or so, this was a good alternative activity. :-)

At the end of the party, each of the children are given a wrapped Christmas gift. Lukas was thrilled to get his "schenk" (his version of Geschenk--the German word for present) and immediately started saying "show Oma Opa". The present made it to the car before being opened on the way home. Lukas played with it some this evening and did, in fact, show it (a wooden shoe to practice lacing) to his German grandparents on Skype this evening. All in all, it was a great afternoon.

Lukas 26 months old

Lukas is talking and singing more and more these days and it's such fun to hear what and how he says things. His Opa recently celebrated a birthday, as well as a few of Lukas' friends, so he has learned the "Happy Birthday" song. He has the tune down well and walks around singing it to different people all the time--obviously the idea of a birthday being only one day a year hasn't sunk in yet. :-) The extra cute thing is he sings it, for instance, "Happy birf-day IS Mama". No matter how many times I try to point out that we sing the song "to" someone, he prefers to say "is".

He's beginning to understand more and more that we're expecting another baby. He has asked me daily (usually in the morning when I first get up) for the last week or so when the baby is coming out: "Baby sista out?" he asks. When I respond by saying that she needs to grow some more before being born, he repeats the growing part and then makes sure to let me know that he's excited about her arrival by telling me what he thinks he will do with her when she arrives: "Play, tractor, dump truck? Fun!", he says. I think he believes he's getting another playmate his own age who will share his interest in construction vehicles. My explanations about the baby being very little as well as sleeping and eating a lot don't seem to be making much of a difference in his expectations.

Look at that smile!

Lukas is using our Parmesan cheese grater as a digger to pick up the blocks.

Lukas insisted on putting is favorite construction vehicle pajamas on his bear. I guess he figured if he couldn't wear them at the time, then somebody else should!

28+ Weeks

A Few Recent Photos of Lukas

Lukas dressed as a dog (Bow-wow) as he calls it for a costume party we recently attended

Lukas posing to show the tail on the costume

Lukas riding a digger/tractor at a special fun park we went to recently with some friends

Lukas became really efficient at attaching other vehicles to one another. One of his favorite things to do at home at the moment is pull things with his miniature tractors and dump trucks.

Lukas and his friend, Gabriel, were taking turns pulling each other with the cars

We got to ride these electric bumper cars with a special token we received. Lukas loved it except for when his sock somehow came off and was ran over by another car!

24 weeks

21 weeks

Baby Number 2 is a girl!

I just got back from my 20 week appointment and our doctor confirmed that he believes our second child to be a little girl! The doctor looked at all the organs, limbs and bones from head-to-toe and everything seems to be growing and developing well, for which we are truly thankful.

Lukas Can Count!

Lukas surprised his parents tonight at dinner when he began counting the pieces of food on his plate. He counted to 10 in English and then repeated the feat in German. We didn't even know he knew all those numbers!

Lukas' First Day of Pre-school

Lukas went to pre-school today! In Switzerland, they have children starting pre-school as early as two years old and since we have another baby on the way, we thought it might be a good time for Lukas to begin making friends and having some time on his own away from Mommy. We've found an English-speaking pre-school here in Geneva. Lukas and I took a tour of it a few weeks ago and were both impressed--Lukas' eyes popped when he saw all the toys and I was impressed by the balance between play and focused learning. Each month has a new theme and they try to develop rudimentary math, language, and social skills under that theme. This month they're learning the names and sounds of farm animals, to identify and say the names of the letters A and B, the color red, and rectangular shapes. Lukas will go to school three mornings a week for three hours each time and his first day was today!

I was really emotional about dropping him off today, but I kept the tears inside and tried to show my excitement for Lukas. I just kept thinking, "I can't believe I'm leaving my little guy all by himself at school this morning!" We prayed together and then I drove him to school. As soon as Lukas saw the building, he seemed to remember our visit a few weeks ago because he started yelling the words "play" and "fun". He was so excited to enter the classroom and he went immediately over to some of the toys and began playing. When it was time for me to leave, I kissed him, told him I loved him and that I would pick him up in a little bit. He barely looked up to return my kiss with "fish-lips" and enthusiastically shouted "Bye"!

He was sitting calmly and quietly among the other children when I went to pick him up later. The teachers told me he had had a great day and that he cried for a few minutes at one point, but was easily comforted and settled. I sure hope tomorrow will be another great day.

Here's Lukas with his freshly cut hair and backpack on before we left the house. My little guy is really growing up!

Lukas' Second Birthday

We spent a week in Wachenheim, Germany with Olli's family in order to celebrate Lukas' second birthday. We all had a wonderful time--especially Lukas! I'll need to put a few more photos on our blog later when we get them from our other family members because they will document our time at an animal theme-park as well as several outings to playgrounds nearby, but here are a few highlights of our time together from our camera nonetheless.

Lukas is eating a leisurely breakfast just before opening his presents. Notice the two candle holders. Olli's mom bought ten of them for Lukas beginning last year and the idea is to add one "bug/animal" candle holder to the "train" until his 10th birthday.

After breakfast and opening gifts we went to a Street Festival in the town where Olli's brother-in-law is the pastor of a church. Inside the church, we enjoyed Weisswürste (white sausages), Bretzeln (soft pretzels), and Apfelschorle (apple juice with carbonated water) for lunch while listening to a brass band. Lukas especially liked the band and would clap along to the music. Some of the members of the band kept looking over at him and smiling.

That afternoon, we had yummy chocolate and banana muffins that my sister-in-law made and Lukas attempted to blow out the two red candles. His breath wasn't strong enough so I had to help him, but that didn't keep him from later trying to blow them out again and again after we re-lit them! (see the photo below)

You must admit, it's also pretty difficult to blow out candles from such a distance! :-)

Here's Lukas holding hands with his cousin Sophia in the back of our car. Sophia and Lukas were both enamored with each other. They played really well together (with a few "toddler moment" exceptions) and would continually call out each other's name as a page if one of them was not within sight of the other. Sophia pronounces Lukas' name perfectly (Lukas still refers to himself as "Lu-ta" or "Me"), but they both call Sophia "Phia". They even learned how to go to sleep in the same room at night (after some song-singing, babbling and giggling).

Lukas and Sophia playing with some of Lukas' cars at a restaurant where we had dinner a couple of times.

Sophia and Lukas were queen and king of "copycat" games. One would say something or do something and the other one would follow suit almost immediately. Here they are copying each other in leaning back in their highchairs at the dinner table in the restaurant. Since they were occupied and relatively quiet we didn't dare protest against such behavior! :-)

Sneaky Lukas

A little over a week ago, Lukas was outside on the balcony playing with his toys while I was inside. After a few minutes, I realized that it was a little "too quiet" outside--all you moms will know exactly what I mean--so I peeked over to check on him. He had found a nearly empty, but unwashed, Nutella jar in our recycling bin that his dad had put there that morning after breakfast. I'm sure you can all guess what he was doing! The following photos give a little pictorial demonstration. :-)

Yum! The taste of chocolate and hazelnut, what's not to like?!

Budapest

Our Hungarian friends Anett and Balazs took us on an extended weekend trip to Budapest. It is a really beautiful city and we had a great time. We also spent some time south of the city meeting with each of our friends' families, which was very nice. It allowed us to do a few things "off the beaten trail" and that was a real bonus.

Our first morning out on the town. Here are Anett and Balazs and their son, Dominik.

This was Lukas' favorite way to travel in the city although you wouldn't be able to tell it just from his expression here. :-)

The Parliament

A view of Pest from the Citadel on the Buda side (For those of you who don't know, Budapest is a unification of two former cities: Buda and Pest that are separated by the Danube River.)

"The girls" hanging out on the Citadel

The Höltje Family on the top of the Citadel

I think Lukas thought this concrete slab was a slide since he spent much time scooting himself down it, walking back up and scooting down again. At least he was entertaining himself!

Isn't he sweet?

Lukas putting together a wooden puzzle of a parrot while waiting for us to finish eating our lunch.

A mischevious look for sure!

Parts of what is called the Fisherman's Bastion

The Parliament building as seen from the Fisherman's Bastion

More of the Fisherman's Bastion exterior wall

Parliament building from the Buda Castle

Lukas and his friend Dominik taking a bath together at Anett's parents' house.

For the past few months, Lukas has been obsessed with tractors. Balazs' parents own a farm so Lukas got to live his dream and ride one!

Here he is while the tractor is stationary...

...and here he is with the tractor in motion. He was yelling "Traktor - los!" the entire time, which is German for "Tractor go!".

We visited an outdoor Hungarian museum of sorts on our last day. It was supposed to show life in Hungary several hundred years ago. Olli was chosen from the crowd to participate in one of the exhibits. This man was pretending to shoot an arrow at him/his target. Since Olli doesn't speak any Hungarian, he really wasn't sure if the guy was joking or not and whether he was giving instructions like "On the count of three, duck!" etc. Thankfully, the man didn't take a shot.

Olli then had a turn to shoot a target with an arrow and he managed to hit it while several of the other men did not. Way to go, Babe!