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?!