I love you, Du-das!

Lukas loves Alex. Sometimes he doesn't even like to get up in the mornings if Alex hasn't hugged him yet.

And the affection seems to be contageous. Everything that Lukas does Alex absolutely MUST do, and when we pick his big brother up from school (after a mere four hours), Alex smothers him with wet kisses and super sweet hugs. It looks as if they've been apart for weeks.

In huge news, Lukas experienced his first (pop) kiss! How do I know this? Because I walked in on him kissing his little Belgian / Korean friend Julie on Tuesday. When we talked about it afterwards (how could we NOT?), I discovered that it also happened while Julie was at our place for a visit a few weeks back.

Now, I knew that this day would come, but I thought it was a few years down the line! According to Lukas, Julie "always wants to do what she wants to do [kiss], and never what he wants to do what he wants to do [play]". Now most of Lukas' good friends are girls and he has never shown any physical affection towards them, so I kind of suspect that he wasn't the one who initiated it... yet at the end of the day I guess it doesn't really matter who made the first move. But how do four-year-olds know to go into a separate room and close the door??? That's what I struggle with.

Meanwhile, little Alex is growing up faster than I can snap photos. This week he walked all the way around our (large) block with Felix and I. He's quite the little athlete! When a couple jogged by us during our walk Alex took off running, saying one of his new favorite phrases, "fast, fast!". Alexander speaks (or at least comprehends) two languages fairly fluently now, "Flugzeug!", "aufpassen", "gefährlich!", etc. Best of all, he's finally saying "Lukas", although it sounds more like "Du-das". Alex is also our little destroyer, and has now stuffed change into our car CD player, dropped a cordless phone in the bathtub (while Lukas was in it!), smeared my mascara on our South African Nguni hide carpet, threw the dog's €10 food bowl on our tiled foyer floor -- of course smashing it beyond recognition, and that's just within the past week.

Most people say that the second child tends to take more risks, and ours gets hurt - really hurt - about once a week. Last week Alex fell on the sidewalk and got a bloody lip. Today he closed the child gate improperly and went flying down a half dozen tile stairs. It seems to have just startled him, but I think I nearly went into cardiac arrest. And yet I should be used to this by now with Alexander. For him they created the saying, "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger."

If you want to see something adorable, watch both boys as they sing their new favorite song, the Celebration Mix of Keenan's "Wavin' Flag" in full World Cup form. ´Which reminds me, Lukas recently insisted while we were at the mall that we find him a "Deutschland" jersey. So cute!

Well, the kids will be getting up in a few hours, so I had better get to bed. Take care and thanks for stopping in!

~Liz

Boys, Boys, Boys

Our boys. They're growing up too darn fast. And for the past couple months of their young lives, our family life has been somewhat strained, since Tobi has had to spend the last couple months in Dubai. While we all miss him, we see him every few weeks and talk to him daily.






Alex, now quite the talker, said it all a couple days ago when he pointed to Tobi's shoes and proclaimed, "Papa shoes? Empty." Yes, Papa's shoes are empty, but we hope they won't be for long! It looks like Tobi might have a permanent position lined up for Erlangen, which means we will be one big, happy family again!

With Papa being gone, I try to distract the kids as much as possible and make sure they're having fun (read more about my sneaky tactics here). Today we went to the Nuremberg Zoo, tomorrow we'll go on a little hike and head to Oma and Opa's for lunch, and next weekend we'll spend in Zeeland (if all goes as planned).

Let's see, what else can I tell you? Erlangen's annual beer festival just ended, and the boys seem to have it in their blood ("Papa, can we go to the Beer Festival today?"). You can read my blog posting about the Erlangen Bergkirchweih here.


And what about me? Well, I'm doing my best to "hold down the fort". In some ways, caring for the kids on my own has come easier than I expected and has helped me to grow as a mother, but man am I tired by the time I get both boys in bed. In addition to parenting I'm trying to find some time for my writing, which - needless to say - has not been easy. I'm patient though.

A big milestone for Alex has been school. His first school (or "Kindergarten") picture was taken a couple weeks ago (which I think you'll agree is very cute!), but we've decided to keep him out of the Kindergarten (or "Krabbelgroupe" / pre-school) until the Fall. The Mama-boy that he is, he cried every time we dropped him off and we gave it eight tries. And, since he's not even two yet, we're okay just waiting a few more months before attempting it again.

On the home front, our garden is coming along nicely, and the boys love their new trampoline. Also noteworthy: Lukas likes to take care of "business" (small AND big) in the garden, which is somewhat of an uphill battle (oh the joys of having boys!), Alex finds new way to harass our poor dog every day, Lukas and I are busy planning his first lemonade stand.

Him: Mama, I want to make a lemonade stand.

Me: But you need a cause, honey. Something that will make the people want to buy your lemonade.

Him: Okay, then I'll use it to help all those whales stuck in the oil in America.

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Of course we're all fighting colds (and Alex is on antibiotics again for ear infections - sigh). No big surprises there, but we are looking forward to a nice healthy summer.

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And how cute is this? The boys' new favorite song is the tune from the FIFA World Cup, "Waving a Flag" by K'naan (click here for see the video on youtube). "Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, Oh-oooooh, Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!" It certainly is fun to hear them both singing the melody, and the upcoming World Cup is definitely putting soccer on the radar for little Lukas.

In a couple weeks we'll head back to Dubai for what I hope will be our last trip over there this year. If all goes well, any future visits will be for vacation only, and not to visit Papa! Though it will be unimaginably hot, we'll try to enjoy the beaches, pools, and malls for a couple more weeks, potentially taking a side trip to Oman before we return. (It sure would be nice to see more of the Middle East than just the UAE!) We'll just have to see how that trip unfolds...

Well, I had better hit the sack. Thanks for following our family's ongoing adventures, and please write in with yours, however "near" or "far"!
~Liz