the itsy bitsy spider

Speaking of colors... you might recall that Charlotte

a) is a tomboy (most of the time) and
b) her favorite color is "BROWN"

At a birthday party back in April, a friend had a balloon lady who was happily twisting balloon animals for the kids. When it was Charlotte's turn to request one, she exclaimed "I want a spider, a BROWN spider!" ... The lady, shocked, tried to confirm "Are you sure, honey, that you don't want a butterfly or something, maybe in purple?"

Charlotte was sure:

schwarz, rot, gold!

7:1 - wow. 

That could make July 8 almost a national holiday for Germany... 

Prost! ;-)

red, white & blue

As for her birthday, Charlotte is excited about all kinds of celebrations now and knew there will be a street parade (!!!) and fireworks for 4th of July.

So we had a fun-filled, colorful day of waving flags, collecting beads (we counted 10 in Charlotte's final loot), splashing at the water park, bbq-ing & playing with friends, hitting a Pinata, and watching the spectacular display of DC fireworks.

Daddy thought the bomb squad truck was definitely the coolest during the parade (only in the nation's capital...) while Penny was happy that she got just a simple, ordinary hair cut this summer. Mama's best present of the day was Germany's soccer team win in the World Cup quarter finals. Despite great anticipation, Charlotte fell asleep and did not appreciate the VIP view we had from Daddy's office when she woke up to "louuuuud" fireworks! Noah, on the other hand, loved the colorful spectacle so much that he decided to stay up a bit.

For sure, we all had a lot to dream about that night.

Happy birthday America!

dog days of summer

Penny never has any issues lying still... ;-) 

Lounging in a shady spot felt especially good last week 

when temperatures in DC, after a mild spring and summer, 

hit close to a 100 degrees!

monkey on the bars

While climbing the monkey bars, Charlotte made sure to explain to her friend that she's "the sister of baby Noah." As she views herself as the protector of her little brother, it's nice to see that she identifies herself in relation to him (as opposed to identifying him in relation to her).

The video, above, is her third time descending the monkey bars. Her technique improved considerably in the process. Below is her first time down. It was spontaneous and she didn't know I was around.

still life

It's always difficult to have Charlotte keep still for a second
(although she has the rare toddler moments where she loves to model for a photo)... but now that Noah is on the move too,
moments like this are almost impossible to capture!

big girl

Although Charlotte wanted to be four (her favorite number) for the longest time before her third birthday, she's been loving to be three - often exclaiming "I can do this... I'm a big girl now, I am 3!!!"

And big girls know what they want: For her third birthday, Charlotte requested a "chocolate-vanilla cake that is brown and pink!"
... Mama complied:

 

With the assistance of a cute little helper: 

This year, Charlotte was for the first time really excited about her birthday - talking about it in advance, always asking when her birthday would be coming up when celebrating others'. She couldn't wait for birthday morning to come, so that she could head downstairs and sing, blow out candles and open presents.

 

Being a little brother is also great when big sister celebrates: you get to eat birthday muffins way before you have your own birthday!

Penny actually did turn four and celebrated with birthday muffins too,
of course ;-) 

 The friends at Kindergarten couldn't wait either to celebrate - and dig into that cake!

big boy

Noah is ten months already!

... and has become more boy than baby in the last month: Like Charlotte, he made some big leaps around the eight/nine months mark -- after he had figured out sitting and standing up by himself, he was fast onto crawling less than two weeks later. And now, there's no stopping him anymore. He was actually a little earlier and faster than big sister: after only a brief period of army crawling, Noah has discovered that all-fours is speedier. After all, he has to keep up with his busy bee role model ;-) Also, sitting is so yesterday. Noah loves to pull up and stand everywhere -- and again, proved to be a bit more daring: already letting go with his hands here and there to test how it feels to truly stand all by himself! 

He loves to explore (i.e., get into everything) and is fascinated by Charlotte and Penny. They are just too funny and cuddly.

Like big sister, he also cut his first teeth in month 9. He's already sporting three now.

And before we forget: he's become so interactive and a social butterfly in the past months! At 7 months he started pointing and babbling a lot, with "Da!" and "Mamamama" as his favorite words. At 8 months, he turned into a total flirt, waving hello and giving big loving open-mouth kisses to everyone in reach ;-)

Oh, sweet sweet Noey - you make us happy!

Look! A tail!!

song for Daddy

Charlotte sang a song for Daddy for Fathers' Day. She also sang renditions for Mama too.

(Feel free to ignore her caveman-style dining.)

D is for daddy!

 

Dear Daddy,

THANK YOU - for all you do and are. For taking care of us, showing us the world, making us giggle, taking us on long walks, and yes... also for telling us what to do. 

♬ ♬ ♬  

"Your are our sunshine, our only sunshine... you make us haaaaaaaaappy [picture Charlotte belching out a tune, very loudly] when skies are gray... you never know dear how much we love you, please don't take our sunshine away." 

♬ ♬ ♬

With Big hugs (that are just a little too tight ;-), 

happy crawls towards you, 

and a warm furry belly on your feet.

ladies man

I'll be blunt: Charlotte is getting hard to put down. We've tried everything. Putting her to sleep when it's dark. Putting her to sleep when it's light. Reading. Not reading. Tranquilizers. Running. Painting. Playgrounding. Ju-jitsu pressure points. Crying it out. Laughing it out. And many more.

The kid simply doesn't like to sleep. If there's anything even remotely interesting nearby, she wants in on the action. And if nothing is around, she'll just talk. And talk. And talk. Loud snoring noises can't even derail the runaway train.

Recently, I've been trying new techniques. Letting her fall asleep on the floor, beside me, helped one night. She was out only shortly after darkness encompassed the room. But, alas, like all things: it wasn't meant to last, and we're stuck looking for new tricks.

Of course, that falling asleep on the floor doesn't work for Charlotte matters not to Penny. She seizes the opportunity to cuddle "on her level." Last night, Penny pinned my legs down while Charlotte peppered me with kicks to the neck and head [not pictured]. For a while, Charlotte's feet were on my head and Penny's head was on my feet. Good times.

simply penny

 

Now this is spot on! And true to heart... Penny simply loves her babies. And Noah enjoys doggie kisses too ;-)

simply noah

Alright, this one is more accurate: Noah is (so far...) definitely a lot more mellow than Charlotte, but equally happy. He is all smiles most of the time - and, especially at this age, quite a flirt.

Noah also shares a character trait with his sister (which apparently runs in the family...): The other day, a lady was taking a few pictures during his baby gym class. All his friends were rather oblivious to the photo shoot... while Noah, on the other hand, kept on turning around to wherever the lady was clicking and did not stop smiling for the camera.

So that she proclaimed "He's such a ham!"

It seems we can look forward to Noah & Charlotte putting on many shows in the years to come ;-)

simply charlotte

For those of you that know Charlotte, we have to be honest:
This does not depict 'simply' Charlotte - you are right!

Our little busy bee & tomboy doesn't usually sit still like this, and doesn't often look this prim and proper...

Just one of Mama's favorite au courant shots ;-)

up, up, up

Noah had a lot to celebrate this past week too.

All of his tummy time, rolling, turning, twisting and rocking on all fours, together with countless push-ups, push backs & planks, has finally paid off:

Sunday ten days ago, right before Charlotte's birthday, our little man figured out how to sit up himself -- he's proudly been practicing all week long, and LOVES his new-found mobility and perspective.

It's so fun to sit up whenever you want, especially to inspect the content of boxes ;-) *

Having gotten a taste of the upright view point, Noah didn't want to stop there and has been on a milestone fast track:

He's loved grabbing hands and fingers to pull up on for many months now, but this past Friday -- right in time for Mother's Day [to remind Mama she needs to stay on her toes...] -- Noah was excited to pull up in the crib all by himself, instead of taking his afternoon nap ;-) **

Next up: crawling! 

Watch out Mama...

*     After a few face plants, Noah also figured out quickly how to smoothly get back down
         on all fours ;-)
**   Needless to say, the mattress was moved down a level that night!

every day is like today

Thanks to these little guys!

Yes -- that also means I am tiiiiired, the house is often a mess, there's lots of yucky laundry, me-time has become rare, and they can quite loudly voice their own *little* opinions...

...but somehow their giggles are the cutest, their skin is the softest, their hugs & kisses the sweetest.

Happily, I wouldn't want to miss any of it for the world.

(Well, most of the time ;-) *

* For my Mother's Day gift, I was really hoping for a spa getaway in Thailand - sans kids... 

but pancake brunch on the patio and hanging out in the yard with the critters 
were a close second, of course!

1, 2,... 3!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLOTTE

In the past three years, you have turned into such a fun little person. Please don't grow up too quickly!