a touch of modelling

Ellie did a little modelling for a friend's, fantastic, children's clothing brand: www.boodabrand.com. Once we stuffed the little cutie with food and warm milk, she was a natural...she was naturally to full to move - fab. for still shots! Oh come on, every photographer has their tricks, mine just involve gluttony. So she'll have a little more pudge is those already pinchable cheeks.

Kaya on the other hand was too busy falling in love to partake in the shoot!

Ellie goes to day care

Ellie had her first 2 days at day care this week. Well, they do things a little differently here, lets call it the gentle approach (aka the cloakroom sit). So you bring your child to day care and introduce her to the group and then while she plays and has a jolly, good time, you get to sit in the cloak room, just in case disaster strikes. You'd think that I could bring my laptop and get some work done, or get through that novel I have been wanting to finish, or even have a light snooze on the tiny little bench suffocated amongst smelly kids' jackets, well NO. The cloak room sit plays itself out a little differently. Since the girls go to a more liberal DC, they do not want to lock the children in like animals in the zoo (but lets face it, aren't children just like...I am not going to finish that sentence as it will definitely come back to bite me in the arse), so all doors are open, that's right including the one to the room where I am being kept. So as you can imagine, I have now become a major attraction, labelled the English-speaking mom with a useful set of hands, one all the kids like to come and have a poke at and try to feed stale bread to. But ultimately, I am the shoes-helper, lace-tier and lucky for me, yes, the snot wiper - how do I always end up cleaning other people's children? WTF. SO I have spent the last 2 mornings peeing in teeny, tiny toilets, while children bang on the stall door, while bursting out in laughter (giving each other high fives for having trapped the English mom in the miniature pee place), eating stale bread as to not make them cry and locating all kinds of missing pairs: shoes, hair elastics, socks and I kid you not, mittens in 20 degree weather!

Ellie has been loving the place with all the new toys, kids and smells and every once in a while does pop by the cloak room to smirk and babble something, which I translate as...nah ne nah ny boo boo!

Happy 33rd!

It was Stefan's birthday this week, and after all the vacation-ing that we did, we decided to spend a low-key evening a quatre - Ellie almost fell asleep in the orange cake and lit her eyebrowns on fire. So, after their sugar fix, we promptly tucked the kids in and fell asleep on the couch...the exciting life of parents!

Happy 1st Birthday Ellie!

Ellie.

How to describe Ellie?

She is, well, she is an absolute gem.

Our little Ellie is nothing but sweetness and smiles.

She has got a wild, full head of hair, 2 little bottom teeth that have yet to fully show themselves, an addictive laugh and mischievous smile.
She is a pretty happy-go-lucky little girl whose favorite past times are eating and carrying laundry around (unfortunately not of the clean variety).

Over the last 12 months, not only has she grown even more hair, but she has also developed her 5 senses to perfection, tailored to her specific needs and interests, namely food and food. She uses the in the following ways:

• hearing - hear the sound a chunk of food makes while hitting the ground after trying to escape being eaten by her
• sight - locate and zoom in on food that has gone AWOL from the breakfast table
• touch - grab said chunk to check its consistency (too soft remains on the floor, as it is probably from yesterday morning's breakfast and would cause stomach to feel a little iffy, resulting in extra diaper changes - which she hates)
• taste - whatever, as long as it is actually food, it belongs in her belly. I kid you not, she eats lemon peels

That's Ellie in a nutshell and we can't what to see what the 2nd year has in store...you never know, she'll probably start eating beluga caviar.

Happy birthday sweet girl, we love you a ton and more.

xoxox

Glimpse of breakfast time

Here's a bit of a peek at what breakfast time has been like lately. Be warned that this video has been made for daddy, so feel free to stop the boredom at anytime (but then of course lie and praise and say that you've watched it all!).

New words

We've been in Canada for about 3 weeks now and Kaya has picked up a bunch of new English words, here's a partial list, let me know if you can figure out where (or in what for that matter) we've been spending a lot of time:

highway

another highway

freeway

parkway

speed bump

merge

speeding

parking

seat belt

head lights

Since we have been spending so much time in, yes you've guessed it, the car and I've subsequently gained a small elephant (I look like I'm pregnant for the 3rd time - with twins), I have taken to parking as far away as possible from building entrances, while of course remaining in the associated parking lot. So, naturally, the others (the suburbanites) give us that youmustbecrazy look and nudge the one they are with to say: look at those, erhm people, they are doing that, uh whatchamacallit step, you know the one where you put one foot in front of the other at regular intervals, what's that called again (tune in the psycho music) they are WWWALKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, as many of you have been asking, the trip has been good, all that was needed was a few minor (stuff that urban legends are made of) tantrums and a bit a bahaviour modification (the car is not our number enemy) to get the kids settled in. Another month to go and I might not have such a sunny response to your questions.

Omi and Oma

.We are now in Canada for the summer, but here are a few snap shots from the days before we got here. We spent some time with the Austrian side of the family and gave them a good dose of their granddaughters before we took them away for 2 months.