Some firsts around here

Maggie turned 6 months and had her first rice cereal. A little confused at first but then pleasantly surprised!

She wanted to hold the spoon too. Since then she has tried 2 new veggies. Luke is keeping up with how many  days it has been since the last new food. He's anxious for her to try more things. 

Luke had his first "prasnik" - holiday - at school. This one was to celebrate fall. We were pleasantly surprised that he knew the words and motions to the songs.

Olivia's 1st ponytail! Ok, not the greatest picture but she is very happy that she has something like a ponytail and wants to show it off. She says "I'm a Mommy now!" She's almost 3 1/2 and just now able to do this. But when I take it down, wowsers, talk about some poofy hair. I feel for her! I know the woes of poofy hair as a kid. As my sister said, there are so many more products available now! :)

The 1st snow of the season on November 8. YES, November. The kids were thrilled. Thankfully it has already melted.

Little miss can sit up now!! She does fall sometimes...but for the most part she is sturdy. I realized after I took this picture that she has on 2 shirts , tights, a big cloth diaper and pants. So her tummy is really sticking out . But anyway, she is a healthy girl!

First "baby movie" as Olivia calls them....since she could sit up I let her watch a few minutes. She was enamored! I wish I had this kind of posture!

Halloween

Halloween is neither a holiday here nor a big deal to me. But, it's a fun time to celebrate fall and dress-up. An American friend here invited the American kids to come over to her house and trick-or-treat and even had a few games to play.

We had a hard time finding a round orange pumpkin, but it didn't matter to Luke. He drew on the pumpkin how he wanted to cut it and Forrest did the cutting. Olivia was just the moral support.

We happened to have a Tinkerbell costume that fit Maggie (I remembered this at the last minute). She's learning how to sit up but is a bit wobbly.

Snow White and Tinkerbell (Olivia insisted on being a ballerina but I convinved her to dress-up with Mags)

The day after Halloween I saw all these "perfect" pictures of my friends' kids in costumes on facebook. Well, this is
real life for us!

Camping - Central Asia style

For the tens of people reading this blog, here are the long-awaited camping photos. Considering this was his first camping experience, I think Luke did a great job. Of course, Olivia, Maggie, and I were in our clean home enjoying running water while the boys were climbing mountains and cooking food over fire. Maybe one day, when I don't have someone in diapers I will go too. :) This was a great father-son weeked for 4 dads and their sons. Great time for the dads and kids too. We saw a difference in Luke when he came home - much more confidence.

Trying out the Niva

Long long hike

Made it to the top!

Good times with friends

The beautiful mountains in our area

Open mouth, insert foot

Maggie - 5 1/2 months

Maggie is 5 months!

It literally seems like yesterday when I heard "it's a girl! " even though I just "knew" it was a boy. The weeks and months are flying by. It's hard to believe that our little Maggie is already 5 months. Before long she will be sitting up and eating solids - slow down! She is still very sweet and a fairly easy baby. She's had some rough days in the last few weeks with teething, but still no teeth. I don't know how much she weighs (goes to the doctor in November), but I do know is long! In some of her 3-6 mo sleepers her toes are at the end. She's longer than her baby friend who is 2 mo older. Surely this will all even out, because we are so average! I still feed her the "dream feed" around 10 pm. ( That means I pick her up out of sleep and feed her and put her back. ) I'll be sad when we drop that because that's the sweetest time with her. I don't mind a late night with her because I know it all passes too quickly.
She is finally rolling back and forth too. And I'm pretty sure she would gobble up solids if I gave them to her, but I'm trying to wait a few more weeks !

September at our house

The month of September was quite full and busy. Luke and Olivia started local preschool. The first week or so was great. Other parents commented on how easily our kids went in without crying. But then a few weeks later, the honeymoon wore off with Luke. There were several days of lots of tears, but I think we're on the other side of that now. He has another foreigner friend in his class so that's a huge plus. Also, this week I've heard him multiple times talking to Maggie in Russian as he plays with her!
Besides school starting and Luke's 5th birthday, the other big news is concerning Luke's first camping trip. I'm waiting on pictures from some other friends so I'll post when I get them. He had a blast on his first father/son camping trip and it was so encouraging to see him grow in confidence after the weekend.

Here are some random pictures from September:

Our new pet turtle - Buzz. Some neighbors moved to Russia and gave us their turtle. My kind of pet - we don't have to do much at all for this thing. And it's pretty cool to see it just walking around the yard.

Ready for the 1st day!

Maggie's hair is so blond! I keep wondering if it will change. My sister's hair was really blonde until 3rd grade or so. We'll see! But she doesn't look anything like me. Everyone says she's a copy of her dad and brother.

But here's my little copy. Was I this strong-willed as a child? Wowsers, today this girl wore me out. I don't want to just make her obey to make a situaion easier or quieter, I want to reach her heart and see real change. She brings a lot of joy to our family, but she also makes me pray a lot more. Help me Lord figure out how to channel all her passion and spunk in the right direction!

Luke's 1st thank you note. (Says "Thank you for the books Wesley". His handwriting has improved since then. In a few years this is going to be so interesting to look back on!

Normal day around here....Maggie hanging out (sorry for the big cloth diaper bum view) and Olivia dancing around trying to make her laugh.

Bringing out new warm pj's is always fun.

Luke is starting to read! It's so fun to watch him get it. Here he is reading his first "Bob Book" to Forrest and Olivia.

I'm so thankful to borrow this exersaucer from an American friend. Maggie loves it and it keeps her occupied while we are eating or I'm cooking.

A random mini-photo shoot gave me this sweet picture.

Maggie is not short on kisses for sure.

Maggie and her best brother...yes her only brother, but she ADORES him. Luke can make her giggle so loudly. He's always so excited to see her when he comes home from school and she grins from ear to ear . I'm thankful for this sweet relationship.

Luke is FIVE!

How did 5 years pass so quickly? 

Little did we know on September 14, 2006 , that God would bless us with such an incredible kid. Luke has been planning for this birthday since his last.  Something about 5 for him and me too.  We are incredibly blessed to be Luke's parents.  He has such a sweet heart, thoughtful, generous, loves school, loves to play with friends, loves to help out around the house, loves anything with Daddy, and truly loves to be with our family. What a kid. 

He told Olivia he wanted her to buy him a toy gun (and said which store to get it at).  When she gave it to him, he jumped up and down like it was such a surprise!  Makes gift giving easy I guess.  

He said he wanted a big hug from Maggie.  This kid is easy to please.  He told us he wanted batteries to replace the dead ones in his toys.  But then he decided he would put them in Maggie's toys so she can hear the music. What a kid!

And the long-awaited bubblegum.  Some time ago, I randomly picked age 5 to start chewing gum.  And he's be waiting and loved every second of it...that is til he swallowed it. 

He wanted a tool-themed birthday party. This kid loves to hammer and build stuff.  He can tell you which kind of screwdriver you need for anything.  This was the perfect theme for him, but a bit hard for me to come up with ideas. 

Some of our American friends here also had babies and just returned from the US.  The baby in green is 2 months older than Maggie and the one in pink is 1 month younger than Maggie . And yes, mine is the biggest. We don't have to worry if she's getting enough to eat !

(Can someone tell me why this is happening again?  I rotated the pic correctly on my computer but when I upload to blogger it looks like this!)

A bunch of expat kids came to celebrate Luke. 

The games were all tool-related so the kids got to practice hammering...

And measuring...

and using the screwdriver.

Maggie hanging out - this girl sticks anything she can find in her mouth these days.  

The cakes!  Actually, after lots of thinking about and looking for ideas online, these weren't that hard at all.  

Proud to be 5!

The aftermath