We went to an a capella concert a few weeks ago with the kids. Of course, their favorite part was the Beatboxer. Ever since then, we will occasionally hear Elena or Sam trying out their beatboxing skills.
While we were eating supper a few days ago, Charlie suddenly stood up and started making all these sounds with his mouth. I didn't really think much of it since he is perpetually making noise, but Sam said, "Look! Charlie's beatboxing!!" And he was right; once he pointed that out, it was pretty obvious what Charlie was trying to do.
We all enjoyed watching him for awhile before I ran to grab the camera. As usual, he quit when he saw the camera and started to smile and say "Cheese!" but we got him to do a little bit more for you.
Time for the My-one-and-a-half-year-old-is-perpetually-making-more-work-than-I-can-keep-up-with post. I believe I had one for both Elena and Sam.
Now Charlie has hit that stage where he requires constant supervision, and trying to get one simple task done while he is awake is next to impossible.
He actually hit that stage several months ago, but he seems to be taking it up a notch to new and much more dangerous levels. It doesn't help that our main floor is divided into small individualized areas so the second he walks from one room to the next in our house, he is out of eyesight. Keeping a constant eye on him would mean never being able to do any project that would require me to be in the same room for more than 35 seconds - that rules out quite a bit, believe it or not.
I think if Seth and I both did absolutely nothing other than follow him around all day, we might be able to keep up with him. One would have to take charge of cleaning up his messes while the other would prevent him from maiming himself.
I made the mistake of trying to read a chapter out of a book I'm supposed to read for work before he went to bed because I knew I would be too tired by the time he went to sleep (did I mention he needs much less sleep than your average 1 1/2 year old?) He was playing quietly on the floor looking at books, until Elena came down to get a drink. He followed her into the kitchen and pretty soon, I heard a crash and then Elena yelling for help and Charlie crying.
One of the kids must have left the bathroom door open after brushing their teeth so Charlie wandered in there. Normally he just puts toilet paper into the toilet and then takes it out and drags it all over the place. Tonight he must have tried to get at something in the drawer of the cabinet and he pulled the whole thing over on himself, wedging his arm between the toilet seat and the fallen cabinet. The only good thing about his arm being stuck was that he wasn't able to walk across all the shattered glass from the vase he had knocked onto the floor. I was also glad to see that no bones were broken. He was smiling again within about 30 seconds and onto his next adventure. We do our best, but child-proofing can only go so far when you have a kid who has figured out how to open doors and move chairs around the house to reach all the things we try to keep "out of reach."
He's lucky he's so incredibly cute. It makes things like trying to get kefir out of the air ducts and cleaning an entire bowl of tomato soup (followed by a glass of orange juice) out of the carpet more bearable. Along with taping pages back together in a good number of our books. And washing about 25 CDs that he managed to get a hold of and wedged under our dining room carpet, which is much dustier underneath than I'd realized; a few had been scratched beyond repair after being stepped on. I'd include spending an hour scrubbing nail polish out of the carpet, but I can't take credit for that - that was my mom to the rescue (and she successfully got rid of almost an entire bottle of neon yellow polish, I might add).
Here are some samples of his recent handiwork in the bathroom:
My best time to get stuff done is during Charlie's "performance" time. This happens about once a day. He grabs two spatulas and bangs on his kitchen set (or some pots and pans) while singing at the top of his lungs for anywhere from 5-20 minutes. His favorites are the ABCs and "Let It Go." The noise doesn't even phase me anymore - I'm just happy that he's in one place and happy.
Sam had his preschool graduation recital back in May. They sang a bunch of the songs they had been learning during the year. Of course, they wanted to finish with Let it Go since all the kids know it.
Unfortunately I didn't have our camera with us and we had to use Seth's phone to video tape it. The microphone doesn't really pick up sound unless it's up close so I had to dub it over with the actual song. I think the kids were singing a little ahead (or behind of) time at parts so it's a little off. It's not ideal, but you'll get the picture. Sam really got into it.
The zoos and lakes were among the highlights of our trip for the kids. We were able to go to two of each. Here are a few pictures.
With Charlotte on a boat ride through the "rainforest."
The rainforest dome in Leipzig
At the zoo in Berlin with Natalie and Steffen
When we were watching the baboons, they suddenly all started running around and around the hill in their area and heading towards the top. I don't know if it was getting close to feeding time or what, but Sam was watching and said, "Look! The baboons are all climbing up to the top of the mountain like in The Lion King. I think they're going to baptize one of their babies!"
Steffen and Sam playing in the water
Sam and Christian playing football
Seth getting ready to go skiing
Bianca and Elena
This is how the little kids swim in Germany. When in Rome...
We are fortunate to live in a neighborhood that is full of kids. Unfortunately for Elena, almost all of them are boys. Yesterday I looked out the window and counted 11 boys in our yard, but we couldn't find even one girl for Elena to play with.
She does her best to join in, but there's only so much kickball, baseball, tennis, badminton and football a girl who pretty much hates playing sports can take.
On the plus side, she got frustrated to the point where she was content to escape for about 2 hours and clean her room without being severely threatened within an inch of her life forced to do so, which only happens about twice a year. So I, personally, am looking forward to seeing her room clean for the next 12 hours or so, which is how long it usually lasts.
Today I gave Charlie a little bowl of chips to keep him occupied while I did the dishes. I turned around to start the water in the sink and then looked back to check on Charlie. Seeing he had wandered into the bathroom, I went over to make sure the toilet seat was down (it wasn't) and to make sure he wasn't messing with the toilet water (he was).
Unfortunately, I didn't make it there in time to stop him from dipping his chip into the toilet water, but I did make it there in time to stop him from eating it.
He seemed to think I was being totally unreasonable to take away his chip and make him wash his hands. It's moments like those that make me wonder how often I do something that makes God think, "What are you doing???? Don't do that!!" and, like a 1-year-old, I come back with "What's the big deal?"
I was really nervous about dealing with the 7 hour time change going to Germany and back, but the kids adjusted surprisingly well. Our initial flight to Chicago was delayed 7 hours (or rather, it was delayed "a bit longer" about eight times). Fortunately we just made the best of it and had fun in the Sioux Falls airport. By the the time we left, it was late and we were exhausted. Charlie slept through all three flights (we were detoured through London due to our missed connection). By the time we got to Charlotte's it was 10:00 and we all just crashed for the night and woke up ready to go the next day.
Coming back was more tiring for me even though it was a shorter trip. Charlie took a little longer to adjust, waking up at 2:30 the first morning (then going back to sleep at 3:00) and 5:30 the next. But between the jet lag and days filled to the brim with sightseeing, walking and visiting, we were all pretty tired by the end of the day throughout the trip...in a good way, though. Here are a few shots of the kids in various stages of passed out (and one of Charlie wide awake long past his bedtime).
We are back from our two week trip to Germany. We had a wonderful time visiting Natalie and Charlotte's families. They were all so welcoming, and we loved being able to see the girls again. Although, now in addition to missing the girls, we are missing their families as well. The kids even had German grandparents (Oma and Opa) to spoil them while they were there.
We also started back to school this week so I haven't found the time to sort through the 1000 or so photos we took. I'll just share a few for now and hopefully before too long I'll be able to share some more detailed stories of the trip.
Checkpoint Charlie!
Bottle cap eyes! (with Natalia)
Overlooking Leipzig
In Grimma with Charlotte
Having fun at the playground with Tobi
Getting ready for their first train ride with Steffen and Bianca
Meeting Natalie's Oma and Opa (Natalie was unfortunately sick and missed out on a few days)
Our last night in Germany with all of Natalie's family and Charlotte
Natalie's family very generously offered to let Charlotte come and stay with us at their place for our last day so we were able to get a family photo with all of our kids :) The only drawback was we waited until the last minute and the kids were not entirely cooperative that late at night.
This was our first attempt. Charlie is actually crying - Sam is just intentionally screwing up the picture, which seems to be his trademark lately:
