Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Due to the white cold stuff that fell profusely from the sky, we unfortunately had none of the planned Christmas visitors... this made us very sad...instead we got to spend lots of quality time together "just the 3 of us"


We still had a very special time together on Christmas Eve. We ate a delicious dinner.


We read the story of the birth of Jesus from the Bible (Matthew 1 and 2; Luke 2). The candlelight church service was cancelled because of all the snow.


We prayed together to thank the Lord for sending his son...


...as a baby....


...into this world...


... to be our Light and our Savior. My Momma and Dad explained to me that THIS is the reason we celebrate Christmas, that it is Jesus' Birthday party.

After I went to bed, my Momma and Dad relaxed together, and then went to bed. We all slept in until about 9am this morning!


Dad made us a wonderful breakfast this morning. Here a picture Dad took of my Momma and me after breakfast.


And here is a picture my Dad took of my Momma and himself.


It's hard to get a picture of all three of us when there is nobody else to take the picture... we had fun unpacking the gifts we gave each other!


... here my Dad is helping me assemble my little wooden bike!


It has no peddles. That is so I will learn to balance and push myself with my feet, first. Germans don't "do" training wheels anymore. They learn with this kind of bike, and then transition to a "real" bike.

My Momma really loves the gift Dad gave her - it's a very cleverly made coupon-book, with coupons for everything ranging from free footrubs, "I told you so"s, a nice dinner date together, a weekend away, my Dad doing laundry, dishes, putting me to bed, and more such things. Of course each coupon has a photo and a witty comment. Very creative, and it will be fun for my Momma to use those coupons!


My Momma gave my Dad a flat self-heating griddle for making breakfast on, and drew and framed this picture of me for Dad. He was really happy about his gifts, too.

I am going to go play with my new wooden train-set, and read my new books, and play with the cool Rescue Heroe station and helicopter I got from my cousin! Thank you for all the good "loot" - and please don't forget what Christmas is about: It is about celebrating the birth of Jesus, it is about spending time with family. Presents are nice, but they are NOT the focus of Christmas!

SNOW SNOW SNOW!

And that is in capital letters now. Although we are still far from anything remotely resembling a 'blizzard,' we have still had A LOT of snow these last few days, especially considering that we are in mild Vancouver, WA. By Monday we had a foot of snow. My Dad had to shovel and chip the car out in order to go to work. My Momma and I spent the morning shovelling the rest of the snow out of the driveway and the walkway to our front door. I had FUN flopping into the deep snow, and playing with the big pieces of ice that were part of the snow layer.


Tuesday my Momma decided to shovel the snow off of the deck out back (more than 700 square feet), and then used that snow to build Holden and me a slide that went down the stairs from the deck, and then down the hill. We had A LOT of fun sliding down, squeaking and screetching and screaming all the while! We played outside until our cheeks and noses were bright bright red. Unfortunately, we don't have pictures of us on the slide. Maybe my Momma or Dad will take some on Friday.


We had about 3 more inches of snow last night. Unfortunately, because of the snow and storm in the Cascades and the East side of the state, my Gramma and Grampa Griffing and Aunt Kirsti and Uncle Brian couldn't come here as planned... we are hoping they might be able to come tomorrow, but also want them to stay safe!

Flop! This is fun! The snow is deep enough that if you flop into it, you don't touch the ground!

The snow has a layer of ice in between. It was fun to lug the pieces around, to lick and nibble them, and to make snow sharks (see next picture)

After throwing some ice into the snow, I decided that it looked like a shark fin. So I took several more pieces and put them into the snow. Here are two of my snow sharks. Watch out, Momma, they might try to nibble you!

Here is the back deck on Sunday... about 8 more inches snowed onto it on Sunday night, plus three more last night.

Here is the front of our house on Monday. Today you can barely even see the tips of the ornate grasses sticking out of the snow. My Momma or Dad din't bother to clear the driveway today... we will see if it snows again tonight.

In further news, we have successfully had day #2 of wearing big-boy-underpants ALL DAY, including during nap time! No accidents, and I have proven that I can go potty all by myself, including pulling my pants down, and back up. I still call my Momma or Dad for help wiping. I am not sure what exactly defined the event, but my Momma announced on Monday afternoon that "from now on" the Bradley household has the rule that every Mark has to wear big-boy underpants all day.

Snow snow snow!

It has been uncharacteristically snowy here in Vancouver this last week. A few Vancouverites have been throwing the term "blizzard" out there... which my Momma and Dad both think is pretty silly, especially considering that A) the snow is only 2 inches deep, and that's in the deepest un-melted patches, and B) you can see to the end of our street, 3 blocks down, without having to strain your eyes. The Germans have a good term for what the snow really is doing: "rieseln" - which means it is gently floating down from the sky.

Anyway, today my Momma didn't have to watch any other kids, and since she is done making and wrapping Christmas presents, we decided to have some fun together! We both put on our snow-pants, boots, coat, hat, and mittens, and spent several hours outside in the snow!



First we walked to the little wilderness at the end of our street. There, we built a snowman. His name is "Moe." He isn't very big, again, our "blizzard" brought maybe two inches of snow... in the deep patches. I helped my Momma roll the snowballs for his body. He has eyebrows, and stick arms and a nose that I found all by myself.

My Momma tried to show me how to make a snow angel, but my comment was: "The snow is too bumpy! Let's go walking more!"

So we did. We walked and we walked through the muddy little forest, until we came to a dead end with brambles and big rocks. I decided it would be fun to climb on the rocks. So I did. And here I am at the top.

Ok, this was fun! Time to go back inside. My nose is getting "coldy cold!"

Short excerpt from our morning (by my Momma)

Mark shut the kitty into the bathroom, kitty is meowing wildly, while scratching the door.
Me: "Mark! Open the door and let the poor kitty out of the bathroom!"
Mark: "Oh, he's ok, Momma! Jesus will watch out for him and protect him! He not need be scared!"

Christmas Crafts!

Hello everyone, and happy almost-Christmas! My Momma and I have been busy doing fun crafts-projects, and we decided to share them with you. My Dad likes to tease my Momma when she sees something and comments "I could make that myself, I'm not going to PAY for one of those!" Reality is that most planned crafts-projects never are even started... but here are a few that have been completed! Oh yes, and for those of you who are disinterested in crafts, there are a few pictures of me at the end of the blog.


Exhibit A: The advent table decoration. For those of you who don't know, Advent is the time spent in anticipation of the birth of Jesus. One candle is lit for each of the 4 Sundays preceeding Christmas. Anyway, my Momma and I always take an empty bag with us when we walk to the playground, and have accumulated a fine collection of various sizes of pine cones, as well as sweetgum-tree balls (I call them "pokies"), and beech-nuts. We took a glass plate, placed the candles in the middle, added some artificial red berries (total of 80cents at the craft store), and put an assortment of pine cones around the candles. Voila! Hint: buy red candles AFTER Christmas for the next year... you can get them SUPER cheap that way.

Exhibit B: the pine-cone wreath. You can purchase a wreath frame at a craft store for about $2, or you can make one using a metal coat hanger. We opted for the pre-made frame. Using floral wire, my Momma attached the cones, sweetgum balls and beech nuts to the frame. Make sure the cones are tightly packed, you can fill any gaps with smaller cones after the fact. It took about 2 hours, and got her hands very very sticky with sap, but the results are rather nice, don't you think? The little elf is another home-made project of past years, a family tradition. If we get around to making elves this year, we will post a few pictures.

Exhibit C: The tree-topper angel. This was actually a project of two Christmasses ago. My Dad's family always had an angel tree-topper, and my Momma didn't realize that it was of importance until it was too late to go buy one. So she made one, instead. The "interior" of the angel is a toilet-paper roll (the cardboard part). Pipe-cleaner arms were mounted onto this. The head is made from cotton balls stuffed into a flesh-colored stocking. The hair was then sewn on (again, cotton balls), the clothes are made from pieces of a white cotton sheet, with some lace stitched on and a cord belt. The gold was painted on, as was the face. Wings are just gold ribbon, reinforced with a little bit of wire. The top of the tree goes inside the toilet paper roll, under the "dress". Not the most handsome or elegant angel, but we've grown rather fond of him, and so he gets to stay.

Here is our Christmas tree! You can't see the lights because our camera insisted on flashing. But it looks sooooooo nice I am having a really hard time NOT touching all those fascinating ornaments. So far I've been a good boy... but I do need frequent reminders to look with my eyes, not my fingers.

Exhibit D: Surely you are wondering what a fish net has to do with Christmas crafts? WELL, our tree came packed into this net! Since my bedroom has an "ocean" theme, my Momma cut the net apart carefully, and then we made a craft project out of cutting out and coloring fish for it! A few thumb tacks, and strategically placed knots later, and my ceiling is inhabited by fish in dire need of rescue.

SO. That is all for crafts for now. My Momma is busy with some other projects, but since they are mostly Christmas presents, you won't get to see them before Christmas... Here I am playing with legos at my Grandma and Grampa's house in Spokane. Look at their nice new bamboo floors!

Here I am playing fireman next to the tree. Using this hat, I can either be a "man" - bill forward, or a "fireman" - bill back. A "man" drives his bobby-car to "work" and back, and protects his stuffed animals, real kitty, and Momma from pretend monsters by fighting them off with a sword. A "fireman" rescues imaginary people and pets out of buildings, using helicopters and toy fire-engines (the size of his palm) - all accompanied by loud comments of "Oh no! FIRE! Weeee-ooouuuuu-weeee!"

Here I am snuggling on the lamb-fur rug... it is sooooo nice and soft... even NICER than the NICE rug in my bathroom!

A Snowman!!!!

It snowed here in Spokane! My Dad and Momma and our friends Li and Dan took me out for a walk in the snow... and we found a spot that had enough snow to build a little snowman!
Here he is. He survived for about 2 minutes, and then was kicked over by a certain 3'1" perp. I like the snow!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello everyone. Happy Thanksgiving! We are having a wonderful time visiting Grandma and Grampa in Spokane, and my Grampa Bradley is here too, as are Uncle Brian, Aunt Kirsti, and my Dad's brother Uncle Rob (also known as the Green Dinosaur). We are thankful for family being together! (And Aunt Hanna, we miss you dearly!)

My Grandma got out some of the animal costumes she sewed many years ago for my uncle and aunts and Momma. Grrrrr! I'm a Tiger!

I have washed my hands, and am ready to steal something from right under your nose!

Yesterday my Momma, Dad and Grampa got coffee and then took me to the park. The original intent was for me to go play at the playground. However, there was a whole flock of ducks who were beckoning to be chased! Chasing resulted in a few flustered ducks, and a very WET boy... didn't see that puddle coming, and went into it knee-deep. After a small episode of frustration ("The ducks won't won't WON'T come here to me!"), my Dad got me a slice of bread from the car...

...and boy did the ducks ever come to me after that!

And finally, in case the above pictures haven't yet put a smile on your face, here is a little story that just might: I had worked hard to line up most of my cars bumper-to-bumper on the couch, about 3 wide and maybe 20 cars long. My Momma asked me if I had built a traffic jam. I answered "Yes!" and then went about lining up the rest of the cars on the other side of the couch. Then I proudly pointed at the second line-up and said "And this is traffic peanutbutter!" - Ah yes, my world consists of matched pairs...

Buy my Momma's art online now!

My Momma has finally finished setting up her online shop on Etsy! For now she is just selling prints of the nursery watercolor series she made for me... but depending on how things go, she plans to expand her repertoire to include photography and prints of all her other art!

To see my Momma's Etsy shop, go to www.MossyRockDesigns.etsy.com

May I please have some more candy? - AKA Trick or Treat!

Happy 'go-knock-on-people's-door-and-get-candy-from-them' -day! (For a 2-year-old who speaks in full sentences but can't say an "L" that is a lot easier to say than "Halloween" ... "Hawoween"... yeah...). ANYWAY, whatever you want to call today, it was fun. Holden and I got to dress up, and then we walked around our neighborhood to go trick or treating with our Moms! (The Dad's stayed at our house to give out candy). As it turned out, the "trick" was in getting me to say "trick or treat" instead of "please may I have some candy?" every time someone answered the door. And the "treat" was how politely Holden and I said "thank you" every single time! Oh yeah, and our CUTENESS was a treat, too. Holden was Tigger, and I was a Cowboy!

To help get us in the mood, my Dad let us ride around on his back for a little bit before dinner. Yeee-haw! That was FUN! (Well, at least for us, who represented 74lbs of boy).

FASTER, horsey, FASTER! Awwww, great. We got the slow horse, and no spurs. (NOT that we're complaining! We had a LOT of fun, and it was VERY nice of Dad to let us ride on his back!). But seriously guys, let's get some gallopping in here. G-A-L-L-O-P. Not mosy. Key is *fast* here. Humpf.

WAKE UP, horsey! *pull* get uuuhuuup! *grunt* ...well, so much for that.

Ok. Time to put on the costume. I am feeling very 'in character.' Do you see my manly beard and bushy eyebrows? Yes, that's my Dad's gun holster that is swinging around my knees in a very manly fashion. I am a manly manly Cowboy! Although a few people thought I was Indiana Jones. Considering that my idea of both is pretty vague, either will do.

Uhm, what do you mean, I can't bring this amazingly high-tech laser gun (also known as a nerf gun with a red flashlight attached)? How do you expect me to rescue lovely maidens from evil bandits? I have some law and order to keep here! Or at the very least some bears to scare away from the cattle herd!

Ok, in 16 years (or maybe earlier) we're going to both hate this picture. But don't you think we are just the 2 cutest little, errr, BIG trick or treaters?

Ok, one final "cheese!" for the camera, now let's go!

Momma, today I want have a moustache! A brown one!

That's right. I woke up and rather than wait for my Momma to come get me, I went wandering around the house. I found my Momma in the bathroom putting on eye makeup. My comment? "Momma! Today I want have a moustache! A brown one!"

Well, folks, here it is. Handlebars and all. It survived breakfast, but didn't get much past 10am...

These, by the way are my friends Holden, Ezra and Tori. We are showing off the paper bag puppets my Momma made with us!

And here is my dry-diaper chart. I have pooped in the potty every single time for the last month now, so I think I officially count as "#2 trained"... now we need to work on keeping my diaper dry, too! For every dry diaper I get to color a pair of underwear on my chart. 10 dry diapers mean that I get an ice cream. And when I have had 50 dry diapers I get the little German "walking bike" I was supposed to get for my birthday, but couldn't because our household goods were still in shipment. (my Momma and Dad have been waiting for a good excuse to give it to me, because by next year it will be too small!)

Mark's digits

Yesterday I got to go to the doctor! All the medical mumbo jumbo aside, here are my newest digets:
I am 3'1" tall (about 94 cm).
I weigh 36 lbs (about 16.5 kg).
The doctor said I am thriving and developing well, physically, emotionally and mentally. She looked at my hands and feet and said I will definitely be a TALL man.
My earache is better, and my cough is nothing to worry about now that the fever is gone.

Fishing with Grampa and Dad!

Last week was a busy but fun week! My friends Holden, Ezra and Tori were here, and we got to play in my ball house (now that it is finally unpacked), and did lots of other fun stuff. Unfortunately I got a cough and earache at the end of the week...

Here we are throwing balls at my Momma... she humored us and yelped "Eeek! Oh no! Ack!" despite the fact that the net was preventing the balls from actually hitting her.

The duckies are back! Now that all the boxes are unpacked (5 boxes of books are still waiting for the book shelf to be set up), the duckies from Germany and the duckies from Pullman have been united. It's a herd! Or would it be a flock?

On Friday after my Dad's work we drove up North to Sequim. I felt pretty rotten, with a fever, earache, and cough. Here I am sitting with Marty, my Auntie's doggy. The camera didn't quite catch it, but we had the same puppy-dog-look on our face. And yes, I really was that pale. Momma and Dad didn't get much sleep that night... but I felt much better the next day.

On Saturday I got to go fishing! I was really excited to catch at least one "big BIG whale" just like the kitty in my book. My Grampa and Dad put on waders and stood IN the water. My Grampa caught a few really big fish, but we had to let them go.

Here Grampa is wrestling another fish. It was a big chum, so we had to let it go.

My Grampa gave me my very own fishing pole. He attached a line and a lure to it (no hook though). I had fun waving it vigorously before "casting" it into the water (the line was about 5 feet long total). It almost cost my Momma an eye a few times, but BOY was it fun. At least for a little while.


I got a little bored when my Grampa kept catching all the fish - here my Dad is unhooking yet another "chum" Salmon. Still no whales,though, unfortunately.


I just couldn't quite figure out why Grampa was catching all my fish. To motivate the fish to bite MY lure, I started throwing rocks into the water while holding my fishing pole, and loudly yelled "Here fishy fishies! Look I have some food and rocks for you! Here fishies!" It didn't quite work, but it still was very fun to throw those rocks into the water. My Momma even let me wade in the shallow water for a little bit.

On Sunday Morning my Grampa and Dad went fishing again, but my Momma and I decided to stay at Aunty Linda's house. We picked the bad apples off of one of her apple trees to feed the neighbor's cows!

The cows sure were friendly! The big cows hogged all the apples the first time we went there. The second time we were a bit more sneaky, and the calves came running while the big cows ignored us. I have to admit, while throwing the cows apples to eat was fun, I was more fascinated by the cow that decided to go potty right there in front of us...

Sweet moments (by my Momma)

Yesterday something happened that just touched my heart. Mark had been having a rough couple of days, not obeying very well, teasing and even hitting other kids, and fussing and crying a lot. To his defense, he has two shiny top 2-year-old molars to show for it. Grumpy and in pain or not, though, some behavior is just unacceptable! By the end of the day I was pretty worn out from comforting, mediating between kids etc. and Mark and I were sitting at the table having a snack together (the Tylenol I gave him for the teething pain was finally working!). All of a sudden, Mark put his hand on mine, looked me in the eyes, and said with complete sincerity "Momma, I'm sorry I sad and mad today! Now I feel better, I do better." It completely blew me away! I was so touched I almost started crying! My sweet sweet boy had just volunteered an apology to me for the first time for misbehaving (an abstract concept, as opposed to apologizing for hurting me accidently, which he is good at apologizing for). I gave him a big kiss and thanked him for apologizing, and told him that I forgive him and love him. Our little "moment" easily made up for those grumpy days!

Today my usual "sunny boy" was back in full force, jumping off the couch with Holden, Ezra, and Tori, running around, laughing, playing. Today was one of those days that made me think that I could easily "do" the "4 kid family thing"... although having 3 boys age 2 is biologically very improbable. =o)

For those of you who are wondering what the heck I am talking about, I watch a few of my friends' kids during the week: Ezra (2) and Tori (4) are siblings, and Holden (2). The three boys were all born within weeks of each other, and are great little buddies. Tori is a good "big sister" to the three of them. Beware though, it gets LOUD around here when the kids are running around together. But they have a lot of fun, and it is good for Mark (well, good for all of them, actually) to play with other kids. Today we started out playing with cars and jumping off the couch (the kids kept themselves busy playing together for a good hour!). Then we had snack-time, then did some drawing together, and then we went outside. The kids have found a spot of dry sandy soil next to the deck that they have pounded and dug into a "sand-box" which provides hours of good play time. Dusty/sandy dirt + sweaty playing kids does result in a good bit of mess, but that's what bathtubs and washing machines are for. Ezra and Tori were picked up at noon. Mark had had a bucket of dirt dumped on his head, so I actually stripped him down on the deck (Mark's comment "Coldy coldy cold!" and then sent him running to the bathroom while I took Holden's shoes and coat off and dusted him off a bit before bringing him inside. Mark and Holden took a bath (had to replace the water because it turned so brown from all the dirt in Mark's hair). Lunch, more drawing, playtime in the living room, then nap time after Holden was picked up. On Mondays we sometimes watch a movie together if the kids get too riled up, but the other days are "TV free" - not that TV is all bad, but I was raised without it, so always feel a bit guilty using "perfectly good playtime" to put kids in front of the tube.

Anyway. Here are two pictures of Mark that Ben took with his cell phone - just so I don't get any complaints about posting another picture-free blog post. Between watching the kids and unpacking things have just been too busy to take pictures of Mark...

Mark and Merlin. This is the world's most forgiving kitty. In his nearly 8 years of life he has never bitten anyone, and only scratched if someone was either trying to bathe him or was clipping his nails. People keep commenting on how "HUGE" Merlin is... to me he still seems small, because the other two cats I had in Pullman (now adopted by one of my professors) were 16 lbs each of pure loooong muscle! Merlin only weighs in at 10 lbs... the fur sure makes up for it though! My auntie Therese watched Merlin for nearly 6 months (THANK YOU THERESE!) until we moved into our house... it's nice to have our kitty back!

Mark taking a walk to the playground with Dad. Ben and Mark like taking walks after Ben gets home. Sometimes I come along, sometimes I enjoy staying home for a bit of solitude. Today I cooked some yummy dinner while they were out.

Our Stuff is back!!!! (sorry, no pictures for this post)

Hey everybody,
after more or less camping for the past 6 months (minimal furniture, toys, kitchen items, clothes), we now find ourselves surrounded by lots and lots and lots of boxes and dissembled furniture!
In my own words: "Our stuff is back! Is all all done being on boat. Men NOT take away our stuff again. Now find my penguin backpack?" (the penguin backpack has been requested several times every day, until today FINALLY it was found!)

The tally:
227 inventory items shipped from Germany. Includes furniture and boxes. Kitchen and dining room is unpacked. Most of the toys have been unpacked. Most of the big furniture items have been set up. Some are still dissembled, waiting for the missing hardware or parts to show up in a box! (We're confident they will, we've already found missing keys to antiques hiding in tin cans packed with the kitchen stuff, packets of screws and bolts wrapped carefully in towels, etc). All the boxes of clothes are still packed. Unpacking those will be a project for this weekend!

49 inventory items arrived from long-term storage in Spokane. These include such luxuries as a vacuum cleaner and kitchen appliances... toaster, blender, George Forman grill, mixer... and all our wedding gifts and other things we had in Pullman but didn't bring to Germany!

Another project for this weekend will be to heft the little baby items up into the attic. I have my very own Mark-room now, and as soon as my Momma is done refinishing my very own big-boy-bed the pack-n-play will be put away! THANK you to Grampa for painting my room!!!

Once unpacking is done my Momma wants to have a garage sale - we have a lot of duplicates from stuff we stored or bought in Germany, and we have some other things that we just plain don't need.