Climbing walls!

Let me tell you about our temporary appartment:
it currently has LOTS of space for me to run around in! The bedroom has my parents' queen size air mattress, and my travel bed in it. The dining room has a card table and three folding chairs. We eat off of paper plates, and cook our food either in the borrowed pot or the borrowed pan. The living room is empty, except for my toys, and the pillows and blanket that double as a couch during the day. I like it this way, but I think my Momma and Dad are looking forward to our stuff arriving. I remind them that it will every now and then by saying "my stuff, HUGE boat, wa-wi, Dammah" (which means, "our stuff is coming on a huge boat across the water to the country where Grandma lives").

Because staying inside too much makes me misbehave, my Momma and/or Dad have to take me outside every day to climb and run. There is a little playground near here, but I enjoy GETTING there more than playing there: there are all these really cool walls to climb on! I can get up on top of the wall by myself now, but usually want someone to hold my hand for balancing once I am on top ("uP! wall! hand deeese?"). Pictures of me on the wall bellow!

Grrrr... put that camera away....

Hahah! I can balance here WITHOUT holding your hand, Momma!

Climbing the big-kid jungle gym is lots of fun, too!

The NICE bathroom rug...

Hi again! I realize that it has been a while... between job searching, house hunting, church hunting, and getting settled in otherwise, my Dad and Momma have been busy!

This post is dedicated to a very special household object. We bought it at Cosco. It's a cream colored bath rug. I looooove that rug! Several times a day, I take off my socks, and walk on the rug, curling my toes into its delicious softness... my comment: "Nice!"
Ok, Momma, time to change my diaper! (I say that by saying "Maw, dapoh eww!")... do you think this NICE rug would be a good place to change me?

*giggle* oh no, Dad, don't blow any more rasberries on my belly! Please! Please! It tickles!

Oh yeah. Have I mentioned that I like lying on this NICE rug?

Towel? What do you mean, dry me off with a towel? I'll just wiggle around some more on this NICE rug!

On another note, we drove to the beach on Sunday after church. This is haystack rock, by Cannon Beach. The weather in Vancouver was beautiful and sunny... but on the other side of the mountains, down by the beach, it was pretty cold and rainy... we still went on a walk, and picked up a few rocks, and a sand dollar...

Anyway, that's all for now. More news on jobs and houses to follow!

In Vancouver!!!!

After a very busy week of cleaning our appartment, wrapping up military paperwork, and finishing packing our stuff, we left Germany on a HUGE airplane. The flight was a direct flight from Frankfurt to Portland, and I slept for 4 of the 11 hours... except for the rather annoying bus rides from the airport terminal to the airplane and the airplane to the terminal, the flight was uneventful, almost pleasant.
Grampa, Aunt Hanna, and Anna met us at the airport in Portland, what a nice surprise!
We spent the first few days at Steve and Anna's house - thank you for sharing your home with us! The day after our arrival, we got cell phones, and found a cute, small appartment we will live in with a month-to-month lease until we move into our house. We bought a 2001 VW jetta wagon, which will be my Momma's car as soon as our Honda arrives from its trip to the US from Germany. My Dad jumped right into job hunting, too. He has a few interviews this week, we will see what comes of those. My Momma looked at lots of houses with the realtor, and found two or three we would be very happy to call our home... for some odd reason the bank wants Dad's letter of employment before they will give us the money to buy a house though.
ANyway, we have been too busy visiting friends and family and getting settled to take many pictures, but my Dad has a Blackberry that takes pictures, so here are a few:

Here I am in the inside of our new car. The outside is dark blue. I like it.

At Steve and Anna's house, I escaped from my Momma while she was putting on my nighty...

Here I am having dinner in our (empty) appartment. It was yummy! My Momma made me a real burrito! I even managed to eat it without making too much of a mess!

Because we don't have many toys in our appartment, my Momma and Dad have to be creative. Letting me type letters (I call it "type e-i's") is one of my favorite new hobbies. I know the letter "eM!" and like typing lots of it!

Here the most recent picture... of me drinking "moo-juice" and eating breakfast.

More pictures and news (hopefully about a house and a job) to follow soon!


Greetings from beautiful, green Vancouver!

Goodbye Germany!!!!

Happy Easter, everyone! On Sunday we dressed up (I got to wear a real suit with a tie!) and celebrated that "Dee-dus" (Jesus) rose from the grave! We also had our official goodbye at the chapel, and then had Easter lunch with our friends.



Two days ago, three strange men came into our appartment and started putting our stuff into boxes and then carried them outside to pack them into a HUGE box thing on a truck. It was fun watching them until they began to pack MY toys. I made sure to tell them that those were MY things, but they didn't seem too impressed. As they packed, I commented "Ohoh! (insert toy name)! Mine (insert toy name)! Byebye (insert toy name)" ... I was a good sport right up until the appartment started to REALLY look empty. Then I cried and cried, walking around the apparment saying "Ss-tuff all gone! Oh no!" My Momma and Dad explained that our things are going on a HUGE boat to the country where Gramma lives. Now I reassure myself by repeating that our 'ss-tuff' is on a 'boat' to "ahMah."

We leave Germany with a sad and a laughing eye (that's a German term). Our time here was wonderful, but we are also excited to begin our new life in Vancouver!

12 more days 'til we move!

Wow, just 12 more days until we move back to that mysterious place called America! I don't quite understand what my Momma and Dad mean when they say "move" (which usually means that I have to scoot over?) but I can tell you that we are going to sleep in a "new Mark house" and that we will see "ah-Mah" and both of my "Da-pah"s... and I know that we will fly in a "HUGE" airplane!

My Momma and Dad took me to Rothenburg this weekend to pick up my cousin Diana! We had fun walking around the town, and I really like Diana. She plays with me, and tells me that I am cute!

In between, I decided to be naughty and run off. Luckily for my parents, we were right next to the torture museum, and so, I was punished appropriately... with 30 seconds in the stockade! (We didn't go into the museum)


Here I am proving that I am my Momma's son... I inherited her love for rocks, errr, I mean for "wroughts" (as I call them). All those silly old houses didn't interest me one bit, but when I spotted this fine, pebbled parking lot, I let out a delighted yell of "wroughts!" and ran onto it. Then I sat down and proceeded to pick out my 20 favorite rocks... and then commanded my Dad to "dit dow-nnn!" right next to me. He didn't understand, so I patted the ground again, saying "dit, Da!" The big meany only let me take ONE "wrought" away from the lot.

"Shhhhhh!" We are in an old old church, so you need to be as quiet as a mouse! Just like this! SHhhhhh! (It is not very easy to be quiet when there are gargoyles looking down at you that look like lions and dinosaurs, both of which MUST be pointed out with growly sounds!)

This is Rothenburg... or one part of it. Our hotel was right next to the upper entrance tower. My Momma took lots of pictures of the old houses, and will watercolor them once we have time... which will probably be some time around Christmas!

Bubbles!

Hey! Did you know how much fun bubbles are? Well, I got to find out last week! At first that weird white stuff looked VERY suspicious, and I did a funny little dance trying to get it off of me. When that proved to be hopeless, I decided to make the best of it, and played and played and played until all the bubbles were gone. I was so impressed by the bubbles that I told people about them for days after my bubble bath! ("bubboh ba-hhhh")

Did you know that bathing is one of the best inventions in the world? Now my Momma and Dad just have to get a house with a bathtub that has a glass shower shield, so that I don't flood the bathroom when I splash...

Hmmm, these bubbles just keep on multiplying! They are getting everywhere! Not sure yet if I trust this weird stuf...

Err, I just tried to lick the bubbles off of my duck. Definitely a bad decision. Yuck.




Well, time for my Momma to get back to writing her paper. She has to hand in 3 loooong papers on March 13, and has already finished two of them. Boy will I be glad when she is done. I don't like it when she has to sit at the laptop typing all day. Oh yeah. Less than 4 weeks til we move to Vancouver. Wow, time goes by quickly!

...lets draw!

Hello! Are you having a rough day? Well, let me brighten it by smiling a BIG HUGE smile at you!
It is hard to get "still" pictures of me these days, because I am usually running around at lightning speed.

I know you are there, Momma, sneaking up on me with that silly camera... I will NOT look at you, but I can't help smiling a knowing smile.

Here I am spending some quality time with my Dad playing a game on the Wii. Well, mostly, my Dad is trying to play while I keep clicking over to the main menu.














...so drawing ("daw!") is one of my favorite things to do. My Momma got me some really cool fat short pencils that I love scribbling with. I can identify the colors "yeyow" "bwow" "bwoo" "ohhje" and "pupoh" when asked what color the pencil is, and can show you any color if you ask e.g. "Where is the red pencil?" I will hold the correct one up. My Momma and Dad are pretty proud of this, up until a few days ago, I just labelled everything as "yeyow!" when asked what color it was.

Anyway, my Momma finished her final graduate course two weeks ago, and so, instead of reading school books, has spent my nap time water coloring. Here are the pictures she painted. They will be framed and hung up in my new room in America!

This one is titled: "Oh-oh! Bwee-ya!" ...which is what I said when I saw the picture. It is of me when I was in the clinic for my hernia operation in December. My Momma sketched me running around the hallways in my hospital nighty and fireman's hat, and now turned it into a small water color.

This one is the first in the set of sleeping boy watercolors my Momma painted. She had to paint this one twice, because I drew all over the first one with a red crayon when she left the table to answer the phone.

Doesn't this one look cozy? The tattle-tale baby bear reminds me of my friend's big sister.

I know that not every Mom would be very excited at the prospect of her baby boy cuddling with a bunch of possums... but I think that old oak looks like a very good place to sleep. You can't see the mole peeping out of the ground at the bottom of the picture. Come visit us in Vancouver to see the original!

... we've been buuuuuusyyyyy!

Hi there, my dear fans! We have registered several complaints about an accute lack of new pictures... so after travelling to Vienna for the weekend, my Momma took some time to upload a few! We do have a good excuse not to update my blog: My Momma had to finish her class, which by the way was her very last one! Now she just has to write a really long paper, which she will hand in at the beginning of March. My Dad has been busy working, and applying for various jobs in the Vancouver/Portland area. And he got to take care of me this weekend while my Momma was in Vienna! That was lots of fun!
You will be happy (or if you are in Europe, sad) to hear that we are moving back to the US in 52 days! My Momma and Dad have been looking at houses... it will be fun to have a yard!

Speaking of yards, here I am playing in the sand. I love going to the playground, although not many kids come there when the weather is crummy, so sometimes I have to play by myself. I can climb up to the slide and go down it all by myself, and I can dig some very good holes.


I like making towers and forts and houses with my blocks.

...and I really love wearing my Dad's big huge shoes!

...so as you see, I am doing well. I am learning lots of words, including adding the long-missing end-sylables to already learned words! I am getting EVEN better at climbing, and I can hop now! I feed myself my own breakfast cereal now, which was the only meal I still had to be fed a short while ago. Oh yeah, and I have discovered the fun game of pee-ing in my potty! It doesn't hinder me from going in my diaper, but when I tell my Momma or Dad that I have to "pee!" and they are quick enough, then I pee in my potty, and then I get a raisin as a reward. Yay!

Febuary will be another busy month, but I will try to remind my Momma and Dad to update my blog a bit more often...

Got milk?

*Gulp-gulp-gulp-gulp*

*Aaaaah* ...need I say more?

...so I know that this picture doesn't look very dramatic...

But here is a close-up! Yep, that looks just a little more dramatic... on January 4th I got to take my very first trip to the ER! I was climbing, and fell off of the chair, and landed on the leg of my high chair with my mouth. My lip split open two ways, leaving a nice little right-angled V that bled like a stuck pig. Because it wasn't just a bite, but an actual split lip, my Momma and Dad took me to the ER, just in case I needed stitches. Because of how deep the split was, they would have liked to do something, but because it was on my lip, they had to let it heal on its own rather than sewing or glue-ing or stapling it. I had a fat lip for a few days, and will probably have a scar, but hey! I'm a boy! Scars are cool!

And as you can see, a split lip certainly didn't keep me from eating! Hmmmmmm... nothing like feeding myself "noo-noos" with "mee" (noodles with meat sauce)


Happy New Year 2008, everyone!!!

Veggies vs Chocolate...!

A few days ago, we went to a cafe in Heidelberg with some friends. They had a bunch of different kinds of chocolate that looked soooooooo good! What the heck are my Momma and Dad thinking, not giving me sweeties until I'm 2? Can't you see how delicious they are?

.......want...... hmmmmmmmm......

Instead, I get to eat zucchini, and salad, and carrots, and meat and noodles... you know, all those things that will make me big and healthy and strong. Ok, ok, and as you can tell, I like those, too... but not as much as I liked that cookie that I stuffed in my mouth faster than lightening when my Dad was offering me a tiny nibble!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you all had a good one. I sure did!
A few days before Christmas, we decorated a very poky tree! It is sooooooo beautiful... too bad it pokes my hand every time I try to touch it. Big mean tree.
On Christmas eve, my Momma cooked us a really good steak meal, and then my Momma and Dad played with me, and told me the Christmas story.

Look at all those gifts! Most of them are mine. Of course.
Look what my Dad gave me!

It's a wooden sword! You use these to make loud noises by hitting the couch, and you can poke the kitty with it. Oh yeah. And don't forget fishing for things on top of the shelf!
So I unpacked, and unpacked and unpacked. It was fun! Thank you to everyone who gave me loot!
After unpacking gifts, I had fun playing with my new toys. My Momma and I built two really tall towers with the additional mega blocks I got.

And I had fun playing with the little race track. Hmm. This car doesn't fit.
Just to make sure my older toys didn't get jealous, I played with them, too...

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Got my drivers license...

Yeah! I did! At least I think I did... a guy in a booth gave it to me, and then I drove around and around in a car. Another guy took my license away from me, though, so then I had to get out of the car. I was not happy about that. Not happy at all.

Well, it sure is fun to be a fireman! I get to clank this big bell, and drive around and around!


My Momma is hiding behind the lamp from Dad. She was being pretty unsafe, standing on the OUTSIDE of my truck while I drove!

Well, now that I am well again, I am sure there will be more pictures of me.... right Momma and Dad?

I'm a Bronchitosaurus! Grrrr!

Sorry that there aren't more pictures, and that there hasn't been a post for so long! My Momma had a class all last week (just one more to go!)and I've been sick since Friday. It started as a regular cough, but then I had a fever this weekend, and my cough got worse and worse. The doctor said today that I am a dinosaur. Yeah. She said I am a Bronchitosaurus. Or something like that. Being a dinosaur is no fun. They make you swallow icky pink antibiotics. I do like my cool inhaler, though. By the way, my kind of dinosaur weighs 30lbs (13.6 kg) and is 35 inches tall (88.5 cm).



Well, I am sick and whiny, but I can still cheese for the camera! More later, when I am well again!

I'm a Piranha!

...or am I a crocodile? Or a shark? Whatever I am, I have lots and lots of teeth! I just got my canines, so I have 16 (sixteen!) teeth now. Hooray for no more teething until I am 2!

Uhhh, yeah. SO my Momma didn't take any pictures of me last week, so she decided to take some of me eating this morning. Great choice. I get to show off my teeth and how well I can eat with a fork.

Ok, so first you get the food to stick on the fork, by any means necessary.

Then you open your mouth really wide, so as to avoid poking yourself.

And when you are done chewing, you open your mouth wide to show your Momma and Dad that you have no more food left.

And then you smile a toothy crocodile smile to entice them to give you more food.

Ps: This is not a halo, the sun is just shining through my morning-fuzzy hair. Just in case you were wondering...