Esme made her way through the rain and brought baby Cleo along for an after school play date. Tobin had his eyes set on the big girls only – showing no interest in socializing with non-walkers. Crazy how fast kids move from one stage to the next…

It’s been over 6 months since we last visited Baltimore, MD, so we drove down for a few days during Mika’s spring break. The weather was outstanding and the kids were able to play outdoors for most of the time … except for meals, naps, and little family excursions. Tobin discovered how to sit on a ball, learned how to hug trees, and raided Uncle Joe’s model car collection. Mika spent countless hours with Harabogi playing ball, picking flowers, and playing with the water hose. She also mastered speed-sliding the stairs (see below) and taught Tobin to do the same – only backwards, on his belly.

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After a day of promising weather, it was back to a wintry drizzle today. Mika and Luna literally got rained off the swings. Everybody complained about their cold, achy hands on the way back home and a cup of hot chocolate hit the spot (Tobin was captivated by a tablespoon of chocolate-y whipped cream). Still, can’t wait for Spring to settle!

The kids got to go egg hunting after all – at Brooklyn Urban Meadow, a local community garden next to one of our playgrounds. It was much smaller than other events, therefore more relaxed. Absolute highlight: one of the sponsors had brought a remarkably calm, real bunny along! Also, we bumped into a bunch of friends … pictured are: Lillian, who touched the bunny up close, and little Elijah with his mom.

Once again, our Easter Sunday was just a fraction of what i grew up with in Germany (a federal, 4-day holiday weekend … celebrated religiously as well as a family get-together). This year, we skipped the annual egg hunt in DUMBO and decided to have our very own: 12 eggs, hidden in our living room, just for Mika and Tobin to find. The mini egg hunt turned out to be a success: Mika wanted me to hide those eggs over and over again.

In the middle of Passover- and Easter Holiday Season we found time for a perfect, leisurly family play date. Elsie and Violet came out to Brooklyn to play all morning with us at the Children’s Museum and spend the afternoon at our house. It’s crazy to see how fast they grow up…

Almost every afternoon, Tobin is tagging along with Mika’s play dates. Sometimes there are younger siblings for him to play with, but most of the time he just has to adapt to her friends. Today things worked the other way around: Mika (being on spring break) tagged along with Tobin and Bruno’s weekly play date. The kids played well except for a brief moment when the siblings didn’t want to give Bruno another turn on the JennSwing…

Mika has been drawing and writing up a storm lately. Also, she’s not asking for spelling help anymore and writes phonetically all by herself. Some passages need to be read aloud … as you would a William Steig letter puzzle:

(1) “DES  O  BAB  RABD” = this (is) a baby rabbit, “N  O  MAMI” = and a mami/mother. The swirly thing is a view of human intestines – something they had seen and talked about at school that day.

(2) An easter bunny Mika drew for downstairs neighbor Bruno (6 years old). She put a lot of work into it after receiving a drawing from Bruno … but was too shy to say a word to him when she dropped off the card.

(3) Easter basket with eggs and two easter bunnies.

(4) “IS A POLR BIR” = (This) is a polar bear … complete with impressive bear paws and stubby little tail. Also, he is living on an aluminum-tape iceberg. No idea why he needs a ladder to escape though.

(5) “DINOSAUR REX” – a preschool obsession.

Tobin is expanding his active vocabulary, one syllable at a time. In fact, almost everything he says at the moment are one-syllable ‘words’ … except for when he lets pictures do the talking: last week he ordered a refill of orange slices by pointing back and forth from Eric Carle’s caterpillar‘s oranges to his empty bowl.

This week, ‘range is part of his repertoire. Here are some words he picked up since the last post. There are more daily, so i won’t post about this again until he actually speaks in real terms…

(Tobin (Ger) (Eng) / German / English):

Mü’ & hat / Mütze / hat

Au’ & eye / Auge / eye

Mü’ & tash / Müll / trash

Tee & tea / Tee / tea

si’ / sitzt / sitting

‘range / Orange / orange

‘tiiii / Klementine / clementine

‘sine / Rosine / raisin

F’sch / Fisch / fish

‘las / Glas / glass

Bu’ / Buch / book

Gei’ / Geige / violin

‘siiik / Musik / music

Bu / Blume / flower

das / das / that

lall-all! / alle-alle! / empty!

meh’ / mehr / more

tiiis! & bye! / Tschüß! / bye!

mine! / meins! / mine!

‘poon / Löffel / spoon

New names: Bu (Bruno), Kai, Gaang, Nee (that’s for ‘Mika’ … i know, it doesn’t have anything to do with her actual name)

Our Sunday started with a dress-up birthday party for Zara, one of Mika’s friends from school. As you can see, if a bunch of 4-year olds is being asked to pick their own costumes, all girls will end up being fairies or princesses. It’s essentially the same costume – tutu (dress) and crown (headband) – just add wings for the fairy.

Our over-sugared girls didn’t stop us from chilling the rest of the afternoon with Olivia’s parents (the girls closed the door on us for most of the time, and Tobin took a much deserved 2-hour nap). Next time we’ll plan ahead so that we can all go for dinner in K-town together…

This week Mika almost wanted to skip her ballet class. Again. She hit her after-school energy slump pretty hard at pickup time and was ready to melt down. Her teacher had a great idea to get her motivated: take photos and bring them to ‘show and tell‘. She happily obliged…

We’re sorry we can’t be in Bremen to celebrate the kids’ (German) great grandmother’s birthday. To make up for it, the whole family put together an extra special package: a 42-minute long custom ‘tour’ of our house on DVD, a handmade (easter bunny!) card from Mika, and some home made cookies … delivered to the post office by Tobin himself.