Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

We hope that our package for you made it in time, especially since we didn’t take any pictures of the birthday drawings and can’t post them here today … but the kids wanted to sing to you. TWICE. It was actually Mika’s idea: right after they had finished “Happy Birthday”, she wanted to sing the German version as well. Herzlichen Glückwunsch und bis später am Telefon/iChat! @@@@@@ MiNiToSu

There is so much to be thankful for in our life, but a special thank you goes out to Jason and Ingo, who joined our family for dinner and transitioned smoothly past the kids’ bedtime into a truly relaxed, grown-up evening.

Mika got really excited about Thanksgiving this year and asked me if Omi and Opa could come over for dinner tomorrow as well. When i reminded her that we have to fly 8 hours by plane to visit each other, she said “I wish they would live really close by, in New York” … and then walked away to draw a Thanksgiving card for them with a turkey (gobble gobble gobble!) and a rainbow. The bottom reads “I WESH U WER HERE (I wish you were here) OMI ANd OPA”

Lots of love goes out to 할아버지 and 할머니 as well. Mika drew beautiful flowers for them and tried to write their names (and her own name) in Korean. She memorizes the Korean characters for her own Name (미 카), but prefers to copy daddy’s writing for the more complicated words.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Tobin is picking up some English essentials these days (other than “No, Mika … NOOO!”). On a recent Sunday morning, “Mami … Windel wechseln!” didn’t get more than a grunt out of me. When he realized that i wouldn’t jump to the task, he walked around to Sung’s side of the bed and repeated his request: “Daddy … diaper change!”

Yesterday, Mika taught him another fun phrase: “Daddy, (can you) please open (the) gate!”

One highlight of this beautiful Fall weekend was our brunch with Harold and his family. Appropriately dressed, we could even sit outside (!) in the backyard of Cafe Luluc and enjoy a little real sunshine … with a lot of fake sunshine.

Here are Mika’s official school pictures from Kindergarten.

Now that Mika entered big kid school, we’re going to get these timeless group shots every year throughout elementary school. Don’t they look exactly like the ones you got when you were little? Even in Baltimore? Or Hamburg?

Now that Mika is able to express herself in writing, the skill is being used for good … and bad. This note was slipped under the bedroom door while she was having a timeout for hitting her brother with a wooden brick over the head.

…

Tobin on the other hand shows promising signs that maybe there is a wee bit of light throughout the tunnel of the “terrible twos” we have recently entered. For once, he has been able to laugh at himself when he realized that he threw an overly dramatic fit … but those moments are rare. Today however, he was able to put his frustration into words for the first time: I stopped him from munching more than a couple of raisins before breakfast – a house rule because otherwise we would go through a tub of raisins every other day. Predictably, he dissolved into a puddle of tears and dramatically pounded the kitchen floor with his fist. I told him to stop fake-crying as this is what we go through e-ve-ry morning and he said: “Nein! Mami ärgert Tobin!” (No! Mami is upsetting Tobin!) and proceded with his dramatic performance … just long enough to make his point. Then he took off and played with Mika until breakfast was ready.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Lucky day for Tobin: Union Street got new pavement from the waterfront all the way up to Court Street. On our grocery run we encountered the following at the corner of Henry Street: a lineup of 5 black-top hauling dump trucks, the pavement laying monster machine, 3 large rollers (Strassenwalze!), a sweeper truck, a few back-hoe diggers, and of course a crew of at least 20 people working at the immediate site.

When we got home, Tobin flipped over the 4 green carpet tiles in his play corner so that the black backsides were facing up, then lined up all his construction vehicles on top, stepped back and proclaimed: “Guck mal, Mami … die arbeiten!” (Look Mami, they’re working!)

We spent an oddly warm Sunday morning at MoMA, checking out the new Bauhaus exhibit. Tobin and i were still more sick than healthy, but once we stepped out into the sculpture garden, he briefly got carried by Mika’s exuberance and dashed around the artwork as well. After lunch, i took him home for an afternoon of hard rest, while Mika and Sung went ice skating at Bryant Park for the first time this season.

This year we finally made it to the German St. Martin’s Day Celebration in Prospect Park. We meant to go in the past 3 years and never made it. Today, we almost didn’t attend either because half of our family is still under the weather. However, Mika and Tobin had worked so hard on their lanterns (thank you Omi and Opa for the make-your-own kit!) … that we had to head out despite a steady drizzle and transportation challenges.

We were surprised how many Germans had gathered despite the weather (well over 150), and bumped into many friends. Most notably Bruno, also on his first ever St. Martins Celebration, and Luna, who is a 4-time veteran. Mika and Luna both had underwater-themed, home made lanterns. Below are two movie clips, one from the park tonight and the other from home last night.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

One of the kids’ favorite Halloween attractions is the annual Kane Street Pumpkin Lineup by local artist Jane Greengold. She and her family carve about 100 small pumpkins every year and display them on the fence of their house at the corner of Strong Place. This year, Tobin and i happened to pass the site while the pumpkins were going up on an unseasonably warm Halloween afternoon. We learned that the hardest part is to remove all seeds through the face openings alone, since they can’t carve an open lid up top for this type of display.

The pumpkins are being lit on Halloween night and then left to run their natural course (unless they’re vandalized). Mika and Tobin love the increasingly frightening and/or silly display of faces:

Mika’s oldest friend Luna turned 5 and celebrated this past weekend as well. She invited everybody to see a show at Puppetworks, and then had cupcakes at her own house. When the parents arrived at pick-up time, they quickly got dragged into a full-blown leaf fight. For a little while, Mika escaped the wild rumpus and enjoyed an uniterrupted turn on Luna’s swing…