Congratulations from Mika and Tobin – Mika thought you should have a birthday card as special as her own. Hopefully the original made it in time to Germany?

We all wish you a great birthday (party!) and a healthy and happy new year to come. Talk to you soon on the phone … once this side of the Atlantic wakes up as well.

Mika was determined to help prepare this year’s Thanksgiving feast. Right after breakfast, she put on Omi Hiltraud’s apron and helped me tackle the bird, peel potatos, even cook cranberry sauce … until Dora the Explorer floated down the Macy’s parade. Just kidding – her 4-year old attention span wouldn’t have backed up an entire holiday shift in the kitchen anyway.

In the end, the five of us had a wonderful, relaxed meal: Tobin discovered his love for string beans, Luna discovered her love for Tobin who was ‘sharing’ his turkey meat, and Mika ate a little bit of everything because she loved earning her slice of pumpkin pie for dessert. Sung and i loved being at home with our little family and have a lot to be thankful for.

For no particular reason, it’s been ages since Mika and Luna last had a playdate. Today, it was already getting dark when we met, so the girls couldn’t try Luna’s new swing set in the garden. Still, we had a lot of fun indoors and the girls learned a lot about animals.

We had a blast at your party today – meeting your (other) lifelong friends, eating delicious carrot cupcakes, even borrowing your favorite bunny shirt. To many more years of friendship and a great BirthDAY tomorrow!

… it usually is.

This picture was taken at 7:51 a.m. this morning, when Sung had just gotten up with Mika. Strangely – but conveniently on a Saturday – Tobin had fallen asleep for a ‘bonus round’ that took him a few minutes past his usual 7:00 – 7:30 a.m. wake time.

Moments later, Mika busted into the bedroom as well and both kids were bouncing off the walls. How can they be SO energetic the second their eyes open? Oh, right: they sleep 12 hours every night!

Since Sung and i are taking turns at sleeping in, i dragged myself up for breakfast duty and let him catch some more zzz’s. Later we met Mark, who is in town from SF, and some of his Brooklyn friends for brunch on Smith Street.

Bruno and Tobin intruded on Luna’s naptime today – she was a good sport, but ultimately decided that it was time to teach the boys some manners. No animals (or babies) were seriously hurt…

… is a play date that ends with chocolate ice cream for dessert. Just ask Mika and Lillian.

Mika has entered the early phonetic writing stage and is more obsessed with letters than ever. At her school, all older kids keep a visual journal – usually with drawings only – and we got a glimpse of it at the parent teacher conference: BAIGAL (bagel) are her favorite after school snack, but i also liked the page where WE GO AUT TU HAOS (we go out to/of the house). The teachers might’ve helped her with the TORNADO spelling, but she is very proud of her 4th BIRFDAY invite she created at home.

Miss Ines Alto (formerly known as ‘Baby I.’) graduated to being a big girl with a gym party extravaganza. Our kids enjoyed bouncing off the walls (pre and post sugar high) and later helped unpack the presents at Chloe and Ines‘ home.

Here we go again … one kid has successfully learned to play well with others and share her toys, but now it’s Tobin’s (and Bruno’s!) turn to be socialized.

Tobin’s lesson today: if you can’t succeed by sheer force (see thumbnails), you have to use your mind. After he got over his ‘splitting headache of disappointment’, he discovered two more remotes hidden under the TV. ‘Nuf buttons to go around for everyone!

Today’s (no school) Holiday was the perfect occasion to take the kids to F.A.O. Schwarz and – finally – redeem Uncle Joe and Aunt Grace’s gift card. Oooh the possibilities!

Both kids spent an eternity on the famous walk-on piano and Mika took her sweet time to browse the store. She finally settled for stuffed monkeys and -birds. Being a generous big sister, she split her gift card fortune equally between Tobin and herself. Thank you Joe and Grace!

Afterwards we took the stuffed monkeys to meet some real monkeys at the zoo…

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

After a busy week (plus Saturday) of appointments and play dates, we enjoyed doing a whole lotta nothing today.