Life: Idiotropic

I can't believe that Elise is two years old already. The time really has flewn by. She is so tiny still that people always think she's younger until she opens her mouth to talk and boy, can she talk! Sometimes I think she anunciates better than Luci and her sentences are wonderful and complex! The other absolutely amazing thing is that she is by far the most polite person in the house. Thank you is her favorite word and it is not uncommon to hear "thank you so much, mommy" coming out of her mouth. It is the sweetest thing!


So, on her birthday I'd wanted to have a little fun, but the marder got in the way of the morning play, so we had to take care of that first. In the afternoon we picked up Arianna and Luci and went out for coffee and dessert. The girls loved it because we sat outside and they got to watch the goldfish in the pond. I think I'll go there more often. It was as if I didn't have any children. Mom and I visited and the girls stared at the fish almost the entire time. Elise did take a little time to have some cake which was good because with the bandaged fingers and marder issue, I hadn't had time to bake one.

That afternoon we just played until ballet time, then we all piled in the van for Sittard. While Tiara danced, we all sat around and had some good, ol' fashioned birthday ice cream.
Kirk and Arianna above and my mom with Luci below... Tiara did get to join us after ballet and have some ice cream too. The scary thing about that was that she puts on her shrug and little skirt after ballet to be a little more dressed and she's just cute. So she and Kirk were walking together out of the market towards the car and Kirk noticed young guys looking over at her checking her out. He was terrified. I'm just glad she still thinks boys are icky.
The girls wanted blue flavor - it's actually called Smurfeis. Yep, smurfs are big over here. They like the color and it takes a bit like caramel. My mistake was putting her in the white dress. By the time she was done with her ice cream, the front of her dress looked like a very good tie-dye job. At least it was a pretty color blue.
We'd gone to our favorite ice cream place on the market. I know the owner there and she is very nice. She speaks great English too... but at one point I'd asked for another Mineralwasser and an Apfelschorle. Apfelschorle is a very common drink here in Germany that is basically a mix of apple juice and mineral water - the girls love it. I assumed that because Sittard is right on the border that they would know about it. I assumed wrong. She must have thought that my pronunciation was horrible because a few minutes later she brought out a large plate of apple strudel. I thought that may be she was just being nice since it was Elise birthday, but the schorle never showed up. Oh well... live and learn. It was good strudel nonetheless and after the cake for lunch and ice cream, I guess it was good to top off the rest of the sweets in our tummies.
When we got home we brought the presents outside and played in the yard. Elise got a new soccer ball and a new baby doll and a few other little things.
The big hit was a set that I got with a tunnel and two tents. It was actually supposed to be a tent and a teepee, but it was packaged wrong. Still, we made it work and the girls had a great time playing in it. At one point, all 4 girls were in one little tent and they were laughing. Amazing... wish they could cooperate that well in the bathroom.