Another Weird Headline

Remember how I am drawn to weird headlines? Well here is another one that caught my attention. This one just makes my skin crawl though. Could you imagine? I kind of wish there was a picture to go with it though.

Independence and the Balloon

I'm big on fostering independence in my kids...or at least I try to be. I'm still working on that in some areas like making your bed every morning. However, I'm not big on chasing down a balloon every time this little girl's hands let go of it. She got a balloon at the grocery store and was quite delighted. Balloon was one of her first words after all. But the string is just an inch too short for her to reach it when she lets go of it. I was in the middle of trying to put the groceries away so I told her to go and get the stool. She did, positioned it right under the balloon (maybe not such a good idea as she had a hard time finding the string because it was right over her head), grabbed the string and hopped down. She went on to do this several times until once the balloon kind of drifted over the table. The look on her face as she stood on the stool and easily looked over table said it all. She went on to try the kitchen counters to see what she could see. Luckily, nothing too interesting, so I don't know if she'll make the connection when there is actually something up there that she wants. We'll have to wait and see, but it wouldn't surprise me with this one. She's got a pretty good thinker on top of her shoulders. That being said, I guess you have to be careful when you give them 'tools' to independence...they just might use them.

Jam Session

Last night we had a jam session going on at our house. All 3 instruments playing at once, directed by Jakob. It was kind of fun to see them all excited about playing.
The night before Ethan and Sophia had had their own little jam session. They both only know 3 notes so far (they've each only had one lesson), but since the flute and the violin are in the same key, they know the same notes. They played them over and over in various rhythms.
Here's Sophia with her violin. She got hers last week. And here is Ethan with his flute. He got his this week. I was pushing for the piano for him, but we decided to let him have a trial lesson, just to make sure he knew what he was getting in to and that he could actually play it. It turns out he's a natural and has great hand coordination according to the teacher. So flute it is.

And here is Clara pretending to go to school. We have a sleeping bag that came in a backpack. She went and got it and tried to go outside. She really loves to imitate her big brothers and sister and she gets so excited when they come home from school. It's fun to see her look up to them already.

How can anyone resist these big blue eyes?

20 Years Ago

(I'll have to dig out my pictures of the Wall)

I have a soft spot for this world changing event that happened 20 years ago. Can you believe it's been that long? The soft spot probably comes from the fact that I was actually sitting in a German class when the news broke and then 2 years later being able to visit the country that changed so much in such a short amount of time. While I lived in Germany, I met, interacted with and personally got to know people whose lives were forever changed by the "Wall" coming down. Their views on life have affected my views as well. I was there for the one year anniversary of the reunification of East and West and saw the celebration that went with it as well as some of the turmoil it had created.

The biggest eye opener, if you will, happened while I lived with my third host family. My host father's life was forever changed by the building of the wall. Dieter was from a little town close to Leipzig in what became East Germany. His family saw what was going on and had plans to leave. He left a couple of months before his parents, his sister and her husband. They were waiting for her to have a baby. The baby came after the wall was built. He was pretty young and left to make it on his own, as his family never made it out. The next 30 years he made his way back and forth, often bringing with him things the East didn't have. For the wedding of his niece he brought over the fruit (things like kiwi, pineapple, etc) among other things. I can't imagine what those years would have been like.

Well he of course still had connections in the East, so on a trip to Berlin and then down to his hometown, I got to see life there just a little after the fall. It was interesting, to say the least. I saw the difference between East and West Berlin from high a top a tower. At night you could draw a line between the two because of the outdated lighting system still not yet replaced in the East (very dim). I got to experience a wedding celebration that still did things the old way (plate smashings and all) and think how some traditions were kept alive because of the isolation. I got to drive a Trabi (shh, don't tell) and wondered how they ever lasted so long. Imagine being in a crash with something made out of fiberglass. I saw ruins, still sitting there from WWII, because the East German gov't didn't have enough money to do anything with it. I met a family that was still reeling from the change that had come to their life by the wall falling down and the gov't they knew disappearing. They had been told what to do for so long that they didn't know how to think for themselves anymore. They were really floundering, at least that was the view I took from their house as a 16 year old. On the flip side, I saw those people who were grabbing a hold of the opportunities that now were before them, ripe for the plucking.

Really it was a very interesting time to be exposed to how the world changes. I'm glad I got to witness what I did. Sadly, I haven't been back since my year there. I'm sure it looks even more different than it did then.

Here's what we have been up to

Decorating Halloween cookies to give with our "Spooking" gift. I completely thought it was a Utah thing, but our entire neighborhood was getting 'spooked' (drop off some goodies, ring the door bell and run kind of thing) Carving pumpkinsDressing up, not just once, but three times. The elementary school had a book character day. Ethan went as Ron from 'Harry Potter' (too bad you can't see the scarf I knit for him). The girl next to him I think was supposed to be Hermione. She and Ethan are 'pushing' each other in who can get the most AR points in reading. Nothing like good, friendly competition to get a child reading. Those two go back and forth in who has the most in the school. Sophia's character was Cam Janson, so she just wore normal clothes (it got her out of wearing their uniform).
My two flower fairies. I think Phil might have gotten a better picture on his camera, I hope. This is how they looked for the ward trunk or treat. Clara didn't dress up for trick or treating the next night, because it was rather cold and rainy. In fact our neighbors skipped trick or treating all together and went to a movie. I'm thinking that would be a good tradition. It would result in far less candy and be a big treat for our kids. If you have young kids I would suggest starting now. (This is coming from someone who really doesn't like Halloween and can't stand the gluttonous attitude that comes with it.) I'm not sure we could implement it now. This year Phil took the 3 older ones to the next neighborhood over. They are crazy insane with the decorating. There is a traffic cop, the actual street is blocked off and each house is a practically a production.

This was just a cute picture I took of Clara to show how well indoctrinated she is. She loves dress ups (especially this hat) and she loves to play with the cars and trucks. All 3 kids are happy she is in to their thing.