1. Caleb is handy.

2. Caleb is a thoughtful man of God.

3. Caleb is a wonderful father.

4. Caleb was brave enough to come to my bridal shower (in Iowa, since many of the women there were his family’s friends).

5.Caleb can change the oil in our car.

6. Caleb has good aim.

7 & 8. Caleb can soothe a baby with his pinky finger AND can rock an umbrella-hat.

9. Caleb has a great smile.

10. Caleb has that Iowa charm.

11. Caleb takes his job as big brother seriously, never missing a chance to give baby bro a hard time.

12. Caleb is a sports fan and instills the same in his children.

13. Caleb supports me in my marathoning endeavors.

14. Caleb is a good pillow.

15. Caleb plays soccer.

16. Caleb is a bit of a redneck. :-)

17. Caleb looks good with a beard.

18. Caleb got us tickets to the opening game at Nationals Stadium!

19. Caleb is fun (and much better than me at croquet!).

20. Caleb can be a little boring. :-) (Actually, Caleb has the patience to read so many books that our kids can’t keep their eyes open anymore.)

21. Caleb has fully embraced raising our kids as German-speaking and has been learning the language himself. And he doesn’t believe it, but he is doing an amazing job of learning German.

22. Caleb was the only family member besides Mom who made it to Dad’s U.S. citizenship ceremony.

23. Caleb would make an excellent giraffe.

24. Caleb is a good dancer.

25. Caleb is a loyal friend.

26. Caleb loves the outdoors.

27. Caleb boldly lets me cut his hair. . . sometimes a bit too short!

28. Caleb is scholarly.

29. Caleb is a good sport.

30. Caleb is my best friend.

Happy birthday, Caleb! We love you!

Just a smattering of the nicknames we have heard for the snowy weather that has pounded DC this winter. I heard on the radio today that if we were located in Upstate New York, we would be in the running for their “Golden Snowball” award, which goes to the NY city with the most snowfall in any given year.

I’m snowver it. This may be fun for those who own cross country skis and/or Netflix subscriptions, but it’s snow fun for those of us with small children with bundles of energy and a constant need for entertainment. Since Caleb has turned the kids’ bedroom into his home office, the three of us have been restricted to amusing ourselves in about 500 square feet. . . for DAYS on end. I’m snow excited for spring, but I think that is still a ways off.

In case you somehow haven’t heard about DC’s many snow storms this winter, I have chronicled a few here:

Our first snow of the year barely even counts anymore! It’s funny now that I was very deliberate about making sure the kids took advantage of the inch or two. Had I known then what I of course snow now, I probably wouldn’t have taken snow many pictures of this!

Second December Snow (The first “Snowpocalypse,” on December 19th)

Our kids really LOVED the snow. . . can you tell?

But at least our Christmas lights looked beautiful in the two feet of snow!

January was not snow bad. . . I think we had a few light snowfalls, but these days, we barely take note of anything less than a foot! We had some snow on the 30th/31st, and another light, fluffy snow on February 3. You can see some of the remnants of the first and beginnings of the second of those two snowfalls in these pictures. At least they were not significant enough to trap us indoors!

Then came snowmaggedon. We got about 25 inches on Saturday, February 6. It was too cold and windy for our kids’ tastes on Saturday, but Sunday was sunny and allowed for some good sledding.

We also were dog-sitting Bo for my sister.

Simona and I made a snowman, and she was VERY proud. (Unfortunately, the snow was a little too fluffy for a really good snowperson, but she didn’t seem to mind one bit!)

One of the reasons I am not snow excited about all the white stuff is that this is my route to our laundry facilities:

These icicles have formed on the back of our house. They are pretty to admire, but they are dangerous! I was on our back steps when a sheet of ice fell and shattered around me; luckily, I was just hit by a few small shards.

Finally, today’s snow has been the most grueling. We are snow tired of sitting around the house, but wind gusts of up to 50 mph and white out conditions have meant yet another day of staying indoors. Simona has been asking if we can please GO somewhere, and even Andreas seems antsy. It’s snow fun for active preschoolers and toddlers to be trapped! A few photos from today:

And now, pop quiz: Can you find our car?!

More December / January pictures will be up soon. We anticipate having plenty of time to update, since frantic weather updates lead us to believe that we’ll be snowed into our home for the foreseeable future. . .

1. Rock Creek Park. Technically, this may not be in “our” neighborhood, but since it is only a mile away and since it is where I have logged hundreds of running miles, I think it counts. RCP is a national park and is an amazing forest within Washington, D.C.’s city limits. (Thank you for your tax dollars, which help maintain it!) With dozens of hiking (running!) trails; beautiful streams, trees, and wildlife; a nature center adjacent to horse stables; and some historical sites to boot, RCP is the perfect escape from city life. Some of the animals I’ve seen on runs in the park include hundreds of deer (some quite bold!), foxes, blue herons, and a hawk. I love witnessing the changing seasons and experiencing a bit of nature on a a regular basis.

2. The Takoma Rec Center. We live literally a 3-minute walk from the Takoma recreation center, which includes outdoor basketball & tennis courts, our amazing playground (see below), a kid-sized & Olympic-sized swimming pool, a community center, a baseball field, and a soccer field. It is such a privilege to have all of this at our doorstep, and we try to make good use of the open spaces and the facilities on a regular basis. I swam throughout both of my pregnancies and continue to frequent the pool to cross train on non-running days. (The rec center also offers a wide variety of classes and boasts a fitness center, but I’ve never availed myself of those amenities. Still-nice to know they’re there.)
**Incidentally- if you click on the link for the rec center, it takes you to a picture from the website for. . . Caleb’s employer. Yep, this gem was one of his company’s projects, though Caleb himself did not work on it.**

3. “Our” playground. I know there are many wonderful playgrounds all over the world, and there are several wonderful parks within walking distance. Still, I love the one by the Takoma Rec Center for several reasons. First, it is about a 7 minute walk from our house, so we can go any chance we can. Second, it has swings, which not all playgrounds do these days. Third, it is surrounded by beautiful shade trees, which are a must on those hot summer mornings! Fourth, it is a true cross section of the world. I have met au pairs from Thailand, Germany, and France; nannies from Honduras, Peru, St. Martin, and Costa Rica; moms from Mexico, England, Liberia, China, and Latvia; day care workers from Jamaica and the Dominican Republic; and Dads from El Salvador and Cuba. (Of course, there are plenty of born-andbred Americans, too.) What a mix! Finally, fifth, our playground is a community-building center. I know countless people in our neighborhood only because our kids play together regularly, and I treasure that connection to the community around us.

4. Walkability. In addition to the above-mentioned amenities around here, we also live less than a ten minute walk from a major grocery store, a pharmacy, a post office, a shoe store, three or four dry cleaners, several carry out restaurants, a few sit down restaurants, a variety of banks, a thrift store, a dollar store, multiple churches, and a public library. We can also access public transportation without problem, as we live steps from a bus line connecting us to the Metro (which itself is less than a 15-minute walk). We enjoy the convenience of having a car because we have kids but believe that if we were childless, we could easily get by with bikes, our feet, and public transportation. Even with kids, we occasionally go for days without using our car.

5. Coolidge High School. Living across the street from a large DC public high school is certainly a mixed blessing, but we enjoy being able to use their recently resurfaced track and football field (for playing soccer with Simona) during non-school hours. We also get to watch their drum line, football team, and cheerleading/dance squads practice, which is cheap entertainment to a young preschooler!

6. Our neighbors. Last but not least, we enjoy our neighbors. This is a predominantly African American, working class neighborhood, and many of our street’s residents have lived here for decades. Living in such close proximity to others- sharing walls, parking spaces, and sidewalks with them- can sometimes be difficult, but it creates shared space and shared experience nearly non-existent in the suburbs. We have been awakened by the police knocking on our neighbor’s door to deliver tragic news, and we have shared another neighbor’s joy at finally receiving a wheel chair for her disabled son. We have helped and been helped in snow removal and car repair efforts. Kids have spent lazy afternoons having a tea party with Simona on our porch or coloring with sidewalk chalk outside our house. Sometimes we feel like we live under a microscope, but we believe that sharing life with those around us has helped us feel connected to our street and neighborhood.

There you have it– the reasons I love our neighborhood. I will periodically be posting more lists about “What I love about DC.” Stay tuned!
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Other udpates: Simona has fallen and hurt her other top front tooth, so we’re waiting with bated breath and hoping that it will not also need to be pulled. Andreas is taking more and more unassisted steps, so we think he will be fully walking in the next week or so.

His first cake was fun all around. I enjoyed making it, though I must say that it didn’t turn out quite as I had envisioned! He ended up with a round, snow-ball looking creation (chocolate cake & coconut icing), while the rest of us enjoyed similar-looking cupcakes. (Hey- I never claimed to be Betty Crocker!)

Simona got to blow out the candle and lick the icing off of the #1. She also decided to bite off a bit and quickly learned that candles look prettier than they taste!

Andreas, for his part, started off skeptical, dipping his finger into the icing and cautiously licking. He quickly progressed from handfuls of icing to diving in face first, fulfilling his obligation to show enormous enthusiasm for his first birthday cake. Guess the funny looking snowball cake still tasted good!

A is crawling FAST, climbing and pulling up on everything, and starting to vocalize much more. (He even took his first few steps on January 2! But because he’s such a good crawler, he much prefers that mode of transportation.) He loves looking at books and pictures, making lots of little cooing noises while pointing at various pictures. I’m pretty sure he knows what the word “Katze” means (cat), and he definitely can identify various people. I whistle to him while I change his diapers, and he usually tries to whistle back at me, pursing his little lips and making sweet noises. His big sister can make him laugh at the drop of a hat and is by far his favorite person to watch. He loves baths, being chased, banging on things, and fruit. He hates vegetables, being scolded, and being strapped into his car seat. We are working on his sleeping habits- he take short naps because he’s such a light sleeper, and he STILL wakes up in the night pretty frequently. This is a huge contrast to Simona, who literally has slept through A stepping on her face.

His eyes are doing very well, though he still has three little granulomas (the bumps visible on his left eyelid) that lead to plenty of questions from strangers. He will need an additional surgery in a couple of years, at which time the granulomas can be removed. More important, though, is that his December ophthalmology check up went very well; he was right on track for visual development for a one-year-old. His ophthalmologist noted that he had made at note in the chart at his first appointment (at one month old) that Andreas would likely need glasses by his first birthday. We’re fortunate that’s not the case.

Hard to believe a whole year has gone by already. Your little dimples light up our house, and your laughter is contagious. We are lucky to have you in our family. Happy Birthday, Andreas!

So wherever this finds you, we wish you and your families a wonderful holiday!
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UPDATE: As you can see, we have updated the “look” of our website. The content has not changed (besides some recently uploaded photos); however, it is much more user-friendly on our end. Which makes updates a bit easier for us.

Credit for the photo at the top of the site goes to our good friend Brett.

Hope you enjoy it!

. . . ONE front tooth.

Yup, our little Simona’s first tooth is out. I wouldn’t quite say it “fell” out, seeing as how there was a nasty pair of plyers involved, but out it is.

Back in September, while we were at a playground in Leipzig, Germany, Simona fell while climbing on a rock at a playground. Her lip bled, but otherwise we couldn’t see much visible damage. She complained of her tooth hurting for several days, but after about a week she seemed fine again. We mentioned it to her pediatrician when we went in for Andreas’s 9-month check up, and he took a look. He also saw no visible damage and told us to contact a dentist if she started complaining again or if we saw any changes.

This past Friday night, while reading her a bedtime story, I noticed that it looked a bit gray. Caleb was at the store, and I forgot to mention it to him when he got home. The next day, he noticed it himself. So, on Monday morning, we left a message at our dentist (who fortunately also does pediatric dentistry and is wonderful with children). When we got in touch, they gave us an appointment for 8 AM this morning. Simona was very brave and did a great job with our dentist, who could see that the root was becoming infected. She wanted it out right away, so she sent us straight to an oral surgeon whom she recommends for pediatrics. (She doesn’t do procedures like that on children under 5 in her office.)

The oral surgeon’s office was very quick. They didn’t want Andreas in the room, so I had to bring the carseat into the office, strap him in, and leave him behind the receptionist’s desk while I went in with Simona. Not much later, we had two crying children and one tiny purple treasure chest containing Simona’s very first tooth.

We weren’t anticipating our first visit from the tooth fairy quite so early, but, like everything else in parenthood, you just can’t predict these things!

Between S & A’s childbirths, I read and researched the topic extensively out of a mixture of curiosity and self interest.  Some of what I read included the books Pushed, by Jennifer Block; Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born, by Tina Cassidy; and Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin.  I also watched The Business of Being Born, visited a few websites discussing and debating childbirth and maternal medical care, and even researched some public health statistics on childbirth.

My research and personal experiences have lead me to two conclusions.  First, I believe that the process of childbirth matters.  The techniques and procedures used by medical professionals who attend deliveries are of life-and-death consequence for mother and child.  And statistics bear out the fact that, though childbirth in the United States is much safer than in countries without advanced medical technology, it is not nearly as safe as it could or should be.  Better birth matters because those statistics are not just numbers.  They are actual lives of actual mothers and babies who matter and who deserve the best possible chance at health and life.

My second conclusion is that the discourse surrounding childbirth rapidly deteriorates into a pointless debate between the “natural birth” and “medical intervention” camps, to the detriment of women and babies’ health.  In the fight for access to improved health care, women seem to have lost the forest for the trees.  The insistence on a certain “birth experience” for the sake of ensuring the safest, least painful outcome for mother and baby is worthwhile.  The quest to make childbirth a homey, comfortable experience, though, is not only futile but can also be extremely risky.

I would argue that improved maternal/fetal care is not only desirable but also attainable.  Both the “interventionists” and the “naturalists” are doing what they believe is optimal and that both desire the best possible outcome for mother and baby.  I acknowledge that other factors can cloud medical professionals’ judgements: profit, convenience, fear of lawsuits, etc.  But I seriously doubt that any person who works in labor and delivery does not care when a mother or child dies or is seriously injured.  Both “camps” can learn from one another.  This requires humility on both sides, along with an acknowledgement that childbirth is and likely always will remain a dangerous prospect.

Finally, I would urge a healthy dose of perspective.  One of the dear friends mentioned above did not have the happy, healthy outcome we all desperately desire.  Though her loss was not caused by her daughter’s birth experience, it did offer the poignant reminder that anyone whose pregnancy outcome is a heatlhy mother and child have first and foremost an obligation to be grateful and secondmost a reason to do all possible to ensure that other mothers have access to that same outcome.

Today was one of those days.  After a rough night (continued teething woes for Andreas), we got a late start getting everyone dressed, fed, and ready for the day.  Because of the specific items I needed for a few recipes I’m making this week, I knew we’d need to head to two grocery stores to complete our list.  We headed out for the dreaded errand run and made good time getting through both stores.  Even better, we had successfully avoided meltdowns. . . but I could tell we were on the brink.  Andreas was NOT happy about the extended search for chicken bullion cubes (Aisle 4 at the New Hampshire Avenue Shoppers, for future reference).
So as I’m pushing to finish up and get home for lunch and naps, admittedly buying peace from Andreas with a graham cracker, the check out woman gets chatty with Simona.  Bad move.  I guarantee you that a 3-year-old can out-chat anyone.  Even the chattiest of grocery clerks.

Then, as is liable to happen around here, a random acquaintance of the clerk walks up and joins the conversation.  Pretty soon, Simona is pulling up a pant leg to show off her “owie” from tripping on the sidewalk on Sunday.  Now, mind you, this minor scrape had already spent two days covered by a Curious George band aid (which in turn meant not bathing for two days).  Suffice it to say that the wound was well on its way to being healed.  But, the clerk and her friend decide that a band aid is necessary, and preferably a Barney band aid.  They begin discussing looking for the first aid kit, which, I’m sure, would contain no Barney band aid.  I’m already envisioning such a prolonged search for Barney that nap time will have come and gone before we finish paying, so I, smilingly but firmly, convince them that Simona really is OK and that we can skip the first aid kit.
Finally convinced, the cashier resumes checking groceries but now is singing the famous “I love you” Barney song.  Simona hears it, jumps in, and before you know it, we have a grocery store sing along happening.   I am not lying.  Two cashiers, Simona, and customers in each of the two check line are singing.  Andreas is amused and entertained; I am able to quickly finish my transaction; and we manage to leave the store as the MOST (instead of the usual LEAST) popular customers.

Crisis averted, and another successful morning as a mom is in the history books.

We did have a few small “incidences” along the way.  Our flight from DC to Newark was delayed, and we were in danger of missing our connection to Hamburg.  So I was rebooked on a “just in case” itinerary that would have taken us from DC to Newark, Newark to MADRID, and Madrid to Hamburg.  Not only is Madrid NOT AT ALL on the way to Hamburg, but such a route also would have taken an extra 12 hours.  Now, I’ve always wanted to go to Spain, but definitely NOT by myself with two children and with a limited supply of diapers / food / Euros!  Thankfully, all went well and we caught our connection in Newark.  Still haven’t made it to Spain, but someday. . .

And on the way home, we missed our Newark-DC connection but were easily rebooked on the next flight out and made it home without further problems.  Again, the kids were amazing.

Our time in Deutschland was great.  We ate LOTS, trying to (literally) cram in all of our favorites in a limited amount of time.  We spent a few days traveling to Dresden, Leipzig, and Berlin, which were great.  Being there almost exactly 20 years after the fall of wall was great timing; unfortunately, two little kids are not all that interested in exploring the historical significance of these cities.  So, we took in what we could and focused on enjoying time together as a family.  We’d definitely take the chance to return to these cities to see some more, but we also think our next few years of family vacations will emphasize kid-friendly activities over touristy sight-seeing.

The time in Glueckstadt was fun but too short, as always.  It’s been amazing to see our children get to interact with their great grandparents, and we are trying hard to take advantage of that for as long as possible.  Simona got to attend a German preschool for a morning, which she loved.  Andreas sampled his first ice cream, and both of them got spoiled by family.  Caleb and I particularly enjoyed sitting with Nancy’s Dad and Oma in the evenings, telling stories, drinking beer (or water!), and eating Schwarzbrot.

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Other updates:  As mentioned we lost our camera in Germany.  We do have pictures to upload and hope to do that soon.  (These are from my dad’s camera and from our video camera.)  My parents generously gave us their old digital camera, but we need to figure out how to get pics off the camera and onto our computer, so post-Germany pictures may be a while in coming.  We’ll try to stay on top of it!