merry christmas

here are the first couple of pictures of joon's first christmas in germany. since we do a completely candlelit celebration on christmas eve the light was not very picture friendly. we did take some video which will be up on joontoob later and martin took more pictures which i'm hoping to upload to my computer in a little while.
we had a really lovely evening and joon had a great time and is enjoying all her wonderful presents. now we're all awfully sick, the cold that joon brought home last week has finally really hit everyone. so i'll get back to pampering my sick mother and sister for now but will be back with more news later today.

missing you all and hoping you're having a wonderful holiday! love, love, love


joon trying out her new chair. she loves it.

christmas morning trying to squeeze herself and her new doll into the little bed box the doll came in.

christmas market fun

so yesterday was the third sunday of advent and we finally finally FINALLY got a chance to hang out with the cho family.

we met up at the christmas market (we were terribly late and i'm so sorry about that) where the girls first spent a good bit of time watching a little train do it's rounds. that gave the non-pregnant grown ups some time to enjoy their first gluehwein and chit chat.

we then managed to squeeze our way though the crowd. christmas markets on late sunday afternoons are completely crazy just in case you didn't know. i kept thinking, i could just yell "my water just broke!!" and we'd be out of there in no time, but i didn't wanna mess with labor karma so we just stuck in out with the rest of the half german half american crowd.

on our way over to the ferris wheel i saw three big african-american guys and one of them was carrying a baby in a brightly colored baby wrap!! hot, hot, hot! sorry, i got way excited over this guy and just had to tell you about it. :D

so as it got dark (around 4 o'clock these days) we waited to get on the gigantic ferris wheel which gave us a great view of wiesbaden at night and a slight bit of nausea.

afterwards we decided it was time for a stout and sandwich break at the irish pub where the girls quickly got on the stage already prepared for karaoke night. the first wave of dressed up G.I.'s and their "oh my god, prom night is such fun!"-looking german girl friends caused us to rush out of there very quickly after two pints (well, one yucky mom beer for me).

we did some more christmas market browsing, drooled over really pretty wooden toys and instruments for kids, walked the chos to their bus, back to the market for cotton candy and roasted almonds and then the bus took the happy, content and tired stephens family home.

great day! :)

The Joon Dictionary

Long overdue, here's a little Joon - Deutsch - Englisch dictionary I've been meaning to write and share with y'all for a couple of weeks now. I'll try and think of all of her vocabulary, but there's a very good chance I'll forget a few of the words she's been saying and she's constantly learning new words, so I'll add to this every once in a while. For now, at 17 months, Joon says...

oon ~ Joon
mama ~ mama
papa ~ papa
ahlahla ~ Annalie
ah-toh ~ Auto ~ car
mahl'n ~ malen, schreiben, Stift ~ paint, draw, pen, chalk, crayon whathaveyou
nah-ne ~ Banane ~ banana
das ~ das ~ that
ow-ah ~ aua~ outch
alloh? ~ Hallo ~ hello (she sounds perfectly french when she says alloh?)
plah-plow ~ Applaus ~ applause
buh-bye ~ Tschuess ~ bye-bye
dahn-ta ~ Danke ~ thank you
babee ~ Baby
buh-lee ~ Bauch ~ Belly
hon ~ apparently she says "hon" for mama quite frequently
henn~ Henning
koll! ~ Prost! ~ Cheers! (Maria taught her to say "skol", she likes to add a little pirate groal "arrrr!" afterwards which Dave taught her)
hi (just like "high") ~ heiss ~ hot
hot ~ heiss ~ hot (she uses both german and english and often mixes them into one word)
nein ~ nein ~ no
no ~ nein ~ no
vine ~ Schwein ~ pig
aaaah ~ Zaehne putzen ~ brushing teeth
eye ~ ei (streicheln), weich, lieb ~ pedding, gentle, soft, nice
shoosh ~ Schuhe ~ shoes
feese ~ Fuesse ~ feet



list of animal sounds she likes to make:
mah-ohw ~ cat
vouv-vouv ~ dog
mouh ~ cow
open and close mouth quickly without making sound ~ bunny
crazy pig sound
mah (as in MAny) ~ goat
peep peep ~ birds and ducklings
gack-cack ~ duck
crazy horse sound
couck-ou-louh! ~ cockadoodledoo
ouh-ouh ~ owl
bssssssss ~ bee (she points with her index finger and moves arm in big circle and eventually "stings" either herself or one of us)


Joon also tries to say Oma, Gra'ma and Grandpa and Maria and tries to repeat many more words that she hears us say. Plus, I'm quite sure there are words she uses that we simply haven't caught yet. She speaks all day (and sometimes all night). She repeats short phrases too, like "Oh, das ist aber schoen!" (oh, that's quite pretty!) and she's combined words into two word phrases like "Mama malen".


Yup, she's a talker. And we're really enjoying finally getting to verbally communicate with her.

babynames

so i'm somewhere around the 30-weeks mark now, i guess and we've yet to find a name for our new baby.

she's gonna be an eleanor, that's decided, but we're not sure if that'll be the first or middle name and we need another name to go with it.

suggestions? we're glad to take them. seriously! please post your suggestions!
how often to parents-to-be (-again) actually ask for babyname suggestions? this is a rare opportunity for you, take advantage of it and give us lots and lots of name ideas, please. and don't fear going really far out there, i'd kinda like something exotic.

oh, and just in case our girl turns out to be a boy we'd also like to have a boy name prepared... the initials need to be M.D. thoughts?

leaves

fun, fun, fun!

turns out our kid needs no toys in order to be happy and entertained. who would've thought, right?

today joon had loads of fun digging through the thick layers of leaves that have completely buried the little playground behind our building.

she also played dress up with random clothing items she found laying around the house (yes, it's constant chaos here).

last night while papa was making dinner and mama was making a baby carrier, joon cooked with two colanders, a wooden spoon and some dried noodles from our kitchen. she then served the food into little containers she gathered from her toy, or rather "stuff", box.

she likes to get the laundry from the washing machine and helps me "hang" it, she loves sorting cloth diaper soakers onto different piles, she'd like to mop the floors all day long... sounds like she'll make a much better wife than i'll ever be.

enough chit chat, here are some pictures from today...













ah, yes, add "car mechanic" to the list of things that joon wants to be when she grows up.

Election Day

What a great day so far...

Dave's rehearsal got cancelled so we got to spend the day together which is a rare treat lately. Our Midwife came by in the A.M. to check on baby and me and not very surprisingly we got lots of reassurance. Things are looking great!

We then had to go take some blood samples to a lab outside of town which happens to be very close to the fancy organic farm we've been taking Joon to whenever we have access to a car lately. 

So we picked up the Cho girls on our way and off we went to visit the cows.

Here are the results of our spontanious photo shoot...

We then had mexican food for dinner at my mom's house with family and friends. Hoping that send some kind of good signal to the universe in turning out the hispanic vote. ;)

Dinner was yummy, the mood was great and our kid got very tired so we hurried home, put Joon to bed and proceeded to clean the kitchen and prepare goodies for our little election night party. Yes, Germans stay up all night to watch the results come in!! 

So now it's past midnight and we have lots of snacks and drinks lined up to help us stay awake a few more hours until we can hopefully got to sleep with a good reason to hope the world will now change for the better. There's a bottle of champagne chilled in the fridge for this occassion and I'm fully prepared to open it for breakfast. 

Hoping you're all enjoying a wonderful day! 

Much love

Joon's Christmas Wishlist

Apparently some people would like to know what to get Joon for Christmas. Well, since I get really crazy excited about making lists, here's a big long list of ideas.


However, I'd like to stress the point that Joon doesn't actually need anything!! Please DO NOT feel like you NEED to buy her anything!

If however you insist and you're feeling kinda lost as to what a one-and-a-half-year-old superbrainy smart kid would enjoy here's a lil' bit of help to lead you in a good direction...



As you most likely know, we're all about individual artists and their families rather than big corporations, we enjoy all things unique, high quality, natural and preferably eco-friendly. Many good reasons you see to buy handmade items from small shops on etsy.

So we've got some favorite etsy finds which we think Joon would have a lot of fun with.
In case you want to browse etsy on your own and/or are also looking for good gifting ideas for the many other people you love here's a nifty little tool...
The Etsy Gift Guides help you find perfect individual gifts for every last person you know. Check it out, it's a lot of fun! :)



~~~ Very pretty sweater ball


~~~LookMamaMadeIt
last i checked she didn't have any fruits or veggies in stock. but that may have changed and fruits and/or veggies would be wooooooonderful for joon.


~~~The Perfect Vest
littlerubaby is run by my sweet lovely friend brianna and i've been drooling over the vests she makes for months now... this would be great for joon! send her a convo and see if she has or is willing and able to make the vest in other color combinations for joon. B knows joon's style really well and would pick the perfect vest for her. ;)


~~~Crystal's Felted Wool Rings
in case you'd like to get a lil' somethin' for the new baby, this would be great!
loin cloth is run by another sweet friend of mine and who knows, she might have time in her busy schedule to crochet joon a funky lil' hat (or matching hats for joon and baby) before christmas...


~~~Pretty Play Silks
cosmic ripple aka brandy (yup, i know her too!) makes gorgeous playsilks and joon would surely looooove any one of the tie dye silks or brandy may have a set of three or five silks in different colors which would be a lot of fun to play with.


~~~Custom Crochet Hat
another sweet mama who i know does great work... colette could make a beautiful beanie for joon. bright and colorful please (you guessed it, i know ;) ) and measurements will follow when joon's awake.


~~~Bug Bites Play Food
any of these fruits and/or veggie sets would be sweet.


~~~Farm Puzzle Blocks
joon is all about some farm animals lately. and she needs building blocks. and she's discovering puzzles. need i say more?


~~~Crazy Toddler Blocks Set
i'm officially in loooooooooooooooove with these blocks (and everything else in their shop). in looooooooove!! seriously!


~~~Beneath The Rowan Tree
this is another one of my favorite etsy shops. anything from there would make joon happy i'm sure. especially the playsilks look fantastic.


~~~Color Matching Game
i just came across this game tonight and think it would be great for joon. she's very much into sorting stuff and she's also very much into stealing (or "borrowing" as i'm sure she would say) my cloth pins. plus, it's probably not too early to introduce colors at this point.




Now for the non-etsy options... The following ideas are from Jako-o an online store with a site in English. They're located in Germany though so packages could easily be sent directly to us (of course I'd be happy to wrap everything before we put it under the tree for Joon).

~~~Joon loves to help us clean


~~~More building blocks


~~~For the little world traveler


~~~Teaparty


~~~Someone's gotta do the cookin' round here



Our favorite state side online stores for kids stuff are
Oompa Toys and Nova Naturals



So to sum it all up, Joon loves animals, stacking, sorting, pretend play, music and books.

Books she has tons of though so unless you come across a book you absolutely love and think she must have it might be better to get her something else.

Music CDs she has surprisingly few of so that would also be a nice idea. Dave is very picky with what he'll listen to but I'll listen to just about anything as long as it makes Joon happy. I know that even Dave thinks the Music Together CDs are great, so that's something you could check out.

Rumour has it that Joon is getting a lovely handmade doll from her german family and we're deciding between a set of table and chairs and an easel for our little artist.
Btw, Ikea sells lots of really great toys (especially little dishwear and cooking sets). We'd also be happy to pick up whatever you'd like to give to Joon at our local Ikea.


So. The options are endless. Now feel free to go to town shopping or just think of us on Christmas Day and know that we love you and wish we could be together.

I hope you have a lot of fun doing all the things that get you into the holiday spirit this year!

Much love from us to you



Oh, and yes, we will be better at keeping the blog up-to-date. Ooups.