Proud Parenting Moments

Alla is officially enrolled in German classes starting next week. Additionally, her paperwork came together to be paid for by the state. She continues to be a good sport, humoring me with a photo of her with her Schultüte:

The Schultüte is a traditional present for children starting school in Germany. While this Schultüte is infantile on the outside, its contents included adult beverages. Beer is also a traditional accompaniment to German language learning.

I've had some help in the organizing department:

But the real recent small victories are in the parenting department. In no particular order:

New "Keeping Children Occupied Activity"*: AKA Legal Child Labor

The * is because it also kept me very busy with cleaning everything after pomegranate seed extraction. We ordered a three kilo, seven pound, box with the same company we use to order avocados directly from farmers in Spain. Lucky for Hugo, the harvest season is right around his birthday. TBD if we do this again. It is definitely a special occasion. We did three rounds of seed extractions based around when the kids were already due for a bath.

Three for three with opening mouths at the dentist

Two for three with no cavities. Thankfully dental work is much more affordable here. Speaking of things that are more affordable here...

Hugo's Kita crafting is on point.

Demolishing Left Overs for Breakfast

Paul was not around for many meals last week as he had coworkers in town. The littles helped me clear the fridge by eating "non-traditional" breakfast items, like knodles - ie bread meatballs - for breakfast.

Eating all-the-things with chopsticks

 The kids really like Sashimi - raw fish on a pod of rice - so I ordered a menu that appeared to be sashimi heavy. When the plate arrived with slabs of raw fish meat plain on the platter, I myself thought, "Not my favorite, let's see how this goes." As you can see from the photo, Hugo was literally double fisting the raw meat like the little bear he is. Crosby's chopstick accuracy was around 90%. The littles are still honing their skills. (And yes, we know that mango lassi's aren't Japanese but when in Rome, ie Berlin - where all Asian is also Indian and sushi and Thai - we drink them with sushi.)

Only minor burns while assisting in the kitchen

I kind of wish I was joking about this. She did burn her finger a little but thankfully it didn't blister like Hugo's egg cooking burn from last week. Sigh.

Maintaining Mommy Sanity during a Kinderfest

This SNL skit is one of my favorites. Her facial expression during the birthday party scene is why I keep birthday parties small. The Kinderfests - think bouncy castles, ballon animals, etc - include all of the traditional party chaos I usually avoid. But, when Crosby actually invited Hugo to the one at his school, I had to put on my game face.  I mean, look at him:

Love Tank = Full

Speaking of that face, the original boss baby continues to show all the love:

He took a break from a birthday party to sit and snuggle this sweet little baby.

As my two blog readers know, this blog is mostly a place to post all the photos of Hugo sleeping.

Hugo's Kita birthday celebration ride home. Gift Bag = Pillow

Post Sonic Birthday Party Ride Home:

One block away from the party: Carmen is out, Hugo is deciding if he should use Carmen as a pillow.

Going.

Going.

Gone. This is the point where we parked the bikes and let Crosby play video games while PB^2 enjoyed uninterrupted adult conversation.

And a few recent night time sleep configurations:

Throwback to when Hugo was in Munich and Crosby had Carmen all to himself:

When I extracted her to have her potty one last time before I went to sleep, Crosby was reaching for her trying to find her. I mean, who wouldn't want a piece of this: