Choo-choos and Cheerios

There is a small train station behind our house that used to be an old line that went all the way from our city to the border of the country, but now the line is closed and they just use the train to go back and forth through the city like a bus, and it costs about 20 cents and takes an hour to ride it from right behind our complex to the end of the line and back to our place. You can actually see the station from the kids' bedroom window in our 11th floor apt. Before, Callie was never very interested in it (other than the loud whistling about 6-7 times a day, disturbing her naps), but last week she and a few of her friends got to take that one hour ride on the train, and since then every time she hears the train blow its horn, she yells "Choo-choo!" and runs to her bay window to look out at the train. Here are a couple pictures taken from that day. They had a fun game of "peekaboo" during the ride.

Our most recent discovery about Callie's personality is something she gets from her daddy, and that is the need for neatness. Every time she gets food on her hands or clothes, or gets them dirty from something she has to get it off. Immediately. She still has not learned to communicate this with words yet though, so right now she just kind of shows us the dirty spot and whines about it.

As for Zane, he's still as cute as ever with his big, chubby cheeks and irresistible smile, though lately he has gotten needier and wanting to be held more. He still hasn't started crawling yet, though he has figured out how to scoot backwards. He is also becoming more adept at picking up Cheerios from his high chair tray and getting them to his mouth. Where there's a will there's a way, right? Here's a video of him scooting backwards.



As for life in general here, this past week it has gotten quite cold, in the 30's F / single digits C. We've had to start pulling out the winter clothes, finally. Though it is nothing like Edmonton's winter, it is still quite brutal here because most places don't have heat, like classrooms, restaurants and stores we go to, though our home has good heat, so no worries there. Whatever the weather here decides to do for the rest of the season, it won't matter to us because we're heading back for 2 months in North America, starting next Friday night, a week from tonight. We'll be flying through Korea and then DC, and then finally to Raleigh. Pray for our flights, that they will be smooth, and especially for the children as they endure long hours of staying in one place and not being able to run around freely. Next week will be full of packing and temporary good-byes, but we sure do look forward to seeing family for the Christmas season.

Sweet Friends

I took the kids to a health fair a few weeks ago and discovered that Callie is just a little over 5 pounds heavier than Zane. Craziness. Needless to say, Callie is on the petite side for her age and Zane just keeps growing like a weed. Whenever we go out in the double stroller, we never fail to hear the locals call out "twins, twins." We're not sure if it's because they think they look similar sized (I think they're similar, but not that similar!), or just because they're in a double stroller and since we live in a place where most people only have one child, they assume the only way we could possibly have two is if they were twins. Their reasoning remains a mystery to me.

Callie and Zane are such sweet friends. They love playing together. Zane is almost ready to crawl, and often times Callie will get down on her hands and knees and they'll hang out together. Callie likes to call him "buddy" when we say "Zane." She likes to imitate his noises and hand toys to him. Zane just loves the attention. Sometimes she is a little rough on him - she'll push his head down or grab and pull at his skin. How do you teach them the concept of "gentle"? Anyway, we're sure Zane will outgrow Callie any day now and he'll have his turn. Here are a couple pics of them playing together.

This past weekend, I (Anita) attended a mom's conference while Jeremy watched the kids. It was such a fun and refreshing time. I enjoyed hanging out with the other moms, catching up and sharing tips and life experiences, and shopping - a past time that I love yet rarely get to do anymore. We also stayed up late (another thing I rarely do), and I enjoyed the hotel's great breakfast spread. A couple breakfast items that I made sure to thoroughly enjoy were over-easy eggs and an omelet, both of which I don't ever make since the hubby's not a huge fan. I had a lot of fun, but I have to admit that I did miss Jeremy and the kids and it's good to be back. As for Jeremy, I think he survived pretty well, though he was under the weather for a couple days afterward - I think the kids wore him out a little.

We can't believe we'll be flying to North America in a couple weeks. We have a pile of things to pack and are figuring out what else needs to go. The last time we were back we were having Callie, so we're not quite sure what it'll be like traveling on a long plane ride with a toddler and a 9-month-old. Any tips out there for survival??

Daddy Dates, Doggies, and Dress-Up

Zane has just started sitting up on his own over the last couple weeks or so. He's also getting more and more interested in his surroundings. A couple days ago he noticed a dog for perhaps the first time and got really excited. It was so cute seeing his reaction. Here is a cute pic of him sitting up.



Callie's hair is finally long enough to put in little pigtails. Of course she always pulls them out a few seconds after you put them in. She loves to play with hair bows and thinks that "hair bows" and "pretty" mean the same thing: hair bows.



Jeremy had the day off on Monday, and took Callie on what we call a "daddy date" for the first time. They went downtown to a ball pit, which Callie wasn't too crazy about and then went out for lunch. Here is a picture of her enjoying the fishies in the fountain.



Last Friday night we went to a Harvest Festival put on by some folks in our city. Zane went as batman, and Callie went as a fairy princess. Here is a picture of all of us at the festival



On the topic of eating, Callie has just started understanding the concept of "if you eat your veggies (or something else relatively nutritious) first, you'll get to eat some more bread (or something else she enjoys eating)." At McDonald's, of course it's all relative; oftentimes we find ourselves saying "if you eat some more chicken nuggets, you can have some more corn." You pick your battles, right? Also, she thinks that "try it" is a certain item of food, though rather confusing. Sometimes it's tiny pieces of bacon, and other times it's tofu or something else new to her palate.