I am so proud of our little fellow. We're regularly working on his sitting up and his baby-sitter has commented on it as well. I love placing toys in front of him and watching him constantly grab for a new one. So many choices excite his little mind and it helps him practice leaning over and then steadying himself to sitting again.

That's one thing that kills me. Taking him to the baby-sitter. He only goes for 1-2 four hour days. I don't work much, it's just a little to get out of the house. But I'm already afraid I'll miss something when I'm away. And unlike the full day I work on Saturdays, neither his father or I will see it, a complete stranger will. Our sitter always spooks me when she tells me something he did. I think it's something new the way she words it, then I realize he does it all the time and I calm down.

I went into the main area of town yesterday. I picked up tree branches to make a real wreath. My husband and I are trying to find a tree farm or nursery to buy a real Christmas tree. So far we only seen potted evergreens at the corner home and garden center. If that's the best we find, then we'll just have a little tree and move it into a bigger pot and kep it for the three years we're supposed to be here. The rest of the year we'll keep it on our balcony.

I know it's a lot to go through, but now that we're a real family, I want to have a real Christmas. I want my son to have good family traditions and nice memories right from the start, even if he won't remember a few of them.

I also bought three German children's books in town yesterday. So last night we read "Erdbeeren Sind Rot" or "Strawberries Are Red" We also started one of the two bigger books which was all about a Medieval town. The other one is about castles and dragons. These two had a lot more text, but I actually knew most of the words on the one page we read. Granted he's only six months old, but it's never too late to teach a kid to be bilingual. If I read to him in German and say as much as I know, then he will start to pick it up, a little faster then I will. The whole time we read, I used what I knew and spoke strictly in German to him. Even when I needed something from his father, it was said in German. Of course I had to translate for the man, since he's tough to teach a language to. I keep my dictionary next to me at all times, so when I finished up our German time and fed him carrots, I called them "karotte" in German. I'm getting there in my lessons and he'll easily know a few things by the time we leave, if we do leave in three years.