Crawling and Counting

Yesterday Ava started crawling finally.  Actually, it's more of a dragging, but it's a start.  She's been sliding around for a few weeks now and it's really cute.  But yesterday she moved her hands forward and then pulled her lower body forward as well.  She does this while she's on her knees, so it's just a matter of time before she's a pro at regular crawling.  I'm so proud of her.

Actually, I teased her a number of times to get her to crawl.  I'd place a toy in front of her that she wanted.  Then she'd start to move towards me and I'd gradually keep moving the toy away from her, so she kept moving closer.  She went for a good distance.  She also got frustrated at times when it was too dificult or odd for hre to pull herself, but she was persistant and went back to work after she threw her fits.  It was wonderful and I'm very proud of her.

I'm also very proud of Paulchen's accomplishment today.  We were counting in the car, as he likes to do that when we're driving sometimes.  After counting a few times in English, he tried to do it in Latin.  About a week or two ago, he was watching Dora the Explorer and mimicking the Spanish they spoke.  I actually am not fond of him learning Spanish, as we're in Germany and he should learn German.  Also, we're working on Latin, so I turned the Spanish numbers into Latin.

Today Paulchen started counting in Latin and I worked with him a little.  Like the problem he had in English, he likes to skip 7 and jump to 9.  After a few times through, he had it down perfect.  It was so cool to hear my little son counting to 10 in Latin.  He was also eager to count to 10 in German.  However he wasn't as adept, as he counted fine to 7 and then switched Latin and jumped to 10.  it was a wonderful effort though.

Sitting

Well, it's been a bit since I last entered observations on our children, but I've much to say and will write again.  Ava is finally sitting up on her own.  For a while she's been sitting after we've positioned her.  But now she can do it on her own.  Paul called me at work today to tell me.  I'm so proud of her.  She doesn't do it much, but it's a start.

As for Paulchen, he's progressing nicely.  He can now count to 10 without getting caught up on the number 7.  He can also count objects.  Granted, they have to be lined up and he has to concentrate, otherwise he'll count the same object a few times.  But he's much better and very eager to learn.

Who's there

I've written before about how Paulchen has tunred off the power to the answering machne and when it's back on, there's no message recorded.  He's also recorded his own message now.  We've had a number of confused messages left on our answering machine and even Paul has fallen prey to his son's message, making him very frustrated and confused in the process.

It seems Paulchen triggered the machine to record and you hear a lot of background noise and shuffling.  After a good 20-30 seconds, Paulchen comes on and says "Hmmm..."  Then the machine clicks out.  People have told us that it sounded like our son answered or our phone was on the fritz, but everything seemed normal to us.  Also, the phone was always properly in its holder, so Paulchen couldn't have moved it.  When I finally played the machine and heard the message, I was cracking up.  I left it and played it for Paul and he got a kick out of it too.  He was one of those who said Paulchen picked up the phone.  the funny thing was, this went on for a number of weeks, with us none the wiser.  That little twit. :-)

Promotion
Today Paul was officially promoted to his new rank in front of everyone.  I never told him, but from the beginning, I planned to have Paulchen pin on the rank.  Actually, now with the new uniforms, the rank is only held on by Velcro, so it was vrey easy for Paulchen to pin his Da.  Paul had wanted Paulchen to do it, but never mentioned it, as he thought I really wanted to do it.  It was a nice surprise and made both Pauls very happy.

Party!!!

It was so cute today.  Paul has been promoted to Staff Sergeant and I threw a surprise party for him.  I claimed someone I knew was coming over to help me sew and I needed a little peace.  So Paul took Paulchen out to walk around for about an hour.  It was great.  Almost everyone arrived in that time and everything was set up.  When Paul came home, he was so confused and surprised.

Paulchen was the cutest though.  When he saw everyone after coming in the door his face lit up and he called, "Heys guy!" (Translates to "Hi guys!")  He went around and greeted everyone.  then he saw the Chiuahuah someone brought and kept chasing it all over the apartment.  Fortunately the dog had a wonderful temperment.

Ava however, wan't so keen on the dog at first.  Even though she's been around a big German Shepherd a few times and okay with that, Bear (the Greman Shepherd) never licked her.  I guess the Chiuahuah gave her a quick lick which freaked her out and she started crying all of a sudden.  She was okay later, but it was funny how she reacted to this little dog, about half her size.

Paulchen also had a blast with popping balloons.  He had the tail of one in his mouth and pulled it away.  Eventually the balloon gave out and popped in his face.  Instead of crying, he loved it and started laughing.  After that, he went out of his way, testing the limits of the next balloon he had.  Half the guests and myself were watching him, waiting for the balloon to pop any second.  It must have been a stronger one, as it lasted the rest of the day.  Then Paul popped it, like the other ones we had, just behind me to make me jump.  It was very annoying.  Overall though, we all had a fun time.