Merry Christmas 2012

We’ve had a very enjoyable Christmas and vacation so far! It started around 8pm Friday evening when we said goodbye to our students with a little Christmas program. Søren, Silas and I enjoyed a relaxing weekend with little to do Saturday and Sunday. We had so much open time that we could spontaneously invite some friends over one day and go swimming another day.

Then Christmas Eve arrived and the adventures picked up. I played horn and sang at our church service at 11am. It has become a tradition that I sing O’ Holy Night as the opening song, and tradition held this year. We added a little gospel sounding ending this year, and I think it sounded really great. I was personally frustrated that my voice wasn’t completely at it’s best after completely losing my voice over 3 weeks ago. But with a lot of prayer, I was able to get through the whole thing, and even hit the high note at the end. In the recording a small kid glads and says YAY! in the rest right after the highnote and the Gospel ending. Cute!

After Silas’ nap we headed to Holstebro to be with Søren’s sister, Ulla, Peter, Lukas, Nikolaj and Celina, along with Søren’s Mom. We had some time to relax before eating, where we just watched some Christmas Disney programs and Silas played with Nikolaj’s new kitchen stuff making coffee for everyone. 

Søren and the boys watching Disney

Playing kitchen.

We had an amazing dinner consisting of: Duch, Pork Roast (flæskesteg), 2 kinds of potatoes, red cabbage, chips, gravy and other condiments. It was very delicious. For dessert we had the traditional Ris alamande (Rice pudding with almonds) with the undtraditional Strawberry sauce. There is always 1 large almond hidden in the pudding and whoever finds the almond gets a present! And this year it was me!! I had never won before, so I was pretty excited. I got a new DVD and hope to watch it soon.

After dessert, Silas opened his presents, as it was already getting late. We all sat around as he ripped of the paper himself. It was fun seeing him this year, as he can now show his excitement. While taking the paper off he would exclaim “Neeeej” in a very excited voice and with a huge smile. After unwrapping every present, he then wanted to actually open the item, and begin playing with it right away!! He really liked the sled he got and wanted to sit in it to open the rest of the presents!

Neeeej!!!

Playing with Uncle Peter

Then we all walked around the tree sining Christmas Carols before finishing where we ran around the house holding hands singing “Nu er det jul igen…” (Now it’s Christmas again). After that it was finally time to open presents. Lukas and Nikolaj had been incredibly patient, and it was fun to watch them get so excited and shout “This is just what I was wishing for” after opening many gifts!

Singing around the tree

We all recieved some wonderful gifts and enjoyed each others company. To end the evening we read the Christmas story from the book of Luke and were again reminded of the greatest gift we are given every single year, the birth of our savior.

We spent the night at Søren’s sisters’, and the next day Silas woke up at 6:45 even though he didn’t go to bed until after 9pm the night before. We had lots of time to play with his new toys before church and after church we had another great meal. After Silas’ nap, he got to open his final presents and then we headed home. Silas was so tired and pretty grouchy the whole day.

"I am soooo exhausted"

When we got home we set up his new trainset, put on some Christmas music and opened our stockings! It was a great way to end the Christmas festivities.

Silas and his presents.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Funny!

I forgot a few things in the last post, and then of course Silas does funny things daily.

One of Silas' favorite words is ketchup, and he loves to dip any and all food in ketchup. The other day during breakfast Silas kept saying, ketchup, ketchup...and pointing at something on the table. We thought that sounded weird and didn't do much about it, as we didn't think he should have ketchup on his oatmeal. Then the next day I was eating breakfast alone with Silas, and he pointed over near the refridgerator and kept saying ketchup, ketchup...To shorten the story, after awhile I figured out that he was pointing at the sugar. Søren had some sugar on the table for his cereal the day before and it was the sugar that Silas was calling ketchup. So anything that goes on top of anything, or used for dipping is now called ketchup.

Silas had known the word baby for awhile, and points at little boys/girls and says baby. He also points to pictures of himself or in the mirror and says "baby."  Recently he learned to say boy, and then just today we looked in the mirror and said "boy, mmwah" and gave himself a big kiss. I guess he can see he is growing up too!

Silas 1½ years old!

A month has gone by, and we can’t keep track of all the words Silas knows anymore. He suprises us daily by saying words we didn’t even know he understood. Silas likes to communicate with us, and talks pretty much non-stop. (I do remember hearing my Mom tell me stories of how  I talked “from the minute I woke up, until the minute I went to bed”…I think I can relate!)

Here are the English words that he can say on his own: keys, hot, flowers, finger, kight (light), fork, spoon, chair, glasses, cup, “oh boy”, teeth, tractor, jacket, ketchup, blocks, touchdown, stuck.

Here come the Danish with translation: varm(warm) trommer(drums), geek (when he is trying to say MUSIK or music), stole (chair), støvsuger (vaccuum), traktor, bil (car), arbejde (work), tegne (draw), finger (finger) gynge-gange (swinge, swinge)

He also started saying a lot of names: Samuel (Sam,mu,mu,el..a boy at daycare), Margit (his daycare provider), Farfar, Grandma, Grandpa…and many others. A random name he knows is Daniel, it’s from one of the biblestories he has, he points to him and says Daniel!

He also started saying “kommer” (which means come) and then he pulls on your clothes until you come. Just recently he started saying “kommer, okay” like he is answering for us!

Silas has also learned the word NO! And says it even if he means YES, it sounds like Nooa, where his tone goes up at the end.

He has learned more animal noises now including: cow, train, horse, sheep, monkey, lion and Old McDonald, where he then says: “ee-i-ee-i-oh when asked. (He also does them all in Danish, but for some reason not sheep yet)

At the beginning of the month Silas was counting to 10. Mostly sounding like ONE, TWO, FIVE, eight, nine, ten…But now he mostly just says ten when I start counting.

He still says up and down, but often gets them mixed up. When he wants to get up to the piano he says, DOWN, and vice versa.

A fun game for Silas is finding your nose. He then says “doot, doot” and pokes it. It’s funny because if he does it to me, then he has to immediately do it to Søren…he goes around the house saying “FAR, doot doot” until he finds Søren. We started teaching him the other facial parts and he can now find mouth and sometimes eyes, but usually when we ask him to find a body part, he goes for the nose and says “doot, doot!”

Silas continues to love climbing and climbs up on any chair. When he gets up onto it, in the standing position, he says “SID” (meaning sit) as he knows he is supposed to sit down on his butt.
He has a shape sorting toy that he is beginning to master. He looks for the right holes before even trying to put the plastic pieces in.

At night time we always sing a song for Silas. He has begun singing along to the song I wrote for him singing “sleep, baby…sleep baby”. It is so precious.

Finally, Silas has now taken an interest in drawing. He says “tegne” and points at the crayon box. We started taping paper to the table and let him draw away. He usually uses his right hand.

To end, here are some funny things our daycare provicer has shared with us.
1) The other day they were practicing saying “Hej, med dig” (Hello to you). After Silas’ nap he went over to Margit and said “Margit, hej med dig” and gave her a big hug.
2) Just before going down for a nap Margit said to Silas “Det er sovetid (It’s sleep time)…then Silas responden “Suttetid” (Pacifier time) and started laughing. Margit said you could just tell that he was trying to be funny.

Sid!!

Yummy, French hotdog

Drawing at the kitchen table

Thanksgiving, thanksgiving

Again this year we celebrated Thanksgiving twice. The first one was on Thanksgiving day, at our house. The tradition that began 4 years ago with just Jette, Carl and their daughter Ida. Has now turned into a party of 9 adults and 7 kids! I was able to prepare a lot of food Wednesday morning before work, and then we did the final touches Thursday. Thursday turned out to be a bit of a chaotic day, as Søren’s Grandmother passed away the previous Sunday and the funeral was on Thursday. Luckily, we were able to attend the service and coffee afterwards, before coming home to a house full of guests. We had a very crazy dinner (with 7 kids under 5) and then after the kids were put to bed we had pumpkin pie, had a round where we shared our thanks, and watched some football. Every year I look forward to celebrating a tradition that  I hold dear, and I have to say myself that the food tastes better and better! Thanks Auntie Anne for your recipies and advice! I couldn’t do it without you!

Yum

5 of the 7 kids playing in Silas' room after dinner!

 

The following Sunday we celebrated Thanksgiving in Viborg with our American friends from Watermark and their families. Søren had to work, so it was just Silas and I, but we had a very nice day. Silas was very occupied with Josh and Bodil’s little girl Hannah, who is just 2½ months younger than him. He just followed her around all day saying “Hannah, Hannah”. Even days later he was still saying her name. It was pretty adorable.

Hannah and Silas

I'll follow you onto the chair even Hannah!

This year we are very thankful for our health, having jobs we love, and living in a country with so many benefits so that we can prioritize our little family. What are you thankful for??

Silas 17 months

The biggest changes with Silas this past month have definitely been his language. It seems everyday he learns a new word. He continues to copy everything we say, and now copies even more complex words with two syllables pronouncing more and more consonants.

Some of my favorite memories/routines of the past month are:

-After getting Silas ready for bed he usually has about 10-15 minutes of playtime before actually going to bed. When it is bed time, we say, “okay Silas, it’s time for night-night” He then walks towards his room saying “nigh-nigh” and goes right to the bookshelf “good book” he says and then goes to the chair where we read him a goodnight book everynight. It is so cozy and fun to see how much he understands.

-If Silas needs help with something, getting a cap off, getting something off his shelf, or taking something out of a drawer, then he will say in a very loud voice “helpe” in this particular tone.

-Hide and seek. We run away from him and find a hiding spot. Then one of us asks him, “Where’s Mommy/Far?”…he then looks around the house saying in a question like voice “Mommm-ie, Mommm-ie?” until he find us. Sometimes we say “coo-coo” to give him a hint, and then he says it too. When we finds us he smiles and often runs away, hoping we’ll hide again.

-During a table prayer Silas will just start saying “AMEN.” Sometimes he says it many times, and other times he waits until we are finshed where the Amen really comes. In church he also yells AMEN whenever he hears it, turning the heads of many and bringing a smile to their faces.

-Brings items over to us. When he hands it to us he says “Tak” (Thank You)

-Sings along to Old McDonald on the ee-eye-ee-eye-oh part!

-Understands many things for example:

“Bath time Silas”—He goes into the bathroom.
“Arms up” –Puts his arms up when changing him
“Where’s the ____” and can often find it.

-Makes some interesting connections. 1) The other day I said “Silas, I love you”. He then went rummaging through his toy box and found the small heart shaped pillow that says “I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU” when you give it a hit. 2) He has a red balloon, I said “Silas, look at your balloon”….he then went and found the “Goodnight Moon” book where there is a red balloon and turned the pages to find it.

-Can “read” a book. Okay its a picture book, but on one page there is a picture of a car and shoes and when he gets to that page he says “Car, shoes”.

-When we sneeze Silas says “Achoo” afterwards.

-After making a poop, he looks at us and says "Poo-poo"

-If we do something he thinks is fun, such as swinging him in the air or blowing on his stomach, he says in a high pitch tone “gain!” until we do it again.

-Dances to almost any type of music, whether it’s from his cd player or a musical toy. He moves his feet really fast or sways from side to side.

-Makes train noises----grra-grra-graa-oooh-ooh

Silas is just so much fun. He continues to be a good eater, even eating many different types of vegetables again. He eats his oatmeal all by himself most mornings and drinks from his own cup, as long as there isn’t a lot in it! He laughs a lot and definitely makes us laugh. He is happy in the morning even if we have to wake him up. His grumpy time is when we are making dinner and he is hungry or wants attention, but the hour after dinner is usually filled with fun and games, and family time.

Finally, here is a list of the new words he says on his own:
‘Gain’, Milk, Far, Mommy, Up, Down, Tak, Tank-uu (thank you), Siya (Silas), Amen, Thirsty, Helpe, Phone.

Riding the tricycle at legoland

I like this, I'll lick it all off!

A funny video --uh-oh, helpe..etc

Far!

Silas 16 months

Our little boy is so full of energy and life. He has really begun to understand and know what he wants, and this becomes obvious in his laughs, and defintely also in his screams and tantrums. Silas is quite social, and is not afraid to go over and talk to new people. We started going to gynasitcs, and he goes over to the other children and adults just chatting away. He loves to climb on any and everything, and most definitely the places that are quite unsteady. His favorite places are 1) The drawers with DVDs under the TV. 2) His table and chair set in his room. *We have now put rope around the DVD drawers and there are a lot less conflicts!

As for language: Although he can’t always use the words for what he wants, he can give signals for his wishes and we often understand what he is “asking” for. One of his favorite gestures is to shaking his head no. When someone he doens’t know talk to him, he shakes his head. If we ask if he wants more food, he shakes his head. And many times we ask him a question, he just shakes his head, and 2 seconds later begs for the thing we asked him about! He has also begun to actually say words and not just repeat them after us. The most common are:

“Car”, “Socks”, “Sove” (sleep in Danish), “Sut” (pacifier), “More”-when he wants more food,  “Banana” and “Book” as well as the Danish equivilants “Banan” and “Bog.” He can point to these things and say the name, or coming running with a pair of socks yelling “socks” with an a high tone at the end of the word.

He also says “boo” as he comes out from his hiding space behind the speakers in the living room. Silas has also begun saying “Far” (the Danish word for Dad) and if I mention the word Far, while Søren isn’t home, he will go wandering about the house looking for Søren saying “Faar, faar.”

Some of his favorite toys include

-The same old plastic stacking cups. He now can tack them up and put them together, after a few tries and switches.

-The swing in the living room

-A CD player in his room. He can turn it on himself, and begins dancing when he hears the music. Swinging his arms back and forth and moving his feet really fast. It is so adorable. He will even dance on command if you ask him to.

-The sandbox and outdoor tractor.

Silas now has 16 teeth and eats pretty much every type of food. He is not so happy for rice lately, but is enjoying some vegetables again now that he can chew carrots and cucumbers. He has discovered ketchup and LOVES it. He eats with his fork sometimes, but mostly with his stands still. However, the last few days he has insisted on feeding himself in the morning. I have taught him the words scoop, so he says “scoop” and tries to get some oatmeal on the spoon. He has been quite succesful these days, but it sure is a mess as he still wants to use his hands.

Finally, Silas makes a lot noises. He says car noises when he is driving a car around the floor, but also when he sees a car. He also says dog noises when he sees or hears a dog in real life or in a book. It is so cute listening to his noises, words, and the complexity of his own little language he speaks non-stop. My personal favorite is that after he makes or hears a fart, he says—”bloop”—imitating the sound.

Again we feel so blessed to be parents and to be able to watch Silas develop and grow. It is so enriching and brings us a lot of joy and laughter everyday.