Winter Break

Every year in week 7 we have winter break.  The week and a half before the break, we have a very busy work week working 62 hours!  So for both us and the kids it is great to have a week off to relax and spend time together.

Here are some of the fun things we did this year.

 Got together with Benjamin's mothers Group...13 kids and 5 moms!

 Went to Bork Legeland

Hung out at home

 Went Skating in Esbjerg

Visited Farmor

Fastelavn - Carnival

It's that special time of year again.  Lent.  The preparation time up to Easter! The beginning of this time is celebrated in many countries around the world, but having a dress up celebration.  This celebration is called "Fastelavn" here in Denmark and includes children dressing up, eating special creme-filled rolls, hitting a barrel full of candy with a stick, and making decorations.

We have a Fastelavn party at church every year and this year Silas was dressed as.....Spiderman!  The idea was that Silas would be Buzz Lightyear and Benjamin would be Cowboy Woody.  Well, that plan changed when his friend Balder gave him his old Spiderman costume while we were visiting them a week before "Fastelavn".  No biggie, Silas loved being Spiderman the whole week and we made a mask together to complete the costume.

They also had a Fastelavn party at pre-school where Silas was one of 4 or 5 Spidermen.  He was so excited to tell about the three legged race he did with one of the other Spidermen.
Quote from Silas: "Then Jens and I "sidder fast" on our legs and then we run and we fall over...isn't that silly Mommy?"    (sidder fast = got stuck)

Fastelavn at Pre-school

Goodbye Diaper!

Silas has now officially said goodbye to his diaper!  We don't even know how it happened.  We had been practicing sitting on the toilet after dinner quite inconsistently for awhile.  Then one day Silas just said..."I want to go out of diaper."  So we took it off.  A little while later we saw him run off towards the bathroom where he quickly yells out...I peed, I peed!!  The rest of that weekend he didn't have a diaper on and peed and pooped on the big toilet.  He didn't even have any accidents.

Since that first weekend things have continued to go in the right direction! Every day the next week when he came home from pre-school he took his diaper off right away and used the toilet the rest of the day.  Then the next week we "forgot" to put his diaper on before we brought him to pre-school and he was so excited about telling the adults that he doesn't use a diaper anymore.  And from that day on he has only had a diaper on at night!  That Friday we packed up all his diapers from pre-school and brought them home.  Silas said that now Samuel (his friend who was going to start the following Monday) could use his box for his diapers!

So now we have a big boy who just runs out and uses the toilet when he needs to.  We don't even need to ask him.  And his night time diapers have been dry 90% of the nights, so we will be getting rid of those soon too.  It has been fun to see how proud Silas is of this accomplishment, and well his parents think that it is a big deal and are very proud as well.  (PS: I wasn't able to post this yesterday as I had hoped, and in the mean time Silas slept last night without a diaper...he said he didn't want it on!, so we've packed all the diapers away for good! Awesome!)

Benjamin's 1st birthday!

We celebrated Benjamin's first birthday a few days early.  It was wonderful to be surrounded by friends and family!  Søren's entire family was there as well as his other Godparents Jette and Carl with their 3 girls.  Guests arrived for an afternoon snack at 3:30 which included cookies, rolls and fruit.  Before dinner, the kids were just running around playing and having a good time.  Benjamin opened his presents and he got a lot of new toys to play with, as well as a backback and a walking bike.

For dinner we had tortillas with different fillings.  It is usually one of Benjamin's favorite meals, but he seemed really tired that day, and was quite fussy for most of the meal.  After dinner it was time for birthday cake and icecream.  Benjamin was not overly impressed that day about his first chocolate cake...although a few days later he loved it!  

On his real birthday we had a slower morning where Benjamin opened his presents from us and Silas and we could just hang out together. He woke up at 5am, so we felt we had lots of time with him on his birthday even though we had to work from 10-5pm.  At 9, Mommy took him up to daycare and brought some watermelon "cake" to share with the others.  It was a big hit, and I enjoyed spending a little more time with him. 

It seemed like Silas enjoyed Benjamin's birthday as well.  He sung Benjamin a song, helped him open up his presents and we had birthday cake again for dessert.  It was sweet watching the big brother treat his little brother like he was special.

Birthday party at daycare

Watermelon "cake"

Benjamin 1 year old!

The memories we've created this past year have been wonderful, challenging and so giving.  Our little boy is now 1 year old and brings us so much joy.

This month has brought a lot more mobilization as Benjamin now cruises around furniture, tables, walls, drawers...whatever he can pull himself with.  He has such a big smile on his face when he cruises your way and you can see the spark in his eye, full of achievement.  This has also resulted into a lot of face plants into tables, toys, corners, etc, and therefore lots of forehead bumps and bruises!

Benjamin has also discovered the magical world of cupboards and drawers.  His favorites are the DVD and Tupperware drawers, as well as the drawer with breakfast products where we have multiple times found him with a fist full of raisens!

Benjamin is a very curious baby and does a great job entertaining himself. He can crawl around exploring and putting things "away" in various boxes, for quite some time.  He seems quite content to just keep to himself and check things out.

A new trick of his is to try to make himself throw up.  When he is done eating breakfast, for example, he will stick his fingers on the throat to make himself gag and eventually throw up.  We tell him no and he just smiles and tries again.  Hmm....

His sleeping pattern has been the best as it's ever been.  We have struggled with Benjamin being up for 1-2 hours in the middle of the night, for the past many months.  However these past few weeks he has been sleeping through the night from 7pm-5am where we only sometimes have to go in and give him his pacifier.  It's been amazing!! Otherwise he still sleeps well during the day.  A good afternoon nap from 12-3:15pm and then usually a 30 minute nap in the morning as well.   Then he is very tired by 7pm where he gets a bottle and falls asleep quickly on his own.

Benjamin has always been a smiley and happy baby, and this continues to be true.  Right now he is definitely in a Daddy phase and gets extra excited when Søren comes into the room.  If Mommy leaves the room he is usually okay with it, but if Søren leaves the room, Benjamin will often whine until he gets back!

Mealtimes have been quite a pleasure lately.  Benjamin eats and eats and eats. He is often tired a dinner time and doesn't eat much there, but with how much he eats the rest of the day, it hasn't been a problem.

Another favorite activity right now is, reading books.  He can page back and forth in the same book for a long time, chatting away with the pictures in his...da da da...di...DAAA voices!

We look forward to another year with our beautiful, big blue-eyed Benjamin Adrian.

Fun facts: Benjamin is now 77cm (30 inches) tall and weighs 10.9 kgs  (24 lbs)