Alexandra at 11 months

The smile is back!!

Attemps by Sophia to carry Alexandra have been met with failure so far... Excitement on both sides usually ends up with one being dropped and the other being dropped on... Tears & crying abounds.

I'm just realizing that I missed the 10 month post. But let me say, we were skiing in Austria, Alexandra had the stomach flu, and had a fabulous time playing with Nana.

We finally feel like life is back again in the 11th month. This past month has seen the introduction of 6 new teeth, so we are now up to 7, of the 8 needed for the first go round. Hopefully we will have a bit of a pause, becuase Alexandra's wonderful personality it back & we are so thrilled to have our joyful girl back.

Plus, the time change has been wonderful for her. She is now in the transition to one nap a day, and I think it is going to be a really long nap, so she is sleeping in a bit more (the 6am mornings are really hard on Mommy!). Today both girls slept until 8, and I was in heaven!!!

Alexandra has also experienced her first ice cream cone, and that was heaven for her. We have been trying to figure out things to give her to help sooth her teeth. Cold apple slices have been a favorite, but vanilla ice cream is definately a hit! She has also figured out how to use her teeth to bite off pieces, and now that most of the teeth have poked thru she isn't crying after taking bites of everything.

I think I may spend a little too much time on the phone, because whenever it rings she immediately puts her hand to her ear, Nana had her talking on the party line with Sophia last month, and everything that folds turns into a telephone!

And Alexandra is becoming quite the monkey. She is able to pull herself up on a number of chairs, and loves to scare me by climing on tables and trying to stand up! So fun to see her personality come out & yet we know we are in for some trouble.

She is refusing to do the baby sign language. She knows the signs when we do them to her, but so far just points & yells to get her point across. Luckily, she knows what she wants & is satisfied when she gets it! But it is too funny, she won't even make eye contact when we are signing to her, and is just desperate to be able to talk!

Spring?

Has it finally come to Munich? We had our first day of the year last weekend when we didn't have to wear a hat for a walk (even though there was still snow on the ground!)

We drove out to Starnberg (one of the lakes around Munich), found a golf course to walk on, and a great Gasthaus to have an outside meal at, and just enjoyed the changing of the (winter) guard.

There was still some snow on the ground. Crazy, because it was at least 50, and felt more like 60 in the sun with no wind... (we were able to eat lunch in our shirt sleeves!)

Fun with hats

I've been going thru more & more of the boxes in our cave (keller/storage room in the basement), and finding things that were Sophia's when we moved to Paris, that are just now fitting Alexandra.

Alexandra hasn't been too keen on hats, but I guess I haven't been giving her the correct ones... (Check out those teeth!!!)

She loved being pretty in this one.

And she & Sophia were playing "cookers" (as Sophia likes to call chefs) the other night.

Alexandra is on the move...

A bit of playtime for Sophia at IKEA turned into Alexandra's first foray onto a slide, stairs, and showing off her moves on the rocking horse!


Alexandra climbs, slides & rocks... from Moya Z on Vimeo.

Sun on a ski day

(These tracks were made by my ski class!! The powder was unreal- I've never skied in anything like this! 24 hours earlier we had over 40cm - 16"- of fresh snow)

We had one day of sunshine the entire week - and it was absolutely amazing!! It was the first day that Troy & I skied together, and we had a day unlike any other... A memory...

The lunch hut on the ski hill. We were actually able to sit outside & eat - lunch was cold after about 10 min, but so much better than sitting inside.

Fashing Parade

Even King Ludwig was dancing down the street...

Getting candy from strangers! One of the best parts of any holiday.

10 days before lent starts the party begins in Munich. We are fortunate to be close enough to the city center that we can walk to most of the festivities, and be able to host a brunch after walking to the parade route.

We really enjoyed the parade this year (compared to last year when Sophia wouldn't get close to the end of our block), and having 6 kids within a 10 foot span made us prime location for the "sweeties" being thrown from the floats. We even had a couple of older ladies literally reaching in between our legs for the pieces the kids missed (we consoled ourselves by thinking they were for their grandchildren).

(Getting ready for St Patricks Day!)

Sophia's 5th birthday (part 2)

Sophia spent the day of her birthday opening breakfast presents, ski lessons, swimming, more presents, dinner with a huge chocolate cake (which she shared with all of the families at the tables around us), and finally collapsed into bed, a very tired & thrilled 5 year old!

Schloss Schleissheim with Nana

It was a beautiful day when we returned from the mountains, and we took Nana out to the castle where Sophia has been doing most of her skating this year. Unfortunately, it has been rather warm the last few days, and the canals are pretty slushy, so no skating, but the sunshine was actually warm, and it gave us a hint of what spring is going to be like!!

Sophia's ski lessons

We had such a great ski week, and we were so proud of Sophia - she went to ski school every day (Troy & I only went for 3 days and then we skied together the rest of the week). She even got a medal for her 4th place in the ski race at the end of the week.

We were a little concerned about how she was going to take to skiing... Sophia has such an amazingly strong personality, but likes to do things perfectly on the first go round. It is often frustrating for her, and for her parents, when she actually has to take the time to learn... Troy & I were a little frustrated with her ski school during the week. We felt they didn't have enough teachers for the kids that were ready to move on, but it worked out well for Sophia. She was able to really perfect her time on the magic carpet, and after the races on Friday she was more than willing to go on the rope tow, and then the big mountain with her parents. Nana & Alexandra were watching, and cheering her on, from down below!

We were also very fortunate that she had some friends from school in her ski class, so she was very comfortable with going to ski lessons.

The awars ceremony was very impressive, they even had a medal stand for the top 3!!