Hope for their future

What joy & what a celebration this week! I'm a bit sad to be missing all of the celebrations in the US though - we went to bed on election night late (about 2:30am) thinking it may be another long decision, and after I fed Alexandra at 5:30 I turned on the computer in time to see all of the major networks declaring Obama as the president. What a time in US history! I feel like the torch has been passed once more to a new generation...

I'm so glad hope is more powerful than fear.

What a wonderful gift to give to our girls...

Alexandra at 6 months...

So I'm a few days late, but what a month this has been! Alexandra is now a non-stop babbler, when her big sister lets her get a word in edgewise... Sophia is still the one guarantee to bring a smile to Alexandra's face, and it is amazing to watch the two of them when Sophia gets out of school. Alexandra's whole body starts moving, like she has so much to tell her about what we did that day & how much Sophia was missed. It is so great to see!
Alexandra has almost perfected the art of the perfect sitting position, and when she falls backwards & lands on a pillow she just starts laughing! She is such a happy baby...

Halloween 2008

Although we didn't really participate in any Halloween activities, we did dress up in the Halloween spirit! Germany isn't really big on Halloween celebrations, but Nana kitted the girls out (tatoos included!)

I think that next year we are definately going to have a Halloween lunch. Lots of kids running around & a fun way to spend the day on fall break!

Half Term Break in France

We spent a few days outside of Colmar for Sophia's fall break. I would HIGHLY recommend going to the Alsace region of France. I spent a weekend outside of Strasburg 2 years ago (a child free weekend at an amazing spa in La Petite Pierre), but we had never explored the area.

It is amazing. Tons of wine tastings, rolling hills with vineyards everywhere and beautiful storybook towns. The colors of the fall were on a last shout before fading, and the rain was relentless, but we are determined to go back for another round. None of the villages that we chose were more than a 20 min drive apart, even when we went up into the foothills of the Vosges mountains. It was a perfect place for a mini break.

We wandered from Village to Village, chosing our first one based on the location of the morning markets (one of the things we miss most about Paris is the rotisserie chicken from our local butcher), picking up dinner & snacks for the day, then just wandering thru the streets. We even did a bit of early christmas shopping, and Sophia has quite the eye for gifts this year!

The girls & I loved having Troy around all the time, and the indoor (very Lord of the Flies) pool was just enough exercise for the girls, and we managed to get them out every day without either of them getting hurt.

We're back

Hi there,
Sorry for all of the silence over the past couple weeks. Its been very busy around the Z household, and in the middle of life an eye infection prevented me from doing any work on the computer for almost 3 days... What do you do when your doctor tells you that you can't read, play on the computer, and to seriously limit the amount of TV you watch? I loaded up the iPod with podcasts & put myself to bed for a couple days. NPR has been my escape, and really it was a great way to catch up on things that were going on in the world!
Anyway, we then took off for the Alsace for 4 days to stay at a hotel with no internet access. What were we thinking? Actually it was quite nice to re-connect with my frequent flyer husband, and to not have any distractions after the girls went to bed.
The Alsace was wonderful, and there will be more posts to come on there. We can't wait to go back & to see the sunshine that people keep telling us it is famous for!
The girls are great! Sophia is on half-term break (to use the british terms) and Alexandra is basically sitting up on her own. Apart from a couple of freezing nights in our hotel (the ground floor is really cold) and some teething issues, she is a great sleeper. (PLEASE let tonight be one of those nights!)
More to come, I'll just leave you with a few of the latest of our beauties...

Sliding sisters

A beautiful fall day on the playgound is the perfect place for Alexandra's first slide. Sophia was so excited to be the one that helped her!


Sliding from Moya Z on Vimeo.

Alexandra talks!

Alexandra has been babbling non stop today, I think she has finally found her voice!


Alexandra finds her voice from Moya Z on Vimeo.

bubbles on the balcony

We had a few sunny days this past week (the weekend was fabulous!), and the girls took advantage of it to blow bubbles on the balcony. It was one of Alexandra's first experience with bubbles, and you can tell how much she loved them!

Sophia Freezes...

Another day, another song from school...



Sophia freezes song from Moya Z on Vimeo.

Bavarian day at school

In the middle of the Oktoberfest celebrations the school had a Bavarian Day, during which all of the kids were encouraged to wear their traditional clothing. Some of the dirndl & lederhosen are quite expensive for children (upwards of 250 euro for the total outfit), so I ran down to C&A ,which was selling trachter quite cheap in celebration of the Oktoberfest. (It has become quite popular to wear the clothing when you go to the beer tents)

Sophia loved wearing her costume, although she was a little confused as to why she didn't have a princess tiara with her "costume", and she thought her teacher's costume was so beautiful (it was satin).

We just loved her in it!