On the other side of the video ...

Andrin just loves watching himself in the little videos that we take of him. Yesterday, he could not get enough of them and Papi had to remind him that they had to make a new video in order to be able to watch another one. Andrin was more than happy with that request ...

Water play

Ever since Oma introduce Andrin to doing dishes, he has loved to do his own dishes. Now he also discovered drinking out of "big" cups and he loves to pour water from one cup to another. As you might be able to tell, sometimes he gets pretty wet in the process. But he can spend a long time just playing happily with it and I always figure that it is just water and that I can clean the kitchen floor without any problems!

Our "little" boy is 18 months old!

Today, Andrin celebrated his 18 month birthday! We had a quiet day because it started raining again. Yesterday was a beautiful day and Andrin went on three (yes, one was not enough) bike rides. Last weekend, we purchased a bike seat and Andrin just simply loves it. We were so happy about it because he never really liked the bike trailer. Now, we can just hop on the bike and take off again. He went with Mami in the morning to the knit shop. Since the first knit shop was closed, we went to another one. On the way back home, we stopped at a new park and Andrin had fun watching the other kids and playing. In the afternoon, Mami went stamping and card making with some friends and Andrin enjoyed another bike ride with Papi to the fly fishing shop. In the evening, we had a wonderful dinner with our friends Ellie and Chris and their baby Ledy and took the bike again. Andrin even likes to bike in the dark. He loved to watch the moon and was just telling us all about the bike ride.
On Sunday, we stayed home and played. In the late afternoon, we went to have dinner with other friends and Andrin had so much fun playing with all his little friends. What a great way to celebrate his 18-month birthday!
At the moment, Andrin is like a little vocabulary sponge. He will repeat everything and is getting good in using two syllable words. He actually graduated from saying "Ba" for "Bagger" (extravactor) to "Baggeeeeer". And then he is just adorable when he is saying "Erdbeeeeerli" ... It is so much fun to see him grow into himself!

Haircut

Yes, Papi finally was able to convince Mami that I needed a haircut. He was trying to talk her into taking me to the hairdresser, but Mami decided that she could do it herself (even though it is a little bit different than cutting Papi's hair!). And even Papi had to admit that she did a good job. I sat still for the haircut, distracted by some food in front of me.

Musical chairs ... or something like it

I just discovered how to climb on the chairs in our living room. Mami also thought me how to get down safely and I am doing a pretty good job with that. But now I took my desire to climb on the chairs a little bit further: I will get the comfortable pillow out behind Mami's back and then try to push her with all my strength and energy out of the chair. With Papi, I just told him "good bye" and signaled him that way that he needed to leave. Once they are out of the chair, I can happily climb in the chair and giggle over my small victory! (Somehow, I got the impression that I was not the only one giggling though.)

NaNa

I am a pretty lucky boy since I have grandparents and then NaNa! NaNa is our neighbor, Nancy, and she always makes me laugh. She plays these funny games when she is in the kitchen and I hang out on the window seat with my parents. I always spot her right away and then you hear a loud NaNa from me. Since she cannot hear me when she is playing with me, my parents videotaped me once. And by the way ... I have had a play date with NaNa and David and it was wonderful. When my Papa asked me the other day if I wanted to see NaNa, I just went straight to the door, ready to play with her again! Thank you for being in my life, NaNa and David! (And yes, I was the one picking up the New York Times this time!)

Saying my name ...

Since a couple of days, I have been trying to say my name. My parents accuse me of being a parrot since I repeat every sound that they make and everything that I hear outside (birds, trains, cars, ...). But now I actually try to say my name. It proofs to be a little bit tricky. My parents think that it sounds like Ani ...

This and That

I just realized that there were a lot of pictures on the camera, that we never shared. So here we go:

Andrin is enjoying the sunshine from inside the laundry basket after his afternoon nap.

Fridays, I do our wash and Andrin always takes the opportunity to climb into the laundry basket.

Andrin and I went to the post office to get a package with yarn. Andrin was proud to carry the big package back to the car and helped me open the package at home. When I turned around, he had taken all the yarn out of the package and was sitting in the box.

We tried to teach Andrin for the longest time to pull his toys behind himself ... no luck. But then, he suddenly got the hang of it this week. Now he is pulling everything that he can pull (we have been using a lot of string to attach to cars, trains, airplanes, ...).

Drawing at his new table and desk.

Trip to Portland

This weekend, we took our annual spring trip to Portland. On our way to Portland, we had to stop for some shopping at the Woodburn Outlet Mall. After we left the mall, Andrin fell asleep in the car and took his afternoon nap. Our next stop was IKEA (one of the main reasons why Mami wanted to go to Portland again). Mami already thought that she might have some shopping on her own because Andrin was asleep, but right when she turned off the engine, Andrin woke up from his nap! IKEA was crowded, but we had a list and got everything rather quickly. We settled in at the hotel and then went to our favorite bookstore in Portland, Powell's. We also went out for dinner, even though we were a little bit disappointed this time. Andrin had a hard time going down for the night, but we also have to give him credits because he is not feeling well. He has a pretty bad cough and runny nose! On Sunday, we met our Swiss friends, Ursina and Christof, for breakfast and then played in the park and slowly made our way back to Eugene. Papi hoped that Andrin would take a nap in the car, but no such luck! He was happy the entire way, but did not sleep at all.

Did you ever try to eat apple sauce with chop sticks?

Being friendly with everyone ... even if they are ignoring you ...

Village boy in the big city: Andrin was just taking in all the cars, buses, and then the train ... I think we could have just left him at that busy intersection and he would have been completely happy!

Back at home ... Andrin is helping us put together his new table and chairs from IKEA.
(I hope this is not considered child labor!)

Andrin discovered a new, exciting way to drink out of his sippy cup ... He added Papa's straw and then was able to drink his water out of the cup as well! What a clever boy!

Andrin playing with his new table and his favorite toy, the train ...

Action in front of our house ...

Andrin has been in heaven and spent so much time looking out of the upstairs window today. They are working on the road and there is all the equipment and all the men working there. Unfortunately, I was not quick enough to capture how he was telling me all about the action in front of our house. He was talking up a storm (with lots of "men/ma" and "working/bauae") in there.

Cuddling with Papa

Papa thinks that Mami just does not have the patience ... But Mami thinks that it is always the same with new gadgets ... It took us a while to figure out how to upload the videos from our new device ... but I think we finally figured it out ... Prepare yourself for lots of movies!

Andrin has been omitting his afternoon nap
(the only nap that he has been taking since about 13 months) ...
Mami had to take Andrin to an work related appointment in the morning and he was already tired when we got home ... He took his blanket out of the car
and then got himself ready for some giggles and cuddling with Papi!

If you wonder ... no, he did not take a nap today again
(I am sure that he will take a looooong nap tomorrow while he is at day care ...).

Christmas in March!

I love presents, but I even love them when they come unexpectedly ... Clemens told me that there was still a Christmas present on the way and we finally got it! I love it! I had no idea what Clemens got for me. There had been three separate boxes in the mail ... And even there are rumors out there, I did not peak or open up the boxes! And guess what I got? I got a wonderful, exciting, oh so great new digital pocket video camera! Thanks so much, Clemens!

We have the best babysitter!

While Oma was visiting, Clemens and I took the chance to go on a date for the first time in .... well, a long time! Since we really enjoyed spending time together, we decided to do this more often and to give ourselves a break from time to time. One of the girls from Clemens' lab babysat Andrin for last mother's day and we asked her again. Well, she is wonderful! Andrin did not even cry when we left the house (usually, he even cries when I have to leave and Papi stays home with him). And when we came home from our dinner, Andrin was already asleep. He fell asleep in his crib!!!! I guess we will be going on dates more often :) And if you think that you can share our wonderful babysitter with us ... we will have to think really hard about that!

17 months ...

Today was Andrin's 17 month birthday ... He spent some time with Papi alone at home in the morning while Mami had fun stamping and creating cards. In the afternoon, we were outside in the garden because we were treated to another beautiful spring day. We were able to work on three of our raised beds until Andrin decided that was enough digging. In the evening, he had some of his friends over for dinner and he just loved having his friends here. He was eager (initially, at least) to share his toys and was laughing and giggling a lot. And of course walking all over the place!