by admin ~ August 22, 2012
The week before we left for Europe there was an article in the Seattle newspaper that talked about how a father and child were kicked off of a flight because the child was throwing a fit. We were a little worried this might also happen to us when Gabe decided to throw a major fit for the first 45 minutes of our flight. We have no idea what was wrong but he was not a happy camper and did NOT want to be strapped into the seat. Once he calmed down they were both in a great mood. In fact, they were so giddy that they kept each other awake until we were an hour from Germany. Every time Gabe would fall asleep Zara would hit him and yell “Babriel. Babriel Karl.” Gabe he would return the favor yelling Zaza or Zawa. We tried our best to keep them entertained by offering them something new every hour and with the exception of a yell or loud giggle, they did pretty well. It was a really long trip and pretty tough on us all so we were very happy when we arrived to Europe.
The kids were super excited to see Baba and Dide (Grandma and Grandpa) in person. The kids are usually very shy when they don’t know people well but since we often skype with Baba and Dide, the kids were comfortable right away. We were able to spend a few days with Aunt Lucija and cousin Eva in Slovenia before they returned to France. Zara and Eva were fast friends. Zara was super interested in Eva and wanted to hug, kiss, and hold hands with her. It was super cute. Gabe was too busy to care about the girls and didn’t really know what to make of them. Zara fell in love with an old teddy bear that Eva had claimed so it will forever be known as “Eva’s bear.” Zara was surprisingly good about giving Eva her bear back.
After a few days we headed to our house in Croatia. Zara and Gabe had a lot of fun running on our outside terrace playing with the large toy truck and wheel barrow Baba and Dide bought. These were a huge hit and provided hours and hours of entertainment. The kids had a blast in Croatia. They loved going to the beach and playing in the sand, running with their toy truck / wheel barrow, and swimming.
Europe was much hotter than we’re used to in Seattle! We forgot how miserable hot summer nights can be! The kids didn’t mind the heat – this meant more playing in the water and more ice cream – a novelty they experienced several times on this trip!
View our Vacation 2012 photos.
by admin ~ July 21, 2012
We had a lot to celebrate in May. Zvonimir turned 40 (though he didn’t want to celebrate!) and we had a low key weekend at home. We went hiking and had a date night on the town. We also celebrated Amy’s new job. After 15 years at her old company, she took a new job working for a very small consulting firm.
Gabe and Zara are chatting up a storm. They get very frustrated when you don’t understand them but they seem to understand each other just fine. They learned at Gymboree to clean up when they are done playing with toys so they sing “Clean up clean up, everybody clean up.” They’re pretty good about putting their toys away. They also developed a love for play dough. It seems that they would be happy playing with play dough 24 hours a day! A recent ploy to get out of going to sleep is that they have to give Maggie a treat before they go to bed. At first Maggie was terrified and stayed as far away as possible, but it seems that now she’s starting to get it that she’ll get a treat if she’s there.
View our May 2012 photos.
by admin ~ June 28, 2012
We’re late in posting the last two months of pictures so we have two months March and April below:
The kids turned 2 in March and we celebrated with a big birthday party at Gymboree with a bunch of friends. The kids all had fun and the birthday cake was a big hit.
The kids go to Gymboree every week with Ciara. They love going to Gymboree so they can run and jump. Gabe learned how to jump and was hopping like a frog all over the house. Zara didn’t pick up on jumping as quickly as Gabe. She would proudly stomp one foot on the ground when we told her to jump. For whatever reason they started putting a book on the floor and jumping off of it. This provided hours of entertainment.
We took the kids to swim lessons at our gym. They love being in the pool and especially love jumping off the side into the water. They are pretty fearless and going under the water does not seem to bother them.
The kids started saying “I love you” back when we said it to them (really it sounded like “ri-rove-ru” but it still made my heart melt) and I started saying “I love you more.” We soon started having a banter back and forth when we said said I love you and “un-un, I love you more.” It is pretty cute!
View our March 2012 photos.
April.
I bought the kids a harmonica and they love playing it. It’s so much fun to watch them learn how to play it!
Z was out of town for a few days and I dropped some applesauce I was feeding to Gabe. As I dropped it I said “Oh Crap” (it could have been worse!) and Gabe quickly repeated it….five hundred times! When Z returned home Gabe dropped his fork when eating dinner and said “oh Crap.” A few hours after the kids went to bed, Z and I were laughing about how Gabe said “oh Crap” and out of nowhere in his high pitched little boy voice Gabe yells “oh crap!”. Guess we are going to have to watch what we say even when we think they’re asleep!
View our April 2012 photos.
by admin ~ March 24, 2012
We had a few really nice days in February and were able to get out some hiking in our local park. The kids did great. They walked nearly a mile in total and loved picking up sticks and leaves. The weather was so beautiful that we went hiking 2 days in a row. The 2nd day we went hiking on a gravel trail and it was Gabe’s mission to pick up as many rocks as he could. We quickly determined that if we didn’t put them in the backpacks, we would never make it to the lighthouse.
Ciara is doing an awesome job working with the kids to teach them colors, letters, and words. They say a lot of words but sometimes get very frustrated when we don’t understand them. They amaze us every day with the things they say or observations they make. For example, I learned that when I’m looking through their closet to find them an outfit I say “hmmmm, what should we wear?” I now know this because they both started going through the clothes going “hmmmm.” It’s pretty funny when they pick up on things that you don’t even realize you do!
Poor Zara continues to be a klutz. As she was running back the hall chasing Gabe, she fell head first into the corner of the wall. She had a huge goose egg on her head and our wall had a huge dent and crack but like a trooper Zara was up and running in no time. Zara is one tough little girl! She won’t let a boo boo or a rough brother get her down!
The kids love going to art class and doing art at home. They are so proud to show us their art creations!
View our February 2012 photos.
by admin ~ February 12, 2012
We took the kids sledding for the first time in January. We found a little hill near the ski resorts (about an hour away) that was perfect for the kids to go with us or by themselves. They had a blast sledding but found walking in their snow outfits difficult.
I had a genius idea to let the kids finger paint while sitting on the floor. I didn’t really think thru the whole leg/foot thing and would have been better off with them sitting at the table! Our kids really hate being dirty and having a “mess” so I’m not sure what they thought of it. My luck ran out when Gabe got paint on his toe. He flipped out and was done painting.
We had our first big snow in the city this year. We had gone to the Aquarium for the afternoon and didn’t bother to carry our jackets inside since we parked right across the street. By the time we came out it was like a blizzard and the roads were pretty terrible. About 2 miles away from the downtown, the snow stopped and there was not a trace of the snow for the next mile or our neighborhood. While we did not get any snow the entire first day, Ciara (our nanny) had over 6 inches in her neighborhood only a few miles away. It was a strange storm! Seattle historically doesn’t do well in snow storms because they have very few plows and do not believe in salting the road (affects the salmon population). We ended up working from home the entire week because we only had one car (Z’s car doesn’t work in snow!), and he would pick Ciara up and bring her here so we could both work from home. We had a lot of fun sledding in the neighborhood with the kiddos but by the end of the 7 days, we were all pretty happy to be back to our normal routines!
Zara and Gabe are continuing to talk more and more. Our favorite word is helicopter pronounced something like keli-cop-cop, other favorites include pocket – pock pock, airplane (we live in the flight path!) – bear-plane, clementine – clem-tine. Maggie is no longer nah-nah to Zara, she’s Cat. They’re starting to have a lot of opinions about what they want to wear and do (or not do!). They love giving kisses (and blowing kisses on skype), they love it when I jump out and say BOO, and they also love the water.
We took them to this award winning pool that is essentially a large baby pool with fountains, water dripping from above and a padded floor, a deeper pool, and a pool with a lazy river. The kids had a blast. We took them to the deeper section where they had floating mats you could jump off of. Even though they were wearing life jackets they still went under when they jumped in. We thought they would be upset but they immediately said MORE Please when they came out above water. At one point Zara lost her balance and fell backwards off the mat to the other side. I quickly swam under and met her on the other side but she wasn’t bothered in the least! We’re excited that they like the water so much and are looking into swimming lessons in the spring.
View our January 2012 photos.