Fun in Germany

Grandpa Walker

We got to spend a day with Grandpa Walker and the Winslows which was a lot of fun.

Cousins

Luca loved playing with Heidi and Bob's kids, his cousins!

Train ride

Popeye took Luca on a train ride, well... a few train rides. He enjoyed them very much.

Sweet Sophia

It was great getting to know Sophia better this trip. Luca and I were just singing the wheels on the bus song tonight and I said what does Sophia say and he said, "I love Luca" all through the town. Luca loved Aunt Betsy and making Sophia laugh. She learned to crawl right after we left and I am looking forward to seeing a video of that soon:)

Germany trip

I am going to go back and share a little more about our trip to Germany. One of the highlights was a fantastic snow fall and getting to go sledding with Luca's cousins, and our families. Luca wasn't too sure about sledding last year but enjoyed it for a little while. He esp. liked it when he got to ride down the hill with Charis! It was a lot of fun to watch all the kids in the snow!

So proud

So proud

Luca really enjoyed eating his mashed potatoes all by himself tonight. He was so proud and happy to hold the spatula without my help. He kept looking up at me and saying with a big smile, "I am so proud." It was precious! Luca is difficult to feed as he isn't very interested in food (except for chocolate) but I was thankful he wanted to eat the mashed potatoes and peas for supper! I wonder if he could always feed himself if he would be more interested? We are still working on finding adaptive feeding equipment and have a new occupational therapist starting next week that is going to focus on feeding and other daily living skills.

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas morning! Luca slept till 5 am this morning!!! Yay, a first in several weeks with jet lag. We opened presents at 6 am and Luca got a kitchen set and many other fun gifts from people! Luca got pj's from Grandma Bev and Grandpa Jim and did not want to take them off for church. But we did and John and Luca helped me in the nursery with the few kids that were there. Luca enjoyed playing with the kids, of course. John and I made duck lasagna  this afternoon and we are going to eat it tonight. We have kept Luca up all day in hopes that he will sleep through the night and he has just had a wonderful day. Playing happily and mostly independently which has been so nice! I think he is happy to be home again.
Here is also a picture of me today at 34 weeks. This baby girl is going to be here before we know it! Hard to believe my due date is only 6 weeks away. She is still breeched as of now. It is fun to feel her moving around and I am excited to meet her soon!

Standing up!

Luca began standing up on his own last week in Germany. It is very exciting and I wanted to show you a video of him doing it!

Standing up!

Merry Christmas

I have a lot of blogging and posting to do to catch up and share about Luca and my adventures in Germany but I will need to put that on hold right now so that I can wish all of our readers- family and friends- a very Merry Christmas!

We did not get a Christmas Card done with year, but have sincerely appreciated all the cards and gifts that we have received. Thank you! Luca is very excited to open his presents and stocking. I still didn't have a stocking for him as of yesterday we went down to Target and he picked out a purple one for $1. I have a goal to get more permanent stockings for next Christmas. I cannot put any presents under the tree or else Luca wants to open them immediately. There can be wrapped gifts anywhere else in the room just not under the tree.
We wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! Love, Katie, John and LUCA

Real choo-choo house

Luca calls Barnes and Nobles bookstore the choo-choo house. Here is a picture of a real train station in Kandern and Luca with his purple "mittens".

"home"

Betsy, Sophia and I walked around Kandern yesterday and visited our old house, where our family lived while we were all in high school. I also got a few pictures of Sophia. She is so cute and has the best expressions!

Basel

My dad, Betsy, Luca and I went down to Basel last night to see the lights, Christmas markets and walk around. Luca got to ride on a tram car which he loved! And Betsy and I enjoyed walking around!

Special time with Aunt Betsy

Luca enjoyed having lunch with Aunt Betsy today. He fed himself and she helped him make mountains of rice and green bean trees. He slept better last night and got up at 4 am instead of 2 am. Progress. We are going down to see the lights and Christmas Market's tonight in Basel. I will take some pictures. Sophia also slept better and it is so fun to see her laughing. Luca said to her this morning, "Are you happy now?" He likes making her laugh!
We also got fresh milk this morning from a farmer down the street and Luca loves see the cows and horses! What a treat to be here!

Great hike

Today was a beautiful sunny day and Betsy and I got to go on a little hike to Sausenburg (a castle ruin). What a treat to get outside in the sunshine!
Jet leg is a challenge for both kids, hopefully they will adjust soon For example I was up from 2-5 am with both kids and then my dad took over from 5 am on and I slept from 5-11:30 am. Luca was happy and up for the day at 2 am till 1 pm. We will see if he can sleep a little later tonight. Luca is loving all the people and meeting new friends! I am excited to do some fun things with him.
We spent the evening with my friend, Michelle, and her three daughters. Luca and the girls had a blast together!

Arrived in Kandern

 We arrived safe and sound. Luca slept 8 hours on our 10 hour flight. Now to get over jetleg....Luca was up at 3 am, luckily Popeye spent a few hours with him so I could sleep through the night. More updates coming soon!

Baby girl

Luca is not too sure he wants a baby sister....he told me what he would really like is to have a BIG sister who wears dresses....well, we are going to have to be content with a little sister. We saw her today on ultrasound. She weights 3 pounds, 5 oz. (estimated) and has amazing little feet, just perfect. I can't tell you how happy seeing a picture of her feet makes me. I thought I would pass on the excitement and let you see her feet too. We tried to get a 3D picture of her face but she didn't cooperate too well. In the profile picture her nose looks a lot like Luca's to me but who knows?

My fluid level is still great, and she is  in a frank breech position, meaning her head is up and her feet and hands are in front of her face. Typically babies switch into the head down position by 36-37 weeks. If she doesn't switch then we will schedule a c-section but she has time before that needs to be decided. I feel like she is going to be here before I know it! The weeks are going by pretty fast by now with the holidays and trip to Germany coming up! I can't wait to meet her and introduce Luca to his little sister, who is going to wear very cute dresses at least until she can tell me otherwise.