Greetings from Paris

And still more concert

More concert

A Concert

Spring has sprung?

We're at the end of 2 weeks of school vacation.  We didn't have any big plans to go anywhere, but we took lots of advantage of the extra time spent together, and we've also had great weather the last few days.  We've gone on lots of walks and bike rides and trips to the park.  We made it to the swimming pool once and have played with friends several times.  I've also taken the opportunity to do some things I don't have as much time to do anymore.  We tried a new recipe, baked a couple of cakes, made cookies and bread.  I had recently completed sewing projects for both Alina and Tassia, so I felt the need to sew for Sybille.  In this picture, here she is wearing her new skirt:

Somehow in the excitement, I got inspired, and one new skirt turned into three Spring Skirts!  Hooray for Spring!

Celebrating Sybille!

Today we're celebrating Sybille!

 With this!

 She was scared to blow out the candles by herself, so we called in reinforcements:

Yes, today Sybille turned 3.  Three wonderful years of Sybille.  For her, apparently, the "birthday" and the "birthday cake" are synonymous to the point of being interchangeable.  For weeks, she's been asking, "Mama, when is my birthday cake?"  or saying, "My chocolate cake is after Christmas."  As we were baking the cake yesterday, she asked, "When would it be my birthday?" which really meant, "When do we eat the cake?

Sybille loves puzzles right now.  And she loves to color and paint.  She will walk down the street, occasionally jumping on her left foot and kicking her right foot up and back in the air.  It looks a bit like something out of Mary Poppins.  She actually doesn't walk much, she half-runs, with this bouncy, skippy sort of run that's really enthusiastic and really cute.  She'll take my hand going somewhere, and say, "Mama, can you say skip to my lou?"  and I'll have to skip down the street with her singing.

She has informed me, "I'm not a baby anymore.  I'm big!"  It's true she's getting big, and she's big for her age.  No longer does she count, "Two, one, seven, eight nine," but she has started counting just like the rest of us.  She can get almost to 20 in 2 languages!  She loves to inform us of when we're driving uphill or downhill.

She still likes baby penguins, as you can see by the cake.  She loves to help me cook and bake and, like her other family members, loves books!

When she talks, many words, especially those beginning with "br" or "pr" or something similar, start out with a noise like a car motor starting, or blowing raspberries.  It is incredibly funny, and I'll miss it when she starts talking "normally." 

Because she is, in fact, growing up very quickly.

We're wrapping up a very, very busy weekend.  Alina's school Christmas program was Friday night.  It was a really cute program.  Alina's class did a sort of skit to music that combined Peter and the Wolf with Little Red Riding Hood.  She was perfect as LRRH's mother.  It finished a bit earlier than last year, meaning that we were actually home a bit before midnight.  Saturday, after sleeping in, we had a Christmas carol sing-along oranized by several churches in the area.  I think a good time was had by all.  We broke with tradition and had frozen pizzas afterward, before sending everyone off to bed.  Today was Sunday school and church, followed by lunch at Thomas's parents'.  Then, we had to make  quick trip through the annual Christmas market here, where we enjoyed free pony rides and face painting!  To cap things off, Alina, as is her custom following anything stressful or emotionally intense, came down with a 39°C fever this evening...