this morning

Today the kids and I walked to school. It's a nice 20 minute walk in the mornings.

Outside our house (on left).


We saw this funky bug.


And a pretty blue garage door.


At school, Jonas is supposed to walk Ada up to her class. He does it sometimes. His classroom is right next to hers.


After dropping them off, I went to 7-11 to pay the phone bill.


Then I went to the Wellcome for some groceries.


I love the soy sauce aisle. After 5 years here, I am still overwhelmed by it.


Aisle one of the instant noodles (ramen):


Aisle two of the instant noodles:


Aisle three of the instant noodles:


Aisle four of the instant noodles (and instant other stuff that you add water to):


Special display 1 of the instant noodles:


Special display 2 of the instant noodles:


And finally, really, really fresh fish:

halloween week

This week, we went trick-or-treating around Tienmu with our Dutch neighbors. The kids had almost as much fun as the Dutch neighbors! Sadie came along, too, but she didn't dress up (as much as we would have LOVED to dress her up as a whoopie cushion).



The kids also had a big Halloween party at school, complete with dressing up and trick-or-treating. I was amazed at how involved it got at their school. I was hoping their lunch menu would reflect the holiday festivities, but then again, something like brain soup might be just another typical lunch there. Just kidding!

In other news, Sadie is getting noticeably fatter, and we are all adoring her. P and I were talking about how different her infanthood is from Jonas' because she has so much more activity around her, and so many more people in the immediate family to give her attention. He said, "it's like she is not just her parents' baby, she's everyone's baby."







Poor Ada has been waking up way too early every day this week. I think Sadie wants to nurse her knee here:



One day on our way to school, Jonas told me that this is his favorite face of Sadie's. She does it a lot:



Sadie is obviously her own girl and is starting to look different from Ada as a newborn. But I thought this photo comparison was interesting:

Sadie, 3 weeks:



Ada, 3 days:



Even though she can't smile yet, it's easy to tell when she is happy. We are having a contest to see who can make Sadie smile first. Here's her pre-smile:



I have posted several more photos at my flickr account. Click any of the pictures above to get there.