Waiting for Grandpa!

We went to the park by the train station before we picked Grandpa up. It was a beautiful day. This (above) was the sort of mood our William was in *before* he decided he needed a lilly pad, fell in the shallow mucky pond, clammered out again jumping up and down and yelling hysterically, "I'm stinky! I'm stinky", and was further enraged by his parents throwing up their hands and having giggle fits, the laughter of passers-by fed the fire...William screamed and screamed, louder and louder. Wiggling around, throwing his shoes off, trying to get away from the pond scum all over his clothes and skin....

Margaret, before William's "Pond Scum Meltdown of '09".

The happy, relaxed parents...before the Swamp Monster Incident.

William's first real football game!

Sean took William on a big boy outing! They drove to Stuttgart to see a real soccer game! Go VfB Stuttgart! They won 2-0. Fun was had by all.

kaboutertje

oma!

Father and son.

Margaret helps me.

Conversations

I.
Wm: Look, mama. My tooth is wiggling. Soon it is going to fall out. (editor's note: this is not true, but his friends are loosing teeth already)
Hf: Cool! When it falls out you can put it under your pillow and the Tooth Fairy will come bring you a present.
Wm: Will the Tooth Fairy bring Pokemon?
Hf: I am not sure what the the Konstanz, Germany Tooth Fairy will bring. Each Fairy has a different jurisdiction, and different tastes.
Marga: Not true! It's not truuu-uue!
Wm: Yes it is!
Marga: No,it is no-ot!
Wm: Yes it is Marga. It's true just like Jesus is true. If Jesus is true, then so is the Tooth Fairy.
Hf: That's right, William. Marga, leave him alone.

II.
We are watching Pete's Dragon, a video Beeba gave us and that I remember either from my childhood or from last week...I don't know anymore. Anyway, there is a part in the movie in which the lovesick female protagonist sees her rugged sailor true love, whom she had believed to be lost forever at sea...they run toward each other, the music swells, I tear up...and William clasps his hand over his eyes and hangs his head.

Hf: What's wrong, William?
Wm: Don't you know, Mama? Watching girls always gives me a headache!

III.
And finally, the first thing Mr drHf said to drHf yesterday morning:

"William needs help getting his escaped snails off the kitchen window"

Eric

William goes for a swim

Okay, maybe three is a little harder than two...

When Oma arrived 6 days ago, she looked and acted normal. Educated, professional, insightful, aware... slowly the transformation occurred. As the sleep deprivation added up, she started to respond more to the strange demands of the 3 and 5 year olds in the house. Pretty soon she was a king from a distant land. She had royal underlings, they had a royal snack...and they created a royal mess!
The King from a distant land oversees the resolution of the royal mess.

Welcome, Oma!

Oma meets Eric, and Margaret shows off her new role as big sister.
Three generations of McCrea!

Pacifying Pirate Skeleton

This child has rejected all pacifiers until today, when Sean's colleagues gave us a "baby rock star" pacifier...with a skull and crossbones on it! We gave him this pacifier and he has been awake and happy for an hour! Sean and I had a relaxing dinner together!

Siblings

Beeba and Eric

The Bodensee is getting warmer, slowly!

Grandpa goes furniture shopping!

How about this one?
Or perhaps a football love seat?
Or a lazy boy?
Or an even lazier-boy?

Go Cowboys!

Make-up artist

I couldn't resist buying Margaret her own make-up set for 4 Euro - she always wants to use mine. She was so excited and proceeded to apply make-up to herself, Sean's 5-o'clock shaddow, a little on the baby, some on Beeba...William ran away screaming....she carefully outlined the circles under my eyes with blue eye shaddow. Margaret remains beautiful despite her beauty techniques.

How to lose your marbles.

One month old!

It's true...

It's true that we have had *nothing* but quiet, well-behaved sweet moments around here.

Pictures from the last week

A picture of all five of us.
Eric is 4 weeks old!
Sean came back from Wyoming, after finding a house! We close in August!
A walk on Reichenau.

Pirate Skeleton McCrea.
I tried to take a picture of all three kids wearing their new pirate shirts for Eric's birth announcement...Eric screams and does his pirate imitation. Sadly, the real pirates in the news are making us pretend pirates look bad.
Running in the fields.
What it looks like when I try to go anywhere. The baby is in the carrier on my chest. The stroller is for supplies!
Beeba meets her third grandbaby!

Moon Base Playhouse

Tour

Walking into the kitchen



Upstairs bedrooms and main bath



basement

Excuse: The camera flew to Wyoming.

Okay folks, there will be no blogging for a week or so. This morning Sean took the camera and the fast computer to Laramie. He's looking for houses!

It's...New Dork Fashion Week!

"Strike a pose!"
"Smile for the camera, please!"
"Okay, now try to act normal..."
"Okay, don't act normal. Stand up straight and smile? Oh, nevermind!"

Conversations

William is looking at a Playmobil advertisement.

Wm: I wish me (weird German-English construction) a pirate ship like this one for my birthday!
HF: Hmm. We'll have to think about that one. They cost over a hundred Euro.
Wm: A HUNDRED!
HF: Yes.
Wm: Well, then, we can ask Santa Claus for it. He can steal it.
HF: Steal it?
Wm: Yes, he steals things and then he takes them to children.
HF: Really? I thought he had little elves that made the toys.
Wm: Well, what I don't understand is the elves make things out of wood but Santa Claus brought me my light saber and it is out of plastic. I think he stole it.
HF: Perhaps the elves also have a factory.
Wm: ( looking doubtful) maybe.

William and Eric

Eric looks up to his brother

William asks Eric for artistic criticisms

Twister!

Margaret and her polar bear play Twister!

Margaret is 3!

Margaret got a magnifying glass from Mama and Dada

Had cupcakes with her friends

and directed a game of Twister!


William also got a present for being cooperative (most of the time)