Everybody poops and twinkle twinkle

Maya and mom are having fun being girls. We really tried hard not to socialize them at all (never mind the pink pajamas for Maya in the picture), but Maya's a girl and Julian a boy. How can we tell? Take them to the toy store and see what they get.

Julian will go to the toy cars, trains and animals. Maya will grab any stuffed animal she can find. Today she was holding a stuffed doggie the size of her through the store. She stops and waves at people. Very friendly but if I take her close to a strange man she'll begin to cry.

Every now and again I'll hear the kids saying something they learned from mom. Maya has been singing "winkle winkle liddle starr". I was walking with Julian through downtown Tuebingen and he began to sing "It's raining it's pouring the old man is snoring, bumped his head went to bed got up in the morning." I never knew the words.

And now a description of our lives not for the faint of heart. (you've been warned).

Julian will say some really sweet things: "Dadda, look, I made you and me and we're riding our bicycles. Now I'm going to make Mamma and Maya and give them bicycles too." Now see if you can guess when he says this. If you're thinking while he's drawing on a piece of paper you couldn't be further off. He does this after going to the potty. He likes to imagine his poops are us and our bicycles. He doesn't like to have lonesome poops so he'll sit on the potty until the lone ones have some company. We don't discourage it. Actually we're so happy he's going to the potty by himself and saving us on diapers that we couldn't be happier. There's a funny thing about being a parent. It's like losing your mind, but in a good way. Let me illustrate.

You pick up your kid and you give him a kiss only to notice that he has snot running down his nose. No problem, you wipe it off of them and you and you continue kissing your kiddie. Would never happen to a kid you didn't produce. Say you see snot running down some kid's nose. You'd think to yourself, how gross and where are his incompetent parents. If the kid tries to wipe it on your pants he would end up face down in the bushes. That's just the way it is and you know it to be true. I'm just documenting it for you.