Where to start...?

A lot has been going on lately, I don´t even know where to start. The last three nights Evan has been reluctant to go to sleep and I am not sure what brought it on. He is a very good sleeper and always goes to sleep on his own, in his own room, after our usual routine. However the last three days he has been yelling "mama" every time I left his room for the night.

On the first night we assumed it was because his closet and changing table had been taken out of his room and he was dealing with the change. But then again yesterday and also today. Like always, I am sure he has his reasons, but just what the reasons are is what makes me wonder. He is so very amazing though.

Tonight I went in after he had yelled for me at the top of his lungs (yelled, not cried) again and told him that it was his bedtime, that I wouldn´t be picking him back up and that it made me a little bit angry that he yelled for me like that. I made sure that he knew I wasn´t upset about him, only at what he was doing, and then I asked him to please stop it. I gave him some more hugs and kisses and assured him that we love him lots. Then I left the room.

There has not been any demanding yelling coming from his room since than. Babbling, yes. Yelling, no! If that isn´t the most amazing thing than I don´t know what is. Those little people are just full of surprises! You always think they´ve done everything possible to amaze you, and then they do it again. Parenting can be so rewarding! It´s always on days like these that I can imagine having quite a few more and actually being able to handle them too. Now just wait and see how many I think I can handle on one of the days where they wake you up at night, don´t nap well, eat bad and are cranky all day. Anyways, I dare say he has gone to sleep. I don´t hear a thing. I always say it, but it´s true - that little boy is spoiling us rotten!

In other news, we have purchased our plane tickets a while ago. We will be flying on October 3, not even a month from now. I am a little sad about leaving Germany again. Everything seems so final. I never like leaving a place I´ve lived at for a while. I just don´t like the fact that if you are leaving the place it will not be part of the present anymore, but part of my past forever. Plus we have lived in America before and I missed my family a lot then, so I am very worried about the possibility of me missing having them around this time as well.

On the other hand I am very, very excited of course. Charles and I both love change and can´t wait to be at a new place. We´ve always wanted Evan to grow up with both cultures. He has the big advantage of having lived in Germany for the first two years of his life. It will help him a big deal with his German language skills. He has definitely picked up on the German side of things a lot. The first words he said were all German. Lately he added a few English ones as well.

It will be quite a challenge to keep up with that since Charles and I prefer communicating in English. However, one advantage of speaking German in America is the privacy you get when you are in public. Ever had that embarrasing "Mom, why does that man smell so bad?" moment when you were waiting in line? I personally haven´t yet but am sure those situations aren´t too far away with Evan learning to speak. I am hoping to avoid those moments by speaking German with him while we are in public (as well as English of course). But English is already the language we talk most whenever Charles is around. So, the only times I am really comfortable speaking German is when Charles isn´t around. For a native speaker of German I guess that seems a little weird. However, knowing that it will be my sole responsibility to teach him German, I will definitely give my best.

Otherwise we have been busy going out and doing stuff with Evan. The weather has finally been bearable again so we wanted to take advantage of it. On Sunday we went to see his grandparents and aunt. His cousins and their parents were visiting as well, so needless to say Evan had a great time. Right behind the house is a big chicken and duck yard, and the little ones had so much fun hanging out there. I myself had a great time trying myself as a photographer. I have decided to start practicing my photo shooting skills. My big goal is to make my own name as a photographer sometime in the future.

If you are in the digi scrapping community, I am sure you have heard of at least one of the following: Tara Whitney Photography, Sweet Dreams Photography, Brittany Woodall Photography or Captured by Carrie Photography, just to name a few. If you have never heard of any of the names listed, you should defintily go check out their work - it is fantastic! I want to do that! I love their work, and I love taking pictures. I think I could improve enough to possibly make it a profession one day.

The only thing I am missing for sure is people skills. I am not a people person. I don´t like socializing. So that is a big drawback to my future plans. If I am uncomfortable, people I will take pictures of will be too. For now I will just keep practicing with friends and family to see how I will do with them. Maybe everything will fall into place when they time comes.

So the visit at my dad´s house was also my first official private photo shoot try-out. I do like the results, a lot! Since we didn´t meet for the sole purpose of having a photo shoot, the backgrounds are sometimes uglier than I´d like them to be. Also, I don´t actually like how grainy my photos come out all the time. I am assuming it´s because I use a high ISO speed. But if I don´t most of the pictures end up blurry. I am desperately hoping this would resolve itself if I had a higher quality camera? Not that my Canon Digital Rebel XT is shabby, it is fantastic quality for our budget. I am just wondering how this is the case. If anybody had any experience with that, I´d love to hear it. I am very frustrated at how grainy the pictures come out. Anyways. Here are the results of my first attempt at being a photographer. Let me know what you think. I´d love to get some honest feedback!



Click here for the album.





And here are a few pictures summing up the last few days. On the first you see Evan in his fancy dress shirt. It was the first time he was wearing a dress shirt and I love how unbelievably cute he looks.





Here you see what we did yesterday morning. I read about the idea in this book
and couldn´t wait to give it a try.









And this one is of Evan helping his dad clean a patio table. He loves being the one holding the water hose, as you can see.



Don´t forget to check out the little slide show of Evan I put together the other day. You can find it on the side bar. Have fun!