Bathroom News

With her determination to do more and more things on her own Mia has also started to wash herself in the bath tub. She is also a big fan of the potty we got about 10 days ago and uses it a few times a day. Already two months back in Shanghai she was setting up the changing pad and getting the fresh diaper ready when she thought she needed a change. This might have been a good time to start the potty training but we decided to wait until we are back from trips to China and Europe.

Christmas Day

Since it had gotten a bit late the evening before when we went out for dinner with Howie and his family, we decided to give Mia her presents on Christmas day. When possible she would help with the unwrapping

One of her favorites was a set of pots and kitchen utensils:

Now she can "cook"the vegetables she got a bit earlier

She also liked a new bag from her Oma in Cologne

Uncle Andreas picked a little drum:

The day before Christmas

The day before Christmas Howie - an old friend from LSU, who just moved to the area - came for a visit with his wife and 14 month old daughter Ida. In the beginning Mia was a it shy - like usually - but then she ended up playing with Ida

She showed her her farm with little animals

And climbed around on our bed
When she is playing by herself she sometimes likes to try on Mama's shoes with one of her gloved

The advent calendar

One thing we brought back from Germany for Mia was an Advent calendar. Now she is ready every morning after breakfast to have a new door opened. Her main interest is of course the chocolate and not so much what kind of object is shown behind each door.
During breakfast and other meals she also insists more and more to eat by herself. Sometimes this gets a bit messy but in general she is doing pretty well

Because of the cold weather and the snow this week she hardly got out. So a lot of playing was done indoors.

Two years old

On her second birthday Mia woke up early. Maybe it was the jet lag. Maybe it was her excitement about her birthday presents. One was a doll from Oma in Cologne:

Since it was another cold and windy day she had to stay and play mostly inside

Which didn't mean she could not try out some winter accessories

In the evening it was then time for the birthday cake

Back from Germany

After Switzerland we stopped in Cologne to see some family and friends. It was also a good opportunity to check out a Christmas market. Mia not only enjoyed the food - Potato pancakes (Reibekuchen ) and Sausages - but also the ride for kids


Because of the cold and the snow we couldn't spend much time outside but fortunately we could let Mia play at the large Porta furniture store in Lind. They had plenty of children beds with a slide for her to check out.

She also had fun playing with her cusins Ellis and Malin

After Cologne we went to see Ji's friend Andrea in Spellen. There we also had lots of snow but one afternoon we went out so that Mia could see a real horse nearby

She also played a lot inside


Very popular was the toy kitchen
Mia also liked the baby doll
On the evening of December 5 St. Claus made an early appearance so that Mia could meet him as well


Back home after a long flight Mia was happy to see Mr Mimi again