Kindergarten Picture - 2009

Mother's Day

Fabian surprised me with a Mother's Day gift he made in kindergarten. My first Mother's Day gift from him!!!!

Today, when lots of countries around the world celebrate this day....I think of ALL the different types of mothers out there! May we all have the blessings and the strength required for this title.

Chronicle of my birthday

I mentioned before that my birthday celebration this year was to go out with Ishan last Saturday night. We went to my favorite place in Erlangen where they play Latinamerican music and I had a couple of Baileys...yum!

On Monday evening Fabi had surprised me by singing "¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Mamá! while playing with the balloons that Alonso had left for him the previous day.

Tuesday 13th, the actual day of my birthday, was really special because it was Fabi's first day at his playgroup. Jetlag is officially over and it was the day when we got up the earliest since we came back from Costa Rica. We headed for the Mütterzentrum and met Fabi´s playmates. There are eight children in total (including Fabi): 4 boys and 4 girls. The group includes a pair of 3-yr. old twin girls (who speak Russian and German) and a pair of twin boys (who speak Urkrainian and German). They will get together every Tuesday and Friday from 9:00am to 12 noon. Since it was the first day, I stayed with them the whole time, but I will slowly start leaving Fabi alone until he realizes that he can stay there by himself and then I come back for him at the end of the session.

Fabi did a watercolor painting, had a snack and played outside in the sandbox. As we were leaving, he was proudly showing his work of art.

Check out my birthday card:

After Fabi´s playgroup was over, I was going to head towards Subway to have my birthday lunch, but we happened to walk by McDonald´s and Fabi managed to change my mind: I know the Happy Meal is healthy there (milk, salad, fruits and fish sticks) - and we get a toy!

After lunch we crossed the street and Fabi spent some time in the children´s section of our favorite bookstore while I browsed the calendar section. It was getting cold and so after a short visit to the Arcaden, we waited for the bus (no. 287) that would take us home again.

We came home just in time to have a chatting session with Fabi´s family in Mumbai. At the same time Masaladad came home, packed his bag and left on a business trip to...India!

One of the things I really enjoyed was getting messages from friends (some whom I hadn´t been in touch with for a while). So many nice birthday wishes came in the form of phone calls, e-mails, e-cards, blog comments, messenger lines, Orkut scraps and Hi-5 messages!

As you can see, it was a nice, blessed, memorable -albeit cakeless- birthday!

Birthday pictures and party report

Thanks to my friend Rong for Fabi´s great gift and for the CD of pictures with the memories of this second birthday.

(You can click on the slide below to have a bigger view of the snaps or you can have the traditional view of pictures here.)







Last March 27th, Fabi celebrated with his friends from the playgroup (Krabbel Gruppe) "Creciendo Juntos". We are a group of about 10 mothers and children that meet on Tuesdays from 10:30am to 12:00 noon. Fabi is the eldest kid, as the rest of the babies are around the age of one year, which means the party was basically for the mothers ;)

The main dish was homemade"Milch Reis" (a version of Kheer) -yes, I made it myself! I´ve been practicing and that´s pretty much the only thing I know how to make...besides Guacamole, which I also prepared for that day and served with potato chips. Other goodies included Pillsbury mini-croissants (similar to this), which I prepared some with cheese, some with ham and others with chocolate cream filling; mini chocolate muffins and bread sticks (some with sesame seeds, some were chocolate covered). Fabi blew out his two "teddy bear" candles, this time on a big muffin and then the grown-ups had a toast with a light cocktail "Fruta y Pasión Himbeere-Maracuja".

We sang the traditional birthday song in Spanish, I helped him blow out the candles and some pictures were taken (I hope to have them soon). Each baby received a party bag with some goodies (like a bottle of bubble blowing fun and a wooden shape with their initial) and even their moms received a small surprise (a lip gloss).

Thanks to Diego Andrés, Emil, Manuel, Gabriela and Anna Emilia -and their moms- for a nice time and the happy memories. We missed Nicolas, Lucas and Martín that day, but on behalf of everyone Fabi got a cute birthday card and a gift certificate for the "Kinderstube" toy store in Erlangen. ¡Muchas gracias a todos!