Kara Do That!

Okay, Kara & Dwight are starting to play together more, which means they fight and argue more too. Dwight will often come to me and say "Kara Do That!", which is his way of saying that she has done something to him that he is not happy about and he wants me to intervene, which a lot of times I don't really feel like doing. Aren't children suppose to negotiate these things on their own?

Another thing that Dwight says that I think is cute is "deebee deebee" (DVD).

After living in Dubuque for a few years now, I had a revelation the other day. There are maybe only a handful of escalators in this town. You know that you have become a "country bumpkin" when you take your kids up and down a lone escalator "for fun". I never thought I would say this!

I went cross country skiing for the second time a week and a half ago. Gary and I call it "poor man skiing". I am a pretty good downhill skier, but for me this hasn't seem to translate over to cross country. I was sore for 2 days afterwards and couldn't really keep up with Gary or the other more athletic people we were with. I'm still trying to figure out how to balance and to stop. Oh well, I had fun trying anyway.

Kueper Year in Review

This is my first post of 2009! Our kids have grown and changed a lot during 2008. The thing I find myself doing when I look at them is saying "they are no longer my babies!". Although I like to pretend that Dwight is still my baby, actually he really isn't since he is now 2.

In 2008 Dwight learned to walk and to talk, pretty big accomplishments. He loves animals and books and to color. He tries to draw circles and asks us to write his name. He used to have more of a thing for Elmo and anything locomotive, but not so much recently. He has a blankie that he is attached to, but not so much so that he has to have it everywhere he goes or even with him every time he goes to sleep, which is good. Dwight is a charmer. He smiles and makes faces at strangers in public, and I've had a few people come up to me and tell me how cute they think he is. He is also very generous with his kisses!

Kara's big accomplishment of 2008 (at least in my opinion) is potty training. It took a full year, but by around her 3rd birthday, she was basically trained. There were certain points in the year where I wondered if she would be in diapers when she was 18! Kara enjoys singing (very loudly) and music and likes to be in the center of things. She has started taking swim lessons and enjoys swimming by herself (with a life vest on). She likes books, coloring, and puzzles. She got a kiddie computer for Christmas that she likes to play too.

Gary is doing well. His big challenge this year is his teaching of a new section of AP Calculus, the BC section (the college equivalent of Calc I and Calc II). He meets with a group of other men from our church on Saturday mornings which has been challenging, but he is enjoying it (as far as I can tell). He loves to spend as much time as he can with me and the kids.

I love being home with my kids. Although financially challenging at times, I really enjoy the flexibility. At the same time, I find for myself that I need something outside of the home that is stimulating in order to keep my sanity. My "outlet" is ministry through my church, primarily MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) and New Beginnings. New Beginnings is a mentoring program where I meet one on one with young parents who need someone to come along side them and give them a boost in their parenting. I get to help people with their physical needs (i. e. baby supplies), emotional needs and spiritually as well. I really love it!! I am also babysitting a 6 month old baby while his mom goes to school.

Christmas

We had a nice family Christmas this year. A highlight for us was the Christmas eve service at our church. Kara performed with the preschoolers. They sang "Away in a Manager", although it was not very audible. The kids were more focused on the actions that go with the song, but it was very cute. We played this song frequently on the piano and "practiced" together.
The kids were more excited and interested in the gifts they got this year. Everyone got new PJs to wear on Christmas eve, and we opened the other gifts on Christmas morning. I am hoping in future years to instill in our kids that the real joy of Christmas includes giving gifts as well. But there is certainly joy in receiving gifts which children are really good at expressing. We should joyfully receive all the gifts God gives us, especially the gift of Jesus himself.
We then had Christmas dinner with Great Grandma Hennig and Grandma & Grandpa Kueper.
I was a bit sad that I couldn't see my parents who are in Japan, but my sadness was constructive, because I called them and they got a chance to talk to their precious grandchildren. At the end of the day, I realized that the best Christmas gift for me was being able to spend it with my wonderful husband and 2 beautiful children.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

If you were to eavesdrop on our children as we have been doing our Christmas shopping around town, you might think they are a little strange. Kara has been asking if we are getting balloons for Jesus' birthday or if we are going to bake a cake. They are more likely to sing and talk about about baby Jesus than Santa Claus. Not that Santa or Frosty are taboo, we just don't go out of our way to talk about them like we do about Jesus or Mary.
So I decided to run with the idea and I baked a cake for Jesus (maybe the Japanese are on to something with the Christmas cake thing). Tomorrow we will sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. Kara and Dwight are quite excited about this.
Last week I took the kids to a doctor's appointment. On our way out of the clinic, Kara was singing "Frosty the Snowman" as loud as she could, much to the entertainment of the receptionists and the people waiting for their appointments. Actually, the only words she knows is "Frosty the Snowman". The rest of the song she just makes up (mostly unintelligible). Come to think of it, I don't know all the words to this song either!!

Let it Snow!!

If you would have told me a couple of years ago that we would have over a foot of snow on the ground for Christmas with consistent snow cover through out the winter season, I wouldn't have believed it. After last year it is starting to seem like a normal part of the Christmas season.
I have to say that I have always liked snow, however, probably because there were so many years growing up when we didn't get much of it. Especially in Sendai during my teen years it seemed like we would only get a few good snows that would melt pretty quickly. I do have found memories of skiing, sledding, and playing in the snow that I hope to enjoy with our kids.
Last Friday we had a big snow (10 inches), so we took the kids sledding but Kara is not too found of it. She would actually prefer to shovel snow with Dad! Our neighbors are letting us borrow a little shovel so she can "help" too. We are definitely having a snow covered Christmas!!

Uncle David came and spent Thanksgiving with us. He has other plans for Christmas.

Brithday Boy

We recently celebrated Dwight's birthday. He is now 2 years old and he will tell you so (he will also tell you that his sister is 3). We may be a bit biased about this, but Gary and I have recently concluded that Dwight is a bright boy. He seems to be quite verbal for his age, considering that he is a boy. He loves books and is always interested in learning new words. Over the summer he was obsessed with animals, and still is, but more recently he has gotten good at recognizing letters. He doesn't know all of his letters, but he will point at words and try to tell you what the letters are and will get them right almost half the time! He really is only a step behind Kara in this area.

When it comes to teeth, he is a bit goofy. He didn't get his first teeth until after his first birthday, and he has had only 8 teeth for the last year. Now, at around his second birthday he is getting a few more.

We had fun celebrating with just Grandpa & Grandma Kueper this year. We love our precious boy!!

Trick or Treat!! Me Too!!

Gary had the day off for Halloween this year, so we had a great family day. The weather was absolutely beautiful. We carved a pumpkin and bought costumes for kids which were 50% off. Kara got to be a princess with a dress that light up when you pushed a button. She also had a magic wand. Dwight got to be a blue dinosaur. After having been asked a few times what they were for Halloween, they both can answer pretty automatically (yes, Dwight can actually say the word "dinosaur"). I have to say that as a parent, I enjoyed dressing Dwight up in his dinosaur costume, because I figure that since he is a boy, he will not want to be dressed so cutely in a few years. There was one little boy who we ran into about the same size as Dwight who astutely noticed that he was a triceratops.
This was the first year that we actually took them trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, but they caught on to the idea pretty quick. Kara would go up to the promising houses and say "trick or treat" and "thank you", then Dwight would come up behind and try to say "trick or treat", but I think he found it more affective to say "me too".
I have to say that trick-or-treating does take some effort, walking up stairs and knocking on people's doors. Towards the end we were both carrying the kids. We ended the evening by visiting Grandma & Grandpa so they could see the kids in their costumes. Lots of fun was had by all!