Happiness

How do you spell happiness?  To me, it's V-A-I-O-S-I-N-A.  Seriously.  I tell you, she does something every single day that just sates me with J-O-Y. 

This week, I decided to take a couple days off (thanks to my great boss!) since it's Chrissy's last few days here.  I didn't want to take Sina out of school.  She loves it so much and, I have to admit, that it was nice to have a just a girls' day today.  In any case, I dropped her off later than usual, but just in time to meet her group of school buddies outside the building, preparing to leave for a stroll around Patch Barracks. 

Whenever we park the car outside the school, Sina goes nuts.  She starts squealing (loudly), smiling and kicking her feet as I work to get her out of her seat.  She was even more ecstatic to see her friends outside this morning.  Lucky for Sina, there was a seat at the front of the wagon, waiting for her, and the caregivers were so nice to let us get Sina all settled.  Oh, it brought almost brought me to tears to see how thrilled she was when I buckled her into the seat.  Pure happiness...for her and for me as well. 

Another few tidbits about Sina and school...

The other day, one of the caregivers told me that they absolutely love Sina. They said that of all the kids, she never complains, always wants to participate in all of the activities, gets along with the other kids, takes the longest naps and has the healthiest appetite.

Speaking of food...whenever either of us goes to pick Sina up at the end of the day, as soon as you enter the door, she runs up to you, squeals, giggles and claps her hands loudly and vigorously.  She did it today when Chrissy and I walked in.  Immediately afterwards, another caregiver told us that Sina gets that excited whenever the cook comes in with their meals.  Even more, she also says "Ah la la la la la" when he comes in and you all know that in Sina-speak that means "I love you".  I'm telling you, the girl is hilarious and apparently in love with food.  I have no idea where she gets it from.

It's almost 0100 in the morning and I'm going to grab my little princess from her crib so that she can sleep with me for the rest of the night.  Happiness folks...happiness indeed.

New Sleeping Spot?

"School" closes at 6:00 p.m. for Sina.  Because we work a ways from her school and because we also work crazy hours, she's almost always the last baby to get picked up.  Sometimes, like last night, Malu will go and pick her up, then bring her to our office building so that we can finish up working. So basically, Sina's just so pooped by the time she gets home at night. 

Last night, she decided that she was so tired, she dragged her pillow pet out to the kitchen and just laid down in front of the stove as I prepared her dinner.  The poor thing.  She would get up a few times, circle around the kitchen, and just plop down on her pillow like that.  We got a kick out of it and I managed to snag a photo.

We're still on the waiting list for a slot at the school right here on our post.  It would be a 5 minute walk from work although, unfortunately, I can't promise that she'd get home any earlier--such is the nature of our work.

One great thing though, is that I know she's having fun at school!

Oh, Sina...in less than 2 weeks, you'll be a year old.  I can't believe it!

A is for Apple & Daycare

We've pretty much been teaching Sina her ABCs since she was born.  Because all of her books and toys are still in our household goods shipment, we bought her a Winnie the Pooh ABCs book to keep her busy and she's been through the book about a zillion times already.  The other day, I decided to go through the book with her again and gave her an apple for A, just to make it more practical.  I also had a teddy bear for B.  In any case and to no surprise, she grabbed the apple and immediately tried to eat it.  Of course, I couldn't help but take a few pictures. 

Don't tell me that these pictures didn't put a huge smile on your face!  She just makes us so happy :)

On another note, this morning, we had to drop Sina off at daycare because she wasn't permitted to come on a hospital tour that we went on today.  First of all, we had to get up at the buttcrack of dawn this morning to catch the bus all the way over there--the child development center is on another base and is straight across town.  But most important, when we got to the daycare and the provider picked Sina up out of her stroller, she was all smiles.  She looked at the lady and immediately put her hands on her cheeks as if to say, "I'm ready to stay here and have fun today!"  It was the cutest thing. See?  Doesn't she look so happy?

When we picked her up, she was sound asleep and stayed that way the entire bus ride back to our hotel.  Although she's not going to be in daycare full time for at least a few more months, it broke our hearts to let her go even for those few hours.  We're so glad it was such a success.

We sooooo can't wait to get our car.  It's here in the shipyard, but we can't get it until we take the driver's test and get our licenses.  We will attempt to to this on Friday morning.  Let's hope that at least one or the both of us will pass because it's been snowing like crazy and hella cold outside.  We're tired of having to wait for the bus in it!

Today, as a part of our inprocessing, we went on a hospital tour to get us familiarized with the local hospitals in case we ever need to get treated offpost.  We were very impressed.  One or two were your average hospitals, but the others were the most beautiful hospitals you've ever seen.  Some, you'd be sure to mistake as fancy hotels.  These places were huge and built mostly of glass, with indoor fountains and fresh flowers everywhere.  So beautiful.  I'm thankful for the tour.  Now, the thought of visiting a German hospital doesn't seem so intimidating.

Anyway, it's almost Thursday for us over here, but happy hump day to you guys in the states!