Observations is the title Barbara wrote on the first page of the 4th notebook which she wrote while in Austria but did not date the entries.

Passports

So far we haven’t had any trouble crossing the boarders -  we all have our passports ready in our hand and they take one look and waive us though.  Kristopher loves to hold his open to his picture and of course Jeremy wants to do his. His picture was taken when he was a baby so he doesn’t recognize himself and all he does is yell “where is Jeremy’s picture”; we can’t convince him that’s him! And so he holds his, Andrew and Kristopher’s for 15 minutes asking when his is, and we go trough this every time we cross a border.

 

Written in 4th notebook, not dated but written during the trip. Jeremy was a baby when Mom had last saw him a year before when Brenda and Tom left for Austria.

Jeremy

Jeremy – age 22 months. I love to hear Jeremy sing “Heidi” (that’s all he knows of that one), “Happy Birthday” and a blessing song which we have to sing at least twice a day which goes like this.

He loves to copy everything anyone says and he mixes his German with his English! He does love to eat and will try any food – so unlike Kristopher who is still a “picky” eater. He plays real well with Kristopher and is rough! He is jealous of Andrew and wants Brenda to hold him a lot, but when Brenda isn’t around his is very, very good. He loves his “grandpo” as he calls Morris, in fact Morris can get him quite when I sure can’t. He has sweet little voice and can say 5 word sentences real plain. Only when he throws in some German, I can’t understand him.

Oh, his other favorite song is “Itsy, Bitsy Spider” and he can sing all of this one along with me. He is a very sweet and loving boy. He only takes a one hour nap each day right after lunch. He is up very early anywhere between 6 and 7 am and craws in bed with Brenda and Tom – sometimes he goes back to sleep and sometimes not. Brenda says he has to lay practically right on top of her and his little hand touching or stroking her (just enough that she can’t sleep!)  He goes to bed real well every night about 7:45. Brenda lies down with him for about 15 minutes then she leave him. He does wake up sometime during the night and yells out but Brenda won’t go in to him anymore and he finally shuts up.  He still sleeps in his baby bed in the same room with Kristopher.

He loves to stand on his little stool in the kitchen and help Brenda cook. Of course, he sneaks some too!! He loves to drink Kool Aid and will sing “Kool Aid, Kool Aid, Can’t wait” if Brenda doesn’t have any fixed!

Oh he does have about two crying-yelling-mad fits a day. They usually don’t last too long and Brenda or Tom can distract him and get him in a good mood in a few minutes.

Jeremy never just walks! He hops, he jumps, he bounces and he runs! He is full of energy. He has one foot that seems to be growing in towards the center just like Beth at that age. I took Beth to the doctor and he said to put her shoes on backwards and I did and it helped so Brenda started doing that to Jeremy this week.  He likes to try long words and I love to hear him say “chocolate” Kristopher (sounds like Sisteropher).

The End