Poop-cake

Today was Wee Laddie’s first swim lesson. He did a great job and had a lot of fun doing it. This kid has such a great, positive attitude. He’s really ready to try just about anything!

Today after we came downstairs for breakfast, Wee Laddie spotted some dried mud on the floor (obviously from someone’s shoe). He pointed at it and was exclaiming, “Whoopsy! Whoopsy!”

(Some of you have already heard this story, but for the rest of you…)

We were getting ready to go to the store today and I thought I'd heard pooping noises coming from Wee Laddie’s direction just a couple of minutes before... so I asked if he'd pooped, he said, "No." I said, "Really? 'Cause I thought I heard you pooping a minute ago." He said, "No, just pee." (In Toddlerland, this counts as legitimate conversation.)

So I go to change him and could tell there was poop in the diaper so I said, "Yeah, there's a poop in there." He still said, "Nope." I opened the diaper and said, "What do you call that brown thing?" He looked at it and said, "Cake."

I Spy Grandma-cado

Had yoga class today. We were late again...it is so hard to get there by 9:30. I suppose I'd do better if I just had a quickie breakfast instead of taking the time to cook an egg (and one for Wee Laddie, too), but I'm afraid I'd bonk during yoga if I didn't have a good protein breakfast.

After yoga we stopped by library for a little bit, to kill the hour between yoga & the mess hall opening. Another mom & kid were in the children's section with us. The boy was a bit older and was reading, but Wee Laddie wanted to talk to him. I distracted him with one of the "I Spy" books, which (for those of you who don't know) have pictures with like dozens of items in them. So you can say, "I spy something red, "and there are like 15 choices. Anyway, the mom asked how old Wee Laddie is so I told her "Two." She apparently has a daughter who just turned two (or is about to... I've forgotten now). She was impressed by his language and that he could recognize a helicopter from the top which, frankly, didn't even occur to me until she said it. But it's weird...how could he know what one looks like from the top? I've been trying to remember if any of his friends have toy helicopters that he might have seen that way.

As we were walking out of the library, Wee Laddie went running into another room saying, "Grandma! Cado!" It's the room where the globes are, but it took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about. Weeks ago on another library trip I'd shown him on the globe where Colorado is and told him, "That's where we used to live. That's where Grandma is." I think she should officially change her name to Grandma-cado. It's like Grandma and avocado all rolled into one! ;)

I finally got up the nerve to call about German class. Thankfully, the woman's daughter was there and speaks very good English. The class starts March 14, not this week. And, I guess because it’s the German for beginners class, we don’t have to follow the instructions in the catalog...just show up on the first night. Whew.

Kiddie Cat

I still didn’t really feel up to the train ride we want to take, so we mostly just hung out at home. Would have liked to take Wee Laddie somewhere outside (well, moreso if I felt better, too), but it’s cold & wet.

Suddenly, I find myself short one son and ahead one kitty-cat. Sometimes, I’ll say, “Blah blah, Wee Laddie…” He’ll look at me very seriously and say, “Kitty-cat.” So I repeat, “Blah blah, kitty-cat,” because at least for now, he will respond as long as you address him “correctly.” The funny thing is that he will not smile at me when he’s a kitty-cat. He’ll rub his head up against me and meow. The only time this bothers me is when we’re out at some store or something and all of a sudden he’s lying on the floor and won’t come with me because he’s a cat. Other than that, it’s freakin’ adorable.

Sightseeing in Kallmzünz

Went to the base for breakfast. They have a pretty decent breakfast there, although the biscuits and bacon are certainly tempting. (I give in much more often than I ought to. Most of the time, in fact, since we usually only eat breakfast there a couple of times a week.) I've been needing envelopes for quite some time now, but we couldn't get them after breakfast because none of the stores open 'til 11. Breakfast, as you may remember from my earlier rant about mess hall hours, ends at 9:30. So even though it sometimes takes Wee Laddie about an hour to eat breakfast, that still leaves us with a chunk of time to kill.

So we went home for nap, then back to the base. Then we decided to check out Kallmzünz, which is one of the nearby towns. We drive through it on our way to the swim group, and it looked quite pretty so I thought it'd be fun to see it up close. We didn't go up to the castle (there are castle ruins up on sort of a cliff overlooking part of the town), but just walked along the river and then back through the town. It's one of those towns where you're not really sure if your car will fit through certain spots, so that made for an interesting drive.

Oodles o' Kids

There were a ton of people at the EFMP group today. Must’ve been like 12 sets. You might think that would lead to unmanageable chaos, but it's still surprisingly mellow. I suppose it helps that there are extra adults so we still outnumber the little guys...but it's also just a really great group of kids.

We found out that one of the babies we’ve met (Maggie) is in the hospital with a pretty serious case of RSV. She was a preemie (she's maybe 8 months old now), I think, and has Down Syndrome and her mom had said they'd recently been going to lots of doctors' appointments. I so hope everything is okay.

I still feel lousy, so the afternoon was just nap & hanging out at home.

Oh Thomas, My Thomas

Had a tiny bit of a sore throat last night. Today I feel like shit. Stuffy/runny nose, sinus headache, sore throat (one of those ones where it hurts to turn your head). Ugh.

We still went to Kids’ Club ‘cause I was pretty sure I could refrain from drinking out of anyone else’s sippy cup and remember to wash my hadns if I blew my nose or something.

Wee Laddie insisted on bringing 3 of his little trains along (including Thomas & Percy). He did okay with the sharing for a little while but it eventually led to him running around the gym screaming, “No! No!” and nearly crying, while Johanna ran after him. (Much like the Maya-Wee Laddie scenes at playgroups past.) There was finally an attempted hit so we had a wee break and put Thomas away. After Wee Laddie issued a barely-audible apology to Johanna, they were pals again. It’s interesting to watch the dynamic between those two.

Today Johanna sort of figured out that she needed to speak English to Wee Laddie, so at one point she was yelling, “No!” back to his, “Yeah!” and her mom commented that it was funny that she was using English and he was using German. Nice of her to give us that much credit.

Swimming Through Boxes

Wee Laddie's nose is still stuffy so no make-up swim outing for us today. I hope he doesn't realize we haven't gone swimming this week... he loves it so much! I spent the afternoon going through boxes in basement, trying to find my receipts for office expenses for our taxes. I now think they’re in one of the boxes I was going to have my mom ship before I found out how stinkin’ expensive it is to ship stuff over here. Isn’t that always how it goes?

Some of you have already heard this observation of Guitarman's, but for those who haven't I thought I'd share: "...things I don't understand, like why it's legal to pass another car around a blind corner up a hill at 120 km/h, but it's not legal to put a plastic bottle in the recycle bin on Sunday." It sounds like he's making things up, but those are both actually true. There are recycling bins everywhere around here, but you can only put items in them during certain hours on certain days. I'm beginning to understand why this would never work in America.

Thoughts on Window Screens

We skipped swim today. Wee Laddie loves it so much that I might take him tomorrow if his nose stops running. Watched “Cars” again. Seems that movie will be playing a prominent role in my immediate future.

German windows do not have screens. I’ve seen a web site where you can order them, but they don’t typically have them at all. Weird. The windows open 2 ways… you turn a handle a quarter-turn and the window opens like a door. If you turn it a full half-turn, then they open a few inches at the top. Not understanding that led to my original belief that we didn’t have a door that opened onto our patio, despite having three big French-door type things there. Guitarman set me straight.

The window-door thing is very cool, I think (though ours don’t have any type of handle outside, so you can’t close them from outside). The screen thing? I don’t get that. I mean for windows you’re likely to use as a door, sure. Makes no sense to have a screen there. But on our bathroom window? Bedroom windows? Windows with bars in front of them? Central air is not very common here, either, so how do Germans stay cool without having bugs take over their houses?

No Kiss

No yoga today because of the holiday. I had an okay day with Señor Runny-Nose. Poor guy. We did go to have lunch with Daddy at the mess hall. Wee Laddie’s been doing this thing where when we drop Guitarman back at work and he asks Wee Laddie for a kiss, Wee Laddie’s like, 'No! No kiss!' and he’ll put his hand over his mouth. If Guitarman kisses him on his cheeks, he’ll wipe his cheeks off afterward. I think it’s one of those power things…like he doesn’t want Guitarman to go back to work (he does it in the morning, too) but since he can’t control that he refuses to do the part that he can control. As soon as Guitarman starts to walk away from the car, Wee Laddie’s saying, 'Bye, Daddy, see ya later!'

It’s pretty interesting to listen to the radio here. The stations seem to have general themes, sort of, but they play an odd assortment of music. Guitarman was commenting on how they play lots of ‘80s music (which is great for us) and then there’ll be some cheesy German pop songs mixed in. But we’ve heard some stuff that may not have been played on the radio in the states since the ‘80s… such as the German version of that Peter Schilling song about Major Tom, and the Nik Kershaw song about the tree by the river (I think it might even be called 'Tree by the River')… neither of which Guitarman had heard before. Now THAT is shocking.

No Trains, Just Automobiles

Wee Laddie was under the weather today (not sure whether this is related to the mystery rash or not) so we bagged our plan to ride the train to Regensburg (or maybe Nürnberg) to walk around. The weather was pretty good but I didn’t want to take Wee Laddie out to a playground or anything and risk him getting a chill. He likes to run for a bit then fall on the ground on his back…even when it’s wet & cold out.

So we stayed home and watched 'Cars.' Ka-chow.

Buddy, Can You Spare a Phonebook?

Finally went to Media Markt…it’s better than Best Buy (I say that because they have light fixtures, too, so I have something to do while Guitarman looks at CDs). We now want to buy all of our DVDs in German because then you get both German and English versions. They dub like crazy over here. I don’t know if it’s like this with most other languages, but I swear, they’ve got practically everything they have back home. You can already get the newer shows like 'Numbers' and that Patricia Arquette one and 'House.' It’s phenomenal.

We got 'Cars' for Wee Laddie, which Guitarman’s been wanting to do for a while. I kept putting him off ‘til we found it in German, which was today. Of course, then we also had to get a region 2 DVD player. I know I had a brief rant about this already, but I think it’s all just ego that prevents a worldwide standard for video. It seems that video people around the world should get over themselves and just embrace whatever’s got the highest resolution.

We also got a phone book! They don’t deliver them to your house like they do back home and nobody that I asked had ever even seen one! Well, we got a card in the mail a week or so ago saying that you could pick them up at Media Markt or at a post office. Interesting. I perused it when we got home. Not that I know what anything means, but I tried to find a few things, like our fave döner place and a pediatrician. No luck on either count.

The Wrong Threat

This morning before Guitarman left for work Wee Laddie told him, 'Mommy snuggle.' When Guitarman gave me a hug Wee Laddie went, 'Aaaaawww!'

Then when Guitarman left for work, Wee Laddie told him, 'Peace out.' Cousin Dyami would be so proud. :)

Had the first playgroup at our house today. It was nice…the kids played really well together and the moms are all really nice. And involved. There were 3 other mom-tot sets. We had a couple of minor skirmishes but the sharing went very well overall. I was very proud of the way Wee Laddie handled himself…he’s still not very used to sharing HIS toys with other kids. I made a big deal out of praising him for it and told Guitarman twice, to give Wee Laddie some positive reinforcement.





We were going to go to the mess hall for lunch but we had one of those moments where I chose the wrong threat (From the front seat: 'If you don’t hand me the pen 3-2-1, we’re going back home.') and then had to stick to it. I sure hope this Love & Logic stuff works. I can totally see why parents sometimes aren’t good at follow-through…I really wanted to go have lunch with Guitarman, not turn around and then have to make lunch for Wee Laddie and myself.

Is Indifference a Parenting Style?

Wee Laddie’s mystery rash seems better today. I’m not quarantining him since he doesn’t have any other symptoms that I’ve noticed.

At Kids’ Club today, talked to a couple of other moms about playgroup…they both sounded interested. Two older boys were there, one probably a year older than Wee Laddie… one just turned 5, I think. I realize they’re older and want to do 'bigger' stuff, but they were being bossy and kind of mean to Wee Laddie. The younger one was making growling noises at Wee Laddie, trying to scare him away. Wee Laddie’s not a fearful guy and he’s used to playing with older kids since his Denver cousins are all so much older. Still, he sometimes does get freaked out by sounds he’s not familiar with or whatever, so I went to stand over there ‘cause I knew the boy would stop. He did, but then kept bossing Wee Laddie around and telling him, 'No.' I was determined to give Wee Laddie the chance to play by these boys if that’s where he wanted to be, so we hung out with them for probably 20 minutes. Never once did the other 2 moms come by or ask if everything was okay. (At one point I was holding the hand of the little brother of one of the boys ‘cause he wanted to hang with them too, which meant being on some steps. And he’s littler than Wee Laddie, I think.)

The lack of involvement surprised me. Then as they were leaving the oldest boy said, 'I’m trying to make it a better place than I found it.' Or something like that. You could tell his mom must say that to him all the time, but he was full of crap. And she, apparently, had no idea.

Something’s Amiss

Something is up with Wee Laddie Whippersnapper. Yesterday he had flat bumps on his tummy, and his cheeks were quite rosy at the pool. Today more bumps on his tum & diaper area…maybe aggravated by chlorine? He was acting tired around 11ish this morning. I said 'Are you sleepy?' He said, 'Yeah.' (Those of you who know him know how unusual that is!). I asked if he wanted to lie down and he said, 'Snuggle.' He fell asleep, but I tried to re-settle him upstairs. Ha. That almost never goes well.

This is our no-activity day, so we just had a mellow day at home. Good healing time, I hope.

Splish Splash

I’ve been wanting to take Wee Laddie to the swim group since I first heard about it. It’s at the Bulmare Schwimmbad in Burglengenfeld, and there’s a swim instructor who gives mini-lessons to the kids for $1. I didn’t relish the idea of bathing suit shopping, in a foreign language, whilst feeling particularly large, with a toddler in tow, so I was waiting ‘til our bathing suits came from home. Now that our stuff is here, we get to go!

Wee Laddie panicked a bit when we got there. I think the locker room freaked him out a bit. It’s kind of a strange setup. When you first walk in, what you see is a long hallway with opaque glass-enclosed changing rooms with glass doors. (I’d been apprehensive about the co-ed locker room, but I’m fine as long as I’ve got a place to change.) If you go through one of those, you get to the lockers and the doors to the WCs and the pool. But he’s never seen anything like that and didn’t know what to think of it. He was like whimpering and saying, 'No swim.' (Not at all typical behavior for him.) So I waited it out. We talked about it and went little by little. Once we got into the pool, he freakin’ loved it! I didn’t want to push it by trying a lesson, so we just played.

He fell asleep on the way home but talked about swimming the rest of the day, including asking to go back in the afternoon.

Before we left this morning, the movers came back to unpack our stuff. I can see you scratching your head and saying, 'Huh? I thought they got their stuff like a week ago.' And that is true. They were supposed to unpack us when they delivered the stuff, but they didn’t. And when Guitarman emailed to ask/complain about that and ask that they apply the money from that to some of our other expenses, then they send someone out. (Nevermind that they didn’t even call first.) I told them we’d unpacked and they were like, 'Oh, so all the furniture and closets and things are assembled?' I said, 'Well, yeah. We’re not going to sit here with unassembled furniture for a WEEK.' Pfffft.

Nap? No, Thanks.

Today was yoga class. Turns out that all of the regular yoga & pilates classes were cancelled but this one wasn’t. This is officially a 'Mommy & Me' class and wasn’t on the cut list. Yay!

Wee Laddie was crying for Daddy on the way home (nevermind that we had JUST had lunch with Daddy), then he fell asleep. Of course, he woke when I was getting him out of the car (he almost never sleeps through that) and then wanted to look at pictures of Grandma. So we did that and he stayed awake for another hour plus. When I finally got him to sleep he slept for 2.5 hours. Crazy boy! It seemed like he would have slept even longer but I woke him up by trying to move him.

We got a dual-voltage, multisystem (NTSC and PAL, at least) DVD HD recorder with HDMI (at this point my mom tunes out of the blog). Somehow we forgot to check on the regions. Turns out it’s only for Region 1, so if we want to watch any German DVDs (which we most definitely do) we have to get a Region 2 player. I understand the whole piracy thing, but the security stuff sure can be a pain at times like this.

When Do We Eat?

We tried to have brunch at the mess hall this morning (which we’ve been doing a lot on the weekends) but all of a sudden they’re only open for breakfast from 8:30-9:30 instead of brunch’s timeslot of 9:30-1:00. Now, despite the fact that we were there just LAST weekend for brunch, they all acted completely surprised that we would show up there a little after 9:30. Expecting food, of all things.

Having not learned our lesson (nor read the schedule) we tried again at dinner, since we haven’t had a dinner there yet. We picked what we thought was a logical time for dinner (6ish, I think it was), but they foiled us again. Dinner is from 3-4:30! Wow, talk about early-bird hours. So we went to Burg Imbiss, my favorite döner shop. (There aren’t many options, so we’re delighted that the döner shop that is right nearby is also very yummy.)

Sightseeing at Last

Since we keep going to Würzburg but not visiting the castle, we decided to do a little sightseeing there (well, we had to go anyway as the pair of speakers Guitarman thought he'd bought turned out to be just one speaker). We were planning to go to the castle but drove around a bit & ended up at the Parkplatz Residenz. I believe it was built for a bishop or something. (With Wee Laddie in tow our chance to actually find out what we’re looking at is a bit limited.) We didn’t go in but just walked around the gardens. They were beautiful. I want to go back in the spring or summer…I imagine it’s just stunning then.

Having some trouble with the slide show here, so if it's not working here & you'd like to see it, here's a link.

We had dinner at Burger King on the base (sometimes we do that ‘cause it’s open, sometimes for a stop for something at the PX and sometimes just ‘cause we’re feeling lazy, languagewise). Guitarman picked up a copy of Bavarian Times (a magazine they have on base) and they had an article about Würzburg. Turns out we were right outside of the building that houses the world’s largest fresco painting! Guess we’ll really have to go back now. Maybe when my mom comes to visit, since she might find that interesting.

We saw Paloma, a friend of Wee Laddie’s from the Friday playgroup. I pointed her out, then Wee Laddie talked about her throughout the rest of dinner. 'Poma cheeburger,' etc. So we went to say 'hello' on the way out. We got outside and Wee Laddie pointed at a car and said, 'Poma car.' I said, 'Oh, is that Paloma’s car?' He said, 'Yes.' I don’t know… he could be right.

More Playgroups for Us

Huge turnout at the Friday playgroup…9 (tot-mom sets), I think someone said. I talked to a few people about my plan to start up an at-home playgroup as well. Turns out a couple of moms (I’ve met them but they weren’t there) have been talking about doing that, so I’ll email them. A few of the moms I talked to were interested, a few not so much. I’m always surprised when people aren’t interested in that. It’s been such a huge thing for Wee Laddie & me. I guess I forget that not everyone is as social as we are. This child sure is his mama's boy.

We made a test run to the pool in Burglengenfeld (we’ll go to the swim group on Tuesday now that we’ve got our swimsuits)… I wanted to make sure I can find it in case I need to call someone for directions. It’s about 30 minutes away and a pretty drive. Too bad I couldn’t really enjoy the view because of the Bavarian driver 3 feet off my bumper.

Vocabulary Building

This morning Wee Laddie was sitting in his little rocking chair in the living room singing, 'baby boat… moon…by.' Those are lyrics from 'Baby’s Boat,' which is the song my mom always sang to him when trying to get him to nap. He doesn’t let me sing it to him very often. Whenever I ask if he wants to hear it he says, 'Grandma sing Baby Boats.'

Wee Laddie's language is quite astonishing. (Hey, it’s totally legitimate for me to be insanely impressed by my son’s mad language 'skillz!') During a couple of his naps in mid-January I made a list of the words he says (I did this a few months ago, too, and thought it’d be interesting to one day share with him what words he felt that it was important to know). I came up with 450 words that he uses independently (as in not after I say them to him) and in the right context. Wow. No wonder he really seems to understand nearly everything we say to him!

Checked out the thrift store on base today. Not terribly interesting… very typical for a small thrift store. I was hoping to find a sewing machine (I sewed the bathroom curtain by hand and it took ages and now it bugs me that the stitches aren’t totally straight) but no luck. They had a little ride-on motorcycle that I got for Wee Laddie. It was only $3 so I figured I couldn’t pass it up. It’s motorized but needs a battery, so now we have to get that part figured out. Wee Laddie was beside himself about his 'mocycle feeney' (see?). He wanted to bring it upstairs while he took his nap.

They’re Still Here

This morning after getting out of bed, Wee Laddie put his hands on his hips and stood looking at his toys for a moment. He said, 'Heh heh,' with an air of great satisfaction.

I had more moving dreams last night. I’d finally stopped having them (dealing with the stress of the move and all the stuff I didn’t get done in Blizzard City before we left), and now they’re back. Ugh.

I’m still searching around the local shops but haven’t been able to find any of the alternative pastas I’m looking for. Some shops carry corn pasta, but I’m not a big fan of the texture of that one. I’ll have to go check at the health food store I saw in Regensburg unless I can find one closer. I’d spotted an Asian and general foreign food store in the shopping area of Parsberg, but they were closed when I tried to go there. I haven’t been back to see whether they were just closed that day for some reason or if they’re gone. I was thinking that might be a good spot for some interesting foods I can’t find elsewhere.

The Toys Are Back in Town

Today Wee Laddie and I hung out in 'his' room (not that he sleeps there yet) while I unpacked some stuff. Wee Laddie was so cute…he was totally excited about each toy. I’d put one in the toy box, he’d spot it and pull it out to play with. He napped on top of his Elmo phone and plastic keys. He even woke briefly once to find that the keys had slipped out from under him… he tucked them in again and went back to sleep.

I seem to have a problem with overusing the word 'thingy,' as evidenced by my son, who now uses it (pronounced 'feeney') in nearly every sentence he utters.

The Furniture Returns

Got our stuff, at long last! They didn’t put everything together, nor did they unpack everything. We were led to believe they would do both. We are really not too impressed with the company that has orchestrated this whole thing (Cartus, in case anyone’s looking for an int’l mover to NOT use). They didn’t keep very good track of the paperwork. Oh, and they charged us 100 euro for storage. What? Shyeah… as if we haven't been waiting weeks already to get our stuff. Aargh!

I have an apple song that I created (over several nights) at Wee Laddie’s request. (I couldn’t think of a single song that talks about apples, which he was fixated on at the time.) He usually wants me to sing that song to help him fall asleep. Today at naptime he told me, 'No Apple. No sing, Mommy, just bounce.' Wow. His language skills are blowing me away these days.

The Dual Duel

Went to Würzburg for some electronics. Kind of sucks having to replace all this stuff, and I really hope we haven’t jinxed ourselves by buying dual-voltage stuff this time. The thing that sucks about buying dual-voltage is that the selection is sometimes very limited. So we’re trying to decide about some things, like vacuum cleaner, microwave, etc. It’s probably not worth getting dual-voltage on everything… it’s just hard to decide on which things.

I got an email the other day saying that all yoga & pilates classes on base have been cancelled due to lack of participation. I’m so bummed… I was really enjoying our yoga class, and it was such a great opportunity for me to do something for my own health (and sanity), while still giving Wee Laddie something fun to do.

Dishes and Closets and Trains, Oh My!

Went to IKEA. I love love love that store but holy crap, are they crowded on Saturdays! Yikes. We got new dishes. Partly because ours aren’t here yet (although they should be very soon), but partly because what we have now are Guitarman’s old dishes from his life with his ex-wife who shall remain nameless. I think ditching those will just about clear out all belongings from life with other spouses. That just can’t be a good vibe to have around, ya know?

And we got some more train track pieces for Wee Laddie. He’s really getting into putting the track together. All part of his increased independent play, which is very good for Mama. :)



We also got some wardrobes. Houses here do not come with closets. It’s nice from a furniture-layout point of view, in that you can put your furniture wherever you want… but it’s not so nice when you’re waiting for all of your furniture to arrive and all of your clothes are just lying on the floor in the meantime.

Renters here also are usually expected to put in their own light fixtures and they take them with them when they go. Somehow or other, I’m sure that explains the ugliness of the ones in our house: I think the landlord wasn’t expecting to have to put fixtures in for us, so he just grabbed whatever he had out in his garage. What it doesn’t explain (and what just might defy explanation altogether) is why he had these fixtures in the first place.

Son of Father Time

This morning at 8, Guitarman put Wee Laddie’s watch on him. Wee Laddie looked at it and said 'Eight o’clock.' He can’t tell time yet, of course, but it sure tripped Guitarman out for a second. Love it when that happens. Wee Laddie has also been popping up in the morning and asking me, 'Time is it?' Weird, the things kids pick up from their parents.

Today Guitarman had to leave early from lunch. Wee Laddie wouldn’t even say 'goodbye.' Ten minutes later he was standing up on the chair, calling out, 'Love you!'

Online Again, Online

Got the DSL installed. (Of course it overlapped, so we had to miss Kids’ Club time, but I think it’s better to have a sane mama.) The installer was the same guy who had come to fix our phone before. His English isn’t perfect (still MILES better than my German, of course) but he’s very nice & friendly and totally willing to jump in with guess-words.

He also told me how to have our phone quit calling us (which, it turns out, is the answering service that we have…after every call we get, the phone calls every 15 minutes to let you know that you got a call. Great idea, but not so helpful when you didn’t answer the phone because you have a toddler who is trying nap.) He also switched it to English so we can understand what it’s saying to us. :)

A Narrow Miss

Wee Laddie didn’t sleep well. Sometime in the night he and I had a disagreement about whether or not we could sleep with his arm wrapped around my throat (I have trouble even wearing too-tight turtlenecks, in case you were wondering which side of the argument I was on). Ended up with me getting grumpy and him getting very upset. It later occurred to me that this is still a very huge, strange adjustment for him and I need to bear that in mind. I mean, our stuff still isn’t even here… it must be hard for him to feel any sense of security or stability. And, as all parents know, young children LOVE routine.

We were supposed to get our DSL installed today. This morning I asked Guitarman if they’d said afternoon or if I was just guessing that.. he said the thought it was afternoon. Then he pulled out the letters from T-Com and guess what? The freaking router is on backorder until APRIL. (yup, you read that right) So I just about had a nervous breakdown before breakfast, even. Perfect timing that I’d bought that dictionary last night or I’d never have been able to figure out what the letter said. Oh, or that they were in fact scheduled to come in the morning, by 10 am.

Long story short, I found out that they shipped us the router on 29 January so we should have it today or tomorrow. I’m supposed to call when we get it and they‘ll reschedule the installation. Thank goodness. Some of you can well imagine how upset I was at the thought of TWO MORE MONTHS of no internet at home.

The German word for relieved: erleichtert