Zip It

Today it suddenly occurred to me that our movies dubbed into German might also have German text (subtitles)… and they do! Duh. So I’ll now be watching “Cars” in German with German text on. Awesome! It’ll help me figure out what they’re saying, even if I don’t understand all the words yet.

Wee Laddie zipped up his vest all by himself!! He’s been working on it for some time now and I keep telling him, “Zippers are hard. You probably won’t be able to zip it up by yourself ‘til you’re… I dunno, maybe 6. A *long* time from now.” So this morning he put on his vest and wanted me to zip it up. I said I’d do it in a minute, but I was in the middle of something in the kitchen. He comes back over about a minute later and the thing was completely zipped up! I could hardly believe it.

We drove up to Schweinfurt tonight to hang out with Guitarman for at least part of the weekend. It’s pretty close to Wurzburg and Guitarman is in a hotel in some small town nearby, so we stopped over at Wurzburg for Taco Bell dinner. I know it’s not real Mexican food, but it’s the closest thing we can get if we go out somewhere. We got there pretty late (like right around Wee Laddie’s bedtime), but I couldn’t really postpone since I’d already told Wee Laddie we were going. He does so well with odd things as long as I tell him ahead of time. When I spring things on him, all bets are off.

See Ya at IKEA

When Wee Laddie woke up this morning, he jumped up & said, “Potty!” I thought, “Wow, is this the day?” Nope.

Kids’ Club was very wild today. In a good way.There were just lots of kids & they were all running around yelling and having a wonderful time. We have a dad now, who has come to Kids Club twice and was at sign class yesterday. He’s got 3 very well-behaved and beautiful children. I haven’t had an actual conversation with him yet, but it’s kind of nice to have a dad there, just for a change. One of the moms there is suddenly showing. I asked her about it (she’s quite thin, so it was blatantly obvious that she’s preggo and not just putting on weight). She is 4.5 months pregnant—with twins!—and is *just now* showing!

Wee Laddie had a short nap (he didn’t sleep well last night, either) so we went to IKEA. It was the first time I’ve been there & just had fun. Like I wasn’t in a rush, Guitarman wasn’t there acting impatient (which I find odd because he does actually like nice furniture… I guess he just wants it to magically appear in the house. For free.) We ate lunch there and Wee Laddie was making friends with another little boy who was there with his parents. It was very cute… I, of course, was *so* wishing I spoke German so I could have had at least a brief conversation with his parents. Wee Laddie was over by this boy in his highchair and another little kid came over. That kid’s mom said something about “kinder,” but that’s all I caught. So frustrating. I wish I could take an intensive course while still getting to spend so much time with Wee Laddie. I got lots of good stuff, including a computer desk (well, a small table, really) for 30 euro. Haha! No more typing on the floor! And at a bargain, to boot. :)

The last 2 nights, Wee Laddie hasn’t fallen asleep until like 10pm. He was saying something about “coming home now” and naming his Denver cousins. I told him that Daddy’s coming home soon and that this is our home for now. I think it’s weirding him out because the last time Daddy went away, we moved here. And I think he’s probably wondering if we’re moving again since Daddy’s away again.

Talked to my dear friend Jodi from back home today. She’s pregnant again (her awesome daughter Rachel is the bride to Wee Laddie’s groom in the pics some of you have seen) and she’s learned that it’s another girl! I am so happy for them, and Rachel’s going to be a fantastic big sister!!

First Sign Class

We had our first sign & music class this morning. We had a good turnout, despite the marketing stuff not being out everywhere. I hadn’t even seen the posters. (And some of you will be proud of me… I didn’t get all weird about wanting to be involved in the posters, what with the design/marketing background and all. I just let it go.) I took the first DVD in the Signing Time series. I’ve watched it before, but it was a while ago and I’ve seen other episodes since. It is at a very much slower pace than the other episodes I’ve seen. There were no songs. There were moments in the class where I was like, “Oh no, we’re losing them!” because the DVD felt so very long to me. I promised Brenda that the other ones are much better. I realize it’s the first one and all, but I think a remake is in order.

I mentioned to Guitarman that I was thinking about going to IKEA. He balked: “We’ve already spent so much on furniture.” Nevermind that we have 7 boxes stacked up in the dining room ‘cause there’s nowhere to put everything. (These aren’t boxes of crockpots and things that we don’t use all the time… they’re boxes of canned food, storage containers, boxed food, spices, etc.) Oy.

My mom had mentioned recently that vinegar is good for getting rid of water stains & mineral build-up. The water here has a very high mineral content and everything is always all spotty and chalky. I managed to find vinegar (essig) in the market recently so I tried it on our sink. Oh my, I was positively giddy at our once-again shiny sink! That stuff was phenomenal. Got the tea kettle all clean & nice, too. Thanks, Mom!

Guitarman left for Schweinfurt this morning. It’s up near Wurzburg. I guess it’s another training area and Guitarman’s group has to be on hand to troubleshoot during some exercise. He’ll be there until the day my mom gets here. We're planning to go up at the weekend and stay in the hotel with him. He'll be working from 7am-7pm, but at least we'll get to see him a little bit. I think it'll help Wee Laddie, too. He's been a little worried since he first heard about all of this.

I Wanna Be Like Daddy

Wee Laddie is still talking about that ONE day that I had the drivers’ test class on base… he always points out the building and says, “Mommy go class in there.” Since he knows where that one is I thought he might like to know where my Deutsch class is, so we drove by the Hauptschule on the way home from lunch today. It’s farther down the road that the train station is on… and that road loops around and comes back through Stadtmitte (city center… the “downtown” of Parsberg, if you will). When we got to Stadtmitte, Wee Laddie started saying, “By bills. By bills!” I’m like, “I’m not sure what you mean, sweetheart.” He said, “By bills. Ding dong!” He was pointing out that we were by the bells that we hear all the time. They must have chimed the other day when we were walking around with Christina and he remembered where we were. What a communicator this little guy is!

Later in the day we had a little bit of toddler grumpiness to deal with. I was sort of poking Wee Laddie in the tummy to see if I could get him to laugh. He made a grumpy face and said, “No. My tummy!” I busted out laughing.

Wee Laddie’s been using the phrase “I guess so” for a while now. His use of it cracks me up, though. He’ll be begging and whining for something… sounding like he’s utterly desperate. I’ll say, “Oh, you’d like to have some juice, would ya?” He’ll shrug and say, “I guess so.”

He’s also starting to want to do things “like Daddy.” If I try to get him to sit on the potty, he tells me, “Stand up. Like Daddy.” He doesn’t do it for everything (yet. I’m sure it’s coming.) but does it for a pretty good variety of things… things he’ll eat, the way he’s sitting or standing. It’s really quite adorable.

Ka-chow! (Ka-tschau!)

Wee Laddie is completely in love with the “Cars” movie. He wants to watch it every day… more than once, even, if we’d let him. I let him watch it more often than I probably should, but he actually chooses to watch it in German pretty much all the time! He’s begun using, “Ka-chow!” as part of his regular vocabulary. It’s very cute.

Had exercise class today. We’re not doing the yoga anymore and the weather was warm today, so we did a power walk (with some jogging, squats and arm work with elastic bands thrown in) around the area by the gym and the mess hall. It was tough. Zoe, one of the moms we see at stuff all the time was there and she was like, “She’s an animal! Is it always this hard??” Maria (the instructor) really can kick your ass.

Guitarman was on shift today, so we didn’t see him at lunch. Wee Laddie had a short nap (those always stress me ‘cause I KNOW he’s still tired), but we braved dinner out… at the bowling alley. Today was the first time I’ve *really* missed restaurants back home. It was such a nice day, weatherwise. And it’s staying light later now. It would have been a perfect evening to go somewhere downtown & have a yummy burger on the patio or something.

I’m really doing pretty well with the food thing. I think I was so prepared for not being able to have Mexican food AT ALL, but I’m able to buy so much more of it at the grocery store than when I lived in Chester. I mean, yeah, I’d LOVE to go out and have a great Mex dinner (and I’d probably knock someone down to pry a Chipotle bag from their hands!), but it’s not SO bad to just make what I can make at home. And the commissary has most things, even if the selection isn’t huge.

Close to Berserk

Had the usual mess hall weekend breakfast. Guitarman tried to put Wee Laddie down for a nap afterward, but it didn’t go well (that kid can resist a nap like no other I’ve seen before!). Guitarman ended up threatening no movies or playing with some new balls we’d gotten Wee Laddie if he didn’t nap and he didn’t. The threats were not my idea, but we had to follow through on it.

Took a little walk around town. There’s a place here that seems to be a psychiatric hospital of some kind and it has a drug/alcohol clinic attached to it. The funny thing is that the hospital is called a “Bezirkkrankenhaus”, but “bezirk” just means “district,” according to www.freetranslation.com, despite sounding so similar to “berserk.”

Guitarman went to the Sunday night movie on base tonight. While he was gone, Wee Laddie hurt himself. It’s so stupid, ‘cause here’s how it went. I was getting aggravated with Wee Laddie’s stalling about bedtime. So we were in the bedroom and he shut off the light before he was changed into his PJs. So I said, “Wee Laddie, you need to turn the light back on.” He didn’t answer so I started counting (3-2-1) and that made him run…in the dark. (Can you see what’s coming?) So he ran over to the side of the bed where the light switch is, but he slipped on the laminate floor (those PJ feet don’t cover all sliding, that’s for sure) and I heard a loud thump followed by him crying. I turned on the light and he had blood pouring out of his mouth!

I had a moment of “Holy crap, I don’t even know where to take him in an emergency!” because although there is a hospital here in Parsberg, the hospitals here don’t all treat all things. And I don’t think our local hospital has pediatrics. I don’t know if they can do emergency stuff, if needed, or if I would’ve had to take him to Regensburg (about 45 minutes away). I debated the hospital thing for a little bit but the bleeding pretty much stopped and I got him to keep ice on his mouth for a couple of minutes. And sure, I had the whole Mommy-guilt thing about starting it with the counting (should have guessed what might happen and all that), but what can you do? Those little guys will get ya either way.

No Flushing

Went to the mess hall for our usual weekend breakfast. $2 is hard to beat for eggs, bacon/sausage, biscuits, potatoes, fresh fruit, cereal, pancakes, etc.

Went to Media Markt after breakfast, Wee Laddie fell asleep in the car, so I waited outside with him while Guitarman shopped. We wanted to get “Flushed Away” (“Flutsch und Weg” over here), which is a new fave of Wee Laddie’s, but they didn’t have it. Guitarman got “Toy Story 2” and “A Bug’s Life.” Both in German. I figure eventually some of us will learn a little German if we keep watching all these videos in it… right?

Guitarman has mentioned that it’s sort of weird to work with people who have been away from the US for some length of time, as they don’t get some of the cultural references he makes. For those of you who don’t know this, Guitarman is quite funny. A little while ago at work one day, someone asked what his password was and he said, “Big boy.” (Those of you who have seen that commercial just laughed. I know you did.) But the person he was with had no idea he was even making a joke.

Reminds me of that time I went to the copy room at the Mart and the big boss was back there making copies. I said, “Darrell… makin’ copies,” and kind of chuckled. He’s like, “What? Why is that funny?” I’m like, “Do you ever watch Saturday Night Live?” “No.” Well, it’s not going to be funny at all then, once you have to explain it. Oy.

More & More New Friends

Had a really big turnout at the EFMP group again today. We got our first party invitation… to the b’day party for Paloma, who will be turning 2. She’s a pretty cute kid… she’s apparently got some sort of developmental issues, as she’s actually *in* the EFMP program. Darned if I can tell what problems she has, though. She doesn’t talk as much as Wee Laddie, but neither do lots of kids. She signs well, so it’s not like she’s unable to communicate.

We’re getting ready for the music/sign class (although I realized that Grandma’s visit interferes with our 2nd class… it would be the 3rd one, too, but we’re off the next week while the school kids are out for Spring Break). We’re just going to show a “Signing Time” video for the sign portion, then Brenda will play some music for the 2nd part. I’ll be there to answer any questions about specific signs or to give pointers if people need help. It should be a breeze. And fun! Brenda & I are going to meet after exercise class on Monday to plan the whole “program” out.

The whole kissing/no kissing thing a game to Wee Laddie now. When Guitarman tries to kiss him before he leaves for work, Wee Laddie will cover his mouth & run away… then look to see if he’s getting chased. Guitarman is taking it better now that I’ve pointed out that part.

No Secrets from the Kid

Had a really good turnout at Kids’ Club. Our groups just seem to get bigger & bigger! Sabine (Johanna’s mom) brought this tiny little German-English dictionary (really, like 2 x 2.5” or something… it was amazing it could hold enough info to be actually useful) with her today, and Wee Laddie was carrying it all around. He told me, “Book, book,” and I said, “Yes, that is a book. It’s a dictionary.” He said, “Dictionary,” clear as day. The moms around me laughed. He’s a really good mimic.

After that we went to the Commissary. I saw some Easter Egg dyes. I picked them up and said, “Oh, Grandma will be here for Easter.” Duh, after being so careful to not mention Grandma’s visit. What a moron. Wee Laddie, of course, jumped on that and said, “Grandma coming?” I’m like, “Oh, Mommy doesn’t know what she’s saying. You know what I was talking about? I was talking about Easter and how we should decorate some eggs and this is a kit with all the dyes in it…” blah blah blah. I did manage to change the subject with my yammering, but I’m not sure he bought it. Oy.

I find it interesting that they sell pre-dyed Easter eggs in the local markets here. They have this strange, overdyed/painted look to them and I’m not sure whether they are cooked or not. (Again, the language thing.) And here I thought that Americans were the only ones who would have that kind of a shortcut available.

An Almost Grown-up Lunch

Had lunch at the Hotel Hirschen (here in Parsberg) with a woman I met through The German Way message board (run by the author of a book by the same name… it’s basically about what to expect from life in Germany). She was very nice and I completely embarrassed myself with my horrible German. She’s fluent. Wee Laddie was a bit of a distraction for the conversation, but it was nice to talk with someone not from base. She’s pregnant, so I reckon the distraction part was good practice for her.

I tried the käsespätzle, which is, apparently, a regional specialty. It’s spätzle (many of you have probably had that), which I think are like potato noodles sort of… they’re small squiggly noodes. It had melted cheese and onion strings on top. The woman I had lunch with said it was as close as Germans get to mac & cheese. I say they win. This was hands-down better than any mac & cheese I’ve ever had. Even the kind that has real cheese.

I goofed somewhere (I’ll go back & fix it when I figure out the right date) and completely forgot to post about our walk around Regensburg last month. It’s apparently a sort of tourist-attraction town for this area… it’s the town we thought we might live it, but it turned out to be a bit far for commuting. We didn’t go into any museums or cathedrals or anything, just walked around and looked at architecture & stuff. We did go to the Wurstküche… a sausage kitchen that’s over 500 years old! It’s built into a section of the city walls, I believe, and it’s this very odd place… very small and enclosed… I can’t imagine working there! They cook the sausages—dozens & dozens at a time--over charcoal grills. They have a small eat-in area and tables outside (which is where we sat). Yummy.

Ich Möchte Deutsch Sprechen

Got to swim class totally late, so we pretty much missed everyone. I still wanted to take Wee Laddie, though, ‘cause he loves it so much. I was actually hoping we wouldn’t even see anybody so they wouldn’t hassle me, but we did bump into Jeanette & Ashley and Sabine & Johanna in the locker room. Today we only went down the slide twice and Wee Laddie is still doing great with his swim practice. He has very little hesitation about the whole thing… very cool.

Tried the 2nd German class today, it’s hard to say how the levels are organized… there’s this class, the one I went to last week, and an “Advanced” class. This one felt way over my head, but there were 2 people in there who were obviously *way* more confused than I was, so I’ll stay. I like a good challenge…I’ll probably learn so much more this way.

The aforementioned Jeanette turned out to be in the German class as well. It’s nearly all Americans… there are 2 non-native-English-speakers who are Asian. No idea from where, as we don’t really get much of a chance to socialize. I think most of the class are people connected to the base, as well. Not suprising, I guess. Anyway, Jeanette’s husband has applied to be an exchange officer (I think that’s what she said) in Zurich and if he gets it, they’ll be the only Americans there. On base, not in Zurich. ;) So she’s learning German out of fear.

Sign of the (Signing) Times

I realized that, upon reading my post from last Friday, it must seem like Wee Laddie just watches German TV all day long. Relax… that’s not the case. KIKA (Kinderkanal…that’s Kids’ Channel to those of us who don’t speak German) doesn’t run commercials during these shows (not even PBS-type ones!), so it’s just back-to-back shows… and they usually run around 20 minutes each, including Sesamstrasse, which, for some reason, is much shorter here than in the US.

On the way to exercise class this morning, Wee Laddie was talking about “See Abbey?” Abbey, of course, is the girl who just left to move back to the States. So NOW he’s asking about her. That poor kid is going to think there’s no such thing as stability. Especially when he learns that 2 of his other friends are leaving within the next few months, too.

We FINALLY got our “Signing Time” DVDs!! (Turns out they sent them to the wrong zip so the wrong base, although still in Germany. No idea why it took an extra full week!) I’ve been talking about them so much that Wee Laddie was also very excited when they came. We opened them up in the car and he held two of them on the way home. He really likes watching them, so I think it’s going to be such an awesome gift for him. (And they’ll sure help me out with that sign class we start next week!)

Just before the exit from the base, we saw a Chinook helicopter (those really huge ones with two big rotors, for those of you who aren’t sure) practicing on one of the helipads.



There’s a big helicopter area right by the road there near the exit. So we were seriously like 50 yards away or something. I pulled into a parking lot so we could watch. And I took a video of it, ‘cause it just seemed cool. The MPs drove by to see what we were up to, but they didn’t come question us or anything. I was glad they didn’t make us leave. It’s really kind of fun to get a chance to see some of this stuff up close like that.

Oh, and here's Wee Laddie, after all the "Signing Time" and helicopter excitement.

The View from Here

Cold today, but we didn’t get snow until late… and then it was “icing,” according to Guitarman. I looked outside, but couldn’t really tell how it was coming down, just that something was, in fact, coming down.

They turn off the castle lights here at night. I’m not sure at what time they do it (it’s pretty late), but it makes an interesting contrast to the insidious glowing blue light of the Qwest sign in downtown Denver… you can see it from miles & miles away and I don’t think they *ever* turn it off. (Ever wonder why your rates keep going up?)

Did I ever mention that we can see the castle from our house in Parsberg? This is our view here:


And this is the view we had back in Colorado:


Pretty comparable aesthetics, I’d say… different, but both beautiful. I am a lucky girl.

*Please note: Now that I've got it sorted out how to show photos here, I'll be going back to add them to some other posts. I'll let you know when they're all in there.

One Bad Apple

Went to eat breakfast on base, but we were too late for the Warrior Sports Café (the bigger mess hall here) so we tried Burger King. It was insane there, like possibly a line all the way outside, which would mean like 30-40 people . The staff there has trouble managing a line 3-4 deep, so that was not a pleasant idea. For some reason, the smaller mess hall is open this weekend and next, so we went there.

And as long as we’re talking about mess halls, Guitarman overheard a conversation the other day…
A: So is the mess hall here any good?
B: Man, it’s the best I’ve had in 17 years.
A: Really?
B: Yeah, it’s like a Denny’s. They have everything.

Went to Würzburg to look at computers. (We’ve decided to get a new desktop, but—gulp—not a Mac this time. They’re just so expensive and I haven’t been able to upgrade my last one into reliability, which is bad. Bad Apple, bad. It’s only like 3-4 years old, and I paid around $2500 for it… so it damned well should last a few years!) Bought one (for $2K less than a comparable Mac, Guitarman pointed out). Also found out it’s supposed to snow this weekend… so probably no train trip tomorrow.

Wee Laddie wanted to watch “Cars” in German. (We usually give him the choice of German or English.) Guitarman accidentally hit English without realizing it. When it started, Wee Laddie said, “No, German!” Way to go, kiddo! I know he can’t speak it yet, but it’s awesome that he could tell and made Daddy change it! :)

Later, Guitarman put Wee Laddie down for his nap and I got to go to Möbelhof all by myself. It was really nice just to get out and not have to try to keep those flailing toddler arms inside the cart.

The Stare Master

(that’s what my mom calls the TV)

No at-home playgroup today… I dropped the ball as far as picking up if nobody else offered to host. I kind of hoped people would jump on it, but that’s okay. We’ll try to pick it up in 2 weeks. Wee Laddie and I hung out for a mellow day, just watching movies & such.

We have sort of a TV “routine” now. Back home we watched “Teletubbies” and “Sesame Street”, then TV off for the rest of the day (at least ‘til Daddy got home). Here, as long as we’re watching in German, I feel like it’s contributing to his brain development. So we usually watch Sesamstrasse (as I’ve mentioned before), then is “Engie Benjy, der Motormann,” (UK Show “Engie Benjy”… don’t know if it’s on in the US), “Todd’s tolle Welt” (“Todd’s World”), “Morgen Oli” (very interesting show with a lion puppet and live parrots… of course I have no idea what they’re saying except that they talk facts about animals) and last is “Au Schwarte!” (UK show Jakers, which we saw a couple of times back home). In a stroke of fabulous luck, we seem to have lost track of "Teletubbies," and they don’t seem to have “Wonderpets,” for those of you who are wondering.

Do You Know the Muffin Fish?

Kids’Club today. It was our new friends Angie and Abbey’s last (they leave tomorrow, headed back to the US). I’m sure the military people are used to this but it was kind of strange for me. One of the moms told her, “It’s a small army. I’m sure we’ll see you again.” But we probably won’t.

Abbey’s dad was there for part of Kids’ Club today, so Angie could check her email. (God, I remember being in that awful “we have no Internet access at home”) stage… Ugh. Anyway, we were hanging out with Abbey and her dad on the fish rug that’s sometimes there and Wee Laddie pointed at the jelly fish and said, “Is that? [pause] Muffin, maybe.” hehehe (That is dedicated to Christine.)

Still no freakin’ "Signing Time"… I’m starting to get really annoyed. My mom’s sent a bunch of stuff here, and it always seems to take exactly 7 calendar days. The DVDs are being sent from Utah, which should be the same. I wouldn’t be as annoyed if I didn’t know that they hadn’t cancelled the goofed-up order that went to the townhome (so those DVDs were probably there days ago).

No Daddy at lunch today… he was “on shift,” which means working all day…and that he has to pretty much be at the office. Wee Laddie took ages to eat. Man, I thought I was a slow eater… this kid makes me look like Speedy Gonzales. (And some of you know what an incredible feat that is!)

Malt-o-Meal is Not a Waffle

Did you know that? Well, Wee Laddie does now and what that means is that Malt-o-Meal is not an acceptable breakfast option. Our dear boy is so addicted to his morning waffle. He varies the toppings… peanut butter and jelly, honey and flaxseed, syrup, peanut butter or jelly only… occasionally, cheese. But the waffle is pretty much a given. So the Malt-o-Meal I made this morning did not go over so well.

Tonight was my first German class through the Volkshochschule (VHS) in Parsberg. This was the beginner, Level I class. I’m sure I could learn some stuff there, but as we were learning the alphabet and how to count, I think I might try the next class up, which meets on Tuesday nights. I don’t have much German, but Guitarman and I took a couple of community college classes back home and I’ve listened to some Pimsleur and a few other CDs. The instructor invited me and a guy in class to try the other one to see which one seems better for us.

I think I’ve lost weight since we’ve been here. I can’t be sure since I haven’t unpacked a scale yet… and despite repeated requests, Guitarman refuses to dry my clothes on anything other than medium heat. (I won’t complain too much since he is, in fact, doing *ALL* the laundry. I’ve mentioned it in the past—he’s really great about doing laundry, albeit on his terms—but I think he doesn’t believe me about how much it shrinks my clothes.) So my jeans certainly don’t fit any tighter, and it seems that my shirts keep covering less & less of my belly, but I’m still noticing less... bulk, if you will.

I’ll have to confirm it one of these days, but for now it’s a nice thought, at least. I don’t know how it’s happening… we eat at Burger King (I’m trying to ignore the fact that they haven’t gone transfat-free yet) at least once a week and I eat way too much food at the mess hall… and ice cream nearly every day at lunch. (Hey, once it seemed like I was getting thinner that way, I figure that was a pretty awesome way to lose weight!) The only thing I can think of is that I’m hardly eating any bread. (Okay, very un-German of me, but it’s so easy for me to avoid.)

Daycare? Not So Much

There was a Moms' lunch today on base. It was sponsored by the Chaplain’s office or something, but it wasn’t religious in nature… just a chance for moms to get a break and connect with other moms. I think the chaplain is planning to do it on a monthly basis. The food was fantastic (well, no Chipotle, but very good. hehe). There weren’t that many people there, but I don’t know how well-advertised it was.

Related to that was Wee Laddie’s first-ever experience with daycare (I am so lucky!). We’ve been talking for a few days about how I wouldn’t be there but he could play with other kids and there would be other grownups to take care of him… and he needed to listen to them, and blah, blah, blah. He was fine when I went back to the car to get his sippy cup and I asked if he’d be okay if I left. “Yeah,” he said.

An hour later, the daycare people called my cell phone. They said, “Your son won’t stop crying. Would you please come get him?” I said, “Of course,” and left the lunch, thinking that he’d just had enough and was ready for some Mama time. Um, no. He’d been crying on & off since I left. I have to applaud the daycare staff for putting up with that for a whole hour. He apparently didn’t spend any time at all playing with the other kids. I stayed in there with him while I calmed him down, just to let him know that it was an okay place. (I guess we’re going to have to approach this gradually.) Then we went outside and walked around a bit so he could really get calmed down.

On the way home there was a sign that said, “Umleiten” and the road was closed. (Detour, I guess.) Luckily, I’d driven the alternate route from there so I wasn’t that thrown… it’s still weird, though, to see a sign like that and really have no idea what it says. Wee Laddie fell asleep on the way home but woke when I took him out of the car… and wouldn’t go back to sleep after that (there was a dog bark that probably started it, then our noisy neighbors were talking loudly on their deck). I even tried a 2nd time, to no avail.

I fell down our stairs at home today. Apparently these scary, spiral staircases are the norm here…



I’ve been so worried that Wee Laddie would fall down them but he hasn’t so far (perhaps ‘cause we are always like a foot away from him while he’s on the stairs). Figures that it’d be his coordination-challenged mama who took the plunge. And to add insult to injury (or actually, injury to injury) I landed on the same arm that I landed on last Thurday in the post-Kids’ Club fall. Sheesh. Did I mention that I’m a clod?

Weathering the Weather

Today was a Beautiful Day. They are rare here, this time of year. At one of the first yoga classes I went to, one of the moms was commenting on how gorgeous it was the day before. I was like, “Huh?” ‘cause, you know, the sun was out for a bit, but it was still cold--and probably damp from the rain the day(s) before. (For those of you who don’t live in Colorado, that claim of 300+ days of sunshine is NOT an exaggeration. We are not used to being deprived of our daily dose.) It struck me as funny at the time, but I’ve already adjusted. There was sun, so today was beautiful. Ah, winter in Bavaria.

No yoga today and we still haven’t gotten our Signing Time DVDs so we went to play on the playground by the commissary. Poor Wee Laddie was so hoping for other kids to be there, but it was just us. I know he loves me, but he sure prefers to play with other kids. This is definitely my child, this little social butterfly who will go just about *anywhere* if I tell him there might be another kid there.

We live probably a mile or so (No, I still don’t know how much that is in kilometers…and I’m a terrible judge of large distances like that. Sure, I can tell you if your business cards have been cut crooked, even if it’s a fraction of a millimeter… but a mile? Two miles? No clue. At any rate, it’s not terribly far.) from the train station in Parsberg and I just noticed tonight that I can hear the trains from Wee Laddie’s room. I cannot, however, hear the loud chatter of our friendly Turkish neighbors from there when they’re outside on their deck and sounding like they’re in the master bedroom. Usually during Wee Laddie’s naptime.

Ich Verstehe Nicht (I Don’t Understand)

Didn’t do much that was interesting today. We finally walked up the trail behind the house, though it took a little work to find the way up there. It doesn’t go much of anywhere, just sort of around some farm areas (we live in the sticks!) and over toward the Moebelhof. Then we went along the main road through town and back through our neighborhood to the house.

Along the way, we were greeted rather friendlily (I know, but it seems to fit) by an older German woman. She seemed undaunted by our stammers of “Ich verstehe kein Deutsch,” (actually it usually goes like this: Guitarman mumbles that while I stand there speechless, desperately hoping to suddenly be struck with a complete understanding of the German language… c’mon, the Pimsleur CDs have to help sometime!) and went on to chat with us for a moment (still in German), asking where we live and how long we’ve been here (so it’s not really kein --no-- Deutsch but pretty darn close). I have to say, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how friendly some people have been to us. I think it’s because of Wee Laddie. Germans seem to love children, too, and they just cannot resist our little charmer, who is always calling out, “Hi!” (we’re working on “Hallo”) to just about anyone he sees.

Whoopsy!

Went up to Würzburg today. Went to the PX for a few things, had some Taco Bell and went to the playground. An uneventful but useful trip.

We drove around town a little bit ‘cause we wanted to see the castle and everything. It’s a very pretty town… quite a bit bigger than Parsberg. We’ll have to go back soon with more time to walk around, maybe when it’s a bit warmer. We walked a short way along the river that is below the castle (which is quite large) but it was too chilly to hang out there for very long.

This morning Wee Laddie spotted some dried mud on the floor in the hallway and started calling out, “Whoopsy! Whoopsy!” until I came to clean it up. That kid is so darned cute. He’s also been doing this thing recently where he’ll, say, ask me to sing a song about a car at nap time. I say, “I’m sorry, honey, but I don’t know any songs about cars.” He’ll say to me, “Try it! Be fine.” It’s adorable. Especially so, because he does this very pronounced up & down inflection on it. I wish I had it on tape.

It Really Is Signing Time

Overheard from Wee Laddie this morning: “Oh honey…this blue one. Oh honey.” Hehehe

We’ve ordered the complete Signing Time library (many thanks to those of you who gave Wee Laddie cash for Christmas and his birthday!), so we are waiting, with great enthusiasm, for our package to arrive. It’s a total of 13 DVDs and 4 or 5 audio CDs. Signing Time is not inexpensive, but it is so fantastic! Even though Wee Laddie speech is growing at an incredible speed, he is showing interest in signing again.

I’m also going to be either teaching or co-teaching a sign class on base starting on the 28th of this month, so I figured it’d be a handy resource to have. This class will be a combo music & sign class, the music portion being taught by Brenda, one of the people who runs the EFMP playgroup (now called “Little Troopers”)… she’s a therapist or something, I think. She’s so great… very enthusiastic & positive.

Speaking of the EFMP group, we lost one of our members. :( Remember I mentioned that little Maggie was very sick with RSV? Well, she passed away this past week. My heart is just breaking for her parents… I can’t even imagine how you’d get through something like that.

Absolute Clod

We have started to watch Sesamstrasse again. It’s interesting… I sort of expected it to just be dubbed into German, but it’s not. The set is different, as are the people and muppets (except for Bert, Ernie, Grover and Elmo and occasional appearances by some of the other regulars). One of the main characters is a snail and there’s a Kermit-type character that is a sheep. They have a grouch character, but he’s quite a bit less scruffy than Oscar. Oh, and Elmo’s fish is called Gloria.

Wee Laddie and I have the funniest arguments these days. He’s very into contradiction… me, the Pimsleur German CDs I often play in the car, so we’ll have conversations like this:
“Go playground today now?” (Mind you, this is after 2 hours of play with other kids in the morning, followed by lunch with Daddy.)
“No, we have to go home and take a nap.”
“No take nap. Go playground.”
“Nope, not gonna happen.”
“Yeah gonna happen.”

Today as we were leaving Kids’ Club, Wee Laddie was looking at some kid art that was on display on a shelf in the entry to the building. I’d told him not to touch them (they’re made out of Legos and foil and stuff) but he wanted to anyway, of course. So when he reached for one I stepped over to grab him and my foot slipped on the wet floor (they’d just cleaned) and my feet went straight out in front of me… I fell and kicked Wee Laddie into the shelves we were next to. Man, I thought I was going to have a heart attack watching him slam into the shelves like that…unable to stop it. He cried (‘cause it scared the crap out of him, I’m sure) but was perfectly fine. I, on the other hand, am going to have an incredible bruise on my arm. I don’t know what I hit, but I’m predicting black & blue from my elbow 2/3 of the way to my wrist. I’m hoping Arnica helps ‘cause it does not feel pretty.

Best Garbage Ever

This morning at 2:50am we were all awakened by air raid sirens. We’ve heard them go off before, but it’s very weird to be hearing them in the middle of the night in Germany (you know, all those war movies) Presumably, they do like we do in the US and use them in case of emergency…and for now, just to test them. But then, why are they testing them in the middle of the night? Guitarman thought maybe it was a fire alarm kind of thing or something. But if it were an emergency we wouldn’t even know. I suppose if they went around with loudspeakers we would know that *something* was up, but we’d be clueless as to what. That feels weird.

Today was recycling pickup for the trash. They only pick up regular trash here once every 2 weeks. And recycling pickup is once a month. We have a big blue trash bin that’s for recycling… paper and cardboard. Then we have a small black trash bin that is for regular garbage (non-recyclable stuff)… and it is definitely small. Not tiny, but not as big as a regular trash can back home. Then we have “yellow bags” which are, in fact, yellow bags. They are very thin, translucent, rather fragile plastic. They are for plastic, metal, Styrofoam, etc. Glass has to be taken to a recycling bin around town, but only during approved hours. (Remember Guitarman’s comment about recycling.)

When we first saw the size of our trash bin, we were like, “Holy crap, that’s for 2 weeks? No way,” and Guitarman was taking our trash to the base to be thrown away at first. Then I realized that we didn’t really have that much regular trash since recycling is so accessible here, so I wanted to try living like a local. And now we’ve made it a full cycle and our bins were only probably ¾ full and we had 2 yellow bags. First time in my life I’ve been proud of my trash.

On the way out of the base today, Wee Laddie and I got to see a helicopter take off from the helipad right next to the road. It was pretty cool to see… we were very close.

A Fish in Water

Wee Laddie *loves* swim group. Today he got a bit overzealous and was trying to jump to me from the side on his own (rather than waiting for me to count to 3 and help him jump), so he landed on the angular metal edge of the pool. Ouchie! Poor thing was wailing for a moment…I had a flash of “What might he have broken?” it was such a hard hit! And he’s not a whiner when he’s busy doing stuff, so the fact that he cried so hard worried me for a moment. But he settled down quickly and was fine again. Whew.

We went on the big slide for the 1st time at the pool. It is pretty cool. I was a little worried that it might be a little fast for Wee Laddie, but we went on it 4 times. After that we stopped ‘cause I was starting to get nauseated from the twisting. Ugh.

Wee Laddie is very enthused about the swimming, though. He’ll stick his mouth in and blow bubbles, and he loves to play in the water. He occasionally sputters a bit but it doesn’t slow him down any.

Raisin a Granola

In yoga class today, we used the big yoga/exercise balls. It was very wild & crazy! Much different than the usual calm, quiet, yoga-type class we usually have. The kids were all out of control, too, and there was a lot more crying than usual. Maria is changing the format of the class so that we’re doing more cardio stuff. I’m kind of bummed. I can do cardio on my own (not that I do, but I can), whereas I really need guidance with yoga. And my body is so stiff and off-balance these days that I think that’s really what I need more… before I can do the other stuff well, if that makes any sense.

We tried to go to the Musikgarten class at Musik Wittl in Parsberg, which I’ve been planning to try since we first got here. Wee Laddie got up from his nap in time so I asked if he wanted to go to a music class. He said no. Well, I didn’t believe that since he so rarely passes up an opportunity to be around other people. So I thought about it and realized that he has no idea what a music class is. So I told him there would be kids there… that it was like a playgroup with music. He said, “Baygoop?” I said, “Well, not regular playgroup, but there’ll be kids there and they’d be playing music.” Then he wanted to go. But it turns out that they’re not even having the class right now, because there’s not enough interest. Figures. I left my name & number so they can call me if they get enough people.

Wee Laddie is now asking for flaxseed on his waffle in the morning. Woohoo! :)

Half-Assed Tourists

The weather was *so* nice today (read: the sun was out) that we felt like we HAD to go do something outside. We drove up to Amberg & walked around. They have portions of the original medieval walls, but you can’t walk around the top of them like you can in Chester (England)… at least not that we could find.

The main, old part of town was kind of dirty & graffiti-covered, but we wandered a little more and came across an area that has buildings & bridges across the river. Like a tiny little Vicenza or something (not that I’ve ever been there). Much cuter than the old-town part. Of course, my camera battery ran out after like 2 photos, so I don’t have anything to post.

Spotted a health food store up the road from Burglengenfeld (where our swim group meets), so I’m going to have to go back up & check that out one day when it’s open. Soybean pasta, perhaps? One can hope.

We got 2 more movies for Wee Laddie yesterday, partly so I don’t have to watch “Cars” every day (thankfully it’s yet another astonishingly good Pixar flick… those people are amazing!). We got that barnyard one (the German version and I don’t remember the US title) and “Over the Hedge.” Watched the barnyard one last night (well, I was mostly on the phone) and it *so* does not seem toddler-appropriate. Co-moms, do you agree?

The TV is Back!

Went to Media Markt today & got a few more DVDs. Got a couple more animated movies for Wee Laddie since “Cars” has been such a hit. I think it’s so awesome that we can get all the movies in German. I know they usually come in Spanish at home (and that’s awesome, too, of course) but German is so rare there. And here, nearly everything seems to come in German, Turkish and English.

The satellite guy finally came back and got our German satellite hooked up again! Yay! I’ll be so happy to have things we can watch in German again. Hopefully I can get Wee Laddie interested in Sesamstrasse and some of the other kids’ shows that are on.

I seem to be having a rekindled interest in linguistics. I guess it’s really the languages themselves that fascinate me. Of course I say that now, but if you hand me a book by say, Deborah Tannen, it’s suddenly all about communication in general, and gender differences and all that. Then there’s the whole language acquisition thing… I’m lucky enough to be able to be right there with Wee Laddie as he’s in the throes of that. It is phenomenal to witness.

I think, at some point, I’m going to have to consider going back to school. I cannot believe I just said that. (Thanks a lot, Annie. Did you notice how it’s morphed from kids’ language learning to linguistics as a whole? I’ll send you my tuition bills. haha)

More Candy for the Kid

Today we had playgroup at Jennifer & Maddie’s house. I was, at first, knocking at the wrong door. They live in a row house, so I didn’t realize there was a 21 and a 21a. Their neighbor came downstairs with her wrapped-in-towel hair to sweetly tell me that they lived next door.

The kids had a really good time. Wee Laddie seems to bring out Maddie’s competitive side. I’m not sure what that’s about. They don’t seem to dislike each other, it’s just that Maddie always wants whatever Wee Laddie has.

We had lunch with Guitarman at the mess hall today (as we often do) and as we were leaving, Wee Laddie became a kittycat and lay down on the floor. I let go of his hand and kept walking, saying something about, “I’ll be out here when you’re ready to go,” or whatever. One of the mess hall employees chose *that moment* to give Wee Laddie a chocolate Santa Claus or some such nonsense. So, of course, he got up off the floor and was totally distracted from my irritation. If people only knew the chaos they were creating in my life of disciplining my toddler to make him a human that they want to have contact with… they surely would not do things like that.

And a very rare occurrence today… a nap that lasted nearly 3 hours! Wee Laddie, not me.

Nein! Nein!

A little while after Kids’ Club today I asked Wee Laddie, “You like Johanna, right?” He looked at me and started shouting, “Nein, nein!” Haha. He didn’t mean “no,” he just said that because it’s what Johanna says all the time.

Guitarman is not loving his job here. First off, most of his coworkers don’t appear to be too bright. (I’ll leave out Gman’s harsher remarks.) Then, they’re not software engineers, even though they’re supposed to be. They are doing network and sys admin stuff and when Guitarman commented on it, one of his coworkers said, “You must not have worked in software before. This is what we do.” (Haha, those of you who know Guitarman can imagine the look on his face! He does, after all, have an MS in… wait for it… Software Engineering.) Guitarman said, “I’ve worked in software. My degree’s in software. This is not software. This is network administration.” (or something along those lines) Guitarman is very non-confrontational… unless you rile him up with BS that he finds offensive.

AFN (Armed Forces Network, one of our satellite services) doesn’t run regular commercials (they’re all military-oriented like things about how to not be a terrorist target and loads of messages about safe driving), so the times for shows are a bit off. They have some little shorts that they run in between programs. (Remember, we’ve only got AFN right now until the satellite guy comes back to give us our German channels back.) After “Go, Diego, Go” they run this really great short called “Open a Door.” It’s done by Ragdoll Studios… I feel like I’ve heard of them before. Anyway, it’s this really cool little show that features a different country in each episode and it’s a story (usually wordless) about a young child (5 and under, roughly) and a day in their life in whatever country they live in. We’ve seen ones on Norway, the Philippines, England, China…and some that I missed which country it was in. It’s such a great show that I sometimes encourage Wee Laddie to watch Diego just so we can see it.

Puss in Boots

After lunch with Guitarman, I went to pay the cell phone bill. How’s this for logical: You have to use the APO for billing, so the bill goes first to the US then back here.. so it takes like 10 days or so. By the time you get the bill, it’s nearly due (we got our last one just a day before the due date). If you send the bank form in (they don’t seem to use checks here much… even our rent is paid automatically through our bank), it takes like 10 days so you’re late and probably your phone will be shut off. We have to go pay the bill in person every month, which would be fine if this particular office had longer hours and/or weren’t so busy during their open hours. It seems so odd to me that in a country where you can pay practically every bill automatically, you can’t go online to pay. Or, heaven forbid, just mail in a check.

In light of Wee Laddie’s recent obsession with all things kitty-cat, he wanted me to sing a kitty-cat song when I tucked him in. The only one I could think of was Adam Ant’s “Puss in Boots.” I need to look up the lyrics, though, as I could only remember the chorus.

That reminds me of a project I want to do… to come up with a list of songs that mention things that kids are interested in. Happy songs, not like “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” which I so wish was a happy song, as Wee Laddie is really into tools right now.