Eggersburg

12:55am, the air raid sirens. Why? I mean, test the system? Sure, go right ahead. Test the system in the middle of the night? Uh, not so much.

This morning we went out for our mess hall breakfast & then Guitarman did some laundry while I went home and spent an hour getting Wee Laddie to sleep for his nap. Lordy, that child dislikes his naps.

After all of that we went out for a drive. It’s sort of counter to the German habit of going for a walk on Sunday, but since we may not have that much time here, we’re enjoying exploring the nearby towns. Someone had mentioned a town called Riedenburg to Guitarman so we were headed there, but we got sidetracked in Eggersburg. (Burg, in German, means castle. Berg means mountain. So here in Bavaria, there are many, many towns that end in either –berg or –burg, including our town of Parsberg, which has both but was named for the mountains. I’ve actually been wondering if there is a Bergburg/Burgberg anywhere.) Eggersburg is a very small town but very cute. And up on the berg is a burg, overlooking the town. Actually there’s Obereggersburg and Untereggersburg, both of which are quite small. We didn’t look in the castle (by the time we get nap done and get somewhere it’s often 4pm or so), but we walked around the grounds a little bit. And spent a little time on the local playground both on the way in and the way out of our walk through Untereggersburg.

We will save Riedenburg for another day.

Blending in with the Neighbors

The mess hall is on brunch hours again. Harumph. We ate breakfast at home then had the brunch for lunch, though, so we did get some of the yummy breakfast foods at least. Then we played for a while on one of the playgrounds on base. It was a good playground. Great toys, but also several big trees interspersed with the toys. Not as many as you’d really want, but several. Which is way more than you usually see on a playground, at least if you only count the areas where children actually sit & play.

Wee Laddie had a bit of trouble going down for his nap. It might be easier if we didn’t live next to Bob the Builder. And speaking of ol’ Bob, they (our noisy, shouting, construction-addicted… but very friendly neighbors) had a party tonight. Wee Laddie and I had gone out to the garage to put some recycling stuff there, but while I was doing that he started talking to a girl from next door’s party.

It made me a little uncomfortable. I don’t know enough German to chit-chat with her. And, as Americans in a foreign country in these times, we try to keep a pretty low profile, especially where we live. These particular neighbors are Turkish, and I really don’t know how the Turks feel about America in general and about George W. I think I’d feel less nervous about it if I knew enough German to actually converse with the neighbors, so that it wasn’t immediately obvious that I’m American.

And speaking of that, it’s very odd: AFN (Armed Forces Network, the English-speaking TV service we get here) is always running ads advising you to blend in… sort of these “if the locals can spot you, so can the terrorists” kinds of ads. And yet, in all the stores on base, they sell all sorts of American flags, clothing with obvious American logos or styling, etc. And they don’t make a big point of encouraging people to learn the local language. I think there’s one course on base (not counting the colleges that offer courses there… I mean stuff that’s accessible to everyone on base) and it’s a one- or two-week part-day course. How the hell do you blend in w/o learning the language?

Today, Wee Laddie was apologizing to Abigail (from Friday).

Mom read in the obits that my dear Uncle Joe died on April 18. I’m so sad… he was truly a great man. I will miss him. (And when I manage to get caught up on photos, there will be one here of him and Aunt Ruthie from just before we left Denver. That day he showed me a photo of his wife from many years ago—they’d been married for over 50 years—and he looked so very proud to still be with her. Now that is good love.)

Living the High-Rank Life

I’ve been completely misunderstood in two different communications recently. Both in English. It’s puzzling, as I’m not used to being misinterpreted so easily in my native language. German, sure.

Had Little Troopers today. Found out that the beloved Cheryl (Wee Laddie adores her and we see her at the mess hall all the time… the first time we saw here there he was pointing at her and saying, “Friend! Friend!”) is leaving soon. She will be missed… she’s got such a great playgroup going! I sure hope it keeps going regardless of who comes in. I had a chat with Danielle (the PT who comes down from Vilseck every 2 weeks for this group) to figure out something to do to thank her.

Today two of the German moms at Little Troopers were talking to Kelly (a mom) about her living in “high-rank housing” in Velburg, kind of seeming weird about it. (I’ve heard that Germans don’t do the “keeping up with the Joneses” kind of thing so it caught me a little off-guard.) Kelly seemed surprised and didn’t seem to know what they meant so I’m like, “Are you fancy & didn’t even know it?” To lighten the mood. She kind of laughed and said, “I guess I am.”

Wee Laddie accidentally knocked a toy over and scared his friend Abigail (she wasn’t hurt, just caught by surprise), but he again refused to apologize. I think he feels bad (‘cause he doesn’t mean to hurt anyone, he just gets a bit overly zealous at times and then is embarrassed if he hurts someone), so I’m trying to help him learn that sometimes a quick “Oops, I’m sorry,” goes a lot farther than some of that other stuff.

Today I got a “Not yet, actually,” from Wee Laddie. Oh dear.

Not Sorry Yet

Missed part of Kids’ Club. (There was some drama in the online moms’ group whilst I slept, and I was reading just a little bit of it because it was sort of all related to something I had posted. Accidentally posted, but it shouldn’t have been a big deal. It so was. Oy.)

When we finally did get to Kids’ Club, Wee Laddie spent part of it in time-out for pulling Johanna’s hair and then refusing to apologize. More, “Not yet,” from my son. Gonna have to work on this apology thing.

At lunch I had a short meeting with Brandi from ACS. I thought we should meet since I’m volunteering through her department, really, and she wanted to talk about our backup plan should Wee Laddie or I be sick or something on Sign workshop day. It was nice to meet her. I actually see her all the time at the mess hall (I just figured it out the other day after seeing her photo in the Bavarian-American magazine the Army puts out), so she had even figured out who I was before we spoke, just by my description that “I eat there all the time with my husband and toddler son.” Egads, we're so predictable.

Hiney Time

Sign class was really small today. It was us, Krista/Paloma and Lori/Abby (and the upcoming twins, of course… although I’m pretty sure they’re not making any signs yet) and Stacy, a volunteer from ACS (Army Community Service). I hope that doesn’t mean that people have lost interest or anything. Maybe it’s just that people are busier now that it’s spring.

I am having some discipline issues with Wee Laddie. Today at Sign class he had 2 time-outs, and they don’t seem to bother him in the least. I would ask him, “Are you ready to listen?” And he’d cheerfully respond, “Not yet.”

He’s been signing the “Signing Time” theme song (“Signing Time with Alex and Leah”) around the house lately. But now it’s morphed into, “Hiney time with Alex, Luigi.” (Luigi is one of the “Cars” characters.) I simply cannot keep from laughing!

Classmates

I’m on the language theme again today, I guess. Had German class tonight. I found out that 3 of our class members are asylum-seekers. Two are from Cambodia and I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t remember where the other one is from, except that he left one place and when to Iraq (of all places) and then came here to Germany.

The German laws for asylum-seekers are apparently very strict. (I have no idea how they compare to those in the US.) They are quite restricted as to how much they can earn, and they are not allowed to leave even the *county.* It’s not even like they’re just confined to Germany. Or even Bavaria. But just the county. All three are hoping to be able to stay here forever.

The two from Cambodia work at the school where the German class is. And their German is way, WAY better than mine. Better than anyone else in class, really. I’d imagine that, given the circumstances, their motivation for learning it quickly is very high. I'm learning more about what life in America must be like for our immigrants.

The Wino in Me

It would be so cheap to be an alcoholic here. Not that any of us are exploring that option… I’m just saying. I started drinking red wine at the end of last year. Um yeeeaaah, for the health benefits. Well, that and that the caloric content of good beer (as much as I LOVE the stuff) is just too high. And just in case you’re thinking, “Well, O-tay, you could drink light beer.” Um, no. Thanks, but I like my beer to have an actual FLAVOR to it. Otherwise, it’s like mineral water with built-in burping. Not my cuppa.

We’re all learning a little bit of German. We still watch “Cars” in German nearly every time we watch it. I suspect that Wee Laddie is learning more of it than we even realize. When I play the CDs in the car, sometimes he’s right there with me, repeating the phrases. Sometimes the English ones, but whatever. He’s two.

Guitarman’s new German word: Boxenstop. (Pitstop.) Endlessly useful, as you might imagine.


Update: So I completely forgot my original point (hard to do, in just 3 paragraphs!) which was how cheap it would be to be an alcoholic here. At any of the local grocery stores, I can get a decent cabernet sauvignon (though I’m no connoisseur) for 4 euro or less (often for under 3). 4 euro is currently about $5.60. Hella bargain.

Festival Food, Part 2

Wee Laddie has now added “though” and “I think” to his usual phrases.

And he slept in this morning so we did eat at the mess hall even though they’re on brunch hours. Usually that’s too late for us. Then we came home for nap and Guitarman took his new bike for its inaugural ride.

Went to the Fest on base again and had langos for dinner… a Hungarian pizza thing. Sinful but yummy. They’re very much like Navajo fry bread (though it’s a yeast dough, which I don’t think frybread is). I had mine topped with garlic (garlic butter, actually, because apparently they didn’t feel the fat content was quite high enough), salami, grated cheese and sour cream (which I usually skip but ate in the interest of authenticity). It’s interesting to see what crappy carnival fare is like in other countries.

Nice to Meet You

The mess hall is on brunch hours (9:30-1:00) this weekend so we ate at home. And of course we didn’t know the hours ahead of time, so we went onto base this morning. I so enjoy the breakfast there… it’s like our old Atlanta Bread Company habit, but cheaper and yummier. The usually have a full selection of breakfast yummies… eggs (scrambled, fried or hard boiled), bacon, sausage, potatoes, biscuits, gravy, pancakes/waffles/french toast, fruit, breads… it’s quite a nice option to have.

Had to stop by Guitarman’s office to print a document and fax a form (we have an offer on the condo that is scheduled to close next month) and it was a complete nightmare! For a bunch of computer people, they sure aren’t set up very well! Wee Laddie met a guy that Guitarman works with named Mike. Mike was showing him some stuff on the computer, and after a while he got around to introducing himself. He showed Wee Laddie how to shake hands and told him, “Nice to meet you.” So now Wee Laddie is running around sticking his hand out and saying, “Nice to meet you.”

We came home for nap, and while we did that, Guitarman went to a bike store with a guy from work. It’s an apparently humongous bike store in Regensburg, so I’m sure Guitarman was in cycling heaven. He ended up deciding to buy a bike from the guy he works with, who is apparently a competitive rider and gets some really nice bikes for free. So while not free, Guitarman will get a good price for the quality of bike he’s getting.

Went back to the base later for the Deutsch-Amerikan Volksfest. They’ve had signs up for this for quite some time and I kept thinking “Ooooh, I bet there’ll be lots of actual germans there… shyeah, right.” Well it turns out that they have these festivals all over the place this time of year, and I think I may have seen more Germans than Americans. We got burritos for dinner. I know, what morons. A carnival burrito? Those aren’t even good back home. ‘Nough said.

Actually

No EFMP playgroup today. I am always worried on days like this that Wee Laddie is going to be completely nuts. To prevent that, I was going to take him to play outside somewhere on base but I didn’t get going fast enough. He seemed okay, though. A little nuts, sure… and he’s still staying awake for much longer at night than it seems he should… but nothing too crazy.

Wee Laddie has started saying, “Actually.” It’s quite funny. Actually.

How Not to Potty Train

Rough day. Wee Laddie went pee in the potty when we first got up, so I thought we were ready to roll. Nope. In fact, we missed Kids’ Club because we had to practice twice (10 times each time) and Wee Laddie was being really slow about it… didn’t want to run, wanted me to sing the toe song, etc. Even the promise of Kids’ Club didn’t speed him up! We actually drove there before I realized how totally late we were (guess my focus was elsewhere) but maybe it made a point. Or not.

I was losing it by lunchtime. Then we had a bad start to nap, followed by another potty practice session. Aaaargh! After the 2nd time that I ended up in tears of frustration, I decided to bag it. If Wee Laddie is still in diapers ‘til he’s old enough to change himself, then so be it. I’m going to work on making it less comfy to be in wet diapers and see if that helps at all.

I have this fantasy where my husband notices that our child needs a new diaper and just takes him off to change him rather than announcing to me, “Someone’s stinky,” as if I’m the only one who could possibly address this problem.

Wee Pee and Ka-Cars

This morning I saw that Wee Laddie was pooping, so I ran him to the potty to have him sit there. Oh man, he came completely unglued! Uh-oh! What did I do wrong? This was all supposed to be fun! And things didn’t go much better today with peeing. Damn.

That was pretty much our focus today.

When you (or at least I) spend any length of time overseas, my perception of cars shifts (I usually notice it after a week or so) to European sizes. There are so many tiny cars over here… some of them are like ridiculously small. Some of them are very cool. I kind of like it that “nicer car” doesn’t equal “bigger car.” There are, of course, many brands here that we don’t see in the US… like Seat, Skoda, Opel. And some that we used to see in the States but haven’t in a long time… like Peugeot and Fiat.

Check out the Chevy Matiz.
Or the Ford Ka, which is the next size down from the Feista.

I think the Swatch Smart cars are great for their sheer ridiculousness. They would be fantastic if you lived in a big city (no fast driving but a great need to fit into tiny parking spots), but I’d be scared out of my mind to drive one on the autobahn… way too top-heavy and the wheel base is probably like 24 inches.

And now, since I also went to the Skoda website to look for tiny cars, I found this little gem of an awkward translation (Skoda is a Czech company, I believe)… “When getting off in dark Škoda Superb will gladly light your way.” Awesome. It's almost worth buying the car for that feature alone.

It's My Potty...

Birthday: 39. Wow. How did I get here? And so fast?

To celebrate (hah!)… rather, since we were home today, I decided to try Dr. Phil’s one-day potty training method. (It’s actually quite similar to the one in that book I have, but w/o the party-themed stuff.) One of the co-moms did it with both of her boys and said it worked great. So in the morning we trained Jesse (the anatomically correct potty doll we have) and Elmo. And they were both star pupils.

After nap, we started on Wee Laddie. That child is a frickin’ camel. He only peed once (and in his pants, of course) between the time he got up from nap to the time I had to leave for German class. Since he peed in his pants, we practiced running to the potty 10 times. I was dreading that part, but we actually had fun with it! Laughing, running, pulling down pants… great fun. We’ll see how things go tomorrow.

I really like my German class. It’s at the volkshochschule here (like adult ed. back home) in Parsberg… it’s not too expensive and our instructor is really good about letting us have input about what we want to learn next. We do a lot of asking each other questions about specific things that fit our lesson for that night. Tonight we worked on past tense… it seems like the easiest part of German grammar so far!

Shhhhhh!

I’m up two pounds. Ugh. Must cut out bread. I’m watching really closely now that I have a scale. I sure don’t want my weight to get back up to where it was before… that was not a good place to be. The new scale I got is metric, so it’s not as detailed as I’m used to. Yeah, it’s only a pound or so, but I’m really keeping track of the halves now, since half a kilo is more than a whole pound!

Man, our next door neighbors are noisy. There is something about the way the two houses are positioned, or the types of construction they are or something… but from the master bedroom here, the neighbors sound so loud it’s like they’re in the room with you. Not so bad from the next room (guest room) even though that window faces their back deck directly. I’m sure they have no idea how often they thwart our nap efforts… and of course I don’t speak enough German (or Turkish) to be able to ask them if they could please stop shouting in the backyard. At least in the afternoon.

Cold, Isn't It?

Mellow morning… we had breakfast at home, then Guitarman went to do laundry while I put Wee Laddie down for his nap. After that, we went to check out the Wildpark near Burglengenfeld. I’d seen a sign for it when I was looking for the health food store the other day and figured we should check it out since the one at Schweinfurt was so great! Of course, I didn’t really remember where I’d seen the sign, so we drove through Burglengenfeld a couple of times and circled through Teublitz (I love that name… you say it like “toyblitz” for those of you who don’t speak German) and finally got it on the GPS. (I don’t love that I love that thing, but I love that thing. I’m a big fan of just finding your way eventually, but it comes in really handy when you come up short.)

Turns out that Wildpark Höllohe is in Teublitz, so all the driving around Burglengenfeld was for naught. Oh well, cute town, so no big loss there. The wildpark was nice. Not as great as the one in Schweinfurt (the emphasis here was more on walking trail and less on playground… great for adults but not as much for my toddler), but we’ll definitely go back. Again, animals to look at plus a fun playground… and all for free. The petting zoo area was closed by the time we got there, but Wee Laddie still had a lot of fun looking at animals and on the playground.

We got ice cream, too. We get ice cream a lot at the mess hall, but not usually when we’re out somewhere. We sort of played the idiot-American card by just sitting down at an unoccupied end of a table since we weren’t sure how to ask if anyone was sitting there… turns out that the people at the other end did, in fact, have a slew of other people coming to sit with them. Ack. Anyway, a woman who sat near us was talking to Wee Laddie and then us, so Guitarman told her he doesn’t understand German. So now we’re rude, foreign idiots instead of just rude. :P

Wee Laddie was taking bites of ice cream then saying, “Cold, isn’t it?” That’s a new one.

Tacos & a Firetruck

In light of Wee Laddie’s request yesterday, we went to Würzburg today. Grandma-Nana had sent some Easter money for Wee Laddie, so we let him pick out a toy. I was angling for a drum (he’s got some fun drum toys but I’ve been wanting to get him one that’s more like a real drum) so I was looking at a little bongo set. He, however, had spotted some little cars & trucks and got sort of fixated on a little firetruck. I tried to get him to try the bongos, but he pushed them away and said, “Wee Laddie likes firetruck. No want drums.” And that was that. If he can communicate his wants that clearly, I’m not going to try to convince him otherwise. (No, he won’t always get what he wants, but I’m hardly going to stand there arguing with him.) In this case, he did get what he wanted.

After I picked up our food, I saw that Guitarman and Wee Laddie were sitting at the next table to another family from our base… a little boy named Marcus that Wee Laddie played with the day that Guitarman watched him while I took my drivers’ test, and his parents. Wee Laddie was actually sharing his brand new firetruck with Marcus. I was practically beaming at my son’s great sharing! But when Wee Laddie took it back to sit down & eat his lunch, poor Marcus came unglued. Oy, I was so glad we weren’t in their shoes at that moment. So then we’re trying to explain to Wee Laddie that it was still good that he shared, even though Marcus was upset now. This whole discipline thing is quite interesting, really.

Oh, so this beloved firetruck toy talks, and one phrase that it says is, “Raise my ladder, buddy.” Now is it just me or is that a little bit creepy?

Potato One

Went back to the health food store. Now that I’d found it, I really wanted to find out what they have. It’s small, like not even as big as the Lakewood Vitamin Cottage when my mom used to go when I was a kid. Not big enough to shop there regularly (since it is about 40 minutes away), but I’ll be back. They had a tiny section of organic produce, skin care stuff, and snacks, crackers, pastas, etc. No soybean pasta (if I shop there more maybe I’ll recommend it to them), but I got some whole grain lasagna noodles, some tofu noodles and some Amaranth flour crackers that were awesome! I like wholegrain flavors so I don’t know that they’d appeal to everyone, but Wee Laddie & I had to refrain from gorging on them! (One of the upsides of whole grains is that they’re also pretty filling, so we didn’t eat the whole bag.)

Often, on the way to meet Guitarman for lunch, I’ll ask Wee Laddie which mess hall he’d like to eat at. I started trying to differentiate them by “big one” and “little one,” but then he would say, “Baseball one?” ‘cause one has sports memorabilia, so they keep being renamed. Today he told me, “Potato one.” So I’m wracking my brain, trying to figure out which one is the potato one. He tries to better describe it by mentioning mushrooms. Huh? Then it dawns on me: he’s talking about Taco Bell, which is our substitute for Chipotle. (I know, some of you are cringing, but it’s all we’ve got for a Mexican meal “out” so we go.) We go there whenever we go to Würzburg. Oh hell, I’ll admit it… sometimes it’s a good 50% of the reason for going to Würzburg. Yup, we will drive 1.5 hrs for a taco. (Beat that!)

In the afternoon we went to the Möbelhof to look for shelves. I remembered that they had some inexpensive ones that just attach to the wall (those nice ones that don’t have visible brackets or anything). Well, that turned out to be quite the ordeal! Partly due to the language thing, but partly not. One of the shelves was the display and they apparently didn’t have ANY other ones in stock anywhere in that color (white). The other was a lower price for the display one and they had ONE other one in the warehouse. The saleswoman’s English was, of course, way better than my German, but we kind of got stuck on “austellung.” She was searching for the word, but I got it from her description: display. The ones that were in stock were “in lager.” I thought it meant something about the warehouse (though I also see “warenausgabe” for things you have to go pick up at another part of the store) so I had to look it up when I got home.

If nothing else, it’s been very humbling to live in a place where I don’t speak the dominant language. I am very fortunate to speak English, at least, since so many of the people here know it. It must be harder for, say, the Turks who move here, because although there are many of them, I doubt that many Germans speak Turkish. You know, like Americans who speak Spanish. I often wish that I could explain to people that I’ve only been here a few months and didn’t know I was coming much beforehand. Could be a lot worse. I could be one of those people who has lived here 5 years and is just now getting around to taking a German class. (No offense to those people, I just don’t think I could live with the guilt!)

Nearly Made It

I’ve been looking around for a health food store. Well, okay, not so much looking as hoping to happen upon one. I saw one a few weeks ago on the way home from Amberg (but none since then) and have been hoping for a chance to get there when they’re actually open. I decided to try to find it this morning. After making breakfast for Wee Laddie (who this morning ate 1.5 waffles, a few crackers and an egg’s worth of egg salad!) and myself and taking a shower, there wasn’t a lot of time before we needed to go meet Guitarman for lunch. He agreed to go later than usual so we could try the health food store.

I had thought it was farther out than Burglengenfeld, but it turned out to be in Burglengenfeld, so I did only a little bit of extra driving. Due to time constraints, we ended up skipping the actual shopping. But I now know where the store is… and there’s another one that has a big “bio” (what they call organic over here) sign in the window right nearby. Both are in a cute little downtown area of Burglengenfeld that I wouldn’t mind walking around anyway. Will try to make it back soon to see if they have soybean pasta (although my mom, bless her heart, brought us 2 boxes of the stuff!) and other familiar things. In any case, I’m interested to see what a health food store is like over here.

Wee Laddie and I met Guitarman on base tonight and we all had dinner at Burger King (well, Wee Laddie got a slice of pizza from Anthony’s, not that he ate much of it). And we stopped at the PX where we bought “Flushed Away,” even though we can’t get it in German yet. Ah well. Wee Laddie can maybe learn a little Spanish or French, too.

After dinner, Guitarman took Wee Laddie home (it’s his night to tuck in) and I stopped by the Kik textile store to see if I could replace Wee Laddie’s car toy that I dropped (and broke) in the garage today. These are not toddler-tough toys, for sure. We just threw away another one the day before Grandma got here. While I was there, a boy around 5 or 6 came up kind of next to me and said, “Hallo.” I said it back, or what I thought was reasonably close. He said, “Oh, you’re American.” Turns out his dad is American (and loudly so, for those of you who know what I mean by that) and his mom is German. I felt silly that a child that young could nail my accent on one stinkin’ word. Gonna have to start using “Grüss Gott,” instead of “hallo.” Just more local. I do know why “hallo” is a giveaway, though, when I really think about it. It’s like “Hello” vs. not just “hallo,” but “halloh.”

Our German teacher taught us the difference between “Grüss Gott,” in general vs. how they pronounce it locally. I’ll be interested to see if I catch people off-guard with that one. I suppose all I’ll be able to tell is if they assume I speak German, as I’ll have no idea what they say to me next unless they bust me on being American.

Exit Grandma

This morning when the alarm went off, Guitarman asked if I wanted to leave Wee Laddie while I went and took Grandma to the airport. I figured it was so Wee Laddie could get more sleep but Guitarman said, “That seems like a lot of extra dangerous driving.” Oy. I thought we should give Wee Laddie the choice, just in case. I mean, the kid definitely has opinions, and I’d much rather he feel comfortable with whatever we’re doing. So after confirming that Daddy was not going anywhere, he wanted to go to the airport. It went pretty well (read: nobody bawled) but was still hard. I figure that at least Wee Laddie now knows that Grandma is still really in the picture. Yeah, he talks to her often, but this was way more tangible.

On the way home I decided to stop at Media Markt to see if they have the “mouse woman” movie (“Flushed Away”) that Wee Laddie talks about all the time. They didn’t. Nor did they have the power cord I need to get for my photo printer. But we got a bathroom scale (and I’m down over 20 lbs since my most tubby!—I did the detox diet in mid-October, and was at like max weight then. I’d still like to lose another 20 or so, but I’m not going to harp on that here), a Bluetooth headset for my cell phone so I can legally use it in the car here and the “Der Kleine Eisbär” movie for Wee Laddie (Aunt Kathi had bought him the book and we have the audio of it… figured we might as well get the movie, too). My cell phone wasn’t working due to hassles of paying the bill on time (our bill has to go to NY and then come back to us here--they apparently HAVE to run it through the APO box, so we've been getting the bill about 2 days before it's due. Normally that's manageable, if not totally convenient 'cause we have to go pay it in person at a fairly busy shop on base, but this time with Allen out of town and me busy with Grandma, it slipped through the cracks) so I couldn’t call Guitarman to let him know where we were. That always goes over well.

Once we got home, we called Guitarman and arranged to meet him for lunch. I think that, as much as Wee Laddie misses Grandma, he is so relieved that his daddy hasn’t gone anywhere this time...he’s still a little schized out, but so much better than I expected. After lunch we went home for nap… it went reasonably well. I slept with him and was a little irritated when he woke up… I was wanting a bit more sleep. Too bad I nap better than my toddler!

Since nap wasn’t too long, we drove to Neumarkt to check out another electronics store. It’s much smaller than Media Markt and not much closer, so we probably won’t be going there often. But I did manage to be relatively coherent in German (only for one short sentence, but it’s something!). See, Wee Laddie had gone up a different aisle than mine and he ran into an employee there. He started saying, “Mouse woman. Mouse woman,” to the employee, who was understandably confused. He was asking Wee Laddie something and I said, “Er spricht Englisch.” (He speaks English.) And the guy jumped into English and asked if he could help us. So I managed to a) learn that “Flushed Away” has not yet been released in Germany on DVD, and b) not make a complete ass of myself… at least as far as I know. Baby steps.

Sharing Drinks at IKEA

Grandma’s last full day here. Waaaaah. It’s been so much fun having her here!

We decided to try IKEA again and all went well. We’d napped Wee Laddie in the morning. He does so much better that way (I really wish some of our on-base activities were in the afternoon). Had lunch there. While we were sitting there an elderly woman came over to our table with a glass of something and said some stuff to us, set the glass on the table and walked away.

I was in the midst of my usual blank stare but my mom said, “Danke,” so I gathered that the woman was leaving the rest of her beverage with us. It seemed odd, but people are always giving things to Wee Laddie and refills aren’t standard in Germany (although they are free at IKEA), so whatever. So about 5-10 minutes later, the woman comes back to retrieve her drink. I guess she’d wanted to go to the bathroom but was dining alone so was concerned (and reasonably so, I’m sure) that something would happen to her drink if she’d left just that on a table. I couldn’t help thinking about how embarrassing—but funny—it would have been had we decided to drink it.

Bought a new teapot (Wee Laddie accidentally broke the lid to mine several days ago) and a light fixture for Wee Laddie’s room. They have some there that are super-cheap (those paper lantern ones), so I thought I’d at least try the wiring… and if it doesn’t work and I have to throw the light away? Well, then it was under 10 euro.

While we were walking around IKEA, I mentioned to Wee Laddie that Grandma is going home tomorrow. He didn’t say much, but was clearly processing the info… a few minutes later he started sort of hitting me. I figured it was that “kill the messenger” thing, so I gave him a hug and told him that it’s okay to be upset about Grandma leaving but it’s not okay to hit me. He actually seemed to respond to that.

I had my German class tonight so I left it up to Grandma, Guitarman and Wee Laddie to decide who would tuck in Wee Laddie. Turns out he picked Daddy. Apparently he got pretty sad during tuck-in, but it was a little misdirected. He was asking about me and Guitarman said, “She’s at her German class.” Wee Laddie said, “Too much.” They must have clarified, because when I got home Guitarman told me that Wee Laddie thinks I’m gone too much. I guess that 1.5 hour class I do every week is just too much time away from my son. :P I had to laugh. Not that I don’t consider what my son thinks/feels, but sheesh. We might as well still have the whole umbilical cord attachment, for as much time as we spend apart. (Not that I’m complaining.)

Easter Monday. Who Knew?

So, apparently Easter Monday is a major German holiday. Grandma wanted to go to IKEA (she’s never been to one, and I’m always up for a trip to a cool furniture store w/someone who wants to be there), so we drove up. On the way out of town I noticed that the Netto (grocery store) was closed and thought, “Hmm… I wonder if IKEA will be open.” They weren’t. I thought they might be, since they’re so big. You know, like how stores like Best Buy and Target are open on days when other stores might be closed. Anyway. We stopped off at an Autohof (place on the autobahn to stop, go potty, eat, etc.) and there was a Burger King there. First time I’ve had German Burger King. I swear, the fast food places make better food here. They have wedges in addition to fries so I got those. The only chicken nuggety things they have are actual nuggets, but they weren’t all dry & stuff. But they don’t have milk, so I had to go next door (after the poor cashier had to come out and point so I could understand what he was trying to tell me… god it sucks not speaking the local language well enough!) to get one for Wee Laddie. He was being a troublemaker, kept getting out of his seat (gonna have to watch out for seats that are too far from the table in future) so we had to go out to the car before he and I had finished eating. I was going to just sit in the car, but when I was putting him in his seat he was saying, “No time out,” so I’m like damn… gotta make it a time-out now. That consistency thing is a bitch.

After that nonsense, we drove into Regensburg. I thought Grandma might like a quick look around so we parked by the Wurstküche and walked over the old stone bridge. Then along the river and back over a shorter, more open bridge (chosen by Grandma so Wee Laddie could see the river as we crossed it.) He was totally exhausted again on this walk. I’ve seen him do a slow, tired walk before… but never 2 days in a row unless he’s sick.

Headed home after that and made chicken stir-fry (yes, from a package… we can get a really yummy one at the commissary… Contessa brand) over whole wheat spaghetti. Yum. Tomorrow is Grandma’s last full day here. Boo! Wee Laddie and I are sure going to miss her! Wee Laddie was kind of sad while I was reading his bedtime story to him. I don’t know if he’s getting it that she’s leaving soon or what, but he was saying something to me (unfortunately I couldn’t understand it) and trying not to cry. Poor little monkey. Hopefully I can cheer him up with talk of our next visitors… Aunt Kathi and Grandma-Nana are coming next month.

Easter Festivities

After breakfast, we (Wee Laddie, Grandma and I) dyed eggs. I saved out 2 each for Grandma and me and let Wee Laddie do the rest. I’d forgotten, but he did them last year at Grandma’s house with his cousins. He spilled the blue dye and soaked his pants, but luckily I’d planned for that and made him change out of his spider outfit (the Halloween-y job he wore for the “signing of the papers”… he *loves* this outfit, I think because it’s orange). I’ve tried to relegate that outfit to Pajamaland, but he caught me at a weak moment this morning. He did really well with the decorating, and didn’t just do solid colors. He was kind of playing around with effects in a small way. Fun!

Made him wait ‘til after nap to do the egg hunt. (The upside of it being just him, kidwise, is that we didn’t have to work around anyone else’s schedule… so the fact that we’d stayed out all day yesterday wasn’t a big deal.) He got most of the eggs w/o any hints. Our yard is quite small and there are only small plants since the house—hence, the landscaping—isn’t very old). Not many places to hide an egg. For anyone other than a toddler, they’d have been ridiculously obvious.

After that, Wee Laddie, Grandma and I took a walk around Parsberg. I wanted to show Grandma some of the egg trees (a tradition I want to take home with us when we go back home… they look so festive!), and have her see our town. We went by the little park by the Seniorzentrum and they had a town egg tree, so we took a few pics there. Walking back through Stadtmitte (city center), I noticed that the Hotel Hirschen was open and suggested maybe we try to get some dinner there. Poor Wee Laddie was so tired on our walk that I had to carry him partway. It was far and we walked a lot yesterday, too…but I’m used to the tyke who’ll *run* around the full mile at Colorado Mills mall.

And we did go to Hotel Hirschen for dinner… sort of an early birthday celebration for me, courtesy of Grandma. I had the käsespätzle again. Fantastically yummy again, although it was cooked slightly differently this time. I’m going to have to learn to make that dish. Guitarman had wieners (hot dogs, but a little yummier) and Grandma got a mushroom salad. We all shared some with Wee Laddie since he ate pretty much nothing last time we’d eaten there. Everyone seemed to like their food.

Guitarman rented “Blood Diamond” for us to watch after Wee Laddie went to sleep. Ugh, what a depressing movie. Good, but awful. Makes me want to not wear my diamonds anymore…I don’t think I’ll ever buy another one. They’re beautiful, but so *not* worth all of that. There were a couple of scenes that made me feel like throwing up… such horrible atrocities over stones. Good grief.

Blauen Reiters

Had breakfast at McDonald’s (yeah yeah, I know) so we could get on the road earlyish to head to München. McD’s food is actually much better here: the eggs have those yummy orangey yolks, the croissants are like real, actual croissants, not some canned crescent roll… they don’t have serve-yourself ketchup, but there was Nutella out for the croissants. And they’ve added some new Indian selctions to their menu. I’ll have to try one sometime, just to see (not that we eat there often).

Rather than driving the whole way to München and then trying to find the museum and figure out parking, we went to Allach train station, then took the train in. Took quite a while to figure out the tickets. Guitarman tried to leave it to me since I sort of know more German than he does, but I didn’t remember how the zone maps (they’re color-coded to show which zone the stops are in) or the ticket machines (you can push the button for the ticket you think you want & that’ll give you fare info & sometimes a tiny bit more detail or different wording of something to help you figure it out) work. And they don’t have English on them at all. And, for those of you who haven’t travelled in Europe before, the fines for riding a train without the proper ticket can be a bit steep. Finally got it figured out, as far as we know.

We went to the Lenbachhaus Museum, which has a collection of art from the Blue Rider group, with works by Paul Klee, Franz Marc, August Macke, Wasiliy Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter, among others. I’m a fan of Kandinsky (was impressed by his work when we went to the Bauhaus Museum—maybe my favorite museum ever—in Berlin), so it was fun for me, too, though we mostly went ‘cause it was the one touristy thing my mom wanted to do. Great museum, but terribly unfriendly staff. For some reason, they were obsessed with getting me to keep my purse (which is kind of backpackish) in front of me… not to the back and not to the side. Even if I was holding Wee Laddie. I don’t know why, but it was apparently a very big deal. Seriously, they were more concerned about my stupid purse than the two-year-old running around the priceless paintings. (Oh no, I don’t mean our two-year-old. ) ;)

There is supposedly a 2nd exhibit space, Kunstbau, that is connected with the Lenbachhaus and was having a display of what gardens might have looked like if conceived of by the Blue Rider artists. Kunstbau was listed on our tickets, but neither they nor the brochure my mom found had an actual address for this place. (Marketing genius, I’ll tell you.) According to the München web site, it’s right over the Königsplatz U-bahn stop. According to the signage at Königsplatz, it was across the street. According to our eyes (we traipsed around several other large buildings trying to find it), the place is downright invisible. I suppose we could have gone back to the friendly team at the Lenbachhaus and asked, but none of us volunteered to do it.

Daddy Day & Date Night

Went to Lil’ Troopers, with Grandma in tow. I don’t always talk that much to other moms… but it’s really fun to watch the kids interact, It was like Daddy Day over there… like 3 dads hanging out the whole time, and even Guitarman came at the end (he usually has to work).

I found out that there were 33 people at sign class on Wed. Wow!! Brenda is in South Africa on holiday with her family, so we haven’t talked, but I heard a good response from Kelly/Caitlin and Zoe/Mario. People seem excited about it. Krista (Paloma’s mom) said everyone responded well to the baby DVD, even though I’d been encouraging the faster-paced “regular” ones.

Grandma watched Wee Laddie while Guitarman & I went to see “The Queen” on base. Very good movie, great acting. Brings back memories of watching parts of the royal wedding with Laura, and being in Vegas with Tammy when Princess Di died. I was the saddest for her kids… what a horrible thing. Prince Charles portrayed in better light than I expected. It was kind of weird to be on a date night with Guitarman… it’s been a long time!

I'm not sure what to make of the fact that people aren't leaving comments on the blog. They're either not reading (in which case this will be my own personal journal by which to remember my experiences here...and to someday share with Wee Laddie) or they just don't feel like commenting. Except for Lisa, who left some early on. I didn't respond to hers, though... maybe that's why she quit?

Tiere & Tang(’s)

Wee Laddie, Grandma and I had lunch at home after Wee Laddie’s nap. Guitarman is taking off work today and tomorrow, after his long week in Schweinfurt (now if someone would come relieve me after my long week here… oh wait, Grandma’s here!). He went to do laundry and got lunch while he was out.

After Guitarman joined us back at home and the rest of us ate lunch, we headed off to the Tiergarten (zoo) in Nürnberg. There’s also a dolphin/sea lion show, so we went to that, too. Wee Laddie didn’t last all the way through it… not too much of a surprise. Nice zoo, though. It’s kind of like Denver in that they try to make the cages sort of unobtrusive, so you don’t so much feel like you’re looking at caged animals. Some animals just like at home, some different. I think Wee Laddie and I might have to try to round up a group of moms & tots from base to make a trip up there one day. Maybe on a playgroup day, when I get back to that.

We got headed back kind of late so we were debating whether to just swing through a fast food place or what… then we spotted a Chinese restaurant called Tang’s on the way back to the autobahn. And thank goodness we did! I was sort of dreading the lame-o burger/fries deal, but this was a really good dinner. All of the food was really good… I think Grandma’s curry was the best of the meals. The waiter spoke German and very fluent English and seemed to have a Chinese accent. Wow. I so admire people like that.

Where's Ellie?

Got up at 5am for the drive to Munchen to pick up Grandma. I couldn’t tell Wee Laddie ahead of time that she was coming (well I guess I could have, but I was afraid that every breath from then on would be “Grandma coming today now?” until the moment she was actually visible). So I told him in the airport parking lot. He didn’t seem too surprised… I guess he figured it out from things I’ve told people recently.

When we walked in the door, he started saying, “Grandma, [where] are you?” She’d gotten through baggage claim very quickly, so she actually beat us there. (Yes, we were a tad later than I’d planned, but I didn’t really think she’d be through already!) Only by a minute or two. On the way out to the car Wee Laddie asked where Ellie (Grandma’s dog) was. I guess they come as a package.

We’d talked about going to a museum that day, but I asked Grandma if she really wanted to do that or if she just wanted to have an adjustment day. For those of you who haven’t travelled over that many time zones before, it is completely exhausting. Nevermind if you sleep on the plane (which she hadn’t). You’re automatically losing hours so it’s disorienting, to say the least. And I’m not a person who tends to have jetlag issues.

We went to lunch at the mess hall, just ‘cause it’s sometimes easier than cooking. Grandma was literally falling asleep at the table, so she took a bit of a nap (while Wee Laddie had his) once we got home.

Guitarman got home from Schweinfurt in the evening and we all went to the bowling alley for dinner. The food’s mediocre (although my cheeseburger tonight was remarkably not overcooked!) but the bright lights and all the noise are probably good for keeping a potential jet-lagger from falling asleep too early.

Flying Solo at Bedtime

We had a busy day getting ready for Grandma so we skipped swim. Despite that, I got Wee Laddie’s nap all screwed up. We just had lots of little errands to run and they took a long time. The hardest one was laundry. We haven’t bought a washer & dryver yet (Allen’s perfectly willing to do *all* the laundry on base—except for this time ‘cause he’s out of town & we need clean sheets for Grandma—so I’m not going to complain about not being able to do it at home.) so we do it on the base. There are currently 6 THOUSAND soldiers here (as in extra soldiers… beyond the ones that are normally here) for training. As you might imagine, some of them also had laundry to do today. We did manage to get the errands all run.

That all led to a late nap, which nearly always leads to a rough awakening. I don’t know why that gets Wee Laddie so out-of-sorts, but it happens almost every time his nap is late in the day.

At bedtime, Wee Laddie was refusing to put his toys away, so he kept getting things taken away. He lost his car toys for a day, the “Cars” movie for tomorrow (I knew I could use that one since Grandma will be here and he won’t care about his movie)… when I brought out the big guns “if you don’t put them away by the time I get the dishes put away, I’m not going to tuck you in. You’ll have to go to bed all by yourself,” I was just *sure* I’d get instant compliance. But NOOOOOOOOO. This child of mine is definitely a child of mine. (Some sort of cosmic justice, I’m sure.) Once we’d gone *there* I was horrified at the thought of hours & hours of crying, with him not getting to sleep until midnight the night before we have to get up early to go pick up Grandma. But it went much better than I expected. He didn’t fall asleep until somewhere around 10pm, but he didn’t really cry at all. He got a little whiny a couple of times about me tucking him in and I reminded him that he’d had the choice to put his toys away. He also came out of the room a few times, but finally just settled down and went to sleep. Wow.

Another Butt-Kicking

Brenda kicked our butts in exercise class this morning (Maria was making a trip to the US this week). We did a long walk, down the big hill to one of the entry gates that’s always closed, then along that road. We did walking, running and skipping. I thought I was being clever (okay, and a bit lazy) by taking the lightest of Wee Laddie’s strollers. What I forgot was that it’s too short for me, so my arms got very tired from kind of leaning on it to keep it moving. We have that nice jogging stroller that Grandma got for us, but I need to inflate the tires… and guess what. We left the bicycle pump back in CO.

Brenda talked to me about the sign class. Apparently someone that heads up some other group contacted her about it, saying that it should be through this other group and that the instructor (me) would be paid. Well, first off, I’m not certified to instruct in ASL… I should think that anyone paying for a class would want a qualified instructor. Secondly, if we do that I think it means we shouldn’t really be using the “Signing Time” videos because of copyright laws. And third, I think that charging for it just might weed out the people who probably need this resource the most… and that’s the lower-income, less educated, often younger parents. Brenda agreed and said that she thinks that a big part of the reason for the high participation rates here is that they don’t charge for everything. (And by that I mean anything.) She said that her target audience is really the parents who are younger and maybe less confident and less informed (maybe not so willing to admit that they need lots of help, which I’ve found easier to do as I get older… less need to “prove myself,” so it’s okay for me to ask anyone/everyone for help/tips/whatever). So we agreed that there will be no pay even if we do another session of this in the fall, as we just want to keep it open to anyone who’s interested.

Wee Laddie and I had lunch at the mess hall near Daddy’s office., Every day we go through the thing about how he has to eat enough of his lunch to be able to have ice cream or cake. So today he notices that I guy at the next table has just returned with a bowl of ice cream. He points to him and says, “Man have ice cream.” I said, “Yes, that man does have ice cream. He must have eaten all of his vegetables.” The guy heard us and laughed, and then was playing along. Even though a lot of these military guys are young, a lot of them have kids (you can often tell by how patient and friendly they are to Wee Laddie), so it’s easy to get them to cooperate with me. It’s nice.

Today was a much better day and Wee Laddie had a much-needed 3-hour nap! YAY! And Grandma will be here soon! :)

Wildpark

Yesterday I’d noticed a sign for something called Wildpark and I thought, “Hmmm, that sounds like something in English. Plus it maybe sounds like something we might like to go to.” So today we went looking for it, whatever it was. What it turned out to be is this fantastic zoo/park/playground thing where Wee Laddie and I spent a busy couple of hours. It was a lot of work, taking him through it… but he had a great time! It was this big open park with several different playgrounds interspersed with fenced in areas that housed various animals… these hairy Scottish cattle, moose, wild pigs, elk, etc. And they had a petting zoo! I had to laugh while we were there. Last year I took Wee Laddie to the petting zoo at Belleview Park in Denver. They had a limit on how many kids could be in there at once, and once you came out they had a little hand-washing station, complete with antibacterial wash and the whole nine yards. Here, there was nobody staffing it. It’s free, you go in the gate whenever you want, but don’t expect to be able to wash on the way out.

Wee Laddie attached himself to one of the goats and was walking all around with his hand on the goat’s back. Very cute, and very unlike the petting zoo trip last summer, where he was a little too nervous to touch any of the animals. At one point one of the goats butted him with its horns, but he was not even phased. Oh, the difference a year makes! When we came out, we looked at some chickens in some fenced areas just outside the petting zoo. Wee Laddie was trying to talk to other people, saying, “It’s funny.” There was one woman who he kept saying it to, but she clearly didn’t understand. I was standing there thinking about what I should say. “Er spricht Englisch,” would probably cover it, but I just stood there like a lamo, just thinking it, because I’m so darned unsure of myself.

After all of that fun, we headed back home.

This was a rough night as far as getting Wee Laddie to put his toys away. They say to “pick your battles,” but it sure seems like your toddler sometimes picks ‘em for you!

And Wee Laddie stayed up again ‘til like 10pm. Oy, this child is going to start having night terrors from lack of sleep!

No Mex for You!

I had planned to try breakfast on base at Schweinfurt, but got lost on the way there. Guitarman had given me directions, but I saw another version of one of the things he mentioned and then started seeing things that were *really close* to what he’d said so my brain sort of made them fit and I ended up driving around the wrong area for about 25 minutes, probably. By the time I’d gotten sorted out, breakfast would’ve been nearly done. So we had breakfast quesadillas at Schweinfurt’s base (which also has a Taco Bell… meanwhile, down Hohenfels/Vilseck way there’s NOTHIN’) and headed back for a nap.

Guitarman suggested we go look at a place he saw called Kinderland. We went to check it out… it’s a toy store. Spent loads of time there and just a little money. And I have a bone to pick with the toymakers. Non-replaceable batteries in a toy are not a good idea. Ever. Wee Laddie was enamored of some soft “Cars” licensed toys that made noises when you shook them. A couple of them weren’t making the noises (Yes, toy-makin’ folks, those batteries—the ones you say I can’t replace but should be sure to dispose of properly… which, I should point out, would require me cutting apart this toy my son fell in love with, at which point you apparently do not give me an option of putting a new battery in and stitching the bad boy back up. Does this only seem odd to me?—were already worn out, while the product was *still on the store shelves.*) so I explained the whole thing to Wee Laddie. He’s two… he’s not stupid. When I told him that the batteries were going to wear out after a while and then the toy would never make the sounds again (Ya see, toymakers? I can foresee the tantrums that might cause in the future, even if you can’t.), he chose another toy. Okay it was still a “Cars” toy, but I think I’ve made my point, albeit not to any actual toy manufacturers. Whatever. He got a little Matchbox-sized Luigi and Sheriff instead, which he held onto for the rest of the day.

After spending an inordinate amount of time toy shopping, I drove us around Schweinfurt a bit. It’s quite a nice town. I made a turn and spotted a restaurant called… wait for it… Habañeros! I thought, “There’s no way that’s an Italian restaurant with a Mexican-sounding name… that’s gotta be Mexican food!” So I turned around, parked & went to look. It’s a “Texican” restaurant, right here in Bavaria! I was so excited that I called Guitarman on the spot to make dinner plans. Then Wee Laddie and I went to walk around (and we found a fun playground... near a Mexican restaurant! Bonus!) while we waited for dinnertime.

Went back to Habañeros around the time we were supposed to meet Guitarman there and I went in to get a table (planning to order for Guitarman so we didn’t keep Wee Laddie up too late). The host says, “You have a reservation, right?” Uh-oh. I told him no, that we didn’t realize we’d need one. He checked, but they were totally booked up, it being a Saturday night and all. (We usually just go earlier, but couldn’t since Guitarman had to work ‘til 7pm.) Oh dear. On the way back to the car, I almost cried.

We tried to go to the Krazy Kow (an “American style” restaurant), but it’d gone out of business. We had Mr. Wok’s incredibly salty food instead. Oh, the disappointment.