Backyardigans Straße

So you know how I’ve been complaining about all of our neighbors doing their landscaping? Well, yet another one is working on it right now. Aaargh! If these people knew the havoc this creates in my home, they surely would just live with the piles of dirt (though every spare bit of dirt here is almost instantly covered in some type of grass/greenery) and leave us in peace. This time it’s the people on the next street over, but the two streets come very close together right there, so it’s nearly like they’re right across the street. And they, of course, have a bulldozer or something over there right now. And it’s on the side of the house where Wee Laddie takes his nap, so when we’re in that room it sounds like the bulldozer is right outside the house. I guess it nearly is.

Wee Laddie is way grooving on the Jay Jay the Jet Plane video we checked out from the library. I’ve only seen the show maybe once or twice and I once checked out a CD of music from it which I promptly took back. I cannot stand music where they have adults singing in kid voices (which this did). It seems so condescending to me… and is utterly annoying. Anyway, Wee Laddie is quite taken with ol’ Jay Jay’s show and has been talking about “Jay Jay Jay Jay.” He gets the cadence right, and sometimes he tosses in “Jet Plane,” but usually at the end of all the Jays. Pretty cute.

A Big Belly Bonanza!

In case any of you have been doubting that Bavarian drivers can really be that bad (like bad enough to warrant all my bitching about them), let me draw you a picture: Wee Laddie and I driving to base. It’s a country road, but the main road between base and the Autobahn… and also the main road between lots of farms and tiny villages. This being a farming community, we often see tractors driving along this and other roads in the area. So, it seemed perfectly normal that we came upon 3 cars driving really slowly behind a tractor. We were in a no-passing zone, and people were obeying that and actually waiting ‘til they could see around the tractor.

Until… duh duh DUUHHHHH… some a-hole comes blazing up behind me and pops out into the other lane. There’s a car coming the other direction in that lane (!!), so I figured Turbo-hole would jump back in behind me. And when he didn’t do that, I thought he surely would try to squeeze rudely in between two of the other cars (and it’d have to be rudely, as Bavarians don’t leave much room between themselves and the car in front). But no, Mr. Velocity decides instead to create his own third lane down the middle of the road (and mind you, this being Germany, the roads are far from excessively wide) and make the other driver scoot over so he could get through. And as soon as that happened, another one of the cars in the line jumped out and passed Herr Speed!

So in my utter shock at this scene (and at the fact that nobody hit anybody!), I exclaimed, “You’re an ASS!” Pause. From the backseat: “Me?” Poor Wee Laddie. I might as well sign him up for therapy already.

Speaking of Wee Laddie… Lately whenever we’re watching a movie, he’ll spot someplace interesting and say, “Should we go there tonight?” or “Should we go there one day?” Of course most of the places are animated so we tell him we can’t, but other times we’ll talk about maybe going there one day. I love his sense of adventure. I predict he will have lots of adventures in his life.

I went to the thrift store ‘cause I’d remembered seeing some maternity clothes there before and I can’t think of another way to get a hold of some quickly (and even though I can still fit into a few things I’m ready for the pregnant look instead of just looking chunky). I figured I’d maybe find a shirt or two and maybe a pair of capris to get me through the rest of summer. I have a hard time buying pants ‘cause they’re nearly always too short, so I wasn’t expecting any of those to fit. Anyway, imagine my surprise when I found multiple pairs of pants that fit! 6 pairs, to be exact! And 3 pairs of capris! And 3 shirts! And we found 2 great shirts for Wee Laddie, too, along with a pair of oxford-type shoes. I was so pleased with myself… my most expensive item was $4! Then I get up to the cashier and it turns out they’re having a “bag sale” where you can get a bag full of clothes for $4. And all my clothing fit into ONE BAG! So after you add in the shoes, my entire purchase cost less than $6! I think it was my best clothes shopping day ever. (And I thought the $2.50 maternity pants I found at the Würzburg PX were an impressive deal!)

Sharing the News

Last night we told Wee Laddie about the baby. He said, "I wanna see a picture of the baby." I showed him the ultrasound pic and pointed out the head, arms & legs and he said, "Awwww... cute!" He’s really into babies right now… hopefully that’ll hold true at least long enough for ours to get here! It probably helps that there are always babies around on the base.

We had another rough nap day. I held Wee Laddie tight (which he hates at naptime, despite being a great snuggler normally) and he cried for an hour. I got annoyed and got up, still holding him tight, and went to wash the breakfast dishes because I knew he’d eventually fall asleep and then we’d both be asleep when Guitarman got home to a sink full of dirty dishes... and he hates that. So why was the pregnant lady holding her toddler while washing dishes? Because we’d had this battle yesterday and I got really annoyed and left the room, forgetting that he was now going to think that if he just cries long enough, I’ll stop holding him tight. So I had to do that consistency thing today and hold him ‘til he fell asleep ‘cause that’s what I’d said I was going to do. So he cried for about 1.5 hours total and then finally fell asleep. I so wish I could make him understand that if he would just try to go to sleep right away after we get home from lunch, then he’d have a happy, cheerful mommy who would be more than happy to play Play-doh or something fun later in the afternoon. But when he cries and fights it for an hour or more, then he gets cranky mommy who barely has time to make dinner after nap.

My mom pointed out that Wee Laddie probably picks up on all of our stress & whatnot, so it makes sense that he’d be a nutjob right now. Hopefully he’ll feel better tomorrow since I was much more relaxed today. Of course now he’ll probably be weirded out ‘cause of not knowing how to process the information about the impending baby.

So Tired, Tired of Waiting

Went to the Klinik at 9am and the doctor we needed to talk to was in surgery for the next hour. Of course. So we walked to a park across the street and walked & played, checking our watches all the while. When we finally got to talk to the doctor, I was nearly a basket case. I’d imagined some different scenarios based on the “not bad, but not good” comment. I figured the best case was that they’d say 1 in 150… worst case maybe 1 in 25. So imagine my surprise when they said 1 in 405! Now, that’s not a great number, I guess… we had great numbers with Wee Laddie (1 in 1364 or something for the first one). But first off, my general risk due to my age is 1 in 98. So we’ve reduced that by 75%. I can live with that. And we’re now in a position where the risk of miscarriage from an amnio is bigger than (double!) our risk of having a baby with Downs.

And I’ve already kind of come to peace with the idea of having a Downs baby. Odds are still strong that we won’t, but if we do we’ll be okay.

After lunch we went to the clinic on base to see if we can use the pharmacy there… Guitarman thought we might be able to. Of course, the pharmacy is closed over lunch… as is the office we had to go to to find out if we can use the pharmacy. So we went and blew bubbles by the bowling alley ‘til Wee Laddie refused to listen one too many times. Went back to the clinic and found out we can’t use the pharmacy there, unless the commander approves it. The woman I talked to is going to check with him tomorrow, so I’m supposed to call her back. The Rx for my diabetes testing stuff is crazy expensive (over $220 a month!) at the German pharmacy I went to and the Rx plan won’t send it from the US since it’s a new Rx. Oy. It’s like the insurance company doesn’t want to save any money. I looked on Amazon today, though, and can save a bundle if I can order them there. We’ll see what I can figure out.

Wee Laddie didn’t take a nap today. After the stressful morning (and night last night), you might imagine that I was thrilled by that. He had quiet time in his room by himself for about 90 minutes, but we both could’ve really used a nap. I intended for him to get to bed early, but that didn’t happen by the time I got dinner made and everything. He did, however, fall asleep about 20 minutes after going to bed And that NEVER happens.

Freak Out

Had the rescheduled appt with the diabetes doc today. Again, I could not find the friggin’ office. I actually had to call them from the mall to have them help me. So I was about 10-15 minutes late, which probably cost us at least an hour. I was there for nearly 3 hours, all together. Wait… blood draw… wait… get moved to doc’s office… wait… talk with doc… wait… wait… wait… talk to nutritionist. And I’m supposed to go back in a week. Oh joy.

We barely made it to lunch before the mess hall closed. When we got home there was a message from the Klinik in Regensburg, saying that they had our results from the 1st trimester screen and to please call in the morning. Then another message from them saying that after discussion with the doctor, they thought we should really make an appointment and come in to discuss the results. Crap. I tried not to get too freaked out (easier said than done) before calling to see if they’d give me the odds over the phone. I called, they wouldn’t. All the woman said was, “It’s not bad, but it’s not good.” WTF? So we are supposed to go in tomorrow morning between 9 and 11 (we may have to wait ‘til she’s between appts). This is so stressful and I’m very freaked out that something’s seriously wrong.

Guitarman thinks they’re just going to reiterate essentially the same numbers (or better ones) and that they just want us to come in because there seems to be a cultural thing here where it’s totally fine to take lots & lots of time off work.

I did a bunch of research online tonight about Down syndrome, which is probably what we’d be looking at… unless they found something else. I’m not that scared of Downs after working around people who had it at the brace shop. There are some health issues that often come with it, so we’d have some extra stuff to deal with, but it’s so much less of an issue than the other trisomies.

Wee Laddie and I went to the library today and borrowed a “Jay Jay the Jet Plane” DVD. We were watching it tonight and there’s one part where a tow truck is driving across grass. My observant little guy is watching it and says, “The wheels not spinning.” The animators didn’t bother to animate the wheels. I was amazed that he noticed something like that.

The Day That Naptime Ate

After brunch this morning, we did some shopping at the commissary. With our daily nap struggle and the resulting wasted afternoons it’s been much harder to shop at the local markets lately. There are a few products I can only get at the PX (like corn tortillas) or that are much cheaper there (peanut butter), but there are things I’d really rather get locally (produce, eggs, milk, yogurt), so I’m finding it a little annoying that it’s so hard to fit that in.

Wee Laddie slept longer again this morning (another night of a little bit early), but still fought the nap just like he usually does. And when he finally went to sleep he slept for over 2.5 hours, the little stinker. I had to wake him so we could get up & eat dinner. Now admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of sleep myself (I enjoy it once I get there, usually, but I resist and resent it sometimes), but it’s so frustrating to me that I cannot seem to teach him how to just suck it up & go to sleep.

My son has recently decided to stop eating brown things and seeds. I don’t understand about brown things, ‘cause brown is one of his favorite colors. It started out with just the brown parts of bananas and apples, but now it’s the brown parts of everything. If I give him grapes or dried apricots, say, I have to remove all small specks of brown or he won’t eat them. He won’t even eat a french fry if it’s got a brown section on it. (I must count my blessings here, ‘cause I’ve got friends who struggle with picky eaters, and that’s really not an issue for us despite all this nonsense. This is temporary.) I can kinda understand the seed thing… I’m always getting seeds stuck in my teeth (raspberry ones are particulary annoying). But he honestly will not eat bananas now because of the seeds. Oy.

Adios, Taco Bell

Wee Laddie slept in ‘til after 8am this morning. How is it that going to bed earlier makes a young child sleep longer? I don’t get it, but it’s true. We had our usual brunch and headed up to Würzburg. Wee Laddie has been asking for cheesy potatoes for days.

Today, Wee Laddie has decided to begin calling us by our first names. He started off mostly using just Guitarman’s but by the end of the day was also calling me O-tay. The funny thing is that when he does that, he says our names like a gazillion times. Pretty much every sentence has one of our names in it. What a goof.

We got news of the fate of the Würzburg Taco Bell… it’s closing on October 6. They had a vote on the 15th to decide whether to close Taco Bell or Charley’s. It’s a good thing that they voted to keep Charley’s open… they serve steak and chicken subs, which you certainly couldn’t get 50 feet away at the Subway. If they don’t open a Taco Bell along with the new big PX they’re putting in at Grafenwöhr, we’ll have to drive up to Schweinfurt (actually not all that far from Würzburg, but they don’t have as big a PX or a sand playground) for our Taco Bell fix. I hope we find a good playground at Graf... they won't be able to keep us away!

Late for Play

Got to Little Troopers really late… I don’t know why Wee Laddie doesn’t ever speed up when I tell him that the other kids are already there playing. I know he loves to go there and has so much fun once we get there… not sure why he doesn’t seem worried about how much we’re missing. Maybe he just doesn’t get it cognitively yet. The woman who runs it now starts packing up at least 5 (if not 10) minutes befored 11am, so we don’t hang out like we used to with Cheryl. And I always feel a little rushed to get out of there.

Today the Volksfest starts in our town… and it goes through Tuesday. That means it’s going to be hot this weekend, ‘cause we always end up missing this local fun stuff because it’s too hot to hang around outside where there’s no shade.

After no nap yesterday and a short nap today, I decided Wee Laddie had better get to sleep a little early tonight. I don’t know how that child is not completely exhausted! He’s still adjusting to going to bed on his own, so he’s been staying up pretty late but then getting up at like 7am. Ugh.

Schatzi’s First Test

Had our 1st trimester screen this morning. Because of my age, the automatic risk of Downs is 1/93. The nuchal translucency measurement was “slightly” elevated, so they changed the odds to 1/60. The doc was sort of pushing for us to get an amnio, but we decided first to do some optional bloodwork (I think it was just part of the regular test when we had it done with Wee Laddie) and see what that indicates. They measure levels of a couple of hormones, I think, and that should narrow it down one way or the other. If it comes back higher odds, we’ll think about the amnio. I don’t mean to sound paranoid, but there is a risk of miscarriage from an amnio of about 1:200 (and knowing firsthand how awful that is, I’d hate to have to go there again). Plus, the adjusted odds are the same now as they would be based on my age next year.

He didn’t make any mention of Trisomy-18, which is a huge relief. That one is seriously nasty.

After the doc, we went back to pick up Guitarman’s car (which we’d left at the Penny Markt by the autobahn) and headed over to the mess hall for the usual lunch. Wee Laddie skipped nap today. This is wearing me out.

I did my first prenatal yoga workout. It was tiring, but good. I hope I can find the time to really stick with it, as I’m sure it’ll do me a world of good. There’s a postnatal video I’ll order later, so hopefully I can keep from getting all knotted up this time from nursing and snuggling a little one.

I may have found the solution to getting Wee Laddie to wear regular pants instead of sweats all the time: pockets. He has, in the last few days, opted out of sweats so that he could put a toy in a pocket. Perhaps I’ll have to play that up a bit ‘til he gets over his anti-jeans stance.

New Bedding

I finally remembered to look up the phone number for the diabetes doctor and called to reschedule. The reasons for the delay were threefold: 1) I honestly kept forgetting 2) Wee Laddie keeps taking so long to get to sleep at naptime that there’d be no time to call before the office had closed and 3) it’s pretty intimidating to call an office where you have no idea if they speak any English. (Well, I knew that *someone* did, ‘cause my doctor’s office made sure they’d be able to communicate with me before they sent me there.) So I sort of rehearsed how to ask if someone there speaks English because my Deutsch is very bad. And luckily, the girl who answered the phone spoke pretty good English. I got rescheduled for next Monday, and when it came time for directions she turned me over to someone else.

Turns out it was the doc himself, who was exceedingly nice. I was actually astounded at how nice he seemed. (I used to work in an orthopedic bracing shop and we always dreaded having to call doctors because 95% of them were arrogant dickheads who seemed to enjoy throwing their weight around.) He gave me directions and was repeating them to make sure they made sense. I said, “I also have your phone number this time, so I’ll call if I have any trouble.” He said, “If you can’t find us let us know. We can come get you and bring you up.” So I feel much better about the whole incident. I’d be embarrassed about the whole thing (‘cause it sure seems like a person ought to be able to find an office if they’re at the actual correct address!) except that I’m pretty sure I’d have found it if anything anywhere had listed either of the doctors’ names on it.

Wee Laddie didn’t do as well with the tucking himself in thing tonight. It’s probably partly that he was picking up on parental stress... combined with his own crankiness from not sleeping as much (or napping well) for the last 5 or so days while we work on this transition. He doesn’t fall asleep ‘til at least 10pm and then gets up at 7am or shortly after. Then if he skips a nap, too… well, you can probably imagine what it’s like around here some days. But now that I’m thinking about this, I suspect that this whole transition could explain some of his clinginess the last several days. I guess I need to step it up mommy-wise and be more understanding… and not just at bedtime.

We went to the Möbelhof after nap, Wee Laddie and I. We bought a European bed over here while waiting for our stuff to show up… and although it’s a great size (much wider than our queen from back home which is, however, much more comfy in all of its pillowtop glory… good work, Denver Mattress) it actually comes with two mattresses. So there’s a split in the middle where Wee Laddie usually sleeps. I’ve been looking for a little pad thingy to put in the gap but haven’t been able to find one yet. Anyway, that’s one of the things I was looking for. I also wanted to get dual duvets for that bed. Although I prefer the mattress in one piece we really need the duvet in two. Why? Because Wee Laddie pretty much refuses to have any duvet on him at all, even when he’s sleeping. So our duvet is supposed to reach both me and Guitarman, but then dip down to below Wee Laddie’s feet in the middle of the bed. Quite a feat. Anyway, I didn’t want to commit to that until I could find 1) dual duvet covers that I liked (perhaps a harder task than it seems like it should be) and 2) a lime green sheet for the queen bed, since I’ll put our funky newish duvet on that bed now and retire the terribly subtle green sateen stripe (yawn… and yes, I picked it myself) we had on it before, and I think lime green will look fab with the duvet cover, which has lime green circles in it. Can you see them? They’re very small.



I didn’t find the thing for the gap, but I did find dual duvet covers I liked



and a lime green sheet that I think will fit the queen bed (and as I write this it dawns on me that European sheet sets come with only a fitted sheet and pillowcase—for a square pillow, mind you—but no top sheet. Oh well.) and some pillow cases for these two cylindrical pillows that we have. And all at a very reasonable price. Like IKEA pricing, even. Gotta love that.

The Tuck-In Report

Wee Laddie got up to switch rooms after Guitarman had gone to bed (he’d switched to his own room during the bedtime process). So it appears that the change from co-sleeping is going to be a whole separate transition. I shouldn’t be surprised that our child would challenge us at every turn.

Made it through all of Monsters Inc this morning. I sat right next to him a couple of times (he was watching while I was cooking breakfast) during parts I thought he might think were scary. He was fine, but asked about the scream extractor a couple of times later today.

After lunch we went to the craft store on base. I’ve suddenly become very interested in making beads & things with polymer clay so I wanted to see what they have there. Answer: not much. They did actually have some clay, which surprised me a little, but they had no tools or anything. Not a one. So I bought some neon colors of clay (their color selection was quite limited, but they were all on super-clearance pricing!) to play around with.

Nap was a bit of a struggle again but instead of fighting with him for an hour, I just held him tight ‘til he fell asleep. He hates when I do that and usually cries. But he also goes to sleep, and usually pretty quickly. I just don’t like doing it much ‘cause it feels like I’m being mean. (I guess I should clarify that holding him tight is not like a total physical restraint or anything… I basically just snuggle him up. But if I call it holding him tight I can kind of use it as a threat: “Are you going to lie down or should I hold you tight?”) Naptime is *so* not my best time as a mommy. It’s the time that all my doubts about my parenting skills pop up and smack me right in the face.

Tonight while Wee Laddie was getting ready for bed he fell on the stairs in our bedroom and smacked his head. We have this stupid little stairway of like 3 steps that go down into our bedroom. Of course there’s no railing and of course the steps are laminate (read: really slippery, also read: O-tay misses carpeting). With the way Wee Laddie gets revved up around bedtime, it’s frankly quite shocking that it’s taken him nearly 8 full months to fall off these stairs.

Watching the Monsters

Wee Laddie actually admitted being tired this morning. Three nights up late and 2 days of short naps. He started crying at the mess hall because I wouldn’t pick him up… I wanted him to walk & hold my hand. (He’s just so heavy to lug around like that. Okay, it’s because I’m a wuss. But I know I need to save my back at lunch in case we have to bounce at naptime.)

He still wouldn’t nap ‘til after 3:30 and me coming all unglued again. I love my days with my son except for that time: I am so miserable about trying to get him to sleep. I’d let him skip it and just have quiet time if he didn’t cry about everything the rest of the day when he doesn’t nap. We both slept ‘til 6pm and woke when Guitarman opened the garage. Wee Laddie was a bit whiny through dinner, but better than he’d have been without that glorious sleep, I’ll bet.

Stacy (the one who took over helping me with the sign class ‘til Tina started working here) is back from her trip to the US, but her husband is deployed now. That must be such a hard adjustment… especially when you’re not all that thrilled with where you are living. She just really doesn’t like being out in the sticks (they live in a town between here and another base, as her husband works there… but she works here). She’s really nice… I like her a lot. I hope we still see her now that Tina’s running the New Parent stuff. I’m thinking I should see if she wants to meet for dinner one night or something. It’d sure be good for me to get a night out.

Another late night for Wee Laddie, but he didn’t cry or anything. Good progress so far, I think. I guess we should start weaning him off the 4-minute checks we’ve been doing and maybe go for 10. I’m trying to make this a smooth, low-pressure transition, but also trying not to develop new habits that we’ll then have to work later on undoing. It’s hard to find the exact right way to handle it.

Watched part of Monsters, Inc. this morning, and more of it tonight. I stopped it right before the scream extractor part ‘cause I thought it might be too scary for Wee Laddie… especially as we were watching it right before bedtime. We’ll take our time with that one if we need to. I don’t want to rush him into watching anything that might give him nightmares or make him think there are monsters in the closet (not that the closet part will be an issue as long as we’re in Germany, I guess).

Mystery Event in Town

On our pre-nap drive (the one where I drive around the area for a bit whilst hoping desperately that Wee Laddie will fall asleep in the car so I don’t have to try to get him asleep at home), I noticed that there was something going on in stadtmitte (city center) in our town.

After nap & lunch we walked over to see what it was. I’m still not sure what the deal was. There were tables set up and a band playing (we’d actually heard the band last night but didn’t know where the music was coming from) and booths with food, but I didn’t see any signs or anything to say what it was. Strange. The town’s Volksfest is next weekend… maybe some people had the date wrong. ;) We saw one of the ACS people and her husband (who is German) and sat at the table next to them for ice cream. I had frozen yogurt in a lame (I’m sure) attempt to have a lower-sugar-but-still-ice-creamish treat.

We came home for dinner… Wee Laddie and I ate at home and Guitarman went to see the new Bourne movie.

Wee Laddie’s new favorite phrase is “Sorry ‘bout that.” Like today I asked him, “Did you want to watch one of your movies?” He said, “Oh yeah, a movie! Sorry ‘bout that.” It’s not exactly a context that makes sense, but it’s very cute.

Test Run for the Test

Mess hall brunch, then we headed up to Regensburg. We have an appt at the hospital there for our 1st trimester screen (for those of you who don't know, it's the 1st big test for any problems with Schatzi--it tests for likelihood of Downs and Trisomy-18). After last week's mishap with the diabetes doc I wanted to make sure ahead of time that we could find this appt. I'm not so stressed about the diabetes since I had it with Wee Laddie...but there's only a small time window where we can get this test done and I'd hate to miss our chance.

Found the hospital with no problem.

We were driving away from there and Wee Laddie spotted a fountain. He loves fountains so he said, "Wanna go look at the wonner [water]? Wanna go see it?" We didn't end up finding a parking spot near there, but we parked near a parkish area & walked around for a while. Happily, we found a fountain there, too.





And we looked around a church Guitarman had found when his sister was here… St. Emmeram’s Basilica. Very ornate. I always find it interesting to see these elaborate testaments to peoples’ beliefs.







Then we went to IKEA for lunch and to look for a rocking chair. We (well, I) have been sorta looking for a new rocker for a while. We got a glider as a baby gift, but we pretty much used it all up after almost 2 years of hard use. Anyway, the ones I really like are crazy-expensive (of course), so I thought we'd go in the opposite direction and see if we could find something likeable (but maybe somewhere short of really cool) and inexpensive. There's a chair we both like that's not really a rocker but seems like it'll work as one. Plus it'll look nice in the living room (which is what we'd originally looked at it for) if it outlives its usefulness as a rocker.

Wee Laddie fell asleep in the car on the way home… too late to get in a decent nap, and too early to still be willing to sleep once we got home. So his nap was about 20 minutes. Ugh. I’m so tired of the almost-daily nap battle. It drains me. In light of that, Guitarman picked up deli meat and we had sandwiches for dinner.

This was the 2nd night of Wee Laddie going to bed on his own. He got very upset at the beginning tonight, but we calmed him down and he’s been okay since then.

Go Tuck Yourself

Lunch went better today. Guitarman and I had a little chat last night about his work stress (he had a rough night getting Wee Laddie to sleep, which was just not a good capper to his day) and why Wee Laddie is acting the way he is. I think some of it is that we’re not as consistent as we need to be. He’s a smart kid and will push every button if he gets a chance. We laugh about this, but he’s not even subtle about his attempts at manipulation. He’ll say, “Wanna go to Burger King for lunch today?” I’ll say, “No, not today.” He says, “Yes?” I say, “Nope.” He says, “You DO wanna do that?” I’m like, “No, were going to go to the mess hall.” He says, "Okay, let's go to Burger King." He does give it up eventually, but usually not before he tries it on his dad, too.

We also decided to work on getting Wee Laddie to go to sleep on his own at night. The whole co-sleeping thing has continued, really, because Guitarman likes having the extra snuggle time with Wee Laddie… and the tucking-in thing has turned into me just going to sleep with Wee Laddie (on my nights) just because I keep falling asleep and even when I set the alarm on my cell phone I don’t get back up. I’d be happy to have my evenings back… it’d be nice to see my husband once in a while, even if it is in front of the TV. For that matter, it’d be fun to catch up on some of the TV shows I haven’t seen in ages.

So I warned Wee Laddie and we worked on it tonight (Guitarman was at the movie). I gave him a huge hug and told him that I know this is a big change and a big deal, and I wanted him to know that I know this is important. I told him that I know he can do it and that I’d be right outside the door. I said I’d check on him in 10 minutes. He said, “Three minutes.” I said, “Let’s try 7.” He said, “Four.” (Was he really understanding that? I don’t know for sure.) I said, “I’ll come back in 5 minutes. You’ll be just fine for 5 minutes.” And he was, and this time he agreed to 10 minutes. It took him until sometime after 10 to go to sleep, but he did it and he didn’t cry! And I got a chance to praise him lots: You’re so brave, you’re doing great, you’re such a big boy, I’m so proud of you. I think he was proud of himself too, as he told me on one visit, “I’m not crying.” And in the midst of all of this, he even got up to go pee once. For real, not just as a stall.

Directionally Challenged

Had an 8am appt in Regensburg with an internist or something for the gestational diabetes. So we got up early (I even managed to shower despite that!), got waffles ready & hopped in the car. I had both Google directions and the GPS, just in case. I usually do just fine finding my way to places, but occasionally I get hopelessly lost. Especially, for some reason, when overseas.

We got to our destination address with only about 10 minutes to spare, which is less than I'd originally planned, but it wasn't surprising since we left a bit later than I'd originally planned.

So we found ourselves in the parking lot of the Donau Einkaufs Zentrum (a mall). I figured it must be in the tall, grey building attached to the mall, right? So I lugged Wee Laddie inside at nearly a jog so we weren't late, and we go check out the entrance for the grey building. There were only 2 floors that were marked, and neither was the place we were looking for.

We go back outside ('cause I was thinking it must be another building attached to the mall) and walk/run all around the mall, but no luck there either. We tried driving around again & checked other sides of the intersection (at one point, Wee Laddie asked me, "Is this funny?"), went back inside and walked the whole mall, tried a few floors of the unmarked grey building and called Guitarman to whine. Wee Laddie wanted to talk to Guitarman and told him, "There's like a mall here, Dad. And a building, and so..."

I got Wee Laddie a prtezel as a treat for being such a good sport. Turned out to not be a very good one (better with some string cheese in it) but it's good that I got it. When I got home I noticed that the pretzel wrapper had the address on it, so I was able to confirm that I had, in fact, been at the correct address.

So no go for the doc and my OB is on vacation...now I have to find their phone number & hope for someone who speaks English so I can apologize, explain and reschedule. Ah, the fun of medical care in a foreign land.

Tonight we watched some of the videos of Wee Laddie from when he was littler. His favorite was a short clip from Easter at Grandma-Grandma's house... the egg fight portion. (A family tradition of unknown origin whereby we have "battles" between eggs to open them.)

The Girl with the Mullet

I don't know how it happened, but I woke up this morning with a mullet. Something had to be done… so yes, I’ve cut more on my hair. It’s still not great, but it’s better. I think I’m on the right track, kind of, at least as much as I can be without just going to get a stinkin’ haircut by someone who knows what the hell they are doing. But I haven’t gone into “beyond help” territory yet, so that’s something.

Lunch had a rough spot but I jumped in and stuck Wee Laddie on my lap and fed him what he needed to eat to get dessert. I think he gets bored or something sometimes, ‘cause he’ll totally act like he doesn’t want to eat anymore but then if you feed him, he’ll eat lots more. Too many other things he’d rather be doing, I suppose.

Had one of those awful nap days where Wee Laddie never does actually take one. I don’t understand why he does this… and, of course, we have to get up early in the morning, so he’s going to be a mess at some point tomorrow. He did a pretty good job of holding it together the rest of the evening although you could definitely tell he was a bit out of sorts.

Some time ago, I mentioned the crazy Belgian camouflage… I’ve found a photo of it. Now bear in mind that the uniforms we saw were a bit worn, so the colors were not as dark as this. They were a bit faded, which actually made them seem a bit brighter.

Wow.

Nothing Significant

Wee Laddie was sleeping on the air mattress in his bedroom last night, but he woke around 3:30am crying for me. He didn’t want to come to the big bed with me and Guitarman so I stayed with him in his room. It took us both a while to fall back asleep, and he was pretty restless most of the rest of the morning although he “slept” until nearly 8am.

Lunch was rough today. For some reason, my boys are a bit bristly at lunch some days. Since I can really only help one of them, I’m looking for a new discipline book or two for Guitarman and me to reference. I want to find something that can help us to have more positive interactions throughout our day… I don’t like feeling like we yell all the time. (Plus it’s completely ineffectual, usually.)

Drove around ‘til Wee Laddie fell asleep (I had some pretty strong suspicions that the morning’s restless sleep meant a serious need for a decent nap). He slept for about an hour then woke up crying for his daddy. I went in to settle him down, but it took a little while. He did go back to sleep, though, and slept for another 1.5 hours. Whew.

Wee Laddie and I did a major toy cleanup today. We brought up some stuff from the basement (a few things he hasn’t seen since the move, so that was exciting!) and took some stuff back down. I’m trying to make it easy to keep things organized so it doesn’t seem so overwhelming to him to clean the stuff up every day. And so it doesn’t look so messy.

As a result of that I was a bit disorganized about dinner. Was going to stir-fry some chicken, but decided to grill even though the chicken was still frozen and hadn’t marinated or anything. I partially thawed it in hot water and threw on some balsamic vinegar & spices and tossed it on the grill. I wanted to hurry, so I thought I’d try cooking it with the grill top closed. It got nice, black grill marks (I really like that) but wasn’t quite done in the middle. I turned it down and left the lid up… and it came out really good. Best I’ve done so far. (That’s why the detailed narrative… so I can replicate it. Maybe with the pseudo Chipotle marinade next time. Yum.)

Opinionated

Today when we were watching Wee Laddie’s currently-rented movie (“Everyone’s Hero”), he looked at the boy on the screen and told me, “I should have that shirt.” Hehe The other day, he discovered a pair of red sweatpants that I’d put aside ‘cause they’re a bit short (and ‘cause I’m a bit tired of red sweatpants for him) and when he saw them he cried, “Mom, look!” with great enthusiasm. Uh-oh. I told him they were too small but he insisted on putting them on right then and was very pleased with himself. For some reason, he’s in the midst of a jeans boycott. And to him, “jeans” pretty much includes everything but sweatpants or shorts. Today I picked out a pair of khakis that he initially agreed to, but when it came time to actually put them on he told me, “They’re jeans,” and that was the end of that.

Today on the way home from base he was talking about the balls that are attached to the power lines (I’d always assumed they were for low-flying planes or something but I don’t really know). Anyway he said, “They’re stuck on there.” I said that yes, they are. He said, “Are they glued on?” I told him I thought they were bolted on, with the wire going through the middle. Then we talked about whether or not they’d bounce if they fell down. He thinks they would, I think they wouldn’t. What an amazing conversation to be having with this little person who is, after all, still 2.

No Way

Had our mess hall brunch again. Our weekend timing always seems inconvenient at every step. After we have breakfast (late or early), the commissary and PX are still not open, so we can’t do any of the stuff we might need to do on base right then. And it’s too early for nap, so we’ve always got like an hour or so to kill in between. It’s theoretically fine, since we could go do something fun with Wee Laddie, but our options always depend on the weather. Today we went to the IKEA playground (it’s actually on the base by some of the housing… it just looks like IKEA built it) because it doesn’t have grass like the other one we usually go to. It has no trees either, so we never go there when it’s hot. And we still haven’t found a close playground that has a sandbox. Pathetic. I wish they’d leave the playgrounds open at the schools and stuff. They’re just locked up tight & empty all weekend long.

Nap went better today. Thank goodness! That usually means we have some time to play and do some fun stuff before bed.

Wee Laddie has been saying, “No way” ever since he heard that kid say it last weekend.

The Best Medicine

Mess hall’s on brunch hours. Wee Laddie woke up just a bit after 7am so I was going to make breakfast at home, but Guitarman figured it’d take us long enough to get ready that the mess hall would still work. So I got a leisurely shower and everything.

After breakfast we ran a couple of small errands and then went to the commissary. This recurrence of the gestational diabetes will mean more planning, menu-wise, since I can’t really just toss some pierogies in a pan and call it dinner. I was re-reading part of the Ultrametabolism book, though, and I think I might be able to incorporate more fiber (I still have some of those Metamucil fiber bars and I saw them at the commissary today, too) to help balance the glycemic load of some of the higher-carb meals. Once I’m monitoring my blood sugar again, it’ll be worth a check to see if it helps. And, if I look for the high-cocoa chocolates, I may still be able to eat some.

Last night at tuck-in, Wee Laddie told Guitarman he needed medicine. (He does this sometimes just because he likes medicine.) Guitarman told him that snuggles are the best medicine. He replied, “I need real medicine.”

This morning he told me, “I had headache yestertime.” I thought it was a really cool way to handle the past tense thing. I love the way his mind works.

Today’s naptime was pretty awful. Wee Laddie just would not fall sleep no matter what I did. I kept thinking I could eventually wear him down but it didn’t work. So I was extremely frustrated when I finally gave up and needed a time-out for a little bit to get it back together. (I really feel like a failure sometimes that after 2.5 years I still cannot get my child to sleep.) And, of course, the day was totally shot so we didn’t manage to do anything fun.

Headache-Free

I may have gotten some insight today about the low attendance at the signing class. I was chatting with another mom at Little Troopers today and we were talking about the new plan that ACS is cooking up. She said something about the sign class and said that she hadn’t been going because she’d heard that “all they do is watch a video. And I can do that at home.” I asked if she’s seen the “Signing Time” videos (she hasn’t) and told her that they are really, really good. I wonder, though, if that’s why people haven’t been coming. I don’t see how I could possibly offer a better program than what’s in the videos.

This was the first Little Troopers playgroup that incorporated some craft-type activities. Wee Laddie got to color and I helped him make a necklace from Fruit Loops (which he promptly ate). It was a fun change from the usual. And I seldom seem to find the time at home to do that kind of stuff with Wee Laddie, so it was nice to have an opportunity all set up for us.

Had lunch with Guitarman, then home for nap. I got Wee Laddie to fall asleep in the car… after yesterday’s migraine-o-rama (3 of them in 24 hours!) it was nice to have some coherent time to myself.

After Wee Laddie got up from nap we called Guitarman (I’m working on teaching Wee Laddie how to call Daddy) and Wee Laddie invited him to dinner at BK. Guitarman was planning to go see the Simpsons movie, and we decided to take Wee Laddie, too. (I know, it’s going to bug the hell out of some people that we took our toddler to see that. If it’s any consolation, he hardly paid attention to any of it.) There was a teenaged couple sitting in the row behind us, making out. At some point, Wee Laddie saw them and was standing on his seat looking back at them saying, "What are they doing?" hehehe They must've loved us.

This afternoon, I finally had some help in the kitchen:

Auf Wiedersehen to Chocolate

Had a one-hour GTT (glucose tolerance test) at the OB today. Positive. I'm not surprised… I just wasn't expecting that diagnosis this early in the game. The test sucks. You have to fast for 12 hours, then go in and drink this horrible glucose drink (this one was blackcurrant flavor, at least. I think I had a choice last time between orange and soda-flavored, ugh) and then sit around for an hour. And they do a finger-stick before the glucose drink and after the hour. Well, being pregnant and hungry all the time… and semi-nauseated much of the time… this was not a fun time. (Oh, and I got a migraine this morning, too, so that helped.) I felt like throwing up pretty much from the moment I woke up. I actually took a couple of plastic bags with me, just in case. I wasn’t actually sure I was going to be able to keep the glucose drink down. I’m thinking perhaps they should at least wait ‘til after 12 weeks when the morning sickness period is likely to be over before performing this test on people.

At any rate, thus ends my love affair with German/European chocolate and käsespätzle. Oh, and I guess the daily ice cream at the mess hall is out, too.

While having the one-hour blood test, I let Wee Laddie wait for me in the waiting room (mostly because he actually wanted to...which is highly unusual for him). I was sitting around the corner. My back was to the waiting room door, but if I leaned over I probably could've touched the door. And yet somehow, by the time I went back in there, my beloved son was standing very close in front of an older man sitting in a chair. And, as I was about to find out, the man had just given Wee Laddie a piece of candy. Jesus.

I know it was probably totally innocent on the man's part (it really is like living in a different time over here), but it sure pointed out my son's innocence (which, of course, I want preserve as long as possible, but not enough to leave him defenseless in this world of predators) and naivete. Nevermind what it pointed out about my choice as a parent at that moment. That will never happen again. (I’ve now had my first discussion with my son about not accepting candy from strangers.) And if any of you mention it to Guitarman, you're out of the will. And you’d be responsible for the nightmares it’d probably give him.

Gift from the Cat

Warning: Grossness follows. (Put down the sandwich.)

This morning while I was getting ready for Kaitlyn & her mom to come over, I spotted 2 dead mice on back patio, oh joy. They must’ve been courtesy of the next door neighbors cat… but why us? We’ve seen the cat but haven’t ever petted it or anything. I was just dreading having to go out there and deal with them (it was also raining so everything was soggy)… for those of you who don’t know, I’m not a big fan of mice. A bit squeamish, you might say. Even just typing about it gives me the heebie-jeebies. Anyway, I layered up some plastic bag over my hand and went out there to scoop them up. When I picked one up, a maggot dropped off of it. Eeeeewwwww! I was so creeped out, I just tied them up in the bags and threw the whole mess in the trash & ran inside to wash my hands 15 times.

Kaitlyn and Wee Laddie played well together again. They seem to enjoy each other’s company quite a bit. The only thing I don’t like about that is that Wee Laddie has started talking babytalk sometimes since he’s been hanging out with Kaitlyn more. Her speech is pretty advanced for her age, but she’s only like 16 months old or something. So she’s way behind Wee Laddie. He must think it sounds cute… or that we’ll think it sounds cute.

For some reason, Wee Laddie really wanted to show Kaitlyn and her mom his bedroom. So we went trooping upstairs and he and Kaitlyn were jumping on the beds. Wee Laddie tried to make a leap from the air mattress to his bed and nailed his shin on the bottom of the bedframe. Ouch! He cried really hard for a couple of minutes, but was okay after that. Yikes, it looked/sounded painful, poor duck. In light of that I suppose I’ll wait a bit to take him to the doc. I’m sure it’d be hard for a doc to look at a big bruised shin and not want to blame that for the leg pain.

Großer Bruder

I guess it’s time to spill:



You either already know about this, or you’re saying, “O-tay! Does that say what I think it says??”



Yup. :)

Wee Laddie’s going to be a big brother! After the loss last year, we decided to wait ‘til we knew everything was looking okay through the first trimester before announcing anything (though I did break down and tell my mom a couple of days ago). We’re due on March 6, and Schatzi (German for “treasure”) was quite wiggly & active on today’s ultrasound at our first OB visit.



The doctor’s appt was different than they are in the States, for sure. We’re given so much privacy in the US… here, I didn’t even get a gown or a towel or anything to cover up any parts. And we didn’t do the u/s in some dimly lit room, it was all light & bright and wide open (in more ways than one) and Wee Laddie thought it strange that the doctor was poking around my “dupa.” Guitarman figures Wee Laddie will need to work this out in therapy later. The small nod to privacy is that you only have to undress one half at a time.

After the doctor, Wee Laddie and I had a “picnic” lunch in Nittendorf. There wasn’t time for the mess hall and Guitarman rushed right back to work after the appointment. I’d seen a sign for a Mexican restaurant and wanted to look at it so I did… and when I saw it I remembered that we’d seen it when we went to the bürgerfest there and it was quite expensive for what is probably rather disappointing food (we’re spoiled in Denver… good Mex on practically every block!). I was thinking of getting something at a bakery (that’s what’s on every block here… or maybe even every half-block), but Wee Laddie wanted to go to the grocery store so we got some food from there instead.

We went to the marktplatz (like a main market square kind of thing) and found a semi-shady spot to sit in. It’s been a while since we’ve had a picnic.

And I will begin the big blog catch-up in a couple of days, once everyone’s caught up on our big news!

Where in the World is O-tay?

I know, it's been like ages (well a week or something, which is a long time in month-behind land) since I've posted. Here's the thing. There's something afoot (some of you know about it already... shhhhhh), but I have to wait until Guitarman takes care of something before I can spill. And since I was doing so well at catching up, I'd gotten to the point where I was going to say what's going on... but now I can't post that post 'til Guitarman does his thing.

The good news (if you like reading this blog which, I suppose you must if you're here actually reading it) is that I've got a veritable post-o-rama coming up very soon. The excitement! The drama! You won't believe your eyes! Okay, that's probably a bit of an exaggeration, but there will be lots to read soon.

E-F-G Song

Last night while tucking in Wee Laddie, I was singing Baa, Baa Black Sheep and he said, "E-F-G song!" I said, "You mean it sounds the same?" He said yes. I sang part of the Alphabet Song and Twinkle Twinkle then, too, and he started laughing. I was pretty impressed that he can already recognize that those have the same melody. He doesn’t really sing many of those songs himself (he’ll sometimes sing part of one), but he does like to sing. He makes up his own little songs… but they’re never quite loud enough for me to hear what he’s singing about.

So if you read this blog even semi-regularly, you may be aware that I’m not a big fan of Bavarian drivers. But you know what’s even more annoying? Americans who drive like Bavarians. I want to get out of my car and punch them.

A big congratulations to another playgroup friend of ours, Rutabaga/Roo (and her parents, of course) on the birth of Roo’s little sister, Squash. Happiness all around!

It's How Things Are Done

It was very crowded at brunch this morning. I went to the very back of the line and one of the soldiers asked me, "You couldn't get in the short line?" I said, "Well, it's all backed up and I didn't feel it was appropriate for me to butt ahead of all of you." (The short-line thing has made me uncomfortable since we've been here.) He smiled and said, "Ma'am, we would do it to you." A few soldiers around him said, "That's true," and nodded. He advised me to go back up to where the lines merge. "It's how things are done." Interesting. I guess my job here is to get over my polite never-butt-in-front-of-anyone attitude.

Wee Laddie took a nice, long nap today (about 2.5 hrs) so we were way late on lunch. (Don’t misunderstand that: It matters not one iota about the late lunch… I was thrilled by the long nap! I’m just talking.) We went to the bowling alley for early dinner instead. It was okay. I wish it weren't so expensive to eat out on the economy... I am really getting sick of these lame places that we have to choose from on the base.

Wee Laddie's leg was feeing better all day today, so of course he was jumping all around as usual.

Js Out

Guitarman left very early this morning to take the Js back to the airport. It was early enough that he came home & went back to bed… and we were still sleeping.

Despite that start to the day, we still made a trip up to Würzburg to hit the ol’ Taco Bell. Well, we actually went up to see if they had a better selection of PDAs than our PX does down here, as I definitely need to replace mine. I did pretty well with the last one… I had it for probably about 5 years, and use it quite frequently. I haven’t always been good about keeping it sync’d up (I think I did it maybe twice, but that’s mainly because there was a weird Mac quirk about that so it always seemed like a bit of a hassle). Unfortunately that means I have lost some of my random ideas during that time. Around the time I moved to LA I had been feeling like I wasn’t really that creative and didn’t have good ideas and all that. For some reason (and I don’t remember now what the trigger was), I started carrying around one of those tiny little notebooks and jotting down ideas or interesting things I saw or whatever. And it made me realize that I do actually have lots of ideas, it’s just that they’re so fleeting (and I can’t usually remember them later) that if I don’t write them down they don’t even register on me. So a little tip for any of you who are feeling idea-challenged. And now those random ideas go into my PDA instead of a notebook.

After shopping (turns out they only had 2 PDAs, one of which was the one they have at our base) and lunch, we went over to our favorite playground… the one with the sandbox that Wee Laddie loves. There were several kids there today and about 5 or 6 parents, too. So we were semi-friendly but didn’t go sit next to them or anything. Ended up chatting with them a little bit… one couple is going to be moving to Hohenfels, so they probably weren’t thrilled to hear that we had come up for the day to go to the “big” PX. But, as Guitarman pointed out, at least they won’t be surprised. We found out that on the 15th there’s a vote about whether to close the Taco Bell or the Charley’s grilled sandwich placed. They’ve already got a Subway, so maybe Taco Bell will stay. If not, I guess we’ll be heading to Schweinfurt next time.

Wee Laddie got to play with the kids, so he was pretty stoked about that. And one boy said, “No way,” which tickled our son quite a bit. Not sure why.

Quick Tour of Kelheim

Today we decided to take the Js to a town somewhere nearby… we decided on Kelheim. Swung by the base for lunch first (the Js had actually wanted to go back again before they left… so we weren’t forcing them) and then we headed that way.

I was leading the way and using the GPS for part of the route (the first part seemed like totally the wrong way to go so I just ignored it ‘til it started making sense). We got to a roundabout near here from which you can head to Seubersdorf, Altmuhl or Regensburg. We have seen the signs for Kelheim on the way to Riedenberg, which is in the same direction as Altmuhl but we’ve not actually gone far enough to get to Kelheim that way. The GPS routed us on the Regensburg exit so I thought it might be shorter that way. I noticed that Guitarman took the Altmuhl exit, so when I got to a parking stop I called him. I told him he’d gone an exit early and he said, “I thought you were going to go the usual way.” I told him that I was but that the GPS had said to take the next exit. He said, “I didn’t think you were using the GPS.” I told him I hadn’t been at first, but that it was making sense now. I look up, and he’s driving right past us. Now I ask you: Why didn’t he, at some point in this conversation, say something like, “Yeah, I took the next exit when I didn’t see you.” Or something. I’m not saying it’s wrong… just odd. Is it a guy thing? Like they can’t ask for directions, nor can they admit that they’ve changed direction?

Kelheim was a cute town but Wee Laddie and I didn’t end up staying long. And then Guitarman and the Js didn’t either because it started to rain. We’re starting to get AFC (Another Friggin’ Cathedral) syndrome about quaint Bavarian towns. They’re awesome and charming and all that… but after a while they all start to seem a little bit the same.

Veggies? No Thanks, I’m a Vegetarian.

The Js got back this evening. They seem to have had a great time! They went to Neuchwannstein, wandered around München and went to Salzburg and took a “Sound of Music” tour which sounded pretty interesting. I’m glad they planned lots of stuff to do, and I’m glad they had fun doing it.

Mrs. J said that they were each having their own tour of München: hers was to find the best pretzel, Mr. J’s was to find the best beer and Jessica’s was to find the best ice cream. I’m not sure how much of a specialty ice cream is here, but the Mr. and Mrs. picked some good things to try in Bavaria.

Speaking of pretzels, I’m going to have to do some research. I’ve had more pretzels since the Js got here than in the past 7 months combined. They are really good over here. Some are better than others, of course, and some places serve them sliced like bread and buttered (divine, though I’m not sure my arteries would agree). But really, think of the best ballgame pretzel you’ve ever had. Ever. Now hear this: It was crap. Trust me. I really am curious to know what part of the process makes them so much better over here.

We went to BK for dinner (Guitarman’s suggestion, so I didn’t have to cook for 6). I’ll mention here that Jessica doesn’t eat meat… but also doesn’t really eat vegetables. That seems like a strange enough thing that I just had to use it as a blog entry title. I really did… I’ve been thinking about it for months. "Well, what does the girl eat besides ice cream?" you’re probably wondering. Condiments. Just kidding. She eats lots of side-dish type foods, veggie burgers, beans… it actually fit in just fine with our eating style since we like things like quesadillas, tacos, etc. that are easily made w/o meat (though I usually do throw in some extra veggies). But I just couldn’t let that title go.

Taking a Break

No sign class… we’re taking August off. Tina told me last week that the infant massage instructor was also going to take August off and that they’d gotten this idea to re-launch everything in mid-September. There’s a day that’s like the Day of the Young Child or something like that, and they’ll have an event that day and unveil their new plan. What they want to do is instead of having these activities/classes spread all throughout the week, to have one big day where the kids can go to “stations” and do different activities all in one day. They’re hoping that a big deal day like that might get more involvement from some of the people who are really their target audience… the people with limited income, education and resources. I think it’s a great idea & hope it works out like they hope it will. I’m also glad about it ‘cause I had gotten kind of burned out on having something to do on base every day of the week.

It was funny, when Tina was telling me about it she said they were all like, “Oh, but it has to be finished by 11:30 so O-tay can go have lunch with her husband.” We see them at the mess hall fairly often, so they all know we’re there every day.

In another step toward independence, my son has begun choosing his own outfits nearly every day. I have been really tolerant of him, say, wearing his slippers to Burger King or his winter boots when it’s 85 degrees out. I thought he did a pretty good job of matching here (okay, I may have helped a little)… ‘til he got to the socks. But what a fab ensemble, no?





This is our favorite playground on base… the only one that’s semi-tolerable when it gets really hot. Look at that nice shade! I really don’t understand why playgrounds around the world aren’t just crammed with trees.

Gimme an M

Wee Laddie is bummed that the Js are in München. He keeps asking about them. “Are my friends in Munich tonight?”

He’s getting a renewed interest in potty training, it seems. I had decided to just back off and really leave it up to him. We added in the nakey dupa time just for practice, but I never try to get him to do it if he doesn’t want to, and he’s often the one who initiates even that. He’s nowhere close to consistent, but he’s off to a great start. When he’s bare-bottomed, he goes in the potty 100% of the time. But if he’s got underpants on, all bets are off. He still uses the potty sometimes, but not always. And we’ve still got a long way to go as far as getting him to poop in the potty. But we’re making progress, which is big over here.

Of course, if they discontinue M&Ms we're screwed.

And speaking of M&Ms here’s a weird idea. This is what I might look like as an M&M. You can make one of yourself, too.