Harvest Fest

Wee Laddie was completely obnoxious at Total Mom this morning. He was not listening to me at all, took off his shoes after I’d asked him to keep them on, was throwing his shoes, etc. He’d been given a tiny bag of candy corn and asked me if he could have some. I told him no, since we were about to go have lunch. (He has a bad habit of snacking too much right before lunch, then not eating once we’re at the mess hall.) I spot him a few minutes later, sitting on the sofa... eating candy corn.

We had lunch at the mess hall even though Guitarman couldn’t meet us, and Wee Laddie threw a bit of a fit because I had dessert and didn’t let him have any (I’d told him the candy corn would substitute for dessert). Then we took Guitarman to the sandwich shop to pick up something to eat and today, of all days, they handed Wee Laddie a cookie. I was pissed off... luckily, Guitarman took it so we could decide when Wee Laddie could have it.

Later, after nap, we went to the Hallelujah Harvest Fest on base. It was a pretty big party. Wee Laddie left his costume on for a bit longer this time (and we saw a kid dressed as Mater, but it was a store-bought plush costume… I didn’t manage to get a picture of them together). Wee Laddie didn’t seem interested in any of the games or anything, so we walked around for a bit, ate some dinner, chatted with the family who had been at the hotel with us when we first got here, and that was it. Wee Laddie did really well about seeing all the costumes—even the scary ones—except that McGruff the Crime Dog sent him into tears.

Feet in the Stirrups

Had an OB appointment today. They do things a little differently here, in that they’ve got you with your feet up at every appt. I finally asked why that is and she said they check your cervix and do a pH test, ‘cause apparently your pH levels change closer to labor. She asked if they don’t do that in the US and I told her that there are a bunch of appointments in mid-pregnancy where all they do is listen for the heartbeat and measure your growth. She seemed surprised.

In the bathroom at the doc’s office they had a poster advertising something... not sure what since it’s all in German, but it has a picture of two cute teenage girls on it. Wee Laddie said to me, “Look, it’s like you, mom. The purple one, not the pink one.”

The receptionist gave Wee Laddie a lollipop (also known as “woollypops” around here) while we were there and I let him keep it in the car since I wanted to stop at a store a few blocks away on the way out of town. When we got to the store, Wee Laddie asked if he could take his lollipop into the store. He looked at me very seriously and said, “I won’t drop it or spill it or spit it out.” As if.

Dear Microsoft

Am I the only one who gets seriously annoyed by software’s assumption that I do not know how to properly use a mouse?

I’d love it if I could, say, select a bunch of text in Microsoft Word and NOT have Word add extra letters or words to my selection without my okay. I’m constantly having to retype parts that it cleverly deleted along with whatever I actually wanted to delete. It seems like I have reset this in the preferences and yet it continues to happen. It’s as if Word is also correcting my preference settings.

It’s like when they took away the keyboard commands for doing form letters, so instead of just being able to type a command in for my fields I suddenly had to go through like 10 menus to do what I wanted. I realize that lots of people don’t bother to learn keyboard commands, but for those of us who do, the least they could do is not take them away.

Bill, are ya listening?

Fall Colors

The trees look quite beautiful around here lately. I’ve never seen the fall colors on the east coast in the US before, but I’d guess it looks something like this.

Night Owl

Wee Laddie didn’t fall asleep last night until just before 11 pm! Sheesh. When Guitarman was on shift a bunch of times recently he was sometimes going to bed early and would just snuggle in with Wee Laddie, so now that’s what Wee Laddie wants. Or he’ll screw around for an hour or so and THEN ask to be rocked, at which point I don’t because I don’t want to start any bad habits (we have so been down that road). I finally did a couple of 4-minute checks on him (whenever you give him a timeframe for something, he tries to get you to switch it to 4 minutes... not sure why), then a 6, then he was finally asleep.

We went up to the “big” (it doesn’t seem to be any bigger than the one they had at Wurzbürg) PX at Grafenwöhr. While we were there the fire alarm went off. It freaked me out a little. I was sure it wasn’t really a big deal but for some reason (maybe hormones?), it made me very anxious about Wee Laddie. But I was trying to stay really calm, especially outwardly, so he didn’t pick up on anything. It did occur to me that a military community is probably one that you could expect to remain pretty calm and clear-headed in an emergency situation such as a fire.

Wee Laddie spent the rest of the day talking about the fire alarm. Every protrusion on every wall is now a fire alarm to him. I’m sure it’ll take him a bit of time to process this one.

We got Guitarman a birthday gift... headphones. (His birthday’s in a couple of weeks.) Wee Laddie picked those out over the “Rome” DVD set. We’ve been trying out different routes to Graf, and most of them are on B roads, meaning not the main (and straighter) autobahns. They don’t work so well for me, what with the motion sickness thing. I was feeling pretty crappy by the time we got home so I went to lie down on the sofa for a bit. My sweet, sweet boy came over to check on me and to ask if I was going to eat some dinner with them. What a doll.

Halloween Party #1

Went to the Halloween party at Little Troopers. We were planning to get there earlier than usual this time (we always miss the majority of it… so hard for us to get to base by 9 am!) , but I had Wee Laddie try on his costume before we left and the wheels came off! (Grandma-Grandma made them, but I glued them on.) Got that fixed and snapped a few photos just in case the costume didn’t last, but by the time we got there it was the last half-hour of the party.

I put Wee Laddie in the costume and we walked in. I went over to a table to set our stuff down and he followed and asked me to take the costume off. Less than 2 minutes. Oy. A few people saw him in it when he put it on again to go back out to the car. I think he was overwhelmed and self-conscious. So now I’ve really got to try to take him to the harvest fest thingy next week so he has a chance to actually wear the costume!

Missing the Fun

I was working on the Lightning Mc Queen costume, and Wee Laddie was trying to help. Sometimes that makes things a lot harder to do, as much as I appreciate his great attitude! He told me he was excited about his costume.

He’ll wear it first tomorrow at Little Troopers and then on the 31st at the harvest fest they’re having on base. Guitarman switched days with someone at work so he’s on shift on the 31st, so it might just be me and Wee Laddie. Not sure exactly what they’ll have at the fest, but it’s worth checking out.

We had an appointment at the ID office at 10:20 this morning so I tried to get us to Kids’ Club early. No dice. Wee Laddie wouldn’t put away the toys I’d asked him to put away before we left, so we ended up not going to Kids’ Club at all. Things went well at the ID office… SO much faster than the last time we were there. And now we’re good through the rest of our stay (it seems like this is about our 3rd set of IDs, which seems a little disorganized). And I got them to correct my info that said I was 60 inches tall, since that is a full 8 inches off!

On Her Way

Wee Laddie and I took Grandma-Grandma to the airport in the morning. Wee Laddie was bummed but didn’t cry or anything. It was easier on me this time since I know we’ll be seeing her again soon.

Wee Laddie wore the new outfit his Aunt Kaffee had sent… we just got it yesterday and he insisted on wearing part of it last night even though I tried to talk him out of it so he could wear it all day today. He went for another ride on Lightning McQueen, then we headed off for Total Mom. Tina did sort of a plug for the baby signing. A couple of extra moms stayed for a little bit but I couldn’t tell if they were really interested in it or not.



On the way back from the airport, Wee Laddie and I had a chat about Denver. He was saying he doesn’t want to go there, but I don’t think he knows what it means completely. Later, he was talking about missing his friends from here. He does have a couple of friends here, but the only one he really has seen in like a one-on-one situation is Kaitlyn. And I think we may actually manage to stay in touch with them, if only occasionally. And we don’t spend that much time together that he’ll miss her that much…especially now that she’s going to Kindergarten. I think he feels sad about leaving, just because this is what’s familiar now. He probably doesn’t really remember our daily life in Denver very well.

Here are a few shots Wee Laddie has taken with his new camera.

One Last Day of Fun

Today I told Wee Laddie that Grandma leaves tomorrow. He hung his head down and said, “Oh, man.” Then he was snotty & upset for a little while. So I said, “Since today is Grandma-Grandma’s last day here, why don’t we have fun all day today and then we can be sad tomorrow, after she leaves.” And it actually worked! I was also sure to mention that this time it won’t be so long ‘til we see her again, and this time it’ll be in Denver and we’ll be staying there.

Guitarman and I had spotted a toddler-tough digital camera at the PXtra several weeks ago. I’ve been wanting to get him one for Christmas or his birthday, and when we saw this one we talked about that and then decided maybe we should get it before we leave so that he can take some pics of stuff here if he wants to. So Guitarman brought it home with him from work tonight. Wee Laddie was pretty stoked.

Tonight Guitarman volunteered to handle the whole evening with Wee Laddie so my mom and I could go out for dinner and have a toddler-free conversation. We went to Gasthof Zum Schwann (it’s my German teacher’s fave Bavarian-style restaurant) but they were closed for a private party. They told us we could go to Il Cigno (the Italian place where we’ve gotten pizza a few times) and get the same food as they have in their dining room. They’re sort of connected, I guess. The food was decent but the restaurant was really smoky, even though we were in a back room where nobody was smoking. I wish we’d stuck with Hotel Hirschen. Oh well. It was nice to have an adult conversation & get some time to hang out just with my mom.

The Big Test

Went to the Klinik in Regensburg for our level II ultrasound. The doctor said something about the concern about Downs and I said they’d told us 1 in 405. He said, “That’s not bad.” Dork. Then why the heck were they leaning on us about the stinkin’ amnio?



Everything looks great, the doc said. No soft markers for Downs, no club foot, no cleft palate... all 10 fingers and all 10 toes. Heart looks good & normal. Near the end, the doc said something about this being much better than last time, when he gave us the info and I cried. Big fat liar. I never cried. My mom, however, got a bit teary when we told her that everything looks great.

Oh, and… it’s a boy!! How's this for odd: We have a regular playgroup back home. There are 8 families in it, and we're the 6th to get pregnant with a 2nd child. We are also the 6th whose 2nd baby is the same gender as the 1st. Isn't that strange?

Anyway, here's a closeup of our Schatzi's face.



We tried to go to a Kurdish restaurant that a friend had recommended, but they weren’t open for lunch. We ended up at some random doner shop. The food was good and I had my best conversation so far with someone in German. It was stilted, but not horrible.

Of course, then I went to German class tonight and it was a bugger.

I am so dreading telling Wee Laddie tomorrow that Grandma leaves on Wednesday. Poor thing, it’s going to break his heart. He loves having visitors, especially people who love him. And from spending so much time with Grandma since he was a newborn, they are very close. He’s seemed so happy during her visit... it’s like I haven’t really realized until now that he hasn’t been laughing and stuff as much as he used to. I love that sound.

Mother Worship

Have I mentioned that my mom is the coolest? Today she offered to help with any unfinished projects around the house, then ended up volunteering to watch Wee Laddie while Guitarman and I went out for dinner. We didn’t do dinner, but we went to see a movie (The Heartbreak Kid) on base. Niiiice. I thought the movie was silly & fun. Guitarman said it was entertaining, but the script wasn’t very tight. Whatever... it was great to have a night out without our little guy.

And even better to see him when we got home.

He did great for Grandma, though he wasn’t asleep when we got home. Guitarman went up ‘cause Wee Laddie was calling out, “How the movie was, Daddy?” And I followed to give hugs & kisses. When I got upstairs, Wee Laddie had his sad face on so I asked if he had fun with Grandma. He said he did and that he’d had a bath… but he had that look where he’s trying not to cry. That one really melts my heart. It’s like he knows there’s no reason to cry and he’s trying to be “strong,” but he really wants to cry. He must’ve really missed us… he’s not used to us both being away. Especially at bedtime.

Tomorrow is our big level II ultrasound where we should get more info on the odds of Schatzi having Downs and also about any issues about his/her heart. And we should find out whether it’s a boy or girl, too. I am hoping for a totally healthy (and “normal”) baby, of course. But I feel pretty much at peace with the idea of a Downs baby, too (I’m more concerned about the heart at this point). I’ve been picturing our family with a Downs baby so that I’m ready for it if I need to be. I just hope that if we do get Downs, we get to be at the healthy end of the spectrum.

Halloween Costumes

So my mom comes all the way to Germany to see us, and we haven’t taken her anywhere. Well, we did go to the mess hall today… we are such great entertainers! It’s a darned good thing we’ve got that cute kid to carry us.

I’ve decided on a Lightning McQueen costume for Wee Laddie. We haven’t really talked much about Halloween so I have serious doubts that he has any idea what I mean about “What would you like to dress up as?” so I figured I ought to just pick something that I think he’d like to see himself in. Second choice is Bob the Builder and, if I have time, I may make that one as well for an event we might try to go to next week.

The Scoop on Poop

I’m pretty sure that the question, “How is Wee Laddie doing on potty training?” has been keeping you all up nights. So here ya go...

He hasn’t had an accident or pooped in a diaper since Grandma-Grandma got here on Tuesday. He did pee on himself once while sitting on the potty, but he’d put off going (so he could keep playing with Grandma) and then he had to go really bad and that darned penis wouldn’t stay down when he pushed it down. He actually skipped at least a day’s poops in there, but he made up for it today... and all of them were in the potty.

Isn’t it funny how children are absolutely programmed for manipulation? Isn’t it also funny how they will totally rat themselves out ‘til they get devious enough to lie? Grandma needed to do a bit of laundry today and Wee Laddie really wanted to go into the laundrette on base with her (we never bothered to get a washer & dryer here since we won’t be staying long-term… my lovely husband does all of our laundry, aren’t I lucky?) and I told him we were just going to wait in the car so I didn’t have to unbuckle him & then re-buckle him into the car seat. A few minutes later, “clever Mommy” makes an appearance and asks, “Do you need to go potty again? There’s a potty in the laundry.” He says he doesn’t need to go, then asks again to go into the laundrette. I say no again. Lightbulb.

“Yes, I do need to go potty.”

“Wait a minute. Do you really need to go potty or do you just want to go into the laundry?”

“I just want to go into the laundry.”

“Then no.”

A few minutes later, he claims he really has to go potty this time. Grandma is back and says she’ll take him… and she does. Did he go potty? Nope. Did he have a nice wander around the laundrette, looking at stuff? You betcha.

Big Brother is Watching

Grandma-Grandma’s visit is going great so far. I’ve heard my son belly-laugh more in the past few days than in the last several weeks combined. It SO reinforces for me that the move back to Denver is the right decision for him, too.

We entertained Grandma by going to Kids’ Club today. Ok, really it was more so that Wee Laddie could run off some of his excess energy… he was unbelievable this morning. We got there on the early side for a change, so he got in LOTS of running around time, which he clearly needs desperately. I had to chase him around a bit to keep him from wreaking too much havoc. That’s not usually the case, but he was so very nearly out-of-control!

Wee Laddie spent some time entertaining babies again today. He is such a big sweetheart, it just makes me so proud. He’s so gentle and loving with the babies… he wanted to swaddle one, then made sure his paci was securely in his mouth. Another he tried to give kisses to, then was making faces and stuff to make the baby smile. It kind of makes up for when he nearly jumped on that baby’s head. (He was running over to see the baby and LOOKED like he was going to jump right onto the poor thing!)

Tonight after dinner, Wee Laddie wanted Guitarman to hide behind one of the concrete posts in our living room. Then he asked me to and while I did, I joked that my big belly was probably still quite visible, sticking out there as it does. Wee Laddie came over and wanted to see my belly, then was saying hi and giving snuggles and kisses to the baby. He’s going to be such a great big brother, I think!

No Sneaking Off, Now

Wee Laddie seems very worrried that Grandma-Grandma is going to slip off back home without telling him. He got up a tad early today to pee and when he didn’t see her in her room he said, “Maybe she’s in Colorado.”

Only two moms stayed for the baby signing class after Total Mom today. I just don’t get why there isn’t more interest. Of the two moms who stayed, one is new and she seems really psyched about signing and thinks her 6-month-old was trying to sign something recently. Yay!! Her hubby’s really into it, too, so that should help.

Wee Laddie does not want to go to bed. Lordy, that child hates to sleep! (And you can just imagine what it’s like when we’ve got a visitor!) It’s better if we get him into bed by 8pm, but even then it sometimes takes him ‘til like 9:30 to fall asleep. Sometimes he’ll play, sometimes he’ll keep trying to engage you in conversation, sometimes he’ll just lie there awake.

The other heating guy (the one that I called then tried to un-call but who couldn’t understand me very well) came by today to check on things. I keep being surprised that we’re getting this kind of customer care here in Germany, as it really doesn’t seem to be the norm.

Early to Rise

Grandma-Grandma is here! Since that meant an early pickup at the airport I had to wake Wee Laddie up, which is sometimes hard to do. Not today. I told him, “We need to go pick up Grandma-Grandma at the airport.” He said, “Oh!” and popped right up.

The power went off once again while I was trying to check that Grandma-Grandma’s plane was on time. So I called the housing office. There was an issue about getting a hold of the landlord, so I called the guy from last time in the afternoon. Shortly after that two guys (I think from a different company) came. I called the other guy to tell him there was no need to come since they’d sent someone… he seemed to have a very difficult time understanding me. (I find it rather frustrating when I try to use German, and a phrase that I know to be correct, and people seem to have a very difficult time figuring out what I’m trying to say.) Anyway, they got the furnace working, apparently by re-setting it. Later in the evening, one of the guys came back by in the evening to make sure everything was still working so that we’d have heat overnight. And they say there’s no customer service in Germany!

Wee Laddie and I ate PBJs in the car on the way to the airport (1.5 hours away) and chit-chatted about moving to Colorado, and how we weren’t going to Colorado today, but Grandma-Grandma was going to visit us here and then we’ll go back there in a few months. After they come take our beds & stuff first.

We did our usual routine (Do we know how to entertain or what?) and Wee Laddie fell asleep in the car (I didn’t think he would with Grandma there, but I didn’t even have to drive any more than usual!). He didn’t nap for long, but it was much needed after getting up so early.

Oh, but look at the surprise waiting for us at the airport...

Whole Much

While I was rocking Wee Laddie, he told me, “I love you whole much, Mommy.” I said, “I love you so much, too.” He said, “I love YOU whole much and I love Daddy whole much, too.” I was melting… what an awesome kid.

We’re all very excited because Grandma-Grandma arrives tomorrow for her visit! Wee Laddie has been talking about her whilst playing with his toys…I’ll hear him chit-chatting between toys and then say something like, “Oh, Grandma-Grandma’s not here yet.” I didn’t tell him that she’ll be here tomorrow as it’s so hard already to get him to fall asleep at night.

Tonight in German class we talked a bit about the challenges for Kerstin’s German students as they learn English. She said that one is that they don’t get the difference between “I speak” and “I am speaking” since “Ich spreche” would cover both in German. I knew it would be the case, but I find it reassuring to hear about some of their struggles and how there are things that are really difficult for them, just as there are for us. I also learned that my fellow student, Kim (whose German language skills put mine to shame, not that I’ve ever claimed that mine are any good), has been here for 3 years. That makes me feel much better, though he’s still got the whole different alphabet thing (he’s from Cambodia) to deal with.

After lunch today we made a stop at the library. While there, Wee Laddie pooped in his pants, so I had to use changing table to clean him up. He totally cried and I felt bad but don’t know how else to get him really clean. He’s such a trouper, though, and tries so hard to not be scared witless.

Went to the car wash (thank goodness they’re similar since I don’t understand most of the selections), too, and had a lateish nap. Tomorrow may be a little rough since we didn’t get any extra rest today.

Stinkin’ commissary closures on Monday trip me up all the friggin’ time.

Sunday Closings

5 pm & there's not a single grocery store open...not even on base. (For those who don’t know, stores are closed on Sundays in Germany.) I suppose, in some ways, this way of living is simpler than what I'm used to, but it's also much less efficient if you still want to accomplish the same amount of things. And I do. I think it's more of an annoyance to me now since our time is already so messed up by the nap schedule. I feel like I have so many errands/projects that simply remain undone. Will I someday feel nostalgic for the "simplicity" of this life? Maybe. But for now I would be more comfortable in my old life of convenience, of being able to run to Target after dinner (even on a Sunday), of having access to so many more projects I could be leaving undone. ;)

Sundays are pretty boring around here. Wee Laddie got up at his now-usual time of 7am, so we hopped to it so we could have breakfast at the mess hall (7-8:30am). It was too chilly for outdoor playtime, so Wee Laddie and I headed home and Guitarman went to do laundry.

We watched some “Thomas & Friends” and drew a little bit. Then off to nap… and I’m sticking to my no-whining policy, and that’s all I’ll say about that. Oh wait, our neighbors were being super noisy and woke us both up (though Wee Laddie went right back to sleep, thankfully). I don’t know what they were doing… it sounded like someone was dropping a wooden bat onto the concrete floor over and over again. I really thought about going over to talk to them in terrible German. It annoys me so much that they make that much noise… and I’m still sure they have no friggin’ idea how loud they seem to us over here.

Guitarman and Wee Laddie got some really good one-on-one time today, which is great because Guitarman is on shift tomorrow and Tuesday (he did 3 days last week plus all last weekend) so they won’t have much time together in the next couple of days.

We’re making great progress on the potty training front. I’m a little bit amazed that Wee Laddie’s taking to it so well. Minor incident tonight when Guitarman caught him stuffing the toilet with about half a roll of toilet paper. But he pooped in the potty 3 times today, all without us suggesting/asking anything! It’s funny, sometimes he’ll say to me, “Do I have a diaper on?” I’m like, “No, do you need to go potty? Did you go potty?” And he’ll say, “I have to go poop,” and go running off to the bathroom. And he’s already acting very independent about it some of the time. “Don’t look at my poop,” he’ll tell me. Or he’ll run into the bathroom and close & lock the door behind him. It’s awesome. As long as he’s not going to clog up the toilets with paper, anyway.

Cuckoo for Taco Bell

Wee Laddie woke up dry this morning! First time in a LONG time that’s happened.

Went up to the base at Graf again. God, we’re lame. These are desperate times, I’m telling you. I waited a full 1/2 hour for Taco Bell. Again. I do make Mexican food at home pretty regularly...there’s just something I miss about having Mexican food (yes, even Taco Bell) where we can all just order whatever we want and somebody else cooks it for us. It’s a beautiful thing.

The folks at Chipotle are sure going to be happy when we get back to town.

Sweetie

He’s not so much doing it anymore, but for a while there Wee Laddie was calling us “sweetie,” but in this almost sarcastic tone. (This is not the tone he was using the other day when he called me “sweetie.”) It’s so weird to hear things like that coming out of the mouth of this adorable little person you love more than anything.

“I don’t think so, sweetie.” If you put a Clueless spin on it, that’s about where we were. Good thing he doesn’t know how to do a head bob yet.

Those Baby Blues

Today was a big flirting day for Wee Laddie. There were a couple of women at the mess hall who kept watching him and talking about what a cutie he is. Then we stopped in the loo on the way out and there were two German women there and one of them was talking to him for a bit. People are always amazed at his language skills. Even as his parent, it’s sometimes easy to expect more of him cognitively just because he can communicate so well… it’s hard to remember that it doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s able to get the reasoning of things.

So you know we’ve been potty training since Saturday. Well today, Wee Laddie decides he’s ready to go in the bathroom stall all by himself. (Believe me, this made me a little nervous.) He actually did it twice today, including for a poop! And he did a great job both times, even emptied his potty and flushed and everything! And tonight was his first night w/o pooping in his nighttime diaper. Progress!

Went to the Möbelhof this morning to look for small comforters for our bed, but they didn’t have any at a reasonable price. Wee Laddie is still sleeping in our bed most of the time, and he hates to have the comforter on so he kicks it off. Guitarman, despite always being hot, likes to have it on. I’m usually chilly, so I like to have it on. That means it has to reach from Guitarman, then down to Wee Laddie’s feet, then back up to me. Doesn’t really work, and I’ve literally snagged baby blankets from Wee Laddie’s room to keep from freezing at night.

I doubtfully suggested a trip to IKEA to look for them there, as I want to have them before my mom comes so we can switch the fun blue duvet cover into the guest room & use our new duvet covers. I really didn’t think Guitarman would go for it after being on shift, but he did. So we had dinner there and scored on comforters… and a nice, red rug for my office area.

The shift days are tiring for me, as well as Guitarman. I don’t have to get up so early, but I don’t even get my half-break at lunchtime. It’s a lot of work keeping up with an active toddler all day!

Talk Hands

Earlier this week I was talking with our little friend Kaitlyn’s mom. Kaitlyn is about 19 months old and has been our one regular attendee at nearly all of the signing classes. Her mom is very consistent about using it, so Kaity knows TONS of signs and is, in fact, already speaking in full sentences! Today at Total Mom I heard her say to her mom, “Please put boots on.”

Well, apparently Kaity mentioned Wee Laddie and me recently and then said, “Talk hands.” Her mom said, “That’s right. We talk with our hands with O-tay.”

How cool is that? Kinda makes it worth lugging all that crap around for just a few people.

Long Day

Things didn’t go very well today. For some reason, our main breaker keeps tripping if we turn the heat on. Lovely. There were small things going wrong, too: got eggshell in Wee Laddie’s egg this morning, a bulb burned out in the bedroom, Guitarman got stuck on shift today because Dan (who is scheduled for it) is actually still in Greece on vacation. Minor things, but just one of those days where everything seems off.

Since Guitarman was stuck at the office all day, I went to the housing office with Wee Laddie in tow to see about the breaker. Since our landlord speaks very little English and we speak very little German, we figured it’d be easiest to go there and have them call him. They did and he was able to get somebody out to see what’s going on. (Not sure whether this is related to our previous power outage or not.) The guy was clearly in a big hurry and was very noisy, tromping through the house and talking loudly into his phone. At one point, Wee Laddie looked at me and said, “Is he shouting?” In the guy’s favor, he was pleasant and fast. Anyway, it seems to be working again.

Took a while, but I finally got through to the Klinik in Regensburg to schedule our Level II ultrasound. I tried to call in the morning but kept getting busy, busy, busy… then no answer. Ugh. When I did finally get to talk to someone I muddled through mostly in German, so that felt good. At least sort of. Our appointment is on a day that my mom will be here, so hopefully she can watch Wee Laddie and we can have our appointment without all the usual distractions.

Wee Laddie has gone poop twice in the potty today without me even saying anything! Guitarman rented him a Dora video as a treat so I told Wee Laddie that Daddy was bringing home a surprise.

Wee Laddie: Is it a new potty for me, at work?

Me: You need a new potty? What’s wrong with your old potty?

Wee Laddie: I don’t know, sweetie. It’s been a long day.

Burn, Baby, Burn

I’m a reasonably decent cook. What I also am is a kitchen injury waiting to happen. Okay, here’s the story: Saturday night I was cooking dinner. I believe I had two pans going plus the tea kettle for my tea. Our kitchen is tiny, so I keep my most-used spices on top of the vent hood, which hangs down from the ceiling over the stove island. (Please pardon the very messy kitchen in the photo.)



Often, when I walk around there to get spices, I just add them from there rather than walking back around front then around back again to put them away. (I’m not lazy… I’m efficient.) Anyway, I was doing that and didn’t think about the tea kettle and its--now boiling--contents. Stuck my arm right in front of the thing and got myself a nice steam burn on the inside of my arm.

Those of you who knew me in the Casa Bonita days may remember that I always had minor burn marks on my arms… and I once got some pretty nasty oil burns on my legs. And in my days since retiring from the restaurant industry, I’ve twice had to get stitches in a finger because of cutting myself whilst cooking. Have I mentioned before that I’m a clod?

Potty Training Day 3 went very well. Wee Laddie is still insisting on doing the majority of his pooping once we get the diaper on him for bedtime, but he did do a little one in the potty while I was at German class. And he did beautifully on base today when we went for lunch. Aside from the one time Sunday morning when he forgot he wasn’t wearing a diaper, he hasn’t had any “accidents,” and he hasn’t peed during nap at all in the last 3 days. I guess a little sheer terror was all the motivation he needed.

Diabetic Rant

Another excellent potty day. Wee Laddie seems to be getting the hang of this just fine, aside from the late-night poops. Not sure quite how to motivate him to use the potty for pooping… he still seems very uncomfortable about that.

So I know I’ve been whining a little about the diabetes diet. (I have a whole new appreciation for diabetics, especially in a country like Germany.) Last time it didn’t seem to be that big a deal. Once I figured out how many Chipotle chicken tacos I could eat, I was all set. ;) I have concluded that over here, for me at least, it means eating most meals at home as it’s very difficult to get the info you need from the food labels. You know, American food labels look like this:



German labels look like this:



So how many carbs is that per serving? How much sugar? Protein? Fiber? All things that are helpful to know when dealing with diabetes. I’m just saying.

Potty Weekend

Guitarman was on shift today (and is tomorrow, too) so Wee Laddie and I were solo. We decided to tackle potty training, since we can just stay home all weekend and practice. The need to do this has become urgent.

A few weeks ago, the changing table (a cabinet kind of thing) at the commissary suddenly became wobbly. Wee Laddie was upset by it, but I didn’t think it was anything major. The next time we went back it was still wobbly… Wee Laddie talked about falling off so I tried to use my foot to keep it from rocking. (Didn’t work.) He got very upset, and at his next two diaper changes on changing tables in other places, he came absolutely unhinged. We had one change at the mess hall that was so traumatic that I was also near tears and we were both exhausted. No amount of reassurance will convince him that it’s okay to stop clutching my neck/arms/hands/whatever he can reach… that I will NOT let him fall. He is completely terrified, and as my belly gets bigger it gets harder to bend over far enough to change him standing up. Not to mention that it’s not the best way to get him really clean after a change.

Day 1 went quite well. We’ve discussed it a lot, and I know he knows how to use the potty… it’s always been a matter of motivation. He didn’t have a single accident today, but saved his poop for after I’d put him in his nighttime diaper at “bedtime,” which is currently AKA “the 2-4 hours Wee Laddie spends winding down before he’ll fall asleep.”



We watched a new kids’ movie we got from the PX: “The Little Cars in the Big Race.” It’s an animated movie from Brazil. It was bad. Way bad. So bad that it was significantly overpriced at $5. I won’t even take it to the thrift store here, as this movie shouldn’t end up in anyone else’s hands.

My blood sugar was rather high after eating chicken-bean quesadillas. Waaaaah! I did use flour tortillas and I did eat a little more than I should have (for some reason I get full on smaller-than-normal-for-me quantities of food these days and that, combined with the fact that I loooove quesadillas, led me to overeat), so I haven’t given up entirely yet. Will try corn tortillas next time & see if that works.

Ladies Who Lunch

Went to Laaber to have lunch with the lovely Christina and the very cute baby Oliver. We ate at the Greek place again since we knew I could get a big plate of meat with some salad there, as opposed to ordering around pasta or potatoes. (She was going to cook a Thai meal for me—rumor has it she’s quite a good cook—but it was tricky to work around the sugar avoidance.) The food was very good this time, too. Oliver is very cute and very alert & interested in everything. Much like Wee Laddie was as a tiny person. He’s sure going to keep his mama busy as he learns all about this big world! Christina seems to have eased comfortably into motherhood. (When we first met, she wasn’t so sure about the whole maternal instinct thing.)

I always feel more like a “regular” person after seeing Christina since, even though she’s American, she’s not connected with the military base. That may sound weird, but she so actively chose to live here and has integrated herself well and grown to love it here. I think we probably would have become very good friends if I were living the life I’d planned to in Germany (or at least were staying longer), rather than having 90% of my social interactions on the base with many people who don’t like it here and probably didn’t have that much choice about coming.

Today’s bonus: Christina let me pick through her maternity clothes, so I got some much-needed long-sleeved shirts. Hooray! New things to wear without shopping… doesn’t get much better than that.

Bow Wow Wow

This morning, out of the blue, Wee Laddie asked to hear “the pink CD” in my car. It’s a compilation of ‘80s hits (re-recorded). He said he wanted to hear the candy song (“I Want Candy”). I’m so proud that my little boy is already requesting Bow Wow Wow.

Top Chef

I’m totally addicted to that show. Guitarman got major points for saying that I could be on the show, but to say that he's overstating my cooking skills would be an understatement. I’m a reasonably decent cook and have even prepared a “fancy” dish or two in my lifetime (souffle once—a microwave recipe if you can believe that—and some stew kind of thing in phyllo dough packets that were tied up all schmancy-like, biscotti—which at least sounds kind of fancy) but I’m so amazed by the things they come up with on that show! Even Wee Laddie likes to watch it, so I’m golden. I think we’re a season behind since it’s on the Armed Forces Network… I never have been able to convert Guitarman to watching TV in German.

I have re-adjusted pretty well to making most of our meals at home again. Actually, it’s a habit I’ve been out of since my old, single days. At first I was kind of grooving on the super-easy half-premade meals, but those got old pretty quick. I love to look up recipes, especially online, but I rarely follow them. I kind of use them more for ideas.

German food is good but it’s rather expensive with the dollar in such bad shape. Plus the gestational diabetes makes it difficult to eat out here since so many of the specialties are baked goods, noodles and potato dishes. Potatoes and white flour products jack my blood sugar up more than anything else… even ice cream!

In For a Scolding

I’m really going to have to stop mentioning minor symptoms to my OB, or we’re going to go broke from all the tests! I mention mild headaches and first she doesn’t say anything. Then I ask if there’s anything I should be concerned about, since I’m having mild headaches pretty much at least once a day. Then she orders a test to check for something. I don’t even know what… probably pre-eclampsia or something.

I had recently had a conversation via email with Kristin about the quad-screen results. She said her doc said they could do some checking on the quad-screen results to get an idea of the likelihood of a recurrence of HELLP Syndrome and/or pre-E. I’m not sure my doc got what I was talking about, but she did write a note for them to check on it when we get the level II ultrasound later this month. She wants me to take magnesium daily and to increase my salt intake. That seems counterintuitive to me as far as healthy diet goes (the salt part, I mean) and she didn’t say why, but she’s got the medical degree so I’ll try it.

I don’t think my OB thinks I’m taking the diabetes seriously. I mentioned to her that I’d had some readings that were a little bit high…like 10 points or so but that after a 2nd hour they’re pretty much always at or below 100, which is when they have you test in the US. She said she’s not an internist, but that she’s been told that the first hour is very important, too. Things went so well with Wee Laddie as far as the diabetes goes that I feel like I’m doing just fine if I adhere to the same guidelines as last time. And I probably should have explained something to my doctor: I’m kind of anal about some things, particularly if I’m “assigned” something to do. They told me that my 1-hour reading should be 140 or below, so although I play it off like, “Oh well, it’s only 152… that’s really close. And it’s the only time this week it’s been high,” it really does bug the shit out of me that it wasn’t where it should be. (I only got two B’s in college, so this is normal behavior for me.) So when I tell her that some readings were a bit high, I’m including the ones that were like 146… even though sometimes they’re like low 90s or even in the 80s after another hour. So it probably sounds much more alarming than it really is.

Aaaaanyway. We got another ultrasound and got to see Schatzi sucking his/her thumb. It was pretty cool… we could see the little jaw moving up & down and everything. And we again had the reassurance of seeing that heartbeat. :) The nose bone looked great to us… we’ll see what they say at St. Hedwig’s. The doc said the baby was still too small to tell gender. But everything looks good so far, healthwise.

Back to School

Tonight was our first night back in German class. Telise came by the house and I showed her where it is. Kelly was going to go too, but her hubby’s in the field and she didn’t have a sitter. She’ll try next week.

It was good to get back to practicing! It’s so hard for me to get opportunities to talk in German with Germans. My biggest chance is usually at the local markets, but we only go there once a week at most. And there’s usually a line. And it’s dinnertime.

Anyway, looks like there will be 7 of us in class. Some new, but only one of the asylum-seeker students is back. I feel so much better about my efforts while I’m at least attending classes. I sometimes feel like a slacker for how little German I can speak but, in my defense, I haven’t been able to take an intensive course (like I had thought about doing this fall if we were going to stay longer) and we have only been here for 9 months. That seems a shorter time when half your days are lost to naps & the related hoopla. I’ve been really lax on the CD listening lately, though.

Guitarman spotted this sight outside our bathroom window tonight. And yes, that orange thing on the left is the moon, partially hidden in clouds. The photo doesn’t do it justice… it was quite beautiful. (And since I’m posting this later, I can tell you that Guitarman will send a similar photo to his family with a comment that, as beautiful as this view is, we would both be much happier if our house overlooked a Chipotle instead.)