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!