The Expat Thanksgiving

I think I've only been away from home for 3 Thanksgivings. The first was during my student exchange to England during high school. The People-to-People group (their part of the Sister Cities Int’l group) threw us a Thanksgiving dinner which I find very funny, since it seems almost an anti-England holiday. The second was just a few years ago when Guitarman and I went to visit his parents in Florida for the holiday. And then this year.



We had a very lovely dinner at Christina’s. It’s an annual tradition for them to invite local Americans & other assorted friends to the Expat Thanksgiving Dinner. It was an interesting collection of people... about 1/2 American and about 1/2 other, I’d guess. I had a nice chat with the German neighbors, who were talking about how Germany doesn’t really have an equivalent holiday with a celebration & food and all of that. They seemed to really enjoy our holiday.

And the food was fabulous. Everyone brought a dish to share. And far from being a replica of all of the traditional American Thanksgiving foods (green bean casserole, sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top) it was a fantastic spread of all sorts of international flavors. Yum. The stuffing was made with apples & sage, for example. I brought a curry-butternut squash soup that was yummy. I overheard a couple of remarks about it, one of which was a wife to her husband, “Here, you’ve got to try this soup,” which was followed by a brief chat about how he’d have never thought to put cilantro with it but that it really worked. So yay me. Or rather, yay Allrecipes.com.

I’ve learned that my kid is a natural problem solver. Ok, I already knew that. But isn’t it much more fun when I make it seem like you’re along with me on this journey of learning fun things about my son? Remember, he's just shy of 3. Anyway, he was trying to get a container of toys through the baby gate but it wouldn’t fit. So he tries again and still no luck. So he slides the container up to the top of the gate and reaches over to grab it. Genius, I tell you. ;)

Vocabulary Building

This morning Wee Laddie was sitting in his little rocking chair in the living room singing, 'baby boat… moon…by.' Those are lyrics from 'Baby’s Boat,' which is the song my mom always sang to him when trying to get him to nap. He doesn’t let me sing it to him very often. Whenever I ask if he wants to hear it he says, 'Grandma sing Baby Boats.'

Wee Laddie's language is quite astonishing. (Hey, it’s totally legitimate for me to be insanely impressed by my son’s mad language 'skillz!') During a couple of his naps in mid-January I made a list of the words he says (I did this a few months ago, too, and thought it’d be interesting to one day share with him what words he felt that it was important to know). I came up with 450 words that he uses independently (as in not after I say them to him) and in the right context. Wow. No wonder he really seems to understand nearly everything we say to him!

Checked out the thrift store on base today. Not terribly interesting… very typical for a small thrift store. I was hoping to find a sewing machine (I sewed the bathroom curtain by hand and it took ages and now it bugs me that the stitches aren’t totally straight) but no luck. They had a little ride-on motorcycle that I got for Wee Laddie. It was only $3 so I figured I couldn’t pass it up. It’s motorized but needs a battery, so now we have to get that part figured out. Wee Laddie was beside himself about his 'mocycle feeney' (see?). He wanted to bring it upstairs while he took his nap.

The Furniture Returns

Got our stuff, at long last! They didn’t put everything together, nor did they unpack everything. We were led to believe they would do both. We are really not too impressed with the company that has orchestrated this whole thing (Cartus, in case anyone’s looking for an int’l mover to NOT use). They didn’t keep very good track of the paperwork. Oh, and they charged us 100 euro for storage. What? Shyeah… as if we haven't been waiting weeks already to get our stuff. Aargh!

I have an apple song that I created (over several nights) at Wee Laddie’s request. (I couldn’t think of a single song that talks about apples, which he was fixated on at the time.) He usually wants me to sing that song to help him fall asleep. Today at naptime he told me, 'No Apple. No sing, Mommy, just bounce.' Wow. His language skills are blowing me away these days.

Son of Father Time

This morning at 8, Guitarman put Wee Laddie’s watch on him. Wee Laddie looked at it and said 'Eight o’clock.' He can’t tell time yet, of course, but it sure tripped Guitarman out for a second. Love it when that happens. Wee Laddie has also been popping up in the morning and asking me, 'Time is it?' Weird, the things kids pick up from their parents.

Today Guitarman had to leave early from lunch. Wee Laddie wouldn’t even say 'goodbye.' Ten minutes later he was standing up on the chair, calling out, 'Love you!'

Hoopdis All Around

Wee Laddie and I went to Kids’ Club. It was just us for 45 min or so (I guess because of the snow?), then 3 others eventually showed. The group that goes regularly seems to play well together. There are very few altercations, and the moms are all pretty involved. (Hmmm...perhaps that’s why there are so few altercations.)

Apparently our stuff is getting closer… Guitarman has been asked to fill out a customs form. We’d like to know why it wasn’t done ages ago, but the moving company doesn’t really seem to have their shit together.

Wee Laddie is talking up a storm. Today he talked about 'shovel cars' (snowplows)…his growing understanding of how to make sentences astounds me. He’s saying lots of things where he’s playing with the word order, like 'In there Daddy office?' becomes 'Daddy office in there?' It’s like he gets that it goes a certain way and plays with it ‘til it sounds right. My fave phrases of his are, 'Honey, honey, honey,' which he uses if he’s starting to get frustrated with something… can you guess why?) 'Guess so.' And, 'Thank you, you’re welcome, thanks.' Said all together so there’s not even room for another person to do the 'you’re welcome' part. He’s actually been doing this for a while, but it’s now getting clear enough for other people to understand easily. And they usually laugh.

Got Guitarman’s car tonight. Now I’ve got the schmancy car of the two of us. I should tell you, though, that my fancy red sports car (’95 BMW 3-series) only cost $4K. That’s only $1K more than the crappy little car I was driving back home. And even though it’s more than 10 years old it handles really nicely… better than any other car I’ve owned, actually. If we have to leave in October, I’m sure going to see about shipping this car back to the US.

And Understanding Dawns

Wee Laddie & Grandma were talking about Germany today. Grandma was saying, 'Daddy drives? Yes, but he flew on a plane to Germany... New car, that's what you heard Mommy talking about. Your daddy got a new car. What's coming up in the next few days is that you and Mommy will fly on a plane and see Daddy.'

Wee Laddie: 'And Grandma?' So she explains that we will be with Daddy again, but that she’s not coming.

Seems he might kinda get it. Uh-oh. I might be in deep doo-doo.