Well, it kind of started last night, Michael was snoring like crazy, which happens from time to time. It is usually ok, and I kick him or push him and then it stops. But last night whenever I pushed him, he woke up twice! So, since he needed his sleep (going skiing early in the morning), I decided to go downstairs and sleep on the couch. I heard him early in the am (5:45am) bustling about getting his stuff together, and then I hear him tumble down the stairs! Our stairs are quite dangerous because it’s a spiral staircase and quite steep. I’m always nervous when carrying the babies up and down. I’ve fallen on the last 3 stairs a couple of weeks ago, so now it’s Michael’s turn. He fell near the top and rolled 1/2 way down, and I rushed over to make sure he was ok. He wasn’t hurt too bad, just kind of got a stiff neck area. I massaged it a little and he told me it was because he was wearing socks and they slipped. After that, I went back to sleep upstairs, but it wasn’t long before the babies got up, 7:30 this morning, which is kind of early. I didn’t want them making a whole lot of noise so early and wake everyone else up in the building, so I fed them, changed them and kept them in their bedroom. When they play with their toys in the living room, they throw it and clang it on the floor and it makes a lot of noise!

At about 9am I let them out and I took a light nap on the couch, awaking every 5 or 10 minutes or so to some scene of chaos. First I heard the guitar, but dreamed that Michael was playing guitar to them so thought nothing of it. It’s only when I heard the guitar fall down that I woke up! Elijah gave me a guilty look…Then, the next “scene” was of both of them playing with this fold up laptop table that I have. Somehow they managed to turn it over (it’s light plastic so it’s not that hard but I’m surprised I didn’t hear it crash to the ground)…The next scene of them was of Elijah biting Rowan while playing with the Learning Table toy. I managed to make them bottles and put them down for a nap at about 10am.

After getting up from their nap, I bundled them up and we went out for a walk. It was a really nice day, the sun was out and melting the snow. I walked to Isartor, where the Basic store was. Everything closes at 2pm today (NY Eve), so I had to hurry. I bought some fruit to make for the boys and a basil plant. I wish the plant was more mature so that I could pick off some leaves, but it was just a pot chock full with seedlings. I wish I had some dirt I could repot them and let them grow big. I’ll have to wait for Monday. Basic had parmesean cheese and I did a full transaction in German! Well, I basically asked if they had it and she told me where it was. But at least it’s something and I didn’t freeze up and stare blankly at her! Progress, slow but steady… I was all excited because it was fresh cheese, not the shredded kind that you buy in a Kraft package. I was just so happy that I found parmesean cheese at a place that I frequent.

After that, I was going to take the SBahn to Karlsplatz to go to Schlecker or DM, but I couldn’t find an escalator going down to the Isartor station, so I just ended up walking to Marienplatz. I saw McDonald’s and couldn’t resist getting some fries. Mmmmmmm… I was very disappointed that they didn’t have Hot Mustard sauce (senf), they are always out! Chicken McNuggets just don’t taste good without the hot mustard! After that, I went to Karlsplatz, and it just turned 2pm, so everything was shutting down. I hurried to DM, and there was a lady posted there not letting anyone in. I was frantic at this point, wondering what I was going to do. I tried to go to Herties, and I thought I was saved because the doors were still open with people going in. But a guy at the elevator stopped me and said they were closed. Damn! So, I figured I’ll try Tengelmann’s as a long shot. First, they probably wouldn’t be open and if they were, they probably didn’t have formula. I was overjoyed because they stayed open until 4pm, AND they had formula, I took the last box! I also got more sandwich supplies (ham and salami) and stood in line. The lines were long because they were the only store open. I finally got to the cashier and she gave me a suspicious look because she thought I was stealing a basil plant. Sorry, lady, that is from another store. After I paid, I asked for these heart stamps (to get free cookware) and it took forever for her to understand me, but then she reluctantly handed me my 2 heart stamps. I also was distracted by something called HappyDigits, which is a bonus card program. I think you get all these points and then you redeem them for stuff. I took one of those flyers. After all that, we headed home. The boys were so good! Right when I got to my door, I didn’t see the formula, I looked in the stroller basket and didn’t see my stuff!

I quickly realized that in my distraction of the heart stamps and HappyDigits thing, I forgot to take my groceries! Ugh! And I needed formula too, they are almost out! So, back to Karlsplatz we went. The whole time I was thinking what I am going to do. I was hoping that the cashier would just have the stuff still at the register, because it’s only been about 20 minutes. But, as luck would have it, that register was shut down. I went and found an employee and tried talking to her, but she didn’t speak any English. She found another guy who could speak very, very little. He understood what happened and asked the cashier that I had about the stuff. I gave him my receipt and he showed it to her. I saw the lady shake her head. Arrrgh! The guy said that she didn’t know anything about it. So, I figured I’ll buy another formula, even if it’s a different one, because they are out. I went back and lo and behold, the formula box was there! They just put it back. Now I’m thinking, ok, how do I explain to the guy that there was only 1 box and they just put everything back? I found the guy again and told him, but he didn’t really understand me. He was trying to tell me that I couldn’t take it, but couldn’t explain it in English, so he just let me go with it. I figured I would be pushing my luck if I got the salami and ham too, so I just got the formula since it was the most important. I am sooooo happy that I was able to get it. Even if I had to pay for it again, which would suck, I’m glad that they were at least open and had it. Michael came home fairly early, around 6pm and he helped with the nighttime chores, which was nice!

He had a good day, did a pretty easy ski tour, so it wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. His back was still kind of hurting from this morning, and he couldn’t take in the beautiful scenery because his neck was too stiff. He only saw what was in front of him. He also left me a pretty depressing phone message, apparantly the train that he took from Hauptbahnhof sat on the tracks for an hour in a suburb of Munich because of some problem, he had 2 train connections to make, and would miss them both because of this delay. He found the new connecting train, but unfortunately, it also sat on the tracks by the highway for another hour. I’m sure the opening scene from “Office Space” was going through his head. What’s with the trains today?