The boys patiently waiting for us

So today we had all these ideas that amounted to nothing. I wanted to stay close to home because I had to study for the big test tomorrow, so that meant that we couldn’t go to the mountains. And anytime the mountains are out, Michael has no enthusiasm for anything. So we just stayed at home and played with the boys. I was up early, so I let Michael sleep in. He joined us at around 10am. The boys just love it when he’s around because he does so many things with them. I also like it to because he really tires them out.

For lunch, Michael fried up the Nürnburger sausages (which look and taste just like regular ol’ breakfast sausages) and we ate them all. Rowan has a bad habit of spitting out food and then getting new food. We can’t figure out why. If he didn’t like it, he wouldn’t continually put new pieces in his mouth! And they are true Bavarian babies, they loooooooovvvvveee their Brezen (big huge pretzels).

In the afternoon, we went out for a practice walk around the block and they did really well. Rowan put up a small little fuss when we were leaving, but he quickly got over it. Once they are distracted by their surroundings, they don’t mind holding our hand so much.

In the evening, I spent my time visiting with Michael and studying. He helped me out a lot sparring with me - adjectives, dativ/akkusativ, asking and answering questions. He learned a lot too and got some good practice. I stayed up way too late studying, but I feel pretty good about the test.

Elijah’s big bump - poor baby!

So this morning Michael allowed me to sleep in until 11am. And then after that, I went out in search of more yarn shops to update on my yarn shops page. I am so super addicted to getting this page done. Last night I mapped out a whole route of 9 stores. I ended up dropping 2 of them so that I don’t take up too much time. So, for 3 hours, I was criss-crossing the city looking for stores. It is so much fun, it’s like treasure hunting.

On the way to one of the stores, I passed by this cool furniture store that sells Stokke brand furniture. I’ve only heard of the super outrageously expensive kinderchair, but they had adult chairs too. And yes, they were ridiculously expensive (like 2k), but ridiculously comfortable. I was very attracted to one chair called the “Gravity” and it is the most comfortable chair I have ever sat in. It is like a La-Z-Boy, but not as offensive looking. Kind of like IKEA’s version of a La-Z-Boy, but it is very well made and just like floating on a cloud. It is a little bit scary reclining in it, since it is like a rocking chair, but the sales person practically jumped into the chair and it was fine. The thing that was the most cool was that I talked to the sales person entirely in German and she didn’t switch to English. I was so happy. Making some progress. I told her maybe my husband will buy me this chair for my birthday. (Hint Hint) By the way, my new yarn site is at http://www.mountainwerks.org/MunichYarnShops. Check out all my hard work!!!

I also went chocolate shopping for my SecretPal8. She is a chocoholic, so I figured for my first batch I will get her a bunch of Munich-made or German-made truffels. I couldn’t decide on which one, so I basically got her one piece of everything that they had. I also bought some chocolate for “hot chocolate”. I am also sending her some of those candy chocolate eggs that are so popular with the kids. She has 3 kids herself, so hopefully they will join in on the fun too.

I was gone for about 3 hours. After I came home, we decided to go to MarktKauf, car shopping. This store was so big that we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. It was too big. Or maybe it seems too big for us now. It’s like Costco. It is too overwhelming and bombarded us with too much stuff. The boys rode in shopping carts, something they haven’t done in awhile. We ended up not getting too much stuff. I wanted to buy more dirt for my basil, but they didn’t have any. Their gardening area was on the top level of the parking lot, so we let the boys run around. Unfortunately, Elijah tripped and fell face first into a puddle. He hit his forhead and got a big bump. I was kind of sad that I didn’t enjoy that experience as much as I thought I would, but I’m glad we went to see what it was like. We pretty much are happy with our shopping options that we currently use and don’t really need such a huge grocery store.

We were tuckered out in the evening, what a full day. Michael took them all over the place, so he really tired the boys out. They really like going out with their dad, so much adventure. I, of course, worked on updating my website and fell asleep as we watched “Kicking and Screaming”. Damn, I forgot that we already saw it. My memory is going bad!

Elijah checking out the sales

After this week’s full social agenda, it was nice to just relax after class. Well, I guess playing with the boys isn’t exactly relaxing, but at least I didn’t have to really clean up. And that’s nice. Since our place is so small, it is so easy for it to get dirty and look really bad. The boys room and our living room is in shambles at the end of the day, but it takes about 10 minutes to put everything away and then it looks great. Our kitchen is another story. It is so dang small. And Michael likes to stack things on the counter rather than put it in the dishwasher and/or in the trash. He claims that he doesn’t know if what’s in there is clean or dirty so he’ll just wait until a time that’s more convenient for him to check. Which is always right after I need to clean up. But really, a couple of stacks of stuff and our kitchen is officially super dirty. I wish we did have an American style kitchen. But then maybe we will have so much space that we won’t know what to do with ourselves. The fridge is actually a perfect size for us, we are never hurting for room. At first it seemed really small, but now we’re used to it. I know when my parents come, it will be packed full of stuff and they will wonder how we ever lived.

Nothing else exciting to report…The weekend is here!

Michael, Me, Melanie at Sausalitos

Today after class, our old babysitter, Melanie came for a visit. She hasn’t seen the boys for almost 2 months. She had another job and then travelled around Europe during that time. Now she is returning back to the states to work. So I wanted to make sure that we saw her before we left.

The boys didn’t nap, so I had to put them down about an hour before she came. When she arrived, we were talking kind of loud and it woke the boys up. So I decided to get them out (big mistake). They spent an hour in a kind of stupor. They both were just kind of lifeless and stared out into space a lot. Very weird. They didn’t know what to think of Melanie. It was like they didn’t recognize her, but they knew she wasn’t a stranger either. She was amazed at how much they grew in just those few short months. I showed her how they can eat by themselves and how they can drink from a straw. When she left, they were just starting to walk and now they’re practically running everywhere. It is amazing at how much they have grown, both in size and in maturity, if you can say that about a baby…

We all went out to dinner at a place called Sausalitos in Schwabing. On the way there, I stopped in the American Apparel store and wanted to buy something called the Karate Pants, but they didn’t have it in their size, except in pink. I don’t think they would appreciate that. So I have to order it online. At least it’s not too much more expensive than in the states (12 euros rather than $12).

Dinner was very good. The fajitas were EXCELLENT (this is by Munich standards now), but the place was super crowded and loud and hot. I forced Melanie’s boyfriend to speak in German with us! I think he was impressed with my Michael’s German knowledge. So for a few minutes, we all were speaking German, which was fun, especially after a drink or two.

It was sad to say goodbye to her, but I know she will come back and visit us sometime in the future!

Today I lost all my enthusiasm for my German class, because I know I will be doing private and it will be so much better. At least it won’t be so frustrating and distracting. During the class, I left to go to the bathroom and just didn’t want to go back in, there was only about 20 more minutes of class, so I just hung out reading a Munich Found magazine. It was nice and relaxing. After class, I just went in and got my stuff and left.

I went to lunch with Angelika without Michael because he had to work. We met at the Schrannenhalle. She’s heard about the place but never went there. I don’t know why Germans don’t go to this place more, I really like it. We had a fun lunch and I was so nervous about topics to talk about that I wrote down some questions while I was in class. Stuff like if she goes to the movies often, what the last movie she saw was, what was her favorite restaurant, etc. We actually filled the time up quickly. She is a very nice and fun person and I have enjoyed meeting with her. She told me about how she met her boyfriend (in High School!) and they’ve been together a long time, just like us. Although they are a few years younger than us.

After lunch I had time to go to Wolle Rödel, since it was right next door, take some pictures and jot down some notes. Then, I went home and played with the boys. They especially liked to be thrown on the couch. My arms are getting a good work out. I love when they kiss us, it is the best thing ever. Especially when we don’t initiate it.

I also worked furiously on my yarn page. I am sooooo addicted to Wordpress and all it’s accouterments! It is so much fun to be customizing my own blog pages. I added ratings to posts and worked on the style sheets.

Nothing exciting with class happening, getting increasingly frustrated with it..

So for today’s social engagement, we had Josef (Michael’s co-worker) and Angie over for dinner. I have met Josef before, but not Angie. Michael has met Angie before, they have gone ski touring together. Both Josef and Angie are super fit people, Angie is a marathon runner and a triathlete, pretty amazing. They are both so nice too. We got Indian take out, since Josef is a vegetarian (how does that happen to a Bavarian?). After dinner, we played a game of Taboo and it was soooo much fun with non-native English speakers. Keep in mind, their English is really good and can speak really well, so it was kind of unexpected when they didn’t know a word or when they would say words that were completely out of context. Josef was especially funny. Michael was trying to get him to say “teeth” and so he was saying that it “is the white things that chews your food” and he was saying things like “plate, chainsaws (CHAINSAWS????), fork, etc. Everyone was just cracking up. Finally he got the answer, or maybe Michael gave up. I can’t remember I was laughing so hard. He thought “chews” was “choose”. Ahhh, English, so complicated. But still, CHAINSAWS??? What the? Then when Michael was guessing the word, he would have a mental block or something and was just guessing all kinds of stuff and we all were laughing because it was obvious to us what the answer was, but to him he couldn’t figure it out. Of course the girls won! :) Angie was actually pretty good with describing stuff and in one session I think we got 4 once. But in other sessions, we got none. Oh, it was so much fun, I hoped the night would never end. I’m sure we will get together again, and maybe next time we’ll do the German version. We looked at the words though - sehr schwer!

We also moved the TV from our bedroom into the Library room, I’m liking it! It will be easier for us to watch something on TV with other people, rather than have people pile into our bed.

I didn’t go to class today. I want a FULL weekend, not this 1 day crap. I arranged for private lessons with the other teacher. I was happy that we could do it. I was also thinking of doing it with Frances, a student from the previous class that is about the same level as I am. But it turns out that she wants to stay with her teacher. Anyways, so we start in a couple of weeks, I am so excited!!! She is a great teacher and I will improve dramatically in less time. I can’t wait!

This evening we met our new sprach-duo partner (in addition to Angelika). Her name is Antje, and she is a really nice woman. Very tall too! She works for Esprit and is a visual mercandiser (does the windows for the stores). I think that’s the title. Her english isn’t as good as Angelika’s, but it is still WAAAYYY better than our German. It is so cool that we’re meeting these Germans and they are all so nice. We had fun talking about retail - and she said that Esprit here is like the GAP to the Americans. It is super popular, whereas the Gap is not, and Esprit is not so popular in the US. I wonder why that is. She also mentioned that the Sprach-duo list is indeed used as a singles blind date board, but not by everyone. Some of us actually have the intention of practicing languages! We’re going to visit her one of these days and she’ll give us a tour of the store. I need new walking shoes as well as baby clothes. She said that there is a whole floor for babies and kids, can’t wait to see it, although it wil probably be really expensive. We’ll see.

Michael piqued my curiosity by telling me that I can customize google maps. So I of course immediately looked it up and started creating my own map of all the yarn stores. Sooooo coooool! Google really makes it easy to do. Then, I got excited about exploring something called WordPress. Aparently, our webhost is the “preferred host” of WordPress and I can install it with a click of a button. Well, that opened a can of worms and I stayed up super late getting everything set up and customized. I moved over the blog that I created yesterday to the new site. Can’t wait to unveil it. Stay tuned!

Getting some walking practice in

Today I thought it would be great that for Mother’s Day we eat together as a family. Michael took care of the boys in the morning as usual, and I slept in. Then whenever he put them down for a nap, he took one as well. I got up before the boys got up and started to make lunch. My timing was a little off, so our sandwiches were cold. But it was still good. The boys ate macaroni and we ate mozzarella sandwiches. It was really nice to eat all together. We never do that. Mainly because it’s so hard to make their dinner and our dinner in time before they got to bed. There is also so much other crap that needs to happen before they go to bed that there’s just not enough time.

After lunch, we all went out together to the Munich Stadtmuseum. The cool thing is that on Sundays it’s FREEE!!!! That made it even better because then if the boys fuss we can leave and not feel like we threw money into the fire. We went to the top floor to the musik museum. OK, we totally didn’t understand this one. They had all these ancient instruments laying about, seemingly for anyone to come up and play with it. I mean, why do they leave it out if it’s not to be played? Very confusing. We didn’t touch any or anything. In fact, it was the quietest floor in the whole building. Go figure! On our way down the elevator, we spied on this guy who was watering his plants without pants. He probably had shorts on and his shirt was long enough that it covered it, but it was just funnier thinking he didn’t have pants on and stepped out onto his balcony for all the people in the museum to see (glass walls doesn’t hide a darn thing). You had to be there I guess.

The boys actually did very well and I loved the photography exhibit they had. The photos were inspiring and amazing. After awhile, we let the boys walk around, but they didn’t want their hands held, so Rowan started crawling around. When he started making lots of noise, we went outside and I let him run around. Michael took Elijah to some Nazi display and we met outside. They had fun playing in the courtyard. Then Michael took them home and I was let loose to explore the yarn shops. I have an idea to create a web page that lists all the yarn shops here and include pictures and the brands of yarn that they carry. That would be really useful. It was fun finding places and taking pictures though the windows. Some places were not yarn stores (got the name from the yellow pages), so it was like a treasure hunt. So excited when I find a new store and severely disappointed when I got sent to a dead end.

In the evening, I uploaded the pictures and created a separate blog with all the information. I’ll have to go back and take better pictures. Blogger is kind of limited with what I can do. I want to add ratings and have a different layout. I’m exploring other options…

Happy Mother’s Day to all!

We had class today. I thought it would be empty, but pretty much everyone showed up. I am getting increasingly more frustrated with the class. I need to get the phone number of the teacher to take private lessons. I was thinking about that throughout the class. Stefano will email it to me tonight. I was also kind of mad because I tried to help out a fellow classmate (will refrain from saying any names), only to get dissed. I was mad about it all day. But you don’t want to hear about that.

Michael went out for a climb, that almost ended in disaster (not emergency disaster, just unhappiness disaster). He came home really late, so it was just me and the boys all day. We had fun testing where our body parts are - still having trouble with our noses. But we certainly know where our belly buttons are! And we love to make monkey noises! The boys are sometimes unbearably cute intermingled with unbearable screaming. How does that happen?

They loved the spray of the cards.