Today we practiced singing happy birthday and blowing out the candles. Rowan is pretty good at it, but poor Elijah can only blow upward.

Sorry about not blogging as often. It seems like every entry is the same - either did nothing, or went to a class or worked out. Well, it’s still pretty much like that. I’ve been trying to substitute a bike ride for my workouts and it’s way more enjoyable. And I usually get something done like grocery shopping. The weather was bad a couple of days ago, but today it was really nice and sunny. We even went for a bike ride because Rowan got his helmet and gave it to Michael and said “back” (bike).

The boys are doing well, they are in a really cute stage right now. So rascal too! They love playing in the bathroom. Today I found Rowan “cleaning” the bathroom with the TOILET BRUSH! Ewww… And the toilet paper rolls are always being unrolled. Another thing that they love is the kitchen trash can. I have no idea why they like it so much.

Elijah also had a heart checkup this week and we are happy to say that he is doing well. I couldn’t get a babysitter so Michael took off of work and took Elijah while I stayed at home with Rowan. His next checkup will be in 1 year, which is really good news. He is healthy as ever and growing a lot. Michael said that Elijah was really, really good when getting his ultrasound done. Last time it was a nightmare, but this time he just lied down and watched the machine. So awesome! Rowan also was really good. He just played with his toys really quietly, I barely knew who this kid was! I have never seen him so quiet. I tried playing with him, but he would always go off and do his thing. So I just sat on the couch with my laptop. What a luxury! The words that they are saying more of now are “back” (bike), “shoe” and “sah” (socks). “Popo” can be either apple or pineapple. They are really good at putting things away too. Today after our bike ride, they were playing with rocks while we were putting our bikes away and when we were ready to go, we said “ok let’s go” and they were just sitting there. I was wondering why they weren’t moving and it turns out that they were hurridly putting the rocks back to the dirt area before they came. Too cute!

Other than that, I’ve been planning my London trip for this weekend. Shopping and more shopping. Mostly for yarns and a slow cooker. It is expensive though, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I come home empty handed. But that’s ok, I love the shopping part, not necessrily the buying. My secret pal Ingrid has graciously offered to let me stay with her, so I will be staying with Christos on Saturday night and then with Ingrid on Sunday and Monday nights. Michael will be in charge of the boys. At least the maid will be there on Tuesday, right before I come back! :) I am really looking forward to the break.

Christmas season is coming and the Christmas markets are opening on December 2nd. It will be nice to see them again! I’m also excited because the Heim und Handwerk show is also coming Dec. 2! I believe I went to it last year and enjoyed it.

I have been really terrible about holidays with the boys. It’s too much work to organize and actually do something about it. I really give credit to the parents who muster up the energy to decorate their houses and make costumes and all that! This Christmas I’m passing the buck to my parents who will have to get a tree and decorate it for the boys! I’m glad that we will be around lots of family, because they don’t have much of that in Munich.

Today was a gorgeous day! It was so nice and sunny, not warm, but not cold either, maybe in the 60’s? It was perfect! Instead of going to the gym today, I decided to just ride my bike to my German lesson. It would have been a crime to not ride my bike!

German lesson was good, but I really need to study more! I’ve been always procrastinating and it sucks when I have my lesson. Hmm…sounds a lot like my cello lessons! I finally went and got some new gloves. Geez. But then I forgot I had them and didn’t use them on the ride home. Go figure!

This evening we went to see the movie “Borat”. We rode our bikes there too and it was a great ride. Too bad we get kinda stinky when we arrive. But at least we don’t know the people sitting next to us so we don’t care. The movie was good, maybe there’s too much hype around it that made it so that we were like “yeah, it was ok”. There were some really funny scenes though.

Also, we are so happy about the elections! Finally, something to celebrate! And that Rumsfeld news? Whoa!

Today was their last Montessori class, I’m kind of sad. They really enjoyed that class and I signed them up again in January. They did good as usual. One of the things was to blow out candles and they couldn’t do it, or didn’t want to. It’s hard to explain how to blow when they see no results. So they went and busied themselves with the trash can while the other two kids did it. I have to practice it with them so that they can do it for their birthday.

I can’t believe they will be 2 this month. They are learning so many things every day and have been so well behaved for the most part. They put up with all my shopping and misc errands and it’s tragic that almost every morning they have to say bye to their dad. They are so full of life and curiosity! I love the way they kiss with a big “mwah” and they don’t need much to make them happy, just food and a flushing toilet. We are already not looking forward to the days when giving hugs and kisses are a thing of the past, but you can be sure we will stretch it as far as it will go. Even though I never thought I would say things like “No heads in the toilet” and “No touching poop!”, we are truly blessed to have 2 sweet, energetic, adventurous, crafty and just really awesome boys.

This afternoon/evening, we met Michael at work and we did a bit of shopping (needed milk and diapers badly) and then decided to go to Pizza Hut for dinner. It was our first time and I can’t believe we didn’t go sooner. It is a really kid friendly place (balloons, paper/colored pencils, room for strollers and some halloween toys). My god, I didn’t realize how much we missed American style pizza. It was delicious and we all had a good time. We will be back, that’s for sure! The pepperoni wasn’t great, but everything else was perfect. Now all we need is a Taco Bell and we’ll be set! That’s where we’ll probably go whenever we first get to Texas! We have had decent Mexican food here (by Munich standards), but we have yet to have a good burger. I think that’s what we miss most of all.

The boys had lots of fun today running around the house. They were just laughing and laughing!

The also had fun playing with our new bike stroller

This morning we gathered ourselves up and went to the gym. I actually had to motivate Michael to go, usually it’s the other way around. Rowan really surprised me today by just walking into the play area like it’s no big deal and didn’t fuss one bit. He usually clings on to me and cries, cries, cries until I leave. But today, I guess he was excited to play on the bobby car. Elijah did put up a small fuss, but it wasn’t a big deal. I did my long workout today, 1 hour and 20 minutes on the treadmill. Almost 700 calories! Whoohoo!

After napping, we went to Garmisch to visit Matt and Ari. I made them a book with all of the wedding pictures I took for them and gave that to them as well as a few enlargements. They also got to see the boys, which they haven’t seen since the Spring. The boys were really well behaved, we had cake and tea. They stayed and played quietly in the room, sometimes turning up the music too loud and sometimes demanding more cake and tea. At least we got to talk some rather than just having to watch them and get a word in here and there.

I talked with Ari about their speech (she’s a speech therapist) and how behind I thought they were. She said that at 2 there’s a big difference between kids at that age and just by watching our interaction and what they say, she said we shouldn’t worry. We just have to continue reading to them and asking them to say stuff as well as asking them what things are. Basically continue doing what we’re doing. I do need to read more to them though. That made me feel better though, just to have a professional opinion.

They also bring up a good point that you need to be careful about doctors, they need to make money and some of them will recommend unnecessary things so that they can get paid. That’s kind of scary. We think that’s true about Michael’s throat thing. The surgeon said that he needs to get his tonsils out, but we’re a little suspicious about that. We’ll probably get a second opinion sometime to see if he really needs it or not.

We ate at McDonald’s for dinner - I was soooo craving it. I haven’t had a cheeseburger in awhile and I figured, well, I worked out this morning. It turned out to be the right decision because the fries couldn’t have been more perfect. It was really perfect fries. Mmmmmm…

You may have noticed today that we have ads on our web pages. Yes, we finally succumbed to the call of the internet ads. Hey, we have 2 kids to put through college. So, the more pages you visit and the more you click on the ads (don’t have to buy anything) will put a few cents in that college fund. We chose Google ads because they are easy to ignore, they don’t blink and flash and usually are related to whatever is on the page. So, thanks for helping us out just by reading this! :)

Today we went on a bike ride (a cold one) to the Knipples’ in Schwabing. We had to drop off their old stroller to them. The only way we could do that is to put the boys in their kid seats on our bikes and put the stroller in the chariot. The boys were real troopers and didn’t mind being so cold. They even put up with their mittens. We didn’t get to visit with them because their boys were all sleeping, so we just dropped off the stuff and went to San Francisco Coffee Company for some hot chocolate and brownies. The boys even got their own cappucino (whipped milk with a little bit of chocolate) and they loved it. Felt like they were drinking an adult drink. They served it in a little cardboard cup with a tiny straw. They got lots of sugar today, which is unusual.

We also went to the store to buy our groceries for the weekend. No big thing. Then Michael went out with Rowan to get some cookies supplies while me and Elijah hung out at home. It was a nice break. Elijah played really quietly by himself. He loves the duplo blocks that we bought yesterday and really concentrates putting them together and taking them apart. He doesn’t like playing with the people much, he prefers his vehicles to be empty. Free of people and animals.

We had cookies this afternoon (more sugar!) which the boys made and we all ate some together as a family. It was a really nice thing to do.

We are reading “From Innocence to Entitlement” book. It’s in the Love and Logic series. Really good. Recommend it to any parent of young kids! We really are true believers in the Love and Logic series. The change that we’ve seen in the boys since we started using it is amazing. We hope they grow up to be real thinkers and well mannered. And happy, of course.

So, I’m getting pretty consistent with my workouts, doing at least 3 times a week, most times 4, last week even 5! I thought I would do classes more than just walk on the treadmill but because that requires planning and getting to the gym at a certain time, it’s next to impossible. And the treadmill isn’t so bad, there’s a TV monitor in it and I listen to my iPod. The boys still cry whenever I leave them in the daycare, but they are getting better about it.

In the afternoon, Michael left work early today and I met him at Karlsplatz. I had to buy groceries as well as a couple of German books. He wanted to buy the boys some Duplo blocks, so we stopped in the toy store as well.

When we got home, Michael immediately went downstairs to change the car tires (into winter tires). Since Arne and Riki’s dad was working on their car, I thought it would be good for Michael to have some backup, just in case. Turns out he could do it himself without any problems. Well, we haven’t driven yet, so we’ll see!

After that, Pramilla and Neil came over for dinner. We went to the Italian place in our building. It was nice to visit with them and get caught up. Neil goes to school in Ulm, so he drives every day. That’s a long commute (1.5 hours each way). I told him he needs to check out the yarn store for me! :)

There was a misunderstanding this evening with Riki and Arne. They had planned to go to the movies and we agreed to watch the boys. I had thought that when Michael was down there he told them that we would be in the restaurant if we weren’t home. But he didn’t. They got their tickets and were in the theater and everything but they were worried that they couldn’t get a hold of us. Since we were in the restaurant, we didn’t check our messages and we didn’t have our cell phone. Riki even checked the restaurant but didn’t see us (we were in the back and our backs were to the window). When I went to check on Frederik, Arne was there and told us that since they didn’t hear from us, they were worried that we weren’t home and that something happened. Oh, we felt soooo bad. We know how hard it is to plan to go out with kids. So we told them that they should go out again and it will be on us.

It was cold, cold, cold today. It was so nice just a couple of days ago (in the 60’s or 70’s perhaps?) and then today it’s winter. I was going to go to the gym this morning but when Michael left, Rowan cried for about 90 minutes straight. He was sooooo upset that dad left for work today. I wonder if it’s because he had him all day yesterday? Who knows. Finally I brought the computer out and we watched YouTube videos of funny dogs and birds. They REALLY like dogs. That seemed to calm him down. Also, I had him watch videos of his dad and they like that too.

So, guess what I decided to do for my exercise? I biked to my German lesson. How crazy is that? And since it was the first time, I got lost, went too far, and then got lost in her neighborhood. It took me 40 minutes rather than the 25 or 30 that I was expecting. It was cold. Very cold. But after warming up a few minutes, it was tolerable. Good thing I used Michael’s gloves because my hands would’ve been freezing. Last year I lost my gloves so now I have none.

German was ok, but I was so lazy and didn’t do any homework or study. Terrible. I was supposed to buy new books too and didn’t. Terrible. We had a long conversation about my fitness program and my heart rate monitor watch. It was really pleasant. The way home was not though. It was now freakishly cold.

I tried to find gloves for me, but they didn’t have any that I liked. Then I looked for mittens for the boys but wasn’t sure what size they were, so I just bought some at random. They have this string that goes through their clothes so if they take it off it will stay with them. I met Michael at work and we rode home together. So cold.

In the evening, we met with Angelika and Stefan for tandem speaking. But we did it mostly in English. Angelika is interviewing for jobs and it is really important for her to speak in English. So I thought for the next couple of weeks, we’ll speak mainly in English and then after she gets a job then we’ll speak in German more. They are a really nice couple and we have so much fun talking to them.

Michael made dinner AGAIN! Wow, I am so lucky. But that does mean that I have to clean up and do dishes. Ugh. He likes making dinner from these hamburger helper type packets and they are really good. He adds chili oil to make it a little more spicy. MMMmmmmm….

The Three Musketeers

Yes, today is another holiday (All Saints Day). Seems like there is always one around the corner. We didn’t do anything special, just kind of hung out at home. I’m happy that I bought a lot of milk yesterday, because I totally forgot that stores would be closed today. We didn’t have much selection for lunch and dinner but we made do.

This morning we went with Riki and Frederik to the playground and we were the only ones there. It was really cold and I’m sure people were thinking we were crazy. The boys had fun anyways. Elijah was kind of moody today, anything would just set him off. They really go crazy when Michael is around, always fighting for his attention and being hurt when they don’t have it. It looks like it’s Elijah’s turn to be fussy all the time and Rowan is good natured. Only a couple of weeks ago, it was switched. Lucky for us that they’re not both in fussy moods at the same time.

We all took a nice long nap in the afternoon. Then I did a photo shoot of Frederik and the boys. It came out ok. The boys did not want to sit still. The only way I could do it without them crying was to put a laptop in my lap while I took pictures. Elijah has a zoned out face, but at least they sat still. Between 18 months and 3 years is the hardest time to take pictures of kids, having them sit still. I’ll have to learn some tricks sometime.

After we did pictures, Riki and Frederik hung out at our place. It was nice to have them over, because Riki is always going going going and I hardly get to really talk to her when she stops by. I made noodles for the boys and they gobbled it all up.

In the evening, we watched Battlestar Galactica (a new show that we watch on iTunes) and then we debugged this problem that I’ve been having with SightSpeed. Ever since I installed it, I had problems with Windows Media player crashing. I emailed their support about it and they sent me a really rude email back saying that it’s not their problem, they have nothing to do with Windows Media. Since I’ve had really positive emails with other people from the company, I was kind of disturbed at getting such a rude reply. I tried again, asking about codecs and what not and again, I got another rude reply. I was really mad that I was brushed away so easily. I can’t stand companies who have users taking the time out of their lives to report a problem (FREE TESTING) and because it doesn’t repro in their lab, it’s not a problem. The normal response for support would be to ask the user questions about their system/scenario. But no questions from them. So, I brought this to the attention of the CEO (I have had a really nice email exchange with him earlier). He routed my email to another support person who was more helpful and apologized. It helps to have friends in high places! :)

I really believed that it is partly their problem so I recruited Michael to help me debug. It turns out that they DO have a connection with Windows Media via DirectX. HA! So much for their “we have no connection whatsoever with WMP”. We sent them debugging info as well as all my other version info to help figure out the issue. I’m still ping-ponging with them as to who is at fault. My gut tells me that they are not releasing the DirectX “surface” when they should and for some reason, my configuration or my video card shows this bug. Stay tuned…