Michael and I have been sick for the past week with a nasty cough. We just coughed and coughed but it hasn’t gotten any better and for Michael it got worse. We usually don’t go to the doctor for small things but this morning I had a pain in my back that was really sore for about 30 minutes but then went away. That was enough to tip the scales in the direction of doing something about it.

The only problem is that we didn’t have babysitting. Both of my babysitters are students so they aren’t usually available in the morning. And I couldn’t get a hold of the other babysitter that I have. Luckily, our neighbor Riki was home and she could watch the boys while we were gone. It is kind of easy to watch them now, especially since the weather is nice. All you have to do is open the patio doors and let them play with their cars and two pots of water. It keeps them entertained awhile. I probably mentioned that.

We went to the doctor and it turns out that we both have bronchitis and need antibiotics. Geez! Thank goodness we went otherwise it may have turned into pneumonia. Also, the coughing has gotten so bad that it’s hard to have a good sleep the last few nights. Michael medicates himself into a deep slumber with Nyquil but I try to avoid it if I can. I only take it if I’m stuffy. So we got our antibiotics and cough medicine and hopefully we’ll be on our road to recovery. We really should’ve gone in sooner, but, well, we’re so lazy. The doctor didn’t seem too concered with the pain in my back, I guess because it passed. If we’re not better by Monday, we’ll have to go back.

The other day I went to the post office to drop off some mail and there was a guy with a little table and pamphlets. Normally I avoid these types and just keep on walking. But he was parked right in front of the mailbox so there was no way to avoid him. He asked where I’m from and I said the US (mistake #1). Then he asked me if I knew Larouche. I had no idea who he was (mistake #2). He went on this whole tyrade about how Al Gore and his ridiculous “environment concerns” are taking away the spotlight from what really should be happening and that is impeaching Bush. O.K. Yeah. I didn’t leave there I just had this dumbfounded look on my face and said “huh?” (mistake #3). Then he was going on and on about how great Larouche is and how he wants to bring Rooseveltish politics back (or something like that) and how there’s too much corporate money involved (I can agree with that). Then he said “Al Gore is a racist from Tennesee with a big swimming pool”. Ooooh, I just about lost it. I said “well, I don’t believe THAT”. And he said “it is not for you to believe, it is a fact!” HUH? I walked away in disgust and he kept shouting after me all these horrible things about Gore. I know he’s entitled to his opinion, but it makes me mad that he is perched outside MY post office and telling these things to Germans who will want to hate Americans even more or at least think we’re stupid for being concerned about the environment and taking away the attention of impeaching Bush. My blood was boiling for a few hours. I wanted Michael to go back and calmly argue with him, but he was gone.

Here are some words for you from the boys: bahkeen (parking, not to be confused with baikee, which is bike), ee ahg (big hug), ahmee (open), neeno (window), moo cok (wall clock), tiss (kiss), ahpain (airplane), meal (mail)

Playing in the grass at Feringasee

We have been having the most perfect weather lately! Clear skies and warm. But not too warm. Warm enough to be wearing t-shirt and shorts, but not too warm where you’re dripping sweat. The boys have been enjoying a lot of outside time - on our patio as well as at the playground and we’ve even made a couple of trips to Feringasee. The first time we biked, the 2nd time we drove. It is so perfect in the evenings. And now the sun goes down so much later, past 8pm! This is my time of the year!!!

The boys are a little easier to go out with. I don’t have to watch them so closely anymore. Elijah doesn’t like to hold hands when we’re walking so we let him go, as long as he doesn’t go too far. But he knows that he has to hold hands crossing the street. Sometimes he puts up a fight, but he ultimately knows it’s the “law” so he gives in pretty quickly. I am also able to open our patio doors and they will stay on the patio 95% of the time. Sometimes they get carried away with pulling all the leaves off the bushes. I can bring the laptop to the living room and surf the net while they play outside. That is a nice luxury.

At Feringasee, Michael and I could just sit down and watch and they would toddle along exploring the grass, dirt, flowers and sticks. Rowan loves pulling every flower up (they are the grass flowers that are everywhere). They both can stay occupied for hours with a pile of rocks. They love relocating rocks. We had a lot of fun skipping rocks. Of course, they couldn’t skip them, but that didn’t stop them from trying! At the lake, we met this older man that didn’t speak any English and he was so excited to talk to us. He was a very nice man but kind of weirded me out when he went on and on about how he liked the nude areas. He looked at me and said “it’s ok here, no problem” and kind of looked at me like I should start taking my clothes off. Eh…. He meant it in a “no one really cares here” kind of way but it was just weird. I’m such an American!

The boys are at a really fun age. I am enjoying them quite a bit. Of course there are those days that they fight over every. single. thing. But for the most part, I have learned how to distract and/or control. They still trash their bedrooms, but they clean it up. They make large messes, but also clean it up. Little pieces of chocolate works wonders. I’m trying to teach them to put one thing away before taking out another. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Did I tell you about the time I threw my keys in the trash? While the boys were watching Teletubbies, I took out the trash. Normally it’s no big deal, but when I flung the bag into the trash bin, it decided that my keys should come too!!! I was in a panic! Luckily, there wasn’t much trash in the bin (maybe 1 layer), but my keys weren’t on the top of anything. I had to fish around for it awhile before I found it. I tried getting it but it was obvious that I would have to get in. I was a little worried about the boys, but I couldn’t go back inside without keys. I went to the apartment management and luckily they had the perfect tool (a grabber thingy) to get my keys out. Everything ended happily. The boys had no idea I was gone.

I have been knitting, knitting and more knitting! I am so completely obsessed with knitting. In all the years I’ve been doing it, I don’t think I have enjoyed it so much. I love buying new yarn (that’s the best part) and then turning it into something - socks, scarves, hat, mittens. I don’t do any big project knitting so I think that’s why I’m enjoying it. For a long time I was just knitting dishcloths, and that’s kind of boring. I think the sock knitting really hooked me in. And there’s so much great yarn out there. I have spent a small fortune acquireing new yarns. Well, ok, not small, maybe medium fortune. It’s unfortunate that in my pinnacle of knitting I am in a place that doesn’t have good yarn (with one exception). The US is THE place for yarn. period.

The boys have discovered a couple of new games. First is hide-and-seek. They don’t do it with each other, but with Michael. He makes the game so exciting. The other is “cave”. They have this tunnel that we bought from IKEA and I put a large comforter over it so that it’s dark and there’s a “door” on the end. They can play with this for hours.

Elijah is now understanding the concept of something in a location. For example, he now says “boat in the water” or “blankie on the bed”. Pretty cool! We’re also introducing the concept of two languages. Like Michael would ask “what is that” and Elijah would say “tree” and then Michael would say “in German” and he would say “baum”. Rowan isn’t quite as advanced, but he does talk a lot too. I’m sure he will get it in no time. We want to teach them more things in German and of course all the German people they know speak German to them. Elijah is also starting to sing. Michael’s mom gave us this tractor that plays “old macdonald” and Elijah sings the “e-i-e-i-o” part. It’s so cute! He does have this one irritating thing - he will repeat a word over and over until you say what he wants you to say. You can’t ignore him or it will get louder, you can’t just say “yes” or “uh huh” or it will get louder, you can just repeat what he says (unless of course it is the correct word). So he was saying “wawai” over and over and I thought he was saying “bye bye” so I kept saying “bye bye” and he kept repeating “wawai” until I looked at what he was pointing to and it was a butterfly. So I said butterfly and he moved on. So strange. The boys also do this thing where they copy their dad. When something is heavy or hard to do they say “eh eh eh” in a straining voice to show that they need help. It’s really funny!!

Here are some words for your enjoyment: akaker (helicopter), hane (hen), au-sigh (outside), ah-kee (ice cream), fice (fries), awahund (around and around), wheel, betzn (bretzen - german pretzel), watts (watch), cho-ket (chocolate), wa-bat or ba-bat (rabbit), cheen (train), wed (red), wawai (butterfly),

We got the call yesterday from the Kindergarten we liked and they didn’t pick us. No surprise there, but I held out a little hope. I did tell him to put us on the waitlist, so we’ll see. I think I will have to really study German this year so we feel more comfortable applying to these places. We’ll have to learn the vocabulary of Kindergarten. It’s a little depressing, but I know that the right place will be there for them. I did get a call from another kindergarten but they only had 1 place open. Back to the drawing board.

The boys driving the car

Hello again! Hope you’ve been enjoying the videos. The boys are doing well. We went to the zoo last week and it was the first time that they really enjoyed it. We didn’t have too much stress because everything is kind of blocked off and there is really only one walkway to walk on so we didn’t have constantly corral them. The only bad part was that we had to pay 18 euros just to get in, then when you add in some lunch, some snacks for the animals, parking, etc., it’s almost 50 euros to go to the freaking zoo. The boys love ducks, I think it may be their favorite animal. Or at least it was the only animal they recognized. Every time there’s a duck we would say “look a duck!” and they would drop what they were doing and look for it. They really enjoyed the playground too, especially the slides.

Also, they rode these electronic old timey cars BY THEMSELVES! We put them in the cars and thought that for the actual ride we would go in there with them. But they were pretty happy playing with the steering wheel. We were completely prepared for them to start screaming once the car started moving, but nope, they were perfectly happy. It was so cute to watch them go around all by themselves, not clinging on to us. They wanted to ride it over and over, but we only bought tickets for 2 rides.

Some new words (and old faves) are - davork or dadavork (daddy is at work), poo away (put away), eeek! mouse! (not because they’ve seen real ones, only ones in books or on videos), baseek (bottle in the sink), ahneemo (asking for the wooden toy animals), auj (orange), zeep (sleeping - jah jah zeep!), took (truck), ah bader (all better), peeboo (peekaboo), ahbella (umbrella), reen (rain), dadet (jacket)

Now when we read books, if there is a picture representing a word, I make them say it. For example, when we read “Little Red Hen”, I make them say pig, duck, cat and seeds. “Not I” said the…. and Rowan says “PIG!” It is so much fun to have them actually participate in the story and not just me reading to them. Rowan really is a bookworm now and is always reading his books or making me read books. Elijah likes reading too, but he much prefers reading by himself and only occasionally likes me to read for him. Elijah is the artist of the family, he loves the magna doodle pro that my sister got for them for christmas. He is always drawing and always wants me to draw houses. It’s always house house house house! Even if you draw one, it’s not enough. There needs to be a whole city of them.

I also recently bought some colored soap so they can fingerpaint while taking a bath. Elijah LOVED this! He made a really pretty purple heart on the walls and constantly was asking for more “paint”. Rowan had fun putting paint on Elijah and himself.

Nothing else too terribly exciting is going on here. Long Easter weekend this week - 4 days! At MS, we never had any holidays around Easter. Between the new year’s and memorial day, it was a dry spell. We want to do something but don’t know what. Maybe go overnight somewhere. I’m thinking somewhere with a yarn store. oh and a playground for the boys.