Michael and Aidan left last night to go climbing for 10 days in the Alps. They were originally going to go to Italy but the weather isn’t very good there. So, they are climbing for the next few days around here, and then probably head off to France. So it’ll just be me and the other boys. Luckily I have some knitting friends that will keep me company.

Other than that, nothing too much exciting. I have been going to the health club 3x a week. I found that I can knit and exercise so I’m very happy and it makes the exercise time fly by. The other day I looked at my watch and I spent 1300 calories in one shot. Woohoo! I’m not sure how many times I’ll go this next week because I won’t have the car and the boys + tram? Well, not sure how that’s going to work out too.

Yesterday I took the boys to Jogoli, one of their favorite places to go. And I found that they can do everything without my help. There are actually a few things they can’t do, but they can get everywhere without help. Before we used to follow them around and have to help them climb up on stuff. It was great, I just sat there and knitted and they went to town. Their heads were completely soaked. Excellent! Elijah threw a huge tantrum when leaving, he just did not want to go. This coupled with that he was tired and hungry did not go well. But we made it home and they crashed.

Our old crotchety neighbor hates us even more now. I guess she’s becoming more and more irritated with the boys. Once, we went to the store and on our way home, Rowan wanted to go back. He loves shopping, by the way. And I told him no, we are going home, we already went to the store. And he started to cry in the lobby area of our apartments. Our neighbor came out and I heard her but didn’t look at her and brought Rowan into the house. Before I closed the door, she came down the stairs and said:

“Can I help you?”
me: “No, we’re fine”
“Why is he crying?”
me: “Because he wants to go to the store that we just came from”
long pause
“Can I help you with something?”
me: “No, we’re fine”
“Why are they always crying?”
“Because they always want to do things that they shouldn’t and I don’t let them”
neighbor storms off in a huff

I’m sure she has never had kids. I was so mad after that, that I had to give Michael the boys and I retreated to my room.

The next 2 days after that incident, there was extremely loud drilling in our building all day and I was just laughing! Haha, got what she deserved. Normally, I’m not happy for someone’s grief, but in this case I totally am.

Here are the boys playing with straws

Today is Lynn’s one year anniversary of her passing. I think of her quite often over this last year and relive all the good times. She was the kindest and most thoughtful person and I’m so lucky to have been her cousin! She was always a wonderful hostess, going out of her way to make you feel like royalty in her house. And she had the greatest smile, you couldn’t help but smile too! My thoughts today are also with Rob, hoping he’s doing ok and just wish that I could give him a hug. And also with my Aunty Kay and Uncle Antoku and cousins Eric and Gary.

I miss you so much Lynn! Here is the video that I made for her - I compiled a bunch of pictures from her friends and family and put it to her favorite music. I cry every time I see it.

We got the wonderful news today that the boys are going to go to Kindergarten in September! So exciting yet scary. I will try to take them to the health club every weekday until then to get them to be in a German environment as well as without me and with other kids. I have been so lax about going to the health club, but now I have a reason. And also it will be good that I’m getting some exercise! Oh, we are finally part of the community! I can’t wait to meet the other parents and I bet our German will improve so drastically now. This last year has been a struggle and even though our friends say that our German has improved a lot, we don’t feel like it. And it doesn’t help that most of our friends only speak English.

It’s kind of scary that we will have this new expense, so I will try to find a part time job once they settle in. I really wish I could do something at home so it can be flexible. But sadly, I think that will be next to impossible. I talked with a wedding photographer from the states about how things work, and she makes it sound easy. It’s something to explore!

Other than that, nothing else is new. I’m so glad this Kindergarten thing is settled, finally!!!

Gosh, there are so many things going on right now. We still didn’t hear back from the Kindergarten yet. I’m guessing it’s a “no”, which is upsetting. I haven’t heard FOR SURE, but they told us that they would get back to us last week and didn’t. I’m trying to get in contact with someone who can tell me yes or no. But no luck yet.

In addition to that, we went to get the boys hearing checked. Rowan did great, he passed with flying colors. Elijah refused to put the thing in his ear and screamed. So we talked to the doctor and she was horrible. Michael was with me (thank god) and we both hated her with a passion right from the get-go. She told us to separate them in Kindergarten and to stop them from talking to each other. So then I came back and was like “yeah, IF they get into kindergarten and even if they did, usually they are so small that they don’t separate”. Obviously, she doesn’t know how ridiculously hard it is to get into one. I think she was telling us to send them to the state run kindergartens and granted, I haven’t looked into them, it is not what we want. It has a higher teacher-to-student ratio, and you don’t have the advantage of having different ages in one group, which I like. And then it was time to look in their ears. I told Rowan to go sit on Michael and he did, but then Elijah came charging after wanting to get up on Michael. Now, I know that if Elijah doesn’t get his way, there will be a scream and kick fest. So I grabbed Rowan and put Elijah up on Michael. Then the doctor said “oh, now you’re switching them. I can’t do my job if you keep switching them!” And it’s not like she started anything. So Michael was like “it’s a one time only thing, we are never, ever going to switch them again!” We were both rolling our eyes and cursing under our breath. And then she was like getting on Elijah and the fact that he didn’t want to stick a tube in his ear. So I said that we’ll try again. He refused to leave, so then she says “Oh, I guess you’re not going now, I will close the door since you’re not going”. Should she be a doctor for kids? I think not. She doesn’t understand how some 2 year old’s work. I decided to have a “kill her with kindness” attitude and it worked. When I went to talk to her, she seemed more forgiving. But still a jerk. So, we’re just assuming that Elijah’s hearing is also fine, and we’ll go to the speech therapist who can also coach me on what to do. Because aside from drilling them and reading to them, I don’t know what else to do. It’s amazing how long it takes for them to learn how to answer the question “What is your name?” I thought their minds are supposed to be sponges!

So then Elijah’s arm swelled up in the afternoon and had 3 distinct bites. We saw the bites last night, but it wasn’t swollen, and in the morning it was fine. I have no idea why it was such a delayed reaction. So I took him to the regular doctor and he said that it was probably due to him being allergic. It was unlikely that it was infected. So we got some cream and it was better the next day. I told him about Elijah not wanting to do the hearing test and he said “well, that happens a lot at that age”. What a difference. I mean, geez, I LOVE this doctor, so gentile and kind. And he gives the boys gummi bears so the boys love him.

Did I mention that Michael lost his wallet? He is still waiting to get his driver’s license replacement. He finally got his ATM card and was so happy to add something significant to his empty wallet. He also needs to get his heath card and some other card replacements. A lot of waiting!

We also had some friends from Seattle visit. They weren’t having the best time, due to their baby not adjusting to the European time. Poor things, they were tired! They are thinking of moving out here but have mixed feelings. There are lots of things that are good, but there are also some sacrifices that need to be made. Michael gave them a general tour of Munich and answered all of their questions. We had a really nice brotzeit on our roof before they had to go! They had family in Vienna that they were visiting as well.

What else…Michael’s friend Aidan is coming out in a couple of weeks for their big climbing trip. Michael is sooooo excited. He really misses his climbing buddies. Theron has been promising to come but never actually committed to coming (ie buying his ticket), and so we still don’t know if he will make it or not. So we’re still waiting on him. But I’m thinking not, because now it’s only 2 weeks and tickets will be super expensive.

Elijah’s tantrums have reached epic proportions and he is super stubborn too. I keep saying he has my stubbornness and Michael’s dramatic flair and that is a lethal combination. For example, today I wanted to take them to the playground. He fought me putting on his shirt, putting on his pants and then he refused to put on his shoes. It took me 45 minutes to just get his clothes on. So I gave up and told Rowan that we’re staying home. Poor fella, he started to tear up and his lip started to quiver and he said “no!” I almost cried, I felt so bad that he had to suffer, when he’s been so good putting on his clothes and shoes and waiting patiently for Elijah to do the same. Then I said “Let’s go when daddy comes home” and that seemed to have calmed the masses.

Rowan is such a sweetheart. When Elijah is in timeout and he trashes his room (meaning he messes the beds up), he opens the door and says “OH NO!” in a really concerned voice and then they start jumping on the mattresses and having fun. He is so even-tempered and almost always lets Elijah have his way. Kind of a peace-keeping force. The boys have gotten into the habit of holding my hand to guide me to where they want me to go. It’s really cute. And they say “mama, come!” or “mama, seet!”

They can almost say the alphabets. Rowan almost had it, but he ALWAYS forgets “L”, and sometimes repeats things in a circle. He can count to 10 now and is frequently counting things, but only up to 5. He can say 6-10, but it’s almost like he doesn’t know that is how it continues. He likes to count the hinges on the cabinet that we have the TV on. Elijah still needs prompting for alphabets, almost like he thinks that’s how you’re supposed to do it. I know he knows it, just refusing to tell me so.

Elijah gets into these talking conversations with himself, as if he’s speaking a foreign language only he can understand. He looks at me and says really long, complicated things and I’m like “really? wow!” And sometimes he will end with an English word or two. I wish I could get these on video, but the camera is the perfect plaything and they love looking at themselves and screaming.

I’ve been pretty good at weening them from the TV, and doing lots more reading and playing. They love reading books and their current favorites are “The very hungry catepillar” and their Lift-The-Flap books. They love the pop-up books too, but unfortunately, they are rough with them and it suffers. They don’t pop up so much anymore.

Every night in bed we have them say the alphabets as well as numbers and then they get their “underarm inspections”. They love it. Some words they know “acadoh” (avocado), “timeout”, “nein”, “roween” and “zhah-zhah” (elijah), “mama neet” (mama knit), “TV”, “monter” (monsters), leeleebahg (lady bug) and “ahnarsesuh” (underarm inspection).

Anways, that’s all the news fit to print. I’ll let you know the kindergarten news, if there’s any to tell.