Carole and Tom with the boys

Michael’s dad, Thomas Soare, lost his battle with cancer and passed away last night (Sept. 25) in his sleep. We will miss him dearly, but we’re also comforted that he is no longer in pain. Michael will go out to Texas in mid-October for the memorial.

Tom was an amazing and charismatic man, always the optimist. One of my most favorite memories was when I got to see him direct one of his plays at SHSU, they were doing a dress rehersal and we were there visiting. I was so happy to be able to see him work and watch how all his students looked up to him and listened. It was so weird to hear people call him Dr. Soare, as I only knew him as Tom, our Dad and Grandpa to the boys.

Their first craft project

So the boys have been going to kindergarten for a little over 2 weeks. Those two weeks I stayed with them and we went from 9:30 to 12:45 every day. It was really hard for them to sit still in a circle but they are getting there. This week, however, I decided it’s time for them to be on their own. They know the place well enough and there is so much to do and they feel comfortable there. So far, so good. In fact, I think they are better behaved. The teacher said that they sat for 15 minutes in the circle, which is longer than when I was there. They also eat very well and can do everything by themselves. So awesome! I really, really like the kindergarten and know that they are in good hands, even when they don’t know the language. And the best part is that they’re really happy to see me when I pick them up. Elijah even gives me a hug and says “mama mama mama!” and his face lights up. So precious!

They have also had a spurt of new words. The past few months it seems like they haven’t said really anything new, but the last couple of weeks since they started kindergarten, they are surprising me almost every day. Rowan is the one that is saying new things and Elijah repeats. They switch all the time. Probably next month it will be Elijah saying a bunch of stuff. Anyways, so new words are “dirty shirt”, pumpkin, spider, and something else I forgot. I try to write stuff down but sometimes I forget to. They are also learning german, I heard Elijah say “Mama da” and they both say “bis morgen”, not all that clearly, but you can still tell what it is.

And yesterday, they brought their first “craft” home. It is a chestnut that they stuck some tooth picks in. It’s supposed to be a hedgehog (or igel), but they like to call it a spider. It is really cute! I love all the stuff that they bring home. I am looking forward to all the paintings and drawings and other crafts.

Rowan’s arm is back 100%. When he first got the cast off, it was still tender a bit, so we had to be careful, but a couple of days after that, he started using it like normal.

We also had our first “elternabend” where all the parents get together and talk about whatever. Since the parents are running the school, we have to do all the work. It was completely in German, but some of the parents helped us when we had a confused look on our faces. We did ok, we at least understood what they were talking about, but not all the details. Michael volunteered to be a music/english teacher, which should be fun. So he will do 1 hour every Monday (or at least most mondays). And that fulfills our obligation as far as “work” for the kindergarten. I think Michael will do great and the kids will really like him and a great thing to see after coming back from the weekend.

It is also cool because a lot of the people live in the neighborhood, we met two families that live just around the corner. And even the next day, I even ran into one of the mothers and we chatted a little.

Nothing else is happening. Oktoberfest is going on now so it’s really crowded in the city. We’ve a few days of beautiful weather, but today it’s rainy. Ah well, summer can’t last forever! Our friends from Seattle, Bob and Mardi are visiting us. They came last week and stayed for a couple of days, then went down to Garmisch to visit another friend, Matt, then went down into Italy. They will be back up here on Friday, where we will all go to Oktoberfest together and hang out. Should be fun!

Rowan, my poor baby

Rowan, taking it like a champ

Oh geez, where do I even begin?

The boys started kindergarten this week and for the most part it has been very good. I like the place and the teachers a lot. The other kids there are so great, it really is fun to watch them. The boys enjoy going there, although the language is certainly a barrier. The teachers are very nice though and speak very slow and clearly to the kids. This whole week I am staying with them and helping out the teachers a little. We go from 9:30 to 12:30 every day. Once they get used to it, they will eventually go from 8 to 2pm.

We have the daily routine - we get in at around 9:30, they play for awhile. The kindergarten has TONS of great toys that the boys just love. One of their favorite things is an old typewriter and a phone (not plugged into anything). They pick it up and say “hello daddy!” Soooo cute! And they have other motessori “toys” like pouring water into a container, pouring seeds through a funnel, opening locks with keys, stuff like that. A lot of it is for older kids but I noticed that they have been putting out more stuff every day. The first day we went there was hardly anything, but today there was lots of new stuff. And they love it all.

Then at 10am, we have “morgenkreis” = morning circle. A little kid goes around ringing a triangle to signal that it’s morgenkreis time. Then the teacher has a little gong thingy (don’t know what it’s called), but it’s amazing she only rings it once and all the kids sit down and are quiet. Wow. Except for my boys, of course. The boys are so horrible at sitting still. It’s so embarrassing that they’re the only ones running around in their own world not paying attention. The other kids are really patient too. But today we sat them down in chairs and that seemed to work really well. I guess they see the floor as “play” and chairs as “sit”. Then we go around in a circle saying good morning to every one. Each kid says “guten morgen! schön das du da bist.” which means “good morning, it is nice that you are here”. Everyone says it except for you know who. Then the teacher has some kind of activity that she does with all the kids for awhile. The boys are slowly starting to participate. I think they just don’t understand what’s going on, but they will get it.

After that, they go outside in the garden area to play. At first look, it is very empty and dull, but when you watch the kids play, it is amazingly transformed. So many busy bodies doing all kinds of stuff. Pulling the table here and there, carrying around wood to build their “house”, playing chase, etc. My boys love the slide, but unfortunately, it is an extremely fast slide and I have to be at the bottom to catch them or they go flying off. I’m hoping that they will learn to use their legs to catch themselves. Rowan always goes first when I’m not ready and he’s crying at the bottom. It doesn’t really hurt, I think it’s just a surprise at how fast it is. They also have a little treehouse, a swing, a climbing area (that they boys are really good at, must get it from their dad), a sandbox, and a deck that everyone likes to sweep.

After playing, then they have lunch. They have to get their own porcelain (?) plates and get their food, get their utensils. Then they have to wait for everyone to sit down and then the teacher tells some animated story, then they can eat. Amazing. After eating, they put their silverware and dishes on the cart, then they have to sit back down and wait for the teacher to tell them they can go. I help out the boys a little (they are very bad at eating soup) as well as another kid, who stole my heart because he is a little angel and has the sweetest smile. The boy, Florian, is about the same age as the boys and I’m trying to get them to be best buddies. But of course, language is a problem. I noticed that he was sitting at the table, crying and I asked him what was wrong and he couldn’t say. So I asked him if it was too hot and he nodded. Awwww, poor baby! Then he refused to eat any more. Breaks my heart! The food isn’t the best but it is giving the kids a greater range to eat. They love soup and cucumbers apparently!

After that, they brush their teeth and I have been going home. I think what they do is the younger kids sleep and the older kids have quiet time, then they do an afternoon activity together.

Next week I’m going to start leaving them there for an hour or so and see how that goes. I think they will be ok. I really love this kindergarten and I think the boys will also like it too. I am so happy that we got in this year! We are very, very lucky.

Anyways, so after that, the boys usually take a nap at home and they are TIRED. No fussing and fall right to bed. Excellent! I am also tired at this point too so I cook lunch and maybe a small nap.

Today we also had a speech therapy appointment so we went to that too. I didn’t write about it earlier but they got evaluated and the woman said that they are SEVERLY speech delayed and need therapy. I always knew they did and I was kinda mad that everyone else before said that they are ok. All we did in this session was play and they recorded the kids saying words and my interaction with them. I probably did really bad. They will set up another appointment and discuss what I need to change, what is good/bad, etc.

So now to the meat of the story! After the speech therapy we were going back home. I didn’t bring the stroller because we were taking the train and I figured they could walk. It’s not a whole lot of walking on either end. And really, that wasn’t the problem. Rowan started playing with his hot wheels car on the doors of a real car and I told him to stop. He didn’t listen to me and kept on playing. So I took it away and that’s when he threw a fit and got stubborn and didn’t walk. After he threw his tantrum, which really wasn’t a tantrum, it was just more him not walking, he started walking and stopping, walking and stopping and then once, we were hurrying to cross the street and he threw all of his weight down (as to get out of my grip) but I was holding him tight. I didn’t know it at the time, but he dislocated his elbow. I couldn’t tell if he was just crying because he had to walk or if he was hurt. And then I held his hand and I KNEW. Something was wrong. He couldn’t do anything with his hand (it felt very limp). He stopped crying at this point and I thought it was ok, but then anytime he would move his arm, he was crying. He could move his arm slightly and I felt around and it didn’t seem broken but I have heard that it’s common for kids to dislocate their shoulders and/or elbows easily. So I decided that I couldn’t tackle the hospital with the both of them so I decided to go to Michael’s office. It was already past 5 so it should be ok for him to leave. He had the car too, so we zipped over to the children’s hospital.

We were getting on the train and at this point Rowan was constantly crying and Elijah was a perfect angel, not being stubborn at all, thank god. Gummi bears really do work wonders when in a bind. I helped Rowan onto the train and Elijah followed me. He decided to grab the handle of the train door and fell between the train and the platform!!! Dear lord, I just about had a heart attack but thankfully the gap wasn’t big enough for him to fall past his hips/waist, so I could pull him up. He was crying, but not hurt too bad. So there I was, in the train, both kids screaming, and EVERYONE looking at me. Yeah, picture of mom of the year!

We get out of the train station and we have to walk one block to Michael’s office. It was extremely slow and painful. Rowan was crying, I tried carrying him but then Elijah insisted on being carried too, which I can’t. So then he starts crying. So I had to put Rowan down, give them both gummi bears and try to hurry to Michael’s office. Just a half a block, oh please, oh please, I hope we make it. The prospect of seeing daddy was enough to satisfy them until we got there. They were so happy to see him that they stopped crying for awhile. Rowan was quiet in the car and we contemplated whether we should take him or not. I figured it’s better to be safe than sorry.

So we go to the hospital and got helped right away. The doctor didn’t think anything was broken so he reset his arm and heard a pop. Poor Rowan, it looked painful. He has one of those cries that is very silent for a long, long time and then a loud wail. The doctor said to wait around to see if his arm is ok so we did. It wasn’t. He was still not using it and everytime I touched it he cried. So we went back to him and so he told us to get an xray just to make sure. So we had to walk all the way across the hospital and go into a room that had a sign that said “just wait, someone will be here to help you” and we were like “huh? how do they know we are here?” but we just waited. And someone did come. And poor Rowan was so scared of the big x-ray machine but he laid there and cried his little heart out.

Then we had to walk all the way back and by this time, the ER is getting filled. I found the doctor, he said nothing looks broken, so he’ll reset it again. This time it took twice as long - I guess he was doing it slower to make sure he sets it right. And poor Rowan was in so much pain. I felt so bad for him. And we waited again. And still it hurt. So the doctor said that he needs a cast and I thought it would be one of those wrap casts that could be taken off. Oh no, it’s a plaster cast. It’s only a 1/2 cast though and it is only on until Tuesday. Everyone stared at us as we left, I’m sure thinking that we abuse our children. Rowan is the first person in our family to have a cast. Michael and I have never had one.

We were so tired at this point, all of us. We were going to give them a treat and go to McDonalds (or “nuggets” as they call it) for being so patient, but we just didn’t have the energy and they weren’t all that hungry. So we just went home and called it a night.

So that’s our story…