Time seems to be flying by and I always mean to post here way more frequently than I do! The boys are growing up so fast - talking a lot and learning new words. They are at a really fun age now (I seem to be saying this at ALL ages) - they have lots of fun doing things and are easier to manage.

We discovered little gems about Munich, and can’t believe it took us so long to find them. One of them is grilling! We loved (and miss) our grill that we had on our back deck in Woodinville. You take these things for granted! One day, we picked up one of those disposable grills - it’s an aluminum pan that has the charcoal and firestarter in it - and it worked so great! Oh how I missed grilled food! We plan to do this a lot, especially when my parents come next week. The only problem is that you have to go to a grilling area, which is usually by water. The closest to us is along the Isar, maybe a mile or two away. The other thing we did was rent a paddle boat in the small lake. The boys loved it so much and mentions it every day. They loved being among all the ducks and going under trees with low branches and saying hello to the other people. It costs 5eur for 30 minutes (which is just enough). I hope we find more things like this to do around the city as the boys get older!

A few weeks ago, we met with the kindergarten teachers - our first “parent conference” and it went great! We could communicate even though it was in German, and I felt more confident about what to do with the boys after that meeting. First, they told us that we shouldn’t speak to them in German at all. I switch into German when I am at the kindergarten and I also used to respond in German whenever they would say something in German. But she said that I shouldn’t do that at all since it will confuse them. It made so much sense when she said that! I wanted the boys to learn German words so that they know more in school, but hearing the teacher say to leave the German learning to them was comforting. And they said that they are learning and saying more and more every day. During lunch one day Elijah was about to eat his food before everyone had food and Rowan stopped him and said “nicht essen!” My jaw just dropped! Not only did he understand that he has to wait, he spoke in German to his brother, who he usually speaks in English to. That was very promising.

We also talked about Elijah’s stubbornness - I learned a new German word - willenstark. We told them how embarrassed we are that they cannot sit down when we are there for the music on Mondays. They said that all the kids are like that when their parents are there. So we decided to try something - instead of us disciplining them during that time (I will take them into the other room), we would have them do it. And oh my god, it worked WONDERS! It took it to a whole new level of seriousness when the teachers took them out. And now they behave and once Elijah sat away from us and didn’t move around or lie down or play with the toys. I was amazed. Rowan sometimes needs to be taken out but when he comes back, he is a perfect angel.

And so, as you know, I have been stressing out over potty training and how they are not. Everyone else has been since Christmas. I pushed it for a few days but when talking to a friend of mine who said “you will never win, you know that right?” I let it go. We talked to the teachers about this and came up with a plan. After the spring holidays (next week), they will put them in underwear after their nap and we should keep them in it until they go to bed. Maybe I didn’t understand something, but that schedule moved up and they started it last week. Something amazing happened - Elijah became potty trained! OK, not totally, but today he didn’t wear a diaper until bedtime! He doesn’t really have accidents at home - maybe a few very small ones. But he will hold it and make those motions like holding his crotch and I’ll take him to the bathroom and he will go. He never used to be so obvious about needing to go, so I could never tell. It took him awhile to be able to pee on the toilet - 2 days ago, he wet himself during naptime (at school), then yesterday he held it but was so scared to go - at least I was there to help him to the toilet. He didn’t go on the toilet but when washing his hands, he just let loose and I picked him up and ran him to the toilet. That was a very defining moment. He looked down and saw what was happening and I could almost feel something in his head go “click”. He has no problems peeing now, but he hasn’t yet pooped in the toilet. That will be the next step. Ugh.

He did have 2 accidents at school today, but I think it’s because they don’t yet know his signals and it’s not like they have someone that can pay attention closely like I can at home. I think he has the idea though and it will only get better as the days/weeks go on. The really big thing that helped was that I bought some Thomas the Train underwear and Elijah likes them A LOT. I would’ve bought more but they only had one package in stock.

Rowan, on the other hand, doesn’t want to wear underwear at all. The first time they put it on him, he cried and cried and asked for a diaper. Now he cries for 30 seconds and then he’s over it. Then when we get home he almost always asks for a diaper. I try to push it back awhile at least to get one toilet sitting in. He hasn’t really had an accident though, but I can feel he is also not quite as ready as Elijah. That surprises me, I totally thought Rowan would be first. The teacher said that the more stubborn the child is, the easier it is to potty train them, which is so weird. But I think Rowan will have an “aha!” moment like Elijah did sometime soon.

So, overall, potty training has been great once I let go and let them choose whether or not they want to wear underwear. It took the pressure off me and it has been some work, but not the hell that I was expecting. We still haven’t gotten to the poop training yet, so we’ll see!

We also decided to go to German speech therapy. We weren’t satisfied with the English one due to scheduling and that she recently moved offices and is now far away. I have a couple of names of therapists in our neighborhood so we’ll see how that goes. I think it will be better for them and will help them to be able to communicate with other kids.

I think that’s all the news fit to print! Parents are coming next week and we are all looking forward to that!