Update

Sorry I've gone so long without posting a good update. Life's been busy I guess! We're doing well. The "honeymoon" phase has worn off, and we're starting to settle into regular life, which has been hard. Harder than we expected, but it's good. We mostly like it here, and we're figuring ways to enjoy it more/appreciate it better all the time.

Dylan is really liking his job. The hours are a little more relaxed than they were in Boulder which means he gets to spend lots of time at home, and we get to do a lot of fun things on the weekends.

James is doing really well. He's excited to go to Kindergarten (German preschool) in the fall. For now he's really enjoying Kinderpark twice a week, and being in his "big boy class" at church. He's recently been really interested in bible stories, and his favorite right now is David and Goliath. You can frequently find him pretending one of his toys is a "slinky" (sling shot) and heading off to get Goliath. He's also really into his pirate playmobils and sword fighting! He completely gave up naps a few months ago, so during nap time he's learning how to play quietly with toys that aren't as well suited to David (play-doh, markers, playmobils, etc.) which he seems to really enjoy.

David is changing every day it seems. He still doesn't have a ton of words, but he's starting to use the words he knows more and more, and he's getting better at communicating what he wants and needs. Today he brought me an empty cup and pulled on my hand till I followed him to the kitchen, once there he pointed at the refrigerator indicating he wanted a drink. I handed him his sippy cup full of milk and he started gesturing, and shaking his head, and telling me "nein, nein" (his one german word!) making it very clear that he wanted his milk not in his sippy cup, but in the "big boy cup" he had initially given me. Once I gave him a drink in the big cup (against my better judgement!) he went away very pleased with his successful interaction! He's also very busy, constantly running full speed around the house which leads to him nearly constantly having a bump on the middle of his forehead. Poor little guy! He and James are really becoming the best of friends, of course they fight like all siblings, but they also really love and enjoy each other, and play together nicely. Yesterday I was in the kitchen cleaning up, and I heard so much squealing coming from the other room I thought someone must be hurt. I rushed in to find James crawling around on the floor and David "riding" on his back and squealing in delight. So precious!

I am doing really well most of the time. I still get really homesick occasionally, but aside from that I really like it here. I've made a few new friends recently, and that has been really encouraging. I'm also enjoying my German class which is wrapping up next week, and I'm hoping to start a new class in the fall. I started taking the boys to an English speaking women's bible study at our church once a week, and that's really helped feel more connected and plugged in at church, which is great.

I'm going to make an effort to update more often, and I finally charged up my camera batteries, so maybe I'll post some pictures as well!

Marionette theater

It seems like some sort activity or event is always going on in the town we live in. It makes it a really fun place to live. There are always signs plastered all over town for a few weeks, and then some fair or festival takes place. There was an Easter Festival with an oomph band, a children's choir, tons of stalls, and a small ferris wheel. Then for May Day there was a big to-do for raising the Maibaum (may pole), then there was the Hambourger Fischmarkt, which had nothing to do with fish and everything to do with weird cheap clothes, purses and household goods.

A few weekends ago there was a Marionette theater. (I'm a little behind on the blog!) The signs had been up for weeks, so James was really anticipating the "puppet" show for long time. On Saturday morning it was all he could talk about. Every 10 minutes or so he would ask me if we could go to the puppet show yet. Since it didn't start until 4:00pm, this made for a very long morning, but we made it through. Finally 3:30 rolled around and James and I headed out for the puppet show. We decided to leave David at home with Daddy, because I knew he wouldn't be able to sit still for more than a few minutes, and I thought it would be something special for James and I to do together.. It was a really special little "date" for us.  It took place in a field near our house, so we could walk there without the stroller. The theater was set up by a traveling Marionette Theater group, and they had set up a big tent where the show would be. There was a little stage, and a concessions stand. The whole thing was really cute. Before the actual marionette show a little boy who was maybe 9 or 10 came out to introduce the show. I couldn't really understand much of what he said, but you could tell he had memorized his lines perfectly, and it was really darling. I'm pretty sure that he was part of the family that owned the puppet theatre, everything had a "family run"sort of feel to it.

The show we went to was the Rumpelstilzchen (Rumpelstiltskin) marionette show, and then a "Magic Puppet Show" where a bunch of marionettes came out and danced around, and juggled, and other cool things. I was afraid that we wouldn't enjoy the show very much because of the language barrier, but even though we couldn't understand much of what they said, you could tell what was going on, and it was really fun to watch. I let James get a soda and some popcorn from the concessions stand (he went up and bought it all by himself, ADORABLE!), and the whole thing was a pretty fun time!