Happy Birthday!!!

James' birthday is today! We celebrated yesterday, and had lots of fun. Here are some pictures!

All of the presents, ready to be opened. We somehow ended up with clear cellophane instead of wrapping paper (it looked exactly like silver wrapping paper!), and since we celebrated on the holiday weekend, when no stores were open, we had to make do. I used packing paper from our amazon packages to wrap the gifts. It worked out just fine, good thing kids aren't picky.

James playing his new guitar from Conga and Poppy, we got David a little guitar as well so James would be able to enjoy his!

Playing with a play-doh pizza kit on their new table and chairs!

Building a block tower with new duplos from (great) Aunt Vicki!

Playing with his playmobil fortress from Uncle Brendan! (the cannon really works!)

Pirate ship sand toy from (great) Aunt Judy! We took it to the lake and let him float it in the water. So fun!

Thanks everyone for the wonderful gifts!!

Alles gute zum Geburtstag!

James' third birthday is on Tuesday. He's really excited, we been talking about it for months. We don't really know enough people here to have a party for him, so I wanted to take a cake to his "school". Of course, they are having vacation (it seems like every other week over here is school holiday!) next week, so we brought a cake to the kinderpark today. He was so proud of his cake, and was very excited to share it with the other children. The teachers (though they aren't called teachers in German, they're called something else that means roughly "child minders") Made him a special little crown, and lit three candles for him, and they all sang lots of birthday songs to him during snack time (I think they were birthday songs, because they would periodically have his name, or the word geburtstag in them). Including "Happy birthday" in English, apparently they know that song, even though they don't speak English. he kept telling me that it was his favorite birthday party ever. I'm pretty sure it's the only one he can really remember, but still, so cute! I meant to bring my camera and get some pictures, but of course I forgot, so I took this one when we got home. (David did not want to be left out of the photo!)

Baking over here has been quite an adventure for me. Luckily I'm used to baking things from scratch, because they do not have the same kinds of boxed mixes and pre-made frosting tubs that we have back in the US. I still have a hard time though, because I don't have American measuring cups, or baking pans. I went to the store yesterday to find a standard 9x13 pan, or really any largish rectangular pan, but there was nothing like that all. There were lots of long skinny pans kind of like bread pans, and then tons of round ones. I wanted a rectangle though, because I wanted do the classic sheet cake that you leave in the pan with frosting only on the top (so much easier!). I lucked out yesterday, because I ran into a Scottish friend, who has an assortment of pans, and let me borrow her 9x13! It always kind of a guessing game using the european measuring cups (they're in mL), but it seemed to work out ok this time, the cake was really good! Last week I made some really delicious lemon cookies, and then I went to make some more when they were gone, and they turned out completely different, so I guess it's just kind of the luck of the draw when your estimating your measurements with baking. 

Anyway, we're doing well (and are still alive!). I'll hopefully post an update about James' birthday celebration after his actual birthday next week.

May day

The first of May is a big holiday over here. Apparently in the North it means riots and protests, but down here it's much calmer. There were lots of maypoles, and parades of people all dressed up in traditional outfits. Everyone got a day off work, and since it fell on a Tuesday, Dylan got Monday and Tuesday off work. Over the long weekend we went for a little mini-vacation with our friends Jeff and Sara who were visiting. 

We stayed on a lovely little farm in the Bavarian countryside, and while we were there we visited Salzburg (birthplace of Motzart), Chiemsee (a big lake with a cool island and a castle in the middle) and some small country villages. It was a really fun time. Jeff and Sara took some awesome pictures throughout the weekend.

We did a fair share of riding regional trains, and the boys were great sports!

There were sheep, goats and horses on the farm where we stayed. David LOVED the animals and would point and grunt (what he does instead of talking) whenever one came within sight.

It was so beautiful where we stayed, and the weather was fabulous, exactly what you imagine when you hear "Bavarian countryside".

Walking up the streets of Salzburg to the fortress.

Marionette museum inside the Salzburg fortress.

Sound of music! That's me and James as Maria and Kurt :-)

Salzburg fortress.

View of Salzburg from the fortress.

Dylan and David watching the parade on May day.

May day parade.

Bye, bye binky's

The time has come for James to be done with pacifiers. We planned a big day to celebrate this new phase of his life. The day was full of fun things, the museum, presents, the playground, movies and special treats. At the end of the day James fell asleep without crying or asking for a binky at all. It was a huge success!

No more binkys smile!

Putting all the binkys in the mail box to send to some other (imaginary) baby.

Breakfast treat!

At the museum - David and James were holding hands all over the museum. It was so cute! But very hard to get a picture of because David would stop and run toward the camera the second it came into sight.

Presents! (we're on a bit of a sword/pirate/viking/knight/etc. kick)

Going to sleep with all his special things, he got a new stuffed dog, and just couldn't put his sword down, even for sleeping!

Kinderwagen

In German, a stroller is called a "kinderwagen". I got mine back in the US. Mostly because they're a lot cheaper in the US, and I didn't want to get over here and then have to figure out where/how to get a stroller in the middle of the winter with no car. I love my stroller, it's been really fabulous for us. The boys sit stacked on top of each other. I've gotten tons of comments about about the "double decker" aspect of it, both in the US and Germany. It's one of the smallest double strollers (with two actual seats) I've ever seen, which makes it great for loading in and out of elevators, riding the subway/train, and getting through small  door ways and shops.

Taking the stroller with me everywhere has many advantages. I have a place to store my groceries, the kids can nap anywhere, and I don't really have to edit myself when deciding what to bring on outings (why not bring that extra jacket? We've got the space!) There are however, a few drawbacks to the stroller. It really doesn't do well with stairs, and the subways are typically many flights of stairs underground. I've gotten fairly adept at taking escalators, but I prefer to use an elevator when possible.

Riding the elevator here can be quite a trick. If you hang around a little bit away from the elevator door, you will basically never get to ride it because people will just step right in front of you. Today I really didn't feel like taking the escalators, but I had so much trouble finding and using elevators! I waited three cycles to get on one elevator because it had such a long line of people with strollers all waiting. That doesn't really bother me though, I'm ok with waiting my turn and the kids were at least happy. When I went to get back on the U-bahn (subway), I found the elevator and patiently waited my turn. The elevator came up, the three strollers in front of me got on, and it went back down. I was now next in line to ride the elevator. I then realized the man next to me was planning to get on the elevator with 3 large rolling cases of bread (each one was as tall as him and maybe two or three feet square). I was pretty sure he and I could fit so long as no one else tried to cram their way on. Of course while we waited a number of middle aged German women came up and positioned themselves to attempt to squeeze their way onto the elevator (this is sort of what they do, I don't know why they don't just take the stairs or escalators, but they don't, and they don't like to wait their turn either). The bread guy looked at me as the elevator ascended, said something and made some motions which I'm pretty sure meant, "Let me put these three cases of bread in the elevator and then I'll hold the door for you." Against my better judgement, I nodded my agreement. No sooner had he gotten the third case unto elevator then one of the middle aged women started pushing her way into the elevator. The bread guy started yelling at her about the kinderwagen, pointing from the stroller sized spot in the elevator, and back at me, but it was no good, two more middle aged women were squeezing on to the elevator, and the bread guy was overruled. To his credit, he was pretty good at defending me, and I could still here him lecturing the women as the elevator descended. Finally with the next elevator I was able to get a spot. After all of that, I ended up taking an escalator from the mid-level of the station because the elevator from there to the subway was out of order!

Our stroller on the U-bahn:

All snuggled in for a walk!

Doctor's Office

I've taken the boys to the Pediatrician in Garching twice since we got here. The first time was your typical meet the Dr. type of appointment. The second time was because James went from peeing 3-5 times a day to saying he had to go every 5 minutes, and crying for me to take him to the potty half the night. I was worried he had some kind of bladder infection.  Anyway I thought it might be interesting to point out some of the differences between this pediatrician and the ones I've seen in the US. Of course, it may be that this particular Dr. is different, or it may be that German Dr.'s in general are different. I'm not sure.

I got the referral for our Dr. from an American friend, so I knew he spoke English before we went there. I called his office shortly after we had our insurance in place and asked the receptionist if she spoke english. She told me not very much, but my German was so good, we could speak in German. (hahaha) I explained that "do you speak english" was the only thing I knew how to say in German, so she tried to talk to me in English. It didn't go very well. I think she didn't understand why I was calling if my kids weren't sick. Finally she offered me an appointment, which is what I wanted, so we agreed on a time, I wrote it down, and I hung up. As the day of the appointment approached I got kind of confused, the day of the week I had written down did not match with the date I had written down, so I called to confirm the appointment. This time I got a different receptionist. She spoke better English, and was able to tell me very plainly that we were no where in their system and I did not have an appointment. She scheduled me a new appointment a few weeks out.

When I took the boys everyone was really nice, and the Dr.'s English was sufficient. He used a lot of German phrases, when talking to the kids, and I would have to rephrase things sometimes when he didn't understand what I was getting at, but the kids seemed to like him. The office wasn't very busy, and the wait time was reasonable. Really the only things that stuck out to me as being a little different were the waiting room, and the exam room. There were a bunch of toys in the waiting room, and a ladder for climbing attached to the wall. I've never seen a climbing ladder in a Dr.'s office before. The exam room just seems different to me, but I'm not totally sure why. Maybe the way the table is set up. And the fact that they didn't put down any of that weird exam table paper stuff.

James scaling the waiting room ladder.

Rocking horses in the waiting room

Exam table

Exam room (the boys were obsessed with trying to turn the computer off. Longest 15 minutes ever waiting for the Dr. to come in!)

As always happens the day I decided James' pee issue was not clearing up on it's own was a Friday, so we only had one day to get him to the Dr. before the weekend. I called the office first thing Friday morning and got a hold of one of the English speaking ladies in the office. She heard the word "infection" and said they could get him in that morning. She told me to come in between 10 and 11 and they would try to squeeze him in to see the Dr. I've never had such an open ended non-appointment before, but I was happy to get him seen before the weekend, so I agreed. We got there and she suggested we go for a walk for a while since it might take a long time. This seemed weird to me though since we wouldn't know when they were ready if we were out walking around, so I opted to wait in the waiting room. Unlike the first time we came in, this time the office was very crowded. And all of the kiddos waiting looked sick. After about an hour and a half of waiting, they finally called us back. The dr. asked a few questions, and then told me James would have to pee in a cup. He handed me a plastic cup and pointed us to the bathroom. (yay for a two year old that pees on demand!) About 2 minutes later we emerged from the bathroom with our full cup of urine. There was no lid for the cup, and no discreet little door or spot to leave it in the bathroom. I tried to take it back into the exam room, but the Dr. saw me and told me to take it to receptionist/nurse/whatever at the desk. Weird. Anyway, I handed her the pee and then tried to return to the exam room when she told us we needed to go back in the waiting room to wait. I didn't realize our "appointment" was over and had left all our stuff in the exam room. The Dr. was already seeing more patients, so the receptionist/nurse/whatever went in and got my diaper bag and stuff and we went back to the waiting room. About 20 minutes later that dr. called us out into the lobby where he told me the test was normal and it must be some weird thing that would get better on it's own. And it did. Thank goodness.

Anyway, I wouldn't say the experience was "bad" but it was definitely different than anything I've experienced before. Maybe this is just the difference between a big practice and one with just one Dr., and not the difference between Germany and the US. I'm not sure. 

Hopefully we'll be able to stay away from the Dr. aside from yearly check-ups, but if not, it's good to have a relationship established with a Dr. who speaks fairly good English!

Brothers

My little guys are getting to be such good friends; it's really fun to watch. David has a special smile that lights up his face when James comes into view. At nap time I typically lay down with him and nurse him to sleep while James either lays on his bed or plays quietly I can always tell when James has crawled up behind me and is peeking at David, because David's expression and countenance change dramatically. He'll go from being nearly asleep to having this big grin on his face and attempting to spring out of my arms. It's adorable.

Since David doesn't really talk yet, James is constantly "translating" his grunts and points for us. "David wants to go outside", "David's hungry, "David doesn't want to go to sleep","David wants to pretend your a horse", etc. Sometimes James is really being considerate and trying to help his brother out, other times he's just using David to get what he wants. Even so, it's really sweet the way he includes David.

They've started to play together. Some of the games are equally fun for both of them, and some of them are a little bit of James terrorizing David. Like when he pretends David is a dragon and chases after him with a trash can lid trying to "train" him. Of course with playing together comes a good bit of fighting, it's funny how appealing a toy can look when your brother is playing with it.

When David wakes up from nap, James is always the first one to run to the room and get him up. If David wakes up first in the morning, he will run to James' room to wake him up. He can hardly contain his excitement over this task. James, in spite of being woken up by a shrieking bouncy toddler, always responds with a big grin and thanks to David for coming to get him. He often tells David how "proud" he is of him for coming to see him.

The cutest part about their relationship though is the way they love on each other. If James is sad, David will run to find him his blankie and cat. If David is sad, James will run to find him his (James') blankie and cat. If James makes a cozy spot and goes to lay in it, David will follow him and try to lay their too. They always seem to have lots of hugs and kisses for each other. I think it's a huge gift, as a mother, to get to watch your boys grow into such good friends!