German Reunification Day

Today was German Reunification Day...a holiday!

Kris was feeling kind of sick, so in the morning I played with the boys then took them to the Jogoli playland. We had a good time there. While they napped, I re-read parts of the compelling book Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue See. Such a neat story. Apparently Tommy Thompson is missing now, and the investors were never paid? Jeez...

In the afternoon Kris watched the boys for a while, and then I let her go back to bed. I tossed the boys in the stroller, got on the bike and we rode to the Olympic Park. We had a great time running up the hill. A man was collecting apples from a tree, and he retrieved 3 for us. We climbed higher and sat to eat our small, tart apples.



Later we ran around some more and climbed to the highest point. We could see the mountains in the distance behind the city. It was a beautiful early evening. We went to a little kiosk where I got a Radler (1/2 beer, 1/2 lemonade), and the boys got apple juice. We also shared some ice cream.



I had to take a leak and Elijah said he did too. Wow, that is a first? Well I helped him unhook his diaper and he gave it a try, but he didn't have to go after all. I keep hoping though!

More pictures below:

Day at park

First day of kindergarten!

Today was the first day of Kindergarten, hooray!

Boy, I was scared. I woke up at 6 this morning suddenly in a cold sweat, imagining that if I were in my kids shoes, plopped into a room full of kids who don't speak my language...that I might be pretty mad. And mad 2 year olds make for good tantrums!

So we were extra good, I made eggs for breakfast and let the boys crack the eggs open which they love to do. They got to choose their shirts and pants from a pre-arranged selection Kris had laid out the night before. We walked there just as it started to rain. Seriously it is freezing cold in Germany right now.

We met Sara at the Kinderhaus, and the boys took off jackets and shoes, placing them in their own boxes for storage. We went upstairs and the boys started getting familiar with the place. There was plenty for them to do. A wooden train set, a typewriter, a telephone, little wooden and metal puzzles.

We all sat in a circle, called to it by a beautiful little Tibetan gong the teacher had. She introduced Elijah and Rowan, who meanwhile were trying to escape the circle, apparently bored out of their minds by the polite attention on them. I had to say their names while Kris tackled Elijah and I held Rowan by his shirt collar. Boy was this embarrassing! Harkening back to my cold sweat dream of the morning I thought we'd be kicked out within the week for such shockingly bad behavior.

The teacher dismissed us, sending us all outside in the rain and hail to play. "Uh...okay" we said. Kris bundled Elijah up while I changed Rowan's diaper, which attracted a small audience of 10-12 kids. He seemed impressed by the child-sized toilets in the bathroom. "Maybe soon you'll start using those!" I enthused.

But we went outside and the kids loved a treehouse (Baumhaus) and slide (Rutschen)...and swing set (Schaukeln). Jeez, doing all this in German is hard. Rowan didn't seem to mind my panicked/confused look. It's similar to my resting/default look.

So we played out there for 2 hours, imbibing the painfully cold "frische luft" (fresh air for the german-challenged). The kids were dirty and generally happy. When it was lunchtime, I quietly snuck out, leaving Kris to supervise them at the table. After that they went home where the kids napped well. Kris mentioned some weird events like Elijah getting everybody in the room to shake their heads, but she'll have to explain that later.

"selbstständig" is a new word I learned. It describes Elijah and means roughly stubborn and independent. Not a word I'll soon forget!