Rowan has fun with his Uncle Daniel

It was a quiet morning, we fed and played with the boys. They are growing up so fast. Elijah has 2 budding teeth on the bottom! He’s been drooling so much lately, I’m not surprised. Rowan doesn’t have any new ones yet, he still has 7 - 4 on top, 3 on bottom. I busied myself by cleaning up since we’re having our first visitor!

At around noon, Michael went to Hauptbahnhof to pick up our friend, Daniel, from Italy. They came back home and it was a nice reunion! The boys just got up so we all went out to Basic, for some grocery shopping, and then we went to the Schrannenhalle for lunch. It was ok, but they’ve done better. We came back home and I started to prepare dinner. We were having tacos, but we also invited our neighbors over too. I was afraid that we didn’t buy enough tortillas - 8 for 5 people, so I decided to make more. I busied myself in the kitchen while Michael and Daniel put on a little concert for the boys (guitar and piano). It is so nice having musicians around. Although I really wish he brought his accordion, because it sounds so beautiful!

We had dinner at around 7pm, Riki and Arne (our neighbors) brought over a really tasty dessert. We had a very nice dinner and we spoke partly in German but mostly in English. Poor Daniel, he can speak and understand some English, but not when we’re talking fast. I tried to slow down a little or ask if he understood what we were saying. When we spoke German, they were very polite and spoke very slowly for us. But then when they asked me questions, I froze up and didn’t know the answer. Why, why, why do I always do this???? Performance anxiety I guess. It takes a second for me to understand, but then it takes forever for me to construct a sentence back, particularly if it is past tense.

Here’s what goes on in my head. First, what is the verb. Second, do I use “haben” or “sein”. Third, what is the past tense form of the verb. Fourth, what is all the other stuff in the sentence. Sometimes I say “Gestern” (means yesterday) and then I think about all that stuff and just stare. It’s quite embarrassing if I’m speaking to someone other than Michael.

Anyways, the dinner was so much fun, Riki and Arne are such nice people and so much fun to talk to. Probably because they are computer people like us. Riki is doing a thesis on software QA, so we always have lots to talk about. They love the outdoors too, so Michael will take over when queued. Also, they ask us questions about our boys since their son is 10 months younger. What did we do when… How did we do… And then we ask them questions like “Where is the nearest hospital?” and “What’s the emergency number?” I woke up in a panic one night realizing that it’s not 911. I found out there are several numbers, 110 and 112. Can’t remember which one is for the police and which one is for the hospital. I think the 110 is a “general purpose” emergency number. Crap. I better double check.

After dinner, we went to the climbing gym while Riki and Arne babysat for us. It was pretty late so we didn’t do much climbs. Just as well though, I am super out of shape, plus I didn’t have a hair tie, plus I didn’t cut my nails, and plus I didn’t have contacts. All those things put together makes for an unpleasant climbing experience. But we all had fun with Daniel. He did really well. It helps when you’re skinny and tall.

We came home and slept, it was a long day! But a really good one! Our first overnight visitor tonight!

This morning I was late as usual to class. I don’t think I have ever been on time. I’m always 10 - 15 minutes late. But we had a test today and I tried really hard to get on the earlier train. But since I stayed up late last night, it didn’t happen. I made it in time though, just when she was starting the test. I mean JUST in time. I was confused at first because she handed me two sheets of paper, and as I was listening to the tape, I was confused as to what to do. There were boxes marked “A”, “B” and “C”, but it didn’t say what A, B, and C were for. I thought the CD would give us the answers, but it didn’t. Then I looked on the 2nd sheet of paper and lo and behold, it said what A, B, and C were. Geez. So I probably got the first two wrong. The hearing part was fairly easy. The reading part of the test was super super hard, then the speaking part of the test, which I thought would be the hardest was actually not bad. We had to interview our partner and then say their answers in full sentences. I did ok in that part. The next exercise, we were given a theme and then everyone else had to ask you questions and then you answer. I did really well with asking other people questions, which was weird because I was just telling Michael how I thought my question making skills were horrible. Everyone else shyed (sp?) away from asking questions so I really stood out of the crowd. My theme was “family” and I had that down very well. Only the teacher asked me questions and I could answer really easily. Whew!

We also had a fun assignment where we were given football questions and we had to ask people on the street. At first I was really shocked because Germans aren’t known for their patience and friendliness. But we went and did it anyway. I stuck to the rules and spoke to people! Other students had the people just mark their answers down or ask the questions to other students in the class, cheaters!!!! I had a good time though! 6 people agreed to be interviewed, 2 of them didn’t want anything to do with me, and 1 person didn’t have time. The people we did talk to were very nice and I was pretty pleased with the assignment. It was fun just approaching strangers and asking them questions in German. The first thing I did say was that I was a student at the Goethe Institut, so they were very patient with my German pronunciation and didn’t switch to English (which they usually do). The only complaint that I had was that I had a partner who didn’t want to ask any questions so we didn’t get as many responses as we should’ve, but even worse, I think he missed a great opportunity.

At the end of class, we had a few minutes to play the “article game”, where the teacher tells us a word and we have to guess the gender. She goes around the class and if you get it correct, you advance to the next round. I usually get the first word wrong. But this time, I got some easy words and I actually won! I had a “showdown” with the Italian guy, Andrea, and he usually is the winner, so it was amazing that I did so well. I left class today on a high. We also have no more tests, so I can relax a little too.

Michael and I celebrated by going to Sushi Sano (my favorite). He is already sick of the place, but not me! I can go there every day if it wasn’t so expensive!

In the afternoon, I was so exhausted from the week of intense studying that I took a nap with the boys and we all slept for a couple of hours! The bad side of this is that I stayed up way too late!!!

For dinner, I made spaghetti sauce from scratch. What I did was mix tomato paste with some water, add it to ground beef, onions and garlic and add lots of italian seasoning and voila! It was a lot tastier than I expected it to be! Mmmm…makes me hungry just thinking about it again. We were lucky to get ground beef today. It’s been getting harder and harder to aquire lately. Probably because we wait until the last minute all the time.

The boys are now walking about 50% of the time. Trying to walk more than crawl. You can see that if they have to go a short distance and they’re already standing, they’ll look at where they want to go, squat down to maybe crawl, and then stand back up and walk over. It’s so cute! I’m sure they’ll be walking full time in a week or two!

The boys learned how to say they want more food! Very important!

I don’t remember what I did today, but I do have a daily video! It is of Rowan signing “more”. He pretty much knows what it means. Elijah does it too, but he tells me that he wants more and then refuses to eat it. Maybe he just likes the “availability”.

After school today, Melanie and I went to the local library (at the Gasteig). We went to the main book area and had problems understanding where the childrens book area was. We wandered around a bit without finding it. I was too embarrassed to ask the guy again, so I had Melanie ask him. She understood what he was saying, and it turned out that it was in a separate location downstairs.

The kinder book area was really good and I found a whole lot of stuff that is good for me. Books for 6 year olds are somewhat hard, for even Michael too! I think I checked out about 10 books. I was going to get a library card, but the woman told us to just get a library card for the boys because it was free. Mine would cost 18 euros and the kids one works just as well. The only problem is that I didn’t have their passports, but she said that I can just bring it in whenever I pick up the cards. Woohoo! I think this might have been the first time a government person was actually helpful. I really wanted to read the Lemony Snicket books in German but they didn’t have them, or at least they were all checked out. I might just end up buying them because the boys will probably want to read them later.

Today right after class, I came home and took the boys out to the Neue Messe Muenchen, which is a convention center. I went to see the Garden show and the International Home and Handworks show. I went to the first area where they displayed garden stuff and was kind of disappointed. I thought it was really small. I then ventured across the courtyard to the home show and was even more disappointed. They were showing large corporate machines and tools, not really for the layperson. But then I wandered around and was thinking of going home. This one area looked like there were some interesting things, but I wasn’t sure if I could go in there with my ticket. There was no one checking so I snuck over. This is where the fun was! It was your standard fare home show, but it was so much more interesting in German. It was good for me because I could just stand there and listen and follow along. I really wanted to try these really cool massage beds, but I think the boys would’ve gotten jealous and screamed, so I didn’t. I ended up not buying much. Some cool multi-purpose cleaner and some ceramic pieces for the kitchen (to hold all my mixing spoons and spatulas).

We all came home really tired, but it was a fun journey out. Wish I could’ve stayed longer but the boys already drank all their milk and ate all their biskids.

Well, it is a week and a half ago and I don’t remember what I did today. That’s what I get for being so dang lazy. I know that I was planning on going to the Garden show but by the time I decided to do it, it was already late and I figured I would only have a couple of hours, in which case it wouldn’t be worth it. So I just stayed home. Fun, fun!

For your viewing pleasure, I thought you would enjoy looking at these overloaded vehicles!

Elijah, standing while watching Teletubbies

This morning Michael left early to go on a ski tour that he has been wanting to do for a long time. He went with our upstairs neighbor. Last night it looked like they might not go because she was tired and they were worried about the danger, etc. Michael was so upset, because he wanted to specifically go on this trip. It would almost be not worth going if he wasn’t going to do this one. That’s how weird and obsessive he is. Anyways, she came over and Michael was able to convince her that it was the thing to do, which I know he would. He always convinces the skeptic with his detailed logic.

I got up and took care of the boys. Elijah is much better today. He still has a little cough, but he sounds a lot better. I had a lot of stuff to do, there were no bottles, so I had to wash them, and clean up the kitchen from last night’s Jeeta’s feast. I had a lot of studying to do, so I put on teletubbies for the boys and did some homework. I don’t usually let them watch TV, only in emergencies. Since I have a test tomorrow, it is an emergency! But I also put the books down for awhile and played with them. They are so funny - Elijah likes to sit on top of the box of wood blocks that I bought. No sitting on the side! I also noticed that he was putting pieces in and out of the holes, so he’s learning how it works! We invented a new game - they sit in my lap and I rock back and forth and say “1″, “2″, “weeeeeeee”, and I lie back and hold them upside down. They love it!

Whenever Michael got home late in the afternoon, I went to work and got caught up on some “to do’s” that have been nagging at me for some time. I had to make DVD’s for the ski course, then I had to upload the pictures from yesterday and photoshop them. Then, oops, I overwrote some pictures, so I had to re-find the originals, and oops, my camera’s date/time got set to 2005 for some odd reason. I found a cool free tool that will correct my problems.

Then I went back to studying again. Verbs, genders, plurals, and direct objects are my focus…

Rowan stood up on his own today, and he walked the farthest he’s ever gone - about 10 feet! Elijah likes to stand up while watching Teletubbies. It’s too funny!

Rowan knows where is nose is!

I got up early this morning to go to the Botanical Gardens and meet our friends Lisa and Alan there. They need engagement pictures done. I took the tram for the first time. The stop is close to our place, much closer than the UBahn, and the tram goes directly to the gardens. It does take longer than the UBahn, but there was no UBahn stop there. Anyways, it was a cold morning, but I managed to get out there on time. I didn’t know how to open the door, so there was a slight panic moment, and a woman inside opened the door for me. Later on, I found out that the button to open the door is waaaaay on the right side. We took pictures in several empty “rooms” and then went outside for more. It was quite icy, and I managed to fall on my elbow, but I’m alright and so is my camera. I got some good pictures though, I was hoping for a higher “good picture” ratio, but I’ll take what I can get.

In the afternoon, we went to McDonalds for lunch by taking the tram. I introduced Michael and the boys to it. The boys really liked it because they had so much more to see! McDonalds was unusually crowded (don’t know why). In fact, all of Karlsplatz was unusually crowded. Mayber there was something going on that we didn’t know about. We only could find one bar stool for all of us, so I sat down and Michael stood up next to me. The boys were in their stroller and didn’t complain much. We ate as quickly as we could and then left. After that, we walked to the Viktualienmarkt and went to a book store, walked through Fünf Hofe arcade, then walked to MiniMAL to get some Sunday groceries, then came home. I bought this freshly squeezed orange juice from MiniMAL, I just love watching the billions of oranges it takes to fill one little bottle. And the juice is de-lish! On the way home, I asked Rowan where his nose was and he pointed to it! Wow!

In the evening, I studied more and also got caught up on my “guilty pleasure” of watching MTV’s Gauntlet 2 “after show”. Before bed I also watched “Jackass”. I forgot how funny that show is. I think since MTV is the only other channel other than CNN that has stuff in English, I relish every morsel!

Today I went to class late because I had to get Elijah’s medicine from the Apotheke, and they didn’t open until 8am. And then I wanted to wait a little while to see how I felt before going into class. I am better, but my coughing fits are horrible. But I didn’t want to miss a whole day of class so I went in.

For the most part it was ok as I took handfuls of cough drops at a time. I still coughed some, but it was managable, I felt much better than yesterday. After class I went to the toy store to hang around until Michael could come home at 2pm. He was supposed to take care of the boys while I rested. I bought the boys a new wooden toy where you build tracks for a ball to roll on. It’s pretty cool. It might end up being a “cool for parents” toy. I also bought them finger paints and I’m excited to see how they do with that.

I was able to take a short nap, but got side tracked with email and web stuff, as usual. The nice thing is that my nose isn’t all clogged up, which I think is the worst. I can deal with a sore throat but not with constant nose wiping.

Elijah is better today, but his breathing got a little worse in the evening, so we gave him his medicine and some tylenol, and it seems to help him sleep. Poor thing, by the end of the day he is so tired that he just wants to sleep and his cry is so soft and pitiful. Rowan is walking around like crazy, but still not on his own, he likes to do it whenever he goes back and forth between me and Michael. He always has such a big smile on his face!

In the evening I was supposed to make this garlic baked chicken deal, but I read the recipe and it said to marinate the chicken overnight! Ugh! So I scrambled around to find another recipe that I had all the ingredients for, and ended up making a red wine chicken. It was ok.

Good news was also received today, my parents finally finally got the box I sent with all the thank you cards so they can get sent out. It was supposed to take only 1 week but ended up taking 4!!! Anyhoo, so if you’re waiting for the litterbox, it will arrive soon!!! Thanks for your patience!