Today we didn’t do so much. I had Alex the babysitter come in the afternoon and I just puttered around on the computer. I did go grocery shopping as well as make some phone calls. The big thing that I did was go and check out this hotel, which is right around the block from us. I wanted to make sure it was adequate for what we needed when we get the ceilings fixed.

Well, when I got there, I told the woman my situation and after I said I had kids, she became really weird and I got the message that she didn’t want us staying there. She didn’t come out right and say “We don’t want children here” but everything I asked, she said “no”, even if it was a lie. It was very bizarre. I started getting upset and when I realized she was being discriminatory, I decided to have some fun with her. I asked what the rooms had in them and she said “it is not adequate for what you need” and I asked “does it have a microwave?” she said “yes, but that’s not enough” so I said “sure it is, that is great, does it have a fridge?” and she said “no”. And I thought that was pretty weird because on their website, they said that their rooms have “a microwave, fridge and a crockery (?), perfect for longer stays”. Then I asked for a description of the rooms and she gave me a brochure and I left. While I was walking back, I noticed that the rooms *do* have a fridge, so I went back and asked about that. She said that she needs to help customers first, and I’m sure she was just waiting for me to get tired of waiting and go away. But no, I wasn’t doing that! I patiently waited until all the hotel guests were gone then she *HAD* to help me. Then I said “hey, it says here you have a fridge” and she said “no, we don’t” so then I asked “oh, is this not correct then?” and then she said “yes, we do have a fridge, but those rooms are very expensive.” and then I said “oh, it doesn’t matter because the management is paying for it.” then she said “you should look in Neuhausen, it’s cheaper there” and I was like “money doesn’t matter to me”. Then she tried to get me to go to the other hotel down the street and I told her that they don’t even have microwaves in the rooms. I could tell she was getting really frustrated with me, then finally she said “well, it all depends on availability.” I told her the dates we wanted and she said “ha, NO!” And then some guests came in and she cast me aside again. I waited again. She said they are completely booked for Oktoberfest. Damn, I forgot about that. So then I told her, ok, well, I can change the time they work on the apartment, so let me know when you have availability and then that’s when we’ll do it. She was kind of upset at this point. Then I let her know that I’ll just book online and see what’s available. Then she said “well, if you book online now, it will be an overbooking and you can’t stay here” or something like that. I’m like, ok, whatever, I’ll just see. Then I left with, “well, whenever you have rooms free, that’s when we’ll do the construction”. Haha!

So I checked and as far as I can tell, they DON’T have any availability, but their reservation system is really hokey. It doesn’t say WHEN they are available, they will just check if they have availibility on the days the you request for. I think I’ll just have the apartment management deal with it. So our construction might be delayed, due to the fact that Oktoberfest is coming up and there is no availibility anywhere. Just hope the ceiling doesn’t fall on us!

Here are some examples of the stuff that the boys know. They know “please” and “thank you” really well when it comes to the Leibniz crackers!

Count em - 7 of em!

Oooh look! I’m posting about knitting! Over the recent holidays and evenings, I’ve been doing some mindless knitting - the hat (pictured a few days ago) and these dishcloths. I love making these for christmas gifts. People like them a lot too. I have never done the multi color ones (from Anchor Magic) but I really like them. I hope to get more done over the next few months.

I really wish I had more time for knitting. I mean LONG periods of time where I can actually finish something besides baby hats. I don’t think I have the patience to do something like a sweater anymore, but the cold winters here sure do make it a little tempting. Also the availability of non-european yarns really sucks here. I do want to try socks, there are so many people out there that love sock knitting, it sounds like fun. Who knows, that might be my new obsession. Now if I can just make up my mind about what yarn to use and what pattern!

We had a full agenda today, not planned, it just happened. First, in the morning, I went to the English Garden with Riki and Frederik and it was the first time I went without the stroller AND Michael. Usually I only have to hold one boy’s hand. But it was ok, the boys did really well. They played nicely and I didn’t have to run over and pick them up or prevent them from falling or anything. So I sat with Riki and we spoke in German. German is getting more “normal” to me, I still can’t speak really well or anything, but it’s just becoming more natural to hear. We stayed for about 45 minutes and when it was time to go, the boys didn’t fuss, they just came along with me. The perfect playground visit!

In the afternoon, we went to the eye doctor to get a checkup. That was kind of stressful, but not as bad as before. It’s really hard to watch them in a non-child proofed area. But they found an empty coat closet after awhile and that entertained them for a few minutes until we had our appointment. Elijah does really well “waiting” and Rowan does really well during the exam. While Rowan was being examined, I put Elijah in the chair and gave him his car and he just sat there and played with the car making his “car noise” (don’t remember if I wrote this or not, but his car noise isn’t a “vrrooom”, it’s a “eeeeeeeeeee” noise, like children screaming in the back seat of a car. And Rowan really liked his exam, he loved all the little lights and the doctor with all his stuff. But then when it was Elijah’s turn to be examined, Rowan didn’t want to sit still with so much to explore and he figured out how to get down from the chair. He started opening all kinds of draws and cupboards, the doctor was really entertained by it all. Then Elijah started fidgeting, he doesn’t like people touching his face and me making him sit still. So what ended up happening is that I grabbed Rowan and had them both sitting on me, that seemed to make everyone happy. Can’t wait until they’re out of this “have to touch everything” phase. Both their eyes seem ok for now, we don’t need to get a checkup for 2 years.

Then for dinner Michael and I rode our bikes to the English Garden Chinese Tower beer garden. We were supposed to meet our neighbors there, but we couldn’t find them and I didn’t bring our phone. So we got our meals and sat at an empty table. A bee bothered us so we rushed through dinner and came home. The bike ride was ok, I wish my seat was more comfy.

Later in the evening we went up and talked with Riki and Arne and their friend, I can’t remember his name (sorry!). I asked about all kinds of stuff, and they helped read through the health club contract. There was a thing in there that says that the childcare “could” cost extra, so we should get something in writing from them that says that it’s included in the cost of the club. That was the only weird thing.

I updated the videos page to make the videos bigger (Michael complained about it being to small, sheesh).

Just call me Grandpa Elijah!

So today I worked on the video page without much success. It was driving me crazy. I had a hard time figuring out how to read the extended properties of a file. Turns out you have to install the Windows Media SDK and it’s really confusing and hard unless you also download and include a “wrapper” for the control, and then still people complained that it didn’t work. I mean, something like this should be easy to do!!! Anyways, at around 5pm, I decided to just chuck the whole project and upload everything into YouTube, create another blog to get the time stamps and all, and then just link it from here. I think it is the easiest answer at this point. So, now you can see all the videos that I made (click on the Home Videos link on the right), not just the old ones, the “daily” ones too. Sorry about not taking more “daily” videos, seems like time’s just flying by.

The boys were fairly good today, it kind of sucks that when I leave a room they are super quiet and relatively well behaved. Once I come into a room, all hell breaks loose. But there are good things that happen too. Like today I witnessed Elijah saying “car” when he picked up his toy car. Michael said that he said it before (when I was gone), but I’ve never heard it.

Also, when I was changing Rowan, he was doing something with his fingers that looked like the Eensy Weensy Spider, so I sang the song for him and he did ALL the hand motions, I was so surprised and happy! Of course he couldn’t do the finger parts super well, but you could tell he was trying.

Elijah still refuses to kiss me, even when offering a Leibniz. Don’t know why he’s so stingy with his kisses, whereas Rowan is so free with them. He’ll kiss anybody, especially when there’s a Leibniz waiting for him.

They are learning things so quickly that I have to think of new things to teach them. They know all the major body parts, now I’m teaching them the “minor” ones like hair, elbow, neck, etc.

Turns out we’re not moving out today, I talked to the manager and she said in a couple weeks. I have to check with the hotel to make sure they have what we need and then reconfirm with her. I am not looking forward to this.

Rowan’s first work of art

Today was a holiday (I know, another one!) and so we spent the day pretty much at home. Michael went on a dawn patrol and came back around noon. After lunch, the boys had their first session with crayons. Rowan got the hang of it really quick. Elijah pressed too lightly, so the colors didn’t come out as dark. He did have fun though. After a few minutes, Rowan learned that he could hide the crayons under his leg so he took all the crayons and sat on them. So bizarre. We got the finger crayons as well as the regular, I think the regular ones are better. The finger ones are too hard and awkward.

We also went to the speilplatz today, at least it wasn’t raining this time. We didn’t take the stroller, they walked. They’ve been getting really good about walking, especially Rowan. He doesn’t complain at all. Elijah will get tired sometimes and want to be carried.

We decided to go with Elixia for a health club, we just gotta get down there and turn our paperwork in. I wanted to get our neighbors to look over it just in case there’s some clause in the contract that we didn’t know about.

I had serious insomnia this evening and stayed up super late organizing the web videos. I know it’s been hard to find them so I’m workin’ on it… Keep your fingers crossed!

Not sure if we’re moving out tomorrow due to the ceiling thing, so I’ll keep you posted. No matter what though, we’ll have internet!

My little sweeties

Today ended up being a big shopping day, mostly because I have to refill on supplies before the holiday tomorrow. I had to go to the Japanese store to get rice and ramen, then I had to get some ground beef. I thought I should just go to the Viktualienmarkt since it’s just right there, even though I’ll probably pay more. Turns out, they don’t sell things as simple as ground beef at the meat stores. Or at least that I could see. So then I decided to go to Karlsplatz Tengelmann’s and got what I needed. Since I was so close to Michael’s work and he was going to get off soon anyways, I stopped by his office. I waited around a few minutes and someone helped look for him, but he wasn’t there. Hmmm… The boys were pretty good the whole time though, I think they were just happy to be out. I was exhausted by the time I got home, but at least I got everything I needed.

My poor sweet Rowan got bitten again, this time near his eye. He has bite marks all over his little body. I really wish he would learn to bite back!

We went out tonight to see Daniel’s brother, Martin, play with the youth orchestra. It reminded me of the days of the Hawaii Youth Symphony. Before the concert, we went to Va Piano for dinner. We thought it would be really quick but it wasn’t. We stood in line for about 45 minutes. Apparently the cook for our line was 10x slower than the other cook next to him. So frustrating! So then we were late for the concert, which meant that we couldn’t sit in our proper seats, we had to sit on the side until the pause. We met with Martin and we had to speak German because he doesn’t speak any English. And we were able to. Michael is really good. It was so nice to see him again, I don’t think we’ve seen him since 2002, he looks great! The 2nd half of the concert was a little long, we were very tired from the day and I was falling asleep. Don’t get me wrong, they were very good musicians, but the music was a little drawn out. Poor Martin, in a 2 hour piece he played 2 cymbal crashes and had to sit through the rest of it. To keep ourselves awake, Michael and I “wrote” notes to each other using our fingers on the other person’s hand. It was hard to keep from laughing out loud. The people next to us were probably so irritated. The concert did give me a new appreciation for the bassoon, oboe, french horn, and brass in general. The brass section was top notch. Martin told us that the kids were anywhere from 14 - 24 and from all over Europe.

Michael drove our babysitter home, it was past 11 and I was a little worried with her taking the subway. It’s not dangerous or anything, just … I would feel better. So, even though Michael was super tired, he drove her home. Tonight I actually went to bed at a decent hour, 1am and I fell asleep quickly. Ever since I got back from Hawaii, I’ve had a hard time sleeping.

The hat that I finished a couple of weeks ago -
I even altered the pattern to make it fit their non-baby heads

Today was kind of a blah day. We went to check out another health club. Last night I was looking at their website and they have a club within a short driving distance from us that has a pool and childcare. They also have other locations and a new one opening up at the English Garden that’s going to be bigger and right outside an UBahn station. It’s also easy to drive to as well. I’m not too paranoid about driving if it’s close.

The club was really nice and we both liked it. From what I’ve read on the ‘net, the only reason people don’t like this place is because of contract reasons(?) so as long as we understand the membership, we should be ok. They even have a 12+2 membership where you pay a little more each month but then you can tell them you don’t want to pay for 2 months out of the year, so it ends up being cheaper. Since we’re planning on going to the states every year, it makes sense. We like this club better than the other one we went to because they have more locations, more pools, closer to us, and they are going to waive the join fee. The other club we would have to pay close to 300 euros for signing up. Even though it’s cheaper monthly, I think we get more for our money at Elixia. I am more interested in the classes than I am with the “regular” workouts. I think they are too boring and not motivating enough. We also liked the childcare area better, they seemed to have better facilities than the other one. The boys will probably take a week to get used to it though, so we’ll have to go and just play with them the first few days.

The one weird thing (to us prudish Americans) is that there are co-ed saunas. It seems strange to have naked men and women in a steamy room, but that is the norm here. They also don’t have shower stalls, just one big shower room. Ah, such is life in Europe.

In the late afternoon, we went to the playground even though it was cold and wet. The boys didn’t mind, they just liked being outside. Poor babies, they’ve been cooped up a lot.

Today was our sleep day. I pretty much slept the day away. Don’t know what it is, but I’m nocturnal, up all night and tired in the day. Michael slept as well, we took care of the boys in shifts. Aren’t we sad? I think I did manage to run out and get some emergency milk and dinner supplies. Oh, I’m sure we also were stumped on some sudokus. We both love the puzzles! If you’re ever unsure of what to get us for christmas, here are some things: Sudoku books, amazon.de or .co.uk gift certificates, campbells vegetarian vegetable soup, campbells chicken noodle soup (the old classic), sliced black olives (canned), prego zesty mushroom spaghetti sauce, or solis vaccuum seal bags in a roll. I’m totally serious.

This morning Michael went with Riki to talk to the management people to see if we can get a hotel room with at least a kitchenette. We need at least a microwave and a fridge. A stove would be nice, but not necessary. They said that they will get us a room that we need, thank goodness!

After that, I took the boys to the playground. I thought Riki was already there, but she wasn’t. Michael said that she was headed in that direction. After a few minutes though, she came by. It was a pretty cold day, but that didn’t bother the boys. They have become really good playground players. Elijah’s favorite is the slide, of course, and he cleaned it off of all wetness for the other kids by going down first. Rowan still sits at the top and waits for who knows what. A few times Elijah came right up behind him and gave him a nudge. Rowan thought that was so funny until he realized that it meant that he goes down. He didn’t scream or anything, just was kind of mad he wasn’t at the top anymore.

I finally got to see Rowan on the swings, he sat on it stone still making sure he doesn’t slide off. He just needs to grow a little more so he can swing his legs. Elijah wants to climb on the swing but always changes his mind when I put him on there. I think he likes it when he rides with someone, not too comfortable riding by himself.

This afternoon, I got some much needed stuff done, the pile on my desk got a little smaller. YAY! Then we went to check out a health club called Fitness Company. People on TT Munich like it and said that they had the most flexible contract. I really liked that one because it had several branches, and a new one is opening up near Michael’s work, which makes it really convinient. It’s not cheap either. Most places run from 59 - 89 euros per month, per person! BUT, it does include babysitting, which is a really big bonus. It turns out that the new place opening up will NOT have babysitting and does NOT have a pool like the other person told me. That is a really big minus. But they did say that one is opening near Isartor (near us) that will have babysitting AND a pool, but they won’t open until at least May of next year. Hmmmm…tough choices. We’ll probably look at a few other places. Our criteria are that it has to be close, it has to have babysitting, and a big plus would that it has a pool. Fitness Company also has an option where we can pay more for a “month to month” membership rather than have to sign a contract. So we can try it out and if we don’t like it then we can cancel. I like that. They do nickel and dime you though. In addition to your monthly fee, there is a 50 euro yearly fee, a 40 euro card fee (1x) and a joining fee (1x). After that I went shopping, wow, what a luxury! Although it was raining, so it wasn’t all that fun.

When I came home, I looked in on the boys and Alex had put them on the windowsill. They were sitting there so quietly and looking angelic, it was the most adorable sight. I really wish I had my camera. I’ll just have to take a picture later (hmm…picture taking is piling up!).

I was so tired today that I didn’t even eat dinner. While Michael was making his hot peanut butter and jelly sandwich (don’t ask), I fell asleep and didn’t get up until about 3am. My sleeping pattern has been so weird.

Before I forget, I wanted to mention awhile ago that Rowan (and Quincy) made BloggingBaby’s “Image of the Day” on July 21st!!! Can’t believe he used to be so tiny and quiet.