Playing in the grass at Feringasee

We have been having the most perfect weather lately! Clear skies and warm. But not too warm. Warm enough to be wearing t-shirt and shorts, but not too warm where you’re dripping sweat. The boys have been enjoying a lot of outside time - on our patio as well as at the playground and we’ve even made a couple of trips to Feringasee. The first time we biked, the 2nd time we drove. It is so perfect in the evenings. And now the sun goes down so much later, past 8pm! This is my time of the year!!!

The boys are a little easier to go out with. I don’t have to watch them so closely anymore. Elijah doesn’t like to hold hands when we’re walking so we let him go, as long as he doesn’t go too far. But he knows that he has to hold hands crossing the street. Sometimes he puts up a fight, but he ultimately knows it’s the “law” so he gives in pretty quickly. I am also able to open our patio doors and they will stay on the patio 95% of the time. Sometimes they get carried away with pulling all the leaves off the bushes. I can bring the laptop to the living room and surf the net while they play outside. That is a nice luxury.

At Feringasee, Michael and I could just sit down and watch and they would toddle along exploring the grass, dirt, flowers and sticks. Rowan loves pulling every flower up (they are the grass flowers that are everywhere). They both can stay occupied for hours with a pile of rocks. They love relocating rocks. We had a lot of fun skipping rocks. Of course, they couldn’t skip them, but that didn’t stop them from trying! At the lake, we met this older man that didn’t speak any English and he was so excited to talk to us. He was a very nice man but kind of weirded me out when he went on and on about how he liked the nude areas. He looked at me and said “it’s ok here, no problem” and kind of looked at me like I should start taking my clothes off. Eh…. He meant it in a “no one really cares here” kind of way but it was just weird. I’m such an American!

The boys are at a really fun age. I am enjoying them quite a bit. Of course there are those days that they fight over every. single. thing. But for the most part, I have learned how to distract and/or control. They still trash their bedrooms, but they clean it up. They make large messes, but also clean it up. Little pieces of chocolate works wonders. I’m trying to teach them to put one thing away before taking out another. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Did I tell you about the time I threw my keys in the trash? While the boys were watching Teletubbies, I took out the trash. Normally it’s no big deal, but when I flung the bag into the trash bin, it decided that my keys should come too!!! I was in a panic! Luckily, there wasn’t much trash in the bin (maybe 1 layer), but my keys weren’t on the top of anything. I had to fish around for it awhile before I found it. I tried getting it but it was obvious that I would have to get in. I was a little worried about the boys, but I couldn’t go back inside without keys. I went to the apartment management and luckily they had the perfect tool (a grabber thingy) to get my keys out. Everything ended happily. The boys had no idea I was gone.

I have been knitting, knitting and more knitting! I am so completely obsessed with knitting. In all the years I’ve been doing it, I don’t think I have enjoyed it so much. I love buying new yarn (that’s the best part) and then turning it into something - socks, scarves, hat, mittens. I don’t do any big project knitting so I think that’s why I’m enjoying it. For a long time I was just knitting dishcloths, and that’s kind of boring. I think the sock knitting really hooked me in. And there’s so much great yarn out there. I have spent a small fortune acquireing new yarns. Well, ok, not small, maybe medium fortune. It’s unfortunate that in my pinnacle of knitting I am in a place that doesn’t have good yarn (with one exception). The US is THE place for yarn. period.

The boys have discovered a couple of new games. First is hide-and-seek. They don’t do it with each other, but with Michael. He makes the game so exciting. The other is “cave”. They have this tunnel that we bought from IKEA and I put a large comforter over it so that it’s dark and there’s a “door” on the end. They can play with this for hours.

Elijah is now understanding the concept of something in a location. For example, he now says “boat in the water” or “blankie on the bed”. Pretty cool! We’re also introducing the concept of two languages. Like Michael would ask “what is that” and Elijah would say “tree” and then Michael would say “in German” and he would say “baum”. Rowan isn’t quite as advanced, but he does talk a lot too. I’m sure he will get it in no time. We want to teach them more things in German and of course all the German people they know speak German to them. Elijah is also starting to sing. Michael’s mom gave us this tractor that plays “old macdonald” and Elijah sings the “e-i-e-i-o” part. It’s so cute! He does have this one irritating thing - he will repeat a word over and over until you say what he wants you to say. You can’t ignore him or it will get louder, you can’t just say “yes” or “uh huh” or it will get louder, you can just repeat what he says (unless of course it is the correct word). So he was saying “wawai” over and over and I thought he was saying “bye bye” so I kept saying “bye bye” and he kept repeating “wawai” until I looked at what he was pointing to and it was a butterfly. So I said butterfly and he moved on. So strange. The boys also do this thing where they copy their dad. When something is heavy or hard to do they say “eh eh eh” in a straining voice to show that they need help. It’s really funny!!

Here are some words for your enjoyment: akaker (helicopter), hane (hen), au-sigh (outside), ah-kee (ice cream), fice (fries), awahund (around and around), wheel, betzn (bretzen - german pretzel), watts (watch), cho-ket (chocolate), wa-bat or ba-bat (rabbit), cheen (train), wed (red), wawai (butterfly),