twins » Few and far between

Few and far between	Thursday, July 17, 2008
posted by kris @ 2:44 pm	Filed under: Uncategorized

Yeah, that’s how the posts are. Seems like so much is going on and yet nothing gets done. I don’t think I’ve written since before my parents came for a visit and that was in May! Geez! Well, that visit went very well, we all enjoyed my parents’ company, especially Michael and I. It was like our vacation and we forgot what it is like to get up with them in the morning. My mom always slept on the couch (we didn’t force her, she just likes sleeping there) and so she was the first person the boys saw every morning.

We were all spoiled - eggs for breakfast almost every day, they took them out in the afternoons to Starbucks where they had cake and juice and I had lots of time to myself. This year, for our vacation, we went to Zermatt, Switzerland for a week. We were extremely surprised at how much everything costs - Switzerland in general is expensive, but Zermatt is especially. We knew it would be expensive, but not *THAT* expensive. I guess I would be just as surprised if I went to Japan. Luckily we rented an apartment so one of the funnest things we did was cook dinner ourselves and marvel at how much money we saved. For example, the first night there we were exhausted, so we went to the “cheap” pizza place and got four fairly small pizzas - it costed $90. Yeah. And then my mom went to McDonalds and got a large coke and fries - $11. Mmmhmm. The last few days, we grilled on this weird table top grill thing and I perfected the kabob - chicken breast slices wrapped in bacon, then sandwich that between onions, red and yellow peppers and lots and lots of mushrooms. Oh my god, delicious! Too bad we didn’t bring our rice cooker or japanese style rice. They didn’t have a microwave anyways (yes, we cook our rice in the micro, it’s almost as good!). We had to settle for Uncle Ben’s. I love rice no matter what form it is in. I will even eat brown rice as long as there is butter and salt. But my mom is a true blue japanese-only-rice eater and thought Uncle Ben’s was the worse thing ever.

We also took day trips out - we had several good weather days and the view, even from our apartment, was breathtaking! Michael made sure that the boys got out every day. They really got the mountain town experience and called the apartment our “mountain home”. They loved going up really steep uphills and playing around with their dad. They even got a chance to play in snow - their first “real” time since they could walk and just loved it. Elijah loved going to the top of a snow hill then jumping as far as he could and land in the snow. He would’ve done that all day if he could. Hopefully this year we can send them to ski school, I think they would enjoy it. At the very least, we should go sledding, they will like that a LOT. One thing that happened was that their beloved Thomas trains were stolen from the playground. Michael is used to just leaving stuff anywhere and it’s always there when he returns and he assumed this was the case in Zermatt. But apparently, some kid thought it was a forgotten toy and picked it up and took it home. The boys were very sad about losing them and Elijah talked non-stop about Thomas this and Thomas that, and their very generours grandma and grandpa bought them new and better Thomas trains when we got back to Munich.

We had a traumatic time getting home though. Michael misread the train departure time so we missed our comfy train back home. Luckily, there were other trains we could catch, but they were all the slow, regional type trains. In total, we took 8 trains (not including the UBahn) and it took us about 11 hours to get home. The boys did so well, even though we sometimes had to wake them up all the time to transfer. One thing I discovered was Bodensee - it is a gorgeous lake and the towns around it seem so peaceful, we will have to go back there. And also, the BEST trains (even better than the EC trains) was the “Alex” train. OMG, they are AWESOME! OK, it could be because we were delirious from all the train changing, but we had our own “room” and we could lie down and it was so comfy.

My parents were also able to travel a lot this time. Besides Switzerland, they went to Salzburg, Regensberg and Nürnberg. I’m glad that they were able to see more of Germany and Austria this time. They even considered going to Berlin but decided that it would cost too much. It was so funny though, the reason they wanted to go to Berlin was because they have “free tours” of the city.

Other than that we are doing well. Friends from Seattle are visiting. Theron, who actually lives in China now, and Carlos, who we used to work with, came to visit and with Michael went on their 10 day hike/climb in the Dolomites. The weather wasn’t all completely good, but they managed to get in several big climbs. It’s been so nice to see them again, both of which we haven’t seen since we left.

The boys are now going to a German speech therapist and they both really love it. The schedule works out so much better for us too. Elijah goes on Thursdays and Rowan goes on Fridays at 8am. I take them to therapy, and then Michael stays home with the other and then takes them to school. It works out very well, even though we have to get up earlier than normal. Elijah cannot wait to go every week and he’s always mad on Fridays that Rowan goes and not him. It’s all in German, but they speak English to her and she understands enough to know what they’re saying. She never speaks to them in English though. We’re trying to have people only speak one language to them so that they can separate between the two. We have to concentrate on other things like talking while playing - more role playing, do more things with their hands like play doh things and painting/drawing. They are all about trains though and everything else will hold their attention for like 2 minutes and then they run back to the trains.

There is this little Thomas pamphlet that comes with every Thomas item that shows all the Thomas trains/sets that exist. Both the boys look at this every day. Every. Day. Every week, Elijah sets his sights on a new train. A few weeks ago, he REALLY wanted James and Rowan REALLY wanted Toby. They talked about it all the time. So on the day that Michael left for the mountains, we made a little trip, just the 3 of us, to the toy store where we got those trains as well as a cool bridge (man, these things are freakishly expensive), then ate at McDonalds and then went home and played with them.

I thought that would be the end, but NOOOOO. The next week they wanted another train. So, what I have done is created a chart. Elijah wants “Diesel 10″ and Rowan wants “Salty”. They need to get 30 Diesel or Salty points and when they have all the points, then we make a special trip to the store to get it. Elijah understands this concept now and is so excited about it. He only has two Diesel points so far. When he gets a new one, he loves putting the sticker on. He can also get Diesel points taken away for hitting or doing something he knows he isn’t supposed to do. He looks at his chart every day and when he says “Get Diesel”, I refer him to the chart and ask him how many points he has and then he doesn’t nag me about it. It’s working beautifully. I just need to really flesh out how to get points. Right now he can get points by singing a song (seems easy, but they HATE to do it) or reciting the alphabet, or doing something very nice and generous (out of the ordinary). I don’t want to give points for something they should be doing already. I’m sure we’ll hammer out the details soon - I still have to make Rowan’s Salty chart eek! He isn’t nearly as naggy about it as Elijah though.

Other than that, kindergarten is great, their potty training is going well, they haven’t had an accident in quite awhile. They are still wearing diapers at night though. I had the nice dilemma the other day - I need to get diaper wipes, but i didn’t want to get a 4pack because *maybe* I won’t use it all. So I got a single pack. It will last quite awhile.

We have our “Sommerfest” this Saturday - the boys will be in their first “play”, which really is just a song where they have a little costume and they have to sing. They just pretty much stand there and I have a feeling that Elijah will back out at the last second. Elijah is a orange horse and Rowan is a blue horse. It is still cute though. They also have another 2 numbers - one is another song, a really cute one, about a cat who dances on one leg and all these other animals want to dance with him but he doesn’t want to dance with them until another cat comes along and then they all dance together. The kid they chose to be the main cat is just perfect, it really is cute. Then the other number is a story about pulling up a turnip and Michael has the perfect guitar accompaniment. I will hopefully get some video of it.

Other than that, the weather has cooled down some, and today it was downright cold! I hope we get a little bit more warmth before the fall comes!

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