Sunday, May 29, 2011

Kids: Coming and Going...

Okay. Michaela came back from Norway... The soccer tournament was canceled because a boy from Norway who was playing in the rugby tournament collapsed on the field and after a couple hours in the hospital he passed away. The girls tried to salvage their trip and did some sightseeing instead. I was beyond happy to get Michaela back home safe and sound.

Then I sent her away again. :(

This past weekend both Michaela and Sierra went to Düsseldorf for their Track and Field meet. Michaela did a relay race and the long jump. Sierra did the mini-hurdles, a relay race, and the ball throw. Their actual participation in the entire meet consisted of probably eight minutes each, but I think they had more fun with their friends for three days. :) I was beyond happy to get Michaela AND Sierra back home safe and sound.

Now I will send Michaela away again.

She will be gone for a week. :(

She is going sailing on the Baltic sea with the entire 7th grade and she will return licensed to sail a sailboat. :)

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Should we ever become unemployed....


Surprise! Uberraschung!

This is a Kinder Egg. It's actually called a Surprise/Uberraschung egg.

It's an illegal item in the States because it has an inedible choking toy in the middle of chocolate. ...I think I've written about them before.

However, this is a MAXI-sized Egg. It's big and the Easter Bunny gave them to us.

Then a friend showed me this... CLICK HERE

It wasn't as fun to eat knowing it was worth $20.00. :) The Easter Bunny probably only paid $3.00 for it. I bet the Christmas ones will go for more. :)

So, should we ever become unemployed I will start exporting Kinder Eggs to those less fortunate.

Friday, May 20, 2011

"New"

It's string cheese! (kinda)

I had bought some at the British Food store for the insane amount of $7.00 for four pieces of kinda-string-cheese.

BUT NOW...... You can buy it in the stores!!! ...and it's only $2.50!!!

It's doesn't really taste like string cheese, but it will do for now. :)

Thursday, May 19, 2011

KE in Norway


At 4:00am I woke up.

I took Michaela to the airport.

She went to Norway to play soccer.

The whole way there I reminded her this is not normal.


Poozie's Potty Power




I haven't written a story about how the magic has happened for fear that I might jinx it, but Andrea is a now an offical Potty Superstar, so I'll go for it. :)

My plans started with inviting a little three year old over for Andrea to play with. Kenzie is super cute AND potty trained! I thought since Andrea thinks Kenzie is like the coolest person on earth that she would do whatever she did. So Kenzie showed up with her potty and some potty videos and we went for it.

...It ended with Andrea yelling and swinging at Kenzie and then me putting a diaper on her because I felt bad ruining her playdate with the girl of her dreams. :)

But the next day.... Little Poozie Foo Foo was sitting by the laptop, watching Potty Videos, and thinking in her head.

Down came the good Mommy and she said, "Little Poozie Foo Foo, how about we poo poo, in the pink potty and I will give you chocolate."

:) (Did you sing it? If not, please go back and sing it...)

Poozie said okay. She wanted to sit on her potty!!!!

This all happened at 8:30pm... We stayed up until 11:00pm, watching the Potty Power video, and desperately waiting for pee pees so I could shower her with chocolate. Nothing. :(

But the next day.... Little Poozie Foo Foo woke up and wanted back on the potty! AND this time she made PEE PEES :) Whoo Hooo for Poozie Foo Foo!!

She refused the underwear and ran around in just her dress all day ...good enough for me, baby steps!

Over the next few days she went potty. I even carried the potty in a bag when we went out because in my world stores don't have bathrooms... really. We rode the bike to the store, potty with in the basket. We picked up kids from school, potty was strapped to the backpack. We went to field hockey, potty was in stroller...

After a few days I think it was too much potty for her and she went back to hating the potty.

Being the terrible parent I am I gave her back diapers and was at least satisfied that she wasn't scared to tears of the potty. Here's the thing though... I'm not really a terrible parent. This isn't my first kid and I have zero interest in the unspoken contest of who's kid can be potty trained first. It's a zillion times easier when your kid wants to... and in Europe, with a girl, it's a zillion times easier with diapers. :) So please spare me the, "consistency is the best thing you can have while potty training-blah-blah." :) I've read that book too. It's just that my sanity is worth more.

Then "the incident" happened. She was playing in the living room, where her potty still sat in the corner. She stopped playing and I could tell she had to go potty. She looked at me. She looked at the potty. She looked at me again. She looked back at the potty. Then she PEED in her diaper and went back to playing. It felt like a teenager trick. "Yah, I could do what you want. Yah, I know how to do it. ...but I just don't feel like it right now. So nah-nah on you."

So I took all the diapers and hid them at the top of the closet. From that moment on we have been diaper free. We've pee pee'd in public big pottys. We've pee pee'd at school. We are potty superstars over here! She even woke up dry the last two nights!!!

As a special Poo Poo note: She makes no differentiation between pee pee and poo poo... both go in the potty and she's okay with that. PHEW!


Scotty's been helping....

Monday, May 16, 2011

Ich bin awesome!

I have advanced with my use of the German language. I have reached two major milestones!

- I have made an amusing comment to someone ...in German.
- I have reprimanded someone ...in German.

My amusing comment:
I was making my usual trip to the recycling center. This is how the recycling center works: You pull up, tell the attendant what you have to drop off and they tell you which bin to toss it into. Simple enough ...and I'm pretty good at saying "Ich habe papier." and waiting for them to take it to bin "funf".

So I pull up, say my "Ich habe papier." and the guy looks into the backseat of my car where Scotty and Andrea were sitting.

He says "Du hast kinder" ...or something meaning, "you have kids".

Here comes my magic German comment... I SAY... "Yah, und wo ist die Kinder Bin" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I'm HILARIOUS! :)


My reprimand:
Andrea and I were going to the grocery store right after dropping off the other three kids at school. It was early so I tried for the "Good Parking Spot".

The "Good Parking Spot" is the spot's reserved for those with kids and there are only four of them. They really aren't that good because they are on a steep hill and you have to hold the cart near the car with your foot while unloading it... but whatever, you don't have to cross a street and push your full crooked cart up a big hill just to get back to your car. (Everything is about the lesser of two evils here.)

Anyways, I pull into the "Good Parking Spot" area. One car was in front of me. I see the Good Parking Spots and one is open! WHOO HOOO for me!!!

THEN the car in front of me takes the spot!! A car which DOESN'T HAVE KIDS ...just some guy! ...and HE IST OHNE KINDER!! So I stop the car because I'm kinda mad and my mom says I have a temper. :) I roll the window down getting more irritated knowing that I will soon be pushing my full grocery cart out of the store, across the street and up the hill to the Bad Parking Spots all because of this jerk.

This guy is clearly ohne kinder and he is clearly in the kinder spot. I said, "Wo ist deine kinder." Then I gave him my irritated look and drove off just in case he tried to reply. :)

There you have it. My German teacher will be so proud. :)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

The Poozie Whisper

Andrea talks. Well, she whispers.

We've recently learned that my little Pooz is just too shy to talk! It's surprising news to me, but I swear it's true!!

With her potty training lately I've really wanted her to just say "pee pee" so I know when we need to make a run for the potty. She kept refusing to say it and acting like she was too embarrassed. She does this anytime I ask her to repeat something so I have learned to interrupt her yells, and whines pretty well over the past couple years.

Last week I took her to her Birdy school (her preschool) and her teacher told me, "she whispers". I wasn't really paying attention though and didn't think much of it due the chaos of a mass of mothers picking up their two year olds.

Later that day I told Andrea to say pee pee and, of course, she refused. Then I whispered to her and asked her to "whisper it in my ear".... and the little stinker whispered "pee pee" in my ear in the cutest voice on earth!!!

I couldn't believe it. I wanted to make a huge deal and squeeze her to pieces, but instead I gave her an oreo cookie and said good job. :) I couldn't believe it!

Later she wanted to watch Rio. I know this because she was handing me the remote while flapping her arms and saying, "caw caw". I asked her to SAY Rio. She stared at me. Then I asked her to whisper Rio to me... and the little stinker whispered "Rio"!!!!

It's not 100%, but I can usually get her to whisper things to me, or at least get her to try.

So after nearly 13 years of parenting I'm still learning tricks.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

B R A C E S


Michaela has braces! Phew... it has been a long process just to start the long process!

The poor kid has had five baby teeth yanked out just to get ready for this! Now that I think about it, we have been pulling baby teeth for nearly a year. I was starting all of this before we went home for our summer trip last year.

Anyways... her mouth was ready and the timing was in our favor, so we just did it.

We. HA! I dropped her off and I went shopping.. SHE sat in the chair for two hours with her little mouth open. :(

Not Really. I didn't just drop her off and go shopping. I sat in the waiting room for a while and contemplated busting through the door, grabbing her, flinging her over my shoulder and running away ...maybe kicking the orthodontist on the way out.

I knew the whole event would... for lack of a better word ...suck. :(

I felt bad. I think that before we showed up for this appointment I spent so much time telling her it wouldn't be a big deal, it would be easy, lots of people do it, we have American drugs, blah blah blah.... I had convinced myself it wouldn't be a big deal. When it was actually happening I was a wreck. I felt sick. I don't think I'll get much sympathy from Michaela though. :)

Before it even started I even sat in the waiting room and tried to justify with myself that her teeth were fine and seemed to be straightening themselves. A Butter Knife Friend had to reel me back into reality.

She did great though. I picked her up. She looked awesome. You can't even really notice the braces. I'm a mom. I notice everything about my kids, but honestly... You really don't look at her and see braces. I think they blend in and I kinda like them...and I'm not just writing that to make her feel better. :)

Currently her teeth are sore and she has a sore on the side of her mouth from some wire thing that held it open for two hours, but all in all she seems to be doing okay. I didn't say great, but okay. She's being served mashed potatoes ohne cauliflower and fruit smoothies every day so things could be worse.

I just made her lunch for tomorrow and it's a salami and cheese sandwich minus the bread and I've cut the salami and cheese into smaller than bite size pieces for her. It looks like a salad. I hope it works for her... or else it's pudding and yogurt again. :)

1.5 years was the estimated length of time she will have these super cool braces. We'll see how it goes!

Good job Michaela. You are one of the bravest kids I know.

Really.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Twenty

20 is the number of letters in my street address.

I obviously won't write which letters are involved. :) ...but just for fun write down twenty letters.

Fislgiwhblsengudhvke

Giwhdlbiehfeldwobeda

That's how long my address is. It barely fits on those forms that gives you little boxes for each letter. It's kinda fun to have a "German" address... and mine is about as German as it gets. :)

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day!


Happy Mother's Day MOM!

This mom thing is hard. Super hard.

My mom made it look easy... which I guess is back firing now because I think this mom thing should be easy. It's not. This mom thing is tough work. :)

My mom really did make it look easy. I can only remember three times she yelled at us. I've only ever heard her say a bad word once... and not even a really bad one. She cleaned the kitchen every night. She made our beds once a week with fresh, smooth, cold sheets. She made sure our house was always clean, but she made me dust and vacuum
my own room. It's no wonder I turned out to be so awesome. :)

So here is an event that's bound to make my mom smile. :) Sierra painted her fingernails last week so Andrea decided she wanted to be like her big sister. This is what Poozie did with a green marker. I've since helped her paint them pink and she LOVES it. :)


See...... hard work.

Love you mom!




Monday, May 2, 2011

Answers... for a special friend. :)

Yep, we did go to an American Egg Hunt last year. We made some cool friends in the last year so we hung out with them and it worked out perfect. :)

Kinder Eggs are illegal because of the inedible choking hazards inside the chocolate egg. Dumb huh? Not in Canada though... :)

AND... we don't save eggs forever. Goof Ball. ...maybe a week or two tops. We normally go through eggs pretty quick though. Of course I put MY eggs in the fridge. In the States eggs are kept refrigerated in the stores. It used to freak me out that in the stores here eggs are not kept in the cold section. Now if my fridge is full the eggs get kicked to the counter and I haven't died of egg disease yet. (Remember when I was concerned about your salmon that you let sit on the counter for 6 hours to marinate. :) Now I do it too. I did it for my parents, but didn't tell them about the 6 hours part... or they would have ewwwww'ed.) :)

I think that soup can was in hiding ...and probably passed down from expat to expat. :) I don't really even use them that often, but when you need one it hurts not to have it.

The resteraunt was great. It was nice and there was a cute old man playing a "laying down harp on a table"?? It was fun. I guess there are several themed rooms and one room is where the famous people have signed the walls. We didn't know until we read the brochure they gave us on the way out and it was too expensive to go eat there again and see the signatures. :) The food was good though. Our pictures didn't turn out, but I took them! :) It was mostly a great dinner because the kids behaved. Screaming kids can ruin anything. :)

Like Scotty's jacket? :) I haven't had to buy a coat for years. Thanks Johan!!!

Elaine is headed to Slovakia on Thursday!!! She is going for the Hockey Championship or some other big important game. Funny huh? It was an easy trip from Vienna so we figured we'd check that country off the list. :)

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Something to know...

He who readeth my blog hath a choice.

If you don't liketh it, don't readeth it.

:)

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