A favorite book…

During reading time this week we reread Double Trouble in Walla Walla.  I love this book.   I loved it when I taught 2nd Grade 13 years ago, but I think I love it even more now that I’m a full fledged six kid mom…  because really, this is how I speak now.  I love saying ‘flippy-flops’ instead of flip-flops.  I say ‘jammy-jams’ when I tell the kids to get their pajamas on. I love saying ‘lovey-dovey’, ‘poopy-loopy’, ‘handy-dandy’, and ‘super-duper’.   I use ‘girlie-girl’  or ‘girlie-whirlies’ when speaking to my daughters. I say “jump-a-jump” on the trampoline.  I love saying ‘fancy-schmancy’.  I say “Meg-a-Meg”  and “Emma-Lou” and “Lukey-Luke”.    I even say some words twice just for the heck of it.  It’s kind of fun.  And boy do I love saying Hallelujah and breaking into song.   I just like saying silly words.   I didn’t used to talk like this and it’s definitely gotten worse over the last couple years.  But it makes me happy and reminds me  how fun it is to have a house full of kiddos who think I’m silly… cuz I am.  Super-duper silly.

Camping… German style.

After loading up the van and top carrier with tents (we had to buy a second one), sleeping bags, blankets, food, clothes and everything else you can think of…we piled in the van and drove south for an hour to Schwarzwald… Germany’s famous ‘Black Forest’.  We had been sent this way by recommendation but weren’t entirely sure what we’d find…  and what we did find is that Germans like to camp like they live… very close together.  Almost everyone was in small campers, or trailers that folded out into giant tents.  Europeans vacation in July and August and from the looks of it most of the people here had been here the entire summer.  Note to self: bring ceramic dwarfs and woodland creatures to decorate campsite next time.  Other than the close proximity to our neighbors and us reminding our children to “SHHH, be quiet, we’re camping!” all the time, this campsite had great amenities… an indoor and outdoor pool, an indoor gym and indoor play area for little kids, two big playgrounds, a soccer field up on the hill, a restaurant, a festive German band playing music late into the night, a fenced field of large deer,several trails and a lonely campfire pit up on the hill.   (picture above taken from campfire pit… our tents are the blue/orange and green/grey ones on the right.)

We set up our tents, unrolled the sleeping bags, set up some chairs and made sandwiches for lunch.  All of it was exciting.  We faced our tents to the hill and forest and tried to pretend we were all by ourselves and that we didn’t notice the Europeans actually pointing and counting how many children we had and probably commenting on our tents and our super duper six seater chair.    Isn’t it fabulous?  (Dicks Sporting Goods in Georgia – on sale) We LOVE it… 

I told the kids to do a silly picture and they thought a sleeping picture would be hilarious.  Little Matthew cracks us up.  We were all laughing at how cute he is.  He didn’t want to close his eyes and couldn’t stop smiling. 

After lunch we wandered around, played soccer on the outdoor field and then headed into the forest for a walk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had tin foil dinners for dinner… and they were sooo good. While they were cooking we hung out on the hill up by the campfire and played around the big tree.  My kids were so happy to just be outside.  (Luke LOVES wearing his hood every time he has his jacket on.)

Our day had been nice and warm but with a clear sky and no clouds, it started to get chilly.  The kids were so excited to get into their bed to tell stories with their flashlights.  The kids were warm enough but Chris and I were a little cold… and it didn’t help that we were worried about the little boys being warm enough too. Our best sleep was between 5:00am and 9:00am.  Can you believe it?  We totally slept in.  Katie came into the tent to get Luke changed and dressed when he woke up and then took him off to the park with the rest of the kids (her idea… she is such an angel.)  Little Matthew slept in with us.  We were cooking scrambled eggs and hash browns by 9:30 and were shedding layers by the minute.  Saturday was beautiful and warm again.

Imagine our camping neighbors surprise when we started to take down our campsite after only one night.  I know, crazy amount of work for just one night… but it was worth it. 

After packing everything up, the big kids went swimming and I took Luke and Matthew on a walk in the forest.  Initially we were looking for bears.  Luke whispered that it was ‘scary’ as he quietly lead the way.  Almost immediately he pointed a ways off and said he found a bear.  We walked slowly through the forest until he  pointed at a tree stump and said, “Mom, it’s not a bear.  It’s a little tree.”  After that he was fascinated with tree stumps.  He was still careful around them… just in case they might be bears, but mostly he wanted to climb on them, jump

off, stand on one leg and keep his balance and declare ‘Ta-Da’.  Matthew was fascinated too.  ‘If this is what Luke thinks is fun, then I definitely want to give it a try.’  (This is becoming quite a theme these days.) And although he tried and tried, he couldn’t even get up on one. Seeing his attempts, Luke grabbed his hand and helped him up… and was THRILLED for him once he was up.  It was cute.  After that when they came to a new stump, Lukey helped him… or he made a small attempt before aborting the ‘standing on’ part and jumping right to the ‘Ta-Da!’

 

15 Months

  

Matthew at fifteen months…

• Smiles all the time.
• Finally starting to say a few words… “down”,  “no”,  “head”, “eyes”  - but generally just likes to grunt and point.
• Loves to climb up and down the dangerous marble stairs.
• Gets excited when a movie starts but has no interest in actually watching it.
• Is very excited to start nursery… see’s Luke being dropped off and does not understand why he can’t stay.  Only 3 more months and they will both be in there together.  We will definitely be having a party.
• Doesn’t want to sit on my lap in Sunday school… generally walks around in the back corner being adorable and distracting to all around.
• Loves to stand up in the bathtub.
• When we ask him a question he says ‘NO’ even though he means yes.
• He’s very ticklish.
• Doesn’t like to get dressed or get his pants changed.
• Loves to go on the trampoline with the kids.
• Loves to go down big slides and swing on the swings.
• Goes to sleep with one silky blanket (from Great Grandma W.) and a car blanket.
• Loves to be chased.  He squeals and tries to run away but ends up losing his balance and crawls to get away in time.
• Will eat anything and lots of it.
• Makes us all laugh at the dinner table by mimicking our facial expressions or actions.
• Touches his head, ears and eyes when we tell him to.  Sometimes he can’t find his eyes though.  So funny.
• Loves a sippy cup of juice and is NOT picky about if it’s the Buzz Lightyear or Cars cup… (like Luke is.)
• Loves to play on the top floor with the girls.
• Now wants to kiss the picture of Jesus that sits on his dresser every time he sees it.
• Sometimes takes two naps, sometimes takes one long nap.  Usually goes to bed about 8:00.
• Loves to give kisses.
• Is a total sweetheart.  Just get into nursery and then stop growing, ok kid?

     

The park with the Zip Line

Family Home Evening on Monday night was a scheduled outing.  We were excited to check out the ‘bigger’ park in St. Leon and hadn’t found time, so we wrote it on the calendar for Monday night and the kids were anxiously counting down the days.  There are lots of parks here in Germany, and so far all of them seem to have something unique and exciting.  This one had an extra long slide, a twisty four person swing and a zip line.  The kids spent most of the night riding on the zip line or running along side whoever was zipping by.  The zip line itself wasn’t fast or steep but with an extra big push from Dad they were giggling and spinning the whole way down, fast enough that they had to hang on tight when they hit the other end.  It was a fun night.  Perfect weather… and we had the park to ourselves.

Luke could hang on amazingly tight and loved every minute of it. 

    Hang on, buddy.

After the park we stopped by our new favorite place to get Gelato… right in our own little city.  I think we’ve gotten gelato cones about seven times already and we’re definitely addicted.  It’s so good.  Chris gets a different flavor every time he goes but I always get cherries and cream.  It’s just SOOOO good.  I think we’re going to have to add a ‘Gelato’ category in the monthly budget.

The house’s newest accessory

Little Matthew is not too happy with the houses’ newest accessory.  New gates. 

The combination of four levels of perfectly rock hard marble stairs and one daredevil little 14 month old was a tragedy waiting to happen.  For the last month we’ve constantly been on edge about where Matthew is or who has Matthew.  We’ve blockaded the stairs with moving boxes, and an unreliable gate from Georgia, not quite wide enough to fit the opening.  Meanwhile Matthew has spent all his energy in walking towards the stairs and trying to go ‘down’ while we’re not looking, turning around and sitting on them, smiling, WALKING up them while holding on to the iron rod siding, and giving us a near heart attack.  We even found Luke, trying to be helpful, holding his hand and helping him WALK down.  

We definitely needed some gates… and fast. 

Our German neighbors across the street are fantastic.  So welcoming, so nice.  They speak English pretty well and we are able to communicate great.  I asked her what she does with her toddlers and these awful stairs. (everyone here has three or four levels with these same stairs)  She got so excited and brought me over to her house so I could see her gates.  They are perfect.  It is a spring loaded white canvas that stays rolled up on one side.  After clicking the top, you release the canvas and pull it across and latch it shut.  My older kids can do it but Megan and Luke can’t… which is good.  They are out of the way when I don’t want them up and easy to put up when I want them.  Genius.

Sylvie gave us the popular German kids website ‘JAC-O’ and wrote down what they were called.  Then she helped me set up an account on the website so I could order them.  Instead of sending a confirmation code in an email they wanted to send one through the mail.   A couple days later, while waiting for the code to arrive, Sylvie found out that they were at a local German store for 10 Euro cheaper and came over to give me the details.  Not only that she called the store to reserve four, and looked up the address so we could type it into our GPS.  All I could do is hug her.  We went and got four gates that afternoon.  Two for the main floor and two for our floor (master bedroom, Ryan’s room and the little boys room).  Chris began to install them immediately but soon ran into a problem.  The walls here are made of cement and you need a nice BOSCH Hammer/drill to get the screws in.  Luckily, our neighbors came to the rescue again.  Joe helped Chris put the first one up using his collection of drills and screws and then let us borrow them for as long as we wanted. Thank you neighbors.

Now when we pull the white canvas across Matthew starts to whine and sometimes drop to the ground ready to show us the beginnings of a tantrum.  If I close it and leave him up while I go down then he cries but just because he’s heartbroken.  He points to the gate and says “down” (which also means up) and is one of the few words he says.  Yes, it’s an important word.  He’d rather climb on the stairs than do anything else.  But we’d rather have him safe and these gates are the answer.  Halleluiah.

{Quick tour of the picture:  That’s our front door at the end.  On the left hand side of the rug is a door to our half bath and on the right is our small shoe cabinet.  Right after the rug and second doorway you turn to the left (right in the picture) to our kitchen. Behind that hall door is a little closet.  They don’t really have closets here so that little closet is a big deal.  We keep cleaning supplies, jackets and will have something organized for backpacks soon.  Obviously, that white thing is our gate and the other one on the other stairs is installed but not pulled across at the moment.  And look at all that white tile… just imagine me sweeping and mopping like a crazy woman.}