We had a few friends over for a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday (since Thanksgiving Day here is just another Thursday). We only had ten people eating (two of them little mouths), so it was a manageable meal to prepare, and of course, friends brought lots of food as well (which we are still enjoying today). I forgot about a chocolate cake that Tobi and Moni prepared so it wasn’t brought out until late, but the good part about that is that there lots of cake was left for us (we are bad hosts but good chocolate eaters).
We had a 6.5 Kg Turkey, which I could get in the regular supermarket here. I think it used to be harder to find a big turkey here, but I suspect they have enough Americans around that they have a few birds available around this time of year. Everyone seemed surprised that we found a bird that size here.
Here are the only photos I took of the afternoon. I was busy and enjoying everyone’s company so I totally forgot about taking any photos with the exception of the four here.
The Bird -
Random dinner shots….
Clair was this totally well behaved little person while everyone was here. I don’t know what happened to her! There were lots of plates and coffee cups on the coffee table, and she didn’t try to knock any of them off! She went after the cheese a few times though, but who could blame her? She saved up all of her crazy for after the guests left. She insisted on climbing on the foot rest from our recliner and standing up. She fell off twice before I took this video. She went to bed shortly after because this is a sneak peak at what I call the overly-tired-crazy baby. Flickr cut off the last few seconds of the video (when she looks confused and sleepy), but you get the point.
I was reading an article yesterday about how some parents are making noise about using the Dog whisperer as their model of parenting style. I think the Dog whisperer is fun (especially the first season), but it’s tough to apply a model based on dog behavior to little humans. Don’t get my wrong, I LOVE the Dog Whisperer, and I think discipline is really important for kids as well as dogs, but kids aren’t dogs. I didn’t think much about the article after I read it.
Then today, Clair and I headed out to walk to town since it was actually a gorgeous day, in Regensburg, in November! She and I were both happy to get out. She loves to walk, but as we were walking down the street to get to the bridge, I decided she needed some help staying with me as cars were driving by, and teh foot bridge we take isn’t exactly kid-friendly. To save my back the strain of attempting to hold the hand of a 14 month old, I brought out the leash!
The leash is actually a little harness that buckles around her chest with a handle that I originally got to keep her strapped into her high chair (and then used it maybe twice for that). Since she loves being buckled into anything, she is always happy to have the harness buckled onto her. As I was walkign with my kid on a leach, I started laughing about the Dog Whisperer as parenting guide article and laughing. I wondered, for a just a second, if I should let her walk in front of me or if I should make it more clear that I am the pack leader (just for a second).
I’ve only used the leash one other time when we went to the car museum, but I never realized how great an idea it was until today. It gave her teh chance to do lots of walking, and it helped me stop her from attempting to run in front of bikes or into the traffic, and it also helped keep her in front of me so that the people walking briskly past us didn’t trip over her (it was full in the city today). Another advantage is that she is at bird-level and went crazy over all of the pigeons she passed (if she were a dog, I think she’d be some kind of bird-dog). I mostly just let her go where ever she wanted to explore, but I could also stop her from getting too close to things I’d rather not let her touch. Let’s just say that there are several animals who urinate on walls in the city, and they all do it at about Clair-height from the ground, apparently. If I just hold the leach while she tries to go somewhere I don’t want her too, she stops from the tension, and in about 2 seconds, her attention is elsewhere, and she is off in another direction. I think the leash idea won’t work as well once kids develop an ability to focus their attention for extended periods of time.
I thought of the Dog Whisperer again when we got to a cafe where I wanted to get a coffee, I set Clair in a chair, and she was happy to sit there! I remember in the Dog Whisperer shows, exercising the dog a few times a day was one of the keys to getting it to chill out. It is probably a kilometer or so from our house to the cafe, so she had a good walk and was ready to rest by the time we got there. She enjoyed some water and a ‘kinder cappuccino’ (AKA frothed milk in an espresso glass) and had some of my eggs and toast. It was a really pleasant experience. The last time I took her in a stroller, she was bouncing off the walls, and I couldn’t enjoy it even with Sarah helping me wrangle her. I have to remember the long walk next time before we take her out to eat!
I’ve heard some moms say they get the stink eye here if they leash their kid, but I had a mixed reaction. It definitely got some attention, most of it positive. The older folks (both men and women) actually told me what a great idea it was. However, the moms with kids about Clair’s age are the ones who gave me the stink eye. I will just assume that they are mad that they didn’t come up with the idea first . I had packed Clair’s carrier since I figure she would need a nap at some point, but when nap time came around, I met Janda who had her awesome two-baby stroller, and since she was only using one half, Clair got to take her nap while we walked.
This is the beginning of my sixth year in Regensburg, and it is only the third November I have spent here, with good reason. November in Germany sucks. There are lots of festivals all spring and summer long, basically starting with Carnval marking the official end of winter. Then we move into September and it’s time for beer, beer, beer parties (they are very big on the beer parties)!
After one wakes up from the October-induced hangover, there is a big lack of celebrating. There is no Halloween or Thanksgiving to pull you through until December. There is St. Martin’s for the Catholics, but I never even heard of that one until I had Clair - I still don’t get what it is all about. On top of that, the weather here is wet, gray and miserable. Every day in the Yahoo forecast is a little raincloud these days. It’s warm, which would be good if it wasn’t so wet. It’s rather be cold in the snow than mildly warm in the rain. I have been keeping the spirits up by actually putting some effort into creating a Halloween and Thanksgiving vibe around our place, but it’s just not the same when the whole town isn’t into it.
I headed into town today, and there, I found hope! The Christmas market is being put into place!! Neufahrplatz is full of trucks, kiosks, and random St. Nicks and stockings waiting to be put into place. It will probably open the last week in November, and then we can resume partying! Hoards of people will stand in the cold drinking warm, spiced drinks and eating half-meter-long sausages!! I can get my over-priced crepes, and wander with friends drinking Gluehwein. There is a bunch of crap you can buy at the stands; it’s some pretty good crap, don’t get me wrong, but most of it is nothing you would ever need - I will almost certainly by some of it none the less. There is a lot of cool stuff by local Artisans at a good price too.
Clair will actually be big enough to figure out that something is different in town, and she may even be able to handle a go on the merry-go-round (though not on the one supersonic one they have near Kaufhof - that one is too fast for me to ride).
The whole town will be decked out in lights, and then the dark weather, and sunset at 4:00 PM just won’t seem so bad. January is a bit of a dry spell as well, but by then, I can put Clair in a costume and call it the beginning of Fasching!
We just got back from a long weekend up in Beckum with the family. Sandra was also there with our little nephew Maxim to attend a funeral of Matthias’ aunt. Though it was a sad reason to visit, it gave us the chance to have some time together as a big family, and it also gave Oma and Opa a lot of babysitting time.
I didn’t take many photos because being in Beckum is all about relaxing, in which case, I forget I have a camera. I tried to take a few of Clair and Maxim together, so we can start a nice series of photos of their first times together.
Clair looks a little stressed here because Maxi was crying (which is why he looks a bit purple in the face).
Getting two munchkins to look at the camera proved impossible, but they did both look at Sandra who was next to me.
And, here’s a little video. Clair has been a bit obsessed with eyes lately, so there is a brief interruption at the end when I try to prevent her from sticking her finger in Maxim’s.
On the way back from Karlruhe, we stopped at the Auto & Technik Museum in Sinsheim. Here is a slideshow. It was really cool! I learned that my little discomfort of heights is growing with time. I realized this on the top of the 50 foot spiral staircare leading to the Concord, which is mounted on top of some columns in such a way that it sways a bit in the wind!!! I used the excuse of bringing Clair down to go down a bit sooner
We went to meet our nephew for the first time this weekend (more photos to come)! Here is Clair’s first French lesson with her uncle Julien - notice what a good student she is!
As someone whose learned a bit about automotive control systems (from the guys sitting next to me on the couch who designs such things), the story about the Toyota recalls is pretty scary. The LA Times wrote the article I linked to, and it is a pretty good investigative report - that kind of depth isn’t in the news so much these days. Anyway, it’s a very scary idea that your car’s accelerator and/or breaking system can be out of your control! We watched “Final Destination” last night, and it seems like something from that movie.
I remember a lot of my dreams. There are many kinds of dreams; some of them are fun and silly, some scary, and sometimes, I have dreams that seem very profound. Those are the ones I pay attention to because when I wake up from them, I tell myself that it meant something important. I have been having some profound dreams lately. They all have a similar theme. We are in California (doing various things depending on the night), and I turn to Matthias and say, “I really think we are supposed to be back here.” I wake up feeling like it’s time to go back to California because that’s where I am supposed to be.
Am I feeling home sick?
I am working with the Yoga Sutras in my Yoga practice at the moment, and that tends to dig up stuff deep in my brain. I never know what’s going to come up, but it makes me have strange profound dreams sometimes (usually, it helps me see what is going on inside my head once I can figure out what my dreams are telling me).
I’m not really sure what developmental milestones Clair should be reaching by now (I prefer to remain willfully ignorant), but here is a bunch of stuff she can do at 13.5 months:
Walking is SOOO three months ago - walking is no longer interesting, it’s just how she moves. She can kind of run. It looks a bit Like Forest Gump when his legs braces statters, very straight kneed. She can squat really well. I never think of babies sitting in a squat to play, but she often plays with stuff on the floor in a squat. She may get that from me because I am usually squatting down several times a day to reach her level.
Table manners - We all went out to a restaurant last night, and I was pretty impressed with her table skills. We ordered her a plate of noodles with butter, and they brought her plate out before ours. It takes her FOREVER to eat so that was good timing. She points and says ‘num, num’ when she wants to eat or drink whatever she is pointing at. We set her plate just out of reach and she would ask for her noodles as she wanted them. She also, mostly, puts her sippy cup back on the table gently as opposed to flinging it (’mostly’ being an important point). When she is not at daycare and I am eating something, she usually comes over, points at what I am eating and says ‘num, num.’ After a taste, she usually goes back to playing unless she is hungry.
Little monkey - She is discovering climbing. The little recliner that grandma and grandpa got for her gave her a good intro to climbing furniture. She is VERY close to being able to get on the couch on her own, and she can alreay climb her high chair. We ended up taking out the infant bar that holds her in, and that actually slowed her down because it was one less thing to pull herself up on. She still sits in the chair just fine without the extra holder. She is also working at tossing herself in the bath tub head first. She can only get one foot up on the edge so far, but it is a matter of time before she gets herself in there. All of this means that she can basically get on and off of her little rocking Elk and her Booby car on her own. Every once in a while, she ends up standing on her rocking Elk somehow - she thinks that is kind of funny and also a little scary!
Word, words, words - she repeats her word noises a lot these days. Like I mentioned ‘num, num’ means eat/drink. She has also figured out more about ‘Tschues’ (German for ‘bye’); she knows it has something to do with doors because she is starting to turn and say Tschues when she goes through the doors in the apartment. She also mumble is repeatedly while waiting for me to get my shoes on (rushing me already!). She can shake her head ‘no’ when asked a question, but I am not convinced she understands the concept totally. She knows that a response is expected when someone asks her something. Usually, she reacts in someway. Whatever word noises she has, she usually repeats them over and over. One of my favorite is ‘Gute, guete, guete’, which means ‘goodness, goodness, goodness’ in German - very cute.
Reading - She still loves books, but now she is starting to open her books on her own and ‘read’ them (mumbling her words with a variety of inflection)
play, play play - She loves wrestling. If Matthias or I are on the floor, we will be body-slammed. She likes being flipped upside down, and Matthias is teaching her Judo rolls. As I am sitting here, she comes up, taps me on the leg and pulls me in the direction of her toys (until she got distracted by pushing the chair around). She is also great as drag her stuff (and our stuff) all over the place. Her favorite morning activity is to get the alarm clock and my papaer back book off of the night stand and bring them out. She ‘reads’ my book after taking out the book mark, and then she pushes the buttons on the alarm clock and then abandons it (usually under the dining table). She also loves cars and makes an engine noise when she plays with them. She is pretty good at kicking balls too - she must get that from Matthias because I can’t kick a ball to save my life.
Girls got moves - she loves dancing (like all kids as far as I can see). She has three main moves: bending the knees, moving the hips forward and back, and swinging the arms. She doesn’t do them all at once, but she chooses one depending on the music. I think she inherited my rhythm - whew! She ’sings’ a little of the song ‘Wie das Faenchen auf dem Turm’. There is a little hand gesture that Oma taught her to do when she sings it. Once in a while, Clair starts twisting her wrist and babbling in a little sing-song way. Once in a while, we hear ‘wie das’ at the beginning.
Girl’s got attitude - She now knows what she wants sometimes and she gets pissed when we don’t let her have it. I am starting to call her reaction ‘the rawr’. I she is really upset, she throws her head back in the silent inhale followed by the rawr of frustration. If she is not that mad, she just scowls at us. She has Matthias’ scowl, which is kind of cute.
I am sure there is a ton more stuff she is up to (at the moment, she is standing looking out the window with a dish towel over her head), but those are the main things. Oh, that, and she can blow her nose! She is not very good at it yet, but she gets the idea. I need to teach her to wait until after the tissue is up at her nose before blowing though. Otherwise she walks around blowing her nose in the air until I give her a tissue.
ok, I hear ‘num, num, num’ behind me now. Off to serve. no time to edit, hopefully this makes sense…..
(we are bad hosts but good chocolate eaters).
