In memory

My aunt died last week.

I had been in the car on the way home from the sketchiest freelance job interview, and I wished that I could just call up my Aunt Anne to ask her how she would have handled negotiating with this guy; it was the first time that I had to make an offer for my services and I got overwhelmed being put on the spot. I felt like, if I could have talked to her, she would have had some sage words of advice. After I’d gotten home and had dinner, I started getting messages asking about how I was doing, and if I was holding up okay. I just knew.

For almost almost as long as I can remember, she made her living as a freelancer. She gave me my first job when I was young I was probably 11, maybe 12 – she was working for a scientific education vendor. Sometimes I helped unpack or repack boxes of books that she had to review, and I remember spending hours cutting up the old catalogs to make a “dummy” version for the next year... I loved working in her office with all of the office supplies (yes, I have a geeky love of office supplies). When I was about 16 she started teaching me more about her work, and I continued working for her on and off, learning more with each project, until I was about 24! She taught me a lot about professionalism and what it means to have a strong work ethic in those 12+ years, and that will always stick with me.

I remember playing the “getting lost” game with her when I was about 10-years-old. She would take me, and sometimes my sister, out and tell us to give her directions. We would tell her to turn every few blocks just because we could. It became a regular thing, and I loved it. She would say, “Let’s go on an adventure and get lost!” I had the chance to visit her back in November and when we were talking about the “getting lost” game, she just said, “I know we got lost, but we got un-lost, too!” This kind of adventurousness stuck with me, and I am absolutely certain it is one reason why I wasn’t afraid of packing up my life to go to Europe 4.5 years ago.

I am still trying to wrap my head around all of the different emotions I am feeling right now. She was diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer in October, and Emma and I flew to Chicago for three weeks so I could visit her a few more times. I couldn’t articulate myself then when I could see her, and I can’t fully articulate myself now. Our visits during those few weeks were melancholic trips down memory lane. It was worse when I was back in Germany because I couldn’t stop thinking about her, I couldn’t stop missing her, and I had no way to tell her that myself. She was a mentor, and I miss her very much.

Without a doubt, my aunt taught me a lot of things that helped shape me into the person I am today, and I am incredibly grateful for it.

Rest in peace Aunt Anne, you will live on in my memories. I love you.

Anne Pauline Wallingford
June 29, 1949 – January 15, 2015

A bi-annual update!

So… the last time I wrote anything was in February. A lot has happened since then, and I will do my best to fill you in.

March
My mom visited us for Emma’s 2nd birthday! It was so nice to have a few days to spend with my mom, but I was very anxious about her flying (over Istanbul, no less) with a broken arm.

At the end of the month I started a crafting blog with my sisters, which has sadly not been updated since… August?

April
One of my friends had complications with her pregnancy and hired me to be a nanny/cleaner/extra set of hands until she was in the clear. I worked about 25 hours a week in the afternoons watching Emma and her daughter. It was fun, but made me very much appreciate that I don’t have twins! :D

Over Easter, my mother-in-law invited us to vacation with them in August! Thinking about the upcoming trip really saved my sanity over the summer.

At the end of April I had my first German interview for a job (that I didn’t get). If nothing else, it was a learning experience.

May
I started volunteering at the German American Institute library in Heidelberg. As if I didn’t already have enough to do.

Fabian got a random student job where he had to count people on busses. The company gathers statistics and works with different transportation regions to help them update routes and make service more efficient. Kind of cool, but he ended up having to work quite a few times overnight staying in random small cities at the French border. It was nice that he had the job, but it was unpredictable and left me with little free time.

June
Happy summer! Fabian was still working that job. The highlight was taking a daytrip to Wissembourg, France. We hadn’t been able to have a lot of time for each other, and it was nice to have an excuse to go somewhere together. :) Emma also learned that it was OK to play in fountains…

July
The good parts of July were defined by playing in the rain, a visit from a friend (Jacob), and my 27th birthday! Fabian spent a lot of time writing his thesis, working, and we were both pretty stressed.

August
At the beginning of August, I got a new temporary contract from one of the companies I’ve worked with three times before. It was beautiful timing.

Shortly after, one of my best friends (Stevie) came for a visit! It was a very fun visit, and my in-laws said that she was a “real American!” They especially loved her accent. :)  Stevie is one of those friends where you always pick up exactly where you left off, and it doesn’t matter how much time has passed since you’ve seen each other. It was so nice to have a visitor and not feel like I was changing my life to accommodate her - it was relaxing!

A week later, we went to Dolcedo, Italy (a beautiful town built in the  early Middle Ages) with Fabian’s family for a week, and it was an excellent trip to decompress. We were in the middle of the mountains without internet. I really needed to disconnect, it was very good for me. We took day trips to Nice, France, and Imperia, and Genoa, Italy. We went hiking! We celebrated our 3rd anniversary on vacation with his family for the second year in a row (and this year he didn’t get food poisoning!!) It was so much fun!

The drive to Italy was very easy, we just had the expected hour-long traffic jam leading up to the Gotthard Tunnel (it’s more than 10 miles/16.5 km long and is the third longest road tunnel in the world!), but the rest of the trip was uneventful.

On the way back however, the 8.5 hour trip took 14.5 hours. (Yes. you read that right.) First, we had traffic along the coast getting out of Italy. We later learned that Italians were starting their summer holidays, which meant that the roads were extremely full. Combine that with the torrential rain… it took a while. Then, we got stuck for more than an hour in Milan waiting to pay the toll. So, after waiting for that long, Fabian’s dad decided he wasn’t going to wait in traffic at the tunnel, so, we detoured over the Alps taking the San Bernardino Pass. The views were gorgeous, and were the only thing that made the detour worth it.

We ended up driving next to Lichtenstein, through a corner of Austria, and then around a corner of Lake Konstanz, up to Ulm, and finally back over to Karlsruhe to get to Heidelberg. We were constantly met with traffic and construction. It was SO long.

(Thank you for illustrating my point, Google Maps!)

Aside from the visit and the vacation, Fabian was still working on his thesis, and we were both applying for jobs all over the place. At the end of the month I found out that I got into an English-language study program, but I am not going to go  because it’s located in a dumb town far away from everything useful and the likelihood that Fabian would also get a job there is pretty much non existent. 

The only thing I regret was that the trip to Italy overlapped with when our friends were meeting up in Amsterdam for 5 days. I would have absolutely LOVED getting to visit with them.

September
September also went quickly. We kicked the month off by taking Emma to get her first haircut! It was very exciting, and she was wonderfully non-wiggly when the stylist had the scissors near her face! She looks so much more grown up now!

In the middle of September, the daughter of my mother-in-law’s friend invited me for an “interview” at the marketing/advertising agency she works at. The job was to edit websites based on the templates they provided. The “interview” was a test to see if I could do the job. I went in at 10:00a, and walked out at 4:00p with a job! :) It is on a freelance basis, and I am waiting to see if there is more work for me in October, but I really enjoy the job, and the fact that I have an excuse to go into the city wearing nice clothes!

September was also the month my sisters visited me! We had a wonderful sister trip, the cousins could play together. Emma kept singing a song saying that Kira (my niece) was her best friend. It was so sweet! After they left, I felt very sad that I live so far away and that the cousins don’t have the chance to know each other very well. I miss my sisters very much. :(

October
On October 2nd, Fabian had an interview with the chamber of commerce in Passau. We are anxiously waiting to hear whether or not he got the job (but it does look hopeful).

I am getting my passport renewed (name change, y’all!) and collecting documents to renew my visa, which expires on November 1. I am crossing my fingers that my passport comes back in time!!

Aside from that, Emma decided she was (finally) ready for potty training!! She had had a few accidents during the week, down to one accident on Thursday and then no accidents on Friday. She’s a big fan of helping with the whole process.

I will leave you with a silly story:

Emma really likes her privacy on the potty, which usually means the second the door is closed she says, "Peepee! Finished!" and I go back in. So last night she was peeing before bed, and I was waiting for her to say she was finished, it took a surprisingly long time, and when I opened the door she was mid-pour emptying her potty into the toilet. Of course I surprised her and she got pee all over her hands, which she promptly wiped on her pajamas... but, it was HILARIOUS! :) She looked so proud of herself!

She also fought a night diaper last night, so we said what the heck, let her go without one to see what happens. The most amazing thing happened, SHE STAYED DRY!!! Which was extra good since I spent half the night in her bed with her. But seriously. It's been a whopping 6 days since we started potty training. I feel like I have won the lottery!

 

Until next time…!

Growing up

We had a semi-productive Monday. We did things that were fun, like rearranging furniture, but not things that we needed to do...

First, we took an authentic 60s chair from Fabian’s grandma, and needed a better place for it until it gets reupholstered, and second, I said enough was enough, and the crib had to move! I wanted free access on my side of the bed again. The problem was, where to put Emma’s bed?! We live in a 2-room (1br) flat, and there isn’t a whole lot of extra space. Fortunately, we are in his grandma’s basement, which means free storage! So, things got shifted around, the desk in the bedroom (aka the dumping ground) got kicked out and into the basement. Next, it was goodbye crib, and hello big-girl bed. So we assembled the kid’s bed frame that one of our neighbors gifted us last year.

Emma was having so much fun watching and helping us. One of us left the basement door open when we were going back and forth, then all of a sudden I hear Emma sounding distressed from somewhere, and when I found her, she was stamping her feet at the top of the stairs (which lead to Fabian’s grandma’s kitchen), looking very upset about the fact that she couldn’t descend by herself. She was also covered in cobwebs from exploring--it was SO funny and cute! :)

So, naturally, the first thing she did was jump on her new bed.

Going to bed was the usual hassle, but she was relatively willing to sleep in “her” bed. Big win! She slept okay, but kept waking herself up coughing. Everything was fine until we were in bed, almost asleep, and hear a big thud. Emma had rolled out of bed! I got right up to see if she was fine, and she was just sitting there trying to get comfortable on the big polar bear pillow we’d laid out to catch such falls. She was still half asleep, and in the end I just took her back with me.

I didn’t realize JUST how much extra space the crib had afforded us! Emma spent a half an hour tossing and turning, kicking Fabian in the face, laying on my head, trying to get comfortable. She was so squirmy I was paranoid she would fall out of our bed, much higher and with nothing to soften the fall.

She didn’t fall out of bed. But, after I woke up this morning she was comfortable laying with her legs completely dangling over the side of the bed. When I tried moving her back into the bed, she wriggled back, but left one foot up… This morning I turned that mini crib so that the long side was against the bed, and I’m hoping that will help keep her off the floor tonight.

So, there you have it: Emma’s “room.” That chair on the left is the one from his grandma, which I am going to make marvelous!

It’s almost Christmas??!

Since I last updated this thing, I have returned to Germany, got hired and fired (ask if you want the story, I just don’t think it’s good form to have it out there on the internet), dealt with an exploding toilet, “quit” the choir, had a sick kid, got sick myself, celebrated Thanksgiving with friends, Fabian celebrated his birthday, got a Christmas tree, discovered we are living with a mouse, Emma became a cookie and chocolate addict (thank you, Advent), and now it is the fourth Sunday in Advent and I can’t believe it is just two days until Christmas.

***

First, a good laugh. When I still had a job, one morning the toilet got stopped up and since we had to leave, we decided to deal with it later. At work (a nursery), two children were out sick with hand-foot-mouth disease, which is highly infectious and starts with a fever and gives you itchy red spots on your hands, feet, and in/around your mouth (more on this later). Fabian picked Emma up and we meet up after work to ride the tram home together. I was stressed because I hadn’t seen Emma all day, and she had a 4-hour nap in the afternoon, so I was debating whether or not I should go to yoga; Fabian convinced me I should. Halfway through class my phone tells me I got a SMS, and when I checked after class, it was Fabian saying, “call before you leave, we have a situation.” And what is that situation, you ask? Turns out that as Fabian was plunging the toilet, the water found an exit all over the outdoor entryway. There was a small lake of smelly shit water standing outside. Fabian called his dad to help fix the plumbing/cleaning, Fabian’s mom and sister entertained Emma. When I got home, everything was more or less OK, but it still smelled outside. After dinner, some kohlrabi-ginger soup that gave Fabian a belly ache, I gave Emma a bath, and of COURSE she poops in the tub. It was one hell of a day.

***

Emma and I have been sick pretty constantly since we returned to Germany in October after our stint in the US this summer. We’ve had constant sniffles and coughs, then, back in November, Emma got a urinary tract infection, which was pretty serious until we figured out what it was because she was vomiting, had a high fever, wasn’t eating, was totally lethargic, and only wanted to sleep. Then she got antibiotics and perked right up. Thank goodness. Two weeks later, I had the 24-hour stomach flu, and it was a very “happy” Thanksgiving for me.

We had planned a Thanksgiving get-together with our friends for the last Saturday in November. Thursday night, I started vomiting, and wasn’t feeling better until after a trip to the doctor where I got an IV to help replenish my fluid levels, since I hadn’t been able to keep anything down. Friday I still felt nauseas, but I could at least eat small portions. Saturday was particularly rough since we had all the food and cooking smells in the house. I was glad that I could go pick-up friends from various train/tram stations and get out of the smelly house for a little while. Sadly, it was a lack-luster party for me, I fell asleep when putting Emma to bed around 7:30p. In hindsight, I feel bad that I didn’t really get to visit with my friends. I hope I’ll get to see them again soon.

***

Next, Fabian celebrated his 26th birthday! I gave him a crepe pan and made him an apron, he was pretty excited, and the next day we ate crepes!! Sadly, it was a weird day and didn’t feel all that festive. Fortunately we could do a bit more celebrating the following weekend for Nikolaustag (Nikolaus came to Fabian’s parent’s house and we had a raclette dinner!), and that made his birthday celebration feel happier.



Thinking about Nikolaustag brings me to Emma’s cookie and chocolate obsession. Every day Emma gets a wooden Haba toy in her Adventskalandar (thank you, Henriette!), except on the 6th and 24th, for Nokolaustag and Christmas Eve; those two days she gets chocolate. So, we started the morning with two chocolate Santa’s, one in her calendar, one in her boot. the one from her calendar was gone in an instant, because we didn’t know that she could open the foil wrapper. Before I knew what was going on, the Santa from the boot was open and half eaten! Then she sat up tall in her highchair demanding more “La-da!” (from the German, Schokolade).

Moving on to the cookies: Fabian has been baking so many Christmas cookies, and Emma got to help out a lot. She snuck a bunch of cookie dough, and of course got to sample the finished product. During the month of December, Emma has asked for/demanded cookies at least once a day, if not more! Now we have to spell out C-O-O-K-I-E whenever we talk about them so as not to get her started on a cookie rampage.

***

On the 16th of December, we bought our first Christmas tree! Even though this will be our third Christmas, we haven’t had the chance to get our own tree. First, while I was pregnant, we were living in Passau and visited his family for two weeks around the holidays. Second, we were in the US for a month between December and January, and having a tree would have been dumb. So, finally, this year, we could have our own tree! :) Emma has only sort of “discovered” it, thankfully, so we haven’t had tree-catastrophes.

***

Last weekend, Emma had a particularly late night, and Fabian and I stayed up until 2a doing miscellaneous nonsense on our computers. I got up to brush my teeth and go to the bathroom before finally sleeping, and when I was in the bathroom, a mouse darted out from underneath the sink cabinet making a beeline for the door (which was closed). Until then, Fabian and I had both “seen” the ghost mouse, but this time we really knew that she was there. I called for Fabian to come help me catch it, but she was too clever for us and we still have a mouse somewhere in the house. We are sort of thinking about getting a cat, but in this exact moment, I am not convinced it’s a good idea, because having a pet means more financial obligations, and right now that just isn’t an option for us.

***

I almost forgot! Remember that Hand-Foot-Mouth disease I mentioned earlier? Well it made its way to our daycare and the week before break 5 of the 7 children got it, Emma included. And because she loves me so much, she gave it to me! !%/§$. It was like chicken pox but only on my hands and feet. My case was definitely worse than Emma's, but she was such a monster it was obvious she was sick, too.

***

With all the Christmas spirit in the air, Emma has picked up (we think at the Kindergruppe), some songs, namely O Tannenbaum and Jingle Bells. Emma will demand us to, “Sing! Singen! Singen!” until we properly start up with '”O Tannenbaum,” then she joins in with “O Tammenoun!” It’s incredibly cute. Two days ago she started the same thing with “Jungle Balls,” which took me a minute… We have a video of her singing her own song that you can check out, if you are interested/haven’t already seen it.

***

The last thing I can tell you is that we started potty training yesterday. I made Emma a pair of crotchless pants so that she wouldn’t have to run around half naked in December; it’s a bit chilly, you know?! We are borrowing some training pants from a friend, and so far it’s not so bad! Emma is starting to figure it out. :)

***

So, that brings us pretty up-to-date. I haven’t had any motivation to do much of anything since I got fired, especially since there is a lot of drama surrounding it. However, I have applied for a few jobs and apprenticeships, and I hope something will pan out because right now I am feeling like the most useless person in Germany. I have no reason to be here. I hope that you are doing better than I am, and that you are enjoying the holiday season!

Until next time…

The rest of June, July, and a little bit of August: Part 2

I feel pretty good about getting through some of this!

July
We arrived in Chicago just in time for my feelings of happy vacation to kick in. Naturally I started working downtown the next day…

July was incredibly stressful. Not only was I working at ACRL (a nice arrangement with two days in the office, and the rest of the week at home), but Fabian was also working on writing a paper due at the beginning of the next semester. With us both working so intensely, we barely had time to do anything else or spend time with each other. Emma’s daytime nap was premium working time for both of us. 

In addition to all that, we helped my parents get rid of TONS of old stuff that was just sitting taking up space. Part of that involved convincing them to get rid of the old smelly sofa and buy a new sofa bed, my main argument was that then they would actually have space for four more people to sleep in the already crowded house. It was a success, new sofa—epic sauce.

Despite having to do so much work, we did manage to squeeze in some vacation time. We went to the beach to see fireworks for Independence Day; drove to Madison for a day to randomly visit an old friend; many, many trips to the beach (hooray!!); a few visits to the zoo; and an early anniversary date night.

Emma grew, learned some new words, and made some new friends. I signed her up for the Chicago summer reading program, and we read lots of books together, and went to a few different places for story time. Emma took a little bit of time to get into story time, but by the end of each one she was having a blast.

I also did a bunch of yoga. One of my friends teaches yoga in Chicago, so I went to that studio and took her classes. I didn’t know just how much I would enjoy yoga—it's challenging, relaxing, anti-stress, and fun all rolled into one. What’s not to love? I was doing so well…

Lastly, I celebrated my 26th birthday, but more about that later. Fabian baked me a red current cake—delicious!!!!

All in all, not a bad July.

August
At the very beginning of August, I had a birthday party to celebrate my 26th. The last time I had any sort of birthday party with friends was long ago, and I enjoyed having the opportunity to visit with everyone, especially an old friend whom I haven’t seen in about… six years? And, a welcome visit from our Austrian friend. :)

After the party, we had three days to get everything together before Fabian’s parents and sibs arrived…!

The rest of June, July, and a little bit of August: Part 1

The time I posted was a week before I flew to the US for the summer. Since then, I have been intensely busy, traveling all over, spending lots of time with family and friends, and going to bed ready to pass out just about every day! Now I finally have a chance to make up for some lost time.

June
About  ten days before we were going to fly to the US, we met some of my family friends for a day in Freiburg. Never mind packing for a four-month trip, we had people to see! The day was overcast and a little bit humid, but it was still a nice day to be walking around. 

Fabian and I drove the hour and a half to Freiburg in the morning so that we could have some time in the morning to do some sightseeing. The city is quite beautiful and we enjoyed the walk; Emma enjoyed chasing the pigeons—with Papa’s help, of course.

It was so much fun to catch up with Bob and Laura over a potato lunch at the aptly named Kartoffelhaus (potato house) restaurant. I thought it was particularly awesome that they detoured north so that we could visit. :)

After lunch we all walked around together for about an hour, and Emma let us all know who the boss was. At the time, Emma could only walk with help, and she wanted to walk, and she led us all around town.  I mean really, how could we refuse when she looked SO HAPPY?!!

***

With four days until departure, we had one ridiculous day when all hell broke loose. I had been having tooth pain for a few days, which I’d been ignoring, but that morning when I was brushing my teeth, I lost a filling from a different tooth! So now I had to call the dentist and was able to get an emergency appointment 1.5 hours later.

It turns out that the tooth that had been hurting for a few days was just from my gums being slightly inflamed. The dentist gave me some sort of awfully bitter tasting medicine where I had the most pain, then took impressions to replace the old plastic filling with a porcelain filling. Two hours and almost 500€ later, and my teeth were fixed.

When we got home, I was going inside to grab the stack of newspapers to fold so that I could deliver them, and heard this strange noise that sounded like something between static and crackling and after investigating the noise, I discovered that we had water leaking from a random place in the middle of the ceiling. Fabian looked at it, called his dad, his dad drilled a hole into the ceiling to see what was going on, and before you knew it, a big fat chunk of ceiling was on the living room floor and our flat smelled like moldy concrete.

The ceiling had stopped leaking, and the mess was cleaned up, and we just had to realize we weren’t going to deal with it in the few days before we left.

A few weeks after the fact, we learned that the ceiling had been repaired and the wall repainted.  I am curious to see how it all looks when we get back to Germany.

***

It wasn’t the same crazy day, but sometime in that same week we learned that Fabian’s great aunt was diagnosed with cancer. We visited in the last few days before we left just in case we wouldn’t see her again. As of August, she is still around, but not doing well.

***

When I had booked the tickets to go to the US, I made a mistake with the dates and instead of flying together, Fabian and I were flying one day after each other, so I had a nice 10-hour flight alone with Emma to look forward to.

When we were at the airport, one of the airline employees was very excited to tell us that the flight was overbooked, and would we consider volunteering to fly the next day? They offered a 900€ voucher and one night at a hotel—heck yes I’d volunteer. I waited with Emma by the ticket counter until the very last minute, but it didn’t end up working out. If one more person had shown up for the flight, I could have flown the next day. Oh well, I’d already psyched myself up for it, and I was actually relieved that I didn’t have to think about getting ready for the flight all over again. So, Emma and I flew together. (She is such a good traveller!) The only hard part was that I had to keep waking her up to switch planes/get in the car/whatever, and she was so unhappy to be woken up… We crashed at Sarah’s house in Nashville and hung out until Fabian arrived the next day.

***

We had a good time in Nashville. I got to meet my niece for the first time; Emma started walking all by herself; and I had some much needed quality sister time.

Emma was super cute with Kira. Every time Emma poked her cousin, Kira made noises! It was a long game of cause and effect. Emma learned how to say Kira (Kee-a, which has recently been transformed into Kee-ga) and baby, and understood that Kira was littler than she, and was therefore the baby. This was also the time when Emma discovered the dishwasher, and she was excited to “help” me put dishes away in the mornings (which meant that I had to quickly stack dishes as she handed them to me while ensuring nothing went splat on the floor).

Because Emma started walking on her own, we went to buy her a pair of shoes. Oh boy was that a drama! Emma has a harder time with most males who encroach into her personal space (Opa, Grandpa, and uncles included), and of course the man at the shoe store had to measure her feet. One might think he was trying to chop off her foot instead of merely holding it up to the size measurement thing. After getting her calmed down from shrieking and wailing, the woman measured her foot, and we FINALLY knew what size she needed. We tried on one pair of sandals that were adorable, but made Emma walk like a duck (she really looked uncomfortable), and settled on a pair of Stride Rite shoes because she moved well in them. 

I also started to fulfill my promise to myself that I would start doing some yoga to help with depression problems. I squeezed in three yoga sessions into the two weeks I was in Nashville, and felt very good about that.

My mom drove down to Nashville at the end of June to pick us up and take us all back to Chicago.

Long overdue

I know that I haven’t written anything since March. This update is long overdue.  I haven’t been feeling like myself and I haven’t had the motivation to write anything to anybody.

April went fast, and I felt drained by the end of the month. I was swamped with work, and Fabian had a few projects for school. In the miniscule amount of free time we had, we did a little bit of traveling in the region; I finished the sewing project I’d been meaning to do; Emma started talking (her first word was “banana”); and I joined a choir.

May also went fast, and poorly. Emma had her first real accident (stood up and whacked her face on the corner of a bench), we’ve had four days with sunshine and I still need to wear a jacket—in MAY, and to top it all, I lost my job. Sweet. At least my Mother’s Day was nice.

That little bit of travel
We had a nice weekend daytrip to Bensheim and Heppenheim. It was a Saturday, shops closed early, it was rainy and sunny, and we didn’t do a lot except wander aimlessly. We agree that Bensheim is nicer than Heppenheim.

We had a weird experience at a café in Heppenheim: for the first time, we felt unwelcome in a restaurant because we had a baby with us. They had a highchair, so you would think they expect a child customer now and then, but they gave us a glare when we walked upstairs, and couldn’t believe that we needed a place to change Emma. We left, went back to the car and headed to Bensheim 3 km away, because we couldn’t deal with ending the day on such a sour note.

Fortunately, Bensheim was much more fun. After a torrential rainstorm, the sun came out and we had a lovely jaunt around the city, Emma practiced walking, and then we had a second cup of coffee and a slice of cake at a much happier café where the waitress doted on Emma.

Sewing project
After I made the sofa cover, I bought fabric online through Etsy to make pillow covers. The fabric sat in a cabinet for almost five months before I did anything with it. Ta da!

Emma
It feels like everyday Emma is doing something new. She’s mastered a stacking toy, she can walk with help, she climbs up and down stairs (which took her all of 3 minutes to figure out). After mama and papa, her first word was banana, and she has added Nase (nose) and Baum (tree) to her vocabulary. EVERYONE ASKED and now I can say, she speaks more German than English. 

Emma’s personality has continued to emerge—she is such a little ham! :D When she is tired, she will lay down on the carpet and look all cute and stuff. She gets enthusiastic about feeding you, and won’t stop shoving food at your face until you eat it. Handfuls of grass are the best toy when we can play outside. She likes to feed the bunnies.

Networking
At the end of April, I took over as organizer for a parents/playdates Meetup group I was part of. The original organizer’s children are in school now and she didn’t want to continue paying for it. Nobody wanted to pick-up the leadership role, and at 5 days until close, I decided to take it over for a few months to see what happens.

After I organized a meetup at my house, one woman wrote me and said she lived in the next neighborhood over, and we should meet. So we did, and now Emma and I both have new friends that live seven minutes away, and the new friendships have been excellent for both of us.

New project
I’d had this idea in the back of my mind for a while, and I finally implement it. I have changed Emma’s diaper on the bathroom floor of many restaurants and cafés because there weren’t kid-friendly facilities. I know, I know, Germany is old, and old buildings, etc. But, my idea was to create a list of the restaurants and cafés that DO have amenities for children.  So, www.kidfriendlyin.de was born.

I have had a few setbacks though—I’m in the middle of rebuilding the website AGAIN. Ugh!! The first time I was frustrated with the way things were linked and had to recreate pages using a different template.  The second time I had a lovely fatal error and lost the entire site, so I switched CMS and am working  of through it. So. Tedious.

Losing the job
I was working as an independent contractor for five months, then last Friday, out of the blue, I get an email that says I should hold off on everything for a few weeks until bossman can get his ducks in a row. I think it boils down to the fact that he doesn’t really do email, and since I’m not there to talk to, he couldn’t manage the project.

On one hand, I was relieved, because doing a job with zero feedback was stressful because I didn’t know if I was on the right track. On the other hand, I felt screwed over that I had no inkling that it was coming.

Farherschein
I’ve lived in Germany for almost two years. I was supposed to exchange my Illinois drivers license for a German license after the first six months, but that just didn’t happen. So, I finally did it! I have a mean looking picture, and I will pick it up next week.

Summer plans
Big news, we are coming to the US this summer, and we will be in Chicago for the month of July. Emma and I will be in Nashville in September. If you want to visit, please start making plans, I am already getting very busy. :(

 

Emma certainly knows how to get comfy and pass out. I feel like that too, practically every day! :D Here’s hoping June is better. Good night y’alls.

Happy 1st birthday, Emma!

I suck at keeping up with this blog. I hope that I can be better now that I am only working one job!

The months of February and March have been intense. On top of working two jobs, and being a full-time Mama, I took an intensive Deutsch B1.1 course, which was five days a week for a month! Then, the course ended, Fabian got sick, Emma had a birthday, and now I’m sort of recovered?

I was sick the last three days of my German course—I wrote the reading comprehension test (badly), then my teacher sent me home. I guess I looked really bad. I know I felt awful! When I got home, I discovered I had a small fever, then the next two days I had intense head aches. Two days later, Fabian notices some sort of rash on his chest, and when it started hurting him, he went to the doctor and found out he has shingles (herpes zoster), caused by the same virus that gives children the chicken pox.

So yea, shingles are fun. Fabian has been in a lot of pain for most of the last week and a half. The doctor said they were probably brought on by stress, which makes sense. It is a little bit funny, because we had just decided not to get Emma vaccinated against the chicken pox, and we still didn't vaccinate her against it even though Fabian has shingles… fortunately Emma isn't showing any signs of the chicken pox, and Fabian is past the contagious part. So, we are probably in the clear.

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In other news, Emma started walking (sort of)! She has a small push wagon that she got after Christmas, and the day before her birthday, she started walking with it back and forth across the room for 30  minutes! Since then, she's gotten steadier with it, and now practices balancing herself when she stands. It is so cool! We bought her a pair of leather-soled shoes as a sort of congratulations. :)

She hasn’t figured out how to change directions, so she just keeps going until she runs into a piece of furniture. Then, she looks confused why she can’t go and lifts her feet like she’s walking in place. It’s cute and funny!

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Emma’s first birthday was a lot of fun, but holy cow, children’s birthday parties are STRESSFUL!!

We originally thought we would have a nice birthday brunch at 11, but two weeks before her birthday, Fabian’s dad asked if he could grill. Who are we to turn down a barbecue?! The weather didn’t quite cooperate (so cold!), but we still grilled, and it was delicious. Fabian made tasty cucumber and chickpea salads, and we made rhubarb chutney and apple barbecue sauce to go with the meat. Mmmmm! (For the record, Emma was not a fan of the chickpea salad.)

The most stressful part of the party was opening presents. Emma was already tired because she didn’t nap well in the morning, and by the time 2:00p rolled around, she was pretty done. We also had a 3.5-year-old at the party, who was intent on “helping” Emma open presents. Cute, but overwhelming.

Emma had her own smash cake. At first, she didn’t know what to do with it, but Oma helped her out by scooping a big fingerful of frosting and sticking it in Emma’s mouth. About 20 seconds later, Emma was all over the cake!

I really wonder what she thought about the day. Randomly given a cake, tons of presents and attention? If I didn’t know what was going on, I know I would be confused.

***

One of the coolest presents Emma received was a hand-made riding toy.

***

A few random bits to tie up this post:

• Emma got her 7th tooth, and the 8th is almost here! Right now it’s a nice whitish lump sitting just under her gums.
• Emma makes funny noises by flipping her lip with her finger (bl-ub, bl-ub, bl-ub). Cuter is when she smiles because the noise is so silly!
• Transitioning to solid foods is a real commitment. I didn’t realize how challenging it could be to create a diet for someone else!
• I am slowly adding recipes to this blog. We have a lot of good ones, and it’s a shame to keep them to myself. :)

That’s all I’ve got for tonight. I hope to write again soon!

Baby’s First Christmas

I know, this is chronologically off because I wrote in February. I’ve been working too much and haven’t had a spare minute to do any writing!

We celebrated two Christmases this year, one with each family.

Boxheimer Family Christmas, December 15-16, 2012
We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner with Fabian’s immediate family on the 15th—a delicious salad with goat cheese and mango chutney, followed by stewed meat and vegetables, and two types of knödel (giant dumplings made with potato and bread, respectively), followed by a homemade ice cream dessert. Emma had Pasta Bambini from a jar of baby food, but she didn’t eat very much of it—she was so much more interested in our food!



After dinner, we traded gifts with “wichteln,” which is like Secret Santa. The theme this year was homemade gifts. To play, you roll a dice, and you can only open presents if you roll a 6. Other numbers you pass to the right or left, or trade with someone at the table. We gave a cardboard penguin (from Fabian), and a mosaic of a Dachshund (from me). Lilly got the penguin, and Paul got the mosaic. Fabian got a painted box with different nick-knacks inside (from Henriette), and I got a jar of delicious salted caramel peanuts (from Lilly). Emma got her own wichteln gift, a German baby book.

Next, we had a debate whether we would open presents or not. I was extremely relieved when everyone decided to open presents together, because plan B would have entailed us taking all of the gifts to the US to open there. How were we ever going to get everything in our suitcases?!! The present exchange was very nice, and I think everyone liked their gifts. :)

The next day, we had Christmas Day with the Grandma’s and Great Aunt. More cookies, more cakes, and more chocolate! Coffee was fine, Emma was pretty well behaved, but she did almost knock over a candle… I have to say, my heart stopped for a moment when I saw what was about to happen! Fortunately, the candle righted itself, and no harm done.

After coffee, we opened more presents. Emma got a cute wagon from her Great Grandma, it’s a very nice wooden wagon with a string so she can pull it along with her. She has the right idea for pulling it, but she needs some practice. Right now she can pull the wagon toward her if you give her the string. I think it’s cool, anyway…

Wilfong Family Christmas, December 24-25
My family traditions aren’t so different from German traditions (I do have German roots), and we also celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Our Christmas Eve celebrations started by going to church for an afternoon service. Emma was not at all interested in church, and she only made it through the first 20-minutes before I had to leave with her. We ended up going back to the car, I changed her, fed her, and walked around with her. About 20-minutes later, my mom came outside to keep us company. I was in an incredibly bad mood because I was so looking forward to going to church, to begin the tradition for Emma that is now an essential part of “Christmas” for me as an adult. I didn’t act very nice when my mom came out, but I really was glad that someone else could take an over-tired, whiny baby for a little while.



After church, we drove to Adrienne’s house where Todd was finishing our dinner. Dinner wasn’t quite ready when we arrived, and we had some time to relax and let Emma entertain us. She had just learned she could raise both arms over her head, throw them down, and that everyone would copy her, and she spent a good 30-minutes training us while we waited for dinner.

When dinner was ready, we ate a delicious meal consisting of: salad with raisins and roasted peanuts, a variety of potatoes with a peanut-based sauce, broccoli rabé, lamb with chimichurri sauce, salmon, carrots in carrot sauce (sounds funny, but super delicious and carrot-y), and toasted baguettes, followed by ice cream topped with caramel for dessert. Did I mention that my soon-to-be brother-in-law is a professional chef?? Dinner was awesome!



After dinner, we opened presents. There were an unseemly amount of gifts for Emma and for her new cousin Kira (who then hadn’t been born), and I am not exaggerating when I say that we opened presents for two hours. Everyone was extremely done with presents before we even finished. It was sort of ridiculous, but nice at the same time. True to form, Emma was more interested in the wrapping paper than the gifts themselves… Maybe next year she will figure out her priorities.

Everyone was exhausted and ready for sleep at the end of the day, and we took a tired and cranky Emma home to Sarah’s house. She fell asleep on the way (hooray!) and didn’t wake up when we took her out of the car to carry her into the house (even bigger hooray!).

***

Emma’s first Christmases were a lot of fun, entertaining, and exhausting. I think she picked up on the excitement, and sensed that something special was happening. She was a bit overwhelmed with all of the presents and wrapping paper everywhere. I was glad when the hubbub of Christmas was over as it meant we could sort of return to a more normal schedule and a happier, less exhausted baby.

Emma, the travel diva

We survived the nine hour flight from Frankfurt to Chicago, followed by an eleven hour car ride to Nashville. Emma is an absolute champion traveler!

We left for the airport at 7:00a, and Emma was still sleeping when I started changing her, and woke up enough to have breakfast and get into some warmer clothes for the car ride. She wasn’t very happy about waking up or leaving her warm bed, but after ten minutes in the car she slept again. :) We had excellent traffic and made it to the airport by 8:00a!

At the airport, we were confused and concerned that Fabian’s boarding pass wouldn’t print at the check-in kiosk, and when we asked someone about it, they sent us to the first class/business class check-in desk, which was awesome since we didn’t have to wait in the economy line for three years. The woman at the check-in desk said that the boarding pass didn’t print on purpose so that we would be sent to the short line with the baby. From there, check-in and finding the gate were easy-peasy.

We boarded early, which was incredibly handy since the flight was completely booked. We could find our seats without people getting antsy standing behind us waiting to get all of our shit settled. We sat in the baby row, which came equipped with bassinets! We didn’t end up needing the bassinet, but it was nice to have the option if we wanted it.

The guy who sat next to us was absolutely incredible, no complaints about us getting up like fifteen times during the flight to change/walk with Emma, go to the toilet, etc. Emma was a messy baby and a poop machine on the flight. We know for the next time that we should bring a third change of clothes for Emma…
Emma didn’t really sleep on the plane (only 2 hours), but she was very content and well behaved for the entire flight. Her favorite thing was to look out the window and stare at the clouds. She didn’t have any problems with take-off or landing (except for farting the entire way descending  into Chicago).

After making it to Chicago, we had some sandwiches, visited my aunt, then finally made it to my parents house. Then, we had some down time while we waited for a few friends to come visit before we drove to Nashville for Christmas, and Emma slept for about an hour. Emma was very tired meeting everyone, and cranky, but still made friends. :)

After my friends left, we repacked our suitcases and started driving to Nashville. We were severely jetlagged and could easily sleep in the car. Hooray! Emma slept in her big girl car seat, and everyone was happy. The drive was relatively smooth, and we stopped a few times for changing and eating. Fabian got the 4:30a Denny’s dining experience—nuff said.

After breakfast, I was the primary driver since both of my parents were pooped, and for me it felt like noon. :) We arrived in Nashville around 9:00a, had a lovely afternoon visiting with my sisters, Emma crashed at 4:00p, and we went to bed at like 7:00p.

We all survived ~40 hours of travel, a seven hour time difference, and a car ride with my parents. Hooray!
See you (next year haha!) in Chicago!

(Relaxing after arriving in Nashville)

(Emma was completely passed OUT!)

Thanksgiving and Nikalous

I have been sort of busy these last few weeks, so please excuse me for not posting about Thanksgiving earlier.

This Thanksgiving felt like a total bust. We couldn’t have dinner until Sunday, then two of Fabian’s siblings had/have mono and couldn’t join us for the festivities. Thanksgiving day itself blew chunks—lots of stress and neither Fabian or I were in a good mood. We were able to find almost everything for a traditional dinner, except cranberries. We substituted with jars of Preiselbeeren (I don’t know the translation in English), which tasted pretty similar and are also usually eaten with meat.

Thanksgiving day itself was fine. We hosted Fabian’s parents, brother, grandma, aunt, and a random friend of his aunt. Everyone enjoyed the meal! We even had pumpkin pie, and the new Thanksgiving celebrators couldn’t believe that it was really pumpkin.



After the celebrations, Emma faked us out by pretending she was really going to sleep, and when she woke  up 20 minutes later, Henriette told us we should go walk around Schwetzingen to get out of the house (it was still relatively early), so we did. Emma was in a FANTASTIC mood, and we could leave her sitting n the Kinderwagen while we shared toast Hawaii and drinks. I really couldn’t believe how well she was behaving for us! Such a nice Thanksgiving treat!

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On December 3, Fabian celebrated his 25th birthday! He got to sleep in a little bit, we went to Schwetzingen for lunch, then had his family over for coffee, glühwein, and cake. Mmm! After everyone left, we had a relaxed evening and had a pizza dinner.

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Breaking news in Emma-land:

• She likes snow!
• She can climb book cases.
• She can get from laying down to sitting up all by herself.
• She has 6 teeth, and teething suggests more are on the way.
• She’ has finally rediscovered that sleeping is good and enjoyable!!!!
• She can get from sitting to standing by pulling herself up on furniture easy peasy.

***

Yesterday was Nikalous day. In Germany, the tradition is to leave your boot outside and then Nikalous will deliver treats (peanuts, mandarins, chocolate, socks, etc.). My family also celebrates St. Nicholas Day, and we’ve always gotten goodies inside stockings. This year, we had three Nikalous’s stop by!

From her American Nicholas, Emma got a toy cell phone. It makes noise. But, she seems to enjoy throwing it all over. Thanks American Nicholas! Her German Nikalous brought her different jars of fruity baby food, and two pairs of tights! The third Nikalous gave her some hilarious baby leg warmers. :)

Between Fabian and I, we now have more chocolate than we know what to do with, a whole bunch of new socks (yay!), and soooo many peanuts!!!!!