The Morning After – A Thanksgiving Story

It has occurred to me what Thanksgiving really needs to be the perfect holiday. While the holiday is a fantastic time for being thankful, the one thing I would be very thankful for is a morning after pill. Not just any morning after pill, but one that automatically makes you lose all the pounds you pack on during the holiday feasting. A bonus feature would be giving you the ability to clean the kitchen in two seconds flat after all that cooking. That would be my morning after Thanksgiving pill. While I did not go over board with the feast I prepared for my family and neighbors, I feel like I will have to do a week of hard running to keep my petite frame in check. We had a 10 pound goose, deviled eggs with tomatoes, cornbread stuffing with apples and pecans, goose gravy, white wine, and apple crumble that my neighbors were so nice to bring. The four kids ate, watched Peter Pan a million times, and went upstairs to have a plastic ball war (with all the plastic balls we have we should make a giant ball pit in the yard). Markus (my husband) and Markus (Angie’s husband) talked about airports while Angie and I talked about cooking and Christmas decorations. Luckily my dishwasher was empty so all plates and such got washed immediately and all I had to do was put away leftovers.

At the end of the night I decided I was very thankful that Angie loaned me her meat thermometer and brought dessert. Markus was thankful that I actually decided I like goose, because it is hard on him that I hate duck. Mary was thankful that Alex did not destroy the house and she did not have to chase him screaming “No!” Alex was thankful that Mary was not screaming and that he had more people to climb on. He also appreciated having a plate containing only meat and no veggies to contaminate it. Little sweet Analena was thankful that Mary had horses to play with, while Cedrick was just thankful that we had Peter Pan in German so he could understand it. It was my first Thanksgiving with my husband and children, and also my first Thanksgiving since I moved to Germany. Despite the four hours constantly on my feet cooking in a very hot kitchen I really enjoyed it. It was an experience that I hope to repeat next year.

Needless to say, it was not as stressful as I envisioned it to be. The kids behaved rather well, the food was great, and we all went to bed with full stomachs and no allergic reactions in sight. That is something to be really thankful for which brings me to my next point. When cooking for others, Thanksgiving or not, it is always best to call the person and ask if they or anyone in their family has any food allergies. This will save you a trip to the hospital and a lot of guilt over poisoning the guests. I hope that you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and that you all have a safe Black Friday. Please try to avoid being trampled in the stores today. One final note, Happy Birthday Grace! My little sister’s birthday is today and while I can’t be with her to celebrate I shall drink some rum (her favorite) tonight in celebration. I hope that you and Win have fun today going out and that no one steps on either of you if she ends up taking you to Wal-Mart. Happy Birthday and I miss and love you very much Grace!

Who are they and how did I get here?!?!?

Who are they and how did I get here? I have asked myself this question for a very long time and finally I know the answer and thought I would share my revelation. Nine months of kicking and sleepless nights I held her. She was named Mary and has become my 4 yr old daughter. So sweet and caring she is. I really couldn’t ask for more and in fact I didn’t. Sixteen months down the road more is exactly what I received. Wrapped in blue, looking like a sweet little angel was my son Alexander that has now become my 3-year-old. How could those two tiny people grow into something that has the power to drive me insane at times? Simple. They have become little versions of me. Mary is the sweet side that cares about and loves everyone she meets. Alex however has my other personality. The side with stubbornness, not listening, not caring, and overall the little hell raiser that I use to be. I swear he would argue with a wall and the wall would comply simply to get him to stop. That is who they are and that is how I got here. Here with a daughter I rarely get to see and a son that will not listen or comply and does not care.

I recognize that I have been too lax with him. With Mary the teaching and discipline was easy mostly due in part because she always listens to me and does as she is told and asked. Alex will have none of that and discipline does nothing for him. Take away his toys, he will just go play in my sewing room. If he can’t get into the room he will break color pencils in the lock. If he can’t run outside he will cry and bang his head on the floor. If he does not get what he wants when he wants it he will make life hell until someone caves. Timeouts make him laugh, being put in a room for punishment does absolutely nothing at all, and spankings are out of the question. He learns from none of it. Yet everyone tells me that I am too lax when it comes to my son. Maybe it was because he was the smallest and had the most issues after and during birth. Maybe it was that I the thought I had lost him during pregnancy. Whatever the reason he seems to think he is entitled to walk all over me and sadly I see the same attributes in another member of the family.

I always find myself thinking that when he is older he will get it that he has to listen and such, but that is wishful thinking on my part. So to make a point I am going to do an experiment to prove my theory to my husband. As it stands I do not nag my husband and nor do I ever insert my authority when told I am to do something that I don’t want to or can’t do. I hate waiting on people to do things for me so I cave and just do the damn thing myself. I don’t rely on people. Sure, I ask them, but if they wait weeks and months before they get around to it I get tired.

My experiment will be this. I will ask everyone in the household to start doing their part. If they don’t I will take their most prized possession and give them a time out including hubby so he knows how damn degraded I feel when he and my son ignore my simplest requests like not throwing laundry everywhere and not making a mess of the kitchen and walking off. It takes five minutes to put dishes in the sink or better yet, the dishwasher. That is what it is there for. If they do not comply, I am not going to do it for them anymore. If dishes pile up I will develop the “I don’t see it” gene and that will be that. I suppose after a week someone will have to do it and it will not be me.

I am so tired of the argument that I get to sit home and play with kids all day while someone else has to go to work. Yes someone does go to work, but that someone does not have short people following them driving them out of their mind while undoing all the work that has been accomplished. Nor does that person have someone lobbing snarky remarks from the basement or behind a door at something I am doing while the person making said remarks is doing nothing to help or assist in any way. That person at work does not have a toddler telling them to shut up over and over nor does that person watch as their children call everyone else mama rather than their actual mama. I have tolerated too much in the last 4 years, mainly because I was told there is nothing that I can do. Well, no more. I will not longer be subjected to the current treatment, because if I am my head will explode and what will remain is a shell on autopilot and I promise you, no one wants to see that.

So I shall let you know what goes on in the next few weeks as my experiment progresses. Remember, you are a person and no one no matter how closely related they are has the right to walk on you as though you were a floor. It is degrading and disgusting and this mom will have no more of it.

Where does the time go?

As some of you may know I have not had much time for anything as of late. Between the kindergarten schedule, the coaching sessions I have been taking (will explain in a moment), the practice schedule I had adapted for my music, my jogging schedule, college, working on finishing the house, unpacking, and the overall duties that come with motherhood there is just not enough time for anything. When I am not on the go, the kids are. It is hectic at the moment, but I know that what I am doing will pay off in the long run… Eventually… Or so I hope.

So back to the coaching thing… In Germany they have a coaching thing that is free through the social service offices. It basically means that you will have someone come to your house twice a week that will help you clean the house and deal with the kids. They teach you methods of organization and how to keep the kids from messing up everything once you have it all cleaned. All of this goes toward the goal of making more time for moms that feel like they are constantly cleaning and never seeing an end to it. My husband thinks it is a great idea, I however, am not so sure.

Yesterday my coach came to the house and we basically just started cleaning and she left after about three hours. The kids were asleep for two of those hours so she did not have the joy that I do of seeing them in action. Almost immediately after she left the kids decided that they were awake. Consequently it was the same moment I decided to take a 5 minute shower. I get out of the shower only to find that I have to redo everything I had done that morning. I did so in record time without complaint. Yet overall I had to redo the same thing 5 more times until the kids were finally passed out from exhaustion and so was I. So I got up this morning and cleaned up yet again.

How does this training thing help and make more time for me you ask… I have no idea, but if you figure it out please let me know. With all I have to do schedule wise, I doubt I will ever see my good old friend called time until the kids are older. I’m ok with that so long as I don’t have people trying to fill me with false hope that time actually does exist. Time left on the day I gave birth for the first time. It packed its bags and took off running for the door. When it could not escape that way it jumped out of the window and I have not seen it since. Think I’m kidding.

Here is some of the things that are also being set up for me to do in the future. Taking Alex to appointments two or three times a week, school to make sure I have integrated into German life, a part-time job, because let’s face it, I have no more time to give to a job. Other activities include going back and forth to Munich to make sure I have a little sanity time, walking back and forth to the store for grocery shopping, planning a trip to the states so I can get a drivers license, and a whole slew of other things that have not occurred to me. And these things are suppose to make time for me? Right… I will buy these items as time vampires, but don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining. Like I said, I’ve no issue knowing how time-consuming these things are, so long as no one is trying to instill false hope. Kids and activities that come with kids take up time. Add that to the time it takes to maintain college and what you consider to be your life or what is left of it and that is even more time. Time plus time equals less time for you. That’s just math, which says a lot coming from a person that is practically math illiterate.

Halloween and All Things Spooky

Fall is my favorite time of year. The leaves become bright yellows and reds, pumpkins are ripe, and the air is crisp. The best part of fall, besides Thanksgiving, is Halloween. With my favorite holiday one day away, I thought it would be a good idea to post up some Halloween safety advice as well as let you guys know what I have planned. *Menacing music here*

If you are taking your kid out for All Hallow’s Eve or even if you are just going out yourself, you need to make sure that you are visible for obvious reasons. My solution to this was making my kid’s costumes myself from scratch. I have made a ghost costume for my son and a cute red and blue gypsy dress with a blue and silver glitter shawl for my daughter. White and silver are good colors, because they are easy to see in dark places. While it may not be as practical for you to make your own costumes, mainly due to the amount of sewing, there are other ways that you can make sure that you can keep up with your kids. Use reflector strips, you know, the kind that keeps people on bicycles from getting hit by traffic. A few of those work well for visibility. If you can’t find the stick on strips, you could always just use one of the panel pieces that are meant to attach to the back of the bicycle or the spokes. Just attach it to the costume and you are set for a fun night out. If you don’t want to go through that type of hassle, stock up on the glow stick bracelets and necklaces. Wile not as bright as the reflectors, they will work as long as you keep an eye on them for when they start running out and becoming dull. They are cheap and easy to switch, because no kid I know would choose a dead glow stick over a new one that works.

If you are looking to score candy, choose your hunting area carefully. Houses that are well-lit are the houses you want to go to. They usually have the most candy in my experience. You do not want to go trick or treating down a dark alley, yet again for obvious reasons. Other places that give out free loot to costumed kids include some Sonic restaurant in small towns, or at least mine did. I use to get free ice cream from them every year. Parades are great places for scoring loot on Halloween. If you visit your local haunted house, you may just get lucky and score some stuff there as well. Remember to ask yourself these important questions while out and about. Is it well-lit? Are there other people around that could hear me scream if a psycho lives here? Is there a main road close at hand if we have to run away? Over all just use your common sense.

While we are on the subject of candy, I must remind you that you should always check your candy. While the whole razor in the apple was just a story to scare kids, it makes a good point. Better safe than sorry. If a piece of candy you received is open, you should just throw it away. Kids are all reaching their hands into the same buckets and cauldrons of candy, so if something is open you really don’t want to try to think of everything those kids could have touched in between candy grabbing. If you get fruit instead of candy, make sure you wash it before you let your kids eat it. As I said, better safe than sorry. One last thing before moving on, if you have hand sanitizer, you may want to use it, your kids as well, to ensure that you keep germs to a minimum. Nothing is worse than having a sick kid the week after Halloween, laying on the couch and begging for more candy.

If you are going to a party on Halloween and are planning to take the kids along, make sure that it is a child friendly party. I’m sure you don’t want to have to explain the difference between a big person drink and why kids can only have water wile you are trying to enjoy yourself. A call to the person having the party is all it takes to ensure you know if it is the best place to go with your child. Above all else be safe while you are out having fun. If you are letting your child go out with friends, make sure you remind them of these important things before he or she leaves the house. Make sure that they understand that Halloween is about having fun and being safe while doing it. Never never let your child go out alone and if you do, make sure it is the older child rather than the young one.

As for me, I will be going to a party to drop off a birthday gift for a friend’s toddler, and then taking my kids around to trick or treat while my husband hands out candy to the neighborhood kids. Halloween is just a few years old here in Germany, so I’m not really expecting much. I just really want to dress up in my evil forest fairy costume. Have fun and be safe! I guess I am off now to finish my second Jack o’ Lantern, which I will post pics of as soon as I get another few minutes to sit, and to finish with that gypsy costume, which I will also get pictures of.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

3AM – A bedtime story

There once was a mother that had scrubbed all day. When it came time to put the cranky children to bed, she felt secure in the knowledge that her work for the day had been done. She then sat on the couch with her husband, who ever so kindly made her a pizza. They ate while watching a movie and the mother finally drifted to sleep. Her husband woke her and told her to go to bed. She complied, longing for the comfy blankets and fluffy mattress. She got to the stairs to start her climb. It was rough at first, as she bumped into walls and the rails, yet she managed to make it to the top of the stairs in one piece. She laid in the bed and drifted off again when she realized her husband was trying to wake her. She stubbornly tried to stay in the “I’m asleep” mindset. However, it did not work very long and she was soon wide awake after only an hour’s nap on the couch. It is now 3AM in the morning and the mother can no longer get back to sleep. Rather than being in that comfy bed of hers, she is blogging, knowing that her kids will be up in about 3 hours and her husband will get up around 8AM to rush off to work again. This is the bedtime story of a mother who only wanted a little rest before beginning the next day. Note to self : Self, if you want to sleep, do it at the in-law’s house where there are grandparents to chase the kids and hubby is busy socializing.

Goodnight everyone, everywhere, unless you are a mother blogging at 3AM.

Beware of the sick mom!

Yesterday the lesson my children learned is “Beware of the sick mom. I got up and cleaned all the rooms that were not used by my husband, because I refuse to touch his pc stuff. Toys were in the kids rooms, toilet paper was still attached to the roll, and everything was sanitized and sparkling. I was thrilled, or at least until my son decided to come down the stairs with my bed sheet wrapped around him like a toga. I decided it was not worth the fight and if he wants to wear a toga for his birthday, so be it. The kids were playing quietly so I decided to get my school work done. I had 4 assignments due the same day, so I wanted to get it out-of-the-way as soon as possible. That is when it happened.

I heard a cry followed by a crash and a scream. I jumped up and ran as fast as I could only to find that the crash was a bus Alex got early for his birthday. The scream was Mary trying to take it from him, naturally while holding about eight of his other cars. The cry seemed to be coming from Alex who had resorted to hiding under the table so he could trip his sister as she tried to find him. That was the end of this sick mom’s patience for the day. I gave them a look that only a mother can give her children and immediately they ran to pick up their messes. Mary then cleaned all the dishes that she and Alex were playing with off of the table and put them away again. Meanwhile Alex was making a break for the stairs to get the sheet back on the bed.

At 6PM I got a call from hubby telling me that he was on his way home and then he told me it would take longer, because he had to drop off tires for his co worker, which my husband eventually ended up putting on said co worker’s car . This basically meant that he would no longer be able to stop by the store before it closes to get eggs that we have needed for two days. It also meant that Alex would, sadly, have no birthday cake for his birthday dinner. An hour later there was still no sign of hubby so I made dinner for the kids and gave them baths. They went back to playing, yet were very quiet and still, almost like someone told them not to make any sudden movements around mom, because she might just snap.

Promptly at 7:30 they acted as though someone had passed them a memo in the hall that said it was pick up time, because they immediately started picking up their toys again. I brushed their teeth and got them dressed for bed. I then spent the remaining time that they were awake sitting at the back door with them watching the snow fall. It covered everything, yet this morning there was not a lot of it left. At 8PM we went up to their room and all hell broke loose. They will scream if they can’t sleep with my husband and I, but I was sick and did not feel like being kicked all night. So I made them stay in their bed while I dimmed the lights, set up my reading spot in the corner of the room, and then sat with them until they were too tired to notice that I was going to move to my reading corner.Lucky for me it only took 5 minutes to do that.

I picked up “14 Hours ‘Til Bedtime” by Jen Singer and started reading to my halfway unconscious children, thinking that maybe tonight I would get the rest that I ever so desperately needed. Alex was the first one out, yet he was also the one that was whining in his sleep, because he could not find me on the bed to latch on to. Apparently his sister makes a decent temporary supplement. I kept reading and soon Mary was asleep, which I did not notice so I ended up reading 106 pages out loud to sleeping children, but that was OK with me. Hubby was still not home, so I went to do my school work and play some pool. Finally he showed up at almost midnight with chicken wings. when he found me in the basement with my iPod and a game of pool well underway, he asked me what happened to the house and where the kids were. I told him a sick mom came to visit and she was very tired and unhappy, hence the house stayed clean and the kids are in their room and went to bed at 8PM. There were no more questions and a few moments later no more chicken wings.

Why can’t I get sick more often?

Consequently, we have moved Alex birthday celebration to the weekend. We hope to send the kids to their Grandma on Saturday so we can get him another gift that he can actually open, because he got all his other gifts last weekend. He does not seem to mind, besides he got to make a toga.

Mommasaid.net – A story befitting my hero- Jen Singer

If you have ever read any of Jen Singer’s books, you know that she is that fun mom we all wish we could hang out with. If you have never read a Jen Singer book, well you just have to. What are you sitting here for? Quick while the kids are asleep! Go read! I entered and won her “Housewife Award” eariler this month and as a result I recieved an official Momma Said package in the mail containing all four of her books. I was estatic and could not wait to start reading. Yet with two kids I wanted to wait until they were sleeping so I could get in more than two words before having to run off and save the house. My kids, however had other plans. I sat the package down for two seconds so I could find a bottle when all of a sudden I heard a ripping sound. I thought, “Oh God they have gotten the books already and they are probably in peices.” Thankfully this was not the case.

My daughter, the one in kindergarten, was sitting on the couch with a copy of “The Preschool Years” while my son, the toddler, was sitting beside her with a copy of “The Toddler Years“. Are you seeing the irony yet? They were flipping through the books, making comments in their strange sibling language and laughing. I decided it was perfect, so I sat with them with a copy of “14 Hours Til Bedtime” while looking at the clock to count down how many more they had to be awake. So we all sat on the couches reading about the different aspects of our lives in Jen’s books when I suddenly realized that a whole hour had passed. The books were still completely intact and showed no traces of drool and the living room was not destroyed afterall.   

Jen, it seems that your books have been examined for accuracy by experts in the field of toddler years, preschool years, and the master of bedtime. If they got my two kids quiet for a whole hour with no fighting or screaming, I guess that means they passed with flying colors. From a mom that has read “You’re a good mom” to my 4 year old 3 times in one night as a bedtime story, your books are great! My kids and I absolutely love them! It would seem that once again you have written a book that I don’t mind reading to my kids, because if I have to read “The Christmas Story” one more time I will most likely become a mirror image of Scrooge. Thank you for the books! I look forward to today’s reading session and hopefully another hour of peace and quiet with lots of laughter.

For those of you that want to know more about Jen Singer and her site, I strongly reccommend that you check out Mamasaid.net, enter the Housewife Awards Contest, or just go read all of the wonderful content on her site written by Jen and her contributors. You will absolutely love it!

Saturdays

So it is 9 AM on this Saturday which I know I will not get to spend in my big comfy bed. Alex is up and running and Mary has naturally resorted to chasing him so she can play “Mini-Mama”. Were this any other week day, Mary would be off to kindergarten and my husband would be working. Alex and I would be sitting in the basement playing pool. Well I would play and he would watch. Then at about 10 AM I would get him all dressed and ready and we would be gone for our morning walk the bakery followed by a 2-3 hour walk about the town that we now call home. It does not seem like it, but we moved in almost a year ago during the cold winter. I recall freezing outside while Markus was handing my sister and I stuff to carry in from the car. Anyways, that is the little ritual that Alex and I uphold during the week when everyone else is busy. Sometimes we go visit friends while we are on our walk and sometimes we sit at the bus stop and watch the trains and buses that come and go while he is trying to fit his head into the center of a pretzel or “Breze” in German.

It is just that bit of time I get with my son that I always look forward to. That is why I really get up on Monday morning. However, it does come at a cost. It serves as a reminder of things I did not get to do with Mary when she was younger. I was pregnant at the time with Alex. I feel bad that I don’t get as much one on one time with Mary, because it is unfair to her. She sees Alex get that time with me and seeing that look on her face just breaks my heart. Of course I play with her and Alex together while she is not at school and I do get an hour with her to do craft and sewing stuff while Alex is asleep, but it is not the same. As such I had been trying to find ways to increase the quality of the time that I get with her. You can spend all the time in the world with a kid, but if the quality is not as good as it can be then there is no point. It would be akin to giving a kid cash for all holidays and letting them go do whatever they want while the rest of the family is at home spending the holiday together.

Growing up it was a rare thing that I got quality or quantity time with a parent figure, so it is a bit of a close subject for me. For example, my mother did not teach me how to function in the world. It was something I had to learn on my own at a young age, and in some ways I am still learning. I did not know how to do laundry, how to use a sewing machine, how to sew by hand, how to change a tire, or even how to pay bills. Some of these things I still do not know. Yet I am making it a point to teach my daughter to do laundry, sew, and cook, because these are things that I wished my mother would have taught me. That is the quality time I get with my daughter. While she is small she sees it as play and thinks it is fun. I know when she is older she will see it as a chore and not as much fun as she previously thought, but I hope that when she is older with children of her own she can look back and realize that I tried to make it easy for her to function in life and to be self sufficient.

It is my wish that she will see that while I may not get more time to spend with just her, I spend time trying to make sure that I am making the best of what little time I do have with her.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Yesterday started off and right from the beginning things were just out of control. We woke up two hours later than intended, which meant that Mary could not go to kindergarten and that Markus was late for work. Mary did not want to stay home with me so Markus took her to work with him. I was surprised, but agreed. Alex eventually got up and came downstairs to cuddle on the couch, which I was very happy about. Normally he runs from hugs and kisses, because he thinks they are not manly enough. Hubby finally got Mary home around lunch and by that time Alex was napping, because I let him run in a field behind the house for about two hours. Mary came in played for about ten minutes and napped as well. Too good to be true apparently.

While they were napping I was on the phone arguing with my sister and one of my best friends, because they dated a few years back and are not on good terms. I tell them to keep me out of it, because I can’t choose between them. After getting stressed and frustrated I went to take a nap. As soon as my eyes closed the kids were up and running again. I decided I would continue working on Mary’s Halloween costume. She wants to be a Gypsy so I am making a dress with her. Alex decided the real reason mommy has thread is so he can tangle it all up and spread it everywhere. Well it is getting late so I make dinner and after we eat my husband calls to tell me he is on his way. It was around 9pm. He was telling me that it will take a little while, because it was raining really hard and a lot of people were crashing as a result of the rain. For an hour I listened to sirens racing past the house and thought nothing of it.

I put the kids to bed and decided to call my husband, who was not answering. If my husband does not call back within a reasonable amount of time, I worry, because it is not like him. He usually calls within ten minutes so I know he is ok. Well another hour passes and Im thinking that it does not add up, because his office is about a half hour away from the house. So I get stressed and listen to sirens and then call him back. I get no answer or call back. By this time I am starting to panic, because all the rain and how people seem to forget how to drive. I sit and start out my window waiting for his to show up and he doesn’t. I call my sister so  she can keep me awake while I am waiting. We talk about random nonsense and she tried to keep me calm. I got off the phone with her and go outside, the rain had stopped, and walk to the end of the road to see if there are any cars out. Naturally there were none. So I call hubby once more and finally he answers.

He said he was fine, he just had a meeting with the boss at ten and he was an hour and a half away from the house, but heading back now. I asked why he didn’t answer and he told me that he had forgotten his phone in the car. I’ve never been so relieved that someone was alive and wanted to kill them at the same time before. They say there is a first time for everything. So finally he gets home at around 1am. He came in and I wanted to scream at him over not answering, but instead I just hugged him. Yeah yeah… I know I know…. Some things just aren’t worth the fight and at that moment all I wanted to know was that my family was home and safe. Eventually I got to bed at 2am and fell asleep at 3am due to complete exhaustion. Ahhh Yesterday…

Outing with the family

Today my husband and I decided to go to the Oktoberfest with the kids so they could ride the rides and such. We met up with his family which included his parents, brother, sister, and niece. We approached the entrance at which point we were stopped and informed that we could not have a stroller there, because it was too dangerous with people falling over and stuff due to being reduced to a drunken splendor. We said OK and went to his parent’s car to deposit the stroller. I didn’t mind, because I had all the usual kid stuff in my backpack. Well we headed back and we were advised that it was ill advised to take in children. We said we would try and avoid all the over crowded places. Keep in mind that the Oktoberfest averages over two million people daily for two weeks. Well we walked in a bit and noticed why they warned us.

There was one guy laying in a puddle of his vomit, knocked out cold on the pavement. We were soon passed by emergency personnel with a person on a stretcher. There were a few more puddles of vomit and it was seriously way overcrowded, so we decided to leave not even five minutes after we entered. Well we went to a different place to eat and by that time Alex was getting cranky. He had dropped his tea bottle earlier and broke it and we didn’t have a spare on us. Well we got into the restaurant and decided to eat outside, because they had a fenced playground. Mary was ecstatic about that. Alex was interested in it for about 10 minutes and then got even more agitated. He started running around and after about 3 warnings of being put into the car, hubby scarfed his food and took Alex to sit in the car. Consistency and following through with kids is absolutely vital when they are young.

Anyways, I finished my food and went out to see if Alex was calm and all that and told hubby I would take watch while he visited with his family. About 20 minutes later he brought Mary to the car, for being unruly I’m guessing. So I sat with the kids in the car. It was kinda cold so we appreciated the heat there. The kids were quiet and wanted to nap, because their grandmother, bless her, has a way of wearing them out. I love that woman. Well I dozed off and when I turned to the kids they had cookies, well stolen cookies, all over the seat. We said our goodbyes and then started our drive home. It usually takes around an hour to get from Munich to our house. Shortly after we started driving the car warned us that the tire had lost some air, not enough to be dangerous. We made it back safe and sound. Alex slept a few hours on the couch after we got back while I let Mary watch Mary Poppins. She absolutely loves that movie. Hubby and I played a few video games and now are about to head upstairs to evaluate the damage and get the kids to bed. Overall while the kids were grumpy, I would say that today was a good day. Tomorrow I am planning to do my school work early so I can go visit a friend. I don’t think that we will be returning to the Oktoberfest anymore, but there is another fair thing coming up in two weeks that I am looking forward to taking the kids to.

Signing off,

Mama Marlena