Soft and Doughy

Silas became addicted to pretzels while in Germany. He actually said pretzel, or his version of it, which is pretty much indistinguishable from his word for blanket, when he saw Rachel come in the door with a paper bag from the bakery. He also developed a love for quarkini. Quark is a dairy product very similar to cream cheese, but maybe a little softer. A quarkini is a ball of cream cheese enriched dough that is fried and coated in cinnamon sugar. Extra fat containing doughnut hole? What's not to like?
The last few times we visited Germany women behind the deli counter would give Silas slices of "wurst," basically baloney. To me, this stuff is pretty disgusting, especially when it's colored in varying shades of pink and brown and extruded in disturbing shapes and designs so that each slice looks like a teddy bear face. Silas has devoured every slice he's been given this trip. And loved the sausage Rachel put in the potato soup which had the flavor and consistency of a hot dog.
So let's see; sausage, pretzels, add beer to that and I've got an authentic German on my hands.


This picture really cracks me up. I take out the camera and suddenly he goes from innocently eating a pretzel, to using the pretzel as a prop and striking a pose. Work it for the camera, pretzel boy.

German Rummage Sale and Marchen Paradies

Last weekend I was supposed to be headed back to Ireland to be reunited with my sweet husband. However, due to unforeseen-super-crappy-work-travel rearrangements he would not be back home until the following Saturday. So my loving sister graciously invited me to stay with her family for another week / I fell to my knees and begged her to let me stay for another week.
I have a sneaking suspicion, that Henry actually hates when I come to visit because it's twice the giggling insults and twice the crying babies. Anyway, they allowed me to stay and claimed to "enjoy" my visit.

So we spent the weekend, as you probably already read at Midwesterners, visiting a second hand children's sale and a small amusement park.

The sale on Saturday was like a church rummage sale and seemed to operate on a consignment basis as each item was tagged with a price and vendor number. There was a wide range of clothes, shoes, toys, and other baby and child equipment like high chairs and bikes.
We arrived early, as recommended, and Silas wondered around outside the building, climbing up and down the stairs and stepping into some sort of pool/water feature sculpted into the stairs, rendering his right shoe sopping wet and muddy.
The doors to the hall opened and we entered. The first room had boxes of books to the right and tables of cakes, tarts, and coffee to the left. I checked out the books, but being Germany, the only thing that would have been of much interest would be children's picture books. There wasn't much in that department, so we moved onto the main room. I wanted to look for some shoes for Silas so we both headed that direction. Rachel and I each grabbed a couple pair before heading off to the next area.
Silas was asking to get out of the stroller and there were some cute toys so I let him play on a a couple. Of course, he fell in love with what I would consider the worst toy there. Charming wooden push toys of juggling mice, clever inflatable bouncing horses to sit on, practical tricycles with tall handles extending up and out of the back, were all passed by for a crusty, scuffed, plastic ride-on turtle toy with all the decals missing. He screamed unless he was sitting on it, including during the five block walk home, when I had to carry the turtle with Silas aboard, across the street. Maybe it indicates that I am weak willed, and I shouldn't have given in to a tantrum, but it was less than 4 euro. And even after a week he still loves the scoot around on it. So, it seems money well spent. Now I am on the slippery slope of having to give him a quarter every time we go to the grocery store to buy a plastic bubble from a vending machine with a sticker or a key chain inside. The other bonus of this purchase is that we can't take it home with us, so Rachel is left to deal with the disgusting green turtle once I am back home.
Rachel made a more thoughtful purchase of a set of wooden beads on stiff wire curls that the babies can thread along. Both of the boys seemed to enjoy it, and it's an IKEA product so it matches the rest of the decor in their house and can be disassembled with any of the 500 allen wrenches in the house.

Sunday, Henry had to go into work again, so Rachel and I decided to take the boys to the top of the mountain where there is a small amusement park, Marchen Paradies (Fairytale Park). When we arrived both babies were sleeping, and, like the fools we are, we neglected to bring books to entertain ourselves. We played a few rounds of the animal guessing game before I dozed off for a 15 minute nap. Silas and Ellis woke up almost simultaneously, and we headed into the park. It was a really beautiful sunny day so the park was fairly busy, but not too crowded. Silas and I bounced on some bouncy castles and played pirate ship on a flat bed car that could be propelled by pulling on a rope.
Rachel had stopped by the bakery that morning after dropping Henry at work, so we had a nice picnic lunch in the park of cheese and tomato sandwiches on pretzel rolls, apples, and chocolate. Meanwhile Silas and a two year old German girl bonded over the love of a molded fiberglass merry-go-round. The only way to pry him loose from the thing was to carry him over to the animatronic horses that rode on a track through a little forested area.
Of course, there is one horse out of the dozen or so on the track that has a small saddle that is not suitable for a parent and a child to sit on together. I, naturally, select this horse and am met with assorted directions in German, which I can only imagine are basically saying "your ass is too big for the saddle." Finally, I understood that I should get on the next horse, "the white one" a helpful man next to me says. The whole exchange probably took less than 10 seconds, but it genuinely feels like an eternity when people are excitedly directing/yelling at you in a language you can't understand. So we gave the man our token and we are off trotting through the forest. Rachel was entrusted with the camera, and we tried to coax a smile from Silas, but he was concentrating during the entire ride.

Next, both the babies did a little bouncing on some trampolines. Then we all took a little train ride around and through the park. The park was the perfect size for us, plenty to do without being overwhelming to small kids or their perpetually exhausted parents. Ellis seemed to really enjoy the train, and although Silas occasionally made his "chug chug choo choo" sound he generally looked like the whole experience is just something to be endured. That is, until we were off the train, at which time the "chug chug choo choo" was accompanied by grunting and pointing in the area of the train.
We were down to our last token, but we found a pedal-propelled dragon that circled a castle tower. I pedaled around and around until Silas finally cracked the smallest smile ever and my legs were burning from all the pedaling.

I walked off the lactic acid and and we wondered past old fashioned animatronic displays of Rumpelstiltskin, some story of more than seven mining dwarfs, and a donkey that craps gold coins.
Rachel tried to convince me that bumper cars is a perfect thing for the last token. Especially since I'll likely be driving around the ring by myself. Not that I'm the only one in the car, but that I'm the only car moving.

Eventually we found a magnetic forklift type piece of equipment that swiveled and allowed you to switch the magnet on and off and so lift and drop giant pieces of foam with thin metal plates on the outside. Silas enjoyed pushing the buttons and seeing the blocks drop.

It was a really fun weekend with the babies, but both of us wished our husbands could have enjoyed it with us. As usual, working husbands spoiling all our plans for fun.

You can see more pictures from the weekend here. I hope to get my own albums organized and available in the next few days.

Auf Weidersehen

Our time in Germany is drawing to a close. Tomorrow afternoon we will be back home and Silas will stop believing that his father lives inside the computer. Two weeks was a long time to be away, but I am very grateful to have family in Europe to come and stay with rather than be alone at home while Orrin was back in America for work.

We had a really wonderful time while we were here of course, engaging in the perfect combination of work projects, crafts, walks, shopping, excursions, movie watching, eating, baking, goofing off, and nap taking. OK, there could have been a little more nap taking, especially among the junior members of the company.

I helped Rachel and Henry finish the wallpapering job we started during our last visit in November. The hideous Miami Vice wallpaper in their back room was just starting to lift at the seams, so a few picks with the fingernail, and an intrepid toddler and it was history. Now the room is freshly papered in a mottled neutral beige. A trip to IKEA procured a picture wreath and a sweet double wide chaise lounge. Although it won't be delivered until next week. Still the room was much more pleasant to be in and Silas, Ellis, and I used the extra floor space for crawling races.

We colored Easter eggs. And tonight constructed the Easter egg tree from a branch collected from the forest. Rachel had the genius idea of stuffing wads of newspaper into an urn to wedge the branch into an upright position. An excerpt:
me: It's working! Success! How does it feel to have one of your ideas succeed Rachel?
R: Good, weird, but good!

We baked chocolate zucchini cake, whole wheat brownies, apple walnut cake, peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies, applesauce muffins, and banana crunch cake. We also ate some other delicious meals, including salmon with miso sauce, veggie lasagna, fish tacos, ham and pea pasta with cream sauce, eggplant Parmesan, and, most shamefully, making a meal out of spinach artichoke dip and loaf of bread.

We visited the worlds biggest shopping cart. Although Rachel forbid my attempt to climb into the cart. She did agree to document my brief interaction with the cart. (Just think how many Ritter Sport would fit in that thing!)

We visited the Marchen Paradies, or Fairytale Garden on the top of the mountain. Rachel wrote a nice post about it here, my own, somewhat crappier, post about the trip is forthcoming.

We also visited the Frankfurt zoo and a very nice swimming pool in a nearby town. We took pictures and there aer a few stories to tell about each to I'll try to get a post put together in the next few days detailing each.

In the meantime, the snafu that Orrin's entire trip to America has been; delayed from Friday to Wednesday, then again to the following Friday, then lost luggage, swapped hotels, has that added twist that he's just been bumped off the flight from MN to Amsterdam to Cork. He'll now arrive 4 hours after us in Shannon after flying from MN to Detroit to London. At least he got a nice fat travel voucher so we can use that to go back to the states this summer to visit everyone before Silas turns 2.

Oster Spektakle

Silas spoke his first German word. I was expecting it to be pretzel because he loves those salty, doughy things. Loves them enough that you can thwart an emerging tantrum by asking if he would like to go to the bakery and get a pretzel.
But no, his first German word was spoken after he insisted on going outside for a stroll through the back garden first thing in the morning. One of Rachel's neighbors had come outside and Silas was waving frantically at him. Sometimes he just gets in a mood where he has to kiss everyone, hug everyone, or wave to everyone (sounds sweet, but those moods can extend to kicking everyone too). So the man says "Guten morgen" to us, and I reply, and prompt Silas to reply. Which he does with a tiny little "morga." He kept repeating it as we walked back to the house and and my sister's downstairs neighbor brought out a hard boiled Easter egg for him. Two orange swirled eggs, one for each baby. She doesn't speak any English, and she is always giving Silas things to eat when we visit. Both babies really liked the eggs until Silas started throwing his across the room. Later we would discover Ellis's egg squashed into his car seat.

Rachel and I had our own egg dying spectacular a couple days ago too. There is an array of kits for coloring eggs at the grocery store. We spent way too much time deciding which ones would be the best , and finally settled on "Eins, Zwei, Glitter-Ei!" and "Shake It!"
Rachel went downstairs to buy eggs from her neighbor. The woman seemed to be scrutinizing the eggs for some reason although we could not discern why since many of the eggs were cracked, all were covered in chicken poop, and she's almost totally blind. I spent far too long drilling the eggs with a needle and almost gave myself an aneurysm blowing the egg out of the shell (Luckily I had been practicing on those stupid long skinny balloons used to make animals).
We began with the glitter egg kit while the we had a few precious moments of simultaneous baby nap. As you can see from the picture of Rachel, those precious moments were largely wasted. The kit was nice in that there were no messy cups of dye, just tubes that could be squeezed into the palm of your plastic gloved hands and smeared around onto the egg. And the dye itself was a nice iridescent metallic. The dye is supposed to be a bit sticky and then you wrap the egg in foil and rub so pieces of thin metal are transferred to the egg. This largely did not happen. Of course we tried more dye, less dye, pressing harder on the foil, every permutation we could and never got very far with it.
By this time we were getting a bit frustrated and the babies were awake. So we swapped to the other kit which was more kid friendly. This one had small containers which you filled with "special rice" then applied drops of dye to the rice . The dyed rice gave the eggs a nice speckled look which was especially nice when done in two colors. Silas and Ellis had a great time shaking the rice around and the mess was kept to a minimum. We ended up with a dozen nicely colored eggs which Silas loves to show to his father and grandmother on the web cam.

Yesterday I took the babies up into the forest to search for a suitable branch to create a tree for the eggs. There are two candidates on the porch waiting for today's mission: figure out how to stand the tree vertically and hang the eggs.

Random baby bullets

• Silas has learned the word hippo this trip. He loves the book Pajama Time. Loves it. Points to all the animals and makes their sound or says what they are, sometimes throws in a little sign too. Points out the moon. That the elephant and moose are brushing their teeth. Somehow I am not irritated by it yet.
  
• Ellis is stinking adorable. He always looks like he has just delivered the killer punch line to the most! hilarious! joke! ever! It's a combination of surprise and joy and it makes you want to gobble him up with a spoon.
  
• They are pretty good together too. Sure, Silas has kicked Ellis a couple times, yes, Ellis thinks all exposed skin is a handle. But on the whole they seem to be pretty good natured together. Ellis is not frightened of the flailing toddler limbs, Silas delivers books and pieces of pear and bread to the baby. Together, Ellis goes for a spin in the walker while Silas acts as both navigator and driver. Silas definitely has a bossy streak and is happiest when Ellis the passenger only. I'm sure there will be power struggles between the cousins ahead, but it is really fun to see them interact and grow up together.
  
• The nice thing about potty training Silas is that I have my own personal cheering section every time I get up from the toilet. Silas hasn't been using the potty at all this week since he seems pretty terrified of the big toilet, but since he can open the door to the bathroom and I don't usually lock it, he lets himself in more often than not. And who doesn't want a little recognition for a pee well done?
  
• Did you know they sell a product called lullaby milk in Ireland? The dairy keeps the first day's milking separated and since it is produced overnight it contains higher levels of melatonin than milk produced by the animal during the daylight hours. I can't imagine this would take off in America because in the US melatonin can be taken as a supplement but in Europe it is regulated as a drug. The first thing I thought about when I saw it though was that it didn't seem to make a lot of sense in that when you are nursing you baby to sleep at night your breast milk has its lowest level of sleep inducing melatonin. But then again, you don't see cows pacing the pasture with a crying calf over their shoulder.
• This isn't baby related but it is exciting: the worlds largest shopping cart! It's located in just the next town over! Can you believe it? Tomorrow we load ropes, grappling hooks, and cameras to document our ascent.
  

Farewell to Ellis

Silas and Ellis have been unimaginably, synergistically cute the past two weeks. Silas has been making a sign for baby where he grabs a wrist with the other hand and rocks his arms back and forth as though he were rocking a baby. And he is always pointing out Ellis, especially focusing on important parts like the eyes. Ok, it's a little dangerous all the poking around the face, but still really cute.
When the babies are both riding in their carriers on the front they will reach out their little arms and try to grab each other's hands. Silas isn't as fond of tickling and blowing raspberries on bare tummies but he is still enamored with his cousin. He is also learning how to actually give kisses.
Not just an open-mouthed slimey kiss, but puckering up his lips and planting them on your face. We haven't caught any on pixel yet, but he even gave his Uncle Henry a goodnight kiss tonight.
I just hope they will remain such good friends as they grow up together. So far they have a shared love of fine literature.

I recommend "Opposites". It's a Boynton classic. I'm really enjoying this new edition of tactile literature, "Touch and Feel Farm."


This truly is a classic tome, Silas. But how does it compare to her other works, "Not the Hippopotamus" and "Pajama Time?"

Whew! All that reading has worn us out. How about a snack and nap? Mom? Mom!

And more and more

Just in case there is anyone that read this blog that doesn't also read Rachel's, you should check out this post for an account of our visit to the Strasbourg Christmas market and a super cute photo of Orrin as Father Christmas and Silas looking like Cindy-Lou Who.
Today we went to our third market. This time in Heidelberg. This was my favorite so far, as there. were. donkeys!
And sheep from outer space! Not really, but I have never seen sheep or goats with horns like these animals. They looked like narwal horns, growing long and straight away from the head but twisted. Very beautiful. But I couldn't find a picture or any information about which breed they might have been.
The market was a nice size, good selection of gluwein and wurst and other traditional ornaments and assorted Christmas accessories. Also a huge windmill pyramid. And trombone concert!
There are pictures and maybe I'll post those tomorrow.

Happy Puten Day!

We had a great Thanksgiving in Bammental today. Rachel claims it was simple and pared down, but since we didn't do anything but cook all day, I'd hate to admit to it being simple. Plus, Pie! The essential element. And turkey, cranberries, all that jazz.
Everything was delicious and more importantly we were with family, even if it was an incomplete sub-set of family.
Poor Orrin is still in Ireland celebrating the day with our American friends and three pies I made before I left. He'll arrive on Saturday and stay for a few days for Christmas markets and visiting.
Tomorrow my sisters and I will go to Frankfurt for Christmas shopping and mulled wine drinking and celebrating my 27th birthday.
We have so very much for which to be grateful, and this little cranberry eating fool is only one of them.

Allow me to kick you in the bladder

Orrin and I can never agree on this co-sleeping thing. I know in the end, everyone really does sleep better when Silas is sleeping in his crib. Silas likes to kick and tickle and squirm. And nurse and nurse and nurse when he sleeps in bed with us. So really, I guess Silas sleeps just fine no matter where he is. And Orrin really doesn't get disturbed too much either way.

Ok, so maybe when I say everyone sleeps better, I mean I sleep better when Silas is in his crib. Eventually. After the heart rending, guilt inducing, cover your head with a pillow, screaming is over for the night. And in the morning we're all happy and well rested.

But here in Germany, Silas is in his little cot next to my bed. So he's not quite in the bed with me, but close enough. If he wakes in the middle of the night he stands there and screams and reaches for me. And in the middle of the night the truth of a better night sleep is blurry and I just want to lie down. So into bed he is scooped and nestled and nuzzled and, yes, nursed. And even though I am kicked in the kidneys and my arm goes numb, at least I'm horizontal.

Good night.

We're on the continent!

Ok, I'm working on this Dublin post, but now I feel like it's kind of overdue. And now Silas and I are in Germany with my older and youngest sister. We've been watching lots of TV, playing games, walking, and lots of giggling. So far we've watched, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Office (season one and two, American version), and Farmers Daughter. Up next is Prairie Home Companion.
Today we took the train into Heidelberg. This is my first time on a train since the third grade when we all packed sack lunches and took a field trip to train station. But, yeah! trains are still fun!
We stopped at the bakery and bought some cinnamon stars. These are delicious moist yet crispy, almond meringue iced cookies. I foresee more of them in my future.
We took a tour of the castle ruins and heard some great stories about the castle and its inhabitants. For instance, the daughter of one of the princes was married to the brother of the King of France. He rather hated her and wouldn't talk or look at her, and so she wrote to her aunt, the only conversation they had consisted of farting at each other. Hee. Great stories, see?
Afterwards we had a nice traditional German lunch, schnitzel and spatzle were consumed, and walked down the pedestrian street in the miserable rainy cold weather. They were setting up for the Christmas market though, so we are excited for things to come. But now it is getting late and I'm headed to bed.
More about our Thanksgiving in Germany tomorrow.
(and Dublin accounts someday soon)

Because you haven't heard from me in a while

But also becasue I don't have the time or energy to write anything of consequence- here's some pictures!!! A new baby and an almost one year old! How can I resist? We're up to our ears in cuteness!! And exclamation points!!


Unfortunetely Silas is in a mode where everything is a percussion instrument- notice my hand clamping down on his outstretched left hand?


Uncle Trey's hat is great for playing peek-a-boo! Just think of how many hats grandpa Mike has waiting for you at the farm.

Like putting a micron bar on your figures, we needed something to give a little scale to the picture- so- I'm crushing your head!

Trey and I are headed down to Linden festival in Bammentaul. Tomorrow is the big duck race! I have a duck! It's 200 euros on the line! Think lucky thoughts for #2218.

Welcome little one!

Is it bad blog etiquette to welcome another bloggers baby before they have a chance to announce it themselves? Well, I won't post any photos or even vital stats. You can check those out once they get around to it. We're all pretty exhausted, but I'm too excited and happy to post about anything else.
I'm so proud of my beautiful sister. I've never seen her so strong and powerful.
Alright the proud papa is back home so I think that means I better go cause he's itching to post a picture!

Nutritional Disaster

Silas's nutrition is being very poorly influneced by his aunt and uncle. Yesterday, Silas had beer, cookies, ice cream, and french fries. He did have some milk, apple, cheerios, and bread, but still that was a lot of junk in one day. Maybe today will be better, although he did have a little crepe today. That's not bad though, right?

Believe it or not, neither Silas nor his swarthy uncle are drunk.