Where to begin...

I'm not sure where to begin. We just had a great week with Louise and Adelaide visiting. I'm not sure Jonathon will let them come again without him (he was sad to be missing the fun), but we sure feel lucky they came to visit. Hailee had the same week off for Fall Break so we tried to pack in as much fun as we could.  While the weather was nice (a little cold, but not raining), we tried getting out to some fun parks. The kids had such a fun time playing in the English Garden and another little park we discovered for the first couple of days.

 The girls had so much fun using the pulley system to move their stuffed animals up and down. The kids had such a fun time playing in the park together.

 One of the park days Hailee's friend Isobel came with us. After playing in the park we enjoyed some fun treats from the bakery. Nothing like hot chocolate and a chocolate croissant after a fun time at the park.

Stayed tuned for more fun...we had a busy and fun week.

Two and a Half

James at 2 1/2 and Hailee at 2 1/2

Since coming back to Germany and life getting more settled I've been able to break out my new toy. I have been totally enjoying my new computer and new Adobe programs. Along with keeping up with what we're doing now (picture and story wise) I'm also going back and making our family books from before I was keeping track. I am half way through our 2007 book right now and it's been fun to look back. The most surprising thing is to see the difference between the Hailee 2 1/2 year old and the James of today at 2 1/2. Not only do they look completely different they are interested in completely different things. Hailee was busy making masterpieces in the kitchen, enjoying books, and learning all her letters and sounds. James on the other hand "needs to run", he also loves to read, and playing Starfall on the iPod (instead of the computer like Hailee did). But these two could not be more opposite.

While showing Todd the beginning of our 2007 book we decided that the last little while we've been delinquent parents to James. We were much better at keeping Hailee in books and learning toys. So we went online shopping over the weekend. I love amazon.de. Monday morning we got our first shipment of books. James was thrilled when the package came and even more excited when he found the complete Curious George series. We sat and read the first 120 pages with out a single interruption.

He's not speaking as much as Hailee was at this age, but he's getting so much better. He's now wanting to talk, so he's making up the lost time quickly. One of his favorite times of the day is when Todd gets home.  As soon as the door rings he run right out into the stair well to greet him. The he tries to tell him all about his day. This continues all through dinner and up until we are getting ready for bed. He loves chatting with his dad. While we were in Utah we got James a couple of winter things, one being a hat. Up to this point I hadn't been able to keep it on him. It only took Todd putting it on him and showing him in the mirror how great he looked. Now every time we go out the door he grabs his hat on the way out.

There is a great little park by Hailee's German tutor's house that we like to play in while Hailee is with her tutor. He loves to run. Any time he sees an open space he tells me "I need to run!!" He really does. If he can just have time to run every day he is a much better behaved little boy. Add in a slide or a swing or two and he's an angel. I'm a little sad that winter is coming and I hope we can still get out and about.

Are you all impressed I was able to do a whole post about James and he is fully dressed in the all of the pictures. :)

Life is settling...

It feels like life is finally starting to feel normal....after six months. It has been a crazy... fun... stressful... entertaining... amazing six months, but to have a sense of normalcy is absolutely lovely. Our now consist of sending Todd off to work, Hailee off to school, run errands, and do everything else that is completely "normal." Everyone has adjusted back to normal life pretty easily. Todd is settling into his new role at work, although he's already worried that he's not going to have enough to do. I'm sure in no time he'll find a way to be busy and happy. In just the last few days Hailee has been getting use to her new school and making friends. James and I are enjoying a little big of downtime before we start getting him in classes. For now I'm just enjoying not running around like a crazy person. That will come soon enough. 

Here are some things that have been happening around our house....

• Hailee hasn't been loving the bus, but for two days in a row she has gotten on without crying. In the morning we are the first stop on our route. There is another little boy that gets on with Hailee, I think he's a few years older...4th maybe 5th grade. He has been really nice to Hailee and has been worried that she has been so sad. . Yesterday he was already on the bus when we got on. Hailee went and sat behind him. As she was walking down he invited her to sit by him. She quickly replied, "It's okay, I like to sit by the window." Today when we got on the bus he was saving the "window" seat for her so they could sit together. So far I have been so impressed with every single kid at this school. They are so nice.
• Before we started at MIS we got Hailee a German tutor who is absolutely wonderful. When we started MIS the tutor thought it would be good to take a week off to let her get settled at her new school. Yesterday when we were walking home she asked me if it was time to go to her tutor. I told her we needed to call and talk to her and get it scheduled again. She told me, "I'm not going to learn German fast enough at school. We're still working on fruit and I already know my fruit."  I was so happy to find that she is excited about learning German again. The last week of German school she hated German and everything German. Thankfully she seems to have gotten over this and we can get going again on learning German. I am so proud of her. She seems to be adjusting quickly.
• James has been the best little guy. I was really worried that we would be in for a rough adjustment periods with his sister being gone. He misses her terribly, but he's doing okay with the transition. The biggest surprised I've had is how much cleaner my house stays since Hailee has been back in school. I really thought it was James causing all the messes. Yesterday when Hailee got home from school they were so happy to be playing together again and the house managed to stay pretty good. Then Hailee got working on her homework and I started cooking dinner and James began all of his old tricks of dumping everything out. He didn't appreciated being ignored when he thought it should be his time for attention. I'm hoping this new phenomenon of a clean house continues, although this morning while I was in the shower James unrolled a roll of paper towels to make a train track. 
• We are slowly settling into a routine and I forgot what it was like to have kids in school. It seems even with errands and everything I still have lots of time during the day. It's been heavenly to start working on some projects and getting my creative side of my brain working again. It really is therapeutic for me. I have been enjoying my new computer so much. I have too many ideas in my head and I need to start focusing on one or two of them at a time. It's been so fun to start working again.
• The weather is changing into fall. We still have a few lovely days here and there, but there is a definite chill to the air these days. We soon discovered that our "winter" coats that worked great in Oregon were not going to be good enough for "winter" in Munich. We are discovering just how spoiled we were in Oregon. Over the weekend we weren't feeling great so we did a little online shopping. We successfully got Hailee completely taken care of for the winter from head to toe. We got James mostly taken care of, we are still looking for winter boots. And the only thing I need now are some cute boots as well. We still need to find a nice winter coat for Todd that would work in the snow and for work. We found one that was absolutely perfect, but it cost over $400. Not really what we had in mind for a budget unfortunately, we'll just have to keep looking. Winter is coming soon and hopefully we'll all stay warm. If there is one thing that Todd has taught me about enjoying winter is you just have to have the right gear, then the cold doesn't seem so bad. Now we're just waiting for our packages to arrive. :)
• The other exciting news as of late is that in just a week or two we'll finally have real internet again. We have been using "surf-sticks" for the last few months and since we're going to be more permanent we are getting things set up for real. I can't wait. Wireless internet....ah it will be so nice. We will also be getting a home line put in. I will feel like a real person again. Now we just need a few "home" decorations and it really will start feeling more like home. 

Who would have guessed....

....that this would be the face of a little girl who just eight hours earlier was crying and telling me she didn't want to go to school. There were tears and tears telling me that she hated riding the bus and that she didn't want to get on. It was a very different story when I picked her up this afternoon. She was enjoying the bus so much that the bus driver had to tell her it was her stop.

When I asked her how her day was she said "Best day so far!" Then the rest of the afternoon I got to hear little bits and pieces of her day. She is finally starting to settle in. I guess I shouldn't say finally since it's just her third day and all things considered she is doing really well.

So in no particular order of how they happened here were some of her favorite things of the day.

• During class she played a dice game with a little boy and she told me he was so nice. He even let her go first, which she thought was pretty great.
• Because of the rain they had two indoor recess. At the first one she got to play with some dinosaurs that she had a good time with. For the second one she played with a big group of kids making "fruit salad" with plastic fruit.
• Her music teacher told them they were all beautiful, even the boys, which she thought was hilarious. "Boys don't want to be beautiful!"
• She is loving reading her Nancy Drew books. She has quite a long ride on the bus in the morning and afternoon. Last week I got on amazon.de to order some books. I was so happy to find a pretty good english selection and my Amazon Prime membership even works in Germany. We got 13 new books for her to read and at the rate she is going I'm going to need to get back on the computer and order some more. She started her first official Nancy Drew book. I asked her how far she got, she said, "I got pretty into it. Can I read it when I get home?" Nope 1 1/2 hours of reading a day is probably pretty good. She asked several more times and was so happy when I let her go to bed to read Nancy Drew. I'm pretty sure we're going to come back from Germany with a whole library. 

Overall I think we're getting over the sadness and life is becoming a grand new adventure. She is looking forward to her class field trip to the post office, police station, and the red cross that she has coming up next week. She is thrilled to be finally going on another field trip. I am so happy that she is settling in quickly.

A couple of things I forgot...

• James has been doing awesome in the potty training department, but with all the craziness over the last month or so he's started having a few accidents at night. He's only had a handful of accidents, but since I really don't enjoy laundry I decided putting him in a pull-up/diaper at night would be the best way to solve the problem. The pull-ups because a problem because he didn't like the tape on the back that is suppose to be used to close it up when you're done with it. So he would spend the first 10 minutes or so of bedtime pulling it off. This, would inevitably leave a hole where the tape was suppose to be and little bits of pull-up would fall out everywhere. Since he didn't like the tape on the back, I decided to go back to a diaper. At first he was so confused. "Not a diaper momma." Thinking about it, it probably would be confusing. But still not being a fan of laundry I decided to be a little sneaky and just put the diaper on him after he fell asleep. Now every time he wakes up with a diaper on her gets a little grumpy, "Not a diaper....I need underwear." Now the only time I sneak a diaper on him is when I know he's had a lot to drink and hasn't been good about going to the potty. He's been waking up dry for a while now, but I'm still a little paranoid. 

• For the longest time James has been perfecting his "sad" face. Shortly after moving to German I caught him practicing his most pathetic looking face in the mirror. It cracks me up. The other day I was in the kitchen making dinner and he was upset because I wasn't letting him eat any more "Tella and Bread." He started his best practiced sad and pathetic face with a great little fake whine. I continued making dinner without giving him the attention he so desperately wanted. He got closer and closer to me and still to his utter disbelief I wasn't noticing his best-most-well-rehearsed sad face. Finally in desperation he said "Mom, a baby's sad….a baby's sad….waaaaaa." Unfortunately for my future "best actor of the year" Mom wasn't buying his performance.  

• When we went back to the US all of us experienced culture shock in several different ways. It had only been just over five months since we'd been home, but it felt like we were so behind. Going to red box in and of itself was eye opening, there were so many movies we hadn't even heard of. Hailee was no exception. The first few days she was busy relearning lots of new things. On Sunday when we went to church she had forgotten where the primary room was located. Then when she tried to watch the TV she couldn't remember how to work the remote. As she was struggling to figure things out she asked me to come put on one of her kids shows. I was busy at the time and told he rot just put it on. Completely perplexed by the situation she shouted back "I've lost my power over the TV!" I about died laughing. I wonder what we'll have forgotten when we go back next time. 

James Says....

Enjoying the last of our good weather, I'm afraid, in the park close to our house.

This morning Todd and Hailee went off to church. James is still not feeling great so we decided it was best if he stayed home. He wasn't too thrilled to be missing nursery, in fact once he realized they were gone and he was having to miss nursery he was quite grumpy. once we got through that, it's been quite fun just having it be just the two of us, when there is nothing else going on. I've discovered that when no one else is around (aka, his big sissy) he will chat up a storm with me. Every day he talks more and more. It's been so fun to see our conversations get longer and longer.  

Favorite time of the day...bathtime.

Over the last few months I've been keeping track of some of the things he's been saying. So in no particular order here is what he's saying lately. 

• While we were in Prague we picked up some building blocks for James. They definitely have a "not-bought-in-America-feel." We bought them when James was asleep and since we were headed back on the train that evening we decided to wait until we got home to open them up. He was asleep when we got home and asleep when Todd had to leave the next morning so I decided to wait until Todd got home from work to show them. I am so glad I did, I was expecting him to be excited, but I wasn't prepared for his reaction. He was thrilled. He kept saying over and over "I'm so Happy! I'm so Happy!" It was so cute, and then we felt like bad parents for not having more toys for him. 
• The phrase that is always heard around our house as well is "Is that funny?" It's usually after he's done some mischief and thinks it's the funniest thing in the whole world. Once he's decided something is "funny" there is no convincing him otherwise. 

• He ends every questions with an adorable "yeah?" For example, I was trying unsuccessfully to get him down for a nap, he told me he needed to go to the bathroom and on his way back he said "Play with wegos (legos), yeah?" How could I resist. I let him play "wegos" instead of taking a nap. 
• One of his favorite things are "robots." He loves stomping around like a robot and was completely thrilled when dad joined in on the fun. He'll raid my kitchen and find "robot hands" (aka wisks and beaters) and stomp around the house. One day he decided we were all "giant robots." I got to the the "mommy robot" to which he told me "so sweet mommy robot." I guess if I have to be a robot, I'm glad I'm a sweet mommy robot.

With Hailee back in school I'm finding I have a little tag-along-buddy almost every where I go. 

• After deciding he was ready for a snack he found a box of cookies and brought them to me. He handed them over and said "I'm cookie monster!" When Hailee heard this she came right over and said "I want a cookie." To which James quickly responded "I'm cookie MONSTER!" Hailee not to be left out said "But I'm cookie monster's sister." James said "Oh okay," and was totally fine sharing his cookies with "Cookie Monster's Sister."
• James has also started tattling on his sister, dad, or mom depending on who he thinks is doing something wrong. One evening as they were getting ready for going to bed James asked to go to the bathroom (his favorite plan to stall bedtime for a few minutes). I sent Hailee off with him. James, true to form, was taking as long as possible to go to the bathroom. Hailee really wanted to get back to her reading time and was tired of waiting. She decided to just turn the light off and go back to bed. She came in with her little brother right behind her telling us "Sissy turned the light off... that's not guud" He continued on and on telling us "It's not guuuud!" (Think Nacho Libre for the accent he uses.)
• Right before going back to the US we all had to talk in church. Since James isn't quite ready to sit on the stand Todd and I switched off. After sacrament meeting I had to run off to primary and Todd went off to Nursery with James. We didn't realize it at the time, but we left McQueen on the pew. While I was in primary Todd took a new family back to their house just before church was over. We were excited because this family has a little boy close to James' age and actually lives pretty close to us. When Todd was dropping them off they invited them in. The little boy was so excited to show James his "cars." In James' tired state he thought the little boy had taken his McQueen. Todd told me he cried all the way home. Once we got home he was still asleep and the first thing he told me when he woke up was, "mcqueen…the baby, that's not guud." The next day first thing in the morning I heard the same thing. A little nervous that James wouldn't want to be friends with the little boy I decided to go buy him a new McQueen. It worked like a charm. When we were in Oregon we picked up his other McQueens and now he has 4 or so, but one is still the favorite (he likes the original McQueen, not the new "grand prix" McQueen). Our first Sunday back at church we actually found his McQueen in the nursery. He was so happy to find the "Old McQueen."

When we first moved in to our new apartment James did not like these stairs. Now he isn't nearly as scared as I would like him to be. 

• When he's done with food he'll say "I foo" (I'm full). Just as Mr. T use to say "I pity the fool." Now Todd is trying to teach him to say "I pity the Fool."
• One morning he woke up a little grumpy. His sister on the other hand woke up in a very cheerful mood. She was busily singing a beautiful little song. James was sitting on the couch saying "Sissy…..Sissy…SISSY!" Finally she finished her song and asked "What?" To which James responded "Sissy, be quiet." I guess he wasn't ready for the joyful song of his sister. 
• James' favorite things are "too big." It  all started with a blanket that went on our bed. For some reason that was the blanket he always wanted to cuddle with. It drove me crazy, because he would drag it all around the house leaving messes in his path. I would constantly tell him, "James that blanket is too big, get a different one." Now he call's it the "too big blanket." Recently we just got an iPad for the kids (and I suppose Todd and I have done our fair share of playing on it). We all absolutely love it. James, however, does not call it an iPad. It's official name in our home is "too-big iPod." I've even caught myself calling it the too-big iPod.

Hailee's favorite kind of swing in Germany. Apparently you can pile lots of kids on it while playing in the English Garden, as you can see James thought it was pretty fun too. 

And a few little things of Hailee….

• Her second day of school was much better than her first day for a number of different reasons. The main one being that two people complimented her on her hair. She definitely loves her long hair. A couple of months ago the kids decided to blow raspberries on my stomach, one of their favorite things to do. Hailee made the comment that my stomach was a lot softer than her stomach (thanks a lot for noticing). I told her one day after she had two kids her tummy probably wouldn't be "tight like a drum" anymore either. She quickly said "I don't care, it's not like I'm proud of it or anything." When questioned what she was proud of she immediately said, "my hair." 
• Yesterday we were talking about what we needed to get to pick up from the store for winter for her and I mentioned she needed a few more pairs of "Strumpfhose." She asked me what they were and I told her they were the German word for tights. She said "Oh, how did you learn that word? Did dad tell you?" Apparently I am not the German expert in our house.  

Mac Addict since 1995

This is what the charging station looks like at our house. We love apple products. I was so sad to wake up and hear that Steve Jobs had passed away. He truly inspired great products and will be missed.

As far as products go for our family Apple is our favorite. I've loved Apple for a long time, but they really sold Todd when we were doing research for a portable device that was educational. Before a road trip we were looking to get something for the kids, but we didn't want just a gaming device. We wanted it to be educational. After being disappointed by "educational" devices that were not really educational, we found the iPod touch with all kinds of educational apps. The rest is history. Hailee and James (and even Todd and I) have enjoyed Math, Science, and Spelling games along with reading. If you're looking for great devices for your kids, I highly recommend apple products.

And just for fun....this is the operating system we were using when I first really discovered a macintosh computer. Ahhh, brings back so many fond memories in the yearbook room. Can you believe the total memory used was 16,384 K? My new computer came with 500 GB and I have a 1 TB of space on my external hard drive.  Isn't it amazing to see how far computers have come. Hailee was shocked to learn that I was in high school before I learned how to "email." And that I was her age when we got our first computer. I wonder what computers are going to look like when she is my age.

Schloß Buchhof

Hailee had her first day of school at Munich International School. She was really nervous. She didn't want any breakfast because her tummy was hurting. But once we got to the school and she got to see her new classroom she seemed fine. In fact, her normal teacher had an appointment so she went off to music very first thing. She happily waved and said good-bye with her recorder in her hand. She can't wait to learn how to play the recorder. 

MIS is actually located in an old Palace, Schloß Buchhof. The grounds are absolutely beautiful. 

The funniest thing about this school is that she needed three pairs of shoes that have to stay at school every day. She has house shoes that she wears in the classroom, a pair of indoor PE shoes and a pair of outdoor PE shoes. It's all very fancy. She loved finding her locker and a note from her teacher. 

The playground area. 

 The Schloß Buchhof

 The walk way to the school.

I can't wait to see how her day goes. 

Übergangsschule

Hailee on her first day of German school.

School has been quite a learning experience for Todd and I. We were so excited for the Spanish Immersion Charter school we had found for Hailee in Oregon. When we found out we were staying in Germany longer we had planned,  we started looking for what our options were here. We could put Hailee in the International school or put her in the local school. Both schools had things we liked and didn't like. It has been a really tough decision. We knew MIS (the Munich International School) would be an easier transition for her, but with transportation she would be gone from 8:15 in the morning until 4:30. It didn't leave much time for extra activities after school. The local German school starts at 8:00 am, but only goes until 1:00 pm, which would leave plenty of time for extra activities and she would be amazing in German by the time it was time to go home. 

After looking at both we decided to start the German school. We quickly found out that we couldn't go to the local school by our house, but that Hailee would first have to go to a Übergangsschule (transitional school) that was just for International kids to learn German. There are three schools in Munich that offer this special program, but since we were late in finding out this information we had to go to St. Anna's school. It was a 45 minute train ride in the morning for all of us. 

Hailee on the playground.

They initially told us that it would just be for a few months until she could come to the local school by our house. We found an amazing tutor by our house that started helping to get to the local school sooner rather than later. After a week or so we found out that it was up to the St. Anna principle on how quickly she could move. They have two years of "learning German" classes. The quickest she could move to the next level was at the end of the term in February and then the soonest she could move to the local school was next year. 

On one of the trains we took on the way home. 

Even with all this we could have still worked things out, but our little girl was really struggling. We expected the hard time making friends and learning a language, but what surprised us was that it wasn't really either of those two things that were the main problem. Friends were hard since there was only one boy that spoke English, but she actually enjoyed learning the German. What was really the end of it was the teacher's attitudes. In this school most of her teachers (with one exception) were all really negative. They spoke only in German and then when Hailee would make a mistake they would get mad at her. Now for most kids this might not be a huge deal. But for Hailee, she is always striving to do her best and do the right thing. I have only had to send her to time out a handful of times her whole life. By the last night when she was in sobs begging me to tell her teachers to be nice to her I realized we had a more serious problem than just making friends. It's just wrong that the best German Hailee knows is "Hailee, that's not good", "Hailee, that's not right", and "Hailee you can do better." It was really starting to affect her. 

On the escalator on the way to our last train.

I'm afraid it's going to take some time for her to get over it. She was working on some math with Todd yesterday and she broke down into sobs when she got the problem wrong. I'm just glad we figured it out and could easily get her out of the situation. 

The biggest frustration I have was that it wasn't the German that was the hang-up. In the week and a half that she went to the school her German improved by leaps and bounds. When we were home and working on her German homework she loved figuring it out. When we're out and about she has become my translator.  We plan on keeping up her German tutor as much as she can handle so she can continue to learn German. She also has an hour of school at MIS dedicated to learning German. We're hoping we can keep up the German learning. 

Oktoberfest 2011

 Saturday we decided to check out Oktoberfest with the kids. I've heard quite a few stories about Okoberfest, so I was a little nervous about taking the kids. But we figured if we went early enough in the day things couldn't be too crazy.

 I really didn't know what I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised. Sure there was the smell of beer everywhere and lots of people, but they had some really fun kids things and for the most part the beer and people were in other parts of the Oktoberfest.

The first ride we found was perfect for James. It was full of "race" cars for him to "drive." I don't know how many times we rode it, but even as we were leaving he was wanting more.

 We also found bumper cars that they let both kids go on. Oktoberfest isn't quite like the US amusement parks. There are so size, weight or age limits for any of the rides we saw. It was a little crazy, but for the most part James and I avoided to many crazy bumps and both kids loved it. When Todd picked up James from the car his little heart was beating wildly.

Hailee surprised us all with how brave she was. She saw this next ride and just had to go on it. It went up so high over the city and spun her all around. The next ride she saw was one that flipped you around in circles and upside down. Surprisingly enough she couldn't wait to go on it. There wasn't a size limit, but both Todd and I were a little worried that she would slip around too much so we decided to skip it. Usually Hailee is my cautious little girl, but today she was up for anything.

It's safe to say that next year the kids will be counting down the days until Oktoberfest. Maybe next year we'll have leiderhosen and dirndl's so we can fit in a little better. A lot of the people there were all dressed up in their traditional clothes. It really is a fun festival, if they would just get rid of all the drinking it would be perfect. But then I guess it wouldn't bring $1,000,000 in revenue for the city every year.

Girl's Night

We have had Todd's cousin, Rachelle, and her friend, Ashley here visiting us the last few days. They have been touring around Europe and we were so excited they made the trip up to see us in Germany. One night we decided to go to dinner at our favorite "German" food restaurant here in Munich. As it worked out, Todd was a little under the weather and James was sleeping when it was time to meet up. Hailee and I decided to meet up with the girls without the boys and have a fun "Girl's Only" dinner.

Hailee loved it. Sometimes it is just nice to get a break from the boys. :)

We have really enjoyed having Rachelle and Ashley visiting us. They have been busy touring around, but we were able to have some down time with them as well. After they left today Hailee was in tears because it's not fair that they didn't get enough "play" time with them. Both Rachelle and Ashley were so cute with our kids.