May 2013 Be an Awesome Year!

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MERRY CHRISTMAS

to all our loved ones near and far!

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Almost Christmas!

and these two little water rats are getting more and more excited for Christmas Eve (presents!) and Christmas Day (stockings!). But first we had things to do and places to go. Like, the pool. For their last swim class before the Christmas break.

And I think I have mentioned before that "Pandy" the koala is a vital part of the family now? Seriously, Finn acts like Pandy is his little brother! 

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Anyway. The little swimmers had the chance to earn their "Pirate"-badge last Tuesday. All the kids in the class succeeded, even the 5-year-olds like Lily. Pandy watched faithfully from the bench.

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First, the kids needed to swim four lengths (100 meters) non-stop, doing breast stroke.

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 Then, they had to jump in from the starting block and swim under water for at least 5 meters. Here's Finn - he won this one hands down with his 15 meters. The trainer says once Finn learns to jump in head first he will be able to dive the whole length no problem.

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After picking up some rings from the bottom of the pool the test was done and everyone was proud. None more so than the parents.

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 Neil was there too, poor eye sight or no poor eye sight. Thankfully, his eyes are improving and he's slowly getting in the holiday spirit.

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Years ago we were given these beautifully made "Jesse tree" ornaments from a family friend and artist in Canada. Each ornament symbolizes a biblical event or person leading up to the birth of Jesus. There is a booklet that describes each one, and you can also read the relevant Bible passages. It is such a wonderful tradition and fun way to teach the children these stories. Here, Lily is explaining the story of Joseph, symbolized by his colorful coat, to Rosalie.  

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What's Christmas without music? Let me tell you - a lot more peaceful.

Lily is sticking more with the traditional Christmas songs on her triola

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while Finn is winging it rockstar style

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And since "I follow rivers" by Lykke Li is only played every half hour or so on the radio, Finn needs to tide us over in the meantime.

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 When we're not eating, sleeping or playing music we're probably busy making more to eat, like these candy cane reindeer. Finn and Lily made these to put on the tree, and so far they are still there. Amazing. 

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Rudolph the red nosed reindeer is a big hit around these parts.

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As are snowmen. Sadly, all the snow outside has melted, so we made these "melting snowmen" cookies to keep with the spirit of a Green Christmas. Most of them we gave to friends and other children, and they were a big hit!

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This guy was threatening me with a snow ball to the face.

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Ha!

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Busy busy

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Whatcha makin', Lily?

(P.S. On non-school days Lily usually gets out of her nightgown/PJs when we leave the house, which might be - not at all.)

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THIS is what they were making - vanilla Christmas cakes!

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And what is this going to be, kids?

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Chocolate-covered fruit, pretzels, and-

more Rudolphs!

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Oh yeah.

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I kind of always thought to myself, that the worst that could happen to me as a parent is to hold my child and helplessly watch it die, as friends of ours had to. But, of course, there is one thing that is even worse. NOT holding your child as it dies, and having to live with the knowledge that his or her last moments were full of unimaginable horror and bloodshed. That they screamed for you, and you weren't there.

While the massacre in Connecticut on December 14 didn't hit close to home, it hit very close to my heart. That morning, I got my kindergartener and my first grader ready for school, with a lovingly packed lunch, warm coats and hats, hugs and kisses. Just like those parents in Newtown did. I bet some of their kids were also muttering about having to go to school, and they probably heard the same thing Finn heard: "Just one more day, and then it's weekend! And only one more week until the Christmas break." That night, broken-hearted, I tucked my kids into their beds, safe and sound, while 20 other first graders lay where they fell, riddled with bullets, until their parents could identify them from pictures the police took of their remains. It is an unspeakable, unthinkable horror.

The following article pretty much sums it up for me. The shooting hits so close to my heart because I have one (almost two) of them: first graders. Ready to take on the world with their bright eyes and gap-toothed smiles. Spreading their wings, and dreaming of their future, dreaming big, while still having all the innocence of childhood. Read this (click on link) and weep:

WHAT-SIX-LOOKS-LIKE

I kind of always thought that if a great opportunity presented itself for us to move back to North America we would happily jump at it. Now, I'm not so sure about the US. I guess for the time being, we're quite happily tucked away in our little corner of southern Germany. There are no guarantees in life, but with gun laws and (mental) health care what they are, the chances of a similar incident happening here are very slim.
Finn often says he doesn't want to go to school. But it's because he'd rather play legos all day, not because he doesn't feel safe there. As it should be. And when he comes home he always says he had a good day and that he had fun. As it should be.

Not a dry eye in the house ... and other things not to say to Neil right now.

 

This eye surgery is really not for the weak of heart, and also not for you if your pain threshold is more on the low side. Or that of your spouse. Neil has regretted that he didn't go for the more expensive lasik option, where his corneas would have stayed intact and the healing process is much shorter and way less painful. The end result is the same (he had lasek, not lasik), but the road for Neil is a Trail of Tears right now. So, if you consider this laser eye stuff, be cautioned and weigh your options. Neil is sleeping with protective goggles which he still manages to push aside in his sleep to rub his eyes, a HUGE no-no which resulted in him injuring his healing eye and all of us making the drive to Munich for the third time in four days. Hence, he has resorted to taping the goggles onto his face. You're laughing. Yeah, me too. At first.

 

So, here are a few more idioms to avoid when talking to Neil these days:

 

Hindsight's 20/20. You're really a sight for sore eyes. How can you turn a blind eye to all this? My eyes almost popped out of my head! In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. --- And so on, you get the message.

 

We are all hoping Neil will be back to his old self soon, except better. His vision before the surgery was only 10% without his glasses/contacts, and now it's 30% in one and 40-50% in the other eye. Hopefully he'll have eagle eyes REAL soon! Meanwhile we're trying to cut him some slack when he's irritable (it hurts, he's bored, can't drive, can't read, he didn't get a snowman cookie) and impatient. Because, you know,

 

LOVE IS BLIND.

 

♥

Wow, it's been over a month since I last wrote something here.

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So, let's see. What happened lately? In a nutshell: my shoulder is better but not really great yet, Lily had a a cold turned into a bad cough turned into ear infection that kept her home from Kindergarten for about 2 weeks, the cats are officially quite sick, Neil is temporarily blinded (and not by my beauty) and Finn is doing well. He just read his first book all by himself, in German.

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Also, sadly and quite unexpectedly despite her having cancer, my aunt passed away at the beginning of December. We stopped by to visit with her on our way down south from Rostock in November, and I am so glad we did. We miss her. I had planned on attending her funeral this coming Monday, but I would be gone from Sunday to Tuesday and right now there is no way I want to leave Neil alone here.

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Neil had lasek eye surgery in Munich yesterday, and it has been rough on him. He has been in a lot of pain and probably will be until the protective lenses will be removed from his eyes next Tuesday. By then his corneas will have grown back, hopefully, and once he is able to open his eyes properly again his eye sight will be a lot better than it was and he can (hopefully) ditch his glasses. After a sleepless night because of the pain he finally got some rest today. He takes pain killers every 3 hours and is on 3 different kinds of eye drops. Being in pain and laying in a darkened room all day with protective goggles (so he won't accidentally rub his eyes) is not how most people start off their Christmas break, but there's light at the end of the tunnel. Or so we hope. :)

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As for the cats, while I was in the hospital with my shoulder surgery Neil took the boys to their yearly check-up at the vet's and Lenny's heart sounded bad which led the vet to draw some blood to test for markers for a genetic heart defect in cats called HCM. Long story short, it turned out both cats inherited this defect from their sire who was diagnosed (and promptly castrated) after he had already been used for breeding. The final diagnosis takes a special heart ultrasound that not many vets offer. We got the cats enrolled in a trial at the University of Munich, where the researchers are working on developing a blood test to screen cats in breeding programs before they show symptoms of this fatal condition. Lenny and Blue left some blood there and we got the expensive ultrasounds for free. In half a year we'll go back and then we might have a better idea of how long we have left with them. They are only 3 years old and dearly loved. Right now they are still doing well and were put on beta blockers by the vet. They have to take 1/4 of a pill every day, which is tricky when you have a very picky cat that really only likes dry cat food. All I can say is, hooray for German leberwurst.

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But enough of the talking, here are the pictures you are waiting for. We had a bit of fun these last weeks, too, despite it all!

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Christmas baking!

 

 

Cherishing the advent season

 

 

Uh-oh, brother, this means trouble! Let's make a move, I ain't getting in that thing!

 

 

Lily got a "Strickliesel" from Nikolaus, or as she put it: Oma gave it to Nikolaus, and Nikolaus put it in her boot for Lily to find. A strickliesel helps you knit long ropes of wool, and it was popular with generations of Germans past. I had one as a child. Lily and Finn (who got one too) love it and got the hang of it quickly. Lily's been busy knitting rope halters for her unicorn and Finn made his koala named Pandy a blue bracelet.

 

 

More baking

 

 

Our tree has been up for a week and I think Blue approves, as he spends almost all day snoozing under it.

 

 

We also had some snow, and the morning I took this picture it was -16 degrees. Beautiful, but C.O.L.D.

 

 

Not that the kids minded. Luckily, Lily was well enough again to go outside and play in it.

 

 

Have I mentioned, that Finn takes his koala named Pandy everywhere?

 

 

And this is Lily after she jumped into what she thought was a snow drift knees first. Only, it was more rocks than snow. Her knee is still bruised and sore a few days later. Live and learn.

 

 

Poor baby.

Still here

 

Time for another post! We're doing well. Kids are getting cuter by the day

 

 

I got one last ride in before having my shoulder surgery in October

 

 

And we spent a week in Rostock when Finn had a week off school for fall break.

 

 

We ate lots of fish there

 

 

Finn impressed Oma and Opa with his reading skills

 

 

The men played chess

 

 

Two lanterns were made, which was a lot more work than you would think

 

 

 

 

We went to the beach a few times

 

 

 

 

And Finn and Lily enjoyed Halloween

 

 

and their first trick-or-treating ever.

 

 

Neil got beat at checkers by his princess, we went to the zoo, and were pampered by Oma. A very nice week!

 

 

On our way back home we stopped to visit relatives, and it pays to have an uncle (well, he is the kids' great uncle I guess) who owns a restaurant. Finn and Lily loved making their own pizzas!

 

 

For Finn, eating the pizza is a bit of a challenge right now, though. With 7 teeth missing in the front and only 3 partially grown back in he has some trouble. Lily is green with envy. She wants to have a loose tooth SO SO badly. To the point where she considers just knocking one out. Silly girl.

 

So, that is life over here at the moment. Finn is back in school and, for the most part, enjoys it. When he comes home (1pm) we relax a bit, then do home work (about an hour most days), then have some fun outside or inside, or go to swim class, have play dates etc. Lily goes to Kindergarten and can't wait to start "real" school next year.
Neil handled things really well while I was in the hospital (5 days) and took good care of the gang. When I came home from the hospital we had a home helper (payed for by our health insurance) to help out with the kids and household chores. It was a huge help, as even simple things like doing Lily's hair in the morning or carrying a laundry basket were pretty much impossible for me. Not having use of my right arm showed me just how many things you need both hands for!
The surgery itself went really well and now that my shoulder has had some time to heal on the inside I am getting more and more use of my arm back. The pain is manageable. Some things are still hard (like putting on a jacket or even getting comfortable at night), but overall I'm happy I had it done. I'm doing physiotherapy and will be for a while.

Last not least, here is some art work from Lily for your enjoyment. Her favourite subjects are still horses and unicorns. These drawings cracked me up:

Kitty says, "WHOA, don't run me over!"

 

Mama horse says, "You're looking at the wrong end, buddy!"

 

 

 

"Now you've got it."

 

 

 

Bye for now!