Quick pictures from Shamus: Winter in the Alps is skiing you say, not with 4 tots! Just crazy upside down houses, swimming (no pictures), playgrounds, and first time ice skating. Some of these pictures make you think that we've been hitting the steroids and swallowed a Segway to keep our balance.
Ok, we did go to the top of a mountain to see artificial snow (winter is coming late this year I guess) and found an ogre head to climb on!
Zan's awesome face for when a parrot is sitting on your arm.
First ice skating trip for the boys. Rose hung out with me and Jay was almost up and by himself after two hours. But Karen had to take turns with each one so they had plenty of time to work up the courage to let go of the helper seals.
Here we are eating dinner, listening to silly Jay...
Pointing at Laura, going around the table, Jay said, "You're Robby, you're dad, you're Zan, you're Jay, and you're Laura. I'm Ben." Ben giggles. Zan giggles because Ben did.
Jay continues, "You're Poopie and you're Tootie"... Laura says, "that's a good name for Robby - he toots!" More giggles. Robby calls them C3po (J), R2D2 (Z) and Chewbacca (B). More giggles. Laura calls them Huey, Dewey and Louie. Robby sings Duck Tales, ooo-woo-hoo!
Zan performs a magic spell with his fork. It is now an airplane or a ship from Star Wars. Adults notice, brothers don't.
Other things that happened:
Karen, Zan, Rose, Robby and Laura went to lunch, where they bought pretzels, sat down at a table, got yelled at by Angry Man (cafe employee) for sitting down because the pretzels are supposed to be to go, then had their pretzels put in the stroller by Nice Old Man (who had just sold them the pretzels). Then they ordered lunch and hungrily waited for their food while said pretzels were within arm's length. True story.
Zan bumped his head twice in a row on the same corner of the kitchen table. Karen guessed correctly what happened from the other room. Zan still has a large head.
Jay and Ben showed Robby The Lego Movie video game. Robby fell asleep on the couch.
Laura snuggled Rose, Rose smiled at her and fell asleep.
Robby, Karen and Zan got dinner from the Greek Food Truck. Zan's head looked extra large thanks to his bike helmet.
The boys wrestled with Robby. Jay hit Robby with a pillow. Zan hit Robby without a pillow. Karen seized the teaching moment and told Zan we only hit with pillows. New information registered in Zan's large head. He didn't have a pillow so he belly flopped onto Robby's chest.
Today, Jay and Ben were home sick from kindergarten. So Karen got out the scissors and the glue and the boxes from Jay's Lego sets from his birthday and she and the kids made ornaments together.
There are no photos of the children making the ornaments because Karen was playing full-table, man-to-man defense against the child holding the glue. Looking back, she wishes she had a security camera installed so she could watch the replays and share them. Thankfully, she did think ahead and put out backpapier so no glue got on the table.
Then they hung them on the tree.
"Owww! Mom, I don't want to hang anymore!" said Jay, after hanging one.
"This is too pokey!" said Ben, after hanging one of his. "Should we put on some gloves?" Karen asked. "No. I'm all done hanging ornaments." said Jay. "At least hang the other one that you made, please." "Oww!"
Zan looped his ornaments onto the candles with great precision. He never said "Ow".
They also watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Zan laughed and laughed at Abominable. "I like the movie where he gets really strong. And stronger." said Ben, about How the Grinch Stole Christmas. "Why does he get stronger, mom?" "Because his heart grew 3 sizes so he really wanted to save all the presents and food and decorations and give them all back." "But how does he get stronger?" "I just told you, buddy." A blank stare is all Karen got.
Today, Karen and Zan brought a cookie cake to kindergarten during Jay's lunch. "I left a few pieces at home, and one of them says 'Ben' on it," said Karen to Ben when he saw her at the kindergarten.
Karen got to see how lunchtime works at kindergarten. All the children wait until it's their table's turn to fill their plates. The teacher gives the first serving. After they've eaten, they can go to the serving table on their own to serve themselves again. Many of the children go up for seconds. Jay went up for thirds, fourths and fifths. His serving scoops were pretty small but he did go back for more 5 times. "It was lentil lasagna - I guess I should make that at home!" said Karen.
After the children are finished eating, they each take their own plates to the sink, where there is a step stool set up. Each child rinses and wipes off his own plate and takes it to the dining cart and stacks it neatly.
Since it was Jay's birthday celebration, after dishes was dessert! Jay sat at the serving table with his sliced cookie cake. Everyone sang Happy Birthday in English and then Jay served each child a piece of cake, calling each one up by name (with the help of his teacher). Zan helped. It was a happy birthday, indeed!!
Today, Jay and Ben started kindergarten! "In Germany, kindergarten is preschool. The elementary schools start in first grade and go through fourth. Kindergarten is not academic in terms of learning to read or write. Jay will be going to German first grade in the fall of 2015 so kindergarten is essential for him to learn German before he starts school. Ben will attend first grade when he is 6 as well and in the meantime, he'll be learning German at kindergarten, too! Because Jay is going to the Grundschule next year, he has a practice day once per week on Wednesdays (with all of the other 5-6 year olds) in order to prepare him."
"We can ride our bikes to school if we want to. Today it's rainy so we're gonna walk," reported Ben.
"We ate breakfast at kindergarten!" said Ben. In the mornings between 7 and 8:45, the children have brotzeit, or bread time. Jay and Ben both wanted to eat at school with the other children instead of eating at home.
"Here [in Germany], the mother is usually asked to stay with the children at kindergarten for a week or maybe two, depending on how old the child is. At the krippe, where the children are very young, it is sometimes 4 weeks of staying there with the child. I think the teachers at the kindergarten will be okay with you only staying for 3 or 4 days since your boys are older. You can talk with them about your goals and they will work with you. Jay and Ben will do fine, I'm sure," said Ms. Mia*, the Cronins' German tutor. Karen was at the kindergarten with all 3 boys for about two and a half hours today. Tomorrow, she plans to arrive earlier so that they will have more time to play with other children before Kreiszeit, circle time.
Jay struggled because he really wanted to be with Ben and he wanted to play legos but didn't have time before Kreiszeit. Jay and Ben can play in any room together or apart for the first part of the day, but the children split up by age for Kreiszeit. "I'm just glad he was upset about something that's easy to fix - we'll arrive earlier than we did today (and we'll know what we're doing) and they'll have much more time to play together and apart," said Karen. "Ms. Lisa* sat by him and helped him calm down while I was with Ben. The teachers here are really caring, of course, and I felt very encouraged to see her taking care of Jay," said Karen with a tear in her eye. It was obviously not the easiest day for her, either!
Thanksgiving dinner at Osterwaldgarten in Munich was a special treat for the BMW expats living in Germany. "One of the families organized it and we had quite the turnout! I think there were around 50 people there," said Karen. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lunchlady serving up the mashed potatoes. There was a cake decorator doing that.
"This was the shortest drive we've ever made for Thanksgiving dinner and the kids still fell asleep in the car on the way there," said Karen. It was a fifteen minute drive and around 5 minutes into the ride, Karen captured this moment:
"I didn't like the green things," reported Jay, referring to the steamed brussel sprouts. "I ate all my turkey," said Ben. "Mom, mom, mah-ahhmm! Gagu!" were Zan's words.
Karen got to know one of Shamus's coworkers who has been living in Germany for over 2 years now. Shamus got to play outside with the kids after they ate. They all enjoyed their German version of Thanksgiving dinner. "It wasn't really Thanksgiving though, was it?" asked Karen. "No, of course it wasn't," replied Shamus, thinking the same thing as Karen: "We ate turkey with other people and talked with some of them. It was loud, there was too much food, and it was fun. But it wasn't with our loved ones. It turns out they are the most important part of the celebration."
