Österreich

It always seems like I have so much to say as I'm falling asleep thinking about writing, but then when I have the time to sit down, nothing comes to mind. Today Tara took a 45 min. nap as we were walking from the train station to our hotel in Salzburg, so that might have something to do with it.
The picture is Tara and I, I swear :) It has been about 2C, so 35'ish F, kinda cold, but manageable thanks to everyone who gave T their old snowsuits

If Innsbruck and Salzburg are representative of Austria as a whole, well I'd live here. We've been up the side of a mountain, one on which 3-4 yr olds were skiing cliff side hills like they're gonna be in the olympics next year, seen a few castles, taken many walks in old towns and done a tiny bit of shopping, mostly window. Right now our search focus is a kugelbahn, a marble cascading track toy, and maternity pants that are not 6 inches too long.
We had a very nice Christmas Eve, Germans celebrate starting at around 4PM on the 24th, with the lighting of the tree, have dinner and then do presents. We managed to find one of the only two or three places to eat dinner, and they closed at 6P, we had traditional Tirol dishes. Nate had a meat and potato dish with a sunnyside up egg on top. Tara got the best ravioli we've ever had, made in house and stuffed with spinach, chopped fine with great spices and not a lick of cheese (how nice for me!) Actually now that I'm in the second trimester I've been able to eat a bit of dairy, hot chocolate is top on my list. We spent Christmas walking around town, it was lightly snowing the whole day, we took a 2.5 hr nap and relaxed and then went and listened to the choir play in the square, Nate has taken to Gluwein, and Tara and I either share tee or heise schokolade.
Walking around European old towns is wonderfully relaxing, they close the street to cars during the day, so we can let Tara run, however if you've seen any of our pictures you can see that she usually chooses the mommy back or the daddy backpack over strolling on her own.

A two year old

So we had Tara's second birthday party and it was quite fun and almost overwhelming. We only had six kids over, for two 2-yr olds birthday, but that was enough. Tara and her friend Momo from next door share a birthday and were both born around 7P in their respective time zones. One is a perfect little angel, and one is, well, overwhelming at times (his mother will verify this :) )
It was fun this year, Nate's birthday was on Thursday, and our neighbor has the same birthday, so we hosted a dinner with cake on Nates birthday, and then on Saturday we hosted afternoon tea for Tara's party. Tara asked to go upstairs after about an hour into her party, I think having that many kids around is overwhelming when you are not used to little boys throwing things, parents having fun and actually talking, and everyone playing with all your toys. I bought playdough for the kids to play with during the party, and thank god we did not have time to take it out. I totally underestimate what a little boy would do with such a thing. I am quite lucky to have ended up with a first child who is very easy going, I had a disscussion with a neighbor tonight about how hard a difficult first child is when you have no idea what to do with a kid in the fisrt place. No wonder second children or usually more outgoing, friendly and generally at ease. It is really hard to figure out what they need sometimes.
So it has been snowing here everyday except two, one of which we just had freezing rain instead, since the beginning of December. So we go out in it a couple of times each day, long enough for Tara to get cold, 10 min's, and ask to go 'home'. We only go out to the parking lot, so I guess she associates the word 'home' with 'inside' and not the surroundings. Today she stood in the parking lot and would not come with me, she was repeating a word, which ment something she needed, but I had absolutely no idea what she was saying, it was difficult, but we were outside and one of my rules is that when we are outside, she walks, I do not carry her. So I just walked up the path and waited, she called and I called back and then she came running. I wonder what she was trying to tell me, hopefully she'll figure out a sign that gets the point across next time.
Having a two yr. old is pretty much the same as having a 1 1/2 yr old. There are a few more tantrums, but they are so cute. It goes a little something like this: She wants something, I say nein,, or give her some other option, she whines, I stop paying attention to her whining, she lays on the floor or on a chair for like 30 seconds and wails, there are sometimes tears involved, but not too often, and then I ask her if she wants to do a puzzle or read a book and she comes running over smiling. We really lucked out with this one, her spriit is at peace and is generally in a happy place.
Her vocabulary is budding and now she enunciates many of those words that all sounded the same a few weeks ago. Her work on learning her colors is coming now that we are playing with playdough and window crayons all day. She still switches blue and green as well as yellow and red, but she still knows the signs and always gets those right. As for home, we really miss it and now that we've passed the halfway mark I am thinking more and more about when we get to return.
How about a switch to food, does anyone else freek out when all their kid will eat all day for a few days, is yogurt? At least it is healthy, but geez, a few peas would not hurt you! We've been going through a series of yogurt for every meal, or else refusing dinner and only accepting cereal. I know I like cereal for dinner sometimes, but I thought that craving started in college.
Well it has been a very fun first half of December, one more birthday, my sisters, to come and then it is x-mas. We're going to go to Innsbruck, Austria. We are very quickly running out of time to see Europe, so this will take care of southern germany too. I don't think we'll get to all the places we'd hoped, but everywhere we've gone so far has been wonderful. Which takes me to one last story for the evening. One of T's favorite games is pulling the suitcase around the house saying "Pawis, pawis, mommy, daddy, Tawa" I ask her what she packed and sometimes we just go with the shirts on our back and sometimes we bring her babies along. It has been three months and she is still infatuated, I think she'll be studying abroad as soon as she is able.

a developmental update

So I thought I'd write about Tara today, what she is up to and what I think about it. She will turn two in about three weeks and this makes me especially homesick. We will be, and have missed, a number of friends birthdays, but there is always next year :)
Tara now repeats any word you ask her to, if there are too many sylables she just adds a la la in the middle, and if she is too tired to try she adds a wawawawalala all sing songy and smart assed. It reminds me of how parents sounded on Charlie Brown, like she wants to get the point across that whatever you are saying really does not matter to her in the slightest.
She still signs, which helps a lot because as she is adding to her vocabulary she is not enunciating any new sounds. So daddy means dad and dog still; baba means puzzle, bubbles, blanket, yogurt; bish means milk (german pronunciation: milsh), please, dish. I could go on forever. I think I'm discerning some slight variations, but with her signing or being in context she really communicates quite well. I just notice when she is with another adult and is asking for something, they just have NO CLUE what is coming out of her mouth.
She does do something strange though. We are now requiring her to say please, so when she asks for milch, we do not respond until the please comes out of her mouth. When she strings two words together they come out separated, like they are different thoughts. If she is saying a compound word this does not happen, like highchair she just says straight through, but Tara's chair, or push please, or milch please has a long silent gap in between, like she has to think about another word to say, they are not linked yet.
Her favorite games seems to be puzzles and reading and rocking on her rocking moose. I'm not sure how long the puzzle thing will last, it is not a challenge anymore, she just puts the pieces in without seeming to have to think about it. Nate turned a puzzle upside down the other day to see if it would confuse her, but she just went about putting the pieces in their correct spots, saying 'updown' 'updown' for upside down. Tempermentally she is still the same happy girl, she tried to throw a fit the other evening when she was tired, she did not want Nate to touch her puzzle or something, she laid down on the ground, quite gracefully, no throwing of herself about. Cried for a few seconds, and I asked her if she was tired and wanted a snuggle and then to go to bed and she said 'ya, seep, beez' So we started bedtime and that was it for her tantrum. She does get whiny when I walk away from her to do some errand or pick up a bike or something and I just tell her to come hold my hand and no more whining. She is still eager to please, so I guess I'm still waiting for the first terrible two temper to appear.
Our breastfeeding seems to be at an end, a few weeks ago I decided to start asking her to nurse right after dinner, so we'd still have over an hour before bed, we did this for a few nights or a week and then I just 'forgot' to ask her and she did not notice and went to bed quite easily. The second night was not as easy, she asked to 'urse' and I told her that we were not doing that anymore, she snuggled for a while, but was okay at bedtime, and now it is just routine. A week later on a weekend I stopped the after nap one. Nate was home, so I just dissapeared for as long as I could and then walked her around. As soon as I sat, she'd ask, so we just stood and walked for a long time, then I asked her if she wanted to go blow bubbles with daddy, and that got the response I wanted, a jump from my arms and a run to the door. Apparently bubbles are as great as nursing, who would have thought! Yesterday was hard, the first day Nate was not home at naptime, but we got through it and hopefully now I can just tell her that we don't do that anymore. The wake up one is going to be the hardest and I'll just wait until she wants something else more. I don't even want to bear a week of unpleasant mornings for the sake of stopping, so we'll just wait to see what her schedule requires.
Potty training, may I reccomend NOT trying this in the winter, just don't do it, no point in stressing out, it is just SO MUCH easier in nice weather. Tara was doing great until we had to spend our days inside. For nice weather, just put on a long shirt or dress and they go when they want, it is fun, they want to pee in the grass and watch their friends do the same. Now she just tells me one second before it comes, or not until her pants are wet and she is standing on one leg with a dripping sock and says peepee, mommy. We go through like three pants a day, now we're going back to diapers anytime we leave the house and wearing them inside sometimes, there are just too many layers to take off in time.
Well nap time just ended early, so bye for now

Some videos

I thought I'd try to post some videos to she the grandparents and whoever else wants to see how much fun puzzles and splashing in the rain can be

our first visitors

First I would like to say sorry, I've been out of touch a while and am feeling particularly neglectful of many of my friendships. I want you to know that I think of everyone who has ever been in my life on a regular basis and if I should be there to lend a helping hand, know that I'm thinking of you all the time.

We got our first overseas visit mid October, my parents came to stay and it was lovely. We started off slowly, resting a lot, and just playing in the parking lot. Tara took to grammy (aka me-me)quick as lightning, after 10 min's in our house they were up in her room playing together, without me!!! I don't remember what I did, I just remember being SO happy. Tara grammy, papa and I spent time in Nurnberg, Bamberg, Jena and Dresden, we also spent so time in the Frankfurt airport and trainstation, but I don't think I'll tell you all about that.
They were here over Halloween, Jena is just starting to have kids trick or treat (like for the last year or two), so they were all very excited, but had no idea what to do, most of them were either wizards (boys) or princesses. Tara was a marienkafer, a ladybug. I covered her backpack with red felt and pinned black spots to that, it was fun to make, but she did not want to keep it on very long.
My parents visit was an all too short three weeks, I don't know what I'll do until we have grandma and grandpa here in the spring.
After my parents left, Nate and Tara and I spent a week in Rome. Lovely people, lovely food and lovely weather until our last day, but walking around the vatican and center of Rome getting wet and grumpy was fun too. I'll have to say that I loved the pizza (many varieties without cheese!) and the pasta was great, but I'm now home cooking chickpea lentil curry and have plans for chicken and broccoli tomorrow night. I am thouroughly DONE with pig meat!!! I do not like it sam I am, I do not like pig meat or ham. I say that after a morning spent baking pigs in blankets for a little party tonight for Martinstag, of which I have no idea, other than little kids are carrying around lanterns with real candles inside (I hope this ends well, I'll let you know)
I've posted lots of pictures of Paris, Rome, my parents visit and our Jena friends folder has lots of shot of our complex and our friends. Tara is getting so big. She has always been independant, but now it is her way or the cry way (part of this is due to much spoiling from the grandparents :) ) She can now jump about 5 inches up or forward and her favorite game is what we like to call ribbit, she can jump for hours it seems. She still only speaks in two to three word sentences, no pronouns as of yet, if you ask her if she is a baby, or daddys little helper, or whatever, she responds with "NEIN (no), Tara" Her favorite letter for the week has been "F" and goes straght to it when we sing our ABC's.
I miss you all, and wish I could be there for all my mom's groups coming birthdays, and for all of those friends who are struggling.

My Paris thoughts

As we ride home on the train:
I remember Paris as rude and fast paced, they have changed a lot over the last 15 years or so. Everyone was friendly and helpful, they seemed rushed but not overly so; I now have a very different, pleasing view of the city. Our first full day we walked Nate to the UNESCO building and then went on our way. We passed the Amory, where five horses were being exercised, one rider figured out that Tara was waving and he waved each time he passed us again. Tara kept saying Nay-Nay so we sat and watched for about half an hour.
We made our way to the Eiffel tower park and found a wonderful playground, empty when we arrived, it quickly filled up with international nannies and parents. Over the next three mornings we saw any of the same people; the sun even came out a couple of times.
Taras and my adventures included walking around the Eiffel tower, eating in many pattisieres, coming home for nap and then spending our afternoons at the aquarium, at the Siene (watching the boats) and ina laudry mat. I had my first adult conversation there where a person studying to be an interpreter and I talked about politics, the EU in general and books, inclluding one I'd like to read entitled "A year in Merde (shit)" fiction about a year in Paris.
Our hotel "Nouvel Hotel Eiffel" (www.nouvelhotel-paris15.com, for my reference later)was more than we could expect. The rooms are tiny, but the people make up for the difference and more so. They brought upa mattress for Tara and then a step stool for her to use in the bathroom (she only had three accidents all week! two of which could have been avoided, we were just not paying attention). Tara bumped her head pretty hard on a tabe and before I was done kissing it someone had brought a frozen water bottle for her head. The desk attendants meet you once and from then on seemed to know what language to speak to you in. The maids, there were two, seemed to love Tara, and after knocking to clean the room during nap time our first day, changed their schedule so that they would not disturb her. And, they were more than willing to translate for us when we got a nanny who only spoke french.
The food was pretty good, it was hard to figure out where had food and where you should just sit for cafe au lait. D'juneir, I'm spelling it wrong, but lite lunch is served in many cafes. The first few evenings we had to get fast food to take to the hotel so we could put Tara to sleep. The hotel staff brought out plates and silverware for us to use. We ate chinese food, Italian food, oh, but our first meal was at a cafe down the street, called the workers cafe, where we ate delicius pasta with some delicate nutty oil and Nate had a tasty rotissery chicken. We decided to stick with the 'point to something on the menu without knowing what it is' tactic and it worked quite well. No liver for me, although I did end up with a ham and cheese sand. withe and over easy egg on top for one lunch :(
We spent time at the Louvre and the Arc de Triumph (where we ate a meal in a street cafe, with a perfect veiw from about a block away!) and more time in wonderful parks and playgrounds. SOme pictures on our picasa site might enspire some of our friends who might decide to set up a playscape in Lawrence. I'm sure the saftey regs are lacking, but there are some great aspects to them.
I was able to finish another book, 'Prep' which I did not like too well. But at least I'm getting to read! I've read two or three books recently where I did not identify with the main character and simply did not enjoy the book because of that.

Walking around the Latin quarter was remarkable in the way Europe can be; all the small pedestrian streets that curve around and suddenly there is the Eiffel tower, or a castle or a 1000 yr. old something :) Paris is an easy city to explore on your feet, it is large, but all the tourist sites are within a few miles of each other. Our neighbor said that he'd taken the bus around Paris, where we took the Metro. You can see more of the city on a bus since you are not underground most of the time, so I'd try the bus next time.
We are happy to be home, a bit more relaxed, but are really looking forward to our next vacation, this time to Rome. Our time in Germany seems to be going so fast. We've already planned most of our months here and I'm now starting to think about returning home :)

Paris

So we've spent the last week in Paris, which has been absolutely wonderful. I have not found the time to write, although now I seem to think about blogging everytime I do or see something new.
Nate had a great conference in the UNESCO building, titled Extreme Values, so Tara and I got to explore by ourselves for a few days. We found a park at the foot of the Eiffel tower that was so nice we decided to spend each morning there. We met many friendly people there, one, a nanny from Chicago who had been in Paris only two weeks, was helpful in describing other great places for kids in Paris. This was the park in which we found out that Paris was not like it was 15 years ago, the people are friendly and helpful and just a pleasure to be around. I had one of those conversations that I love, one entailing how many languages a child can be taught and still figure out how to speak :) The most I heard about was four. You could think, poor kid, but come on, if I could do that for Tara, I definitely would. I have spent so much time over the last week imagining what I'd blog about, that now I cannot think. So I'll stop with this; Paris is wonderful and most Parisians are quite accommodating. The food is wonderful and the sights are just as you'd imagine. I'm sure I'll continue this next time I have a chance to sit down, but for now, good night from Paris

Biking

I forgot to say that I gave Tara her first haircut last Friday. Curly hair is pretty easy, I just got it wet, combed it and chopped straight across the back and her bangs, she no longer has a mullet, but she does have the generic haircut that all little kids have when their own parents cut their hair :) I think she looks splendid, if I do say so myself!
So the weekend Nate goes away everyone in the complex seems to make it a point to take care of us. Yesterday Hans and his mom brought soup over so the kids could eat diner together (which as a parent you would know is great since both kids will eat competitive style), then I decided not to eat dinner with the family after Tara was in bed because there were "Battlestar Galactica's" to watch. I finished season 2, but tonight when I went to load season 3 it was not there :( That is why I'm writing in my blog, I have to find another show I'm interested in watching.
Today the Hugarian (by way of Sweden) neighbors asked if Tara and I would like to go on a bike ride. They have two boys, one of which was born the same day as Tara. I did not know at the time what I was getting myself into. We went on a 20K bike to a castle and then had to bike home. We started at around 10:30, biked 11K and stopped at a biergarten for lunch, this was great, lots of playthings for the kids and good food. We set out again, and by early afternoon we parked our bikes and walked up a path to the castle, collecting snail shells as we went. The castle buildings were beautiful, it was called Dornburger Schlösser, go check it out on the web!
So we wandered around for an hour or two and then we were ready to return. It was 4PM! Tara and Momo had only taken about 1/2 hr nap earlier in the day, so about 10 minutes into the ride Tara fell asleep on the back on my bike (no droopy head protection there) I stopped to prop her up a bit and then went the wrong way (up a hugh hill :( and had to come back down, thank goodness Zsolt, pronounced Yort, had my cell phone number and called to tell me I was lost). We were able to get Jamby, the four yr old, to trade seats and Tara and Momo slept for a while. We got home at 6PM. We were all tired, but quited pleased with ourselves.
Nate will return from the UAE tomorrow and he'll get to be on poopy diaper duty again for a while :) However, if Tara has her way, she'll be out of diapers by the weeks end, she is practically potty training herself. We ask if she wants to go, and if she goes we just do a little dance and give her a kiss. That is all the reward she needs! She's a keeper.

Weekend without Nate-part II

Nate ran off to the UAE to a seminar/conference for the weekend, and we're home trying to stay away from the neighbor boy who beats Tara up. Last night he scratched her face. I'll try to be a bit more vigilant. Our only other tragedy was a ruined soup. I now know that #2 on the stove is not simmer, it is still hot enough to boil rapidly, and that I probably won't keep cooking things while I put Tara to bed :) Other than burning the bottom the soup might have been good had I not bought this grain that looked a bit like qinoua, but it did not absorb the flavor of the soup. I guess I should translate the name and see if I want to try eating it in some other way :) Ahhh, gold millet, I think I'll give this to the compost unless someone facebooks me with the BEST recipe for its use :)
Tara is trying to stop taking her afternoon nap, the last two days she has cried for over 45 minutes, but once she falls asleep she sleeps for her 1.5 to 2 hrs. So I don't feel like I can let her give them up just yet.
We are finally having good weather again, it is around 70 today and sunny and beautiful, it is a nice weekend to spend outside.
I started writing but now I can't think of anything I want to say, so I should go take a nap before Tara wakes up

Life of a house wife

I have so much time to think about what I'd like to write but no time to write. Such is the life of the 'stay at home' mom. My neighbor, Savoyenne, keeps saying, and I quote "all those people that think we just relax at home all day, if they only knew".
We've been staying busy, with daily life stuff as well as making new friends. Our neighbors are great, we always have something to do. I was invited to go to the grocery store with them last Monday (this is exciting b/c they have a van) so we got to buy lots of heavy things, like soy sauce, diapers, beer, mustard, onions...all the things that I think about buying and then don't b/c I don't want to push a really heavy stroller up the very large hill :) Now we have spices on our rack and sugar to bake with.
Last Saturday evening the neighbors all got together for a pot luck with the excuse being three birthdays to celebrate as well as a guest, a brother and nephew, in town. It started at 16:00 b/c this is the traditional time to get together for keks und tee (cookies and tea). We grilled and drank and talked, then put the kids to bed and have beer and wine together until late. It was quite fun and necessary b/c when you have kids around there is never any time to visit and get to know each other. The evening ended with a discusion about going mushroom hunting the following day.
Here is where I should have guessed that trying to get that many people away from our houses together would be too much to handle. Did I tell you that Tara got carsick on the way to IKEA? Well, it was not that much fun. So I had decided not to go when Savoyenne says that we are going just out of town, just a few km's. So, I pack up and don't think about bringing anything to change Tara into or wipes to clean her up if she gets carsick again :( We ended up driving over an hour, Tara got sick five min's before we got there and everyone in our car was grumpy b/c we'd passed "so many great mushroom forests". We did however have a very nice walk in the forest. I found a beautiful bettle (kefer) and a little toad. There were many mushrooms to look at, but very few edible ones. Tara actually walked in the forest, to my surprise she was not even cranky when branches whipped up to smack her. She liked pointing out holes and we talked about who might live in them. And, I was greatly relieved when the drive back was uneventful.
So on to housewifely duties. Does anyone still iron? I thought not. MPI gave us sheets and towels to use until we bought our own, but they are to be returned cleaned and pressed. So today I got out the iron. Hmmm, I must have learned how to do this at somepoint in my life, but I think my grandmother always took over when we made our first permanent wrinkle. I spent about 45 mins pressing two pillow cases and one sheet, I think I'll take the rest to the dry cleaner, even if this means lugging it down and then back up the hill.
Tomorrow is my next joint english/deutch lesson with Anya, my neighbor, and her 12 year old Johanna. I feel like I should make a lesson plan for what I'd like to accomplish with Johanna over the next couple of weeks. So there is it, my busy life. It is 14:00 and Tara is calling me, she just awoke from her nap. Lots of love from this part of the world.

Sleeping on the floor

This week has been great, we've spent time with friends and had a chance to watch a movie. We went out to a Mexican food place with a friend from the first apartment we lived in, then met a friend who works at MPI that we met at Duke. Our neighbor, Savoyanne came over after the kids went to bed and we sat up on Thursday evening talking about lots of fun things like kids and travel and our lives. Friday evening Nate figured out how to stream a movie! Tara was in bed around 7:45, so we watched Inception with Leo DiCaprio, it was quite good, but I did not like the ending. Let me know what you thought of it if you've seen it. I thought I heard a noise at some point early in the movie, but since there was no cry, we ignored it. As we were going to bed, I checked on Tara as I usually do, meine kleine madchen (my little girl) was not in bed! she was curled, with butt, up in the air, on the floor. There were no bumps, (though her cheek was quite cold), so she must have slipped out of bed somewhat carefully but been too tired to climb back up :)
Today we waited for Tara's nap time and spent an hour in the optics museum, it was quite impressive, lots of history of the lens including microscopes, telescopes and cameras. Tomorrow we plan a short bike ride probably in the AM. We send our love to all!

Experiment

So you know how I've been saying that it has been fun experimenting with food. There is something on the menu we can't translate, so we decide to try it. Well I think I'm all done with that.
Today we were in the square downtown, we had ordered zwei grosse pils and Tara had decided that she wanted to go over to the fountain. So Nate said, here this has rings of onion and apple, lets try it. Usually I would decide on my main by the accompanying (sp?) sauce or veggies, so I say, SURE! and run off to the fountain. Then Tara's noodle soup comes and she actually eats the meatballs as well as the noodles, so we are off to a great start. Our food comes and mine looks great, it has mashed potates that were quite good and the thin cut sauted/grilled? onions and the baked ring of apple was perfect. My first thought when I tasted the meat was, 'oh what a delicious sauce' then I chewed a couple of times and just tasted coagulated blood...I was eating liver :( We had a laugh, Nate even tried it b/c of the sauce, and I managed to eat maybe 15 bites, I did not want them to think that I was wasteful or that I had no idea what I was ordering. When a third waitstaff came out just to survey the three tables that had people at them we decided that he might be the cook/chef and was trying to see who was crazy enough to order the liver :) Now all I taste is liver. I've eaten three cookies, drunk lots of water and tried juice too, yuck. I was actually wondering if I had slight amemia b/c the first bites went down pretty well, hehehe.
One of my comments was that I comapared liver to soylent green. Nate said No, there is no comparison, but come on, liver is liver in any mammal, its the same thing. I feel yucky :) I hope you are laughing by now, but I know my storytelling is not that of some of my friends, so I hope you are enjoying this as much as I am!
On a separate note, my dad had rotator cuff surgery yesterday, and is now home and feeling fine, although I spoke to him at noon and he was going to bed :) Huh, he had a bovine patch applied to his muscle to help stabilize the tear. I wonder if I ate cow liver?
On that note,
Auf Wiedersehen!

Catching up

Hi all!
We've been quite busy over the last two weeks. We moved out of our cute little apartment at the Institute and are now comfortable our new neighborhood. When I next skype with any of you I'll take you on a tour. But it is quite large with a circular floor plan downstairs, Tara loves to ride her Puky around when there is not great weather. Upstairs is an open hall with three bedrooms and a bathroom. We have a tub now, but you have to sit down to shower as the hose is quite short :)
The neighbors are great, there are two moms that stay at home with their youngest, so we have some company during the day. All the kids are out playing all afternoon evening in the parking lot that is designated as a playplace. There is a sign that means that no cars can drive faster than a person can walk. What a wonderful concept!
We bought bikes a few days ago and have now been out on two rides. The first of which was up to a tower in the forest. The forest was pretty and dense, so I have no idea what you might have been looking for at the top, maybe there were less trees when it was built??? Anyway, a nice path to walk. I gave up even pushing Tara up the VERY steep street about 1/2 way up. I was slipping backwards, so Nate came back for us. Then we walked up a path to the tower. We then biked VERY slowly down the VERY steep hill, and circled back in the next closest valley where 'we' biked up again. Nate actually managed to bike up part of the way, but the second hill was even steeper than the first, so Nate pushed my bike with Tara on it and I pushed his. We came to a forest path that had very little change in elevation and we biked along the hilltop, then quite by accident we realized that we were back where we started on the first hill :) We decided to go downtown and eat at that point. Here are the paths we were on: http://www.berggesellschaft-forsthaus.de/

The second days biking we headed out toward the river and downtown, we found a great park for Tara to play in and then came home. Down the hill to downtown, flat along the river and up, up, up to home :) Quite a nice ride. Tara was having fun pointing out cars, trucks and backhoes (der bagger, ba-ba). She fell asleep just as we turned onto our street, so I stopped and took her in and Nate came back for the bike.
Tara is starting to use german words. Her favorite is tschuss = bye-bye (pronounced like a mixture of choose and juice) and bitte = thanks, her pronouciation is biba, as well as der Bagger = backhoe, of which there are two per every city block, so we get ample chances to say ba-ba. She says these with a huge smile on her face. She is also getting danke = thank you, but only when prompted. Her favorite animal sound right now is for horse, neigh, but she says it flatly and it sounds like how you'd say no in german, nay nay.
What else is happening in our lives, hmmm, our neighbor with a 6 month old was watching me sign to Tara, which I still do a lot because her sounds for most words sound the same (Ba-ba is more, der Bagger, backpack. Da-dee is daddy, doggie, there or any word she does not know... the list goes on) So she asked if I thought that it delayed speech, so I gave her the lecture and now she is starting to sign to Jonas!!!

Back to our ever running questions about Germans and Germany. Why have Europeans in general not taken to fixing animals? All the dogs here have free hanging balls, and there are cats aplenty around every neighborhood.
Then we come to street signs, Does the woman walking the child and a bike mean that you should ride your bike on the sidewalk? It there is a bike picture and the word frei (free) below it, does this mean you should not ride your bike here? I've been looking for a children's book with street signs, but I have not found one. It is quite fun to make up our own meanings though, I just hope we have not offended anyone too badly :)

And now on to my thank-you's:
Before we left all of our mommy friends packed up a care package for us. This has been instrumental in Tara's happiness in our travels and settling in. She loves her handmade backpack, she carries it everywhere, especially out shopping, she likes to help! The drawing books are amazing. One pretty piece of paper around many blank pages and then sewn down the seam, ingenious, simple, pretty. One we just use, one I take out on special occasions, like the train to Jena from Berlin, or our first day in a new house, so maybe in a year we will see her progression. Her KU bear is in her words, a "baby" who loves to go on walks with us as well as bounce down the stairs which is when she screams BABY- BABY DOW, and we run after it then walk back up the stairs and repeat. Well those are but a few, I'm sure I'll mention more later, but I'd like to thank all of you for your thoughtful help.
Talk to you all soon,
Love from Jena (pronounced Yeah-nah, in case you were wondering)

Our last day w/o Nate

Yesterday was hard, I tried to keep Tara as busy as I could and would like to thank mom for skyping right after Tara woke from her nap. Tara is now very used to waking up, nursing for a time and then talking to daddy on skype, so since he was in transit, we were having a rough go of it.
As I mentioned on Facebook (FB) I bought Tara her bed guard rails at the mall yesterday and tomorrow we move to our apartment downtown. At which time Tara will be an official big girl, sleeping in a big girl bed! I hope it goes well! We've practised at nap time for more than two weeks and she seems to only flip over one time, nights are different, we'll just hope she doesn't take too many tumbles. As we were dressing to go out, Tara chose one of each shoe. Apparently she found it comfortable to wear two different shoes, she kept them on until she went down for her nap. We got a few stares, and one comment that I could partially understand :)

We took a walk with the snails and slugs again and took pictures. I thought they were lovely. Tara actually had the patience to watch as the snail came out of its shell! We finished our walk at the blackberry bush, as is typical :) Tara wanted to pick her own this time, so I tried to make sure she did not get stuck. Those bushes are prickly!
This morning we went to the park and stayed out until nap time, so when she wakes up we'll go meet DADDY!!!!
I'll post again once we've moved

Great new things

Vanilla or banana johurgt and dairy in general
the weather
snails
the pool
transportation
the library
stay at home parenting
Well I've already posted on FB about the yummie vannila yogurt, we tried banana yesterday. Can you believe that it was made with real banana! So it does turn more brown after is is opened, but oh my god, it was sooo tasty, none of that fake flavor or jelly in the bottom of the yogurt, just some chopped up or mushed fruit. You can choose from 0.1-40% fat, seriously, and they all taste great. I don't know what I'm gonna do when I come home. Cultural Revolution yogurt was my favorite, but hands donw, nothing compares to what we're eating :) I bought some 'mystery' milk yesterday. It seems to say most of the same things as the bottle I regularly buy, but it is in a brown jar. I wonder what it'll be like! I love the surprise.
The weather has been rainy, but much nicer than anything I've been hearing about in the states, with storms and blackouts and over 100 for forever. Which brings me to my next subject, snails and slugs. Because of all the rain we've had lots of snails and slugs out. Tara looks at them, sort of backs away and says bye-bye. I'm trying to get her to see how cute they are and how amazing their abilities are, but she is less than impressed so far. Some of the snails we see are the eating kind, I don't think I'll look up a recipe, but they are rather beutiful. Tara kicked a ball this morning over a slug in the path and we watched for 5 min's before it expanded and started crawling away. I was trying to show her that even if you hold your hand near them they will retract their antenna, but she was not that interested. I'll keep trying. Right now I'd say she is a budding ornathologist: "bird (pointing), bird, caw, caw, bird, daddy, daddy, bird,up" That is the gist at any rate.
We spent our pre-nap outing at the library today, so tomorrow we will be at the pool again. With it's kiddy water slide and snake fountain and something like 85F temp. we'll be having a ball. In the regular pool they have a lagoon area with a current. I've been swimming on my back and having Tara hold around my neck and we go around in circles in this great current, it is strong enough that you cannot stand still in it. I think Tara is a bit warry, but I try to be full of smiles and laughter. She's only gotten water up her nose once :)

Now to change subjects completely. I knew that our parenting style was working with Tara and that we were happy with it. But now I've found that it has created at least one resonably responsible adult. I was talking to an undergrad in the kitchen this afternoon and she started talking about how she liked how I interacted with Tara b/c it reminded her of her upbringing. We talked about offering two positive choices, both of which get you to where the parent needs to get. About timeouts and just ignoring and not talking about it after (with the thought that your child is in fact smarter than a dog. If you punish your dog and don't have to explain why, your kid will also know why they are being punished). The undergrad did have a wonderful suggestion. She said that whenever she or her sister were going to get into something that their mother did not want them in, or was dangerous, the mom would say "gee, I sure could use a hug right now" and the little girls would run over, full of laughter. It might be a few more months before I can use this one, but what a great idea!
Tara has progressed on the 'instant gratification' area. We were in the Goethe Gallery mall, where I do most of my grocery shopping, where they have the cars and two horse carosell things that you can put money in and they blink and spin and whatever. Well Tara loves the fuerevahrauto (firetruck), so I pointed it out and told her that if she could refrain from screaming in the grocery store, then we'd be able to play with the car. I had to reminder her twice, once after 20 mins and then I reminded her that I knew waiting in line was the hardest part, but that if she would sit in the cart and be quiet, we'd be able to go to the car. She sat in her cart and talked about car/truck/bus's for the five min's of checking out and then we got to go to the cars. Hopefully this was not a fluke and that it is repeatable, we'll be testing the theory on Monday :)
Breasfeeding: it being breasfeeding awareness month, atleast according to FB, I was about to write the mommy mafia about my issues and now Tara seems to be tailing off. As most of you know, we were down to twice a day, morning and bedtime, before we left. I thought she might have become addicted, b/c after two weeks here she was up to four and five times a day! And ALWAYS talking about nursing or reaching down my shirt (especially on the bus). So now that Nate has been gone more than a week I think she has settled into a routine and relaxed a bit. Her world is 'normal'. She has gone back to morning (although it is up to an hour! sometimes) after nap and bedtime. She still asks, but is not adamant when I say "we can do that after nap". So hopefully we have a quick ajustment to Nates reappearance in a few days, and her world stays 'safe'. We are moving when Nate returns, so we'll see how she does with that. My boobs need a rest.
I'm nearly done with 'Cast of Shadows' and next I'll be starting 'While I Was Gone' by Sue Miller. I'm really happy to be reading again. It is nice to have some time!
I hope you enjoy my trains of thought :) Love to all!

NEW BOOK

I now have a week to finish my fourth book. I'm counting from arriving in Jena, and not arriving in Germany. I started 'Cast of Shadows' on Nates recommendation, yesterday. I have only read 12% which means I'm at least sleeping on a regular basis.
Yesterday afternoon Tara and I made banana bread, well I did and Tara played with rice on the floor (much easier to clean up than flour). It came out a bit powdery, probably b/c I used an extra teaspoon of the mixture known as backpulver. Better than not rising at all I suppose. I'm now on the hunt for shortening, I've never like to use all butter in my recipes.
Our morning excursion was to the library where we were unable to get a card because I did not bring a proof of address. At least that is what I think she said. She only spoke German, but said NO reisepass/passport, and pointed at my address and said something like residency. So tomorrow Tara and I will try again. This time I will bring all of our paperwork, birth certificates, insurance, bank statements...then I will not have to leave empty handed again. We did spend an hour in the childrens section. It has two toddler sized tables, three for bigger kids, a three step up landing with beanbag chairs and pillows and stuffed animals. Puzzles and games line two walls and we found a train set, an abbacus and a dog pull toy to entertain us today, most of which you can check out! All in all, a great library! I was thinking I'd get a few games and make Nate play scrabble or some such other evening entertainment.
I was walking to the bus stop when I saw a storefront with kids clothes in it. I finally found a second hand shop! They have a table and bench I'd love to purchase when we move into our apt upon Nates return. There were trikes and push toys and lots of clothes. Now I just don't want to wait two weeks, but it'd be silly to buy the stuff, get on a bus, move it to MPI, just to put it back on the bus to move down the avenue.
Our evening walk entailed me wrapping Nates sweatshirt around Taras middle and tying her to my back, she held on well, and went up the hill to pick blackberries. Yesterday I put her on my shoulder and held her, that is when, score, we found two blackberry bushes! This did not seem feasable again since by back has been hurting all day. I wanted to take a dish and collect all the ripe ones so I could share them with everyone who lives here. It was quite fun. Tara insisted on carrying the bowl, she did a remarkable job. With only two instances of tripping, involving the loss of only two berries, which she immediately picked up and put in her mouth, and one short rest period. I tried to take the pan, but she would have none of it. We managed to get home with enough berries to share :)
That was my evening.
Love to all,
K

The best bus ride ever!

So today started off nicely. Tara slept until 6, yeah, and we had our early breakfast, we sang some songs, danced and colored, then had second breakfast. I was told that there was some sort of flea market in town on Saturdays, so I went looking for it. Alas it managed to elude us, maybe we'll find it next week. I had to do a bit of grocery shopping, since nothing is opened on Sundays. We got back to the bus stop and it was a 25 min. wait. The longest we've ever had to wait, and usually Sat. buses are quite regular. So I went in to buy some coffee, which Tara kept saying was "mine", and I had to remind her that only mommy and daddy drink coffee. That touched off the 'daddy'???daddy...daddy, daddy!!daddy??? comments. So when the bus pulled up, the driver got out and I told her to go get on the bus while I finished my coffee (I'll stop you right there, no the bus did not drive off without me). She was playing around in the front seat and then went and was looking and drumming on the drivers area. So the driver looks at me and I think that I should run and get her, but he holds up his hands like he is asking if he can pick her up. I motion that that would be fine. He places her at the helm and she starts driving and pretending to beep the horn, she is good at these sound effects, beep-beep, she repeats over and over. So I put my cup in the trash and notice it is time for us to go. That is where the 'best bus ride ever' ends and the tantrum begins, she has no idea why she cannot really drive the bus, she was not ready to reliquish her post :) I finally get her looking for trucks, her favorite thing right now, and this makes her settle down. That was our fun for the day, she fell asleep as we were walking up the hill and took a 2hr nap like the good little girl she is.
I decided that it was time to make another batch of mac and cheese, this time with broccoli, hence the second picture. This is what to give your child when you are busy cooking! I was cooking upstairs, so I had to get all the ingredients in a bag. Tara took one look at the flour and said 'eat this?'. I told her no, flour is for baking with, not eating, you may have a banana or yogurt. She did not like my alternatives (small tantrum inserted here), so I decided that she could have the flour. I asked her how it tasted and she took a second lick. So apparently flour is not all that bad to eat plain. The third pic is Tara 'cleaning up'. We had a great time putting our foot prints into flour and making rainbows...
Now it is 9:30P and I'm enjoying a beer. I feel like I should start another book so that I could say that I read four books in my first month in Jena. We'll see if that happens :)

First Full day without Nate

Our day went well, I was hedgeing (sp?) between going to the library or pool. The pool won out. I wanted Tara to get really tired and sleep two hrs. Of course this did not end up happening, she slept for 1.5, and woke just as I was falling asleep. It is quite hard to have lunch and realize that you've been awake and playing for 7 or 8 hrs. We had a great time at the pool. I took her into the deep water, had her hold me around the neck and I floated around on my back, she giggled a lot.
I was noticing the insects here, as I am want to do in any place that I am. The first week we sat outside eating and millions of aphids were swarming. There were atleast three different spp. Green, Black and yellow bodied with different wind colorations. THey looked like nats at first, but once I looked closely at Tara's hair, which had collected at least 20, they were aphids. I love aphids they are by far the cutest insect out there. I always imagine the sound of their cute little legs, deedly-deet, deedly-deet :)
The flies up at our apartment are quite interesting too, most seem to have the coloration of yellowjackets, I wonder what the drive is behind that?

I endevored to bake tonight. I tried to make tortillas and they were by far the worst I have ever made. Germany only sells baking powder together with baking soda, so I had to start off with an ingredient that was for sure going to affect taste, but then I kneeded a bit too long and the only rolling pin instrument I could find was a juice glass. So, I ate a couple and maybe I'll rip them up and throw them in a soup or something. Also there was no cast iron, or grill, so I had to put them in an aluminium pan.
Lets see, all in all it was a great day. I skyped with Carrie and my mom on thurs and have chatted with lots of people yesterday and today. I have also just gotten in touch with almost everyone from Waldorf. A person from my class posted our 6th grade picture on facebook, and it got all of us talking and friending each other :) Very exciting! Tanja is in Germany and we will most definately get together this year.
I'm thinking of starting another book, but now it looks like the Mommy Mafia is going to try another book club, so maybe I'll wait to see what they are going to read and read it too.
Goodnight :)

Jul21-29, 2010

So, we've been in Germany for just over three weeks and I've finished three books Sorry Taylor, the kindle has been a blessing. Everyone said we'd be able to buy books in English at the main train station in each town, but Jena's train station is only lg. enough to have a coffe/juice place. Nate does not share his Kindle, but the company is nice enough to offer to let you put the books you've bought for a kindle onto your computer. So I read on my wee-one. I've now named my little computer! Yeah!
Well we've been busy as I hope you can tell from our pictures in picasa. Two weekends ago we visited Weimar. It seems to be the place where Germans go for vacation. One woman we met at the train station said that everyone goes there b/c of Goethe and Lotte, his love. There is a concentration camp just out of town, one of the only in Germany proper. It is called Buchenwald, wald means forest. And it was just that, a beautiful forested area. We were surprised that the area did not seem to have a heaviness to it, somber sure, but it seems that nature has reclaimed the area and hopefully now it can be a place of peace. Tara was good enough to sleep through the whole visit, not that she would have understood, but she is a loud child. There were about 20 headstones in a room in the crematorium, that was the only thing I did not understand. Did just a few family members get to place headstones there?

Back to Weimar for dinner in the shakespere district, where Tara ate spagetti and we ate more pig. Germans rely on pork as their mainstay. It is hard to get used to. I feel like if I did not have to eat another salty thing in my life I'd be just fine, but the Pils washes it down nicely. We came back to Jena and enjoyed another week. I got the nerve up to walk to the library, where there were four doors and not very many people around, so I could not figure out how to get in, so went to the park instead :) (Nate took us to the library today, so now we know where to go and also have our application for a library card to fill out :) )
Oh, if there are typo's sorry, everything is highlighted red b/c the computer thinks I should be typing in German, which I cannot come close to doing yet, hehehe
The day after the library, I got the nerve up to try the swimming pool. I managed to find the bus route, with a little help from Nate, get off the bus, find the door, hand a woman some money, who then let us in and gave us a token and told us to do something with the kindercart (stroller). She mimed a locker and somehow I figured out that the token was for the locker, but I still don't know what she said about the stroller, so it got carried up and down stairs with us :( We stayed for over two hrs and had a great time. Now I have two things to do with Tara while Nate is off in Colorado, the pool and the library! Yeah
So last weekend Nate left work a bit early and we headed for Nuremburg, 2hrs by highspeed train, the ICE.
Nuremburg is also a lovely town. Aparently it was basically leveled in WWII, but they built everything back up with their (mostly) original stones. So there are many cathedrals, castles and museums from the 14, 15...20 centuries. We stayed mostly in the old town, and one of our dinners was in a brewary built god knows how long ago.
Sunday morning we took Tara to the Tiergarten, the Zoo, she seemed to have a great time. All birds were called ducks and she told us that they all say quack, quack. The tiger was, kitty-meow, and she even got her nerve up to touch a goat. They had an extensive petting zoo for the little ones! As we were walking through the center of the zoo, we passed a biergarten, who would have thought, beer and the zoo!
My only complaint this week has been the smoking. EVERYONE smokes, especially if you are pushing a kindercart, it seems to be mandatory :( Have they not heard how bad it is for you? Well now that I don't have a book to read and Nate is out of town I'll probablly keep up with this a bit better and not feel like I have to write a book each time :)
We send lots of love from Europe! Who wants to come visit? When Nate returns we'll be moving into our 'real' house. It is a three bedroom apt!! Who know there were such large apt. in Germany! Yeah, a guest bedroom awaits!

movie

I've been meaning to try to get a few videos up, so here goes

Reading

Hi all, We've had an uneventful last few days :)
I've not been writing because I've been reading. Nate gave me 'The girl with the dragon tattoo' and I did not put that or the second in the series down. Tara needed to learn to play by herself anyway :) We'll I've been staying up late every night reading and napping or reading during Tara's naps, so in my mind, I've had a great last few days!
Trash fiction is a habit for me. I should not read it. I've spent the last 18 months trying everything I could to get Tara to sleep through the night and now that she is, I'm staying up till 2 reading and still only sleeping 4 hrs. There is one more book in the series, so I'll try to put off starting that until I've had at least one good nights sleep.
I'm quite jealous of my mommy friends today, they're having playgroup and hanging out in what sounds like the best place we've ever been invited to! Aside from all of our oh so fabulous houses, that is :)
Today we started an art project, well maybe a save the birds project. We live on the fourth or fifth floor up and most of our wall is a window. Most of our windows have heavy duty venetian blinds outside the the window. One door does not. This is where the little songbirds like to commit suicide. Many places I've been has put up black paper silhouette (sp?) of birds to keep them from dive bombing open glass walkways and the such. I cut out six birds and put tape on them while Tara chose to place them all over the door. As you can see from the picture, Tara was not done when the birds were up, so she decided to put up the extra paper scraps too.

Riding a vierrhad (four cycle)

Today I took Tara out for a ride today, we had a lot of fun with her trying to get around, Nate taught her the three point turn and she was perfecting her skills today. She ate her first sandwich a few days ago, this makes lunch a whole lot easier! I found a shop that sells cheddar cheese, this was my excitement for the day :) We decided to take a walk at 5 after work, Tara rode her bike down a considerable hill, she seemed to hesitate only slightly when Nate was not close enough, I hope she has her moms love for a daredevil descent.
Shopping is getting easier, we still don't get out of the way quickly enough. They set it up so that there is no room to pack your groceries at the end of the turnstyle. I think they set it up this way because most people buy one or two things(there are no baggers), but we have not figured out how to first pay, then get Tara out of the way, then get the groceries into the bag and onto the stroller. Today the lady just kept pushing our things past her and three things ended up on the floor, maybe we were doing something inappropriate and she was trying to let us know that we were being rood for holding up the next person in line, hmmm, I see no alternative plan. I simply need to buy more than three things at a time :)
But our walk was wonderful. There are large farm houses that look like from early 19th century, still with stone walls and mortar, standing right in the midst of modern apartments. This area really must have been protected somehow from the two wars.
Another thing that is hard to get used to is 'fresh fruit'. Since the fruit I have eaten all my life was picked while still green and ripened later, I'm used to harder fruit with no obvious marks. Fruit here is soft and has lots of bruises and knots. It is like eating fruit from your grandmothers backyard. It tastes great, but having brown spots is something that I'm just going to have to get over. I'll try to start with letting Tara eat them. If it does not kill her, then I think I'll be okay :) Also it means that fruit is only good for a couple of days, so more trips to the store for us. Which is also good since it gets us out of the house.

Oh yeah, have I not mentioned the weather? Well before I left, as some of you know, I was lammenting the fact that we'd be freezing our asses off with max temps of 70F. How wrong I was, people are saying that this is unusually hot, but thank god I decided to pack a few 'summer' outfits for Tara and I for while we'd be in Berlin! It has been over 90 every day. Tara has three short sleeved shirts, two pairs of shorts and two lighter dresses. Needless to say, I'm doing lots of laundry. I was thinking of suffering through, but I think I'll be going shopping for a few more clothes tomorrow :) So much for the cold, well, we'll just have to see what it gets down to in the winter (at least I'm prepared for that :) )
So whoever reads this, comment, I'm getting lonely out here.

Playtime

So for the last few days we've just done mundane things, shopping, eating out and playing at the park. I saw a park on our bus ride into the town center and so today we got off the bus and played. We met a woman with two children who spoke five words of english, but we had fun exchanging toys on the playground.

Blogs seem weird to me, like you might feel like you are snooping into another persons life, but for me writing it, I think about all the people I'd like to be talking to and write stuff that I wish I had an ear to hear.
I'm sitting looking out of the windows and just loving our view, I posted two new pics of our view from our apt. on the picasa site. One whole wall in each room is floor to ceiling windows, it is just breathtaking!
Tara got her first bike yesterday, I'm sure you'll be seeing lots of pics and videos. I'll be adding lots of videos here so that our family can see Tara in action.
I mainly got on today to download these, so I'll sign off. I've started reading "The girl with the dragon tattoo" and now I can't put it down.

Saturday-3rd Place

I'm writing after watching Germany win 3rd place in the world cup, so excuse the typo's :)
Over the last few days I've been surprised at how many words we use that are german: supermarket, kalt = cold, klinik = clinic, fur = for, kindergarden, there were more, but I cannot remember them now, climate sounds like climate, however I don't know how they spell it. Chemie is chemistry and biologie is biology. Most science words are the same, but lots of nous and verbs are the same as well. There is only one that confuses my brain; that is schnell or quickly (hurry), it sounds like snail to me so I always think it should mean slowly.
I'll move on.
We went to the Botanical gardens today, garten botanic. I had wanted to see what the names were to the native plants, but I was deterred by the hot weather (wetter). We started off in the greenhouses hosting rainforest plants and from there we were too hot to take much else in. Tara was sleeping in her stoller (kindercart), as it was nap time, 12:30, and we were trying to enjoy lavender, and asteraceae families. We decided on returning when it is kalt and enjoying the greenhouse sauna. I wonder if they call it a sauna?
My other biology excitement today was watching a group of birds on the rooftop, all the rooftops here have 'gardens' or native species habitats on them. I was admiring this tundra looking expanse, when I happened to see five or six birds that seemed to be working together to flush out insects. The birds were too far away to see what species they were, my thoughts drifted to dolphins hearding a school (schule) of fish. I watched until Tara took my focus elsewhere.
On the family: we skyped with Pam and Dale and with Corinne, Jante and Ethan; it was nice to talk to family and 'show' them around our new apartment.
If anyone has any knowledge of the flora or fauna of the area, please let me know. I've googled it, but have not found a great site.
Tomorrow we are thinking of going to the next closest town, Weimar, it is known for being the center of philosophy in Germany!

Oh, my last comment: we got lost today looking for the botanical gardens, and this was due to the fact that all the maps we have been given are somehow printed with North not being up. This is confusing to Americans, anyone reading this think this is a normal way to print a map?

First chance to sit down

Hi all,
Here are my words, the pic's are on picasaweb.google.com/nbrunsell
But if it is easier here than on picasa, I'll add the videos here.

We've successfully managed the move to Germany and I am only feeling like I'd really have liked to bring the backpack for Tara. So we packed pretty well.
We flew into Berlin and stayed for a few days, which was hectic but fun. Tara slept about four hours on the plane and we managed to keep her up until 10:30A, berlin time, so her first day was really quite good. Her napping schedule got off a bit, and we were always out during nap time, so once we arrived in Jena I had to sleep next to her for a few days to get her used to laying down.
Well, we saw many great things, but what I took away from Berlin was the feeling of how old Europe is, it is quite different to have such a long history compared to the US. Walking around a city is a great way to get to know a culture, so we walked and tried to keep Tara from a:getting in the way, b:getting run over by a bike, c:being too loud in restaurants :)
Our train trip to Jena was fun, we got to watch the countryside for an hour while Tara slept, (I forgot to ask Erika if it was socially acceptable to nurse an 18 mos. old in public, too late now). We managed to get on the train, but did not get a seat, so we stood, and sat on the floor for a while, which turned out to be nice since we got to stare out the door window. There were few animals and lots of little farming villages and many wind power turbines. Tara was awoken by something right after we got a seat when people got off in Erfurt or Weimar, I can't remember which city we passed through. There is a picture of Tara waving bye-bye to our taxi who dropped us off at MPI-biogeochem. We found ourselves in quite a large apartment. The kitchen, living, dining room is about the size of our living room, so I was quite pleased. I think I was expecting concrete floors and eastern block housing, but everything on the northwest side of town was built in the 90's.
Tara has her own room! and we are sleeping on two single beds pushed together. We are however in the office building, just in the 'guest apartments' upstairs. So I feel like we need to be out most of the day, so we are not too loud. The up side is that I don't feel like we disturb people at night :)
We found out upon arrival that there is an apartment in the city center that we might get as soon as a month from now. It'll actually be too large, with four rooms, but we can manage, a family with three kids is moving out.
It is beautiful here, we are right on the edge of town overlooking tree covered hillsides, with lots of walking paths to explore. The city center is a bus trip away, maybe 30 min walk down, but back might take and hour (all up hill). There are many shops and cafes, we've tried three restaurants in our five days here and all have been good, two have had a kids menu, so Tara has eaten pasta. Her main diet has consisted of my milk and yougurt. She will occationally eat pasta with cheese and spinach, but I have not gotten flour, so it does not taste like home.
Yesterday we spent an hour or so waiting to get registered, Brigitta, the MPI (Max Plank institute) secretary took us and translated for us. We are now registered with the authorities and Tara will receive her first paycheck soon (the gov't pays for all children in the country). Next we set up a bank account, which might or might not be activated in the next week or so.
My fun story for the day was finding a new 'bus friend'. For those of you who don't know this, I make bus friends, some sane, some not so sane, but all sweet and friendly. I had a few in Lawrence, one I did not even know. Johannes, Nate's colleague, was on the bus one morning with Tara and I when Tara was about four months old. After I got off, a man sitting next to Johnannes said that he felt like he had been through my whole pregnancy with me. I still wonder who that was, there were many regulars. Anyway, I digress. We got on the bus back to our apartment, sat down with Tara next to an old lady (maybe only 60, but looked worn) who started jammering off in German. I smiled a lot and so did she. The few things we understood we laughed about, Tara was enthralled! She counted to 10 in english and told us that she only had to learn german and russian in school, NO ENGLISH (more laughing). She was the first German to tell us that Tara looked like the sun :) Germans are not ones for looking at or complementing you on your baby :(
She said who knows what which lead to a belly laugh, so I laughed right along with her. I then tried to get Tara to count to three in German, something she is perfecting after I start with einse and hold up my thumb. Tara just moved her fingers around, but this impressed the old lady. We got off the bus and Nate turned and said 'hey, you made your first bus friend!' Now I feel like I belong, thanks bus lady.
I have very few issues, other than breastfeeding and trying to shop everyday. Tara is up to 5 or so times a day, but is sleeping through the night, still up at 5A. (It gets dark here around 10:30 and the sun is up at 4:30, we are quite far north). Hence the blog started now, Tara is taking her morning nap from 9-10:30'ish. I'll let her sleep again for an hour around 3P. Shopping is difficult when you can only buy things that will fit in the bottom of your stroller. We go every other day, so we eat a lot of leftovers and pb&j (we found peanut butter the first day!!!).
This felt good, hopefully I'll get to write during nap time every other day or so. Lots of love and smiles,
Kistie

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