Nomads and Loving It

“Except right now.”

When Grant’s presence is sparse (in the field, in training, or works late many nights in a row) Jonah and I struggle more.  We head-butt.  In my opinion, he is practicing his male ability to nod and respond to my words while not really listening… or else it’s just an age + personality thing.  Either way, it’s been frustrating on both our parts.

This morning, he was sitting on the couch reading a book, after already several [disciplinary measures - insert here what you see fit] and out of the blue he says:

“Mami, you’re a nice Mama.“ 

Pause. 

“Except right now.“ 

I looked up.  We looked at each other and he grinned.

I answered:

“I am only not nice to you when I am reacting to your actions.  How I act towards you is totally up to you.”

It made me think about God and His Word and our Lives.  Consequences of our actions don’t happen out of Spite on God’s part, they happen because we choose not to listen to His Word and act on our own Will.  That is the Gift He gave us.  Free Will.  We like to utilize it, but we don’t like to deal with the consequences when those seem disciplinary to us, especially when we say we ‘heard’ him.  God’s Word never changes - only our interpretations of it.

That’s what I think anyway…

Pictures and family stuff to follow soon.

A State is a Hotel, right?

Jonah has been all over the world in his four years of life. 

After he was born, we flew from Lubbock, Texas to Columbia, Tennessee and back before he was even one month old.  After Grant left for Basic Training I took him to Chicago for one month to stay with my sister and her family.  We then flew to Berlin, Germany for one month to be with my mother.  In that time, we flew to Ankara, Turkey for one week to visit my dad while he was working there.  After we came back to Lubbock and Jonah was about 5 1/2 months, I packed up our house, put it all in storage, and we drove to Sierra Vista (Ft. Huachuca), Arizona, where Grant was for AIT.  We lived in a tiny studio apartment while Grant had to be in the Barracks.  At nine months, we moved to Oak Grove, Kentucky (Ft. Campbell).  So, in his first year, Jonah had been to 7 cities, in three countries, and on three continents. Things slowed down a little while Grant was deployed (With the annual visits to Chicago and the Block Leave trip to South Dakota, via Michigan and a few other states, after Grant came back from Iraq.  As well as a summer Block Leave to Berlin with a long weekend to Catania, Sicily, via Napoli by plane and train) and did not pick up again until we left Kentucky to join Grant in Oklahoma (Ft. Sill, by Lawton), as he finished off his post-OCS training.  Of course while he was at OCS we also went to visit him in Georgia (Ft. Benning, by Columbus).  After OK, we spent over one month in Columbia, TN while Grant was in Airborne School (Ft. Benning), then went down there to meet up with him and finally ended up in Olsbrücken, Germany after first spending some time in AF Lodging.

I am elaborating on all of this to explain why this statement by Jonah today is not at all surprising: “A state is a hotel, right?”  I cannot count how many hotels, Army lodging, etc. my barely four year old has stayed in…

Nomads does describe us fairly well.

-msp

Health Adventures of Ephraim

Some have been wondering what exactly was going on with Ephraim and the few health adventures he had.  First of all, I want to say that everything is fine and he is doing great!

Ephraim was born with what is called skin tags.  Usually they are rather small and are no big deal because the pediatrician will simply tie them off, they die off, and fall off.  Well, he had two on the left side of his face - one on the cheek and one by the ear - and they were rather large, so taking all that into consideration, the pediatrician and even the neonatologist (who we go to church with) decided it was better to let the plastic surgeon deal with it.  He did exactly what they would have done, but everyone involved felt better this way.

The following picture shows the tags before the procedure:

According to the education we received, the tags develop at the same time as the ear and the kidneys.  Sometimes the tags having developed also means that either the ear or the kidneys did not develop correctly.  The audiologist tested his hearing in the hospital before we left and he did great.  When tags are on both sides of the face, there is also concern about the kidneys.  The right side did not have a tag as big as the ones on the left, but he had a little bump by the side of the ear, signifying that there were the beginnings of a skin tag.  The recent ultrasound was done to take a look at the kidneys - as far as we know everything is fine in that respect also. 

This picture shows the skin tags on the left side of his face after the plastic surgeon tied them off with sutures. 

It cut off the blood supply to the skin tags and they slowly started dying off.  We were originally told that it would only take about a week, but since they were rather large, it took a while longer.  Eventually they turned blue, then purple, then black and shriveled up as they died off. 

Finally they fell off and this is now the current result:

The bump by the ear compliments the one on the other side of his face and the scar on the cheek will hardly be noticeable in a year - so we were told.

Ephraim is doing great, as are the rest of us!

I want my Mommy!

(The whole updating in order of date is going to have to wait… so, here is a post regarding a current event.)

My mother came to our house to help out when I had a nasty false labor alarm and instead of her intended stay of the month of February, she sacrificed extra time.  My dad and brother came Wednesday evening also and they all left together yesterday.  I know my mom was here a long time and I know she is glad to be back home regardless of how much she enjoys helping, being a mom and being Grammy.  However, today was also Grant’s second day back to work and his work load has increased extensively and we will be seeing even less of him.  After my entire support network being whipped away under my feet, today I would like to sit down and cry: “I want my Mommy!” 

Today is also the day the Kindergarten happens to celebrate Fasching (look it up, if you don’t know…) and I am the moron who does not tend to buy my children’s costumes, but rather attempts to make them to the specifications of her boys.  As Jonah said, made as he “ordered it”.  And instead of finishing them last night, I took my husband’s advice, who was only trying to look out for my well-being, and went to bed at midnight, thinking for some odd reason that I seriously could finish Jonah’s costume this morning… Joke was, of course, on me.

So, after being frustrated with my children for each of them acting completely age-appropriate, but also knowing that, if I did not get Jonah’s costume done, he would be heartbroken, I fought a meltdown all morning.

Oh yes, and what was the costume they wanted?  Dragons.  The theme at Kindergarten was Fairy Tales, so dragons it was.  With wings, tails, and snouts… now my back hurts from sitting on the floor for hours.

One of the most frustrating things is, that the only few pictures I managed to take before we “hetzed” off to Kindergarten leaving a trail of not yet quite dry glitter glue (including on our 100-year old wooden door, my clothes, the curtain - because Jonah decided to wipe his hand off with it, my hair, and even Ephraim’s face), don’t do the adorable dragons justice.  I am hoping the Erzieher at Kindergarten can get some better ones.

Flapping their wings.

Showing off their Tails.

Since, we were, of course, in a hurry by the time we left, Ephraim was crying the whole way there and the entire time I was trying to get the boys settled in their places to be today.  It got bad enough that I has to ask to use the sleep room to nurse.  After his snack, we headed back home to this:

Craft things everywhere.

The Origin of the now disbursed Glitter.

What to do?  Take a deep breath.  Get some coffee and sit down.

In my mind there are only two options to regain some sanity: cry or sing.  Instead of crying for my Mommy, which is what i would like to do - or for Grant - I choose to sing.  The song that popped into my head as needed to calm down was: We are Standing on Holy Ground.  And I know that there are Angels all around!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtI1GWHKJ64&feature=related

So, as my youngest looks up at me with his big dark eyes and the red glitter on his nose, all I can do now is smile and think about how crazy it is to be bothered by the beginning of the day.

So, what am I going to do now?  After even writing this post took about 1.5 hours for nursing break, burping break, and diaper break…  I am now going to take a bath - while the little man sleeps.  I hope.

Snow Weeks!

Grant said that he has not seen this much snow consistently since he moved away from Michigan as a child.  What most people don’t realize is that if one were to look at the map of the world, Germany is much more north than the US - we are more on Canada-level…

I kept thinking that I would go outside to take pictures of scenery, etc. and then never really did, but here are a few that I did manage to get - mostly the boys. :)

And for those of you interested in my current obsession with windows and doors, as well as some more artistic shots, check out my Photo-Art Counterpart at http://soaringeala.tumblr.com/  - msp

The back of our house:

Snowed in Tricycle:

Backyard from Balcony View:

View into the Yard:

Bench next to House:

Random House on the way to Kindergarten to pick up the Boys:

Waiting at the Front Door of Kindergarten.  We used to take a sled to school occasionally also when I was growing up - usually to carry our instruments. :)

Sometimes I spoil them and we go to the Bäckerei on our way home.  They love to pick out their Gebäck and eat it while we walk home.

Jonah is kicking the snow:

And he likes to eat snow:

Getting out the Snow Shovels to get busy:

The Steeple of the Protestant Church here in our Village:

Abner trekking through the Snow:

Random:

Jonah’s 4th Birthday!

Time sure flies!  I can hardly believe that Jonah turned 4.  Though feisty and “temperamentvoll”, he has such a gentle soul and I am proud to be his mother.  I cannot wait to see what he will do with his life!

Though his Birthday was on the 6th, neither celebration was.  The German Nikolaustag is on the 6th and so the Kindergarten decided to have his party the next day.  Also, Grant was in the field and so we waited for his “family” party until that weekend when Babbo could be home with us.

At the Kindergarten, he got a crown to wear, a few gifts, and we had made cupcakes to hand out.  The boys decorated them themselves.

Waiting for the Fun to Begin:

(I love the candle train they had!)

Singing:

The Whole Group:

Unwrapping Presents:

Examining what he got:

In order to get a cupcake, the other kids had to come up to Jonah and congratulate him.  This little girl lingered a little longer - as you can see, Jonah is thrilled to bits… :)

Observation: American Children eat the Icing off the cupcake and tend to leave the Rest, German Children eat the Bottom of the cupcake and leave the Icing - Interesting… :)

The next party was at our house with our neighbors and some friends.

Singing before Jonah gets to blow out his candles:

Happy:

Excited:

Blowing out the Candles:

Gifts:

Abner got something also - our neighbors are very thoughtful:

Jackson helped Jonah get the button off his card:

All rights reserved. Downloading Photographs Prohibited.

Cookies

Sometimes we actually have time for some fun, yummy baking.  (Before the gestational diabetes…)

My Helpers:

Chocolate Chips:

Into the Oven:

Cooling Off:

Tasty:

And then just for fun:

All rights reserved. Downloading Photographs Prohibited.

Halloween

This was Grant’s first Halloween together with the boys.  Before this, he was either deployed (#1 and #2) or at OCS (#3).  Since Halloween is Grant’s personal favorite Holiday, this was a Highlight for us as a Family.

I had asked the boys repeatedly what they wanted to be and they kept changing their mind, so finally they had to decide for real because I was going to make the costumes from scratch.  Even though they are not spectacular, they were exactly what the boys wanted.  Jonah was a Mouse and Abner a Penguin.  Grant dressed up as a Hillbilly (cast and all) and mine was not very creative, so not really worth mentioning.  We went to the Trunk or Treat at Grant’s Battalion on Post.

Mouse and Hillbilly

Penguin

Doing Crafts

Proud Results.

Bringing Home the Loot.

The other Highlight was carving Pumpkins.  We did not have a Carving Kit, just a knife, but it was a lot of fun!

The Insides.

The Outside.

The Process.

The Cuties.

The Freaky.

The Results.

All rights reserved. Downloading Photographs Prohibited.

Long over-due Update

I will be posting several posts, back tracking, so please bear with me.  I apologize for the incredible delay.  And even now, I am doing this only to procrastinate homework, but hey, it’s still productive, right? :)

Alright, so to look forward to: Halloween (yes, pathetic, but I will still put pictures up of all of these events…), Thanksgiving, Jonah’s Birthday, Christmas, Berlin, etc.

-msp

Letting Go

Letting go of my babies, that is.  I knew it might be difficult, but I didn’t realize just how strange it is to come home to a empty, quiet house.  Loud music has been my remedy and I am sure eventually I will get used to it, but right now - it is hard.

Kindergarten is where the boys go now.  The German Kindergarten, which I am biased towards on many levels. 

I thought it would be harder for Abner, but it turns out that he is having the time of his life, is excited, and participates enthusiastically.  Jonah is having a harder time.  Perhaps it is because he has been home with me for so long.  Perhaps because he likes things done his way.  I thought, naturally, since he is the older one and has been begging to go to school, he would transition easier, but he is reminding me of how he was as a baby - observant, calculating, and quiet.  It is not a bad way to handle things, it is just not what I had expected.

Both have adjusted much quicker than anticipated.  There is a “Eingewöhnungsphase”, which means a time period for the children to get used to the scenario, which is supposed to last one month.  The first week, the parent sits in the class with them.  The second week, the parent stays in the building, but not he room.  The third week, the parent leaves for an hour and then come back and the fourth week, the parent leaves for a little bit longer time.  The goal is for the child to ease into the situation, become comfortable, learn to say goodbye, and be able to confide in one of the caregivers when in need of something.  My amazing children did the entire process in one week!  Their pros, what can I say? :)  Now I just need to tell myself over and over again, that it is not because they enjoy being away from me, but that they enjoy the new environment where they get to learn, play, and interact with others…  They still love me. Yes, they do. :)  This is natural…  Lol

Now here come just a “few” pictures… Enjoy.

Walking to the Kindergarten:

Kindergarten Löwenzahn:

Jonah got right to work:

Abner got annoyed with me interrupting him:

Then has to endure another child playing “with” him, a.k.a. taking over the toy:

There are some cool toys out on the playground and they still tend to keep to themselves:

Friday they “bastelte” their “Laterne” for the St. Martinsumzug at the end of this week.  Here, you can see the difference between these two.

Jonah does not like to get dirty much.

Abner does not really care where dirt, paint, etc. goes.

Blurry, but I love Abner’s face here:

On the way back home, we tend to take the back way, instead of down the street.

The colors are so beautiful right now:

We found a neat playground right behind our house.

They love climbing the rocks:

Of course, I get carried away with my own fun a little:

Then we trek back home:

Back onto our street:

Where Jonah found this leaf in a puddle in our driveway:

-msp

All rights reserved. Downloading Photographs Prohibited.