A cell phone in the tub shouldn't be there at all!

(I am sure most of you won't get the Dr. Seuss reference, but Wacky Wednesday is one of Hannah's favorite books.)

Anyway, I was giving the girls a bath before dinner because Brian was going to be home late, and I prefer to eat as a family if possible. So I was hurrying and I threw my cell phone in my sweatshirt pocket while we were trekking up the stairs in case Brian called to say he would be even later than he thought. Well, I was washing Hannah's hair, and I looked over at Genna and thought, "Something is wrong with this picture." Then it hit me! My cell phone should not be underwater in her hands! She had opened it and was pushing buttons under the water. I think it must have fallen out of my pocket in one of my Twister-like movements trying to hold down kids and wash behind their ears. I can not believe it! Now it is broken! It's our only German line other than Brian's work cell phone which he can't use for personal calls. Man, the luck! But, on the bright side, it wasn't our new digital camera!

G is for Genevieve

Genna can recognize the letter G now! I have been writing it whenever she colors and telling her it is a G. Friday I asked her what it was when I wrote it, and she said, "Gee!" Also, I asked her what color she wanted to use, and she said "Pink!" I was impressed that she knew a color name, even though I am sure she couldn't pick out something pink if asked. Yea, Genna!

Nap Time Antics

I was reading Hannah a book about Jonah and the whale. On the last 2 pages, it summarizes what we learned from the story. One of the points was that we can not hide from God. He is everywhere. Hannah asked me if God was here now, and I told her that He was here and was watching over her. She paused a minute, and then, speaking in the thrid person as usual, she said, "God is saying that He doesn't want Hannah to take a nap." :) Nice try, Hannah!

Uncle David's visit

Uncle David with the girls

A family picture, at last!

Genevieve, queen of the wipes box!

We had a great visit with my Uncle David! We went for a walk around the village that we live in, took him to the Mitwoch Snitzle Abend (Translation= Midweek Snitzle Evening) at a restaurant in the neighboring village, and did a few other things. Genna did surprisingly well with him. She is getting a little bit better around people. As you can see, she even sat on the couch with him to take pictures. No hugs or kisses from her though. Hannah, of course made up for it with her millions of kisses and hugs and "I love you's." We took Uncle David to the train station this morning, and tomorrow we are off to Heidelburg for Brian's work 'social event.'

The whole trip summarized with pictures!

Friday, we drove 5 hours to Garmisch, Germany. The drive was beautiful! We went through a piece of Austria to get there. The Alps getting closer and closer as we drove. The girls were a bit antsy towards the end, but we made it without any major incidents. Since we had such a long day we got settled in our tiny (Did I mention our room was tiny? The kids were tripping over each other! Tiny is cheap, so...) hotel room, and then went to dinner in the hotel restaurant. Dinner was good, but the kids were still antsy and also tired by this time.

Alps approaching!

Saturday, we took a train into Munchen (i.e. Munich to Americans) to see what this Oktoberfest was all about. It started out not looking so good, since we had to stand packed into a line to get into a tent for a long long time with the kids in backpacks (Hannah on daddy's and Genna on mine). I was thinking, why am I standing in a line when I don't actually care to get into the tent? Brian and the rest of the crew we were with cared....cared until, that is, we actually got in and realized there was ABSOLUTELY nowhere to sit. A kind security guard found us an unused corner at the exit to camp out for a while. We ate giant pretzels with roughly the circumference of a medium pizza. Then Hannah fell asleep in the backpack and Genna shared a carbonated mineral water with me. If you've ever had carbonated mineral water, it's pretty gross! However, if you are thirsty and you run out of the water you packed, you drink it anyways because the Germans have no other kind to offer you. Genna loved it though, and kept wanting more and saying, "Nummy" (translation="Yummy"). Strange child!
Once we left the tent, we went in search for Hannah's craving, ice cream! She woke up dying for it! She wanted pink ice cream, so we found her some and she lovingly shared it with her sister. We looked around, got a gift for my brother's birthday, took many many potty breaks for various members of the group (sorry, "Potty" has become a regular vocabulary word for me) and some people rode some rides. Then it was time to head to the train station so we could make our dinner reservations in Garmisch.
Well, since the group was big and apparently slow, we missed our train. It was only a big deal, because we were meeting other people there. So, we took the next one, an hour later, and went to the Mexican food restaurant next to the hotel. Mexican food here, typically, is pretty bad. It is usually comparable to a Mexican TV dinner. However, this place was different! It was really good food. It even had good salsa and rice, which are 2 things I use to gauge the quality of Mexican food. Here's where we had an incident though...
Genna fell off the bench (in between the table and the bench.) I thank God that a friend and I caught her with our legs before she hit the ground, but she did get a little banged up on the way down. No blood though! This is my theory, that the more kids you have the more things like this happen. And not just because there are more kids for it to happen to, but because you are often distracted by another child and so aren't paying attention to the victim of the moment. This would never have happened to Hannah, because I was so attentive to her every move! Poor Genna! Anyways, it scared me to death, but she was okay only minutes later! Good thing kids are resilient!

Sunday, we got up and headed out to comb the town for Holy Mass. We found a church, but it was locked with a sign we could not read in German. Then we found a chapel, but there was no one there and the sign said Mass was right about the time we were arriving there, so it must have been wrong. We prayed a bit in the chapel, and then we walked around the town for the rest of the morning taking pictures as we went.

The chapel that we stopped to pray in

Then we went to hike a gorge, again with Hannah on daddy's back and Genna on mine. This was probably the highlight of the trip for me! It was beautiful! We had a great time, and the kids played by the river at the end of the hike! Hannah slept on the way and Genna slept on the way back. On our way out we stopped at a restaurant to get a small bite to eat to tide us over until dinner. There was a mini play area in the outside seating area, so the kids played and came back periodically to grab a bite of food (except Genna who was still asleep). And here we have another incident...
Hannah starts crying and her friend, Alyssa, comes to tell us she has had an accident. I almost didn't believe her since Hannah almost never has accidents anymore, but she had one today (the one time I didn't pack a change of panties and clothes, of course!) Then one of our friends, says, "Well, she told Brian, but he said 'here eat another fry.'" Now I understood, she had told her dad and tried to hold it when she was not taken to the potty. Bless her heart! Brian was talking and never heard her. She kept telling me that she was "So sorry." I kept reassuring her it was not her fault and accidents happen. Then I told her to tell me next time, because I jump when I hear those 5 little words!
That night we went to a Bavarian restaurant with little boy dancers that slap their thighs and feet to accordion music. The kids enjoyed that!

The gorge that we hiked alongside

Genna and myself finding good throwing rocks

Brian helping Hannah get used to walking on the rocky shore without shoes

Monday, we headed back home! The kids did better, probably because they were exhausted! When we arrived home, Brian went to pick up Murray from the dog sitter AND my uncle from the train station for a visit. Our first official visitor from the states! Hannah's thrilled to have someone to give her all the attention she could ask for! I am thrilled to have a visitor in this house where we finally have the space for visitors. I am also thrilled to be in my own bed at night, as is Genna!

We're back from Garmisch/Munich

This is just a quick post to let everyone know that we are back home from our trip. There are too many pictures to go through tonight, so I will do my official vacation post in a day or so once we have recovered a bit. We had a great time, but we are all exhausted from walking and all sleeping in one tiny hotel room! And I mean tiny! I shared the bed with Hannah, and between her falling off the other end and wiggling around I did not sleep too well. Genna, got the most sleep of us all, but was still the most sleep-deprived compared to her normal sleep schedule. So she's a cranky one now! Poor Brian slept on a matt on the floor, and yet he slept more soundly than anyone. Men-they can sleep through or on anything! Us mommies wake up everytime the kid's breathing changes.

Anyways, beautiful pictures to come, I promise......

Aye Aye Captain!

Today library storytime had a pirate theme! They made these hats for the craft, and I made the girls some swords to go with them when we got home. It's amazing how much fun cardboard and foil can be!

My two cute little pirates!

The leader of the pirates!

Two pirates kissing!

Digital camera number 3 for the Smith family!

Well, we have not had much luck with our digital cameras! The first one lasted a year, when my hubby and I had a "miscommunication" and left it on top of the car as we drove off to Niagara Falls. Needless to say, it was in too many pieces by the time we realized what happened to salvage it! For the second one, we got smart and got a warranty. On the plane from Texas back to New York, I pulled it out of it's case only to find the screen no longer worked. We left for Germany two days later. After a lot of trouble and many many hours on the phone with the warranty company, we got a check with which to buy a new camera. We ordered an upgraded version of the Canon we had before and received it in the mail on Friday. So here are some pictures that my husband took while playing around with it on Sunday afternoon...

Hannah with her nose in a book as usual!

Brian was testing out the other functions on the camera, and Hannah is smelling his coffee!

Genna is being silly during story time!

Hannah is striking a pose and acting like her zany self!

Is manipulation an inherited trait?

While I was cooking dinner, the girls were coloring, and Hannah spilled the bag of crayons. I told her to pick them up, and she said that she didn't want to. I said that she had to, and then I focused on the dinner again, not really paying attention whether or not she listened. (Aren't all moms guilty of that sometimes?) So, anyways, I tuned back in a few minutes later when I heard Genna saying, "No" very adamantly to Hannah. Then Hannah said, "Genna, say 'Yes, Hannah.'" Genna then says, "Yes, Nannah" as she was told, completely unaware of what she was agreeing to. I had already forgotten about the crayons, and asked, "Hannah, what is she saying yes to?" Well, when I looked up and saw all the crayons still on the floor, I didn't even have to wait for an answer. I knew she was trying to get Genna to agree to pick them up for her. What a little sneak! Unfortunately, I was guilty of this all too often when I was the big sister to a little girl who was too young and eager to please to know any better. I have been reminded many times as an adult of all my sneaky, manipulative activities with my little sis. Like when I ate the top half of the cupcake because my mom said to eat half and give the rest to my sister. Or when I was tired of playing with her, so I offered to play school. I put her in time out and went to play alone in my room until my mom caught me. So, it comes around full circle! Hopefully, I can prevent the result my manipulations produced by teaching Hannah what will happen one day. My sister did grow up and know better eventually, and she got her pay back ten times over!

Dr. Candyman

Dr. Candyman is what Brian calls the kind of doctor that I just saw yesterday. I left with seven, yes seven, prescriptions!!!! Isn't that a bit of overkill? I mean I know I am pretty sick, but for crying out loud! I am not big on taking tons of meds, so I am going to take them as little as possible. The antibiotic is the important one anyways. So, I can finally breathe, and I will begin to get better now, hopefully. It's hard to get to the doctor for yourself when your husband is gone so much and you have little ones.

Our little saints in the making

Hannah told us this morning while I was fixing her hair before mass, "I want to be a saint!" We've been talking about the saints and their lives a little bit lately. So I am glad she's been inspired! Yesterday, I caught her playing with her My Little Pony castle. She had crammed a bunch of her little miniature characters into the castle, which apparently was now functioning as a church. She was saying the Angelus prayer with her figurines. It's moments like these that really make me think I am not doing too badly as a mom.

I don't want to leave Genna out! She is growing in the faith as well! When we pray she says, "Mamen" ("Amen" for those not versed in toddler lingo) and pats her chest for the sign of the cross. Hopefully, as her language develops some more, she will show us that she knows even more than we think!

We just found a group called "Moms and Little Catholics" that meets twice a month. The first meeting was great! We did a very interesting version of the rosary for the kids. We had the kids dress up like Mary and Elizabeth and act out the mystery of the visitation. Then we sung the rosary itself. It was just a miniature version of the rosary because the kids were so little, but it was fun for them. Even Genna participated as much as she could! Hannah dressed up like Mary and had a great time too! She was a little thrown off by the singing part since we just say the prayers at home, but I think she enjoyed the change.

Another week with just us girls!

Brian's in France this week, so the girls and I took a short road trip to Spangdahlam (just a couple hours away) to visit some friends of ours. We had a great time! I left a mess at home to do it, but it was a nice break from our daily routine to get to socialize and rest.

The girls are tired, but healthy so far. I have a head cold. I have had a string of illnesses since we've been here. Perhaps I am building up my German immunities. I tend to be sick a lot when we first move to a new region.

The other day I caught Hannah singing, "Someday my prince will come and take me away!" Her father about died! He was muttering something about a convent and age 13. She learned it from this little cheapo cartoon version of Cinderella that she hasn't watched since we were in the states. So I don't know why that popped into her head. It was cute, but it does make me cringe at the teenage years to come.

Genna is putting two words together pretty regularly now! She was talking on her toy phone to her daddy this morning. She said, "Bye bye, Daddy!" She also tells Murray, our dog, to get off her highchair while she is eating by yelling, "Murray, off!" Her personality is really starting to shine through!

I actually got a babysitter and went on a date!

However, I got food poisoning on our way home!

So, here's what happened, Brian really had to talk me into this one because it was an hour away and we had to leave on the bus at 3pm and would not get back until after midnight. The date was to go with some friends to this famous Wurstfest. I know what you're thinking, Germans have way too many fests! I have to admit, I am feeling that way now as well! Anyways, we found a babysitter, and it fit in our budget. So I figured I needed to go for Brian and for us to have some time together without sippy cups and dirty diapers getting in the way.

Well, I put the girls down for a nap, picked up the babysitter, and gave her a million instructions both written and oral. I said many prayers as we headed to the bus station and rode on the bus. I just hate leaving the girls for so long.

It was fun I guess, but it was kind of like the rest of the fests we have been to recently. This was bigger and more crowded though. I tried many different kinds of foods including a flammenkuchen (a pizza-like thingamajig with thin crust and cream cheese and onions). A picture of it is online at www.wirthen.ch/img/pic_content/flammenkuchen.jpg if anyone is interested. So then we head to the bus around 11pm and I start to feel yucky. Once the bus gets moving, I really start to feel badly. Long story short, I have food poisoning. I didn't sleep much last night, but I did catch up a bit today while Brian took care of the kids and the house. I am just now attempting to eat some broth and toast tonight. I feel better, but certainly not recovered.

I suppose we are going to try this date thing again sometime, but this time I am recommending a movie or a museum.

"Mommy, my pants are wrong."

This morning while I was doing Hannah's hair, she says, "Mommy my pants are wrong. They do not match." I look at her clothes again. She has a pink and black shirt on and black pants. The shirt has a different kind of material (velvet) than the french terry pants, but they do match. I told her they do match, and she goes on to explain that they do not. "Genna's pants are purple and mine are black. I want purple pants like Genna." I told her she can match Genna tomorrow, and she did not put up to much of a fight. Thank goodness! I am not ready for that. I love picking out their clothes.
I have to admit that I have been matching them a lot more often lately! Someone asked me the other day if they always wanted to dress alike. I told her that they don't care what they wear yet. Well, I guess the day has arrived...at least for Hannah!

A big day for Hannah's brain!

Hannah surprised me today by counting in german while we were walking up the steps! I am amazed how fast kids learn! She also made a very good effort to write her name today at storytime. She has been writing the "H" for quite a while, but today after I showed her the "a" and the "n" she finished her name. I did have to continually remind her that the letters all go next to each other. She very much wanted to put them all over the page. She drew a picture of herself as well. There was a circle for the head and 2 eyes, a mouth, and 2 legs coming off the bottom of her head. Beautiful...if you ask me! Her daddy was impressed by all her feats as well!

Anything's better than "No"

Genna started saying, "Let's go!" and "Otay" today. She can be so cute sometimes, but lately everything has been, "No." "Do you want to go in the car?" "No." Do you want to stay home?" "No." "Do you want to play?" "No." Do you want to eat?" "Yes!"

You see, she can say "Yes," but it is actually more like"Yesh." She just rarely does. However, if it concerns food, I do get a "Yesh" everytime. The child is going to eat me out of house and home! But, hey, I'm not complaining because she eats all her vegetables and fruits which is more than I can say for her finicky sister.

Ooh, another milestone for Genna occured today at playgroup! She interacted with another kid! She has never really done that before (not including Hannah, of course.) She brought a bunch of toys to this little girl, one at a time. She would hand her a toy dinosaur and then run off to get another one. She's typically pretty antisocial. She will rarely say, "Hi" to anyone, but she is always ready and willing to say, "Bye." Nevertheless, I am proud of her for her attempt at being friendly today!

Bernkastel-Kues Weinefest

Yesterday we went to the Bernkastel-Kues Weinefest with some friends of ours. The Germans really like to party. On any given weekend, there are many different festivals. This one was a little bit bigger and more famous than most. It is an annual event on Labor Day weekend. They have carnival-like rides for the kids, food, wine, and fireworks.

Even the rides are different from in the states because any age kid can ride any ride, and they do not have railings around the rides to keep people from getting hurt by getting too close. No litigation here! Hannah rode in a little car on a track, but since there were no seat belts I didn't let Genna do that one. There were pony rides as well. Babies were riding with their parents walking beside them. Genna was petting the ponies and saying, "Neigh." So I gave it a shot with Genna, but I think she thought I was leaving her and started to cry. So Hannah rode with her daddy beside her, while Genna and I cheered her on from the side. Hannah loved it!

The food was great! We had Currywurst und Pommes (sausage with curry ketchup and french fries), Spielbraten (a pork loin sandwich), and Bratkartoffeln mit Champignons (fried potatoes with mushrooms). It was all delicious!


Then came the fireworks! It was by far the best fireworks I have ever seen! I was almost blinded by the lights. We sat on blankets in front of a river, and on the other side was a hug hill with a castle on it (in the picture above). They lit the castle up, played some music, and did a reenactment of a historic battle via fireworks. It was beautiful! However, I have to say the best part for me was watching the girls' faces during the fireworks. Hannah was sitting in her daddy's lap and cheering. She would stand up and shout out the colors and then sit back down! She clapped, yelled, "Yay!" and had a huge smile on her face the whole time. Genna sat in my lap and stared at the lights, holding on very tight to my arm. She actually almost fell asleep during the show.

We got home very late, but it was a lot of fun!