31 October, 2009

quick rundown

Was just realizing how little I've blogged lately! We've been busy and I've written so many posts in my head but somehow they just never make it Online. Here are a few brief notes to bring you up to date:

An American friend took us onto the military base last Wednesday to see "Where the Wild Things Are" at the theater there. It was a real American movie experience including salty buttered popcorn (rather than the nasty sweet stuff they serve in Europe) Twizzlers and Whoppers. Oh, yeah, and the film, which was also really enjoyable.

S and B went off to sit up front with the other kids and when they met up with us afterwards they handed us their boxes of half-eaten candy-- it had been too much, even for them!

M popped a handful of S's leftover Whoppers into his mouth and was chewing happily when S piped up:

"You know what?! When I opened those the bag ripped and they spilled all over the floor. So I picked them all up and put them back into the bag. But I must have picked up lost candy from other people as well, because some of them tasted a bit rotten!"

If only I'd had a camera to take a picture of M's face at that moment!

***

I went to the doctor on Thursday and got myself vaccinated for the seasonal flu and the swine flu. When I asked if that wasn't a lot for my body to handle at once I just got a sneer from the perpetually crabby nurse who then barked at me to roll up my sleeve.

My suspicions were confirmed: For two days now I've had fever, chills and muscle ache-- I feel like I've been through a couple of rounds with Kimbo Slice! If only I could still move my poor shot-weakened arm I would head down and shake that sadistic nurse until her teeth rattled!

***

Speaking of roughing up evil Germans, we watched Raiders of the Lost Ark today with the kids. I originally saw that movie as a 11-year-old Florida girl who had never been further than North Carolina. S and B, on the other hand, could actually follow the German dialogue between the Nazis. That, and thanks to their trip to Cairo last year they were able to pick out discrepancies in the Egyptian scenes. Like the fact that Indiana Jones didn't become incapacitated by diarrhea after eating those dates which you saw get rinsed off with tap water...

Man there's a lot of violence in that movie! And the drinking!!! Do you remember Marion doing shots and drinking that Nepalese guy under the table? Well, I didn't either, but it was in there and was completely inappropriate for a movie supposedly targeted at children. Made for a very interesting debriefing session at the lunch table afterwards!

***

Thursday the kids attended a workshop at the National Art Gallery (Staatsgalerie) in Stuttgart, where they were able to visit a temporary exhibition of Edward Burne Jones' works. There was an entire section devoted to Sleeping Beauty with the treacherous briar wood where brave young soldiers and tender damsels fell into an enchanted sleep.

After the tour the kids were taken back to a studio where they painted their own masterpieces depicting how they would have broken out of the briar bushes in the enchanted forest. S came back with a lovely painting of a suit of armor and a sharp sword. B's solution? A formula 1 Ferrari with a protective mesh around the cockpit...

***

S and B are also attending the Kinder Uni, a special set of lectures for kids in which different professors from the University of Stuttgart give talks about 4 different timely topics.

A couple of weeks ago they got to learn how emails travel from one computer to the other. In November they will see how sounds are transmitted to your radio. The kids all get to sit together in a real lecture hall at the university and the parents aren't even allowed inside-- we watched the proceedings on a video screen in another room! I don't know who enjoyed the whole experience more, me or the kids!

***

Tonight is Halloween and the kids both have plans to stay over at friends' houses! Oma and Opa are here and M and I are going to take them out to dinner.

Happy Halloween, everybody!

28 October, 2009

Before and After

Yeah. This was the picture I probably should have posted yesterday: S channeling his inner Calvin. (of Hobbes, not of the Protestant Reformation...)

27 October, 2009

He's 10!!!

S hit the double digits today! Funny, because in my mind I'm still about 35-- so somehow he's getting older but I'm not! Not a bad set-up if you ask me!

15 October, 2009

Entropy

Ugh. B came home from school with some kind of stomach virus today. He was genuinely sick when I picked him up, but since then he's regained some color in his cheeks, is talking nonstop and ate a whole bag of cookies while I was out running an errand. Somehow I think he's out of the woods. ;-)

The problem is that I'm starting to feel really crappy myself. We have houseguests coming in tomorrow and I'm completely overwhelmed by the preparation. After a full day of puttering around the house still looks like a bomb went off in it. This thanks mostly to one little "sick" person who is following me around scattering the products of his birthday origami set. Every time I get a surface cleared it magically fills back up again with gum wrappers and other flotsam. His teacher is (understandably) gun-shy with viruses and has expressly asked me to keep him home tomorrow...

Maybe I could send him over to your place tomorrow? He's very cute, can tell you a lot about aerodynamics and would be happy to cook you lunch! PLEASE! I'M BEGGING YOU....

14 October, 2009

He's just as shocked as I am!

My baby turns 8 today! How is this possible?!