The Tick

Let me begin with the good news before the bad. Yesterday was wonderful. My friend Miriam offered to take the kids at the last moment so we could see Harry Potter in the theater. Our original plan had been to alternate watching the kids. So we got to have a wonderful date and eat Italian ice cream together and watch a movie in German.

But the day before that...well not so good. Jeff went out at 8 pm to meet some church members to play Axis and Allies. Of course, they wanted him to play America, and they were fighting over who would be Germany. Jeff and Tobias played as UK and US and beat them soundly. While this was going on, I was at home with the kids. We played at the park, then read stories and went to bed. I was nursing Ella, laying on my side, and a spot near my knee started really hurting. She wouldn't go to sleep and wouldn't go to sleep. Finally I had to go to the bathroom so bad that I couldn't hold it anymore, and I left her in bed crying while I went out to use the restroom. As I sat on the toilet, that same spot again hurt, and I looked down and there was something that looked like a rock embedded in my skin, which was all red and irritated. A closer look and I nearly passed out. A huge tick the size of an apple seed or bigger was dug down in my skin, and the swelling around him covered him nearly half way. I took off my pants and grabbed my phone to call Jeff. I looked up online how to take one out, but I was too upset to do it by myself, and I didn't know where the tweezers were, and it hurt to walk. So I just sat there for over an hour, avoiding looking at the tick and trying to get Jeff to answer his phone and crying like a really big wimp.

Meanwhile, Jeff, sitting around the game table with the guys, had just finished the first game and was about to start a second. He reached in his pocket to check the time on the phone, and saw that I was calling at that very moment. His phone had been on silent since church on Sunday and he had not realized it. When he talked to me I was so upset that he thought I said I had gotten at "ticket" at first. Tobias drove him home, and told him what he had learned at his most recent first aid class, to just pull the tick straight out instead of trying to use a match or anything. Apparently if you upset them, they inject their meal back where it came from, significantly increasing the risk of contracting a disease. So I spent the next two hours worrying about what horrible diseases I might get, and by three am I fell into bed exhausted. We saved the tick neatly in a baggy, even though he is mostly smushed. We couldn't ever find the tweezers, so Jeff used his multi-pliers. I guess you can have them tested for what diseases they were carrying, although I doubt we will have the time, energy, or funds to do that in a foreign country. I was totally scared by the incident, and wasn't really excited to go back to the park any time soon. Then Jeff made me feel worse by saying that it was much more likely that I got it on our walk on Saturday through an area with long grass and dogs playing. So that means the tick would have been there for days, and that's why he was so big. GROSS! Also, because of the air drying our laundry, I have been trying to wear my pants for several days, so I never would have noticed till it hurt like that.

Anyways, not very fun, but definitely some excitement. Next time I will not make so much fun when Ann Marie gets a tick and is wailing about it.

Ella's Baby Picture

I know that every mother thinks that their baby is the most beautiful baby on the planet Earth, but that in no way stops me from feeling the exact same way. I wanted to share my favorite coming home picture of Ella. Okay, she was a week old already. But when you are doing your own pictures it takes a little while to feel up to anything. She just looks so dainty in with the daisies.


There. See? I really do have the most beautiful baby in the world (at least in my world, you can't argue about that). Now if we could only get her to sleep like this all the time...

The Hagenbeck Tierpark, aka. "The Zoo"

On Saturday we decided to go to the Zoo. We decided at about 8:15. We started getting ready in earnest at 9:00. We didn't arrive at the Zoo until almost noon. That's how long it takes us to move around with three kleine Kinder. Between leaving and arriving, we took a bus and two trains, for a total of almost an hour's travel both ways. And we were fully loaded with everything we would need for the entire day, included two diaper bags stuffed with cloth diapers and wipes, snacks to decrease our food costs, and a coat and water bottle for each person.

It didn't even all fit in the stroller. But we were determined to have fun...even if it killed us.

On the way in we found a small stand selling uniform looking white plastic sacks. Most of the visitors were buying them, so I quickly pointed it out to Jeff to go talk to them (I tend to avoid talking to anyone, so as not to have to mince German so badly they kick me out of the country). It turns out the bags were full of precut food for the animals, such as carrots, apples, leafy greens, and cucumbers. For a couple euros you could purchase a bag and feed certain animals in the park, and the money went to the care of the animals. We bought two bags. Although you could feed many animals, such as the monkeys, by far the most exciting were the elephants. They would reach out to grab the food from you and pop it in their mouth as quick as possible so they could reach for more. Everyone got a turn, but David didn't want anything to do with the elephants. I got my hand wet from its' trunk.

We stopped shortly to look at the monkeys and throw them a few veggies. (Perhaps Ari is on the wrong side of the glass?) Then we booked it over to the other side of the park for the Giraffe feeding that started at noon.

At the giraffe area was an elevated walkway where you could stand at the giraffes' head level. A volunteer for the zoo had a wheelbarrow full of leaves for the giraffes. For a nominal donation we each got a handful of leaves to feed them. Jeff took the kids up first, then it was my turn.

Jeff had tried to get David to feed the giraffes when he went up, but David was scared, same as the elephants. When I went up with him, I saw that the giraffe had quite the reach, so I picked David up and just held him so he wouldn't expect anything. The giraffe came and took the entire branch of leaves right out of his hands. Ariana, on the other hand, was so short and had so many people in front of her that the giraffe didn't really seem to notice her. And she was practically jumping up and down waving her leaf and calling to it. So it was really quite funny when the giraffe finally did notice the leaf dancing up and down and eat it, because Ariana let out a scream and started crying. She had to be comforted to calm down. I know, shame on me for finding it funny, but she had already been feeding the giraffe just fine before that, it just surprised her.

Ella was content to hang out in the stroller for a good portion of the day, and I was glad not to have to carry her. As you can see, I dressed her up for the occasion. Those are little monkeys on her shirt. Ella's favorite part of the trip was when we went back to the elephants later in the day to feed them some more. She kept turning her head to look at them intently.

Next, Ariana got to go on a pony ride. She had the biggest grin on her face when she got off. She also got to pet the pony's head, although she moved a little quickly for its' liking.

Here is David checking out the flamingos. We had to keep a good eye on him because there was nothing between him and the water. Flamingos are one of my favorite zoo animals, but this zoo had a couple of new tricks up its sleeve, like some cute baby grizzly bear cubs tumbling and playing together. The tropical animals are actually kept in a separate huge building with its own admission. So when it started pouring down rain, as it often does in Hamburg, we headed inside.

Here is what greeted us first inside - lemurs. This is also one of my new favorite exhibits. You walk into a room that is full of lemurs playing and doing whatever they please, including using one guy's shoulders as a stepping stone to another perch! You couldn't touch them, but they could run around you. It was really cool. We didn't get a very good picture because they were always on the move. There was also an incredibly cute baby lemur in the group.

Towards the end, everyone was getting a little tired and cranky, especially because the stroller had to be left outside of the "aquarium." We sat down to eat some snacks and then headed back outside. We visited a few more animals, ate dinner, and then it was time to go home. Of course, by that time the kids were exhausted and the hour long train ride home was a royal pain. But that's another story (and one not really worth recounting).

As you can tell, I love having a phone with a camera now. And we will probably be headed back to the zoo sooner rather than later - feeding the animals was a big hit.

Raining Cats and Dogs

To start off with, let me tell you that it rains in Hamburg. It rains in most places on the planet. But here, it RAINS. Several times we have been caught out and come home looking like drowned sewer rats. There is even thunder and lightning most of the time.
So on Friday, I had my eye on a second hand kids store. I had discovered that David isn't really a size two yet. He will turn two in less than a month, and yet size-wise he is very far from it. But packing, I did not know that. So I only filled his bags with size two clothes. I figured around his birthday he should fit them. Here they do size by centimeters height, which makes me feel a little bit better about my son. So I took a flimsy paper measuring tape I had pocketed from our trip to Ikea and measured the little guy. He comes in at about 82cm, which supposedly corresponds to 12-18 months (the size of clothes I left at home because I though they would quickly be too small). No wonder the 2Ts swim on him.
I like to shop second hand in general because it is easy on your wallet and good for the planet. I also find that some of the stuff in the stores is not even worth buying the first time, whereas second hand goods have already merited purchase once. But, the sad thing is that there don't seem to be many of these type of stores in Hamburg. So, we took an hour long train ride to get to one that was listed online. The whole time, David's shorts kept falling off, so much so that when we got to the store we just left them around his ankles. We bought him three pairs of pants and four shirts to last him till his next growth spurt (which I hope comes soon!). I guess I will have to step up how often I do laundry. We also got Ari a cute dress, and Elle a little monkey outfit. All of which was way overpriced for used children's clothes. My plan is to interrogate some of the people in my ward, because there must be a way. The way I see it, if they choose to have kids at all, Germans are only having one or two. If I were only going to have one or two kids, I would want the best stuff (which, in my theory, is why they put up with these ridiculous prices), and then, I wouldn't know very many other people having kids to give them to, and more than likely, they've already bought something themselves (so that they too can have the best). So in my hypothetical world there would be lots of perfect, expensive, cute clothes floating around that no one had a use for. Thus, the market would dictate that they would be readily available for the poor minority groups having lots of children to snatch up. And yet there seem to be almost no second hand stores. So I must be missing something.
Having seen the rain, we bit the bullet and bought Ari and Cyrus two raincoats (which also go for an arm and a leg...and maybe some other body parts too). Stupidly, these coats have no hoods, even though they are supposedly the best. And no rain pants, which were sold with every other jacket. So I'm starting to feel duped. Meanwhile it has rained each day since Friday. Today we forgot them, and it starting raining during church. Did I mention we do a LOT of walking. So now I have to find some place that might sell rain hats, and maybe rain pants that can be purchased separately from the jackets. I am getting a sour feeling about it. Or I can just buy Ari her own little umbrella.
All the humidity in the air isn't doing much for my laundry. When we moved in, the landlord showed us a single h.e. washing machine in the basement (more like a dank dungeon), where we could do laundry for 1 euro 50, then hang it to dry on lines. By the way, h.e. is code for takes FOREVER. One load can take over 3 hours on the most "energy efficient setting. I had several problems with this setup. In the US I averaged a load a day. 1.5 with cloth diapers. And I brought cloth diapers with me as the plan here. Also, that basement smelled awful. I doubt my clothes would ever dry in that space, and if they did, they would smell like that. Also, that basement screamed the perfect place for me to get mugged and for the kids to get hurt monkeying around while they waited for me to get done. Jeff talked to the landlord and they agreed that he would pay for half the cost of a new washing machine in the apartment, and we would pay for the other half. Then he would get to keep it when we left, to improve his rental. So now we have a nice washer. And at least it is in the apartment, even if it still takes as much as three hours to merely wash one load.

The next hurdle to laundry was that there was no dryer. This is a first in my entire life. Our first two loads were stretched over every available surface in the apartment. It was embarrassing to have my undies draped over the lamp for all to see. That night I searched online for indoor self standing clothes racks on Amazon (because we didn't want to string line in the apartment). There were wonderful models. But they cost 160 Euros to ship to our home. Back to the drawing board. We figured there must be a way if this is how they do things in Europe.

The next day Jeff found some metal racks at the local "Kaufland" (kaufen = to buy). So then we had racks. They are pretty nice, and relatively cheap (10 euro vs. 500 for a dryer). What previously covered our entire living room and every door, chair and table fit neatly into only one rack. I only wish I had maybe one more, because this is the main choke point for the laundry now. We are still not washing it faster than we are wearing it because of the drying time. Not that I want my entire living room given over to these racks, but it is certainly better than going naked. We have a small balcony, but I haven't seen anyone else put their laundry outside, and Jeff said some cities have laws about it.

The other interesting thing about the laundry is that they don't sell Tide here. I guess it comes as no surprise that when I grew up and moved out I just kept using the kind of detergent (and toothpaste) that my mom had. So now, I am at a loss. Right now I am trying Persil. I decided on that because it came in tablets, and I read enough of German to know that the other package didn't come with a scoop. You could get one for free online, but I needed to do laundry that day. I don't like using the new kind. I think it smells funny, bordering on stinking. I set our new washer to run an extra rinse (the controls are all in German too, so it took a little bit of doing), and that seemed to help. Also, there seems to be a lot more delineation on what the soaps are for, which I can't really make out as easily. Some are for white, some colors, some delicate, some wool, etc. I had to ask a church member which of the many bottles on the shelf was a stain remover. Because not only do I not recognize the brands, I don't even know the word for it. This is the part about being in Germany that makes me feel worn out and home sick. But there are so many things that are enjoyable and worthwhile that I am sure we will miss when we leave too. As I was shopping for the clothes drying racks online, many people said how they love the feel of line dried clothes. I can't imagine. To me they are very stiff and scratchy. But maybe we will even miss that when we finally head back to the States. Who knows?