Maddie is Six!

Maddie's birthday party was Friday, actual birthday was Monday. Maddie had fun. Mommy had emotional turmoil (more on that later).

Our first day in Germany we took a groggy walk and came to a place called KinderWelt. It's an indoor playscape that is all a kid could want: slides, climbing blob, ball pit, slides, scooters.

We decided right then that it would be a special spot for birthdays, so there was no question what MM wanted to do. The invitees were Anika Watts, and Divia and Danny from school. Both girls are in first grade. Danny is in MM's class. They played for hours, had dinner and opened presents. All good.

The only thing remaining that MM wanted for her actual birthday was the ice cream cake we always have for birthdays** recipe at bottom**.

Yet I got up Monday morning with a furrowed brow and tight lips. I imagined that I was standing in my kitchen in Cliveden avenue and not rummaging through a German grocery store trying to find Brownie mix. I wanted to call Malissa for cookie/ice cream combination options. I wanted MM to have her friends, and mine, there. I wanted the Ennises for dinner; this was our first birthday without them in six years. It was hard to focus on the joy of what was instead of the burden of what wasn't

We had already planned to play with an ISS family that morning. I asked Estelle if I could use her oven to bake the crust of the ice cream cake. When we arrived and I told her what the brownies were for, Estelle sprang into action. One of her daughters had recently had a birthday so she was well supplied. She brought out party plates, balloons, Duncan Hines brownie mix!, candles, candies, apple juice. Her three kids plus my three made a great party number, and MM had a full-blown party for lunch. After lunch MM and Vanessa made up an opera and performed it for us. They played all afternoon.

After dinner, the kids ate cake and watched one of MM's birthday presents, Singin' In The Rain--it's one of the kids' favorite movies.It was more than I had hoped for the day.

**Malissa File Ice Cream Cake

--Pick out ice cream and let soften

--bake brownies in a cake pan (I like to take them out a few minutes early. Frozen gooy brownie is excellent!)

--pour a layer of ice cream over cooled brownie, then into the freezer til ice cream freezes.

--break up cookies and layer over now ice cream, then add final layer of melted ice cream.

Kids favorite: cookies and cream ice cream with crushed Oreos

Piper likes coffee ice cream with crushed Heath bar

Andy likes butter pecan with crushed shortbread.

Pumpkin Party

Last weekend we went to a pumpkin carving party for the kids in Andy's office. All American so it wasn't a culturally new experience, but fun and easy for the kids.

Everyone brought pumpkins and carved them in the middle of the driveway.

It was, as Andy mentioned, at a former hunting lodge of the local king at the turn of the century. Lots of horns. Horns over doors, horn chandeliers, horns on walls.

The host family was great. Hot cider and mulled wine. They also buried candy in a pile of hay and let the kids run amok in it.

Housing update

Still... no... contract.

We continue to search.

School Update-- Watch out, Obama

Time for a school update:

Tess's class performed a German/English rap yesterday for the parents. "Aus Funf Kontinente Kommen Wir" It was a rap (thankfully, more like a chant) that they wrote to finish their Who Are We unit. It's as much a geography lesson than anything else. Tess was very proud of it, and they did a great job. She's doing well in school, high up in both math and reading. I'm trying to upload the video of their song, but am having technical difficulties. More later.

Maddie is the kindergarten class representative to student council. This could be a spring board to the national stage. If she managers to be a representative next year, she will have clocked more time in office than Palin as governor or Obama as senator. Hers would be quite the administration: a marine life motif in the Oval Office, dancing before cabinet meetings, and everyone in costume for a G8 summit. Here she is with her presumptive running mate, Maddie B. They sing a song together, "We are the crazy Maddies." I could start printing bumper stickers: "Vote the Maddies! It Couldn't get any Crazier."

 

We know that we are Those Parents who think their kids are adorable. Yes, we admit Micah can be a thug, but he is happy and cheerful. He's also the youngest kid at the ISS or its host German elementary school.

But now we have proof. I had Micah's parent/teacher conference this week. All the kids at his school pet/play with/pamper him. But I found out that the headmistress had to send a letter to the teachers at the host school asking them to keep the kids away from Micah while he is playing outside. They like to touch his hair and cheeks and play with him. Apparently they gathered around him a few times too many and he started to cry because he couldn't climb anywhere.

Pumpkin festival at Ludwigsburg Palalce

Tess's thoughts on the pumpkin festival in Ludwigsburg:

It's surprising how small Ludwigsburg Palace

(and here)looks from the side entrance. We walked in the side gate and saw a large rose garden with a fountain in the middle. We thought it was nice, but small for palace grounds. 

Then we walked down the side of the palace and saw there were miles of gardens. We saw pumpkins that weighed more than Daddy. We saw pumpkins carved into animals. My favorite was a collection of pumpkins all carved to look like animals. We walked through the fairytale garden with small houses that had a story in them. We even saw Rapunzel's hair coming down from her tower.

We met some friends from school. We went to the cafe and they had pumpkin rice, pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin beer and pumpkin muffins. We played at the playground next to the food stands. We ran around all afternoon and then went home.

Piper here:

It's true.

We walked in the side gate of one of Germany's largest baroque palaces, and I thought, "nice roses." and that was about it. The grounds were pretty with sculpted beds and a fountain, but nothing to be overly thrilled with. We walked along the back and there was a tree-lined lane that lead to miles of some of the most beautiful grounds and gardens I have ever seen.

We have put it on our list of places to come back to and places to take visitors. It also soothed my soul to see the that the obsession with large vegetables goes beyond the borders of American state fairs. Though, I must say, no food on a stick here. Only pumpkin in everything you can think of. Thankfully none in my cappuccino. 

The BEVO

We here at 5fordhams have a little experience with imaginary friends.

At a young age, Tess introduced Chi-Chi, Plum-Plum and Victy to our world. They had many grand adventures until one day, shortly after Tess turned 5, when I asked her what she had done with her friends that day. She looked at me with a very disturbed expression and said, "Daddy, they're just pretend."

That chapter of life soon closed and Mommy and Daddy learned an important lesson about asking our children awkward and embarrassing questions.

Later on, Maddie introduced us to the altogether wilder world of Huckle and Other Huckle. This time around, we avoided the hard questions to better prolong the fun. Maddie did point out once that Huckle was "just-pretend" but the frequency of her trips to the Maddieverse never slowed.

It turns that Maddie understands knows exactly what is what. She simply doesn't care whether anyone thinks she's silly. And we're right there with her as long as we continue to be invited to play with Other Huckle in Other England (who last summer had tea with the Other Queen).

Which brings us to the topic of today's post. We thought that Micah would skip this phase. His little boy universe has less room for narrative then the girls' worlds did. There's more banging and bashing and not as much time for tea parties with make-believe friends and stuffed animals.

Until now.

One of Piper's friends gave Micah BEVO last summer. The BEVO is a stuffed replica of the UT mascot. It has become quite real to Micah. Velveteen rabbitt real. Micah takes BEVO everywhere.

And, in a disturbing addition to the pattern his sisters followed, Micah has developed a special voice for BEVO. It's a very high pitched, nasally voice. LOUD, HIGH PITCHED and NASALLY.

I can tell you from both personal experience and the reactions of strangers that it's incredibly cute on first exposure. Unfortunately, this cuteness diminishes exponentially with exposure over time. Within the 400 sq ft confines of our German hotel room, BEVO VOICE is now driving all of us crazy.

This problem is compounded because BEVO has alot to say. Given that Micah is a light sleeper, much of what BEVO has to say is said while Micah jumps up and down on my chest (for emphasis) between the hours of 4 and 6 am.

Soon and very soon, I may slip and mention to Micah that BEVO isn't real.

Translation

Translation programs are a huge help, except when they are not.
Take this recent example from a local Realtor. I opened an e-mail to a message that he had run through such a program:
"Acts to me suffer the appointment morning does not go. When you have on Thursday time with it I it also with the owner can clear, because you should be present with besichtigung, and you also has the key of the Apartment. And give me please still your number where I you can also reach.
Thank you"

I kid you not.
Petra, our relocation helper, even tried to think through a forensic analysis that would come up with such a paragraph. She couldn't.
As to the house, it was great and would be wonderful for the family.
The downside is that it comes at another family's expense. The guy's contract has gone bankrupt and they are pulling him out after six months.
The family has given verbal notice and wants to be out in December. However, the process may stall until late winter. We can wait til Dec. but not beyond.
Ugg.
Here is info on the town. If we get the house, we'll pass along photos.
http://www.magstadt.de

Magstadt

As 5fordhams continue our German climb up Maslow's Hierarchy, we remain stuck on the first rung.

We've got the food and clothing thing licked. Housing, however, has remained a problem.

That may come to an end tomorrow. After repeatedly failing to score a date to the prom with any of the realtors in Sindelfingen (where the kids school is), we've settled in Magstadt. Tomorrow (Lord willing), we'll be deciding between 2 houses in that town.

Neither of them is perfect but both seem more than acceptable (better than anything else that we've looked at so far). Any remaining defects that either of them has is probably for the best since our friends in the US have told us to have a good time but not get too comfortable.

Anyway, Magstadt is a charming little town about 8 miles northwest of Sindelfingen. It's a pretty short drive for Piper to take the kids to school. It's also an easy bike ride to work. The latter is culturally acceptable given the Army's obsession with physical fitness and the presence of ample gym facilities and showers in walking distance of my building. It looks like a great deal.

We'll still have to buy another car since I can't bike every day. I'm starting to research that.

It's nice, however, to close this madness.

This weekend: the zoo.

Next weeek, Piper starts German classes. Everybody in 5fordhams is looking forward to seeing how manic she'll be when she kicks her culture engine into second gear.

Next post. BEVO.

Housing

The Stuttgart housing market continues to disappoint.

Last night, we were informed by the owner of a local house that we were not chosen to rent their house. We had called them, e-mailed them, sent them pictures of our family, and dressed our kids up for the final audition (er, home inspection). Generally speaking, we pandered in every way possible. Only now I learn that there were other ways of pandering that I didn't know of. Somebody please tell me what we left out.

In recognition of our efforts, we got a succinct note that we were not chosen to rent their house. To be fair, there were a few other German familes that were also interested although that didn't come on the scene til several days after we had approached the owners.

I think that our nationality, coupled with the large size of our family (3 kids is alot for Germany) worked against us.

Or perhaps it was the fact that I hadn't had my hair cut in 3 weeks and didn't wear clean socks. I get insecure about these things and overanalyze. The stress of all this rejection is reminding me why I didn't date in high school.

Today, Pipe and I put the kids down for naps and spent a quality romantic German Saturday afternoon reading German real estate postings to decide just how far we should lower our standards.

Pretty far, we concluded.

More to come.

Other Huckle

Other Huckle -- for those of you who aren't indoctrinated into the oral mythology of 5fordhams -- is the name of Maddie's imaginary friend. Other Huckle should not be confused with Huckle. Huckle is merely a stuffed dolphin toy (a Common Dolphin to be precise). Other Huckle is the mythical embodiment of all manner of competence to a 5 year old.

Case in point. This morning over breakfast, Maddie informed me that Other Huckle could hold his breath for a million years just like aquaman.

...the aquaman reference surprised me. I think that Piper has been letting the kids watch Justice League clips on youtube to indulge their Wonder Woman fetish (reference my earlier post on that topic). I digress.

Back to breakfast. Maddie added, after reverent silence, that Other Huckle could also balance a plate on one finger forever. I didn't point out that Other Huckle did not have fingers since Other Huckle's race, age and origins are somewhat flexible. Usually Other Huckle is a dolphin -- albeit a dolphin with occasional fingers, legs or toes. Further relationships are murky.

At various times, Other Huckle has been Huckle's Mother, brother and sister. Other Huckle has also been older and younger than Maddie. I recall the halcyon days of 2007 when Maddie was briefly Other Huckle's mother. Or perhaps, now that I think about it, she was merely Huckle's mother... I confess that the finer details confuse me.

Anyway, Other Huckle is quite an influential member of the 5fordhams household. He/She participates in all manner of mischief. At least, he's blamed by Maddie for many of the things that go wrong around here. Maddie also consults her inner Other Huckle when she's faced with the hard choices of life. Grilled cheese, Mac'n Cheese or Hot Dogs? "I fink that Other Huckle likes Hot Dogs."

WWOHD.

The good news is that Other Huckle appears to be enjoying Germany. Last week I was informed by Maddie that Other Huckle spoke fluent German.

Help! My daughters are addicted to Wonder Woman.

Todays story is in honor of my friend Scott. Scott is new to parenting and needs to be instructed concerning the slippery slope upon which he is now perched.

Our cautionary tale begins innocently enough. Piper was walking the girls through the park and Maddie was twirling about (in typical non-linear Maddie fashion). Piper mentioned to the girls that Maddie looked like Wonder Woman.

First mistake.

When she got home, the girls asked to look up Wonder Woman on the web. Piper showed them a few video clips of the 70's TV show with Linda Carter.

Strike Two.

The girls are now fascinated. They think Wonder Woman is the coolest thing ever.

Volkfest!

Our first trip to Stuttgart on the S-bahn to go to Volkfest, Stuttgart's version of Oktoberfest. Highlights included:
Dogs on trains
Giant Slide
Giant Pretzels
An entire festival food court that was just bread and meat. (not so great for Piper)
Traditional German clothes
Did we mention the flatbed trucks of beer?
Rollercoasters for Piper (that's the mechanical arm high in the sky).
Spinny Octopus ride. Tess: "I want to get off!" Maddie: "I want to do it again!" It was close to Micah's naptime so he wouldn't get near the thing.

Adoption

Our family gets stared at a lot here.

I took for granted how common adoption is in the States. There, we get some curious looks, but here we get out and out stares from Germans. It starts from about 20 feet away when we are passing people on the street, and they lock in on us. When I look back, they're still staring at us...

Turks have an even stronger reaction. Today at lunch was a common. We were having lunch at a kebab restaurant (yummy!) and a Turkish family came and sat next to us. They stroked his hair and patted his cheek and made a general fuss over him. They look at me, questioning. I've learned to say, "He is adopted from Thailand" in German. "Ah, yes. Thailand." They say. The conversation stops, but the family kept looking at us as Micah manhandled his pasta into his mouth.
.http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1719148,00.html

Casualty of War

We had a lead on a house. Great location, space for guests, easy walk to the train. But the landlord is so against the Iraq war that he won't rent to anyone in the military. He looked at Lockheed Martin's web site and decided that Andy was too much the warrior.
Andy just chuckled at the thought that the man could have any idea what he did based on the LM web site.
I chuckled at the idea of Andy The Warrior. This is the man who did his first Masters thesis on using military technology for environmental protection.
(Joe K-- hint, don't try to rent this house)
The search continues...