Helau! It's Karneval!

It's Karneval time! (or was, when this post was written)

A little background...
Apparently Karneval developed in this area really strongly because it was a way to express subversive anti-Prussian and anti-French thoughts in times of occupation, through parody and mockery. Cologne and Dusseldorf are the epi-center of Karneval happenings - and you either love it or hate it.
Basically, it runs from the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, to Ash Wednesday itself. On different days, there are different emphases - like on Altweiber, women cut off men's ties. Then there's the carnival fools take over city hall literally. Rosenmontag (Rose Monday), most businesses are closed and there are parades and more tomfoolery (read: public drunkeness before lunch). In Bochum, there is even a special Goose-riding club that puts on a crazy event where horseback riders try to catch a greased goose. Cultural idiosyncrasies are tough to translate at the best of times, so yes, it is as weird as it sounds :)

So far, for us, all we know is that Lia gets to dress up (like a Princess, of course!) for 4 days, and she's pretty excited. I put a little bit of blush and lip gloss on her this morning, and she just looked at me adoringly and said, "Mommy, I love you!" I melted. She was very solemn as she danced to crazy polka music at the kindergarten. Funny.

We didn't participate in too many other Karneval events, but we did do the Rosenmontag parade (walking distance from our house) - and our kids both collected more candy than they'll be allowed to eat in a year!

Just an ordinary day

So, we've been a little quiet lately. Nothing much going on, is all.
Except for another WWII bomb finding which closed the main street near our house for a bit.
And there was that time when Marc had a business trip to Paris for the day, and I locked myself (and the kids) out of the house...at least I didn't lock a child in the house! We took refuge at the neighbours'.
Normally, things aren't that exciting. Marc goes to work, I go shopping (easy come, easy go?) I go to the gym (I'm really getting into the Step class - which is called Step Intro, but I feel like I've jumped into the deep end - I'm mixing metaphors, but you know what I mean !), I learn German, I play with Kaia, and I pick Lia up from Kindergarten. And feeding the kids seems to be a full-time occupation these days. Picky!! However, they both enjoy my meatloaf, and I can sneak lots of vegetables into it, so Kaia's eating pretty much nothing but. She also LOVES cashews and Cornflakes. And Bologna (I found some nitrate-free lunch meat, so I'm not feeling so guilty anymore! Yay!). Lia likes waffles, bread with cream cheese, peanut butter and Nutella, Tzaziki and peppers. And Special K - but not Canadian Special K, German Special K. There is a huge difference. Seriously. And I have to agree with her.

Here's Kaia enjoying her indoor sandbox (featuring Love Rice imported from Canada - it's a long story - thanks Dad!)















I'm also taking steps toward starting an English language conversation class which is very exciting! I can't wait to start teaching again.

Oh, and I had my first massage since leaving Canada. It was awesome.

A headache recently has been the lice outbreak at the kindergarten. That's been an ongoing situation for a month now. We do 2 hairchecks a day - and this on a child who doesn't stand for any amount of hairbrushing by the gentlest person with the gentlest brush on the gentlest day of year. We've washed everything we own at 60 degrees several times (some things are smaller, and white things are darker) and are living with no cushions, throws or rugs anywhere. We haven't really "gotten" lice, but there have been a few visitors from other kids at the kindergarten. So we are making it as inhospitable as possible. Lice, begone!

We have a card which gives discounts at various attractions in the area, so it's encouraging us to get out on the weekends, even in these frigid temperatures. -3 is REALLY cold! We went to Sealife and parked in the designated parking lot which is so incredibly far from Sealife itself, it's hilarious, and there was a fairly brutal wind. Add to that the ridulously long ramp (I guess it was a pretty steep incline, and there must be some very conservative German rules about the slope of a ramp for wheelchairs, because while Lia and Marc managed the stairs in about 30 seconds, Kaia and I zigged and zagged down that ramp for nearly 30 minutes, it seemed. Back and forth, back and forth...) and then being unable to find Sealife for quite a while (we were thinking that had we been on the Amazing Race, they would have shown us looking really foolish and lost, and then a closeup of the sign clearly indicating our destination which we just passed several times) we were REALLY glad to get there. The kids loved it, and we got some funny photos:




















Another Saturday we took the kids to a local pool/sauna complex, and then returned by ourselves for Valentine's Day - very relaxing and fun. They have a wave pool, a smaller pool with slides for the kids (which Kaia loved, and I was so relieved since she HATED it the first time I took her swimming), a work-out room, a warm indoor pool, a cool outdoor pool and two warm outdoor pools that have a very high salt content. And they have a huge sauna area which is pretty spectacular with many flavours and styles of saunas, as well as a steam room. Great fun for the whole family.

Lia and Kaia celebrated their half-birthdays with peach pie and a Mary Poppins DVD. They are growing by leaps and bounds, becoming more and more independent and funny. And cute. And sweet. I love them dearly, and they make even the most ordinary day something spectacular.

Amsterd&#% !

We've just returned from Canada...what a trip!

At the outset, we were a little nervous about the flight. Kaia seemed to be teething. We loaded up and went to get Lia from Kindergarten with lots of time to get to the airport. Lia came to the car sobbing because she had bit Marc, and when he yelled, she was scared and sad. And maybe sorry. Maybe.
A block into our journey, I felt a cold and wet sensation and discovered that I had forgotten to put the valve in Lia's milk which was in the backpack on my lap. We had to return home and clean out the whole bag - it had leaked on all the food we brought, and there was a lot! But our neighbour saw my plight and helped, which was great.
So, a good trip until...our Dusseldorf to Amsterdam plane had a mechanical problem which caused a 3 hour delay and we missed the plane to Toronto. The only option was to overnight in Amsterdam (with no luggage, which remained in the system), and take a flight to Toronto via Paris early the next morning. We slept for 7 hours in Amsterdam (having been in airports for the previous 7 hours, and having only managed to travel 300kms), and got up early the next morning to fly to Paris which made no progress, but took quite a lot of time. And then we almost missed the flight from Paris to Toronto, since the connection was so short. After security, Marc scooped up both girls, and I grabbed all our stuff, and we took off running. I suggested that Marc not run over the nuns, and he missed them narrowly. As he was huffing and puffing along, Lia started rubbing his chest and said, "This is hard, eh, Daddy? It's hard. But it's okay. It'll be okay. It'll be okay, Daddy." And it was, kinda.
We arrived in Toronto 18 hours late, but we were glad to just collect our bags and head to our family and friends so we could -- what? No luggage? Upon making this discovery, we were a little ... crestfallen. And we spent the next several hours making a luggage claim, renting our car (and a carseat, since it had been checked, along with our stroller and bags containing clothes and Christmas presents), and making many trips to the potty. But at last we were on the road in our shiny red, massive SUV (Welcome to North America!) which would have been really handy if we had had all our gear!
I made a 2am (Germany time) trip to Zellers to get our 'first needs' (hopefully covered by KLM) with my wonderful sister who kept me on task and made the decision making and purchase process a joy. Or something as reasonably close to a joy as one could expect. It was very nice to be together.

So we had a very busy whirlwindy two weeks,visiting, celebrating Christmas for the 3rd time, welcoming our first nephew, Luke (VERY sweet), and somewhere in there, Marc worked fulltime! I really enjoyed singing in the Praise Team on Sunday. I miss that so much! It was wonderful to see family and friends and just be together. We visited our favourite restaurants, and had many great conversations. Lia and I even got to make a snowman together.














Our luggage came, one piece at a time, usually at midnight, right before we needed it. Marc got his work clothes Sunday night, and we got the Christmas presents right before heading to my sister's for "Christmas". God continues to teach me the importance of doing everything in love and the unimportance of stuff. In fact, a dependence on stuff can be quite inconvenient!
Right before we left, we were hit with some illness...imagine a house with 6 children and 4 adults. All children and at least one adult throwing up...somehow it wasn't so bad. Although I was really nauseous for the entire flight home, and Kaia vomited upon landing in Amsterdam. Marc sat between the kids and did a fantastic job. The people behind him said, "Good parents!", but they were talking to him! (We did get our luggage this time, by the way! We were pleasantly surprised.)

It's nice to be in Germany. Feels familiar and home-like. And it's nice to be done traveling. We're quite tired of loading/unloading the stroller to get past security checks, planing/deplaning, and going through revolving doors that aren't designed for strollers. Maybe we'll never travel again...
Ah, who am I kidding? But only direct flights from now on. That is our new rule and our advice for anyone traveling with children.

Here are some random photos of our adventures in Canada...

The snow finds us

Last week we decided that we needed to have some snow this winter. Never mind that we're visiting Canada in January in the snowiest snowful winter ever. So with our neighbours we drove a few hours north and went schlittenfahren. Fun time had by all. Except the kids. We should have maybe more paid attention to the fact that ALL the families returning to their cars included multiple children bawling their eyes out. I made a mental note not to stay THAT long, and set forth.
Every trip to the bottom of the hill was met with, "Noch mal! Do it again!" Lia had a blast. We didn't stay that long, we really didn't. And yet, all 4 kids were crying as we returned to our cars. We had a lovely time at a bakery to warm up, then drove 3 hours in a snowstorm to get home again. Yes, the snowstorm lasted for the duration of our drive. Yes, that means the snow came with us. First time since 1997, there is snow in the Ruhrgebiet.

Here are some shots of our adventure.

Kaboom!

New Year's Eve/Silvester 2009 was celebrated with a bang. We went to a friend's house for
Raclette - YUMMY! - and drove home at 12:45, despite warnings to wait a while. We should have waited, perhaps. It was ... how do I put this ... CRAZY! After enjoying a full 45 minutes of do-it-yourself fireworks surrounding us, there were still lots of explosions around our vehicle. And under our vehicle. I drove, and it was freaky.
In the morning, we took a walk to survey the damage...





























Marc found an unexploded package and was VERY excited. Even though Silvester was over, he lit it up on our balcony...









































So, Kaboom! I mean, Happy New Year! Also, Frohes Neues Jahr!