In order for the party to end this way you either have to be really drunk or a toddler....

With all of the Halloween excitement Katy didn't end up taking a nap today. It made for a very cranky Mommy and baby. I had planed to drop Katy off with Ryan at 5 and head to German class. WAY before then I'd had more than I could handle and Katy got to experience her first take your daughter to work moments. I went home because I had a headache.

The plan had been to head to a kids fun run (I'd planned to stay long enough to snap a few pictures; obviously that didn't happen). They went but only three other kids showed up, so it wasn't a rousing success. Who wants to do wholesome and healthy activities on Halloween? Apparently only us.

Katy got her first taste of chocolate today and she really is my child, she was hooked. I gave her ONE M&M this morning. This afternoon she had ransacked her trick or treat bag from the library and brought out the small bag of M&M's inside. She instantly recognized the bag and spent a very long time aggressively pursuing me making the "more" sign over and over again and thrusting the bag at me to open it. She knew there was good stuff in that bag and I just needed to help her get it out. I caved and gave her a few and she was one happy little girl.

That leads us to here. I pulled off Katy's costume to allow her to prance around in her tights and t shirt (an activity she'd been enjoying all day on and off). She then insisted that EVERYTHING needed to come off. It was the end of the night so that was fine. Finally she insisted that the costume go back on and here is where we ended up:



In case you're wondering, Ryan ate the skittles and just handed her the package)







Finally it all came off but she was sure she needed to make a call to someone, anyone, to tell them about her day.



Note the tail hanging out the diaper....



We've had two set of trick-or-treaters this evening. The first was a large group of German kids in street clothes (no costumes). They'd obviously been told that if they rang doorbells they'd get candy but hadn't gotten much more information than that. They stood on the doorstep and looked at me blankly. I finally gave them each a huge handful of candy. They were obviously analyzing what I'd given them amongst themselves, and quite loudly. I got to the last one and they all just stood there and stared at me. I loudly said "Happy Halloween" and they all just continued to stare at me. I don't know what else they expected but one of them finally got the hint that our transaction was over and gave me a cheery "Tchuss" (See you later!) and led the group away happily into the night. The second set wasn't nearly as eventful, but at least we're getting rid of some of the gigantic piles of candy. This is a far cry from the base trick-or-treating we're used to where we run out of in record time.

The little one is tucked safely in her bed; a successful Halloween behind her.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Happy Halloween!!!

It started off a very sad day here. I'm trying to be a good German and lower my window shades (they're called roladen if you were wondering - and they are these huge industrial metal things that roll down and cover the entire window) every night. It saves energy. So, not only am I being a good German, I'm probably saving us money on our heating bill. Well, last night I finished cleaning up the kitchen and went to lower the shade and the cord snapped right in my hand and rolled up into the shade. Of course, the shade snapped down into a permanently closed position. Here is the result:



One of the things I love about our house is the view. In fact, it's pretty much THE thing I love about our house because without the view it's just an average small house with ugly industrial blue carpet. I love sitting with Katy while she eats any meal or snack and looking out the window while we chatter to each other and I love how much natural light comes in through these huge windows. Without this, the kitchen feels somewhat like a prison. Luckily, as I type this the landlord (who is a very sweet man and very responsive when we have a problem) is standing in my kitchen whistling to himself and installing a new cord.

That crisis resolved, we decided to head to one of the base libraries for story time. I'd been a bit burned by the Ramstein library when we moved here. They KICKED ME OUT because Katy was being too noisy; and they weren't polite about it. She was a baby for goodness sake and at least have a modicum of manners and ask me to leave politely. I've been back inside once, without Katy, to see if it seemed like a place kids were welcome and it didn't, so I assumed all the base libraries were like that. One of the mothers at play group yesterday convinced me that the Landstuhl library was actually a nice story time. Boy was she right!

First we needed to get dressed, which in and of itself is an adventure. First the body of the costume went on but the hat wouldn't stay on. Fine. That, and she HAD to wear the flasher from the marathon. Fine.



Then the black shoes went on but were promptly removed in a screaming fit because THIS black cat was not going to wear black shoes today, she was going to wear BROWN shoes. Fine. I couldn't get a good photo of the resulting outfit because she kept running at me at full speed, so here's all you get.



Next we had to commune with the cat about how to actually BE a cat (it involves a lot of laying around on clean laundry is what I've gleaned over the past few years - if I could convince Katy to lay anywhere quietly for even a few minutes I'd consider my cat ownership days a complete and total success).



Finally, we had to inspect the pumpkins on the way out the door (they didn't hold up as well as we'd hoped....) and readjust the hat to a jaunty angle.



On top of being a story hour, they also had the kids dance AND did a craft AND had a snack. I was very impressed. Here's Katy making her trick-or-treat bag as her craft.







Here she is stealing other children's trick-or treat bags. That's my girl....



And climbing in places she shouldn't be.



Finally, in line with her friend Julia to get her trick-or-treat presents.



Having her snack of cookie (with frosting) and punch with Julia.



A couch to climb on with an Elmo pillow and life was the best it's ever been.



This was a nice story time. We'll definitely go back. It was what I think a kids section of a library should be. Kid friendly! There were toys (even noisy ones) and kid sized places that were comfortable for the kids to sprawl out and read.

On our way out we got to experience Katy's favorite part of the day. They had military working dogs practicing somewhere nearby and the ones that were waiting their turn were parked next to our car. The military members were more than happy to show the dogs off. The one on the right was named "Peek-a-boo" which, every time they said the name, led Katy to cover her eyes and attempt to play with the dog. They thought she was hysterical.



I'm sure we'll have some more Halloween fun as the day wears on, but I'm getting so far behind and my trip is so close that I didn't want to delay. Plus, how can you start off your Halloween without at least a few shots of Katy in costume?

All right, since I'm apparently in a video sort of mood today....

I just stole this off the blog Get In The Car! because it made me laugh and it's so true.

Enjoy!

Mom My Ride

**I removed the video - it was making people's computers crash. If you want to see it go to the blog I linked above and view it through her blog**

Isn't technology grand?

I wouldn't bother with this unless you REALLY have a lot of time on your hands or are really a fan of watching Ryan run, but here's the link to the video montage that Runner's World is providing to all runners of the Frankfurt marathon for FREE.

Click here for the montage

The neat thing is that the link I provided you is for the "general" video which shows the highlights of the event. On the right of the screen you'll see Ryan's name and race number and under that are some listed some race distances (5K, 15K, 21.1K, etc...) If you click on each of those links it'll show a video of the actual marathon and, through the wonder of technology, it tells you at exactly what second in the video clip you can see Ryan (most of the videos run about a minute). To make it easier for you if you so choose to look I've broken down where he is.

To start, Ryan's wearing a red short sleeved shirt with writing on it and black shorts. He's also wearing a black headband/ear warmer for most of the shots.

The 5K one is only worth looking at to see just HOW MANY people there were running this thing. It's no wonder I couldn't spot him in the crowd because I still can't spot him in this video.....

At 15K Ryan is on the far left of the screen when he appears.

At 21.1K Ryan is in the center of the screen.

At 25K he's still in the center of the screen.

At 30K he's on the right of the screen.

At 35K he's at the left of the runners (which is close to the center of the screen because there are spectators in the shot). He's also moved his ear warmer down around his neck at this point.

At 40K he's in the left of the screen.

In the finish shot he's towards the center. This one is pretty dark (the hall was incredibly dark - like I said in my earlier post, it was quite the atmosphere) but I think I can see a crack of a smile at how glad he is to be done.....

So, that's it. Katy and I were cheering for him about 300 meters from the actual finish line, so we're not in any of the shots. I think this is some pretty amazing technology that they could get it up this fast and pinpoint where exactly he was.

The elation and the crash.....

Mondays are pretty routine. We get up and snuggle a little while Katy drinks her milk, I get showered while Katy plays a little, we head downstairs to eat breakfast, play a little more and then head out the door to gymnastics.

This morning we had two moments that had my heart just swelling to the point of bursting with pride.

When I'm getting ready to shower Katy usually hangs out at the baby gate. It's turned into a routine that when I turn on the water she pops her binky out (she can still have it in bed and until after I shower in the morning) and puckers up for a kiss. I always bend down and oblige (how could anyone not?). This morning after our kiss she took about half a step back, looked me in the eye and made the sign for "more." I thought I would melt that my child just asked for more kisses.

After I showered we got ready to head downstairs. This usually involves me wrangling the remainder of her clothes for the day that she's not already wearing (like socks, since they won't stay on now, and sweatshirts). I also have to find the milk bottle so that the remaining milk doesn't get left behind to rot. Katy usually "helps" me out by carrying the milk bottle while I carry her. This morning she was on my left hip and the bottle was still in my right hand. As clear as could be she looked right at it and said "Milk!" I almost fell down the stairs and then I almost cried. So, she can't say Mommy or Daddy but, by goodness, she just learned how to say milk. Any new word is a fantastic accomplishment right now and I'm as pleased as can be. I even called Ryan at work to tell him know and every time I said the word she would stop eating breakfast and point to her milk bottle that was still on the table. I'm bursting with pride.

And then comes the fall.

At gymnastics I spent some time talking to another Mom. Her son is also "spirited" like Katy. We are the two parents there that look perpetually exhausted. We chatted and agreed that one of the worst parts about having a spirited child is the looks you get from other people; the "why can't you control your child?" looks.

After gymnastics we ran to the post office (yes, all good stories seem to start at the post office). We had a package slip but there was no line so I called to Katy and we started walking up to hand over the slip. Katy took that as her opportunity to peel her jacket off and run in the opposite direction. I gave chase, picked her up, brought her back and was quietly explaining to her that she needed to stay near me and put her coat back on. Of course, she started to scream. I honestly expected it and was prepared and calm. We'd run too many errands and with the time change her body just wasn't ready to handle it. I've been reading a lot about handling kids like Katy and change is typically very bad for them (I'd intuitively known that but it's always interesting to see something you know in actual print - and since somewhere less than 10% of kids are seriously spirited like Katy - she's off the charts - it pretty hard to find literature dealing with her behavior) so I knew the time change would throw us off for a while. There was another woman waiting for her package with her perfect little toddler in tow standing nicely and holding her hand (Katy's NEVER stood still anywhere nicely and held my hand). The toddler did what I would think was a completely normal thing and took a step forward to look and see why Katy was screaming. The mother jerked her back and with no attempt to cover her disdain for me or Katy's behavior said "No, we don't look at people who are like that!" Like what? Normal? I didn't hide my shocked look at her comment and she added a quick, but not very contrite: "It's not polite."

So, it's confirmed, I have one of "those kids" and am fated to receive "those looks" from people forever. I'd always suspected it, but now it's official. It's just amazing how something so simple can change the entire tone of your day. Without that comment I would have dealt with Katy's tantrum and just moved on in my same happy bubble like I do with all of her tantrums every day. Now I'm simply sad that someone who doesn't know me decided to judge me as a bad parent or judge Katy as a bad child (and I don't think either is true) based on watching our interaction. She's just full of more energy and curiosity than any child could ever hope to burn (and yes, I know how much energy kids normally burn); as the author of the book I'm currently put it: Spirited kids are simply MORE of everything. More energetic, more sensitive, more curious, more emotional, and the list goes on. I just hope that the world doesn't judge us too harshly as we try to figure out how to handle the "mores" in our life. It's fitting that her first sign was more. Think she knows?

On Saturday morning we were looking for a quiet-ish activity since we knew that Sunday and the marathon would be tough. Someone pointed out to me that there was a school Halloween festival at one of the base military schools. The first step was to pull the costume out of hiding. Katy likes to dress up so much I worried about what kind of state the costume would be in by Halloween if I actually let her see it in advance. Next year this will be harder since she'll actually have an idea of what's coming but for now I could get away with hiding it in her closet. A pair of tights, a black long sleeved t-shirt and a costume later and, voila, one black kitty cat. We've been trying to get her to say "Meow" but it just didn't happen in time.



That's one happy girl.



The only problem was that she wanted to dress herself. So, off the hat came.



And back on it went at the angle SHE wanted it at.





I wasn't quite finished packing her bag so she and Ryan ran outside for a few minutes. Katy was INSISTENT that Ryan wear her cat hat, so yes, that's really what he's wearing. She pulled out one of her "regular" hats to wear instead.







We were actually a few minutes early so we ran by the Post Office (see, I don't mind doing it with an additional adult along, it's so much easier). I came out and found Ryan and Katy over on the golf course, which was quite a distance away.



The putting green flag was fun to swing around.



And even more fun to figure out how to put it back.





Now she knew she was in heaven. A car just her size.





Off to the first tee.



We were lucky that it was quite cool so there weren't many golfers around for us to bother. Ryan promised Katy that there would be plenty of golfing trips in her future between him and her Grandpa.



Finally, off to the festival. It had all of the cute things you expect at a school carnival; a bean bag toss, a "fishing game," a cake walk and so much more. The fun thing is that Katy is slowly becoming old enough to participate in these things. First priorities first though, she needed to wander around and pick up every balloon that had fallen down.



She participated in the bean bag toss. They let her stand right up against the holes and shove the bags through. Very cute (I was helping her and the camera was on my back, so it's your loss - you should come visit if you want to see these things in person!) Next we wandered off to "fish." Katy LOVED this game and we had to helplessly keep hading over ticket after ticket as she refused to relinquish the pole and kept pulling out more "fish."







She was quite good at it though and was doing it all by herself at the end.







I thought this was neat. There was a basketball toss, which was obviously a bit advanced for her. Well, she was sure it wasn't. She picked up this basketball off the floor, beelined straight for the small basket and put the ball over her head in an attempt to get it in. She knew exactly where that basketball was supposed to go. Of course, some help from Daddy made it easier.









Have you ever seen a child look more upset at being force to eat an unhealthy hot dog? Poor kid, taking a break to eat some lunch was NOT in her game plan (and it wasn't actually as bad as it looks, I just somehow caught a pout on the camera instead of the smile).



We went back in to see what else there was. We ended up in the first grade classroom (where we shouldn't have been, we know) because Katy was enthralled with it. She thought the fish tank was especially fun.



As Ryan quipped: "Proof that cats and dogs CAN get along."



We ran into the classroom teacher who was surprised to see us in there so we apologized and quickly made our exit.

By this point we'd only seen half the carnival so we headed onward. This turned out to be Katy's favorite part; a "stuffed animal walk." (like a cake walk) She thought it was so much fun to stand on the numbers and march around the circle with everyone else.



Of course, even with the best of things patience and attention span are quickly lost so Ryan was left finishing up for her. She didn't win anything but she certainly had fun (so much so that we did it twice).



My final attempt to get a cute Halloween shot. They had a hay bale with a pumpkin. If only I could get Katy to sit on it. There was just way too much to do and see, it wasn't meant to be. This is the closest I got.



We had a great time but had to head home eventually to take a nap. We actually really enjoyed this one. It was nice to be in a very family friendly atmosphere AND be on a military base so we could let our guard down just a little. We still didn't let Katy get far away from us, but it was nice to not worry as much when she darted on the other side of someone. We knew she was safe. Hopefully the kitty costume will get pulled out again (I have German class of Wednesday night so the chances of partaking in any events is lessened seriously).