leise rieselt der Schnee - for all those lovely people in Germany and Austria or whoever wants to join us!

[Canella]

a new wintery thread in honour of Hupa's first snow of the season!

Hi everyone, sorry been away. Rally busy. Ds1 keeping me on my toes .

Bebe, welcome, is that right, you in Munich? I moved to Munich 2 years ago when 8 months pg.

Dd poorly today so about.

Hope everyone ok.

What's news?

Morning everyone. Hope you're all well and Canela your sickness has eased.
Spent the night being sick, think I ate something bad. Besides being rather 'after sick' feeling I'm ok, tho dh stuck around a little longer this morning worried I might not be able to handle dd. He's very concerned how ill I've been in these last weeks as I'm usually a pretty healthy gal. Stress I guess in addition to the new bugs I'm probably encountering in yet another country .

Yep ETB we're just outside of Munich in Haar.

We're out for our daily walk to the store soon...I just cannot bring back enough so that I can have a 'fun/relaxing' day. Though I guess it gives us something to do everyday. I did find the bins now, and have taken a picture of the list of items we can recycle (I think that's what it was about) and now need to translate it all.

I ordered a few dvds from Play.com because they have free shipping and they were only a few cents more than Amazon on the items I was looking at. Hopefully soon dd will stop asking for Seeep (Shawn the Sheep) or Mon-ters (Monsters Inc.)

Hope you all have a lovely day, the weather looks pretty good here again. :)

By the way, why are there 5 types of flour in the baking section?

OH and what store am I looking for if I want a few bits and bobs for dress making? (Dh surprised me by packing a sewing machine and I wanted to make dd a few little dresses for the summer- or try -as I've never made kids clothes before). Kurzwaren or Stoffladen? Is there a specific 'brand' of store to find like HobbyCraft? or will they be little independent ones?

Canella and bebe - hope you´re both feeling a bit better now.

bebe - I´m not really sure about the flours, but I always use 405 for baking cakes and muffins. I´m afraid I don´t have a clue about the others. I´m not sure about sewing either, but think there tend to be lots of smaller independent retailers around.

ernest - great to see you around again. How´s it going in the new house? I hope your dd is feeling better soon.

I had a letter today about ds´s Schuluntersuchung. There´s a whole page to fill out with information about when he first walked, said his first word/sentence etc. and I haven´t got a clue. With dd I had a fair idea because she was my pfb but I´ve really no idea about ds. I´ll ask dh, but think he´ll have even less idea.

Hope everyone is feeling better soon, lots of illness around at the moment. I've got dd home with a headache and fever.

Bebe, I don't sew either but I've noticed a section for material and sewing stuff in a few department stores like Karstadt, Galeria, Kaufhof. Same as hupa I use the white flour for cakes, pancakes, waffles (the 405) and I'm not sure what the other white flours are, there will be a Roggen flour on offer (not wheat, made with rye) and a few Vollkorn (whole wheat) flours probably.

Hope the dc enjoy the skiing course linzer and your tooth is better. Could it be the tooth causing your headache? If the wisdom tooth pushing that is.

I can't remember filling out those forms hupa (although we must have) but I guess they're looking for extremely late starters in walking, talking etc. Not really sure what good those tests do - dd went to be eingeschult 1 year early because she was bored in Kindergarden but she burst into tears during the test, wouldn't speak and shook her head when asked if she wante dto start school early! They still gave her the stamp to say she could start...hmm

feeling better today - been on my tues house cleaning and sorting frenzy this morning! always have some bbc podcasts to listen to - it definitely helps me do it all!!

Bebe - hope you feel better today! not sure about the flour either - i just buy 405 for most things (mostly cause i shop at aldi and they dont stock anything else) and use 550 if i want to make any bready type things where the recipe says "strong bread flour". I'm no use about the sewing - its not my thing!! sorry!

Ernest - nice to "see" you! hope life is a bit calmer than it was!

Hupa - think we had to fill in a form last year for ds1 like that but it only asked "did dc start walking later than 18 months?" "could dc speak by aged 2?". I'd be exactly the same as you - he is also dc2 and i have vague dates in mind but nothing exact!

admylin - i agree there is a lot of illness going around! ds1 is going to a party this afternoon and think he's the only guest - the rest have cancelled!!! but the mum says she might as well have ds1 round and then plan another party later in the year! at least the weather is lovely - they can be playing out all afternoon!!

wow bebe, I'm 5 minutes from you! Wanna meet up sometime?

ALl much calmer here, sort of. Don't think it ever will be calm, don't think it's supposed to be.hupa, glad it's not just me. WHen did he first walk/smile/get a tooth etc etc, d'you think it gets filed under 'Rabenmutter' when you haven't got a clue?

Hope everyone's feeling better. Lovely lovely sunshine:)

Maybe you could all look up the average dates of all these milestones of child development and put a rough date according to that!

Dd has had a call from her school friend and she absoloutly wants to go back to school tomorrow as it's project week and the class is having a big breakfast together and then they have the gym to themselves all morning. I just don'tthink she looks any better and she's not going if she has a temperature for sure - how ever much she wants to.

Lovely sunshine here too, and my dandelions (specially planted ones) are starting to grow at last for the gerbils to eat!

Good I've felt weird all day and now I have spotting again. :(

Did you manage to find the nearest doctor that you were looking for? Or can you ring the one you already saw?

We went to the emergency room before...still didn't locate the door of the place close by, but I've not been hovering around the building looking for pregnant ladies to walk in yet either...
Called dh and he said it would make sense that I'd spot now and again if it was a broken blood vessel and maybe even bleed. We're going to watch it closely and he said if I feel like I'm deteriorating or I actually start bleeding properly then we'll go back in. In the meantime he said he's going to get on the back of the guy that's supposed to be getting our insurance etc sorted.
(this pregnancy if nothing else makes me wish I was back in the UK, why couldn't it be the nice straightforward one I had with Moo??)

Oh, that must be so scary for you bebe, listen, I can help you if you want. I know I don't know you, but I could talk to receptionists, even come with you to book you in, till you're in capable hands of doctor if you want. Do you have a frauenarzt sorted? I went to one close to Haar, she was good, but had to wait ages, so changed. But there are loads of Frauenärzte all over. Happy to help.

Get plenty of rest.

A, hope dd feeling better soon.

My dd got durchfall. She's seemed better. Had my piano lesson, took her with me. Next pupil ( older man) already there waiting. So not only had the shame of playing really badly in front of stranger, to top it al, dd did a very noisy and stink poo. The shame. There was no mistaking it. When i was leaving they both piled over and flung open the windows

I went to bed immediately after we had supper. And slept pretty much until 6.30 when dd woke up. (2nd night in the row she's managed to sleep thru the night here- in a big bed no less) I feel a bit better and have had no more spotting. Dh told me to try and stay relaxed today, but he's had a terrible time trying to get himself sorted for work this morning...his things keep going missing which is very strange for him. He was stomping around yelling to himself abt lost items. You'd think in a smaller place with SO MUCH less stuff we'd not be having these problems.
ETB that would be really great if you could help with the receptionists. I've not lined anything up yet, still trying to figure out this insurance stuff. Going to make some calls myself and see what I can do abt the EHIC. I'll let you know as soon as I've got it sorted.
-] abt the stinky poo. I took dd to the store once and she did the same thing in the check-out line...it was a long wait to get to the end...I thought I was going to pass out I felt terrible abt everyone else too.

Hope everyone has a good day. I'll be busy trying to sort out things, wish me luck!

aw glad you feel better today bebe - it would be great for Ernest to help you if she can. I met my local English speaking friend very quickly after getting here and she was a great help for doctors appointments etc in those first few nervous months! Just having someone who knows their way around the system helps!

slightly stressing at the mo - doing my first english nachhilfe with one of the village kids later. I'm no english teacher but he's only 12 so how hard can it be? my german teacher also teaches english anf kindly lent me some books to start us off!! any advice from anyone would be great! he's not coming till 4pm!

canella- I am sure you will be fine! I taught english ages ago so not very up to date on online resources. But I am guessing that the first hour will be about finding out how much he knows and what he wants help with - talking, writing, school homework? Linzer might be able to help more....

beba- good to hear you are feeling better.

admylin- how is your dd?

hupa- I am also hopeless at remembering these milestones. I take an educated guess, and hope it is convincing.

ernest - how old is your dd? hope she feels better soon and that it is not a tummy bug that does the rounds.

Linzer - how is the snow? Is it too warm for skiing? Lovely days to be on the slopes if the snow is holding out.

I have a question...do you say du or Sie to other parents at school/kindergarten? I have had such mixed experiences...I always say Sie
at first but it sounds a bit strange at times. And when people tell you their first name is this an indication that we should move to du? Slightly puzzled because dd´s friends´ mother came to pick friend up and while we were having a cup of tea she said "ich bin Petra". I was a bit thrown because I knew she was Petra...she had written down her name and mobile number in the morning, in case something was wrong with her daughter. I spent the next sentences avoiding any du or Sies (rather challenging with my limited vocab) until she said "du..."

oh bananas i have proper dilemmas all the time about du/Sie!! I've taken to using du all the time with the mums at kindergarten (altho the ones i meet most of the time are friends anyway since i more often pick up the boys from the bus stop in the village)!

Any time in the past that i used Sie then they always used du back so i gave up in the end!

I think if she was in your house for a cuppa then du would have been fine!

Its my neighbours that i have trouble with - the ones who are older than me i always use Sie with but then that sounds really formal to me and i see them all the time! but i dont know how to get out of it!

I think coming from Britain where there is no formal case makes the whole thing more difficult - english is so much simpler!

oh and how much should i charge for an hours nachhilfe?

thanks canella. I know what you mean about english being easier. I try to compare to Spain where I would just use the informal form. But then I think, isn´t Germany/Austria more formal about these things? Nobody in Spain would be called Frau Dr Ing at the dr´s - I heard this called out over the tannoid at the eye dr!

friend pays 15 euros for her son´s English lessons (1 hour). But he is one of a group of 4 and I don´t know how Vienna prices compare to where you live.

good luck!

grrr..spent ages trying to fit new inner tube into buggy tyre and now it is not pumping up. I have managed it plenty of times before but somehow it just ain´t happening today. I shall go to the bike shop and do the idiotic foreigner + daft lass impersonation.

Canella, how did the lesson go? Hope you enjoyed it! I charged 15 when I had my student recently as I'm not a qualified teacher - I know 'real' teachers charge alot more. Is the dc at Gymnasium? Here they use Green Line course books at school.

Bananas, don't they just love their titles here! Dh doesn't like using his but when we were flat hunting and we said our name and Herr Doktor ... it always helped! His boss likes to be correctly addressed as Professor Dr. Med...which dh hates as he says it's so obvious that you're a Doktor if you're a Professor so why bother!

Dd still has a temperature and is very fed up - she even got up at 6.30am to get ready for school but I sent her back to bed as she was so hot.

Westvan, remember I bought that thermometer in town? It's broken already - cost 5 euro for a classic thermometer and the next day I saw the digital ones on sale for 1 euro in our shopping centre! Typical.

Well, I have painted one door today and fixed the handle, only 7 more to go then I can hopefully pack my paints and brushes away for a while.

Just a quickie - it went fine and i only charged them 10?! If i was a bit more experienced (or had any clue how to explain grammar!!) then i might have charged more!! But he's coming back next week!!

Sounds good canella! I think you have to keep repeating to him that he has to learn his vocab though. That seems to be the main problem with ds's friends, they are totally lost because they can't be bothered to learn their vocab and no amount of extra tutoring will help that.

Well, my cupboards are empty and so is the fridge so I guess I'll be doing the big shop today. Everything runs out at once. Dd still off school too.

Well done Canella. I bet they thought a tenner was a right bargain! I wouldn't dare do english Nachhilfe, as I don't know my grammar at all

Sorry your dd still poorly ad. Been a while now? My dd is back at Krippe today, hurray. Actually it's been nice having her here, lots of cuddles, but not much housework done. Our fridge and cupboards are also bare, which was a bit stressy over breakfast and when ds1 announced he was going on a school trip, so he needed a packed lunch. He nearly got a thermos of hot water and a packet of dried pasta. (bad mum emoticon).

About to go shopping. ANy suggestions for a quick and easy veggie meal for dinner?

Canella - glad the lesson went well. I hate trying to explain English grammar. I know when something sounds wrong, but it´s so hard explaining why it´s wrong.

bananas - I use du with all of the other mums. I´m sure as the mum introduced herself with her first name she´d be happy for you to use du.

Ernest - how is your ds getting on who was having the growth problems? Have there been any developments? Glad to hear your dd is feeling better.

I filled in the form for the Schularzt with average ages except for language because ds does have real problems. The appointment isn´t until March, but I´m sending dh because I know he´ll be more assertive than me if they start saying ds can´t start school because of his speech problems.

Is your ds the same age as mine (was 6 in october) - i wonder if i'm making that up!! so he'd have to go to school this september? would they really hold him back a year? is he getting some help with his speech? (that seems like loads of questions!!)

ernest - i like risotto as a quick veggie meal - i make it with wild and normal mushrooms but its never a hit with the kids!! (all the more for me!!!!!!!)

SO can i have a wee moan - my IL's are on a long holiday in Africa - they've been away since New Years Eve and arent back till end of March! Like when they are in Germany its up to me to make sure the kids speak to them cause dh just cant be bothered to listen to his mum's moans! So they've got no phone where they are but a laptop so i've been diligently moaning at dd to write emails regularly.
but no this wasnt enough - in the last email to dd, they asked could ds's write an email to them!!!! neither of them are at school yet and cant read or write so it'd be impressive to write an email!
So i sat with the boys and typed out their questions and what they wanted to tell Oma and Opa! but i started the email with "hier sind Ds1, ds2 (mit hilfe von Mummy)" and finished it with "liebe grusse ds1, ds2 und Mummy"

so to the point of the moan - they write back this morning to the boys (which i read out to them) but called me Mami all the way thro the email!!! they always call me this to the dc but i've been a mummy for over 9 years now!! i even wrote it in the email!! how hard is it to call me what they dc call me - i dont call them gran and grandpa!! i'm so tempted to write a nice but cheeky email back to them titled - to gran and grandpa!!!

but i'm going to sit on my hands and moan on here instead!!