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!

Could you take your DD out of the Krippe for a day or two and still go back to the UK, Ernest? I went along with the DC (and DH) to DD2's and DS's skiing course and sat in the cafe reading my book all morning - not very exciting, but it was fine (and it was nice to have the rare chance to read during the day!). I would rather have stayed at home and got on with a few bits and pieces, but DH thought it would be good if someone was there if DD2 and DS needed anything if he and DD1 went off skiing (which they didn't in the end).

Come to think of it, there must be quite a few women who give birth here without speaking any German. I had to ask DS's kindergarten teacher about a missing birthday party invitation this morning - DS has told me who took it and the teacher said she would speak to her about it, but she couldn't ask her mother as she didn't speak any German (she's Eastern European, I think). At the gynaecologist I used to go to, there were always quite a few women (mainly Turkish) who were accompanied by their husbands as they didn't speak any German.

No luck on the phone; we took it in and the guy said they don't deal with the company the sim was for (tho on the website it said they did) Dh has taken it into work and is hoping someone will help register the sim over the phone. He's also under strict orders to get help sorting out a bank account, because apparently the agent guy has/is not going to help with that...

I know many people must do it (give birth in countries where they don't speak the language) but I'd rather not. I really really hate hospitals and the idea just makes the whole thing all the worse. :( As for travelling we drove here and would be driving back so that's not a problem per se. At this point we're going on the idea that I'll be ok to travel for the 10ish hours it takes to drive (over 2 days). Though as things progress we may change our plans. One such idea was to leave a week early. Another to have PIL come and 'get me' (and Moo)either by train or car (maybe early) and Dh return with the car on his own.
With the baby coming early...well I just don't know, didn't get that far yet tbh. Tho I had terrible nightmares about it before we came (in it dh was away at work and I had no idea what to do and was trying to keep Moo calm as I basically gave birth in front of her) I just don't know what we'd do abt Moo. That's the biggest issue really. The rest would all have to happen because there'd be nothing I could do to stop it from happening...but I don't know what to do abt Moo. Might be able to have PIL come and stay, but really not ideal as the place is not big enough and they'd be in the livingroom...Tho MIL could do all the cleaning for when we leave which would be great. Dunno.
Antenatal care is supposed to be happening here mostly, but as I've not had my silly EHIC card (still) I've not done anything abt it all yet, but not overly worried in reality as I did have the bloodtests before I went and as long as I get scanned by 20 weeks to check for abnormalities I guess not much matters. My belly is growing, I've got no protein in my urine and my blood pressure is low. Now that I'm pretty much over the miscarriage thing-my belly wouldn't be growing and I'd be feeling ill (truly ill- not just preggy ill) if there had been one and it wasn't discharged properly by now...there's not much that happens until later. Indeed with Moo I didn't end up going to my 'check-ups' between 11-22 weeks because of holidays abroad, the Christmas season and missing an appointment that I was sure I had made for a different day..

So, given the circumstances what would you ladies do in my place?

Sounds like you had fun at the cinema Linzer. :)

Can you go to the UK for a long weekend Ernest?

I do know how you feel bebe - I thought I wouldn't be able to have DD1 in the USA as she was a "pre-existing condition" and that I'd have to fly back to Austria for her to be born. Despite the fact that I speak fluent German, I was quite nervous about having her in a country that I didn't know very well (and I was still getting used to the Austrian dialect at the time!) and must admit that I was quite relieved to discover I could have her in PA after all (it must have been more of a language issue with me actually, as I knew the USA even less than I did Austria at that stage).

How many weeks will you be when you go back to the UK? I remember my midwife in the USA telling me I shouldn't travel more than about two or three hours by car after 34 weeks (IIRC).

Can your DH not take any time off work to look after your DD when the baby is born? (I appreciate it must be difficult if he hasn't been in the job very long.) DH took a week off when DS was born (I think his employers gave him one day off and he took the rest as holiday - I was in hospital for eight days) as we don't have any GPs/family nearby and my ILs wouldn't have been up to looking after DD1 and DD2 for that long anyway.

We'd be about 37 weeks on returning to the UK. Since Dh is contracted and the contract ends on 29th of July and dc2 is due 18th-26th ish of Aug he'd be off of work at the end. And the hope was either this job would let him work from home (in the UK with a new contract) or we'd find another contract which we'd try to start a couple of weeks after the birth, and which would hopefully either be close enough for a nightly commute, or would even be near home.
ILs are 1.5 hours away (when in the UK) which isn't bad, but they've committed themselves to taking care of dn&n to help out S&BIL who are teachers, so to be honest they'd not really be able to help because of the time of the year.
Likewise my family is far away (as you know) and while I did have visitors with Moo and they all helped out in the first months the timing is wrong also because school and because I'll be the 3rd sister to have a baby this year so the vacation time is being used up before our baby comes.
If we were still in Germany when the baby came he'd simply have to take time off of the current contract (which usually means they tack in on at the end).

I think I'd be slightly worried about travelling back to the UK so near to my due date and would certainly consider going back earlier, even if it means without your DH (who would hopefully make it back over in time for the birth anyway). I can also imagine it would be very stressful moving back so late in your pregnancy, although I'm sure you've considered it all in depth already - and like you said, your plans may have to change nearer the time anyway.

It's difficult when ILs already have other commitments, isn't it? I think my ILs feel they've already done their bit by looking after DH's niece and nephew when my SIL (also a teacher) went back to work. They have had them to stay overnight a couple of times, but my MIL has always complained how exhausted she is afterwards - it's a little frustrating considering all the hours she's spent looking after SIL's DC. My FIL came to stay for a night when DD2 was born (when I was still in hospital) but otherwise I've never had any help - other than from DH - when any of them were born.

Have sent ds off on his trip today. It's sort of quiet without him, and 5 days is too long... he did phone me to say they had arrived though so I know he is happy, he got the top bunk bed and was just unpacking. I forgot to ask him if he has snow!

Dd will be back soon, hopefully her German test went well.

I think your timing will be OK bebe, and alot of the travel warnings are about travel companies/plane companies etc not wanting to have to deal with women giving bith while travelling with them (obviously) but if your travelling with your own car it's perfect as you can always stop when you feel uncomfortable, drink eat when you like and have a walk around etc.

Ernest, they aren't strict about missing kindergarten are they? Hope you find somewhere to go. How is the garden planning going? Friends of ours built over a year ago and have just got their garden done now so you're quicker than them! They still grew loads of veg last year but just in the middle of a pile of earth, now it's all layed out in a neat veggie bed.

Oh have you a full garden to plan out Ernest? I did ours about 3 years back when we moved into a new build. It was such a tiny place that I couldn't do half of what I wanted... it's only really coming up properly this year...tho I'm not going to be there to see!! The first year I planted it rained the whole summer, the second it was a little better and last year I moved things around a little because things grew faster/and better in some locations than I thought they were going to...I figure another 3 years and it'll finally be where I want it. (and then we'll probably move)

(I'm terrible at staying on top of it and it'll probably be completely overrun when we get back)

Hope ds enjoys his trip Ad, and manages to get plenty to eat!

Dd can miss Krippe whenever. I just am all dithery about best combination. Plus my mum has suggested I stay with her so I feel sort of obliged to if I go, horror.

I have a whole garden to pla. It has been sitting completely bare and empty since we moved in in September. Finally the gardeners are going to turn up and re start, mid march, so I want to tell them what to do. I have actually got lots of ideas, but still a few things I can't quite work out as we've got a couple of awkward areas.

Having more fun and games with ds1. Honestly, can I sell him?

Hmm, can't you treat you and dd to 4 or 5 days in the sun somewhere?! Sounds good if you can plan your garden from scratch. Have you already got the paved area done (like a terrace and path)? Would be helpful if you could sit with the garden people before they come as they might have some good tips.

So what's ds1 up to this time?

It's very quiet - dd has no one to fight with. Dh just phoned that his boss has applied for his contract to be verlängert but he needs some sort of Bescheinigung from the place he did his PhD. Sounds funny as he's been here for over 2 years as a senior scientist so it's abit late to be asking for that sort of thing. He needs another year maximum to get enough publications to apply for assistant professor type permenant job.

yes, the patio is all done. Garden people useless. I asked them already for ideas and they just shrugged and said to make it all grass. Inspired or what?!

I need someone who's even vauguely interested to justb brainstorm for an hour or something. Dh just rolls his eyes. He can't be bothered to think about it.

Ds3 is now poorly, got sent home from school. Ds1 is trying to cram his entire teenage years into 6 months I think. He has been the most perfect boy for the first 11 years of his life, he is now decided to make up for lost time. Blimey, it's true, when they were toddlers it seemed so hard, and someone told me that was the easy bit - as they get bigger, so do the problems. Honestly...

Anyway, hope your dh gets to where he needs without too many hassles Ad. It all sounds so complicated.

I've heard exactly that ernest! My 2 didn't have the terrible twos or anything and everyone has warned me that I'm going to get it all in one go sooner or later. Hmm, dd flips out when she shouts at ds and has moody days but otherwise I'm still expecting more...

I always tell people with small dc to enjoy them too - you can still pick them up and hug them and they're so cute.

Hope ds feels better soon - is he staying home tomorrow?

yes, having a 2 year old now is extra lovely cos I love picking her up and giving her a big cuddle. Not that I didn't with the others of course, but I now know what's in store, I'm getting my money's worth :)

Ds2 and ds3 are still very cuddly. I dread the day when ds2 doesn't cuddle any more ( he's 10 now, so I'm enjoying his cuddles while I can) he's really loving. I guess I've not done too badly in the cuddle stakes :)

Heard from another parent just now that the class is visiting Goslar today. I keep checking the webcam to see if I can see a group of dc! Looks like a nice town with lots of old houses.

Probably not ds's idea of a good day out. Anyway, there will be no more news as the boy who still had his mobile has been turned in my some of the other dc (they were all meant to hand in their mobiles and he his his)!

Lovely and sunny here but freezing cold. It's March, it should be getting milder.

sunny here too, but v. thick frost this am. It's def. nudging in the right direction.

How is ds? Is he feeling better?

It's definitely not very spring-like here - we've had snow again today.

Where ds is staying they have 5cm of snow!

Ernest did you find anything to do over the holidays?

I should be painting door frames but I can't motivate myself.

I'm trying to motivate myself to plan tomorrow's English lesson, but think I might leave it until this evening. I have quite a bit left over from last week's lesson so shouldn't have to much to prepare anyway. Have decided to have a cup of coffee and write a letter instead!

Is it your DS's first school trip, admylin?

No he's been on 2 before but I can't get used to him not being here. He's probably enjoying himself, infact I'm sure he is but we're not even used to having our dc looked after over one night so it's strange.

My parents often have their other gdc over night or even for weekends but that's the disadvantage of not having family nearby!

ds is the same, thanks, but neurofen really helps. He's just watching star wars for the zillionth time. I've been painting ds2 room and a Union Jack Flag in matching colours (steel and pea green).

Ds1 English teacher just called. She's set up a meeting with me and the Senior Manager to discuss ds1 English. I obviously want to be as constructive as possible - they seem open to listening to me, and perhaps acting on it. Next year ds2 will go there (I assume) and hopefully in 3 years ds3, so I'm hoping to propose a policy for native speakers (the gymnasium is also a language specialist centre and I think from the 7th class many lessons are bilingual english-german) so English is an important part of the school, so I think they should have to resources etc and def. seem to be cooperative. So all good. MY Q is, what do I say!!!!!

My gut feeling is that ds 1 should on the whole follow the main curriculum that all the other pupils do (so here no more work for the teacher). He also is learning grammar points and rules, rather than just 'knowing' the answer iyswim. But when it comes to applying the knowledge, I don't think he should be putting the right verb into the gap, that's a waste of time, or copying out reams of vocab, again, a waste. My thoughts are he should apply the knowledge in a different way, eg use the vocab/grammar rule learnt in the form of a longer piece of writing, a letter, a paragraph on what he did at the weekend, that sort of thing. Is this enough, or does anyone have any different or better ideas?

I'll do a thread in secondary ed to see if any language teachers there have any ideas too. Are there any books or resources I should recommend? I think if it doesn't impact on the class, the curriculum or the teacher too much, they are more likely to give it a whirl. What do others think?

Definately aim for any ideas to not impact on the class as you say - if the teachers think it's going to be more work for them they won't like it.

I agree it's great for our native speakers to learn the grammar rules (I was never taught grammar properly) but have you noticed that the teachers check homework at all? In our Gymnasium they scan the books to make sure the dc have done their homework but don't mark. I've had ds's friends round with their French books to revise and saw loads of mistake sin the homework which they were revising from...I corrected it for them but they'd been using wrong phrases for ages. So, very difficult - hopefully ayou'll get some good ideas from other language teachers on here. I'll watch too!

At the moment I'd like my dc not to have marks taken off for using language that hasn't been covered by the class so it's automatically wrong - it isn't though.

So far I haven't come across that problem, though I know the american speaker in the class has.

I must say, I don't go through his books (bad mother). Anyway, he wants to do latin next year, so I'll be no help whatsoever. (It was, mit Abstand, my worst subject) I reckon I'd enjoy it now, I just didn't get it at all. Now I've tackled German I think it would make a lot more sense.

It is so frustrating when they get marks knocked off for being too advanced! Still, I can't complain too much (yet) as dd seems to have dyslexic tendancies so her spelling is very bad and she gets alot of marks knocked off for that.

Hope you get some good ideas from your other thread. OK, must start painting - do you reckon I have to sand the door frame lightly or really press hard with th esand paper? If lightly is OK then it's going to be a quick job, if it has to be really gründlich then that's what's putting me off!

Having baby tomorrow so won't be on here for a while! Hope everything going well for you all. Feeling very nervous now xx