Schenk ein den Wein - as autumn comes to Germany and Austria

[LinzerTorte]

Der Nebel steigt, es fällt das Laub;
schenk ein den Wein, den holden!
Wir wollen uns den grauen Tag
vergolden, ja vergolden!

A thread for all those living in Germany and Austria, and anyone else who would like to chat.

Always good to have an excuse to open some , and this poem seemed quite appropriate!

Thanks, Jenny. It was actually an iPhone I wanted, but then DH asked me whether I'd prefer an iPhone or a weekend away (just the two of us) and I decided I'd quite like to go to London! We're taking the DC with us as I don't think we could really leave them with anyone for three nights; a friend did offer to have them for a couple of nights and my ILs could probably just about cope, but DS's dust and cat allergies make it a little tricky to leave him anywhere in any case (my ILs and the two friends where he's stayed overnight all have cats, and he doesn't cope very well).

I could never get any of the DC to take a bottle - well, we did manage it with DD1 when she was about six weeks, but probably didn't do so regularly enough and a couple of months later she refused the bottle completely. I have vague memories of my MIL having to give her milk from a spoon, although as she would have been at least six months by then, I'm not sure why she couldn't drink from a sippy cup (she would drink water from a cup).

Off for some birthday Sekt now, as we're celebrating Upper Austrian style.

Yummy Sekt! I have a bottle of ProSecco in the fridge, ready for next week! Zum Wohl!

Ah yes, not long till your birthday either Jenny - are you still a year away from your runder Geburtstag or have I completely misremembered? (Is that even a word?)

Zum Wohl! On my second glass now (with crème de cassis), and very nice it is too. Also watching Celebrity Apprentice USA - could Piers Morgan be any more obnoxious?

Happy birthday, Linzer! When are you off to London?

All this talk of Thanksgiving is making me all excited about Christmas - DH is off to the supermarket tonight and is picking up the ingredients for my Christmas cake while he's there. Will try and make a start on that soon. That is, if I can put the baby down for more than 2 mins at a time. He's been feeding pretty much constantly since 8am, my nipples are ridiculously painful & to top it off I have a big, painful lump in one breast, ouch! As soon as I get him to sleep and put him in his cot he wakes up again screaming for a feed. Am constantly switching between throwing biscuits down my throat as they need no preparation (which I'm sure are doing nothing for the quality of my milk) and sobbing with tiredness and acheyness into my Stilltee - the midwife is coming round in a few hours though, hopefully she will be able to help.
On the plus side, all this feeding means I'm getting a lot of reading done! I think the postman tried to deliver my dvds today too but I couldn't get to the door as little one was attached to my chest.
He's nodded off again so will try and put him down before my arm falls off, wish me luck!
It baffles me how something so natural can be so bloomin' difficult!

Sorry for the moan :)

Oh later, don't worry about moaning we've all been there! Ds would never let me put him down either. I remember one Sunday, dh was at work at ds seemed to just cry all morning, tried to feed him (in pain too), change nappy etc but he wouldn't sleep - just whimpered all morning so I ended up going to hospital in a taxi - he was fine of course!

Just been trying to convince dd that 'Tim listened to the cd which his friend tom borrowed him' is wrong English. Sigh, and that was in the English Klassenerbeit. They had to underline which if you could leave it out.

Oh and happy thanksgiving westvan!

I don't want to speak too soon, but moaning on here appears to have done the trick - he's been asleep, in his cot, for a good 5 minutes now!

Admylin Love the idea that you have to convince your DD that you are right about the English sentence!

Happy 40th Linzer! Are you on your second bottle of Sekt yet? Hope you enjoy the celebrations!!!! Are your dc being little angels this afternoon as a birthday present for mummy?

Later- oh dear! sounds like he had a hungry morning. What did the midwife say? hope she gave you some advice on the painful lump? Hope you feel better soon!

Must go, have a good week all. xxx

Thanks platanos and Later! We're off to London on 30th October, so a slightly belated birthday celebration but it made more sense to wait until the Herbstferien (it's only just been confirmed that school will indeed be closed on the Thursday and Friday, but we'll be flying back on the Wednesday evening anyway).

Oh Later, I remember feeling exactly the same way as you when the DC were babies, esp. DD1. Have you tried massaging the lump when you're feeding? IIRC you're supposed to massage it towards the nipple so that you unblock the lump and get the milk flowing again. I remember having to do that a LOT when I was bfing. I would tell you that it does get much better, but I remember everyone saying that to me when DD1 was a newborn and I just wanted to scream at them, "But when?! This has gone on for long enough!" Looking back now, the utterly exhausted and zombie-like stage didn't last all that long but at the time, it felt like it was going on for ever.

platanos Not quite - we haven't finished last night's bottle, so I hope it's still drinkable tonight as I'm not sure we have a second! We usually buy those little Sekt bottles from Lidl, which just do two glasses, but had run out so were forced to open a big bottle!

admylin Isn't it the case that if it can be left out, you use "that"? Although there seem to be a variety of often contradictory rules...

I'm having the perfect birthday afternoon here - peace and quiet! The DDs are at a birthday party and DS at a friend's, so I have virtually all afternoon to myself (the DDs were at their piano lesson before the party). I left the girls with strict instructions to get all their homework done at the piano lesson (one plays for 50 minutes while the other does her homework/reads, etc. and then they swap round), but DD1 still has a page of German homework to do. DH has told me several times that I must bring the DDs straight home from the party and not hang around chatting so that DD1 can have an early night before her Schularbeit, so he's not going to be too pleased about the homework - but I really don't want to pick her up early from the party.

Had the letter about school enrolment for DS this morning, but the catchment areas have changed so he's been given a place at a different school from the one that the girls go to (and that all his friends will be going to). DH has said he'll phone them up and I'm hoping it will be fairly straightforward to sort out, but it's an extra hassle we don't really need.

Hello everyone,
Hope you all had lovely weekends - belated happy thanksgiving westvan and happy bday linzer. Hope the turkey/sekt-fest was enjoyable! Oh, and a teaspoon in the open bottle of sekt somehow seems to keep the fizz so its usable the next day - no idea why!

How's the feeding today later? Hope you're getting some rest between feeds. They always told me that 'mum should sleep when baby sleeps' back in england, but when are you supposed to shower/cleanup/eat?? And totally with you on how the 'natural' feeding is so hard. Sounds like you're doing brilliantly well though.

DH has left for germany for the week - had a nice cozy day in with DS today, as the weather is cold and wet here and feel like I'm getting in the swing of things a bit in the new place. Decided to go down to the ILs in Carinthia for a few days later this week for some lovely food and my BIL's (correct acronym?) birthday, and DH is joining us on Friday. I have one small bag of stuff - DS has the rest of the car full of his 'essentials'. How does such a small person need so much stuff?!

Morning all!! sneaking a bit of MN time before I need to go to pick dd up - for some reason unknown to me, they only have 3 lessons today so need to pick her up at 10.30. Hardly worth her going to school!

Belated birthday wishes on here linzer (altho i was on time on FB yesterday!) - glad you had a peaceful afternoon - sounds perfect to me. Thats really bizarre about the school for ds tho - hope it will be easy to sort out. It'll be stresful enough that your dd is going to a different school never mind having all 3 in different places.

Hope you have a fun time with the IL's coco - it is astounding how much stuff a small baby needs just to go away for a few days. It does get better - i promise!

Belated happy thanksgiving westvan - nice to hear from you. And congrats to your ds for graduating. Is he looking forward to Uni? Glad you got you're HRT sorted out - I agree with Linzer - I feel that is the next thing on the horizon and early menopause runs in our family so I'm expecting it sooner rather than later. But i'm a fishwife some days now - dread what i'll be like then.

later - how long did he stay in his cot for? dc3 was also one who liked to be held. It makes life really tricky for getting stuff done. But make sure you try to get some better food in to you - I know its hard but getting some healthy food will help you feel better. I remember crying on the phone to a friend when dc3 was about 4 weeks and I was exhausted. She asked me had I eaten and I said yeah - I've had 3 custard creams!!! She gave me a well intentioned telling off and told me to get to the shops and at least get some fruit. So i'm passing her telling off on to you (and its still well intentioned!!!).

DS2's swimming lessons are still not going great - he swims really confidently with 1 ring on his arm (had started with 3) but will not try without it. Have tried all types of bribes but he will not take it off. And he will still not try to go under the water but I've given up on that. I would be happy if he learned to swim as I think the going under will probably follow that. But its all the "blödsinn" that he makes the rest of the time that nearly drove me mad yesterday. There is a bit of time where he needs to sit on the edge while the swimming instructor watches each one in turn without their rings on and during this whole time, ds2 is just fooling around. Drives me nuts. ever other kid was sitting quietly waiting their turn. Thankfully there's only a few left - wont be booking anymore for a while.

Linzer Hope you enjoyed your Sekt and day of peace and quiet. The midwife was really helpful and showed me a position to feed in so his jaw massages near the lump and told me to put a hot cloth on for a few minutes before a feed and Quarkwickeln between feeds. Can't say if it's working so far but it's certainly very nice. I see what you mean about the smell of Quark though!

Coco Have a lovely time with your in-laws. We haven't attempted to go any further than the park and a cafe in town with DS yet, but even that is an operation requiring military-style planning.

Canella DH came back from the supermarket with mussels last night so we had a tasty dinner of moules frites with a huge bowl of salad and it was great!
DS slept for an hour or so, then screamed and fed for another 2 hours and just as I was walking with him to grab the Stillkissen, he nodded off again and was only up three times in the night! Today seems to be a fairly peaceful day so far, he's snoozing peacefully now...
I hope bribes start to work on your DS soon :)

Westvan Congratulations to your DS and good luck with the hormone therapy.

Thanks all for the birthday wishes, both here and on FB. Unfortunately, my perfect birthday afternoon went rather downhill in the evening, as DH was in a bit of a grumpy mood. He did apologise this morning and said that it was all getting on top of him (DD1's test, DS's school place and no doubt he's stressed at work as well). I was very tempted to wail at him, "But it was my birthday!" but I think he'd forgotten. Or possibly it no longer counted as my birthday by Upper Austrian standards.

Yes, have heard the tip about the teaspoon coco; I think we might even have tried it once. Needless to say, no Sekt was consumed last night so it's probably unsalvageable now.

Sorry to hear about the swimming lessons, Canella; I used to find them a nightmare. The girls had 20 lessons at the VHS and still couldn't swim by the end of it, so I booked them private lessons and DD1 never looked back, but it took ages for DD2 to have the confidence to swim without armbands or a swimming ring. I keep thinking I should enrol DS at swimming classes, but the VHS ones were a waste of money and the other pool (where the lessons are supposed to be much better) is half an hour's drive away, so it would basically take up the entire afternoon - and we just don't have the time. They do intensive courses in the summer, so I'll have another think about it next year.

coco Hope you have a good trip to your ILs and that it gives you a bit of a break; my MIL was great at taking the DC from me so that I could eat while the meal was still hot. The general rule seems to be that the smaller someone is, the more stuff they need - it's only now that I find I'm not packing much more for the DC than I am for myself (e.g. one or two "proper" books will be enough rather than a wide range of picture books and toys).

Still waiting to hear about the school - only the KiGa woman was there yesterday, so we've got to phone back between 4 and 7 pm today. According to a few friends I've spoken to, we'll need to apply for a Sprengelversetzung, i.e. have DS put into a different catchment area. It should be a fairly straightforward process as he has an older sister at the school, but it will no doubt mean forms to pick up, fill in and then return - and there's only just over a week to the Schuleinschreibung, so I hope it will all be sorted out by then.

x-posts Later - yes, I'd forgotten that you're supposed to put the baby's jaw in the direction of the lump but I remember doing that too (it led to some quite awkward positions occasionally!). The hot cloth before feeds always seemed to help as well and does feel very soothing.

Right, must go and get ready for today's first English group.

Belated Happy Birthdays Westvan and Linzer

Linzer I hope your dh can get your ds's school place re-allocated, that is the sort of thing I would get worked up about!

Later glad your midwife was helpful and that your night and morning have been a bit better. dc3 here is almost 6 months and is asleep on my lap right now, not all babies have 2 hour cot naps (in fact I am not at all sure it is the norm), they are all different, though as they get bigger some people don't mind leaving them to cry to "train"them to sleep in their cots - I'm too soft for that and none of mine have ever spent hours sleeping in their cots in the day! They do fine at night though. Babies do get miles easier somewhere between 8-12 weeks though, no matter how you go about things. Henry only wakes once for a 10 min feed then back down most nights now, and plenty of babies sleep through before 6 months - even if they are waking the feeds get quicker so they are back down quicker.

canella I have to pick dd up early today too - Tue is usually a "long" day (i.e. a 12.15 finish lol) but the Ethics teacher is off so we have to pick up the Ethics kids early - she usually catches the bus but there are only 4 kids affected, 2 of whom walk to school, so as far as she knew there is no early bus. I have told her to walk over to ds1's kiga, which is just down the road, and I will pick them both up at 11.30, which is the earliest we are "allowed" to pick KiGa kids up - otherwise I'd have to drive back there again for him at 12.30.

DD passed her seeferdchen when she was 4.5 but I failed to take her swimming often enough afterwards (and DH won't come swimming so when I did take her I had her then 2.5 year old brother too so couldn't properly make her practice) and she has somehow lost the ability - on holiday the best she could do was about 5 meters! Think I am going to send her to do the whole course again with DS1 in the spring - the youngest they let them take the course here is 4.5, so I'll send them together when he hits that age! Then if they are both swimming I hope it will be easier for me to take them weekly to keep the ability, or I have discovered they can join the Wasswerwacht (which I have spelt wrong - the life guard club) for continuing lessons - heard about that too late for dd as they have to be seeferdchen standard and she had already lost it by the time I heard of them!

I would just like to say I loathe Freunebücher - gggrrr stupid invention! We just finish with the stupid irritating things at KiGa and the school ones start coming round. I really thought they would wait with the school ones til the kids could write themselves! Niavely optimistic or what! A rather pushy friend of dd got hers out last week and now they are all doing the rounds, I really do not need to be filling in 2 or 3 of the stupid things every blimin' afternoon because Aurelia/Lina/ Lisa/ Annika/ Hanah etc. etc. says I have to give it back tomorrow. GGGGGrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Was that an over reaction? Ooops, sorry :) Please tell me boys don't do them? I have seen a Captain Sharky one in the shops but DD only got them from girls and ds seems not to get given them, I really hope they are a girl thing as I only have one of those lol!

Freundebücher is what I was trying to type...

Canella don't be too hard on your DS. My limited experience of teaching that age group has shown me that they mess around mostly when they are feeling insecure. I have the son of a friend in one of my classes and he messes around constantly and refuses to answer questions or repeat anything on his own. It was clear already that it is a confidence issue, but what really surprised me was that last week, when he was the only boy present in the lesson (the others had been banned ), he suddenly turned into the best student in the class!

westvan Nice to hear from you. MIL swears by hrt, reckons her life would be hell without it, so I hope it works for you.

admylin It's very hard to explain musical notation via text on a forum. Can you not make some sort of informal arrangement with a musical friend of your DD that the friend goes through the hwk with her each week? Or maybe you could get a hold of the ABRSM theory books from the UK and work through them with her? We can certainly provide translations of terminology for you as and when you need them.

I need some advice from those of you with slightly older kiga kids about how I am supposed to dress DD!

1. When should she wear tights? Should she wear them under or instead of trousers?
2. Will a sleeveless vest under a long-sleeved T-shirt be regarded as warm enough indoors at temperatures where I would wear short sleeves ?
3. Does she then need another layer under a winter jacket/snowsuit?

TIA

ds is ill

hot cold hot cold

and so no school and lots of

Mummmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

for Cinders.

Funny how the word you are most excited to hear them say the first time becomes the most annoying...

Hope he feels better sonn, though.

Get well soon Cinders' son

Silken

1. When should she wear tights? Should she wear them under or instead of trousers?

Under - she can take the trousers off and just wear the tights inside (at least this is acceptable at my DS's KiGa)

1. Will a sleeveless vest under a long-sleeved T-shirt be regarded as warm

enough indoors at temperatures where I would wear short sleeves ?

Dress in layers is my advice - DS wears a short sleeved T shirt under a long sleeved so he can take the long sleeved off - of course she could wear a vest instead but a short sleeved T offers similar warmth and is probably nicer for her to wear on its own.

1. Does she then need another layer under a winter jacket/snowsuit?

No. In fact some kids turn up in only tights and a long sleeved T under snow suit and no trousers at all!

Those are the answers as applied to my kids KiGa of course, where they have under floor heating and it is very warm inside, by the sound of it yours is similar. I think your dd is under 3 is she? Will the staff help her/ prompt her to remove layers? I would have a word and find out if you don't know - DS used to keep all his layers on when he first started KiGa and get very sweaty, but he was (only just) 3 and the staff leave them to it and only help if they really, really need it and ask, and don't like it to be a regular thing, but under 3s are treated differently I think?

Oh don't forget house shoes in winter, not grippy socks, due to wet floor potential! If its like our KiGa you may want to check they are still there each morning and when you pick her up, as nothing will be said if they go walki about until you are remonstrated for her not having them

Yes, wet floors can be lethal - a friend of DD1's slipped over on one at KiGa after all the DC had been outside and chipped her tooth. The children have to wear slippers all year round at our KiGa as well; ABS socks (or whatever they're called) aren't allowed.

silken Would agree with everything that 5more said, although I've never dressed my DC in tights and trousers as it's just so warm inside our KiGa; I decided that they would be warm enough in just trousers, socks and snowsuits when they went out to play in the snow. (We had those snowsuits with a kind of stirrup at the bottom, avoiding the gap between trousers and socks that shocks so many Austrians - not ideal in the snow, I admit.)

I usually dress(ed) my DC in a vest and long-sleeved top (nothing too warm, due to above-mentioned indoor temperatures - I picked up DD2 to find her just wearing her vest once or twice, so 5more's T-shirt suggestion is sensible), and would then hang up a cardigan for them (if they were cold/went outside) and a coat and snowsuit, plus hat, gloves and scarf in their box.

Sorry your DS is ill, Cinders; there are lots of colds and bugs going round here atm as well. The boy who was here on Saturday, who had to leave because he wasn't feeling well, ended up developing a high temperature and stomach bug so I'm really hoping he hasn't passed it on to us (it's looking good so far, but the last bug we had seemed to have an incubation phase of four or five days).

5more Sorry to break this to you, but boys do have Freundschaftsbücher too - or at least they do here in Austria. DS had lots to fill in last year from both girls and boys (although he's never had one of his own) and both DDs had quite a few from boys in their first year of school. The only ones that DD1 gets now (4. Klasse) are from girls and they're much fewer and further between than they used to be; the "worst" years were probably the last year of KiGa and the first year of school.

I actually don't mind them atm as I can fill them in for DS and the girls are quite capable of writing in them alone, but DD2 always insisted on filling them in by herself at KiGa (DD1 didn't get them until she was at school) and it would take ages, esp. as she still needed help spelling most words so I would have to sit there the entire time. Oh yes, and those children that (apparently) insist they must have the book back by the next day are very annoying too!

5more, my ds never had any of those friendship books, dd had a few and I think the last ones were in year 5 at the start of Gymnasium. Worst thing is finding a photo, I could never find one to fit! And the sill yquestions 'Ich bin Fan von......' dd could neverthink of anything she was a fan of tbh!

Hope ds is better soon cinders.

Silken, you're right, it was like reading a foreign language when linzer explained abit of music to me! I will get in touch with dd's friend's mum about helping out. They had another small test today and she got 4 points instead of 2 so atleast it's a slight improvement!

About the winter dress code: I did the tights and layers thing too but only when the temperatures went down alot. I always felt sorry for the poor little tots all wrapped up in woolen hats and scarves when it wasn't even below 10 degrees let alone freezing!

Off to do the ironing, one more laod of washing before I start packing for our trip and I have decided to chill and not fuss about changing all the beds so they're fresh for coming back, I just won't get it all dry in time and anyway, we'll be so exhausted when we get back that any bed will be good! Dh is on antibiotics for his cough and I've got a sore throat starting.