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 for the tips, everybody. I will ask the kiga about anything that seems to come up, but dd already came home once with a short-sleeved T-shirt under her long-sleeved one and at that point I had no vests to put her in (bodies are frowned upon because of toilet training). I rushed to Marks this weekend and bought a couple of packs of vests, but as I was unpacking them today, it suddenly occured to me that if she should be wearing them now, then maybe they wouldn't be enough in winter.

Also, one day when I was picking her up (it had reached about 22 deg outside), the staff were discussing whether to take off the tights one boy was wearing under his trousers , so you can understand my feelings of inadequacy in these matters.

The East Germans I know maintain that Wessies do not heat their houses to 24 deg in winter like they do, is that true? Whether it is or not, I assume the kiga will be, so I'll probably stick some short-sleeved T-shirts in dd's bag to be ignored.

When are you off, admylin? I hope your sore throat doesn't develop into a proper cold; I always get a sore throat when I'm stressed, so maybe it's just that?

Talking of winter dress codes, I picked up one of DS's friends from KiGa today and he had a thick woolly hat and scarf in his box! It's really mild here today, must be around 19 or 20°, so I left them both there assuming that the mother keeps them at KiGa "just in case" - although knowing her, I wouldn't be surprised if he was wearing them this morning.

We always leave the "ich bin Fan von ..." out, although DS wanted me to write Patrick Jurdic (who won Croatian Pop Idol, I think - he did a dance workshop at our school) in the last friendship book he had. We get about 10 adhesive passport-sized photos with the school and KiGa photos, which are quite useful for friendship books, although we often run out.

Have got my two English lessons out of the way; the 7 year olds are amazingly easy compared to the four KiGa boys, who are (with one exception) exceptionally lively and boisterous, so it's quite hard work - if I take my eyes off them for a second, one of them will be on top of the other/bouncing on the sofa, etc.

silken It certainly feels like most people here heat their homes to 24° (the one friend I asked always keeps the heating on at 22.5°), and school and KiGa are always very warm. My ILs will be sitting around in short sleeved tops and will turn the heating up rather than putting anything long-sleeved on; it drives me mad!

Have found out that I'll need to take DS to the Einschreibung at the school he's been assigned to (currently in a "container" - what do we call that in English? - on the other side of town while the building is being renovated) and fill in a form there asking for a Sprengelwechsel. Apparently if I write Geschwisterkind in big letters on this form, it's unlikely our request won't be granted. Looking on the bright side, it's on a more convenient day than the Einschreibung in the DDs' school - although have just arranged for a friend of DS's to come over and play next Thursday, so must remember to reschedule.

Thank you for the get wells for

ds
think he will be home for a couple of days

I guess it is Just one of those viruses

Pre-fab is what we used to call them.

I did think it unlikely that other German speakers were less prone to over-heating, since most females I've met seem to describe themselves as "Frierkatzen" almost as a boast. Where I come from, you eat outside any time the sun shines and vigorously deny being cold, even if you can't feel your toes. In fact, my mum takes going inside to fetch a jumper when she's decided it's warm enough for breakfast in the garden as equivalent to whinging!

Hmm, I don't think that's what we called them; we had two of them at school (keep thinking of wheelie bins for some reason, although obv. that's not it!). Will have to google mobile classroom, although in this case it's a mobile school (word of the day: "Containerschule").

DD1 has just got the topic of her first German Schularbeit: it's going to be a Bildgeschichte. Her dyslexia tutor had already told us that the first Schularbeit is usually a picture story, so hopefully she'll be able to practise one or two with DD1 on Friday. I also foresee a weekend of story writing ahead of us.

I think the schools generally favoured the term hut, eg. the music hut.

Have fun with the story writing!

Portakabin was the word I was thinking of - well, it has "bin" at the end of it!

DH has already picked out a story for DD1 to write today. And I should probably be encouraging DS to do more colouring in etc too. His KiGa teacher had a word with me yesterday about the fact that he's not very good at holding a pencil, colouring in, etc. - she thinks he might have problems with writing at school if his fine motor skills don't improve over the next year. There's always something.

Thats the word linzer - I would also have called it a hut but couldnt think of the proper word. I agree its always something with the dc - ds1's teacher told me the other day that he doesnt sing very well! who cares! Didnt realise that was compulsory at school. I'm sure your DS will get plenty of pencil practice in the Vorschuljahr in Kiga - its nearly a whole year before he goes to school.

silken - think it is a very german thing to overdress dc and have very warm houses. I had a proper headcold at the weekend and of course the first thing MIL said was - oh you never wear enough clothes!! GRRRRRRRR!!! I agree with the others about what your dd should wear at kiga - lots of layers. But she'll never have as much on as the other german dc!

cinders - hope your ds feels better soon.

Thanks for the advice about the swimming - think I just need to ease up on him. He is only 5. But he does fool around lots - not just at swimming - and is getting into trouble at kiga for it. Cant imagine him sitting still at school next year unless there is a huge change in him.

My poor ds1 fell yesterday afternoon - 2 mins after he got to his friends house - and broke the corner off his front (adult) tooth . Got him very quickly to the dentist who was great - did an xray and the root is fine and he did a very good repair job there and then. You cant even see the join. Was a very stressful afternoon.

But on a happier note, a great friend booked flights to come over in December so I was beyond excited last night. Love having visitors planned. He's coming over with another friend who will be 32(!!!) weeks pregnant by that time. . She'd booked the flights just before she got pregnant so decided not to cancel them. Its her first baby and she's really healthy (she ran a marathon in the first few weeks of her pregnancy) but I'm glad she's not coming alone anymore.

need to go and do some food shopping. oh I hate that job!

Hope you survived the food shopping, Canella. I hate going too, but at least I have an excuse not to go today as winter boots are on offer at Hofer from tomorrow and I want to get some for DS.

Great news about your visitors; you must be really excited. I'm sure that if your friend is healthy and not having any problems with the pregnancy, she'll be fine at 32 weeks. My SIL, OTOH, decided not to take the risk of flying over to our wedding in London at 26 weeks... to be fair, she did have a few problems in her pregnancy, but it was a bit annoying as she'd known about them from the start (can't remember what it was, only that she'd been advised not to do Schwangerschaftsgymnastik) and only changed her mind about coming at the last minute. By that time, we'd already spent ages looking for (and had booked) a hotel room for them (it had to have a bed big enough for them to co-sleep with their 5 year old DD and it had to have a clean toilet so that she wouldn't pick up anything!).

Have just had our neighbour's DD over as she's off KiGa with a bad cold and her mum had a dentist's appointment. She was absolutely no trouble, though - she played on her Nintendo for about an hour and then watched a DVD the rest of the time; I wish mine were that easy when they're ill! I hardly knew she was here.

I think a lot of 5 year old boys are naturally boisterous but somehow seem to calm down once they start school. Actually, the two 7 year old boys in my English group are still very boisterous but are far easier to handle than the 4-5 year olds. I can't imagine any of the 5 year olds being at school really; it's such a big jump from KiGa to school and I wish they had more than just the one Vorschulstunde a week.

The Vorschulkinder also have four Waldführungen coming up - one each season - and the first one is tomorrow. DS is very excited but I'm slightly worried that he's going to be underdressed, even by my standards! I wish I'd picked up some rain trousers for him when I bought his raincoat at Lidl a few weeks ago, but I suppose he can always wear his ski trousers - just hope they're not too hot for him.

I also have memories of some lessons taking place in the hut! Hope your ds's school place gets sorted quickly Linzer.

I had to go back to bed this morning to try and beat this sore throat. Got up at 11am and it feels abit better. Should I maybe not open any windows in case it gets worse?! Everything has to be packed and ready and all family members have to be fit and healthy by Friday night as we leave at around 4.30am the next morning.

Those bildgeschichte things are awful. We've had them for French too and honestly, I couldn't tell what was meant to be going on! I suppose you're maybe allowed to use your imagination. Dd had alot of tests where they had to finish a story, so the first 2 or 3 paragraphs were given. Also a pain if you have a black out and can't think of anything.

Hope your sore throat is better soon, admylin. You must remember to keep your neck out of draughts in future.

I don't even think you're allowed to use your imagination with Bildgeschichten here, as DD1 misinterpreted one of the pictures once and had it crossed out (even though her German was correct). Oh, how I hate Schularbeiten and all the emphasis placed on them.

Talking of which, DD1 got a 3 in her maths Schularbeit. DH is not going to be happy; he spent hours and hours practising with her. I kept telling him that it was basically a waste of time as she can do the maths, but it all depends on whether she can concentrate on the day and - most importantly - on whether she reads the question properly. He kept telling her this and she assured us yesterday that she read through the questions and answers five times after she'd finished the test.

Anyway, the first question was: "6 Kinder, Mama und Papa brauchen neue Jacken. Eine Jacke kostet 78 Euro. Wie viel muss die Familie bezahlen?" She multiplied 78 by 6 (correctly) so lost 3 points (out of 26) straight away.

Oh those textaufgaben in maths are the hardest. Even then, if you look at the percentage of marks usually a 3 would have been a B in my day at school. One teacher in dd's school only gave a 1 if there was less than 2 mistakes for geography! Which to me, makes a 2 and a 3 quite a good grade considering!

How does your dd cope with your dh's extra study time in the evening?

Dd just found out that the French test is postponed until after the half term so she's happy as she hadn't managed to learn all the vocab and now has an extra 2 weeks to catch up.

Dd also had a hard time with those textaufgaben. She's like your dd - good at the arithmetic but cant extract the right info out the question so loses marks. I bought a maths test book from Aldi last year for her and it definitely helped. Just doing so many made her get the hang of it - well most of the time. They dont seem to be doing them in the gymnasium at the moment so she's happier.

Do you think admyin that your dd will knuckle down now she's got more time and learn the vocab?

Dd has her first latin test next week - I dont even know how to pronounce the words!

Hope that sore throat gets better by friday - is it maybe worth having some medicine to take with you in case its not?

DD1 really struggles with Textaufgaben too; she's never sure whether she needs to multiply or divide the numbers, etc. She got 20 out of 26 in the test, which for me would be a B too (even if it's just scraping a B), but maybe most of the class got higher marks. Good to hear that they're not doing Textaufgaben at Gymnasium Canella and good news on the French test admylin.

She's never particularly enthusiastic about extra revision/studying, although DH is quite good at motivating her by promising her that if she does a page of maths, for example she can do such-and-such afterwards. It all depends so much on her mood, though. Today, I told her that she wasn't allowed to go to the neighbour's until she'd written a Bildgeschichte; I went out to pick up DS from KiGa, and got back to find a finished story and a note from DD1 on a serviette, "I am bei the Nachbarn".

One of the good things about the neue Mittelschule is that DD1 wouldn't have to learn Latin; apart from the fact that she doesn't seem to be particularly interested in languages (unlike DD2), that's one language I wouldn't be able to help her with. DH didn't do Latin either as he went to a technical school, so neither of us would be much use.

There's no way a family with six kids would buy jackets costing 78 Euro each. Surely some would have hand-me-downs?

Well, exactly silken (unless they were sextuplets) - I'm sure that's what threw DD1. Eight new coats all needed at once?

And I'm sure that an Oma who won 972 euros at the casino would go off on a cruise rather than precisely dividing her winnings between her six grandchildren (the same six children?).

Just back from Hofer, where I nabbed the last pair of winter boots in size 30 (and took a pair in size 31 for good measure).

Word of the day (spotted at Hofer): Homesocks.

Off for a coffee with a British friend now - I don't really have time as I'm suddenly snowed under with work, but we've been trying to arrange it for months and I didn't want to reschedule at the last minute.

5more It does help to hear that things will get a little easier! He doesn't seem to like his cot too much and spends most of the time he is asleep on me (day and night - once he realises he is in his cot he starts to cry). If I can get him down in his cot for an hour or two during the day it makes life a lot easier as it gives me chance to eat/clean/snooze. I can't believe your little one is almost 6 months already!

Westvan I hope the HRT helps!

Silken Who would have thought that dressing for Kindergarten could be so complicated! The Germans do like to wrap up warm, no matter what the weather, don't they.

Cinders I hope your DS feels better.

Admylin Are you all packed and ready for your trip? How long is the flight? I hope you feel a bit better now.

Linzer Good luck with sorting out your DS' school. It sounds like it shouldn't be a big problem but I have my fingers crossed it all works out for you. Well done on nabbing the boots. Good thinking about the sizes. Enjoy your coffee with your friend.

Canella Good news about yout friends coming to visit! Hope the food shopping wasn't too hideous. It's actually my favourite of all the chores - for some reason I get far too excited about supermarkets, especially chains I haven't been to before. DH thinks I'm a little odd...

The sun finally made an appearance which means I made it out with the baby for the first time on my own today! Otherwise I've only braved it with DH with me so far. It was just a trip to the post office, but it involved the bus and a nice walk home. We're snuggled up on the sofa now, I'm rewatching Cranford on dvd and James is snoring away on my chest, head back, mouth wide open, like an old drunk :)

Must not get sucked into MN - got a whole house to clean before my IL's come at the weekend. DH and I are going to Munich on Mon just for a night but that'll leave my IL's here with the dc and my MIL will have no hesitation in telling me about how much cleaning she's had to do (even tho my house is nearly spotless!).

But just wanted to say admylin - have a fantastic holiday. Hope the dc arent too culture shocked. Cant wait to hear all about it!

Ok back to cleaning!

Same here canella, I must stel away from the computer! Haven't started packing but I do have huge piles of stuff ready to be packed! Dh forgot his office keys this morning so I've just got back from a rescue mission delivering them and decided to buy frozen pizzas as tonights last meal in Germany!

2 gerbils left last night to dh's colleague, dd very sad. The other 2 go to her friend this afternoon, she's written a 2 page list of instructions on how to care for them!

Have a good time in Munich Canella, surely MIL will be so busy with her grandchildren that she won't have time to clean/notice anything needs cleaned! Linzer have a good trip to UK later, won't be online in Dhaka except to check emails ( for news of the gerbils!).

Later, enjoy all the snuggling with baby, it's perfect weather for it! We're heading to 32 degrees and 60% humidity (sob). Did the Quarkwickeln help?

OK, off to start emptying fridge and cleaning kitchen abit then start packing.

I'm another one trying to stay off MN as I really have to get on with this translation. I thought it was going OK, but it looks like it's about to turn into a a formatting nightmare (client only sent a PDF, which the agency has converted into a Word document - it looks good, but I'm having real problems with the headers, footers and page breaks).

Have a great trip, admylin! I'm slightly of the 32° you're heading towards (although it would be far too hot for me normally), as I'm sitting here freezing - can't turn the heating on as the thermostat is broken, so I'm going to do the environmentally friendly thing and put on another cardigan.

Canella Good luck with the cleaning and enjoy Munich!

Later Can just see your DS snoring away like an old drunk; we have a photo of one of the DC (can't remember which now) in a similar state! I remember it taking me ages and ages to put DD1 down in her cot, very very carefully so that I wouldn't wake her, but she would still wake up as soon as her head touched the cot mattress. (That was when she was very tiny, though; it didn't last forever!)

Right, will make myself a coffee and then get back to work.

Have a great trip admylin

Good luck sorting the formatting Linzer

Canella my MIL is exactly the same, she and fil have babysat together in the past (before dc3 was born) when they looked after my older 2, he entertains them and she cleans, even though I thought I left things fine, then when we get in she spends hours showing me what she has cleaned and giving me endless "tips" so I can admire her wisdom and declare my unworthiness and unending gratitude -then she repeats it all to dh - I'd much rather come home to a mess or even not go out at all til the kids are grown up by the time she's done! So you have my MIL sympathy! Enjoy your night off though!

Later can you put your ds in the middle of your double bed (in the day) and feed or cuddle him to sleep, then have a snooze yourself? It is safe as long as you are not under the duvet and pillows are well away from him. Slings or wraps can give you your hands free to make a sandwich or do the survival level chores (most things can wait, but packing the dishwasher and the odd load of laundry etc.). My first-born also hated the cot (or even more so moses basket) even at night for the first 6 weeks or so, but that did get better as I did persevere at night - partly as dh is afraid of co-sleeping, or she might have been in our bed to this day, and an only child! I remember waking up on the floor by her cot as I hadn't walked away, expecting her to wake any second, and also making bets with myself about how many attempts it would take to get her down. Luckily her brothers were both much easier newborn sleepers by comparison! Good luck with the next few weeks, then it will all get so much easier, and well done for getting out and about with him!

Hope you have a great trip admylin and you sorted the formatting out Linzer. Also hope that all dcs are getting their homework done. Have you got any sleep yet Later?

Had a quiet birthday today as ds1 was sick all last night and today too. Dh went to such trouble to make a lovely brunch and also bake a really nice birthday cake with the dcs. Trouble is I can barely eat it as I think I'm coming down with the same bug. Never mind!

Hope you all have fantastic Mondays.