Wenn es im Winter stürmt und schneit, haben wir eine Flasche Glühwein allzeit bereit - life in Germany and Austria

[LinzerTorte]

As I couldn't find a suitable poem mentioning Glühwein, I composed my own. Please don't laugh.

All welcome - anyone living in Germany, Austria or anywhere else who would like to chat.

jenny DD was much less consistent at napping when she was 13 months than she is now. In fact I think she was closer to 2 before it really settled down. I have a "nap routine" of reading two books and then lying down with her and singing Old Macdonald until she goes to sleep. I think that has helped with getting her to sleep on days when she otherwise might not have - certainly MIL finds it more or less impossible to get DD to nap nowadays, even though she used to look after her every afternoon Mon-Fri. Serves her right for having a nap routine that involved giving DD as many rabbit-shaped biscuits as she demanded and then pushing her around in a buggy in a dark room singing until she went to sleep.

Linzer thanks. I put in München Flughafen Terminal, so I assume the times included the S-bahn. There is a train half an hour after DSis lands, but I don't think she can count on getting that one. She has to commit to a particular train to get the cheapest fare unfortunately.

silken Ah, well in that case it might be manageable. DH said it's a bit of a walk to the S-Bahn and he thinks they're about every 15-20 minutes - I suppose it depends on her flight too. We often have to commit to a specific train when we fly back to my parents, which is a bit of a pain but we've always managed to catch it. More often than not, our flights have been slightly early (although there was a long delay getting our baggage back once, when I started to panic that we would miss the train - obviously your sister wouldn't have that problem).

My mum had us in her thirties (me at 30, my brother at 32) and was considered an elderly mother back then! She always used to tell me I should have children before I was 30 as I'd have more energy, which is probably true, but it just wouldn't have been the right time for me.

Right, must get on with some work. DD2 is still at home... she seemed fine yesterday, but complained that her tummy hurt when she woke up this morning and could hardly get out of bed. I gave her the benefit of the doubt, but as soon as I got back from the school run she asked whether she could get up (I'd told her she'd have to stay in bed all morning if she stayed home), wanted to have something to eat and is now complaining that she's bored, so she's definitely going back to school tomorrow!

Silken I'd go forthe latest connection available as I hate rushing at airports but sounds like the 45 minute one might be OK.

Linzer same here, I started thinking a family would be nice from around the age of 28 and that's when I met dh!

My neck is abit better today thank goodness.

I always check unanswered threads to see if I can answer one and someone has sent out an Expat Klaxon to warn that it's mother's day next Sunday in UK, I had no idea! I'd also have missed pancake day if I hadn't seen it on here. Almost always forget to explain bonfire night to the dc too. Oh well I guess they had Nikolaus and Laternelaufen instead. NoHun you'll be able to start some new traditions when you move!

Thanks for the advice on dealing with the almost-crawler! I think we'll just have to wait it out. I let him screech for a bit but if he sounds like he's getting really worked up I pick him up and give him a cuddle, which seems to sort things. As soon as I put him back down he's straight back onto his tummy and it all starts again. He's very determined, bless him :)

Thatis I saw a very glam lady with a baby and two toddlers yesterday and was in awe! (I have one baby and dress like my grandfather as anything else seems like far too much effort and will soon be hidden under sick stains anyway).

Silken Is your DD a little better now? Are you looking forward to seeing your DSis?

Canella In my mind you had long, straight, brown hair for some reason. I had also decided that you and admylin looked very similar to each other. Silken had long blonde hair, but I think it's because her username makes me think of Rapunzel!

Linzer I bet you're looking forward to a day with all of them at school :)

It seems I was an early starter! DH and I met when I was 18, but didn't get married until I was 26, then I was 28 when DS arrived. (DH is a few years older than me, but did the German thing of studying forever so our wedding was about a week after he had handed his PhD thesis in!)

admylin I'm never sure what to do about Mother's Day - I live in Germany, my brother lives in Scotland and my parents live in Canada. Which one to choose! My brother always messages my mum on the UK Mother's Day, so I usually do too so as not to look like the bad sibling

I´m almost tempted to join facebook just to be nosey and see what everyone looks like.

I had my dc at 36 and 38 and am 45 now, so probably one of the oldest here. I´m actually 4 years olders than dh, but everyone always thinks he´s older than me, so as long as that continues to be the case I´m quite happy.

I was reading about the 66 year old in, I think, Switzerland who has just had twins and I know I simply wouldn´t have the energy at that age to cope with one let alone 2 babies.

Gator your ds sounds really cute. I can just imagine his frustration, but I´m sure it will all suddenly click into place and then there´ll be no stopping him.

Go on hupa, you know you want to. But we'll only be friends with you if you put a photo of yourself up as well.

Gator DH had his PhD viva five months after we got married. But my ILs were very when I mentioned how long he'd been studying at his graduation (for his Dipl.-Ing.) and said no, six years was very quick - he was actually the second in his class to graduate and would have been first if he hadn't gone to Berlin. Quite a few of his friends had babies when they were still students (in their late twenties/early thirties).

admylin Thanks for the hint about Mother's Day - as usual, I'd completely forgotten. I really must try to remember to make a note of it in the calendar at the start of the year; I usually end up having to apologise to my mum several weeks later.

I didnt imagine you were 45 hupa - had you in my head as about 35 with bobbed brown hair. Cant imagine why anyone at 66 years old would want to have babies. Thats the age of my IL's and as young as they are they couldnt cope with twins.

Glad your neck is better admylin - think normally neck pain settles in time with gentle movement but I'd go to a physio if it doesnt completely settle.

Oh I'd love to have long straight hair Gator. But we always want what we cant have. Think you're ds is at a really tricky age - they get so frustrated with wanting to go places. Can he sit on his own? I always felt that helped then they could sit and play with their toys.

silken - I've only ever driven to Munich airport so am no use about the trains. When is she coming? We're going there over Easter so if I can be any help then let me know. Hope your dd feels better today.

nohun - ah the climby stage - remember it only too clearly from ds2. Sadly he's still not grown out of it (he's 5) - he has never used the ladder to get into his bunkbed - just clambers up the sides. Maybe this is what you've got to look forward to!

thatis - I very rarely look glamorous. And even then its only on nights out when the dc arent there. Wonder if we'll all look slightly less ragged once our dc are grown up? or will I still be living in my jeans?

Went to look for a school bag for ds2 today - a friend had told me she had got a good deal at one shop last year. Well all good deals are gone I think - the cheapest ranzen was 179?. DH would have a fit. Think Mueller quite often have money off bags in May or June so might hold off till then. Was just trying to be super organised - wont bother now!

I have an interflora email reminder setup for UK mothers day, and click on the link to lazily but expensively send my mother flowers - she is very entitled and grabby into Mothers Day ( for herself, forgetting 3 of her daughters are also mothers ) and I would never be forgiven for forgetting or just sending a message. Personally I couldn't care less and cannot understand the women you see whinging on forums because their husbands have forgotten to buy them diamonds and flowers and take the day off work to wait on them for mothers day...

I was going to go to toddlers today but dc3 has been asleep on my lap since 9am - an hour and a half, which never happens, so I haven't moved. Guess I've wasted the morning as the laundry is piling up and everything needs cleaning, but blah to that :o

Yep was teaching yesterday eve, should have taken the sign up sheet to the office today too, as everyone has now signed so I can be paid - will take it tomorrow.

Plenty of people in their 20s have no energy or expend it on things other than there kids, I know my youngest sister whinges about being tired if she is ever woken by anything before 8am (or mid-day at the weekend when she's been out the night before), so I am not sure about having kids earlier because you have more energy - I think 30 worked for me because I'd done lots of different things before they came along, so don't feel they are stopping me going out/ travelling/ trying a new career etc as I have done all that and got fed up lol.

Canella I got dd's at Müller, good deal and lasted the 4 years quite well. 170@ is ridiculous isn't it? Have a look at the lego bags too - ds had one and it was really good quality and most important very light eight.

I'm the exact opposite of you - I have long straight hair and was so jealous of your curls when I saw your fb pics! I'd love to have curls or even abit ofa wave in my hair!

Linzer I saw it here or I wouldn't have had a clue!

Hupa go on, join! I don't even use it much to write on myself but it is great to be able to see what all our nieces and nephews, family are up to as we're all over the world, dc can read what their old school mates are up to in Berlin etc.

It's a big thing with ds at the moment, he's going to be 14 this year. They've created a group just for his class (so only group members can read it) and they use it if one forgets homework, help each other etc.

Canella this is the one ds had from Lego with the turnbeutel, pencil case and geldbeutel.

Thanks for that link admylin - I like it (and the price!). We got ds1's from Müller and its been good but will show ds2 the Lego one and see what he thinks.

This is the school bag that we've bought for DS, but we paid ?25 more for it! I bet they wouldn't send it to Austria, though. Besides, my ILs will probably be paying for it and they've spent so much on my SIL and her family over the years (in addition to giving them a house) that I don't feel too guilty. It was about the only boy's school bag that I liked; I'm really not keen on Cars/orange/anything cartoony (am v. fussy, basically).

Canella we bought ds´s Ranzen from here last year and it was cheaper than we´d seen it elsewhere.
By the way I did use to have a brown bob in my 20s - spooky!

Gator I do have long hair, but how blond it is depends on how recently I've managed to fit a hairdresser's appt into a trip to the UK! The Silken Ladder is an opera, btw, though I don't know the plot, just the overture.

Thatis my sister recently told she'd discovered that if she didn't try to party all the time on top of her full-time job and part-time masters, then she didn't get so tired and could cope a bit better . She's 31 - I think I came to that conclusion at about 23! Anyway, it's probably a pre-requisite for having kids.

admylin how can you nearly miss pancake day with all the fuss over Fasching?

Canella DSis is coming the week after Easter, as my parents will be here over for Easter itself. Thanks for the offer of help, though.

I can't really judge whether DD is getting better. She tells me her ears are better, but occasionally puts her hands over them as if they've just popped. We're going back to the dr tomorrow, but since she's still coughing and her nose is still running, I'll probably keep her home on Friday, too. I'm hoping that when this cold finally clears up that she will stop being so clingy and whiny. We will see, I suppose.

Silken hope she feels better soon, takes it out on them having earache - one of the most painful things really.

I block fasching out - totally ignore it after trying (and failing) to understand it the first few years in Germany!

I'm abit like that with all these mother/father/valentine commercial days thatis but as you say about your mother, sometimes it's best to just try and remember them so no one gets upset! I don't do flowers or presents and I only jokingly get my dc to wait on me for a couple of hours and promise not to fight all day on German mothers day and my birthday - that's the best present I can think of!

Wish I could block Fasching out, admylin! My eardrums are still recovering from the Umzug. I'm hoping that DD1 remembers next year that she said she doesn't want to go again - and perhaps DD2 and DS could go with friends...

Hair-wise, you always want the opposite of what you've got, don't you? I would have killed for long straight blonde hair when I was at primary school (a prerequisite for being an angel in the nativity play!). I quite like having straighter hair now - there's a photo of me on my FB profile with curly hair, although it used to be even curlier when it was longer - but I had curly hair for over 35 years so the novelty of having straight hair hasn't quite worn off yet. I think long curly hair, like Canella's, can look amazing, but I discovered a photo of myself with short curly hair recently and that definitely won't be going on FB!

silken Hope your DD is better soon; some colds do seem to drag on. Chickenpox is doing the rounds here atm and I'm so glad we've got that out of the way; a few days off for a stomach bug seems like nothing in comparison.

Canella Maybe you should read the retiring from jeans thread.

Schoolbags are really that expensive?! Maybe I'll fashion DS one out of Rewe bags....

Canella He's almost sitting. He sort of flops forward a bit but then straightens himself up, looks really proud, then he notices his toes, flops back down for a quick toe-nibble and forgets what he was doing.

Silken I hope DD feels better soon. Poor thing, earache is really nasty.

Linzer I like the picture of you with curly hair! I go through phases of hating my curls and straigtening my hair to death and not caring and letting the frizz take over. (Or just scragging it back and pretending it doesn't exist, which is my current favourite).

Well, he managed a few centimetres on the bare floor just now before the screeching started. What was the desired object that encouraged my son to crawl? An educational toy? A bottle of warm milk? No. It was my last bottle of Riesling he was after! I'm going to have to watch this one....

Thanks for the Ranzen links. Will investigate properly tomorrow.

Just realised how big our thread has become. Do we need a new Frühling one now or should we wait till Spring starts in case the snow returns?

I was thinking about that too, Canella - although it was -5° this morning so the temperatures are still quite wintery here! It's definitely starting to feel more spring-like on the whole though, so a new spring thread would be fine be me (plus we only have about a hundred posts left on this one so will need a new thread soon, anyway).

I was trying to think of titles and "Veronika, der Lenz ist da" keeps popping into my head. Has anyone else seen the Comedian Harmonists film? It must have been ages ago now as I went to see it when we were living in Mannheim.

Gator My hair tends to go frizzy whether it's dry or straight! Frizz Ease is a miracle worker, but it's extortionate here so I have to stock up in the UK. Love the idea of your DS crawling towards the Riesling, btw; he's a boy after my own heart.

Just seen Samsonite Ranzen in the walz kidzz catalogue for ?99,95, if that helps.

I have just been called Fräulein. And informed that the road is not a Rennfahrstrecke. Gah, why does there have to be some busybody about the one time that I do more than 30 km/h?

Snowdrops and crocuses are out here (though ice still needs scraping off the car most mornings for KiGa run) so I think it just about counds as spring for thread title purposes...

DD has this ranzen, for what it'S worth (not a lot as its a girly one) its a McNeill one: www.mytoys.de/McNeill-Schulranzen-Set-ERGO-Light-912-Pegasus-6-tlg/Schulranzen/Schulranzen-Zubeh%C3%B6r/KID/de-mt.sc.ca01.01.01/2409756 MIL bought it for her (dd chose in advance from a catalogue and they went to the shop together)- I think that's a good tradition to establish :) One up side of buying it in a shop is that although they paid full price they were given a ?25 voucher to spend on school supplies in the shop, so the buying of it was a ritual and with the voucher covering something we had to spend on anyway it brought the price into line with whatever we might have found (for the same one) by scouring the internet.

We left the choice of ranzen to dd as it's her who has to carry it every day not us, and it is such a big deal and a part of their identity in the first couple of classes, but we did remind her not to chose something she'd find babyish in a couple of years time, so she went for the light blue pegasus bag rather than the pale pink Filly one she initially liked (she chose a Filly tute).

DS1 isn't going to school til 2014 but is insistent at the moment he wants a Wilde Kerle ranzen - will let him if that's still what he wants when it comes to the time I expect.

I have an ill DS1 home (as well as a lively baby DS2 of course) - he was sick last night while I was at a parents evening for dd (one of those ones where you sit and listen as a group to the teacher's words of wisdom... DH texted me the second it happened sounding like he wanted me to come home, but then decided he could manage - came home to find the baby asleep in his daytime clothes and nappy, DS1's bed stripped but the washing machine not turned on and no fresh sheets on, and all 3 of the household males asleep in the living room (dd had slept through everything). Ho hum.

Of course despite a temperature in the night and being up and quite disorientated with fever at 4am, DS1 is lively and being a bit of a pest now! Typical kid illness, but obviously better than him being really ill and miserable!

at the busibody's comments and calling you Frauline Linzer - I presume it was an elderly local?