Die Kaffeestube - German and Austrian cyber Kaffee und Kuchen

[admylin]

Kaffeeklatsch for anyone in a German speaking country or interested in German, Kommt herein und setz euch!

Linzer It really sounds as if the Vorschule might be the best for your ds. I think it is really hard for children to catch up if they struggle in the first class. The extra year should give him time to improve his motor skills and build his confidence.

Thatis sorry to hear that ds is still unwell. Hopefully the medicine will kick in soon and you´ll all get more sleep.

admylin Can your dd insist that she stays in the group she is in now. It seems really unfair to push her out when she´s not even really old enough for the next group.

Has anyone bought a new kitchen recently - Canella, perhaps? We´ve been discussing this for years and think we might take the plunge finally. However, I would like to traipse round various kitchen showrooms and gather ideas and then ask what it would cost when I´ve got a fairly good idea of what I want. Dh on the other hand just wants to hand over the measuements of the room and let the sellers come up with ideas/prices. What did you do and were you happy with the results?

Linzer they can start school as long as they are 6 by Sept 30th of that year, but they have to be at school by the September following their 7th birthday - so DD was still 5 when she started school (for 6 days) but the oldest child in her class was already 7 years 5 months! Crazy! The rules have changed over the last 5 years apparently (but are now fixed) - until just before we moved here the cut of was June, so the youngest children in the class would start school at 6 years 3 months. I think this is why the attitude has stuck that summer born children really shouldn't be at school at only just 6. One of DD's KiGa friends stayed at KiGa - she is a month older than DD, and a lot taller, and there are plenty of other children at KiGa who are actually older than DD it is all rather comical when DD occasionally comes into KiGa with me to pick DS1 up, and acts all grown up, and her old friends and acquaintances bound up and ask her about school yet they are taller than her!

I have told the KiGa head that we don't want ds1 to be a Vorschule Kind in Sept, because we don't want him to start school until 2014, she asked why and said he is doing well and would manage, but equally she sees my logic and it is up to me and can't hurt! (With dd they said equally that it was up to me, but in her case they said quite firmly that they thought she would be bored and unhappy at Kindergarten another year and was "Top Fit" and more ready than most for school. It really seems, with the youngest anyway, to be totally up to the parents - unless a child is not ready in which case the school can refuse to take them for a year.

Argh sorry rambling and now ds2 is miserable again and I need to pay more attention to him.

Linzer I find summarizing in general in German is too difficult for me. Both dc have to summarize in history and although I understand the text and love history I find I can't help them at all. At the moment dd is doing the inquisition and just did the crusades so I've learnt loads of new vocab!

Hupa sorry can't help with kitchens. Your dh's idea sounds like the least stress but you'll want to look at a few first I'd think.

The problem with the hockey group is that they're moving a lot of C gorls into the B group so it'll be quite full and mostly younger girls so looks like she'll have to either give it a go or stop playing. I'm torn between encouraging her to atleast try the A group and just giving up - I don't want her to stop things when the first little hurdle comes along in life!

Thatis sympathies with the lack of sleep, I don't know how you do it, you don't even seem to sleep/nap during the day time. I only survived having my 2 so close together because we always had a lovely long afternoon nap - all 3 of us and my 2 weren't even bad sleepers!

Just been and done the food shop, very quiet and empty supermarket so I hit a good time. Trouble is some of the shelves weren't stocked so I'll have to go again anyway.

morning!

linzer - its a really difficult decision to make as to whether he goes to the Vorshcule or not but I always think that the school and kiga see so many dc every year that they can spot the ones who might struggle more in the 1. Klasse and would benefit from that extra year. We kept ds1 back (altho he was a kannkind as he has an Oct birthday) and it was the best decision we made. He's now sailing thro the 1. Klasse and will probably do well at school whereas I'm not so convinced that would have happened if we'd sent him the previous year. He's also tall for his age like your ds thatisall but it doesnt seem to bother him. I agree tho Linzer that for their confidence its better to do an extra year Vorschule than be put back at the end of the 1. or 2. Klasse. Ds2 is a month younger than your ds but surprisingly no-one suggested he should stay back - am still not convinced he'll be ready but only time will tell.

thatisall - hope ds2 is feeling better soon.

gator - oh it sounds like your ds really needs to crawl. But then when he does crawl you'll be going crazy - they can go at lightening speeds!

admylin - the hockey seems like more hassle than its worth but if dd likes it...

tadjenny - shocked at the barbie pink rifles!

hupa - oh I feel like I now all about new kitchens - feel like it was all I thought about for a good 6 months last year. We looked round loads of kitchen showrooms and had a good few ideas about what we wanted but we were also happy for the kitchen people to give us some tips on how to make best use of the space. It cost us a lot of money but no more than I thought it would. I love our big pan drawers in the bottom cupboards and the bifold glass cupboard doors on the top ones. We've also got some really skinny pull out cuboards (15cm) on either side of the oven where I keep all the herbs. Really handy when cooking. Can email you some photos of the kitchen if you want or can try and send them via a PM (altho never done that before).

silken - a catch up would be good with or without school bag shopping. Have seen some in Müller here that were reasonable so might get him one at the weekend. And it was 15% off till Easter. When is good for you to catch up? One morning next week?

Canella Oh, I'd love one of those skinny cupboards next to the oven - my MIL has one, but I don't think Ikea had any when we got our kitchen.
If no one has suggested your DS stays back a year, I'm sure he'll be fine. I think it's a character thing as much as an age thing; DD2 was even younger than DS will be when he starts, but has sailed through (although a lot of people have said that it's more of a struggle for boys at that age).

admylin Yes, maybe encourage your DD to at least give the new group a go - she can still give up then if she really doesn't like it.

Thatis Ah, I see - it's a year younger here, as children have to be at school by the September after they turn 6. However, school does include the Vorschulklasse (which the school has only had since last September).

hupa We just bought a fairly cheap Ikea kitchen, which we planned ourselves (with the help of an online planner IIRC), but are very happy with it.

What's happened to all the posters in Austria? It's not as if there aren't many expats here either. I shall have to be the sole Austrian voice.

Tag zusammen!

jenny Pink barbie hunting rifles?! I'm shocked yet at the same time a little amused. So wrong!

Nohun I'm out of biscuits so will be hitting the supermarket very soon.... :)

Linzer It sounds like the Vorschulklasse would be a positive thing, the way you describe it. When will it be decided for certain? Glad you're feeling better.

Thatis I hope your DS2 feels better soon and that the sleep situation improves. Do you get chance to nap during the day at the weekend when your DH is there? Have you considered a Spiderman costume for his climbing escapades? :)

admylin That's such a shame for your DD. It's awful that she's being pushed out of the group. I think I would try the next group & then give up if I didn't like it. I hate it when politics get in the way of something which really should be enjoyable. Was there not another hockey group near you she tried, or have I misremembered? I do love it when the supermarket is quiet.

hupa Good luck with the kitchen shopping! I'm no help, I'm afraid. We've decided to rip out the integrated friidge and replace it with a free-standing fridge freezer and even that has proved too much for our organisational skills, pair of numpties that we are. (Between us we have 2 degrees, 1 Master's, 1 PhD & various professional certificates, unfortunately none of them are in White Goods.)

I really wanted an "Apothekenschrank" (pull-out cupboard), but I think in the end it didn't fit (or we would have had to move the door to the pantry, or something).

We also ended up doing a sort of mix of getting ideas ourselves and letting the designers suggest stuff. The big things that affect price are the quality of appliances, ie. you get what you pay for, and things like induction hobs or pyroletic (sp?) (self-cleaning) ovens cost around ?1000 more their less fancy equivalents. Then there are decisions to be made about work surfaces (from solid granite to laminates) and, to a lesser extent, cupboard fronts, handles, etc.

So, basically, you need to know what you want in terms of appliances, ratio of drawers to cupboards and you will have to decide yourselves what the kitchen should look like, but then you can let the designers work out how everything should fit into your space - they all have computer programs to let them create pretty pictures of how the kitchen will look.

One warning, the first place we went to didn't want to tell us how much it would cost until after we agreed to buy from them . I mean they told us the list price, but said that a 40% discount was the least we could expect and possibly up to 60%. Makes it very hard to compare prices.

Canella will be in touch this evening. Next week sounds good .

Nohun The little supermarket down the road from me (Rewe) had the Alpro vanilla milk & the Alpro chocolate puddings, so I presume a bigger supermarket will have the chocolate milk. I was tempted to try the puddings but am trying to cut down on the amount of sweet things I eat so resisted!

Gator I also checked out the range of Alpro products today and also successfully resisted the chocolate puddings .

NoHun I didn't see chocolate milk, but I didn't check the H-Milch section as I don't know where it is in the branch I went in today. I've definitely seen oat milk and rice milk as well as various soya milks in another branch of Tegut, though. I also found ricotta-style cheeze and would recommend the Alnatura tofu and seitan frankfurters - I had them for lunch today, yum!

Oh wow, thanks you both, Gator and silken, good to know.

morning!

I also wanted an Apothekenschrank too silken but also dont have a place to put it. They seem really handy. Agree about the difference in the price of the appliances - if you were buying them as stand alone you would be shocked at the price but when its part of the kitchen you end up paying it. I do love our self cleaning oven tho. . Meant to say yesterday - we've got black glossy quartz stone as work surfaces and as lovely as it is, round the sink its already got faint water marks on it from where the dc have washed their hands and i've not wiped the wee water puddles up immediately. Just a hint hupa.

Have you got a date for moving in silken?

Waves back at gator.

Having a major dilemma as to what to do about antimalarial tablets for dd. She's flying to S Africa for the Easter holidays with my IL's and 2 others but they will spend 2 nights in the Kruger National Park which is a malaria area. The rest of the time there'll be no risk. No-one else out the party will be taking antimalaria tablets but i feel it would be really irresponsible for dd not to. The Hausarzt said he recommends she takes them, dh isnt sure and I feel like its up to me to decide. Dh says she'll probably be fine with nets and spray & that the side effects might ruin her trip, my MIL said its only 2 nights to which I replied "it only needs 1 malaria mosquito to bite her - 2 nights is plenty of time". Other problem is dd has never managed to swallow a tablet in her life! Much boaking every time!
Any thoughts?

That's a tricky one, Canella. I don't really have any experience of that kind of thing, but would probably go with what the doctor recommends - imagine if you didn't and she did get bitten. An old school friend of mine got malaria and was quite ill with it; he ended up having to be hospitalised. Can you crush the tablet up in some yogurt, say, or does it have to be taken whole?

silken We have a self-cleaning oven with induction hobs but I'm sure it wasn't that expensive - maybe around ?500, possibly not even that.

Gator Snap on the qualifications, and I'm about the least practical person ever! (DH isn't, luckily.)

Just back from our meeting with the headteacher, which didn't really hold any surprises - basically, the main "problem" is DS's shyness, which meant that they weren't able to completely assess him and is why he needs to be reassessed in mid-May. If only I hadn't spoken to DS's kindergarten teacher (who thinks he'll really struggle with writing, etc.), I'd probably be feeling quite positive now as the head said that of course they accept that some children are shy, but need to make sure they haven't overlooked any problems. As she'll be the only one assessing him in May (and there'll only be a couple of other children there at most), I'm slightly more confident that he'll be less clingy - well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed anyway.

We did tell her that we're open to him going to the Vorschule if they think it's needed. They didn't pick up on any problems at the Schuleinschreibefest other than his shyness, but as he'll be observed more closely next time, they should be able to tell if his graphomotor skills will be an issue. We didn't mention it today, as DH doesn't want them to have any prejudices when they're reassessing him. So now we just have to wait two months - and it will be at least another month after that before we find out who his teacher will be (the head said she's applied for one but probably won't find out who she's being sent until June).

canella I took antimalarials daily for 9 months solid 18 years ago (so I assume they may have better ones now) and only started to get side effects after about 8 months (nausea) - what side effects is your dh expecting from short term use? I got Dengue fever (like malaria but less serious to healthy adults and there is no preventative medication - still very horrible though) despite nets and burning anti mosquito coils and eating local spicy food and not even being somebody who gets bitten loads - I would give dd the anti malarial, no debate, esp as the strains of malaria in Africa are often cerebral which moves very fast - not in any way worth the risk of skipping the pills IMO!

I have given up on daytime naps in the week as ds2 cat naps for around 45 mins (he is asleep now, on my lap sitting up as he is struggling with his breathing due to this bug/ heavy cold - he seems to be ill more often than not but I assume its due to having a sister at school and brother at Kiga bringing assorted germs home), which just isn't long enough, and if I do lie down it feels like he wakes me mere minutes later, even though I fall asleep fairly quickly, and because the nap is short (I think to short for an adult sleep cycle, probably the length of 1 baby sleep cycle) I actually wake feeling worse than if I stay awake. If I get him down in the cot I do a bit of housework or lesson preparation when he sleeps, but often he sleeps on me and I internet :) I do go to bed about 8pm several times a week though, and on Saturdays DH gets up with the kids and I catch up a bit, and sometimes I nap at some point on Sundays, though I can't lie in then (used to need to take the kids to ice skating and now need to take dd swimming, dh won't do that stuff).

Canella and Silken thanks for the tips about the kitchen. We were thinking of a work surface like yours Canella, but might have a rethink. I´d really like wooden worktops, but realise they would be completely impractical to keep looking good. I´d love to see some photos if it´s possible. By the way, what sort of delivery time are we looking at - weeks or months?

Linzer I´m glad to hear the meeting with the head went well - roll on May.

Canella That´s a really tricky problem with the malaria tablets. Dh said he probably wouldn´t give them, but I´m like Thatis and would always blame myself if I didn´t give them and then she caught malaria. I know there are different tablets available - could she take those least likely to cause side effects?

The sun is shining here and it´s meant to get up to 20C at the weekend, so hopefully the dc will stay healthy so we can make the most of it. They both woke up today with sore throats, but insisted they were well enough for school - let´s see.

Canella we took the dc to India when they were 2 years(ds) and 6 months (dd) old and we crushed malaria tablets for ds and he took them on half a spoon of jam. I remember dd hated it because of the bitter taste, she had a crushed half or quarter tablet (can't remember exact amount) washed down with a drink. It was awful as she cried every time but we couldn't risk not giving them.

When we got back, ds had a high fever and we had to go to the nearest tropical disease institute to get him tested.

Linzer sounds good, the school are definately going to give him a 2nd chance and not write him off straight away.

Have just spent over an hour catching up on my old home town. Someone og FB added m eto their group and there are so many old photos from my childhood on there! Oh well, better get going - jobs to be done!

linzer - think that was a good plan not to say anything to the head about what the kiga had said about his writing etc. I'm sure that will be part of the assessment anyway (was with ds2). Shyness itself isnt a reason for him not to go into the 1. Klasse so I think its good that they're going to reassess him - just rubbish that you all have to wait so long.

thatisall - at your overwhelming tiredness. You are a hero for getting thro the day without collapsing in a heap. Does he just keep waking in the night for a BF? I would be tempted to wean him or get your dh to do the nights for a few to see if he'd settle? sorry if thats rubbish advice.

hupa - the delivery time on our kitchen was 6 weeks but we put it back a few weeks since the walls and floor wasnt finished in time. But that was only cause we gutted the kitchen once the old one was out. The summer is a good time to do it if you've got a cellar to move to for a few weeks. Ask the kitchen people as well if they can lend you a temporary kitchen for a few weeks - it was just a 2 ring hob, sink and fridge but it made life so much easier. I love our black worktops every where else apart from round the sink - they really reflect the light. Also had a black sink put in which is heavenly as it'll never get stained by coffee etc.

Thanks for the advice about the malaria tablets - think your dh is also a doctor hupa - why do they have to go against the recommended advice and make the whole thing more complicated!! dh could not have been more non committal last night. The side effects are nausea etc and after doing a search on here, there were about half had had side effects and the other half not. But I agree with all of you - I would never forgive myself if I didnt give her the tablets and she got malaria. Will just need to spend the next 2 weeks trying to get her to practice swallowing tic tacs! She's also getting her Hep A vaccine this eve - may have to pin her down for that.

The photos of my kitchen are on my profile hupa. The terrible inside door has still not been changed!

(p.s. - its me canella - i've just finally decided on a random namechange!)

Canella Thanksfor the photos - it looks really great! I like the idea of a black sink. Funnily enough we´ve got a door just like that, but in the guest room, not the kitchen and yes, we´ve been saying forever that we must get rid of it.

hupa we also went for a quartzstein worktop, but in cream. I'm not entirely sure when it's due to be installed, other than next month - the flooring has to go down first and they are starting in two weeks. Iirc delivery is typically six to eight weeks (we ordered back in Sept, though).

We have wooden worksurfaces atm and they look pretty grim after four years - black around the sink, various ring stains from cast-iron pans waiting to be washed, other marks from generally not being very quick to wipe up spills. I would steer clear unless you are a meticulous housekeeper (and have well-trained kids)! I would consider a high-end laminate if you want a wood look - my parents have birch laminate surfaces which look as good as new after 15 years - the laminate continues over the rounded front edge, so no danger of chipping or peeling.

ploom we're moving on May 15th, but the house should be more or less done by April 13th (the flooring man is going on holiday then, which is a good incentive for him to finish on schedule!) I want to furnish DD's room as soon as I can, since I want her to move into a full-size bed and she doesn't have a wardrobe yet anyway, and hopefully we will also manage to put in some shelving units in the storage rooms and furnish the guest room before we actually move in. It's all getting rather exciting!

gator forgot to say good luck with the blw. DD found broccoli florets and banana the easiest to manage at first - frozen broccoli is ready in under 10 min (packet says 3 min, but I did 5 min to make it super-soft), banana cut with skin on, peeled 1cm or so, then trimmed the skin with scissors. DD used to bite carrot sticks into small chunks and then push them out again with her tongue, plus the odd bit that did get swallowed ended up virtually unchanged in her nappy, so I didn't bother with them very often. If you run out of ideas at any point, give me a shout, but there are lots of ideas online as well.

Thatis I used to have the same problem with catnaps - I would wake up feeling worse than before, so would just struggle through in a sleep-deprived state. I still shudder at the memory of sleep deprivation, so really feel for you.

hupa We have wooden worktops and, while they don't look brand new and do have a few stains, they're still looking OK after nearly seven years. DH has sanded them down and revarnished them a couple of times, however. We wanted something fairly light as our kitchen is so small - I'll try and put a couple of photos on my profile.

admylin I put a few old school photos on my FB a while back and spent far too long on there reliving memories with old school friends!

Ploom Yes, they had to draw a picture of themselve at school and also draw circles round various objects and join them up to other ones, so I'm sure that the head will notice if there are any real problems - especially as it will possibly just be DS being assessed. She also said it won't be a problem if it takes him five minutes to warm up, for example, whereas they can't allow for that during the Einschreibefest as they're under much more time pressure.

silken It goes without saying that I'm a meticulous housekeeper with well-trained and exceptionally well-behaved children.

Just back from my (slightly delayed) six-monthly check at the dermatologist's. She's moved to a different medical centre in a different town, and I was so worried about being late that I managed to arrive half an hour early. I was quite relieved that my sat nav came up with a route that didn't involve the motorway, but think that the motorway may almost have been preferable to the narrow winding roads through vineyard country.

Linzer varnish rather than oil might actualy be the answer and I really must get ahold of some sandpaper and oil and try to sort out our worktops asap.

Morning! been way too efficient this morning - dishwasher emptied and refilled, downstairs hoovered and washing hung up. So deserve some MN time.

hupa - doors like that should be banished to door hell and never returned! We've got a few of them through the house - think we need to gradually start changing them all.

linzer - hope all was ok at the dermatologist. A drive thro vineyard countryside to get there sounds quite nice to me.

oh silken - thats not long then till you move in - too exciting! Must be fab to be moving into a house that you've designed that will be everything you want. How's the situation with the neighbours?

admylin - I've got a lot of school friends on my FB and they too often put up old photos - the 80's were not a good time for me - I dread when they appear. I wasnt allowed to have long hair so just had really big short hair. I then put my foot down when I was 13 or 14 and said I was growing it but obviously it took some time and the pictures from the inbetween stage are truly awful. (shuddering at the memories).

So dd had her vaccinations yesterday - the Hausarzt said she was missing one of those Tetanus/dip/polio ones so she had that in one arm and Hep A in the other. She made no drama at the time but is really complaining of sore arms this morning. Havent had a vac for a long time but think the achiness wears off within a day??. I got the malaria tablets too - the bill at the apotheke came to 106 euros! But that included some homeopathic remedy to try to regulate my periods - its called Agnus Cactus? anyone heard of it?

Gah, I'm really annoyed this morning. Someone has reported me anonymously for stopping outside the school. Stopping, not parking! It was at 7.45 am last week so I must have stopped for all of about a minute to let the girls out - I can't believe someone would have reported it. There's a Halte- und Parkverbot outside the school from 7 am until 2 pm, but you do see people ignoring it - particularly at lunchtime, when they're waiting for their children to come out so must park there a good 5-10 minutes sometimes. It doesn't really inconvenience anyone and isn't a danger to the school children, as they all cross at a zebra crossing further down. I feel like taking my notepad with me today, noting down all the registration numbers and submitting a few Anonymverfügungen of my own!

I bet it was the old man from the start of the week who reported me. He msut have been following me around trying to catch me out. Actually, when I first opened the letter and saw the fine, I thought it was him who'd reported me for speeding.

Have been out most of this morning, at the gynaecologist's and then food shopping, so really need to be productive now - particularly as I've only got about half an hour before I need to pick up the children for English. Woe betide anyone who has failed to inform me today that their child won't be coming!

Canella I was never allowed to grow my hair either; my mum would always claim that it grew out, rather than down. I didn't rebel until I left home, but grew it really long then - it looked quite like yours does now. It's taken me about 20 years to go back to having short(ish) hair, but I never get any compliments on it now the way I used to when it was long.
Haven't heard of Agnus Cactus, I'm afraid. I think you're right about the sore arm, though; it shouldn't last much more than a day AFAIK.