Der Nebel steigt, es fällt das Laub - a German and Austrian autumn thread

[AntiqueMuppet]

A thread for anyone living in Germany or Austria, or anyone else who fancies a chat.

Previous thread here

Hi, I just wanted to thank you for your (brief) advice about Frankfurt. I went to the palmengarten in the end. I met a very nice man on the way there, who happened to work there and who got me in free, showed me around for 2 hours and gave me some books to go home with!

So a good day was had. First time travelling alone in 20 years and this is what happens!

I did try and find a shopping street and ended up in the Taunus Strasse (red light street), and got seriously creeped out, too scared to turn off down a side street and walked right to the end and round the long way. The next street I went down there was a kind of shelter for junkies and lunatics, about 50 of them ranting about outside. Suddenly I felt at home again, although this was on a scale you would never see in London, it felt very extreme for Germany.

Hello!

Just caught up with the thread after a week in Austria, albeit with a grumpy, teething baby. Steiermark was absolutely beautiful and as always we ate too much and drank too much.

Just a quick post as I'm still in the middle of the mountain of washing & need to get a few things done while DS naps.

Hope everyone is well!

Morning all!

antique glad you had a nice holiday.

achillea you seem to have experienced the best and worst of Germany all in one day! I generally feel somewhat safer in those creepy/scary situations here than in the UK, no idea why .

english I don't want to worry you ,but I've actually impressed myself recently by being able to place people out of context (parents of kids I teach, etc.). Do you look people in the eye when you talk to them? I realised through teaching English one-to-one that I was looking anywhere but directly at the student when I was speaking and made an concerted effort to change. I still don't know whether that was a British thing or just a habit caused by age/insecurity.

Anyway, if you're simultaneously watching to make sure your ds2 isn't climbing a tree or something, then you may just not be looking at the person you're talking to enough to learn their facial movements. Then if you see them wearing a uniform you don't have your normal clues (getting out of black VW, wearing a blue coat) to go on. I bet the sleep deprivation has something to do with it as well. I'm not going to write that DD has started sleeping through reliably and until after I get up on some days because I may jinx it, but I put my recent interest in planning the future down to being well-rested again!

I stayed over at a friend's on Friday night and her 2 yo seemed totally content to play unsupervised in her playpen(!) with a selection of three toys for ages. I've come back determined to at least put most of DD's toys out of sight, but I'm finding it really hard to bring myself to actually take anything completely out of circulation. Please tell me DD is not going to grow up with an attention span of 30 seconds and/or give me some tips about what you do to limit the toy overload!

Good morning everyone

Antique Welcome back; glad you had a good holiday. Hope you made it to a Heuriger or two. (Actually, I think they might be called Buschenschänke in that part of the country.)

cheas I'm probably the last person to give advice about keeping toys to a minimum, as the DC have far too many (DS's bedroom is a breeding ground for soft toys, with which he is utterly obsessed). I try to declutter regularly, but usually without the DC's help as DD1 is an incredible hoarder and refuses to get rid of anything so it's a pointless exercise (I sometimes get DD2 to help me out, though). If I'm worried they might miss something, it goes in a box in the cellar and if they haven't missed it after a couple of weeks/months, then I get rid of it completely. (I think I probably started out trying to rotate toys, but then realised that no one missed what was in the cellar so I might as well get rid of it.)

Nutella Glad you had a good weekend! I always sleep better in my own bed too - plus I find the mattresses at my parents' house far too soft now (whereas they find ours too hard!).
I used to have an English laptop, but using key combinations for the German characters was so fiddly (plus they don't always show up correctly in e-mails etc) that I installed a German keyboard too and would switch between them. It worked quite well as long as I could remember where ß, ö, etc. were (actually, those were easy to remember; it was the characters above the numbers that I had problems with)!

Am feeling like a mean mummy today as I didn't let the DC stay up to watch Felix Baumgartner jump; I didn't actually say that they couldn't, but they were in bed and I didn't think to fetch them (plus I was also a bit worried that he might die mid-jump!). DD2 said three quarters of her class watched it, so I've promised we'll have a look for it on YouTube this afternoon.

Linzer I had a single at my little Bro's place (in Watford) because there was a chance it was slightly harder than than the other bed on offer - which my mum took- no idea if it was anymore comfy... Then we stayed at a B&B near my older brother's place (in Stratford on A) and the beds were crazy soft! It was lovely to have a proper sausage with breakfast :o But my bed at home is much firmer and I slept like a log last night.

It was so nice to see the whole family. Oldest bro and family were all in good spirits and we had a great time at their place playing a lot of UNO :). My nephew (10) and niece (6) both predict a boy. Niece really wanted to feel the bean moving but it took a while before she sat still long enough to feel anything.
My little bro and his girlfriend (they've been together 11 years so we were winding them up about marriage and kids etc) wanted to feel the bump as much as DN! :o They both got to feel the baby move and DBro was also flying from the same airport as me for work (he managed to get them to sort it that way, which I thought was sweet) and felt a good kick while we were waiting for my plane.:)
Only problem was middle bro (he is a bit odd generally, and always brings a different girlfriend who never seem to be beyond the age of 19/20 ) he poked my bump really hard when we met him and it really hurt! If he wanted to feel the bump he could have asked and I wouldn't have minded but he just wanted to see how hard a pregnancy bump is wish I'd smacked him but was too busy saying ow!

Oops sorry that got a bit long! I'm supposed to be researching cots. BIL and SIL want to buy one for us... was going to get a basic 2nd hand IKEA one but now have the option of something a little fancier... but what?

Oh and Linzer I was worried we might watch him die live on telly too! I don't think the DC will mind watching it not live on youTube.

New IKEA one?

PIL offered to buy us this one. I refused, though, mostly down to the pg hormones, plus SIL said it was important to get a cot where you could take out a few bars to make a "schlupfloch" otherwise dd would climb over the side and fall onto her head . We never needed the schlupfloch in the end, but I suppose it's something to consider.

cheas I thought the same thing :o New IKEA. I sent DP a link to the Stokke thingy as a joke... he thinks asking them to buy the mini bit and then buying the extension pack ourselves next year is a really good idea...

my thinking is it also makes it easier to have the baby in the room with us and we can move it around more easily...

Nutella We had the DC in a bassinet in our room for the first 3-4 months and then moved them into a cot in their own room when they outgrew the bassinet (in DD1's case, it was more a question of trying anything to get her to sleep for more than an hour at a time). We did have one with bars that you could remove but never found that we needed them.

silken Your SIL should have followed my SIL's advice of only ever putting your DC to bed when they're tired, then they won't try to get out of the cot. (I'm assuming there was probably someone there looking over the baby when they woke up too. Actually, there probably was in SIL's case - they were always very suspicious of baby monitors and used MIL instead.)

Sorry cheas, still think of you as silken!

Good afternoon,hope you all are well.

My daughter went back to school this morning. I'm so relieved. Her temperature is back to normal and she's her usual chirpy self,although she's still not eating much.

It's a cold, wet day here in the UK. Thankfully I got my dog walk in this morning between showers, the woods were fairly muddy though. I sometimes go there with a friend and we walk our dogs together as I don't like going there on my own - my dog is only little and wouldn't be much use if there was a strange person wandering around!

I had all three children in my room at the side of my bed when they were tiny, up to about 4 months really. In Germany we used the family cradle which was lovely. Here in the UK we bought a moses basket and placed it inside the cot for cosiness.

We watched Felix Baumgartner live on tv (well, the website on the tv screen) with my daughter (11) but I was worried that he wouldn't make it and how that would affect her. I did feel that at her age they would be talking about it in school and it's a bit of history she should see. Not sure if I would have let a younger child watch though.

Nutella, crazy of your brother to poke your bump! How rude. Even as a man he should be able to work out that it might hurt.

Evening all. flippity I feel the same about the forest. We live right on the edge of a huge forest but I need someone to go in there with me otherwise I get spooked! Glad your dd is better.

nutella sounds like you had a great trip home. Tell all us UK shop deprived women what you bought then?! Did you get time for some last minute shopping? Can't help with the bed/cot as we co-slept for 4 years. I did have a cot with those removable bars in our room that dd used now and then . As soon as she could toddle she would climb out and wander round the flat in the early morning!

cheas the kindergarden ds went to did an experiment when he was there. They had loads of toys and they had started fighting over them so they took everything away except the wooden bricks and the box with crayons and a pile of paper. Didn't seem to bother the dc, the parents were more worried than anything else and the dc seemed happy.

antique hope you got the washing done, have you got a dryer? That's one thing I've never had but would love. Have you had anyone asking about your flat yet?

english I've never heard of the Over 35 check up but know that my Krankenkasse pays for a yearly health check up. Not that I've ever been, although I should as I'm well over 35 so if that's an age to start going then I'm well over due. Maybe we should keep nagging each other until we've been!

Getting abit fed up with the orthodontist. Last time he put 2 little elastic bands round 2 of dd's teeth then told her they are to prepare the spaces for the wires of her brace and that next time she would be getting it fitted. Well today was 'next time' and they only made a print thingy of her mouth and told her to come back in 2 weeks to get the elastics on again then she'd be getting her brace 4 days later. Now we have no idea what sort of brace or when it's really going to happen. All I know is the monthly instalments are being sent so we're paying for something, just not sure what.

Evening!

dh is off this week which is just lovely but definitely limits my MN time!

Glad you had a fab time in the UK nutella but I agree its always fab to get back to your own bed.

And glad you had a good time in Austria antique - I love Austria - it is so beautiful.

english - dh just went to the Hausarzt for his over 35 check. They checked his BP and did some bloods to check his cholesterol etc. You can also have a mole check up too if you want. I also suffer with not always being able to place people when they're out of context but think thats partly cause I get about a bit with taking the dc to sport etc. I'm still puzzling as to how I know the woman in the sports shop but am too embarrassed to ask her.

admylin - stick with the KFO - they'll have a plan and it'll be so worth it in the end. I used to be fed up taking dd but the difference in her teeth make the endless waiting in the waiting room all worth while.

linzer - I didnt let my dc watch Felix jump either for the same reasons but showed them it on youtube over breakfast this morning. But then I read on a MN thread about it that it was time delayed in case anything untoward happened. Wasnt it amazing tho! The speed at which he was falling was scary to watch - cant imagine how he felt doing it. But what amazed me the most was how he casually landed as if he'd just done a regular skydive (that I could never even do!). Just amazing!

cheas - we also have way too many toys but have a clearout every so often (usually before Christmas!). But like linzer said its sometimes easier done without the dc helping otherwise nothing gets cleared out!

flippity - glad your dd's feeling better .

platanos - so nice to see you back on the thread . How are things?

Its ds1's birthday tomorrow so better get off MN and make sure his presents are sorted. Seems to be an overwhelming theme of Star Wars running thro them .

Thanks ploom that's exactly what I need someone to say to me, to reassure me that the KFO will work out. All I get are the negative comments from dd and don't know anyone in real life who has had braces. In my childhood only the really goofy dc had a brace, dh has no idea and I can't see what's wrong with my 2dc's teeth (except from the xray, I know there isn't room for the adult teeth to come through). So thanks!

Hope the birthday goes well and your ds has a great time!

Glad I helped! I agree that when we were younger it was rarer for dc to have a brace but think its now rare not to have a brace. I really wish I'd had one as a child as my teeth are definitely not straight but it was never suggested. Sometimes cant help myself but stare at dd's teeth when she's talking - they are just so nice now. I've even started taking ds1 every 3 months just for them to keep an eye on how his teeth come thro since I've realised what a difference early intervention with a night brace can make. But the KFO is happy to leave him for now - he's only got 8 adult teeth so he's got a while to go yet.

Admylin, my daughter had a brace fitted when living in Germany. She was a thumb sucker and definitely needed the brace! Now she has beautiful straight teeth so I would definitely stick with it, it's worth it.

Ploom, how old is your ds? Is he having a party?

Happy birthday to your DS for tomorrow, Ploom! I made the "mistake" of asking for Star Wars presents (if anyone asked, which they all did) for DS's birthday and he ended up with two of the same Lego stationery sets and five of those Lego globe things (two the same). I don't think he got anything non-Star Wars-related !

admylin I have two slightly crooked front teeth (milk teeth that didn't come down till I was in my twenties) and the orthodontist advised against a brace as he said that a little bit of imperfection was no bad thing! I sometimes wish I'd had one, although it would probably have been quite an expense - and I was a student at the time.

We're thinking about making an appointment with the doctor to have DD1's height checked out. I've just been looking at the height charts and she's virtually at the bottom (10th percentile) for a 10 year old - and she'll be 11 in two months. I doubt there's much they can/would want to do, but I suppose it's best to be on the safe side.

Happy birthday to your DS, Ploom!
Did you complain to the teacher about that strange maths marking?

Linzer I do love those Buschenschänke! Not having a clue what half of the food on the menu is just makes it even more fun . It does mean I run the risk of ordering something that MIL wil disapprove of and then have to hear about it for rest of the week though... (I love my PILs dearly, we've just spent a LOT of time with them recently and they are starting to make me a little murderous.)

admylin My washing plans have been scuppered a few times by DS' explosive (teething-related) diarrhoea, so haven't managed to get that much done yet.
I'd love a dryer too! We're thinking of getting a washer-dryer when we move. They seemed really expensive on MediaMarkt etc but there were some cheaper ones on Amazon. No progress with the flat yet, but we're still waiting for the landlady to let us know how much rent she wants to charge.
I think the braces sound like a positive thing in the long run - I really wish I had had braces as I have really wonky teeth now. It seems more the exception not to have them these days and the others on the thread with much more experience of these things than me seem very positive about them!

Flippity Glad to hear your daughter is feeling a bit better now.

Hello cheas & English

Hi platanos, good to 'see' you! (I used to be Gator and before that BananMad)

Nutella How strange of your brother to do that! I hated people touching my bump when I was pg, but luckily it didn't happen too much. I managed to freak my brother out by getting him to touch the bump just as DS was having a massive wriggle He was horrified!
DS was another one who would only really sleep on me for ages, but we had a small cot-like thing on wheels that we had next to our bed until he grew out of it and moved into the bigger cot.

DS is really suffering at the moment, bless him. He had no problems whatsoever with his first 8 teeth and now there are 3 huge ones coming at once. (Pre-molars, maybe, need to google.) He's really out of sorts, clingy, not really eating solid food but screaming for far more milk than he normally has, has nasty diarrhoea & has huge lumps in his gums where the teeth are almost through. I really feel for him. I think he might be in the middle of a growth spurt at the same time, which can't be helping.

pokes head around door

You're all still here!

I haven't read the thread for a week as we were away for DS's birthday in the Black Forest, what a lot has gone on. Sorry to hear of the dramas, hope everyone is ok.

Happy Birthday to your DS, Ploom, it seems it is a busy time of year!

Nutella, I'd recommend holding off on the cot if you think you can - you may feel you want to cosleep once your baby gets here. Unless you are totally against that, of course!

Antique, poor little one teething, ow! Hope it passes soon.

Sorry for not namechecking more, I am way behind!

antique teething is so hard on them isn't it, and they don't understand really. Hope it's over with quickly.

linzer how tall is your dd1? My dd is quite small for her age but I don't have a chart, is there an online one to check? A friend of mine went to the doctor with her dd as she was very short for her age and she got some hormone treatment but she had to fight for it to be payed for and it hasn't exactly made her tall. Also alot of side effects.

Thanks all for the comments about braces. It helps! Dh had an adult tooth removed as he didn't have enough room for them all so he's no good example for me to go by!

vegans did you find a nice place to stay in the black forest?

Have to go and collect ds from school soon, he has school until late today at a different site for sport then he has half and hour to eat then back out to drive to a table tennis match. Usually they put the matches on later but for some reason the town he's playing against are putting it on early. Hope he hasn't got any homework as I won't be expecting him back until after 7pm.

Just found an online height chart and dd is on the 50th percentile line so infact she's durchshnittlich! Wow, that also means that all her friends are far too tall! She's definately the smallest girl in the class.