**German Chat**everyone welcome* - macht es euch gemütlich

[ZZZen]

reden wir weiter...

Doing quite well ZZen. Just had teh neighbour back in and she has taken another arm full ofclothes and soem books and 2 pairs of boots! Have 1 other big bag of clothes to throw. It's quite good sorting out and makes me think that we lived with far too much stuff as do most people.

Just going through pens, pencils and paints - my dc have far too many sets or half sets of pencils in all different makes and colours but you only need one good complete set really. We must own about 100 biro pens between us all because he has to have a pen on every corner or in every room several so he keeps bringing them into the house and now we have pens to last us well into our old age!

oyur doing good admylin - moving is still so fresh in my head - its a pain in the arse of a job but it'll be worth it in the end!! i always think its an excellent way to chuck out crap you dont need - you'd never do it normally!!

knackered already this morn- dh is on a ocurse in heidelberg today and tom so got up at 5am to drive there this morn - dont know how he didnt wake the kids up - felt like he was making so much noise!! so feel like i've been awake since 5!! might have to have a wee snooze with ds2 at lunchtime!!

just been for the weeks food shopping on my own - such a better shopping experience than going with the 3 terrors!! got dd some nice ballerina slippers from aldi - nearly bought some for myself but then thought i was turning into one of those mums who tries to copy their daughter!! not right!!

she is doing well. That reminds me canella I have to buy (more) new shoes for dd tomorrow. She takes only 1 size smaller than me atm - and she is 8. Soon I will be wearing her cast-offs!

inspire me please girls, I need to buy a brithday present for an 8 year old for tomorrow. I have NO idea what. Dd suggested a football but I don't really think so

nah - dont think a football will go down well! depends what kind of girl she is - i know it makes me a bad parent but my dd loves playing with make up - she's not allowed out the house with it on but she could play for hours with it!! but it might look bad giving that to another child if the mum isnt as liberal as me!! what about some kind of making thing - like beads or bracelets?

Morning all.

Just been in town for a birthday present for DD, she will be 7 on Monday. God, how did the past 7 years go by so fast?

Re birthday present, most of DD's friends seem to like the Littlest Pet Shop shite that is in all the shops at the moment. Or Hello Kitty.

I got DD a trottinette a scooter as all of her friends have them and she is suffering badly by being left out. "Mama, I am the only one in the class without a trottinette" [wail]

Am in the garden for an hour, the weather is supposed to turn this afternoon so I am making the most of it. It is sunny and warm at the moment, lovely.

Eek at the Guinea Pig stories, ZZZen. Don't think that I really want to go there.

Canella
Don't panic, you are not a bad mother. Some DC are just more erm, challenging than others. DS can drive me up the wall, he does things that DD would never even thought about at his age.

He has recently perfected the go-slow-manouver which enrages me so much, especially when we are trying to get out of the house to get to school.

You name it, he has done it. Drawn on walls, furniture. We have a nice matchstick man on the couch, DS said, "It wasn't me", just a shame that I recognised his drawing style.

Did I tell you about DS's kindergarten teacher who found a drawing on her car, scraped into the paintwork with a stone? The funny thing was that she could tell which child it was.

Canella
I don't know about the tick vaccine, but I know that the Paediatrician is allowed to give parents boosters of the other vaccines. It is the only thing that paediatricians are allowed to do on adult patients. You might be able to save yourself a trip to the Allgemeinarzt.

Canella, the initial vaccination requires three shots, the second one about 1-3 month after the first and the third about 12 month after the first. I would love to get the children, dp and myself vaccinated because I hate having to worry about it when we are in Germany. I used to get loads of ticks when I was a child so I know they like me (so do NZ sandflies but Scottish midges prefer dp ). There are plenty of Germans who think FSME is just a money making plot by the evil pharma industry (it comes up every spring on a German parenting board) but rarely anyone who lives in a high risk area thinks that, maybe because most of them know someone effected by it.

Hia. been up since 4 with dd. graon. what is wrong with her. I am so knackered, but unfortunately mum is coming tomorrow, so have to blitz house instead of crashing.

Meeting went well with school woman, so looks like - gulp - we're registering our kids to start in local school as of September. I am so very much not looking forward to having that chat. Any tips on how to soften the blow to the boys? Please?

Zzzen - is the 8 year old a boys or a girl? Can you aske the mum? Here it seems to be the done things to ask what the birthday b/g wants. other than that, bionicle for boy, girl, I'll have to get back to you in 7 years or so, they're still alien species to me.

How's piggie today?

ml, glad it's not just mine. Only had 1 drawing on wall inciddent with ds2, nothing with ds1 at all, ds3 still does it occasionally and he's bloody 5 now. sigh mind you ds2 has taken to putting holes in everything bloody kids.

btw, as the teacher identified your ds handiwork in her paintwork, were you made to cough up?

it's a girl ernest. They are also moving overseas a few weeks afterwards so I thought preferably not something bulky. Will have to browse and see maybe those beads you make patterns iwth and iron?

Well done tackling the schools. I think you might just have to have a good day out somewhere and then when you get back say you'll be spending another year in Germany and they will be attending such and such a school. I'm no experet on this kind of thing but I think I would go for bright and breezy, maybe bringing up the fact that it makes more sense for them to try a German school sincet heir German is so good and a lot of the kids at the Int School just didn't speak any German so "had" to go there.

Good luck with the school. Do they have nice facilities (like a playground at all) and is it a half-day school just till lunchtime? COuldthey do some sort of afternoon activity where they meet up with the kids from the Int. School?

dd thinks the piggie's eyes were smiling this morning. Didn't see it myself. They have such an odd way of turning their head sideways and looking at you with one eye, I can't say I pick up on how they feel but she was chatting and burring and snuggling into my armpit so I think she felt ok.

Had a bit of a struggle getting the syringe with the painkiller into her mouth, not sure how much of it she swallowed but have just left her to rest today which is what the vet advised, have only had her out to give her medicine and hold her for a bit.

ZZzen
Since the girl is moving away shortly, how about a friendship book that she can put photos in and her friends fill out with their favourite activities. Or a nice photoframe with a photo of her and your DD in it if you have one. That is the kind of thing that DD would like.

Glad that the Guinea pig has a twinkle in her (his?) eye. I am sure he will be fine.

Our pup is fully recovered from the OP now but I suffered such guilt that I put her through it just so we were not inconvienienced with her going into heat and perhaps having puppies. I know it was necessary but she was in pain, and I hated it.

thanks ML those are nice ideas.

poor little pup. I rmemeber when our family dog got really broody, she was collecting little things from around the house and putting them in her basket and mum said she felt so sorry for her. The instinct to have babies was there but she couldn't. Still I would have done it too in your shoes. She's an adorable looking little thing btw

Why was your dd waking at 4 ernest? What a pita

my word, the little beast has had me up at an ungodly hour for the last week or so, mst mornings. I am close to collapse. dunno why either. thanks goodness she is as cute as a cute thing, so haven't murdered her yet.

as hse is number 4 I should know how to fix it, shouldn't i?

hope she will settle into a more convenient routine soon. When is MIL arriving? Isn't she due today?

my mum not mil. tomorrow morning. can't wait

ps anyone know what Sprengelschule means?

I have never heard that term but googled and found this here:
Nach Art. 42 Abs.1 Bayer. Erziehungs- und Unterrichtsgesetz (BayEUG) besteht beim Besuch öffentlicher Pflichtschulen eine Sprengelpflicht. D.h. es ist grundsätzlich die Volksschule (Grund-, Haupt- oder Förderschule) zu besuchen, in deren Schulsprengel das Schulkind seinen gewöhnlichen Aufenthalt hat.

Just means that the child has to go to the school of the school district in which you live. This is for schools which form part of the basic Schulpflicht, not for Realschulen or Gymnasien.
The only time I ever heard the word Sprengel (besides the chocolate brand) before is in Pfarrsprengel, which is equivalent to parish, I suppose.

Thanks Gracelo.

also feeling a bit stressed today ernest though thank heavens I slept. Managed to post soemthing snotty on MN today, try not to usually but some people's posting style (in this case bombastic frothy drivel) really sets my teeth on age and I couldn't hold back today. Not that anyone noticed I suppose.

Tut tut, must learn self-discipline I know. Like those amazing American women who invariably chirp at you "Oh hello there honey!" everytime they see you. I must learn to be more like that and less of an old curmudgeon. How do they do it? There's no way they can alway feel that happy.

According to dd, the birthday girl likes pink girly stuff so we got a heart-shaped pink handbag set with beads and things for making necklaces / bracelets. That should be fun for the mum. Very girly looking. Then we got some new shoes for dd (shops were CROWDED)

Big work do tomorrow and I went shopping again later for something nice to wear, just couldn't find ANYTHING that a) I liked and b) looked good on. I think it is going to have to be that old stand-by the black dress. I did feel like something more colourful

hope you're having a better eve zzen - you're having my bad mood from yesterday!! i've had a much better day today - had a huge cry last night which seems to have helped!! Will wine help? glad you got the pressies sorted out - remember when dd was in reception it felt like it was a party every week! got so fed up buying presents!!

Ernest - hope your dd sleeps better tongight!! 4am is just far too early!! what time is she going to bed? sh emust be knacked in the day!!

feel jealous that dh is in a nice hotel in heidelberg and i'm stuck here!! the pesky IL's have gone away for 4 weeks on holiday!! how rude!! i could have gone with dh if they'd been here!! a romantic night to ourselves!! that never happens! oh well i'll just need to wait for the next time!

think it's a touch of PMT (hope that's it !)

Sorry you were crying last night. Maybe it has just all been a bit much, the move, the ILs, ds being livlier than usual and now dh away and not being there for the fund-raising, maybe thinking about your friend. You have had a lot on your plate.

How did you get on with that German woman you met? You thought you imagine a friendship developping?

I am watching xfactor in italian which has been quite a laugh.

thanks zzzen - when you write it all down like that a lot has gone on - no wonder i've been emotional!! think it was ds yesterday but i've been thinking loads about my friend too - they only just filled her post at work (we'd been colleagues as well as good friends for 11 years!) and they filled it with someone who was no where near as experienced or qualified as my friend had been. still cant believe she's dead most days and feel sad even thinking about her. i'm sure its going to take a lot longer than 6 months to grieve for her.

didnt want to be too pushy with the friend i might have made - its exactly like dating - dont want to appear too desperate!! but i'm going to phone in the week and invite her and her kids round - not that there's much to do here but the kids can run round! need some other adult company apart from dh - we're not used to being in each others pockets like we are!! and after the summer i'll have german lessons to go to so that'll get me out the house!! he's back tom teatime so not on my own too long!! and i've got wine so cant complain!

morning all!! you must have all had really busy weekends - not a single post all weekend!! or else i've killed the thread with my miserablenees from last week!! feeling well brighter this week despite my stinky sinus headache!!

what did you all get up to at the weekend? i took the kids to the kreuzberg for a picnic on saturday - had a great few hours!! it was funny though because people kept speaking to us - about nothing in particular but loads of people were just being friendly and making chat with the kids! some woman even gave them sweets - dd didnt look at what it was before she put it in her mouth and nearly had a paddy - it was kaffee sahne!! not her favourite by any means!!
just dossed about the garden the rest of the weekend - just loving eating outside - wasnt so many occasions to do that in the UK!! but i saw on the weather report we're in for rain the next few days!! how will i exhaust my kids then?? LOL

We were in Berlin at the weekend and had a great time. Dh was on a course, but I took the dc to the zoo (again) and just enjoyed being out in the sun. We went to an Annie Leibovitz on Sunday and the dc were remarkebly well behaved - this had nothing to do with the promise of ice-cream afterwards of course .