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Original poster

Durch die Strassen auf und nieder, leuchten die Laternen wieder... ***Herbstunterhaltung im Deutschem Eck***

578 replies

MmeLindt · 15/09/2009 13:57

Durch die Strassen auf und nieder
leuchten die Laternen wieder:
rote, gelbe, grüne, blaue,
Lieber Martin, komm und schaue!

Wie die Blumen in dem Garten
blühn Laternen aller Arten:
rote, gelbe, grüne, blaue,
Lieber Martin, komm und schaue!

Und wir gehen lange Strecken
mit Laternen an den Stecken
rote, gelbe, grüne, blaue,
Lieber Martin, komm und schaue!

*

It is that time of the year again. Check your lanterns, get enough batteries, start the Bastelaktion.

OP posts:
ErnestTheBavarian · 01/10/2009 13:48

My dc used to go to school just up the road in Haimhausen. You're about 20 minutes away then. I've got a 15 month old, and 5,8 and 10 yr old.

We're taking the boys to the Wies'n tomorrow afternoon, then hopefully I'll be meeting up with a friend and her frind - we all have the same name so that won't be confusing. Hope it happens. She invited me along last week, and I think I must've bleated on about how I never get out, so she's taken pity on me and invited me again, if her friend comes, so fingers crossed I get another night out before I have to wait a whole year for my next outing

Original poster
MmeLindt · 01/10/2009 15:17

What all three of you have the same name? That is going to be fun.

We almost ended up north of Munich, DH got offered a job there just last month. He said that we were far too happy here to even consider moving, even for a promotion. I am very very glad. He said that he could not do that to me and the DC. We have only been here a year.

OP posts:
canella · 01/10/2009 15:57

my my this thread is busy today - welcome cakebuddy - congratulations on the triplets! only know one other family with triplets - they were her first children (they're about 14 now) and she now has an 8 year old as well. She said although the triplets were in hospital for a few weeks, when they came home they were surprisingly easy cause the hospital had got them into a routine so she just stuck to it! when her dd was born 6 years later she had no idea what to do in the first few days!!! says her dd was well more trouble than the triplets!

not braving Oktoberfest - too many people for me and i dont like beer!! maybe might brave it in a few years when the kids are bigger!

didnt realise it was a holiday on saturday - need to look at the calender more carefully! but i'm flying to the UK on saturday so it shouldnt cause me too much trouble!

had thought i was so organised in booking german lessons but the woman phoned on tues to cancel them - not enough people booked the course! so found a different school (not the VHS) in another town who do german lessons every morning - think they are aimed at the few immigrants that are in the town but i spoke on the phone to the tutor today and he seemed to think he could help me - dont want to go every morning though - need some peace in the day!!!! so going to meet him on tues - managed the whole conversation in german so he obviously knows i'm not a complete beginner (although i feel like it some days!)

ZZZenAgain · 03/10/2009 12:04

welcome Cakebuddy. Wow triplets! I'm sure you would be entitled to quite some help with that many babies. I think you're entitled to a household help for a while after you've given birth anyway, and you might also be able to have someone like a nurse or midwife to come in more often than after giving birth to just 1 baby. Maybe your midwife or Frauenarzt could tell you more about that. Three in one go, though, how exciting! Wonder if they'll be identical.

Have to go back and check the thread now, so many posts...

ZZZenAgain · 03/10/2009 12:08

My poor friend got upset at one old lady, who said, "Um Gottes Willen, wie furchtbar" when she saw the twins and their 2yo sister.

fgs eh, some people are just pathetic gits, aren't they? As if 3 dc = a big family even. I remember once picking up dd from school (who is quite tall for her age, in fact at just 9 almost my height), a boy who was a head above her and a girl who was very small for her age. All of them were in the same year 1 class but you would never have guessed they were the same age to look at them walking along together. I can't tell you how much approval I got. All these old women assuming they were all mine and beaming at me. I was told that a lot of young women are too selfish to have dc these days. I didn't like to disillusion the old dears - and basking in praise makes a nice change really, doesn't it?

ZZZenAgain · 03/10/2009 12:08

sorry that first bit was a quote from ML#s post down below ...

ErnestTheBavarian · 04/10/2009 07:21

Imagine the 'glory' I get everyday with my 'plenty of children' then In fact, dh experienced it for 1st time on Friday. He travelled home from the Wies'n with the kids (I stayed) adn a drunken 1st time father accosted him on the tube, asking him for reassurance that he would survive the 1st, asking if it was ok to take children out so late (it was 7.30!) etc, then he saw baby in pushchair and eyes widened - "Is that yours as well?!" how many do you have, Respect etc etc. I think he enjoyed showing off.

He is never alone with all 4, so undeserved imho

But seriously, people make such a fuss. Are they all yours?! Is a daily Q. CakeBuddy, you are going to have to get used to big changes. Not only will you have 'plenty of children' but triplets as well. I guarantee you will get accosted by strangers every single time you leave the house for the rest of your life.

ZZZenAgain · 04/10/2009 11:30

are they all yours?! LOL

When I was growing up, 4 dc would have been perfectly normal, no one would have batted an eyelid. We were 3, would have been 4 if mum hadn't had a miscarriage. In my best friend's family there were 5 girls, weirdly they all looked almost identical too - all different ages though. I knew quite a few families with 6 dc but more than 6 would have been unusual.

My great-grandmother had 13 boys. Can you imagine it?

westvan · 04/10/2009 22:52

We were 3 as well and most of the kids I played with also had a couple of siblings. Not unusual at all.

ZZZenAgain · 05/10/2009 09:54

Kassandra,

Just catching up on that little girl found battered and lying in a coma, stuffed into a closed drain. So they think this 14 year old boy did it. Fgs what is wrong with kids these days? He seems to be a problem case and one on record so I always wonder (if indeed he did do it), why no one has managed to intervene effectively before it came to this kind of drastic violence? As far as I know, he has not admitted to the crime but since Kassandra thank goodness is able to speak again and knows him, she will at least be able to say if he did do it. Horrific. Why do that to a 9 year old girl? Or indeed to anyone really.

MmeGoblindt · 05/10/2009 11:04

How awful, ZZZen. I missed that story.

Did I post about DH's nephew a couple of months back? He had a sore knee/leg, had been complaining for a while and SIL put it down to "growing pains". She eventually took him to the doc and they discovered that he had a tumour in his leg.

SIL went a bit OTT, getting several second opinions and eventually he was operated on, to remove the tumour which was found to be benign. It might have gone away itself according to one of the docs, the other docs in a differnet clinic said it should be removed. She did too much googling, I think.

Anyhooo, he was recovering nicely and had started his new school, a Sonderschule.

DN is a nice lad, a bit slow to learn but no behaviour problems. He still cannot read well, at 11yo but seems to be ok in other subjects.

A week or so ago, one of the other boys asked him to show him his scar. When DN took the bandage off, the boy kicked him in the leg, breaking the bone that was operated on.

They do not know at this point if it will heal well, he is back in plaster and may always walk with a limp.

The school were next to useless and said that the there is no point in punishing the boy as he has no impulse control.

SIL has taken him out of school and is looking into a partly privately funded Montessori school.

ZZZenAgain · 05/10/2009 11:12

fgs at 11! Honestly what's with empathy? Your poor nephew. Thank goodness the tumour was benign though. Hope his leg is going to heal ok. I just don't get this, oh well, we won't do anything about it kind-of-thing as if he is going to just magically improve with time left to his own devices. Bet your SIL was furious

MmeGoblindt · 05/10/2009 11:24

Thing is, she is bipolar and the whole thing kind of set off an episode. She is a bit off the planet at the moment.

It is hard to seperate the things that she is organising/planning for DN into reasonable and unreasonable.

The PILs are a bit überfördert at the mo.

ZZZenAgain · 05/10/2009 11:29

oh that's a shame (for everyone really). Is this the one who kept wanting to drop in on you when it didn't suit?

MmeGoblindt · 07/10/2009 08:06

It has all gone quiet again here.

I went to my first parents evening last night. We sat at our DCs desks while the teacher told us about how she does things in her class, the rules, the homework etc. She spoke very quietly and very softly. I understood maybe 10% of it. Some of the other mums helped afterwards, translating the most important bits and I was able to speak to the teacher about DD.

She says that DD is doing fine, she understands what is going on and does the same work now as the rest of the class.

Afterwards she disapearred for a minute or two, coming back with two bottles of wine.

My kind of parent's evening.

ZZZenAgain · 07/10/2009 11:12

LOL French at the parents' meeting!

Great that dd is doing fine. Did you speak to the teacher in French (even before the wine)? Wow!

It's funny sitting at those low little tables on uncomfortable little seats, isn't it?

ZZZenAgain · 07/10/2009 11:13

your dd caught up very fast, didn't she ML? I think she must be a bright little thing.

All parents' evenings should involve bottles of wine I'm thinking now.

ErnestTheBavarian · 10/10/2009 05:31

You're first parent's eve? I've had 4 already. ds1 worryingly mentioned several more during the course of the year. Just send us a bloody email or something. Now I start to question the wisdom of having 4. When dd starts school my life will be a nightmare!

Herbst seems to be here at last. I love the red leaves. EVen ds was exclaiming how beautiful it is, and asked when we get our next house if we can have a red leaved plant like that SImple pleasures.

ErnestTheBavarian · 10/10/2009 08:18

So, we've just decided to spend Christmas here. We're going to UK at end of the month. Any suggestions from people what'd be a good idea to stock up on for the festive season? Can I get royal icing for christmas cake here, or should I get that when I'm over? Can I bring crackers on the plane? Any other hints or suggestions to add to my list?

ZZZenAgain · 10/10/2009 19:23

no, ds1 is winding you up. IIRC we had one group meeting where the Elternsprecher are decided on and you get some dates for trips etc. That's all the dp at the beginning of the school year. Ours went on and on with some particularly dominant parents blathering on endlessly about nothing important and then one individual meeting (10 mins) with the teacher, can't remember when that was - maybe January? That's it. Of course with 4 it adds up.

Depends what you want for your Christmas but I think I would stock up on any traditional British foodstuffs, crackers etc when you're in the UK just to be on the safe side. You can get crackers in the better dept stores. Not sure about flying with them actually. I suppose you could order them online anyway. I don't think I have ever seen mincemeat if you're planning on making mince pies and I have never looked for royal icing, so no idea about that. A big dept store with large foodstalls will probably have most things you'd want though.

ErnestTheBavarian · 10/10/2009 19:45

Can you really get christmas crackers here in D?

ZZZenAgain · 10/10/2009 19:52

I've bought them. Well dh did from KaDeWe which is the big dept store and they were very flash but they did go off nicely with a bang.

nighbynight · 11/10/2009 08:24

Royal icing, mincemeat/pies, crackers are things I havent found here. Also suet if you make your own mincemeat.

Califrau couldnt find sugar mice here a few years ago, I seem to remember!

Re teh school parents evenings - I ignore the elternsprecher thing, as would have to pay for babysitting to listen to the keen ones droning on for hours. nein danke!

nighbynight · 11/10/2009 08:32

Oh, and last year, our local supermarket didnt have parsnips the week before christmas!

hupa · 11/10/2009 09:58

Ernest - you can´t take crackers on the plane. We had ours confiscated a fews years back and they joined a huge pile that had been taken from other people. My SIL usually manages to get what I need - crackers, Christmas pudding etc. from the English shop in Köln, so I´m sure you would be able to get most things in München. Mind you, it´s probably a lot cheaper to buy what you need in England.

We´ll I´ve survived teaching in the local school. After I agreed they wanted me to go in for 1 or 2 hours everyday until the Ferien. It was good to be back in the classroom, but I definitely don´t want to be doing it everyday. I was amazed at how under resourced the school was compared to English schools. I´m not sure if it´s just a problem with our school or a more general problem.

Dh and dd have gone out to collect mushrooms in the local woods. They´ve gone with our neighbour who says he´s an expert. I hope he is or I can see us all suffering from food poisoning in the next few days.