The Great Balancing Act

Pottery Class

I'd like to say I took this picture, but I didn't.  I had a case of camera-stupid-itis and took all my pictures on what was apparently the wrong setting -- my pictures look like junk.  Grainy, blury, junk.  My backyard neighbor, Christy, took this pictures and kindly shared.  She is the official camera smarty pants of the event.

My other neighbor, Katja, kindly organizes a German American Women's Club Mother and Child Group for us. (Say that 5 times fast!  Good luck with that!  Half the time I can't even remember the name of the group.)  She kindly organizes field trips out into the wide, wide word of Germany for us.  We repay her by showing up late to the car pool take-off time.  Katja is a true German, and this makes her CRAZY.  She is also very kind, and never complains about it.  Katja arranged for the kids to have a lesson from a real-live potter this month.  It is such a popular event that she has had to run it three times as the potter can only take nine kids in a group.  Katja is a saint!

I think the kids did a pretty good job. . .

(Again . . Christy's pictures not mine.)

Surely they've learned all the potter has to teach by now . .

(Or not)

The potter prefers that the parents leave the class so that she can get the kids to focus on their lesson rather than their Momma's cameras.  Those are, of course, not the words she used, but it's what she meant.  We reluctantly left our precious children threw our coats back on and ran to the bakery/coffee shop around the corner. I felt a little bad, because I know Holly must have acted like an animal, but I think I may have been the first momma out the door.

The drive home in the dark and the rain with five hungry children in my van, and a wrong turn that Christy and I have agreed not to discuss (again that would be my contribution to the event) left a little to be desired, but otherwise it was a great trip.  Go Katja!

Next month Katja has arranged for us to go to the German Bakery again and make traditional German Christmas cookies.  This was a BLAST last year, but a little overcrowded with something like 30 moms and kids, and one very flustered dad.  We will be breaking into two groups this year, so that the kids can receive a little more instruction, and the bakery staff doesn't quit.  I'll have to try to arrange to be in Christy's group, because she is apparently the only one who can use a camera.

It's a good thing I have such great neighbors or I'd spend my life late, lost, and with junky pictures.

 
 
 

Styl'n

Yesterday she was a little girl, today she is a "tween".  Katie bought accessories rather than toys with her allowance for the first time.  On one hand I can say, "Yippee! One less stuffed animal!"  On the other, it's a little sad, but mostly fun.  She has really been exploring her own personal style.  She has always been into dresses, but now she's finding her flare.  I'm learning to bite my tongue when she wears things that really look kind of odd together, but this outfit was a hit.  All the girls in her class now want this skirt and boots of their own -- it has truly begun.

 

Horseback Riding

 

Auntie Tara took the girls horseback riding this afternoon. They both had a blast! Holly REALLY enjoyed telling the horses what to do. Katie actually got to do a touch of independent riding, and a whole lot of horse brushing.

(Holly is riding Sport, Katie is riding Banjo.)

Katie's New Quilt

 

Nadera, the mother of Katie’s very best friend at school, made her the BEAUTIFUL quilt. It features all of her favorite things -- shamrocks, owls, green and blue. Yummy!

Burg Reineck

 

I took Katie’s Girl Scout troop on an overnight trip to Burg Reineck – a castle turned youth hostel run by the German scouting association.  We had a blast!  Now all of the girls can say they slept in a castle.  I think I have finally recovered from the event.

 

We took an exceptionally long, uphill both ways, hike.  (Into the valley, back out again, in another valley, then turn around and head back.)  In spite of all of my warnings, one member of the group did manage to wrangle with stinging nettles – me.  I also learned that rubbing the backside of a fern on the nettle reaction spot really does work.  Thank you naturalists at Northwest Trek!

 

Our science teacher mom acted as a guest naturalist for us.

 

At the end, or should I say middle, of our hike we explored a nature trail set up for kids.  We had a lot of fun at 8 different nature stations.  We learned that most of us can long jump as far as a rabbit. A few of us could make it as far as a fox, and another couple are in wee little mouse territory.  None of us can jump as far as a squirrel – they jump almost as far as a deer and that’s REALLY far.

    

And . . . we did a whole lot of crafts!

Girl Scout Bridging

 

Katie is now offically a Junior Girl Scout.  She is so very proud.  (I can't help but think that a lot of her excitement is about her new, green vest.)

Walking Feet On Hard Ground

It is official.  We are those people.  The entire neighborhood can play 10 kids at a time on trampolines, but Katie gets on a trampoline with 2 other kids one time and knocks out her front teeth.  (This is an old, old story that involved her baby teeth.)  We are meticulous followers of all safety rules.  To the point that I know many of our friends and family are occasionally annoyed by us.  One such rule we employ, to quote Katie's pre-school teacher is: Walking feet on hard ground.  If Holly runs on the cement, you can bet you’ll end up with a crying kid with skinned knees. 

 

On Wednesday, Katie proved that she could one-up her sister’s skinned knees.  In PE class they were told to run a mile on a brick pathway that goes around the playground. During warm-ups Katie fell and broke her left wrist.  She has a buckle fracture in the end of her radius.  Buckle fractures are the common kid version of the adult snap like a twig break because kids bones are more flexible and bend a bit before they break.  She has an L shaped break.  The short arm of the L is an actual break that comes in from the side of the radius to about the center.  The long arm of the L is a crack down the center of the radius to just about out the end of it.  The crack approaches her growth plate.  They tell me that growing complications are possible, but highly unlikely.  I think this is probably a standard statement they give whenever a kid breaks a bone.  The broken piece of bone stayed in place, so she was not subject to a setting process.

 

Of possible interest, you may be aware that General George Patton was killed in a car accident in Germany after the end of WWII a couple of days before he was scheduled to return to the US. He was out hunting and the accident occurred on the return trip, not far from where we currently live. There are, of course, various conspiracy theories out about the accident.  He died in the emergency room of the Heidelberg Army Hospital.  What was the emergency room is now radiology.  Katie got to have her x-rays done in what was Patton’s room.

Currently she is wearing a splint to accommodate for swelling.  We have an appointment with orthopedics at the end of next week.  At that time they may cast her, or leave her in the splint.  I imagine we will also get a possible treatment time-line at that point.  I suspect that all this casting will be a shorter process that we might think.  Her friend who broke her wrist in several places that required surgery and pins was only casted for 4 weeks. 

 

The overall process has gone pretty smoothly.  She has some pain that is mostly controlled by Advil and Tylenol.  Yesterday all of her fingers swelled up, turned purple, and went numb.  We spent another couple of hours in Heidelberg to determine that the problem was caused by her splint getting too tight – they loosened it up and showed me how to do it myself should the need arise again.  She enjoys the owl decor I made for her sling and is wearing it quite a lot.

 

The part of the process that Katie has found the most upsetting was her interaction with the substitute teacher for PE on Wednesday.  When she fell on the cement she screamed and cried and held her wrist (as most of us would).  This caused the entire class to stop running and gather around her.  The sub of course came over to keep them all running.  Katie told her she fell on her wrist and asked to go the nurse, the sub told her she was fine and to keep running.  She never even looked at the wrist, nor had a conversation with Katie about her injuries – her hip, arm, and chin are also scrapped from the cement.  Katie walked an entire lap while crying and holding her wrist. Her classmates continued to gather around her, so the sub told her, “If it hurts that bad, go sit down.”  Katie sat and cried for awhile, and then walked a few laps with a boy who doesn’t run while crying. She cried for the entire PE class.  The sub never engaged her in a conversation about her injuries.  When her regular classroom teacher came to .pick the up, she took one look at the already swollen wrist and sent her to the nurse.  The school administration is now dealing with this issue.

 

Spring Break has begun for us.  Curtis is also on block leave.  We are heading to the Netherlands in a few days to see the tulips and visit Amsterdam. Look for lots of pictures of this soon.

Katie is 9!

 

We can hardly believe that Katie has turned 9!  Next year she’ll be double digits and getting her first military ID card.  Yikes!  Her big birthday gift this year was a new bike to better fit her long, long legs.  She continues to be interested in all things Star Wars and received several gifts along that line as well.  She had cupcakes at school, and we had cake as a family.  She’s is going to have a few friends sleep over to mark the occasion after spring break.

Catching Up Katie

 

It seems that I’ve spent quite a lot of time talking about the weather recently.

We stand surprised here that January is almost done.  I so need to start going through and organizing and purging stuff for the move – it’ll be here before we know it.  We had such a nice, relaxing Christmas Vacation, that we were all a little sluggish heading back into the fray.  We are definitely up and running now though, except the fact that Katie has been down since yesterday with her first stomach virus of 2009.  She woke up in the middle of the night on Tuesday and vomited a mess that took Curtis and me together a bit over an hour to clean up – not counting the 5 loads of laundry, of course.  She was sick all day yesterday, and is still dizzy and nauseated today.  Blankity, blank, blank Tummy Bugs!

Katie’s sickness came on as quite a surprise for us.  She had a really good day Tuesday, and showed not signed of being off her game.  In fact in gymnastics on Tuesday she had a personal best kind of day, and became the first girl in her class to be able to successfully do a hand stand step down on the balance beam without a spotter.  Yikes!  Did you know that thing is only 4 inches wide and is REALLY far off the ground?

In Girl Scouts we have been selling cookie and working on our sewing Try-It this month.  Samoas anyone?  Our troop is almost out of cookies to sell, and the girls almost know how to sew. J  The troop is making Owl Softies.  Katie is doing really well with this particular project – primarily because I tried it out on her a couple of months ago before releasing it on ten 2^nd and 3^rd graders.  The girls are really enjoying it though.  They are learning to sew in preparation for the service project they have chosen to do – making blankets for Project Linus.

Katie is getting really into reading these days.  She is currently into Beverly Cleary, and is reading about a book a week.  She has made it through the entire Ramona Series and most of Henry Higgins.   We just ordered the Ralph S. Mouse books for her from the book fair.  She recognizes that she is running out of Beverly Cleary books and has recently begun to branch out some.  She just read Stewart Little by E. B. White (The last E.B. White she hadn’t read.), and is currently working on When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.  She and three other girls in the neighborhood decided to start their own book club – this is apparently the kind of things girls do with their time at the playground.  They have decided to read two chapters of Jack London’s Call of the Wild a week and meet each Saturday to discuss it.  I think they got this idea because their mothers and teachers talk about the book clubs they are in.

Here’s hoping Katie recovers enough to make her book club meeting this week!  Next weekend she is apperently hosting.

Skiing

 

Katie, Katja, Stefan, and I headed out at 4:30 this morning to catch a three and a half hour Outdoor Recreation bus trip up to Feldberg in the Black Forest.  Katie and her friend, Stefan, spent the day in ski lessons, and Katja and I spent the day alternating between watching and drinking tea.  Both kids spent quite a lot of time rolling around in the snow, but by the afternoon session the kids had progressed enough that their instructor took them up on the lowest level ski lifts – it was very exciting!  I was thrilled to learn the instuctors were able to take the kids up on the slopes -- I am so not interested in breaking my wrist/hip/neck.   Katie actually made it down the run a couple of times without falling.  It seems to be our skiing luck to go in wet, stromy weather, so the only picture I got to take this time was in the ski shop.  (You can see last year's wet, foggy trip here. )  It snowed all morning, and rained all afternoon, we got REALLY wet, but both kids are raring to try it again soon.  Katja and I are hoping to take them up again in February before things close down.