First Full Week in Munich

We kicked off the week with a bang when housekeeping came right after Jay had a big potty accident. It was messy and dirty and it's really hard to clean things here. The drains don't drain well, so I just stuck my hand in the toilet water to wash out his unders. I tried not to think too much about it, and washed my hands very well when I finished. The housekeeping lady was nice enough to give me five minutes to clean up the mess and change out of my pajamas. I let her in while I packed up the stroller for our adventures of the day, and Jay followed her around. He thought it was very fascinating to watch her change our sheets, etc. I was grateful to get out and grateful she waited for us to get ourselves together. We don't have a vacuum, so we were very grateful for the service! The park we found this rainy, cold day was smaller, but still a lot of fun. Jay was very excited there was an older gentleman there with his adult daughter because they clapped for him every time he went down the slide. 

When life brings puddles, jump because it makes them way more fun

Jay took his first big tumble at a playground this week. You can see in the pictures the steps were pretty far apart, he miss-stepped and tumbled down to the landing. It scared my mama heart to watch it and he got a pretty good head wound. He saw my hands bleeding and was like, "Mama bleed." I didn't tell him for a while that it was him not me. He had a good cry, ate some crackers, played in the rocks, and then asked me to come to "tunnel" aka slide with him. I agreed, and this time I climbed up with him to help him with the hard part. He made it! He did it one time later by himself, but the rest of the times we climbed together. The slide was so fun! He loved and I did too! I flew off the end every time. There was also a big slide built into the hillside nearby, and it was awesome too! I again flew off the end, and got a good laugh each time. I love that the playgrounds here are built strong enough and big enough for adults! To get to this park, we walked through this giant cemetery! It was beautiful! I didn't know if it would be appropriate to run, so I only jogged a little bit. 

The front of the cemetery 

Statues

Climbing fun

The cleaned head wound, this picture doesn't do it justice

Cool little hut of sticks

Hugh so happy swinging!

This is where Jay fell, he was reaching to climb onto that landing where his hand is.

Such a fun slide!

The tunnel slide

Tuesday evening we met with Dr. Smith about Jay's assessment. He was willing to use What's App to video call with us, as all the other sites were blocked. We can't even access our pediatrician portal, but he didn't let it stop him from meeting with us. He was as concerned as we were about the lack of information and the general results we received. He's reaching out to the clinic and getting us on the list at Children's hospital so we can keep the ball moving for Jay. I feel like our prayers are being heard by Dr. Smith being willing to work with us even while we are abroad and I am hoping we're on the right track to getting Jay the help he needs to live the most successful life he can. Matthew and I have also started to read a book about ADHD and parenting a child with ADHD. So far, it's very interesting and it's a fun way to bring us together while educating us about something Jay may be dealing with in his life. 

Everyone has recommended we shop at Aldi, so I determined I should go. I chose a park I wanted to go to that was close-ish to Aldi. We walked/ran there, and enjoyed playing in the sand and the many teeter-totters there. Jay's never really experienced them before, and he thought they were a blast, especially when you bump him into the air at the top! While at the park, a mom needed some wipes and I was able to lend her ours. I was grateful to be able to help. Not knowing anyone here makes service a bit more tricky and a lot more rare, so it was a nice chance. I enjoyed climbing the big dome and it was the perfect morning. I began to look up on my phone how to get to Aldi, and the maps wouldn't load correctly. I knew what direction generally, so we headed that way and found two more parks along the way! The tunnel slide was again a huge hit with Jay, and Hugh loved climbing around on things. He learned how to do ladders to slides, which is awesome! It's also terrifying because he doesn't have much grip on his shoes so it's a little slippy and I have to watch him closer now. I finally started to notice a stream of people walking through and they seemed like they'd been shopping. They were eating fresh bread, carrying shopping bags, etc. I thought I must be close so I walked a little further. I found it! Aldi was a fun store. It was a little Costco-esque with the bins in the middle with shoes and clothes, and everything seemed reasonably priced. It was very much lunch time, so I grabbed a couple pretzels and pizza snacks from the bakery to feed the boys and myself. The bakery also has a machine that would slide the loaf of bread for you, very cool! I decided I could be brave and try it even though I didn't understand the instructions. I went with the 1, 2, 3, and it worked! Woot! I had prayed, restarted my phone multiple times, but it was still not pulling directions for me to get home. My stroller was loaded with groceries, so we headed home. I prayed I'd see familiar landmarks and we did find our way! My prayers were heard, and my legs and arms were very tired by the time we got back. I managed to keep the boys awake with food, and they crashed when we got home. We also rode the above ground train for the first time. It was packed! I chose the busiest time, but it let us go to the sporting good store and buy some floaties and towels for Jay. 

This little girl was pushing Jay around instead of getting into her day-care cart, and it was pretty funny to watch

I had fun climbing to the top of this tower, and it was great until Jay said he needed to go poop, ha!

Teeter-totters, Jay's new found love

Hugh learned to climb ladders, I'm so impressed and scared!

I tried laying down, and it was so uncomfortable.

This hill was extremely slippery, the sand combined with the material it was made of made it almost impossible to get up there.

First time riding the above ground tram, and it was packed!

Jay getting excited about his floaties.

Our big Mommy-Kid adventure this week was to the Deutsches Museum. It's similar to a Smithsonian, only a lot smaller. We got to see airplanes, old instruments, medical devices, old cameras, rockets, planets, and model trains. I walked all the floors with the kids in the stroller. We did two floors with airplanes and power stuff, then went to the "Kid Kingdom" for the kids to play. Sadly the water exhibit part was closed, that's probably where Jay and Hugh would have spent their entire time. Jay did sneak under the closed signs a couple times, which was a big no-no. Hugh loved climbing the fire truck and spinning the wheel on the back, and Jay loved sitting in the driver seat. Jay was very disturbed the door wouldn't shut and tried every time he climbed in. The blocks didn't entertain Jay for long, but he ran everywhere to look at things as quickly as possible. We stayed in the kid area until lunchtime, ate lunch at these little kid tables, which Jay thought was very fun. Then, we went up and toured the last floors which included all the agriculture, space, film, chemistry, music exhibits. I had to be pretty brief everywhere because the boys had reached their limit and I wanted to get home before Hugh fell asleep. The area around the museum was beautiful, great architecture and Isar (the river). Jay's favorite thing to do was make waves with the water in this one little water power exhibit, so we stopped there on the way out and the way in.

Jay happily pushing the wave making button, and Hugh enjoying it

Giant Guitar, I was disappointed it didn't make more sound

This was a table to play with lights and shapes and shadows

Peeking in the cockpit of a WWII plane

Jay loved playing the harp

Upside down mirror just to prove I was there with them

Tractors and cows are part of our heritage, so we had to check out the agriculture section

The cow

This was the health section, they enlarged organs which was cool

Large heart, at this point I was dashing through

By the Isar, cool looking bridge and the city in the background

Our afternoon park adventure, Jay's about to cross the bridge but was nervous because the kids were jumping and making it bounce a lot. 

This was a fun teeter-totter where I could be on one side and the boys on the other

Friday we took it pretty easy in the morning, which means we didn't leave the house until about 9:45. Jay's been waking up pretty early, like between 5 and 6 this week. It's been rough, and finally Friday I determined I'd make the most of it. I did a workout, which felt so good. It helped me feel a little normalcy in life, and brought me good energy. We hit a couple parks on our way to another grocery store. I also wandered past a discount clothing store on the way. Jay kept touching everything, which was terrible. Then, when I was checking out, she didn't speak English and I had to fill out this customer info card to be able to purchase anything. I also had thrown a couple things in that were labeled cheap on the rack, but rang up more expensive so then I told her I didn't want it. She had to get her manager to take it off...meanwhile, Jay's opening random packages of the things we were purchasing, hopping out of the stroller and grabbing the nearby suitcases, umbrellas, carts, etc. I am sure it was only about 10 minutes, but the people behind me in line left the store and it felt like an eternity. I was so grateful to get out of there, I let out an exasperated gasp, and an older gentleman happened to be trimming his bushes right there. I just gave him a smile, a nod, and continued walking. 

I barely survived the grocery store, I hid Jay's buckle under his jacket and tied him to it, let him eat a pretzel as we shopped, and Hugh was sleeping. We got out of there without everything we needed, and I just told myself we'd go to the store by our house. Ugh! We walked over to the train and hopped on, I panicked, thinking we were headed the wrong way and jumped off. I realized it was actually the right way and hopped in a different car before it left. I looked at the doors across from me and saw an out of order sign. No problem, I thought, I just got on the train, I can get off the same doors. Turns out the next stops I needed to exit through that door that was broken. Again, no worries, I'll just walk down the aisle. A lady warned me they didn't work, but I assured her it was okay. We headed towards our station and I moved to push the stroller down the aisle. No luck, we were too wide. I had to unload the groceries, clothes, sand toys, snacks, etc. into bags, luckily I had enough with me. I put them on a seat by the door on the other side of the aisle and asked a gentleman to watch them. I then unbuckled Jay, and let him go sit by the gentleman and hold a bag. Hugh started to lose it as I took him out and set him on the floor so I could collapse stroller. I got it down and picked Hugh up and looked down at my stroller ready to get muscle the stroller down the aisle. Bless this man's soul who seeing my plight, quickly hopped up and grabbed the stroller and took it down to the next door. I unfolded it, loaded Jay and Hugh, and threw the bags over my shoulders and exited. We rode about three exits past our original exit to accomplish this feat. We crossed the platform, waited for the next train, and headed home. It was a frustrating experience, and stressful. I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get everything together to get off without losing a kid. I am grateful for the kind gentlemen who helped me and we made it home safely which is exactly what I prayed for. Plus, Jay fell asleep super fast for naps....but, because Hugh slept at the grocery store, he was wide awake. 

Happy non-sleepy Hugh

Always entertained by something simple, it's something I love about him

Because nap time was extra short, we hit the road and walked to another far away park. The slide was sooooo cool! We had a great time, then hit another park before we headed home. On our way, we saw many Scots out and about because Germany was playing Scotland in the Euro Football/Soccer game that evening. Plenty of people were wearing Germany jerseys as well, but the Scots had kilts which was more fun. For our date that night I went and purchased ice cream bars, and almost everyone else at the grocery store was buying huge cases of beer. I knew it was going to be a rowdy night!

Do you see the kilts?

These people were building a boat, that was cool!

Super cool slide, Jay was very brave and loved it. It was slower than many we've been on.

Hugh climbed all the way to the top

At the top!

Hugh, Me, Jay

This was a fun tire swing

Permanent foosball table, cool!

Real merry go round, they don't have these in the US anymore

Isn't this the cutest? 

General observations: the city is clean! And, the reason it is clean is because they have all these mini street-sweepers and people scrubbing bus station benches and sidewalks. There are also trashcans everywhere, which is very helpful for us, and Jay's really great at taking this to the trash while we are at the park which is super helpful. 

Mini Street Sweeper

Forgot to mention from last week, the chocolate here is amazing! So creamy, and I think it probably has less sugar and more cocoa and milk. We've also been trying Haribo gummies, the bears are just as not good as they are in the US, but the watermelons and the tropical fruits were pretty good. Matthew and I enjoy a couple of pieces of chocolate every night after we put the boys down. Another thing I forgot to mention was Hugh sliced his toe. I was cooking my first dinner with my pan, and the boys were playing with the cupboards. I was fine with it because I figured everything was a metal pan, or plastic. Well, this big bowl wasn't plastic and Hugh pulled it out. It fell and slices his toe and through his toenail. The poor kid! It was right in the midst of my dinner prep, and it made everything feel a little more hectic. 

The green space here gives me a good connection to Heaven. It's peaceful most everywhere we go in the mornings, making them a sacred special time with the boys.