One year update
Yes, in many ways it's hard to believe it, but we celebrated our one year anniversary of moving to Berlin on August 5th. Having said that, we find ourselves with a comfortable apartment in a desirable area of Berlin. We all understand German fairly well and can get by with our speaking. We survived one lousy winter and have enjoyed two lovely summers. We are no longer total strangers here but part of the varied landscape of our small neighborhood.
Having Hanna here has really made our life a lot easier. Fritz is able to spend more time on his work and I get a little time now and then for myself. In addition the kids are each getting a little one on one time which is really nice.
We are still struggling with getting Fritz Lukas to sleep at night but his adorable smiles and coos during the day are keeping us from thinking about it too much. He has even managed to root out the soft spot of the Berliners. All those rough and often rude Berliners we encountered daily up until through the end of my pregnancy, seem to have been replaced by a whole bunch of nice, cute, baby-talking Berliners.
Zoe is doing fine, at first she found her new positon as the middle child a bit confusing but she is finding her way. She keeps herself quite busy taking care of all of her babies, dressing, undressing, feeding, changing, a mother's work is never done. She also enjoys a good laugh now and then whether making her own jokes or enjoying someone elses. Funny faces are a particular favorite as is of course getting dirty. She is after all a two year old, in fact she is very much a two year old. She dresses herself in picks clothes that she picks out, makes on the potty occassionally and loves to say NO, or course that is when she isn't spontaneously crawling down the sidewalk or turning the house upside down to find a binky.
Grace has moved up to be the second oldest at her Kindergarten a position that I think she enjoys. Although she is still talking about her kindergarten and friends back in America and eagerly awaiting a visit there. We have joined a Gymnastic club (verein) and she is enjoying that once a week. She knows lots of kids in the neighborhood now. I would say that cousins are still her favorite though, especially Sophie who she says is really her big sister. Of course lately, she has been insisting that she is not Grace Megan after all but that she is really Pippi Longstocking so I'm not quite sure where that stands.
We broke down and bought a car here. A 7 seater VW called a Sharan ironically. We haven't used it much yet but I think it will be nice to have, especially in the winter. There's lots to do here as always and we are enjoying something new each week. We have a few friends in the neighborhood now which is nice. We usually share a meal or a coffe with someone each week and we even have a few friends that are patient enough to speak only German with us.
So, we head into year two.
Having Hanna here has really made our life a lot easier. Fritz is able to spend more time on his work and I get a little time now and then for myself. In addition the kids are each getting a little one on one time which is really nice.
We are still struggling with getting Fritz Lukas to sleep at night but his adorable smiles and coos during the day are keeping us from thinking about it too much. He has even managed to root out the soft spot of the Berliners. All those rough and often rude Berliners we encountered daily up until through the end of my pregnancy, seem to have been replaced by a whole bunch of nice, cute, baby-talking Berliners.
Zoe is doing fine, at first she found her new positon as the middle child a bit confusing but she is finding her way. She keeps herself quite busy taking care of all of her babies, dressing, undressing, feeding, changing, a mother's work is never done. She also enjoys a good laugh now and then whether making her own jokes or enjoying someone elses. Funny faces are a particular favorite as is of course getting dirty. She is after all a two year old, in fact she is very much a two year old. She dresses herself in picks clothes that she picks out, makes on the potty occassionally and loves to say NO, or course that is when she isn't spontaneously crawling down the sidewalk or turning the house upside down to find a binky.
Grace has moved up to be the second oldest at her Kindergarten a position that I think she enjoys. Although she is still talking about her kindergarten and friends back in America and eagerly awaiting a visit there. We have joined a Gymnastic club (verein) and she is enjoying that once a week. She knows lots of kids in the neighborhood now. I would say that cousins are still her favorite though, especially Sophie who she says is really her big sister. Of course lately, she has been insisting that she is not Grace Megan after all but that she is really Pippi Longstocking so I'm not quite sure where that stands.
We broke down and bought a car here. A 7 seater VW called a Sharan ironically. We haven't used it much yet but I think it will be nice to have, especially in the winter. There's lots to do here as always and we are enjoying something new each week. We have a few friends in the neighborhood now which is nice. We usually share a meal or a coffe with someone each week and we even have a few friends that are patient enough to speak only German with us.
So, we head into year two.
posted by jackie and fritz at 4:05 AM
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