germany day 9

location: munich

my feet hurt. not like, ow i'm a wimp and the muscles are sore. but 'ow i've got cuts on my feet and somethings wrong with the bottom of leftie'. we went on this hike yesterday that was described as a nice walk beforehand. i wore jeans and flipflops and donned my children. wrong wrong wrong

thankfully before we began jason had the idea to send mom and sunny up the mountain on the bus, the other option to get to the top. but me and jason, lachlan, jasons mom and cousins trekked through mud and rocks and roots and 200 old rickety stairs and even some nice grass at one point for over an hour to reach a monastary on the top of a mountain. that has a beer garden of course.

i felt accomplished though. and it was in the shade of a forest. and lachlan slept the entire time. when we pulled him out of his ergo carrier that jason wore he was a sweaty hot mess. but still sleeping. and sunny had made it to the top with meme and was also sleeping when we arrived. sometimes it is easy with those two. but like jason and i discussed on the way up, the challenges you face traveling presently are no longer the same as the challenges you faced while backpacking when we were younger. now there are little things that you are responsible for, little people things. and challenges are now problems....

so we sat at the beer garden for HOURS. his family members just kept showing up! bearing gifts! that i am now lugging around, lol. his family is very generous, very family orientated, and im lucky to be apart of it. i ate a small portion of an embarrassingly huge meal. i waited in line with the rest of the beer gardeners for pork and sourkrout and potato salad and the thing theyre most famous for, a foot long pretzel with a weird delicious cream cheese dip....

we managed to take public transport back home and settle the kids before heading out to dinner once more, again, me and jason were alone. we didnt leave until about 9 when my parents got back from whatever they were doing. they like to go out early so we left and had a late dinner.

we met with jasons mom, cousin sascha and susie, and saschas wife christine. we ate at a yummy pakistani restarant, currys and naan type bread and taziki... and jugs and jugs of red wine that the owner kept sending over. jason knew everyone in munich... (picture from christine on FB)

then it was all over. i went upstairs to crash, with michaela, with the kiddos. so so tired that night.

the home life day 1 of many

location: sebastian!!!
my kids are in heaven, home heaven!

we landed yesterday after a long 10 hour flight where sunny and lachlan were super flying-kids. no fussing, no breadowns, just totally dealt with it. dealt with it better than their parents! i was getting pushy with the flight attendants about the baby bassinet we are supposed to have (and got) and jason skipped 800 people in line at customs without a second thought, banging into them with our pushcarts full of luggage along the way. we were just done!
we battled the crowd at immigration, baggage, and customs only to make it outside and realize we forgot lachlans carseat in bulky luggage... my parents, kids and i left jason to figure it out while we went to the sheraton to pick up our cars. i was surprisingly calm as i sat in my car after a long day, after my parents settled me and the kids and headed home, alone and unsure when jason would make an appearence. we didnt have our cell phones on the trip so we were totally disconnected. i felt safe in the cocoon of my car.
he came, we strapped in lachy, and cruised into the traffic and rain; sunnylee sleeping since picking up the car- she snoozed the entire way home, a total of 3 hours.

once home i woke her, jason and i excidedly showed her the house, her toyroom, her comfy bed. she was so sweet and shy and also happy. jason and i were psyched about our nicely mowed lawn that was lush and green, our beautiful flowers, and the spotless house. we had  house guests while we were gone, a total of 8 people had come and gone, and we were pleasently surprised with their respect to our home  :)

sunny ate quietly, tolerated a bath, and layed in our bed in jammies to watch Sesame Street finally after 2 weeks. schedules and routines here we come! we also bathed the airplane/germany crud off lachy and tossed him in a gown next to his sister. life was back to normal for the gligs which was most apparent when i simply took sunny to bed and she gladly snuggled in, i swaddled lachy and he dozed off in his bed, and jason and i quietly layed in our bed. it was early, 9p, it was silent, we were alone, and we werent affecting anyones nightly plans but our own... we are home.

luckily sunny slept passed 4a, lachy passed 5a. pretty good for being jet lagged. naps will be early and we are shooting for 8p bedtimes. everyone is happy, clean, healthy, and traveled :)

remaining germany blogs comig soon! still typing one handed....!

germany day 8

location munich, supposed to be austria

horrible start to the day. only good things were that i escaped to our attic room for a solid 6 hours of sleep (thats good for a night here ive realized) and the kids slept through everything happening in our hotel room. the boys stayed out too late, snored too loud, and kept my mom awake and worried all night long.
when momma aint happy....

jason ruined his entire day being hungover, im not sure his first day back in munich was worth it after that. we canceled our Austria train trip and instead walked the streets here. it was worth it, there are lots of boutiques and markets (but im sad to say i didnt buy the little things i wanted when i saw them and now i havent been back and we're leaving...). we stayed nearby so sunny even got her nap back in the room, it was 3 hours! even she's worn out.

lachlan took up rent in the ergo carrier brooke lent me. he sleeps there, plays there, sightsees... then he sat in sunnys umbrella stroller for 2 hours taking in the city. didnt sleep or make a noise. he is so good its creepy. it was cold, he was bundled:

my favorite store was a baby boutique. i couldve spent thousands in there. i bought a german scrapbook for photos. *just ordered close to 400 photos for this album- my meaningful special souvenir.

we went to the english garden with the chinese tower. something famous, you can google it. we sat in that beer garden with jasons cricket club mates. had a great time but we had to get the kids home for bed. a taxi home and back was the quickest way to move around. its usually the subway and trams, but there wasnt time for that. we splashed water on those kids in the hostel sink, threw them in jammies, and stuffed one full of milk before jumping back in a taxi to the beer garden. cruising fast through the city streets--- i felt a little bit rockstar-ish at that point.

it was our first night out alone, me and jase! loved it. didnt have to worry about who was tired or cranky or hungry or lost... just us two on the town. after the beer garden we took a mate of his to an irish pub, had mcdonalds on the way (it was getting late, needed refueling) and taxi'd home once more... and it was early, about 1a. i havent said a sentence like that in a long time. it doesnt get dark until 10p so 1a is different here.

i am hastely writing this while nursing, bouncing a baby on my leg, in a dingy hostel. the writing is bad, grammar is bad, and there arent posted photos to back up my stories, but this is what i can do right now.... when i get home, sleep for 8 days, then get back to normal, i'll fix things.

germany day 7

location: munich

so yah, sunny woke up crying at 330a for an hour. woke up her brother. we had to leave the apartment by 620a for a flight... i was shattered most of the day. but we were in munich, so i couldnt write myself off completely.

getting out of berlin was uneventful. taxi. plane. train. 3 hours. if you can do all that minus a nights sleep. i can, ive seen it this trip.

then the moment of truth, the hostel condition. a popular one in munich, euro youth hostel. jason was in charge of our accomodations here and he knows the owner. the place was free. i was scared and we talked about this a lot before we flew over. its a hole. nice enough for myself. while backpacking. alone. if i dont want to feel clean. or happy. not good enough for me with 2 babies. i could only give jason so much shit about it. done and dusted as he would say. pictures of this hovel later. *here's a shot of a nice flat bed we are supposed to sleep in. its broken.

we went to one of jasons favorite beer breweries, augustiner, had his favorite meal. the mood was amazing, atmosphere very fun and energetic. beer halls are loud and busy, huge heavy tables, everythings made of wood, liters of beer are sloshing all over the place, hearty meals are being devoured. each meal ive eaten i plan to recreate back home. it cant be too hard. meat and potatoes, gravy, schnizels, and other things that i cant spell correctly. or pronounce.

our first beer garden was awesome as well. there was an indoor play area for the kids! a ballpit and a crat table with glue and scissors and fuzzy poms to stick on their paper... sunny was in there for hours. there is also an outdoor playground. we had lots of sunny-free time, she just wanted to be alone and climb and try to talk to the little germans. i guess if you are trying to get the business of parents then play areas are the way to go! jason said he never noticed one playground in all his years living here....

sunnys trying out her german here with the locals:

that night me and jase and my parents went exploring downtown. we saw a lively street with old buildings that had heaps of character. i got good photos there (and at one point we thought dad lost that camera and i was devo'd. alls good though). we ate doner (sp?) kebabs and went to another beer garden. each of these places, all 3 days worth, we met jasons friends, mates from the cricket club he was in, or a family member.

that night was the first night in munich and couldve been my last if i had any say. obviously im glad i stuck around but never has the quote 'what happens in munich stays in munich' rang so true to me. that quote is not funny, theres a reason for it, and it means business. the boys had too much fun, my mom was up all night worried, and the kids had to listen to jason snore so loud i dont know how they slept through anything.... made for a stressful next day.

germany day 6

location berlin

thursday shopping. we were city rats for the day. mom did this funny thing with sunny in her stroller in the subway... instead of smoothly gliding the stroller onto the escalator, which youre not aloud to do but we do it because its easy right, mom gets sunny on it, then procedes to NOT get on herself in a panic. while still holding sunny... made for a large scene of yelling Get On! in between the stroller hitting every step, sunny bouncing around. once she got on we  all laughed and are still teasing her about it.

this bridge was covered with locks. i wish i had one to add to it.

traveling by tram. or train. or a subway. they were all the same to me. lachy liked to lay and have a stretch in between being Ergo-carried.

mom stayed home with kids that evening. i was sick of bringing them out. too much fussiness... im in need of a nanny.

went out at night with jason, dad and michaela. drank and traveled far and wide for thai food. ate a spicy spicy curry that i worried would bother lachlan, it was hot! he was fine.

went to a mexican joint that night with the rest of his moms fam. that was interesting, mexican in berlin. we didnt eat, but the nachos looked normal. the drinks were strong. and the convo was in german, but hilarious all the same. you get it, when you're right in there...

had i known how the kids were gonna be that night i never wouldve gone out, opting to sleep instead....

some history

i saw my first city rat today.

my dad told jason that this is the best vacation he has ever been on. it is def unique and i agree it is up there. personally my best vacays are in australia. but this is good stuff.
i am embarrassed to say that i dont know much history about berlin. something i should have looked into perhaps before coming... too late now. i plan to do some research because being here makes me soooo curious. i dont need a history lecture, i will find out myself alright! ´
all throughout the city were bricks on the ground like in the photo below.

i know it runs paralell with the road, but it doesnt usually. it represents where the berlin wall was. it goes through parks, up to buildings where it picks up on the other side of them, wherever the wall was this is now there.

there is also a memorial to a few of the (hundreds of) people who got shot from the 60s to 1989 when the wall was around. they died trying to climb the wall and get back over to the west. there was barbed wire and land mines at the wall as well. the cross nearest the photo was for a man who was shot trzing to escape the east only months before the wall finally came down....

ok i looked some stuff up. 5000 ppl tried to escape east berlin, 100-200 actually were shot doing it.

this memorial is awesome. the photo does it zero justice as it is a million times larger than this with more rolling hills and stone bricks. each stone represents 25000 people who died during the holocaust. the stones go on and on for an entire block, maybe even more. they are not uniform in height, some are inches and some are 15 feet high and zou can get lost in here like a labrynth....

rico says there are not any names inscribed on the memorial because those names are too personal. there is not a description of the memorial because you are supposed to come up with zour own interpretation of what it all means. no one is aloud to lay out on the stones, but they just know this and respect it.

It consists of a 19,000 square metres (4.7 acres) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The slabs are 7 ft 10 in long, 3 ft 1 in wide and vary in height from 8 in to 15 ft 9 in.

more info about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_the_Murdered_Jews_of_Europe

a historical city, a once in a lifetime vacay...

Der Berliner Mauer

the berlin wall

germany day 5

location: berlin

Happy birthday to sunnylee! we had a fun time with our little girl, lunch at a very nice italian place followed by coffee and cake at the family garden.

sunny says- 'i went for a walk to start mz birthday with meme and papa. we went to a park that had a zoo. i pushed my stroller with my baby in it, if i poked my head through like this i could see!'

'here i am stuffing my face. i did it all day long. cake and chocolate and sweets... i dirtied up my new birthday shirt real good!'

'at the Bernardos garden i swam in a pool. i was naked all afternoon. thats how birthdays should be is what my momma said.'

'my own cake! i didnt like the taste, didnt eat it. but i did blow out some candles on it'

'I know how old i am. we bought 3 of these balloons today. one flattened and one blew away once we got back to our flat. it was in papas hand and then it flew off. i screamed and cried, we watched it float over the city. my mom took me immediately to the mall to get another. she bought it specially for me and we needed another...'

mom bought her the cutest european shoes for her birthday, that double as hand me downs for lachlan, gotta think ahead....:

germany day 4

location: berlin

ive had better mornings. after a long night out in the city 7a came too early. i vaguely recalled kebabs, a pub crawl slash miles and miles of walking, a taxi home, and then sitting at our apartment eating a midnight snack and forcing jason to stay on the couch to sleep since i knew he would snore that night. i woke up to him and sunny in my bed, unsure when thez got there.

i missed a run with my dad and went back to sleep until 10.

jasons family came for breakie.

then we went on a tour of a different part of the city. it was awesome, lots to see and do. heres where michael jackson dangled his baby off the balcony:

heres the government house where hitler was in charge. a swastika (sp) flag used to hang down one entire side.

sunny sat in her 1980s pram and screamed it out. she was being a real.... finally jason made her lay down and we had quiet for 2 hours.

we sat at a 'beach', with sunny snoozing away, had coctails.... it was amazing, felt like i was finally on vacay. a relaxing beach vacay

oh this is sunny sitting way away from us sleeping while we enjoyed ourselves!

lachy waits nicely for a train. he likes berlin.

after our big day as tourists we are finally home and relaxing. i refuse to take the kids out tonight (no one here understands my kids schedule, which is very loose by the way. they wanna be out at all hours, during naps, etc.) opting instead to sacrifice my night and stay home with them while everyone goes to dinner at 730p. i am tired anyways. im thinking of devouring this motz pizza we have in the oven with some coke, give the kids a warm bath, and snuggle in bed together for an early bedtime. lame for a holiday right? no, its not. its needed.

germany day 3

location: berlin

the germans do good italian.

we got home from dinner and instantly threw sunny into her crib.

she went to sleep instantly. we werent far behind; after nursing lachlan on the couch i fell asleep too, left him with my parents and followed jason to the bedroom we share with our kiddos. mom plopped lachy into his crib not long after, wrapped tight into his swaddle.

the only incident was a wide awake sunnylee around midnight. poor little thing tried and tried to fall asleep with us, back in her bed, and she was so quiet, she just couldnt fall asleep. she knew she should be sleepy but it wasnt happening. after watching weird german dancing on tv and eating a midnight snack with jase in the living room, they all came back to bed again.

no one woke up again until 6a. lachy started grunting for milk. i think he got the memo sometime between miami and berlin about the time change. he is on top of his shit!

We did a touristy bus tour. it took us by lots of historic places, restaurants, and shops. the tour guide wasnt very funny or witty or any of those things. in NYC they are all of those things. but anyways.

we walked around the city heaps. lachlan was always right there with me in the ergo carrier. it was cold, in the 60s and 50s, windy, so him and i were cozy this way. socks, knit hat... glad it wasnt hot.


we went shopping, walked around another borough of town for a few hours with the fam, always guided by Rico, and then... mom and dad and oma took the kids home! me and rico and jason stayed out until all hours of the night up to no good.

ps. you can drink in the streets!

germany day 2

location: berlin

fast forward one day from the plane ride... its sunday! happy fathers day!

we landed in berlin around 2a saturday night slash sunday morning FL time. the plane ride wasnt the logest we have done, but the longest we have done as a family of 4....! i had the pleasure of sitting next to a wunderbar german/american family who also had a one zear old girl. the father worked at a waldorf school in sarasota and the mom stayed home and made organic stuffed toys and cloths and silk play scarfs for her vegetarian baby. we all got along great! i wouldnt say the kids slept a lot but it couldve been worse. the waldorf dad commented on how much patience i have; i told him i was faking it.

we went straight to jasons familys home for breakie, it was 9a local time and surprisingly we made it through the meal without anz brekadowns from the kids or myself. we are exhausted. the grandparents, sunnys great grandparents, were supercute, wanted to hold Lachlan and wondered if they 'were doing it right'. oh and the convos were all in german.
there is a massive obvious age division here. the 'young people' talk in terms of themselves and the 'old people' and vise versa. the young people almost always also speak english, eat at different and cooler restaraunts, and shop at cooler stores, which is true of any place, but its just funny to watch the exchange between jasons mom and his younger cousin (rico) debate where to take us. for the record, he said to come to him for tips.

ps. if im typing weird, cuz i am, its this german keyboard! everythings different and i cant hardly capitolize anything... the y and z are switched as well...

after a full german breakie it was straight to the flat we rented for 5 nights. i am sitting in it right now having just arrived and it is SICK. open and breezy, white and clean and IKEAish. the owner is an architect so it has cool design. here are some views from the top: (the view is a cemetary! not at all creepy, very beautiful. inspiring, we all want to be buried in berlin now)

as soon as we walked up to the front door i almost got ran over by a turk on a bike. i was told he was both these things, him being on the bike being the obvious one i knew wihtout being told. my mom had literally just said she had already been warned about the bicyclists, then i blindly turned on the sidewalk into oncoming bike traffic; i hear a 5 second long brake screech... i am lucky to be in a whole piece. he almost took me completely out going at least 20mph. and the look of hatred on his face crossed cultures seamlessly... he silently loathed me. America:0 germany:1

bitching to jason and sunny about waking up for an hour just to walk a dodgy neighborhood in the rain for awhile wasnt worth it.

we did see a sweet playground that sunny wasnt brave enough to try anything and mz parents almost bought a beer at mcdonalds.

jason and sunny and lachlan had huge sleeps and thez arent doing so hot. well, lachy and i are functioning, jasona and sunny are slowly breaking down...

the fam is on their waz to our place to pick us up and take us to dunner. italiano. i hope thezre not expecting a warm reception. the gligs are not 100%

Germany Day 1

location: miami

we havent made it to berlin. we are not even at our gate. we are at a bar near the gate.
as dad went to buy the 1st round, mom fell. sunny was under her feet and in lew of squishing her, mom tucked and rolled into the breezeway of the airport. i asked if she exagerated the fall to protect her bum knee. she said no.

click here to watch sunny reenacting the fall for jason and mz dad who somehow missed the entire thing

See Ya Sebastian

We are leaving this town for the city; we will be Berliners for the next week and a half. Or Muenchen-ites... Germans. I would love to blog while overseas, which is always fun and new, but I wont be bringing a laptop. With the kids' endless things I've had to pack, my laptop just isnt worth it. New priorities. But someone will have a computer I can borrow to say "Whats up!" or "Was macht du?" which doesnt translate to whats up but thats all I got. It means What are you doing? hehe

But dont even think about robbing our home while we're gone cuz the Holts are in the Glig House! Maybe she can blog for me while I'm gone. The house is very inspirational.

Ciao.

La La La

Its not always about Sunnylee- Lachlan and I had a trip out alone to attend a baby shower. I know, not the kind of thing that makes boys happy, but sometimes we drag them to these things, like Lachy's little playmate Brodie. We forced them to lay next to each other just like we'll force them to be BFFs. I hope they have something in common later in life besides a love for beer. I see these 2 parting ways when Brodie goes off to the Citadel and Lachlan stays behind to attend CC...

In other Lachlan news, there was a poll. Certain events made me wonder if we were spelling his nickname correctly for this crowd (Americans). The Aussies chimed in and there was a great debate amongst the countries. Not really, it wasnt that dramatic. But the majority ruled for "Lachie" with emphasis on the "Lach" needing to be kept in the nickname. Since we were already basically doing just that, I kept "Lachy. For all of my 3 blog readers, its pronounced "Lockie", just not spelled that way. Too bad so sad.

Here is a snapshot in time of a low moment in Sunny's toddler-hood. She is sitting on a bar stool, stuffing herself with crackers, all the attention from the waitstaff is on her, and she's at a gorgeous seaside tiki bar in Florida, but is she happy? No. Far from it. Is she acting nicely? No. She's Sunny B for 3 weeks running. "B" standing in for a not-nice word...

  Jason and I  play tennis. But playing after Sunnylee goes to bed is coming to an end. Since our Oma is leaving next Monday, so are our blissful nights of tennis, alone... I will miss this.

Oh, Lachlan is owning this blog post! He got a new toy this week. These baby gyms are a hot commodity, sold out on BabiesrUs and everything. And they go for $70-90! Can you believe that? No, no one can. I certainly cant pay that price for a piece of fabric with dangley things, both of which I have at my house. I did end of finding the mat at a consignment shop which comes highly recommended by myself. Consignment shops are the BEST. Its where you find items that first time moms thought they needed, used once, then tried to sell because they realized one tiny fast growing baby can only use so many swing/bouncy chairs/musical crib soothers/play gyms... What I'm trying to say is that I got this play gym for $3. It didnt have toys but the Gligs are in no short supply of those. I hung some on and have been neglecting Lachlan ever since.

Neglecting Lachy to make this:

And lastly a pic of Sunny with her babies. Since we already have a live baby in the house, Oma wanted to name them. The American Girl doll was named Lisa. I've heard this is a popular doll name in our crew. But I didnt name it. So we wanted Lisa this morning, but she was in the car. Sunny and I go to fetch her, hand in hand. Oma said, "Go get Lisa" and now Sunny calls her that. Only is comes out as "Jesus". Here is Sunny playing with Jesus and some of his disciples:

Did I mention what she calls Lachy? She calls him Sockie (or Saki if you're a fan). I say "No, its lalala Lachy" and she says, "Lalala Sockie"....

Vent

No sleep for three days (kids, what else).
Long road trip with said-kids to Jupiter, stressful.
Wanted to run, too tired.
Wanted to sew, serger broke.
Wanted to fix a quilt project, I suck at it.

I could probably go on but its too depressing.
Cant wait for bed.