4.27&4.28- Counts Carnival Weekend

Carnivale may have already passed, but this weekend Team Counts-Düsseldorf got a taste of it by visiting 2 carnivals. Friday night was a bit “crazy” for us. First, Zach took a seriously long afternoon nap (he currently is taking 2 naps a day – one morning and one afternoon), from about 3:15 to 6:15pm. We normally would not let him sleep so long in the evening, but we knew it would be a longer-than-usual night. We ate dinner at 6:30 and were on the tram headed to the Alt Stadt (old town) by 7:30pm. The place was PACKED. The weather has been gorgeous, and everyone came downtown to eat dinner or get drinks out on the terraces. Insides of restaurants were deserted while all the outside seating was packed. We walked around a bit, and then headed down to the Rhine. There was a carnival in town (the circus is in town as well, but that is for a later date), right on the boardwalk of the Rhine. It was crazy! Bumper cars that can go in any direction, beer tents, currywurst stands, etc. Many of the games were the same as in the US, like throwing rings over items for prizes, shooting balloons, etc., all for junky prizes. I even took a turn at a skee-ball like game, and won a plastic guitar for Zachary. They had lots of rides too, like “Crazy Bus”, carousels, ferris wheel, and one ride that played American 80s music – but not really the 80s music you are thinking of. More like “Never Ending Story”. We spent some time watching the health hazards at that ride that would never fly in the US (like getting to walk on the platform while the cars are all spinning wildly around), and the noise/lights/activity got to be too much for Zach and he started crying. Being held for a bit by Mom and Dad helped. You won’t believe it, but I was able to pass up the crepe stand. I should not have had so much dinner, because a crepe mit (with) nutella is a slice of heaven. So we left the carnival, and started walking back towards the Alt Stadt. We were walking slowly, b/c they carnival has fireworks on Friday night and we didn’t want to miss them. We stopped at an area of steps that look out on the Rhine (like the Spanish Steps in Rome) to watch a street performer – not a break dance troupe like in Amsterdam, but a fire juggler. Very cool. He was a pretty young guy and he was quite impressive. It was getting late for Zach (9:30), and he was showing signs of being tired, so we found a secluded bench so I could nurse him and put him to “bed” in his stroller. Poor little guy. Our stroller is just not cool like all the European strollers and not meant to mimic a bed. He kept squirming around trying to get comfortable. At one point he was asleep w/ his feet propped up on the bar of the stroller. Art and I found a corner table (with plenty of room for Z’s stroller) at a restaurant and sat down to have a relaxed drink...Art with an Alt Bier and me w/ my coke. We sat there for about 20 minutes and then were treated to a wonderful display of fireworks from the carnival. They were very enjoyable! Some exploded in the shape of a heart, which I always think is cool. After the fireworks, it was now past MY bedtime, so it was time to go. Art, of course, just HAD to stop for fries at the Holland place. Note to self, fries after 11pm make me feel sick. Took the tram back home and were in bed by midnight (VERY VERY past my bedtime). All that was just Friday! Saturday was busy again. I went to an optik store and got an eye exam and bought glasses (I lost mine in a rental car)…embarrassed myself by picking out a pair of reading glasses – I just thought they were cool looking, nice and small. Sigh. So I opted for a “less cool” looking pair. I wanted some sassy plastic ones but they were out of my price range. Art took Zach with him while I did all the glasses stuff, so I had the morning to myself. It is wonderful to be out now with my books on the mp3 player. Then after Zach woke up from his morning nap, it was time for our second carnival for the weekend. Our church was hosting a “Taste of the Nations” carnival for pre-schoolers. I had agreed to volunteer at the carnival. Art got to eat sushi and I had French and American food. We ran out of tickets otherwise we would have tasted from other nations. Art had to save one of his tickets for the soccer shoot-out, since a friend was manning the goal. Zach got to jump on the bounce house, but only the outside of it. He also had fun kicking down the pins for the bowling game. I volunteered 30 minutes of my time and was assigned to the fishing game. Lots of little kids came by to catch foam fish w/ plastic reels to get 2 pieces of candy. After that, Zach spent a good 10 minutes walking up the stairs and down the ramp over and over and over again. He passed out in the stroller on the way home. Sunday was no carnival, but we did get a borrowed walker from some friends at church, so that was VERY exciting for Zach – probably better than both carnivals combined. We are hoping he sleeps until 8am from the exhaustion! Good thing Tuesday is a holiday so we can rest up – though Art wants to go back to Bonn to see a contemporary German history museum (snore!), so we’ll see.

Oh, the polka dot car has nothing to do with the carnivals we went to, I just thought it was a neat car, and sort of fit this post. I was going to just send it to a few people that like polka dots (Saskia), but decided to share w/ everyone. It is parked in our neighborhood, though I have never seen the driver.

ZMC - Growing up

Zach is growing up so fast, we can hardly believe it. He is exerting his will in many ways, and throwing tantrums when he does not get what he wants. One of the more miserable ways is with meals now. He does NOT want to eat anything from the spoon, and only wants to feed himself food from his tray. That would be mostly ok if he would eat all of his food, but he does not. He eats the corn, peas (which he LOVES - some of you may remember his gagging at baby-food peas, but now he loves 'adult' peas, he must have gotten a sodium addiction from Papi), carrots, and eggplant if there is nothing else. Oh, fruits too, but those are w/ breakfast and lunch. So we are forcing him to eat 5 bites from the spoon, then give him 8 or so pieces to feed himself, then 5 bites, etc. It is a HUGE struggle, with him screaming, crying, spitting food out, and basically throwing a tantrum. But he does eat the bites, even if he is crying while eating. Then all smiles and giggles while feeding himself. Such a struggle from a kid that LOVED meal time not too long ago. Sigh. He is also deciding when to obey "no". One cute time was today when I walked into the living room, catching him playing with the keyboard & mouse (big no-no), and cleared my throat w/ a loud "UH UM", and he took off, cruising down the length of the couch w/ a big smile like "what?!". I will have to beware how I discipline him in case he copies it like Lora did w/ Monica, and now she has an arm-crossing, foot-stomping, throat clearing toddler. :) Zach mostly does mind when told no, or some variation, except w/ the stereo - he can't resist all the shiny buttons and lights. We wonder if he is teething, b/c he has been spitting out some of his favorite foods - banana and mango.

As the picture shows, he is also learning how to drive! Some of the other cute pictures (IMHO) are w/ his light-up music toy (thanks to the Eatons), which he has learned to just push the button when he wants music. One is a picture of him drinking cow's milk for the first time. (He is currently getting one bottle of cow's milk a day since both my supply and our formula ran out for the 4pm bottle - still nursing at 8am, noon, and 8pm for now). One is of him in his "home-boy" pants, or as Art says, his plumber look, which only happens w/ pants that are too too big. The last is a father-son chat that occured while waiting for the tram to church.

ZMC & Dex - BFF

Zach and Dex are getting to be better "friends". Zach now likes to share things with Dexter, and often offers up his pacifier (which is HUGE, since he is addicted to it), toys, and even food. Unfortunately for Dexter, Zachary is not great at depth perception or strengh of his 'sharing' yet, so Dex often gets pummeled w/ stuff, which, to his credit, he takes exceptionally well. I would get my face bitten off for that. Poor Dexter. This week Zach has experimented with closing doors. Dexter got closed in the kitchen door and the closet door this week. He is starting to occassionally hide when he sees Z coming at him w/ a smile.

The pict of them together was to record a moment where they were sitting together, just looking at one another for over a minute, neither moving, but Z smiling. Then I bring out the camera and they both look at me like bugger off. The other pictures are of them in the Counts bag (a tote bag from LL Bean that gets used ALL the time - thanks agian Joanna). Dexter likes to hide in it, so we somtimes carry him around in it. Art likes to bring him into the kitchen while I'm preparing dinner. Then one evening I was shocked that it was not Dexter, but Zachary in the bag. He loved it, and often tries to get back in, so Art will carry him around in it, which Z plays w/ his toys, sitting in the bag. So odd.

ZMC -Cute moments

Here are just some cute pictures that are just for fun. No real story behind them. I am just trying to get more pictures of his different looks, not just his smiling. Don't worry, we will surely get some tantrum pictures this week! I enjoy that he has "serious lips" when concentrating - just like his father. And I love love love the perplexed look. The one where his pants fell down far enough that he just stepped out of them kills me. We let him walk around in a shirt and diaper for awhile after that. It is what happened shortly after the "plumber" picture of another post.

Happy Easter from Team Counts - Dusseldorf

Our Easter was not spent doing the traditional things that one does at Easter like dying eggs and having Easter egg hunts – though we did have plenty of Easter candy thanks to Joy (which I MAY have eaten all of before Easter). We found out that Art got both Friday and Monday off as holidays, so we decided to take a trip. We looked into some last minute travel to Portugal, Istanbul, etc, but most were booked for our time frame. So, we rented a car (we got upgraded to a 4 door Mercedes!) and headed out for France. Important thing to remember about traveling in Europe: take money with you every time you go to the bathroom – it is rarely free, and you will not almost wet yourself going back to the car for 30cents. Another important note: The French take their toll roads seriously – we paid 12 the first time and 7 euro the second section. Sheesh. After a miserable hour+ in traffic around Paris (note to self: do not be near Paris or big cities at rush hour), we are on our way to Giverney, France. This being the place where Monet lived and painted. Google maps did us horribly wrong – all three days we got lost. So Friday we got lost and finally stopped at a gas station in Vernon, France, where the attendant told Art “Giverney…that’s EASY”. We got pointed in the right direction but traffic over the bridge was VERY bad, so we opted to eat dinner instead (it was after 7pm and Z was not happy). We stopped at a nice restaurant where the waiter spoke no English and we spoke little French – I did recognize chocolate mousse from the menu and went for that as dessert. All three courses were so tasty. We ate outside, the only outdoor patrons there, and Z had the run of the place until dinner. He was using plastic chairs as walkers and pushing them all over the patio, flirting w/ any lady that walked by. We finally arrived at the B&B after 9pm or so (she was expecting us at 4pm). That was fun as well, b/c her English was not good, and our French not much better. I was proud that I remembered how to say “what time is breakfast?” We awoke on Saturday to a beautiful day – blue skies, sun shining. The bathroom was a bit odd – a tub w/ a shower attachment, yet no shower curtain. Art said we should probably sit down so as not to spray the room, but I improvised. After breakfast of hot chocolate, baguettes and jam, we walked the length of Giverney (about 300 yards) then went to Claude Monet’s house and gardens. The gardens were quite beautiful as expected- wonderful flowers and ponds. His house however was a bit odd. He apparently was very into Japanese art and culture. His rooms had a ton of Japanese stuff, which was very strange. Sort of like a rock star saying his favorite music is opera…just odd. After that we walked around the church in town, where Monet went and was buried. He is buried in a family tomb, so there were plenty of Monets there. What was interesting is that there was a plot where 7 British airmen were buried. All so young – 21 and 22. I guess their plane went down near there. The church was small but very nice on the inside, similar to the older cathedrals. I checked the calendar to see if they were having an Easter service, but it was not listed past Palm Sunday. We thought we would go by and try anyway. Then lunch, at the table outside the B&B. From there, off to Chateau Bizy. This was a very cool looking castle from the outside, but we were disappointed by how little they would let you tour. Art’s favorite part was the flaming tour guide who was a horrible guide – reading from the script (in French). But, he did say Zach was beautiful, and Art says if anyone knows about male beauty, it’s him. Found a Lidl and restocked our lunch supplies. We rested back at the B&B before having dinner at a crepe place. It was fun to have a dinner crepe, then a dessert crepe. It was not fun to pay almost 3 euro for a coke. Art passed out before Zach was asleep in bed, exhausted from a day of too much sun, and walking around. Sunday we check out after another French breakfast and bid our hostess Au Revoir. We walked through Giverney one last time, then got in the car and drove across the bridge to Vernon. We had planned on walking around some, but Z fell asleep, and it wasn’t worth it to wake him, so we drove on to Chateau Gaillard – ruins of an old (King Richard the Lionheart) castle. It was very cool, complete with dungeons and a dry moat. Great views. We had a picnic lunch in the grass afterwards, which everyone enjoyed. Then off to Parc du Vascoeul, another chateau. This one more ‘nice house’, than ‘castle’. BUT, we arrived on a good weekend, b/c they were having art/craft exhibits on the grounds and in the chateau. The cheapest artwork I saw was about 6,400 Euro – a steal! Then off on a long long long (it really only felt that way) drive to our B&B at the Belgium/France border. We got lost of course and tensions flared. We found Parc du la Naida – a very nice B&B. I would have liked to stay there for several days. We arrived around 8pm and still had to have dinner. We checked in and set off on foot to find a place to have Easter dinner. As it was so late, and we were worried Zach would melt down, we picked a family restaurant we hoped would be quick – like a burger place. Called Mr. Patat. I had a cheeseburger, which was very strange – two cheesy patties on a baguette. The fries were yummy though, and Zach did just fine until the end. We were all in bed by 9:15, though I stayed up watching the special features on Peter Pan on our dvd player. Monday was excellent weather again. A great breakfast of meats and cheeses and such. We toured the B&B grounds for a bit, then drove off to a nearby park. We walked around the lake while Z slept in his stroller (and took an emergency trip to McDonalds). We saw about 5 kids on horseback, the oldest about 15 on a nice size horse, and the youngest about 8 on a cute little pony. Zach was enthralled. We had a picnic lunch that went downhill once Z learned he could stand up on the picnic table bench while sitting in his portable high chair. No more eating. Then we took Z over to the playground to check out the slide, teeter-totter and such. He was much more interested in the big boys who were playing. We tried to feed the ducks but Belgian ducks must not be used to people, since they took off every time we got near, and did not come back for the food we threw into the water! A three hour drive and we were back safely in Dusseldorf…a fun and tiring Easter urlaub (vacation). Unfortunately, we all caught colds while gone. Z’s started w/ a runny nose on Thursday before we left, then me on Friday, then Art on Saturday. Poor Dexter had to stay in Dusseldorf for the weekend and was happy to see us. He was sitting in the window when we got back, and greeted us, yelling, at the door.

The pictures are just a sampling of what we have - I had to slog through 74 pictures from this trip.

4.1: Counts Fam - Week of Firsts

This week was a busy week for our family. A week of "firsts". Earlier in the week, Zachary used his new-found standing skills to stand in his crib. Once I went in there after he woke from his nap and found him standing up - that was a surprise. Then later he did not want to take a nap, and I caught him cruising around his crib...until he wore himself out, sat down and just scramed. Sigh.

Later in the week, Zach went to the playground for the very first time. I had planned on just walking by there to see if there was anything for babies, but once we got there, it just seemed like so much fun. There was a big sandbox that I thought Zach would love, so out of his stroller he came and put into the sandbox. He was very tenative at first, and not sure how he liked the feel of sand on his fingers, but by the time it was time to go, he had played w/ the sand, crawled after a bigger boy through the sand, and borrowed another boy's toys to play with the sand. A success I would say. So because of that, I went to a discount store here and bought Zach some sand toys (dump truck, shovels, molds, sifters, etc). He got to use them for the first time on Saturday when Art and I both took Zach to the sandbox. There was another bigger boy (~2yr) who took all Zach's toys, but then used him to make things for him. The little boy, Jason, would make a sand mold, and Zach would come pound it. They did that for awhile; Zach having a great time. When it was time for us to go, Jason gathered all of Zach's toys for him. I was glad that Art could take part in this 'first' for Zach.

On Thursday, a 'first' was grilling food! It has been so long since we have been able to grill, that it was wonderful. We had steaks and used some chipolte marinade that the Ulrickson's sent us, and it was a slice of heaven! It is not a great grill, but it will do while we are here.

A 'first' for Dexter was when I caught him sleeping in his cat house. I had never seen that before, and of course thought it was cute.

Another first happened on Saturday. A coworker of Art's came over with his wife. This is the first time we have had another female over, which was exciting for me. We grilled for them as well, and used the chipolte sauce. Art also made a big batch of salsa which was quite tasty!

Then Sunday was our big "first". Art and I have agreed to lead the highschool youth group at church. This is a huge step for us since we have no idea what we are doing, and have been quite nervous about it. I had dreams concerning interacting w/ teens all week, and Art could not concentrate during communion on Sunday b/c of thoughts of what we should say to them. Our first meeting was farily easy, b/c we did not have a lesson planned. We just told them about us, and asked about them, and talked a little about what they want from a youth group, and a Sunday school. This is going to be a big time committment for us; one we are still nervous about. The meeting went well, and the teens seem pretty open to us. There were about 10 of them. Zach kept flirting with the girls and laughing at the guys, so he was a hit.

We are hoping this next week won't be quite so busy with 'firsts'. Of course this weekend will because of our Easter trip to France.