July 31, 2013

Living in Germany - without air conditioning

Well, we survived the heat this weekend pretty well, and now we're back down into reasonable temperatures. As planned, we hit up the nearby lakes, climbed in the shade, drank lots of water, ate lots of ice cream and sealed up our houses by shutting all our shades/curtains to keep out the heat.

In Germany, we don't have air conditioning. No houses do, and almost no businesses/offices do (a few exceptions are grocery stores). And you know what? We really don't need air conditioning over here. Aside from the fact that temperatures are a lot more mild here than they were in sweltering Lexington during the summer, stuff is actually built to last here and is so much better insulated! Carpenters are very skilled and trained and must abide by a gazillion laws/rules compared to the states.  The materials here are made to last for a very long, long time. Roofs are ceramic tiles, not flimsy crappy shingles that need to be replaced every 10 years. People live in these houses for hundreds of years and they have thick walls that keep out heat in the summer and keep it in during the winter.

The best part about the houses here are the rouladens (window blinds). They are on the outside of the house, and are a thick heavy duty shield basically that rolls down and totally blocks out all light and heat. Makes sleeping so much better! I've only ever seen them in Germany which is surprising since they are so awesome! Wish I could transport a house from over here back to the states when we return one day, but add in a few American amenities I miss so much (like a big functional kitchen and open rooms/living areas).



July 26, 2013

Friday I'm in Love

Friday furlough day again! Loving this time off for real. Since the real summer heat is coming, and we don't have air conditioning over here in Germany, I'm planning on taking the kids to the lakes near our house or the swimming pool. Haven't decided which yet. I hate it when the pool is super crowded, but on the other hand, these are not sand bottom lakes with clear water (I'm spoiled from Michigan) and have icky mucky bottoms that freak me out.

Yesterday after work I took the kids to the main park in town. We go there a lot. The kids love to feed the ducks and swans. This time there was a mean black swan who wouldn't let the baby ducklings or any duck near the bread. Cooper called him selfish, and I agreed. I can't get over the words he knows and says now. Not that selfish is a big deal word, but it still takes me for surprise hearing him analyze the world around him so well.  However, lately instead of having discussions or him doing as I say when I ask, he'll argue. It starts at age 4? Oh my. We have a wild future ahead of us.

 Lily is starting to understand more and more of what we say and ask her to do. Her new favorite thing to do right now is wave. She must have waved 50 times at the park, to every passerby. She really gets into it. After this picture she ran to the swings. I thought she wanted to swing, and since they are big kid swings, I sat her on my lap. Wriggle wriggle, squeal squeal. Not what she wanted. She doesn't want my help. She wanted to swing alone on the big kid swing at 17months. Okay Lily, knock yourself out.

And since it is Friday, here are some links to check out:
Enjoy your weekend!



July 24, 2013

Good Old Fashioned Play

Frank sent me an article on NPR titled "Old Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills" by Alex Spiegel yesterday that is a good read for people with kids. The article discusses the way that children spend their time has changed a great deal over the century. The issue is, studies and many psychologists believe that the changes in what children are doing have also changed kids' cognitive and emotional development.

"It turns out that all that time spent playing make-believe actually helped children develop a critical cognitive skill called executive function. Executive function has a number of different elements, but a central one is the ability to self-regulate. Kids with good self-regulation are able to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline."

Building Cognitive Imagination Skills playing Pirate of the Sea ;)
I like the suggestions they provide for better ways to play that develop self regulation. Here are a few of the ideas below:

  • Simon Says: Simon Says is a game that requires children to inhibit themselves. You have to think and not do something, which helps to build self-regulation.
  • Complex Imaginative Play: This is play where your child plans scenarios and enacts those scenarios for a fair amount of time, a half-hour at a minimum, though longer is better. Sustained play that last for hours is best. Realistic props are good for very young children, but otherwise encourage kids to use symbolic props that they create and make through their imaginations. For example, a stick becomes a sword.
  • Activities That Require Planning: Games with directions, patterns for construction, recipes for cooking, for instance.
  • Joint Storybook Reading: "Reading storybooks with preschoolers promotes self-regulation, not just because it fosters language development, but because children's stories are filled with characters who model effective self-regulatory strategies," says researcher Laura Berk.
  • Encourage Children to Talk to Themselves: "Like adults, children spontaneously speak to themselves to guide and manage their own behavior," Berk says. "In fact, children often use self-guiding comments recently picked up from their interactions with adults, signaling that they are beginning to apply those strategies to themselves.
Another one they don't mention in the article is taking your kids out climbing or for a bike ride! Cooper occupies himself for hours straight playing in the dirt and with sticks while we are in the woods each weekend. Lily too. Hoping to get out both days this weekend to climb, but the forecast says temps reaching 100! Seriously? Looks like lakes and pools are on the agenda instead.

This girl wants to climb up this SOOO bad!

July 22, 2013

Furlough Days

I could get used to this for sure. No work on Fridays is AWESOME! Finally some time with my kids to play and do fun things that they want to do. This past Friday, Cooper decided to cash in his 40 Tokens to go to the Frankische Wunderland (a month ago we started a token system for rewarding positive behaviors). Great decision. We went nice and early to try to beat the heat and crowds and were able to ride every ride in the park without waiting at all (there were only a few others even there).  He was so excited and happy all day. Since I went alone with the kids, Lily had to ride on all the rides with Cooper and me, including the roller coaster. I was surprised she was allowed to and worried if she would cry, but she did great and I think she enjoyed most of the rides.We left at her nap time, played at home in the garden and ate dinner out. Such a nice treat to have these extra days!






Fire breathing Dragon! He'd run so fast after turning the key it was hilarious!

Her favorite part was feeding the bunnies and goats
Climbing Kilimanjaro - he was the only kid amongst plenty of older ones who could get to the top! Yup, I'm proud.



I also made three pairs of shorts for the kids this weekend. Here is a picture of Cooper wearing his. I felt bad I'd only been making dresses for Lily! He loves them and wore them two days straight. I'll have to get Lily posing with Cooper with their matching pairs. I purchased a pattern from MADE and did the basic shorts first, now the flat front, and added pockets to the third pair. So easy and fun to make with her great tutorials! Can't wait to try to make myself some now!







July 18, 2013

Amazing Places - Mallorca, Spain

Following tradition, we made another trip to Mallorca for the 4th of July. The last time we went was in in 2008 when I was pregnant with Cooper. This time, it was a really last minute trip that we decided on basically the night before we left, based on flights out of Nuremberg the next day. Nothing like living spontaneously!   Frank and I found a great deal with Air Berlin so we booked it. The hardest part was finding a good place to stay (I stayed up till 1am booking an apartment and a rental car).

Luckily, it turned out it was worth the trouble because the place I found ended up being totally amazing and I won't be staying anywhere else the next time we go back. We were at the Agriturismo Ses Rotetes near Porto Cristo. Nestled in the hills west of the popular tourist town of Porto Cristo (an amazing deep water soloing locale) Ses Rotetes lies on a farm/orchard of sorts surrounded by fields of olive trees with goats and sheep, with its own orchard of oranges, plums, lemons, and an extensive garden of tomatoes, onions and herb surrounding the villa. We booked the 3 bedroom apartment since there were six of us (we traveled with our two friends Eric and Dave), which was very spacious and beautifully decorated.  

The front of our apartment
The back terrace of the apartment that faces the olive grove and orchard

I love this tree. Perfect spot we hung out each morning and night with lights for nighttime.
Onions in the Garden

Eric spent each morning picking snacks for the day
Fruits and Veggies from the garden
The highlights of the agriturismo were the beautiful grounds and convenience. All the trees were bursting with fruit that was perfectly ripe and the apartment came with a stocked kitchen, two full baths, baby bed, tennis court and a swimming pool. And another little amenity which they leave out on their website is that there are tortoises all over the place! Haha! When we arrived, our wonderful host was showing Frank around the house and grounds and she said, "and for the kids, we have the tortoises"... too funny. Sure enough, they were everywhere. I thought the owners purchased the tortoises at first, until one day we found no less than 16 of them eating plums in the morning by our car. Turns out, they are endemic to the islands and love the orchard. We also had our best meal of the trip at the agriturismo eating Tumbet Mallorcan, an amazing local eggplant dish with lamb, fresh olives, and wine right from their own stock. Topped off by Mallorcan almond ice cream and Spanish champagne. YUM! One of the best meals I've ever had...

Lily making a mess with oranges



Awesome pool at Ses Rotetes. I had to add some shorts to Cooper ;)

His face when I told him we couldn't bring them home with us.






Our awesome Mallorcan meal at the agriturismo
For climbers, Mallorca is extremely well known and popular due to Chris Sharma's crazy send of Es Pontas  and the movie King Lines. It has amazing cliffs on land and all along the sea. In the past, I always deep water soloed with Frank, but this time since he had Dave and Eric to climb with, I mostly stayed back at the beach and played with the kids. It really isn't my thing, deep water soloing. I get scared I'll fall wrong into the water and it will hurt. Plus its hard because your hands are all wet and you don't feel like you can grip or climb near as strong as you can on land. That, and I get creeped out about jelly fish. Basically, I'm a wimp. Yup. But it is one of Frank's favorite things to do! He loves the ocean and swimming and the amazing rock and the the total freedom of climbing in such a wild way. So the guys would go out and do that for a few hours while I mostly played on the beach with my little ones which was wonderful as well. Both were so content for hours. The only downside was getting used to the sand with Lily! The water diapers are no good on the beach. They just rub the sand in and she had the worst diaper rash ever! So, I let her go naked most of the days. Most of the adults were anyhow...
 



Cooper out with the boys deep water soloing

Eric with Cooper at the amazing Cala Varquez

The kids and I in front of the iconic Es Pontas
The only hitch to our travel arrangements was our flight didn't leave until 22:00 which is kind of how we wanted it so we had another full day to play around, but that is REALLY late for my children who we keep on a pretty tight sleep schedule, as you know. So after playing at the beach and in the water the entire rest of the time, we decided to use our last day to do other more touristy things. We visited Cala Millor, had a nice lunch by the beach, visited Es Pontas, and then headed to beautiful Palma (the capital of Mallorca) for a little sight seeing. The perfect end to a wonderful trip.
 
We were all tempted to never leave the island and skip our flight, but sadly rationale kicked in as it always does...

 
 
 
Slurping up the remains of a banana split
Cooper in awe of the strange sea creatures for sale

 
 

Oh how I love living in Europe!