The Baby-Monster Whisperers

Oh, what a morning. This is the story of how my baby's and my day started.

The kids and I sat down for breakfast, and I realized that all I really had to feed them was graham crackers. I haven't been feeling very good for the past couple of days so we hadn't walked to the bakery or the market and we were out of everything that my kids would normally eat for breakfast. I would have made pancakes, but they were hungry (especially baby boy), and I didn't think they'd be patient enough to wait for that. So I brought the box of graham crackers and an almost empty box of corn flakes to the table and passed around some crackers. I gave them all cups of milk and then went into the kitchen for some reason.

Just moments later, my baby was fussing so I went to see what else he needed. I figured he had already devoured his crackers and wanted more. However, he still had cracker pieces in front of him and milk in his cup. I couldn't figure out what he wanted and my baby suddenly turned into a monster... a very angry monster. His fusses turned into screams, his hands turned into instruments of destruction, sweeping across the table and hurling everything in their path to the hard, cold floor below. And the crying and angry screams didn't stop. I tried giving him another cracker. That calmed him down at first, but after a bite or two, he turned into the monster again. My little girl suggested that he might want some corn flakes, so I gave him some of those. Seconds later, the helpless little flakes were strewn all over the floor.

They never knew what hit them.

At that point I got my baby out of his booster seat, set him on the floor, and told him no throwing food! The crying and screaming only increased in volume. I tried to give him his cup of milk, but be pushed that away. I tried holding him, but he pushed me away. I tried putting him back in his seat and giving him more to eat, but the destruction of the poor bits of food was replayed. In the meantime, the boy and the girl had finished eating and were (thank goodness) playing nicely upstairs.

My baby boy cried and screamed, and soon I found that I was having a good cry myself. Maybe it was the fact that I'd been feeling a little under the weather. Maybe it was a little bit of the loneliness of being in a new place. Maybe it was the little bit of stress that comes with trying to establish a home and a routine again. Maybe it was just frustration from not knowing what baby boy wanted. I really don't know. I have no reason to cry. I guess it was just one of those days. The whole situation is pretty funny in retrospect.

Anyway, I soon realized that what we needed was some music... something calm in this emotionally charged situation. So I found one of my favorite YouTube videos. It worked. After listening to the beautiful music, I felt better. My baby boy calmed down too. I was then ready to face the mess of crackers and cornflakes covering the floor under the table. My baby happily toddled around while I swept, but soon discovered the pile of food that I was sweeping into, and decided that he did want to eat it after all. I glanced down in time to see him about to stuff a handful of cornflakes into his mouth. The handful also contained a piece of thread, some hairs, and who knows what other nastiness, so I quickly reached down to stop him from getting it into his mouth.

And that's when I accidentally jabbed my thumb into his face.

He exploded into tears, and we started all over again. But, this time I had the remedy all ready to go. I turned the music on again, danced with baby boy, and he was happy within a couple of minutes.

I still don't know why he got so upset. I've never seen him so mad for so long before. Maybe an early onset case of the terrible two's? Teething? Whatever the reason, I'm glad that Iron and Wine and Calexico could soothe his whine... and mine.


p.s. Iron and Wine and Calexico are going to be in Germany in a couple of months. We're really hoping to be able to go see them. We don't know any babysitters yet, but I think we should be able to find one by then... unless we can't find anyone willing to face the challenge of our little baby-monster, in which case we could probably just take him with us, since I know he likes the music. :)

GOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLL!

I am not an athlete. I'm no good at team sports. I played t-ball and soccer when I was very little and my dad was my coach. And I played on a basketball team once or twice. But I was always the one who very rarely touched the ball during a game. If by chance, a team-mate accidentally threw the ball to me, something would snap during the transmission of the message from my brain to whatever limb of my body should have been responsible for doing something with the ball, and I'd go into panic mode and frantically hurl the ball into the blur around me. It usually didn't result in anything good for the team, so beyond elementary school, I didn't play any team sports. 

But if I did play a sport, I'm pretty sure it would be soccer. I love soccer for some reason. Don't ask me anything about it, because all I know is that a bunch of players try to kick the ball into the goal guarded  by the opposing team. It's emabarrassing how little I know about it actually, considering I just said that I love the sport. I don't know... there's just something about it... I imagine being out on that green field, in fresh air, and running. Just thinking about it makes me feel more alive, which is weird because I know that if I got out of my chair and tried to go play a real game of soccer right now, I'd come back feeling half-dead.

Anyway, it's fun to live in Germany during the World Cup.  German flags are hanging from windows and being flown from cars. The Man and I have been following the teams and waiting to see who's going to make it further. We are supposed to get the keys to our house tomorrow, but had to change the time we are meeting with the landlord because Germany made it through the last round, and will be playing tomorrow. It's a big deal here. And it's fun to get caught up in the excitement. As you can see in the picture above, even the Aegi is excited about it. He was celebrating with the Man because he was playing a World Cup computer game and his team (Argentina) beat Sweden.

Here is the World Cup 2010 theme song for your listening pleasure.

The Big PCS Part 3 - Two Months in Pictures

Well, we are now nearing the end of this phase of our big PCS. I guess you could say the last couple of months have been Part 3. You can read about Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

The beginning of Part 3 was full of excitement and travel, but the majority has been spent here at my parents' house, while the Man has been TDY. And since arriving here, things have been relatively calm and laid back. We've just been kinda hangin' around, waiting for the next phase of this big move to arrive. But it's been so great to see so many relatives while we've been here. My parents have had jobs out of town, so we've mostly just been able to see them on the weekends when they are in town, but that's more than we'd have been able to see them if we weren't here at all, so I'm not complaining. So even though I wish the Man was with us, I'm thankful for this time that we've had to catch up with everyone.

The Man comes home tomorrow (yippee!!!), so I thought I'd give a little run-down of Part 3 of the big PCS so far:

One of the first things we did after leaving Korea was share a plate of noodles in Tokyo.

Since then, we...

Spent a few days in Hawaii.

Spent some wonderful time with family and friends (including 99 year-old Great-Grandma).

Celebrated Easter.

Learned to walk.

Had some Texas Bar-B-Q (I got to go visit the Man for a couple of days).

Watched the tulips bloom.

Spent time in the snow.

And the sun.

I'm so excited to see the Man tomorrow, and also so happy that we get to spend a little bit more time here. I'm also really excited for the weeks to come and the next phase of our big PCS...

Somebody's heiny...

...is crowding my ice box.

Name that song.

It's been in my head today for some reason.

The Aegi loves…

Squash.