Pumpkin Fest

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Austrians claim not to celebrate Halloween , but eh...erhm...we went to a "pumpkin festival" last weekend, which well is the equivalent of... well ... HALLOWEEN! Please how can one deny that jack-o-lanterns, witches, sweets and painted faces is not Halloween. Now someone is going to try to put a spin on the fact that Europe is so much older than Canada and that any tradition that happens here definitely existed before even the thought of a similar one in North America, but I say piuuwee to that, they are so trying to market Halloween as some cultural pumpkin festival, one with a rich history - whatever Franz Josef worshippers, I'll let you in on a little secret: eating sweets and getting drunk while surrounded by carved pumpkins is the definition of HALLOWEEN!

Anyhow, we drove about 90km to get up to this smallish Austria town on the border to the Czech Republic and only managed the trip in under 2 hours thanks to static FM. On Ellie's first long car trip, she made it abundantly and loudly clear that she is no fan of being strapped into a car seat! Well to make an uneventful car ride short, I had to nurse the kid on the highway shoulder, Kaya freaked out and spotted something black and scary in the colourful, autumn folliage and well, as usual Stefan got right to where we needed to be with his brain map of the world (boy does that ever drive me nuts, that he has a build in GPS!).

Since Kaya had seen half of Eastern Europe by the time she was Ellie's age, we thought we should make a weekend of the "pumpkin festival" so that Ellie could at least get a sleepover stamp in her passport. We stayed in a renovated farm house thanks to Suz, great friend and remarkable hobby travel agent and Stefan, Kaya, Ellie and I managed to sleep through the night in one king-size bed...now if that ain't a accomplishment!

The cultural, end of October event was a hit with both the kids who got their faces painted and scored premuim balloon (which we ended up naming 9.50 after the price of them) and the adults who got to enjoy the local "grape" juice and have a game night without paying a couple of sitters.

Here is my (ps) for the weekend:
The balloons ended up being invaluable as just after they were purchased, we were down a man at the crowded outdoor festival and were only able to locate and retrieve him thanks to the shiny, red, helium filled car attached to his wrist!

Static FM

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At the moment our favourite radio station goes a little something like: sssshshhshshshhhhhhhhhhhhhzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzsssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh and is some where between pure static and interrupted, moaning static. I feel like we are in a cult and are trying to brainwash our 10 week old, maybe we could throw in a few subliminal messages between the static, like: ssshhhhshshs sleep through the night, ssshhhshshs I will not cry, sssshhhhshshs I will learn to self-soothe, sssshhhshssh I have the best parents in the world...

This whole static obsession started when I watched this video on you tube by the author of The happiest baby on the block who emphasized the love babies have for white noise, just like in the womb - it is apparently ridiculously loud in there, no wonder babies kick the crap out of your insides, it's all Morse code for turn the volume down mama. Evidently since Ellie has gone down the I'mgonnascreammylungsoutforanhouronanightlybasis path, I've attempted to turn my little screamer into the happiest baby in town by recreating the comforts of my uterus, which does NOT include submerging her in amniotic fluid and getting her to start breathing from her belly button again! But is more along the lines of calming noise which is found in radio static, a vacuum cleaner, the hair dryer or me recording my own voice going ssshhhhhhhhhhhhh for an hour and playing it to her before bedtime. Lets face it, finding an in between station and pretending to rock out to it is way more fun and very mobile as it can easily be tuned into in the car, on my cell phone and on the living room stereo. I'm even thinking of starting my own sshhhh station (shhhsh FM) including sporadic, subliminal happy baby messaging therapy (since parents eat up anything with the word therapy in it) and nap time and nighttime static which would differ slightly from chill out static and put babies to sleep faster and for longer periods of time. Imagine the profit I could make.

Although I do have to watch how often I static-tify Ellie, as I don't want her to become desensitised to background noise at which point I would have to find a new secret sleep aid. This afternoon it played out like this:
Ellie crying in an overtired state, not letting herself fall asleep (why do babies do that?) me carrying her around, breaking my back and then, turn on the radio to nothing by annoying noise and 30s later she's passed out on a pillow and I'm the happiest parent on the block! We did the same on the way back from our trip last weekend, which was Ellie's 1st car ride. Without the help of the non-existent 103.3 FM, a 1.5 hour trip would have turned into a 6 hour breastfeeding frenzy... and it ain't easy to manoeuvre a latch with her strapped into her car seat and me belted into the front passenger seat. There was even the added bonus for Stefan that it put Kaya to sleep mid-sentence and me a minute later, so the lucky man did not have to listen to girl chit chat the entire way home.

I have finally started to understand the saying sleeping like a baby, which I believe was truncated from the original one of "sleeping like a baby ... numbed by radio (anae) static."

THinGs oUR 3 yeAR oLD hAs tOLd Us - Part II

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On chewing gum:
"I'm a little bit an adult like you, I can chew gum."
"Don't swallow it or the belly monsters will eat it."

On penises:
"Daddy has a long buuuum."
"I don't have a penis, I have a sister."

When I'm an adult like you...
"...and have boobs, I can grow my sister in my belly and give her milk from my belly button."
"...I can go to Spar (the corner grocery store) all alone and buy spinatstruedel."
"...I can kiss daddy on the mouth."

On deflated balloons:
"My balloon is tired, I have to put it to bed so it can be round again."
"My balloon needs milk to get bigger like me."
"My balloon is my friend and can come to my birthday."
"Daddy fix my balloon it's broken and needs new baddaries."
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A regular day...

.Ellie making her "OH" face in surprise at yet another something new

Me rocking her to sleep to avoid actually having to leave the house and therefore allowing myself to indulge in daytime TV

Kaya doing the leg hug while putting on her I-am-so-cute-don't-you-love-me face to bribe me into getting her something, giving her something or taking her somewhere - today trying to convince me to make vanilla ice cream for dinner

The daily needed sister photo - I can't get enough of photographing the girls and their sisterly love...even though Ellie appears to sleep through most of the heartwarming moments!

No need to say anything more than: AAAAHHHHHHH!

monster bites

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Kaya is back from a fab. mini vacation with her Omi and Opi in Salzburg with a few souvenirs - monster bug bites. This post is dedicated to Aman who has also suffered being attacked by Salzburg mosquitoes, which appear to have been cross bred with killer bees and leave monstrous welt on one's face and body. On her first day back at school, I think they wanted to place her in quarantine, basically turn her into a bubble girl. I had to do some quick explaining to say that she hadn't been infected with a virulent strain of the chicken pox or some other vile tropical disease. Here's a bit how the conversation played itself out (in my head of course):

Me (mother of contagious looking child):"They are bug bites, I swear, cross my heart and hope to die (yes I am still a 7 year old!)."

Them (responsible for keeping 28 children alive from 7am-7pm): "Uh...well...you sure, cause...well (as they are keeping a safe distance)...ok, but keep your mobile on in case the bites start pussing and we have to contact you for an emergency send home."

Me: "No problem, yes yes yes, you've saved me (thinking thank heavens, there is no way I can handle both kids at home!)."

Them (still looking very skeptic): "Ok, right, just keep your phone on and uh...ok, ya."

There was obviously no need for me to pick her up and of course no one has contracted the mongo bug bites that have finally started to disappear. Kaya had a FANTASTIC time with her grandparents, but next time we might have to send her there with a mosquito netting bonnie hat.

Huge-ness

.Ellie has just had her 7 week check up and the girl is maaaassive! She is a whole 4.1 kg and has grown from 48 to 54 cm, and lets not even talk about how her head has ballooned out, it's like a reverse Beetlejuice. So, 7 weeks post-womb, she is now basically the size of a little-larger-than-average newborn lady bug. I do have a load of sympathy for those of you out there who had to stretch your very private, private parts and push out an oversized little bundle of joy/pain. I nearly passed out from the excruciating contractions needed to get my kid out, and her head wasn't even the size of a cabbage patch doll's. How thankful am I that she got Stefan's narrow head gene and not my round-cheeked, wider than an elephant's arse one. No matter whom she takes after, she has started using her cute, little face to smile...one of the best 1st milestones besides learning to pass wind without crying the house down.
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Needless to say these never made it to her closet. Yet another clear indication of her princess gene expressing itself...
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NuTS about the fall!

Fall is simply the season that tops them all. So to take in the last bit of sunlight before Vienna literally turns grey for the winter, we wandered out into the wild, wild woods, saw caged deer, picked flowers from a forbidden field and let the fresh air bring out a bit of our loopiness.

I am a tree!

Our Kaya

Our Kaya has been staying with her grandparents in Salzburg for the past 3 days and oh do I miss her (although I sure don't miss her endless NOs). Sitting by the pond in the pm and naming the ducks while eating cut up apple and raisins is sure strange when you do not have a toddler in tow. So I've taken to afternoon napping with Ellie and eating chocolate chip cookies - who said I wanted to lose the post-pregnancy weight anyway! Come home soon K, or I might lose my edge and forget how to trick you in to believing that helping me clean the kitchen is loads of fun and that broccoli is the tastiest food there is. Although it is fun to practice on Stefan, it's just not as challenging to coerce an overtired, grown man at the end of a long day of work to do the dishes and eat his salad!