Felix:
Very blonde hair, giant blue eyes and chubby chicks. He is quite a good baby overall, although when he's sick he is not that much fun to be around. Always crying and crying and I try everything but nothing helps. Hungary? No. Thirsty? No. Diaper dirty? Nope. Tired? Well, considering he screams his head off every time I lay him in the crib, I'm guessing...no. The great thing about babies is that usually they only really cry about one of those four things.. Mostly what he ends up really wanting is for me to carry him around in my arms. Which, ok, I guess it's fine for 5 minutes or so, but then he starts to get really, really heavy. And my arms give out and I can't do anything but walk in circles. Felix will be 1 year old on November 25th, so he is at that stage where he just eats a lot of "Brei" (German for that mushy puree babies eat) and drinks a lot of milk and gains weight really quickly cos he can't walk yet. So, he is very heavy right now.. Sylvia said he should start walking in the next 2-3 months, which will be really exciting because 1. it is simply an exciting thing to see a baby take his first steps, 2. I won't have to feed him so much all the time, and 3. I won't have to carry him all the time. there are also lots of not so great things about a walking baby, including the fact that he will walk anywhere he wants, including in the middle of the street when I have to turn away for a second, or to the lamp wire that he will then try to pull on top of himself... I'm going to be watching him every second. Great.
Anyway, watching Felix and taking care of him has forced me to do some things I never thought I'd have to do this year. That includes, sticking a number of things up his butt, including the thermometer to take his temperature and this horrible, horrible medicine called a Zepchin (scary German word..) that is like a oval, white thing I have to stick up his butt. It's supposed to bring down his temperature...I'd really love to know how sticking something in a baby's butt will make his temperature go down...but alright. Those Germans and their crazy medical ideas..they use all these crazy herbs and things that they think work, when really, we all have to admit that in the end its just the placibo effect.
Last week I had to carry Felix around in the kangeroo pouch thing to and from the creche. I took a few pictures from each day:
I also found a new way to make him stop crying. I take out my guitar and give him a little concert:) For example, today he didn't want to sit in his play-pen, and my arms wanted to fall off from holding him so to distract him from his "prison cell", I took out my guitar and played some Taylor Swift, John Mayer and Jason Mraz for him. He smiled and shook his rattle along with the tune:) I think he really likes music..just like his dad (Oliver plays violin for a professional orchestra in Brussels, and also knows how to play piano and guitar).
One more random thing about the kids. Jonas has been helping me with my french lots, and it really is kind of funny. For example, today we walked to the little grocery store at the corner to get some ginger for the soup Sylvia was making for dinner (she promised it would help my cold..I think it's actually working!). We couldn't find fresh ginger, only a packet of candied ginger, so we decided to ask a man working there. I asked Jonas if "Avez-vous le gingembre frais?" was correct and he confirmed it, repeating it back to me with a perfect little-kid french-accent (much better then my awful American accent that I can't seem to get rid of). I went up to the man and asked. He looked at me confused, then said "Je ne comprends pas." Great, he doesn't understand me, I thought to myself. It's my stupid accent. Then Jonas asked him, and he understood perfectly. Oh well, guess I'll just have to bring around my 7 year old translator until I can get rid of my accent and learn how to speak French properly...
Same thing happened in dance class today. I hadn't said a word all class except my first name when the teacher asked all of us to tell her. But, surprisingly enough, at the end of the class one of the students asked what the name of the song was. The teacher was trying to pronounce "XX"--the name of a presumably American song, though I had never heard it before. Then, she turned to me and said, "You speak English, how to you pronounce it?" At first, I was confused at how she knew I spoke English, but then I pronounced it for her an she tried saying it again, her French still making it come out like "EEEX EEEX" Later, I asked one of the girls who've I've become friends with in the class how the teacher new I spoke English. She said, "When you said your name, of course. You say it with an American accent." Damn it. I really tried saying it the French way too... Great, I thought, now only my name gives away my inability to pronounce French correctly.
This is going to be a long 10 months of German and French running through my brain.....
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