Birthday Magic

Confession, I don't do kid birthdays. I'll bake homemade muffins, snuggle my kids to sleep every-night, and otherwise put a lot energy into my daily life with them. The kid birthday parties with the organizing, chaos, and more toys is just too much for me. Additionally, the Kita already celebrates the kids' birthdays. Each birthday-kid brings a cake and his buddies give him a small group present. This year I sent Hugo with chocolate rolls from the bakery to share with his friends. Again - Kita for the win. 

Our general birthday plan is we do some fun activity with one other family on a Saturday around the birthdate. Additionally, we have dinner (birthday kids' choice) followed by birthday cake with Val. However, this year Hugo got a bonus birthday extravaganza because Papa and Coco came to town. About six months ago the boys were watching some youtube clip about indoor skydiving. Once we learned there was a place to do it in Berlin, and the minimum age was four, we knew indoor skydiving clearly made the most sense for Hugo's next birthday.

Without air.

With air.

Hugo was a total boss in the wind tunnel. He's such a brave little man. Also, Cros had a great time:

Indoor skydiving isn't cheap (thanks financing our fun - Papa) but man was it worth it. For one fun morning, it felt like all the nonsense of the last year-and-a-half of covid got sucked out of that wind tunnel. Also, it was a good reminder to Paul and me that we should probably get back to the gym. 

Abs = necessary for skydiving and life.

On his actual birthday, we made the 1.5 hour train-ride out to a dinosaur themed park with our family friends and their boys.  I'd heard about this park for years, but the inspiration came when Hugo said he wanted a dinosaur costume to replace his Tails (orange fox from Sonic video game) costume. 

He fit in great (and by that I mean, per usual, he was the only kid in costume). 

Crosby also, unknowingly, nailed his wardrobe choice. I knew there would be a petting zoo, but the meerkats were a welcome surprise.

This being east Germany - there were our favorite coin operated, unattended amusement park rides of questionable safety...

But unquestionable fun.

Hugo definitely was not tall enough for this ride, but no attendant = no problem.

As you can see from Hugo's red cheeks it was warm, but we had some cool down options:

Our usual go to: ice coffee and iced cream.

Also, a little swimming area, or questionable water quality, for our naturalists.

Our original plan was to have cake with Papa and Coco and Val on the weekend after Hugo's birthday, but a round of the Kita barfies interfered. So, we continued to spread out the birthday fun over the month.

He was already really excited about the emoji cake and then...

Boom: Gummybear cave in the middle of homemade funfetti cake with blue buttercream frosting. Mommy was also happy that this emoji won out over the poop emoji. Crosby has been talking about the poop emoji as his cake, we'll see if his preferences change between now and January.

Per usual, Val's cake was the gift that kept on giving. He got to eat the tongue part of the cake with his friend Tomas the next day. And, one of the eye slices is in the freezer to wait to celebrate with one our favorite people, Gen, this weekend.

So much Hugo, so little time...

I can't remember who recently asked me if Hugo ever stops. Oh yes, he stops. He just doesn't stop when we want to him to. But eventually his body will shut him down whether he likes it or not. Say, while eating a pizza...

And then you realize that maybe the pizza should be more officially snuggled...

From here he went back to putting his head on the seat, and essentially used the pizza as a pillow. 

Award for the most uncomfortable position - helmet on rim of bike. This nap was short as he heard me say ice cream and was awake as ever.

I mean how could he not fall asleep in this comfy batman robe? #hugohefner

Sometimes his siblings just kind of continue on as if he's not sleeping:

And sometimes Carmen will join in:

Hugo continued to nap for another hour on the bike in the rain in our courtyard. Poor Carmen's nap ended when we dropped off Ella. Fieldtrip days are always #naphardHugo

Bungie cord for the win:

It worked so well, that it's kind of our new go-to when Hugo falls asleep on Longie. 

This costume is equally comfy for napping. I don't know which bike is better, but I do know that food runs at 5 pm will end up like this:

and this:

The good news is Hugo is now old enough for a booster, the bad news is the neck support leaves something to be desired. 

Paul set this one up. Yes, he's sleeping in his dirty clothes for the night. #pickyourbattles

And this is how he fell asleep another night. 

Every so often we just don't have it in us to fight the bedtime so we let him wander around the house until he falls asleep. 

Exhibit A: Fell asleep listening to Dad's night calls.

Exhibit B: Fell asleep in pile of laundry outside my door.

Exhibit C: This kid couch was advertised as folding out into a bed. #gettinmymoney'sworth 

But the best way to sleep is by snuggling your mommy.

Smothering / snuggling, potato/potatoe

Sweet Dreams.

Book Report: Achtung Baby by Sara Zaske

Alternative working title: Bringing up Baby (instead of Bebé)

Admittedly, I'm only half-way through, but this book is probably the best read to understand my life here in Berlin. It explains a lot of the cultural differences between the US and Germany's early education models and childrearing. If you know me well, you'll see where the author and I don't jive on parenting philosophies - ie constant worry, baby sleep training opinions, and mommy guilt. However, I imagine the majority of the audience in the US share these perspectives. With those criticisms aside, she provides some good background on the cultural phenomena that I have observed and never spent the time to really look into. I find the book to especially validate my reasons for living in Germany at this phase of my life which is a good segue into why I've been slacking from blogging. Three Reasons:

1. Carmen started Kita.

Sara Zaske mentions this "Eingewohnung" or warm-up period for Kita in her book. In summary, a parent doesn't just drop off the kid in childcare for a full-day on Day 1 (my preference). The first couple days, I was there for an hour, and then two. Then I left for 45 minutes, and an hour, etc. Right now we're working on Carmen napping there, which works about half the time. The big hurtle is getting her to use the potty there, instead of holding it for hours. Good segue to my other time-consuming project... 

2. We decided last minute to potty train Carmen before starting Kita. 

So, there's been a lot of this:

Side of the road potty-ing. I should really get commission for how many people I've recommended this potty and this book.

and this:

Favorite toy + water + Binkie = maybe sitting for two minutes total. ha!

I'm hoping more blogging will be on the horizon once Carmen is fully integrated into Kita. But for now, project #3 - preparing US taxes. Speaking of which, I should start working on those...