Paige's Return to Deutschland!: Anniversary Bonanza

November 3, 2021 5:00 AM thoughts

Paige: "Who is next to me in bed?"

Paul: "Why is everyone naked?"

Marriage for nine years. End of blog post. Jokes...

We're done with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease but now we're onto colds with coughs which means we're playing "musical beds". Paul is typically in what we call the "sensory deprivation hole":

King bed behind curtains, behind a door, with a sound machine and earplugs. This part of the house with the sound blocking is the only place to escape the noises of these people:

Seen here "winding down for bed"

The hope for king bed was actually to both sleep together, but you can see where I slept last night:

Twin mattress on the floor in the hallway.

Crosby quarantined his cough in the office:

Note the new anniversary artwork. Apparently 2020 was the year of funny zoom backgrounds but in 2021 everyone is supposed to have well decorated offices. The placement of the frames is far apart, but otherwise Paul's head on the zoom screen blocks the art. Three frames would also be a solution but we adhere to a "free pile only" art policy. Our neighbors (thanks Pretes!) who lent or gave us most of the furniture in this room only had two posters. As we moved here with just suitcases (13 to be exact) - we've bought double of most things - bikes, kitchen supplies, furniture, bedding - but art is a bridge too far. In any case, the purpose of this art is zoom appearance not good interior design. ha!

Carmen and Hugo started out in the "kids" room:

Again, seen here "winding down for bed". We moved Carmen into the boys' room about a month ago. We put her in her black out tent (bottom left) and zip her in with a sound machine. In the morning, Hugo typically zips her out, earlier than his kid alarm clock tells him he is aloud to be up, and then takes off her diaper (and her clothes with it). This explanation explains the how, but not necessarily why, they both came into the office, where we were sleeping that night, at 5 am on our anniversary.

Last night she was up for an hour at 1:00 am so she was demoted to the bathroom closet. I'm not joking, but also not providing any photo evidence.

While the original purpose of putting Carmen in with the boys for Paul and me to be reunited at night has largely been unsuccessful, we do now how a great work out space and great coach:

Insert joke about "making a better door than a window".

Shocker - it turns out our work-outs are more effective without the kids. Our goal is to work out for a half-an-hour after Kita drop-off before Paul needs to start working. He's back in the office three days a week starting December 1, so we will have to make a new plan then. For now, our goals are modest - not injuring ourselves.

Back to our anniversary, as our actual anniversary fell on a Wednesday, we did our real celebrating on Saturday. We started by finally executing a brilliant decor idea from my uncle Karl.

While visiting in the summer of 2019, Karl marveled at the manhole covers on the streets of Berlin and said he'd thought about making etchings from the cities where he travels. A man of action, he got the supplies and we searched around in over 100 F / 40 C heat to then not find any of the pretty manhole covers. We did, however, find some interesting designs at the Berlin Wall memorial (far right) while he was visiting. About a year ago the littles and I finally made a manhole covering with the kids - center (can't find the picture of us making it).

Finally, the last week of fall break, Crosby and I finished the project with a Bonhoeffer plaque at the large Zion church near our house where Bonhoeffer discipled young men during their confirmation. I read Bonhoeffer's Life Together 12+ years ago with some of then college girls I love the most, who have since gone on to do amazing things. Bonhoeffer also has a special place in my heart after Connor read this passage at my mom's funeral.

Crosby is amazingly creative (and nimble). Creating this project together was one of my greatest joys.

I pushed Crosby up on the ledge. Then I wheeled my bike around to stand on the baby seat to (per Crosby's suggestion) put a black border around the sketch. I should take a closer photo of the finished result, but you'll just have to come visit to see it.

This art project was a bit of a deviation from the "free pile art only" rule as we did have to buy frames. But, this project fulfilled a Berlin adventure itch - to take a cargo bike to Ikea. I convinced my neighbor, Emily, to let me peddle her. Then I convinced her to let me take her baby on the bike back while she took the big frames and Crosby home on the tram. I spent the ride home sniffing baby Tilly while feeling like I was cheating on Carmen.