Good-bye party

Tomorrow is Gianna's last day of school, but today her teachers threw her a going away party complete with balloons, musical chairs, and chocolate frosted cupcakes topped with gummies. They invited me to come in and snap a few pictures of Gianna and her friends.




















And later this afternoon, I had to say good-bye to my dear friend, Denisa. Denisa is from Slovakia, studied in the UK, and has lived all around the world. Since we are both world travelers, hopefully our paths will cross again some day. That is one of the great things about being abroad, meeting so many new people from all walks of life and becoming fast friends with a few of them.

Now back to moving prep insanity. The movers come tomorrow afternoon, then it's all a whirlwind until we land in Newark Thursday afternoon.

Since you are moving...

...and I'm never going to see you again, here's what I really think. Ugh, one of the mothers from Gianna's school said some pretty awful things to me on the playground yesterday. She's American married to a German, with three kids. We were having polite conversation and got on the topic of adoption. In her opinion, all international adoption is corrupt. How can you really know Barbara, that your child was not trafficked? How do you know the documents are not forgeries? Why not do US adoption, get "one of our own"? Well, you and Dan are good looking and smart, you would make a beautiful baby together. Can't the doctors do anything more? At the point where I was about to punch this woman in the face, Gianna came over and said she wanted to go home. Thank God. So I took my little feral, trafficked, racially inferior, ugly, stupid child home and gave her lots of love.

Recently somebody posted a thread asking what are the three most memorable moments of your life? Many people said when they found out they were pregnant or the birth of their child. My top two are 1. receiving the call from the adoption agency saying "it's a girl!" 2. the moment I first laid eyes on my daughter at the orphanage. She was more beautiful than I had ever imagined. It was the only moment in my life that I felt like melting butter.

Frankfurt: contrast

Red squirrel at Hauptfriedhof

GMai after our morning photo shoot

Flashmob pillow fight at Hauptwache

Bumper car Barb

Finally we have some nice weather for spring break. Today these three monkeys had some lunch together, then spent the afternoon (and a lot of the adult's money) at Dippemess.
There were some heated discussions over who would be Michael Schumacher.
The kids all rode the ponies; Gianna shared some tender words with her favorite polka dotted horse.
We rode the ferris wheel and then we stopped at the mini bumper cars. That's when things turned ugly. The two other kids with Gianna are a bit bigger and fit in the cars just fine. Gianna's legs were too short to fit the pedals. As the ride started, the carny motioned me to come over...and get in the car with her. What? These cars are built for one 8-year-old, not a 3-year-old and her mom! I climbed aboard, one arm around the rear post, one foot on the gas pedal, one hand on the steering wheel, and one cheek teetering on the side of the car. As you can imagine, we were quite the target. Hit the American with her arse hanging off the car! Too bad for them, I'm a pretty mean bumper car driver. We managed to avoid all major hits and left the Germans wondering, "where did you learn to drive, New Jersey?" Sorry no photos. My camera was around my neck and my friend was likely rolling on the ground with laughter.

Easter Sunday

Easter 2010 came and went too fast! In Germany, everything is closed Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Easter Monday. So tomorrow Dan goes back to work, but Gianna still has off for spring break.






















We decided to go with the Áo dài's for Easter Sunday. Our church is diverse, with many people wearing traditional dress even on regular Sundays. Gianna was very proud of her dress...and Easter basket. The first thing she ate was the black sheep.


The weather was cold and blustery outside, so the Easter Bunny kindly hid the eggs inside this year. Bruno was a willing participant; the hard boiled eggs drove him nuts!


Donnell, Gianna's godfather, joined us for lunch and Easter festivities. He brought Gianna a chocolate rabbit that we tore into sometime after the egg hunt. It was a fun and delicious Easter.

Frankfurt goats

Despite the cold weather, Gianna enjoyed petting the goats over at the Frankfurt zoo. Spring, what happened? I thought we had a deal, you were here to stay and I could pack all the strumpfhosen away?!

Nothing but fun

Spring break is off to a rainy start, but today we got some unexpected dry weather for the neighbor girl's red, white, and black ladybug birthday party and an afternoon trip to spring Dippemess. At first, Gianna said she would only do the pony rides with Bố. But once we were there, she changed her mind and boldly chose her steed.











The girl behind her on the smaller pony was about two years older than Gianna and needed her Dad to come to her aid halfway through the ride. Hey, I know what that's like, but it makes for a funny picture (R, click to enlarge).
After the ponies, Gianna did several rounds on the car carousel, followed by an ice cream cone (as if we needed any more sugar intake for today) while we watched the older kids on the bumper cars. Overall, this was one of those priceless days that makes me very grateful to be a stay at home mom.

Palm Sunday

First, breakfast.





















Then, after a lengthy church service, egg decorating.

The finished products.

Spring Break!!!

Those two words send chills down a mother's spine. Today is Gianna's last day of school before two weeks of Easter break. We already have several playdates set up for next week including a trip to the zoo with an English speaking nanny group, a trip to the indoor swimming pool, and a birthday party. But I remember last year, poor weather and sick kids got in the way of many a playdate and we were both left rather bored and at each other's throats by the end of two weeks. But I am better prepared this year! Honestly, I am! We're going to have a great time!

I said, and said, and said those words. I said them. But I lied them.

The photo is of little miss in her springtime beauty on the balcony being difficult when I just wanted one good picture. Look how much her hair is growing.

One more post about Jordan

Cara took this photo at the beach in Aqaba. Gianna likes to peel labels off of water bottles, leaving them a sticky mess and perfect for levitating water bottle optical illusion tricks. The low quality video below shows the Islamic call to prayer that is broadcast across Amman several times a day... including 4am. Keep in mind, I'm filming this inside the apartment with all the windows closed and the nearest mosque is a couple blocks away. Hanoi blasts communist propaganda music every morning to wake up the city and some Frankfurters complain of incessant early morning church bell ringing. I wonder if there are any cities in America that blast Stars and Stripes Forever to wake up their patriotic citizens?

The winker

After months of practice, Gianna has learned how to wink. We were eating lunch and she said "Mẹ, good noodles!" I gave her the "this is some good eats" wink and much to my surprise, she winked back! I asked her to do it again and she did it again, and again, and again, of course getting sillier with each attempt. Here she is winking over noodles, while taking a lunch break from car shopping.

Áo Dài photo shoot

Gianna and I decided to model our new traditional Vietnamese áo dài dresses before our vacation tans completely fade away. We bought them in Saigon at the Bến Thành market. The áo dài is traditionally worn for celebrating Tết and other formal occasions, but I'm thinking they will be a little too drafty for Tết (Feb 14, 2010) in Frankfurt.























Gianna wanted a shot with the dog; he put a hole in her pants with his claw >:-(

Frosty der Schneemann

...and more schnee

Schnee!

A rare Frankfurt snowstorm hit last weekend covering the interstadt with a few centimeters of snow. We threw snowballs at each other, and at a few passers by, and at someone's dog. Germans are not fans of spontaneous fun, so you generally won't see them out frolicking in the snow like the crazy Americans. They have mini and maxi sized snowplows (mini is pictured). The maxi size are still smaller than most small US plows, probably to get down all the narrow streets, however they do have some jumbo plows for the highways. I like it that the plows say "SCHMIDT" on them. We are supposed to get more snow this weekend, although weather reporting here is notoriously poor, so perhaps we will have full sun and balmy spring weather!

Going on Holiday

This evening we leave for a much needed beach vacation, so I will make this the last (?) post in December. I'm sitting here waiting for the Hundepension to come pick up Bruno, then I will take the orange tree and mail key over to the neighbors. My stomach is in knots because we've already had to re-book one of our flights thanks to Bank of America freezing our credit card account for "international charges". Hopefully that is the only thing that will go wrong with this trip. I am really looking forward to some warm weather and seeing Gianna in her gown for a Christmas Eve gala at the resort.

Without further adieu, here is my Christmas card for my family and friends. I find my own child highly entertaining and hopefully you will to. Merry Christmas! We'll be back in Frankfurt to ring in the new year :-)

Christmas party

Gianna's class held a Christmas party for the parents yesterday. They sang a few songs for us, recited a story about bears, then we ate some snacks provided by the parents. Gianna was not happy that I was at the party. She wanted Dan to be there instead, and sulked during the songs:
But she came around once the food was served:

Yesterday night we wandered around Preungesheim in the dark trying to find Gianna's new pediatrician's office which turned out to be located behind a Getränkhalle in the same building as an auto body shop. At 3 years old, she is 94 cm tall and weighs 13 kilos. That puts her in about the 25th percentile on the German scale. She is quite light and much shorter than most of her classmates. Some tower head and shoulders above Gianna! Still, she says when she grows up, she's going to be "big".

Christmas concert

On Friday a bunch of families crammed into the US Consulate Field House to hear their 2-5 year olds sing Christmas carols. Gianna was very excited the night before, saying that she was going to sing real loud so we could hear her. When the time came to perform, stage fright struck, and she refused to cooperate. A teacher ended up carrying her onto the stage and she hid her face for most of the two songs. Later she explained the situation, "I scared; I not know there going to be so many chairs". I took that to mean she thought it was just going to be her parents coming to see her and not a room full of people. But she looked beautiful and enjoyed a celebratory pizza lunch afterwards with her friend. On Monday I go to her class Christmas party where we'll make Christmas cookies.