So I went out skiing today. Boy was it cold! It was 1 degree outside when we left Garmisch and by the time we had gotten to the parking lot of the ski area in Austria, it was -8 degrees. And that was only in the parking area, I’m almost scared to know what it was at the top of the ski lift.
But, we didn’t lose any bodyparts … or, at least I didn’t. I went with a couple we met when we first got here. They have a four-year-old boy whom A. loves. Anyway, they’re quite a bit more advanced than I am at skiing, so when we first got on the lift, the hill looked so steep, I thought I would kill myself. Obviously, I didn’t. In fact, I was scared but I didn’t do horribly bad for my first time of the season (since I wasn’t incredibly good last year, this is a plus).
I think one of the reasons I did as well as I did, was because we got there so early, there was no one to see me fall (or do well, for that matter). For some reason I saved all my falls for my last run when there were plenty of people on the slope to see me embarass myself.
But we did have a great time when we got there and had the runs all to ourselves. I went slow but there was no one to crash into me if I stopped in the middle of the slope.
And now that I’ve done my first skiing of the season, I feel I’m ready to really get into it and make use of that outrageously expensive ski pass that I talked Joe into buying for me.
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Finally, here are some photos of A. and stuff going on around our house.
This is a coke truck that set up in front of our house on the pedestrian zone. Santa came with it and listened to all the boys’ and girls’ request for Christmas.
This is a photo of A. wearing a Christmas gift that was a princess costume. She loves to pretend to be a princess (actually a fighting fairy princess, but that’s another blog) and having a wand and some subjects, just makes it better.
This is a picture of A. on a sled out in front of our house. Yes, that’s a lot of snow, but it’s not normal for it to be there. What I’m trying to say is that they usually have the pedestrian zone cleared of snow, but once a year, after Christmas, they have some crosscountry ski races down it. So, they bring in the snow, make it nice and level and they race. It’s a big event and they even have a concert at the end of the race (thank goodness it’s not at our end of the pedestrian zone). So, before the snow is carted back out, we love to pull A. around on her sled in the snow.
Well, it’s time to get down to writing again. I hope that my new job as a journalist for an Army newspaper doesn’t dampen my desire to write in my blog. I guess only time will tell.
Since a lot has been going on recently, I think it would be easiest to start at where I left off in my old blog. That would be A. turning four and me about to go to a marathon. I think I’ll start with the girl.
So much has happened with her in the last year that it’s hard to know where to start. First thing, we moved over to Germany about two weeks after her third birthday. It was hard for her to understand the concept of having a new house when we kept moving to new places. In the beginning she thought the hotel we stayed in for a few days before leaving was our new house. Then when we got here, we lived in temporary quarters for a month. Finally, we moved into our permanent aparment but by that time she had decided that she wanted to go back to our “broken house” (the house in Maryland). That was her word for it, since everything had been moved out of it and we told her we couldn’t live in it any more. It was also hard for her to understand, at first, why we couldn’t just drive to go see Grammy and Pop Pops like we used to. This had been her first airplane ride and she hadn’t grasped the whole concept yet.
But, over time she started to get it. And she accepted the changes. There were other things about this new place that interested her much more. The main thing was the “playpark.” This is what she calls her childcare because the playground is right out front. When we first arrived, we had no car and had to walk past the park to do and get everything. She had a hard time understanding that she couldn’t just go and play at this playground any time she wanted. She didn’t understand that Mommy and Daddy had to pay for it, since she had never gone to any childcare center before. But, after she started going there regularly, this wasn’t such a problem.
Some of the changes that happened over the year, were the regular progression of childhood. One of the big things is that she’s finally potty trained (Thank you, Lord). The only time she has problems is when she’s playing too much and doesn’t want to stop to go to the bathroom. She’s also changed in little ways, such as getting herself into her car seat and handing us the seatbelt to put in. She can pretty much dress herself now (she only needs help when her pants are too tight … mostly because of the big butt and thighs she inherited from her mom!).
Lately, she’s been incredibly interested in drawing. She draws everything, people, animals, trees, you name it. And she can write ALEX even though if you call her Alex, she’ll tell you that her name is Alexandra. I guess eventually she’ll be able to write it all.
She also grasps some grammer concepts such as, to make words into past tense, you have to add an ‘ed.’ In the beginning, she’d argue with me when I corrected her about verbs that were irregular. But now she just accepts it and picks it up. I think this has to do with the stories we read to her. She knows that some of them are different because she hears them in the stories.
And, of course, she’s also grown in the past year. She’s had a couple of grown spirts (the pants that were two inches too long, are now almost short) but the most noticeable was a month or so ago. Everyone was commenting on it. I think it’s partly because she’s running around more (she goes to a childcare where they go outside three or four times a day) and she hasn’t gained much weight with her height gains. Her legs are noticeably less chubby and you can actually see her wrists instead of a roll of fat. Not that she’s thin or anything, just becoming less of a baby.
Although, I have to say that she’ll always be my baby. But, she’s growing up. And, although she’s always been social (she’ll walk up to anyone on the street), she’s learning how to be more politely social. And that’s nice.
There’s so much more that’s happening but I can list it all now. I’ll try to keep you updated on anything new that she comes up with. For now, I’m happy to see the kind of person she’s becoming. I see a bit of me in her, but it’s always tempered with a bit of Joe. And that’s the way it should be.
This is my first entry into my blog on my own domain. Kind of weird. Since this is my first one, I’m going to make it short.
A lot has happened to me recently. Things I never got to post on my old blog, so you’ll get to hear about what I’ve been up to in the last few months. Some things that have happened are: I ran a marathon, Alexandra turned four, my parents came over for a visit, we passed the first anniversary of our time here in beautiful Garmisch, Germany, and I got a new job. These are a few of the things you will be hearing about in the next few blogs.
I’m glad you stopped by and I hope you come a visit again to read about what’s happening in our little part of the world.