Across The Water

I’ve had a bad day. Well, really only a bad afternoon. Due to my inability to read German, coupled with a very poorly laid out invitation (address in microscopic print at bottom), I missed an event that Annie’s daycare was putting on. (I thought it was at the daycare, silly me). We finally figured it out, but by the time we arrived the concert was over and I was completely and totally embarrassed at not being able to manage to get my child to where she needed to be on time. (Yes, I know she is going to be in 5,000 other events in her life and at 35-months old she couldn’t possibly care about the 90 seconds she wasn’t on stage. But still.)

So I stewed. About how tough it is to live somewhere where you don’t speak the language. About how the daycare teacher KNOWS I can barely speak German, never mind read it, and could/should have taken 45 second to walk me through the invitation. About how this year has, at times, been so difficult that sometimes I think maybe I made a very, very…very…bad mistake in coming here.

And what happens when I stew? Well, snap at Markus about something totally unrelated and not his fault, of course. To which he gets completely pissed off and doesn’t talk to me.

So I’m sitting in bed thinking about how we probably are going to be pissy mad with each other for a day or two. And how I am leaving for Victoria in a couple of days and if the plane crashes, boy, will we be sorry that we had a fight. (Also when I stew, my mind goes to dark places.)

So as a hopeful diversion, I start to troll through the blogs I follow, even though due to the time difference there really isn’t much hope of them having been updated since I last looked at them this morning. Since there is nothing new to de-stew me, I start clicking on banner ads. This finally gets me to this blog, called Cake Wrecks, that is entirely devoted to pictures and captions of professionally created cakes gone horribly wrong (talk about niche content!)

One post took me to an Amazon pre-order for the blogger’s book, with this image as the cover:

I had to look at it for quite a while before I understood what was happening, so that when I did get it I laughed so hard I had tears running down my face.

Markus finished his loooong bath (a passive-aggressive avoidance technique that we both employ), and I just couldn’t stop myself from sharing this with him. And of course, it also took him a few seconds to figure it out but when he did, he laughed so hard he had tears running down his face.

So in effect we made up and went to/are going to bed without being mad at each other (without really discussing the issue or resolving anything, but you take what you can get at the end of a bad day.) Just one more reason that I firmly believe that the Internet really is magic. Hocus Pocus. Marriage saved for one more day. Thank You.

Of course a visit from my mom wouldn’t be complete without unsolicited advice well-meaning suggestions. She was watching Annie chat in German with Claudia, the wonderful woman who has taken care of the hotel housekeeping for years, and suggested that I track the events in Annie’s life. ?? I feel like this blog is basically a idolatrous shrine to Annie, but I guess at least one reader feels that it is time to record some more of the events in my young daughter’s life. So here goes.

First of all, she had a riotous time with Nana and Grandpa Drew during their European visit. Annie would make her way down one flight of stairs and hang out in her grandparents’ room, well, pretty much constantly. They were her first words in the morning: “Are Nana and Grandpa sleeping?” Well, honey, as it is 6:30 in the morning, I’m pretty sure they are.

Going off to Paris was easy knowing that Annie was so happy to have some alone time with them. Although the language thing did throw my mom occasionally, they figured it out. Usually Annie can translate on request, but sometimes she only knows the word in German. But she didn’t starve, run around naked (outside) or, so the report goes, even really cry (hmmmph!), so they must have worked it out.

Here are some of the photos (You get a sense of the crazy weather in Innsbruck over this 3-week period. One week it was snowing, and the next week it was 20°C. Life in the mountains):

Much, much time was spent at the playground.

Build another sandcastle Grandpa!

Grandpa Drew with Annie and her "cheese" smile

Nana bought Annie the sweetest Easter dress.

One thing that I’m very happy about is that Annie is so independent. (O.K., sometimes when I am in a hurry it makes me mental, but still…) She wants to feed herself, pour her milk, get dressed, have a bath, etc. etc. by herself. I can lay out her clothes on the bed and probably 80% of the time it all goes on, facing the right way, without much help. On that theme, she also stands up for herself, which I’m quite positive I never did. Her cousin Lili, also an only child, likes to direct the action and can be quite specific. Annie often goes along with the fun, as she idolizes Lili, but then if she really doesn’t want to do something, she is very adamant and does not back down. You go girl!

Annie does certainly love her cousin and sister Rebecca. I could go on and on about the fun times they have together, but I think this picture sums up Annie’s adoration for these two older girls in her life.

A great example of how a pictures says a thousand words.

The other thing that cracks me, and also gives me hope of Annie’s ability to make her way in the world, is how she approaches new activities. It happened with skating this winter and then, this weekend, on the trampoline. We went to Nutterer See (a nearby lake), which will be a great place to swim once it gets a bit warmer. But they also have a good playground with a trampoline. This was Annie’s first time on a trampoline and her reaction was so interesting to observe. At first she was scared, crying, whining, and flopping off to the side to stop the bouncing. But she kept trying it, even while crying and obviously totally frightened. She would look at me beseechingly, but when I offered to help she rejected my hand. By the end of the half hour she was giggling while bouncing around and getting irritated when Lili took too long on her turn (bouncing together was too much, but that will come I’m sure.) I’m glad Annie doesn’t give up on new things, but it is also pretty clear that my little girl is going to be a total drama queen about life’s events. Oh well…it’s not like we haven’t seen that one before.

And to finish off, a couple of my current favourite photos of Annie. The first one suggests that maybe she will be a dog lover, like her sister and unlike her mother and father. And I just love the one of her running, as it captures how she is most of the time these days: happy and in motion.

Annie and Diego

Run far my girl, but always come back to me.