Rosenmontag 2

Here the second and last video of carnival. I am already week behind in reporting what we have been up to so here is a brief summary. On Tuesday after the parade Patci and Martin stayed to do a little walking tour of the city with Max and I. It probably wasn't that exciting since everything was closed - I guess recuperating from a week of carnival. We did have a nice walk along the river and ended with a Mexican lunch which thrilled Max. Patci and Martin headed back to Hamburg after lunch and Max and I just hung out at home. Wednesday we went out to find a new potty seat for Max since I thought he had to go to school on Monday without diapers and thought we should at least start the potty training before he was expected to use the potty at school. Stephan corrected me on that. Apparently I completely misunderstood what the school had said and he can go in diapers to school. So no rush but it needs to be done any way. So far he has sat on it twice but no activity yet. The afternoon on Weds was beautiful - sunny and relatively warm so we rode the bike along the river and used the new bubbles we got to have some fun. Stephan had to work late so Max and I had an easy dinner at Pizza Hut around the corner. I was thrilled to find a salad bar! We also got a world map so Max can now point out where Georgia, Alabama, Germany and Australia are. Australia because we met with a woman (Pauline)from Melbourne on Thurs who has just moved to the area and may do some babysitting for us. Max seemed to like her so she is coming on Sunday evening to a trail run. Stephan and I will go to dinner or a movie near by in case it doesn't work out so well. Yea our first night out! We met some friends (Melanie and Elena) at the pool again yesterday afternoon and they went with us back to the Mexican place as they were interested in the experience. We are thinking of having Pauline spend 2 hours with Max and Elena every Monday afternoon and Melanie and I getting to spend some time on our own which sounds fantastic to me. Massage and pedicure here I come!

Max starts preschool on Monday. He will only go from 9-11 the first two weeks to get acclimated. I am hopeful that it won't be too traumatic. I am planning on staying the first day since it will be such a big change for him. So far he has said he doesn't really want to go but hopefully the kids and the toys will change his mind.

The rental car contract was up so it went back a few days ago. Stephan is now a train commuter. Hopefully our car will arrive in the next week or so. Not sure how long it will take to get any modifications done. it will be nice to have transportation to the big grocery store soon though. We are planning on visiting friend's of Stephan's who live about an hour south of here this weekend. We spend New Years eve with then when we were in hamburg two years ago and had a great time so I am looking forward to the visit. I guess that is it for now.