First Bath! He likes it!

You Know When

You know you have just had your third child when your girlfriend gives you "Wild Thing" Body Butter to pamper yourself with and your first thought is not anything Wild. It is of "The Wild Things" by Maurice Sendak, and why would anyone try to market Wild Things Body Butter, anyhow?

Discovering Eric

Wm and Mg meet Ej!

Good Morning, Pirate Skeleton.

William and Margaret wake up Wednesday morning and discover their brother.

More pictures for the grandparents in America!

Margaret is a good big sister.
The first picture of the ENTIRE family.
Pirate Skeleton's one-eye look is hard to capture when you use the flash.
Kids these days! I leave for one minute and my newborn is surfing the web!

Birth Story

I was ten days overdue, so I went to the hospital to have my labor induced. After a short argument with the doctor in which I non-judgementally explained a few cultural differences in my medical training and how those differences explained my preferences, I was over-ruled. The doctor explained her position by repeating her opinion over and over again until, in a desire to keep the staff on my good side for when I needed them later, I relented. Even though I had completely failed this method of induction with my previous labor, we were going to induce labor with something called a "contraction cocktail": apricot juice and castor oil. This potent concoction is supposed to cause diarrhea and stimulate the uterus to contract and bring on labor. The cocktail, I had read, is generally made with the additional ingredients of schnapps and creme...so I asked where my schnapps was. They laughed at me ( as if this were the funny part!). I was in the hospital, don't you know! You get the low-fat, non-alcolholic version.

This very dangerous drink ( which again had no results and no side effects) requires nearly continuous fetal heart rate monitoring - starting the very moment you hold the cup in your hand!!
After the drink, it was lunch time! Germany is a wonderful country and I have come to love the place deeply. I will miss this place sincerely. I would not recommend the hospital food. If you later experience gastric distress who's to say if it was the main course or the beverage?!
Well, after a few hours of heart tracings, we were told to go on a walk. We continued this pattern until 10 pm. If you have to stay in the area of the hospital, there aren't too many places to go. We were bored and restless. And extremely annoyed. We tried to make it feel like it was a date or a vacation from the children...but come on, going shopping at "Mister Lady" and then going back to the hospital for two more hours of fetal heart rate tracings just isn't that exciting.
We spiced it up a bit by purchasing some Easter egg dye in advance at "McPaper". But that didn't take up too much time. At 10pm, we were told we had to wait until the next morning for the next step because they wouldn't want to "overstimulate" my uterus. I guess Eric just wasn't quite ready to come out, because my extreme rage and frustration also did not cause the onset of contractions.

The next morning, they gave me a few drops of pitocin. We played rummy. A caring midwife explained that she felt it was her job to protect me from overmedication. She described her philosophy as "careful and held-back". I responded that I would describe my philosophy as " impatient and aggressive". So they broke my water. Then a whole bunch of stuff happened, during which we neglected to take pictures.

Three hours later, Eric was born! They placed him directly on my chest and I nursed him.
They weighed him, but did not bathe him because it causes too much distress. The pediatrician checked him out. We were both declared "okay" and were asked if we wanted to go home. "Hell, yes!", I responded, only politely and in German.
Now he is such a sweetheart and nurses so well that we have almost forgiven him the extra 11 days. Apricot juice may always annoy me.

The Siblings

Eric is here

Eric Johannes McCrea, born at 4:02pm, 7lbs 6 oz., 20 in.



Back at home.

We went to the park with Dada!

Margaret plays mini-golf.

For Great-Grandma Neher

Today I decided that if we were all just sitting around looking at each other waiting for Pirate Skeleton's arrival, we might as well be pretty to look at. So I made hair appointments for everyone. Wm and Mg were both SO GOOD, so I proudly took pictures. This post is for Great-grandma Neher, who was a hair-dresser.

"I look as cool as my Dada!", William exclaimed in German when the styling was complete.

Marga was a little serious, but sat there beautifully and her apprehension was tamed with books and a few gummi bears.

Beauty itself!

We left the house, better blog!!

William, Margaret, and Dada beat me to the playground. It wasn't fair. They took the bike. I waddled.
Pictures of me, 3 weeks more pregnant than ever before, were requested. I am looking at the photographer with distain because he said he had to first find his wide-angle lens.
Here you go, Ursi. If I still look this tomorrow and he next day and the day after, I won't be smiling!!
Some of us took the motorcycle for a spin on the Autobahn.
Then we threw a few stones in the Bodensee and discussed glacial lake formation.
Now we are all sitting on the couch and it looks like rain. But our one trip out of the house today has been well documented. So far, my walk to the lake and back has not induced labor.

Oh, Stop checking the blog already! We'll let you know!

Why I can't tell you about my day.

Sean and I have an irritating habit of asking William how his day was during mealtime.

Today, William attempted to respond to our innocent questioning. "How did you get all wet at Kindergarten?", I asked with mild curiosity. William picked up his open-faced peanut butter and orange marmalade sandwich. "I was making Matche Pampe ( mud pies), and....." William gesticulated so wildly with his left hand that he knocked his sandwich out of his right hand. The orange marmalade landed in a glop on the chair, the rest of the sandwich on his lap. " SEE!!", William exclaimed angrily, as if his parents had purposefully made the sandwich ricochet. "THAT IS WHY I CAN'T TALK ABOUT MY DAY! LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO! BESIDES, IT'S A SECRET!"

Now that his poor parents finally understand that William cannot talk about his day at meal times because the force of his gesticulation will knock his food to the ground, we can change our behavior. Next time, we will wait until he is done eating to ask any complicated questions.

Welcome Lilliane Marie Pless!

Dear Lilliane Marie,
We are so happy you've joined us!
We can't wait to meet you!
Love, Katy, Sean, William, Margaret, and Pirate Skeleton

The airplane to get you here quicker...

The grandparents are all coming soon! Beeba comes in April and Oma and Grandpa come in May. This is not soon enough for William, mainly because in his opinion his parents are BORING. So, he made an airplane to get you here quicker. It only takes a minute. Hop on!

Conversations

I. I had just finished interviewing Wm for his Kindergarten homework assignment. One of the questions was, "If you could use magic, what would you put in your Kindergarten?". William responded that he would like the moon, and I wrote down his response. I submitted "my" homework to Sean for German grammar review. Sean wasn't sure "the moon" was a reasonable response to the question. I though we were talking about magic here, so what the heck. Sean investigates Wm's thought process further over dinner. The socratic method fails us.

Sean: William, how big is the moon?
Wm: Uses his hands to show that the moon is slightly larger than a dinner plate.
Sean: If the moon is so small, then how did the astronauts walk around on the moon?
Wm: It was a very small rocket ship.
Sean: And how did the astronauts fit in it?
Wm: There were very small astronauts.

II. I have just picked Mg up from school. She requests that we go buy strawberries.

HF: We can't buy strawberries today. I don't have my money with me.
Mg: Well, we should go to the store and buy some money, then. Please, can we?

III. Wm and I are eating left-over pizza and salad.

Wm: How did we get this salad?
HF: We ordered it with the pizza.
Wm: You can order salad with pizza?
HF: Yes, in Germany you can order salad, bread, wine, or ice cream with your pizza.
Wm: What can you get when you order pizza in Wyoming?
HF: Probably salad, breadsticks, and soda. Probably no wine or ice cream.
Wm: Well, I would like to stay in Germany, then.

Spring Dreams

Last weekend we got all over-excited when the sun came out for a few minutes. We hopped in the car with our sand supplies and drove to the beach in Allensbach to play!! Is it spring yet?! Heck, 50 F is warm enough for us these days! We celebrated with a sand castle and by throwing rocks in the icy lake. I learned that skipping stones is easier when the lake is frozen.

hemd glockner umzug!

Here are a couple pictures from the last day of Fasnacht. We participated in the hemd glockner umzug in Allmannsdorf - we all dressed up in white bedclothes and paraded through town accompanied by 2 marching bands. At the end of the parade, there was a ceremonial burning of Old Man Winter followed by fireworks. Celebrated the Tuesday evening before Ash Wednesday, this celebration marks the end of Fasnacht and the beginning of the 40 day fast leading up to Easter.
Ho Narro!