I am a tourist in my own town

Since week 9, I've been able to feel tiny flutters of the baby moving, just like with the boys. Yesterday though, I finally felt Tiny kick For Real for the first time. The boys were talking about stuff at the table with me, and suddenly the baby struck out, and I really felt it. So cute!

If you don't usually stop in at my knitting blog, you might not have seen Andrew's new hat. From the looks of these pictures, I think he may have wanted you all to see it too. (Click for bigger.)



Today was market day, of course, and we got there an hour before it closed (they start shutting down at noon). Elijah was pretty fussy, but I had some little boxes of raisins in my purse, which saved the day. I always get them little things to eat when we're out, but when he starts freaking out before we can even get to the vendors, I can't hope to communicate with anyone properly. It's already challenging enough to struggle with the Deutsch (German) language.

I was much braver with my picture taking. I did get chuckled at by a passing shopper (an older guy), but I just smiled pleasantly at him.

Today we were at the cheese truck, and the lady got her mother (turns out be the egg-lady) to come over and translate for me. I was very proud of myself though, because I was able to communicate mostly without help ("Kann ich mal probieren?" pronounced kan ish mal probeeren and means "may I taste it?" Note to those who, for whatever reason, actually want to walk around saying this and feeling cool: the "r's" are rolled ever so slightly. Not a lot.)

I noticed that the egg lady also had handmade pasta at her stand, so we went over there, and ended up having a nice conversation with her. I love it when that happens.

She has five children (her oldest daughter runs the cheese truck), and thinks it's terrible that the current generation here in Deutschland don't like to have children, and is quite pleased that I'm working on baby #3.

For the last 52 years, she has been waking up at 3am to prepare for the market. I'm not sure what other places she hits; she must work several towns, because this market only comes to town on Fridays. She raises her own chickens for eggs, then brings some of them to a tiny one-man pasta operation. One of her daughters lives in New Mexico, US, so she goes there to visit once every other year, thus the great grasp of English. I'll definitely visit her cart again. She has lived a life of many stories that will be very interesting to learn.

The vegetable stand (which is the largest stand in the Markt Platz)


Here is what we ended up with:


My favorite lunch of a big soft pretzel and some cheese (along with a protein shake):


Coffee from across the street (that I spoke of the other day). As you can see, one pour of cream hardly lightens it. You can see the foam from the brewing process on the lid.


Maybe tomorrow I'll take some pictures of the boys playing outside with their new friends.