Bad Neighbors

I woke up this morning to an email from my landlord's representative. Seeing her emails always make me nervous. There's a million rules, laws and customs in Germany and we try to stay abreast of them and not be ignorant Americans living in another country but sometimes we fall short. Today was no different.

Germany has very strict and mandatory rules about garbage. Almost everything can be recycled or composted. I LOVE this rule. I think it's great. I embrace it willingly. The problem comes in when I have too much restmüll, or residual waste. Residual waste is what's left over once you separate out the compostable items, as well as the recyclables. It happens alot since diapers fall into this category and I used to have two boys in them. Thankfully, I'm down to one boy in diapers, but that still produces a lot of waste. Consequently, our garbage can at the curb is always too full.

We thought we solved this problem by throwing our extra bag (it's about one bag per week) into a neighbor's bin. There's just two of them and their bin is never full. We only put the bag in at the end of the week, on the day that trash is scheduled to be picked up. We didn't think we were imposing since it was space that they themselves weren't using, and it's not like our bags were ripped or leaking. We were wrong.

Apparently our neighbors resent our intrusion into their trash bin. I didn't realize it was such a big deal until we got an email from our landlady about certain complaints. It didn't cost them extra, it didn't leak into their bins and create a mess, and it didn't infringe on their rights. But apparently it's a big deal. Big enough to complain to the landlady behind our backs, rather than just asking us not to do it. I understand (sort of) that they don't want someone else's trash in their bins; that's fine. We should have asked them first if they minded. We won't do it again.

But is it really that big of a deal? Am I missing something here? I'm actually pretty upset about this. We've been doing it for awhile, and they just now mentioned something. Have they been sitting in their house (we live in a small complex of five townhomes) quietly begrudging us our trash? We had no idea. I feel like such a bad neighbor. Maybe the reason they don't come over and visit is because of it. I wish I had known sooner. I honestly didn't know that this sort of thing would upset anyone. I'm already lonely over here in Germany since I don't know anyone and this just makes it worse. Someone I don't even really know (but should) apparently really dislikes me. I'm too shy to just go to their door and ring the bell and chitchat. Maybe I should have. So my question is: do you think what we did was so bad? Should I apologize? Maybe write them an "I'm sorry" letter?

Arts & Crafts

I'm a firm believer in creativity. Much of the artwork around my house is homemade, either by myself or other creative people. I installed a simple string with clips on it to display Drake's artwork and his worksheets that we've been working on. He's always really proud of whatever he creates and wants it to go straight on the wall. Most of his work I take photos of, then trash it. I save his best work or stuff that I'm unwilling to part with. Go ahead, call me a packrat (the husband does) but I prefer the term "sentimental."

Today was arts and crafts day with some paint in bowls, some construction paper, and simple but easy to use brushes consisting of q-tips. Drake had a blast, and Link was interested too for a little bit.

School is in Session

Here's some things I learned today about Drake and trying to do my own version of preschool with him:

1. Safety scissors are not all that safe. In fact, they can cut skin, specifically, Mommy's finger.
2. Cutting Mommy's finger is apparently HIL-A-RI-OUS.
3. Drake will sit not sit still for more than one book to be read in a row. Good to know.
4. No matter how much planning you put into making a schedule and a curriculum, it's not really up to you. It's up to him.
5. Glue makes an excellent hair gel.
6. ...and last but not least, he has a voracious appetite to learn things and I really need to cultivate it.

To that end, we're starting our own little version of preschool here. Complete with useless schedules, fun crafts, loads of coloring, and the alphabet. Tomorrow we're going to head to the library to pick up some books that are on our schedule this week. I know I said that schedules were useless, but they do give me a good jumping point for the day's lessons. If he happens to show more interest in craft time, or coloring, or whatever, then I'm going to be flexible.

In the meantime, I'm looking around on the web for more coloring sheets and worksheets. I didn't realize we'd go so quickly through them. Now..if only there were more hours in the day to do everything that needs to be accomplished around here and become Drake's teacher...

Oops - aka I should post more

So I've been really terrible about keeping this website updated. I know, all the crickets out there have been really upset about my lack of correspondence. But I made this blog when we first moved to Germany as a way to keep family and friends updated on our life, so we wouldn't seem so far away. It turns out I'm terrible at keeping up with things. I know, shocking!

I saw my last post about the kids was when Link was 10 months old. That seems so far away now. He's over 18 months old now. He's talking, mainly still babble, and walking, and running, and getting into things. The last he really excels at. He's spoiled rotten, too. He puts out that pouty lower lip and starts wailing whenever things don't go his way, which is pretty often actually. I guess that happens a lot when you're born in a house with an older brother.

Speaking of older brothers, Drake is now three, and a handful. In a good way. Mostly. I mean, he's a toddler. A very opinionated toddler. Sometimes his personality is bigger than his britches. And yes, I did just say britches. You can make fun of me later for using antiquated words. And using words like antiquated. Anyway, he's a sweetheart when he wants to be and overall he's pretty helpful around the house...when he's not beating up his brother.

Anyway, enjoy the cuteness from bathtime tonight: