Tag #5

Breakfast (11-23-05)
Due to jetlag (although minor) JBP's eating habits have been a little off kilter. Mainly, he's not been hungry at standard eating times. For that matter, neither have I.

Anyway, this morning he, again, didn't eat at the breakfast table. But, shortly after we left the house, he started saying, 'I'm hungry.'

Ironically or not, this occured right after we rounded the corner and passed the first bakery.

Being the suckers that we are, we let him pick out one thing to eat. His first choice, an American-type donut. Der Deutscher vehemently vetoed this choice, with my full support.

JBP's second choice: something called an Amerikaner. It looks absolutely horrid, sort of like half a hamburger bun with plain white frosting across the top. Yuck! We vetoed that as well.

His third, and final choice, a Berliner. Needless to say, I then had to share with my 5 year old the JFK Ich bin ein Berliner joke. He actually seemed to get it.


Castle
JBP's one great passion about this trip has been to see a CASTLE. Today we tried to appease that passion. Although he enjoyed the trip, I don't think he agrees that he's actually seen a castle.

The problem, no towers and no crenellation!

His favorite part of the trip however was when we reached the top floor and what appeared to be an attack. The museum had it set up like a children's nursery, full of toys, etc.

JBP particularly seemed to like learning what sort of toys came from the time of Laura and Mary, from the Little House on the Prairie series which we've been reading.

But he's still not convinced that it wsa a castle. Even though I reminded him how his book about castles says not all castles have crenellation and towers, they remain his definition.

We'll have to see if we can find something appropriate before we leave. But I'm not sure where or when.


Movie
While out and about today we ended up shopping, again. Poor JBP is getting pretty fed up with us about that.

Anyway, today we stopped at a music/movie store. Der Deutscher was looking for some CD's he hasn't been able to find in the States. (He found them, by the way.)

Well, while there, JBP started looking at all the kids movies. I'd love to have gotten him some of the Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder stuff. Unfortunately, VHS tapes sold here won't work on American equipment and most DVD's are region protected, so they won't either.

I told him we'd have to find something that would play on a Region #1 DVD player and I doubted that was possible. He was determined however, between my genes and Der Deutscher's he has no choice about stubborness, and eventually found a movie that should play on our DVD player at home.

It's a basic DVD with a local kids' show on it. I didn't really think he'd watch it, even though he insisted on buying it. But, he sat down as soon as we got home and watched all three episodes on the DVD! Completely in German. Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn.


Croation Supper
Tonight we ate supper at a local Croation restaurant. It's owned by, big surprise, a Croation national who's lived here for some three decades. He's also a friend of Der Deutscher's family.

He was quite excited when we showed up and especially enamored of JBP. Who isn't?

While we were there he managed to take several pictures of the young man and promised to post them on the restaurant walls. He also gave JBP a free ice cream desert.

Obviously he knows this family well. It's love is easily won with a little bit of ice cream.

On a side note, the food was good but, of course, mostly meat. So, I had just tomato soup, salad and djuwetische rice, which is something like spanish rice but with more of a kick to it.


SDA
During supper tonight, Ms Gudi asked JBP if he'd like to accompany her to the airport on Saturday to pick up her daughter. When I told her he couldn't because we'd be in church I then had to explain why we'd be in church on Saturday.

Explaining Seventh-day Adventism can be tricky at the best of times, but across the language barrier? But after several tries, and with some very recent and quite helpful advice from my pastor ringing in my ears, I got the point across.

Basically, we're Christians. We believe in Jesus, Salvation through Grace, etc. The 'Adventist' part stands for our belief that Christ will return. (That was a fun one. For awhile they thought that meant Jesus would be born again!) The Seventh-day part means we believe God never changed the Jewish Sabbath from the seventh day of the week, which remains Saturday, no matter what the European calendars say!

)(?=(%/$$§&%$- Catholic Church!

Now we just have to find our way to the church Sabbath morning and hope it hasn't moved since it's address was posted on the web.


Too Much Sugar
Ever since we've gotten here, JBP has subsisted on a diet of almost pure sugar. This is a combination of jetlag-induced odd eating habits and grandparents wishing to treat him.

Unfortunately sugar affects him very quickly, and not in a good way. Needless to say the angelic behavior from the first few days is long since history. Not that he's become Bart Simpson or anything, but his behavior has definitely deteriorated.

So, this morning I told him, 'No sugar today, for either of us.' I've been hitting the sweets department a bit hard myself that last few days. He didn't have a problem with this pronouncement. He never does when it involves both of us.

But, it was next to impossible to adhere to too strictly. Between bakery meals, hot chocolate instead of coffee (yeah, right, I'm going to let Mr. Energy ingest caffeine!) and gifts of ice cream he still got plenty of sugar. But, his behavior is also slowly improving, so it wasn't a complete wash.