Dandelion Days: Germany

Happy First Day of Fall! Fall is my favorite time of year and I am so, so excited to be here in Germany because there is SO much to do. Garry is currently in California, so Jack and I had the day to ourselves and I decided to take him to the Hitscherhof Farm Festival. It was absolutely positively gorgeous and there was so much to do. Jack behaved himself (mostly) and is not filthy dirty and has a haystack in his hair.

First of all, Miss Junebug decided to be King when we were leaving the house. It is a good look for her, no?

So after driving to Landstuhl for gas and back through Bruchmulbach and up the "mountain" down a rather thrilling one and a half lane road with a speed limit of 70km! I have really gotten the hang of driving here but some of these people are pretty brave. The village was just so precious and there were pumpkins absolutely everywhere!

We didn't go in the corn maze because I figured it would make Jack mad if we got lost. He did lay in front of the sign though and later told me "I was being Jesus!". I asked him how in the world he was being Jesus and he said that "I was asleep in the hay." Like Away In A Manger. Oh Jack...

Dancing on a log

Climbing on big rocks in front of the silo

He insisted on sitting in a tree

House with pumpkins all over

Their garden

My boy

Jack and an Artichoke

Mine! My Big Pumpkin!!!

Oh wait..I had better be sweet or Mom will take me home.

Sitting on the wagon with the BIIIIG pumpkins!

Awwwww! I love this one in color..

And in Black and White!

Some ponies peeped at us from around a building

And Jack found a tractor

Koi pond

My Fluffy with hay in his hair

Peek-A-Boo!

Hmm..maybe I will jump..

Big jump!

Pretty Fall flowers

I love this boy (with his pumpkin)

I had to make this one giant becaue I LOVE it!

Lookig at Bees

Pink flowers

Posing with his Pumpkin

Running on a log. He didn't slow down for long

Posing with sunflowers and his ghost cookie (in the bag)

Part of the village

View of the cars and another village from the top of the hill.

On Thursday night (September 6th), Garry sent me a text to come down to the backyard at around midnight. When I walked outside, all I saw were his feet sticking out from under some bushes..which is weird even for him. It turns out that he had cornered a cute little hedgehog in a tree and it was all curled up to avoid him. So I ran to get my camera and I too crawled under the bushes....at midnight...to see the little guy. I didn't get a very good picture but Garry did pet it. I am surprised it didn't turn around and bite him. He gets bitten by weird stuff like badgers and otters, so I guess a hedgehog is too mainstream for him.

Day two of Jack's school seemed to go well. I dropped him off and came home to unpack. Haha, just kidding -- I totally came home to take a nap! I slept for an hour and a half with my ear practically on the phone but it never rang and I got up and unpacked my room for the rest of the day. I had to take his old IEP to the school and take his albuterol and doctor's note to the nurse's office, so I got to the school pretty early and was able to look around a bit. That place is INCREDIBLE. It all looks brand new, has tall ceilings and lots of natural light and all of the latests gadgets and gizmos. The nurse's office looks like a cheerful Children's Hospital and the OT rooms are giant and filled with special toys and blocks and equipment. I am really happy that he is going to school there.

I walked to the classroom to pick him up and ended up talking to his teacher for a long time. She is a hoot! She said he only had one little issue and it happened in art class (the kids actually go to REAL art and music and PE classes!). Apparently, the art teacher wrote Jack's teacher's initials on his paper without explaining to him why she did it and he FLIPPED OUT because she "defiled his artwork"!!! LOL, his teacher explained what the initals were and she said Jack went from furious to completely okay with it. I love that she stays calm and talks to him in a way that he can understand. I am positive that he is going to have really great days and really bad days but this seemed like a good indication of a middle of the road day. She also said that Jackson LOVED doing mosaic artwork of his name and he spent over an hour placing the pieces just so and was very happy to be doing that. She showed me the name and it looked wonderful! He did such a good job. I think he will be just fine there.

His Day 2 outfit below:

I bought him some ice cream after we left and we went home and played outside until bedtime. He rode down the hill, played in his house, rode his scooter, played with marbles and added things to his collection of things that he finds in the backyard and thinks he should save. He has pinecones, marbles, snail shells, leaves and sticks in there, along with a few beads he found. It is a very boyish collection for sure.

Today is Saturday and we decided to take Jack to the DinoPark in Kaiserslautern. It was pretty warm and that made Jack act wilder than he has acted in a while. We had a lot of fun looking at the dinos and "Rapunzel's Tower" and the pumpkin sculptures until he had a freak out and we had to leave. And OH BOY did he ever freak the heck out! We had to walk a long way back to the car and Garry had to actually carry him while he screamed and fought. And guess what he decided to start hollering as we were approaching the car:

"YOU ARE NOT MY MOMMY AND DADDY!!! YOU ARE STRANGERS!!!"

Oh.My.God.Yes.He.Did.

I have no idea why he decided to do that but I am honestly so surprised that no one tried to stop us and make sure we weren't kidnapping him, especially since he was fighting so hard. As punishment for that little stunt, he lost his DS for good and had to spend the rest of the night in his bedroom before he went to sleep (only an hour and half but still...). But..here's the thing: as soon as he got in his bedroom, I took his shoes and socks and shorts off of him and turned on his fan and he was just fine. He calmed down and played mostly happily in his room until he went to bed and it has me wondering if his sensory issues are aggrivated by the heat. He has ALWAYS reacted negatively to being too warm and I thought he just took after me because I enjoy being cool/cold and hate being hot but I wonder if it is more than that. That is something I intend on bringing up with his developmental pediatrician when I see him/her in the next few weeks.

Anyway, we did have a lot of fun before the freak out and here are the happy pictures.