Apple Picking in Mainz and Ramstein Bazaar

I am the most excited about the apple-picking, so I am just going to start there even though the bazaar came first. I have been wanting to take Jack to pick apples for a couple of years now but it never works out and I was determined this year. Garry leaves for California tomorrow for 2 weeks and I thought that he would enjoy going with us, so we made plans to go today -- perfect timing when it comes to getting ripe apples! We drove to Mainz, which is about 50 minutes away and Garry almost killed us on the Autobahn a few times...apparently my MINI has a few blind spots that his Mustang doesn't have and I have pretty much decided that I probably need to drive from now on. That man wasn't meant to drive a MINI. Anyway, it was a cool, overcast day and we arrive (still breathing) at the orchard, Apfel Happel. It is SO cute! They have it decorated really nicely and it wasn't crowded while we were there. The owner was excited that we were American so that her young teenage daughter could use us to help her practice her English, haha! It was so funny (and made me wish I could speak German). They had samples of each kind of apple that they grow outside so that you can taste each one. Jack and I tasted about four of them and it was incredible how different they where. The one we liked best was the Elstar, so we went to the rows and picked some of those. Jack had so much fun looking through the trees to find the biggest and ripest apples!

Back to Friday. Jack did NOT want to go to school and he gave me absolute hell about getting out of the house. At one point, I accidentally called his jacket a "sweater" and he went nuts because he didn't want to wear a sweater. I explained that I accidentally said the wrong word but it was too late. He fell to the ground, closed his eyes and stuck out his tongue, declaring "I am dead now." You can believe that I didn't have time for that mess, so I threatened to make him for-real dead if he didn't get his booty up and get to the car STAT! We ended up compromising by letting him wear a different jacket but I was not optimistic about his behavior. When I went to pick him up, his teacher said he actually did great except for one little incident. They were on the playground and Jack told her that he didn't have to line up to come inside because he "is King of the Castle"! She said "I guess I will just have to take a sticker away, your majesty" and he jumped right in line, haha. She knows how to handle him!

After school, we went to the bazaar on Ramstein. They had all kinds of German vendors there, filling two hangars with stuff! Jack got a bubble gun, Garry bought a cowboy hat (yes really, lol) and I got an adorable little Polish nativity scene!

I have to add in one Jack-ism. When he gets irritated about something, he has started yelling "I WANT A REFUND!"

*in line at Burger King* "I want to go home to Bruchmulbach! I WANT A REFUND!"

*sitting too long in the car* "I WANT A REFUND! I have to pee!"

It is so funny when he does it. I never know what this child will say.

First Day of Kindergarten!

I am not going to lie...I have been nervous about this day for a really long time. Pre-K was pretty tough on us and the last think I have wanted for Jack is another long year of stress and worry. I look back on my blog from his first day of Pre-K and I just want to shudder because we had a really difficult road ahead of us at that point. I sat by my phone all day. I actually did not take it out of my hand or pocket a single time in 6 hours.

 

It never rang.

 

I had to check Jackson out of school at 2:00 so that he could go to his doctor's appointment and I walked up to his classroom with a lot of anxiety, knowing I would hear a report about his behavior. I peeked into the classroom and the teacher was reading a book to the 4-5 kids that didn't ride the bus and she beckoned me into the classroom. I asked her how he did and do you know what she said?

 

He was just great! We enjoyed him SO much!

 

It might sound silly but I think that was the happiest moment of my entire life. Seriously. Now, I know that there will be tough days here and there but just hearing that he did behave himself and he did have a great first day kind of sets the tone for the year, I hope. He has grown and matured so much since we moved to Germany and we had so many wonderful people supporting us who helped us in Arkansas: his therapists at ACT and especially Mrs. Washington. I cannot describe how proud of him I am right now!

 

The day before school started, I took him to his school and we took some pre-kindergarten photos. That was so much fun and he loved playing with the apples. He ended up geting hungry though, so we had to leave and get the baby some food!

 

 

We took him to get his favorite ice cream after we ate and he was in bed by 8:30. We talked a lot about how to play nicely with our friends and how to mind our teacher and he was very receptive! I was very glad to get his schedule back on track so that he would get plenty of sleep.

 

Except that he woke up at 1:00am because he was coughing so hard.

 

*sigh* So, I put Vick's on his feet, gave him cough medicine and his Flovent and I cooked some chicken noodle soup for him and he slept with me for the rest of the night. We woke him up the next morning at 6:40 and he was excited but sleepy. He ate some yogurt for breakfast.

 

And then Garry helped him get dressed.

 

 

And then he was off to his first day of kindergarten!

 

 

We got through the gates pretty fast and were about 15 minutes early, so we waited on the basketball court for his teachers. We actually met some friends from our village there and their little girl was starting kindergarten that day too! She and Jack played on the rocks.

 

 

Then his teacher came and collected them and off he went! He only looked back once and he wasn't even looking at us. He was looking at the other kids in line, lol.

 

 

Garry and I went to breakfast at the cafe in town and were talking about how he was doing when I realized that I am an awful mother...I had forgotten his lunch money!! I had to drop Garry off at home and zoom back up to the school to open up a lunch money account for him and I decided to go ahead and sign him up for sports while I was there. I ended up only having 2 hours at the house before I picked him up for the doctor's office.

 

He was in wild baby mode at the doctor's office and he made me laugh SO hard! His ADHD really came out when he was trapped in the room for a little while. He was into everything! The little tech came in to get all of his vitals and his height and weight and he zeroed out the scale and had Jack step on. He was writing something when it beeped and he told Jack to step off. He did and just as the guy looked over to check his weight, Jack tapped the scale with his foot and it zeroed out! The guy reset the scale and told Jack to step back on and he kept writing. It beeped and he told Jack to step off of the scale, looked over to read it and Jack tapped the scale with his foot and zeroed it out again....AND LAUGHED! He thought it was hilarious! This happened again and finally I made Jack come to me so that he didn't reset the scale. It was pretty funny and Jack thought it was great. Finally, he got up onto the table like this:

 

 

He was laying just like this and moving around, swishing the paper, while I was talking to the tech and suddenly he shot off of the table and landed halfway across the room on his stomach. I have no idea how he did it but it didn't seem to hurt him. Nothing really does though. I made him come sit by me and the doctor came in. Her first words were: "Soooo, ADHD?" Ha! While I was talking to her, he kept bouncing the seat against the wall, so I made him go stand in the middle of the room. She started laughing so I looked behind me and he was laying on the floor on his back, making "snow angels" with his arms and legs. I rolled my eyes and kept talking to her and she just lost it laughing. I looked around and he had crouched in front of the sink, grabbed the edge and was swinging back and forth. UGH! So I made him get back up on the table! Such a pest!

 

It was a long day and Garry wasn't getting home until midnight-ish, so we went home and ate, I gave him a long bath and his medicine and I put him in bed. He was out in just minutes. It was a good day. :)

  PS. He is 48 inches tall and 61 pounds!