Over the river and through the woods...

...to Oma's house we go! This weekend, we bit the bullet and piled into our big car for a drive to Oma's house. Although three and a half hours is nothing by US standards, the distance is a bit daunting here in Europe, particularly with a busy toddler in tow. We opted for a nighttime drive on this test run, hoping Ellie would sleep the drive away and wake up in Germany. We were not disappointed. The only thing we hadn't accounted for was the sunlight until nearly 10pm, which confused her and kept her awake (though quiet and sleepy) until dark. The woman who coordinates the baby music class made a CD of all the songs we sing, and we keep that CD in the car (and only in the car...toooooo annoying not to be limited). Of course, this makes Ellie LOVE trips in the car now. We listened to those songs more times than I can count, and Markus and I both leapt at the eject button the moment Ellie fell asleep. The drive was uneventful, though there was a lot of road construction once we crossed the border. Driving at night has its advantages in light traffic (confirmed on the early ride home, which took an extra two hours to traverse a 6km distance!).

Oma was so happy to have visitors! The weather wasn't overly cooperative, but we still played and had a nice time. Markus and I both noticed how our perspective on the village has changed. In the past, we always felt it was small and cramped. This time, it felt so open after the claustrophobia of The Hague. Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler is nestled in a wine valley, and you can see the vineyards rising up along the hills all around. The smallish Ahr river runs close to Oma's house, and we took many walks alongside it. It was nice to get out in the countryside. We even visited a wine shop for a small tasting and missed a true Kodak moment when Ellie was given a proper crystal wine glass with red grape juice to sip. Ellie certainly enjoyed eating blackberries straight from the bush in Oma's garden, and you know from previous posts that rain doesn't get her down because it means SPLASHING! We think she must have charmed just about every last stoic villager who passed her splashing and laughing in the puddles dressed in her ladybuy raincoat and boots.





Although the trip was exhausting in many ways, we are happy we went and enjoyed the visit. We're so lucky to have an easy traveler. Ellie handled the change of scene without blinking. Thank goodness for portable DVD players, though. She has a new-found obsession (I don't use this word lightly) with Baby Einstein. She wants to watch one about sign language all the time so she can practice, and she asked for it again and again while we were away. Luckily, we were able to bring it with us. It saved us in that massive traffic jam on the ride back, too. Another quirky little obsession surfaced during the visit: use of the words "Time Out!" Once, two weeks ago, in a fit of pure exasperation and desperation on my part, I gave Ellie a (pointless) time out when she wouldn't stop (unintentionally yet repeatedly) ripping fur from the cats. I sat with her and told her she had a time out, that she needed to take a minute to calm down and remember to listen to Mama's words, yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah...the last part of which being all she heard because she resumed her kitty chasing the second I moved away. Suddenly, there we were at Oma's and Ellie announced a picture in the corner had a time out. A doggie barking at her got a "Time out!" "Time out!" was a very popular command this weekend from our knee-high dictator, though where it came from I have no idea.