Errands and Toddlers

Gerard is in the U.S. right now. He went to D.C. for a meeting. Even though he's not in Los Angeles, I'm still kind of envious that he's in the U.S. at all. He brought an extra suitcase and is planning to bring back a ton of stuff. Thankfully, it's a short trip for him, but that means for now, I'm on my own with the kids.

Argh!!! Today is Friday and we're nearing the end of a two week spring break for the school kids here (actually, they probably still call it Easter break here). This also means that there have been no German classes for me, or any other extra things for Gerrit during these two weeks. Since Friday and Monday were also holidays here, I could not take Gerrit to his Tagesmutter on those days either. Even though I still have no German class today, I was planning to take Gerrit to his Tagesmutter this morning so I could do a few things.

First off, I need to run some errands- groceries, pharmacy, and a few things from their equivalent of Home Depot. It is so much easier to shop without BOTH kids. I think it's worse here, too, because the cashiers are super super fast. They can swipe products on all sides and get a price scan. Since you have to bag your own groceries here, people give you a hard time if you move slowly. I usually stand at one end and start literally "throwing" all the stuff back into the cart just to keep up with the cashier. Then I offload the groceries from the cart to the bags at the car. I also dislike having to load and unload the kids out of the car all the time for various trips like this. I can probably walk to the pharmacy and make that a side walking/outdoor trip for us together, but groceries are another story. It's just plain easier to drive to get them.

So yeah, I was happy that Gerrit would be with his Tagesmutter for a few hours today, and that I'd only have to tote Willem around with me. I knew the Tagesmutter had told me that I could start bringing Gerrit back to her today, but I figured I should call just to give her the heads up that I was still coming. We were ready to head out the door and I called. No answer. I called the cell phone and she answered. I said, "Ich bringe Gerrit heute, ja?" "Nein," she says. I'm a little shocked by this so I ask why. She tells me that she has taken her daughter to the doctor because she started coughing last night. When I phoned her cell, she was at the doctor's office. Okay, so now I'm a bit irritated because I figure that she could have called to let me know not to bring him. It's a good thing I actually hadn't left the house yet and thought to call her ahead of time. I don't know enough German, nor did I think it was the appropriate time to try to tell her that I'd like her to call me when she needs to cancel. I guess I thought it would have been sort of obvious.

It's taking Gerrit a long time to get comfortable with this new Tagesmutter, too. We started going to her when I started back at German. Gerrit only goes to her when I have German class (Mondays/Fridays). We had three German classes and then another two week break. Everytime I take Gerrit to her, he cries. Obviously this bothers me, particularly when he ran up to his last Tagesmutter and would wave goodbye to me. Now he's super clingy and doesn't want me to leave. I keep hoping he will come around to her soon, but with all these disruptions to our schedule, it certainly makes it tough. So... as Gerard would say, "It is what it is." But what it is IS frustrating.

So I'm nursing Willem right now before I head out to brave some of these errands with kids in tow.