Weekend at Oma's

Weekend at Oma's - late departure from Princeton, so after the first 30 minutes of 'how much longer until we get to Oma's", exhaustion kicked in and both kids fell asleep, and were so asleep that I could get them from the car into my mother's house, and they were still sleeping.  Thea was plopped on the sofa, covered with her 'soft-soft' blanket and surrounded by her tigers, and there she stayed.  Micah managed to sleep for 90 minutes in the bedroom, giving my mother and I time to talk without someone interrupting us - until he came wandering out, and since my mother and I were still chatting and snacking, he hung out with us, playing with a box and tissue paper, jumping off the beds in the guestroom and having way too much energy for 2 am.  Fortunately, he zonked out fairly quickly (after the drink of water, I want my puppy, I don't want socks, my nose is running schtick).

And I crawled into the bed that Thea usually uses, pulled her 100 good wishes quilt over me and went to sleep.  Until 7:30 am when Thea came in to use the bathroom attached to the bedroom, stopping by to whip her quilt off of me, leaving me cold and awake.  Luckily the blankets I usually use were on the floor next to the bed, so it was just a matter of covering up and going back to sleep, for another 30 minutes until Micah woke up.

After Oma's special breakfast (and I still can't figure out what she does to her scrambled eggs that makes my children gobble them up), we started to get ready for the day - the one big agenda item being Elise's 3rd birthday party at 3:30 pm.  Then I remembered that we wanted to go to the German Deli in Falls Church before going to the party, fast forward two children into clothes, fast forward getting organized and out the door.

Quick stop at the Hallmark store to pick up ornaments that my mother had ordered and buy a birthday card (having forgotten the Backyardigans card at home).

Then we put the German Deli's address in the GPS and took off.  And the GPS bombed miserably, probably due to all the new construction around the Telegraph Road exit.  In its second attempt, the GPS sent us back on the Beltway and around to the Route 50 exit. The GPS has a little bit of vindictiveness programmed into its soul.

Somehow we managed to buy one bag of stuff (one pound hard salami, chocolate, a box of Bavarian dumpling mix, etc.)  What I wish I could buy or package is just the smell of the place.  It smells like my grandparents' store.  I manged to gross Thea out by showing her a toothpaste-like tube of a striped  mayonnaise and ketchup combo - I always thought that mustard and ketchup in tubes were neat, but the striped condiment in a toothpase tube was a little nasty even in my mind.

Meanwhile in the middle of shopping, Micah threw out the "I have to go pee-pee" alarm.  We already imposed on the German Deli in July, so it was time for creativity, which turned out to be opening both car doors and letting him aim for under the car.

He topped this by announcing at Panera's, after overhearing my mother and I talking about his graft site, "You want to see my owwie, Oma?" while dropping his trou, and his underwear.  For Micah, Panera = opportunity to be naked or partially naked.  Fortunately we were in a booth, walled in on two sides, so the only one that Micah flashed was the guy working on his Mac opposite us.

After lunch we went to Christine's for the birthday party.  Both kids were acting shy, Thea feeling that she was too old for a party with a bunch of three-year olds, and Micah because he was in one of those moods where he was mimicking whatever she was doing.  Then he ran his hand along the deck's rail and got a splinter, a big one.  And after I remember I clued in that I had a needle in my bag out in the car, we got it out and got him banadaged up with only a few tears.

Thea slept for a second night on Oma's couch, so I got another reprieve from the floor.  Sunday Fred was coming to detail my car and Lorrie was coming out to see us.  This gave me about an hour to go to Target and Safeway.  The LaPlata Target's photo department's computer totally managed to screw up the order, making the CD in record time, but losing the 74 prints I had picked out.

The car is clean and shiny, thanks to Fred.  We managed to eat out, after my mother threatened to stay home because she was ready to brain Thea for having a mini-meltdown.  Mom and Lorrie went off to Mimi's Cafe to have a glass of wine, we stuck around to get all the stuff I removed from my car loaded back in.

And so ends a good weekend, filled with lots of boring details.