Keeping things interesting...

Never a dull moment around here. I don't say that lightly either. I'm still trying to figure out how we managed to make one of what should have been our easiest moves one of our most difficult. As tough as it has been to get all our ducks in a row with this latest move, we really are finding that our new assignment is pretty fantastic. The house has a ridiculous amount of space, the town is darling, and many things are falling into place for us on this end. But it has been a rough transition. It seems nothing about leaving our prior post has been easy nor has it gone smoothly at all. No clue why things need to be so difficult, but we truly have had the worst luck. Everything from having our orders cut exceptionally late to sitting in our new house waiting for a delivery of our household goods that would never arrive, we have been wrought with frustration.

Colorful row of buildings in the center of Erbendorf

Locals have a beautiful decorating touch

After accepting that a miscommunication would result in not having our household goods for another couple of weeks, we embraced our minimalist situation and decided to make the best of it. We visited the local garden center to help the outside of our home come alive, and spent the weekend enjoying the town. Aside from having an empty house, everything else is coming together well. My two biggest sources of angst have been diminished as we had internet the day after we moved in, and little r is registered to start kindergarten here in Erbendorf in September.

lilacs and golden bells to help us relax

flower pots decorating our entry way

more welcoming flowers

The pool is a short 5 min walk from home

Everything was apparently going too well though, so little r decided we needed to spice things up a bit. Yesterday, with nothing but some errands on the necessary agenda, I decided to take the boys and Lando for a walk to discover some of our new town and the network of trails nearby. All was well until we got home from our nice long morning walk. Little r has insisted on walking Lando lately. Something I find endearing, if not cute and totally adorable, but it can also be insanely annoying. He did a great job on this particular walk though, and Lando was very patient and actually listened for most of our excursion. Little r went to open the gate to our house and all hell broke lose. This is one of those moments when being a mom defines new meaning. When you watch something happen and you can do nothing to stop it. My sweet little boy reached through the gate to open the door. As the door opened, Lando immediately bolted for his soccer ball. All would have been ok had little r dropped the leash, but he held on and went for a ride that I wish never happened. The poor kid was caught up in the gate and thrown against the wall of our garage. Big ouch!

To be honest, I'm not 100% sure how things unfolded immediately thereafter. I had Baby C in the stroller fast asleep, and little r was so hysterical he wasn't even making a sound through his sobs. The neighbors were quickly at my aid because when little r did manage a cry, it was an ear piecing sound. He was in pain - gut wrenching, shocking, and horrible pain. I couldn't even peal the kid off of me long enough to assess the damage. So, I just held him close until he was ready to tell me where it hurt.

These are the moments you discover how amazing your new neighbors are, but it also throws you into the reality of knowing you are in a new place with no knowledge of how to deal with a true emergency. I had a similar panic when we first moved here and Big R had an accident riding home from work on his bike, but this was a completely different level of anxiety. That said, I was surprisingly calm. Kids get hurt all the time, and in the realm of accidents, this was pretty mild. Once I got him inside, my biggest fear was that he broke his arm. Our neighbor reminded me that the German Red Cross was literally next door, so he ran to get aid.

Before I knew it my empty house was full of German men wearing bright orange with red crosses, little r was holding an ice pack on his arm supported by a new teddy bear and tear stained cheeks. I was on the phone, my neighbors cell phone because mine conviently decided to "die" right as all this was happening, talking to a tricare representative to get a nurse's assessment of little r's condition. My neighbor is doing all he can to console Baby C who has at this point decided he has had enough, and then Lucy cat starts howling. Really, Lucy?! I'm giving my information to the woman on the phone as I'm pacing the outside of my house calling for my cat that I am positive got outside in the middle of all this craziness. We don't need a repeat of our cat disappearance. I realize at this point I must have looked like a mad woman, but whatever. Somehow the neighbors are still talking to me and we even exchanged contact information. Maybe they find my maniacal behavior amusing - haha.

With some miracle, my child did not appear to have broken or dislocated anything. He was thrown against a wall and walked away with a nasty wound on his forehead and a sprained wrist. Amazing. The tricare nurse told me to treat him at home. I thanked the German Red Cross fellas ecstatically, and I promptly returned my neighbor's phone gushing with gratitude. Another crisis averted.

The rest of the day, the poor kid was super accident prone. If there was a way to hit his head or crush his hand, he found how to do it. At one point he even fell out of the car. He looked up at me with a wince in his face and said, "what is going ON?!" The completely inappropriate response was to laugh, but I couldn't help it. My kid might be a big pain in the tush, but he's also hilarious. When he fell into his train box hitting his head and smashing his hand for one last time at the end of the day, his reaction was to hold back tears, look at me and say, "I'm ok, mom, I am OKAY!" Then we both laughed so hard we cried. It was awesome.

At some point next week, we'll have furniture, and then hopefully little r will calm down some when things in his life have a taste of normalcy. Until then, I'm keeping my fingers crossed he doesn't truly break something or crack his head open. Wish us luck!

I just love this kid :)

 

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