Tri

“Sunscreen” Baz Lurman (Mary Schmich).

Great so far! Spent a day at the Halenbad in Birschesgarten; Britta really wants to take swimming lessons!

Made it to Oktoberfest at the last day, which was fun. Accidentally took the first class train there, then rained a bit during the day, but the girls were troopers.

The girls saw their first circus (with cows and horses instead of elephants and lions, but all good!).

Twins are doing school from ~8:30-12:30; and gymnastics once a week. They seem to love it all. The first few weeks they rode their own bike, since we didn’t have the connector for the bike trailer. Now Andrea takes them by bike each day.

Annika has school from 8:00-1:00 (12:00 on Tues); since the second day of school she walks there herself, usually with friends.

Taking ballet (started with one school but now attending another); plays irregularly on a boys soccer team; and also gymnastics, irregularly. Gym is too bad – I think the level is higher than she is used to and she’s intimidated and aware that most of the girls are better than her, but we want her to stick with it. They expect her to attend 3 days a week – for 3 hours each time! Can’t manage that, but we’ll try.

Altogether the girls have literally spent less time in the car these 8 weeks in Salzburg than they usually spend in one week in Tahoe. Excellent!

We’ve been in Salzburg just over a month now.

There’s been no apparent transition for Britta and Niki. They are still mildly anti-social, determined that everyone will speak their “voice” (ie, language), and are still able to create enough drama between the two of them that external realities don’t register on their radar.

Annika is doing well. She immediately met a good friend Sophia, who is 2 years older and lives next door. By the second day of school she was already insisting that she walk to school – alone (or without us but with friends, actually). She seems to relish the independence. There have been some bumps in the road – writing in cursive (everyone must write in cursive, which I thought had been buried eons ago along with Latin); German; missing her friends in Tahoe; and homework. For the most part these bumps are small, spaced far apart, and clearly seen from a distance.

Annika is playing (irregularly) on an all boys soccer team; I think she enjoys the mild amounts of attention she receives. She also participates (again, irregularly) in a gym class (intensive, they meet 3 times a week for 3 hours each time) which seems to be more advanced that where she was at in Truckee. She wants to find a way to do ballet, but we want school, German, and playing to be the larger priorities.

In all this is very good. The transition to being away from home in a different county could be extreme, but the girls are hanging tough.

While to some degree this is a path I took, it was more stumbling than following anyone’s advice.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/259164/visiting-my-hundredth-country-dennis-prager?page=1

An excerpt:

For many years, I have urged young people to take a year off after high school to work and to take time off while in college to travel abroad, ideally alone for at least some of the time. Nearly everyone grows up insular. The problem is that vast numbers of people never leave the cloistered world of their childhood. This is as true for those who grow up in Manhattan as it is for those who grow up in Fargo. And as for college, there are few places as insular and cloistered as the university.

Insularity is bad because at the very least it prevents questioning oneself and thinking through important ideas and convictions. And at worst, it facilitates the groupthink that enables most great evils. Although one can hold onto insular and bad ideas even after interacting with others, it is much harder to do so, especially when one interacts on the others’ terms, as must be done when traveling to other cultures (and especially when traveling alone).

It is therefore one of the most maturing things a person can do.

The moment you meet people of other faiths whom you consider to be at least as decent, at least as religious, and at least as intelligent as you think you are, you will never be the same.

For Christmas this year Annika received a piano; the twins received a piano box. All could not be any happier….

We are struggling to maintain the reality of Santa/KristKind. Annika opened her piano box, only to find (and read) the Amazon paperwork (MAIL TO: Mark Johnson…). Sigh.

The package opening was, shall we say, out of control? We have to work next year on slowing things down, allowing everyone to enjoy and see what each received.

The duality still continues to challenge us. The Krist Kind comes on Christmas Eve, Santa on Christmas Day (stockings). But I continue to refer to the Krist Kind as Santa (that’s how I sorta see it), with Annika always correcting me.

I wanted to make a “movie card” this year, to give to friends (You Tube). But, surprisingly, Annika didn’t want to have anything to do with it. She reacted like I was generating homework for her. I’ll try again next year, as it could be a lot of fun.

Merry Christmas girls…! Love you!

We had to put Pooh down last Friday, Nov 5th.

After 2 months of mostly carrying him around, of daily pain meds, of semi-incontinence, Andrea made the difficult decision. From the waist up he was still a healthy dog – well, maybe a bit deaf, but otherwise sound. From the waist down he was a wreck, hampered by serious amounts of arthritis.

We got Pooh in February 1998; less than 3 months after moving to Tahoe. Most, maybe all, of my fond memories of him date back to those first 5 years before Annika was born, when Pooh received all of our attention. Almost literally every day of the year was spent in the meadows, either on skis in Winter or bike/running in Summer. He was never “with” me at those times; always a free dog on his own agenda, he’d be off running in the woods, following the smells, crossing paths with me now and again…Cleaning the deck of snow while Pooh barked endlessly below, wanting me to push the snow onto him so that he could catch it…barking at his reflection in the window at night…the gas, the snoring…these older memories cause me to reflect how Pooh certainly “gave” me something for first few years (more than I gave him I suppose), but the last few he did start to take a bit as he needed more help, more patience, more cuddling. The cycles of life, of relationships.

Britta and Niki only mildly notice his absence; they’ve asked a few times where he is, but they move on quickly. They don’t have those first years to miss, the active dog in their memory.

Annika seems to be quietly mourning; she asks questions about him, seems to be thinking about him when we are not aware. One of those times was yesterday; while driving back from Reno, Annika was (we thought) playing with the IPhone. Instead, she was writing this (without tears, but very likely with a heavy heart):

Pooh brex in to my haret i love him so much hi was the best dog hi
was the
Coler blond. Hi was the best dog i have
Ever sin. Wen hi was a pupi hi was so
Cuetto to siy.hi was 13 yirs old wen
Hi did. I stil love him and hi stil love mi.

I love poph

A pictorial of Pooh is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVQxQaytpAc.

As the name lifeofannika implies, Annika was to be, for different reasons, the (an) only child.This was my decision, my intent, my desire; once she was born I never entertained another narrative.  But then it suddenly came to me in December 2006 during a trip to Europe with Annika’s good friend Dylan: what about Annika’s desire?  There wasn’t any hesitation on my part; I realized Annika would thrive with a sibling. This life changing decision – for Annika – was the obvious revelation which had escaped me thus far.  For the first time I thought about the reality of being an only child from Annika’s perspective.  Duh.

Less than 12 months later, a sister – no, that would be too easy! – 2 sisters arrived.  Annika was almost 5 years old, and like an adult she immediately adopted them as her responsibility.  In the 2 years since she has acted consistently with a level of unselfishness, compassion, and nurturing that has continued to surprise me.

This certainly won’t last – you can’t expect continued angelic behavior from a young girl as her sisters get bigger and more independent (stubborn), but watching the interactions of these 3 is really such a treat.