Birthday Bowling for Brady

I love a good use of alliteration and just couldn't resist with the title of this blog post.  We had Brady's little party the day before his actual birthday (post to come when the charger for my camera battery arrives), due to the fact that there was an event for Bosch ex-patriots and their families on his real birthday.  The event was for bowling and dinner, so all the ex-patriots could get together and compare notes and get to know each other.  It was for ex-patriots from a lot of different countries, such as France and Mexico, to name a few that we encountered.

We thought this would be a fun family activity (although Brady didn't actually partake in the bowling), where no one would mind that we had Brady with us and there would be other kids.  We made sure to pack lots of snack and his LeapPad and a few other toys to keep him occupied.  We played in a lane with a family from France and had a lot of fun.  The food there was what you would expect of bowling alley food.  I had a burger that was pretty tasteless and Andy had a pretty gross looking pizza that wasn't very good, but the chicken nuggets we ordered for Brady were really tasty.  Andy pointed out later that the Germans have schnitzel down.  Basically, schnitzel is any battered and fried meat.

We talked to some other American families and the first thing everyone asks is how long you've been here and how much longer you have.  Surprisingly enough, we were not the newest ones to Germany.  We met a family, who also came from Anderson, who has only been here two weeks.  Of course, we have the shortest assignment, whereas most others have three years minimum.  A family that has been here for eight months said that it got really hard after six months.  They said that's when they got past that "vacation" stage and it started to sink in how long they'd be here.  When we heard that, we were really glad we have such a short stay (that's a little more than 1/6 over, I might add), and I don't think either of us would have agreed to come over here for several years.

I found it interesting that we met several families where the wife was the Bosch employee and the husbands were along for the ride.  They left behind their jobs and were watching the children that weren't in school yet.  That's some serious dedication.

There had been a lot going on over Brady's birthday weekend, so he hadn't had a nap in three days.  When we got home from bowling we put him down, and we think he was asleep for about an hour, when we heard him screaming.  He was covered in sweat and pretty inconsolable.  He only calmed down when we put Cars 2 on for him.  He was really sedate (which never happens), and just laid on Andy while he watched the movie and skyped with my mom.  He was happy to see Kiro, my brother, Alex's dog, who was visiting at the time. Below is a picture of him just laying on Andy.  Can't believe he's two!  We'll have to stop calling him a baby ;)