Mealtime prayers

There is a saying in germany which translates like that: We came to ......, like the virgin marry to her baby. And that's what i think every time we sit down to eat when Philip is forcing us to a mealtime prayer.

"We came to mealtime prayers like the virgin marry to her baby"..... Totally unexpected! We usally have to hold hands and ey!: There is no giggeling and god forbit that you say the wrong words. We are very proud that he just picked it up from kindergarten like nothing. Enjoy it.

With love from the Gebhardts

The weekend in K-town

Last weekend we went to Erikas house to celebrate her birthday. She turned 77 and we organized a sitter to go out for a nice dinner at an italian restaurant in her town. We had a great evening with too much wine and prosecco. The food was good and everybody ate too much.
The next day turned out beautyful and Wolfgang and me decided to go to the "Landesgartenschau" , the gardening show in Kaiserslautern. Kaiserslautern is also named K-Town from the americans, because the Airbase Ramstein is close by.
The Gartenschau is a beautyful place from spring till autumn. Thousand of flowers everywhere. They have special exibitions, for example about water or fishes. Philip always has to see the fishes, its a dark house so you can see the fishtanks better.
There is a big playground area, where you can spend hours. It's the usall stuff like swings and slides. But the slides are build on big wooden treehouses, which makes it little scarry. Philip never got on them so far, but he tried it this time and was very proud that he made it. The swings are huge, they look like big coccoons,

There is also a water-playing-area, where kids can pump water up and follow it down on the rocks till it ends in a little river, called the "Lauter" . There are waterfalls and a little pond and Philip was busy following this little river down to the lake. Of course IN the water.
The reason i like this waterplace so much is that at least half of the visitors and their children are americans. You see kids in Lands End clothes and daddys in John Deere caps. I feel very much home there and Philip is always excited to find kids who understand him :o)

Nicky enjoyed the afternoon sitting next to the waterfal and watching the flow of the water.

I guess for next year we will buy a year-round-ticket, because this is already the third time we went this year. I hope some of you will be able to enjoy it when you visit.

Have a great sunday .... and Go Pats!! :O)

A batch of joghurt

Well, for most of us, joghurt is just another form of snack. And usally its also very healty for our tummy-area. In the last years you see commercials about joghurt that has some "good" bacteria, so your intestians do a better job for your overall health. All true, but you don't have to buy that "special" joghurt, that is double as expensive as normal ones. Just buy FAGE brand, its yummy and has all the good bacteria you need.

The reason i am writing this is that in the SCD diet homemade joghurt is the best resource for healty intestinals. And because Nickys intestinals where severe damaged from whatever it was (antibiodics, milk, gluten, suger and other food he was not tolerating) we waited for this day today for about half a year. Nicky is milkfree for over 19 months, so he hasn't eaten any products that come from a cow, sheep or goat.

So, i made my first batch of homemade joghurt. I found my old joghurtmaker in my mother-in-laws house and tried it. It was not hard to make. Just cooking some organic(BIO)milk, putting in some good joghurt (FAGE) and then it had to ferment for 24 hours in the machine. It has to ferment this long to get rid of all the milkstuff that could hurt Nicky's tummy again.

anyway, the result is YUMMY.

So i gave Nicky one teaspoon this afternoon. And now we wait, for a reaction, a good one (hopefully) or a horrific one.

Keep your fingers crossed that he sleeps well tonight and just tolerates the Joghurt .

The picture also shows my first batch of homemade applesauce. I got the apples last week from a friend; all organic apples, Philip picked them all :)

Autism and Potty training

When it comes to autism, there are many things that just don't come easy. One of them is toilett training. I read many books and talked to many people about it. But for us there was never a good timing. Because toilett training means you have to life after the clock. Every hour or so you gotta run with your child to the bathroom.

My favourite ABA-Verbal Behavior author is Robert Schramm. In his book he has a whole section about Potty Training. He writes about skippig the diaper at all. From first day on, and night. That did sound impossible for me a year ago. But Nicky is dry every morning now, so we decided we could give it a shot.

So for the last 4 days we are without diaper, means Nicky, but we are with him: In the bathroom every hour. The timer is always ticking. And you have to leave everything what you are doing right now to go with him.

So far we are doing good. And YES we have accidents. Yesterday was a not so good day. But i am not giving up now. I see that he enjoyes beeing without diaper.

Nights are still accident free, that makes me most happy.

Well keep your fingers crossed. The funny thing is, that now that we are in germany, we would get diapers paid for from health insurance, lol.

Nickys first day of school

What a special day for us! Nicky's first day of school. It was very sweet and we all got dressed up for this special event. The new school, the Friedrich-Froebel-Schule in Wetzlar (http://froebel-schule-wetzlar.de/) made a special welcome party for the new six students in first grade. After a warm welcome and music, the kids had a chance to see their new classroom, where muffins and a cute decorated table waited for them. The parents had to leave... We had some coffee and wondered how the kids are doing in there. Some shy connections between parents. Everbody was nervoes, even me. But our little, big Nic did great. He just sat down on this table and waited till somebody will start the party :O) . He was so cool and a pro. I think he is glad to be back in this routine.

After exchanging some words with the teachers and caregivers the first day in the new school was over. We celebrated this beautyful day with a trip to our lake here in Niederweidbach. The kids (Nicky, Philip and my niece Laura) had a blast. The lake even has a sandy beach. It's not Horseneck beach, but close, lol.

All about energy and environment in germany

We went to my husbands familys home last weekend. It's a two hour drive. We had wolfgangs mother with us, who stayed a few days at our house. So i had the chance to sit in the back with the boys and just look out the window and enjoy my old home country.
While we where driving i had the idea for that article today: All about henergy and environment in germany. And i have to say i did'nt realize in what specific way the germans are taking care of that matter. I knew that they HAVE to sort out all recycable material for many years back. I knew that the cars are very gas-efficient, because, the most of them are very small (i guess an american would freak out driving with this high speeds in a little car). I know you don't get a plastic bag on the check out for free (1 Euro!).
But there is so much more going on i didn't know of. Did you know that germany is the country with the most windmills in the WORLD? This little country...i was stunned to learn that fact. You see them everywhere, on every hill; and it's o.k.; they belong to our countryside, they are not disturbing at all. At the G8 summit in Hokkaido back this July the leaders of the world asked for more nuclear power. Germany made a contract 10 years ago to END all nuclear power programs within a certain amount of time (i don't know the year know) and get energy out of other resources. I like that a lot, i hope it can stay that way.
Well back to germany today. There is the fact, that every house in germany has an energy pass. It tells the owner how much energy his house needs. You can get an energy consultant, who advises you how to safe more money. Cool huh?
CARS: Gasprices in the US are high, but back here the gallon is (are you sitting?) $9. Most of the cars are very efficient now, mine for example goes 38 miles with a gallon of gas. You can image that heating oil is pretty much the same in price like the stuff you get on the gas station.
Since this year, cars have to have a special sticker on their windschield. It comes in different colors (red, yellow, green) and depending on the level of the exhaust emission you are allowed (or not) within citys, schoolareas and so on. So most of the big trucks for example are not getting within citys any longer, except they have special papers for delivery and pick up.
I found that very interesting. There is a city very close to our town that wants to make it a rule that every house has to have solar panels on its roof. Well, i think that's a little harsh to dictate people what they should put on there roofs, but i guess they also offer good funding for that project.

As a result of this policy germany has kept it's clean drinking water in most areas. The soil is free of chemicals and stuff that would end up in our food.

We had our scandals too, trust me and they are still happening. We have our industry here, close to homes. But the regulations for that kind of business are hard .

This is a very clean country and hey....just come and check it out :)

Now, i gotta go, sit on the patio with a glass of GAVI and enjoy the quiet time without pollution (and kids, lol)

Good Night!

Love

ME

Artwork

Well the weather is not our friend since we moved in here. Rain and cold and no end in sight. Philip keeps busy with drawing everything that comes into his mind. He loves the ROBOTS movie, so he started with drawing robots. He surprises us with drawings of music notes and also with him writing words without our guidance. Here are some excamples he drawed (and wrote) all by himself while we where still in bed sunday morning.