warm in the cold night air

Oct 7 - 13

Early Monday morning, my friend Mariana came to visit us. I met her in high school, and we’ve been friends ever since (she came to say hi at Dallin and Jessica’s wedding, and I think even ended up taking a few group pictures for us, and then she came to our wedding too). She is in Germany for a friend’s wedding and came to stay with us for a couple of days before she heads back to the US. We just hung out at our apartment, ate lunch, gave Oslo a nap, and then Jeremy was able to leave work early and pick up Berlin (and they found some random cars that had been burned), and they got home about 2 in the afternoon. Mariana and I went to visit the Berlin Wall Memorial for a couple of hours before we came home and had dinner with Jeremy. The boys went to a toy store while we were gone to redeem a gift card Berlin got, which he was incredibly excited about, but they went to bed shortly after we got home. The rest of us were probably up talking til midnight-ish. Also on Monday, the temperatures dropped to freezing. That was fun.

Berlin got yet another Playmobil guy as a result of the construction on our public transportation route

Mariana brought us a stuffed seal for the new baby,

and her mom sent Skittles for the boys, from their "Colombian grandma."

Oslo accepts both offerings.

Jeremy sent me this on their way back from the store. 

Seems like they had a good time.

On Tuesday morning, everybody was up early with the boys, and shortly after Berlin and Jeremy left, Mariana and I dozed off while reading books to Oslo. He very quietly entertained himself with a search-and-find book, and apple, and some games on my phone. Staying up til midnight is dangerous. Oslo went down for a nap at about noon, and then Mariana and I had lunch and just talked and talked, and I was thinking Oslo would wake up and be the cue to when we needed to go get Berlin. But it was almost 3:30 when I finally just left to pick up Berlin by myself and Mariana stayed to watch Oslo, who didn’t wake up til almost 5. When I got home we made dinner, and Oslo actually went back to bed just a couple of hours later. Mariana and I didn’t really learn from the night before and stayed up too late talking again.

This was so random and so funny. We have a book in English and Spanish.

Jeremy was really excited to have Mariana read it. 

And then we wondered if Berlin could translate it into German.

So Mariana read in Spanish, Jeremy read in English, and Berlin translated it, page by page, into German.

And he did a dang good job translating too. Berlin is so cool.

On Wednesday, I had a doctor’s appointment, so we got out the door not too long after Berlin and Jeremy left. We spent about 90 minutes there, but we did get to see the baby again. 7 pounds this week. Then we went to Alexanderplatz and got currywurst for lunch, then we went to Marienkirche and Mariana explained some of the differences between Catholic and Protestant churches (this one used to be a Catholic church). Then we went to Kaufland because Mariana wanted to make dinner for us that night and we needed some ingredients. We went and picked up Berlin and Berlin gave Mariana a mini-tour of his kita, mostly showing her “where Spiderman comes every day and what he teaches me.” - I don’t even know. We walked down to Jeremy’s office to say hi to him after that. It took us forever to get home, and when we did, Mariana made the boys noodles while I read them books to help them wind down - she set the table for them and came in to tell us it was time for them to eat dinner, and when the boys walked up to the dining room table, Berlin said, “This is like a dream!” We’re still not really sure what was so dreamy about it. Oslo completely skipped nap time, and though he handled it super well (maybe because he slept so much the day before), he went right to sleep after dinner. Jeremy got home a little later than usual because of the dang bus, but when he did get home we ate a sort of eggplant parmesan. Absolutely delicious. Then Mariana and I broke our record this week and probably didn’t go to bed til 2:30. And of course we chose this night to stay up so late- she was up early because she had to leave at 6:45 to catch a train, and we were ALL up to say goodbye to her. Even with the general lack of sleep, though, we were all thrilled to have her come and stay with us.

Mariana made dinner for the boys first so they could go to bed

(both had skipped much needed naps) so I read to them while they waited.

Promise I wasn't actually hating it.

Oslo and I had a very slow, sleepy morning, we took a walk to a Walgreens-type store (DM) and got some color sheets to wash Jeremy’s quilt, and Oslo had a grand time pushing the “teeny tiny cart” around the store (usually Oslo is in a stroller or on his bike and Berlin is pushing the kid-sized cart, so Oslo was pretty thrilled for the change). When we got home, he took a nap and after I worked on an invitation design for an event, I laid down too. Jeremy was one of only two people at work, so he picked up Berlin and they were home about 3ish. I went to try and find a laundromat so I could dry Jeremy’s quilt, and unfortunately struck out trying a few different places. We’ll have to try again tomorrow. The boys were both pretty tired, dinner became a little bit of an ordeal, and they were both in bed by about 7. Pretty sure Jeremy and I crashed too, me from lack of sleep, Jeremy from lack-of-sleep-turning-into-a-cold.

Oslo also never gets to ride on this rocking horse because I am always trying to hurry out of the store.

I think he thought this day was the most glorious of days.

On Friday, Oslo and I got some cleaning done before nap time and Jeremy picked up Berlin from kita so Berlin could come home and take a nap. Jeremy worked while we all slept. Then we got up and made biscuits and gravy before we started the last session of conference. Conference bingo was again a big hit, and it was great to a)have Berlin be so focused and b) feel like we were able to focus too.

Berlin's conference Lego creations, and bingo board

On Saturday, we woke up kind of slowly and then remembered that we were going to attend a baptism on the opposite side of the city (further than our chapel) and suddenly we were scrambling to get out the door. We did manage to get there about ten minutes early, which was great. The baptism was great, but both Berlin and Oslo were exhausted (conference ended around 9 and they were up at maybe 5, so not an awesome night of sleep for them) but by the time we got home it was too late to nap. So Jeremy let them watch a movie and I headed back to our chapel to have a Relief Society meeting. Nascha had used that as the excuse to get me there, but she had planned a surprise baby shower for me, and I walked into a party. It was so fun and so sweet that she’d put all of it together (I actually almost cried, but I’m going to blame pregnancy for that one). Also I took zero pictures, but I'm pretty sure Nascha has some. I didn’t end up getting home til almost 11, and then Jeremy and I decided to watch a movie. Oops.


We got up a little late but did make it to church in plenty of time. Our pianist got sick and I filled in last minute, which went well, and ended up being great prep for filling in for Primary too, since our Primary was practicing for the Primary Program next month and they just had singing practice for all of the Primary time. Then the boys and I pretty much went home right after - Jeremy now sometimes stays for Bishop’s interviews (neither of his counselors were there today) and he didn’t think he would be done in time for the boys to have naps. It ended up being a good thing that we left when we did because a few key bus lines had stopped running, and it took us about double the time it usually does to get home. The boys and I crashed and Jeremy came home sometime while we were all sleeping. We got up, the boys played, we skyped Kiersten, and ate dinner. Jeremy’s overall lack of sleep got the better of him, and I came in to the boys telling ghost stories on Jeremy’s bed, where Jeremy was passed out. Hopefully he’s back to normal soon with a bit more sleep :)

This is outside of the Mexican embassy, on our walk to the bus stop.

I don't get it, but Berlin LOVES to have his picture taken here.

[title from bam bam by king charles]