something just like this

I realize we're coming up on a year since the last time I put together some thoughts, or even a summary wishing it were a play-by-play, on anything we're doing. It's been an incredibly crazy year. Grab some popcorn.

Our main goal in going to Oxford (beside the immediate and more obvious acquirement of an MBA) was to stay in Europe. Before Jeremy even applied to any MBA program, we were planning on searching for a European job and doing everything we could to stay overseas for a few more years. We don't actually have a timeframe, we think we'll probably move back when the excitement of a new continent doesn't outweigh missing family, but that hasn't happened yet. Especially because we keep getting family to come and visit us :)

The Oslo adventure pushed our timeline back by several months - originally we thought we'd be into a new job and home before Oslo was born. But that didn't happen like we thought. And jobs and interviews didn't happen like we thought. So, with the deadline of needing to be out of our apartment and the UK looming, we just started planning Germany. We started looking at long-term AirBnBs, and Jeremy started applying for a few jobs in Berlin (a major tech-startup hub). Oslo had surgery at the end of February, and then March was spent packing and cleaning and getting rid of things. And then very suddenly we were on our way to the bus station, and then the airport, and then our first AirBNB.

At the Gatwick (UK) airport

We technically moved to Germany on March 30th, but we found a storage unit, stayed for a week, packed only a small-ish suitcase, and then didn't return to Berlin for another month. We went to the Czech Republic for a couple of days, Frankfurt for a week of Ostercamp,  Denmark for a week, and then Belgium and France for alternating days for various activities until we flew back to Berlin. We moved into a new Airbnb, a little more roomy than our first and with the checkout date for the same day that our tourist visas expired. Apparently, we run on deadlines.

Hiking in Czechia

Park in Russelsheim, pre-Ostercamp

Oslo with Kimbee, Ostercamp

Ostercamp

Beach in Denmark

Beach in Denmark

I don't even remember where this is. But man, we loved on this double stroller.

Grocery shopping in Denmark

Sightseeing in Gent, Belgium, before DDCB

Paris, France Temple Open House

Walking to the train station from Church with Trace and Meg Teerlink, back in Berlin

Kiersten and Kalie came to Berlin! June 2017

Topography des Terrors, Berlin

Hosting all of the jumpers who came for Turnfest 2017!

Freiburg, Germany temple

Visiting the Baganz family and seeing the progress of their koi pond, up close and personal 

(read: Berlin threw a rock in and had to get it out. Not sad about this punishment) 

Zepernick, Germany

Jeremy found a job and started working about a month after we came back to Berlin. It was a crazy month, but it was relieving. It meant we could get visas, which we didn't actually get until the end of August (Jeremy started work in June), but we did all of it legally- there's a weird not-loophole-but-feels-like-a-loophole that the German government created which allows for people without visas to stay until they can get a visa. Appointments at the Ausländerbehörde (immigration, literally foreigners Authority) are booked at least three months out, but if you have a confirmation paper, proving that you have an appointment, it's not an issue that you don't have a visa yet... As long as you don't try and leave the country.

Jeremy started at his job only a couple of weeks before our tourist visas expired, so we hadn't gone looking for apartments yet. It felt a bit like putting the cart before the horse, so as soon as we had the means to get a visa, with two and a half weeks before we had to move out, we scrambled. Jeremy found us a furnished short-term apartment (3 month contract with allowance to extend for a month at a time) and we spent our visa expiration day moving a mile and a half closer to Jeremy's office. Jeremy had to be at work, so Kiersten (Jeremy's sister who had come to spend the summer with us) and I moved everything from point A to point B. It was a good place for that summer. We traveled with Kiersten, visited Poland and the Czech Republic and Austria and lots of different places in between, and slowly adjusted to some of the pieces of living in Germany. But just a few.

Hanno Kramer's lakehouse in Seddin, June 2017

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, Oranienberg, Germany

We stopped somewhere outside of Grunewald on the way home from Peacock Island, the picnic during which a peacock ate bread off of Wes' head, and Kiersten came home with a tick. Good times.

Rakotzbrücke (Devil's Bridge) in Gablenz, Germany

On the Polish border

Oslo's first birthday!

Trip to Munich, visiting Viki and Martina 😂

Kiersten left just before we got our visas, and then we started searching for a not short-term apartment.  We kept extending our lease until we found something significantly cheaper, but the housing market is insane in Berlin, and I had a lot things to learn about apartment hunting, so we weren't successful until December. And we only found something furnished and short-term (4 months maximum kind of short term), but we moved in a week before we headed to the US, paid to keep our suitcases warm, and headed off for a whirlwind of a Christmas/wedding holiday.  We visited Jeremy's parents for Christmas, and the day after, drove to Lubbock for Jace's wedding, then turned around the day after the wedding and went to cram in as much visiting as we could while almost all of us were recovering from the flu. That post will hopefully be sponsored by Nyquil, since that trip definitely was.

Quick trip to Munich in October - Berlin and Viki

Palace-ing

Lane had about 48 hours in Munich, which was the reason for our Munich trip.

So great to see him.

This is just a small representation of Berlin's life in the last... 3 years.

You're only a bad parent if you DON'T take a picture, right?

Jeremy had to work one Saturday, but Berlin got to go with him.

City decorations for Christmas

Lauren Bell got called to Germany AND ended up in our stake! 

We should've worn Just Jumpin shirts.

I sang in the stake Christmas choir, so the boys... entertained themselves.

We'd been back in Berlin for a week when my step-dad called to tell us they were getting sealed, so a week later I hopped on a plane with the boys again, and Jeremy joined us the day before the sealing. I wasn't kidding about paying to keep those suitcases warm. We got back to Berlin, searched down to the wire for a new apartment, and signed a new 12-month contract seven days before our old one expired. We've been here for just over a month (but with traveling, we've only actually slept here maybe three of those weeks), and almost every suitcase is finally unpacked.

In all of the craziness of this year, we've learned a lot. We've made a lot of mistakes, some of them expensive, but many have been averted by smart and kind people we've met. I think it would be fair to say that there have been more frustrating days than fun ones. But the fun ones have been really great. And you know, we are making progress. There are some major things we need to figure out, less-Germany-more-life things, but it's coming.

And the language? Well. Jeremy has navigated our train being canceled, and the new travel plan options, in German. And I said the opening prayer in sacrament meeting on Sunday. So basically... we still have a long ways to go :)

Brita came to visit. And we're still killing it with group selfies.

Berlin on a bus stop post. He's like 6 feet off the ground.

Trip to Gent, pre-DDCB

Berlin with the Spargel (Spargelcup in Beelitz)

I'm still taking pictures of these bears, and Berlin wants to be in every picture.

[title from something just like this by coldplay and the chainsmokers]

how to travel overseas with an infant (part iii)

In case you didn't remember that I was writing this (since I wrote part 1 and part 2 last year), you might want to review. Just so it all makes sense, and not because you're actually trying to glean something from this :)

When we got back from Texas, Berlin's passport was in the mailbox, two weeks before takeoff. Which was nice, because then it was one less thing to stress over. And I had plenty to stress over.

I just wanted to make sure we had everything we could possibly think of needing. Extra clothes, extra diapers, extra wipes, extra formula, extra blankets, stain remover so I could get vomit and poop stains out when we got home...

Our bag was over the weight limit, don't worry.

Our first flight, to JFK, was about 4 hours. We woke Berlin up to go to the airport, and he fell asleep right as we were taking off in Salt Lake. This was great for Jeremy and I, since neither of us know how to pack until very late the night before flights that are very early the next morning. I would like to say Berlin, Jeremy, and I enjoyed sleeping the whole way to New York. Berlin did. Jeremy and I learned that trying to sleep while trying to hold an infant still enough to sleep is no easy feat. And for us proved mostly impossible. 

So, evidently, this is how I spent my time during our layover. I don't remember most of it.

We boarded our plane to Frankfurt around 5 or 6 in the evening, and Berlin, who'd been awake during most of the layover, was acting like he was ready to sleep. We hoped it would be as smooth and seamless for him to fall asleep and stay asleep all the way to Frankfurt as it was to New York. 

Everybody walking past us to board the plane was commenting on how cute he was, how smiley he was, etc. Jeremy took him to the restroom to change his diaper so that he was clean and could fall asleep during nursing/takeoff without us needing to worry about his diaper. He did nurse during takeoff.  But then he didn't fall asleep. And instead, started to scream. 

We had no idea what to do. He wouldn't continue to nurse, he wouldn't take a bottle, even being held (while standing) didn't have the calming effect that it usually had. After a few cycles of picking him up, trying a bottle again, patting his back to see if he would burp, laying him on our laps, panicking, and wondering how much our neighbors hated us (all of this lasted about an hour and a half), Jeremy took Berlin back into the bathroom. At this point Berlin was alternating between crying and screaming, and fortunately, it was more crying than screaming, but it the bathroom, it was so incredibly muffled. I'm the baby's mom, I know what his cry sounds like and I know how to hear it, but I had to listen hard for it while they were in the bathroom. As it turns out, you just can't hear a lot of noise from inside the bathroom if you are outside the bathroom. Who knew? Jeremy gently bounced Berlin in his arms until he'd completely stopped crying, which took another half an hour. While the boys were in the bathroom, I was panicking in my seat, wondering how we were going to get Berlin to sleep, how we were going to sleep and not be exhausted when we landed in the morning the following day in Germany, and how we're going to avoid scowls and glares from our fellow passengers, when I realized that the faint crying had stopped. I looked over to the restrooms and saw Jeremy coming out with a very quiet baby. He was still awake, but not making any noise. Jeremy handed me Berlin, he snuggled up against me, started to nurse, and was asleep within 10 minutes of the boys coming out of the bathroom. 

He proceeded to sleep for the rest of the 8-hour flight (6 hours), then through customs, and all the way to our host's house, for a total of 8 hours of sleep.

I don't get it. I don't even pretend to know what was wrong and what calmed him down. But I'm keeping the airplane bathroom idea in my back pocket.

We had a fabulous time in Germany. Berlin adjusted to the time difference beautifully because he slept so long on the airplane. He started sleeping through the night while we were there, which was wonderful; he had just barely turned 3 months old and I expected that sleeping through the night would take much longer. And it made for a pleasant trip all the way around.

Visiting a castle. And loving being toted around. About an hour later, he pooped through his clothes and all over the carrier, but whatever.

Berlin with our host's mom, Ruthilde. 

She and her husband adored having Berlin to play with and dote on. 

We loved it too.

Uncle Lee got to make this trip with us too. 

I think he had just landed in this pic, but he was a good enough sport to hold Berlin in his groggy state.

Who wouldn't have a great trip being pushed around in a miniature sleeping bag?!

(Okay, so maybe it drowned him a little bit, but this is borrowed. Now we want one.)

how to travel overseas with an infant (part ii)

In the three weeks between submitting a passport application and waiting for it to arrive, we had an airplane test-run with Berlin and we flew to Lubbock to stay with my siblings for a week.

Test-run is the wrong word. If it went poorly, we were still going to Germany, so... preview. We had an airplane preview with Berlin. 

Overall, it went pretty well. Jeremy gave Berlin a grade on each flight, based on a scale of 0-100 and assigning the appropriate letter, and Berlin got As on both flights on the way down to Texas. Granted, they were short, but we were still grateful that they were smooth. That was certainly promising.

 

We used the advice we'd been given to feed him during takeoff and landing (the sucking and swallowing helps with babies' ears and the pressure changes), and he didn't ever cry about his ears, so it's something we'll continue. I guess we couldn't really say if it helped or not, but I'm not really willing to have him scream because I skipped that step. We fed him when he got the least bit fussy (because thus far in his life, the only reason he ever cries is because he's hungry), took turns taking him to the bathroom to change his diaper, and held him carefully for the 20 minutes he fell asleep. He was a pretty happy camper. 

Until we got to my mom's. And it was bedtime.

There's no way to know for sure if it's related, but Berlin was really constipated that first night. He's never had this happen before, and we've been on several flights since this one and it's never happened again, but he had a really rough night because we had no idea what was going on. After about an hour of just screaming, he finally fell asleep. He woke up in the middle of the night screaming, ate and fell back asleep, and then in the morning he woke up and was just unhappy. My mom remembered, randomly, that some of her kids had that problem after flying, and so she and my step-dad grabbed some generic suppositories from Walgreens. 10 minutes later he had a gross diaper and the tears were over for good. Like I said, Berlin's never had this problem before flying, and even flying several times after the problem has never repeated itself, but I always travel with suppositories now. Just in case.

We had a fun week, and at the end of it, we flew home. The flights home were mostly uneventful, though I think Jeremy did give Berlin an 85 on the very last leg. Probably because he cried once or twice because he was exhausted but tries to keep himself awake always. He's so afraid of missing something.

 Oh. Looking at the pictures and realizing there's an outfit change, I remembered. We did have one event. Why would you need to change an outfit for a kid who doesn't vomit or spit up? Considering the first flight, was a good sign because, hey, he's not constipated!

But Jeremy was the one who took him to the bathroom. That's why he got an 85. 

Still not too bad. And even though he was smiling and good-natured for the drive from the airport, the poor kid was so worn out, he fell asleep almost as soon as we got home. Even before we got home. We stopped by my cousins' house to see my aunt, and he fell asleep during the introductions.

So after a mostly uneventful trip, we felt like we had some really good experience. We can handle flying to Germany, right?

...right?