Fall in Berlin

One thing we've really enjoyed here in Germany - and will also enjoy about being back in Washington - is that we have a true autumn here, unlike in Tel Aviv. It's my favorite season - I love the colors, the smells, the apple cider...

...but I've never been as fond of the raking! Tim, Minka, Speck, and I tackled our back yard a few weekends ago; here are some pictures.

Just look at the belly! By the way, Speck slept through all this physical activity - I guess the motion of my raking was soothing.

Minka also pitched in, chewing up all the sticks we uncovered in the leaves to make them easier to rake. She may be aging (gracefully) - I can't believe how white her face is becoming - but she's never gotten over the retriever puppy chewing thing. We also uncovered tennis balls and other dog toys in the leaves. She had a ball playing with us in the yard (and diving into leaf piles.)

Frost on the Pumpkin

Post-election, we're starting to get into the fall holidays. We spent some time raking leaves in our backyard the weekend before last, only to have our hard work undone by a windstorm the next day that dropped more leaves on the yeard than we had raked in the first place. (Sigh.) This past weekend, we were invited to our friends David and Christy's for an early Thanksgiving dinner, so Speck and I got up early on Sunday to make apple pies. Tim helped me peel and cut up several pounds of apples for 3 pies - one to bake for dinner, and 2 to freeze for future needs. (The dough for some pumpkin pies is also in the freezer now, ready to be rolled out.) The new recipe I tried for the apple filling is tasty, but really juicy - the bottom crust turns to mush. But no one seemed to mind.

We're planning a trip down to the Army base this weekend. We have been thinking about getting a new TV, and have decided to exercise our consumer confidence and go for it. The flatscreen should be lighter and slimmer than our current TV, and already set up for digital and HDTV; by buying it on base, it'll also be multi-system and dual-voltage. So: easier to ship than our current model, and better to watch. While we're down there, in addition to the obligatory Taco Bell fix, we'll do some grocery shopping (the appeal of this is hard to understand unless you've lived overseas. Whole aisles of cheddar cheese and breakfast sausage! Ingredients you can't buy here! And things like cereal which you can get here, but on base it's half as much.) We'll also stock up on things at the exchange - this is kind of like a Target. Minka will have to stay home just so we can get everything into the car. Lucky for us, the Ohio State-_ichigan game (I can't write the name until it's over) is on late here, so we should be back in time.

But before that, we have 2 big dates this week. Tonight Tim and I are going to the hospital for their welcome tour/information session for expecting parents. (I'm practicing my vocabulary for childbirth terms - somehow, "labor" and "C-section" aren't in the standard German you learn in school.) And Thursday is our long-awaited 2nd super-duper ultrasound, where we're hoping to FINALLY learn Speck's gender.

We had a neat event last night: The American composer we worked with to do two projects to teach English to minority kids in inner-city Berlin through theater and music hosted a thank-you show for the Ambassador and his wife, who were truly the driving force behind those projects. These are kids from schools that had some of the highest gang and violence rates in the country, who are told every day by German society that they'll never amount to anything. Well, the violence has gone down, and even the kids who didn't take part in the musical have seen for themselves that if you're willing to work hard and try to accomplish something, there are people and organizations out there that will help you. The Embassy began it, but the German government is now on board too. Anyway, there was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears from me and my German staff that went into these projects; it was wonderful to hear the kids sing again, and listen to the high school kids tell the story - in excellent English, which they couldn't have done when we began this work - of how the projects came to be. (Their story even quoted a long excerpt from the letter I wrote to the school director when we began. Neat to be recognized!) Speck seemed to enjoy the music, too - s/he definitely responds to the sounds of singing.

The Latest Picture of Speck - week 21

Post-Election Update

We've been so busy since the last update, it's hard to know where to begin. The dominating thing, of course, has been the series of events that we held for the Election - a school program, 2 big parties throughout Election Night, and a post-Election breakfast. I managed to sneak home for a few hours on Election Night, to get a quick nap and watch at least some of the returns with Tim, before dashing back downtown for the breakfast. All in all, we hosted more than 3700 people at Embassy-sponsored Election events on November 4 and 5, with excellent national media coverage of our programs and a huge response from our contacts.

I find it hard to put into words yet the emotions I've been feeling since the election results came in. As usual, Tim's done a much better job of summing it up: the "what are you doing now?" line on his Facebook profile now reads "Timothy Klitz will be able to raise his baby in a better world now." (I think much of the reputation I'm developing for effective public speaking is owed to the fact that I get to refine my ideas and arguments with Tim.) We're much more excited about moving back to Washington next year - it will be an interesting time to be there.

Speck seemed to enjoy all the madness, though. I've been able to feel him/her move for a while now, but it's getting much more noticeable in the past 2 weeks. I've learned that Speck loves it when I walk, gets super-excited when I run, and does not appreciate it when I forget to sit like a pregnant woman and instead curl up on the couch, cramping his/her world in the process. This will be a moot point in a few more weeks; I'm getting bigger by the week (by the hour?) We've already had a few laughs at the inherent comedy of pregnancy: watching me get up off the couch or out of the car is pretty funny.

We had our regular check-up today, at the start of Week 21, and both Speck and I are doing fine. We got some neat ultrasound images, which I hope are clear enough to scan; the printer on our doctor's ultrasound machine is a bit hit-or-miss. But as always, we had a great time watching the baby moving around. Today s/he was exploring his/her hands with his/her mouth, or vice versa. Who knows what s/he will be up to on our next ultrasound, which will be in 2 weeks??

Ciao, Roma!

OK, no new sonograms for a while - we have a fuzzy one from last week, but it's hard to make anything out on it! - so here's a first look at Speck from the outside. We haven't been doing a real series of belly shots, but here's one from our trip to Rome. (Mostly I think it's a nice picture of Tim and me at the Colosseum.)

Such a great trip! We had a fantastic time.

Week 18 Check-up

It's been a really busy past few weeks for us. Tim's dad Chuck and aunt Rosie came for a nice long visit. Although we had some down time in Berlin, we were pretty busy - Tim took them out west to the towns near Münster where the Klitzes come from originally; we spent a long weekend in central Germany visiting the cultural heartland - Wittenberg, Weimar, and Eisenach; and we all flew down for a wonderful 4-night trip to Rome. (Pictures coming this weekend, promise!) In the meantime, Tim really outdid himself with the cooking on our nights in Berlin.

Rome was incredible, better than I remembered it from my one trip there 12 years ago. We had perfect sunny weather, a nice break from Berlin, and did so much! We also ate ourselves silly every night at a wonderful neighborhood joint that our B&B landlady recommended. (I wasn't sure whether to be pleased or a bit worried when I saw an American couple wander in one evening with a page marked in their Rick Steves' Rome guide.) I could eat fresh pasta and salad every night and be a very happy woman. On the other hand, Speck was craving bruschetta and bread much more than gelato. Is this really my kid?

Speck really enjoyed the trip. (I have visions of the baby coming out, turning to me, and saying "Ciao, Mama!" But nah, s/he won't learn Italian for at least a few months...) I've started feeling very occasional, very light movement. It's stronger when I'm very excited, or when I've just eaten after fasting for a while. Speck seems to also enjoy Italian food, and long walks through Rome. S/he also earned me a place to sit in the Sistine Chapel, which is usually almost impossible to do; the Italian guards took one look at my belly and shooed some college kids off a bench so I could rest my feet. After a long morning waiting to get into the Vatican museum and a few hours walking through it, I appreciated the thought. In general, though, the Italian tendency to casually jostle passersby worried me a bit. One older lady in front of me at the Pantheon looked over her shoulder before backing up, started to back into me (how dare I not get out of her way?), then did a double take as she saw my hands holding my belly defensively. She almost tripped as she corrected herself to avoid knocking me over. I'm not sure whether to be grateful that she decided not to crash into my unborn child, or annoyed that if I weren't visibly pregnant, she would clearly have run me over.

We had our monthly check-up today, which is day 1 of our 18th week of pregnancy. Speck is measuring perfectly, with a lovely heartbeat, and was head-down for the first time since we've started peeking in on him/her. We'll be doing check-ups every 3 weeks for a while, so we'll be back at the doctor's office soon, but in the meantime we have to go in for our next detailed ultrasound in 2 weeks. We'll go back to the specialist who did our NT screening a few weeks ago, and are very hopeful that we'll get to learn Speck's gender. In the meantime, we're looking forward to a quiet weekend at home, enjoying fall weather with a nice fire and some college football...

Newest addition to the family!

Speck's family grew just a bit earlier than expected this past Monday, as Uncle Tom and Aunt Nicole welcomed their baby girl Rosie at 12:20 PM Central time. She was 3 weeks early, and weighed in at 6 lbs. 3 oz, 20 1/4 inches long. We won't get to meet her until next summer, but can't wait! Plus it'll be awfully fun for Speck to meet his/her newest cousin.

Speaking of cousins, this was an exciting weekend in Cleveland, too, as cousin Rebecca (Jim and Amy's older daughter) was elected Homecoming Queen. We're so proud of Becca!

Meanwhile, Tim's having a great time taking Chuck and Rosie around. Since tomorrow's a German holiday, I'll get to join them for a long weekend trip to central Germany. I hope Speck doesn't mind a nice long car ride or two...