6Apr2009: Day 315: Tattoos and Butt Cracks

Just to start out, if you click on the link to the Blog of "Grosek Family" you can now see pictures of Makenna's new cousin Natalie. She looks just like her big sister Katie. Especially the picture with her mouth wide open (as if screaming). Also, read closely the board from the hospital room. I can tell that's Josh's handy work.

I was nervous that today was going to be another bad day as it didn’t start off too well. Luckily, I was totally wrong. After going to the gym, things improved drastically. My attitude was better and Makenna was better.

We did go to the park after lunch and it was quite crowded as the kids are off from school now for two weeks. Makenna really wants to just stay on the swing anymore which is quite different from when we first got here. I had to let her know that we “hap to share” the swing with other kids waiting to get on. She agreed and we went to the slides and other areas. She kept asking to go back to the swing though. I did get her on it for about two more minutes then another kid came. She unfortunately didn’t get another chance to get on. I have to say I’m really impressed with how much Makenna does on her own now at the park. She crosses the thin little bar on her own. She gets herself up the steps and/or ramps, usually on her own.

Tonight we got out her flashcards. This gives me a lot of anxiety as it creates such a mess and I usually have a hard time getting her to help me pick them up. She loves to throw them all over more than look at them, but I remind myself, it’s no big deal. I’m so excited to see all the ones that she knows now. She even knew and remembered xylophone, although she didn’t quite say it correctly, but she tried. I think the only one that she stumbled on a bit was nest. She kept saying it was an egg. I'm just amazed at how much she has absorbed over the short time we’ve been here.

Now, on to some other observations of mine. There are two things that I’ve noticed about a lot of people over here. One is that they are really into their tattoos. A lot of the women even have tattoos. The swim aerobics instructor had this one on her leg that went up from her foot to her knee, maybe farther. I’ve also noticed one guy at the gym who has his head tattooed, even around his eye. It’s like you want to see but don’t want to stare. I’ve only seen him twice.

Another thing is that they seem to not care about their “plumber’s crack,” to put it nicely. A lot of women mostly, but also some men, wear pants that are just ill-fitting. So when they bend over you get a “lovely” view. I saw a guy at the gym last week who really needed some new work-out clothes so that we didn’t all have to see what areas that he needed to work out. I think it starts young though, as I remember many months ago at the park, a little girl running around and her pants were just not fitting her and she didn’t seem to care that they were practically falling off. I just wanted to run behind her and pull them up. I swear she was probably six or so.

One last little tidbit for anyone planning on traveling into Europe…if you plan on driving, you may need an IDP (International Driving Permit). This is not a license or a permit as we know it, but it basically translates your license into something that the people in the country can read. So it’s like a translation of your license. Chris seemed to be aware of this and is now having me frantically search for a way for us to drive in some of the European countries. We’re trying to plan a trip and this can put a serious wrench in our plans. We can get away with not having it in some of the countries but some of the others say they require it. So now we either avoid those countries or hope and pray that we don’t get pulled over for any reason, or the best outcome would be to find a way to get the IDP in time.