![]() Even in the summer it doesn’t always get that much better. Add that to the extra short days in a German winter and you have one big recipe for dreariness. It is grey all the time, to the extent that in the winter time you don’t even know weather the sun is rising or setting. The view from my old apartment in Paderborn It was one of the best delivery pizzas I have ever eaten. It was called “Pizza Take That” from “ Hallo Pizza Karlsruhe“, and had curry chicken, leeks, bacon chunks, Parmesan cheese, apple slices and almonds! And to top it all off, the cheese was Gouda, not some cheapo “pizza cheese”. But today I ordered a pizza that is strange even by German standards. (It’s actually really good, and I ordered that a lot). In Paderborn, where we used to live, eggs sunny-side-up was very popular on pizzas. I’ve seen everything from cauliflower to potatoes on Pizzas, and no one even thinks it’s strange. Now, I’ve been living in Germany for six years, and the weirdness of their pizzas is nothing new to me. Strike all plans for dinner… There was just no chance. I couldn’t hold her in any position except for tummy down on my arm (the classic “colic carry”). And from there things descended into belly pains, and after some time she was all out screaming. We got back at around 2pm, giving us plenty of time.Īfter nursing Olivia I couldn’t get her to burp. Our morning started out just fine, and we got lots of stuff done. Today I had planned to make my usual rounds to our neighborhood butcher, baker, and produce stand while taking a walk with Olivia. The kitchen seemed to be pretty skimpy and I often went away a bit hungry. ![]() The only thing I would’ve changed is to have made it longer. The nature, the people, the babies… being able to relax and just go at our own pace… all in all it was a wonderful experience. We really are very much alone and the burden is heavy. This is something which is really missing in our modern society, where families rarely live in the same house as their relatives, and neighbors stay our of each other’s business. It was nice to have so many people around to help each other out. I guess mother nature really has our ears trained well. And I never woke up for anyone else’s babies’ cries. You would think that with three babies we would have been awake all night, but would you believe it: each of us only woke up for our own babies, but not the others? Olivia and I woke up a few times to nurse every night, but the noise never bothered anyone else. We shared a tee-pee with two other families. The whole “clan” aspect of the camp was very cool, too. ![]() From what I read on the internet I was feeling like we were the only ones not going “all in”. It really made me feel better to see that a lot of EC-ing parents actually do use diaper back-ups most of the time. It was also nice to hear so many peoples’ stories and experiences. Some with no pants, some totally naked and covered head to toe in dirt…. It was so cool to see so many babies and toddlers running around without diapers. One family had done it with all four of their kids! I am secretly in awe of their mom, so I am really happy to learn that they will be moving close to us sometime next year!! They also have thier own blog, which you can read here. We had seminars every day on various baby-related topics, such as breastfeeding, co-sleeping, babywearing, and of course… EC! Most of the families at the camp practice EC, even with mulitple children. The camp was in Buckow, which is about an hour east of Berlin, in the beautiful Märkische Schweiz (a nice mountainous area covered in forests and lakes.) This wasn’t just any old camp… it was all about raising babies, and the whole idea was that we lived as a “clan”, where each family supported the others. Back in August we went to the “ Artgerecht” family camp at Umweltzentrum Drei Eichen.
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