OK. So my big plans have crashed and burned.

I did bust my butt Wednesday, cleaning out and scrubbing out cabinets and reorganizing. But everything I've done keeps getting undone, or looks like it anyway. And most of that list still is unfinished.

Today I have done ... nada really. I took a stab at the dog bar and cleaned one drawer of it. I then proceeded to lounge around and do nothing except make an Oreo Pie.

Tomorrow Jens and Sammy T will be out on the town for some Papa/Monkey time and I will be home. Ostensibly cleaning. We'll see.

OH! And something fun seems to have happened. Everything tastes OFF. Bitter, wrong and weird. Apparently this is a side effect of my meds. That this would hit roughly two weeks after I've switched meds ... supposedly they are the same but different names, different "inactive ingredients" and somehow effecting me differently, I'm gonna say they ARE NOT THE SAME.

The boy woke up at 4:55am this morning and decided it was time to get up and get the day under way. He was given his pacifier back, told to lay down and go to sleep and I pulled a pillow over my head. I think he went back to sleep. I did. At 6ish he was back up and carrying on. Lather, rinse, repeat. Almost 7ish he was up again. Jens fielded that one as I was trying to hide under the pillow again. After that I had the most beautiful dream.

My mom came in and got the baby up. She said she had changed her mind about waiting until April to visit, she decided to come over now and stay until the end of April. She told me to go back to sleep, she would take care of him and I could sleep in. I was filled with joy. I was sleeping blissfully, when DUN DUN DUN

Sammy T Pumpkin said it was time to get up. And he's not kidding around this time. 7:20am. I was all confused. WHERE IS MY MOMMY!? Boo hiss, I say. BOO. HISS.

Right. We had to drive up to Berlin on Sunday so we could get all of the Pumpkin's paper work handled on Monday morning. I stressed and packed and packed to make sure he had everything. I packed extra empty jars so we could make his food in the bottle warmer. I packed all his favorite toys, six blankets, extra clothes, three days worth of diapers and wipes and two tubes of butt cream. I packed bottles of pre-boiled water, clean empty bottles, four spoons, four bibs, burp rags, his string of toys so he has entertainment in the pram. I packed his nail clippers, every possible medication he might conceivably need from gas drops to Ora-gel in case he cuts a tooth AND the dispensers. I packed five pacifiers ... you might at this point be wondering what I didn't pack. What one thing would we need that I spaced out and left 300km out of reach?

The freaking powdered baby formula. On a Sunday. In Germany. WHERE 98% OF SHOPS ARE CLOSED ON A BISCUIT EATING SUNDAY.

Jens went out in the snow and freezing rain to find some. He found a store that was open at the Zoo Station and got some formula, some chocolate for his air-headed wife, and DUNKIN DONUTS. He is made of goodness and win. It took him somewhere around two hours and he got back totally soaked and freezing.

I, in the meantime, had given the Pumpkin his leftover carrots and about an ounce of warm water trying to settle him down. I rocked him and snuggled him and tried everything I could to soothe him. He finally wore himself out crying and fussing not too long before Jens got back. We were both beyond exhausted and I was on the verge of tears.

Once I gave the Pumpkin a big bottle of formula, we all went to sleep. Or, you know, tried. The Pumpkin slept like a rock, Jens slept "OK, I guess." I got hardly any sleep. I basically just tried to lay still and keep my eyes closed 'til morning.

We had an expensive but convenient breakfast at the Hotel* before we headed out to the Embassy.

The Embassy and paperwork were the easiest and most painless part of the trip. In and out, easy peasy. All of the papers we need for him will be here in a couple of weeks. We were done so quickly that we got home well before the in-laws had expected us back.

We are, however, exhausted. And I already have a headache imagining the trip to the US in October.


* The Hotel which was bizarrely split up so that we had to go up a floor in the elevator, carry the pram down half a flight of stairs go down a hall, out onto a small balcony and back in to another stairwell where we had to carry the pram back up half a flight of stairs. No. I'm not kidding.