Punctuality

Today Kirk was asked to talk in Sacrament Meeting. The topic: punctuality. It seemed a bit strange, but we assumed it was because a lot of people have been running late for church meetings. He did find a nice insight about how charity relates to punctuality, though.

This morning, Edward decided he wasn't going to get dressed for church. To get to church, we have to leave an hour early and take a street car/tram to the end of the line, and then take a bus to the church building. We have to leave early because if you miss a tram or a bus, you end up having to wait a while for the next one because it is the Sunday schedule and the public transportation doesn't run as often (every 10-15 minutes instead of every 5-7 minutes).

Since it was time to go and Edward was still in his pajamas, I told Kirk to take Andrew, Lucy, and Henry and just go. It wouldn't be very good for the speaker on punctuality to be late for church. Then I waited for Edward to get dressed. He suddenly started to move a bit after he saw everyone left. Later he said, "I didn't hear you tell me to get dressed," as his reason for not getting ready for church. Maybe someone else has a better insight into a 7-year-old boy's mind than I do.

We have two tram stops near our apartment, so when Edward was ready, we hurried out of the house and went to the closer one (well, both are about the same distance from us, but one seems closer) at the Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof. As we got near the street, I saw the tram we needed pulling up, so we started to hurry. I dashed across the street with Edward and the driver opened the door for me and let us on.

At the next stop, there were Kirk and the kids! They had decided to wait for the handicapped-accesible tram (the one we were on) instead of trying to carry the stroller up the three steps on the older trams (it is sort of tricky and I can do it with Andrew since we have some practice, but it is easier if you have two adults to manage the stroller and the steps). At first Kirk was a bit miffed that Edward wasn't going to have a consequence for his tardiness, but Edward apologized and everything was OK.

A bit later into the tram ride, a woman tapped me on my shoulder and said something in German, so I looked and Henry had thrown up all over himself and the stroller.

During the night, Kirk had felt a bit sick like he had eaten something bad, but he was doing better this morning. I was up for an hour or so in the night checking on everyone, but no one else seemed to be sick. Henry had seemed sort of tired and listless this morning and I was starting to wonder if he was OK because he is usually full of energy.

So, it turned out to be a blessing that we ended up on the same tram. When we got to the next stop, which thankfully was the final stop, we all got off and Kirk took the other children and caught the bus to church. I started to wipe off Henry. A man with an open beer can in his hand (at 9 in the morning?) handed me a stack of napkins so I could wipe off the stroller and Henry. He seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of napkins. Then he helped me clean out the stroller. I kept saying "danke schön!"--one of my few German phrases. I pulled off Henry's clothes and put them in one of the plastic bags I have learned to always take with me. Then I put Henry back in the stroller, sitting on yet another useful plastic bag, and got back on the tram to the apartment.

Henry perked up, drank some water, and is now taking a nap.

Henry when he is not sick.

Running around on the grass at the Hofburg on Saturday.

I've washed clothes and the stroller. It was nice the stroller is small enough to sort of fit in the bathtub.