Step by Step

 Today I drove through this:

So I could get to this:

To buy my daughter this for her 3rd birthday. (Note, that is not my daughter.  My daughter is much cuter. No offense, little girl.)

Which may seem like a very ordinary task... but is much more of a feat when you're not at home in your comfort zone.  Navigating German roads with foreign traffic signs (in the snow to boot), using a VAT form for the first time (value added tax form), and not making a total idiot of myself while trying to communicate with the customer service people.  I can't help but a feel a great sense of accomplishment.  

And the girls were starving afterwards.  I normally avoid McDonald's like the plague back home, but there's something very comforting and reassuring about it when you're far from home.  Even though the food is still gross.

I've mentioned how cute my kids are, right? 

The hour long car ride home stuck in snow and traffic was made a little more fun by playing a game with Emily.  Have I told you she's a geography whiz?  And an alphabet whiz.

I said, "How about I'll name a country that starts with A, and then you name a country that starts with B?" and so on and so on.

We were both whipping right through the alphabet when I got stuck on K.  I thought and thought.   I could think of Kingston and Kiev, but not a country.  Em kept saying, "I know one.  I know one."  

Finally it dawned on me, "Kenya!  Is that what you were thinking?"

She replies very nonchalantly, "No, Kyrgyzstan. "  

Then once again, I got stuck on O.  I thought and thought.  And Em said, "There's only one country that starts with O, Mom."  Finally I gave up.  "What is it Em?" and once again she nonchalantly replied, "Oman."  

And yet again, I got stuck on Y.  Yugoslavia?  No, it's the FORMER Yugoslavia.  I kept thinking and thinking.  Finally Em said, "I'll give you a hint Mom.  It's next to Oman."  Duh, Yemen!

I'm not joking, this was a real conversation with my 4 year old.  She's only four and has come to the realization that she is smarter than her parents.  I was anticipating it to be much later in life. But what can you expect when she chooses the Atlas on a regular basis for her bedtime story book?  And she loves to study her map.  I'm trying to figure out what kind of career she can have as a map lover.