Day 12 - Auf wiedersehen!

We woke up on this last day in Germany to warmer weather and blue skies... go figure!!  We had our last breakfast with Marina, as she had the day off.  We headed out and drove to Heidelberg to hit the Kathe Wolfahrt store.  This store has everything German you could want!!!  I picked up a new smoking man and some ornaments.  Then we strolled the pedestrian zone for a bit of shopping and had dinner at a lovely little restaurant.  I had my last jager schnitzel and spaetzle... oh how I will miss the German food!

This is the quaint restaurant where my lovely daughter threw one of the biggest fits that she has ever thrown in her life.  The last few days she has been singing and dancing while we eat, says she isn't hungry, and then right before bed she is starving.  I told her that she needed to sit down and eat that there would be no more food as we would be in a hotel.  She refused to sit down and started to YELL at me!  I was so mad.  I told her to sit down or I was taking her to the bathroom.  She continues to yell at me and I grab her up and head to the bathroom for the beating to begin (I am joking here... sort of).  As we head to the bathroom, she is wailing.  I am getting angrier as she is fighting me and everyone is staring at us.  We get in the bathroom and it is the size of a narrow closet.  Jemma is squirming, I am furious, and can't beat her as there is a girl standing there in front of the sink!  I can't even get into a bathroom to take care of business as I can't get by the girl.  Squirming and screaming continue so I give her bum a smart pinch to try to snap her out of it.  Well....that doesn't work.  She wails louder, I am sweating and the girl is just taking her time washing her hands.  I finally squeeze by (I am pretty sure she got a good kick from Jemma as we squeezed through!  Serves her right!) and get her in the bathroom.  I am trying to talk to her and she starts screaming, "What are you going to do to me?  What are you going to do to me?!?!" I kept trying to talk to her and she kept putting her hand on my mouth.  I moved her hand and told her to stop.  I can't stand when she does that.  She did it three more times and then it happened... I had a Horrible Mother of the Year moment and  bit her hand.  I didn't chomp down on it, but it was by no means a love nibble.  I felt horrible, but I swear it all happened so fast I had the moment of "did I just bite my own child?????"  The crying has reached the shatter glass moment and I felt horrible.  I was trying to wrangle her and console her, but the bathroom is so darn tiny, I couldn't even bend over and she is a jelly blob sliding down me.  I sit on the toilet and cuddle (as best you can cuddle an angry jelly blob) her and start my shushing.  See I read The Happiest Baby on the Block and the shushing thing is good!  She finally calms down and we have a little "coming to Jesus" meeting.  We stroll back out all smiles and sniffles.  Tom is just eating his food.  I sit down and he asked what happened.  Jemma immediately tells Daddy that I have bitten her.  Nice.  I get the "what in the heck are you doing to my precious child" look and explain exactly what went down in the bathroom.  He said that is sounded to the whole restaurant a LOT worse.  Double nice.  We ended up having a lovely meal and strolled back to the car.  We arrived at the hotel, repacked what was needed for our one night in Detroit, and all slept.  I seriously think I am out of the Mom of the Year race...

We got right on our plane the next morning and had a wonderful flight back.  Jemma was such a good girl and colored away.  We arrived in Detroit where our neighbor Renee picked us up.  We had a great visit with the Thomas Family and then headed over to my dear friend, Michelle's, where we were staying the night.  A surprise birthday party was planned that night already, but all our friends headed over for a quick visit.  It was so nice to see everyone!  We got up early the next day and headed back to Charleston.  We had such a wonderful visit, but there is no place like home!