We almost survived....

... the 2 weeks without Ben. He's having a marvelous time on his survey trip, although I haven't heard much of him. He called last Saturday, and I had the phone on loudspeaker and Ned watched the phone fascinated but refused to talk with his daddy. Only at the very end, when I told him to say bye bye to daddy, he waved to the phone, kissed it and even said "bye bye"!!!! I guess he was wondering how in the world daddy fitted in this little thing and why he didn't come out:o))).

It has been good, although Ned had quite a few "tantrum" days, but somehow I felt like I had a wee bit more patience, who knows, maybe even I learn how to be a bit more patient. Feeding ducks isn't a problem anymore, now it actually is a "trigger" to get him going for a walk. He likes watching those quack quacks and even shares his biscuit with them... that must be love:o))) He also found a new friend. This time it's a boy and his name's Silas (dad is German and works with teenstreet, mum is El Salvadorian) and he's a bit older than Ned but they like digging in the sand pit together. They don't even mind it if they throw sand at each other... the mums do mind though (DON'T throw!!!). It's nice to have people his hight around again, and this time even a boys. There is also another Silas who is 3 already.... so Ned forgets all about dolls and pink doll strollers and is SOOOOOO much "boy" (he hasn't forgotten Tessa and Sienna though, we looked through some photos and he got really excited when he saw those two:o) )

As a true boy he also learned a very important boy word: Bagger!!!!! Don't worry, I don't teach the kid swear words, but bagger is actually the German word for "digger":o)))) And he truly loves diggers and trucks and stuff.

Isn't it funny that such a small person can be so precise and determined and full of character??? Well, I wrote earlier about his red shoes, which are still very much loved, but now he has another new article he was VERY persistent to have: new sunnies!!! We went shopping the other day and I saw those kids sunnies, and as I had to throw away his old once I thought to try some on him.... well, he wasn't so excited about the yellow one nor the red one, but then I put on a blue and white one and he liked it very much.... when I took them off him, he let the entire shop know that he was VERY displeased with me. I had to put them straight back on, inclusive the big price tag thing and a little booklet which hung of it (I was able to remove these once we were back home). Well, and then yesterday we went for a walk... it was raining, so he was dressed up in his wellingtons, rain jacket and rain pants... AND his sunnies!!!!! He would NOT take them off, even afterwards inside the flat.... now the sunnies are an item to be hidden from his sight while we don't need to use them, or else they might be the reason for one of his wonderful tantrums:o)))))

Holiday at mum'n dads... aka Oma and Opa

It is pretty handy to have the grandparents around!!! Today we went into town and Ned fell in love with a pair of sneakers. They are bright red and the brand name is "Kangaroos". Well, they were on sale and the only pair in his size so I tried them on him... and he would not let us take them off again... so Oma was more than willing to get them for him.... his Rossi boots do get very snug and new shoes are needed. Well, after he got up from his afternoon nap he went straight for his new shoes!!!! Whoever says the love of shoes is only a feminine thing is definately wrong. Ned LOVES shoes:o))) Not only his own but he also loves wearing ours!
But he is SUCH a boy in sooo many other things... balls, throwing, stones, sticks, pressing buttons, you name it, he does it :o)))) His two new "loves" are the Makita drill and the fork lift/lawn mower. He found the drill in the spare room and knew exactly that he needed to press THAT button to make it work. And Opa took him for a drive on the fork lift as well as the lawn mower (unfortunately I didn't have my camera with my)!!
Well, but he also loves flowers. Today he played a nice game which involved flowers as well as rocks. He ran down a tiny hill just here on the property of the school were my mum and dad are living. There he picked up a rock, threw it up the hill, ran after it, on the top, he picked a flower, ran down again, put the flower in the grill of a car, picked up a rock, threw it up the hill, ran after it, picked a flower, ran down.... you get the picture, eh???? IT was great fun watching him, we just had to make sure he didn't throw the rocks at the car or put them in the grill (the other day he put a rock in the wheels/rims or whatever you call those things where the tires are on, and I couldn't get it out again, hmpf!)
Now the question remains, whom does Ned miss more... Mr. G or Dad... he neither asks for the both of them most of the time, but when he sees a picture of a giraffe or of Ben he says either "geigei????" (which means "giraffe???") or "Daddy!!". It has been 5 days now without Ben and only 9 days until he comes back. And Mr. G has been gone for two days, and the good news here is, that I found identical Mr. Gs on ebay, so I'll get a couple:o)))

Mr. Giraffe is gone!

Well, Ned had 2 favourite toys: Hermie, his beloved teddy bear and Mr. G, his DUPLO giraffe. That giraffe, I tell you, tried to escape soooo many times already. Once it "jumped" over the railing into the water but could be rescued again. Another time we visited an old lady with Alzheimer and Ned tucked Mr. G in her blanket before leaving. We only realized someone was missing on the way back in the car and had to turn around. But, yeah, now it finally really has happened, Mr. G is gone, without a trace:o(((((. We went for a nice spring walk to the shops and when coming back he was gone. Bye bye giraffe, you were a good and faithful friend and I truly hope that Ned will be able to sleep and live without you, although he's asking for his "geigei" (giraffe). If you happen to have a spare giraffe you're not really attached to and don't need, we'd be more then happy to give it a new home:o)))

Well, not only Mr. G is gone, Ben is gone as well (but he'll come back in 1 1/2 weeks!!), which leaves me alone with offspring. To be honest, I was a bit scared of entertaining a 1 3/4 year old all day by myself and the first day started off REALLY badly!!! I had a screaming concert for one hour just after breakfast over NOTHING and again for quite a while after his afternoon nap. Great start of being alone with him for two weeks, but the next day was the exact opposite. We went for a walk and he didn't want to sit in his pusher and walked all the way into town. I was so impressed with the little fellow. The ships office wives met in a cafe in town which was really nice and my little "angel" played all the time peacefully in the toy corner. Unfortunately on the way out he tried to steal some plastic Ester eggs from some decoration in a corner and fell down, headfirst, a couple of steps and broke the fall with his adorable little nose.... but he's fine, only a couple of scratches remind us of the fall... but it truly looked spectacular!! And he even got a little plastic toy dog thing which is quite high in his esteem now already (so, maybe Mr. G will be replaced by Mr. D??)

Spring has arrived as well which is really good. The air is so fresh and wonderful and we go for walks sometimes even twice a day. Slowly offspring also discovered that feeding duck is fun and if we head in that direction he says "Quack quack" and is rather upset with me if we don't turn off towards the ducks....

Tomorrow I'm heading back towards Heilbronn to stay with my parents for a couple of days.... it is just REALLY nice to have other people around who enjoy entertaining a almost 2 year old... I do run out of ideas at times:o)))))

WHY, oh why...???

WHY does it have to be so confusing??? Okay, first we were hoping the Doulos would go on in her ministry (when we were still on board), then we were hoping we could sell her, and someone else would preserve her, then we got used to the thought of her being scrapped, after that we were hoping for her being scrapped and now?? Now she'll be preserved after all... gash.... and she won't even have a big and grand final voyage because she'll be staying in Singapore and had her "final" voyage already: from Keppel Bay, guess where, to a ship yard... again!!!! This all makes me way too confused and I don't know what I should think nor feel. I mean, in a way it's really cool for her to be able to be used a bit longer, but it would be strange to visit her some time in the future and not being allowed to wander around the ship freely. The hand over is planned for the 18th of March, and then OM and Doulos will part ways.... that's a first... normally they kinda run them aground :o))))

(I hope they don't want my cabin number back which I unscrewed and took with me as a souvenir.... but I did ask before I did it!!!)

Washing machine blessings....

A couple of days ago I wrote how I was lamenting in front of my mum's washing machine... now I can rejoice about our own new "old" washing machine.... GOD truly is good and provides for our needs. I wasn't even "brave" enough to really pray for a washing machine, but he provided one for us anyway. A couple from the office will leave Mosbach end of March to move to Sweden to serve God there in their retirement, and we'll get their washing machine... YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe I should mention to Him that we need a fridge with a freezer as well??? :o))))

I am truly grateful to our provider God. I do not want to "abuse" Him as a "prayer-machine" (you drop in a prayer in the top and pull our the answer in the bottom), but the same time, He rejoices if we come to Him with our needs, however big or small they might be... isn't that amazing???? The creator of heaven and earth cares if we have a washing machine or not.... that kinda blows my mind....

I'm off to bed.... night, night

The joys of parenthood

A couple of days ago I came to a point when I asked a random stranger, if he wanted to buy a kid, which, off course he declined politely, due to the fact, that said kid was lying on the ground and screaming his head off.

It all started with my desire to do something nice together with said kid. Meaning, I thought of feeding the ducks with our over production of bread which was a result of the fact, that baby eats brain: I am even more forgetful than normal and do silly things like not putting the yeast in the bread dough or too much salt in the bun dough. Somehow offspring didn't get it, that feeding ducks is nice, he just didn't want to come with me and started screaming his head of in the middle of the lawn outside the mill.... for 15 min. I tried everything to make him walk, I hid from his sight, I was stern, I waited for him to calm down... nothing helped.... in the end I walked up to him then he moved towards me and insisted of me carrying him. It ain't no fun to be pregnant and then to carry a 15kg toddler. I just can't do it.... so first I started to drag him, tried to make him walk and ended up carrying that little tyke to those stupid ducks (I mean, who wants to feed stupid ducks anyways....). Being there, he got the point that feeding stupid ducks really is fun and he enjoyed it... I didn't enjoy it so much anymore, because my mood-thermometer had dropped down a couple degrees. And then offspring decided he wanted to walk, unfortunately the wrong direction!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! And the whole thing happened all over again... that was the moment I offered him up for sale. Well, it didn't help, I had to drag/carry/make walk him back to the mill and the mood thermometer was minus 20 by that time. He had an out-time in his room (which he disliked greatly and protested loudly) and I had some chocolate (the mood went up a tiny bit).... after a couple of minutes we had our reconciliation and watched Winny the Pooh.

Well two days later I thought: "Let's try it again" (Not that those ducks deserve being feed anyhow) This time armed with a bag of stale bread, we headed of. We didn't get far. Offspring refused to walk into the direction I wanted to walk. Well, tell me what to do in situations like that. We don't HAVE to feed silly ducks, so I thought "Forget it!!" and Ned actually ended up eating the stale (but not moldy!!) bread himself. If it makes him happy to eat lumps of old bread, that saves us money buying expensive snacks:o))))

But then there are true moments of joy, for example on Friday. Ned and I went grocery shopping with a friend and her little daughter and while the mum put the car seat in, little Sofia cried bitterly. When both of them finally were tucked in on the back seats in their car seats Ned was holding Sofia's hand to comfort her. And after the shopping trip, while I unpacked the car he went to the sandpit and played all by himself for at least 1/2h, lost in his own little world

And as you can see on the pic, it almost looked like if spring had arrived. Well, we were wrong!! On Saturday morning we woke up to discover that it had snowed 20cm during the night!!!! YAYYYYYYYYY!!!!! Snow, just for us!!!! Everyone else in Mosbach longs for warmer weather, but we were thrilled and excited and went straight out to built a snow man (who didn't survive the day due to some juvenile hooliganism, this time NOT our kid). But now, we also are happy for spring to come, firstly because we have summer tires on our car, and secondly my winter coat gets, ummm, let me say.... very snug!!! :o))))

Funny little guy...

Kids really do have their own mind!!! Offspring for example just got brand new Wellingtons. He INSISTED on putting them straight on, here in the flat. He isn't really used to walking in Wellingtons though yet, so he walks in a very funny I-got-something-in-my-pants-way!!! Additionally he is "cooking" in the kitchen. I "gave" him one cupboard with a couple of pots and bowls and spoons, and now he's sitting in the kitchen, his boots on and cooking with his stuff on the floor... :o))))

Well, I just had to share with you:o)))