Ned meets Ced :o)

I wanted to post a little video here, but somehow it isn't possible to do that, hmpf.... Well, Ned has met Ced and he fell in love with baby. It really is tooooooooooOOOOO cute. The question is, how long will it last???? Ou well, I am grateful that he agrees to baby for now and isn't jealous or anything. So far we are doing good as a family of four, but there are really major adjustments to make, but that was expected :o))) We will be coping, but it needs time to get used to.

I just uploaded some pics to our web album (the link should be somewhere on this page) so you can check out our new little fellow!! I must say, our boyS (gaaaash, will I ever get used to that????) will not be able to deny that they are brothers, they look sooooooo similar, too funny.

That's Cedric just a couple minutes old....



....and that is Ned, truly brothers, eh????

I had more challenging things to do,

... then to watch the WORLD CUP 2010 grand final. And I should be in bed now, but am totally hyped up with adrenalin and endorphins, so instead I'm sitting here, drinking a nightly cold chocolate milk and update my blog.... I wonder if insanity runs my family somehow :o))))

Around the time when Spain became football world champion our baby decided to make an appearance. Funny, we were always joking about having a baby on the final and now it really happened, crazy....

Well, Cedric Jamie Wyatt was born on the 11th of July 2010 at 2257h (that's three minutes to 11pm), 3800g and 53cm, and whoever said that second births are easier then first ones is a liar. BUT the baby is here, I DID survive (although I yelled and screamed like a Turkish farm wife and almost strangled poor hubby) and we are actually home already. I am fit and fresh and a tiny bit hyped up AND should be sleeping now, but can't. Maybe I DID will out that baby after all, I am so very happy that he arrived on the weekend and that Ned was taken care off. He actually spends the night at Oma and Opas and will come back tomorrow morning

Well, night night, I'll try again now (now that the sun is starting to rise, hmmm)

Aaaaaaand still pregnant.....

.... and although it's only 3 days over due so far, I feel like getting desperate.... Isn't it totally weird and almost wacky that one LONGS for that pain to start? I just want to be over and done with it and have a cute little reward on my arm instead of in my belly, which I can pass on to others as well and don't have to carry around the entire time myself!!! :o))))
Well, I've tried quite a few things already to speed things up:

1. prayer - but I guess God's timing isn't always our timing, and he knows when the perfect time will be, even if I might not agree with him right now :o))))
2. Pineapple - it de-waters, which is really great (now my ankles are not all blown up anymore, yay!!)
3. Ginger - we just made a yummy new patch of ginger beer
4. cinnamon - apple sauce is DROWNED with it
5. walking stairs and up hills - it rather kills and exhausts me
6. biking - it really must look funny :o)
7. resting - nowadays thay say it is much better to rest then to wear yourself out

Well, I won't try grapefruit, as I really don't like it, and I am not desperate enough to go for castor oil, which is purely disgusting.... maybe some herbal tea.. but I don't like tea.... maybe some Chinese stretching exercise which will almost kill me by only trying it.... or maybe that baby will just come when it decides to come and I just have to wait until then (ou how I LOVE waiting!!!)

I guess my main concern is, that I get worried what to do with Ned tomorrow and the following days. It is really hot and humid here (for Germany), somewhere in the mid thirties, and I'm not very good with coping with heat... it zaps me out of energy and I just want to lay down and rest, but instead I have a toddler around who is pumped full with energy and hates me seeing resting. Plus if I don't go out with him, he goes gaga inside and we both get VERY irritated with each other. So my wishful thinking is that this baby comes TODAY!!!! unfortunately one cannot WILL a baby out..... very unfortunate!!! Or I would have WILLED that baby out already 3 weeks ago, hahaha!!!

Well, I sent off my boys to go to the park and cool down in the water play area there and will lay down myself and rest.... admiring my beautifully de-watered feet and wishing for this baby to come..... seeya later!!

Still pregnant...

... although it was due yesterday, Wyatt #4 seems to want to teach me patience. Well, to be honest, I didn't expect differently. I tell myself it can still take almost up to two weeks (although that thought almost makes me cry. I HAD ENOUGH!!!!!!). Temperatures are in their mid thirties and Germany isn't designed for these kind of temperatures, and neither am I. My feet started to take on elephantine proportions, BUT I found a cure for that: PINEAPPLE!!!! Man that stuff works and de-waters you like crazy.... which means you spend more time on the toilet, but at least the legs look in better shape (even if everything else is only in one shape describable: ROUND).

For my due day I planned NOT to sit at home and mope, but rather have nice plans, so I strapped Ned in his beloved bike seat and met my friend Karla and her kids in the swimming pool. Actually that was the first time ever for me to go swimming super-pregnant. :o)))

As it also happened, the 8th of July is also our "official" wedding anniversary, as you have two weddings in Germany, a civil and a church wedding, and the civil wedding was on the 8th, but the real one in our eyes was on the 10th of July. And of course we both forgot until the evening, then Ben brought back some flowers when I send him shopping with Ned:o)))

Now, that I am "over due" it is very annoying that I have to go and see the doctor every second day (ou what a joy, I love seeing doctors and I LOVE waiting up to 3 hours in the waiting room). So like a good girl I went and saw her today and she told me, that then in 2 days, on Sunday, I need to go to the hospital for the 2 days check up. I almost burst out in tears. I don't wanna go to the hospital for stupid CTs without having a reason, like baby is coming. On the other hand, if baby decided to come on Sunday I'll be more then happy to go to hospital and get over and done with it. I pleaded with my doc and she had mercy on me and I was allowed to have a 3 days check up instead of a 2 days check up and see her on Monday instead. I much rather would not have to see her (although I do like her very much), but I much rather would like to have a baby in between, but God alone knows when this will happen (I HATE waiting, did I mention that before???) I am also very grateful I am not on the ship at the moment, because the constant comment a hundred times a day: "WHAT??? You're still pregnant?????" ("Really?? I hadn't noticed!!") would have (eventually) made me a murderess. But living here in peaceful Mosbach I am only occasionally confronted with those remarks and in less quantity I can handle them without going psycho:o)))) I think what I struggle with the most is expectations. I expect it to be similar to the first birth: it was "only" 3 days late, it was quick and it wasn't as bad as I imagined. So now I start panicking myself with thoughts like "Gosh, what if they have to induce, like 2 weeks later??", "What if it is so much longer then the first time???", "what if it is a really bad birth, because I expected it to be 'easy'????", "What if...??", "What IF...?" and "WHAT IF....??????". They don't help at all, what ifs. They just drive you gaga. But sometimes I just can't help myself.

So, enough panic-thoughts.... a little funny story about offspring. Well, Ned's still a two year old and we still have tantrums and melt downs. Well, we had one in his room today where he just was NOT happy with mum. So mum decided to leave the room. And so that he couldn't throw it, she also took his juice bottle with her, which off course, he wanted to have back straight away. So I was sitting in our little corridor (in a comfy chair) outside his room and he was howling inside "drink, drink, drink", when all of a sudden, he opened up the door, threw out his beloved Hermie bear, closed the door again and then started howling "Hermie, Hermie, Hermie!!!". It just cracked me!!!

Well, I wished the next time I write something on here, it could be that baby has decided to come and that it wasn't bad and that I'm doing alright and that baby is healthy and a boy or a girl, but I shall be patient and use the time until that event and rest as much as possible, because who knows how much sleep and rest I will get afterwards

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Not that I have ever read "The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson -it is so NOT my kind of book-, but growing up one still "knew" about this book or the different movie adaptations. And lately I've come to the conclusion that Mr. Stevenson must have gotten his inspiration of Dr. Jenkyll and Mr. Hyde by observing two year olds.

I tell you, they CAN be the cutest things in the world, packed full with charm and smiles and cuteness that it almost overflows out of the ears. I mean, how adorable is it, if your little boy comes in with a bunch of "flowers" (other people might call them weeds, but they don't know what they are talking about) he and his daddy just picked outside.... or if he kisses you again and again and again and again (and again...) and then cracks laughing, just to make fun of daddy, who would like to have a kiss himself.... or to be TOTALLY excited about daddy coming home soon and then not letting daddy in but looking through the glass part of the door with a adorable but very cheeky grin :o))))

He can play very nicely all by himself in his room with his cars, his baggers, his trains, his books or his DUPLOs. He can play very nicely with other kids or with us. He can eat like a big boy without making a mess and eat like a horse. He can tell you LOOOOOOOOONG stories about who knows what (I don't get a word he says, maybe an occasional "Bagger", "Zug", "Car", etc., but it is still highly entertaining). He can sit peacefully in his bike seat and enjoy the breeze (while mum or dad get their exercise and sweat their butts off). He can play nicely in his blow up pool on the balcony. He can sit on his potty for 1/2h and read his books (without WANTING to get up). He can be cooperative and opens his mouth and doesn't make a fuss whatsoever when it is teeth brushing time. He can jump and bounce through the entire flat and dance his "Bagger, Bagger"-war dance before bed time and then clean up his toys without any complaint, but with much joy and excitement.

Wouldn't it be soooo much lovelier, if there was only "Dr. Jenkyll" in your two year old????

But unfortunately "Mr. Hyde" is always closer then you think. And I've got absolutely no idea whatsoever what triggers the transformation from Dr. Jenkyll to Mr. Hyde. Circumstances, moods, situations, food or whatever might be EXACTLY the same, but somehow the adorable little two year old is NOT, instead there is this highly irritating, immensely frustrating, extremely nerve-wrecking two year old little "monster". And these rather not so attractive displays of the "Mr. Hyde"-side of offspring are sometimes rather embarrassing in public (yes, I have been tempted to walk away and say aloud "Man, to whom does this naughty brat belong??? That mother did something seriously wrong in the raising of this kid".... alas, so far I have resisted temptation!!).

Well, one indication that Mr. Hyde took the lead is the reaction to the simple word: "No". I try NOT to over-use it, but there are certain things he has to learn, and a "No" is a "No" and it stays a "No". If Mr. Hyde is in the lead, the immediate reaction is "throw yourself on the ground and scream your head off", no matter where or if the ground is wet or dirty or whatever. And there he stays. If you try to pick him up, he just "melts down" to the ground again. Well, highly enjoyable, especially if you're out and can't just leave him there. It happened in the water play area in the park the other day. He was all Dr. Jenkyll when all of a sudden he ran away, and Mr. Hyde kicked in. In the end I had to pack "away" the screaming and kicking kid in the bike seat and ride my bike home with this "adorable" soundtrack on the back. It must have looked rather comical, to be honest. I mean, this really pregnant woman puffing away on her bike with a howling kid on the back who was also using his fists on her back. Well, Dr. Jenkyll DID take over again before I reached home, which was good, because I was on the point of boiling over myself (and not only because of the Mosbach June heat), but I kept my own Mr. Hyde under control, thank you Jesus.

Summer has arrived...

... finally even here in Mosbach!!! And it is GREAT to be able to go outside soooo much. Unfortunately it ain't no fun being 9 months pregnant AND it being hot!!!! But I am coping. Ned enjoys water a LOT as well. We went to the public pool the other day, which has a really nice kid's play area (and of course his own toys were of NO interest, but other kids toys highly desired, why is that ALWAYS the case???) and last weekend we used maybe our last chance of having a kid-less weekend. I dropped off offspring at my parents on Friday afternoon. He almost could NOT wait to finally be at Oma and Opa's. All morning Oma, Opa and car where the most heard words. While Ned enjoyed his time with them Ben and I went to Mannheim (about 1h drive away) and stayed at some friends for the weekend. Travelling without kid is SOOOO INCREDIBLY MUCH EASIER, unbelievable. I looked at the little bit of stuff in our car and could not believe that this is all. We had a blast of a good time, the girls going shopping (while Ben took a motorbike for a ride, which lasted only 20 min because the bike started leaking fuel), eating yummy burgers, having many good chats, having a BBQ at the river, watching two world cup games (wasn't that just BEAUTIFUL football??? sorry my English friends) AND going to the movies (Robin Hood, which they showed in ENGLISH, YAY!!!!).

I picked up Ned again only on Monday morning, and it was good for the heart to see, that he missed us a lot. He was very anxious to go and gave me such a looooong cuddle. It is good to know that he enjoys going to his grandparents, but it is even better to know that he REALLY enjoys coming back home:o))))

What to say, lah!!!

Well, time flies, but I'm still pregnant, and rightly so, baby isn't due until the 8th of July, but my patience is wearing thin. I don't want anymore, but no one asks me!!! Ou well, I guess I should just enjoy the time I have and take as much time for resting and sleeping because that will be limited and challenging after offspring#2 arrives. But to be honest, Ned wasn't very bad (he was such an easy going baby... what did happen then??) so I'm quite hopeful that #2 will follow his/her big brothers example (at least in this area) and sleep/eat/poop like a little champion.

Sometimes it almost freaks me out as well... I mean the thought that I'll be the mother of two soon. Being the mother of two always meant for me, that the mother should be a grown up and sensible and responsible woman herself, but, hmm, well... sometimes I feel such a kid still myself that I don't really feel up for the job of raising kids.... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Ou well, millions did it before me, so I will handle it too!!!!

I am SOOO much looking forward being able to lay on my back and/or my belly again, it is something I can't imagine anymore... or bending down without almost dying of lack of oxygen, man, fancy that... or paint my toe nails (if there happens to be time, hahaha) without almost dying with the effort.... or reversing the car and being able to properly turn around and see what's going on behind the car instead of just kinda guessing (so far I haven't killed anyone, yet)..... OR going roller blading again, I am SOOOO much looking forward to that, honestly. I don't know how fit I'll be after #2 arrives but I'm longing to be on my blades again (and after the first time I will be dissolved in tears because I really realize how very unfit and fat I'd become). You might have figured that I am one of those women who does NOT like being pregnant very much, and YES you ARE right!!!!! Just the other day Ben told me, that he had two different conversations with two different women and they both said how much they loved being pregnant!!!!!! Man, I AM happy I wasn't there, because they would have just earned a unbelieving stare from my side.... how can you LOVE being pregnant??? Maybe I'm just a very selfish person, but I think I want my body back and I much rather have a cute little poop-machine on my arm then inside me (although they don't poop inside).

What else happens on the Wyatt horizon???? Ned's vocabulary really improves. Many things he knows now in English and German, and the other day I even heard him translate something for Ben, hahaha!!!! Okay, it was only one word, but it was still very cute. We also had the great joy to go to a routinely check up to the paediatrician. Ned really loved the waiting room, but I really can't say that he loved seeing the doctor. He did NOT!!!! And he let us know that he did NOT approve of anything the lady did, be it looking in his ears or taking his hight or sticking a nasty needle in his arm. He was NOT impressed and very happy to escape afterwards. Well, no more routinely doctors visit for the next year or so, happy chap!! I can't say the same about me, because I'm seeing my doctor on a weekly base by now and if baby decides to be over due I'll have to see her every second day, yay (I just LOVE going to the doctor).

Ned still LOOOOVES everything on wheels. Of course Baggers are still his favourites, but tractors are also pretty high in the charts or buses or bikes or motor bikes or trucks or cars... Does it have wheels?? Then Ned LOVES it. We should actually write a letter of thanks to the Mosbach city bus company that they send a bus past our house twice an hour, because more often then not Ned hears the bus from far away, informs us that the bus is coming and ruuuuns to the window, climbs up on a box and watches the bus go by :o)))).He wasn't soooo excited about buses when we lived in Singapore and were even riding on buses, but I guess one is allowed to change, isn't it?? :o))))