I can only count to three...

... I've discovered just recently. The latest proof just happened on, or better just before, this little get-away trip to East Germany and Prague. I knew we'd be gone from Thursday afternoon until Monday afternoon, but my brilliant brain only counted: "Friday: one.... Saturday: twoooo.... Sunday: threeeee" and then it stopped counting. So we only had clothes for three days instead of four. Oh well, we SMELLED a bit on the way back home, but who cares :o)))
We had a really excellent time away. Although it didn't start out so nice:

• on Thursday morning I went for a little walk with Ced in his carrying cloth and when I came back home down the hill, just outside our house, I managed to stumble over my very own feet and almost landed flat on my face, with Ced being a little Ced sandwich in between. PTL that I managed just in time to put my arms out to catch the fall in time, so only I was hurt, and not Ced. I really can't remember the last time I fell like that, normally one stumbles but always manages to not fall. Falling like a felled tree really isn't nice. During the brief moment of falling so many thoughts go through ones mind, it's amazing that there is so much space in ones brain to think all these thoughts in such a tiny moment. It also wasn't very nice that I wore slippers and got some minor but VERY painful injuries on the top of my foot, especially when you then wear closed shoes, which you normally wear when playing the tourist in foreign parts.
• And Ben managed to get himself a nice expensive photo taken, although the main focus of the photo will be on our license number plate and not our faces.

But besides those starting hick-ups we had an awesome time. We stayed with friends in East Germany who normally live in Sydney (that Sydney in Australia, in case you wonder) so it was great to be able to catch up with them, especially meeting their REALLY cute and pretty daughter Rebekka (I wouldn't mind having her as a daughter-in-law some time in the future, hahaha)

After two days with them we headed off to Prague. For me, being European, it is so easy to forget, that there is still a border between the countries of the European Union and that you actually need a passport (or ID in my case). We almost forgot to bring Ben's passport, almost, but not quite :o))))

I am not a big fan of GPS, but honestly I wished to have one in Prague, or a good map. But we only had a lousy print out which didn't help very much and we got pretty much lost, BUT we made it to our hotel without too much delay. And finding it without a good map or GPS makes one feel really good and brilliant :o)))

Of course after checking-in in the early afternoon we soon headed off to down town Prague. There are SO many tourists, it is overwhelming and a thought slowly formed in my head (I could hardly believe myself), to get up after Ced's early morning feed and head to town at like 5am. And we really did. I got up early to go to town, ME, can you believe it???? But true, after we had dinner in the old city (and Ced puked all over Ben when I was quickly on the toilet, hahahaha) we went home for an early night and got up and ready and sat in the tram to town by 5:15am. And it was SOOOOOOOO worth it, no tourists, unless you count a couple of drunken left over tourists, and a beautiful sunrise. After that we went to bed again though :o))) (unfortunately they were renovating this "communism"-style hotel and when we tried to catch up on sleep they were hammering and drilling away... made me feel like being back on the Hope back in the days in Trogir)

Unfortunately my foot really hurt. Additionally to the injuries on the top of my foot, I had some painful blisters because silly me insisted on wearing her brand new shoes. AUTSCH!!! Soo, what did I learn in this weekend away???

1. learn to count to four
2. don't stumble over your own feet just before a trip away... as a matter of fact, don't stumble and fall at all
3. NEVER wear new shoes for a city trip
4. always do the touristy thing very early in the morning which results in nice lighting and no other tourists to bother you
5. take proper road/city map with you or a GPS when going to Prague, they really do not believe in road signs

Growing and maturing

I seem to have jumbo jets as children!!! Not only can they produce as much WIND as one of those, no, they can also take off like one, at least in growing (that's what I mean, off course they can't fly so they can't take off in that way). When Ned was younger (I can't really say "When he was little") he took off like a jumbo and looked always older then he actually was (he still does, but his growing rate has slowed down considerably) and now (not so) little Ced follows in his foot steps. On the check up at the doctors he proudly measured 63cm and weighed 6.2kg... that's 10cm longer and 2.4kg heavier than when he was born and it's way outside the normal size for a 6 weeks old. At least now I'm not worried that I'm over feeding him or something, but I know that it's just the way my kids seem to be, big, very alert and happy (and good sleepers, we average something around 5-7 hours at night, PTL!!!). I guess the only disadvantage of a big baby is that they are more expensive: they grow out of their cloths faster, drink more milk (which unfortunately I can't produce and have to buy) and when flying they don't fit in the bassonet thing by the age of 6 months (which doesn't have anything to do with being more expensive, but it's a fact none the less).



With Ced being a tummy sleeper there are certain benefits as well: his neck and shoulder muscles are so strong that he can lift his head for several minutes, no problem. Laying on ones tummy, I suppose, also helps with passing WIND (I tell you, a jumbo is almost nothing compared with my -not so- little fellow.... he happily farts away like a (not so) little farting cushion... hmm but maybe you don't wanna know :o)) (too late, I wrote it already) Talking about things you might not want to know, I share another little fact you actually might not want to know. Did you know that you can poo-condition babies???? It sounds crazy, but it really works!! Friends of ours told us about it, and with Ned being a super poo-er in another class we didn't want (not so) little Ced follow in his footsteps there as well. So we thought we give the poo-conditioning a go, and it really works. We started to train from when he was around 3 or 4 weeks. Every time we change his nappy at his feed time we lift up his legs and push the just very slightly onto his belly (mind you, we don't press the poo out, but just put him in a good "shooting" position). Even if he took a while to do anything, we'd keep him in that position and wait for a while, give him a little tummy massage and wait a bit longer. But after a couple times doing that he really started to poo when he was in this position, and now, for at least one or two weeks we haven't had a single poo in his nappy while the nappy was on normally, but only when we had him 'in position'. He wouldn't poo every every time we put him in his poo-position but he'd only poo when he was in the position, or he'd give me signals that it is actually time to de-poo, but normally it would always be during his normal de-poo-times in a break during his feed time.
*********** Hmmm, it is a couple of minutes since I wrote the section above, and just when I finished the last sentence I came to be convinced that my kids read my blog and want to prove me wrong. When I just finished the last couple of words of the last sentence, Ced, who was sitting on the edge of the table between my arms leaning against me, farted mightily like a machine gun and at the end of that went "PFFFFT".... and the poo was in the nappy. Great, just there goes my point!! Oh well, he did give me some signals which I didn't read correctly... but in 99% of the time the poo-conditioning does work (exceptions confirm the rule, as we'd say in German).
Ned is also maturing a lot. Having said that, I'm also convinced that he read my blog in the past, because when I wrote about him maturing another time, the very next day he produced some wonderful tantrums worthy of Hollywood, but still, generally he is SOOO much better and his vocabulary improves almost daily now. He's like a little parrot and tries to repeat everything you say. But he also starts to say little sentences, and they are sentences which melt away every parents heart: "Mama, lav you" and "Daddy come kiss" :o))))))
Yesterday I took the boys and we went for a walk in the forest. Ned did such a great job, he walked all the 1 1/4h and only needed a little encouragement towards the end (but we DO NOT bribe our kids, never!!) First he played with some big sticks laying around, but pretty soon he abandoned the big one for a tiny little one, no idea what he saw in that one and why he picked this particular one out amongst thousands of other tiny little sticks... oh the mysteries of the mind of a two year old.

That's the big stick:

And that's his new friend, the little stick:


So, they are both growing and maturing. The one who shouldn't be growing anymore is myself. Luckily I don't anymore, but getting rid off my extra baby fat is quiet a little challenge again (great, GETTING the baby fat isn't a challenge whatsoever). Luckily I do enjoy roller blading a lot which helps getting back into shape (a shape other than round, that is, and no, "wobbly" is not a shape). Unluckily roller blading is only possible when it is dry (aqua planing and roller blades ain't no good a combination) so I decided to start going running again (oh how I love running.. ahmmm, NOT) but anyway, while listening to an audiobook it isn't too bad. So today I started again, and I actually went running at 5 am..., do you hear me?? FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING... ME!!! I went RUNNING at FIVE in the MORNING, I almost couldn't believe it myself, but after Ced had his bottle I couldn't fall back to sleep and I thought, instead of wasting time trying to fall asleep I could use the time in a better way and I got up and dressed and ran my first 20 min (with a 3 min walking break in between) this year... I know it doesn't sound very impressive to you sporty people out there but for someone who doesn't like running and was pregnant up to 7 weeks ago and gained a bit too much while being pregnant it was pretty good (I will be sore and aching tomorrow but tomorrow takes care of itself:o)
Well, Ned is at his grandparents, in fact he will be with them until Monday, 6 days in total, because the rest of "us" are going for a little road trip over East to visit some friends near Chemnitz (Bine, Bekka and Antony if you'd like to know) and then go on to visit Prague. I hope mum and dad and Ned will be doing okay and that the rest of "us" won't miss our big boy too much.

learning through example

It is true!! Kids learn through observing mum and dad!!!! And then they copy you. I've noticed this common fact just recently again. Ned started to say the word: "Bummer!!" and he definitely learned that from me:o))) I guess I use it a lot. So now I have a two year old saying "bummer" when he plays "unfall" (accident) with his cars.

BUT I'm also sure that kids learn from other sources than mum or dad, totally undefinable sources, or how could he have learned to stuff little rice puff balls from his rice waffles up his nose??? Or even better, he tried doing that on Cedric today and he could not understand why mum got so cross!!!

Some of you might know our smart Swiss-invention-special-sheet in which we tuck Ned for bed times.... it is really great: he can sleep in a big bed, and can't fall out and you don't have to carry along a travelling cot where ever we travel, no, we just have our special bed sheet for Ned and that's it. Unfortunately our little smart guy discovered (already several months ago) how to unzip the zipper and "escape". Well, he doesn't really do it for his night time sleep, but it frequently happens for his nap in the afternoon. And this was the picture which presented itself when we got him up from his "nap": he peacefully played for plus 2h by himself, rearranged furniture (the table and chairs are normally in the bottom left corner) and read his books. Why can't he play peacefully by himself when MAMA wants him to play peacefully by himself because she has to fix dinner????? Oh, the irony of life!! :o)

Many firsts!!

This week has been a week of many firsts.

Ced smiled for the first time and want a BIG grin that was!




I went roller blading with Ced in his pram for the first time, it is a bit more work out than without the pram.

I had a hair cut for the first time after Ced was born (it feels great)

We went for a bike ride as a family for the first time (Ced in his car seat in a little bike trailer and my first time on the bike after giving birth)

Ced slept through the night for the first time, fully on, 7 hours straight, PRAISE THE LORD!!!! (Son, now our expectations are up, you have to keep on doing it!!)

And today I also felt like a real photographer for the first time. After I'd finished feeding Ced at around 6am I actually -for the first time- grabbed my camera and tripod, got in the car and drove to the river to do an early morning shoot (if you don't know, everyone who knows me also knows that I am NOT a morning person, so to go out at that time of the day is something like a little miracle) unfortunately it was almost too foggy to be able to make nice photos but that's not the point, I DID go out with the purpose to take photographs at SIX O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING!!!!





As well, for the first time, we got a nice computer software to play around with photos, ahm, I mean work on them, not play of course. So thanks to Photoshop and Lightroom I might be able to get some nice results of my morning shooting expedition :o)))



(But I did not use the Photoshop or Lightroom magic on this spider picture, the camera did that all by itself, no idea how, but it looks great doesn't it??? Although I do not like spiders, I must admit that God did an awesome job in creating them, wouldn't you agree??? Just look at the beautiful cross on its back, wow!!)

And last but not least, for the first time I tried a different way of transportation for my boys. It is a MUST for every German boy to own his very own bright red "BOBBY CAR", and so does Ned of course. So I sat him on his little speed machine, connected a rope to it, tucked Cedric in his carrying cloth and off we went to town. It was GREAT!!! Ned did such a good job and when he didn't want to scoot himself along I would pull him with the rope. At one point he actually got off the bobby car and faster than you can say "We're goin' to Bonnydoon" another little boy sat on it. Graciously Ned let him sit on it for a little while before we had to go on again. It must have looked funny, but we had lots of fun :o)))

YAY

In the last week there were quite some moments when I wondered: "Is this really my child??" And I was wondering over Ned, not Cedric. He seemed to have matured sooooOOOOOooo much in just the last one or two weeks, amazing.

For example a couple of days ago at Mc Donald's (not that we would EVER eat at Mc D's... hem, hem). This particular Mc D's has a kids play area outside and you have to go past it to go inside to get food, and in the past this proved already quite a challenge with Ned and we also had to make sure, once inside, to sit in a way that he couldn't see this playground through the window. This time I told him in the car: "Ned, first we eat and afterwards you can go and play". And without a problem he walked inside with us and ate without a fuss, although looking longingly to the playground outside. I was baffled but REALLY pleased with the change. He waited patiently for quite a long time and my heart swell up with pride, our little tyke is getting a big boy, wow. Then we went outside and he ran around the play things, which is basically some stuff to climb up and then you can slide down again. And my little big boy was so happy, especially because there were two other children, a boy and a girl two or three years older then him. My pleasure soon turned into "wrath". Those two monsters ganged up on my little boy and almost mobbed him, pulled his leg, blocked his way and stuff like that and he just wanted to be friends with them and ran towards them with this gorgeous smile on his face not noticing how awful they were to him. We told those bossing tykes off and they let him be reluctantly, just to boss him around again a couple of minutes later. The parents sat lazily at a table nearby, smoking I believe, and not caring whatsoever. I made a mental note NEVER EVER EVER EVER to be such a parent. Yes, I do agree that some things kids have to sort out by themselves but to gang up on a two year old is not one of those moments. If we had been in an English speaking environment Ben would have gone to them and let them have a piece of his mind, but in German it was too big a challenge for him (maybe it was a good thing!) and I was too mad to be able to be polite or objective to do it without crying or shouting. So we decided to leave, and Ned came with us without screaming or kicking but happily walking all by himself. Okay I admit I gave Ned a little lolly (no, we really do not believe in bribing our kids :o) ), but still, I was almost on the point of crying because I was SO proud of him and his behaviour (silly me, I know, but I am rather leaky lately, much more leaky then when being pregnant).

My parents had Ned for the weekend again and they also said that he had matured and didn't throw as many fusses and tantrums by far..... I am SOOO grateful to our heavenly father that he gave us the strength to work through this challenging time, and I know it isn't over and that there are still soooo many challenging times ahead of us, but I also know that God will give us the strength and wisdom if we ask him.

Time really flies, doesn't it?? Cedric is officially 4 weeks today. It starts to get confusing to tell his age correctly, do you know what I mean?? I mean, when he was just a couple of days you could easily say: "He is five days old." or even with a couple of weeks, then you can say: "He is 2 weeks" or "He is 3 1/2 weeks" but now he is 4 weeks which is not one month although you tend to think that 4 weeks is 1 month but it isn't, so he is 4 weeks today, on a Sunday, and he will be 5 weeks next Sunday but he will be one month next Wednesday, which is the 11th... do you know what I mean???? It always confused me with Ned already and people would ask me: "So, how old is he??" And I'd go blank... they must have thought I'm a complete weirdo, not knowing my child's age, ou well!!

P.S. Yesterday our visitor from the UK left to go back home and we got an email from her today saying that Ned had surprised her with his generosity and sweetness: upon opening her suit case after arriving at home, she discovered that he had put two of his toy cars inside...

P.P.S. Yesterday I also went roller blading for the first time in about a year, yay!!!! I missed it SOOOO much!!!! Baby fat, I declare war on you!!!!

Scatter brain

I love criminal novels, especially by Agatha Christy, but I discovered I would be such an aweful witness. I can't even recollect all my doings of today, no chance of remembering what I did a couple of days/weeks/months/years ago. I think part of it I can blame on the fact that I am such a scatter brain, or to phrase it in positive terms, that I am so multi tasking. To give you a bit of an idea of how much of a scatter brain ( Or multi task-er) I am, I try to retrace my doings as far as I CAN recollect them for today...

Well, I did get out of bed (I clearly remember that), I fed Cedric while watching Ned play, I had breakfast, then Cedric wanted a bit more milk and after that he went to bed.I started to do the dishes, then I remembered that I planned to make bread so I started to make the pre-dough for the bread and let it rise.The friend staying with us offered to take Ned for a walk, so I left the bread dough and went on to get Ned ready and dressed, packed a bag to take along and saw them off. Then I wanted to get dressed, got halfway through that and had to go to the toilet, then I noticed that the bathroom needed to be cleaned (at least a little bit) so I started that, half way through I remembered the dough and thought I'd quickly finish the dough so that it can rise, but Cedric started to cry, so I went in our bedroom and plugged the dummy. Baby continued sleeping and I noticed that I was still wearing parts of my pyjamas, so I finished dressing, then I saw the vacuum cleaner next to my cloths and remembered that I wanted to use the time while Ned wasn't around to vacuum clean (or 'hoover' as my English friend would say) so I got the "hoover" out in the corridor and was about to start when my eyes fell on the bowl in the kitchen with the unfinished dough so I quickly wanted to do that. After finishing the dough I noticed the dishes again, which still sat patiently in the sink and I started on them again but my brain started beeping and rattling and I realised what a scatterbrained scatter brain I am so I decided to write this blog before I forget. While busy writing the phone rang and I had a chat with a friend for a while... and now?? Now I'm half way through the time of Ned being gone, and the dishes are still sitting in the sink, the bread dough is still peacefully rising, the bathroom still halfway being cleaned, the vacuum cleaner still patiently waiting, my teeth still not being brushed (I just remembered) and the laundry also still longs to be washed... BUT I am dressed, the kids are dressed and fed and I'm in the middle of my multi tasking chaos..... so I shall go now and try to finish off at least some of the things I've started :o)))

I survived the first 1 1/2 weeks just fine!!

It is true, it worked out better then I hoped.

After the first day of madness, life got much more pleasant the rest of the week. Somehow Ned didn't have any REALLY big melt downs anymore and he shared "mum" willingly with Baby Cedric. And although living with a baby is still not as regular as the ticking of a clock, we have managed something similar to a "stretched out" routine, meaning that Ced has his milk approximately around the same time each day, which helps me to be a bit more structured and organized. Most days I actually managed to have both boys in bed sleeping/resting at the same time in the afternoon, which feels just great (supermum ambitions seem to surface again, haha) and I do have some "me"-time!! Honestly we seem to cope quite allright, not barely survive, thank you God. One big help is also that a friend of ours takes Ned for one morning a week, which is SUCH a blessing. This lady takes care of her aged mother with Alzheimers and apparently Ned had great fun pushing the buttons of "Oma's" hospital bed and move the bed aaaaaaaaaall the way up and then aaaaaall the way down and up and down and up and down.... not only Ned had fun but also Oma:o))))

But despitethe fact that we haven't had any major melt downs lately, I decided after the "black Monday melt down" of two hours length to get some helpful books on how to parent a strong willed child, and compared with some of the kids described in these books Ned is as gentle and mild as Mary's little lamb.

This week we have a visitor, a friend from our time on Doulos. She used to be Ned's fun deck teacher (and we still call her Miss Emily instead of just Emily). It is great having her around (not only because Ned loves her and she plays with him, hahaha). She said, that in the last 6months he really did mature quite a bit, which is rather relieving :o)))) Seeing him every day you don't notice changes so much. It was also interesting that he recognized her (I mean 6 months is quite a long time for a toddler). When she arrived he took her by the finger, pulled her into his "kingdom" and went straight to one particular toy box and got out "Mr. Potato Head" which was the toy he used to play with A LOT on fun deck (and which we were allowed to keep for him). It was just amazing to see the connection he made with (Miss) Emily and Mr. Potato Head :o)))

And by the way, don't underestimate the sucking-power of a new born (being 3 weeks is officially still considered new born). Babies tend to latch on whatever comes around their mouths and as it happened daddy Ben offered baby to suck on his nose, which baby happily did. Later that night daddy stood infront of the mirror and brushed his teeth when all of a sudden he saw this red spot on his nose. He came up to me and wondered aloud what it might be. I just gave him "THE" look and explained to him what happens if you let a baby latch onto your nose instead of a dummy. Slowly comprehension dawned on him: Baby gave him a hickey on his nose, hahaha!!!!