It's been 6 weeks or so since my last post. It feels somehow that I have no time at all to write. All I manage these days is status updates on facebook. It doesn't help that I'm currently working on what must be the slowest laptop in the universe. My Sony Vaio broke down in May and it's not worth fixing (motherboard) so I'll buy something new very soon. I have an idea what to get but we've been buying a few other things recently so this will have to wait a little. Right now I'm on my old Toshiba Qosmio F10 which was broken too - but we were able to fix it by buying a used keyboard on eBay that luckily worked after Frank had put it in.

On other news my sister visited in May and my mum was with us in June (both staying for nearly two weeks each). Luckily the weather wasn't too bad on both occasions and we were able to do a lot of outside things, including several trips to the beach. I even got quite a tan - at least compared to my usual white skin. I also did a lot of gardening which I love. Unfortunately the last weeks were quite rainy again, so not so much outdoor fun any more.

I've finally made it to the new Ikea in Southampton. At last, after seven long years, we are not too far away from Ikea any more. I hated the fact that there was no Ikea at all in the whole of Ireland! Frank and I have bought new shelves/cupboards for the living room. So far we have managed to unpack one of the shelves and put all of Yannick's toys in there that were living in plastic containers on the living room floor. I'm in two minds about the whole affair as the new furniture will not be as 'charming' or 'warm' looking as our current messy pine furniture combination. On the other hand I was craving storage space and this should provide us with plenty of that. We also had to find something that was able to take the weight of our very old-fashioned non-flat screen TV and this combo does exactly that. At least Yannick seems to like the fact that he can get at his toys a lot easier than before, no more asking, mummy, can I have this or that.

About a week ago Yannick has started potty/toilet training. It's going ok, with some accidents as to be expected, but most of the time things are working very well. I think it was a good decision to wait for such a long time. I don't see the point to toilet train a child that simply is not aware of the fact that he has to go. Now he is (most of the time at least) and that's why the whole process works.

What else? The summer break has started. No more pre-school until September. It's nice as there is less time pressure and Yannick and I can just do whatever tickles our fancy, I was missing that a bit. On the other hand I'll be missing my time without Yannick too. But then, the break will be over in no time, especially as we'll also spend three weeks in Germany visiting the relatives.

Currently I'm trying to sell some stuff on eBay to make space in the garden and the shed. We've bought a huge sandbox for Yannick so his old sand and water play table will have to go, I'm also selling the old rocking horse, the climbing frame, a scooter that he doesn't like, and some other stuff that we simply don't need. Wish me luck that many people want these items to that the auction price goes up!

The photos are a bit dark but they show nicely how much Yannick likes to draw.