In some cases daddies teach their little ones these words - for example Frank. The other day I was in the supermarket and Yannick repeatedly said 'bollocks' with glee. He has no idea at all what this word means, he just likes the sound of it. To stop him I usually ask him to repeat other complicated sounding words, like 'abracadabra' or 'locomotive'.

There is one word that I cannot stop. It's the German word for digger. It's 'Bagger' which is pronounced exactly like 'bugger'. So if we are at a playground and there are toy diggers about you will hear both of us say 'Bagger' quite often. Tough luck.

'Dump truck' is another case of involuntary profanity. The first time I asked Yannick to say this in English, he had trouble with the 'tr' bit of 'truck' and said 'dumb fuck'. I thought it was hilarious.

On that note: congratulations to Stanley and Nicola who just had a baby girl this morning!!!

In my heart of hearts I would love a second one too, and a third one even. However, when I think of the work involved I shy away from the very idea of having just one more. Frank seems to be quite happy with just one, I don't think he wants to go through all that baby trouble again. And I do understand that perfectly, especially as the nights with Yannick are finally getting better. If we had another one as attached as Yannick was, I would not be able to cope on my own at all. But then another baby could be a completely different personality… And it could be the girl I always wanted! This is so hard. Sigh.

All right, here we go, some of Yannick's favourites:

Trucks and diggers

Well, I could have put about 20 other vehicle related books here. Yannick loves anything and everything about trucks, diggers, tractors, trains, motorbikes, etc. - as long as it has got wheels it's interesting. And in addition to the vehicles he also likes to hear about the occupations of the people driving them. Firemen, digger drivers, all great hits!
This book in particular is a nice book as it encourages play. There are ten vehicle magnets that can be used and I've found Yannick moving them along telling himself the same stuff that I used to read out or make up for him previously. Him playing with this by himself gives me a bit of a break - hooray!

Peppa Pig's car ride

OK, another vehicle book, but this is slightly different to the one above as Yannick has two other Peppa books and he loves them all. It's a bit beyond me why but who cares!

Five little ducks

Ever since Yannick was about eight months old he's been to Sing and Sign and when that was over we started with Jo Jingles. It seems he loves music and has even started to sing English songs (like 'Ba ba black sheep'), despite not having a clue (at least that's what I think) what the words actually mean. Therefore he liked this book from the beginning. He's liking it even better now as I've recently started singing this with German words (my own translation). He really got into the story now, telling me every time that mama duck is very sad because her babies disappear, and when they are back he saying she's happy again.

Wir sind jetzt vier

As we are speaking only German at home you can imagine that German books are high on our wish list for books for Yannick, and we are taking anything and everything people bring along. This was one of the presents we got and a surprise hit. The title translates as 'We are four now' and the type of story represents a whole group of books about what children do or how their families grow. Yannick finds these very interesting and I had a great opportunity of explaining to him that he used to be in my belly!

Guess how much I love you

We have the German version of this book and Yannick is intrigued by it as it seems. I like it loads as it's about loving each other and talking about that. Apart from that it's just a lovely story.

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Now, who am I going to tag? I could only think of one person at first, Simon, but then I stumbled about the fact that James' and Natalie's web site has become a blog - yay!

When I look at those soft baby arms I just want to cuddle him!!!

What happened in the meantime?

Yannick and I went to Germany for five long weeks. We stayed in Hanover with my mum and also my sister, and a couple of days in Berlin to see Frank's mum. At the beginning it was still really cold and we had snow, which Yannick loved! We had the mother of all colds (I mean it, my mum is still recovering from it two months later…!), but otherwise we had fun being in a German language environment. Even though Yannick was speaking loads before we went there, I think it boosted his confidence to have more people around him that he could understand and who would respond to what he was saying.

Once we were back, I decided that it's time for Yannick to sleep in his own room. That was quite successful - to a degree. He's definitely waking up less (that started earlier this year) but the early morning hours are still a problem. So I usually end up sleeping with him in his bed (single bed size, I was thinking ahead when we bought that!) from 4 or 5am. It's a bit cramped but at least I can stretch out. I definitely don't want him to come back with me to my bed as that wakes him up more than me lying down next to him. In time this will sort itself out. I've even been out one evening, for a couple of hours to a pub with my mum friends (see below), so things are definitely changing!

In the first two weeks back here, we had yet another tummy bug and then the obligatory cold. The good thing was that Frank had ten free days before starting his NEW JOB and we were able to share all of these lovely predicaments very fairly between us. Yannick loved seeing his daddy after such a long time without him (well, not completely without him, as Frank visited us twice for a couple of days in Germany) and the two of them played beautifully.

I finally got to buy myself a bicycle with a child seat. I needed a new one with plenty of gears to get around this place, there is too much up and down here to get on with just three. Yannick loves being on the bicycle despite that strange thing that's called a helmet! Now we can whiz into town within ten minutes, yay!

We didn't do much since we are back, but we went to see Marwell Zoo with our friends Gayle (mum) and Bella (daughter) and also to Hillier's Garden with the same people plus another mum (Chris) and her two children (Joshua and Georgia). We had good weather both times and loved it.

Then I decided to get some new furniture for Yannick: a bigger wardrobe (man, that child has a lot of clothes!) and a shelf to go with it. Now Yannick's room looks more like a teenager's bedroom (if you disregard the stash of nappies), but I like it. He's growing up fast.

I also got someone to put up some new blinds on our top floor windows. They were much needed as the afternoon sun is heating up our bedrooms like crazy. I'm very happy with those too. Yannick's got a blackout blind, the bathroom now has a white blind that doesn't heat up like the dark blue one we had there from the previous owners, and the two big bedrooms have got wooden Venetian blinds.

Finally my child is teething again. It was coming for a long time, with pangs of pain showing up every now and then for the last months. I think the last set of teeth (eye teeth) arrived in the middle of 2007, so it's been a very long time. Only the other day I've noticed that one of the last molars has finally made it out. Only three to go now!

Tonight Yannick has been eating rice with king prawns and wanted sweet chilli sauce with them, basically just like we ate them. Surprisingly, he wanted more. He's still living mainly on a diet of bread, rice, and pasta, but every now and then some other things creep in. I'll have to make a point about getting some more vegetables into him but as he's teething he's not the greatest eater at the moment anyway. You just can't force them.

Oh, I nearly forgot that we celebrated two birthdays: Yannick turned two and Frank 38. Yannick heard the 'Happy birthday' song so many times (also for other children), that he's attempting to sing it himself! He also keeps telling me that he got certain things for his birthday and when I ask him how old he is, I get to hear 'two hairs' (German 'zwei Jahre' sounds like 'zwei Haare' coming from Yannick).

OK, post done. Now all I need to do is sort through about a million photos that I took since November and publish them. Oh hum…

Here's a photo I snapped in February, not believing my eyes:

I don't know what's wrong as I don't dislike the colour, the shape, or the make. The only thing I really don't like is the spoiler. I think it's just a combo of how it all works together: it looks poky, like a car for a guy who wanted a much more powerful sports car and just couldn't afford it.

Maybe I'll change my mind once I've actually driven it.

Or maybe I'm simply only in the mind state for a proper family car, an estate… Sigh.

We recovered well from that stomach bug, Yannick was so hungry after a week of starvation that he started to eat his banana porridge in the morning all by himself and within a record five minutes. Needless to say that this stopped as soon as he had put on a little weight again. We are back to playing with a book or puzzle while feeding, taking roughly 15 minutes. Oh hum.

Now we are battling with yet another cold that for Yannick is accompanied by a nasty night time cough. Frank is also coughing like a mad man. For some reason I am spared this fate - so far. Yesterday I got a whole bag full of cold medicines to get us over this latest patch.

The weirdest thing is that Yannick actually managed to sleep a whole night through just before the coughing started. I was shocked and hoping for more, but as you've just read that hope was futile.

About ten days ago Frank had an accident with our car and it was a total write-off, meaning the repair was more expensive than the whole car. Frank didn't hurt himself at all and the other car apparently wasn't much damaged either. Now we are without a car which is strange. I'm hoping we'll have a new one soon.

Another three weeks and Yannick and I will be in Germany - for five weeks altogether. I'm looking forward to that. Wish us nice weather!

It's getting bad when he has one of those nights where he wakes up and can't go back to sleep because he has what seems to be a blocked or stuffy nose. Then it can easily take one or one and a half hours before we are both back to sleep and it's me who's completely grumpy the next day. This happens on about 50% of all healthy nights.

It's getting really bad, when Yannick has a proper cold. Well, guess what, we've had a set of at least three consecutive colds ever since we went to Germany and came back. No break. Waking up about every two hours…!

And it's getting to panic level when we are also having a tummy bug going around. Imagine me trying to sleep, exhausted already, waking up feeling sick, noticing that Yannick is also waking up, trying to look after him so he goes back to sleep, and at the same time trying to fight the sick feeling. Not possible. After that waking up at least every hour because one of us has to be sick or just feels bad. Not to mention having to change bedsheets after the first incident, still feeling sick.

The last scenario is what we had on Friday morning and Yannick was still sick once a night to Monday. All of this just after the three colds. I was absolutely shattered and just wanted to sleep for three years or so. I'm still tired but last night was back to normal (see description at top).

Regarding the stuffy nose problem we actually went to see an ENT specialist today (after about 1.5 months waiting time). I didn't expect much and I was absolutely right not to. The doctor said that our little boy is just fine and that the problem is nothing that won't go away as he grows. Apparently his adenoids are a bit bigger than normal but as children grow their airways get wider and then this won't be a problem anymore. Gah!!!

After two weeks in Germany I feel completely out of synch with home. First of all we are still on the wrong time - but somehow the wrong direction. Germany is an hour ahead of us so in theory 8am over there is 7am over here. However, instead of waking up at 7, we are up at 8:30 or 9 even.This is very strange. On top of that, late getting up means late naps. Today was not too bad, but yesterday, Yannick decided he was tired by 3pm and no earlier.

The first evening back, New Year's eve, we spent at a friend's house. This was a first with Yannick and felt odd too. By half past 11 I felt so tired I just had to go home.

Then our phone didn't work until yesterday afternoon as some stupid person dug a hole in front of our row of houses and cut the phone cable. This meant no internet. I felt very cut off after a week or so without internet at all.

I am also missing all the people we used to have around us for two weeks: Oma Gertrud, Elke, Edgar, Felix, and Oma Karin. Even though one evening in our own home on our own for once was very nice, it feels lonely through the day.

Finally, after two years of shift work Frank started to work normally again. There will be no more 12-hour day or night shifts and he'll work just like everybody else from Monday to Friday. This is also strange as he was home by 5pm yesterday which we are not used to at all. Mind you, I liked it!

Hopefully by next week things will start to feel normal again.

In January we have an appointment with an ENT paediatric specialist but I doubt that this person will be able to help us with our troubles. How can you avoid both, teething related stuffy noses and colds? It's impossible. At least we only have four more teeth to come. Sigh.

OK, for my sake he could have slept longer - but for him this is sensational. He woke up once, only to go back to sleep seconds later without wanting any milk.

I only helped his sleep a little bit by giving him Tixylix and Ashton & Parsons powder when he went to bed because he's got a cold and a very stuffy nose. However, the effects of this wear off pretty quickly with him, after two to three hours. So the little man really managed to have a wonderful night's sleep more or less on his own!

So we take a look at the photos every second day or so and I tell him the names of the people on the photos. Then I ask him where is 'X', e.g. 'Elke' (my sister) and he more or less successfully points them out.

He also started trying to say their names. This is what I get when I ask him 'who is this':

Yannick - points to himself
Oma Gertrud (my mum) - Oo-ma! at first, but now some stuff that sounds vaguely like Gertrud.
Oma Karin (Frank's mum) - At first this Oma was accepted as Oo-ma! too but then I got more than just once: Mama! This is a bit worrying!
Elke (my sister) - Ette
Edgar (my sister's partner) - Edda
Nico (my nephew) - You guessed it: Noni

I was astonished! I got together a list of 40 different things (words, animals sounds, and signs) almost immediately and then the following day another 20 or so came up, it was just amazing. Some words are always signed, some are done by sign and word, and most are nowadays simply spoken words. He learned almost all of this during the last two months! In addition he's coming out with new things every day, trying to repeat words I say as well. OK, not everybody would know what he's saying as it's still pronounced in his baby way, but I know exactly what he's on about in about 95% of all cases, simply by context and paying close attention.

I told our Sing & Sign teacher today how much he communicates and she was well impressed as apparently for a child of this age an average of 10 words is expected by the health visitors. We talked about this as our teacher was wondering about his command of English as he always seems to know what she wants of him. We are only speaking German at home so that's a very legitimate question. Well, he's watched those English language Sing & Sign DVDs up and down almost every day (one per day!), so something is getting stuck in his little head. He even started to say bye bye now (instead of the German version, tschüß). The weird thing is that Yannick didn't seem to take in much of the signs (and words) at all before well into the second season of the Sing & Sign classes, and now it's all happening at once.

I love this speaking thing, it's so much fun!!!

Everybody knows the Brits are driving on the left, while continental Europe is driving on the right. Back home in Germany I not only learned to drive on the right, but also to walk on the right. I always assumed that would be same here, meaning you drive on the left and walk on the left. Well, it doesn't seem like that.

I really don't care too much about this when I am out on my own, but whenever I am out with the pushchair and try to keep to the left there are people coming from the opposite direction who don't take any notice of me and that big ship: I have to move out of THEIR way. This really annoys me as the pushchair is quite heavy with Yannick in it and I would expect them to be a bit more considerate. But on top of that annoyance I have this niggling feeling that I simply don't understand the road rules properly. Can anybody enlighten me?

Anyway, there was a massive crowd, the guy on the microphone said there were about 20,000 people. I carried Yannick in the pouch as that was much easier than to navigate a pushchair through the masses. I also figured that he would prefer that, thinking of him hardly ever being outside when it's dark. He was fascinated by all the torches and the people but didn't pay too much attention to the actual bonfire.

After half an hour of bonfire we decided to leave (I had my mum with me) and watched the 20 minute fireworks from outside of our house. It was lovely but you just wonder how much it costs. The whole show was put on to collect money for charity so at least all this money wasn't burnt in vain.

We, finally, finally went to get a passport for Yannick. This involved a two hour trip to London (and two hours back of course!); the German embassy is in Knightsbridge. Yannick did really well, he never complained and even slept a little on the tube.

As we were three adults (with Oma staying at the moment) trying to save some money, we took the car to Heathrow and left it there, and then took the tube to Knightsbridge. That's still loads cheaper than buying peak time train tickets for the three of us. We didn't bring the pushchair, instead I carried Yannick in the pouch when necessary. We arrived at 11am, which was good, as the doors of the embassy close at 11:30am. After having stayed there for about an hour, we had lunch at the old tourist trap around the corner, at Harrod's. That was all we did as Yannick got tired by that time and we reckoned he'd sleep well on the tube. Which he did.

That was on Wednesday. Frank and I were really surprised when the door bell went today (Friday) and the passport actually arrived! All done and finished, wow, lightning speed by German authorities, completely unheard of!!!

Apart from that Yannick is enjoying having another German speaker around. Before his granny (Oma) arrived, I showed him a photo of her every single day, telling him that this is Oma and that she would visit soon. The day before she arrived I asked him who the person on the photo was and got a loud and clear 'O-ma' back. I was so surprised as he never said that before. So of course when Oma was finally here, he knew she was Oma instantly. Really nice. He's talking loads more, things like bread (Buh->Brot), cheese (Dehs->Käse), biscuit (Dehk->Keks) are all very important and he has his own German baby language version of them. And very importantly, he also has learned to call me Mama when I am around or he wants to find me! So nice!

The other day I had a lie in and when Yannick came back from his morning excursion he started looking for 'Mama' - ha, finally!!! He isn't really using that word much, but then I am usually around, why should he have to ask for me?!

We didn't really do much with Yannick apart from our usual stuff (morning excursion with daddy, afternoon entertainment by mummy, e.g. visiting other mummies), but we did go to a farm and the zoo. Now that he is walking these trips are so much fun for him.

I really need to update my photo gallery, but every time I touch this computer I am magically drawn over to COLOURlovers.com, which is my absolute favourite hangout these days. Addicted, I admit it.