Our three week holiday was great - with our relatives really trying to think up things to do that interest Yannick! We did a lot of tram/underground spotting and riding, train and boat trips, going up and down lifts and elevators, playing with water features, building sand castles, going down a water slide, visiting a park with deer and hogs… Not bad at all. Thank you, Mama, Elke, and Karin!

At the same time Yannick has become really quite challenging, going wild at times, running around, still throwing tantrums, biting, pulling hair, pushing and chasing other children, trying to climb up on people. Is it pre-school that's to blame (I think he feels a lot more independent now)? Or simply the age?

Yannick's interests have widened too, he really wants to understand how life and things work. We had a long talk about what happens when people die. As I don't believe in any afterlife stories it was all about how our buried bodies become soil and plants can grow out of that. After initial unhappiness about the idea of dying one day, Yannick decided that he wanted to be an oak tree and was quite happy with that idea. He also thought hard about who he wanted to stay with if either mummy or daddy died (the other parent of course) and it was tough for him to voice his thoughts on that. In addition to this, he said to me that he will go and fly to grandma Gertrud the next time I shout at him. Equally if he shouts, I will have to do that too… This was another tough conversation, he kept starting to cry at the thought of leaving me. But it had to be talked about.

Oh, yes, while we were away, Frank built the rest of our new living room shelves/cupboards/tv unit. It's actually not as imposing as I thought it would be, so I'm quite happy. However, I'm surprised at how many of the little shelves are already blocked by Yannick's stuff…

… not sure what to think of them.

My child was so much easier to manage as a two year old. Before he could speak properly. Nowadays he finds new ways to send me over the edge every single day. The power of repetition, he's definitely cracked it. He also seems to cop on to the fact that being nice to people can earn you some brownie points. What did he say to me the other day? 'Mummy, you look pretty!' Then after a little pause: 'I am saying this because I love you!' Hm, what to make of this now? I'm sure the statement came out with the best of intentions but if he was a grown up, I would have smacked him! He also has learned how to charm the ladies at pre-school, he just takes their hands and leads them to the toy he wants to play with and they are chuffed by how sweet he is. But then their JOB is to play with him, so it's OK.

Pre-school and his new found confidence in English have definitely changed him. He can finally make himself understood (most of the time) and if over excitement doesn't get in the way, he's trying really hard to communicate his play ideas to other children. He's actually using German grammar in some English phrases, it sounds funny: 'I know that not' (I don't know). Unfortunately he's also joining in with all stupid loud and annoying games nowadays. He started to push a little for fun. Not so nice. And he ignores my 'NOOOOO's.

The good news is that he's finally properly out of nappies. We had a few bigger accidents in the first weeks but lately they get scarce and even the big toilet is not a show stopper any more. I don't even have to remind him all the time, he's quite a good judge of when to go.

To follow up on my last post, my eBay selling went well, I was happy with the result. However, we still haven't put together the remaining of our new Ikea shelves. I think I'll leave this to Frank for when Yannick and I will be in Germany. We are going there for three weeks and he can have all the fun with about 10,000 screws and other bits!

Oh, finally, here a recent drawing that Yannick did. And don't tell me you can't see what it is!

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.

Yes, guess what, another cold. Ever since before Christmas it's going this way:

2 weeks of cold.
2 weeks of feeling better (but never completely without slightly runny nose).
Then it starts again.

It seems to be different infections every time as they have slightly different symptoms. Some leave my sinuses alone, others go deep.

This one certainly did take over completely. It took me about five days to get out of the headache daze to finally be able to do something to help myself. A week later I feel more human again and manage to spend time with Yannick without getting annoyed with almost everything he does.

The worst thing about this cold is that it did have to turn me into Mrs Grump right while Frank was away for several days. I think my poor child didn't know what hit him at times… (no, I did not hit him).

I HATE COLDS.

Over the last days I've been looking at my LinkedIn profile and updated it. This is strange, as over the last two years this hardly interested me. I think my mind is trying to get ready for the upcoming changes when Yannick will start pre-school next year. Mind you, this is only in May 2009, and won't give me much more than three mornings per week without him.

Yes, what am I going to do with this absolutely huge amount of free time? Clean the house properly? Change my web site? Go clothes shopping? Sort through all our stuff and throw away loads of things? Clean up the back of the garden? These are all things that I would like to do sometimes, yet don't find the time for as they are slightly difficult to do with Yannick around.

More seriously, as at some point I would like to become a member of the working population again, I think I should look into some training to improve my web publishing knowledge. However I have no clue where to start and what would be really useful. Maybe I should start looking at jobs that are available in this area to get a better idea on where I need to catch up or improve. I can't say that I overly enjoy the thought of having to go to interviews. It's been a long time and the last times I was at interviews I was the person who conducted them.

I'm not sure even what kind of job I should go for. Do I want to be a supervisor again? Or rather be part of a team and just get on with things? Do I want to work from home or go to an office? Questions over questions and no answers in sight.

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On a lighter note, Frank has arrived back home today and is now snoring upstairs since 8:30pm. Yannick (who has been much better since Tuesday) was very happy that his favourite play companion was back. I sent them both out this afternoon, a) so that Frank would not fall asleep while playing and b) to be able to do some stuff around the house at last. Two and a half hours on my own did a world of good for me.

My partner has gone off to the US (Silicon Valley) for training - or so he said.

He flew out on Saturday. Today, during a phone call with him, I realised that his training is not going to start before tomorrow, Tuesday. So he's (insert swear word here) sightseeing in San Fran while I'm sitting here with a flue-y toddler who's very whiny and doesn't want to do anything. Especially not sleep in the morning when he would need it most. He's losing his temper very quickly at the moment about anything that doesn't work the way he wants it - and so am I when I don't get my morning sleep. This morning we argued about whether I was allowed to put a blanket over my body while Yannick was sitting on my lap feeling miserable. I was freezing in my nighty at 6:30am so I think I had a point. Not nice. Sigh.

Daddy won't be back before next Sunday. I just hope that Yannick feels better quickly so that we can enjoy our time without dad a bit more and make good use of the car that we have for once.

End of moan - or so I hope.

At work (some years ago now) we did this personality test and I came out to be an ISTJ, with both I(ntroverted) and S(ensing) being very close to the centre of the scale and the other two traits, T(hinking) and J(udging), being more stronger pronounced.
Yesterday I came across a free test of this sort on the internet so I thought I try again to see if I remember my letter combination correctly. Strangely it seems that I've changed into an extrovert…! Is it because I have less opportunity to chat to people than when I was working? I definitely have to be more outgoing nowadays if I want to meet new people.

When looking at the list of typical careers for this kind of personality, I definitely don't feel like I'm Mrs Interesting. Gah.

So Frank finally got round to installing the new operating system on our web server, yippee! I couldn't post anything until then as it would have had disappeared after applying the back-up that was done a while ago. And I was too lazy too (could've made a copy myself, couldn't I!). But now I need to get back into writing gear. Not so easy when you have a two-year old around who sleeps less and less.

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:

We have a new car, one that I'm not very keen on - yet:

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.

Gosh, it's been a month again. Where did the time go???

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!

First of all: Happy New Year!

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.

I am utterly confused by this habit of the British people.

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?

This year we made it down to the huge charity bonfire that is done every year in Winchester around 5 November (Guy Fawkes day). As it was done on Saturday it coincided with my birthday, which was fun as nothing else was going on that day. They even sang Happy Birthday for a girl who turned 12, so I could imagine it was for 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.

Ha, we are going to Germany this Christmas! Yannick's first trip abroad!

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!