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.

As hot as it was yesterday I had Yannick out in the garden in the paddling pool - butt naked.

We splashed about a little to cool off then he started playing with some toy and I went into the kitchen. Five minutes later he came in and said 'there's poopoo'. Oh? Poopoo? Bird poopoo? Cat poopoo?

I went out with him and asked 'where', he said 'there'. I still didn't see anything and believed it must be some animal poopoo. I asked again and finally after some finger pointing I managed to spot the tiny heap of poopoo in a corner on the patio, together with a little puddle. This time he said 'done poopoo' and after a little break 'I think?' which made me smile.

What is a mother to do? I can't tell him off as he actually told me he did it - normally he never says anything. In any case it wasn't difficult to clean up - much better than in a nappy!!! And maybe he's finally getting more aware of his bodily functions which is a vital step to start potty training at some point. So, actually, well done, Yannick!

This might be a bit of TMI for some of you, but I don't care, this needs posting!

F I N A L L Y - we've managed to stop: Yannick has been weaned. At the grand old age of 26 months! His last drink of mummy's milk was on the morning of 1 July.

My days as a toddler feeding weirdo are over. YES!

However, I do not regret that we went on with this as long as we did - and there was certainly nothing weird about it all as it was just a natural progression. He was just too addicted to falling asleep at the boob (lucky little boy!!!) and would have not understood why we stopped if we did that any earlier. At this age I was able to tell him that mummy's milk needs to rest too and bit by bit he has learned since we were back from Germany that he can fall asleep without his favourite dummy.

There is one big drawback actually: now it is really hard to get him to sleep during the day so I think our days with nice longs naps are over too. Well, you can't have your cake and eat it.

Personally, profanity doesn't bother me much. I think it's just words and the value they have is attached by the listener/user. If you can't do a debate without using such words, this just means your debating style is really poor. And if children like to say words they shouldn't as they are taboo, it's usually because they sound interesting - well, not surprising really, as they are most of the time (if not always) used with a lot of stress! They stand out. No need to make a fuss, at this age (two) distraction is usually enough.

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.

Before you get any ideas, no, I'm not pregnant! But that's what all this is about, other people are having a second child or trying for one happily and I'm sitting here not knowing what I want.

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.

Oh my, I've been tagged by Solveig for a meme! My first time!!!

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.

———

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!

What can you do as a mother but love your children as they are! I'm in love with this photo of father and son:

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

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:

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!

Sometimes I wonder how I deserve this… Yannick is 21 months old now and still not able to sleep through. This in itself is not as bad as it sounds, as I can get by on about 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night as long as he doesn't wake me more than 2 to 3 times and if those incidents only last minutes. Yep, that's right, that's more than most people could handle without feeling completely sleep deprived.

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!!!

Of course after the great night we had the day before, last night was the normal stuff. Yannick woke up about five times with a stuffy nose and had trouble going back to sleep. By six I felt so not rested that I gave him Tixylix and we slept another two hours. The drawback of sleeping 'late' (never thought I would call 8am late…!) is that Yannick then won't do a daytime nap - but he will go to bed early!

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.

For the first time ever my child slept through! This is unbelievable! From 8pm to 5:25am!

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!

I've put a photo album together with photos of our relatives in Germany, so that I can teach Yannick who they are before we get there. Even though he's seen my mum, my sister, and my nephew before he's not very likely to remember them all. Maybe my mum, but not the others.

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

After a conversation with a mummy friend about how many words her daughter knows I started noting down all the words and signs Yannick comes out with. Not to compete, simply because I like to make lists for a start and I was also interested in keeping this information. If I'd waited any longer, I would have forgotten.

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!!!

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!

We had a great September - Frank was off for the whole month (minus one day)! He took out Yannick every single morning and they went to the playground, with Yannick walking part of the way. Now daddy is at least as popular as mummy, which I find great, as it gives me a bit of a break.

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.

OK, OK, OK, OK, I admit it, this is not much to complain about, but I feel rejected! *sniff*

Yannick seems to have discovered words. Since yesterday he seems to have copped on that when he says 'baba' or 'papa' we think he says 'Papa'. He also makes a sound like 'anni' which could mean Yannick for all I know. However, he does not say 'mama' and means ME - the person who has been sleeping only six hours on average almost every single night since he is in this world and who fed him gallons of mummy's milk.

*sniff*

Last week our friends Nicola and Stanley and their two year-old son Lucien came to stay with us for several days. They are from South Africa but Stan was on training in Dublin (and took the family along) so the trip over here was short for them. Yannick and I had an absolute ball of a time, it was so fun to walk around Winchester with somebody so much appreciating all the play-grounds, shops, and scenery and not leaving us after a couple of hours. It was like a family visit in the best possible sense.

The kids were kind of playing together with Yannick watching Lucien very closely. He picked up how to jump on the trampoline (even though he still is a bit too short for it) and also tried copying him when getting on his car. Both of them also loved climbing up our play-cube in the garden and going down the slide one after each other in fast succession.

I was also pleasantly surprised that our friends unknown to us had adopted a similar parenting style to ours and that their little boy was far from being the little devil they usually described him to be. He is just a normal curious two year old!

The downer came on Saturday morning at 5am. Yannick had to throw up - and continued doing so at 30 to 60 minute intervals for the next six hours. His facial impression was so full of surprise and disgust. Poor thing, he never had anything like this before. I was so glad that we are still breastfeeding as that meant he would take in fluids without too much hassle, as the boob was the only thing he wanted anyway. He didn't look too happy for the rest of the day either but was definitely better than in the morning. Sunday evening, after our friends had left, the same story started with me. Imagine feeling sick and still having to help your little one sleep by breastfeeding… Not nice, but somehow we managed without getting a screaming baby at night. Then it hit Frank, but he was spared the puking part, he only felt rotten. Frank's constitution is so much better than mine, he was almost back to normal on Tuesday whereas I was still dizzy in the morning and battling with food, simply not feeling like eating anything. However, today is much better and I had a normal breakfast, albeit slowly.

I was so glad that Frank was off work - I really don't think I would have coped without him!!!

I've just read two blog posts about baby talk (Mama on Undercover in Japan and Words and things on The Smell of Little Pong) and have to add my own experiences to that.

Not much has changed since my last and last but one posts that mentioned Yannick's speech development. He is still signing loads but not really talking. Only recently we've had a new addition to his repertoire of sounds which is 'oo oo'. This stands for 'woof woof' and comes out in addition to the sign every time we see a dog. He also tried to copy the sound of a ship on one of his toys which is a bit like 'hoot hoot', and guess what it sounds like when Yannick does the sound? Correct, it's 'oo oo'! In addition to these, he knows that anything dirty is 'bebe!' (just a German sound we do, in German I would spell it 'bähbäh!) and as this is an easy one we often get to hear that whenever he checks out the rubbish bin in the kitchen.

Yannick definitely understands a lot. I notice that when I ask him about where certain items are. If I ask him in the morning where his trousers, socks, or t-shirt are, he'll get them for me. He knows various body parts and other items that are important in his life, like wooden car, fire engine, motorbike, etc. He understands when I say no and often starts shaking his head in anticipation when he wants something that he is not usually allowed to have. Very fun to watch.

Yannick also seems to have understood that apart from signing there are two other languages in his life, German and English. He is a lot more talkative when there are more German speakers around and goes relatively quiet when I take him to an English language environment.

Back to talking. Even though Yannick is able to say 'mama' he has not copped on to the fact that he could call me with that. When we ask him where Papa (German for daddy) is, he usually points at Frank, but when we ask him about Mama, he quite often ignores the question. Maybe he's smart and thinks, why are they asking me that, she's right here, you stupid people, but to be honest I don't think he's got the connection quite yet.

And then we have 'dada'. Everybody keeps telling me that he can say daddy, *sigh*, but NO, he can't. As I just mentioned, in German we say Papa and he has never ever done that combination of sounds. The closest he got so far was 'baba' or 'bap', but these also don't seem to mean much, he's just practising. If anything da would mean there in German. However, when pointing at things we just get 'ah ah'.

As far as I can tell, 'baba', 'mama', 'yaya', and 'dada' are simply the sounds that come easiest to the little ones. I think all babies go through the same stages in sound development, and it's only the cultural/mother tongue influence that assigns the meaning to this babbling. If the baby is clued in he or she will pick up quickly what we think they are saying, but some don't… Usually Yannick gets away with 'ah ah' and pointing as we react very quickly to what he wants, so even for things where he knows the signs (like drink and eat) he doesn't have to make too much of an effort to get what he wants. Maybe we are simply too attentive?

I have to really switch mummy's hawks eyes on these days - something I'm not used to at all. Now that Yannick can walk he all of a sudden is also a lot more adventurous and enjoys climbing and exploring unknown areas. Two things happened already that gave me palpitations.

In the garden I was cutting some plants and Yannick was toddling about, like he did many times before. He was right next to me when he suddenly started screaming and all I could see was a bloody big toe and a stone the size of his foot next to it. I am not sure what exactly happened. At first I thought he let the stone fall onto his foot, but in that case I would expect the toe to go blue and green, which it didn't. It's far more likely that Yannick actually stubbed his foot on the stone or the big green storage box that he was walking around and caught his little toe nail on it. Ouch! On closer inspection under running water in the kitchen we saw that a third of the toe nail had come loose, but not totally off. Ouch, ouch, ouch!!! Yannick in his terror was trying to touch it and managed to fold it over, argh! So we folded the nail back, put something around the foot and took of for casualty, just in case. It was very empty there, thank goodness. They told us that the toe looked fine and that we should just keep it covered. The loose nail part will of course come off over the next week or so. Phew. I am just grateful that this happened with Frank in the house and the car being available. I am not sure how I would have managed without all of that.

The very day after I took him to a soft play area (foot covered up in sock obviously). There was a short course you could follow to get to some slides on the upper level. Yannick got lost and took the wrong turn, so I followed him up, only to see his head disappear through a hole in the padded floor and his feet follow immediately after. I was quite shocked to be honest and let out a little scream. About two seconds later I was at the hole and saw Yannick lying on his back on some kind of padded column, that was about 60 cm below the hole to climb down on. He looked completely befuddled. As he was slowly sliding sideways I grabbed him and allowed him to get down from the column top to the lower area (another 60 cm or so) that was packed with more padded cubes and other things. Nothing much could have happened to him there, but it was still quite frightening as I simply didn't know about that hole.