The going-ons around here.
21 March 2013
Put to the test.
Since the New Year started more than 3 months ago (OMG!) I feel like I have been constantly put to the test - to all different kind of tests, actually.
2013 was still in its infancy when my family - particularly my granny - had to make a decision which we had adjourned for quite a while: It was time for my granddad to move into a nursing home. When this topic came up a long time ago I was assuring my support as a matter of course. I didn't know then HOW difficult a process it would actually become. Indeed it was my granddad himself who finally set things into motion and wanted to move but it was my granny who I feared would crack left behind in a life, flat, environment she had shared with somebody for so long. Anyway, as it goes with so many things, time helps healing and so it did. Slowly things settle and we start to get used to the new constellation.
Next was a very naughty stomach flu that hit 2 out of 3 monkeys mid-january. Thank God the baby-monkey was spared with it but seeing the bigger ones so sick and weak wasn't any better after all.
Our long-time planned, highly awaited and longed-for summer-in-winter-family-vacation in Singapore is definitely worth its own post, which is soon to follow - p-r-o-m-i-s-e! - Just as a foretaste: It was not at all what we had expected or planned but it was just so much exactly what we had needed.
Already before we took off to Singapore I gave myself a promise for after-return: Settle the baby-monkey (back) into a proper routine especially at night times. Once back home we all fought a major jet lag for almost a week but then it was time to start THE change. The baby had been giving us extremely exhausting evenings and nights since Christmas by only falling asleep while being breastfed, by waking up at the slightest movement of my arms and/or as soon as a single one of his body parts touched ground in his own bed, by being "hungry" (haha!) almost every second hour all through the night etc, etc, etc... To cut a long story short: I was so overly sleep-deprived that I was willing to do everything it took to change the current bedtime/night time situation.
Well, the first attempt (cold-hearted Ferber-method) failed right away. Baby-monkey probably isn't just the type to easily give up on beloved habits. And - honestly - it almost broke my motherly heart to hear him cry (first) and shout (later). So I changed tactics, bought a book (highly recommended: Elisabeth Pantley!) and started to change. I changed little about the daytime routine as this was and worked almost perfectly but I changed the evening and its structure and realized the one and only key: Put the baby to bed while he is still (at least a tiny little bit) awake. And it worked!
After 4 weeks of training Jakob now falls asleep at 7.30pm and mostly sleeps until hunger pains him around 2am, which is a huge (HUGE!!!) progress and I am really happy about this. Still I wouldn't dare to call the problem solved but I feel confident that we're on our way to get there.
But as it is probably a natural cycle having 3 kids: One issue almost off the chart, the next already at the door step. The middle-monkey is currently giving us a hard time. He is really the most stubborn, strong and loudest boy in the hood - or at least it feels like that. We are fighting about literally everything at the moment and so far and despite all well-meant corrective methods there seems to be not that much improvement. So, this test has only just begun, unfortunately.
Last but not least there is every reason to complain about the weather, which is also putting me, my mood and my body to an awfully long and mean test. Spring has still not arrived rather we are in the middle of the most beautiful (if it wasn't!) winter conditions. New snow every day, some days without the slightest break of snowing. Temperatures below or around zero. It just sucks. I want this over. NOW! I have had enough of shoveling masses of masses of snow, of wrapping kids in layers and layers of clothes, of scratching thick ice off my front screen. I want - I neeeeed!!! - spring. Please.
02 January 2013
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to everyone! May it be healthy, full of love and exciting adventures and with enough time to take slow from time to time!
We have had a really nice cozy New Year's Eve. We took all three monkeys to the indoor pool in the morning. The big ones had a bulk of fun and Jakob was watching the scene from the edge of the pool obviously enjoying what he saw - and all other people (mostly elderly ones) so much enjoying the baby!
After lunch (one of my all-time favorites: Spinach!!) hubby and the big monkeys took that long nice nap which the kids didn't so much refuse due to swimming-fatigue! What followed were Bismarcks, movies, games, nice long dinner, fireworks for the kids and a really very short discussion about the right time to go to bed. Eventually, Johann and I went upstairs first, at about 9.45pm, and he went to straight to sleep. Paulina came sneaking in whispering in my ear "Can I please got to bed now?" at exactly 10.08pm and finally made it to bed at 10.30pm. Hubby and mom in-law lasted till 11pm and the only (lonely) soldier in the house was my dad in-law who celebrated the new year all by himself.
I was up at midnight feeding Jakob and wishing my hubby a happy New Year and that was it. It was a nice, entertaining family night and I wouldn't want it any other way. Got up at 6.15am the next morning with the boys and prepared a nice breakfast for the rest of the family.
Now we are back home and slowly everyday life is taking over again - and I am sooo happy about it! After sick-at-home kids/hubby, christmas prep, christmas guests, holiday-gettaway... I am really looking forward to settling back into our old habits and routines. I love routines and I really miss them when they're broken for too long. Paulina will be on school holidays for the rest of the week, but Johann is back at kindy tomorrow and hubby already returned to work today. So soon there will be just Jakob and I and the house left here during the day. Yippie! :-)
30 December 2012
New Year's Eve
There it s again: New Year's Eve. Old one ends, new one's about to begin. Honestly, I have never really been the party-till-dawn-type. The new year WILL come whatever I'm doing the night before.
We have spent that night with befriended families for some years in a row. There are several advantages to this kind of partying: kids (own and guests') have something to do, food is usually brought over by guests AND everyone is highly interested in going to bed as soon as midnight has passed.
This year we spend the Eve at our holiday home, together with my in-laws. As soon as we proposed this plan to our kids, my daughter declared she would only come with us if we were able to provide a proper party - one with kids' drinks and food, games, decoration, music, staying up until late and - OF COURSE - other kids (her brothers don't count). Hmm. We were actually not planning to do so and that is why we're having an ongoing discussion with a 7-year-old about the pros and cons of New Year's Eve-partying.
In the end we will have it our way, as a matter of fact. I ordered a dozen Bismarcks today. We will all have a nice long nap after lunch (which the kids will refuse), then we will have tea time eating the Bismarcks. To follow is a nice long walk in the cold (which the kids will refuse) after which we will probably watch a DVD. Paulina and her grandma already planned to decorate the family room (which is also the kitchen) and to prepare dinner together, so this is what they will do around 6, I suppose. In the evening we will have a nice long dinner and nice long talks, then we will maybe play some games with the kids. Here's the longest part of the night: waiting for midnight to come. At the moment I am really not entirely sure if I will make it until after 12, but we will see. I'm pretty sure though the kids (at least the bigger monkeys) will indeed make it. Somewhen between dinner and midnight we will go outside again, to light our fireworks (in case we really don't stay up until 2013). And then that is it.
I am really not so much the New-Year's-Eve-type.
Awww... yes! Jakob did his first turn (back to belly) today!
We have spent that night with befriended families for some years in a row. There are several advantages to this kind of partying: kids (own and guests') have something to do, food is usually brought over by guests AND everyone is highly interested in going to bed as soon as midnight has passed.
This year we spend the Eve at our holiday home, together with my in-laws. As soon as we proposed this plan to our kids, my daughter declared she would only come with us if we were able to provide a proper party - one with kids' drinks and food, games, decoration, music, staying up until late and - OF COURSE - other kids (her brothers don't count). Hmm. We were actually not planning to do so and that is why we're having an ongoing discussion with a 7-year-old about the pros and cons of New Year's Eve-partying.
In the end we will have it our way, as a matter of fact. I ordered a dozen Bismarcks today. We will all have a nice long nap after lunch (which the kids will refuse), then we will have tea time eating the Bismarcks. To follow is a nice long walk in the cold (which the kids will refuse) after which we will probably watch a DVD. Paulina and her grandma already planned to decorate the family room (which is also the kitchen) and to prepare dinner together, so this is what they will do around 6, I suppose. In the evening we will have a nice long dinner and nice long talks, then we will maybe play some games with the kids. Here's the longest part of the night: waiting for midnight to come. At the moment I am really not entirely sure if I will make it until after 12, but we will see. I'm pretty sure though the kids (at least the bigger monkeys) will indeed make it. Somewhen between dinner and midnight we will go outside again, to light our fireworks (in case we really don't stay up until 2013). And then that is it.
I am really not so much the New-Year's-Eve-type.
Awww... yes! Jakob did his first turn (back to belly) today!
2012 recap
By the end of one year there are recaps almost everywhere: papers, magazines, radios, tv... So, there'll be one here on this blog, too. It might also give a nice insight to my life during the previous months and help to "get to know each other" better. So, here I go:
January
Just right after I found out I was pregnant, morning sickness of THE worst kind hit me. In the mornings and also for the rest of the day. I knew it from my first pregnancy and almost forgot about it when I was pregnant the second time. But with this one it was worse and harder and uglier than ever. And it lasted 4 full weeks ( and was sooo worth it in the end, see "September")
February
Snowy, cold, winterly vacation with hubby, the kids, my parents, brother and his girl in the mountains. We spent lots of extra-alone time with Paulina and Johann. Before we took of for the snow, Paulina got her first (ever) school report and made my proud mother-heart almost burst!
March
Mmmh... hard to remember actually. I focussed on my semi-annual exams and planned the next vacation. And we found out we ware going to have another boy!
April
We spent 5 fabulous days at friends' in Italy, near San Remo. It was Italian life style at it's best and we had so much fun, food and wine (no, not for me!) and lived in a house which was several hundreds of years old. Johann turned 4 and we spent the easter break at our holiday house with my in-laws.
May
May passed as a somewhat normal month. I joined and quit a pregnancy-yoga-class (thank God I decided not to buy the full pregnancy-yoga-wear-package in advance!), my tummy grew bigger, the little baby monkey inside kicked to contact the bigger monkeys. We spent a long weekend with a very close friend in our holiday home by the sea and enjoyed the first beach days of that year.
June
My big monkey Paulina turned 7 that month! Unbelievable, time sometimes really flies. She was given to 2 guinea pigs which she named Pippi and Lotta. We had a family party at home and a kids party one week later visiting Paulina's horse farm and having a BBQ at the beach afterwards. At the end of that month the school year was over (Paulina's report was as fabulous as in winter!) and summer break started.
July
July turned out to become the longest and most stressful month of the year. The weather wasn't at all summerly, I was stuck at home - highly pregnant (and slowly being sick of being pregnant), with 2 bored kids, hubby at work almost 24/7 ... and there were sooo many more weeks to come. A spontaneous trip to the beach house accompanied by dear friends and a sick-at-home hubby brought THE change of speed and mood. We had wonderful days at the beach, long nights on the terrace or with a girly DVD and the kids finally got what they deserved: a summer vacation.
August
Back-to-school-month, baby-countdown-month, lots of birthday parties and anniversaries. I was getting more and more impatient for the baby to arrive - but it didn't help. He took his time and the wait was worth every single minute.
September
On September 9th, a sunny late summer sunday, our third child was born. Everything went as perfect as it possibly could and everyone instantly fell in love with this little boy who looked so different from his siblings and was yet so obviously one of them. I was - again - struck by the magic of birth and the wonder that was inside my tummy one minute and out in the world the very next.
The first weeks as a 5-person-household went really smooth, the bigger monkeys were delighted to finally have their little brother at home and they took really good care for him ("You ARE allowed to touch him gently, but only if you wash your hands!" was Johann's favorite quote those days).
October
While Paulina went to Paris with my in-laws, hubby and I decided to spend some nice days in the capital with the boys. We had exciting post-summerly days and really did all the tourist stuff one can do with children.
November
This month was quiet and smooth in retrospective. Jakob had settled into a routine that fit our life, I got a number of things done around the house (e.g. bought and built a new kitchen drawer) and I organized all x-ms presents right on time before the actual christmas hustle and bustle started.
December
December (like almost every year) really hit us hard on the health side. Johann was really down with the flu for more than a week, I felt sick every now and then but - of course - didn't have time to recover. Paulina had a bad cold and was permanently on the edge. The week before Christmas it was Jakob who got really sick for the first time. He was coughing and breathing heavily, my poor baby! It turned out he was suffering a bronchitis and had to be put on antibiotics for 10 days. Though it was a hard time and I was sick of worrying Jakob coped really well and now he's fine and happy that medication is over.
Christmas was stressful due to all the sick people in the house (hubby got sick, too) but we made the best of it and had our traditional family dinner with my parents, in-laws and aunty on Christmas Eve.
Wow, now that I've written all that down it seemed a pretty "full" year. And this is just a part of it. My hubby had (and still has) to undergo so much trouble at work and there's still so much to do. But I am so sure that in the end it will be all worth it, because the harder you have to fight the better the result. Or at least I really, really hope so. Despite the stress and trouble and fears he had, he was always supporting me and the kids, trying to make time for us whenever possible. I'm really blessed with that man.
Wish you all a good and successful start in 2013. There will be many more stories to be told on this blog, that I can promise.
xxx
January
Just right after I found out I was pregnant, morning sickness of THE worst kind hit me. In the mornings and also for the rest of the day. I knew it from my first pregnancy and almost forgot about it when I was pregnant the second time. But with this one it was worse and harder and uglier than ever. And it lasted 4 full weeks ( and was sooo worth it in the end, see "September")
February
Snowy, cold, winterly vacation with hubby, the kids, my parents, brother and his girl in the mountains. We spent lots of extra-alone time with Paulina and Johann. Before we took of for the snow, Paulina got her first (ever) school report and made my proud mother-heart almost burst!
March
Mmmh... hard to remember actually. I focussed on my semi-annual exams and planned the next vacation. And we found out we ware going to have another boy!
April
We spent 5 fabulous days at friends' in Italy, near San Remo. It was Italian life style at it's best and we had so much fun, food and wine (no, not for me!) and lived in a house which was several hundreds of years old. Johann turned 4 and we spent the easter break at our holiday house with my in-laws.
May
May passed as a somewhat normal month. I joined and quit a pregnancy-yoga-class (thank God I decided not to buy the full pregnancy-yoga-wear-package in advance!), my tummy grew bigger, the little baby monkey inside kicked to contact the bigger monkeys. We spent a long weekend with a very close friend in our holiday home by the sea and enjoyed the first beach days of that year.
June
My big monkey Paulina turned 7 that month! Unbelievable, time sometimes really flies. She was given to 2 guinea pigs which she named Pippi and Lotta. We had a family party at home and a kids party one week later visiting Paulina's horse farm and having a BBQ at the beach afterwards. At the end of that month the school year was over (Paulina's report was as fabulous as in winter!) and summer break started.
July
July turned out to become the longest and most stressful month of the year. The weather wasn't at all summerly, I was stuck at home - highly pregnant (and slowly being sick of being pregnant), with 2 bored kids, hubby at work almost 24/7 ... and there were sooo many more weeks to come. A spontaneous trip to the beach house accompanied by dear friends and a sick-at-home hubby brought THE change of speed and mood. We had wonderful days at the beach, long nights on the terrace or with a girly DVD and the kids finally got what they deserved: a summer vacation.
August
Back-to-school-month, baby-countdown-month, lots of birthday parties and anniversaries. I was getting more and more impatient for the baby to arrive - but it didn't help. He took his time and the wait was worth every single minute.
September
On September 9th, a sunny late summer sunday, our third child was born. Everything went as perfect as it possibly could and everyone instantly fell in love with this little boy who looked so different from his siblings and was yet so obviously one of them. I was - again - struck by the magic of birth and the wonder that was inside my tummy one minute and out in the world the very next.
The first weeks as a 5-person-household went really smooth, the bigger monkeys were delighted to finally have their little brother at home and they took really good care for him ("You ARE allowed to touch him gently, but only if you wash your hands!" was Johann's favorite quote those days).
October
While Paulina went to Paris with my in-laws, hubby and I decided to spend some nice days in the capital with the boys. We had exciting post-summerly days and really did all the tourist stuff one can do with children.
November
This month was quiet and smooth in retrospective. Jakob had settled into a routine that fit our life, I got a number of things done around the house (e.g. bought and built a new kitchen drawer) and I organized all x-ms presents right on time before the actual christmas hustle and bustle started.
December
December (like almost every year) really hit us hard on the health side. Johann was really down with the flu for more than a week, I felt sick every now and then but - of course - didn't have time to recover. Paulina had a bad cold and was permanently on the edge. The week before Christmas it was Jakob who got really sick for the first time. He was coughing and breathing heavily, my poor baby! It turned out he was suffering a bronchitis and had to be put on antibiotics for 10 days. Though it was a hard time and I was sick of worrying Jakob coped really well and now he's fine and happy that medication is over.
Christmas was stressful due to all the sick people in the house (hubby got sick, too) but we made the best of it and had our traditional family dinner with my parents, in-laws and aunty on Christmas Eve.
Wow, now that I've written all that down it seemed a pretty "full" year. And this is just a part of it. My hubby had (and still has) to undergo so much trouble at work and there's still so much to do. But I am so sure that in the end it will be all worth it, because the harder you have to fight the better the result. Or at least I really, really hope so. Despite the stress and trouble and fears he had, he was always supporting me and the kids, trying to make time for us whenever possible. I'm really blessed with that man.
Wish you all a good and successful start in 2013. There will be many more stories to be told on this blog, that I can promise.
xxx
29 December 2012
Now, it's the right time
I have been the regular reader of several blogs for years. Every now and then I thought to myself "It's something you should do, too." But, then, I asked myself THE questions: "What should I write about?" - "How should people know about that blog?" - "Who would ever (EVER) read it?" I found it too depressing an idea that I sit down and write (and write, write, write) and no-one out there would actually be interested in it. So I postponed the idea again and again.
Then, a few weeks ago, a very close friend told me head-on that I (of everybody) am the one to have a blog and this was the final bone of contention. I started researching the hows and abouts, opened an account and tried to make it look nice - I know this hasn't worked out so well so far but I'm on it! And here I am now: Me and this blog. I hope I will be able to post on a regular basis, I hope it will look nicer (more like ME) soon - and I so desperately hope there is at least one person out there (except for you, Heiki!) who will read it. Anyway, it really feels that NOW - TODAY - is the right time. So it starts here. Now.
This blog will be about me and my 3 cheeky monkeys: Paulina, 7, Johann, 4, and baby-monkey Jakob, almost 4 months. And of course about my beloved hubby, my home, the things I do when I have some spare minutes to...
Please enjoy it! Any feedback is welcome. (as I am the editor of this thing, I might feel free to delete any negative feedback though...)
Then, a few weeks ago, a very close friend told me head-on that I (of everybody) am the one to have a blog and this was the final bone of contention. I started researching the hows and abouts, opened an account and tried to make it look nice - I know this hasn't worked out so well so far but I'm on it! And here I am now: Me and this blog. I hope I will be able to post on a regular basis, I hope it will look nicer (more like ME) soon - and I so desperately hope there is at least one person out there (except for you, Heiki!) who will read it. Anyway, it really feels that NOW - TODAY - is the right time. So it starts here. Now.
This blog will be about me and my 3 cheeky monkeys: Paulina, 7, Johann, 4, and baby-monkey Jakob, almost 4 months. And of course about my beloved hubby, my home, the things I do when I have some spare minutes to...
Please enjoy it! Any feedback is welcome. (as I am the editor of this thing, I might feel free to delete any negative feedback though...)
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