Little A, 18 months

She’s 19 months as I write this but we had a doctor’s appointment just in time for her 18th month birthday so here’s her stats:

12.1 kg (~26.7 lbs.)

87.1 cms (34.3 inches)

I’ve officially been in Europe too long – I know my the family’s weights in kilograms, the weather in Celsius, and all children’s clothing is based on height in centimeters, so I know these too.

Spring/summer finally sprang into being in March and April was so beautiful overall.  A complete 180 degree change from February which was non-stop gray. Little A loves to play in the backyard with her tricycle, on the swing, and with whatever else catches her fancy… rocks, her watering can, frisbee, balls.  She points out every airplane or helicopter that flies overhead.  First she hears it, then she looks, then she shows me or D.

So lately we spend most afternoons outside, and most weeknights too,  when we get back from the day mother’s.  Our apartment has quite a few children and I often invite them into our part of the yard to do the activity du jour.  Today it was finger paint.  One boy who is almost 3 came over and I was trying very hard to keep his fingers off his pants…

Little A still loves tomatoes and most other vegetables. She also like chicken (preferably dark meat if given the option), and lasagna, and ketchup. For dessert she likes strawberries and raspberries and yogurt.  And she rarely says no to at least a bite of something chocolatey.

She talks in her own little language, and says about 5 intelligible words consistently.  The bottle of milk she gets in the morning and at night is called “Bah”.  She generally likes going to bed for naps and at night – she’s tired, we can completely understand and appreciate this.

Little A, 17 months

Likes:

– Feeding herself yogurt

– Waving hell0/goodbye

– Reading books with Mama and/or Papa

– Wrapping various things in wash clothes (random??)

– Sorting toys of any kind

– Telling Papa about her day (in her own language)

Loves:

– Raw tomatoes, especially sliced cherry tomatoes

– Walking/running by herself

– Puzzles

– Baths

– Putting on shoes (not necessarily hers)

– Taking off one sock

Dislikes:

– Peppers and mushrooms

– Ice cream

– Someone wiping her nose with a tissue

– At times the car seat

Almost 14 months

Baby A is running around the house yelling “MAMA!” all day long.  It’s quite endearing, especially when I answer “yes?” and she grins.

She has also in the last 2 months, learned to walk backwards, which makes her look like she’s trying to moon walk over to us since she’s always do it to back into me or D’s arms, lap, etc..

Baby is becoming a loose term now… she’s quite the little lady sometimes.  And quite the opposite at others.  When mad or frustrated, she will sit down and bang her head on the floor.  Wow, and she completely came up with this on her own.

Right now she’s an adventurous eater, eating most any vegetable, cooked or raw.  She also tries to shove entire pieces of deli meat into her mouth, which amazingly, is half the time a successful, though cumbersome, technique.

She can put together Duplo Legos now with no problems and loves books, especially the ones we sing together.  She dances to songs by swaying and stomping one foot… only her right foot so far.

Just in the last two weeks she will give me a kiss when I ask for one.  And a few times I’ve gotten open mouthed kisses without a request.  She also gives super hugs that include patting on the back.

A first birthday

and a party at the zoo.

This was actually a month ago now since she’s just turned 13 months old, but we’ve been moving and cleaning and busy and now sick, and so on.  Turning 1 IS a big deal, and we had fun throwing her a party.

The table and some decorations, with a view of the lake:

Chocolate and vanilla cupcakes (I made) and pieces of German style birthday “kuchen” – donauwelle (chocolate), apple cake, cherry pie, plum cake, cheesecake, raspberry-currant cake:

A small area we set up so the children could play inside:

Just outside, with lots of birds and ducks to feed:

The lucky girl got lots of presents, though she isn’t really interested in unwrapping yet.  (she still loves all her gifts) :

A few of her presents were more for me:

This toy has an English and Deutsch mode:

I really loved the idea of a party at the zoo and it turned out that, in actual execution, it went well (if I do say so myself).  The zoo staff was really helpful and the room was clean and the perfect size.  I think everyone had fun, whew!

A few more photos, just because.  Here is Baby A at the old apartment with flowers from the party. D says this shirt looks makes her look like she’s at a Renaissance festival.. :

Outside with her 1st year birthday present from mama and papa:

No more living like Harry Potter

I don’t know if it will be the last time that we sleep under the stairs, but I’m kinda thinking the odds of it happening again are slim.

September

I’ve always liked September.  It’s a good month.  And since both the boy and the baby are Virgos, it has become an even bigger month.

This particular September though, is chasing D and me around in circles.  Just one thing after another, you know how those things go.  This post for example has been a draft for about a week now.

We spent a good part of D’s birthday at the new apartment, getting paint on old clothes, and the walls – Happy Birthday!

I didn’t suggest it though, he did, so it’s not so terrible. And we did do proper celebrating later.

We‘re moving moved Saturday (yesterday) if all goes well, and it went pretty well.  One of our friends came over to help move the big stuff and my other friends watched baby A all day, which was a relief.

Baby A has been moody all day today, while we have been unloading/cleaning/discussing what to do with this and that.  You would think she would be in heaven with so much lying around for her to inspect. But I guess it’s a little too much for her at the moment.  She finally fell asleep just now for a nap.  Right now D is at IKEA, getting random various things we need.

The kitchen, that we bought from the old owners, is our problem area right now.  There is no hot water  in there, and the faucet doesn’t properly shut off.  On the oven, which was also part of the “deal” from the old owners, the temperature dial has no temperature indications anymore (we already decided we are buying a new oven/cooktop).  On the bright side, the refrigerator that we bought new is very nice!   Go figure.

Okay, back at it, while I still have a sleeping baby!

We are actually moving

Really.

I thought we’d stay in this apartment until we left Europe, and then we’d have this story to tell over and over about how we lived, and even had our first born, all in this tiny 55 sq. meter (~590 sq. feet) apartment in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Hah, we’ll keep that story to tell.  And to the kids, how we biked to work everyday, uphill both ways. Hehe.

Finding a new place took a l-o-n-g time.  Last month we finally found one that fit most of our (not so crazy) criteria, but I figured we wouldn’t get it, because we’ve been looking for forever with no luck… But then we got it.  And the property manager was even nice and seemed to like our internationality. Crazy.

There was still some hesitation on our side because we were waiting on some news from work.  In the end we took the risk and signed anyway, and what do you know, things at the office seem to be going the way we wanted. I’m stunned.

So I guess it’s really happening.  Of course now that I know we are moving I’m getting a little sentimental about leaving this place.  Not enough to want to stay cramped up in here any longer, but still.

And I just found out how old the building actually is.  We knew it was old, you can tell just by looking at it:

But also, once in a while we see a tour, led by a man or woman with a cloak and a lantern, one of those historical deals, and they always stop in our courtyard and talk (I’m assuming) about the history of this apartment complex.   It’s in German so we haven’t ever taken the tour, but this building is special or old or both.  Anyway, I just found out, that the big numbers we mistook for old apartment numbers, these:

are actually the date for the building: 1873, fancy that!

We’ve been mentally preparing to pack, but not packing yet because, honestly, we don’t have space to pile boxes. The new place isn’t overly large but it is roughly double what we have now. I see at least one trip to IKEA in the near future.

10 months

She’s officially 11 months old today, so here’s my hurry up and post about it already for baby A’s 10th month.

It is amazing how much of personality can fit in such a small body.

Madame curieux

I can’t say I know that many babies, but she is by far the most curious of all her baby friends.  Her inquisitive nature makes feeding her almost impossible when something else is going on in the room.

She’s also turned into a little copy cat.  After her baths she gets lotion, and we rub our hands together, in a lather motion,  before applying it, which she loves, and just last week she is able to do it herself.  She gets her own tiny dab now.

Big milestones

But by far, the biggest news for baby A at 10 months is two part:

1.) She’s walking!

2.) She’s letting her parents sleep through the night – thank you, thank you, thank you.

She’s an early walker and it makes me both proud and a little sad – life is changing all the time, and I love her at this age.   She loves practicing walking around outside now, and purposefully turns away from me, her minder! – the nerve I must have to follow her around!

The sleeping through the night (most of the time) is rather fabulous.   I actually have the energy and motivation to be preemptive again, if I choose.  So sometimes the floors get cleaned before you know, you can see debris rolling in the breeze.

She also loves to climb the stairs when we forget to place back the security gate back right away – she’s training us pretty fast.

Also, just last week, she started to wave bye-bye and actually said “bye-bye” to papa.  It was seriously adorable.  It could just be my imagination, but she seems to be focused a bit more on other things now, like talking and hand motions, now that she has the walking thing mostly figured out.

We were at shoe store in Aachen a couple of weeks ago  for D, and along with some great finds for him (2x pair), they had some perfect little baby shoes there.  The sales woman said that babies should be able to run in bare feet before buying lauflernschuhe (learning shoes), which sounds a bit backwards to me, but okay, I’m not in a rush.  We checked her size anyway and she’s a EU size 19 but will probably be a 20 by the time she’s running.  For now I have her in some Tip Toey Joey’s, that are considered “prewalking” shoes – she has to wear something when she’s outside (and I think they are sweet):

Emphatic head shaking

D and I do this to her, when she’s acting silly so I have no idea if she really gets that a head shake means no.  Still, she does this, vigorously, when she doesn’t want to eat something, or when she’s done eating.  She also does this when I ask her if her fruit is good, or if she’s ready to get out of her high chair, so who knows.

First face to object infraction

This week, while I was 2 feet away and strapping on the baby carrier on so we could take out the trash, she walked over and fell into the stand for the neighbor’s big sun umbrella.  And then back onto the floor.  There was a little blood.  She has a cut/scratch under her lower lip. Sigh.

We went blueberry picking in Belgium last Friday.  I can’t say this is a 10 month old friendly sport but it was fun anyway.  Baby A liked the blueberries straight from the bucket.

Definitely summer

It’s been hot here.  Sweat in your underwear doing nothing hot.  And since there is no air conditioning to be found (even in retail shops), we’ve been doing a lot of hiding in the shade.  And eating watermelon.

Germany, in May, means lots of time off in the form of holidays, most of them being religious.  I’m not sure if this was engineered, or just happened, but it’s rather ridiculous.  We ended up having two 4-day weekends and one 3-day weekend within the span of a month.

During one of our long weekends, we went to London.  It was our first time, and our first hotel trip with baby.  It was amazing how much we packed (for her) for a short 3 night stay.  Still, it worked out well and we really liked London.   It was beautiful, the food was great (contrary to popular opinion), and there were lots of green spaces to visit.   And our hotel had a doorman with a top hat!  We managed to see a lot during our short stay, even with a baby-on-board, and I would definitely go back to see more.

Last week we returned from a big trip home to see family.  Nine month-old Baby A got see alot of different family and friends for the first time.   It feels like the trip was mostly that – time with family.  D and I missed some of our old haunts, but hopefully next trip will be a little more relaxed.  The flights were okay, all things considered.  The plane home was the hardest, it was an overnight flight, and Baby A had a hard time falling/staying asleep.  So none of us slept and then we had a 2 hour drive to get home, and the next three days were all out of whack.  We found out around then that she is also teething again too.  More fun!  She has 8 teeth and is working on 1 or more molars now.  Poor little petite.

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Should we stay or should we go?

Or perhaps more fitting:

Should we stay longer or should we go sooner?

I couldn’t count how many times we’ve asked this question.  Or the number of tangents explored while trying to answer it.

We considered it carefully before baby A was born last September.  Our original work contract and permit were finishing in April.

– Did we want to have our baby abroad?

– Could we handle birth classes and labor and delivery without speaking much of the native language?

Our other friends from Montreal that are also here had drove to Belgium, where they speak French, to have the baby there.  And we wouldn’t have much help if we stayed here – no grandparents to babysit or cook us dinner or do laundry.

In the end we decided it made the most sense to stay – considering the excellent parental leave benefits in Germany, and the fact that securing jobs/insurance, a good doctor, a house, and a trans-Atlantic move, in such a short period of time was asking for trouble.  Or at very least stress which didn’t seem worth it.

But here we are, April +1, and again, facing the same question.  D takes his second month of parental leave this June (2 months fully paid for the father) and my year of leave finishes this September.

Are we ready to end this Expat adventure?

We both know that life doesn’t end with babies (I wasn’t as sure of this during the first two months post birth), but it does change (mostly for the better).  And once this one, and who knows maybe another one, are in school, we won’t be wanting to traipse here and there all the time.  Probably.

And I won’t even get into the job market/salary comparison/quality of living/culture/exchange-rate discussions here.   Or of how sick we are of our small, worn out couch.  Or about the growing pile of baby STUFF that keeps getting bigger by the month, stuff we’re probably going to want to ship with us wherever we go next.

I’m in discussions to maybe work part-time from home, which I think may be possible after September too, but we have other immediate concerns – space.   We need a bigger apartment, with a child’s bedroom, but haven’t found one yet.  In Germany you only need to give 3 months notice (no yearly leases), but still, do we do a small move now or just hold out for the big one?