No nap and a sick hen

Today, Alfie decided that he was a big boy.

And big boys don't nap.

 

Big boys play with toy cars instead.

 

 

 

And with toy cars storage boxes.

 

This was the first nap-free day in Alfie's life.

And it went quite well.

 

Later, he helped me to feed the hens.

 

And we discovered, that Henny,

the speckled hen in the picture,

has a sore leg.

She hobbles around the place,

the right leg held up. Most of the time.

Poor Henny!

We really hope, she'll be better, soon.

 

 

Alfie tried the

"I'll give her all the corn I have"-cure.

I'll let you know, if it worked.

 

Well... I kind of missed my midday-break today.

But the little man sleeps now.

And he went to bed not offering the tiniest bit of resistance.

 

Good boy, Alfie!

 

Maybe it's nap day again tomorrow.

Maybe not.

Klara gave up daytime naps at the same age.

Nothing would surprise me, so.

 

:-)

 

Lena

 

 

 

Fingerpaint Freakiness!

 

 

Today was the day for finger paint.

So the artist said.

 

 

No thanks... no brushes today!

 

They're called finger paints!

 

 

Not brush paints, you know?

 

 

 

 

Finished!

 

 

The artist has left.

 

Bath time!

 

Lena



But... We LOVE grapes!!!

Klara invited a friend to play.

A lovely girl, I have to add.

And the two are really enjoying each other's company.

I gave them biscuits, drinks and a bowl of grapes.

And they play and run around and chat.

The little boy had just had his nap and is happy.

He sits in the sand pit. Diggin' away.

 

I took out my laptop to work on the holiday photos again.

While the little people don't seem to need my attention.

 

And I found the bowl of grapes on the garden table.

Not even been TOUCHED.

The girls totally ignored the now not very cold and crisp any more

 but rather warm and sticky little things.

As they have been left outside

in the sun

for about 3 hours.

Yes, I had GREAT plans to eat them myself now.

Because I don't want to dump them.

 

And here I sit.

With my laptop.

THINKING I would have a few minutes

to just do some mammy stuff.

Uninterrupted.

But the kids realised that I have THEIR grapes now.

And NOW they want them.

And they come up to me every 20 seconds.

To grab a grape out of the bowl.

And to tell me very important things.

Like

"I like your house!"

(I don't.)

"Look mammy, E. is wearing my bikini!"

(I  bloody saw that.)

"The dog wags his tail!"

(NO WAY!!!)

"My mammy has a laptop, too."

(Do you let her use it at home, though?)

"What does daddy do with the lawn mower, mammy?"

(He'll take the petrol out of it to burn the lawns.

WHAT DO YOU THINK HE COULD BE DOING WITH THE FLIPPIN' LAWN MOWER!??")

"Look at Alfie! He SITS!"

(Oh.)

"Look at the dog! She EATS!"

(Clever pet.)

"Gurglebrlbrlbrlmaamaaaa!"

(Go back into your sand pit, little rascal!)

"We're HUNGRY!!!"

(Well.... you are eating MY grapes! For Christ's sake!!!)

 

Me gives up.

They can have them.

Little monkeys.

 

And I'll bring the laptop back inside.

Before I'm going to loose my sanity.

 

 

There's a bottle of fermented grapes waiting for me in the fridge.

I'll have them tonight.

When the little people sleep.

 

THE END.

 

 

 

 

 



Hello from Germany!

The kids and I are currently visiting

our family in Germany.

And we're having a lovely time!

Klara and Alfie have been just SO good at

Dublin Airport and during the flight.

Yes, I was quite surprised myself.

We've spent the first 2 days in Cologne

with my sister Kicki and Ralf,

 my brother-in-law-to-be.

It was sooooo hot. 

But wonderful!

We bathed in the River Rhine.

We got to know "Espresso de Luxe",

Kicki's new pet.

And Klara test-drove it.

There was a pet farm...

...and fun time in a pretty little park.

We stayed up late 

as it was too hot to sleep

before 11pm.

We splashed with buckets of water

on the balcony.

We had some ice-cold beer

and German fast food.

And we realised,

how childfriendly Ireland is

compare to Germany.

Enjoy your summer!

Lena

Climbing Baby Vol. II

 

Alfie.

14 months.

Not walking.

Conquering the slide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the cat is like:

"LOOK at THAT fella!"

 

 

The Pirate Party

My baby girl is 6 now.

It seems like over night she turned from a gurgeling, bald baby
into a chatty, rather long-haired, tall, smart, funny, beautiful girl.

Her actual birthday was last Friday and we had a relaxed afternoon at home and went for a lovely Italian dinner in the evening.

And we had chocolate cream gateau.

On Saturday, we partied hard.

A Pirate party.

I had bought napkins, balloons and garlands with pirate prints.
Granny had brought goodie bags, golden chocolate coins, marshmallow rats and a compass.

I had ordered costumes and accessories for Klara, Gerd and me online.
I had looked up "Pirate Party Food" ideas on Pinterest and decided to ignore them.
Even though, there were some cute, funny ideas. But I thought, they could be a waste of time.
I was right.
Well, I baked a cake. But after the party, I made a note to myself, NOT to make such an effort again.

 

They didn't eat it. 
Monkeys.

I had prepared a treasure hunt outside. I wrote clues on little peaces of paper and let the pirates find them.
Here are some examples:
#1: Find another note in the square sandy beach in the garden!
- Note in the sand pit.
#2: 2 wild creatures are locked away behind a fence. Ask them for help!
- Note in the chicken coop.
#3: Find another clue in Captain Gerd's ship!
- Note in Gerd's van.
#4: There's a message in a bottle! Quick, find it! Before it sinks!
- Note in bottle in water trough.
...
...follow the trace of sea shellls...
...take kompass and head east...
...follow the arrows...
...find the map...

And so on.

I think most of the girls enjoyed it. Nobody cried. They found the treasure.

 All fine!

At home, Klara learned the hard way, that - even though, it was HER party, - she doesn't automatically win the games "musical statues", "musical chairs", "simon sais"... etc. Poor girl. Now, there were tears. But thank god, we had Captain Gerd. He explained. He explained again. He joked. He wiped tears. He tried to be just fair. He explained. While carrying the baby around.
In the meanwhile, listening to all that drama, I stuck my head in the oven, begging it to cremate me pretending to be uber busy making finger food for the pirates. There simply IS a reason why I'm neither a childminder nor a teacher. I can only handle a certain amount of bitchiness and drama of little girls. That's it. If Gerd wasn't there, I might have started shouting at them in the bitchiest way possible. But I didn'd. I cooked sausages and chicken nuggets, i washed baby tomatoes and cubed cheese. And after the party, I made a note to myself, NOT to make such an effort again.

They didn't eat it.

I did.

Next year, there'll be store bought mini muffins and bags of crisps.

And Klara picked a theme for the 7th birthday party already.

Egypt.

Really, like.

Ahoy, mateys!

LENA

Climbing Baby.

He found the chair...

...and climbed the table...

...he saw the fish...

...and wanted to cuddle it.

Mammy moved the fish and Alfie found the piano.

Dear son... please learn to walk first.

You're killing your old mammy!

Thank you.

LENA