A lesson learnt..

Darling cherubs of sunshine and delight they may be, but sometimes I’m reminded that kids can be quite ‘orrible (other people’s that is, of course ;). On Friday I went to collect Amie from Kindergarten and one of the workers said something to me in German about Amie’s stomach, and I finally translated in my head that she was saying that one of the children had kicked Amie very hard in the stomach. Now, not to name names, but the kid’s name is Sophie (it’s not like she or her parents are going to be reading this) and she is what I’d term a ‘little brat’. Literally any time I’m there she’s having a tantrum about something and pushing her weight around.. she’s a lot bigger than Amie, and most of the other kids, and at a guess I'd say she's at least 5 years old. From day one I was worried about Amie having a run in with her, but I do also feel sorry for her as she seems to be in the Kindergarten 5 days a week full time, which must be quiet tough on her and she certainly doesn’t seem very happy about it.


Amie and Noah at the Kindermuseum

When I went into the room Amie was sitting on a chair, waterworks in full flow being comforted by one of the staff. She had calmed down a little but when she saw me, indignation and sorrow broke out anew and she sobbed her little heart out telling me that "A big babby kicked me in the tummy". It was hard to explain to Amie why this had happened, but she seemed to come to the conclusion herself that it was an accident and that Sophie didn’t mean any harm. When we were leaving I went up to the girl in question with Amie, and said to her in my best German that Amie was only little and that she wasn’t to hurt her again as it wasn’t very nice. Sophie gave me her sweetest smile and carried on eating her lunch, so we shall see. Amie hasn’t mentioned it since, and I’m hoping that she won’t be too worried going to Kindergarten tomorrow morning.


Amie's favorite chair by far :)

Sometimes I’m amazed at how grown up Amie seems, but then at times like Friday when I see her so upset (and those waterworks I mentioned weren’t just the ones running down her cheeks) I also realise how little she is and how much about the world she has to learn. Even if there are certain things I rather she never had to see, such as the fact that people sometimes can just act plain mean because they feel like it. And that life isn’t like a Disney cartoon, the bad person doesn’t always fall off a cliff never to bother you again. Sometimes you’ve got to just face them day in day out, and there’s not a thing you can do about it but hope that they decide to kick someone else today. Or maybe that's wrong, maybe I should be teaching her if someone picks on you, stand up for yourself? But I don't know, I'll just have to hope that the staff keep a close eye on things. I certainly don't want Amie turning into a bully or aggressive towards other kids... so we shall just have to see how things go.


"Relaxing" on a Sunday morning

Grandad pays a visit

Grandad O'Brien has been visiting this week, which has been very nice. Today, we went back to the kid's museum.

Stopping to have a look at a woodlouse

Back to Haarlem

Zoe and Vera a.k.a Zera







We had a lovely time on Saturday with Amie's party.. all our friends from there showed up to wish her a very Happy Birthday.....even those with no children, who didn't even know there was a 10 AM on a Saturday. It's just a pity that we seem to have done something with our camera that made all the pictures blurred, luckily Marianne has come to the rescue with some lovely shots of the day, it's just a pity that she's not in any of them! Amie really enjoyed herself, and got SO MANY presents.. it's lucky we came by car so we could bring them all back.


She didn't wait for us to cut the cake before trying to have some (and had fortunately blown out her candles before trying to take a bite out of it!


Tired after the party!


Amie and Walter

We arrived home on Monday, instead of Sunday as planned. Amie had a very bad fall just as we were packing up the car to leave on Sunday. She was leaning through a railing on the first floor of a house, when the railing broke and she fell 3 meters to the hall below. She was taken by ambulance to hospital, while totally strapped up in a neck brace and an inflatable wrap to prevent her moving, which made her very nervous! She was x-rayed and given an ultra sound scan to make sure she had no internal bleeding and had to stay overnight for observation.. but much to everyone's relief she escaped the whole episode with very minor scratches and is totally recovered (which is more than can be said for her parents! :) We have just come in from trying out her new bike, which she got from her nana and pa. I'll have a picture of her on it as soon as I find the charger for the camera!


Concentration


Gimme


Emma doing a better job at ironing than I do!

More updates and pictures during the week! (Thanks to Marianne for these lovely pictures


The lovely Milla enjoying some cake

We're back

We spent the week at Centre Parcs.. it was really nice. We had snow the first two days, and the last day was really sunny, so can't complain. Both the kids really enjoyed themselves... think we'll be going again to one in the UK when we live there :)






Two cheeky monkeys


Noah doing his Tarzan impression




We were woken at 7am (or at least if we'd been asleep at that time we would have been) by these guys, every morning.......Amie and Noah enjoyed giving them their breakfast.


Amie and Noah enjoying a well earned drink




Strike a pose


Chips for dinner everyday when you're on holiday :)


Making friends with a crocodile


Enjoying her first proper snowfall..


Noah is a bit too young to run in the snow, and you can't see him in the back of the buggy.. but he is there!


Noah asleep after his morning swim, covered in his sisters cardigan

Happy Easter

I hope the Easter Bunny has hopped into your homes today (or last night… or whenever it is that he hops about). He brought the kids a very small chocolate bunny each, and a book … thankfully it was a small chocolate, because Amie, predictably insisted on eating it all after her breakfast. Noah is as yet ignorant to the pleasures of chocolate, and hopefully will remain so for a little while longer… I can’t handle the competition.. .Amie is bad enough, but with Noah’s reputation for sniffing out food items from 100 miles away and stuffing them into his mouth (no matter if they are a few days old).. I don’t know how manages to find crusty bread every day, I honestly do clean the floor in the evenings.

Anyway, today the weather was beautiful.. very clear and sunny and not too cold. So instead of staying indoors we braved a trip on public transport. I loaded up my rucksack with the usual nappies, wipes, 2 changes of bottoms for Amie (just in case), change of clothes for Noah, spoons, jars, bibs, water beakers…and set off, rather slowly. We had a 20 minute train ride, a lucky toilet stop at the Botanical Gardens (luckily free entry), and then a bus ride to a children’s museum in Hamburg.

http://www.kindermuseum-hamburg.de/

The website is really bad and doesn’t have any photos, so I wasn’t holding out too much hope. But it was really wonderful.. designed for 3+ so Amie could really get stuck in and touch everything. She especially liked being inside a womb! A giant figure of a woman, and you pull apart her clothes and can climb into a hammock type contraption that makes you have to squeeze up small… to stimulate what it’s like for a baby inside the womb (though thankfully without the amniotic fluid).

There were also little baby chicks to hold. The lady handed one to me, thinking it was safer with me than with Amie, but since I had Noah also on my knee the poor thing was in real peril.. I managed to give it back in one piece though. There was an egg hunt, and Amie really enjoyed painting the eggs she found.

So now that I’ve braved a day out on my own with the two kids, there’ll be no stopping me. I’m no longer condemned to trap the Bahnhofstrasse of Wedel (the one and only street with shops on it). Though it did occur to me, as I passed another mother who was pushing a buggy with a baby in it, and carrying the buggy that her older daughter had decided was too much work, that there could be a new sport set up. Mommyathalons… take a few average women, deprive them from sleep, adult conversation and a full length mirror for a few months. Then give them a buggy, at least two children and a rucksack that weighs more than a baby elephant and see how quickly they can navigate their way home from a certain starting point… overcoming obstacles such as lifts that are broken, people who look like they are going to hold a door open and slam it in your face, and at least 2 bouts of toddler tantrums. The first one to reach home without either losing “it’.. (whatever ‘it’ is) or one of their children wins a month in the Bahamas on their own… heaven.

Will update some pictures when Rich gets back… he not only took a break, he took the camera with him as well!

Kids n Play

Noah and Amie today, I'm amazed at how much he's caught up on her in size over the last few months


Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

We've discovered a place that might just save our sanity (if it's not already too late). It's an indoor play area just 5 minutes car ride, and given the weather here is usuall terrible at the weekend, it's been really great to find somewhere that the kids can get out and burn off some energy.http://www.kidsundplay.de/wedel/galerie.htm


Amie loves going on the trampoline

Amie in particular is a huge fan. We had her there last Sunday, and every day this week she's been asking to go back. Noah also enjoys himself (not to mention mum and dad, who try to use Amie as an excuse to go up on the slides too... unfortunately for us, Amie is far too brave, so I don't think we really fool anyone anyway).


Noah having fun in the ball pit


The two terrors having a rest

Rich is off tomorrow to Amsterdam for a well deserved break. I think he must have slipped some Prozac into my cereal, as for some reason I thought it'd be a nice idea to arrange a trip for him for the weekend..... now the drugs have worn off a little, I can't help to thinking "What an earth was I doing?" He's catching a train, so he can relax all the way there and back (probably won't know what to do with himself after 5 minutes). Still, it's brownie points in the bag for me, and hopefully I'll escape for a few days soon too. When he gets back, we're all off to Center Parks in Hamburg for a few days so that will be a nice break. I'll update more pictures soon, the pc is really slow at the moment and I need to get to bed! :)


Amie's angry face