Sunday crafts with Emma

Landscape with a pink balloon flying away (felt and wood & string and glue)

(you can see William peeking behind Emma on the left from his chair in the background)

Wir sind Kinder einer Welt - Emma's SommerFest

Yesterday, Emma's kindergarden celebrated their SommerFest (to view pics click here)

Below is a little film of one of the songs Emma's group sang ; Wir sind Kinder einer Welt.
It's fantastic that there are so many nationalities in their kindergarden and I love that they are teaching children about acceptance of differences when they are so young and open.

Emma is wrapped in a blue kaftan & turban and is paying more attention to the little one crying behind her than to the song... One of these days I should tape her early morning rendition - she sings when she's up too early to get up.


Enjoy!

This little piggie

Emma's baby and Baa baa black sheep

Emma's first "Freundebuch"

Yesterday as I was dropping Emma off at kindergarden, I was handed a Freundbuch to fill in for one of Emma's friends in Emma's name.

Wow! I can remember doing this kind of thing at 8 or 9 maybe even when I was 12 years old - not when I was 2,5 and couldn't read or write! Things are definitely happening way earlier these days...

Emma's teacher L. was there and as I thanked the Mum and hoped my German would be good enough to manage this, she told me that since one child had come in with a Freundbuch, they have been popping up everywhere. Indeed... I can imagine. I opened the book and saw that L. had duly filled in a page, pic and all. Nice. And at least I have some kind of inspiration for the answers (did I mention, in German?)

It's actually a nice souvenir, if your child is about to leave kindergarden whether he/she is graduating to primary school or just moving. Also, it's a great resource for parents (you get everybody's phone number and address and it really helps put a face to a name) as well learn about kids' birth-dates, favorite activity, house pets, hobbies, favorite film, book and color, what their pet peeves are etc. (Note to self: something worth buying and doing when new in school/neighborhood again). Also, I am sure, it will be a lovely possession for a child like Emma who loves to tell me about all her friends in school.

So off I went to fill in our first Freundbuch in my best German - with a little help from a friend - and even bought our own one so that Emma can have a record of this first destination/ kindergarden. I wonder, will she still be able to speak German later, like I remember Italian, or will it lie dormant under layers of other languages and learnings. Who knows? I guess a lot depends on how long we stay here and where we go next.

Anyway, back to now for a little baby update: 11 days left until D-day!!!
I went for my last check with my gynae yesterday and it seems that baby boy weighs 3250gr and is expected to arrive at around 3,5kg (like Emma who was born at 3,450gr). He is very low - I knew that! - and heart beat and activity are all normal.
My blood pressure, urine and weight are all fine too. My thyroid meds need adjusting slightly and I've been told when and by how much to reduce them right after birth (this time) so as not to feel like the Incredible Hulk about to explode every 20 minutes (as if sleep deprivation weren't enough!). Also, I have already scheduled my next thyroid check post-delivery.

Oh, and we might just have found a name...

Emma in the bath

Baby and Emma update

At today's ultrasound the baby was head down - yippee! Although he can still swing around and change position I figure if he has done it once, he can do it again.

So those are his feet kicking my liver and my ribs! And I do believe this also confirms that the rhythmical movements I've been feeling down by my pelvis are indeed hiccups.

I was also told his heartbeat was strong, that he weighs 1869gr (great news especially if he were to come early) and measures 38cm.

As for Emma, she's already asleep after a copious dinner of chicken, peas and carrots (she had three drum sticks to herself!) and our weekly gym class. Today was our second time and boy did she have fun! Check out those red cheeks!

(Unfortunately I had forgotten my camera so the pics were taken with my Iphone hence some blurriness)



The class lasts until June and I don't know for how long I'll be able to continue doing this with Emma, but hopefully at least until the baby is born - after that I might have to ask the babysitter to come with us and just cheer them on from the bench with the babe in tow.

Emma's new love

Emma's new love is her turquoise pouf which is in fact one of my breastfeeding/maternity cushions hidden under a Sit Fix cover. Pretty neat "recycling" huh? Check it out here

Pheew! We have an appointment to get her hair trimmed tomorrow after kindergarden!

Oh and on a more serious note of "love", last week Emma told me she was going to kiss W. a boy in her kindergarden group she seems to like. Here he is on Emma's right as they wait for the other children to get ready for the snow.

I definitely agree with her, he is the cutest boy in the kindergarden!

Emma the trader?

Just managed to catch the end of it as Emma launched herself into some kind of conversation or negotiation over the phone... never mind that she was actually talking through the remote control.
...and I guess my rendition of the phone ringing is just not credible. What was I thinking? Whose tune rings that way nowdays anyway?

January 3rd, at the Poirier -aka our pad in France

Emma in the kitchen

Most evenings while I prepare dinner, Emma likes to sit on the kitchen counter and tear up reorganize the tea bags, pull out all the zip bags from their box or push things into the sink... nowdays she's getting a bit tall for the kitchen cupboards so I guess we'll have to figure something else out...

Emma's world

This morning, before heading off to "school" Emma and I played with her painted blocks.

I named what she pointed at while she held each block before passing it on to me. There was a striped zebra, a green alligator, a white duck, a yellow giraffe, colorful flowers and birds, autumn leaves, a pink rabbit, red and black lady birds, etc.

After a little while, Emma pointed at the Lion and said "Emma", pointed at the rooster and said "Papà" and then, looked up at me while pointing at the butterfly and said "Môman".

Ah, the love tinted eyes of a child. Nothing like it to make you feel like a million dollars!
...and uh, honey, it could have been a lot worse (pink piggy, the mule...)

Come to think of it though, she does see herself as the king of the jungle!

Raspberry monster

Nothing beats raspberries for Emma's 4 o'clock

First day, new job

Dear friends and family,
When you next call, should you hear a strange muffle, shuffle and crackle, or even a dead line, consider not hanging up straight away or calling us back. It might be our new, self-appointed secretary.

Indulge her will you? She is a little gruff but she is new to the profession and so will sometimes make you wait (and me work!) before you get either Steph or me on the phone.

Rest assured, she is currently undergoing training and shows great promise. She demonstrates intelligence and determination. Admittedly, her patience rivals that of Deda and needs to be worked on. She is often adamant that she knows best and is sometimes a little resistant to our suggestions. Nevertheless, she is already a valued member of our team family and we are confident that, in time, she will prove to be a great talent and successfully overcome new challenges.

In the meantime, dear friends and family, we appeal to your sense of ahem, perseverance, and ask you to persist in trying to reach us... we don't yet have any friends in Vienna and appreciate the interaction.

What do you know!?

Tomorrow is Emma's first day at Kindergarden! and I just sent out my resume for a part-time position in Vienna... who knows? life might not be so grey here this winter!!

I'm pretty excited about Emma going to "school" tomorrow. Her first week will be all about induction so she'll be there a little longer each morning. Today I ironed her name on some of her clothes and prepared her bag with a change of clothes and nappies.

I look forward to an hour of peaceful window shopping in the area of the kindergarden tomorrow morning. Cross fingers that the new routine won't totally mess up her sleeping.

By the way, what's with the winter weather in September? today was freezing in Vienna!

Scientist on the loose

At the moment one of Emma's favorite activities is feeding us her biscuit when she's not trying to throw it over the side of the table or stick it in the satellite decoder.

She is now crawling around everywhere at the speed of lightning. Naturally, she's opening all containers, boxes, drawers, cupboards, spilling out their contents on the floor before meticulously inspecting each and every object like a true little scientist. What does it sound like? taste like? feel like?

She has figured out how to turn on the TV and so enjoys pressing buttons.

Another favorite object is the mobile phone. Yesterday she called me using Daddy's and left me a message. Today, in a moment of weakness ("aw, alright, have it, just let me finish writing this email...") I figured there wasn't much danger as it was turned off.

ha! I so underestimated my little one! In a matter of moments she had turned it on and reading: "PIN invalide, veuillez entrer le PUK" !!!

Thank heavens for Swiss efficiency! After a series of questions Swisscom gave me the PUK number and my phone was up and running again... and so was I -after my little scientist!

and Buc (pronounce Buu-uch)!

My Dad did this thing with Emma (and no doubt with us when we were small) where he touched foreheads with her saying "Buu-uch" while she sat on his lap. Gradually, Emma started moving her forehead in toward my Dad's as he would stop half way. Since they don't see each other that often, I continued playing this little game with Emma, and now it's something she does spontaneously with her favorite giraffe, Sophie, when she first picks her up in the morning or indeed the camera.

UPDATE (8th October 2008) below Emma greets squash with "Buuuuch":

back to Turkey...

No, we're NOT moving back to Izmir! but it sort of felt like being there on Saturday.

We visited Brunnenmarkt in the 16th district of Vienna. Lots of veggies, fruit, shoes, cheeses...

and lots of people from the Balkans and surroundings. We heard languages from the former Yugoslavia, Romanian, Polish, Turkish and saw stalls held by Indians.

It was a lot messier than Bostanli market but hearing stall holders calling out "buyurun" and seeing signs with the price indicated next to "ekmek" (bread) felt familiar even without the sun and the sea. When we saw a Turkish restaurant in the middle of the market it made us nostalgic for the food, so we went in for lunch.

I had some "sarma" and veggies, and Steph had a "tavuk" (chicken) kebab and couldn't resist the baklava and çay. Wouldn't you know it, the owner of the place comes from Izmir.

While we were there, we tried out Emma's new portable "high-chair" in preparation for our holidays in Croatia. Actually, it's pretty handy having our own portable baby highchair wherever we go since a lot of places don't keep them and especially now that Emma can eat most of what we eat and wants to "participate" a bit more.

On Sunday, we went to another restaurant we had spotted a while ago, off Mariahilferstrasse: VaPiano. A really nice environment with a good concept: Pizza, Pasta and Salads (as well as drinks and desserts) tailor made with the toppings/content of your choice. Yummy, central, affordable, non smoking (there is a small smoking area), ideal for a quick lunch, and - they have highchairs for kids!

VaPiano in Vienna: Theobaldgasse, 19, Wien 1060 - Tel:01/581 12 12

Emma opening presents

And the winner is... the potty!

my first year with Emma

On Monday 28th we went for Emma's one year check up:

• 10,750 kg (feels like a lot more to me!)
• 75cm (that's 25cm since birth!)
• and best of all she's now allowed to eat practically everything!

Although I don't really want to start fitting Emma in to a box of development criteria it is kind of reassuring for a first time parent to read up on development milestones so that you know what to expect and have an idea of what your kid should be up to.

According to the development milestones listed by baby weekly (which I have really enjoyed receiving and am sad is ending at week 52 since Emma's birth!) Emma is "ahead" in using her hands (has been removing socks for ages, lifts heavy objects, puts things in baskets, pulls them out, claps...) and can recognize gestures by words (clap, tap, dodo) she will point to things she wants instead of crying (although she cries when you remove something she wants). However, she seems to be "lagging behind" in anything that has to to with actually getting on to her two feet; no standing, walking nor even proper crawling so far! The pediatrician said she is pretty heavy so it makes it more difficult for her to walk but that the key thing is she is moving around.

In terms of stranger anxiety, she doesn't seem to be experiencing too much of that and is generally quite curious when seeing a new face, hearing a new voice etc.

Today, on her birthday we went back to the clinic where she was born to sort of reminisce and say hi to the midwives and nurses who made it a wonderful time for me a year ago. ONE WHOLE YEAR AGO!!!!!

"In raising my children, I have lost my mind but found my soul." - Lisa T. Shepherd

Emma update

Mobility
Today for the first time, at 11 months, 1 week and 2 days, Emma tried pulling herself up with the bars of her play pen. Her bum got nicely off the ground, hung in the air a few moments while her face sprouted a determined expression and her hands gripped the wooden bars, then she plunked back on to the multi-colored sponge lettered carpeting of her play pen.
In truth, she has actually been lifting her bum off the ground by grabbing on to me or legs of chairs, but this is the first time I've seen her use the wooden bars and keep so upright.

She is still mostly bum shuffling to get around, albeit much more efficiently now, and is grabbing, opening, shaking and strumming anything she can get her hands on. She can now swiftly get from her back on to her tummy and from her back into a sitting position - although she tries the latter more eagerly on our bed than on the floor where the landing surface is much softer should she not make it the first time around. When I put her on the floor, she moves with one leg under her bum and pushes with the other. I'm not quite sure how this works but she definitely get from one corner of the room to the door in no time at all.

Favorite activities
While I am under the shower she loves opening the bathroom cupboard under the sink and pulling out our stock of toothpaste, soap, and my Veet wax strips. She systematically tries shaking, knocking, banging each object individually or against the floor, cupboard or anything else she can reach.

She also loves: removing her hat as soon as you've put it on her; handing you objects and then reaching out for you to return them; tearing up Mummy's magazines; eating bread (and especially anything she can eat on her own); looking down at where she was sitting/lying before you picked her up; playing peek-a-boo; throwing things on the ground then looking down to see where they are (yes, I pick them up dozens of times); trying to sit up while I'm changing her nappy (not so great); most of all, her pink star-fish.

Another favorite is bath-time with her duckies, hippo and the dolphin and recently discovered that clapping her hand against the water makes a great sound ans splashes Mummy! Yesterday she took to tapping her hand against her wet tummy and really enjoyed the musical effect.

Right from the start, Emma has been very sensitive to rhythm and music. Be it Church bells, drumming sounds, the electrical sounding music produced by one of her toys, me singing or clicking my tongue even Amy Winehouse gets her bobbing up and down and puts a smile on her little face. Too cute, even if I am her mother.

Sleeping is still fine
At night she goes to bed at 7pm and gets up at 7am. This has meant that since April when we managed to get rid of the "dream feed" by moving it gradually from 11pm to 9pm while decreasing its quantity and simultaneously increasing the quantity of milk at 7pm dinner time, I have had my evenings "off". Yay!!!! She still wakes when she looses her dummy especially now that she is so mobile in bed and end up sleeping across and at the bottom of her cot. Grobags are a must as she loses the covers in no time at all.

During the day she still has two naps. In fact, at the moment they are very regular and the patters is the same on most days. Mornings: 9h30-11h; afternoons: 2h30pm-3h15pm. This is a bit tricky as it means I really need to work my day around naps, lunch and tea-time but gradually and when she is ready, we'll decrease the morning nap and try to increase the afternoon one so that we end up with one big nap.

Looking forward:
I'm hoping to have switched naps before Emma starts going to the day-care centre in Vienna mid-September so that there are not too many changes at once. But in between the move, holidays and starting day-care as well as trying to respect her need for two naps it's going to be a bit of a challenge.

Well, I guess there's the update on Emma. Hopefully I'll manage to do this a bit more regularly in the coming months, especially as I am sure there will be lots to tell!