. LiFe Of kaYA & Ellie .

a touch of modelling

2009-10-23T00:05:00.004+03:00

Ellie did a little modelling for a friend's, fantastic, children's clothing brand: www.boodabrand.com. Once we stuffed the little cutie with food and warm milk, she was a natural...she was naturally to full to move - fab. for still shots! Oh come on, every photographer has their tricks, mine just involve gluttony. So she'll have a little more pudge is those already pinchable cheeks.

Kaya on the other hand was too busy falling in love to partake in the shoot!

Ellie goes to day care

2009-10-02T23:54:00.004+03:00

Ellie had her first 2 days at day care this week. Well, they do things a little differently here, lets call it the gentle approach (aka the cloakroom sit). So you bring your child to day care and introduce her to the group and then while she plays and has a jolly, good time, you get to sit in the cloak room, just in case disaster strikes. You'd think that I could bring my laptop and get some work done, or get through that novel I have been wanting to finish, or even have a light snooze on the tiny little bench suffocated amongst smelly kids' jackets, well NO. The cloak room sit plays itself out a little differently. Since the girls go to a more liberal DC, they do not want to lock the children in like animals in the zoo (but lets face it, aren't children just like...I am not going to finish that sentence as it will definitely come back to bite me in the arse), so all doors are open, that's right including the one to the room where I am being kept. So as you can imagine, I have now become a major attraction, labelled the English-speaking mom with a useful set of hands, one all the kids like to come and have a poke at and try to feed stale bread to. But ultimately, I am the shoes-helper, lace-tier and lucky for me, yes, the snot wiper - how do I always end up cleaning other people's children? WTF. SO I have spent the last 2 mornings peeing in teeny, tiny toilets, while children bang on the stall door, while bursting out in laughter (giving each other high fives for having trapped the English mom in the miniature pee place), eating stale bread as to not make them cry and locating all kinds of missing pairs: shoes, hair elastics, socks and I kid you not, mittens in 20 degree weather!

Ellie has been loving the place with all the new toys, kids and smells and every once in a while does pop by the cloak room to smirk and babble something, which I translate as...nah ne nah ny boo boo!

Happy 33rd!

2009-09-12T10:39:00.004+03:00

It was Stefan's birthday this week, and after all the vacation-ing that we did, we decided to spend a low-key evening a quatre - Ellie almost fell asleep in the orange cake and lit her eyebrowns on fire. So, after their sugar fix, we promptly tucked the kids in and fell asleep on the couch...the exciting life of parents!

Happy 1st Birthday Ellie!

2009-08-28T23:44:00.014+03:00

Ellie.

How to describe Ellie?

She is, well, she is an absolute gem.

Our little Ellie is nothing but sweetness and smiles.

She has got a wild, full head of hair, 2 little bottom teeth that have yet to fully show themselves, an addictive laugh and mischievous smile.
She is a pretty happy-go-lucky little girl whose favorite past times are eating and carrying laundry around (unfortunately not of the clean variety).

Over the last 12 months, not only has she grown even more hair, but she has also developed her 5 senses to perfection, tailored to her specific needs and interests, namely food and food. She uses the in the following ways:

hearing - hear the sound a chunk of food makes while hitting the ground after trying to escape being eaten by her
sight - locate and zoom in on food that has gone AWOL from the breakfast table
touch - grab said chunk to check its consistency (too soft remains on the floor, as it is probably from yesterday morning's breakfast and would cause stomach to feel a little iffy, resulting in extra diaper changes - which she hates)
taste - whatever, as long as it is actually food, it belongs in her belly. I kid you not, she eats lemon peels

That's Ellie in a nutshell and we can't what to see what the 2nd year has in store...you never know, she'll probably start eating beluga caviar.

Happy birthday sweet girl, we love you a ton and more.

xoxox

Glimpse of breakfast time

2009-07-17T15:08:00.002+03:00

Here's a bit of a peek at what breakfast time has been like lately. Be warned that this video has been made for daddy, so feel free to stop the boredom at anytime (but then of course lie and praise and say that you've watched it all!).

New words

2009-07-16T02:15:00.008+03:00

We've been in Canada for about 3 weeks now and Kaya has picked up a bunch of new English words, here's a partial list, let me know if you can figure out where (or in what for that matter) we've been spending a lot of time:

highway

another highway

freeway

parkway

speed bump

merge

speeding

parking

seat belt

head lights

Since we have been spending so much time in, yes you've guessed it, the car and I've subsequently gained a small elephant (I look like I'm pregnant for the 3rd time - with twins), I have taken to parking as far away as possible from building entrances, while of course remaining in the associated parking lot. So, naturally, the others (the suburbanites) give us that youmustbecrazy look and nudge the one they are with to say: look at those, erhm people, they are doing that, uh whatchamacallit step, you know the one where you put one foot in front of the other at regular intervals, what's that called again (tune in the psycho music) they are WWWALKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, as many of you have been asking, the trip has been good, all that was needed was a few minor (stuff that urban legends are made of) tantrums and a bit a bahaviour modification (the car is not our number enemy) to get the kids settled in. Another month to go and I might not have such a sunny response to your questions.

Omi and Oma

2009-07-08T19:48:00.006+03:00

.We are now in Canada for the summer, but here are a few snap shots from the days before we got here. We spent some time with the Austrian side of the family and gave them a good dose of their granddaughters before we took them away for 2 months.

Mother's Day Picnic

2009-05-16T06:50:00.004+03:00

Mother's day was glorious, I slept in until 2.30 PM ( I didn't even know that I still had that in me!) and then we spend the day in park at a food and wine festival.

our little devil and her best friend

2009-04-28T23:24:00.005+03:00

wordless - Easter Weekend

2009-04-19T23:22:00.010+03:00

Sorry, I'm all out of words and so lost without them (can you hear Air Supply in the backgroud), but I'm just too tired to even have any thoughts other than...uh, actually to have any thoughts at all...but a picture is surely worth a few words - gotta give this tired mommy a break, hopefully by summer solstice the thought centre of my brain will be back in action.

Our 2

2009-04-13T23:16:00.003+03:00

Costume change

2009-04-07T22:09:00.003+03:00

.Ok, well this is embarassing, but I thought, hey, why not let others laugh at my expense? So this is what I try to change out of before I fetch Kaya from nursery school, at 3pm

Sleep aids

2009-04-03T12:08:00.006+03:00

I think Kaya is tired of getting woken up, as I found her attempting to help Ellie sleep. It is unbelievable what can happen when I run to the loo. I think the birthday gift was meant for me to wear, to help me get through the sleepless nights, but this works too - good thing I got back before she tried to stuff the gigantic earplugs into Ellie's little 7 month-old ears.

stripes and more stripes

2009-04-02T09:29:00.005+03:00

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Kaya and Stefan have just left the house and there was no screaming and no tears?! No fit to get dressed, no string of NOs to eat her fruit, no turtle-retreating-into-the-shell maneuver when it came time to put her winter boots on, no air slapping contest as I slid her tuque on, and not even a shouting frenzy when I wiped her face down and applied cream. Could this have anything to do with the fact that I let her leave the house, dressed as is (her choice), looking like a cracked out zebra. The kid had so many different stripey colours on that she might get sent home from school for causing the others to hallucinate. She could probably even brainwash a few if she were to start spinning while repeating specific commands - I can picture it now: end of lunch, the desert tray has just come out, Kaya stands from her chair, gathers momentum, begins twirling and says " your bellies are already full, you don't want desert, give them to KAYA."

Tuesday PLAY!

2009-04-01T21:56:00.009+03:00

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We've had a few playdate-Tuesdays of late and they have been fab. Kaya was gaga this week as she got to romp around in princess/fairy garb and wear gold glitter and eyeshadow to turn makebelief into reality. She made me call her princess Kaya all the way home, as if. Ya, well, whatever works!

sisterly love

2009-04-01T20:03:00.006+03:00

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The following dialogue took place after kissing Ellie goodnight:
me: "Kaya, do you love your little sister Ellie?"
Kaya: "Yes, and I love little ponies very much. I love little ponies so so so so much."
me; "How about your sister, do you love her so so so so much."
Kaya: "No, only little ponnies."
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The other Krausses

2009-03-27T09:54:00.002+02:00

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A family walk - a 1st I think. We motivated ourselves to flea the city for a few hours and thanks to the part of the family that actually has a mode of transportation, we got really far - to a place where the buses, trams and subways don't reach, scary: a public transport black hole. You know, this is coming from the people that walk everywhere, being somewhere a 30 minute car ride away is like being waylaid on a tropical island, in the middle of the Pacific, with no traces of mainland or shelter. Well, minus the palm trees, warm breeze and torrential rainstorms part of the scenario. Right, where was I (well not on vacation on an exotic island, that's for sure, all I see out of my window is concrete and grey skies), oh ya, the family.

The group was made up of the following usual suspects:

1. the hung over, younger uncle, treating himself to the kids' snacks and polishing them off
2. the overtired, strung out, mygreyinglocksSONEEDagoodcut of a dad
3.the older uncle, one with car, and ability to locate a hairdresser on a regular basis
4. the soon-to-be aunt, also with wheels, who lightens up the group with a touch of blond
5. the big sister, little miss I need, want, have to, must touch and lick everything, tree included
6. the little sister, little miss insomniac - what 7 month old gets pushed around at nap time and doesn't even yawn?

MIA
7. #1's girlfriend, the one #5 refers to as princess Kati given her long, flowing hair
8. Me, #2's wife and #5 and #6s' mom, the one who would rather hide behind the lens than exposed my sleep-deprived self to the camera and be capture this way, to be used for silly gags in years to come, for birthdays or anniversaries and whatnot. I do surprisingly still manage to have lucid moments in this time of extreme sleep loss, it's a new skill I am honing.

2009 - Year of the Zombie

2009-03-22T19:29:00.011+02:00

. It's 6.30pm, the kids' new bedtime - I am saving up hours for the arrival of daylight savings time, which will inevitably spark the beginning of a vicious circle. Turning the clocks forward will mean more daylight and consequently a later bedtime and less zzzzzzzs for the kids, which will in turn limit my already limited me time. So I am sitting here, in a darkened living room, trying to avoid the endless string of wants and needs, echoing through Kaya's shut bedroom door, a last plea to get out of having to close her eyes. She is hitting me up with the usual requests:

1. I'm thirsty - I need water

2. My tummy hurts - I need to poop

3. I can't find my, uh, hmmm, my....little bear with the black eye and...I want it to sleep in my bed

4. I need to give you a hug - this is the cherry on top

Just heard the huff, and the light switch click, she has given up and is off to bed - yes, 10 points for me, a grand victory as I so rarely win! I have overcome the first obstacle, now lets see how long it is before little Ellie screams out for me, she isn't the best of sleepers, in fact I would like to enroll her in baby sleep school, but she'd probably get expelled for refusing to follow the curriculum. We have been extremely sleep deprived for the last 2 months, as the littleless, blue-eyed Krauss has a hard time staying in sleepy land after 2 am. We are seriously considering rearranging are biological rhythms to match hers, a type of shift work per se. Our plan is to pattern her snooze-schedule, meaning sleeping from 7pm to 2am and then again from 5am-7am, we have started trying to imagine what we could accomplish from 2am-5am, between the quick jaunts up to her crib to resettle her every 15 minutes to half hour or so. It is getting that bad, and just when we thought we had nipped it in the butt, she has gone and gotten all congested. Let me just state for the record that I hate citrus-coloured snot. Poor thing has been coughing, feverish, itchy and plugged up with the greens for the past 3 days, so last night was shrunk to just over 2 hours long and was dreadful.

Sadly, the girls have been cohabiting with 2 drowsy robots, that faintly resemble their mom and dad, since the beginning of 2009. This year, year of the Ox?! Nah, if we personalise it, our calendars would surely indicate that 2009 is the year of the Zombie. With that I am off to bed, just a quarter of an hour past my new bedtime, lets see if I manage to actually fall asleep before the 11th hour. Well, I might just have a sip of red to ease the process. The joys of being and adult, well that and cake for breakfast. Yes, that's right mom, I am sometimes naughty and eat left over cake for breakfast (while hiding in the bathroom as to not set a bad example for my kids of course).

Ellie's 1st crush

2009-03-21T00:18:00.003+02:00

I must have to must need too very much want to TOUCH EVERYTHING!

2009-03-19T10:28:00.010+02:00

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Our dear Kaya who used to just quietly sit and observe the world passing her by, her private TV set of sorts, has decided that after 3.5 years of passive research she has to get into the field - submerge herself in the grit and grime of it all . She seems to have been re-programmed and is receiving some kind of signal that is telling her that she must, has to, really really needs to, absolutely must, definitely has to, MUST TOUCH EVERYTHING.

Don't get me wrong, we are very pleased that she is being proactive, seizing the world and experiencing it, but couldn't she continue to neglect this sense in favour of other sensory heavyweight like vision and smell; there is still a lot to be said for the wise look but don't touch saying. I don't even want to begin to mention the things that have tickled her touch receptors and almost made it through the gates of her lips to her taste buds (hint: it is created once a dog chews and digests its food) - is my cooking that bad that she's rather eat
s _ _ t ?

As we disinfect, scald and scrub our hands (I have to remove the crap from hers) more than we seem to in- and exhale these days, I am wondering when she is going to resurface from this phase and once again start monitoring the world while taking mental notes, instead of attempting to take it into her hands and eat it. Now that I think of it, that I consider of the amount of soap we have sudded in the past few weeks, I am beginning to suspect that Palmolive is emitting this TOUCH ALL signal in an effort to increase their profits...hmm...I might have to run an on-line search to see if we can start making our own suds (and mouthwash)!

Question of the morning

2009-03-15T10:27:00.005+02:00

While putting together a Little Mermaid puzzle:

Kaya: "Mama, where is Ariel's boobs, here's her face, where's her boobs?"

Me to Stefan: "What kind of Disney puzzle did we actually buy her - Ariel the pornstar mermaid in double D?"

Me to myself: Who cares as long as she is quietly entertaining herself, and the barrage of WHY questions are on hold.

Kaya breaking the silence - of course. She has mastered this ability, it's kind of like a super power of hers.

Kaya to me: : " WHY is Ariel's boobs missing? Mama where is Flounder's eyeball."

Me to Kaya: " Dunno, I have to go to the bathroom." My escape, as there is a no enter policy there once the door is shut!

In the end it's all just anatomy to Kaya, boobs, eyeballs and belly buttons are all just circular things we have on our bodies, that need to be found in order to complete the Mermaid puzzle, "but WHY I not have boobs?" she then asks me...excuse me, I have to pee!

Shoe Shopping

2009-03-04T11:04:00.005+02:00

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I can hardly think of anything that causes the vein in my forehead to pulsate and my body to shake in actual fear more than taking a 3,5 year old shoe shopping, so I have solved the problem. I might even have a brouse for myself once I get Kaya's out of the way...ahhh, I can actually enjoy one of my favorite hobbies again! Yep, in case you're wondering, Kaya needs ballet slippers as she has started training for the prima league - she is my daughter, right?

Ellie Time

2009-03-01T22:15:00.009+02:00

.Six months has gone by and Ellie has started figuring out a few things about the world and more specifically about the 3 bigger beings that she shares a home with:

1. The one who calls herself mom, and has a sing song voice (although she hates to admit it) has smelly feet.

2. The one that is differently equipped for the bathtub does the "white man's overbite" when dancing ... and so does his older brother.

3. The little, hyperactive one, who constantly steals toys, dresses like a ballerina, says "NO" to everything and finds it appropriate to throw herself on the floor screaming to try and get what she wants...although it hardly appears to ever be effective is evidently a slow learner, although fantastically entertaining!

Ellie has really come a long ways since her jaundiced-baby-perpetual-sleep phase, she is now a very apt nighthawk and wants nothing more than for us to join in her 3am, 4am, 4.30am, 4.45am, 5am, 5.15am fun - how considerate of her...to not want us to feel left out - although we would enjoy being out of the loop on this occasion. Couldn't she do a bit of early A.M. silent partying?! And not only is she a mirror image of her dad, with her blue eyes and pudgy fingers, but she has also apparently inherited his appetite and all that comes with it (er hm..fuller than full diapers right after breakfast and at least one other time during the day).

On the up side, she loves to play with her feet (the toy you can't misplace) and luckily isn't yet afflicted with bromhidrosis (foot odour). She spends a good chuck of most days smiling and does find just about anything amusing (she might be a bit bored at home), from me searching for my keys, my phone, my underwear to Kaya making intolerable, loud noises about a centimeter from her face. She is an impossibly sweet, good-natured and bubbly little person, who has a way with funny noises (like that funny noise guy from Police Academy - do we have a comedian on our hands?), drools like the best of 'em and rocks out like Angus young. Sounds like I just gave her an A+ on her 0-6month report card (once a teacher, always a teacher) - Keep up the great work Ellie, you are a model daytime baby that could however stand to improve a touch on your nigth time behaviour. Love Mom, the one with the 10 stinky metatarsals and aptitude for compulsive misplacement of all important objects (passports in Paris).

Valentine's Day in Paris

2009-02-19T23:16:00.010+02:00

Just before Ellie reached the half year mark, I finally smuggled her out of the country and had her passport graffitied - she joined my girlfriends and I on a mini-vacation to Paris. I was kind of worried about how the whole thing would play itself out, but what could be easier than a ratio of 5 moms : 1 baby? I have now discoverd how to add simplicity and relaxation to motherhood, (beyond hiring outside help) one must live in a small clan where there are half a dozen other women to help me take care of my baby...right, well that says a lot for my mothering skills...I never said I was any good at it, just fertile.

We had a great time in la cite de l'amour and made sure that Ellie saw all the sites, I even woke her up a few times to gather some photographic evidence - she WILL thank me when she's older...when she is playing "I have never..." and she is the only one to drink when someone says "I have never been to Paris before I was 6 months old". I am a cool MOM.

Ellie gets down

2009-02-12T16:32:00.010+02:00

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We seem to have a bit of an "80s" music buff on our hands. And just in time for Valentine's Day, I caught Ellie, on camera nonethless, rocking out to "You give love a bad name" (I know, old habits die hard, I just can't let go of John). Ya ya ya, I will eventually play something post New Wave era and let go of my leg warmers and crimper once Ellie can sing the rap to Fresh Prince of Bel Air and has Ice Ice Baby memorized.

Snow in Vienna?!?!

2009-02-09T09:41:00.006+02:00

Rumour has in that a lot of snow falls in the western part of Austria, they even show propaganda images on TV of it every morning, but here in east, the snow normally melts before it even hits the ground. So we took advantage of the white fluffy stuff, got our butts out of the house and headed toward the closest hill with our...erhm...plastic bags. I know, I know, I am a true embarrassment to the snow-covered country I come from, but as I said it never snows and stays, so we don't have any proper slidding equipment and couldn't chance taking the time to go to the closest sport's store to buy some, as the snow would have probably melted by then. And there is nothing worse than promising a toddler something and then reneging, as all I would have heard for the rest of the week is " 'member you said yesterday we go sliding and we go not. I'm angry. I'm not your friend. Only Daddy and Ellie's friend", and since I am competitive, I have a need to stay #1, so I grabbed a couple of plastic bags...from designer shops ( got to maintain so dignity) and hopped on the bus for the 11 minute ride - 11 minutes of non-stop whys (i.e. why is she not wearing a hat? why is the bus moving?) and requests (i.e. I want ice cream, pleeeeeeaaase can I have ice cream, just a little bit, one lick just.).
Having lulled Ellie to sleep on the bus, gotten Kaya a snack and a few answers, we were ready to tackle the hill and I have to admit I was pretty psyched. Well I learned my 1st snow lessons where 3.5 year-olds are concerned:

1. they get cold in less time than it takes you to get them dressed and out of the house
2. snow is difficult to walk it and their legs hurt after climbing the hill all of once
3. mittens are fiends
4. little hands freeze very quickly which causes tears and then tears and snots freeze and then...

We went up the hill a whole twice and then of course, off to the closest cafe to have some hot chocolate. Kaya with a big smile and mommy with a disappointed grin...I WANTED TO SLIDE MORE, MY Julius Meidl PLASTIC BAG STILL HAD A FEW RUNS LEFT IN IT. Well now that I've thrown my little tantrum ( learning from Kaya) I can admit that the whole thing was actually a ton of fun with the added bonus that the kids slept for 3 hours afterwards.

I'm cold...I want hot chocolate!

I AM (1/2) CANADIAN!

2009-02-05T23:19:00.003+02:00

A little something for the family and friends back home. No worries I haven't forgetten where I come from, even when surrounded by schnitzel and Mozart! And since Ellie has yet to set foot on Canadian soil I thought she needed to be introduced to a gigantic maple leaf.

(ps) Don't fret, I am fully aware of the "killer" Austrian draft and dressed her immediately after this picture was taken.

Age

2009-02-04T14:59:00.003+02:00

Embarassing moment of the day:
Kaya: (pointing at a woman standing next to her on a tram) "That lady is old...very old...she looks old and talks old."

Me: "Kaya it's not a good idea to say that in front of someone. You can hurt their feelings. You sholud just think it and tell me at home."

Kaya: "What is feelings?"

Me: "Like being happy, angry, sad..."

Kaya:"That lady is too angry and old."

Fortunately we got to our stop at this point...and saved my face from going from bright red to purple.

The woman in question was of course staring at us the whole time, we can just hope that she didn't speak any English. If she did, she had a great poker face!

Lucas' favorite place

2009-02-02T13:36:00.004+02:00

One of Kaya's first friends is packing up camp and heading for the island of...England. So as a bit of a tribute to Lucas I thought I'd post a photo of him in his favorite place!?!?! Hopefully he'll enjoy driving on the left a bit better than the right. His Australian genes might just have been fighting their perception of wrong-road-side driving...his car sick gene might have just been out of wack and acting up because of it. I think I might have just solved the mystery to Lucas' horrid car sickness, nothing to do with curves, limited views or potholes, just the side on which the car is driven, since he didn't mess up a single car while on Australian roads over xmas...well Tricaricos you'll have to let me know if my theory is correct after your first road trip in the UK.

Bon Voyage Lucas, thank heavens you're flying to your new home!

Point form

2009-02-02T13:19:00.006+02:00

Want to write something new.

Am trying to sit my arse down and find the time to gather my thoughts.

Impossible at the moment.

Kids are a little wild.

One or the other always needing "moooommmmmmyyyyyyyyy".

Have been spending a lot of time outdoors, in the snow.

Going back to my Canadian roots.

Have been loving the winter. Loving the snow. Loving slidding with Kaya.

Ellie is doing evertyhing well, but sleeping between 5-7am.

She has started eating.

Tries to eat the spoon?!

Have been pureeing once again...yummy sweet potato, it can't go wrong.

Spent the weekend in the little alps.

Kaya absolutely thrilled with the snow.

Constantly throwing herself in it - such a good pseudo-Montrealer.

Kids get cold too fast.

Seem to spend more time drinking hot chocolate than actually skiing or sledding.

MY OLD JEANS FIT AGAIN...even though belly filled with hot chocolate!

Nap time.

Out.

Lucas and Kaya in deep powder!

Taking part in history

2009-01-20T19:55:00.003+02:00

.Kaya will always have photographic evidence of where she was when when this unbelievably, fantastic inauguration took place. It is an amazing thing to take part in a significant historical moment even though she was completely unaware of what was going on! Well at least I tried! She kept saying OBAAAMMMMAAAA - at least she added an important name to her repetoire, better than Dora, Elmo and James Blunt.

The magic of sun

2009-01-20T10:36:00.005+02:00

.Tragically, we live in a place that doesn't get much sun in the winter and since Ellie was born at summer's end (and apparently sun is sosososososo bad for a newborn?!?!) she has never enjoyed a few rays. So yesterday at almost 5 months old, she got to sunbathe, through a large window at Starbucks, for the first time, and happily discoverered that there were 2 of her - Ellie and Ellie's shadow. She seemed a bit miffed at the fact that we didn't take Ellie 2, the darker, featureless version of Ellie home with us.

Playgroup is tiring!

2009-01-19T10:09:00.006+02:00

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We had a bunch of moms and tots around for playgroup this week, and Ellie couldn't handle all the action and noise - neither could I for that matter, I would have liked to have grabbed a pacifier and got a little shut eye too.

Ellie and Dominic

an hour to go

2009-01-14T17:58:00.003+02:00

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I've got an hour to go before Stefan comes home...how will I get through the next 60 min? No worries, before I start this rant, I just want to state that I am all that...happy to have be healthy and have 2 healthy kids and all that hoopla, as there are many who would give anything to get an hour back, I've been there. But I'm in it now, real life, the nitty gritty of it all and I think it's ok if I complain a bit, even if to many others I may appear blessed, and that's probably because they've never met me, this is usually the toughest part of the week - Wednesday 5 pm. It's the middle of the work week and I've still got 2 more days to go before I've got some back up at home and I'm already fried. I would just like to mention that while I'm typing this I am boucing Ellie in her chair, rotating legs every few minutes, and making some kind of chirping noises to keep her entertained, while Kaya is screaming from her room that she isn't my friend and won't talk to me because the pony tail I tied in her hair was medium-long and not just plain long, I kid you not, those are her exact words.

So any suggestions?

I could put them both in the bath tub for an hour in the hopes that squeaky toys and warm water will keep them happy. But one of them will probably just end up pooping in the bath with my luck today.

or the only other thing I can think of is:

putting really loud music on to drown out all other sounds!

Those who know are well aware that I willl chose option one, but I could really do with another alternative. What do you do with your kids during the witching hour?

Well at least I've now only got 46 minutes to go!

Thought of the day
There should be an emergency babysitting service for this time of day. You press a panic button and it goes straight to babysitting HQ and someone with a siren shows up at your door in an emergency response time of less than 5 minutes!

Things I miss from my pre-mommy life:

2009-01-12T13:14:00.005+02:00

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There are the obvious ones, like sleeping in, free time and personal space, boobs closer to my colar bones than belly button and of course a waistline, but there are others I would have never considered. Please do comment if you've got any to add...and no worries you can do it anonymously, but I can't so I guess I won't mention things like sex...oops.

1. not having to sneak around to eat a pice of chocolate or stick of gum to avoid the "mommy what you eating" question and having to look Kaya staight in the eye and lie (while enjoying it of course) "oh, my tongue is itchy, just scrating it with my teeth" or "air, have you had some have a taste, yummy don't you think?"

2. one cold/runny nose a year and not 5 - I have seriously seen all the snot I can handle for a lifetime.

3. staying awake for an entire movie and not having to rent it twice from the shop to see the second half.

4. boobs as something sexy and not something requiring a nutritional value label to display what they contain.

5. SILENCE

And now to you, what do you miss?
...

Kaya the ballerina - self-portrait

2009-01-11T21:09:00.004+02:00

. Here is Kaya posing with her freshly drawn self-portrait of herself as a ballerina. When asked why she never dresses up as a police officer or fire fighter she simply answered " because then I have to be a boy" - what has she been learning at nursery school? I am definitely going to spend a good part of this week re-programming her, we might have to visit a few police stations and fire departments to find a handful of good female role models to give her bit of an a*& kicking to knock some of the ballerina/princess out of her...no, I won't give up and accept her as princess Kaya - my daughter has to have a bit of a tom boy in her, I just have to find it!

A little cafe-ing

2009-01-10T09:38:00.007+02:00

As my mom makes it over to Vienna to visit quite a bit (no, no snickers here, it's great...she spoils us rotten), we rack our brains to try to take her somewhere new every trip - we might have to take her to the city dump next time as we are really running out of ideas! You never know, the Habsburgs might have had a royal dump...yaya tasteless joke, but my 3.5 year old loves the potty humour - every 4th word out of her mouth, at the moment, is kaka, we're just thrilled about that. She has also added the FU*% to her repetoire lately thanks to her dad. I feel like we've hit a linguistic low point as of late. Thankfully she seems to save her potty mouth for the privacy of our own home.

Anyhow, back to the new place we visited...

This time, we took my mom to Café Demel, one of the most famous of the Viennese cafes. On top of serving absolutely delicious cakes, it has its own marzipan and chocolate museum. Clinton has even been, so if was good enough for the 42nd president of the USA then we thought my mom might enjoy it. Sometimes though, I do believe that we forget we have two kids, because well bone china and children...enough said.

cake selection

eyeing the prize - CAAAAAKE!!!

marzipan creations

a view from above

our girls

thinner moment

2009-01-08T12:36:00.003+02:00

Just had one of those, oh wow my jeans feel much looser and I don't have to stop breathing and suck in my shapeless stomach and carefully do up the botton fly to avoid pinching a bit of flab in there moments - I must have lost a few more post-preg. kilos... The thinner moment bubble bursted the moment I spilled some coffee on them, put them in the wash, hung them out to dry and tried to put them back on. You can still see the pinch marks - ouch! So much for that, oh well might as well have a second helping then and just avoid washing my denim to maintain the illusion that I will some day, in the near future, fit back into my favorite blues.
Bon Apetit!

exploiting the adrenaline rush

2009-01-06T11:36:00.012+02:00

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Since skiing was such a hit, we thought we'd take advantage of the adreneline still ruling Kaya's mind and body and take her skating. But not just to any old rink, if the kid learned to bike in front of the Karlskirche (St-Charles church), said to be one of the most outstanding baroque church structures north of the Alps (yadayadayada...built between 1716-1737 for patron saint Charles Barlomeo who was revered as a healer for plague sufferers), then I was going to make damn sure that she did the "feet-part" of Canada's most famed winter sport somewhere just as gorgeous and historically significant - Laxenburg Palace, apparently the most important summer seat of the Habsburg dynasty. It has a maze of shallow ponds which freeze over in the winter and boast multiple " skate at you own risk" signs on the water's edge, although the government has set up benches directly on the pond for visitors to put on their equipement?!?! The city of Vienna appears to be doing a great job encouraging its citizens to put their lives at risk, well I guess that keeps in step with allowing people to smoke almost everywhere and eat leberkaesesemmel (a thick slab of horse liver and lard on a white roll).

Having written the above, I do, however, think that tempting your fate on iced-over bodies of water to learn to skate and play Le Hockey is not only behavior that is encouraged in Canada, but is basically a right of passage to most Canadians. So, as a see-I-am-proud-of-my-heritage moment, I chucked my 3.5 year old, my 4 month old (stroller included), my mother and husband on thin ice without a second thought. The only down side is that my oh, it'll work out attitude of they'll have skates for rent there, left us bladeless on what was truly the perfect rink. So here are a few photos of us walking on ice (**BEWARE a little cheesy** most of the photos below are of us smiling and posing for the camera, quite different than the photos I usually post, but I did it to make my mom happy...).

She Skis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-03T21:22:00.003+02:00

Our little self-proclaimed princess, the kid who refuses to wear anything but a ballerina tutu around the house has actually taken to a hobby/sport that doesn't involve waving a magic wand or tip toe twirling - SKIING! Our jaws are still dropped and we remain in shock, 2 days ago, on a whim we went to a hill, rented itty bitty skis and tossed her onto the rolling sidewalk to transport her to the top of a mound of snow and she slid down, alone, and enjoyed it! Thanks in large part to Sebastian...a girl so needs to have a boy as a friend, or we'd still be dancing to Disney music at home, her as the princess and get this, me as the prince.

Hopefully her new found enthusiasm for downhill, which has left her father rapturous, will get the tutu partially sidelined and see her spending a bit more time engulfed in activities that spike her adrenaline!

Adieu 2008

2008-12-31T11:10:00.004+02:00

As 2008 is losing both its present and future and becoming entirely the past, I have a few things left to say.
Last New Year's Eve I was just pregnant with Ellie (3 weeks or so), but already looking like I was in my 2nd trimester carrying triplets, so I am looking forward to tonight's celebrations, even with the 2 little, not-yet-tall-enough-to-ride-a-roller-coaster chatter heads. At least, without last year's Ellie bloated belly, I will be able to squeeze by and weave myself through the crowds in the festive city streets and have a little bubbly to bid adieu to 2008 and bonjour to 2009, which is admittedly more fun to do while tipsy on sparkling wine than nauseated and pregnant.

2008 brought:

a new bundle of sweetness - Ellie
the loss of my entire abdominal structure - pilates better bring some of it back, I can't handle any more jiggle
moodiness - holy sh$% what is up with 3 year olds? A wise tip to those not yet at this stage: adopt an 8 year-old, they are more than double past the 3s and might be less volatile! Seriously what is up with 3? It's appears to be the bipolar phase.
furniture. Finally somewhere to rest my ever expanding butt...although with 2 munchkins and a husband, I might get to use it for a whole 4 minutes a week...can't anyone else in this household find or do anything without mommy's help?!?! What the f$%k, Stefan your wallet is in yesterday's pants and Kaya your princess skirt is in the gar....(garbage I wish), is where you left it on the floor to put your pjays on last night, and Ellie, sweet Ellie it is somehow great to have a pre-talker and walker around, but can't you just fall asleep without the whole 15 minute rocking and shhhhhhhhhh session?
the expression of my repressed baking gene which hasn't been of great help to point 2 on this list, but nonetheless has helped me through the I-am-going-to-pull-all-my-hair-out-and-start-growling-if-someone-needs-one-more-thing-from-me-before-8am! My biggest accomplishment to date: Caramel Apple Cheesecake

Yadayadayada now that I'm done ranting I can say that 2008 brought lots of good things, ones that give you warm fuzzies and get you through the cold, parenting, taser moments (3 year wanting to live with another family kind of thing). Kaya treating Ellie like a rare and precious treasure. All the I love you mommies, even the ones that come after the tantrums and go-away moments. The mouth-open smiles Ellie gives every time she hears my voice or footsteps. Fitting back into my favorite jeans. Eating apple caramel cheesecake. Family visits (grandparents are babysitters in a cuddly, loving package always bearing some form of child-friendly entertainment. With a few exceptions, but lets not talk about the Floam MOM!). Stefan still telling me that I look beautiful despite the growth of a triple chin, jello butt and mount everest of a bunion - thanks to the fact that he refuses to wear glasses.

2008 was a fab. year, I finally feel like I am starting to understand and balance the mom/wife thing while just being me, although don't get me wrong, it would be great to have the whole live-in nanny, driver, cook and indoor swimming pool combo, then I might just be able to get 5 whole minutes of couch time!

Happy New Year to all of you and hey thanks for skimming my blog every so often, which I believe is the equivalent to seeing a therapist (which I so should have married) and please do feel free to comment on my 2008 wrap up with any bits of advice you can offer me for 2009 - help!

Cheers! K x

Holiday season must-dos

2008-12-24T23:24:00.000+02:00

.Smack dab in the holiday season and I have really gotten into the spirit this year(aka. adhered to societal norms and rules in order to avoid being the neighbourhood Grinch). As required, I've done and actually enjoyed the following pre-xmas activities:

baked cookies with Kaya which mysteriously transformed themselves, in the oven, into hardened, tasteless flour with powdered sugar - will just save them for guests.
partaken in Kaya's pre-school, xmas art and crafts afternoon. We managed to cut out an xmas tree and drown it in glue and red lentils - I seriously kept thinking what a waste of food, people could feed off this amount of legumes for months. We will have to mail Kaya's badly decorated cardboard cut out to a third world country once the holidays are over.
purchased an xmas tree, not made of recycled steel (for those of you that have previously celebrate with out Russian tank). Although in order to do our part to help the planet, Stefan insisted that it be plantable. So it'll most likely be proper-sized for xmas 2024!
had punch at the local Christmas market while the kids rolled around in the hay. Nothing like getting a little tipsy while your children built hay-gloos. Our entrance way has looked like a stable for the past month, nothing like a little hay to give a city-flat a little farm-flair.
fed many a hungry guests with turkey and all the fixings since the beginning of the month. I think I could season, stuff and carve the wattled bird in my sleep.
located a Santa in Vienna (needle in a hay stack) and have two kids sit on his lap without wailing. I believe that Kaya almost, even smiled at the bearded, red-clad, large-bellied man.

and the biggest one of all...

lied to my daughter and fed her a myth about a flying fat man, 12 reindeer and a gift-manufacturing elf-village.

Merry Christmas 2008!

2008-12-24T09:31:00.004+02:00

December 24, 2008

Just as we were about to fly south in search of Santa, we heard a rumor that his sleigh was last spotted over Tokyo when it hit a rough cloud patch and the deer went down. Figuring that since his preferred mode of transport was out of commission, he would do the "green thing" and take the subway to get around and deliver his goodies, we embarked on an underground journey to fnd him, but to no avail - Stefan did however manage to snatch a glimpse of Rudolf and Kaya claims to have seen flying cows! Well maybe next year we'll have some fancy GPS equipment to pinpoint his exact coordinates...

Meri Kurisumasu from the land of the rising sun.
Love Kim and Stefan

Ellie - 4 months

2008-12-23T20:05:00.006+02:00

Ellie's possie

2008-12-16T23:36:00.012+02:00

.Years ago, after fleeing Australia, 34 weeks pregnant with Kaya and settling in Vienna for her birth, both homeless and clueless, the Vienna Babies' Club saved me...us. I met a bunch of other crazy women that had also moved here pregnant and confused, so naturally, in our rashness we bonded quite quickly and went on to form quite valuable (necesary) friendships. 3.5 years later a core of us still attempt to meet on a weekly basis to (please read between the lines) praise our children and husbands and the wonderful country we now call home!

Wanting to be an equally oportunity parent, I joined a VBC group for Ellie and have met another group of great moms and bubs. Although my motivation for joining is different, the topics of conversation remain the same, spit up and poop are still on the top of the list. I won't bore you with the stinky details, just a few photos of little Ellie's playmat companions.

Sept. 2,2008

Nov.18, 2008

Dec.7, 2008

Dec.11, 2008

The HAY

2008-12-12T03:57:00.003+02:00

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My name is KAYA

2008-12-07T23:37:00.002+02:00

Kaya wrote her name for the first time, completely unassisted this afternoon - our little genius!

Mumok - aRt Afternoon

2008-11-28T04:11:00.008+02:00

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We spent a real day in the city last Sunday and took advantage of some free culture. The Museum of Modern Art opened its doors gratis so that the public could enjoy the likes of .... well I'm no art snob, but I do remember some out-of-the-ordinary (weird) moving images by Peter Kogler and a fantastic painting (the whole it really spoke to me bullsh%&) by Max Ernst. We convinced Kaya to join us with a smile by allowing her to leave the house dressed as a half-ballarina, drunk on hot chocolate, promising the site of large animated rats on the museum walls. Tutu on and ready to go, Ellie fell asleep the moment we hit the cold and the rest of us (Stefan and me on a caffeine high and Kaya dizzy on cocoa) had a momentous, tantrum-free and smile-filled couple of hours photograhic ourselves as proof that a museum can still be enjoyed even with 2 children under the age of 4 and not one but two strollers packed with crap we never need! So a big thanks to Stefan for organising (it can happen?!?!) a great afternoon in style, we had a blast!

5 pm

2008-11-27T18:08:00.003+02:00

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It's 5pm and the girls are still napping, boy are we going to be in trouble tonight! But as they say, you should never wake a sleeping baby...or toddler. I know it's a gamble, but i can't help it, time to myself during the day is so rare than I am willing to pay for it tonight...or Stefan is! That's what love is, sacrificing for your partner... I hope that he isn't going to read this post, or he'll know that the entire thing was pre-meditated and I won't be able to play the Idon'thaveawatch card. And, hey I have sacrificed for him today too - I practiced self-control and didn't eat the leftover desert, so that we could share it after dinner...ok, well it is a few nibbles smaller than when he left for work...but still partially there!

Ellie - 3 months

2008-11-23T13:23:00.004+02:00

snip snip

2008-11-21T10:26:00.006+02:00

I picked Kaya up from school yesterday and she looked different than she had in the morning...I couldn't figure it out at first. I mean there was the glue in her hair, the large blue stain on her pants (at least in wasn't pee or worse...), the fact that she was wearing some other kid's slippers , but it wasn't any of those, it was something a little more permanent, and then I figured it out....she now had BANGS (a fringe for my aussie and british friends). And they told us at the parents' night that they were teaching them responsible play with scissors! She could have come home with one less good eyeball, now that wouldn't have been very responsible, would it? The worst thing about it is that I wanted to have a big discussion about the incident, about how she shouldn't do that because she could cause major bleeding, need stiches or lose 50% of her vision, but, well, it actually looks good! My daughter, the 3 year old hairdresser - it has a nice ring to it, we could exploit her and her talent, maybe she could have her own series of how-to DVDs.

One swims, one lounges

2008-11-16T23:22:00.004+02:00

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Kaya has been taking "swimming" lessons (get-your-parents-up-early-to-repeatedly-splash-them-in-the-face-while-they-tell-you-you-are-doing-a-fab-job lessons) for the past few weeks and the great thing about them, minus the fact that she learns to not drown, is that the pool is heated on Sunday mornings which makes the entire area warm and knocks Ellie out. The kid is no match for the heat/white noise combo!

Tram faces

2008-11-15T08:22:00.005+02:00

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Stefan gave me a new pocket-sized camera last week which has become a fixture in my "purse"... which as of late has been a very fashionable, kid-sized, green backpack with embroidered swords on the front!
Kaya keeps asking me, with a confused look on her face:
"Why have you MY bag mommy, the one for school for my friends to go to field treps? Have you gum in it, the one with the blue dots, I like that one, it's my favorite? I'm a little bit an aaaadult and can have gum like you.Why have you my bag mommy?"

My various daily answers (lies):

1. "I brought it for you (the lies I tell her just to make her face light up)."
Kaya: "For meeeeee, have you gum in it? The one with the blue dots?"

2. "Because I couldn't find my purse."
Kaya: "Not the black one, the yellow one, the brown one? Have you gum in it? The one with the blue dots?"

3. "Because I like swords????"
Kaya: "Swords blah. Have you gum in it? The one with the blue dots?"

4. Trying her favorite answers to all my questions "I dunno."
Kaya with a wide grin delighted that I am clueless: "AH, I dunno too! Have you gum in it? The one with the blue dots?"

Yep, that's right Kaya is obsessed with a confectionary made of synthetic rubber and we all know that I fuel this addiction to avoid public tantruming and to get her to do what I want without ruse and combat. In my defense I have explained that she must chew with her mouth closed to avoid looking and sounding like bovine, avoid swallowing because it will become icky in her belly and get this, her favorite flavour is the professional whitening one, so her baby whites are sparklin'.

I got a little side tracked, all that to say that these photos were taken on a tram on the way home from a playdate at the Technical Museum.

How large does my head look?!?!

I'm smiling for your picture, now where's my gum mum?

Gangster Kaya...Where's my gum mum!

Ellie at 11weeks

2008-11-13T00:28:00.003+02:00

.Here's our little screamer. After creating a permanent ringing in my ears last week, just when I thought I was going to throw in the towel, she spent a day just smiling. Now really, she played me because this just made me forget all the rest...it's like a drug and I'm addicted!

Jam session

2008-11-13T00:00:00.003+02:00

.Kaya has become obsessed with Bruce...gulp, ya I wonder where that comes from?!?! Not the Canadian parent in the family I can assure you, or you know I'd have her rocking out to the likes of Rush, the Cowboy Junkies, Neil Young, and even Brian Adams. Her favorite song by Mr.Springsteen is Thunder Road which she refers to as Screen Door Slams. She goes around the house commanding me to play the song with the screen door and tantrums if I don't put it on repeat 30 times over. So thanks to her dad and his crush on the man who brought us Born in the USA (ya, thanks for that one...) Ellie and I now have to endure Kaya's 3 year- old, high pitched, shrill voice as she conducts jam sessions, guitar and all to an all American rock classic from the 70s. So instead of memorising The Wheels on the Bus or If you're Happy and you know it, my tot aspires to have the raspy voice of aged hippie from below the 49th!

And off the the hairdresser's

2008-11-06T12:53:00.001+02:00

.Kaya's hair is always in her face, she likes to inform me that that is how real princesses wear their dos, but she seems to be getting a crick in the neck from flipping it off her face to play, eat, tantrum (which I've now turned into a verb...you should see how active they can be!), and generally do anything which requires sight...preferably watch TV if it were up to her. So to prevent her crick from turning into anything more Quasimodo, I took her to the hairdresser's one day after pre-K. I didn't even have to bribe nor brainwash, she happily agreed to have her hair "made pretty". She sat in the chair and enjoyed every moment of pampering and even turned down the lolipop reward!!!! HUH?

Pumpkin Fest

2008-10-30T08:32:00.019+02:00

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Austrians claim not to celebrate Halloween , but eh...erhm...we went to a "pumpkin festival" last weekend, which well is the equivalent of... well ... HALLOWEEN! Please how can one deny that jack-o-lanterns, witches, sweets and painted faces is not Halloween. Now someone is going to try to put a spin on the fact that Europe is so much older than Canada and that any tradition that happens here definitely existed before even the thought of a similar one in North America, but I say piuuwee to that, they are so trying to market Halloween as some cultural pumpkin festival, one with a rich history - whatever Franz Josef worshippers, I'll let you in on a little secret: eating sweets and getting drunk while surrounded by carved pumpkins is the definition of HALLOWEEN!

Anyhow, we drove about 90km to get up to this smallish Austria town on the border to the Czech Republic and only managed the trip in under 2 hours thanks to static FM. On Ellie's first long car trip, she made it abundantly and loudly clear that she is no fan of being strapped into a car seat! Well to make an uneventful car ride short, I had to nurse the kid on the highway shoulder, Kaya freaked out and spotted something black and scary in the colourful, autumn folliage and well, as usual Stefan got right to where we needed to be with his brain map of the world (boy does that ever drive me nuts, that he has a build in GPS!).

Since Kaya had seen half of Eastern Europe by the time she was Ellie's age, we thought we should make a weekend of the "pumpkin festival" so that Ellie could at least get a sleepover stamp in her passport. We stayed in a renovated farm house thanks to Suz, great friend and remarkable hobby travel agent and Stefan, Kaya, Ellie and I managed to sleep through the night in one king-size bed...now if that ain't a accomplishment!

The cultural, end of October event was a hit with both the kids who got their faces painted and scored premuim balloon (which we ended up naming 9.50 after the price of them) and the adults who got to enjoy the local "grape" juice and have a game night without paying a couple of sitters.

Here is my (ps) for the weekend:
The balloons ended up being invaluable as just after they were purchased, we were down a man at the crowded outdoor festival and were only able to locate and retrieve him thanks to the shiny, red, helium filled car attached to his wrist!

Static FM

2008-10-28T15:47:00.014+02:00

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At the moment our favourite radio station goes a little something like: sssshshhshshshhhhhhhhhhhhhzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzsssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh and is some where between pure static and interrupted, moaning static. I feel like we are in a cult and are trying to brainwash our 10 week old, maybe we could throw in a few subliminal messages between the static, like: ssshhhhshshs sleep through the night, ssshhhshshs I will not cry, sssshhhhshshs I will learn to self-soothe, sssshhhshssh I have the best parents in the world...

This whole static obsession started when I watched this video on you tube by the author of The happiest baby on the block who emphasized the love babies have for white noise, just like in the womb - it is apparently ridiculously loud in there, no wonder babies kick the crap out of your insides, it's all Morse code for turn the volume down mama. Evidently since Ellie has gone down the I'mgonnascreammylungsoutforanhouronanightlybasis path, I've attempted to turn my little screamer into the happiest baby in town by recreating the comforts of my uterus, which does NOT include submerging her in amniotic fluid and getting her to start breathing from her belly button again! But is more along the lines of calming noise which is found in radio static, a vacuum cleaner, the hair dryer or me recording my own voice going ssshhhhhhhhhhhhh for an hour and playing it to her before bedtime. Lets face it, finding an in between station and pretending to rock out to it is way more fun and very mobile as it can easily be tuned into in the car, on my cell phone and on the living room stereo. I'm even thinking of starting my own sshhhh station (shhhsh FM) including sporadic, subliminal happy baby messaging therapy (since parents eat up anything with the word therapy in it) and nap time and nighttime static which would differ slightly from chill out static and put babies to sleep faster and for longer periods of time. Imagine the profit I could make.

Although I do have to watch how often I static-tify Ellie, as I don't want her to become desensitised to background noise at which point I would have to find a new secret sleep aid. This afternoon it played out like this:
Ellie crying in an overtired state, not letting herself fall asleep (why do babies do that?) me carrying her around, breaking my back and then, turn on the radio to nothing by annoying noise and 30s later she's passed out on a pillow and I'm the happiest parent on the block! We did the same on the way back from our trip last weekend, which was Ellie's 1st car ride. Without the help of the non-existent 103.3 FM, a 1.5 hour trip would have turned into a 6 hour breastfeeding frenzy... and it ain't easy to manoeuvre a latch with her strapped into her car seat and me belted into the front passenger seat. There was even the added bonus for Stefan that it put Kaya to sleep mid-sentence and me a minute later, so the lucky man did not have to listen to girl chit chat the entire way home.

I have finally started to understand the saying sleeping like a baby, which I believe was truncated from the original one of "sleeping like a baby ... numbed by radio (anae) static."

THinGs oUR 3 yeAR oLD hAs tOLd Us - Part II

2008-10-22T00:12:00.013+03:00

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On chewing gum:
"I'm a little bit an adult like you, I can chew gum."
"Don't swallow it or the belly monsters will eat it."

On penises:
"Daddy has a long buuuum."
"I don't have a penis, I have a sister."

When I'm an adult like you...
"...and have boobs, I can grow my sister in my belly and give her milk from my belly button."
"...I can go to Spar (the corner grocery store) all alone and buy spinatstruedel."
"...I can kiss daddy on the mouth."

On deflated balloons:
"My balloon is tired, I have to put it to bed so it can be round again."
"My balloon needs milk to get bigger like me."
"My balloon is my friend and can come to my birthday."
"Daddy fix my balloon it's broken and needs new baddaries."
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A regular day...

2008-10-17T22:28:00.008+03:00

.Ellie making her "OH" face in surprise at yet another something new

Me rocking her to sleep to avoid actually having to leave the house and therefore allowing myself to indulge in daytime TV

Kaya doing the leg hug while putting on her I-am-so-cute-don't-you-love-me face to bribe me into getting her something, giving her something or taking her somewhere - today trying to convince me to make vanilla ice cream for dinner

The daily needed sister photo - I can't get enough of photographing the girls and their sisterly love...even though Ellie appears to sleep through most of the heartwarming moments!

No need to say anything more than: AAAAHHHHHHH!

monster bites

2008-10-15T11:32:00.007+03:00

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Kaya is back from a fab. mini vacation with her Omi and Opi in Salzburg with a few souvenirs - monster bug bites. This post is dedicated to Aman who has also suffered being attacked by Salzburg mosquitoes, which appear to have been cross bred with killer bees and leave monstrous welt on one's face and body. On her first day back at school, I think they wanted to place her in quarantine, basically turn her into a bubble girl. I had to do some quick explaining to say that she hadn't been infected with a virulent strain of the chicken pox or some other vile tropical disease. Here's a bit how the conversation played itself out (in my head of course):

Me (mother of contagious looking child):"They are bug bites, I swear, cross my heart and hope to die (yes I am still a 7 year old!)."

Them (responsible for keeping 28 children alive from 7am-7pm): "Uh...well...you sure, cause...well (as they are keeping a safe distance)...ok, but keep your mobile on in case the bites start pussing and we have to contact you for an emergency send home."

Me: "No problem, yes yes yes, you've saved me (thinking thank heavens, there is no way I can handle both kids at home!)."

Them (still looking very skeptic): "Ok, right, just keep your phone on and uh...ok, ya."

There was obviously no need for me to pick her up and of course no one has contracted the mongo bug bites that have finally started to disappear. Kaya had a FANTASTIC time with her grandparents, but next time we might have to send her there with a mosquito netting bonnie hat.

Huge-ness

2008-10-14T23:10:00.001+03:00

.Ellie has just had her 7 week check up and the girl is maaaassive! She is a whole 4.1 kg and has grown from 48 to 54 cm, and lets not even talk about how her head has ballooned out, it's like a reverse Beetlejuice. So, 7 weeks post-womb, she is now basically the size of a little-larger-than-average newborn lady bug. I do have a load of sympathy for those of you out there who had to stretch your very private, private parts and push out an oversized little bundle of joy/pain. I nearly passed out from the excruciating contractions needed to get my kid out, and her head wasn't even the size of a cabbage patch doll's. How thankful am I that she got Stefan's narrow head gene and not my round-cheeked, wider than an elephant's arse one. No matter whom she takes after, she has started using her cute, little face to smile...one of the best 1st milestones besides learning to pass wind without crying the house down.
.

2008-10-14T11:06:00.003+03:00

Needless to say these never made it to her closet. Yet another clear indication of her princess gene expressing itself...
.

NuTS about the fall!

2008-10-09T01:11:00.017+03:00

Fall is simply the season that tops them all. So to take in the last bit of sunlight before Vienna literally turns grey for the winter, we wandered out into the wild, wild woods, saw caged deer, picked flowers from a forbidden field and let the fresh air bring out a bit of our loopiness.

I am a tree!

Our Kaya

2008-10-08T15:08:00.005+03:00

Our Kaya has been staying with her grandparents in Salzburg for the past 3 days and oh do I miss her (although I sure don't miss her endless NOs). Sitting by the pond in the pm and naming the ducks while eating cut up apple and raisins is sure strange when you do not have a toddler in tow. So I've taken to afternoon napping with Ellie and eating chocolate chip cookies - who said I wanted to lose the post-pregnancy weight anyway! Come home soon K, or I might lose my edge and forget how to trick you in to believing that helping me clean the kitchen is loads of fun and that broccoli is the tastiest food there is. Although it is fun to practice on Stefan, it's just not as challenging to coerce an overtired, grown man at the end of a long day of work to do the dishes and eat his salad!

Copper, wool and brass

2008-09-22T10:09:00.008+03:00

.Amidst the poopy diapers, spit up, runny noses and "no" days, I actually managed to remember (via pop up in my google calendar) that today is my wedding anniversary. We said our I dos a whopping 7 years ago and I have just informed myself, yes I am procrastinating...I just can't take another round of remove, wipe, get peed on, wipe again, fasten, intestinal noises, red face and poop in the clean diaper (she likes a clean diaper like most like a fresh bowl) that lasted no longer than a minute and the routine again from the top. So anyway as I was saying, I have just informed myself that if one is so inclined to celebrate this occasion with something material, the appropriate materials of choice for lucky number seven are copper, wool and brass. One website is kind enough to provide ideas for the gift-givingly challenged amongst us ( I am raising my hand while typing) which include sculptures, furniture and appliances. Giving that I'm meeting Stefan in 45minutes for a romantic lunch, I don't think I'll find the time to pick up a new Henry Moore, a stylish coffee table or a stainless steal sub zero. So I might tailor one of the wool suggestions of a decorative rug, sweater, UGG boots (????) to my time and financial constraints and give something, oh I don't know like...forget that I'll let him wear one of my clean pair of wool socks. Nothing says I love you like sock sharing, right? After all it is a cold day and I am not known for sharing (only-child syndrome of get your own).

So I'll wrap those up (place in a Ziploc bag) and we'll have a lovey-dovey lunch in a rush as we have get it all in pre-siren: food, digestion, conversation and the bill and then weeahhweahh, the 4 week old wakes up and needs le lait from ze boob de la mama and we're out, just like the table was never occupied. Leaving a fat tip to compensate for the fact that we force-squeezed our stroller and baby paraphernalia into the cozy (ridiculously minuscule) restaurant around the corner. Aren't the quaint (suffocatingly small) eateries in Europe just so stroller and baby friendly - not!

I am hoping that Stefan maybe remembered our anniversary before dawn today and maybe, just maybe came across the same website as I did, and chose to go with the travel gift option (nanny included) of visiting a place where wool is produced such as New Zealand or South America. Anyone know the Spanish for Bon Voyage? Wouldn't that be great, we could get some Alpaca wool while off-roading with our Bugaboo through the Andes to the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. Yeah right, with 2 kids in tow, a healing wazoo and leaky boobs - I think I'll just go put a pair of his socks on and beat him to the punchline.

Morning nap priorities

2008-09-19T11:42:00.008+03:00

.

I am always torn, I just put Ellie down for her morning nap and now is decision time, should I:

shower (which can easily be replaced by a ton of deodorant and a bit of body spray)
cut my toe nails (what? like you've all never let yours get a little hobbit-y)
get dressed (pjays can kind of be considered attire though can't they? At least on a university campus or in a mental institution they can...now I know where I should be spending my time!)
tidy up (never going to happen, but thought I would at least include it on the list, so that Stefan could see that I am making an effort - everything goes in the dishwasher though doesn't it, even lets say socks and kids' toys?)
prepare some lunch or dinner (but hey we live in the centre-ville, we can get take out on every corner, which lets face it is way tastier than spinatstruedel)
blog

As you can see, 1-5 have almost become obsolete and #6 is therefore, definitely, the most productive way to spend my rare moments of baby-free time. If I hadn't chosen to remain a smelly, hobbit-nailed, city-dweller who lives in a bit of chaos and frequents mental institutions and university campuses by day, all while serving take out for dinner, how would you have spent the last 3 minutes? And what memories would I have to share with my youngest? Doesn't every newborn want a dedicated mother like me who has definitely got her priorities straight? Now I am off to watch my latest addiction, Californication and snack on something that will in no way help me lose the extra baby-weight(chocolate) - there is always tomorrow and the day after that, I mean come to think of it, I've got a lot of morning naps ahead, so no need to stress about getting things done, I've got to pace myself. Plus I can always use the: I only gave birth 4 weeks/2 months/ half a year/2 years ago excuse - when does it actually lose its viability?

Sisters!

2008-09-18T09:34:00.001+03:00

I simply can't get enough of these photos. Yeah, right I am probably already living vicariously through my girls as I am an only child. Please do not let me turn into a psycho-mom, one who gets jealous of the relationship her daughters have and tries to be like one of them. Images of a 50 year old in spandex, a tube top and large hoop earrings comes to mind. Well Ellie has been around for 3.5 weeks and so far so good, Kaya seems to be embracing her big sister role...well lets see what hapens once Ellie can actually do a little more than find my nipple, poop and burp.

kissing

2008-09-17T10:05:00.006+03:00

.Kaya just tried to kiss kiss me this morning as she was leaving for school with Stefan...hmmm...I think Stefan and I are going to start having to be lovey-dovey only in the privacy of our own room or we could always start blindfolding the kids!

Expansion proof

2008-09-12T15:57:00.005+03:00

-
Just as I dare to smuggly think that I had escaped my second pregnancy unscathed by the unkind reminders that I have in fact spent the last 9 months allowing my body to expand, my skin to stretch, my boobs to swell to pornstar size and hair to grow Rapunzelesque...as my belly deflated, there they were (jaws music please) STRETCH MARKS! So yes, I have been branded by my second pregnancy and although some say that you should embrace the red-lined proof you have indeed carried a child and created a life, I say fu%$ that and will head to the pharmacy tomorrow to buy la crème de la crème of makethosenastystretchmarksdisappear creams to get all the help I can get to make them vanish. Yes, I know that they eventually fade and become barely noticeable (right?!?!), but there is nothing wrong with helping nature take its course, a little nudge can do no harm, as I've only got 10 months until bikini season comes around again or will I have to succomb and start wearing the dreaded mommy one-piece or worse yet start taking ski holidays?

Lulling Ellie to sleep

2008-09-01T10:50:00.012+03:00

_I finally figured out how these 2+ kids families do it. I've got an army of helpers at the house: Stefan whoI think is just hiding from his professional duties and always seems to need to run to the shop - it's his new toilet, my mom who can't seem to stay awake (jet lag jet lag she claims, although she seems to have flown across the Atlantic not so much to be on baby duty but more or less to have a good solid nap!) and Kaya our little angelic 3 year-old who actually sang Ellie to sleep this morning, relieving me of my pacifying duties. Yes, if she can lul a cranky baby to sleep she can surely start learning to cook, vacuum and do the dishes!
Life in the house has actually been good! I am as surprised as most, as I was definitely expecting a household catastrophe of gigantic proportions, with loads of crying (me), tantrums (Kaya) and hiding (Stefan), but so far all is harmonic on the babyfront. It surely has a lot to do with the fact that Stefan't mom was here with her one-woman show and scrubbed the place clean, all while keeping Kaya entertained and now my mom has taken over the reins. That's all it takes people - a well-coordinated household staff to care for a 47 cm long, less than 3 kilo heavy, 8 day-old tiny human being, aka the sucking machine.

Little Sister Ellie

2008-08-24T17:12:00.005+03:00

Ellie is here! born on 23.08.2008 early morning - 2,83kg - 47cm

Proud big sister Kaya!

THinGs oUR 3 yeAR oLD hAs tOLd Us

2008-08-21T08:59:00.004+03:00

Here are a few conversation snippets we've had lately.

On the baby...
Me: "Hey Kaya, you wanna talk to the baby in my belly?"
Kaya: " You don't have a baby in your belly, you have an alien in your belly."

A+ for use of new vocab.
F for making me dream about a big-headed, thinned-bodied, googly-eyed, green creature in my womb!

On nail polish...
Kaya: "Me and you have pretty nails, but daddy not."
Me: "Daddy's a man and most (me trying to give a hip, city-appropriate answer) men don't wear nail polish."
Kaya: "If daddy was a big lady he would have nail pliss too." "Daddy, lets make you a big lady!"

On popsicles...
Me: "We can't eat popsicles everyday, too much sugar."
Kaya: "Not everyday, today and yesterday and Thursday."

On my armpits (I skipped one shaving day)
Kaya: " You have hair there, yucky mommy!"
Me: "I uh....didn't shave today."
Kaya: " You look like daddy."

As you can see the kid's brain appears to be in overtime and her logic (often skewed) is really developing, the next thing you know she'll be sharing her theories on Darwinism, which I assume would go a little something like:

Kaya: " Yesterday (everything is the past is yesterday) we were unicellular organisms (or ickies as she would say), then today we bigger. You no icky mommy, you a lady like me, but but but (but always comes in 3s) daddy's an icky (and she would walk off and snicker at her own funny joke).

She has obviously been really great for our self-esteem lately, pointing out all our flaws and making fun of them...she is so part Chan!

Sleepover

2008-08-05T14:56:00.003+03:00

I stole this from my friend Odile's blog. I just couldn't resist! Odile graciously offered to have Kaya sleep over last weekend, so mommy and daddy could have a night out before baby day. Thanks Odile for a night out on the town (we were out till 10pm...call us crazy!) and the great pic!

LuCAs

2008-08-02T23:29:00.007+03:00

Lucas and Kaya go way back, they've been friends since I met his slightly crazy mom in an expat baby group here in Vienna. She tried half-heartedly to teach me to knit and we've been friends ever since. Our kids go through phases of fighting like cats and dogs (including: biting, hitting, shoving, screaming and the like), but deep down I think they actually really like each other. Here are 2 pics of them sharing a peaceful moment?!?! on the tram ride home from the way-to-hilly part of Vienna.

This moment lasted all of 4 beautiful seconds.

Kaya's doing the screaming this time - Lucas seems confused, that's normally his job.

black and blue

2008-08-02T10:49:00.006+03:00

Kaya has decided that permanent make up on her left eye is cool, so to get it done cheaply and independently, she decided to wake up screaming at 2am, run into our room and trip and smack her supraorbital process (the bone above her eye, under the eyebrow - love the medical term for it, sounds space-y) on our bed frame. The bruising incident was followed by a mere 30 seconds of crying, a more skilled, non-dangerous hop in our bed and sleep...like nothing ever happened, which is of course what we chilled out (or in this case idiotic - a very fine line that we seem to teeter on) parents assumed until she woke up cyclopsed the next morning! A quick trip to the children's hospital assured us that there was no fracture and that her eyeball was still intact - I let my imagination run amok for the day so you can just picture the colourful images I was coming up with. Needless to say we got a handful of raised eyebrow smirks on the way home, but I guess that could have been because of the fact the we bribed her with ice cream at 9am and had a ziplock bag of frozen raspberries (improvised cold pack) on her face fixed into place with a bright green hair elastic. As I write this I realised that we looked a bit like a modern day Adams family!

The birthday party!

2008-07-28T06:33:00.015+03:00

We wanted to spoil Kaya this year before the arrival of her sibling, who according to Adam Sandler is "going to eventually shoot out of my ee-ah and steal all her toys", so we decided to throw a bit of a bash in her birthday honour. We sent out the invites, baked a 2-tier cake and prepared a buffet of food, all to entice guests (those who weren't away...it is after all summer in Europe and people tend to disappear for weeks at a time) to stop by and help us make her feel extra special, well it certainly worked! She was absolutely spoiled rotten with attention, creative toys and princess paraphernalia - THANK YOU! And erhmmm we will talk about the slightly slutty plastic heels in another post...all of which will just end up as pay back once this certain special guest has little rug rats of his own!

Happy 3rd Birthday Kaya!

2008-07-18T15:49:00.009+03:00

I could rant and rave about the 12 hours of labour, the enema and the breastfeeding of the wrong baby that I endured on this very day 3 years ago, but I'll spare you all that babble, or mostly since I just did bring it up and just say happy birthday to my favourite and my best little daughter. Funny how, and yes I hate to admit it, but I feel a little teary eyed, that Kaya is 3 today, it's somehow incredible that we have managed to turn a little sleepy lump of a thing into a little girl. I think Stefan has an epiphany this morning and said "wow, we've been a family or 3 years"... at least he knows how old she is! So prost to Kaya you're an absolutely charming and wonderful daughter, we even love your princess tantrums (?), science experiments with the toilet brush (yuck even remembering the incident makes me yuck), and your absolute conviction that two is actually four. Lots of love Mom and Dad xoxo

All things Euro Cup 2008

2008-07-06T23:03:00.005+03:00

I did it yesterday...

2008-07-02T09:42:00.005+03:00

So we have this routine before bed, which I don't think is pushing the limits, just the standard showering, teeth brushing, peeing, story telling and loads of hugs and kisses. Well Kaya is always trying to alter/disrupt the flow of things - toddler power struggle, right?

Last night, we we asked her to go pee before hopping into bed and she said "I already peed yesterday mommy." Yep, that's right, at 8pm last night I was trying to explain the fundamentals of time and bladder function to a 3 year old, which went a little something like:
"Yesterday was yesterday and today is today and you need to empty the hollow, muscular, and distensible (or elastic) organ that sits on the pelvic floor just near your uterus." And I of course added the obligatory parental advisory of "and you have to do it or you'll get sick!"

I think I need to start enriching my toddler vocab, I should have said something like:
"just do it" or "pee or no bedtime story", but you know I can't seem to supress the teacher in me. And there is no time like the present to learn a bit of human anatomy, you can't just stop at head, shoulders, knees and toes, eyes, ears, mouth and nose...I'm sure we can fit bladder into some verse of the song.

Learning Curve

2008-06-10T22:30:00.004+03:00

Kaya has learned a few things in the last few weeks, here they are in order of importance (in my opinion), she has figured out:

1. her daddy is a big princess - she likes to style his hair, call him a big princess and force him to wear a crown
2. how to bully her baby sister (so we think) before she even exits the womb
3. her address, although she refuses to say it in the correct order - must be some North American Address gene, she always puts the number before the street
4.her last name, which she roars like a lion, so it sounds something like kRRRRRAAAAAAAAUuUuUUuuUUUssssssssssssss
5. how to combine all play dough colours, when her pregnant mommy is peeing for the umpteenth time, to form a beautiful shade of poop brown.
6. how to run away in a mad, screaming panic when a fly is nearby - that's right she's as tough as nails
7. how to crawl into our bed in the morning and to pretend snore and giggle to wake us up
8. my all time favourite - putting her shoes on the wrong feet (every time we try to leave the house) to get our attention. "Like this mommy? Like this mommy?" My reply "without looking "yeah, yeah, like that." Her rebuttal, in utter 3 year-old, I am not being taking seriously shrill "NNNOOOOO mommy, not like this wrong foot!"
WHY DOES SHE ASK IF SHE KNOWS?????

If I took a guess, right now, as to what she's going to be later in life, I would either say court jester, princess (she would find a royal to marry - she's conniving enough) or professional dancer, you should see her get down to the wiggles...all 3 volumes.

Here are a few photos of her and the baby group she has been a part of since she was born (thanks to Gillian, as my pregnant arse has been totally lazy - I can't even be bothered to lift the camera...it's just too heavy!):

Snow holes

2008-04-09T10:28:00.005+03:00

Kaya and Stefan are in Canada. I'm not. Here is what they have been up to - mainly digging snow holes. Stefan still believes you can get to China if you just dig deep enough!

An angelic sleeper

2008-03-17T21:55:00.003+02:00

I just had a peek at Kaya sleeping and I'm having a mykidisthecutestmostcleverandsweetestintheworld moment. I can't believe how angelic she looks while asleep. It's probably to make up for all the hitting and scratching of late. She's become a bit of a bully, instead of talking to other children she's figured out that a good scratch is way more effective - help! We're going to have to hibernate till we're over this one, I'm afraid she might cause some permanent facial scarring as her nails grow faster than a magic beanstalk. If you look close enough you can also see that she has sustained her first injury that would have people calling social services. She somehow tripped while running (really!) and defaced her little button nose, she probably did it on purpose as it goes with her new rough and tough phase. She'll probably ask for a bad-ass leather jacket, arm band and chain for her wallet next - I draw the limit at skull rings.

Poop Issues

2008-02-19T10:00:00.005+02:00

You know the city you live in has a poop problem when all of your 2.5 year-old's drawings include the following: mommy, daddy, a random friend, tree and poop. Every time she draws a picture, poop is included as one of the main features - that's a big yuck. So a big please to all you dog owners, before my kid can really draw ( not just random lines she assigns names to) pick up after you four-legged friend, because I can't handle the thought of having drawings of feces on my fridge!

unfocussed

2008-02-12T17:28:00.000+02:00

It's hard to get a two-year old in focus - maybe I shouldn't try to take pics while she's playing around. Here are a few from last week in our yard. Please try to ignore the decapitated pot plants. Some sort of landscaping will happen in our yard in spring, well I atleast promise to get rid of the decomposing greenery.

Bathrobe to work?

2008-02-04T13:57:00.000+02:00

I was brushing my teeth this morning when Kaya's face lit up, she started touching the bottom part of my bathrobe and saying "mommy pretty dress, like Kaya, pretty dress mommy!" I tried to explain that it is in fact a seven-year-old, faded, red, terry cloth bathrobe, but she would hear nothing of the sort. "Ah, pretty dress mommy" is all she kept repeating with a smile from ear to ear. I then went to dress for work and she went into a full-blown temper tantrum, shouting "nnnooooooo mommy, must pretty dress like Kaya....must pretty dress, sob, sob, scream attack....pretty dress." Figuring that there there was no solution in my parenting guide for the bathobe dilemma, I decided to go with ignore, ignore, ignore, which of course didn't work. Unable to pry her off my "pretty dress", I dragged her to the kitchen, clinging to the terry delight and gave her a cookie - I know, way to reward bad behavior, but I just couldn't go to work in my Ikea bathrobe, give a mom a break!

More Messy

2008-01-29T10:49:00.001+02:00

I just muttered the following to Kaya, "don't clean, it'll just make it more messy". Her response "huh?". But I think that my utterance sums up my two-year old to a tee. She loves to clean just about everything, she even grabbed the rag this morning to clean out her full bowl of muffin mix, yeah that turned out just as pristine as you can imagine sticky, uncooked dough on a piece of way-too-tiny cloth. But you know the bottom line, at least she was shelf-entertaining, extra points for her, or stickers, or whatever I decide to reward her with. She's satisfied as long as the word princess is used, I have definitely got a girlie-girl on my hands and am enjoying every diamond-studded, tiara moment of it. Time to put on her dress and go to music class, she's been practise twirling all morning, would it be way over the top to get her a wand?

Mommy quiz

2007-12-17T10:31:00.000+02:00

I wrote this post on Dec. 7th, but have been so busy 'schau-ing' that I forgot to post it.

So how many times can Kaya say mommy in a 24 hour period?

Yesterday I lost count around 17000 mommies and a gazillion mommy schau (look).
Here is a list of the super-interesting-absolutely-fabulous-oh-my-god-you'll-never
-see-anything-like-it-again things I just absolutely HAD to look at:

Scene 1 - Doll Sleeping
Her doll sleeping
Her doll sleeping under a blanket
Her doll sleeping under a blanket in her stroller
Her doll sleeping under a blanket in her stroller with a teddy
Her doll sleeping under a blanket in her stroller with a teddy under the blanket too

Scene2 - Doll Awake
Her doll 'wake up'
Get the point? I'll bet you'll never guess what happened next in the sequence. How did you know? That's right - Her doll wake up without the blanket. Might just have to post a video of the entire scene on YouTube for everyone to see.
Kaya has also taken to wearing some bling, she's got 2 reflector owls drapped around her neck. Good thing is that she glows in the dark and can never sneak up on you. I swear I can hear them jiggling before she says mommy. So a day in the house basically sounds like this:
jiggle jiggle...mommy....mommy...schau
1min pause
jiggle jiggle jiggle...mommy....mommy...schau
5min pause
rattle rattle jiggle jiggle...mommy coookkkiiieeee

Anyone want to come over for lunch and enjoy some easy listening?

Aurevoir Artur - you will be missed.

2007-12-12T23:49:00.000+02:00

A teary farewell to Stefan's grandfather, Kaya's great-grandfather and my dearest one-man band. To a sweetheart of a man, we will miss your musical medleys, rhyming page-long poems, quick wit and above all your random foreign words. Mon Cher Artur, I'm sure there is a chair waiting for you in heaven, so put your feet up, take in the scenery (I'm sure angels sind bezaubernd anzuschauen) and hope for a Trafik beyond the pearly gates. Goodnight, goodbye and adieu. Warm thoughts and a ton of love, Stefan, Kaya and Kim.

To a man whose stories began in another time,
and whose poems always manage to rhyme,
a husband, a father, a grandfather, and even great-grandpa at that,
he spoke a bit of Russian, English, and French all learnt in combat.
An accordion at his fingertips,
he sailed through on a series of marvellous quips,
training his brain on crossword puzzles,
always knowing the answer to dog fasteners was muzzles.
He read his gossip mags,
watched his sports on alle tags,
never gave up hope on winning the lotto,
he even drove his Mercedes across the border staccato,
to get the winning Schein,
and find himself in a place divine,
well you've arrived at that spot and can start anew
Liebe Artur we will dearly miss you.
Kim xoxo

Why other people's kids are more fun!

2007-11-29T22:45:00.000+02:00

This is why other people's kids are more fun! Relax dear reader there was no beer in the bottle, the coolness (word?) of the glass was soothing her bumpy pre-teeth-filled gums. I actually thought it was quite an ingenious idea, but if someone would have tried that on Kaya I would have given them THE LOOK. You know the one. The one that sends your husband running to cook you dinner, buy you flowers and give you a foot massage. The same one that has people making space for you on a rush hour train even if it means pushing an old lady aside. Well I've perfected it. It's a must have as a mom along with:

a good bottle of red waiting for you after you've wrestled the little one into bed and read 15 books with rhyming sentences (thanks Catherine, I'm enjoying the Masi at this very moment)
the chill out chocolates kept in your purse - my kid is going to throw a public tantrum, I'll wait it out and feast on a few Swiss chocolates and at least find some sort of positive in the public humiliation moment
German - Indonesian dictionary so when a passerby is giving you "friendly/expert" advice on how to raise your child, you can point to the dictionary and watch them shut up
A fruit of your choice, so it looks like your a responsible mother that only offers healthy snacks
Cookies, crackers, animal-shaped edibles as real snacks and for bribery purposes (I'm as corrupt as the mafia)
Extra clothes for the "toilet-trained" child - cause you never know. And trust me, taking your kid home from the park wrapped in nothing but your jacket isn't pleasant!
wipes, wipes and more wipes, they are useful for everything and anything from gunk on the face, to sticky hands and random pigeon crap on your daughter's adorable winter jacket even useful to clean up your husband before a dinner party- never leave home without em'

Anyhow, what I wanted to say with all that is that I get to let out my white-trashy side with little Stella, oh how I could corrupt an 8 month old! I abandon my striving for perfection attitude - I am not trying to turn her into a child genius or the next who's who of female politicians (as it would create direct competition for Kaya)...poor Kaya I bet she wishes I were just her aunt, especially when we've recited the alphabet, counted to 20 and read about rain forest destruction for the umpteeth time. Oh well you can't chose your parents - lucky me, or I'd end up with 50 cats!

a screetchy juke box

2007-11-20T15:52:00.000+02:00

Today is Tuesday and we have music class music class music class music class music class music class. The thing I love the most about it is that Kaya will sing all the songs at home or in her stroller but won't even lip sync in class...she's got tune-in-the-shower syndrome, she won't belt one out unless she's being drowned out by background noise. Or maybe she's just trying to set an example to get me to shut up in class, she's only two and I'm already embarrassing her (I'm that skilled), this from the kid who still drools and calls the john the toilep. You see, I on the other hand am a mommy/juke box, mind you one of those really old ones that have been sold at auction, after having been a dust tree in the corner of a diner that closed down three decades ago. One where one speaker kind of works while the other just makes an awfully annoying cracking noise that you try to ignore but just drives you nuts. One where the records have been played so often that half the song is a slow motion schreech, you know that sound people say is the devil...that's right my voice is, well lets put it this way, I should only belt on tunes when showering under Niagara Falls, even then the gushing water might not be enough to drown out my pre-pubescent high pitched screeches, never mind the fact that I can only ever seem to remember the first line and part of the chorus (usually with invented words) of a song...Come through my window, Melissa Ethridge fans will now what song I'm destroying here. But who cares, I pretend that I have a lovely soothing voice and have convinced myself that it lulls Kaya to sleep, even though she is probably just feigning sleep to get me and my faulty vocal chords out of her room. I love to sing, so that's that, nothing is going to shut me up. Anyone for a C 3 - Living on a Prayer!
Kaya has taken to picking out her own clothes lately, maybe she came up with the following outfit as payback.

Lucas' birthday part 1

2007-11-16T11:29:00.000+02:00

One of Kaya's best friends celebrated his 2nd birthday yesterday, here are some shots of the kids...after the sugar rush!

An edible train! WOW! Does it get any better?

Static!!!!!! I'm not hiding anything behind my back....I dunno where the missing cookies are! I can seeeee you! Balloons! Balloons! Balloons!

green road signs and fallen leaves

2007-10-25T15:14:00.000+03:00

It's Thursday, that means no work and a whole day with Kaya! We just got back from our morning playgroup, which surprisingly has continued to meet, on a weekly basis, since the kids were born 2 years ago. I actually don't know what I would have done without the good old bi&%$ sessions and glasses of prosecco. Well, I've just put Kaya down for her nap, yes, I am very thankful that she still needs to sleep for about 2 hours in the afternoon, and I've decided to watch a movie and sit my arse on the couch with some tea and chips, I figure the good of the green tea balances the bad of chips - although it in no way helps with the sour cream and onion breath...well I guess you can't have it all.

The first scene of the movie "The legend of Lucy Keyes" starts with a station wagon lugging a U-haul trailer through some county roads in the States, and admittedly those wide roads, fallen leaves and green road signs have given me a bout of homesickness. There is nothing like fall in Eastern Canada! We just spent a week in Montreal at the beginning of October and it was fab - family, friends, fall leaves, crisp non-diesel smelling air and space to stretch!

The 1st pie I've ever made, crust and all.

"dirty" play dough

2007-10-22T18:27:00.000+03:00

GRRRRRRRRR!!!

Right at this moment, Kaya is dumping all of her play dough in the garbage while she waves goodbye and says "see you next time play dough". Oh wait she has now just taken it out and said "it's all dirty"...should I intervene? It's always a moral dilemma, let the kid do something that isn't quite right so I can steal a few minutes on the computer or stop the crazy behavior and deal with a little fit...hmmmm...tough decision. That's right, I admit it, I'm letting the kid play with the semi-gross play dough. But come on how many times have you picked something out from the top of the garbage and used it (or even grosser, eaten it), plus it's building her immune system right? Don't want my child living a sterile world so she develops allergies later on!

Alright, take it easy for those of you that are starting to doubt my parenting skills, I have just inspected the "dirty" play dough and it's only got a strand of hair stuck to it. Now you can't really consider that dirty, can you? For dirty there has to at least be some discoloration, foul smelling odour or chunk of moldy food stuck to it.

Life with Kaya has been great, challenging, hilarious and at times almost unbearable lately. She is definitely in her terrible twos, but I have now figured out that when she is healthily asserting her independence (kicking the crap out of the floor, because she can't get yet another cookie) all you have to do is move her to the side of the building, sidewalk and grocery store and let her do her thing while you pretend to be the clueless nanny. Besides that, her vocabulary is on the up, she runs like a sprinter and is doing well with her toilet, or toileP as she says, usage, there have been a few relapses but nothing major, I can't believe what a difference in my life the non-diaper situation has made -I love it, no more trying to pin her down and clean in her personal spaces!

I'll leave you with a photo I took this afternoon on the way home from school - the little monster at her best.

The three little words minus the pronoun

2007-09-19T09:18:00.000+03:00

I finally experienced one of those "motherhood" moments, the ones you see in commercials , you know, the ones that Hallmark cards were designed to create. The ones I have been waiting for. Why are they taking so long? Like learning to sleep, eat, walk, talk and potty train are more vital than learning to tell your mom that you love her! So, yesterday, as I was peeing (well you can't have it all) Kaya said "Kaya love mommy" and pointed to her heart....tears sprung to the corners of my eyes...tears because I was happy???? There is no going back, the gates have been opened, I will now start crying at the most inconsequential of things. What's next? Crying when watching cell phone commercials, when hearing sweet stories about puppies and when seeing muddled drawings Kaya brings home from school? Whatever, it's all worth it! She even told me that the porridge I made this morning was gut. What is she buttering me up for? What does the kid want? Can they already be so cunning at the age of 2?

Zoé sleeps over

2007-09-02T21:19:00.000+03:00

Kaya's best friend, Zoé, slept over for the 1st time last night and although we didn't munch on popcorn and watch horror movies, it was a blast! The girls were great. I was shocked. For the past few weeks they have been pulling hair, pushing, slapping and hitting one another, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that that "developmental" part of their relationship is over.

little pee, BIG PEE

2007-08-24T00:16:00.000+03:00

I just had 4 weeks of holidays from work - if the school wouldn't have closed for August, I would have actually evaporated given the heat in my classroom. When will they get air conditioning in this country?!?! People, the world is getting warmer in most places - get on the cool air bad waggon! Seriously, in July, I was that teacher, the one with sweaty pits....you all certainly have the odd memory of that grotty teacher with sweat stains, well now that's me - the shame.

Anyhow, I thought I'd put my time off to good use and try to get a few things ticked off my mental list of things to accomplish with a 2 year old, and this is what managed to get to:
1. potty training
2. getting rid of the pacifier

I'm still in shock, Kaya who can't peel her own bananas is now out of diapers (except at night time) and doing her business in the toilet and/or potty! I have stopped getting kicked, no more fighting to get the pampers on, she's in undies! The only thing left to do is teach her that poo is not pee. I need to be mentally prepared for what we sometimes have to do behind a tree or in the bushes. Pee - not that far off the sidewalk. Poo - all thee way in the bush. So if she's using the wrong terminology, well you know what you get near the sidewalk - you get the urgency of my point?

And, on the drive back from the grandparents last week, we "lost" the pacifier on the highway, who knew such a ridiculous story would hold. The kid hasn't asked for it since. A large feat in the Chan-Krauss household. It went down with a few tears (15minute cry out session), but that gross, bacterial-infested piece of latex is out of here...yeah!

Here are the things Ii didn't manage to tick off:
1. teachKaya to do the wash and...
2. cook her own meals
Oh well, there is always Christmas break!

The Bonderos Aug. 2006

2007-08-04T11:39:00.000+03:00

August has come around and all the Canadian expats I know have fled back to cottage country, which has left me a little teary-eyed. To cheer myself up and pretend that I'm part of the festivities, I thought that I'd post some of the pictures from last year's season. These photos were taken by a great friend of mine, one that has been around since the hula hoop and elastic days, and thought it appropriate to brag about heading "Up North". So Cristal, thanks for the photos, have a fab time at the Bonderosa, and we do hope that we'll see you there next year. Please have a ride of the river of terror for me. Miss you xoxox

Cristal and the girls

Fire for smores - gimme s'more!

The 1st Austrian to eat smores?

Kaya's 2nd birthday!

2007-07-19T18:42:00.000+03:00

Another calendar year successfully completed. We have managed, with the HUGE help of family members and friends, to keep the little tyke healthy, happy, crazy, and totally chatty for another 365 days (or was this year a leap year?). Our Kaya has turned out to be quite a character, she's got a little bit of my insanity and loopy-ness and whole lot of Stefan's cuddliness and heart. Always the chatterbox, she likes to call her friend "Cos" on my cell...don't know where she got the name from. I like to pretend that she's either a little ghetto and is actually calling her non-existent Cuz for advice or is an absolute genius and is using a nickname to refer to the trigonometric function cosine.

As for her language register, it is expanding daily. She is as repetitive as a mockingbird and here are a few of her favorite words in order of usage: schnulli ( her faithful friend the pacifier), please ( It'll get her whatever she wants), more ( self-explanatory, normally followed by cookie, juice, Dora), egg (though not green nor with ham), milk (which makes her sleeeeeepy), and ok (after every time she falls and doesn't need me).

She now stands at about mid-thigh height and weighs a solid 12 kg, she's got a funky bob cut thanks to Odile, and although I would like to let her bangs grow out, hair clips are her public enemy numero uno! On top of her oh-so-charming smile, she's also developed an infectious laugh and a skip-hop running style. For the past 2 years she has been quite the laid back child, although she is now starting to develop a backbone and sometimes fights to be the one in charge - thank god, I was starting to fear that we were raising a pushover.

Right now, if I had to place bets on what she'd become, I'd have to say some kind of performer, as she absolutely loves to sing and dance and is definitely into drama. We could even start carrying a hat around to collect change for all the times she breaks into song and dance in public places, she really is quite entertaining.

These past 2 years have been a series of fortunate events and we remain curious to see what she has in store for us this upcoming year. So to Kaya, for whenever you might one day read this, you are definitely a charming, comedic and loving girl, thank you for making our lives that much more chaotic and happy.

FRieNdSHip!

2007-07-15T22:34:00.000+03:00

The best of friends we'll always be,

and if some day you disagree,
our moms will always have these pictures of us three!