This Week I've Loved...Milestones

The past week has been one of milestones for us. Sometimes when the children reach milestones it can be very hard for us as parents to accept that our baby is not a baby any more.  But this week's milestones were happier ones for us. 

For a start, we went on our second family camping trip, our first with Number Three. I was a bit concerned about the amount of sleep we would get, what with it being bright till after 10pm, us all sleeping on one tent and the excitment of being on holiday. Thankfully it all went very well. The fresh air and activity wore us all out so that we fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the sleeping bags. 

Just an hour or two after our return home from camping, Number Three surprised us all by taking his first steps, at the tender age of ten months. Our wee man was over the moon and spent the rest of the evening staggering between the sofa, coffee table and armchair while giggling his head off. I now well and truly have my hands full and need to keep an eye on his every move. 

That same evening the next milestone was reached as Number One read his first library book by himself. He usually reads a page, maybe two if there are lots of pictures, before handing over to me to read the next few pages. But this time we were delighted to witness him reading a full chapter. What astounded me though was that the following morning over breakfast he read another two chapters and insisted on bringing the book to school so that he could read the final chapter at breaktime. Since then he has become a real book worm. Fingers crossed he'll become as much of a book lover as the Bavarian and I are. 

This Week I've Loved....The Garden, Party Planning and Paddling

July is always a busy month in our house. With two birthdays to celebrate, holidays to pack for, fruit to be harvested in the garden and high temperatures luring us to the pool or the lake, we are kept on our toes. 

The past week has been especially busy but in a fun way - the ideal kind of busy. 

Our apple tree has been dropping hard, unripe apples all week, our kohlrabi plants are ready for harvesting and our Turkish plum tree has come into crop. The boys and I have spent a lot of time in the garden, alternately picking fruit and paddling in the paddling pool. With temperatures well over 35°C, we had to keep in the shade as much as possible. Where better to do that than under a plum tree?

Number Three was fascinated with the paddling pool and couldn't get enough of it. He was so brave, standing and splashing away with his hands, even though he is barely ten months.

We also celebrated Number Three's birthday with a Lego Movie themed birthday. Despite it being near 40°C we had a brilliant afternoon of fun with him and six of his friends. I find the German birthday party rule of thumb great - the number of children should be approximately the same as the age of the child. Number Three turned seven and invited six friends  - seven children. It makes for a manageable party and since most people go by that rule, there is no pressure to invite the whole of his class at school. 

Those were the highlights of my week. Tomorrow's bake sale at school should be lovely, seeing all the children queue up for cake with a Euro or two in their hand. This is my contribution (sorry for the bad photo). Dolphins are the latest craze with my boys. 

This Week I've Loved - Filming with Number Two

There are times in life when you ask yourself "Why did I do that? It was obviously a bad idea" and then it turns out it wasn't such a bad idea after all. Like me moving to Germany with no money and no job. But twelve years later I am still here, happily married and with three sons and a lovely house.

I had one of those bad idea moments this week, albeit on a much smaller scale. I had a notion to make a yeast bread video tutorial. When I couldn't get my phone to the right angle to film from, I asked Number Two (my almost 5 year old) to hold the phone steady for a few minutes. It started off well but then he decided to get creative and take a few photos of me. As he did so, he chatted and waved the phone about, leaving me a video in need of severe editing. But what I also got were some candid shots of me in the kitchen, just doing what I normally do while baking. Number Two enjoyed filming and photographing as he pleased while I had floury hands.

I loved this shared moment with Number Two, interrupting our usual routine of breakfast, chatting and getting ready for the day by adding a phone set to video mode into the mix.

I never got to re-film the start of the tutorial, but here is what i was able to salvage. If you are interested in the recipe, leave me a comment and I'll post it soon.