Thanks Lucy!

I got an e-mail from my friend, Lucy the other day saying how she loved reading my blog and it made me feel guilty for not keeping it up. So, thanks to her, I now have the motivation to write on here again. I must admit I have got very slack with it all since having Dylan, but I just find my time gets filled so quickly. Who knows what I used to do with my time before I had a baby?! Now I find there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Anyway Dylan is now sleeping so I’m using the opportunity to write this.

I cannot believe we have been here in Germany for 8 weeks already! The time has just flown by. I think it’s mainly because we have had visitors for pretty much the whole time. My mum arrived the day after us and stayed for just under a month. During the time she was here, Penri’s mum visited for 9 days and my Aunty Vivian came for 6 days. Once my mum left in August, my sister arrived for 10 days. It was so wonderful having people here and spending time with family; and of course for them to spend time with Dylan. He loved all the attention! It also pushed me to get out and about and discover the area which we did.

I visited Stuttgart a few times with my mum and went shopping there. It’s massive and there are loads of shops, including C&As, which I was surprised about. I didn’t realize it was still open in Europe. Anyway, Stuttgart is really nice and I love getting on the train and heading over there for a day. It’s not too far – it takes about 25 minutes which is great. Stuttgart is so different to the little town we live in. Although we have everything we need locally, such as supermarkets, train station, swimming baths (if we chose to use them), I love the big high street with all the different shops.

Last week Penri was working in London so Dylan and I headed to Stuttgart. It’s the first time I’ve taken him there on my own and he was as good as gold! I even took him in his pushchair into changing rooms and into the disabled bathroom so I could use the toilet. I never really thought about it before then – how can I use public toilets with a pushchair? Normally I would have someone else with me who could watch the baby. There’s not really much option when you’re on your own especially in Europe where, if I left the pushchair unattended, it would probably get stolen. There’s even a warning sign outside Dylan’s doctor’s surgery saying not to leave your pushchairs unattended as they will be stolen! So, my only choice was to take him in with me! Anyway, we had a lovely day shopping and the weather was gorgeous so I decided to take him to sit on the grass in Schlossplatz (which is German for ‘Palace Square’). I laid down one of his swaddle blankets for me to sit on and then I held him so he could feel the grass with his feet. He’s never really seen grass before, let alone felt it. He LOVED it! He was squidging (is that even a word?) it between his toes and he was pulling forward because he wanted to feel it with his hands. He grabbed at it and pulled at it and was smiling constantly! He really enjoyed it. Because it was so warm, I covered his arms, legs, face and neck with sun cream and put his little cap on and his sunglasses. He looked so cute – I wish I’d taken my camera.

On the subject of Dylan, he’s doing really well. We were at the doctors for his last lot of jabs (in his first year) and he is taller and heavier than average and she said some of the things he is doing already are advanced for his age, i.e. he’s been rolling over onto his stomach for nearly a month now and he walks in the baby walker already. He is also very close to sitting up! He can actually hold himself in a sitting position for a few seconds before he falls to one side. He’s just so determined! Anyway, he loves his baby walker, so much so, that we have had to take the rug up in the lounge so he can run around the whole room. He’s really getting good at it. It’s so funny because the music wasn’t working on it and hasn’t been since my mum brought it over from UK, then all of a sudden today it just started playing. The weird thing is you can’t stop it once it starts – the on/off button doesn’t work. Strange, or what?!

We still haven’t received our cargo from India. We were told it would take 25 days from leaving India, which of course, was a lie! It’s not even reached Germany yet let alone Stuttgart! I think it’s somewhere in Colombo. It’s very annoying as we have been living out of a suitcase each for the last 8 weeks. Also most of Dylan’s toys and obviously a lot of his clothes are in the cargo, some of which won’t even fit him by the time it gets here. I just hope it does get here! I had to go out and buy him some new clothes and a few toys to play with, not that I mind of course, I’ve found him some fantastic toys here – including a really cool castle and tunnel (which he’s too young for yet but we put up so that I could have a play in it).

The weather here has been wonderful. Not hot, not cold, just perfect! Although, I must admit, the last few days it has definitely been getting colder. I’ve really noticed a change and I’m just so happy that I brought a couple of jumpers in my luggage from Chennai. As the weather is getting colder, I decided this morning that I should go out onto the terrace and pull all the weeds up (that were growing through the tiles). It was just warm enough for the baby to come out too so he laid and watched me weeding and sang and chatted away to himself (and a little bit to me too). The cats have loved being outside, especially after being stuck in the flat in India for the last seven months. They both sit out on the terrace and sunbathe.

Our flat is lovely and the landlords (who live below us) are a really nice family and very helpful. I’ll include some pictures of the flat below this blog.

In a moment of madness I decided that I would like some ‘Heelys’. You know the trainers that have wheels. I looked all over here but couldn’t find them. So, my mum (being as thoughtful and kind as she is), brought me some back from UK. I figured it would be like roller-blading (which I used to be pretty good at). I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s really difficult and within seconds of having them on I nearly landed on my backside! I tried and just couldn’t do it. My sister and my mum both tried as well – none of us could get very far on them. I was by far the worst out of the three of us. I felt really bad as they cost my mum a lot of money so I asked her what I should do with them. She told me to give them to the little girl downstairs (who has just turned 9). So, I did. We gave her them for her birthday and she loved them. Nearly every day I can hear her skating on them in the house. I asked her mum how she is doing with them and she said ‘Great!’ How is it that a 9 year old can do something so easily that we, as adults, could not? The answer is simple – I’m sure that it is once you get to a certain age; you worry about hurting yourself and making a fool of yourself, whereas when we were children we had no inhibitions and no fear of things like that. I miss feeling like that, like I can do anything!

Not much else to write really. I cannot believe how quickly the time is flying by and before we know it, it’ll be Christmas.

Do I miss India? Hmmm. Yes and no. I miss the cheap cost of living, having Sparky’s Diner downstairs to cater for our every meal, most of all though, I miss my friends. Hi to all of you in Chennai - I think of you often. Other than that, Germany is a new experience, a new way of life and seems a lifetime away from our lives in India. We’ll be on the move again in January 2009 and still not 100% sure where we’ll be; wherever we are we’ll do what we always do and make the most of it and just enjoy being a family and experiencing a new way of life.

Our flat: