A Portrait a Week: 26/52

I convinced Andre that we should go for a walk on Saturday morning even though it looked like it was about to rain. I said, you never know, it might not and we can't sit at home looking out the window wondering if it might rain or not.

Well it rained. It was a great big thunderstorm and we got soaked. Except for Isabella who was very excited to be watching the rain from underneath her rain cover.

Baby Sensory

Isabella has an absolute blast at Baby Sensory each week. Yesterday was the last class of the term (although the next term starts next week so not much difference) and so we had a baby party. Each week's class has a different theme. We've had pirates, sea, spring and Easter to name just a few. For the baby party this week there was dancing, singing, balloons, bubbles, musical statues (if you can imagine babies playing that!), coloured ribbons, glitter pom-poms, instruments and more. I wish I could have video'ed Isabella while she was dancing. She really got into it, shaking her head, wiggling her bottom, singing and even tapping her foot to "Cotton eye Joe"!! It was brilliant! She got so excited and was so happy. She really really seems to love music.

These pictures are unfortunately some of the worst I've taken. I had to use my phone and take them while sitting behind her and so using the front camera on my phone which is even worse quality. Also while making sure I didn't get anybody else in the picture because you just don't photograph other people's children here and especially then don't post them online! And these photos hardly show how much fun she was having. Shoving a phone in front of her face while she's laughing kind of spoils that moment of fun. I'm hoping when my sister comes to visit one of us will then be able to take better photos while the other does the activities with her.

But here are a few photos and a short video anyway to give you an idea of what we do at Baby Sensory.

Doing my warming up exercises right before
the class starts. (not really- she was just getting
ready to go explore before class)

We start off with a hello song. Isabella paying
close attention to the teacher singing and signing.

Make some noise!

Free play time- we tried out a walker for the first
time. Isabella ended up going backwards as she
pulled it towards her instead of pushing!

In the ball pond (inflatable baby pool filled
with lots of balls).

Here Isabella was playing on an inflatable
matras which is usually covered with a different
fabric each week and different toys on to play
with. Bouncing and rolling fun!

Every party needs balloons! We're holding on to a stretchy fabric,
sitting in a circle. The balloons are then bounced on top.

This photo doesn't show much but there were loads of bubbles
everywhere and Isabella was just staring at them in awe.

Baby Sensory from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

Our week in Germany, seen from above.

While I'm editing photos of our weekend to show you, here's a video Andre put together of our week in Germany, filmed using his quadrocopter.


Around Eching and Back from Andre Mostert on Vimeo.

A Portrait a Week: 25/52 - Playing in the park

 I think I'm choosing this first one as my portrait of the week of Isabella, but the next one was a close second.

We took a walk to one of the play parks near our house on Saturday afternoon. Isabella absolutely loves the swings. She gets excited just seeing it, before we've even taken her out of her pram. Andre took so many lovely photos of her. Here are a few of my favourites.

Baby on the move!

I accidentally captured Isabella's first few centimetres crawling this yesterday morning! I was busy cleaning trying to clean the bathroom while Isabella sat in the doorway unpacking a basket with hair ties and a few other random bits. She got bored with that after two minutes and decided she wanted to play with the bathroom bin instead. I moved it away from her and this is what happened... (I only decided to film her at this moment because this is what always happens when she wants to get to something, but doesn't ever, or until now, really try very hard. She'd lie on her stomach just jerking her arms and legs about whilst complaining.)

Was that a first crawl?! from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

It was only literally a few cm and she didn't do it again so I didn't think anything of it and didn't register it at that moment as her first time crawling. Then later in the afternoon I was talking to my mom on skype. The laptop was on the floor, Isabella was on her stomach and all of a sudden she got one foot tucked in and pushed off with it and really got moving! The video only shows the first bit of her crawling, I didn't record our whole skype conversation, but we (me, her and the laptop) ended up crawling all the way across the living room, moving the computer further and further away from her. Once the camera wasn't around anymore she wanted the next electronic device, the laptop! 

Isabella has started crawling! from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

Phone Case Review and Discount Code

A while ago I received an email from Mr Nutcase, asking whether I would be interested in reviewing one of their phone cases. I've not heard of them before so immediately went to visit their website. I liked the look of their website straight away, it's colourful and straight forward and just has a friendly sort of feel to it. And they have this cute squirrel, squirrels collect nuts... I just liked their creativity with the name and everything too.

So of course I said yes please! You start by selecting your device and it looks as though they pretty much cover everything. You can either choose a case design from their collections or you can design your own which I think is way more fun. You can upload images and have them in all different designs on the case, you can change the size of the pictures, the background colour, add clip art and text. And it's all really really easy to do from their website.

What took me the longest was to choose from all the options they have, how many photos to add, how do I want them placed on the phone case... Of course it had to have pictures of our cute little girl on it. Then I started thinking that I could make a case for someone else as a gift and who Skype's pretty much every single day to talk to baby Isabella and checks fb and my blog first thing in the mornings for new photos? And even emails me to remind me to add more! Her aunt! (my sister)

I first played around with adding a whole lot of photos in the heart shaped design they have, but in the end settled for just one photo covering the whole phone case. I also added a message at the bottom of the cover with hugs and kisses from Isabella.

Delivery was really quick and it arrived with a card printed with Mr Nutcase's details and showing the squirrel delivering our order. ;-) I then sent it on to my sister in the US. I'm sure I could have probably had it delivered straight to her, I didn't check, but I wanted to have a look at it first before she got it. She's now received it so I can blog about it, and she's also taken a picture of it already on her phone.

Thank you Mr Nutcase!

Mr Nutcase has been so kind to offer 10% off as a gift to all my blog readers. Simply enter the discount code "Thanku10" at check out. It's made in the UK, but I know they also ship outside Europe. Have fun designing!

Baby Girl's Bedroom

I have finally gotten around to taking a few pictures of Isabella's room, now pretty much complete. For the time being anyway.

I've posted over the past months, or maybe year, I can't quite remember anymore when we started her room, about painting the walls and her wardrobe, building her cot and then adding the wall stickers. The final bit was to hang the picture frames which is my favourite bit in her room.

We used these two storage units from Ikea to store things like her nappies, clothes that are either too big or gotten too small, bedding etc in and later she can store her toys in them. Then we also used the top of one unit for nappy changing and it worked really well with her mobile and turtles above her to grab at and all the nappy changing essentials within reach too. But she's now getting bigger and rolling around so much so I moved the two units back to back so we'd have a wider space to work on. All her lotions and potions were on the side and of course she grabbed at them the moment I lay her down there and knocked them all over within seconds.

Nappy changing space for the first 7 months.

"What are you doing to my room mommy?"

"I'm going to have more space to roll around?"

"Woah! That means I can get to those creams on the side..."

"Good thinking mommy!"

 We will very soon need to lower her cot base. She can't yet get into a sitting position form lying down, but when I sat her in her cot while moving her room she was able to pull herself up.

The new nappy changing station before Isabella had a go
at knocking everything down.

The units are now back against the wall as they were before which looks better anyway, and her changing mat has moved to the floor between her cot and wardrobe where she can roll around as much as she likes. Until she wees on the carpet...

She has a cot bumper towards the back of her cot because she started wiggling backwards before she was able to roll over and we didn't want her waking up from knocking her head against the cot. Now she can roll all over the cot and also turns sideways so I want to get bumpers for the rest of the cot too. I've seen some that attaches around two bars each with velcro so you still have gaps for air to circulate. I'd love to make them myself but doubt I'll get around to that.

Another project I'd love to make myself but also probably wont get too, is making her another sleeping bag. She needs a more summery one, and then I'd also like to make her a warmer one, perhaps from a cuddle fabric or fleece for winter and for when we go to South Africa next month as it would be colder there. I'd probably end up buying this too mainly because I can't find pretty jersey fabric that won't cost more than buying the finished product here. I actually just came across a sleepsac that apparently has a bamboo lining which is very hygienic they say, good for babies with eczema. Isabella really struggles with eczema... Will have a think about maybe trying it.

Oh and the curtains!! They drive me crazy as they can't close properly. Her windows aren't even really that wide, it's a small room. I can't imagine how small a room someone must have to fit the curtains they sell here because I just can't find any nice girly ones that are any wider. So also something I want to make, and looks like this project I will have to make myself if I can't find any to buy!

A Portrait a week: 24/52 and a week in Munich

Hot hot hot!

We had a really fantastic week in Germany this past week and was sad to have it come to an end. We were spoilt by my mom and stepdad looking after Isabella so we could have a night out on the town, but also helping look after her and entertaining her every day and getting her out of bed in the mornings when she woke up earlier than we would have liked to get up. It was lovely having a bit of a lie in! It was just such a relaxing, fun family holiday. 

It was really hot, between 31C - 37C most days so the hottest part of most days were spent indoors where it was cooler, but we enjoyed sitting under the trees in the garden in the late afternoon and going for strolls around the dam nearby after dinner in the evenings. Isabella handled the heat really well to our surprise, although she did manage to wake up with her first cold the morning we left for Germany. We had a few difficult nights but then she was back to sleeping through the nights, smiling through most of the days and just having occasional parts of the later afternoons where one could see she was just not feeling quite herself.

Waiting in 'The Park' to board our flight.

We were lucky to have a free seat so after
take-off Isabella could spread out a bit.

Cooling off in the pond.

With her Opa Jürgen.

This one has my name on it!

Perfect summer evenings for BBQs

A visit to the English Garden in Munich. So peaceful and beautifully green.

An evening stroll around the dam and past these fields.

What a lovely bed! It even has a little door!

Now this is a summer holiday! Swimming in refreshingly
cold water! Isabella only dipped her toes in.

And was exhausted after our visit to the dam,
getting a quick nap in on her daddy's shoulder
on the walk home.

Passed out after a fun afternoon.

Date night in Munich!

After some shopping we went for sushi and
cocktails. A stroll around the city and then
dinner at a Thai restaurant. Perfect!

Now why do you have so many teeth Ouma, and I only have two?

Isabella on her great-grandmother's lap. What a privilege to
have a great-granny.

Mommy-baby selfie while the daddy plays with his toys.

Andre flying his quadrocopter

There he goes!

Isabella enjoyed visiting beer gardens!

And inspected the benches up close, also
testing them as possible teethers.

This dress brings out the German in her!

A last lunch under the trees.

Waiting to board our plane back home. 

Isabella made an interesting friend on the plane- the guy in the row next to us told us he is the tallest man in Canada and has the second largest hands in the Guinness Book of Records. He was on his way back to Canada after filming a movie in Tunisia in which he plays Goliath. He was really sweet with Isabella, making her smile all the time. I so wish I had asked to have a photo of us with him.

Isabella received this puppet when we boarded the plane-
It's called Lu, the Lufthansa mascot.