Double-Half
or One Ten without ham

Bro visited with his family for my b-day yesterday.
Thanks to me being sick over Christmas we haven´t seen each other since October.

Little Niece didn´t recognise me at first.
It was all too much for her.
She´s nearly 2 1/2 and they´ve been to the city before - thanks to my eyes I couldn´t be with them: -6C is too much :-(
The city on a Saturday - for a little girl from the country... just way too much!

So, at first she was whiny. Very shy. And then Ingo showed up, oh, my, this tall, loud man!
Guess if she´d had a choice, she´d just run away!

They came with heaps of pressies.
For me for Christmas, for my birthday and the pressie I sent over for little Niece for Christmas, too!

I got a picture-book and a very cute framed pic: Niece is wearing a jeans and a dress cause it was so cold. She was supposed to get rid of the jeans, but they were too quick with the pic at pre-kindy, LOL.

And a cute set for the table: SIL got one and I said, wow, that´s so very cute!
She got it weeks ago at ALDI back then, so I thought, oh, dang, too late.
Somehow she managed to find another one!

Oh, seesh! I forgot to take a pic of the finished princess-rack!
Niece is into princess-stuff atm and certainly recognised herself immediately and was very surprised :-)

Good thing George´s lights still work, made it really a bit Christmas-like :-)
I bet this tree sneaks secretly inside when we´re at work! Before family came I vacuumed and still found some of his needles.
When they were gone, I had to mob the entrance-area and... needles!

Here Niece is unpacking her Christmas-pressie: She got a lion you can warm in the microwave, a lion-puzzle,magic-markers and a "pad", a little chalk-board she can take with her, kind of a chalk-iPad.
Daddy wanted to doodle something nice, but,... Ingo took the IKEA-pig and "talked" to Niece, she thought it was SOOO funny! Then I showed Niece the rocket-clock (you need to scroll down, blogger doesn´t accept ankers?). I thought she´d watch it one, two times. Was I wrong!!
She understood I have to put the rocket back in place, but she knew which buttons to push!
Over and over again!
Sadly Ingo had no interest in capturing it, and when I thought about doing it myself, she lost interest. This is all I could get :-( Here I just say "Kopf!", so Niece remembers to get her head out of the way- she understood!

Then we went into the kitchen. I´d found drinking-straws with little chocolate-balls inside.
I warmed up a glass of milk - Niece loves warm milk (buahhh) - and it was a hit :-) This is such a fun age. You can surprise her so easily and it´s so much fun to watch her make new experiences!

Then Ingo (this tall, loud man) got the "fart-bin".
My! :-))
At first Niece was.. a bit... well she thought it was icky.
But since everyone laughed, she joined in: When I asked Bro to make a "real" one, so Niece gets what she´s supposed to do... hehe. he luckily only got up half and asked back if I really wanted a real one! :-))
She was giggling all over and really "hanging out": Just like her Daddy it took her some 20 minutes to discover our "COW!!!" at the ceiling then :-) She really felt comfortable at our home by then and Ingo was no longer a danger.

On the contrary!
Maybe someone can explain this to me?

We were back in the living room, Bro, her Daddy, sitting next to her on the ground "playing".
Ingo was running from his room to the kitchen back and forth and Niece exclaimed, "Daddy out there!" several times. Huh?
Later on when they wanted to go home she wanted to stay with Ingo!
What was that all about???

Since she wanted to stay, she invented a new "game".
From the end of the living-room she ran into the kitchen, where no one could see her. When her Mama called her to come back, she ran to the end of the living room, where I sat on the swing, into my arms.
Back to the kitchen until Mama called her.
Over and over and over again. My. That milk (she asked for a second one) must have given her energy!!
At one point I wanted to see what she´s doing in the kitchen.
Dang, I should´ve taken the cam!!!!
She stood beside a chair, her head and arms resting on it! I so had to laugh!

Then she came back running and since I wasn´t in the swing anymore she investigated what else is there.
She found this lion: She went to him, pretended he´d bitten her, ran to her Mama, told her, went back to the lion, hit him and told him not to bite her, took a step back, shook her finger, saying, "No-no-no!!! Man-man-man..."

Oh, seesh, really, I should´ve had the cam running! Too cute!
Then she found two little magnets on the heating. A pig, she showed me. And then a tiger.
Happily she showed them to her Mum and then wanted to put them back.
She missed and they fell down. She tried again and then again (later on I saw the magnets had fallen off).
She was thinking and then put them in the owl hanging on the heating (see pic above). Clever girl, huh?

Then she started running again - am I happy we´re living ground floor, I tell ya!
Otherwise the neighbours would´ve long been there complaining!
Suddenly she stopped cold and just watched to the shelf for over a minute.
She stopped "in motion" and kept standing that way!
After a while we found out why (video taken today in daylight): Yep, the bird also Homer Simpson used when he was working at home :-)

The weasel attached to a ball running around was another very big hit. And the singing cow,too. Maybe too much? She then went to her Mama... And then she was really kinda knocked out! :-) They were here for just a few hours, it was great and so much fun!
Bro has an iPhone and showed it to me - I admit, first time I had one in my hand. Niece came over and showed me how to watch pics!!!

So much input, for her and for me - the others were quite unimpressed.

When they left, the most surprising thing happened! Niece went to Ingo to get taken up for a hug! Lets hope it doesn´t take ages to meet again!

The rest of her chocolate-cookie went on my cheek when she kissed me good-bye.
And then she said... "Ciao".
Ciao????
Has she been to Italy recently???

Boy, I was exhausted afterwards, how do parents manage this 24/7???

On January 18th a letter too big for our mailbox arrived and my neighbour brought it to me.
I was sure I´m supposed to wait till my b-day to open it, which I did.
It was clear it was a calendar and I was a tad surprised since January is nearly over, but, oh, well, who cares?

I was surpried to find this: Now, that makes sense, it was a xmas-pressie and just took awfully long, thanks again, Mandi! :-) Since I managed to finish the self-made-calendar The only place available is when you enter the living room (and walk by 50 times a day): ... right beside the Braunschweig-"wall-tattoo"! :-)

The company sent me a beautiful card for a change: "Many beautiful moments in the new year of life" it says.
They wish me success, health (oh, yeah, needed!) and FUN AT WORK!
Now THAT`S something good, huh?
Usually the sectretary signs with "the management". This time my boss wrote "many greetings, A"

Feels good :-)

And I got a gift certificate for books at my favorite book-store, good pressie (last time it was some stuff I gave to SIL she could use).

I´m some happy girl, huh?
Or rather... woman...

First a cold which was a flu, then an eye-flu, this really was no holiday.
Today at the eye-specialist we found out I can see pretty well again. Just some last, nasty white cells blocking a bit of my sight.

So, how about a short review of 2012 in pics I finally was able to do today.
Actually they´re about be printed out for a calendar this year.
But my immune-system is absolutely down, so I got high meds. Two flus straight one after another was just too much. I just feel so weak... I sure will not walk into the city.

January we buried our Mum.
It was cold, but luckily no snow.
And I found this Lion with his heart outside. Febuary was very cold, but at least just little snow.
Ingo gave my car a heart.
And our living room got a reminder that every day could become the best of your life. March, yay, Spring is there!
The trees are still naked but first thing those students did, was heaving a bbq in the park.
We, instead, went to El Gaucho, best Steak-house in town.
And Ingo gave me a piece of a meteroite for a necklace. April we bought a sewing-machine so Ingo can shorten my trousers a bit.
Being too lazy to put everything away from our small kitchen-table, he went outside on the balcony.
Ingo bought little Niece her own BBQ and checked it out, too.
We went to the Strand, the beach on top of a parking house high above the town`s roofs.
And, yay for playgrounds and warmth! May, the BBQ was a big hit, Niece recognized the sausage immediately.
Again, yay for playgrounds!
Those signs with our names sat side by side, funny cause usually it´s sorted by male/female and even if not so N and R are far away, no? We didn´t buy those ugly things, though.
Another beach, the Okercabana (named after river Oker).
The slide which was a horror in August is now a great toy, too. June was very Braunschweig-orientated, see helmet, T-Shirt and keyholder.
That couple just looked so peaceful.
Another visit at Omi, who now lives in heaven. Niece knows where the watering-can belongs.
And another cycling-tour. July I brought Niece the talking mower Mike. To her parent`s dismay he was a huge hit for a long time.
We found a bridge full of love-locks.
And I was in Cologne for a further training. The secretary had booked me a hotel in that very street Bro lived back then. Where we had a lot of fun over ten years ago. The training was at the other end of town
And, yes, we love Elmo and our town.
The Okercabana once more, Niece loves sand. August. Playground. Niece was playing in the sand, not Ingo.
This "knive" is a comb and made Niece really freak out when first Ingo used it to comb his hair, then went on to Bro´s beard and then Bro took that thing and wanted to comb her.
Everybody laughed but her. Mean. September, Niece, being a Lion on a Lion. And my, this girl loves soup.
So many people wear the Braunschweig Lion on their Shirts, nice to see.
We were way too early buying that playmat, but, well...
And the fly agaric is a sign for luck. Saw him on the worst trip ever. October. Getting cold. We dicovered we like to puzzle (map of our town, ah, what a surprise).
Guess this was the last time for this year I went to Bro´s place to sort out the house (night-blindness).
This bathing cap makes Bro look like Marge Simpson.
Ingo made Grühnkohl the first time and has a cool new Shirt. November we finally attended the Udo Jürgens-concert.
We visited the Mumme-Mile.
Ingo got a new cooking-toy and made filled paprika.
I finished my Advent-calendar and we went to IKEA. In December Christmas-tree George Bailey came to us from the street. He´s still decorated and lives on our balcony.
Sadly I only got this pic of Niece, thanks to my eyes I couldn´t visit.
We got our own love-lock and I found this chocolate on Nikolaus-day in front of our door. Nothing big, but I like the pics.