Organised chaos

It is done! We have moved this weekend to our new flat, it all went very well and we are feeling really good at the new place.

In chronological order: It all started on Friday with Nene & me still frantically packing things when the removal company arrived. Thankfully from then on it went all very smoothly (at least for us) because we could sit back & relax. We were also very lucky with the removalists (removalist = Australian for removal company men – take note Marina!), who were very professional, friendly and did a great job (ie no time wasting, no breaking of things etc). At last, everything was packed in the truck and our little convoy set off to our new neighbourhood.

The unpacking took then also some time because the removal men could not park directly at the entrance and had to carry everything first from the street to the house and then 2 floors up … and that in sunny 27C. Seeing the sweating, huffing & puffing men, Nene & I were glad again for hiring a company to do our move.  Zoe was, in the meantime, encouraging the removalists to work harder with a stern & servious look and they were only occasionally rewarded with a huge smile. Oh no, she knows already how to get men to do what she wants to do – thinks a jealous daddy…

Anyway, everything was in the end in the flat and we were standing in a sea of boxes. The first thing we did was to get Zoe’s room ready so that she had a bed to sleep and could rest a little. She was so well behaved and did not cry much …maybe because she was also exhausted by all the moving.  We set up directly the mobile over her changing table which had a soothing familiarity effect on her and us, so that we all fell direcly into bed after some tidying & cleaning of the flat …and ourselves.

Saturday was spent on unpacking, washing and re-arranging our things, except for a short trip down to the beach to have breakfast. We also went back to the old house to tidy and get it ready for the inspection. Time was flying and there was only time left for a take-away before we fell again early into our beds.

…which was good because we were on Sunday morning at 8.30am at IKEA to get …bascially more stuff to move the next time (hahaha). Well, we bought a wardrobe for Zoe’s new room, which was urgently needed to accommodate all her presents   The afternoon was then spent on some tidying and clearing of boxes, before we took a little walk through our neighbourhood and ending the day by some more tidying & clearing of boxes… you get the picture

Unfortuntately, we didn’t have time yet to make any photos of our new flat but we will make soon and post them here. In the meantime you have to console yourselves with a pic of our little one.

Here our new address and telephone number:

Michael, Eneida & Zoe Hornberger
11/62-64 Clovelly Road
Randwick, Sydney
NSW 2031
Australia
+61 (0)2 9398 1003

7 things she loves, 4 things she hates (II)

Little Zoe turned two months this week; it seems time we updated her list of favourite things:

1. bath: continues to be a hit! And Papa is still in charge of them
2. breasts: still a hit, mamae still in charge of them
3. massage: after the bath, mamae gives her a little session.
4. hair wash: loves it, though keeps turning the head from one side to the other – making things a bit more tricky
5. “talking”: some of her favourite “words” are guli, earl, acoo, lala, aboo. And she loves if we imitate her and talk to her, so there are always some great aboo conversations going on
6. mobile: we put one above the changing table, which seems to hypnotise her! If we move the little planes, then it’s heaven for her…
7. birds: stops whatever she’s doing if she hears them singing (not surprising, Australian birds are quite eloquent!)

And the list of things she hates:

1. getting out of the bath: still makes very loud and clear she wasn’t done yet
2. falling asleep: it’s quite sweet actually, she screams as she’s falling asleep, sometimes it lasts a couple of minutes, but sometimes, hmm…more like half an hour
3. waking up: it’s fine if she wakes up by herself. But if we need to wake her up for a feed, ah, then…
4. putting sleeves on: it’s got better since the introduction of the mobile, but still a no-no at times

P.S. Ratio continues the same…

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Busy, busy times

Well, this week has been unbelievably busy with our upcoming move.  We are moving on Friday,  so we are putting everything in boxes at the moment ( I am still amazed by the amount of boxes we need!).  We have hired removalists who will do all the carrying and transporting of our boxes, so the most difficult part for us is the packing. The whole family is getting excited to move to the new place, even Zoe ( see picture).  Our new home is so much closer to work, which will make life easier for us.

Zoe is as always a joy, interacts now much more with us and is more awake during the day. Also, as friends told us, you can see more and more of her personality coming out. Nene & I laugh often when we realise that she is making drama because of over-tiredness. Her cries are different then and she has difficulties keeping them up – as well as her eyes open. Sometimes she just fall asleep in the middle of a cry. How sweet!

Below there is a map of our new home, which is on the corner of Clovelly Rd and St. Marks Ln. So, we are going to live close to work, a big park and the beach. The possibilities are endless…

View Larger Map

Garcon!

…that’s how I am now called most of the times by the 2 ladies of the house and shows very well my current status (hahaha).

Zoe is today 8 weeks (unbelievable). The time is really flying currently and it is amazing how she develops. She smiles now a lot and make sounds like: guuuu or laaaa or at least that’s what we want to understand… She also loves to imitate our sounds and laughs out loud when Papa makes oink, oink sounds like a pig (I am curious for the comments on this one!) .

She also received “some” immunisations today – including diphtheria, tetanus, haemophilus influenza, whooping cough and pneumococcal, which she braved amazingly. At the first injection she looked a bit surprised and not sure how to react, but by the second she was decided not to be in favour of any needles. Still, after 30 seconds she was quiet again and looking only suspiciously around for any other approaching needles. She was also weighed and put in the last 2 weeks another 200 grams on, which brings her to a total of 5kg – she really has our genes, poor thing

We are also starting to prepare our move into the new flat, which will happen next week Friday or Saturday. We have hired 2 men & truck and some friends have lent us their moving boxes. How much rubbish we accumulated again over a year… so we need first sorting things out which can go to charity before we pack all boxes. The new place will be great and we are really looking forward to it… although we will be only living there for 10 days and then we are off to Germany first, followed by the UK, Brazil and Argentina to see you all! What a year it has been for us and so we are finishing it off in typical Nene-Michi gypsy manner with a round-the-world trip.

bits and bobs

I’m still surprised by the power of her lungs…no, not an opera singer yet, but little Zoe can produce good screams…any time we don’t understand quickly enough what she wants! That’s certainly a loud phase – well, we hope it’s just a phase )

Today we tried some colourful pictures (thanks tia Re!) and she loved them! Luckily she didn’t realise that the blue cat (= gato, in Portuguese) there is not called “palavras“. Zoe smiled at them at an incredible rate that only the fridge gets every morning!…well, we try not to be too jealous.

And family life has been a lot of fun…we even have managed to go out on a regular basis during the day. Evenings seem more challenging, so we’re taking them slowly. This is from last weekend (thanks auntie Sharps!) during some coffee, tea and waffles.

Last but not least, we finally got a flat to live in! We now just need to organise our move before we go on our first round-the-world trip!

A song

Nothing exactly new to tell…just to share some more photos with everyone! These are from our late afternoon sessions when we try to keep her awake until sleep time. Some time between her bath and feed. It’s also a great time to play with her, we stand better chances to get her smiles ) For some unknown reason she tends to be happier early in the morning and late in the day…a bit grumpy during office hours…well, that’s quite understandable ;o)

For the Brazilians: I want to share this song, which I’ve just found out via Maira!! For the non-Brazilians, I hope you enjoy the rhythm…and to let you know that the musician wrote this song for his daughter, which happens to be also called Zoe!

Enjoy it!

… & more smiles

It’s hard not to get over excited about her smiles… as Michi said she’s becoming a charmer – and she already knows how to trick us into doing what she wants…

As Zoe is becoming more and more interactive, we can know see how much she loves our Brazilian & German children songs, which we sing over and over again. The lyrics suddenly pop up as we start singing. Impressive to find out that we still have them stored somewhere in our minds.

Zoe now loves the gym – and we usually put her to do her tummy time there. It’s (over) stimulation for sure, have a look at the discrete colours! So awake time is spent in the bouncer, in the gym, going out and about, or in our laps singing songs. Not counting the special hours feeding. Ah, what a hard life…

Zoe’s passport

Hooray, Zoe’s German passport (see pic) arrived today! From now on she is a proud – but grumpy looking – citizen of Germany without ever having been there. What a funny world we live in, which qualifies you for citizenship without ever having set foot in the country. Citizenship is such an arbitrary thing, and one can understand the Aboriginals, for whom the concept of “owning land” was completely foreign.

Anyhow, I am getting philosophical… We are very happy that her passport arrived so that we can go traveling in November to see families & friends. Otherwise, life has been good. Zoe is very good; she grows a lot; she is very alert looking at everything attentively with a sparkle in her eyes – I know I am biased father, what can I do? She also sleeps well in the nights – except for last night which was very hot. Still, even if she wakes up she is just such a charmer. Last night I had to change her nappy at 4.30am; when I entered her room and bend down to pick her up she gave me a huge smile… ah, what a reward for getting up in the middle of the night. She is just such a joy to have around.

We still haven’t found a flat to live in so time is starting to run out. We will see tomorrow 3 flats and hopefully we get one of them, so please cross fingers for us in your respective timezones