Dear Koala Bear,

You were three weeks on Saturday!! Time is still flying. Your first month birthday is not so far away. That is mind boggling, to think you will be here a month soon.

Last week is a big blur. I am trying to remember what we did as I type, but it is now tuesday and so we are two days away from last week and so I have no idea what we did anymore. I know it involved sleeping and feeding you and trying to console you when you are annoyed at being alive and don’t know whether you want your nappy changed or something to eat or some sleep. Or you are just tired of the two crazy people who look after you.

Oh, now I remember. Last week was a bank holiday here on Thursday so Papa and I had a great long weekend. Thursday to Sunday. In days gone by, we would have packed up the car or gone sailing somewhere, but last weekend, we minded you. We took you for a walk in the Prater which you slept through, but generally enjoyed. We also toyed with the idea of going to the garden shop and IKEA for a quick trip, but decided against it. You and I watched a lot of the French Open on monday, tuesday and wednesday. You continue to grow but you are still not grown out of your new born baby grows and vests. But I can tell you are definitely getting heavier and your face is changing.

Your papa and I had great fun trying to take your passport photo. I have included some of the expressions you made. We got there evenutally however and soon you will have travel documents I hope.

The journey continues, but you have some definite habits, like the hand sucking and the snorting and the unhappiness when you fall asleep at my boob, unlatch and then wake up in a tizzy because someone turned off the milk tap. No one turned off the milk KB, but you fall asleep! I try to keep you awake, but eventually you fall asleep. The chocolate and vanilla are always there for you!

So much fun. I spend too much time laughing at your funny little habits! Your papa tells me I shouldn’t laugh at you and mock you, but it is so hard not too. Your expressions entertain me.

love,
mutti

Dear KB,

On saturday you were two weeks old! Two weeks! Where is the time going!! Your first week was not very exciting, because you spent most of it in hospital. Your second week turned out to be just as uninteresting for the first half, as I was readmitted to hospital with an infection, but once we escaped, we made up for lost time.

This week you have been on many outings in your pram and in your sling. Shopping, the doctor, a hospital, a park, the university, the supermarket e.t.c. You are a have-sling-will-travel-baby. You were transported on the trams and on the u-bahn. You sleep through most of these outings, somehow I think you are not too interested in this beautiful city that we live in yet. That will change I am sure. Yesterday afternoon, Papa and I took you into the first for ice-cream and along the way we listened to some outdoor music that was being performed as part of Fest Wochen. Of course there was some Strauss, because what is Vienna without Strauss?

This last week, we have being trying to figure out what causes you to be so “fussy” or generally unhappy in the evening. You are such a good, chilled baby the rest of the time. A few evenings now, you have cried unconsolably and you seem to be ravenously hungry, sucking furioursly on your fists and doing your little bird head shake. I try to calm you down by giving you more to drink and Papa tries to calm you down by taking you for a walk in your sling. That sometimes works, you go to sleep, but other times, you come back still hungry and still unhappy from your walk. Eventually though, you sort out your woes and drop back off to sleep.

The weather here in Vienna has been a mixed bag, so you have been out in a beer garden for an evening supper, and you have also been sheltered under gortex and umbrellas when it has been lashing rain and we were out with you. Neither seems to bother you. Though, sometimes in your sling, you get a little too warm.

Time is going by so quickly and you are changing every day. Already I notice you feel heavier in my arms when I feed you and you definitely have chubbier cheeks, I think your arms have become a little longer also, but maybe I am imagining it. I am fighting a constant battle to keep your face clean, you always seem to have sleep around your eyes, which I clean with cotton wool and boiled water. An hour later, there is more sleep. You still like your bath and during the week, your GG came to Vienna to meet you and she gave you a bath which you loved. You were very calm for her. She has the special grandmother touch of experience. GG tried teaching you to go to sleep without a walk or being held close to someone, but it didn’t really work, maybe you are too small for that yet. We will work on you learning to self soothe to sleep.

You still light up my world KB and I am having great fun getting to know you, even when I am completely exhausted in the middle of the night!

love,
mutti