German mums - need some urgent help on baby items!

[thequietone]

Hi,
I've got 3-4 weeks until baby No.2 is delivered. We gave away all our important baby stuff before leaving the UK to friends who needed it at the time. I'm trying to order, either through Amazon or Baby-Walz, a moses basket and stand. What would this be called, or do they even use these for newborns in Germany? Urgent help is required as this baby's going to pop any moment!!! PS. I DO have a cot for the next stage of sleeping.

Mr Invisible is in Brussels.
I know I will NEVER go to a gym regularly. I know how lazy I am , you know, I just would never drag myself out there and around a bunch of machines but I can imagine myself turning up once a week to a set class. I'm thinking of trying it. Apparently it is good for relocating your waist which is one of my few remaining aims in life.

I'm thinking a lot about those 1920s style shoes too. I'm just wondering if they aren't too retro, you know? Will go and try them on tomorrow. I tried some on last week but had long trousers on and I need to see them with a skirt really.

what on earth is a stitch and bitch club? Is it in English? Actually I've always toyed with the idea of making a patchwork quilt but then I get side-tracked into panicking about schools and so on and never get round to it. Do you learn how to do all this handicraft stuff there or are you supposed to know it already?

Which floor is your flat on? I'm on the 3rd floor and if you get one of those shopping trolly things on 2 wheels (you know the ones that grannys usually drag around) and fill it with your shopping, 6 bottles of water are excellent, then drag it up the flights of stairs to the flat hey presto - a cure for flabby arms!

It's a group of Americans mostly and they meet at each others flats or in cafes, some have dc some not and they knit and while they knit they bitch - probably about life in Berlin! I don't think they teach and you haveto turn up with your wool and needles, sounded hilarious the first time I read it but it seems to be a good group, mixed ages too from 20's to 40's.

Where did you see the shoes that you have your eye on?

Speak of the devil, dh just turned up so I'll be off to hear all about his wonderfull day in the lab - whoopee, can't wait to hear it all.

Damn, SSSandy2, you guessed me! Going in tomorrow to meet and greet the staff, sign on the line etc. then baby should be delivered week of 25-29th Feb. I'm hoping to ask for not 27th (my son's birthday) or 28th (mine and my brother's birthday).

Isn't that funny how your family's birthdays are so concentrated? Do you know yet if you're expecting a boy or a girl? And has your ds actually started at kindergarten yet? Btw I still am a bit in awe of you for tackling the mayor on that one!

Admylin, I've been doing the rounds of shoe shops (there are 4 right near me) and I've seen quite a few of those 1920s style shoes. You'll see if you go and have a look. I want a flattish pair of comfortable shoes too but I don't like ballerinas with BOWS on them. They might look great on other women but they just don't look right for me and I'm frustrated that almost ALL the flat shoes I've seen have bows on them, either that or they're silver and I'm not looking for silver shoes really.

The 1920s ones are any height from say 1 inch up to impossible. I'm considering a pair I saw at Leiser and another pair at Schuhhof (?) near the Kranzler Eck. They're from S.Oliver. Or hey, should I just get them ALL?!

morning

my mum and dad share a birthday

my brother and sil share a birthday

hope everyone is okay

sorry

quietone
i wish you lots of luck with your forthcoming arrival

How are you feeling this morning Alice? I am dead tired, I stayed up too late watching a dvd and I felt like death getting up at 6 to get dd to school

How long have you been in that village this time round?

hi im alright

send myself to bed with no tea last night
as i was soo tired
woke up sooo early
but i love having a bit of time to myself

and i munched loads of toast

marmite supply is running low

ds is soo happy today
said on another thread wish i could bottle it

how are you

forgot
lived here just a year this time

really feel a move will happen by end of this year

Ooh I love toast dripping with butter and loads of marmite on it too. I'm drinking way too much coffee again this morning although I had promised myself I'd give it up.

Where do you think you would move to if you did leave? I'm definitely suffering from the 7 year itch in regard to Berlin but it set in a bit earlier... Is your dd in Austria too with you and is she happy at secondary there? She's 16, isn't she?

hi

yes she is sixteen
she is doing well well well enough
that looks silly

but she has no friends in the town
and at the weekends it is arrgghh

would love to live in an english speaking country
but maybe not england

Dh says i want ot move too much or too many times

But who knows
where would you really like to live

one thing i would really like is to either to live in the centre of somewhere

if one has to be carless

off also to make more coffee

till later

Forgot to add that one of my brother's sons was also born on 22nd Feb. I guess the women in our family are extremely fertile once a year, usually around the May Bank Holidays!!!

Haven't found out the sex of the baby again. It's driving all our german friends insane - they can't believe we don't want to know. COme on, it's the ultimate surprise, isn't it, and finding out doesn't benefit in any way...

DS is in Kindergarten now, and after 2 weeks of a few tears when I left, he now loves it. The German is already kicking in and it's a delight to hear him use it and talk about friends he's now got. That used to make me SO sad to see him alone and unable to communicate. Now loads of people in town know us, and coupled with my German tuition, I'm having a much better time out here now.

God, meeting the Mayor was TOUGH. He wasn't the most personable gentleman, but it worked. Unfortunately DS only has a limited contract at current KG until end of August, then they have to turn him away as they're closing a class (!). So, I'm applying for another KG right now and fingers crossed. Mind you, there's always a small chance someone might leave the current KG and free up a permanent place for him.

Ah Marmite. Went to Hertie's in Munich around Christmas for emergency supplies. the smallest pot you can get in the UK was over 5 Euros!!! We've now drafted a clause to all UK visitors - you can come and stay as long as you bring Marmite. Friends came over last weekend and brought 2 pots of the largest size. The relief was palpable in Eichenau.

That's tough with a 16 year old when the peer group is everything. You do need friends at that age and someone to hang about with at the weekend.

I don't want to live in a city, I know that much. I would love to be near the seaand a smallish town and have wide open spaces about me where I could wander about, not streets full of people and traffic. I could imagine living in several places really, I am not fixated on one particular place; however I don't think I would like to stay anywhere in Germany. I don't think I have the mentality to ever feel truly at home here.

What would be the most important factor for me would be that there is a school there which would suit my dd - somewhere academic but not elitist with a friendly, gentle atmosphere and if I had that, I feel I could finally relax and get on with my own life IYKWIM?

thequietone, that must be a relief to you that ds is settling in well. Will be nice to have a bit of time alone with the baby and also perhaps to even SLEEP when the baby gives you the chance!

Guten morgen all! I've been so good this morning keeping away from the computer so I can get some work done, 3 hours is enough though!

We have just ordered some food from a German website that does British food so we got marmite, soup, juice and some malt vinager - real sarsons for the dc. They deliver in Germany for 5 euro so that's about the price of the Ubahn ticket to KaDeWe and back to search for the same in the international section. If you want the address I can give it to you. We are really due a trip back to the Uk though, dc need shoes and I always find lovely shoes and trainers back home for them. Here we never find the right style or size, buying shoes is a nightmare.

Oooh ooh spill the baked beans!
Am about to start a thread about a project for ds1 - please take a look.

www.foodfromhome.de the first 2 times you order, they send you an email and you have to pay first then they send the order out, after that you can order and they send the bill with the stuff.

Where is your thread?

very useful thread, folks dh keeps wanting to move to Germany and doesn't really 'get' why I am unwilling to do so.
He's wildly in love with German houses (understandably so, but a house isn't really everything). Dd2 has Down's syndrome and is so happy and settled at our local village school here in the UK. Everything is going brilliantly for her, the school are fab, the LEA has been fab so far, I told dh it would be utterly insane to move her from that kind of environment into the German education system. He thinks I'm overreacting... Looks like I'm not, judging by this thread!

SN & SEN poles apart here from what's offered in England.
Bit Victorian imo.

I honesty wouldn't, geekgirl, you'd be battling a new language, bureaucracy as well as being unable to send your dd to the local school.

"Everything is going brilliantly for her, the school are fab, the LEA has been fab so far,"

"insane" yep, indeedy.

Don't do it. They are 20 years behind the Uk in most things if not 30, so you would not be helping your dd at all in moving her.

I think I read recently that over 90% of children with SN/SEN are in Sonderschulen. Now I'm sure they can be great and necessary for some, but that figure is bound to include the many who could benefit no end from inclusion, decently funded and supported. My friend has a 2yo with DS and a bowel condition and is currently battling and hoping to get him into mainstream kiga. We deliberately chose an Integrationskiga for ds1 as we know he's unlikely to encounter children with SN when he starts school here.