September 16, 2010

4:30 am. Herr Welle and I wake up at his parent's house in Finland.

The previous day, we had said goodbye to our Finnish home and left the movers to pack up all our belongings. We only have one luggage each with us, so that we can survive one week in a hotel.

Our 'garden' in Finland

6:00 am. We are ready to get up into Opa Welle's car, as he will drive us to the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. While we are standing outside in the crisp autumn air, my cellphone beeps. The husband of my very good friend has sent me a text message: my friend is in the delivery room of their local hospital and is not really enjoying herself.

All the drive to the airport and before boarding the plane, I squeeze my phone waiting for it to beep again. I can almost forget that we are moving to a foreign country, I'm just so excited for my friend.

The flight is over fast and we land on Frankfurt airport. I open my phone and it beeps: my friend has had a little baby girl!

We take a taxi to Wiesbaden and settle into a hotel. The rest of the day is a bit of blur for me, but at least we got ourselves registered as residents in Wiesbaden.

But today is a day of celebration. We have been living in Wiesbaden for two years now! And what is even more important: the little girl, our goddaughter, is now two years old! Happy birthday little princess!

*****
Syyskuun 16. kaksi vuotta sitten oli erityisen tärkeä päivä meille: silloin muutimme Herr Wellen kanssa Wiesbadeniin. Ja erityisen tärkeäksi päivän tekee se, että ihana kummityttömme syntyi silloin. Paljon onnea prinsessalle!

The Cruel World of Shopping

This happened already a month ago, but I'm still so disappointed that I need to whine about this... :)

I have really fallen in love with online shopping, especially with children clothes (more about that later). But once in a while it is nice to go and finger real clothes and get new ideas. A lovely store Kinderplanet closed down in August, so I was thrilled to notice that another store opened right next door.

I was familiar with this store from my online shopping experiences, so I had quite high hopes for it. Royalkid has a wide range of lovely brands in their selection.

I went to visit this new store in order to find something nice for my daughter to wear in her first birthday party. As I stepped in, there was an eager lady welcoming us. I told her what I was looking for and her immediate reaction was 'We only sell clothes for children older that 3 years'. From the sound of her voice and her body language I was able to read that she expected us to leave the store. Then she took a look into the buggy and commented quite surprised 'She is very big!'. She stormed to the rack and took a dress to me saying 'This might be small enough for a two year old'.

I saw the price tag and politely asked if they had anything else than clothes. Then I noticed a bowl of beautiful Il Gufo hairpins. I was about to try one on my daughter, when the lady commented 'But she doesn´t even have any hair!'.

At this point, I had had enough and thought that she didn't want to sell us anything. Thinking to myself that Royalkid should stick with the online store, I went to H&M and bought a nice dress and a hairpin for the birthday party.

© Citymami