Happy Valentine's Day

It has been quiet here, I know. And I have explained that to you earlier.

But I just thought I should stop by to say Happy Valentine's Day! I haven't forgotten about you all! :)

Last year, I spent the Valentine's Day in an operation, and this year I wasn't able to avoid the doctors either... I have been down with pneumonia for a couple of weeks now, but in today's check-up I got better news. Not 'all clear' yet, but getting better.

Fräulein's kindergarten has been closed for a couple of days,
so we spent the morning together at the doctor's office

In addition to us all feeling ill, there has been a lot going on lately. Baby is settling in with her new Tagesmutter (day care), we have been making arrangements for our move to the new home (yes, we have found something!), and so on.

I will get back to you about these things, but in the mean time, you are welcome to follow me on Instagram! (and on Facebook and Twitter as well)

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Hyvää Ystävänpäivää!
En ole unohtanut teitä, vaikka blogissa onkin ollut hiljaista.
Olen tässä parannellut kehkokuumetta ja samalla hoitanut Babyn sopeutumista Tagesmutterin hoitoon ja tehnyt muuttojärjestelyitä.
Palailen näihin asioihin jossain vaiheessa, mutta sillä välin elämäämme voi seurata Instagramissa (ja tuttuun tapaan Facebookissa ja Twitterissä)!

A Blogger's Block

Fräulein has learned to draw her own letter and many more*

Oh, it has been a while. Again.

I must admit that I have had a bit of motivation problem. I have nothing to write about.

Or on a second thought, I might have too much to write about. But I don't know what I should write about.

... and to ride a bike.

I guess I'm having a period of uncertainty in my blogging 'career'. I'm not sure what my blog is about anymore.

I started this blog as an expat Hausfrau. So, is this blog about being an expat? Yes, we are still expats, but we are living our day to day life here in Germany. We do our normal, daily stuff, but the setting just happens to be a foreign country. No much news there.

Baby got her first two teeth in July
and my phone is full of photos like this, as I tried to capture them on camera

Or is this blog about being a Hausfrau? I do have two adorable girls and probably my friends and family are interested in reading about what the kids are up to. But for the rest of you, I cannot imagine is very interesting to hear that Fräulein can draw letters or that baby has learned to crawl*. And as I mentioned, we are just living our boring, daily life here - not much to report.

While in Finland, baby also learned to sit on her own.
And a couple of weeks ago - again in Finland - she started crawling!
She skipped the phase when one is sweeping the floor with one's belly and went straight on all fours.

So, please bear with me, while I'm thinking which direction I should go with this blog.
And I welcome any ideas! :)

*) the pictures are all about the achievements of the girls during our summer holiday in Finland - old news already... ;) 

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Taidan elää jonkinlaista etsikkoaikaa bloggaajana. En oikein tiedä, mistä pitäisi kirjoittaa. Onko tämä expat-blogi? Se, että asumme ulkomailla, tuntuu tulevan arjessamme vastaan yhä harvemmin. Tain onko tämä kotiäidin blogi? En usko, että tyttöjemme arkipuuhat jaksavat pidemmänpäälle kiinnostaa muita kuin lähisukua ja kavereita. 

Palaan asiaan, kun keksin jotain kirjoitettavaa. Ideoita saa jättää kommenttikenttään! :)

Hello World!

Oh, it has been so long since my last blog post!

And it seems that the longer the time passes, the harder it is to start blogging again. Somehow I feel that after such a long time I should write something very important.

But instead of anything extremely meaningful, I'll just send out this short come-back post. Hopefully it will be a bit easier to get back to the normal blogging routines afterwards...

I'll just leave you with two pictures. The first one is Fräulein, the latter is Baby, both at age of seven weeks. Even though Fräulein was two centimeters shorter and 500 grams heavier that Baby is at the same age, don't they look similar?

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Lyhyt paluupostaus tässä kohtaa, jos vaikka kirjoittaminen alkaisi taas tämän jälkeen sujumaan.
Oheisista kuvista ylemmässä on Fräulein, alemmassa Baby, molemmat seitsemän viikon iässä. Näyttävätkö siskoksilta?

Less Is More

I'm not sure how to take this, but it seems that the less I write, the more visitors my blog gets...

The downside of people finding a blog is that you get a lot of junk comments. Therefore, I have had to add the word recognition thing to the commenting part of my blog. I'm sorry for that, as I really love your comments and I'm not happy to make commenting more inconvenient for you.

I'm feeling guilty for not posting here often enough, but I must say that I have really enjoyed my free time. Now that Fräulein is spending about six hours a day in the Krippe (more about that later), I have been able to start the studies, which I had planned for this autumn. That means a lot of reading and listening to the lectures over the web.

Big, heavy books, but I just love them!

Even though the six hours of me-time passes very quickly, I just love to get my thoughts into something completely different. And (I say this although I know you might start to think I'm such a dull person) I just love studying and preparing myself to a test. The first test will be next week and I just can't wait for the feeling which you get after spending four hours writing down everything you have learnt in the last couple of weeks.

Yesterday, I was sitting at Starbucks reading this:
"When you think of being spaces, Starbucks will probably come to your mid.
The coffee chain's stated goal is to become our 'third place',
where we spend the bulk of our time in addition to our home and work."

So try to bear with me - I'm just enjoying the possibility to step out of the Hausfrau mode for a couple of hours each day! :)

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Blogini on saanut viime aikoina paljon uusia vierailijoita. Valitettavasti tästä on seurannut, että olen alkanut saada valtavasti roskakommentteja, joiden takia jouduin ottamaan käyttöön kommentoinnin sanatunnistuksen. Pahoitteluni siitä!

Nyt kun Fräulein viettää enemmän aikaa päiväkodissa, olen saanut aloitettua etäopintoni. Ihanaa saada ajatukset johonkin ihan muualle muutamaksi tunniksi päivässä!

Liebster Blog

Wow, I have received my very first blogging award! Thank you Wiffy from Nine and ninety nine!

Here are the rules for accepting this award:
1. Choose five up-and-coming blogs (with fewer than 200 followers) to award the Liebster to.
2. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
3. Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites. Leave comments on their blogs so they know about the award.

To choose five blogs with less than 200 followers was a bit tricky, as I guess some (if not all) of my chosen blogs may actually have more followers than is shown by Google's Friend Connect. And most of these blogs have probably received this nomination already, but I wouldn't mind receiving this twice myself, so here we go...

My nominations go to:

Letters from Frau Dietz

somewhere between facebook and flickr sits fiona

Many Coloured Days

Citykids in Action

An American in Wiesbaden

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Olen saanut ensimmäisen bloggaustunnustukseni! 

Yllä lista blogeista, joille jaoin tämän eteenpäin.

Feeling Loose

What is it about this spring / early summer that makes me want to do other things than sit by my Mac and write the blog? Go figure...

Actually, in quite many blogs which I follow, there has been some more or less intended breaks and many bloggers are apologizing for neglecting their readers. And now it is my turn.

I do have millions of ideas for blog posts. I have thought that I should get a dictaphone and a secretary so that all those ideas could be published here. But with my Hausfrau's income, I guess I must just apologize for blogging so infrequently.

I told you earlier about the funny feeling of being home alone, while Fräulein was with her Tagesmutter. Today I spent the morning in the city by doing some shopping and running errands. I finally posted the gift I had bought ages ago, bought Fräulein a pair of shoes and enjoyed a peaceful moment with a cup of coffee.

Trying on her first pair of Crocs (am I allowed to call them shoes?)
No matter how hideous, they are perfect for playground!

It feels so strange to go out all on my own! For 19 months, I have been pushing a buggy. That loose feeling when your hands are free! Although the downside is that you have to carry everything by yourself...

During all those 19 months, I haven't really been able enjoy shopping as I have always worried about when Fräulein is going to get upset and we must head home. I must plan the visits to the city so that the most important things are done first. Luckily, the city visits are a bit easier nowadays, as Fräulein can be quite easily bribed with a pretzel - and those are sold in every corner here!

But today there was no stress. I could just pop into any store if I felt like it. And I didn't need to find an elevator to get into the other floors!

And in the meantime, Fräulein spent the whole morning in garden playing with the other kids and enjoying the sunny summer day. Lucky us! :)

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Kummallista kyllä, jostain syystä näin kesäkeleillä ei tee mieli istua tietokoneen ääressä blogia kirjoittamassa... Pyydän siis anteeksi, että täällä on ollut niin hiljaista! Ehkä jonain päivänä minulla on varaa sanelukoneeseen ja sihteeriin... ;)
Fräulein oli taas tänään Tagesmutterilla ja käytin aamupäivän kaupungilla kiertelyyn. Ihan kumma tunne kun ei tarvitse työntää rattaita ja kaupoissa pääsee helposti toisiin kerroksiin. Eikä tarvitse stressata, missä vaiheessa tytöltä menee hermot.
Ja minun nauttiessani tästä shoppailuvapaudesta, Fräulein nautti aurinkoisesta kesäpäivästä leikkimällä päivähoitokaverien kanssa puutarhassa. Täydellistä! :)

Two Blogging Steps Forward

Yes, I finally did it: Frau Welle is now on Facebook!

As so many bloggers who I follow have recently found their way to Facebook, I thought it was about the time for me to do that as well.

You can find my page *here* or by clicking the 'fb' symbol on the left, under 'Follow Frau Welle'.

Please, 'like' me in Facebook, and you'll get the updates of my new blog posts!

Fräulein tends to get a bit frustrated,
when her new 'friends', the Teletubbies, do not accept her hairpin...

And the other step? As you might have noticed from my last blog post, I will write a short summary of my posts in Finnish from now on. Although I am sure that all my Finnish followers are able to read English, I thought I would make it a bit easier for them to just briefly check what I'm writing about.

Maybe some day I'll be able to add a German summary as well...

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Frau Wellellä on nyt oma Facebook-sivu - löydät sen klikkaamalla tästä tai tämän sivun vasemmassa laidassa olevaa fb-symbolia. "Tykkäämällä" sivusta saat kätevästi tiedot uusista blogikirjoituksistani.
Ja kuten tästäkin käy ilmi, aion jatkossa kirjoittaa tällaisen pienen tiivistelmän suomeksi jutun loppuun. Eli tervetuloa lueskelemaan!

Frau Welle's Blog Post #100

Five months has passed and this in my blog post number 100!
What an earth I have been writing about...

Nature in Wiesbaden five months ago...

...and today.

During this time, there has been quite many visitors in my blog, more than I could have ever imagined! I have already collected 57 flags to the map at the bottom of this page. And no, they are not all countries Herr Welle has visited... ;)

Some of you have become regular visitors, some of you just end up here once when you were searching something from the internet.

In Blogger, you can see what kind of key words people have used in Google when they have ended up to your blog.
Mostly the searches that lead to my blog are related to the attractions in Wiesbaden, expat life or some brand I have mentioned.

From all the photos in my blog,
this picture has received most hits in the Google Image search.

But there has also been some funny Google searches...

Like during the Finnish presidential election, quite many people ended up in *here*. I guess those who googled "sauli niinisto profile" or "finnish presidential election 2012" weren't actually looking for something like my review...

Some of the key words, which people have googled, have made me wonder what they were actually looking for:
   cayenne pram - Are you looking for a pram that fits into your Cayenne or a pram that matches well with the style?
   things found in handbag - Sorry, my handbag was probably a bit boring, but what did you expect to find?
   take a father welle baby - Okay...
   klaus welle daughter - No, I'm not related to Klaus Welle, in case you were wondering
   faru way 2011 - And this search led *here*
   german for i'm having a baby - I hope that wasn't an urgent search, because one could not find the answer from my blog
   i could use another reason - For what? I'm curious!

Fräulein's hair five months ago...

...and today.

But no matter how you have ended up in here, it is great that you have taken the time to check my blog - please, come to visit me again!

And I hope I'll keep you entertained for at least another 100 posts!

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,Frau Welle

Keeping Busy

Where does the time go?

I have managed to write only one post this week. I have several posts in progress, but don't seem to have time to finish them...

Today was an extra busy day for us.
First, we had a play date with two other Finnish girls and their mums.
How nice to have some really great Finnish people here close by!

Then a friend come over for a cup of coffee.
How nice that you can meet great people through blogging!

In the afternoon, we went to visit Fräulein's new Tagesmutter (nanny).
How nice to have found such a sweet lady to take care of our daughter!
(Yes, this is the topic of one of the posts in progress.)

And in the evening, I had a German lesson.
How nice... uh... to spend your Friday night learning German?


A couple of months ago, I would have been exhausted to have even two set appointment in a week. And today I had four. Four! And I enjoyed every minute of it (well, almost...)!

I guess it has something to do with the weather.

Weather this afternoon

Even Better Blog!

I have noticed, that the posts in my blog cover mainly three types of things: mummy stuff, expat things and our city, Wiesbaden.

I guess that my readers are also mainly interested in one of these things, so I thought I'd make it easier to navigate in my blog. So, I have now created new pages, which you can find from the tabs above, under the picture of Fräulein the Cat.

For all of you interested in mummy and Hausfrau stuff, you'll find the links to those posts on 'Hausfrau Welle' page.

Links to posts covering our expat life can be found on 'Expat Welle' page.

And, obviously, on page 'Frau Welle's Wiesbaden', you can find the posts about our city.





But don't be alarmed, the old type of blog with all my posts can be still be found on page 'The Blog'.







I have also added a new 'About Frau Welle' page.








Please, enjoy!

2011: The Year Frau Welle Found Social Networks

Tomorrow is the New Years Eve, so guess this could be a good time to look a bit backwards and what has happened during the year 2011. Yes, I'm embarrassed to admit that this all took place this year and not ten years earlier, as it should have with any normal person...


In February 2011: Frau Welle joined Facebook.
Before, I was such an anti-Facebook type of person. I had sworn that I would never join. But never say never...
Being a Hausfrau and an expat made me realize that I need every possible communication channel in order to keep in contact with also other people than my closest friends and family. So I ate my words and joined Facebook.

During my almost-a-year in Facebook, I have had the ups and the downs. First, I became addicted to it. Then a bit bored. Then I was mad, because the privacy settings were changed without me knowing. Now my relationship with Facebook is more neutral. It is nice to follow what people are up to, but I haven't had the energy to connect with all possible people I know and thus have only a handful of Facebook friends to follow.

In November 2011: Frau Welle started blogging.
I guess you have noticed that...

For almost two months now, I have been writing about my life as an expat and a Hausfrau. It has been great to connect with other expat bloggers and noticing that some of my posts can actually be of help to someone!

Hausfrau's new favorite hobby!

In December 2011: Frau Welle joined Twitter.
I realized, that many of my fellow bloggers are very active also in Twitter, so I had to join as well. I haven't yet tweeted (is that the word you use?) at all, but I'm starting to get the hold of things.

Let see what year 2012 brings along!

The Best Part of Blogging

The combination of being a Hausfrau and an Expat is not the best possible, if you are trying to create a new social network. Even though I have made some good friends here, it is always nice to meet new people.

So, the best part of blogging...

...is getting to meet other bloggers!

There are quite many expat bloggers in Germany and even here in Wiesbaden. Last week I was lucky to meet one of them, Frau Dietz. What a great person! I can warmly recommend her blog, especially her post about the beer calendar. Wonderful idea! :D

Frau Dietz invited me to the Christmas Market Meetup with other bloggers from this area. The meetup was yesterday and I was sure to participate, even though the weather wasn't the best for drinking Glühwein outside...

The meeting got a bit smaller than planned, but besides us two Fraus, also German Gems and Shoegirl were there. How nice to meet these new people! Even though I have been blogging only for a month and a half, they really made me feel welcome.

Unfortunately, Herr Welle was traveling on business (what a surprise...), so I had to take my daughter with me to the meetup. It was getting close to her bedtime, so she was a bit restless. And as she is now able to walk (now steady enough in outdoor clothing, too), it is not possible to keep her sitting in her push-chair, if it is not moving.

Luckily, German Gems brought also her husband along. He instantly connected with my daughter. And while I was enjoying the Glühwein with the other bloggers, these two walked around the Christmas market. The little girl hurrying around with a big grin on her face, the tall man following with a stoop while holding the girl from her hood. Back a forth, back and forth. What a great sight!

When we got home, my daughter was so hungry because of the exercise that she ate more evening porridge than she ever has! After her bath she was very tired, but was not able to fall asleep, probably because of all the excitement (and all that porridge). But then she slept like a baby until morning!

I'm starting to think that blogging is the Hausfrau's New Favorite Hobby!