The last days have been rather exhausting for all of us as each and everyone seems to deal with some personal challenges. My beloved husband, for instance, is deep into writing up papers for his Phd while applying for post-doc grants and fixing a date for his defence at the same time. Right now, our favored option regarding the near future is a two-year post-doc position in Finland. We already know the city a little bit and we have some dear friends over there and would be thrilled to actually spend some qualified time of our lifes with them. But…it is a 50-50 chance whether it works out or not. So in five months we will either be unemployed or in the middle of an international move.

The little one being challenged with a strong “life could be so nice but somehow I have to say no to everything!” phase. Which is equally challenging us. There is not a single thing that I can do with her that she automatically agrees upon. (Nope, that is not true. She would never say no to chocolate. After all, she is Karsten’s daughter!). I have to debate and discuss and persuade and argue about everything. Getting up, getting dressed, going somewhere, coming back, having lunch, sleeping, even going to the playground. No. No. No. And she is exhausting every situation until it explodes. Good thing: we recently watched Inside Out (an awesome movie! Incredibly funny!) and we try to imagine a little red figure in her head going berserk every time when things are out of control. It helps, really.

The hobbit seems to be challenged by his first tooth. At least I hope so because I don’t know what else would cause such cries. Poor him! For the sake of our family I hope that it’ll break through soon!

And apart from some very sleepless nights last week, I am challenged by loosing a bit more of the pregnancy weight. It’s been five months now and I still don’t fit into my jeans again which is starting to annoy me. I want to wear my normal clothes again! During the last weeks I have only eaten salad in the evening and done some sport every day. Nothing. The only time when I cheered up was when I found out that I am, after all, much (much!) fitter than Karsten. Well, I will try to seriously work on it during February and have started the Shred-programme. Karsten doesn’t want to believe that you can actually loose girth with it, so the challnge is on!

And now we’ll face the challenge of a relaxed evening. Good night everyone!