Hello you wonderful people. Thank you for still sticking around 🙂 I know, it has been a bit quiet lately. So I appreciate it even more that you are still around. Let me share with you what I’ve been up to lately, how the little one is doing and what the reason is for my silence on the blog for a while…

I don’t know about you but I am SO glad summer has finally arrived! These last months have been really exhausting with this on and off lockdown situation and the horrible weather this spring. Definitely a mood killer. I tried to fight the corona blues with sport and activities in nature. Nearly every day I put the little one in the stroller and went for a run. I really needed this in the morning in order to wake up.

We have a little forest close by. This was the destination for our morning outing. Here we stopped and I helped her out of the stroller. Then we went explore. She is really confident with being in the forest now. One of our favorite activities: playing hide and seek. But with a twist: She tells me behind which tree I should hide. So I go there, hide behind if for a few seconds and show myself again while shouting “Boohooo!” It cracks her up 😀

Another thing she likes: Standing in circles of pine cones. She helps me collect them, then I lay out a small or bigger circle on the forest floor and she immediately rushes into it. When I lay out various circles she likes to run from one to the other.

We stay in the forest for half an hour or an hour and then I put her back into the stroller and run back. This kind of morning activity was a lifesaver for me during the lockdown(s).

How is the little one?

Oh my god she has grown so much! And she is speaking now. Not in full sentences of course but she learns more and more words on a daily basis. It is sometimes hard to keep track. And she has favorite kid’s songs now that she makes us sing again and again (and again and again and…) One of here favorites is “Old McDonald had a farm” in the German version.

And she is fascinated by everything with wheels these days. Even better: Things with wheels on a construction site. Cranes, excavators, big trucks… you name it, she loves it.

We haven’t started with any child care apart from family members yet. She was meant to start a few months ago in a watched playgroup three mornings a week. But the covid situation was so bad at that time that we postphoned the start to September. I am really looking forward to this. Not only because it means that I can work on a regular basis again (and provide you with more updates about what’s going on in Stuttgart!) but also because being around other kids her age more often will be so good for her. It always melts my heart when I see her playing with other kids on the playground. What used to be normal before covid looks like heaven nowadays, doesn’t it?!

Why the long silence on the blog?

Apart from just not enough time (I did work of course but mainly with my online German conversation groups and as a journalist) I was preparing something special for you guys! I was – and still am – working on – tatatataaaaa – a guide book for Stuttgart!

It will be called “Highlights and Hidden Gems of Stuttgart” and I plan so sell it as an ebook. It will introduce you to the main sights of Stuttgart and – more importantly – to many fun facts and hidden highlights not even every local knows about. Stay tuned for more information. Oh I am SO excited to share this with you 🙂

In the meantime: Tell me what you look for in a guide book about the city you life in! You can do so via email to mel@living-in-stuttgart.com or simply the comment section below this article. It will be great hearing from you!

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