Walking in their shoes…

What an adventure it is to have you and your mum around. I am still reeling from the delightful realisation that we left our home with a docile little newborn a mere two months ago and came back with a small child, with a mind of her own, astonishing abilities and mobility (remember your adventures with the train seat, Tristan’s couch and climbing out of all sorts of contraptions designed to keep you INSIDE of them?.) Before we knew it you could sit up and look around, take a drink bottle and finish it, take things and learn how they feel smell and most of all TASTE, realise that some things may be too big and too heavy for now and that your parents are there when you need them.

In the course of the trip you dazzled so many people, starting from queues of curious and cordial waitresses in Thailand, to your grandparents, uncles and aunties in Germany and Poland and even your grand grandmother to whom your gave the greatest parting present by just being there and smiling, to seeing your dear uncle Claudio for the first time to young and oldies ladies and gentlemen all over Italy and our friends in California who were a catalyst for me so looking forward to have you.

What’s more, i am so very proud of you and your mum which actually is a novelty for me. I may have met and spent time with a number of people in my life but your mum and you took it all to a new level. I just didn’t know these feelings exist in the real world and attributed them to fairy tales and cheesy literature. What i so like about our family unit is that it feels far less obliging than it feels liberating and fulfilling.

We have seen you undergo an amazing development in a very short time. We will try not to let this go to our heads a demand great deeds sooner, faster and better than others. After all, we love you and we merely look forward to have a smart, witty and great daughter.

Just one piece of advice: Man with beards can generally be trusted. Yellow buckets on the other hand are to be treated with suspicion. Ask your dad when you can read this 😉

Poznan, August 2012

Reasons….

Dear Haumea,

it’s just your dad, easy to distinguish because his output is so infrequent. I am hopeful that over time i will learn from your mum and have the spontaneity and freedom of spirit to write a beautiful long post in which nuggets of truth are embedded like raisins in a german Christmas Bread, just like she did last night in between two courses of our dinner. Your dad configures a fully functional e-commerce server in that time span, but writing ? Not yet, anyway.

There are many reason i can think of why i want to commit to Bella and you sure will ask us one day and on that day i won’t have to refer you to this post for the answer. Your mum is spontaneous, righteous, truthful and fair. She can be a bit jealous but that is actually a byproduct of honesty. Most people are jealous but never admit it and that in itself is the root of many an evil in this world you will soon enter. Also your mum is so practical it sometimes breaks my heart just thinking about it. When pressed for time she toast bread on a gas flame (and delicious that is!), she ejects SIM card with an earring, she lets grievances go temporarily of for good and always makes the right choice. Just today she went through a pile of depressing paperwork concerning some of the hardship she came out of with a smile when i heard her sobbing so i rushed to where she was sitting and learned that it was a short note of mine floating in the midst of that endless pile of past disappointment brought tears of joy to her eyes. I cannot think of many if any fellow human beings who would see the glass as being half full at such a moment but once again Bella did and that is why we will be your mum and that with paper, ring and all. There are many other reasons but i keep them for later posts.

We already live in one of the most beautiful places on Earth and yet despite that fact we would be just as merry in good ‘ol communist Poland, sharing a simple meal made of our pooled food stamps as a mere necessity that complements the existential pleasure of each other company. Why else do we sometimes not leave the house on a glorious day except for cooling off in our gigantic swimming pool that we hope will be your playground too and very soon.

1983 Polish Food Stamp

Well, the good news is we could have swapped the Cigarette and Alcohol allowance for chocolates 😉

Today we are no longer worried about the next meal so before we have it let me take your Mum on a nice little walk around the tropical country side around here.

Lots of love and i cannot wait to take you little kicking and spinning (a homage to Bruce Lee?) dervish in my arms so your mum no longer has to carry all that weight.

Your dad.