TEN YEARS

April 18, 2005

My two suitcases are full to the brim with my most important belongings, as well as the things I will need first. Eight boxes full of other carefully selected things will be sent as cargo. Anything that doesn´t fit in these boxes and suitcases has been thrown out, given away or sold. Buying the airplane ticket is easy, but once your organizing, selecting and packing it turns out it’s actually quite an undertaking, packing all of your things when planning to emigrate. What do or don’t I need, what would I like to keep, what can go, what would be better to buy anew once I’m there? Rather difficult, all those choices. And once everything has been selected and packed, mixed feelings. Happy and relieved that it all worked out, but at the same time it becomes a lot more final once you see first all those boxes and then also the suitcases standing in the hallway.

5K training program for running moms

I know it’s been a while, but here is finally my second post in the series for running moms, with a suggested training program for a 5K run. As mentioned already in my previous post with general advice for beginning running moms, it is important to only use this program as a guideline and to make your own adjustments where necessary taking into consideration your available time and energy levels. You can increase or decrease activity, try to do a shorter program if you’ve already been active previously (e.g. by starting in week 3 or 4) or take much more than the suggested 8 weeks to prepare for a 5K distance, even take a break for a week or 2 if needed – just make sure you feel good with your level of activity! 

Mirror Twins

Saturday, 28 March 2015. Tonight when I said it was time to brush teeth, A. was the first to run into the bathroom, like most evenings. She climbed up the step stool in front of the sink and looked at me in the mirror with a beautiful smile on her face. I looked back… and saw N. For a moment I felt confused, maybe I was wrong and it had been N. who had entered the bathroom just a moment earlier? I looked next to me and saw very clearly that it was definitely A. who was standing on the step stool beside me. Again I looked in the mirror, and again I saw N. there. Next to me, A. In the mirror, N. A really strange experience, which confirmed what I already had been thinking for some time. Our girls are mirror twins! I had read something about it a few months ago and I had already been almost sure that our girls were mirror image twins. Their hair naturally parts on opposite sides. We can’t be completely sure yet if our girls are right- or left-handed, but it’s getting more and more obvious that N. prefers to use her left hand to eat, draw, etc. while A. in most cases uses her right hand. And if I remember correctly, their first teeth came in on opposite sites, too! Enough reasons to think about mirror twins, but today it just suddenly got very clear. Pretty strange to see N. in the mirror so clearly while it was really A. who was standing in front of it. But also very special. Identical twins are not very common (about 1 in 285 pregnancies, or one third of all twin pregnancies) and mirror twins are even rarer: only around 25% of all identical twins are mirror twins. So really a lottery ticket, with the first prize: two beautiful and special girls. I’m so proud of them and happy that I’m allowed to be their mom! :)