Toys Galore

Karl is taking good care of his little brother and brings him as many toys as possible whenever he feels like Henri is in need.

Waiting In The Rain

We're waiting in the Rain
For a train that never came.
What happened to the sun?
It was so much fun.
Global warming is bad, we know,
But we're not ready for snow.

Sunday Lessons

Just like a whole lot of other people I thought that yesterday was the perfect day to visit the zoo.



I found out a couple of things. One: It's almost impossible to turn the bicycle hanger into a buggy all by myself, but luckily some nice people offered to help me.



Two: Not all rhinos have horns.



Three: Karl gets really bored when I feed Henri and tends to do stupid things or run away.



Four: The bear was there again.



Five: It's almost impossible to turn the buggy into the bicycle hanger again all by myself, but luckily some nice people offered to help me. Six: It is kind of exhausting to go to the zoo with both of the boys, so the next excursion will be to the playground once again.

Four Months

Our boy is growing fast: At the big doctors' check-up last week he weighed in at 6460 g and was 66 cm tall. Here he is in all his beauty – front and back view.

When Henri Met Evi

A Week Away

So off we went. To Bensheim! Karl and I were the advance on Sunday. I bailed to Oxford later on Monday for a great work week at the Ted conference. But from the start Karl owned grandma's and grandpa's place. With fabulous toys from three different children growing up in the 60s and 70s neatly arranged in Carolin's old room, it's always kids' paradise. So Karl dove right in. Literally. We arrived, five minutes later he wanted to go to "the room", dragging me up the stairs, where he first prepared a meal of "noodles and rice and potatoes" for me and a whole crowd of dolls, followed by serious exercises in interior design using vintage Fisher Price houses and a red box to house himself.

More about his adventures and encounters in the past week soon.

Mummy Time And Tummy Time

Today was the last class of my second post-pregnancy gymnastics course. For some unexplicable reason my amazing six-pack stomach is not back just yet. Hm. What are the next steps now? I also found out that I really don't remember how to do hoola hoop anymore. Meanwhile Henri was working on his baby abs by sticking his legs up in the air as well as on his rotating skills.

The Pretender

Karl is enjoying the good life at Omis house while Andrian is enjoying the good ideas in Oxford and I have nothing better to do than pretend that Henri is already able to sit.

Plus One

Saturday: same place, same time, one more guy.

Shady Boys

Lots of people are already complaining about the hot weather that has been around for the past ten days or so. I really don't mind. And whenever I feel a tiny bit too warm I'm just thinking back to those days and days of non-stop raining in May and June. Of course the heat is harder on babies and little kids though, so we stayed in the cool shade of the trees on the west bank of the river.

My Sons

I'm starting to think they genuinely like each other.

New Perspectives

There it is: my post-pregnancy workout. I finally installed the Chariot bike carrier my sister found for us through a colleague of hers and feel happy to be more mobile again. Public transport is great, but this is much better. Both my boys enjoyed the ride I believe and Karl was thrilled to be able to get his ice cream at Frau Fingerles kiosk after day-care. After I picked him up he slowly realized that I can't hear him that well from back in the trailer, so he redirected his non-stop talking flow to his little brother. Kindly enough he went from telling me about different car models to pointing out more baby friendly things like houses, trees, bushes and flowers to Henri.

Beer Garden Sunday

Yesterday for lunch we headed out to the St. Emmeransmühle. Even though some people (see below) were a little hung over from Saturday's soccer game, we had a great time. Karl was keenly working on improving on his experimental photography skills.



And – just like last time – was very much into hanging out with Anna.



Have I introduced Charlotte yet? I don't think so: here she is, eight weeks old, daughter of Alexander and Julie. Please guess which one of those two was hung over from the soccer game... A great opportunity to mention that I'm very greatful not to have a soccer crazy husband, hehe.

More Italy

Of course the only thing to do on a rainy vacation is to fill each day with new adventures. Which makes it hard to relax, when the sun shines again, because you set that frantic pace of excitement. Which makes you then do stupid things like walk up a mountain to a "real knights' castle" instead of lounging on a beach.



Lake Garda and the surrounding counties have plenty in store for kiddie adventures though. Highpoints in Karl's book were the aforementioned castles (yes, there were more than one), the ferry ride across the lake...



...and of course the elaborate zoo, which featured a safari section, which was more like a drive-in-zoo, but nonetheless exciting. Not as exciting though as the tiger who kinda comes over to you with no bars in-between. Karl was pretty brave about being face to face with the mighty beast of the continent of Asia.



He even made us go back and wait for him make his rounds again.




He also got a kick out of the life-size dinosaur models (mainly because he's been reading and rereading a dinosaur book for weeks now). His courage kinda failed him in the petting zoo though when a herd of goats thought he must be in the possession of edibles for sure. They sure were insistent.



No camera present at today's massive 4:0 over Argentina today. But bascially a repeat performance of last weekend, not just for the German team.

Band Of Brothers

We believe they're already ganging up on us.



Even behind our backs if necessary.