Fun Times

When we first got back to Jena, I was convinced that somebody shrunk our apartment. There is just no way that it was THIS small when we left, I thought. I was not amused. Then there's the lovely German winter weather. If you had asked me in the summer about living in Jena, I would probably have told you that we could live here forever if only our family were closer. Ask me in December sometime and see what the answer is! January tends to be better--i.e, the sun makes the occasional appearance--but our first week back was not an example of this January improvement.

All that to say, I was pretty grumpy for a while there. Fortunately, the sun was out for much of today, and I'm starting to remember why I love Jena. After a productive and nice day, Michael and I went out for one of our date nights (which, of course, include David.) We headed to our favorite traditional German restaurant where we split two meals: schnitzel (a thin breaded pork chop) in a mushroom sauce served with croquettes--which are kind of like fancy tater tots, and a wildpfanne, which is a skillet of potatoes, mushroom, and a variety of meats. I don't know how or when it happened, but I really have come to love German food, and this restaurant in particular is just so good. David was quite happy for a while in his little umbrella stroller, and when he got bored with that Michael held him and we gave him a little bit of lemon to munch on. The kid can't get enough of lemon, it's kind of odd :)

After dinner, we moseyed on over to the Italian ice-cream shop and shared a bowl of ice cream, half vanilla and half lemon, with hot blueberry sauce. That's when I REALLY started to remember why I like Jena so much. I'm not sure what I'll do without my little Italian ice cream shops when we're back in the States. (And David really liked the lemon ice cream as well, which I suppose shouldn't have surprised us but did.)

So that was our lovely Saturday. It's nice to have a baby that is so joyful, so friendly, and so easy-going that you can just bring him along to restaurants, or wherever you might want to go.

And now for some pictures!

First, one more thing: I tried to do a post on our travels, because we have so many wonderful pictures from home, but it turns out we have entirely too many. I'm going to have to start a Flicker account, or something like it, so that I can post albums from our visits. Until then, I feel too daunted by the magnitude of a post about our trip home, so I'm afraid it's not coming any time soon!

Ok, NOW for some pictures.

David got to try blueberries for the first time this week. I think it's safe to say they were his favorite so far!
He can also eat these teething cookies now, but to be honest everytime he gets a good piece off I freak out and take it out of his mouth. He seems ready for these, but I don't think I'm ready for him to be ready for them :)
Playing with Michael and Timo!

Just more happy baby pictures! This is a new toy, a Christmas present from Michael's parents. He loves it!
I missed the moment, but he picked up this little lamby, which he hasn't seen for a while, and he took one look at its face and burst out laughing! No idea why, but he thinks this face is pretty funny.
And finally, I just have to share how very long he's gotten. I tried to measure him, and it looks to me like he's grown at least 2 inches this month. We'll know for sure on Monday when we see the pediatrician, but I swear he is growing like never before!

That's it for now :)