Best Buds

I've shared lots of stories and photos of Emmanuel, but this is by far my favorite. David and Emmanuel have been buddies since David was born (insofar as a newborn can have buddies), but they don't see each other all that often. They usually see each other in church Sunday morning, and are often the only babies in the room. (We go to the second service. The first is chock full of babies :) They see each other in playgroup, but we don't go every week. Still, they sure are crazy about each other! When Emmanuel saw David in church last Sunday, he crawled right up to him and gave him a little face snuggle! Anya, amazingly, caught the moment:

I love it!

Funny Faces

Just had to share! The last one is one he makes all the time. He's starting to look a lot like Calvin, and I don't mean the theologian.

Hello Again

I can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted!

We had a nice time last Sunday walking in the hills of Jena with some friends. I haven't been up there in ages! Actually, our plan was to walk up to a place on the top of Landgrafen to have coffee & cake, and then come back down. A nice quick walk, 15 minutes up an (impossibly long) flight of stairs, then back down. When we got there, though, it was closed. Until March. So that was a no-go!

Fortunately we know of another great place, just about 2 miles from Landgrafen by the trails. So, off we headed to Papiermuelle for our coffee and cake. It was a longer walk than we had planned, but that's OK. When we got there, though, it was also closed. Some special event had JUST started, and they were closed for the day.

By now David was sick and tired of being in the Ergo carrier, and I was sick and tired of being promised cake and then not given any. Finally, we walked back into town and--about 2 hours after we set-out--went to our favorite cake place downtown. It was really so nice to be out and about, even if it was unintentional, and made me look forward to the Spring. (As I write this, though, it has just started to snow outside. So I guess I'll have to keep on looking forward!)

Here's a shot from the hills. It was such a clear day!
And some shots from the cake-place...

(See, sometimes I hold David too!)
Little Elvis
I tried to take a shot of both of us. Who knows WHAT David is doing here!

(No longer at the cake place...) I thought David might like to play with this. He did. Then he bit a huge chunk out of it, I took it, and he burst into tears.
I LOVE this picture! He is getting so good with his little straw-sippy cup, and I just think he looks so cute using it. I haven't caught it on camera yet, but when he's lazy, he lets it sit on the ground and bends ALL the way over so he can drink from it without picking it up. It's very funny.
And, finally, he's back to staring down the camera. As soon as he sees it, he throws whatever is in his hand and stares. Don't know why he stopped smiling, but he always makes exactly this face. It's as if he's surprised, but he isn't. He holds this expression for as long as I have the camera on him!

Playgroup

"Check it out! I'm playing with my friends! Isn't it awesome???"

David and I go to a "Mutterkindkreis" on Tuesday mornings at our church. We don't go every week, it's a little difficult because it messes up David's morning nap, but when we do go we both have a great time. Usually, my friend Anja and I will meet in the morning and walk there together. This week, we met at someone's house instead of at the church, and this week I finally remembered to bring the camera!

The photo above is of David, Tabitha and--as many of you will recognize--Emmanuel. Here's a rare treat: a candid shot of David! He's reaching for a toy in the background, totally unaware (gasp!) of the camera.
At some point, David got very tired and a bit grumpy. What did I do? I broke out the camera, of course!

That did the trick for a while.

When it was time to go, I accidentally caught the sweetest moment between Emmanuel and one of the other children (whose name I am blanking on right now)

Jumperoo!

As many of you know, David got his first taste of jumping over Christmas when my sister brought a doorway jumper for him to use. He was pretty sure it was the best thing ever made.

We don't really have a good doorway for one of those, but Fisher Price makes this Cadillac of a jumper called the Rainforest Jumperoo. They are sold everywhere back home, but a lot harder to get here. What's more, they seem to be gaining in popularity...or at least, that's the only reason I can come up in order to explain the fact that they keep getting MORE expensive, instead of less! They cost 100 Euros on Amazon.de before Christmas. After Christmas, they were up to 120 Euros--and that is before shipping! Needless to say, I bought it used on Ebay. (Even then it costs quite a bit more than a new one would back home!)

That, however, is where generous grandparents come in :) David is a fortunate little boy, and BOTH sets of grandparents figured he was a kid who needed a jumper, so....here it is!

And here!

And it's not just for jumping. This afternoon, David was gently holding the toy monkey on the jumper and talking to him. (Dada, which he learned to say yesterday actually! So he was telling the monkey all about Dada. Not Mama, but what can you do.)

I tried to get a picture but, of course, at the last second he just SENSED that there was a camera nearby. Busted.

This lead to maybe one of the funniest things David's done yet. He started mugging it for "jumperoo shots." Not so surprising, but here's where it gets good: every time I tried to put the camera down, or simply stopped pointing it a him, he would start to fuss and cry. Seriously. I couldn't make this up if I tried. I have 23 pictures of him jumping this afternoon. (And, he STILL cried when I eventually put the camera down.) Here are just a few:


And finally, the "where are you going with that camera?" shot...

Ok, I know I said "finally", but there's one more. Not a jumperoo shot, it was supposed to be a sweet picture of Michael reading to David. David was really enjoying the book, and just listening and looking at the pages, and I SWEAR I was as discreet as possible. It is simply impossible to get a candid picture of this child.