Another Great Day on the Bikes

We spent the day on our bikes again yesterday, and it was great. The weather was just perfect--starting to get cooler, but sunny and definitely not too cool. We biked to Rudolstadt, which is about 30 miles south of Jena. About 8 miles in, we stopped at a beer-garden so that I could use the restroom. Trouble is, it was such a lovely scene...a few kids kicking a soccer ball around, families eating, drinking and chatting, and wonderful owners. So we had to stay for a while and have a beer and some fries. (Really, we just had to!) David was happy to get down and run around, and he did so while eating some of the lunch I'd packed for him.

Then he did a quick check on the bikes, to make sure all was in order.

Then we headed back onto the trail, not exactly strengthened by the beer, I'll be honest, but happy nonetheless. Now, I know most of you check the blog for David pictures--and who can blame you, he's a cutie!--but I have to include some shots from the ride. It was just so beautiful, I have to share! (If you can, click on the photos to enlarge them. They really lose something at this size.)

Our next real stop was at a bench along a pretty stretch of railroad tracks. (Which is where most of the above photos were taken. It's hard to bike and take photos at the same time :)

Once again, David munched and played.

This time, though, he also felt compelled to check the route. You can never be too careful!

And, of course, another equipment check. He really is a very diligent little boy.

After all that hard work, he needed a break...

Fortunately, he was fully restored by the time we got to Rudolstadt! As we approached the village, we saw a sight of the sort that never ceases to amuse me. There in the hills sat a beautiful palace, just gorgeous in the sun. There next to the palace sat a monstrosity--a flashing, blaring, blinking carnival. They just never show those things in the Europe guide books. So I figure it's my job to show you all!

Now, I'll admit, it doesn't look so bad from so far away. Up close, though, I promise you...it's not just a pretty little ferris wheel. It was every bit as awful as what you'd find back home, and every bit as loud. And look how pretty the palace is!


Anyway, when we got to Rudolstadt, we decided to skip the carnival.

(OK, so I was tempted by the roller-coaster...it was very big, and looked very cool! This was no Go Go Gator coaster. But then I remembered...if they can break it down, pack it up and drive off with it, it's probably not the safest coaster in town.)

Instead of hitting the carnival, we poked around the town a bit and grabbed (delicious) doener kebaps for dinner.

Then we all sat down for a nice, shared ice-cream sundae! (David had a bit of a fit because he was not allowed to hold the spoon, but we worked it out eventually. One second-spoon and one very messy baby later.)

David even got to sit in his own chair for a while!
Not for long, though. He was off and running in no time, playing one of his new favorite games: pick something tiny off the ground and give it to Mom.

After ice-cream, I followed the plan and hopped a train back to Jena. Michael, on the other hand, is crazy. After biking just over 30 miles UP hill and INTO the wind, he thought it would be fun to skip the train and just bike home.

Even if it had sounded like fun to me, I couldn't have done it. Seriously, 30 miles into the wind and up hill turns out to be quite a bit more difficult than 50 miles on Michigan roads. I now know this.

In any case, we met up back home in a couple of hours. After putting David to bed, we joined a small group of friends in the yard for some grilling and, believe it or not, an outdoor movie! My friend has a projector, and we watched Amelie against the hinterhaus. It was very cool.

All in all a wonderful day!

David's New Trick

What's that he's doing?

Oh, OK. He's standing in the windowsill.

Excellent.

Perfectly safe place for a toddler to play.

I don't have the photos to prove it, but he's also fond of climbing onto the kitchen table. Honestly, I don't know how he moves so quickly!!!

(If you zoom in on the photo, you will see that his face is filthy. This is why he is naked. After a muddy bike-ride with Michael, he had to be undressed outside of the apartment!)

Well now he's awake again, so off we go!

Can Families have Play Dates?

We haven't seen Thomas, Anya and Emmanuel since before our trip to the US. When we got back, they were away. So, this afternoon when they called to see if we wanted to go to a new indoor playground in town, I was very excited. I was ALSO excited to have something to do with David. It was raining, and he has been something of a crankypants since getting back to Jena.

As it turns out, it's not just a playground.

It. Is. Awesome.

(It was also about 110 degrees inside, but what can you do.)

So here are some photos from today!

Climbing up to get to a slide that lands in the ball pit.

In the end, David was way less interested in the climbing & sliding part than I was.
But he loved the ball pit!

Emmanuel has become quite adept at throwing. Too bad they don't play much baseball in Germany!

We didn't play in this part, but it's so cool I had to take pictures.
First, you climb into the giant inflatable whale's mouth...

And then, from what I saw, you scream loudly as the whale's lower jaw rises and the big ol' whale mouth closes around you. Now that is cool.

We all had a lot of fun on the trampolines, too. There were six trampolines positioned like little islands in a giant, squishy floor. Again, very cool.



The only problem was, David wanted to run, walk and fall his way across all of the trampolines. He was not deterred by anything, including much larger children jumping like crazy right in the middle of the trampoline he wanted to run across. Needless to say, we had to put a stop to this.


There was also a big bumpy slide, which Michael and I both tried with David.


Once again, David had other plans:


Immediately after taking this picture, I realized that David was moving WAY faster than I had anticipated. Fortunately, there is no photo of my scrambling up the slide to retrieve him. (It's actually a lot harder than it looks!)

And, finally, David's favorite: A giant, moon-bounce blob surrounded by a bouncy alley of sorts.
It was awesome. (OK, so it was my favorite part too :)
I haven't seen David laugh this hard in a long time. Maybe ever. For a while, David sat up top with me while Michael threw himself against the blob, and bounced himself off the walls. This was, by far, the funniest thing David had ever seen.

At the end of the afternoon, we were all completely spent. Emmanuel and Michael wrapped up the day with a good heart to heart:
(Isn't he SO big?!)

It's days like this that make me appreciate the fact that David is, finally, a great sleeper. He sleeps 12-13 hours each night, with no help from us. I think even HE was happy to get to go to bed at the end of the day.

We're Back! (Again)

Well, just as I finally sat down to write this, David woke up. So it will be quick! (I'm still hoping he falls back asleep. I suspect the recently-ringing telephone is responsible for his waking up. Grr.)

We had such a wonderful time back home! 2 weeks in Stony Brook, 2 weeks in Atlanta, and it really felt like a long and relaxing vacation. It was especially fun to see David playing with his cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. That boy was born to be in a big family. We think he'd be happiest if we all lived under one (very, very large) roof!

We've been trying very hard to get over our collective jet lag since returning early Thursday morning. For one reason or another, it's been particularly bad this time around. We tried to be outside for as much of the day as possible over the weekend, and David and I did the same yesterday and this morning. The sun should help, and believe it or not, the sun is actually shining here this week!

So here are some pictures from our hike on Landgrafen on Saturday:

For some reason, David carried this shovel around for most of the day.
Babies can be weird like that.

He still kind of walks like He-Man :)

David has recently discovered the game of Untie-Mom's-Shoes.
He thinks it's hilarious.


We brought David in the Ergo, but we let him try to walk home with us for a while.
The thing is, Landgrafen is a hill, so walking home means walking down the hill. It was a fairly gradual decline, but steep enough to teach David about running...
...which he loved....
...and, of course, falling. Most of the time he fell, he laughed and laughed and popped right back up. This one time, he stayed down for a bit. Not hurt, not crying, but a little annoyed.

(We put a stop to the running after that, though I promise he wasn't at all hurt!)

Here's one last shot of David walking through the fields with us:

It was a great day!