What We've Been Up To

Things are getting kind of crazy here as we prepare to move back to the U.S. In addition to the practical things that need to get done (like unloading, one way or another, the contents of our apartment!), there's the constant fluctuation between thinking about what we'll miss, and thinking about what we're more than ready to leave. (The weather. We are more than ready to leave this weather. It is simply inexcusable.)

We've had some nice times too, of course, and David just gets funnier and funnier. I'm amazed at how old he all of a sudden seems to be. I can't even put my finger on it, but this week in particular I feel as if he's had a developmental growth spurt. It's really fun, and of course good, but also the tiniest bit sad. There's very little baby left in that boy! (Ever-present pacifier to the contrary.)

I realized that I never write much about his little accomplishments, so here are a few David-brags: he loves counting, and can count (with some prompting) to 20. He can count to 10 with no help, and loves counting objects---which he can do up to about 6 or so. He seems to know his left from his right, which we can only assume comes from Dr. Suess's "The Foot Book." He has demonstrated the ability to go to the bathroom both in the potty AND on the floor.

My favorite: He can tell us when something is too spicy. "Too 'picy! too 'picy!" This doesn't necessarily mean he'll stop eating it, mind you. Often he'll just wait a minutes, and then start chowing down again--with watery eyes. It makes us very proud. :)

That's all I can think of for now! My plan for this blog was to just post pictures, but as we all know I never can manage to do a short post. In any case, here are the pictures of what we've been up to lately.

There are really no words for this one:

Or this one:

David is still sort of obsessed with all things vehicular:

Anja introduced us to a new playground, and it's awesome! It is at a school, and there's a blacktop and a great play area AND the streetcars drive by--which, if you're a toddler boy, is just about as good as it gets.

This big ropey climbing structure actually spins! I think it's pretty cool.

David: "If I stare long enough, maybe she'll come and sit on the other side?"

The difference between a stay-at-home parent and a working parent, I've discovered, is this: a stay at home parent would never take one of the very few things that a child plays with, happily, on his own and turn it into a game that requires a lot of parental work.

But it was still fun to watch them zipping around like this. :)

David throwing rocks, with his beefy arms that we love so much:

And here are those beefy arms again, with what was, I think, supposed to be a camera smile:

And finally, more snuggling with Franz:

Trucks, Tractors, Cars and Ice Cream

That basically sums up David's favorite things in life. About 6 weeks or so ago, David decided that cars (or motorcycles, trucks, tractors, busses, or street-cars) are the best things in the whole wide world.

When he wakes up, he runs to find his toy cars as quickly as possible--as if the night had been far too long to be away from them. Then he putters around, vrooming all over the furniture, lost in his own little world. It's adorable. (It's made my life unbelievably easier, actually, since these are the first toys that David's really shown and sustained interest in, and he happily plays alone for the first time in his little life!)

Even better than toy cars are real cars. He's forever claiming cars that he sees as his own. ("David's car! David's car!") Michael has told him that we're going to have a car in a few months, and he cannot wait. He talks about it all the time, and his first plan is to listen to Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) in the car--like he does in Oma's car. David thinks we should get a Police Car, or at least a car with lights and sirens. He's thought about it, and that's the car he thinks we should buy.

So, here are some photos of David that capture this newfound love of machinery. (Not just automobiles, mind you, but also lawnmowers, jackhammers, construction equipment of all kinds.)

A few weeks ago, there was a wood-market/festival downtown. David couldn't believe his luck.

(David and Michael watching the chainsaw sculptor.)

We also watched this for a while. It chopped wood and shot the wood into the trailer. David thought it was pretty awesome.

David liked this wooden train...

...but the real tractors were his favorite, hands down. He kept trying to climb the fence, saying "David in there! David in there!"

They even set-up David's favorite carousel, which they had for the Christmas Markets.

He LOVES this thing. He cried so hard when he had to get off, it broke my heart. His little face looked absolutely betrayed. (OK, it mostly broke my heart and also made me laugh a little inside...he's a very dramatic little guy, and it's hard not to find that a tiny bit funny.)

We ended the day, as we often do, with ice cream. My (ill conceived) plan was to get one for Michael, and one for David and I to share. David wanted nothing to do with sharing, and he took one of the cones and ran off with it.

So, Michael and I shared and David got to eat his cone.

A few days ago, we took David out to fly his kite. The kite flying was a total flop, but we did find...

more tractors!

Here we have David trying to find a way to get INTO the tractor. He kept asking me for help, and I couldn't help but wonder what on earth he thought he would do if he could just get into that tractor.

One last picture, taken yesterday morning--David's new car. (Best 14 Euros I ever spent on Ebay. :)

This picture was taken in the bathroom, oddly enough, where he was driving Elmo and Baby Lamby around in his PJs. (Yep, he is still wearing those Christmas PJs. Yep, he was driving his dirty car all around the house. It was pouring outside, and freezing cold, and I pretty much let him do whatever he wanted to while we were stuck inside.)

David LOVES this car, and we love watching him drive it all over the place!

Biking to Weimar

Last Saturday, we had a family bike trip to Weimar. It's not very far, 25 kilometers (15 miles)by the bike path, and it was the perfect way to enjoy the weather.

Sadly, as we were leaving, Michael discovered that he had a flat tire. Fortunately, he and David were able to make the necessary repairs:

David is pretty happy in his bike seat, as long as: (1) he can see me, and (2) he gets regular breaks. When he can't see me, he yells "maMAAAA! maMAAA!" Then, when I manage to catch up (this is often on an uphill) he says, very sweetly, "hi Mama!"

It's mostly cute, but sometimes not. Like when I'm gasping for air pedaling up a steep hill, trying simultaneously to say "It's alright, David, I'm right here..."

I'm totally on board with the regular breaks, though!

David loves taking pictures together now, where I hold the camera:

You just have to love this face:

We did eventually manage to reach Weimar, and even stopped at a beautiful palace just outside the city:

We had a bite to eat there, and David grabbed the Soljanka we were supposed to share and made clear it was not to be shared. Oddly enough, this is one of his favorite foods:

The palace grounds were beautiful, and we spent our time there just wandering around outside:

David's favorite, of course, was walking up and down the palace stairs. (And up, and down, and up, and down...)

He also enjoyed standing up there, his personal stage, and telling us elaborate, very dramatic stories, often about a bumblebee. Or just surveying all that was his.

Once we got to the city itself, we did some more wandering and some more eating. (Very, very mediocre bratwurst, unfortunately.) We capped the afternoon off with MY favorite: Ice Cream!

Michael ordered a coffee-ice cream float (an eiscafe), we ordered David a scoop of mango ice cream, and I ordered the sundae that's named after the city--the Weimar.

I think it's safe to say I chose wisely. Michael chose poorly, and so I had to share the rewards of my wisdom.

David was VERY pleased with his own decision. He usually eats strawberry ice cream, which he calls "pink ice cream." (Don't offer him strawberry, he won't eat it.) This time, he did NOT want pink ice cream, so I suggested orange (mango.) Yes, orange ice cream, that was what he wanted. And he was right.

We had to wait a full half hour as David, slowly but surely, finished that scoop of mango ice cream. We had long since finished, and he was getting colder by the minute, but he was determined (and feisty!)

It was a great day.

David and Franz

As the weather has (finally) improved, David has been having so much fun out in our backyard. It's a shared yard, surrounded by buildings for the most part, but it's really quite pretty. (OK, so the one right outside our door is kind of ugly, but past the hedge-wall it's beautiful :)

One of the neighbors with whom we share this yard is Franz.

Franz is David's new best bud, and they play together the way toddlers play together. When David sees Franz, he either shrieks at him and tries to kick him, or he runs at him to play with him. If he shrieks, and Franz runs away, David gets upset and tries to find him.

When Franz sees David, he either runs at him to snuggle, or he runs away. If he tries to snuggle, and David runs away, he follows David crying, trying even harder to snuggle with David. He will literally throw himself in front of David's feet so that David has to either trip over him or snuggle him.

Half the time, "playing together" for Franz and David means wandering around at the same time, crossing paths just often enough to make clear that it isn't accidental.

Like I said, they play together the way toddlers play together.

So, here's Franz--coming to see if David can come out to play:

And here's David roaming around the yard:

And here they are together, after a long hard day of playing outside:

Let's get a closer look at that...

Finally, if you'd like to see a video of the two meandering around the yard "together," click here! (It just takes absolutely forever to upload videos to this site, and then the quality is crummy.)

What a Weekend (or, the Longest Post Ever)

I will do my best not to write much today, because I have about a zillion photos to share. Brevity is not really my strong suit, though, so we'll just have to see.

On Friday, we had our second family bike trip of the season! I forgot the camera on the first one, so here are some shots from Friday. It was wonderful!

We biked to our nearby biergarten, where David enjoyed his first beer:

Well, Ok so it was an apfelschorle, but doesn't it look like a beer? At least a little? :)

Then David asked to take a picture with Michael and I. He's into this lately, and I think it's super cute.

I just love this shot:

OK, flash forward to Saturday! Our great friends, Thomas and Anja (and Immanuel) welcomed a new little boy into their family almost two weeks ago now. Little Artur Koch was born on Tuesday, March 23--right on his due date, just like his brother!--and the family had a welcome party for him on Saturday. We had a blast!

Here David DID get to drink something new...orange soda! We forgot his sippy of milk, and he was downright giddy about the soda.

But mostly he just played with his best bud.

This morning was, of course, Easter! Against my better judgment--swayed, I think, by the abundance of German chocolate that we will soon have to leave--I made David an Easter basket.

He was pretty excited about the chocolate, but more excited about the Sesamstrasse DVD... and even MORE excited about the road-map-jigsaw-puzzle-with-cars thing that I grabbed at Aldi and decided to include in the Easter package. (Note to our future children who may one day stumble upon this blog: We do not intend to continue the tradition of giving toys and presents other than candy at Easter. Do not. This was a fluke.)

At church, more play time with Immanuel:

And after church, and after a much-needed nap, dying Easter eggs!

Sadly, the whisk-trick didn't work for long. I think David's fingers might be blue for weeks to come.

But here they are:

In addition to the basket from us, David also got a special chocolate bunny from our friend Claudia! Unlike us, she splurged on the Kinder Chocolate bunny...

It's delicious. (I'm not telling how I know.)

Finally, Anja, Thomas, Immanuel and Artur came over and we had an easter egg hunt in the yard. It was the perfect afternoon, really.

At the end, though, David was pretty spent. Totally spent, actually. He walked inside, grabbed Eeyore, then came back out and wandered off to go sit and snuggle with him. Our neighbor's cat, who tries harder and harder each day to make himself David's cat, rushed to join him.