Aachen, Father's Day 2009

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Father's Day

For Chris' second Father's Day, we took the train two hours west to Aachen (also called Aix-la-Chapelle), which borders Belgium and Holland. Aachen had a quarry in Neolithic times, was a source of hot springs used by the Romans, and home to Charlemagne around 800 AD. He lived in a palace and built a wonderful cathedral that is still standing today, though it benefited from Gothic add-ons. When Charlemagne died, he was buried here, and his body and other important church relics are still objects of pilgrimage for many. Because of Chris' love for history, this city was a perfect place to go to celebrate. (Another silly detail is that "Charles the Great," Christopher Charles, and Daisy Charlotte are all connected by name!)

I will post some pictures to our blog through Shutterfly. During our train ride, we read the current favorite book, "Daisy to the Rescue!" many times and snacked snacked snacked. In Aachen, Daisy loved running around in the courtyard by the old town hall and Charlemagne fountain, eating an ice cream cone (Eis! Eis!) and chasing pigeons.

Play Group

Also known as "Eltern-Kind Spielgruppe." Daisy and I joined this group which meets every Thursday morning for an hour and a half at a local church. It is a 15 minute walk from our apartment. There are 5 other mom-baby pairs that attend and one facilitator named Silke. She pulls out different toys every week and provides the structure of song time and snack time. Daisy and I practice the German song lyrics and hand motions at home, so she gets very excited when it is music time. Snack time is another story: all the other babies (around 16-18 months old) sit politely in their chairs and eat their food. Daisy takes one bite and runs back to the play area, maybe seizing her moment when the beloved baby buggy is free. It is obvious that Daisy is the sole child at home; besides giggling and chanting "Baby! Baby!" and chasing the other kids, she is not used to sharing. Recently, she has been screaming when someone else plays with "her" bucket of autos, batting their hands away and even pushing. Most of the time I intervene and try to teach sharing, but our facilitator wants me to let the babies work it out for themselves. Over the weeks, I've noticed Daisy grow more assertive. The first few weeks, Daisy would hand over her toys to more aggressive babies. Now, at least she's sticking up for herself, I guess.

Here are some pictures of our play group last week. I ran out of batteries in my camera before snack time and song time. Maybe I'll take a video next week!

Berlin Pictures

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Hamburg Pictures

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Pictures from Holly

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Belated March Post: the Girls go to Paris!

Here are some belated photos of Holly and Daisy in Paris! Since Chris was just starting his new job, he stayed home and I gave him time to devote to work. We did the quick plane trip and stayed 3 nights, 2 with Grace and 1 with Amberly.

At Trinity Vineyard in St. Charles, IL, I made friends with the May family: Jesse, Susan, Amberly, and Allison. Jesse and Susan now live in Zurich, and Allison, Amberly, and her husband Nate were all in town, too! I joined them for a day on their family vacation in Paris. They all were terrific with Daisy and totally included me.

Grace, another friend from Wheaton days (and before, in Yorba Linda!) lives in central Paris. She was so kind as to let us stay with her for two nights, pick me up from the airport and help me with transportation, guide us through the Louvre, and walk miles - or rather, kilometers - around the city with us to see the sights. I also got to meet her nice boyfriend, Gerald.

I remember embarrassingly few words from my 3 years of French in high school, but the few phrases I mustered were great fun to use. ("Merci beaucoup, bonsoir!")

I bought a bag in Paris. I use it as my diaper bag since it matches the stroller, plus I can fit groceries in since it is huge.

And if only I could import the croissants and crepes. Daisy and I both dined on these. Continuously.

Can't wait for another trip to France - next time, with Chris!

Video: Apartment tour!

Here is a video tour of our new apartment in Muelheim!

London

We took advantage of Chris' first four day weekend over Easter and went by train to London. It was our first time to England, so we loved seeing the famous sights and consuming as much scones, tea, and ales as possible. Daisy kept begging for more tea and saying "mmm" after each sip!

Our hotel was in Notting Hill and we spent 2 full days and 2 half days in the city. During our weekend, we visited St. Paul's Cathedral and toured Shakespeare's Globe theatre, went to Westminster Abbey for church on Easter morning, went to the Tower of London and saw the Crown Jewels, and checked out the National Gallery (Van Gogh, Monet, Raphael!) and the British Museum (ancient artifacts, including the Rosetta Stone). We walked a lot, enjoying the Embankment of the Thames river, Trafalger Square, and the beautiful parks. The parks and gardens were in full spring bloom, and it was amazing to see places we've heard about like Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and Downing Street. We both came away with such an increased interest in history.

An English-speaking country after 3 1/2 months...It took about a day before we lost the urge to speak in German in public. I loved feeling free to talk unashamedly in English. People often make nice comments about Daisy, and I've gotten used to just smiling and nodding...it was wonderful to be able to understand and make my own comments back!

Video: Daisy Dancing

This dance party happened in Munich before we moved. Does she have rhythm or what?

We're back...on the internet

Sorry for the delay in posts! We have suffered a month and a half without internet. To sum up our lives since Feb 25th:

The Move, Feb 28th! We packed up our four suitcases and took a 7-hour train to Mulheim. We arrived at our guest house and Chris started his first day of work on March 2. Our living situation consisted of a chic single room for the three of us, a shared kitchen with the other 5 members of the house, and, as I've emphasized before, no internet. The apartment hunt began in earnest, and after dozens of stilted phone calls conducted in German and many apartment showings, we decided on a new home. But the adventures did not end there, for we had to furnish this totally empty flat (including kitchen! Washing machine. Light fixtures.). We somewhat enjoyed the biggest shopping spree of our lives, but it was really way too many decisions to make all at once. If you've ever shopped at IKEA, you know that even the simplest things require assembly. Chris was a hero and built our whole apartment. We had some help, too: some of Chris' coworkers came over for an "IKEA party" and a physicist helped with the wiring of the oven/stovetop. I wish I had taken a picture of the leftover packaging. It took many trips down the four flightis of stairs and down the street to the dumpster before our apartment was trash-free. I still don't think it's sawdust free.

I'm working on some videos to be uploaded soon! Love to you all, watch for an email with our new address and phone numbers.

Daisy's 1st Birthday

As we reflect on Daisy's - and our - last year, we are overwhelmed by the joy a baby can bring. We also recognize the way we've been carried by our friends and families, helping us figure out parenthood and pouring love into our little girl. We are so thankful for you!
Here are some pictures from the big day - a bath (birthday-eve), a nap, and a delectable cake from Alois Dallmayr, est. 1700 in Munich. It was a Johannisbeere Mousse cake with fruit on top and a little chocolate coin which got a little messy!

Ski Trip

On Sunday, we took a train through the Alps. It had snowed for days before, and the pine trees were caked with snow. Seefeld, Austria was our destination, a charming resort town ranked one of the best places to cross country ski in Europe. It is a little north of Innsbruck. We were able to just get off the train, walk to a rental place, and walk to the trails, or "loipen." It was so fun! I was worried that it would be snowing (70% chance!) but it didn't, and it was very beautiful. We did the "classic" style of skiing, where you stay in the two grooves cut in the snow for the skis to follow. We felt a little safer skiing with Daisy that way. I did about 2 miles with Daisy strapped on in the Ergo! She made it a lot harder. There were 3 hills that we had to go down on our loop. Since we had grooves, I couldn't "plow" or whatever so I just had to go whizzing down! Many people smiled at the sight of Daisy along for the ride, and someone even asked if they could take a picture of us!

At the restaurant we stopped at for lunch, we heard Italians at one table next to us and French people at the other. An international destination! We were talking with a ski slopes worker in German and Chris at one point stumbled on his sentence, and apologized that his Deutsch was not so good. The worker then said that it was better than his French! We thought it was awesome that Chris was mistaken for a Frenchman.

Venice!!!!

Venice: Carnivale Masks, romantic Valentine's Day walks, the Basilica di San Marco, and Daisy's first tastes of gelato (loved it!) and tiramisu (tried to scrape it out of her mouth). We also fed her pizza for the first time! Italians loved her and called her "bella." Daisy started saying "Ciao" by the end of the weekend!
Apparently, we have programmed our brains to answer in German when we hear a language we don't understand! The number of times "Entschuldigung" and "Nein, Danke" just slipped out is astonishing. We realized how much German we've actually learned as we tried listening to Italian.
Our video starts out a little blurry, we think the camera was too cold! By the way, we are getting more comfortable with our degrees Celsius. It got all the way up to 7C (about 45F)!
In general, Venice is the best place in the world and we will be happy to return someday.

Blocks, Balls, and Books

Here's a snapshot of how Daisy likes to play these days! Do all baby words start with the letter "B"?

Daisy's first "ponytail"

She doesn't really have enough hair, but...it's getting close. We are so proud of our adorable soon-to-be 1-year-old. She is quite a conversation starter here, too. Strangers will talk to us on the subway and in the store, most often mentioning her "zwei Zaehne" (two teeth). We are awed to see how she has developed and changed over her first year of life. So playful now! She is learning how to imitate sounds, and we crack up when we hear her "Neigh!" like a horse.

Heidelberg

Romantic mists and walking through the red stone castle - this is how we will remember our trip to Heidelberg. It was so great to have a relaxing sight-seeing experience, since there weren't way too many "must-sees" in the city. Just a fabulously pretty place to walk and talk.

I should write in to La Leche League with all the places I've breastfed Daisy!

Getting to Know Our Neighbors

We attended a lively party tonight, thrown by our apartments' management. There was an international buffet dinner, live music (accordion and guitar), and dancing (international group dances with easy steps, taught by an instructor). We met some very interesting people. Helen, an English professor at Harvard, is here through June on Sabbatical. She is working on a book focusing on 100 Emily Dickinson poems (I guess there are 2500 poems and part of her job is whittling it down to 100). We also met a couple from South Africa, here on Sabbatical. There is a couple from Singapore who moved here for a professorship at the Technical University. They decided to move all their furniture with them, but are having a hard time because the apartment dimensions here don't work with the sizes of their things. (Whew, close one! That could have been us!) And Daisy made an Italian friend, Francesco, who turned 1 year old in January. They played with Daisy's blocks and held hands. I hope to get together with his mother a couple of times before we leave. I couldn't think of a good "American" dish to bring to the buffet...mini-hamburgers?...so I just brought fruit: dates, cherries, strawberries, and raspberries. That's kind of CA, right?

6 New Food Facts

1) We eat Nutella every day. On bread, crackers, or butter cookies. For breakfast or a snack or dessert. We buy the family size, even! 2) At the store, eggs are not refrigerated. We promptly refrigerate them at home. And the egg yolks are the brightest orange color I have ever seen. 3) Our cheese options at the store are Gouda, Edam, or Emmental. So we have invented brand new forms of pizza and quesadillas, I'm sure. 4) I was wrong to expect a diminished produce selection; the exotic fruits and fresh vegetables here are plentiful. 5) All stores close by 8 PM and are closed on Sundays. How does everyone plan ahead so well? It's actually amazing how we've gotten used to this. 6) Bakery bread...maybe every-other day we pick up a new loaf, trying a new kind every time.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Rothenburg is not a historically significant city. However, it stands today almost exactly as it did in the 1500s, thanks to a well-planned fire-fighting system (which saved it from devastating fires) and the fact that the city never recovered after the Plague. It felt exactly like walking in Disney's "Pinocchio" movie.

Daisy was a trooper on the train - 3 hours each way! Some of her favorite activities are taking things out/putting back in, stacking, and being read to. And eating yogurt, pears, and gouda. As well as "pretend eating!"

One of our favorite activities here was walking the old town wall. We saw the red slanted roof tops from above, little bow-and-arrow holes in the wall, and Chris only hit his head a couple times.

In St. Jakob's church, there is a beautiful Tilman Riemenschneider woodcarving (1504). This picture focuses on the Last Supper, with Jesus handing Judas a piece of bread, marking him as the betrayer. It is said to be perhaps the best woodcarving in all of Germany. What is most wonderful is that we had the whole room to ourselves, with Daisy walking around and squealing, leaving Chris and I marveling at how the three of us found ourselves here.