week 13

Today Béla is exactly three months old! How exciting. And the theme of this past week has been verticality. Yup, it seems that lying down is only for babies. He first made this clear to me on a trip to the grocery store, when he was suddenly very unhappy to be lying down in his sling, and insisted on being upright, so he could look around. I didn't dare bring him all the way out because he wasn't even wearing socks - it was really mild out, and it was supposed to be just a quick run to the store to pick up milk and eggs, and he was almost asleep, so I didn't want to annoy him by dressing him up. The old German women at the store would have died from shock had they seen a baby out in November with bare feet. Babies here are so ridiculously overdressed, it's incredible. I guess you have to start training young to be comfortable wearing the number of layers that Europeans do.

In any case, together we were able to come to a compromise, standing there in the dairy section, and he is now totally happy in the sling while sitting upright on my hip, with his head poking out to look around. This is us upon returning from the store.
This position in the sling was also successful during a long hike this week with another mom who I met at my prenatal class. They live just around the corner, and she also prefers to carry her baby, so we can go for walks that aren't limited to boring paved paths. I'm bummed that she's going back to work in February!

The only problem with the hip carry is that he can't fall asleep as well in it, as the head support isn't as good. And while he's awake longer than before, I don't think he can stay conscious for more than an hour, maximum, while being carried. And so I'm getting better at switching him around before he gets too pissed off from fatigue. Here he is after returning from the hike, still sleeping in the sling after taking it off. I love when his tuque slides down over his eyes like that.

The verticality isn't limited to while he's being carried though, he's also getting really good at sitting up. Here we are practicing in bed one morning......and with no help from me! He can only sit for a few seconds unsupported before tipping over, but he seems to find the falling to be half the fun. (This is because I either catch him, or have pillows set up all around him. When there are pillows, he practically throws himself into them at times, which makes me wonder if we're on the same page with this exercise.)
Wednesday of last week marked the official opening of the Christmas market in Jena! (Excuse the poor picture.) I went and met Jeremi and some of his colleagues there at 4:30 for the cutting of the 4 m long stollen (German Christmas cake), but we weren't close enough to the front to get a piece before they ran out. (I didn't want to push through the crowds with a baby strapped to me, as I'm sure you can imagine.) We did get our first mugs of Glühwein of the year though (mulled wine), and bumped into our friends Calin and Susanne, who were also there for the opening.

In other developmental news, he's also getting better with his dexterity. Check it out - he's positively grasping those rings now!I love this picture - doesn't it look like he's playing and reading music? Not to worry, we're not starting him off on an early Suzuki course or anything like this, it just calms him down sometimes if I play with one hand while holding him with the other (usually while standing). This led to me playing with him on my lap, which led to him realizing that it also made noise if he hit the keys. Of course I have no pictures of him and me doing it, since it's when we're at home alone together, but I got a picture of Jeremi helping him to "play".

The other big excitement last week was the arrival of a package from our friends Marie and Rishad in Halifax. Inside there were lots of lovely surprises for Béla, including this sweatersaurus (a dinosaur made out of an old sweater, with ribbon tags as spinal plates). He really got this toy at just the right age, when he's getting better at grabbing things. It's also light enough that he can move it around really well. Here he is immediately after being introduced to it, with one hand already having a good grip on one of the ribbons, while the other hand tries to grab it through the blanket...
...and then after they fell asleep together. How cute is that? I have to try to get a picture of him sucking on it - the first time he went straight for the jugular, the little brute.Also in the package was a super-soft baby wrap made of bamboo and cotton. It's similar to the big white one we have, but it's made of stretchy jersey, which I think makes it easier to pop the baby in and out. It's also long enough for Jeremi to use! Hooray! Here we are on Saturday, trying it out for the first time on the way into town to run some errands.
...and on the way back from town, after he'd successfully passed out in it.
A lovely French children's book from a Nova Scotian author was also in the package, Bisous, Bisous Bébé-Ô! Here they are reading all about the kisses.


And he loves being read to. He has a pretty good rhythm during the day, which goes something like this: waking up, incredibly happy and talkative, feeding (hopefully soon enough to avoid hungry crying), diaper change (which he loves), active play (practicing sitting, standing, rolling, tummy time), less active play (hitting things on his activity arch, being read to, etc.), a fussy time (often evolving into an angry fit), and then sleeping again. Repeat every 3-5 hours. I have to admit that I don't love the fit before he falls asleep, but it's not so bad, considering how much fun he is the rest of the time. Sometimes I manage to get him to sleep without him screaming, but it's a crap shoot. In any case, there's a good window for reading during the less active time, and I read him a few books every day. Again, there's no pictures of that because it's just the two of us. (I only want to mention this so people don't think that only Jeremi reads to him.)

Here they are reading Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, which was a gift from Gloria. It's a really sweet book, and it's one that Jeremi usually reads him, because it's about a hare and his dad, whereas most of the books we have are about characters and their moms.
And finally, the highlight of the week, Béla can now stand if you hold his hands for balance. This is pretty impressive for a baby who was only about 12 weeks old when he started this. Every day he's getting better too - perhaps because he wants to practice all the time. At least it makes him good and tired...
And here's a little video as well. If you have trouble seeing it embedded here, it's also posted on youtube here. The sound is terrible in the video - we have to play with our camera to see if that can be improved for future videos, but the picture isn't too bad, and Béla the movie star stares at the camera the whole time, even trying to turn around to follow it.

The 3

On Saturday we headed out on a rather ambitious day trip. When Jeremi's friend Coco (Guillaume) was here the weekend before, we'd considered where it might be nice to visit with him, specifically which castle might be nice to visit. We considered all the ones nearby that we'd been to before, but were wondering if there was somewhere else that might be nice. Just west of Erfurt, if you're driving on the Autobahn (the A4), you pass between three very closely-spaced castles, each perched on its own hill. They're close enough that it looked like you should be able to walk between them even, and I set out to try and find out more on the internet.

It seems that the three are referred to as 'Die drei Gleichen', or three of the same, although they're not really similar in terms of structure or history at all. The name comes from the night of May 31st, 1231, when the three were set on fire by lightning, and they burned like three identical torches.

We started our trip by train, getting to the village of Wandersleben, which was way nicer than we'd expected. Sometimes the small villages that we visit during bike trips etc. are a bit sad looking, with abandoned and derelict buildings. Sadly, unemployment is still fairly high in Eastern Germany, and really high in more rural areas. Perhaps Wandersleben is close enough to Erfurt that people commute in to work, I'm not sure. In any case, it was really well kept, and had lots of well-maintained medieval buildings. We also met the friendliest Deutsche Post employee ever, who, when she saw us standing at an intersection wondering which way to go, came over and figured we were trying to get to the castle, and gave us directions. (There are signposts along the way, marking the routes pretty well, but now and then there will be some ambiguity.)

Eventually, we made it to the first of the castles, Burg Gleichen. It's considered to be just a ruin now, but it's in good enough shape that all the exterior walls are standing, many of the interior walls, there are still cellars that can be accessed, and there's a tower that you can climb (with a little museum inside it).
We actually had to pay to get in, which was a bit unexpected, but it was only 1,25 each. The area inside was like a nice little park, with plush green grass and benches, making it a perfect spot for our picnic lunch.
And from here we could see the other two castles as well, Mühlburg...
...and Veste Wachsenburg.
A view across the courtyard...
...and down into the cellar.
Here's the tower, which housed a little museum about, among other things, the geology of the region. The area used to be filled with a lake, I think (on a geological time scale, so much longer ago than the castles were built, which in the case of this one was between 1000 and 1100), and there are lots of interesting rock formations and landscape features as a result. To be honest, I didn't read too much about it, after looking for the "bad lands" that they claimed were at the foot of each of the mountains. The small patches of eroded layered rock amidst a lush forest didn't really compare to what "bad lands" look like in North America, although all the interpretive signs suggested that they were like the formations in South Dakota. I just hope that no German tourists who are from this region skip a tour of the bad lands while in North America because they figure they've seen them before.
Here's the view from the top of that tower, before the sun had managed to make it all the way through the clouds.
And from the tower, back onto the castle's interior.
From there we walked back down the hill, and started following the Gustav Freytag trail, named after an author who wrote an incredibly long historical fiction account of German history (Die Ahnen) from the 4th Century until the 19th Century. One of the many volumes was set in the oldest of the three castles (the Mühlburg). Here you can see Burg Gleichen, the one we just left, in the background.
And yes, Jeremi's wearing only a t-shirt now, and he's not just glowing from perspiration, it was really that sunny!
From there it was only a few kilometers to Mühlberg, the village at the foot of the castle Mühlburg (Berg=hill, Burg=castle, it's sometimes confusing because pretty well every castle in our region is built on a hill...). Mühlberg is another surprisingly pretty, well-maintained town, which, along with two other little towns, comprises the first permanent settlements in Thüringen. The castle is first mentioned in writing in 704, but is thought to date back even further. In any case, it's considered to be the oldest still-standing structure in Thüringen.
Here I am, after finally making it to the top of the long hill...

And look at that tower! It's like a cartoon castle turret!
Jeremi and Béla, by one of the stone-framed windows...
...through which you can see the castle we just came from!
Funny little windows, looking through to the blue, blue sky...

From here we headed further southeast, along the ridge of a long forested hill, towards the final castle. It was now the afternoon, and the sun was coming from the southwest, and we were enjoying the warmth and sunlight the whole way. I actually got down to my tank top, though I hesitated for fear of frightening the Germans who we passed, some of whom were wearing tuques with their parkas. (It is November, after all...)
Finally, a clear, unobstructed view to the third castle, which wasn't so far away. In fact, we walked much closer to it than this, but I vetoed visiting it, as it was already 4:00, and we had to walk at least to Haarhausen still, if not Arnstadt, in order to get a train back home. The days are short, and I didn't want to end up lost in the dark with a baby. And so we made within a stone's throw of the third castle before we turned around. This castle is the most intact of the three, and houses a restaurant and hotel. We'll have to come back some other time, when the days are longer.
From there we walked down the hill to Holzhausen, the village at the foot of the hill. We were quite excited for coming here, as it's the home of the Bratwurst Museum! Unfortunately, after October it's only open on Sundays and holidays, so we were out of luck. Their gate was still open though, and they had a bunch of signs out saying that they were open, but they really weren't open. I think they were preparing for a Schachtfest (butchering party) the next day, which is why it looked like there was something going on. Unfortunately, the plan had been to feed the hungry baby while having a bratwurst, and I ended up having to feed him while sitting on a pile of cinderblocks just outside. Very rustic, that.
We asked the woman there about the walking trail leading from there to Arnstadt, which was described on the internet as "from beer to bratwurst", since Arnstadt is the city where, in 1614, Hefeweizen, or wheat beer, was invented. She had no idea what we were talking about, but gave us directions to the bike trail leading between the two cities, which we could find from the roundabout with the giant wooden Bratwurst:
Yup, it really was getting darker. And we still had another 5 km to go until we made it to the streetlights of Arnstadt. Luckily, the path was clear and well-paved, and there was still some light left in the sky to guide us there. Once there, despite reading all the tourist signs, I was unable to find the brewery where they had the oldest wheat beer. (We could have been better prepared for this last part of the trip.) I even knew the name of the street, but, to be honest, we were pretty tired at this point, and didn't feel like walking around more than necessary. So we made our way into the city center (which was completely dead, and devoid of people), and found a really nice restaurant for supper. We were, however, the only customers, from 6:15-7:30 on a Saturday night. Strange.

After supper, we were all tired, including Béla, seen here yawning on his way to the train station for the trip home. The train trip home takes a bit of time due to a slow connection through Erfurt, and then we had to walk back from the train station, and it was almost 10:00 by the time we got home, a good 12 hours after we left the house in the morning.

Here you can see our approximate route - at least 20 km, not including getting to and from the train station. Let me tell you, we were tired, and Sunday was a well-earned lazy day, spent hanging around at home.

Béla, week 12

This past week was Béla's 12th, and we were busy! The pictures don't reflect the full extent of the business, as I often neglect to bring the camera along, but there was lots going on.

What we do have pictures of though, is him in some of his cute little three-month outfits, which fit now, like these little pants with a duck face on the bum.
Look at that excellent head lifting! He wore this cute outfit to English Stammtisch on Monday night, where everyone was happy to see him. Tuesday he and I did a big shopping, walking all the way to the shopping centre in Burgau, where we have to go to get the cat food that Aeris eats, and Tuesday night Jer and Béla hung out at home while I went to yoga.
This picture doesn't display it as well as I'd hoped - perhaps if you click on it to enlarge? Perhaps I'll have to get another picture to show it better. In any case, his belly button has healed to form a perfect little spiral-shaped fold. I'm sure it won't last, as I've never seen an adult with a navel that adorable, so I'm trying to appreciate it while it's there.
On Wednesday we were going out for supper with Jeremi's colleagues at the Mexican restaurant in Jena, so I had him dressed up in one of his "little man" outfits, with corduroy overalls and a matching shirt. Of course, shortly after this picture was taken, he pooped all over them, so he got to try out yet another new outfit!

And here we are, out at the Mexican restaurant. (Okay, to be fair, Jer's not actually in the picture, but you can see my forearms in the lower right hand corner, and Béla was in the carrier at this point anyhow...) And so Béla experienced his first "happy hour" at the Mexican restaurant in Jena, where Margaritas go on sale half price (for 1,90) from 9:00 until midnight. Yes, I know, they're kind of missing the point of "happy hour", but I'm not complaining. Age appropriate? Perhaps not, but we all enjoyed ourselves. Both Jer and I were feeling a bit rough by the end of the evening though, as a result of getting the swine flu vaccine that morning. The side effects in our case were mostly just sore arms, and feeling a bit crappy that night. The next day, only the sore arm was left, and by the day after, there was nothing. In Germany a lot of people are very anti-vaccination, and there's a lot of media coverage about how the government signed contracts with the companies back in the summer for a set amount, when the demand seems to be (so far) much lower, and there's concern that it's just a huge risk-free pure-profit situation for the drug companies. Also, while one brand is being used for the general population (Pandemrix, from Glaxo-Smith-Kline, the same as is being used in Canada), the military, and senior government and civil service officials received vaccinations from another brand, which contains live vaccine rather than dead and broken up pieces of the virus. In any case, there's general speculation that the government got the "good" vaccine, while everyone else only has access to the other. At this point, there's also no non-adjuvanted vaccine here, and won't be before December, so pregnant women and small children aren't being vaccinated at all. The distribution is also quite different - rather than having centralized clinics, you just go to your doctor's office.
In developmental news this week, Béla can now roll from his belly to his back! He's doing this pretty young, but I think it has more to do with his enormous head than superior strength. As you can see here, he basically just lifts his head as high as he can, then leans to one side, which is enough to tip him over.

On Thursday I went out for lunch with a friend who has a daughter two months older, and on Friday I went for a big afternoon hike with a woman I met at my prenatal class, who has a daughter 9 days older than Béla. And Saturday we went on a big advenyure, but I'm saving that for another post.

And finally, because I feel the pictures from this week don't do him justice, here's one last one that is pure cuteness, with him wrapped up in the quilt Mrs. Gariepy made him, on his activity mat. (I'm trying to keep it his activity mat, but Aeris just loves it. She's even managed to make the ladybug squeak, which has so far eluded Béla.)

Béla, week 11

So, in Béla related news this week - on Tuesday he had his U4 doctor's appointment, which is one of the obligatory pediatrician visits under the German system. He was weighed and measured, and found to be a respectable 5720 g and 60.5 cm long (12 lb, 10 oz, and 24 inches). These put him just above the 50th percentile, whereas last time he was just under it. In any case, all was well. His head circumference is still at at least the 95th percentile, at 42 cm.

He had his first vaccinations as well, which here involved a 6-in-1 shot, and an oral vaccine against rotavirus (which was optional). He wailed when he got the shot, and I found it way harder to deal with than I'd anticipated, but he had no real side effects afterward, except for maybe sleeping a bit longer that afternoon. He wouldn't talk for the pediatrician, but I assured her that he talks to us all day long, and she was impressed with how well he could support his head, and his general strength. All in all, he seems to be in perfect health, and developing well.

Over the past month and a half or so, he's become entirely obsessed with the mobile I made him, which is hanging above our bed (where he sleeps, in his little bed). It's nice to see something homemade so appreciated, but his obsession means that sometimes when he's lying in bed, still awake, and the duckies stop flying, he starts to cry, until they start to spin again. He's happy when they're spinning quickly, but there's a certain speed in the middle, as they begin to slow down, when they fill him with such joy that he kicks all his limbs and grunts excitedly. (I'm guessing it's when they're easiest for him to focus on, but I'm not sure.) When Paul and Betty Ann were here, we were playing a game in the kitchen one night while Béla was in our room, and we actually tied a piece of yarn to the mobile leading into the kitchen, so we could pull on it every time he started to get upset when they slowed down. The yarn's still there, but now it's only long enough that we can easily reach it while lying in bed. And for those of you knitters who are interested to know, the pattern is Flock, from knitty.
Also, he's continuing to love the arch thing that we got from my colleague Dietrich, but we sometimes spice it up a little by hanging other toys from it, which are easier for him to reach as well. A particular favourite is the Whoozit, which was a gift from Gloria. He's getting really good at grabbing at the legs, and it gives me some time during the day when I can work in the kitchen while listening to him happily jingling away across the hall.
In non-baby news, we bought a keyboard, so I'm able to play piano a bit again. It's not the best keyboard in the world, but it was on sale for a great price at the supermarket, and it's been really nice to be able to play a bit during the day. Béla seems to enjoy listening to it as well. (Supermarkets here have promotions of random items each week, which I still find strange. One week they'll have a variety of clothes and accessories for cycling, and maybe even a bike, and then the next week it'll be all gardening equipment. There also seems to be an awful lot of underwear for adult women with Peanuts characters on it, which I find a bit infantilizing. This particular week there was this keyboard, a classical guitar, a trumpet, and a bunch of music-related accessories on sale. As another foreign friend mentioned, you can go out to buy milk, and come home with a computer as an impulse purchase. Very strange.) Here Aeris is staking her claim to the new addition to our home.
This past week I've also been out for a couple of nice long hikes with Béla, as the weather's been really nice. Today Jeremi and I were out for a couple of hours, and remembered to bring the camera, but unfortunately not the spare batteries, and the battery was dead. Thursday I went out for a couple of hours with him alone, as it was nice and sunny in the morning, and climbed a big hill vigourously enough that I can still feel it. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the camera all together then, but I did get a picture of the very happy Béla upon our return, when I took off the sling.
Another new thing this week is that Béla has been bathing in style. Our friend Valentina wanted to get something for Béla, and decided after seeing on the blog that we'd bathed him in the sink, that he needed some bathing accessories. And so, she and Raul sent us a baby bathtub, with a cool little seat for him to sit on inside it. The seat makes it a lot easier to bathe him single-handedly, and he seems to like it, too. It took a while to get pictures though, because I kept forgetting to have the camera handy before I put him in the tub. But finally, I succeeded!
Look how chubby he's getting! I know he's not the chubbiest of babies, but I'm doing my best. He just keeps growing longer... He's got a couple of good rolls on his thighs, though.
This week was also the very last of my prenatal classes. Prenatal classes, you ask? Yes, I'm going to them all over again with a pregnant friend of mine who doesn't speak German very well, and I'm acting as her translator. We have the same midwife, who is teaching the classes, and she encouraged me to bring Béla along. The first class was very stressful, as I was worried he'd cry, and breastfeeding was still a bit hard back then, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle that stress while simultaneously translating. Luckily, he slept right through the first class, and through most of the next few classes. This past Thursday I wasn't so lucky, but I'm getting better at this whole baby-wrangling thing, so I was able to walk with him in the hall a little, get him back into the sling, and then simultaneously carry him in the sling, breastfeed, rock him, and translate for the 15 minutes it took to get him back to sleep. I was finally becoming a jedi mommy.

All the people at the classes love checking him out too, as they're all about to have babies. There was a four week break between this class and the last class as my midwife was on vacation, and no one could believe how much bigger and grown up he was. He also spent a good chunk of the class sitting up and looking around, and staring at one of the dads who has a big red beard. Hmm... I wonder why he picked that guy? Except that this guy was bald, so perhaps he was staring because he couldn't figure out what was wrong with his hair.

And here he is, hanging out with his long-haired, red-bearded daddy.
The big excitement this weekend was the visit of Jeremi's friend Guillaume, aka Coco, with whom he went to RMC. He was in the Netherlands for a conference, and drove down to visit us for the weekend. He had flights booked in and out of Brussels, but they transferred through Frankfurt, so when he checked in in Ottawa, he asked the guy at the counter if he could just get on in Frankfurt for the return trip, so he didn't have to drive all the way back to Brussels. (This makes the drive more than two hours shorter, and, importantly, meant that he didn't have to get to the airport in Frankfurt until 9:00, so he could leave early Sunday morning.) The guy said no problem, and had put a note on his file.

He got into town on Friday night, and we had a nice supper, and then he and Jer went out on the town, having giant boots of beer at one of the bars, and sampling some döner on the way home. On Saturday we went out and checked out the market, had a bratwurst (as seen below), and ran a couple of errands, before heading back home to get ready for a day trip. He had a rental car, and we were planning on driving to a nearby castle for the afternoon.

He just wanted to call Air Canada to confirm that there was no problem with the change to his flight, and was told that there was no note on his file, and he had to get on the plane in Brussels or his ticket would be invalid. Grrr... And so poor Coco had to leave here Saturday afternoon, after being in Jena for under 24 hours. Still, it was good to see him!
While we didn't get any pictures of our hike, we did get a couple nice pictures of us hanging out in bed this morning. Béla fits into a bunch of the 3 month clothes that people brought, including these adorable pants with ducks on his feet. These pants, when combined with this diaper shirt and a diaper, made him look like a little ballet dancer - the diaper made it look like he had a really muscular bum, and was wearing one of those jock/sling things that male dancers wear, and the fitted diaper shirt somehow looked like a leotard, and the duckies looked like little slippers. He was very graceful, let me tell you.

Here he is after a bout of tummy time, which he hates much less than he used to, enjoying a bit of on-his-side time with his dad.
And here he is, hanging out on my lap. He was enjoying this much more than the picture lets on, but he wasn't particularly enjoying the taste of my milk this morning, after we had popcorn with garlic oil last night. I really don't restrict my diet while breastfeeding, and he hasn't had any problem with curry, or other strong-tasting foods, but even I could taste the garlic in the milk, and his burps smelt of garlic. This might have been a bit too much... Still, he got over his initial rage, and managed to eat all the same, and it hasn't seemed to put him in a bad mood at all today (knock on wood).
And so, another exciting week in the life of Béla. Until next time!