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!

Béla's two months old, and several firsts

The weekend after Jeremi's parents left, we had a small fondue party for my birthday. I didn't really want a party, as I wasn't feeling all that great about turning 30, and I was tired after all the travelling. In the end, he convinced me that just a few close friends, and something easy to prepare, like fondue, wouldn't be too much. I'm really glad he did convince me, as it was a really nice evening, and it was nice to have a little celebration of this milestone. I feel like it sort of got ignored in all the excitement over the baby, and it was nice to have a little party that wasn't entirely about him. Here are Valentina, Miroslava, Calin, and Susanne.
Now the title of this post promised you some firsts: and here you have it, Béla's first outfit with pants! Again, I'm including a few pictures because he's so darn cute in all of them. I liked this one because it shows how fat his neck is getting. (It's even fatter now, and I have to really keep on top of cleaning it, as breastmilk drips in there and slowly starts to turn into cheese...)
This outfit was sent with Paul and Betty Ann from Jeremi's brother and his wife, Nick and Cathy. It's adorable, and features a blushing frog with arms outstretched, and says "i love you this much". A happy-faced yawn...
A goofy, lopsided smile...
...and finally a look straight at the camera. Just so you can enjoy more than one facet of his cuteness.
Another big first was his first bottle. I waited longer than is generally recommended, until about 8.5 weeks, but he had some trouble latching at first, and I didn't want to mess up breastfeeding due to the much-threatened "nipple confusion". I also hadn't gotten around to trying out the breast pump that Karen gave me yet, and I was a bit nervous that it would hurt. (Getting breastfeeding going was more painful that I had expected, and I didn't want to go through that again.)

Of course the pump didn't hurt, and of course he took the bottle like a pro, as seen below. However, seeing him eating away from me for the first time, even if it was my milk, did hurt a little. I'm better about it now though, and we're trying to get into a routine where I pump one bottle a day, so Jeremi can feed him in the evening when he gets home from work. The pumping part is going okay, but we're not really good about having the bottle warmed up in time, so he either gets a not-very-warm bottle, which doesn't seem to bother him, or I cheat and feed him a bit while Jeremi's getting the bottle warmed up. I also seem to produce more milk that I know what to do with, and our tiny little freezer is getting filled up with excess milk rather quickly. I know, not the worst problem to have!
And with Béla's two month birthday, came Jeremi's first day back at work. This meant that his beard had to get tamed. Before:
And after:
Of course he still has that ridiculous tuft at the top of his forehead, as his hair is growing back after needing staples there a few months back. It looks worse when he has his hair in a ponytail, I think, though he claims that people don't notice it unless I point it out. However, once I do point it out, people tend to find it hysterically funny.

Jeremi's first day back at work also meant my first whole day with just Béla and me. Thankfully, he was the easiest baby ever, to ease me into the routine. And when Jeremi came home he found me reading on the couch, with both Béla and Aeris asleep on me. Not a bad way to end the afternoon!
That night we celebrated his second birthday with a lovely supper of salad niçoise, cheese we brought back from Paris, and some freshly baked bread. And we finally opened the bottle of "Sandbanks" wine, which is grown in the county just south of Belleville, and which was a gift from the Gariepys at our wedding. I was saving it for a special occasion, and then I got pregnant, so we've been saving it for well over a year now. It was well worth the wait!
The next big landmark was Béla's first Halloween! Unfortunately it's not widely celebrated here, and I didn't have a good occasion to justify making him a costume (and making him wear a costume), but luckily Paul and Betty Ann brought this adorable Halloween sleeper complete with black cat hat. (For those of you who were confused, and thought that this was a picture of Aeris, it's actually a picture of the baby cleverly disguised as a cat.)And another view so you can see the hat a bit better:
And while we didn't have a real Halloween party to go to, our friend Brent (who's from Lethbridge) hosted a Halloween boo-runch, where he could go and show off his cute outfit. After that, we went to my colleague Dietrich's place, as he'd offered us some toys that his boys had outgrown, and which they were happy to part with. All of the excitement left Béla a very tired cat by the time we got home.

Among the toys we picked up from Dietrich was this sort of mobile, which hangs over the baby when he's lying on his back, and which has dangling objects that he can reach up and bat at or grab. (There's probably a name for this in English, but I don't know talk to people about these things in English very often.) Here he is enjoying it, or at least enjoying chewing on his hand, on his activity mat from Ikea. (The quilt that's covering him is the one that Mrs. Gariepy made for him as well.) Though we don't have photographic evidence of it yet, he's getting pretty good at getting his fingers through the rings that are hanging down when he grabs at them, though he's not always so successful at keeping his thumb on the outside for a true "grasp". I'm sure it's just a matter of time though!
And finally, in other news, yesterday we got a package from our friends Brandy and Bruce in Victoria! It came wrapped in a vintage map of Vancouver Island, which was pretty cool. (So cool in fact, that German customs just had to open it up to see what was inside, and helpfully rewrapped it with their customs tape, after enclosing a pamphlet about the rules and regulations for shipments from non EU countries. Thanks, Zollamt!)
Inside the package was a mug that I had when I was a kid, which says "look who's hiding in my cup" on the side...
...and which has a little pink dog inside! We had two of them, one with a pink dog, and one with a blue bird (which broke, I think), and I loved them. This one made it with me to Montreal, then Halifax, and then Victoria. When our household in Victoria was dissolved through garage sale, Craig's list, and giving things away, this mug ended up with Brandy and Bruce. (Brandy helped organize the liquidation.) Since we now have a little one in the house, she thought it was time to send it back, wrapped in a receiving blanket, with a map of Canada enclosed, so he could enjoy it. Here's the little dog inside:
Thanks for the package guys! It was a great pick-me-up after a long day.