3 Weeks

Emma, still a little skeptical of the world.

Yes, we're still working on filling out those 0-3 months clothes...

Week 2

Bath time with Oma and the siblings.

Hanging out with Anna, who looks positively huge next to her little sister.

In other news, the shingles are on and the windows have been put in!

Emma, two days old

Here's the business idea of the century: put a professional photography studio right in the hospital's maternity ward. No new mom can resist the cuteness of these pictures...

Home, sweet half-finished home!

With less than six weeks to go, and maternity leave finally here, I actually have a little bit of time to get back into the blogging business! Here's an update on one of the projects that has been keeping us busy these past few months:

That's how it all began back in October.

The house is actually solid concrete...

...with a red brick front on all four sides. We'll be able to pass this puppy down through the ages. :)

We're starting to understand why basements are not really an option around here...

The back of the house. The giant mud pit you see will be our backyard - someday. In Germany, once the wooden frame for the roof is up, you are expected to throw a party for the builders and the neighbors. Not wanting to break with an apparently centuries-old tradition, we caved and put together this little shin-dig:

Our future neighbors, still a bit reserved. A few beers later, that certainly changed. :)

Then there was the wreath. Local tradition has it that friends and neighbors get together and make sort of a Christmas-style wreath decorated with ribbons that is then hoisted on the roof...being the newbies that we are, though, Jeremy and I snuck out the night before and cut some branches off the trees in our backyard. I finished putting on the ribbons 30 minutes before the dedication - take that, price-gouging flower shop around the corner!

The carpenters dedicating the house. They ended their little speech with a heart-felt "Prost," meaning "cheers," which prompted our neighbors to break out the hard liquor (which we had failed to provide...newbie mistake no. 2).

Wow, that looks waaay too small up there...

We had set up a buffet inside, which was very well received. And since no lighting or heating (or any windows, for that matter) have been installed yet, we had expected the party to end after sunset around 5pm. Newbie mistake no.3! Our party-hardy neighbors brought out extension cords and lamps after dark and carried right on! Frozen to the core, we threw in the towel a couple of hours later, leaving drinks and food for the crowd. Kudos, my frost-resistant friends!

Huge piles of dirt...I should've seen that one coming.

Anna with Saskia, Max' friend from school.

19 weeks and counting!

It's time to start spreading the news...

So far, no boy parts have been found so we better start bracing ourselves for another spunky little miss!

ETA: March 14, 2012.

Off to the beach!

Earlier this month, we spent an absolutely glorious fall weekend on the beach. I have never seen weather like this at the notoriously nippy Baltic sea in O-C-T-O-B-E-R:




I love those beach chairs! And apparently, so does everyone else because this was one of the last ones available for the entire weekend.

Travemünde, near Lübeck

Lazy Sunday afternoon in Scharbeutz.

At the pumpkin patch...

...and the adjacent corn maze. Sooo American, if you ask me.

Which way out?