Eaten by the Frog

Although Lia is almost two months old and is growing bigger and smarter by the day, her tiny head still fits into the mouth of her best friend Martin. Yes, the frog's name is Martin, and he is Lia's namesake (Lia the fetus, that is).

The most amazing thing happened last Friday during feeding time. When I 'dislodged' my daughter from one breast and held her up just before docking her to the other side, she smiled the most gorgeous toothless smile at me. It's not that we haven't seen her smile before, because every time Lia is dozing off in my arms, her face relaxes into a cute little smile for a second or two. This time, however, her smile was intended, displaying her pride in finally mastering the art of nursing (we weren't quite good at that). Unfortunately we haven't yet succeeded in capturing one of Lia's smiles. It just doesn't seem very nice to hover over Lia with a camera while the little peanut is trying to fall asleep... Luckily, there are many other memorable moments we were able capture.

As we no longer have the feeling of living under exceptional circumstances since another Cordes-member was added to our family, we now have our own little routine, which includes (more) frequent baths and other fun things Lia enjoys doing with us.

Like...

working with daddy at his desk and commenting his phone conferences with a burp or two

falling asleep in daddy's arms

again and again

having her tiny feet massaged

and playing soccer!

Given the number of pictures I have taken of Thiemo and Lia in their gazillion cuddly positions, people could easily think that Thiemo is a single dad! But then there are also lots of things she likes to do with her mommy,

like...

fooling around

going shopping (of course)

entertaining guests (Natascha and her daughter Yolanda)

exercising in our 'yoga with baby' class

going for walks in the neighborhood

(a funny sight for the Americans who all pass us in their cars)

And this is what you look like when you sneeze the milk you were downing a second ago:

Apart from these lovely snapshots we also had professional pictures taken. Unfortunately I cannot display them on our blog, because the photographer has kept the rights for all images. But if you go to www.piperwarlickphotography.com you can find a couple of our images, like the pregnant lady taking a bath under 'maternity' (you have to imagine Piper standing on the rim of the bathtub! She is a kamikaze-photographer). Among the 'family' images there is one of me and Lia, and if you go to 'infants', you will find a cute wrinkly tush, which is Peanut's!!

Thank You!

For all the beautiful and thoughtful presents, cards, and emails we received for the birth of our daughter Lia we would like to say THANK YOU! We have been blessed with numerous packages that arrived from all over the world, which is clearly one of the advantages of living abroad! A very special present are the tiny boots that Tara sent us from England. Lia and I are totally in love with this very chic pair of boots. And although Lia doesn't have an outfit that matches her posh British footwear, the nudie look seems to work just as well...

Vielen Dank liebe Cousine Knoedel!

Lia's First Bath

Lia took her first bath a couple of days ago - she is already four weeks old, but never mind. She smelled so good that hygiene didn't seem that important. But as the fluff balls between her toes accumulated, we thought it might be about time to clean certain spots. Though rather sceptic in the beginning, Lia enjoyed herself greatly and didn't mind eight people watching a most private moment of skinny-dipping! Too bad nobody took a picture of the 'cootchie-cooing' audience...