Baby Boom

Not only has Lia come to Germany as an American tourist honoring her German roots, but also to meet all those little sausages who were born in close proximity to her 'birth-day'. And there are quite a few of those sausages (during my pregnancy 12 of my friends were pregnant as well. 12!!!). Unfortunately, we aren't able to meet all of Lia's contemporaries during this stay, but we are looking forward to more diaper parties in the near future.

Lia is already best friends with Leonie, Joshua, Tara, Martha and Ava. And no wonder: Leonie displayed a very vivid interest in Lia's left ear, into which she very gently poked her finger, Joshua tried to grab her tush, Tari loved to pull at her socks, and Martha admired the wheels of her stroller. And little Ava, who wouldn't lose her milky way and had absolutely no time to socialize, was the smallest love bug that Lia met so far.

And here they are, all cute as a button:

Lia and Leonie

Joshua and Lia

Tara and Lia

Lia and Martha

Ava and Lia

Ava, Lia, Tara, and Martha (all four in a state of shock)

Travelling and making new friends is pretty tiring. Lots of things to dream about for a little American adventurer...

The Mad Hatter

It's such a delight to dress 'Princess Peanut' in all sorts of 'royal' outfits. Never mind the fact that she drools all over her clothes after every feeding. Each outfit is topped off by a cute hat. Thanks to gravity, the milk never reaches up there. And doesn't the headdress make her round baby face even more kissable?

Mua!

Peekaboo

Little Lia recently (March 12th) expanded her repertoire of cute noises by chuckles. Yes, my daugther is laughing with sound!!! It all happened when I read out loud the label of Lia's latest present, a bodice by the French brand 'Petit Bateau'. Never will I know whether it was due to my inaccurate pronunciation (pardonnez moi) or just a sheer coincidence that Lia laughed at my French, but ever since then her mom is Francophone (which sounds like a disease). So I'm all 'le petit bateau' now, or rather 'le petit bateau?' with a big question mark at the end, asking Lia to laugh and chuckle. But I'm probably only instilling the wish to smack the stupid mother and make her talk normal again. Anyway, eager mom that I am, I was trying to film Lia with our video camera while entertaining her with a long row of little boats - lepetitbateaulepetitbateau - but as I'm not very good at multiple tasking, I was filming the floor by mistake. Quel dommage!

A Charlottian in Hannover

Germany is so much fun, but also sooooo tiring!

Overhappy and overtired we arrived in Germany with our American daughter more than a week ago (time flies), and have started to introduce Peanut to our family and friends. Thiemo and I are constantly worried that the many new faces that welcome Lia with delighted shrieks and wet kisses might frighten and stress our daughter. After all, we are new parents and are trying (maybe a bit too) hard to live up to our role as mom and dad. That's why we intersperse this big adventure with normalcy and routine, which for us means kissing and cuddling our daughter whenever we can:

Lia on the other hand, doesn't seem to mind meeting new people, which she all welcomes with her big toothless smile, a smile that lingers on way after she has fallen asleep . . .