Just living away in Bavaria...

Not much is new these days. We are just a happy little family enjoying life. Neil is working hard at the office, still biking there most days. So far it has been a pretty mild, dry fall. Still, we are considering buying a second car. Biking in winter is no fun, and being trapped at home without a car is no fun either. There is no public transport here to speak of, and our town is small, with no supermarket or stores except a bakery, butcher's and drugstore.
Today I had another doctor's appointment. Everything looked good with the baby! I am 16 weeks along and it is sooo amazing to see that little person moving around, waving and kicking. I am showing a bit, but can feel the baby movements only occasionally, so the ultrasound makes this whole baby business a lot more real. Soon there will be another little Tischler, wow!
Finn is just a lot of fun these days. He imitates everything we do. Today I sorted through some clothes in our bedroom and found a neckerchief, which I tied around my neck. Finn watched me and decided he wanted something around his neck, too. So he opened my underwear drawer and while I was busy sorting clothes he was busy trying to fit my underwear over his head. He was so dead serious doing this, and so proud when he finally succeeded - I still have to laugh writing about it.
Yesterday Finn and I started a swim course for toddlers with 4 other ladies and their babies from one of my playgroups. It is held at a hospital's therapy pool, which is really warm. When Finn was 6 months old we went there for baby swim classes. Finn really enjoys himself in the water. Yesterday he got water wings and paddled around some on his own, and he also went down a slide all by himself. We are looking forward to next week's class.

Back in town and exciting news

We finally made it back here! Our stay with my parents was prolonged by mutual sickness. Finn was the only one who was getting better right from the day we got there. Neil stayed about the same and I REALLY got sick with the flu up there. It was a good thing we were well taken care of by my parents. Other than being sick we had a good time, though. Finn enjoyed all the attention from his "mm-pa" and "mm-a", but his favourite person is still his daddy. He is like Neil's little shadow these days, and a "papa, papa" is always on his lips. In fact, the word "mama" has been erased from his vocabulary. The closest we got the other day was a half-hearted attempt coming out as "mampa".
Fortunately, Finn's appetite returned and he ate up a storm at his grandma's house, so he gained back some weight. He also got to go to the beach to feed the seagulls and went on an all-guys outing to the zoo, which he absolutely loved. Taking care of him in the house sometimes wasn't easy, since there were no gates to keep him off the stairs and none of the drawers and cabinets are childproof. But Finn sure had fun making us chase him from here to there and back again!
The car trip did not go as smoothly as I thought it would. Finn was annoyed to be confined when he was awake (which was to be expected) and, although tired, couldn't really sleep in his car seat (which surprised me). He kept on waking up fussing. We decided the trip back with him awake all the time (since we would have driven during the day) would be too much of an ordeal for all of us. So Neil drove home by himself on Saturday and Finn and I took a plane on Sunday. It was so windy when we took off that I thought that little plane (33 seats) would go right back down, but we made it to Munich all right. My parents live 20 minutes from a small airport and the flight was 1.5 hours, so that was much better than driving.
Now it is back to just me and Finn all day. Neil is back at work and life goes on as usual. Well, almost. As our families already know, we have some news to share! In less than 6 months there will be four of us. We are expecting Finn's little brother or sister to arrive in early May. So far things are looking good, although we had a scare a few weeks back when I had to go to the hospital because of bleeding. They told me to rest and put my feet up a lot and not carry Finn so much. Yeah, right. Please send a nanny and a cook to my house, and I will do that. I must admit that our house is not as clean as I would like it to be right now, but most days taking care of our little whirlwind takes all the strength I got - and those are the days I am healthy. Colds just seem to be so much worse and last so much longer when I am pregnant. Not being allowed to take any real medication doesn't help much either. I am happy to be past the first trimester, when all you want to do is SLEEP. I also had bad "morning" sickness, only I felt nauseaus from noon to night every day. I often couldn't go to sleep because of it, how ridiculous is that?
Anyway, we are excited and happy! Finn and *** will be 20 months apart, we are curious to see what Finn will think of his little sibling.