All's well again

... and mommy's too!

Ready for playschool!

She's got the boys on their knees already. :-)

Be still, my heart.

Our sunshine, recovered from the nasty sting.

He's half Barbarian, um Bavarian, so what did you expect?

I was seriously ill after that plate of food was gone - and I just looked at it!

Lily entertaining herself at the beergarden.

Dancing and clapping for the DJ. (He played nice music, not the umptah kind.)

We are happy to report that Finn's foot is better and except for some itching the wasp sting doesn't bother him anymore. So we are back in our routine of playgroups, hanging out at home, "Zwergelpark" (playschool) once a week for Lily and twice a week for Finn, going shopping, for walks, to physiotherapy once a week (Lily's foot needs stretching again to straighten out more) and so on. Lily seems to be teething again because she is very clingy during the day and wakes up often at night. But she still is the sweetest little girl and we couldn't be happier with her. When we didn't have children we never really missed them and now that we do we cannot imagine life without them. Plus, they can be pretty entertaining, too. Like Finn today.

I think I have mentioned before that he is VERY fond (read: obsessed) with cows, and insists on being one most days. Today I was changing his diaper and he said:

"Mama, you took my udder off!"
Me (rolling my eyes): "No, Finn, I didn't take your udder off."
Finn: "But SOMEBODY took my udder off. Look - there's only one teat left!"

Now, beat that. :-)

Clover can be hazardous to your health and party plans

Well, after my last post about how great summer is around here we were reminded of the fact that there are some unpleasant things, too. Like wasps.

Last Thursday afternoon, after patiently filling up his paddling pool with the water hose Finn happily ran across the lawn and stepped on a wasp (or bee, I'm not quite sure) and got stung in the sole of his foot. Fortunately our neighbour was home and in his yard, so I could hand a screaming Finn to him over the fence to get some tweezers. We got the stinger out and cooled his foot in the cold pool water, since Finn couldn't handle an icepack. After some ibuprofen and a two-hour nap the swelling had gone down and Finn seemed all right.

Friday morning, however, his foot was red and swollen to the ankle, Finn couldn't walk on it and said it hurt very much. So off to the doctor we went, one of three visits in 24 hours. To make a long story short: after they drained some pus they got the infection under control, Finn doesn't have to take antibiotics, but his foot is sore and itchy, especially at night, which means little sleep for all of us. (Oh and Lily is teething, too, so they took turns getting us over to their bedrooms.) After Finn saw his doctor this morning (where he got the cool green bandage) Finn took some of the medicine he was prescribed and slept for 4.5 hours. After all, he needs to be rested for tonight's ordeal!

Oh, and in case you wondered about the title for this post: we have lots of clover patches in our yard, and the bees and wasps seem to like the nice little white clover flowers A LOT. And no matter how often you cut them off, they seem to be back the next day. The clover grows about 20 times faster than our grass, so I guess from now on I will ask Neil to "go mow the clover, please". As for the party: we were invited to a farewell-party in Munich today, and had really looked forward to going. Let me tell you, if that silly wasp wasn't dead already it would be now.

We love summer

How to turn Lily into a squealing-with-joy Lily.

Lily's favourite ball - good girl!

Note: BBQed chicken and mashed potatoes are best eaten outside with toddlers, preferrably close to a water hose.

Lily the little houswife had a busy morning: First she made wooden-fruit stew ...

... then she patiently waited her turn for the electric broom.

Here Finn is showing his friend Jana how to milk Veronica. (Veronica lives outside now with Sheepy and Piggy.)

"C'mon Lily, you don't REALLY want that green shovel, do you?"

Who's being goofy?

In very hot weather Lily is sporting the little antenna hairstyle and a linen dress. The girl is ALWAYS sweating.

Out on a walk. They love it!

The title says it all. Summer is great! We love our little garden, we love that there are practically no moskitoes, we love the long sunny days. We won't be going on a vacation this year, so we are hoping for at least two more months of nice warm weather here in Bavaria.

Neil is a great daddy, in case you didn't know yet. He took excellent care of Finn and Lily last weekend while I took a train to Switzerland to visit my sister. It was fun! And just so I wouldn't feel totally homesick she took me to visit friends of hers ("exiled" northern Germans as well) who have a 5-month old baby boy. Now, little Anton is just about the cutest little guy I've seen, a close second to Finn. :-)

Other news are that we are back at physio-therapy once a week because Lily's feet are quite crooked again, especially the right one. It has been getting a lot worse since she started walking more. For two weeks now we have to stretch the too-short muscle, then we will decide about bandaging or not. Hopefully the stretching will help, but guess what little Miss Temperamental has to say about that!?

AND - I also made a resolution to update the blog more regularly, about once a week - at least with pictures. Guess that's all for today.