First day of Kita!

We made it uneventfully back to Berlin on Friday! Tanja is doing great, she went off the pills to stop the contractions half a day ago, and (knock on wood) so far they haven't come back. Thanks to everyone who sent their thoughts during that rough period!

Clara's three week summer vacation is over, so today was the first day back at Kita. Here she is on the way to school this morning:


I guess she had a pretty great day, since she was in a great mood when I got back home this evening! Clara's Oma brought us back to Berlin, and she's staying with us a few days to help in case the baby comes this week. The morning before we left Clara got to test out her new carseat. It must be comfortable, because she slept almost the whole way to Berlin!


Oma and Opa have lots of interesting and fun toys, but after three weeks away from her own Clara couldn't wait to get back to hers! When we had reached the city but were still in the car, Clara told us that her toys were "waiting for her"! Here she is feeding cucumbers to the sock monkey Tanja had as a kid:


For a long time I've been asking Clara "how do you know that?" follow-up questions to questions of mine that she answers. She'd never explained how she knew something to me until this Saturday. I asked her if a photo of her was taken in the summer or the winter, and she said the winter. When I asked her why she thought for a bit and then finally pointed and said it was because of the snow. (She didn't actually say "because." I think she actually said the German word for "despite", but maybe that's not surprising since I don't think I've heard her say "because" before.)

Tomorrow Clara's brother will be the same gestational age that Clara was when she was born (great work Tanja!!!). Here's hoping that he makes it at least two weeks longer than she did!