Start of Summer

Summer started in Berlin, we've already had some very nice and very warm days. Whenever we can, we take our bikes to the nearby lake. The kids love it there: Clara likes playing in the sand, mud, and water, and Oscar likes crawling in the water and sand, and splashing. He's also been able to take naps on the beach, which is very helpful when we want to spend a whole morning or afternoon there.


We like going to playgrounds, too, and some of them have water as well:



Apparently the weather isn't always going to be nice this summer. We're expecting nice days but also lots of rain and colder periods.



I bought this play pen for my office, to use on the days that we have no childcare. Oscar has spent a couple of afternoons there already. My whole office enjoys my cage of wild animals.


Oscar is growing up so fast... too fast. We feel bad for how little photo documentation we have for his developments. He has 7 teeth already with the 8th just breaking through. The cutest new thing he does is clapping his hands. He does it if he wants water (or nurse), if he's happy or likes something (he can say "yay", too), or even sometimes when we ask him to. It's so nice that he started communicating with us in this way. Otherwise, his favorite activity is pulling up and standing. He does it all the time and spends most of his time upright now, holding onto the couch, the shelf, a chair, a box, or the bottom bunk bed in the kids' room. Thankfully, he is finally getting a little bit better at falling onto his bum - so far he used to get up and then start getting upset when he couldn't find a way to get back down.

Clara had her last Kita-day today. She'll be going to her Oma's place for a week now. I'm sure I'll be missing her, since she is very good at "entertaining" Oscar in the afternoons. She's very smart and perceptive, discussing intertial frames with Daddy ("The train is moving, but the people on the train aren't moving") or astronomy with Mommy ("How high is the sky?"). But mostly I keep forgetting all the interesting things she says that I meant to put on the blog.

Instead, giggles: