Welcome, Spring!

Spring has finally arrived in Berlin and we are enjoying it as much as we can. This weekend we biked to a playground in Wedding - the first bike ride outside of our Kiez (immediate neighborhood) that Clara rode on her own bike. We had to raise her seat about two inches from last fall and she rode like the devil! She even managed the huge Westhafen bridge up and down all by herself. I'm glad that she is so responsible about stopping at intersections and follows directions really really well. We have to practice "left" and "right" some more though - they are still confusing sometimes.

Oscar has entered a phase where he is really testing out being good and being bad. Last night in bed he told us that during the day at day care, he had put his finger into his teacher Elgin's hot tea (which gave him an owie) and then spilled the tea onto the floor. Since spilling is something that happens (too) often here at home and we're working on, I asked him "And what did Elgin say?". In the dark we could hear the huge smile on his face as he said: "DONNERWETTER Oscar!" (literally, "thunder-weather", but more like "holy smokes" or something like that).

 

 Ice cream! Our favorite. Oscar always only eats chocolate, but Clara is currently alternating through all the different flavors (strawberry, blue (Smurf), pistachio, ...)

 

This morning at day care.

  

We're all really busy these days. Clara is going to a swimming class twice a week now and she's really having fun and learning a lot. The kids are visibly shaking halfway through the class, but they still seem to be motivated to go in the water. Unfortunately with picking her (and Oscar) up and taking them to the pool, the class takes a large part of an afternoon, so lots of work stays for later at night. Also, poor Oscar is jealous of being there twice a week and watching Clara have water fun - but he'll have to wait till next fall for any classes of his own! The last few times he did get to have a lot of fun with Chris, riding the tram back and forth and back and forth for 45 minutes while Clara swam.