Wallpaper?

We are thinking of getting this wallpaper for a portion of Finlay's room.

Source: www.berlintapete.de

Goose Lunch

This week Finlay "attended" at the Embassy of the Nordic Countries* in Berlin for Wednesday's roast goose lunch. Finlay had a small amount of goose, a bit of dumpling and some red cabbage, and then a great deal of pumpkin cream dessert. However, during lunch, he frequently became distracted by the snowflakes falling outside the window and had to be taken outside. The cafeteria at the Embassy is frequented by embassy staff, tax advisors and lawyers, accountants and clever people from the German Council on Foreign Relations. It is extremely rare than children under the age of one ever participate in lunch, and Finlay was perhaps not on his best behaviour...

Nonetheless, aside from a spilled water class and perhaps some pumpkin cream that ended up on the table, all was well that ended well.

* In Berlin the Scandinavian countries Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway pooled their funds and built a combined embassy. Smart idea.

The Sweater!

Finlay has a new sweater which his godfather gave to him as a present! The sweater is from Argentina, where Dean was on vacation visiting an Alpaca ranch (or something like that). We don't think it is a coincidence that the sweater would fit very well in the decor of Dean's home. So would Finlay, as a matter of fact.

The sweater is a perfect gift for the past few days of cold weather we have been having. And extremely tasteful!

Thank you Dean!

Advent!

Here is Finlay waiting outside of the door this evening to see if Nikolaus brings him anything and Finlay helping Chistine to light the Advent candles. Note the cookie box next to the candles (the box is starting to become a very important part of our household, now that Finlay has determined that he likes cookies) and the Christmas Cat coming out of the apartment. OK, she's not a Christmas Cat. She's Puzzle, the other roommate who Finlay lives with. Puzzle and Finlay generally get along - there have only been a few scratches and pulled whiskers. Since Puzzle is equally interested in anything food-related, she also wants to see what Nikolaus will bring her. Perhaps a small bowl of Sheba - Empfehlung des Saisons...

Tomorrow morning we will see whether Nikolaus remembered to add Finlay to his list! Just like our tax returns, thank you notes and other important paperwork, we might have been somewhat late in filing the Antrag/application...

More snow!

Finlay in the snow, and snow falling near Finlay. Later, Finlay made a (very small) snow angel!

As a small Canadian, it is important that Finlay become exposed to snow as early as possible. Snowballs, snowshoes, snow forts and snowmen (and snow shovels, for the winters where he wants to earn his allowance...).

Teeter-totter

Yesterday was a "snow day". Here are Finlay and his father on a teeter-totter at the playground nearby. Finlay's mother took the picture. The snowsuit is a recent gift from Finlay's Canadian grandmother, Cathy.

Oma!

Finlay's German grandparents were in town two weeks ago for the big Ella-tea-drinking ceremony. Here are Finlay and his "Oma" at the kitchen table with a bicycle lock. Finlay's mother says that his Oma bought him a little flute and (almost) taught him how to play it!

A magic bird flew in at the birthday party

Only Finlay and his grandmother could see it!

A Birthday Party!

Finlay was invited to Ella's birthday party two weeks ago! Ella is one month older than Finlay (and has much more hair!). Everyone attended Ella's little party where everyone had to drink pretend tea out of little cups. That's what happens at little girls' birthday parties...

Somebody doesn't want to go to sleep...

Maybe there was banjo music playing in the other room...

Update

Hi,

It's been almost 3 weeks since we've posted here. No-one is on strike. However, we have recently experienced issues involving long-distance travel, visits by relatives, enhanced work demands and battery shortages in the Finlay household which have been responsible for the test pattern here on this blog in the past few weeks. We expect to resume regular service very soon. Upcoming programs will feature:

- Finlay wearing a delightful Argentinian sweater

- Finlay dressed better than his parents, thanks to his godfather

- Finlay outside (today) during a snow day

For those of you interested in developmental news, Finlay likes gingerbread, he claps and waves, he is learning to effectively express displeasure with things (waving his arms around and shouting), we're still working on progressing beyond the word "da!" and he can stack blocks on top of one another. Strangely, he seems equally happy putting his blocks back in the box as he does spreading them all over the floor.

For people thinking of upcoming birthday or Christmas presents, we recommend lemons. Finlay loves playing with them, throwing them at the cats, and rolling them across the floor.

All the best!

King of the World!

King of the sink, anyway. On Friday we put Finlay in charge of general utilities in the house - turning on lights, checking the power, inspecting the sink and making sure that enough water came out of the tap. Right after these photos clever Finlay pulled the tap toward himself, soaking himself and necessitating a quick change of wet clothes.

PS - the light is reflecting very strangely off Christopher's head. It almost looks as though he has grey hair! That must just be an odd trick of the light.

More Finlayfood

After this shot, the camera itself was smeared with porridge. Luckily we have cats who assisted later in cleaning everything up!

Finlayfood...

This is a sharp contrast to last weekend at Gugelhof... Finlay eating at home and making a wonderful mess of things. This was one of our first attempts to encourage him to take an active role in feeding himself. We think there is a lot of room for improvement and growth potential, as North Americans would optimistically phrase things!

More shopping with Finlay

Finlay inspecting the groceries that were delivered last weekend (thank you Edeka!)

Shopping with Finlay

We picked up a bargain last week at Galerie Lafayette - a Finlay on sale! And small enough to fit in a bag. Here he is being swung in a (remarkably resilient) paper bag.

Smiling Finlay

Gugelhof

So we read this article last week in the NYT about how the restaurants Bill Clinton has eaten at have become tourist sites all on their own. That kind of sort of applies to Gugelhof, an Alsation / Elsaß restaurant in Prenzlauer Berg. Apparently word spread that Clinton was dining there one evening and before he finished his meal, masses of people had gathered outside the restaurant to see him.

Whatever the reason for the original selection, we assume he dined well. Here is Finlay last week there enjoying a piece of French bread and overshadowed by the glass of wine on the table. We had the basic three-course dinner menu and the typical Choucroute Alsatian dish of sauerkraut, potatoes and sausage. The meal was excellent, and our service was impeccable, especially when dealing with a small boy in the middle of a very busy evening punctuated by German kids popping in for Halloween and demanding desserts.

Finlay actually gnawed on a piece of smoked Knackwurst for a while - his very first sausage.

St. Martin's Lantern

We're not just gearing up for Halloween, but also for St. Martin's Day (a day traditionally celebrated in Germany by forcing children to wander through the streets and sing songs with lanterns). Here, Finlay has his own lantern.

Balls

Finlay at a childrens cafe last week in Friedrichshain. The haze in the photo is caused by the heavy concentration of Mutterglück (maternal happiness) in the air...

Not Smiling and Smiling

Finlay this past weekend at the table, with various toys and vegetables. We will be celebrating Halloween this year, which is growing in popularity (or at least marketing efforts) each year in Germany. We're considering going as pirates, and dressing him up as a parrot. Or maybe we'll have him in the baby carrier but made to look like he is bursting out of Christine's stomach. Wait a minute - maybe not. Too close to home. It's only been ten months.

It would be more fun to dress him up if we could actually go trick or treating here. However, we doubt that many of our neighbours would really understand that part of Halloween. And in any case, they could rescind any exchanges of candy the next day under German laws relating to "doorway transactions" (Haustürgeschäfte). We'll stay home, carve a pumpkin, put Finlay in the pumpkin, quickly blow out the candle in the pumpkin, take pictures of Finlay in the pumpkin, post them here, etc.

Sleeping Finlay

Cat in the Hagia Sophia

This is a street cat photographed on Sunday morning three weeks ago in the centre of the Hagia Sophia cathedral/mosque/museum in Istanbul. Finlay wasn't there. But we'll take him there someday, if only to show him a central node of European culture.

Mini Finlay in a Mini Cooper

Here are Finlay and Christine at Gallerie Lafayette on Saturday evening with Finlay behind the wheel of a small replica of an Austin Mini Cooper. He knows he resides in centralBerlin, and therefore has no need of a car, and his feet don't really reach the pedals - perhaps that accounts for his desultory expression.

Afterwards, Christine ate a deep-sea prawn and Finlay fell asleep. Then we all watched the Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland. Curioser and curiouser!

A place at the table

Several hours later... here are Finlay and Christine actually sitting at the table together. They're watching that video with Jimmy Kimmel and Ben Affleck. Yeah, you remember the one. That one. The plate in the picture was sent flying to the floor a few moments later and broke into several pieces. That had nothing to do with the video.

Box Baby

Finlay this morning in the box for his new "Stokke" highchair - a tasteful (and expensive) baby seat for him at the kitchen table. The box was fascinating - a smaller box was successfully used as a little motor car in which Finlay went driving around the living room...

Finlay and Fruit

Finlay today comparing various types of fruit. Finlay went to the doctor today with his father, and then to the zoo with his mother. Apparently Finlay babbled at the fish and shouted at the monkeys, but became very quiet and humble around the very large elephants...

A Purposeful Stride

Read the post below to find out where/why this photo was taken. This is Christine with an extremely purposeful march across a landing field on her way to see Finlay.

(She also uses the same very vigorous stride when Finlay manages to crawl to the cats' litter box)

Brave Finlaymother!

Here is Christine after completing a 4 km tandem skydive with "Api", her jumpmaster. There are photos of Christine from before the jump looking very nervous, which we won't publish.

Finlay has a very brave mother! Finlay's father jumped last year (with Finlay's godfather and Tomas), but Christine couldn't go, since Finlay was already a bun in the oven at that time. Now she's caught up. Cool experience, and definitely something we'll offer to Finlay when he's a little bit older. Thanks very much to gojump.de, who offered us a professional, safe and very friendly skydiving experience!

Another photo with a leaf from today

This ws Finlay today at Gransee, a small village 65 km outside of Berlin. Finlay amused himself with a leaf (after crawling all over the grass) while his mother jumped out of an airplane.

Leaf hunting - successful!

Fall Attire

Finlay, last week, right before going out leaf hunting.

Couch Potatoes Reloaded

There is an earlier post on this blog of Finlay and father sacked out on the couch. Here's the next instalment from last weekend. Look closely at the bottom left of the photo (and ignore Finlay's open-mouthed snoring - he had a cold).

Why it's Turnip - equally tired! She's probably exhausted from Finlay crawling all around the apartment in pursuit of her that day. That's a new hobby.

Finlay now has an all-purpose word for everything: "da!". As in - point at the cat and say "da!" Look out the window of a streetcar and say "da!"

We guess it will take him a year to differentiate between "der", "das" and "die". Lord knows his father needed about 15 years, and still gets lots of them wrong.

Finlay and his Grandfather

Finlay was in Tübingen two weeks ago for the wedding of Christine's brother - these are two quick shots of him with his grandfather, Jupp. We see a resemblance... Finlay apparently slept through the wedding, but stayed awake at the reception until 2 am. Also a family tradition (at least on his father's side...)

The Finlaybabysitter

In German, that's probably all one word. This is Lara with Finlay - Lara is Finlay's godmother's responsible daughter who has looked after Finlay on several occasions. We are immensely grateful to Lara for helping us out on short notice and at odd hours, and for letting us have a few very nice dinners with friends (and just friends) in the last while. Dinners that have not involved pureed spinach, bibs or spitting up afterwards.

Thank you Lara!

Photogenic Finlay

This instalment of the Finlayblog contains more photos from the previous weekend, where Big American Andrew visited us and was kind enough to send us a dime bag of good material. Our digital camera, and indeed, the Little Prince himself, were off at a wedding in Tübingen this past weekend, so new material will be forthcoming soon.

Here's Finlay about to set off on a bike ride in his new child bike seat, model "East Berlin Cheap" (just kidding - he did not go biking), and Finlay engaging both of his parents at the Weihenstephan on Hackescher Markt.

One of our friends mentioned that there are no photos of Finlay crying or carrying on in a tantrum on this blog. That's largely true, save for a few from the distant past. We've tried to get a few to show at his wedding, but the camera flash works so poorly at 3 am that nothing has turned out well so far. He's now teething again, so some will probably be forthcoming very soon.

Finlay Looking Statesmanlike

That was the title of this photo, shot by Andrew. He does look like he is resolutely staring into the distance, perhaps at those who would threaten the Mother(land) or contend that Früchte-Duett is not the best brand of baby yogurt. This was an odd pose for him, seeing as we weren't anywhere near the Lenin statues, and were in fact in front of Ixthys, the devoutly Christian Korean restaurant in Schöneberg. Even Finlay eventually found that the hand-lettered descriptions of Christ awash in the blood of sinners made him...hungry.

More later this week. Everyone is hungry in our household right now.

Finlay flying about

This is Finlay on Saturday, as taken by our friend Andrew. Here he is being danced and tossed all about a corner of the Gendarmenmarkt. Flying around is the new big thing for Finlay - exhausting for the parents, but he loves it.

Thanks so muuch, Andrew, for all of the photos! It was a good weekend, and we very much appreciate the memories!