Pensive Finlay!

Here is Finlay this afternoon listening to Obama's March 2008 speech on race and America. We've been reading Plouffe's Audacity to Win recently, so this seemed appropriate. The "Knisterbuch" (crackle book) with soft, crackly pages is a kind gift from Ulrike, a German tax advisor practicing in Zurich, and the rugby shirt is summer fashion sent by Dean from Canada!

A Finlay Foot and the Last Cold Weather Photo for Spring

Photos from last week - spring in Berlin has now finally sprung, so shots of Finlay in winter hats will be a rarity for the next while. He's doing just fine these days.

Milestone!

We're happy to report that a new milestone has been reached in respect of "Project Finlay". This afternoon, we discovered the first tooth poking its way out of his lower gum. Christine was shocked to find out that Canadians consider teeth to be temporary chewing aids, expendable in hockey games.

Finlay loves reading!

Finlay loves books! Recently, we read him "Game Change" by Mark Halperin, and "Paris 1919" is next on the list. In the meantime, here are two pictures of him 'reading' recently with Christine and his grandfather. Tonight we took him to a Round Table event in Berlin, where he behaved himself exceptionally well, except for one minor outburst - which we solved by reading him "The Hungry Caterpillar". Apparently George Bush's favourite book, we are indebted to Amy and Barry "Beans" Haneberg for their thoughtful gift!

Finlay and Canadian Technology

Here is Finlay with a piece of Canadian IT art - a blackberry. After deleting a contact listed as "HT", he found another use for the device...

Glinda is back!

Finlay and Glinda in the Tiergarten (look for winged monkeys in the trees)! Someone is getting a workout here, and it isn't sleepy Finlay...

One of Finlay's Roommates

This is "Miss Turnip", who is only a little bit older than Finlay and who lives with him in his apartment.

Glinda?

Finlay has another grandmother - who comes somewhere from the far South, either Oz or Tübingen/Rottenburg (Munchkin or Winkie Land...). Here is Finlay with his other grandmother, a few weeks ago during a visit, until winged monkeys carried her away.

Obviously Finlay had something to say here!

If Finlay could read...

We'd be giving him this. A new book out by our friend Andrew, which we know he has worked extremely long and hard on. More information here: www.germanjoys.com

The death penalty is probably too weighty a subject for a four-month old, though, so we'll just buy a copy and keep it on the bookshelf until Finlay is 16 and has a paper due on some esoteric history topic, like how most US states abolished the death penalty in 2019...

May Day

Instead of taking Finlay to Kreuzberg or Boxhagener Platz to celebrate May Day, we mostly stayed home (OK, we had dinner in Charlottenburg at a Persian restaurant). However, the weather being quite spring-like, we broke out some colours today.

Here is Finlay playing on his "play meadow" (Spielwiese) this afternoon, and him sitting on the sofa. We had just explained to him all about the Greek bailout and how he will likely end up footing a part of the bill for it. That explains the grumpy expression, in spite of the spring flower on his head.

Manly little gifts

This is Finlay this afternoon with two very special gifts. In his hand is a small silver Bierkrug (beer stein) with his name engraved on it, given to him by his great aunt and uncle Ed and El, and sent all the way from Victoria BC. We haven't yet thanked them for it (card is on the way...) but we're sure that when he is old enough to sit at a table and behave properly, he'll make good use of it (with milk or juice, of course...)

The coloured band Finlay is wearing is a delightful gift from Finlay's father's fraternity, Frankonia Heidelberg. Members of the fraternity wear these bands to symbolize membership and they have the fraternity's colours on them. The one Finlay is wearing is typical for a 'first year' or freshman member. Upon fighting a fencing duel and passing a complex oral exam on the history of the fraternity, the history of Heidelberg, etc., members are allowed to wear the full band, which is gold black red and gold. Those sound a lot like the colours of the German flag. In fact, they are, and the flag takes its colours from the early 19th century national unification movement in which specific types of fraternities played a key role. More information here: www.frankonia-hd.de.

Thank you Ed and El and thank you Frankonia!

(He'll grow into it...)