Finlay's train and Finlay's ice cream

Finlay at Haagen Dasz at the market, excited, because his ice cream is on the way, and Finlay with his big Nikolaus present - a train set.

More to follow over the holidays and merry Christmas!

A Christmas Stroll

Here is Finlay in his stroller just having picked up a Nikolaus-gift from Annette, and then meeting his first Santa. In my family, we did the shopping-mall Santa photo tradition, and in none of mine do I have an expression quite like this...

December 6

December 6 is the day in Germany where Nikolaus brings children (and adults) gifts, but only if they leave their shoes in front of the door overnight (comparable to the North American stockings tradition on Christmas Eve). Finlay decided to leave a lot of shoes, just in case. Nikolaus obliged...

Grandma - and a sweater!

Finlay on a teeter-totter with his Grandma Cathy, visiting from Canada, and Finlay in a new handmade sweater that she knit for him.

Advent calendar, Finlay and sofa

Two pictures from the first week of December - Finlay with an advent calendar on our wall and Finlay smiling standing by the sofa.

Marmelade...

Finlay with a roll and marmelade one recent morning for breakfast. Right after this photo, he insisted that the cats also share the marmelade, and half of it ended up pasted to a cat.

Advent No. 1

Finlay with the first advent candle 4 weeks before Christmas. Note the playmobil firetrucks in case anything goes wrong. Finlay kept saying "The fire department can do it!" (Die Feuerwehr, die kann das!)

Finlay on a bus

Between Belfast and Dublin. That's Clifford the Red Dog in the background, and a small English shortbread cookie - forgotten - in Finlay's hand.

More Finlay on the shore

Finlay on a hill near the Irish sea, and Finlay & Co. on the shore, right before a large wave caught Christopher and soaked him from the knees down. Finlay thought that was all very exciting.

Northern Ireland

Sorry about the delay in posting. Work, holiday obligations and various trips and visits got in the way.

Here are two photos of Finlay visiting the Irish Sea, or, more specifically, Bangor, next to Belfast in Northern Ireland at the end of November. We were hosted by Joan and John, who did everything possible to ensure that we saw a great deal of the area and enjoyed remarkable hospitality. Thank you to John and Joan for accommodations, dinners and fascinating discussions, and for Clifford the Red Dog, which has become Finlay's favourite stuffed animal.

Here we are with Joan at the shore of the ocean.

Finlay and a sweater

From Gloria Jeans - direct from Russia! Thanks Dean!

One proud

pumpkin purchaser!

Finlay talking

to Grandma Cathy.

Sometimes...

Lunch has to wait until all of the trucks and cars are parked properly.

Finlay laughing

Probably at one of his parents.

A puppy!

Finlay and a dog! (loaned by Annette)

Finlay on a walk

With his own personal tree that he insisted be taken with him in the stroller. This is from about 3 weeks ago.

October sun

Here is a photo from last month - Finlay and Susanne in a hammock. One woman's iphone is a small boy's cookie.

Halloween

Here in Finlay on Sunday (learning about pumpkins) and Finlay on Halloween yesterday dressed as a small mushroom. Finlay visited his father on Monday to distribute candy to co-workers (and germs - both of us have headcolds). His parents made the mushroom hat on the weekend. It took about five hours, all told, seeing as neither of us have sewn anything for at least a decade. Finlay disliked the hat and managed to wear it only once, for Annette, later that evening. Thanks to Felix and Kerstin, Annette and others for offering him candy during a small trick-or-treat in our courtyards!

More photos to follow...

Dean and Finlay

Dean and Lutz and Max and Karin and Gregor visited us last weekend - more photos to follow, once these are downloaded. Here are two quick shots of Dean and Finlay together last weekend - Dean is Finlay's godfather.

Someone is sleeping

And someone needs a haircut - here is Bernhard on a recent visit to Berlin. Bernhard spent so much time explaining the state of European bond markets and the correlation to the price of copper in China that Finlay fell asleep.

Puddles!

Here are Christopher and Finlay on a recent excursion to Friedrichshain to investigate puddles. It had recently rained and the puddles were quite large. It was also election day here in Berlin. Finlay went with Christine to vote.

A cookie and a stick

Finlay enjoying the early fall weather outside at a nearby park.

More Finlay ready for bed

Shhh!

Someone is reading! Thanks to Wolf and Ulrike for this delightful book on vehicles of all kinds, including some that we don't know the English words for. We call them "alien spaceships".

Finlay and a truck.

Finlay and the soap store...

Three pictures of a poor Finlay who had to sit outside the soap store. Not sure why he was stuck out there, but he has new fingerpaint bath soap now.

Stickers!

Finlay occupied with stickers. Most of them ended up on one of the cats...

Pretzel People

Finlay and Christine enjoying a pretzel together.

Finlay's great grandmother turned 97 this weekend. Here are the two of them on Friday and Saturday. Finlay was delighted to see his great grandmother again and I think the feeling was mutual.

Two sleepy people who aren't afraid to wear orange!

Finlay and bubbles

Finlay learning to blow bubbles with a little friend very recently.

Bahnhof Uelzen

Here is Finlay (and Finlay and Christine) at Bahnhof Uelzen, somewhere outside of Berlin, where they waited for a train over the weekend.

Finlay in the sun

Someone lost a fingernail...

Pinched in a drawer or a door. Luckily, a new one grew right back!