Greifswald!

Finlay and his father travelled to Greifswald today to visit Moritz, who is a friend of ours, for lunch. This was Finlay's first trip outside of Berlin without "Mama". Most of the people on the train today probably figured that one out...

Thanks to the kind woman in the train on the way to Greifswald who liked Finlay and offered him part of her sandwich. Sorry to all the people who had to deal with a very noisy little boy for part of the trip. After bumping his head, "Mama" was requested. Mama was elsewhere. Chaos ensued.

Here is Finlay with Moritz and Finlay alone on a very large market square. Finlay ate "Pommeranische Fischsuppe" and then potato pancakes with applesauce. I had to chase him around the square with spoonfulls of potato pancake to get him to eat his lunch. The staff at the "Wallerstein Keller" were excellent, as always.

So this is what they do all day...

Finlay and Christine, sometime in the past few days. Just kidding. Finlay has to go "arbeiten" (his word) at Kita/daycare while Christine teaches during the day. Most days, anyway. Not this one. Good for them.

Herb Ritts we ain't

Here is Finlay in another shot from last week or so at the amazing fountain in Berlin.

dict.finlay.org

There is an online service for German translations at the site: dict.leo.org. The following are a selection of Finlay's words, along with their own translations:

tatu tata / tata tatee - firetruck
Bus - Chris(topher)
Mama - Christine
Baffy - Cathy
Oma Annaliese - Oma Annaliese
abadee abadah - small song sung while walking
ei auto - police car
Bus arbeite - Chris is working
Kaschenfutter - cat food
Kasche - cat
Peeshy - Finlay
Minly - Finlay
Manda - Amanda (child at daycare)
Kita - daycare
ticketacka - clock
Glasses - eyeglasses
bibababa - bellybutton
Beer - beer
Mama no peeshy laufe - Mama, no, Finlay wants to walk around
Aua - cut, scrape, bruise
nenenene! - no! (shouted at table, floor, whatever hit Finlay)
gigeh - trinken / drinking
zu! - said to any door that might be open
Bama! - President of the United States

Baby, bah!

We took a train to Göttingen last weekend to visit Oma Annaliese, Finlay's great-grandmother. Photos to follow. We had a seat in a compartment on the train, and Finlay watched as a little girl (perhaps a year old) crawled down the aisle followed by her mother (for clarity... the mother wasn't crawling). The little girl noticed Finlay and the two waved and smiled and smacked the glass. Then the little girl threw up on the floor.

Finlay looked at the girl with immense disapproval and said "baby, bah!" "Bah!" is what he hears when something is dirty or otherwise unpleasant (diapers, cat box, or food that falls on the floor).

This photo was taken just before that. Here, Finlay is playing with a car that Cathy (Canadian grandmother) gave him.

Sorcerer's Apprentice (Zauberlehrling)

Here is Finlay last Sunday at a local fountain which has water jets that almost randomly go up and down in walls. Finlay loves playing with the water in the fountain, running through the jets and dancing around them. In one of these photos, he is trying to conjure the jets to recede - which didn't work so well. When he's taller... He is just big enough to avoid being knocked down by the jets, but he did learn not to sit on them and stare down at them to see if they come back up again.

Recliner

Here is Finlay last night in a reclining chair on the bank of the Spree, and Finlay with his grandmother Cathy on Sunday evening. Cathy ("Baffy") was here in Berlin for 12 days. Lots more photos to follow!