Shopping Bag

Voila, the correct use of a Swiss Migros shopping bag:
First, take a comfortable position inside the bag...
...and then let daddy swing the bag:

Hurray!!!!

Winter Impressions

This is a truly exceptional winter in Potsdam - lots of snow and temperatures of down to minus 20 degrees. Thus it offers us plenty opportunities to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Babelsberg Park packed in snow! (Though after two weeks of no sun ray at all, we were eager to enjoy the bright sunshine when it finally came back last week!)


The river Havel was completely frozen for a while, but we did not dare to cross it. Some smaller lakes in the vicinity were used of ice-skating.


Kamil at the Flatow tower:

Some more winter impressions in the park:



Having fun sliding:


And we built a snowman on our balcony - somehow it turned out a bit Taiwanese....

Potty Training

Due to very frequently recurring diaper changes we decided to commence with Anna's potty training. Changing bio-hazardous "diaper bombs" five times a day has nurtured in us the perhaps irrational hope of having a child with the gift of becoming independent of her diapers in her early days. So we bought a fancy green frog-potty and a funny story book ("Moritz Moppelpo braucht keine Windel mehr") to inspire our daughter in abandoning her diapers. Never give up hope, he?
At least, Anna seems to like her potty as a convenient sitting spot...

Anna becomes a hero

Christmas Holidays in Innsbruck

I did not yet manage to write a posting about our time in Austria, so here we finally go! We spent this season's Christmas time with our families in Innsbruck. It was a wonderful, very traditional and merry celebration - well, several celebrations, to be honest! Delicious food from all grandmas, visiting family and friends and enjoying the snow in the mountains - that describes best this invigorating holiday!
Anna loved the Christmas tree - especially blowing out the candles:
...and her gifts:
But what took the biscuit was the golden ribbon...
... and the little round table mats:
At the Polish side of our family - very serious people :-)
Anna and her two other uncles:
Aunt Ruth and little cousin Martha eating yummy Christmas cookies:
Admiring everything that cousin Judith is doing:
Grandma besieged:
Traraaa! I'm a princess! (or was it a clown?...)

And finally, some pictures in the snowy mountains - Anna's very first sledging experiences:

Rodeln im Park

We are currently enjoying one of the best winter in years. There is plenty of snow outside and temperatures are persistently below 0°C. This means we have perfect conditions for sledging on the nearby hillslope in the park! It seems that the entire population of Babelsberg is gathering there for a winter fun activities:

No wonder that sledges are sold out practically everywhere in Potsdam and Berlin. We were lucky enough to get an Austrian Gasser Rodel this week via a direct import. With this sledge, Anna surely is the fastest kid going downhill! But before the athletes go on their adrenaline-shedding downhill ride, they have to make a final check of all their protective garments: snow overall, reindeer-skin gloves, pom-pom hat, yes, all in place!

So, off we go! The sledgers are going downhill so incredibly fast that the camera only catches them on the final stretch of the Babelsberg worldcup downhill run:


Kamil and Anna are about to reach the speed of sound...

... and here are the same two athletes after winning another thrilling world cup run.

And here are Ulf and Arne, two other competitors and friends.


Anna learns the winter survival essentials from her dad - how to eat snow, lesson no. 1: