Carnival

It's "Faschingsdienstag" / Mardi Gras today, thus a good time to post a few pictures from last Friday's toddler group carnival.
Anna was disguised as a fish!


However, in the beginning, she did not like her fishy hat at all:


But in the end, with all the other children around her, she completely forgot about the hassle on her head and was playing happily with the other kids and the balloons and eating "Faschingskrapfen".


Here is the whole group - with various lady bugs, tigers, a pirate and a fish! And yes, moms had to be disguised as well...

Hidden Picture Puzzle

Where is the child?


There she is!

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: