Anna Antanna

Serious Kitchen Disorder

Last week, I was making some muffins. My idea was to prepare them in the morning hoping Anna would be happy playing on herself in the meantime. I could have baked them also during Anna's nap time around noon, but I saw myself rather enjoying this short period of quiescence with a book in my hands than mixing eggs and butter.
Well, my sweet little daughter was not so happy about playing on her own but instead was standing between my legs squeaking and squealing to attract my full advertence. I did not want to give in and handed her a box full of little sachets of baking powder, vanilla sugar and lemon zest to play with. With great seriousness she spread the sachets across the kitchen floor. Unfortunately, she lost interest in the dispersion of these bags soon enough. As my muffin preparation was not finished yet, I prepared another distraction for Anna. Pushing her chair close to the cupboards, I opened a drawer for her. It contains all sorts of foils, baking parchment, freezer bags, kitchen towels, rubber bands, closure clips and the like. This worked perfectly! Anna was frenetically emptying the drawer, diligently examining all items which emerged from this treasure drawer. I barely saved the permanent marker from her hands before she had decorated something else than her hands with black lines. Thus, I could peacefully finish my muffins.
Afterwards, I spent the whole time of Anna's nap cleaning the kitchen...

A Walk In The Snow and A Walk In A Tropic Garden

Kamil's parents came to visit us last week-end, thus we could celebrate Kamil's birthday together! And Anna enjoyed it very much to have Dziadzio and Babcia around her - two more people to dedicate all their time and love only to her! For example, Anna found a new driver/pusher for her truck:


On Saturday, we went for a walk in the Babelsberg Park, taking the sedge with us, and were enjoying the snow.





On Sunday, we visited the Biosphäre Potsdam, a huge greenhouse full of tropical plants, some birds, fish, turtles and butterflies. It was a wonderful stroll through thick greenery, which strongly reminded us of Taiwan's flora!





Thanks to Magda and Marek for a wonderful visit!

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....