We are home!

Elias, Matthew, and I made it back home safely. We are a little bit worse for the wear, but Elias is happy and did great on the flight. We are hoping to be adjusted back to German time in a few days, but with the jet lag we may actually be able to stay awake for the change over to the new year (we will be happy to provide insight as to how 2007 is going to go as we will be entering that year 6 hours ahead of you).

We will post photos of our Christmas in Baltimore soon (including a picture of Elias meeting his great grandparents Powell).

For now here is a picture of Elias in his new bathrobe adjusting to the time change in Baltimore.

Elias and Matt

Playtime

Elias has really begun to enjoy playing on the floor with his toys.

What Time is it in Frankfurt?

Time to go back for Christmas! We'll be there December 20-28th.

Frankfurt

Elias meets Santa

We took Elias to the mall to see Santa. The German Santa Claus is much thinner than the American one, but that is true of most German people. Jenny had me look up the stats on this. 14% of Germans are obese, compared to a whopping 32% of Americans. Even though Germans and Americans have the same average height, American men weigh 10 lbs more than German men--but the real burden is being carried (I guess literally) by American women, who on average weigh 15 lbs more than German women. It would be hard to say they aren't pulling their weight. Poor Santa must have to stuff himself on doener kebaps and beer to become portly enough for his arrival in America.

As long as we are talking numbers, one very noticeable thing about living here are the short days. Sunrise isn't until after 8am, and sunset is around 4pm. I looked this up, and right now we have 1.5 less hours of daylight each day compared to Baltimore. And the Sun is much lower in the sky at noon. Frankfurt is at 50 degrees North latitude! That's farther north than Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. In comparison, Baltimore is at a lower latitude than Madrid. But the climate is pretty mild and we haven't had snow yet.

Although we aren't looking forward to the plane ride or jet lag, we are looking forward to seeing everyone at Christmas. We probably should have had everyone over here, the Germans do Christmas so well. December 6 is Saint Nicholas' Day, when children get candy in their shoes. [Jenny's note: I vaguely remember trying to get this holiday celebrated in my house one year, but I guess St. Nicholas doesn't have time to fill American shoes. [Matt's note: who can?]] One scary thing about Christmas here is Knecht Ruprecht, who travels with Santa. I found a picture of him on Wikipedia:


He whips children who misbehaved during the year (Crystal???). I guess the underweight German Santa needs back-up.

We have been regularly visiting the Christmas markets to get into the Christmas spirits--hot spiced wine of all flavors (cherry wine, blackberry wine, etc.) and feuerzangenbowle, hot wine with flamed rum. We haven't gotten any photos of the Christmas market yet because it's too crowded, but we will try. They are a sight.

A rose by any other name...

The flower lady at the farmer's market gave Elias a rose. Not sure it would taste good, although Elias seems to think so. Elias is definitely not a food connoisseur as of yet, but he does enjoy putting things into his mouth.

Elias' 4 month check up went well. The German doctor was a bit gruff, but said that Elias is doing fine. Elias got vaccinated and put on a vitamin D supplement. I was told that I could begin him on solid foods whenever I wished. Matt and I began feeding him rice cereal last week. He likes it okay. We are thinking about trying him out on some vegetables in the next few days.

Eating Rice Cereal for the First Time

A longer post on this on this later. ("Dienstag" means Tuesday.) We have video of him eating. And video of him rolling over, front to back! He's still working on back to front. He tips most of the way over but can't get his arm out to complete the roll. Give him a week and he'll have it.