Cleaning Mice

Berit asked for Sophie's help to "clean her mice" today. Sophie was briefly disappointed when she found out that this did not mean giving the mice a bath, but cleaning their cage. 

 She quickly perked up when she was given the important task to watch them in their temporary housing and make sure that they did not escape. She took her job very seriously and the two mice never had a chance to go anywhere.

Revisiting Bambi

Sophie and I met with our friends Tali, Jonathan and Lia at the wild animal park in Grafenberg today. Even though we still have so many places to explore in Duesseldorf, we make regular trips back here because it is so close and a fun place to quickly escape into nature. 

 Jonathan and Sophie on the seesaw.

 This time we brought the right food: potatoes for the boar and carrots for the deer.

The carrots were gone so fast!

 Lia being silly with Sophie

And a final ride on the seesaw.

Face Paintings, Swimming, Biking and Friends

You could say that by now we have settled into a little bit of a routine here in our new home in Düsseldorf. It's quite nice - not too crowded of a schedule, leaving plenty of time for excursions and play. 

Here are a few highlights of what Sophie has been up to over the past couple of weeks, waiting for temperatures to warm up a little so that she can play more outside.

Our little bunny

 While playing at the gym's childwatch on a Sunday morning, she was lucky to have her face beautifully painted by a professional visagist. Needless to say, Sophie enjoys the childwatch and I enjoy my zumba class. ;-)

 On Mondays, Sophie started swimming classes at the gym. When she has learned to swim independently she will take a swimming test called "Sea Horse" certification. The pool is too deep for her to be able to stand anywhere, so for her first class, Andrew jumped in the water with her. By the second week, I was able to just watch her from the side. She is making big improvements, but above all she loves the water and feels so proud to be learning how to swim.

 Learning more important stuff: we took the training wheels off her bike and she has been pedaling laps around our little square which is perfect for bike riding. I'm sure there'll be a few scrapes and bruises before she is steady on two wheels.

 On Saturday, May 12 we went to the Old Town with our neighbors where they had a European Union Festival. Oddly enough the Greece booth seemed to be the most popular one that day. 

Here is Sophie and Andrés enjoying some French Chansons in front of the music stage.

 Of course Sophie could not pass up the face painting booth. And us big people could not pass up the Austrian wine and French tartes flambées.

 This time Sophie chose a dolphin pattern. 

 May is full of holidays in Germany (May Day, Ascension Day and Whitsun). One of them was today, and since the weather was cool but dry, Sophie and I decided to cycle back to the wild animal park in Grafenberg which had that fabulous playground in the woods. We were here last when Sophie's friend Ciaran was visiting. Sophie met some kids the same age at the playground and was brave enough to try out the giant slide over and over again.

 Then we still had a carrot and an apple to give to the bambis. The young wild boar had grown quite a bit and were losing their stripes. There was a bit of a funky smell near the boar enclosure, so we did not linger there for long.

Deer enjoying our apple.

Then it was just an all downhill ride for us home. 

Angelina the Sow and Other Creatures

On our third day in Bad Bentheim, we took a little excursion to a nearby zoo which I used to go to when I was little. Here is an excerpt of some of the more interesting animals we saw.

 Isn't Mother Nature beautiful?

 Uh oh, the stork!

 Angelina the sow -

we watched her enjoy her bath from the restaurant where the menu was full of local pork dishes.

Again, it sucks to be born a pig in Germany

 Two very protective geese

 The (not so) ugly duckling

Twins for a day

Wildpark Grafenberg

Sunshine again, so we packed a picnic and headed to a nearby park with wild animals local to the area. As I took us down the wrong track initially (thus not helping Elly's bad back - sorry), we decided to stop for a snack halfway up the hill (yes, there are indeed hills here) by a very well designed playground.

 Sophie and Ciaran let their imaginations go wild, sailing on pirate ships and sitting in a bird house, while Elly and I soaked up the sun.

 I was waiting for them to discover this reindeer in the woods bordering the playground for some good pictures.

 Is it any surprise she is looking so battered?

 Moving on to the animal park. The kids collected their own walking sticks, copying the numerous Nordic walkers, such as the one ahead of them on the picture.

There were little mice all along the sides of the trail much to our entertainment.

 The long march was well worth it: the young boar were so cute. Munching away on our apples we brought. (You were allowed to feed them with certain foods.)

 There was a steep downhill trail past the boar enclosure, where Sophie's knees kissed the asphalt. She is on the best way to have her knees look like her mother's. Fortunately, a very nice elderly lady had some bandaids for us. By the time we reached the deer enclosure, she was much better.

 The deer walked right up to us.

 Especially if we offered them food (again only certain foods which they normally eat).

After a long walk back to the bus and fueling up on a scoop of ice cream, it was time for a bath!

Sophie has been through the wars. That little bruise under her eye also happened on the playground yesterday. Mummy needs to keep her skills up after all. ;-) 

Again, Elly's link:

http://babyblogging.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/woodland-fun/

Close Encounter of the Third Kind

When I "parked" the bike in the garage today after picking Sophie up from preschool, I heard an: "Ahhh, Mama, what's that???!!! It's moving!" 

Not that I'm a big fan of earth worms, but I did tell her not to step on it and that they made good bird food. The neighbors must have thought we were crazy squatting in front of our garage for quite some time to watch the worm make it's way back into the ground.