First trip to Germany

Here some impressions from Mia's first trip to Germany from which we returned this afternoon:

On the plane to Frankfurt: Mia had Economy plus I had just a regular economy seat - but she still likes sitting on my lap


A little snack in the dining car in the train from Frankfurt to Hamburg


A visit to the weekly farmer's market in Hamburg

Fancy dinner at an Italian restaurant

An even fancier dinner on the next night

Off to the country side at the lower Rhine in Spellen; Mia's first look at chicken

A break in a hammok
Mia's first look at cows

Relaxing on a hot day at the Rhine with Andrea

In the ICE express train to Nürnberg

Hanging out with cousin Matthias on his 40'th birthday

First trip to a Bavarian beer garden for the big birthday bash

Hanging out with Max, the other second generation from our "gang" in a cafe in Frankfurt.

Meeting with Dale and Amanda

On her eight month birthday Mia dressed up in her Sunday best and headed to the National Mall in Washington DC to meet with Amanda, Dale and their two year old daugther Adeline. They were in town doing some sight seeing with Dale's nephew who was visiting from the Midwest. Unfortunately it was quite hot so the stroll on the Mall didn't last too long.
The morning started with a little fashion show since we had to pick some outfits for our trip to Germany in two days. It will be probably a bit cooler over there.

Rolling on

For a few days now Mia has extended her bag of tricks by rolling from her tummy to her back. Before that she could only go the other way. Good thing that she can cool off in the little pool after a hard day of work:

Party girl

Here some pictures to show that Mia is also adding visits to parties and the pool to her schedule. She skipped the building's pool party "Rock the roof IV" though since the music was a bit too loaud and there also was a conflict with her afternoon nap

Baby sitting

One of Mia's favorite things to do right now is sitting up and looking around - as we found out today she can even do it without any help now. So we thought this would be a good time to get her a high chair:

One other new development is her crawling: She is still can't really move forward but somhow she is now moving sideways, backwards or otherwise changing direction.
After all this hard work a little stroll in the neighborhood is always welcome:

First haircut

After Mia's hair got a bit long around the ears Mama decided that it would be a good time to trim them a bit. Looks like Mia likes her new look:

According to the pediatrician Mia was supposed to loose all the hair she had at birth but in the front she has kept most of it. Of course the hair we cut has been stored in a safe place.
Mia also enjoyed a trip to the countryside on Saturday. First stop was orchard just north of Thurmont, Maryland - just a bit south of the border to Pennsylvania:


After buying some fruit and jam we had time for a little walk before heading for an old fashioned Family restaurant in Thurmont with nice lunch buffet that included fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans and the iced tea was either sweetened or unsweetened.
Mia enjoyed looking around and at the people seated at the table next to us and was even offered some fried chicken by an old lady who had lunch with a friend.

Mia likes apples

As recommend by the pediatrcian we have been trying to introduce Mia to solid food for some weeks now. She had suggested rice cereal or oatmeal mixed with formula but so far Mia didn't seem too happy about these culinary choices. When Ji - who is a big fan of apples herself - tried some mashed apples the other day Mia was pretty intersted and was also eating them as second breakfast this morning. So this might be her first "real" food - not a bad choice.

Maybe this was also why she was in a good mood most of the - as can be seen on this picture when she returned from one of her outings