The Baltic Sea: a few facts

• Around here, they call it the East Sea (Ostsee).
• Nine countries border it: Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia.
• It is the world’s youngest sea and depending on who you ask, it is either the largest or the second largest body of brackish water (after the Black Sea.)
• Its tides are very weak: about 30 cm on average
• About half of its surface area freezes over during winter. The extent and thickness of the ice depends on the severity of the winter.
• Its depth is only about 55 meters on average.
• Its biodiversity is relatively low: fewer than a hundred species compared with around 1500 in other oceans
• It’s very vulnerable to pollution. This has been and continues to be a big problem. The Baltic Sea contains large dead zones, where life is made impossible due to lack of oxygenation.
• Its fish fauna is a mixture of marine species (cod, herring, salmon…) and fresh water species (whitefish, perch, pike…)
• It contains the world’s largest known deposit of amber (fossilized tree resin)

A few snapshots taken in Lubmin, about 15 minutes from Greifswald:

7 months

Gabe.   It’s Axel’s 7 month birthday!   He’s made big progress over the last month, with notable achievements in the areas of mischief and tantrums.  His little hands are finding new targets all the time — cords, cables and curtains are being put to the test as his strength increases at a frightening speed.  When alone at nap time he must do chin-ups on the crib bars like a prisoner counting down the days to his release.

On a related note, I noticed they sell hamster chips in bulk at the local Real (German Walmart) for dirt-cheap and suggested to Lisa that we could go diaper free in Axel’s crib and probably get some sort of Eco-parent prize.  Sadly the idea was vetoed.

Lisa.   No one is allowed to restrain this grumpalump, so the stroller and any other type of baby carrier are rarely tolerated.

His new way of communicating displeasure is to plant himself right in front of me in his trotter and just yell *loudly* right in my face. I’m apparently expected to guess the source of the problem, and remedy it without delay, otherwise the volume just keeps going up and the tone gets downright menacing. At the end of the day,  his angst can only be relieved by the  arrival of the Entertainer-in-Chief.

One day he will get back at me for making him wear this hat

On the flip side, I get my fair share of cuddles and laughs (sometimes for no apparent reason). Laughing is a big thing now, pretend-sneezing is always popular. He also likes to be thrown in the air and tickled. And he likes to bounce a lot, so much so that we are looking into getting one of those Johnny Jumper contraptions (but not the ones that hang perilously from the door jamb).

In other news Axel had his first playdate recently, and seemed to enjoy himself (and all the new toys) a lot:

Busy deciding which exciting new toy to play with first

Still a lot of drooling and teething discomfort but no tooth on the horizon yet…I’m sick of writing, here’s what you really came for:

Cheering Gabe on during his kettlebell workout

Catching some rays from the "daylight lamp"

The Puss in Boots eyes

What do you mean, you're going to eat me

Don't you know it's way too cold for a photoshoot?

Weather update

It looks like our very own little ice age is finally coming to an end. Bicyclists seemed wholly unfazed by the cold or the snow and kept pedaling stoically. I saw one particularly hardy child, about 4 or 5 years of age, who was tucked behind the handlebar of his mother’s bike, red nose braving the freezing headwinds like a ship figurehead and, I kid you not, eating an ice cream. It must have been -8 C (I’m guessing -15 C with the windchill).

What is this white stuff?

Ils sont fous ces Allemands...

As far as us, we are not quite so brave yet, though we are planning on getting bikes as well as a pod-like attachment for Axel when the weather improves. In the meantime we wrangle him into his snowsuit and stroller and try to ignore his wails.

Funny German word of the week:

der Schleim = mucus

New digs

CAUTION: “gently EDITED” by Gaber

We moved into our new apartment over the weekend, and it’s an upgrade from the previous temporary place, which was a smidge small and quite boisterous (we were on the ground floor, right at the main hub of the building so it felt like Grand Central Station.)  The new place is smack diddly in the center of town, on a wee quiet street a frosty breath away from the big Marktplatz.  It’s a duplex, with a bona-fide kitchen (with a nice bump up on the fridge), a tub and no one above us except the sweet lord.  The building is filled with friendly IPP folks.  The challenge with this new place: no room for Axel. We have a plan in the works, though: we are slicing off a nice chunk of our huge L-shaped bedroom for the little guy by sliding across a massive IKEAesque wardrobe.  I will post dazzling pics of the interior when the place is really up and running.

Out with the old...

... in with the new

That's our door!

In other news, it looks like the internet was lying when it assured me that winter temperatures in Greifswald wouldn’t go much lower than -2 degrees Celsius… Hold on to your knickers — next week is gonna be frigigigigid (-13 C apparently!).

And snow to follow!  The mildest winter in a long while, according to many, but it has made a comeback for our debut.  Auspicous?  We think so.  Our first moments in the kitchen in both places ended in broken wine glasses.  More good voodoo?

Did I mention we’ve no gloves or hats? Better get knitting lickity split…

Last week’s random observations:

- used kids clothes: I love buying second-hand baby clothes for Axel ; he grows so fast so what’s the point in buying too many brand new things? However, it would seem that the Germans’ recycling tendencies are in overdrive when it comes to second-hand clothes. What I’ve seen so far is beyond gently used. The clothes looked like they’d been through generations of children. I ended up scoring choice items in the H&M sales rack instead. Oh well.

-Greifswald is a tiny place where everybody seems to know about everybody else. Three different people have told us about the other Franco-American couple who lives in our apartment building… I can’t stand the suspense!

-bread here is out of this world. And we haven’t even sampled the real, fresh-from-the-bakery stuff.

-it is so frustrating to me that my German hasn’t resurfaced yet. I know it’s there, as I understand most of what I’m told, but then I draw a blank each time I try to construct a sentence that is more than 3 words long. People so far have been very sweet and helpful. I need to figure out a way to get Axel babysat so I can take me some classes and get myself learned up real nice like.

CAUTION: “gently EDITED” by Gaber

Monkey see, monkey do

First impressions

Hopefully this post doesn’t read like a list of stereotypes, but if I’m fully honest, this is what has jumped at me since we crossed the border into Germany:

-cleanliness: let’s just say that there is a big contrast between driving on the Belgian highway and on the German Autobahn… We stopped a few times and the women’s bathrooms were probably the cleanest I’ve ever encountered, ever. The stainless steel trash cans and faucets were actually completely spotless! Wow. And of course the hotel we stayed at and the guest apartment we moved into were equally squeaky-clean.

-gravy: Germans sure seem to love their gravy. Puddles of it with a few floating pieces of meat. And vegetables don’t seem to be extremely popular, unless used as a garnish. Of course, one notable exception is the Kartoffel.

-bland: as in, the use of spices and other condiments doesn’t seem very common. Even the Doner Kebabs we’ve tried were very onion-y but not much else going on in the flavor department. And the Chinese/Thai place across the street was incredibly bland, even when the dish was labeled as “scharf”. Gabe also bought a bottle of “hot sauce” with the labels “scharf” and “würzig” all over it, and it tasted exactly like Ketchup. Caveat: we have just gotten here and probably just haven’t encountered any decent cuisine yet.

-fridges: more like minibars! We visited an apartment that we might move into next month and although the kitchen was very generously sized, the fridge was still itty-bitty. Looks like the way to go is to shop for a day or two’s worth of food.

-keys: locks everywhere. Doors that lock when you close them. Self-locking laundry-room door, self-locking hallway-to-the-laundry-room door… I’m so worried I’m going to lock myself out one day with Axel still inside… I guess I should have a set of keys at my belt everyday, like a jail-keeper.

-bikes: lots of and lots of bicycles, in spite of the wintry weather and drizzle. Of course bike lanes everywhere. Greifswald is very flat, too… Looks like fun!

6 months!

Officially a big baby now, Axel is extremely good natured (most of the time.) Smiles, laughs and more smiles. And bubbles. New activities include: sucking on his thumb, hugging (and headbutting) when tired, bouncing when held, sitting, smacking, slapping, punching. Punches and hair-pulling are a sign of great excitement. “Words” include “mamama” when in distress, “dadada” when excited or busy, and “daaa-th” when examining something.

Solids are a big hit, he eats a compote mid-morning and a soup or a puree for lunch, followed by some compote (banana and apple or prunes are current favorites)

Sleep is touch and go these days. He was sleeping through the night (7:30pm to 6am) in Normandy but now he wakes up once or twice a night again. Sometimes he is just thirsty and will go right back to sleep, sometimes he is inconsolable (nightmares this early?) and requires a little cuddling and music box.

Locomotion-wise, Axel now enjoys the stroller and car seat (up to a certain point) and of course, his new love is the “youpala” (trotter?), courtesy of his grandmother. I realize that there is a bit of a backlash against these contraptions these days, but with careful monitoring and used sparingly, it works great for us and Axel seems to love the independence and potential for exploration.

One milestone that the little Mouffalo isn’t mastering quite yet is the flipping over… He absolutely hates being on his tummy and just lays there, complaining loudly and awaiting parental rescue. He’s flipped over a few times, but doesn’t seem to do it intentionally yet.

EDIT by G.baby: Axel loves the hell out of his singing dog.  He cares less for his stuffed bumble bee which we call Howard the Bee or HoBo for short because he’s a useless bee who makes no honey.  He likes bathtime somewhat less now that it is in the sink:

I'm no casserole.

This is probably reason enough to find an apartment with tub because jesus does he love his tub time.