Saturday, April 12, 2008

The World According to Sophia





Who is this funny girl? Any hint of Sophia being shy, or even camera shy is thrown out the door with these photos. When she’s with mommy or daddy, she laughs on cue, hams it up for the camera, and just gets downright silly. These are photos from downtown Munich, brunch at our favorite spot the Park CafĂ©, and playing on the grounds of the Schleissheim Palace.

Z Baby Update

I'm still pregnant.

One week to go, but we are ready for this little one to join us in the world. She's still putting on the weight, estimations right around 3,000 grams at this point (7 lbs), but she's dropped in the past week & the doctor yesterday said it could be this weekend, it could be 2 weeks from now.

Waiting... waiting... waiting...

We told Sophia that the other car seat will be in the back seat with her after the baby is born, and she said "then I'll be able to tell her that I am her big sister." She's getting a little anxious for the baby to be born as well, she knows that Nana & Papa arrive when the baby comes, and she wants me to be able to play with her on the floor again. (I can get down but can't really move once I am there and am having problems getting back up).

Munich in the News

One of the things we loved about being in Paris was the constant international news about the city. We often choose our weekend activities from articles in the NYTimes or one of the inflight magazines that Troy was constantly bringing home. It was amazing to see just how much was going on at any one time - probably pretty important when you are trying to entertain 15 million residents and 78 million foreign tourists per year!
Munich in the news is a little bit quieter. Obviously a smaller city, only 1.3 million residents, and just about 9 million overnight visitors (but over 80 million day trippers last year), so the news tends to focus on the big events - Oktoberfest, the World Cup 2006, the Euro Cup 2008, Christmas Markets, Spring Festival, MTV Video Music Awards, etc... We were thrilled last summer when Munich was chosen as the "Most liveable City in the World" by Monocle, and then this morning the Germany Bureau Chief for the NYTimes based in Berlin had the guts to say that Munich is becoming cooler than Berlin (There is a huge rivalry between the two cities). I'm hoping we start seeing more & more of the smaller festivals in the international news as well!

In the meantime, you can always check out our other blog, Munich Daily Photo, for views of Munich & a little interesting commentary from Troy.

The Carousel




Round & Round. Troy & Sophia spent the weekends riding to parks. Sophia tried the teeter-totter for the first time, and ran endlessly through the garden labyrinth. Finally, she took a couple spins on the carousel. Amazing what fun you can have going in circles.