Skating at Nymphenburg Canal

Although we have had such a great time at the canals at Schleissheim, and the lack of people there, we decided to try out Nymphenburg. There is a 2 euro charge for the ice at the end of the canal (furthest away from the Palace), but the ice is cleared off daily - for skating with musical accompaniment - and is open until 10pm on frozen days. Something fun & romantic to do at night. Sophia was able to use the stroller as her "penguin" for the day. Alexandra was alseep & had a great nap being pushed around by her big sister!

Z life

Alexandra gets very excited about crawling...Normal, on all 4s...
She hits the hardwoods & out comes the left leg.

A silly dinner with Sophia (noses are really popular right now).

Post updates

Hi there,
Just to let you know, I have been going back & updating photos & posts from the date that they were taken. There are a few new videos and lots of pics of our hols in the US, if you are interested, so go back & check out the dates that you are interested in.
It's been a wild ride!
xx

Alexandra at 9 months

Alexandra has gone thru quite a growth spurt over the last month. She has started to really get the hang of crawling. She is very funny about it too, she crawls on all 4s on the carpet, and then the minute she gets to the hardwood floor up comes the right foot (or if you hold it down then the left foot comes up) and she does a modified crab/sideways/circular crawl using her foot for traction - she is almost always wearing her Robeez slippers to keep her socks on & I think the leather provides her with great speed.

We've had a couple days were she was running a fever & an insanely, runny nose, and then out popped a tooth! Her nose stopped within a few hours...

She also has weaned herself off nursing. It's a bit of an adjustment, but really she was just too hungry & too impatient to wait for me anymore. We managed to get thru the trip back from Seattle, and then within the week she was finished. It's also an adjustment on my part, but being able to share more of the feeding times with Troy, and getting a night or 2 where I don't have to get up multiple times is really REALLY nice, and has been a big benefit for my enjoyment of the day.

Plus she started sleeping 10-12 hours straight at night! Heaven on Earth...

Now that she is moving, we've had to put her in the play saucer in order to get a lot done in the apartment. Crazy girl! Plus, it is really hard to keep her out of Sophia's room, and hard to keep Sophia's room baby-proofed! Polly Pockets are so small, they actually fall thru the cracks in the wood floor!

Cold play on the weekends

We don't usually spend much time in English Garden (since the dog incident), but we had to see the lake near the See Haus frozen over. You could walk out to the island, and all around the lake. Although we could see the area on the other side where the ice had started melting, and we were a bit concerned about the people playing hockey near there - what if they lost a puck?

It is just a bit crazy for us, Green lake hardly ever froze growing up, and to see ice everywhere, every day is just nuts. It has warmed up to the mid 30's though, and feels so warm I actually walked out without a scarf the other day. Amazing how much warmer 35 is than 20...

Alexandra in her "hermatically sealed" stroller. She is so warm with the snow suit & sleeping bag, and plastic rain shield, that you can actually see condensation on the inside of the plastic cover!

Alexandra at 8 months

Not to the day, but she is crawling!


Alexandra's first day of crawling! from Moya Z on Vimeo.

Skating at the Schloss

We spent the afternoon yesterday back at Schloss Schleissheim, this time bringing our skates! Well, at least Troy & Sophia had their skates, Alexandra & I power walked around them. Troy had never skated outdoors before, and I think it was a dream for him to be there, and to have his daughter with him!

Back to Munich

Well, we arrived back in Munich to more cold. -10 the night we arrived at the airport, but no snow. Which was kind of a relief given the past 3 weeks in Seattle.

We had heard of the canals at the varioius schloss around Munich that were frozen over, so we took a trip out to Schloss Schleissheim to check it out. This is the main canal leading between the 2 palaces, and it was completely frozen over - at least 8 inches thick from the bubbles you could see below your feet. Amazing, and we will definately be coming back for some skating.

The cool kids on the block

Playtime in the snow with Uncle Brehan, Sean & Sophia.

Sophia & I finally got a snowman made 2 nights before we left when it snowed 8 inches while we were at dinner. Amazing - I have never seen a Seattle winter like this!

Happy 2009!

Well, we are back, and given that I am writing this at 1am you can probably guess that we are beginning our weeks of jet lag fun. Troy and I are taking turns staying up, and since I was falling asleep at the dinner table tonight, I had the early 4 hours (8-12), and he gets 12 - 4am. Hopefully we will all be asleep between 4-10am, and then we start the day. Troy has to leave for Paris at 5am, so it is just me & the girls tonight. Poor man!
Any way, my plan for the late night hours is to add photos from Christmas, so be sure to look back (I'll do them chronologically).
Thanks again to everyone for making Christmas so special, and sorry about not being able to touch base with everyone at home. The snow made everything crazy this year, and we are sorry if we missed you!