Ex-pat Newlyweds

Almost four-year-olds are exhausting. I’m glad he still needs naps, or else I would never have been able to think of witty new answers to each “Why?”.

They arrived Wednesday, already almost two weeks ago, and despite a delay in luggage, everything else was great (the luggage arrived later that night). Peter handled the flight well and even slept fairly normally, with only two nights of needing breakfast at 4 a.m.

I got to see Berlin in a whole new way — doing things for kids. We started with a trip up to the TV Tower, to get a good view. It’s a great way to start a visit to Berlin as you get to see the whole city, the differences between East and West apparent from 204 metres up. It was Mom/Gisela’s first trip to Berlin — a city that was not as accessible when she was growing up here.

The whole trip was a matter of compromises. We would go see sites Mom/Gisela would want to see while on our way to see things Peter would want to see. Potsdamer Platz led to Legoland and through the short walk to the zoo, I pointed out the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedzächtniskirche (aka — the Broken Church). On Saturday, Peter and Uncle Josh (the Uncle prefix is insisted upon by Peter) headed off to the Dinosaur museum to see the tallest dinosaur skeleton in the world while Mom/Gisela and I got on bikes to see the historic sites of the city.

Sunday afternoon, after some minor drama with the car rental company that led to us taking the train, we went to Köln. We visited with Great Grandmas, ate ice cream, shuttled between family visits and battled with the almost-four-year-old into clothing shopping.

Leaving was hard. Normally saying good bye to my Mom is hardest, but Peter usurped her this time. As he hugged my good bye, he was really sad and I know that’s the sign that he had a really good time with his Aunt.

Mission accomplished.

Now onto what you really want: Pictures of Peter.

Peter in the ball pit at Legoland from Sabine Devins on Vimeo.

Good thing he wore his Batman shirt to Legoland.

At pieces of the Berlin wall at Potsdamer Platz.

Watching the Transformer Movie with Josh.

The sword from Legoland went everywhere.

I think Knut?

This is the “Why?” face.

The giant dinosaur skeleton.

Waiting for the train in Berlin.

Ice Cream in Zündorf.