Day Seven: Park

We went to the park today. Nothing special, although we did take the toddler's bike. It was a first birthday gift that she was too small for so we put it away and then it was too cold and wet for outside biking so we were saving it for a beautiful sunny day. Today was one and so off we went.

First we watched these guys playing Giant Chess. The guy bending down to play is very, very good, behind him you can see the other player's knights (two), bishops (two), queen and an assortment of pawns. He kept on playing after we'd stopped watching, beating anyone who dared play him.

There was a football game going on too, but the cycling was far cooler and the toddler didn't care about it.

Then we picked some daisies.

And then we examined every daisy patch minutely just in case the daisies were different there.

After we'd exhausted the possibilities of daisies, we moved on to poaching tennis balls from older kids. This kid really didn't want to play with her but chivalry won the day.

If this weather continues we're going to run out of parks to go to and have to repeat ourselves. What a wonderful dilemma to have.

Day Six: Ikea

You might think this is another copout sort of day, and it really wasn't. For one thing, it wore the toddler out so comprehensively that she hasn't stirred in three hours of naptime and it is rapidly encroaching upon bedtime. For another, it requires a train and a bus, each way, both of which she thinks are ridiculously cool. For another on top of that, she thinks it's a fantastic place to have lunch and it has a collection of cool toys and things to play with plus all manner of mirrors to admire herself in.

The train journey was fun. We sang songs and ate fruit.

We had to wait for Papa to return some stuff. Luckily the lady at the Ikea Family section has a flight of stairs that go nowhere. Those are really exciting, you can go up and down them!

Mamaaaaaa, I'm hungry!

I think this is why she likes Ikea so much. This ever so tasty meal comes with a dessert too (not pictured because once she sees it all meatballs are summarily dropped floorwards).

The post-prandial play area is ship-themed. Arrrrr, me hearties!

ARRRRR, ye scurvy landlubber, I caught a fish off the starboard bow and it was this big!

There are things inside all these portholes. I think this is the one that has actual fish.

See? Mirrors. Queen Narcissa plays solo peekaboo.

She's very taken with these child-sized chairs. Maybe one day she'll get one.

The Trofast at home is where all her treasures are kept. She inspects the Ikea ones just in case.

And here's the bus stop. Buses are incredibly cool, their wheels go round and round, round and round, round and round.

We were at Ikea because we needed to repair a broken item and needed Ikea bits, and because we needed to return something. Even so, it was a fun day for small children as well as a productive one for grown-ups. (Bets currently being taken on how long the repair will take...)

Day Five: Gymboree

Today's been a hell of a day at Toddler Towers. Between a sad anniversary, the in-court end of a protracted legal case and a medical appointment and a half, we had a lot on our collective plates and so I cheated a bit and made the regular Gymboree class our sole outing. We're going out for dinner later with some friends, but I'm not sure that'll count.

Anyway, today's a Play and Learn class rather than her music class and the theme was pushing and pulling.

I pulled her up the slide on the lambskin and pushed her down. Most of these pictures turned out very blurry; lambskin makes for super fast sliding.

Climbing a foam mountain ...

Finding bubbles at the top! Something I like about Gymboree is that all the parents get very involved. That spare finger in the picture isn't mine, it belongs to someone else's Papa, and I love that everyone's always interacting with everyone else's kids.

This is the complicated business of descending Bubble Mountain after climbing one side. Pictured: Attempt 2. Attempt 1 wasn't as successful, although I suspect one could call it character-building.  

Parachute rides. Always awesome, especially when it's a sparsely-populated parachute.

It's been a hard day, today. I'm really glad we made time for brightly-coloured fun.

Day Four: Deutsches Museum

Something I'm learning is that it's always good to have a backup plan. Today I was expecting reasonable weather and so planned accordingly but we were woken this morning by heavy rain and decided to take one of our indoor options.

The Deutsches Museum is not only handily close to our apartment but we also have a season ticket (thank you all the aunts and uncles who sent the toddler money for Christmas; this is what we did with it) and it has a large play area in the basement. So it's an ideal bad-weather choice for us. I'd planned a wander through the space travel section, but today the toddler was impatient for play and so off we went!

First, we demolished all the inferior structures ever built by previous children.

Then we abandoned the large Lego because these blocks are bigger.

Fire engines are super cool. This one has a flashing blue light and a siren.

Water tables are also a lot of fun. Try as I might, I could not capture the streams of water she poured down herself. This is probably because the water was all captured here:

The ever-practical Germans have a tumble dryer in the baby changing room, though, so we threw the wet clothes into the dryer. They also have spare clothing, which we didn't think we needed because I'd had a spare shirt kicking around my bag for ages and had thrown in a pair of pants in case she fell in the water. However, with all the best laid plans, I realised that I'd forgotten to bring socks and hers were wringing wet.

And here's her change of clothes. Ersatzkleidung indeed, please notice that she is sockless as well as uncoordinated.

So today I learned that even when I have a backup plan it's good to have thought it all the way through and my toddler learned that it is fun to empty vast amounts of water down herself.  Another good day.

Day Three: Michaeligarten

It is absurdly sunny and warm here today. Just getting that out there. My original plan had been to take the tricycle I've been saving for a sunny day and go to a local park to have quiet family time. We've been particularly hectic recently and I looked forward to just spending the day together, the three of us, having fun. But we were invited to a biergarten by a friend, lots of other friends were going and crucially so were their kids. One of our friends in particular has two boys who are among the sweetest little people I've ever met and so we went along to see them.

I feel like I should explain the biergartens to people who aren't familiar and who might suspect that actually I'm using the 30 days as an excuse to drink my way around Munich. I'm not, really. Meeting friends at a biergarten usually involves bringing some food to share (we were disorganised and brought chocolates, others who were less spur of the moment baked), having loads of kids running around the playground areas, and spending long afternoons in the sun with a couple of beers - or soft drinks - and good company. And on all points, today was wonderful.

We started off today's trip wishing Nan a Happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day, Nan.

We settled down in the playground with today's fun accessory: bubble mixture and a collection of fun things to make bubbles with.

Here are the aforementioned sweet souls helping us set things up.

Before you know it, a crowd had gathered. It got bigger and bigger until we ran out of bubble utensils.

Even after the bubbles palled, the boys stayed with the toddler and treated her like a very tiny equal. My heart was warmed.

Skimming stones and spotting swans.

Meeting a friendly dog. Who knows, maybe we'll see this friendly dog again soon?

Food sharing is just as well, since this small girl reached out and grabbed the cupcake from the tray.  

I did say it's not all about the beer. But it is a bit about the beer. I'm pretty sure this was empty when she started it, but her father took this picture so I can only trust his common sense.

Earlier on today I was a bit put out that we were missing out on a family day in the park. But what we did instead was to go out and play with our other family. As foreigners living in a city being friends with other foreigners in the city, we're apart from our extended families and sometimes it's hard going. Days like this are the next best thing - and when it comes to small girls learning what it might be like to have big brothers showing her how to skim stones and teaching her to blow bubbles, it's just as good or even better. Thanks everyone. We had a lovely day.

Day Two: Grocery Shopping

I'd planned a trip to the Englischer Garten this afternoon complete with Papa and a fresh bottle of bubble mixture. However, the toddler decided to forgo her nap and in the resulting chaos I decided that I'd photograph the grocery shopping trip in case we didn't make it to the park. Just as well really, it's already after 3pm and she's on the verge of collapsing.

Still, not only did we have fun, I got to document the ridiculous amount of free stuff a cute kid can get. So:

A chocolate bar from the owner of our local mini-supermarket. Nommed in the train with much chocolate around the face and hands. Thank you, kind supermarket guy. We like you.

We even had time for a game. The game is, I lift her feet with mine and she shakes me off when she gets bored. Fun, hey? Also, please note the summer shoes. It's gorgeous outside; I hope you're jealous.

At the Turkish market, we examined their wares and made a decision as to what looked tastiest.

I didn't like the look of the liver either.

Lo and behold, the meat counter man noticed and before we could say, How much is that? he'd handed over a freebie wiener. I think she looks a bit smug here. Still, thanks, Turkish butcher. You're very kind.

Next stop Lidl for milk and bread. Plus some other bits. We even bought a large pack of spaghetti for our next trip to see the deer.

Just checkin' out the sportswear while the minions are paying and packing.

We found a lion on the way home. He offered a fistbump; she declined. She is half English, after all.

 And our final freebie: three beautiful roses from the florist around the corner. Papa's holding them for her because she really, really needed that cup of milk. Thank you, florist. They're beautiful.

It's almost humbling to live in such a child-friendly city. Our errands took us two and a half hours because of all the people we stopped to say hello to and who stopped us to talk to her. And while we didn't get to the park with the bubbles and the running around, we still had a pretty good day.

Day One: Hirschgarten

Today we planned an afternoon at the biergarten (don't panic; the beer bit was closed). The Hirschgarten is the largest biergarten in Munich and the former hunting grounds of the royal family. What remain there are deer (Hirsch = Deer, Deer Garden, see?). These deer are extremely tame, perhaps because they spend most of every day being fed vast amounts of food by local children. Unfortunately, I'd never been there before and assumed that there'd be the option to buy deer food there. There isn't, but fortunately the toddler is charming enough that we relied upon the kindness of strangers and the deer did not go hungry. Mostly, they seem to enjoy dried pasta in many, many permutations. Who knew?

This is the toddler in question at the beginning of our adventure. You can feel the anticipation, can't you?

Goats and deer. It was baby heaven. I let her off the reins for this bit.

It had never occurred to me that deer would go mad for dried spaghetti, but it was great for little fingers - no chance of getting bitten and plenty of crunched-off leftovers scattered on the ground to be picked up for another round. The deer seemed to enjoy it too.

Feeding goats is almost as cool as deer. Almost.

I don't know what he was saying to her, but she was enthralled.

Not pictured:

- getting a hug from an extremely friendly bulldog
- licking stones with a baby friend until they had matching dirt moustaches
- walking around the mostly-empty biergarten tables and benches (it must be like a maze when you're only 90cm tall)
- running around on the grass
- acquiring vast amounts of dirt about her person
- becoming averse to shoes and socks and insisting on rolling her trousers up to the knee
- being forcibly kept awake on the tram home

I'm looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings. I hope I can convince her to put her shoes on.