2009-05-08 - 2:35 a.m.

...still in Germany...

Today is our last day in Germany before we take the Eurostar over to London. This trip has been wonderful - although, it has also been one of those holidays that one needs to take a holiday afterwards to recover from the holiday.

We have seen tons of people. After our visit with Oma and Opa we went to Jena where we met up with so many dear friends and colleagues. Our days were packed! On the weekend we went from bratwurst to bratwurst.

Susi has been an amazing little trouper. She smiles and chatters at everyone, without a single moment of stranger angst. We rented a room at the Jena Tower for a party yesterday - Susi took any hand offered to her and walked in circles around the tower for about an hour. By the end of this trip she will definitely be walking. Just this morning she took three unassisted steps towards Mama. She is also quite ready to eat on her own, making very concentrated efforts towards getting the spoon into her mouth without dumping everything.

We've also discovered that she is a near-perfect train child. She has taken two long and peaceful 90-minute naps on each of our train trips, and she plays happily and quietly on the floor in front of her seat, when she isn't pointing gleefully out the window at trees, grass, cows, and other trains.

She's earned herself a couple very cute German nicknames, such as Schneckerli (little snail) and Sonnenscheinchen (little sunshine).

Anyway, today is a day of collapse and recovery with Oma and Opa again. Will write more when the time presents itself.