Rosalie tries out her new Stokke Tripp Trapp

The advantage of being able to sit up while eating is clear - it's even easier to smear your food around the house...

This is what happens when three-year-olds dress themselves

 

Notice the detail of boots on wrong feet, the whole look is simply captivating. It's just bound to catch on.

Animoto Slideshow of Liam's birthday

A remix of photos set to music, courtesy of Animoto

Pavement Artist

About the same time as her brother was learning to cycle, Rosalie was using her artistic creativity to enhance the pavement outside our house. As the video below shows, the biggest issue was to first choose the right colour of chalk...

Liam learns to cycle

Liam has been using his Laufrad since his second birthday, and his bicycle plus stabilisers since Xmas 2007. Today was lovely and sunny, so against Heike's advice, I let him have a go without the Stützräder.

A video of how he got on is embedded below. He was hesitant at first, and agreed after an attempt or two that it'd be wise to wear a helmet. Then he suddenly got the hang of it, and was off cycling towards Rosalie at top speed!

I think I learned to cycle about age 6, so it can't be my natural talent that he's inherited :-)

Liam's third birthday

Liam celebrated his third birthday today, first at home with a candle-lit birthday breakfast, then with his classmates in the Kindergarten, then in the JumpInn indoor playground.

A slideshow of Picasa photos is embedded below:

My choice for US President

Everyone has an opinion about who to vote for in the US Presidential election. Apart of course, from Scott Adams, who considers himself not well-informed enough to vote, and me, who has not as yet made the effort to understand the candidate's policies.

Up to now I've been of the opinion that replacing GWB with just about any other US citizen would make a marked improvement. Indeed, opening the rules to allow Arnie into the White House would have my support, if only for the amusement value of a half governor, half cyborg combat chassis running the White House.

The candidates all seem agreeable enough on first inspection. McCain has been vocal in renouncing torture, Clinton obviously cares about the healthcare disaster, and Obama seems like a generally nice guy. But that's somewhat less than an understanding of their policies...

But now, thanks to an online questionnaire from Der Spiegel, I don't need to make the thinking effort - I have discovered that I support the policies of Barack Obama, followed by Hillary Clinton, then John McCain.

Here's my political profile:

Disclaimer: I'm disenfranchised enough already by being non-resident in my country of birth, and a non-citizen in my country of residence, so please don't point out the bleedin' obvious fact that this election has nothing to do with me ;-)

Uses for a butterfly net

I was intrigued by this picture of Liam taken at his grandfather's house in Walldorf... Is it just me or does he look like he wants to catch those deer heads in his butterfly net?

Alannah's Christening Party

We were in Dublin at the weekend for my niece Alannah's Christening party, or more correctly her welcoming party, as she didn't get any water poured over her.

Unfortunately my camera batteries  died in the church, so I didn't get any pictures of her there, but we got a few of the party back at my parents house later. It was great to see all the assembled aunts, uncles and cousins again, there's nothing like a good family bash for that.

Liam and Rosalie had a great time too - Liam is always thrilled when he meets up with his Irish cousins. Here are Rosalie and Oran enjoying a bit of sofa time together.

Definitely a fun weekend, and once again congrats to Alannah on her welcoming ceremony.