Busy weekend!

Mark's friend Russ came to visit last weekend. It was very chilled out because it's hard to party when you have a baby in tow! The boys went out to Frankfurt on Saturday night and didn't roll in until 5:30am. Mark definitely felt it and spent most of Sunday recovering in bed due to 'tiredness'!

Because of this he missed the Strassenfest (street party) that our little courtyard held. It was a really nice morning. Everyone brought a dish (I did a simple mozzarella salad) and there was a long table for us all the sit at. One woman even brought a hot plate and cooked us all an omelette! Inara was a bit confused by it all but she was a big hit. At one point she got overtired and cried until I rocked her to sleep. She really wanted to doze off but there was just too much for her to look at! One of our neighbours had a baby 3 days ago, so they brought Adriano out to show everyone. He was so small, it's hard to believe Miss Chunk Inara was like that!

In the afternoon I hopped on a train to Frankfurt to celebrate Amanda's 31st birthday. It was the first time I had to go on the U-bahn (subway/underground) with Inara. She did NOT like it! The trains are quite noisy and rattle a bit, she was very wide eyed and there were limbs flailing in distress! Travelling there was a nightmare. The lifts were not signposted clearly at all, and I spent a good 10 minutes just wandering around Frankfurt main station looking for one to get to the lower levels. Turned out that I had to actually leave the station and go across the road to get in the lift (silly me for not knowing that!). Then I had to change trains twice and got a bit turned around at one point.

We finally got there (late) and had a lovely afternoon. Amanda's friend, Anita, had a baby 7 weeks ago, so Inara was yet again not the smallest baby. It's quite sad seeing her grow up so fast! The BBQ was lots of fun and I got to meet a few new faces. It was great to be at a gathering with more kids, there were 6 in total. Usually I am the only one and feel like I'm making a scene when Inara cries or I need to go off and feed her. Instead there were kids running about, screaming and playing - bliss!

Inara nodded off for 1/2 hour while there, and again on the train, but she was way under her normal napping time. Bath time was a bit fraught as she was so tired and didn't want to get wet. Usually she likes her bath, so I knew it was bad! She went down easily and apart from the occasional dummy replacements, has been good as gold.