It was a slow start morning and then the tram was severely delayed. The result was we missed the morning circle start, which meant we had to wait. Rather than just sit around, we went to a local coffee shop, Oslo Coffee, which Kai had been before. It was a great time just hanging out and having a morning break. The barrista was extra nice and didn’t even charge for Kai’s steamed milk. As the saying goes, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.
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We love Kai’s kita (the pre-school here in Germany). Except when it comes to holidays when they always seem to be taking the liberty of staying closed even when the holiday is over just because its Friday. So since Kai was out of school, we decided to make a long weekend of it. Our friends suggested a beachside resort on the Baltic a few hours drive away. A good alternative to getting us all on a plane somewhere, and had been on the agenda for some time so we were in. It was a good first run experience — overall, the car rides went smoothly — the biggest issue was missing on of the exits on the way up (and getting stuck in massive traffic jam for 40 minutes). The place was nice and really well prepared for kids. They had a kids club where we could drop the older kids off after 9am — good fun for them, and a bit more freedom for us. The sit down meals weren’t perfectly serene, but we managed to enjoy part of it. And the town was quaint with a nice promenade in front of the beach. We had some fun, learned a lot, and got to forget about some of the day-to-day issues which don’t add much value.
Papa finally fell today. Sore throat turned into watership down. But thanks to Chika managing the troops now on the path to recovery.
We are getting quite comfy with our Sunday morning routine — our friends drop their kids at our place whom we leave with Kai’s teacher, and then we head off with Teo for a relaxing brunch. This week we decided to venture to the California Breakfast Slam. It’s not in a neighborhood we traditionally head to, but we are growing more bold/confident in our Sunday excursions. It is actually housed in a place which is a bar in the evening — the large communal table in the room where we sat was actually the pool table under cover. But it turned out to be fitting environment — homey, cozy, with good portions of comfort food. They even provided you with water without having to order it by the bottle — almost unheard of in Berlin. Not all the eats were perfect — the poached eggs on the eggs benedict were a bit overpoached — but still a good change of pace from the traditional Berlin brunch fare. Will venture again.
We were on just on the way to breakfast when it happened. I was carrying Kai on my shoulders at I often do and mistepped on some cobblestone and then both Kai and I came down. Kai got the worst of it, coming chin down and making an unpleasant gash which started bleeding. So a beautiful sunny morning was spent in the hospital waiting for the one surgeon to take a look and then glue the wound shut.
But we had lollipops, ice cream, swinging in the park, pancakes with berries, syrup AND whipped cream (plus mom and dad had a break for a few hours while the kids slept off their individual ailments — Teo was a bit under the weather as well). 24 hours later, we were not perfect, but on the way to recovery.
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