Bikes, Groceries, and playing as always.

Our version of Aunt Linda's toy idea is being used right now, with a bit of frustration. It's a plastic bottle with a pen inside. Edwin keeps trying to shove his hand inside. He only once dumped out the pen and tried to stick it back inside. Once it was back in he was a little astonished and frustrated.

We are still recovering from our crazy election night. We left the radio going all night while we "slept". Edwin slept pretty well but some how he got way off anyway. Last night he went to bed early, but then woke up at 9 and didn't go back to sleep until 11. I had a headache and he did not want to hang out with John. Uf.

Nothing big going on. John takes an exam tomorrow. We did have on exciting thing happen Monday. We went to a bike auction held by the police. These bikes were supposedly locked for too long at the train station or something to that effect. We went and bid on a few, but they went up beyond our self imposed limit. We arrived late. We went one place and were early only to learn that it was somewhere else 4 km away. There had been an earlier period where people could go and scout out the bikes. That would have been helpful since we couldn't tell size or condition that quickly. Some things were told in German of course, but that was again hard to access quickly by visual. So it took us a while to warm up. There were only two bikes we saw with child seats and we should have stayed on longer for one, but oh well. We don't really need it. John got a kids bike for 5 Euro. Who knows why no one wanted it! There were many people buying lots of bikes. Supposedly they own stores and resell the bikes. But they bought some ones that needed repairs where as this one was just small. The auctioneer tried to get John to pay 6 Euro, but he stuck to 5. We all made fun of him, but it's working out and the inner-tube was even still good.

Do they have these in the US? Do people ride enough bikes for abandonment to be an issue?

Again the bike scene is great here. And I was thinking today how I'm not even using one. I walk. I could also take the tram if I wanted, or bus, but I'm fine walking most of the time. The bike auction day we determined I walked about 10 miles. I love that that has been almost a daily occurrence. Not 10 miles mind you, but at least 4 miles if I'm walking into the city and back. Today was not that far. I walked to Al Natura, natural food store where most everything is Bio or organic. Then to REWE to round out the food. Then back to Al Natura because I forgot diapers. We also dropped off glass recycling in some big bins along the way. But back tot the bicycle. There is rampant theft of bikes here, so it's a little dicey that John doesn't have a lock right now. He's hoping it's undesirable. It sure helps him get there faster! Which of course means more relaxed mornings for us. Not that we get to sleep in or anything though. Edwin has been waking up between 6 and 7 am.

Okay that's all. I need to go play more. Another note on developement though. Edwin is doing a lot of standing, a few shuffle steps, and a lot of squats. It's pretty awesome!