trial and error parenting

Hey all! It's been another quiet week here in Frankfurt filled with lots of dirty diapers and repeated attempts to make our little guy smile. (By the way, those two things aren't mutually exclusive - dirtying his diaper often makes him smile. And us too for that matter.) We realized the other day that we've established a routine for il bambino which, according to parenting experts, is important. We don't put too much stock into parenting advice, however. We figure our first child can be our guinea pig for this whole parenting thing, and then we'll really know how to do it in case we decide to have a second child.

We had our second appointment with our pediatrician yesterday (or fourth if you count the two that happened at the hospital in the days immediately following the birth), and our poor little guy got his first vaccinations. He got two shots - one in each leg at the same time - and he wasn't happy about it, but he got over it pretty quickly. The vaccinations were for eight or nine different things, some of which I'd never heard of and am pretty sure I never got. Our little man was also weighed and measured, and he's a good sized kid. Especially his head, which is pretty big for his age. (I wonder who he got that from.) We go back next month for round two of the vaccinations.

Last week Brenda and I were out and about one morning and she decided to take our little guy to the opera house. He got to meet a whole bunch of Brenda's colleagues and sit in on a musical rehearsal of Carmen. He seemed to like it, although he started to sing along at one point so Brenda had to take him out of the theater. We're still working on his opera etiquette.

We've been having quite a bit of rain lately, at least by Frankfurt standards, which has me thinking that it's April and not almost June. There has also been a lot of thunder and lightning, which we really haven't experienced much here. We like it, though. It reminds us of home.

We're really excited to spend the next week with Brenda's parents. I'm sure they'll be great at getting smiles out of our little guy. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!