May 1, 2008

Today is May Day. May 1st is also the Germany Labor Day, so it's a day off of work for everyone here (except the Americans, that is). Yesterday, however, was when all the excitement occurred. In the evening, everyone from the town congregated in the center and watched the maypole being raised. Actually, it's more of a may-tree. A big birch tree they chop down from the woods and re-post in the center of town. It's preceeded down the road by a brass band and its raising is followed by drinking a lot of beer.

Savannah and I used this opportunity to test-drive the new hiking pack we got in the mail a couple of days ago. It is apparently quite comfortable to Timmy. He wasn't in the thing for too long before he was zonked out (hence, the pictures).

The sleeping problems from yesterday continue today. Timmy was awake by 5:15. Although I tried desperately to get him back to sleep for awhile longer, sleep would not come. To his credit, he's been napping, now, for 50 minutes- already 20 more than yesterday's morning nap. Probably as a result of too little sleep, he's been grumpy all morning. He was only happy (for a short while) on his belly trying to crawl.

I took some time to flip through some family pictures to point people out to Timmy today. He wasn't too terribly interested (it was right before his nap, after all), although he seemed fixated on his Grandpa Gossiaux.