It's the cat days of summer here. There is no A/C anywhere in Germany, so we just all lie still under the ceiling fan to keep ourselves cool (or, head to the Commisarry to do grocery shopping - the only building we've found that has A/C over here)



Actually, it's almost always quite pleasant here and a fan is usually enough to keep us cool. Every once in a while we have an unusually hot day though. You can check out our local weather here: http://ows.public.sembach.af.mil/5day/etar5.htm



On Friday morning we woke up and Mommy and I went through our normal routine. When she finally got to her shower she was in for quite a shock. There was blood pooling under her eye! Since it didn't hurt at that point, she contemplated for the briefest of moments not going to the doctor, but then she realized that blood under the eye was not a good or normal thing. It was a lucky call. She has something called peri-orbital cellulitis. Basically, a very nasty infection in the tissue surrounding her eye. She did some research after we got home and it usually affects children under 6 (but can happen to adults - as it did to her) and for children warrants an immediate hospitalization. The base doctor sent her home with plenty of strong antibiotics and the warning that if she got even a little bit worse she should head to the emergency room immediately. This explains the "draggy" feeling that she's had all week. Luckily, since she wasn't all that sick to begin with, she's feeling much better now. Mommy let Daddy take a picture of the eye close up for you all. Mostly it just looks like Mommy was on the losing end of an argument with a purple marker. We'll still try to get more pictures of Mommy but she's a little embarrassed about the whole thing.



On Saturday, Daddy got to experience the joy of feeding me my favorite peaches. Luckily, he picked out the "correct" bib.



More tummy time at the end of the day.





Mommy and Daddy have enjoyed my cute little blue jeans. When we first got them they would barely stay on me - they were so huge! Today is officially the last day that I get to wear them because they are much too small. I'm growing like a weed and we're transitioning into 6 to 9 month size clothes right now (pretty amazing, considering I wore the 0-3 month clothes until I was more than 4 months old).





Mommy, Daddy and I played a little floor soccer this morning in anticipation of the World Cup final tonight (which, incidentally, is past my bedtime, so I will not get to stay up and watch it).





This afternoon we packed into the car and decided to explore the Wildpark from the INSIDE this time. There's a hotel right by the entrance which is apparently locally famous. It's a VERY posh hotel inside but the outside is constructed from all old materials so that it looks authentic. There's also a restaraunt with a nice patio out back - we think we've found a winner for people to stay at when they come to visit (assuming they don't want to stay with us, which they are quite welcome to do).



The wildpark was incredibly fun. We started off near a huge pen of guinea pigs, bunnies and chickens. They were active and running all over - quite a sight to see. The neatest thing was that right by where we were standing was a Mommy guinea pig cleaning off her BRAND NEW babies. They were still wet - it was pretty amazing.





We then moved on to a huge pen of birds. There were cranes, roosters, turkeys and more. The turkey was huge (not pictured) and the cranes kept clacking their bills together very loudly.



I LOVED the pen of white doves. We really enjoyed listening to them coo.



Next there were wild horses.



The reindeer were neat and had very interesting feet.



Lots of wild boars and some moose too!





There were ponies (we bought food at the entrance to feed the animals - it was only verboten - forbidden - to feed the moose with the food we bought).



The view near the red deer (think bambi) was incredible.



The red deer were obviously used to being fed and a little agressive. Daddy had to block my feet from a quick nibble.





On the other side of the path were more red deer with large racks of horns. The horns were very soft.



Some of the deer had to be coaxed, which Daddy really enjoyed doing.





There is a large aviary on the property at the wildpark. Mommy and Daddy went to some pens that looked pretty typical and enjoyed the largest collection of different types eagles they'd ever seen. On the opposite side were about 4 brown eagles tethered in the middle of a green field. The only thing keeping us from them was a sign that told us not to step on the grass. No fence, nothing. Just the honor system.



We assumed we had seen most of the park by that point. We were wrong! As we rounded the corner there was someone holding an owl. Mommy asked for and was granted permission to pet the owl. It was incredibly soft. Daddy petted it as well (but we didn't get pictures of that).



There was a huge area that was obviously for aviary shows. We settled down to look at the tethered birds for a while and enjoy the view (and for me to have a little snack). As we sat there, one of the bird handlers came out and released a falcon and a brown eagle. They flew all over the courtyard and directly at and over us. We got to have our own private show. It was INCREDIBLE.



We figured that we should move on and walked past some horses that were VERY excited and aggressive about being fed. Daddy had to swing me away because I was about to have my toes nibbled on pretty hard.





The goat feeding area had playground equipment in it, so Mommy and I climbed around to make the goats follow us. It was silly and fun.







I got a little tired, so we decided to head on home. Just think, this park is only a 5 or so minute drive from our house!

We played with the kitty for the rest of the afternoon. I'm getting pretty good at petting her (even if the end of the petting usually involves me grabbing a chunk of hair and not remembering how to let go...)