It's been over a month since our last blog and it's hard to believe how much our lives have completely changed. Kaleia is growing so quickly...it was her two months birthday on July 14th. She is smiling now, turning from her back to her left and right sides, lifts her head when on her tummy & is starting to lift her chest too! She is currently working on touching her feet with her hands...she has the lifting of the feet and legs part down pat, but the hand coordination is still lacking.....She is also starting to coo and makes beautiful "aahhh", "éééé", "èèèèè", "ohhh" sounds, and Chantal swears she heard a "ga"! This past week she started "standing" on our laps, especially when we're burping her over our shoulder...she will suddenly push up with her legs and stands by holding on to our shoulders. It's so cute to see the surprised and almost shocked look on her face when she does this....as if she can't believe it herself!

As you probably can imagine, most of our time is dedicated to caring for and getting to know the not-so-little Kaleia. We are grateful that Kaleia's grandmother came to lend a helping hand during the first 5 weeks. In addition to adjusting to her new role as a mother, Chantal was also busy showing her mom around Berlin. We hope she went back to Montreal with a positive impression of Berlin.

Kaleia and Chantal started going to "Baby Moves" every Thursday. This is a Mommy/Baby class in an English language activity center. Kaleia seems to be enjoying it and it has provided Chantal with the opportunity to meet other English-speaking moms.

We also attended our first German wedding. One of Domenic's colleagues was getting married. Well...it wasn't really a wedding. In Germany, they traditionally have a party before the wedding day. So we attended that party. We also saw some other interesting German traditions, like the breaking of the dishes. Guests brought bags and boxes full of dishes they no longer use. They break them by throwing them on the floor. One of the couple's first joint tasks was to clean-up the mess. Breaking a dish in German tradition signifies good luck. This was Kaleia's first "evening" party and she handled it like a champ...being passed from person to person and falling asleep in Chris' arms (one of Dom's colleagues).

Domenic is proud of his newest purchase. He bought a bike for 40 EUR at the flea-market. Although this bike is far from the super-duper Specialized Epic mountain bike he has back home, it gets him to work every morning. Well, actually, he did lose a screw on the front wheel and the back light fell off as he tried to jump the curb, and it sounds like there's a dying bird riding along with him....but it still gets him where he needs to go. Did I mention it only cost 40 EUR...??? The planet appreciates his gesture (and so does his wallet).

On July 15th Karine, one of our dearest friends, arrived in Berlin for a visit! We are very excited to welcome her to our new home and to introduce her to Kaleia.

Check-out the Pictures section for some recent pictures of Kaleia in Berlin. We also posted our first video of Kaleia in the Video section (she was quite young in the video…probably the first weeks of life).

We hope everyone is doing well. Please give us some news about how you're doing (either send us an email or write on the message board). We miss you and like to read about what you've been up to lately.

Bye for now.

Chantal, Kaleia and Domenic

xoxoxox