Our happy little girl...

Yana is now seven months old and starting to really develop her own personality. She's a very happy and cheerful little girl, who enjoys squeeking (sometimes very high-pitched) and making cute 'dadada' and 'nugnug' noises. She loves eating porridge, but eats most things she's given, if they are a bit runnier. Sometimes she eats in a very civilised manner, but often she likes 'helping' and ends up in a real mess.

Lying in the pram on her back is only really something for tired moments. When Yana is awake she wants to see something and then it is a lot more fun to lie on her belly in the pram looking out (something she can do for ages) or to be carried around by Daddy.

Yana is still toothless and there are no signs of any teeth yet. Mum and Dad are hoping that they will all just silently appear in her mouth one day. (One can dream...)

Yana is not quiet determined enough to crawl yet. When you try to get her to come towards you or a particular toy and it's too far away, then she just finds something else within her reach that looks interesting and plays with that instead. Usually the little tags and zippers on things. She is reasonably mobile though, by pushing herself backwards along the floor or turning around in a circle. Mum is glad that she can still predict how long it takes Yana to get to a particular area.

Trip to Nürnberg and the Fränkische Schweiz

At the end of February we were invited to our friend Silke's birthday party in Nürnberg. We decided to drive up there in our campervan and visit the Fränkische Schweiz, a nice tramping and climbing area North of Nürnberg at the same time.

The party was great. It had a Hawaian theme, there was lots of good food and there were nice people to talk to. Yana was a real angel, spending the evening in Silke's bedroom, either sleeping or lying there quietly listening to the music and laughter. When we got tired we just went outside to our campervan and had a good (but short) sleep.

Early the next morning we headed North to Pottenstein, which is one of the main tourist towns within the Fränkische Schweiz. We did a little walk around the town and up to the Pottenstein Castle, which is the oldest in the area. We went to bed really early to make up for the previous short night.

On Sunday we went to another castle, called Burg Rabenstein, from where we did a 3 hour round trip. The weather was amazing for February - about 18 degrees. Lindsay was carrying Yana on his arms, which both enjoyed thoroughly - Lindsay for the extra exercise and Yana because she was able to see a lot better than from her pram. The track was really cool, with nice views of the castle and the rocks and lots of caves to explore.

Campervan

About 6 weeks ago we finally bought a campervan. We had talked about getting one for quite some time because especially with Yana it is difficult to get away on weekends - the car works of course, but is very cramped if we need to change nappies or feed her along the way and the campervan should save us a lot of accomodation costs.

We went away for a weekend trip a week ago to the Fränkische Schweiz - a very nice rock climbing/tramping area just north of Nürnberg (Nuremberg). We wanted to test that everything worked before Easter when we are planning to head to the area around Dresden for a week.


Our major sponsor "Yana" has splashed her advertising all over the place "Yana Sandford 27/July/2007" (YS2777)











Everything is hidden away when not in use - kitchen on the left and bathroom in the 'cupboard' on the right.











The girls all belted up to go.













The taxi driver.













Me blocking the view of the campervan. What you can see, is the alcove above the drivers cabin that sleeps two (the seats/table fold down to sleep a further 2 or 3). On the back we have a moped/bike carrier.