Beer Makes You a Better Mother

We're home! Okay, we've been home for a week now, but I'm only now feeling motivated to do more than laundry and basic baby upkeep.

Munich was wonderful. The chestnut tree canopy over the biergartens filled in every day we were there. Imagine . . . restaurants with a supervised nursery and a fully stocked changing table! Though there aren't as many stroller-friendly ramps as in the ADA compliant US, someone always grabbed the front of Baby C's stroller to help me get it up the U-Bahn stairs. And I didn't feel weird nursing her in public, considering that there were naked sunbathers in the city park. Several of our friends had new babies, also. We compared notes, but I had nothing to top the advice from my friend's German pediatrician: "Beer makes you a better mother." Sauerkraut, however, does not - at least when the mother is still nursing. Poor Baby C and I learned that one the hard way.

The motivation for our trip was the wedding of one of our friends. For their first dance, the bride and groom waltzed, then most of the guests joined in. Not a we-just-learned-how-to-dance-in-the-living-room-last-week shuffle, but a full-on "shall we dance" capital W-waltz that would have made Yul Brynner proud. It was fantastic. Greg and I sat that one out.

Now we are back to suburban sprawl and too many choices at the supermarket. I know my memories of Munich are romantic and idealized, but all the better when life seems like one long round of diaper changes and stain removal. Some people have Paris; I will always have Muenchen.