Show us what you've got, Sophie

What has four legs but only uses two, spends hours everyday learning but only gets dumber, and loves to sleep but gets no rest? That's right! A still-pregnant Rachael. Three days until the official due date, and, statistically speaking, 11 days until birth.

General updates:

I am in my third week of Deutsch classes, wherein I am ranking right in the middle of the curve. Nothing to be ashamed of there. We have learned a number of practical terms and phrases for day-to-day life. The unfortunate thing is that has made me reasonably good at asking a small number of basic threshold questions, but then leaving me wholly unprepared for the barrage of foreign-tongue that comes after it. Ja or Nein, people; that's all I'm looking for here.

Munich has decided to get very cold and very, very snowy this week. And while I have the activity level of a ceramic garden gnome, Will is spunkier than ever, having just gotten over a cold. Next week, he has Six Sigma training at GE. Watch out, world, here comes Corporate Will!

My mom is doing well. She braves the elements each morning and night to come north to our apartment, and then cleans, sews, organizes, cooks and walks the dogs all day long. I should have a baby more often!

Lastly, we got a Sophie the Giraffe toy for the baby. We got told by a number of people at this point that Sophie is (1) French, and (2) every baby has one. Repetition somehow made this disjointed argument incredibly convincing, and we now own a Sophie. I think this toy company has some sort of hypnotic spell over parents, but I don't have the time to do a thorough investigation so we erred on the side of caution. So far, the doll hasn't told me to do anything evil. But she hasn't exactly been useful either.

Anyhow, thanks for all of your well wishes. We are hanging in there, some of us upside down!