Bouncer

I don't put my hopes up for Karl having a career in boxing. Henri on the other hand might do well. He's a great bouncer already.

Last Shot

Karl got his last measles shot today, was superbrave and rewarded with a big bucket full of ice cream. (yes, we have ice cream everyday, but this was a reward ice cream.)

Backyard Days

With a backyard like ours any vacation is of course mere conspicuous consumption. Here's a shot of this afternoon's backyard viewing of the Germany-Britain world cup game. Yesterday was the annual neighborhood flea market, where Karl got to try out some nice flippers from Klaus (he called them "Klaus's wings" this morning, when I didn't quite understand what he meant he explained, the "wings you can waddle with").



The greatest excitment was of course being allowed to see his first full soccer game. He entertained the audience of neighbors who were sipping cold seltzers and sodas with smartypants remarks that lacked a bit of the expertise one is used to when watching a game with die-hard fans.



One very fun part of the whole thing was that he got to do some neighbor-hopping, so he experienced each of the first half-times'goals sitting on somebody else's lap. He started with Pierre, who told him that the bone-shattering sound of the Vuvuzela from the next backyard was actually a dinosaur that ate something bad and is now really gassy. Karl kinda bought the story first, but when everybody kept on laughing about Pierre's remarks about the gassy dino he decided that this must be "a neighbor called dinosaur who is not so well". Well, to be fair, Pierre also did a great job explaining Karl the basics of soccer (two teams, one ball, two boxes). Karl also had his very own German flag that he got from the mattress store clerk (where we bought a mattress for Karl and Henri's great new bunk bed).



1:0 for Germany (Felicitas)



2:0 (dad)



2:1 (Frank)

Second halftime was first spent upstairs, later on in the backyard again, where Karl was swept up in the neighborhood's noisy euphoria outbreak about the 4:1 for Germany.

Weatherwise...

This of course is not the type of photo you wanna bring back from an Italian vacation. No matter the fun Karl had kicking it in the puddles of the surrounding vineyards. The great moment of mother-son-bonding in the arcades of the Arena di Verona below was also the prelude to a rather hilarious monsoonish afternoon we spent mainly under the massive umbrellas of a street cafe, before capitulating and running to the garage, where we arrived drenched basically drove home in improvised rag outfits.



But, aaah, just kidding, those were three out of the ten days. We just don't want to create too much envy, since most of the times of course was spent in balmy conditions like this:

Cremona

Back in the day, right after school I wanted to become a violin maker. I had the romantic idea that this profession brings together arts, crafts and music. Of course there's no better place to learn violin making than Cremona. After one year at the Scuola Internazionale di Liuteria (awesome web site, right?) I found out that violin making is just crafts in the end and will be taken over by Chinese machines very soon.



Then I became a graphic designer (graphic design will be taken over by Chinese machines as well, I know). I had a great year in Italy though and good memories. Not only did I have tons of ice cream there but I also learnt Italian pretty well. Which finally comes in handy again now that we live only two hours away from the border. Since our agriturismo destination was close to Cremona we took a day trip to my old stomping grounds.



Yes, this is my old apartment, second floor on the right.
Karl was more impressed with the cats.



The fact that every little town in Italy has a big church square in the middle comes in handy now that I can call a little energizer bunny my own. Here's my three men in Cremona. The smallest one in the front, try to find the other two!

Three Months

We're back from our little trip to Italy (more posts to come) and the boys were both better travel companions than one could expect. I have to say our first vacation of a family of four was great and superchill even though the weather was rather mediocre in the beginning. There wasn't even enough light to get a nice monthly pic on the 19th... But Henri hasn't changed all that much in those four days. Same cuteness!

Gone For The Summer, Part I

I really wanted to post another entry about our visit to the Schloß Nymphenburg park (amazing!) and the Botanical Garden (so pretty!), but I need to pack! Sorry!



Tomorrow we're leaving for a ten day trip to Northern Italy as part I of our 2010 vacation schedule. Not so sure about the internets situation there, so there might be a lack of posts for the next week or so.



Oh, one more thing. Yesterday I found out that I'm able to carry a two-and-a-half year old boy who fell asleep on the tram on our way back home as well as an umbrella and push a baby stroller at the same time. I still got some strength in my former-boxer arms!

Wildlife

Just before leaving for our little vacation in Italy we finally managed to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009 show at the Museum Mensch und Natur in Nymphenburg. Karl had been circling around the poster of a red kite on an advertising pillar at our tram station and we had been meaning to go forever. I had seen the 2002 and the 2008 shows in London and loved them so I was happy to catch the exhibition beore it closes next weekend. But not only Karl got excited by all the impressive photography, also Henri who might have experienced the whole thing in a more abstract way (colorful action on black backdrop). Favorite pictures were the nut eating squirrel and the raindrop drinking ant. The rest of the museum didn't disappoint either. Karl eagerly learnt about natural history as well as nerves and brains. One of the exhibits is an Otto Waalkes video funnily explaining how brain and body work - yea, you Germans know which one I'm talking about. It had to be watched multiple times of course.



It was only borderline ice cream weather but what are you gonna do if they have cactus ice cream at the cafeteria?



As usual Karl took forever to eat it. Henri and I got a little bored, so we took a picture of ourselves.

Excitement

Somebody said there were too few pictures of Henri in this blog. It's probably true – so here he is, all excited about seeing palm trees at the Munich Botanical Garden.

The Butcher's Flag

Of course all of Germany is going ga-ga over the World Championship (in soccer, that is). So you can see a whole bunch of German flags everywhere. Karl excitedly points out most of them to us and was absolutely thrilled when the nice butcher lady not only gave him a thick slice of bologna, but also a little paper flag just for himself – after I had explained to him that all those flags that they had were there for decorative reasons only. But what can you do? He proudly paraded it around the Viktualienmarkt and found a nice spot for it in his bedroom later on. I'd rather have him getting the whole concept of playing soccer with your feet only. He was pretty taken by the gigantic screen though that they had at the beer garden where I had lunch with my two boys. Maybe he learned a little something while watching the Korean team win over Greece.

Happy Birthday Opa Michael

Gourmet-In-Training

Henri likes his snails au nature.

Lovely Daredevils

Luckily I have the cutest, mcdreamiest son on the planet.



So people tend to forgive him when he tries to empty out the playground by being obnoxiously loud together with his mate Julian.



Even I forgive him. Because I really want to have my daily dose of ice cream as an appetizer before dinner.



I'm also thinking of getting Henri started on ice cream instead of carrot puree. He's already eying it, he would love it for sure.

New Wave

Saturday - finally! - the sun came through with a scorching blast of summer heat. We got all excited and off we went. Karl's now very much into danger. Well, some dangers. Like swinging as high and wild as possible. Karl also really liked the flooded riverbanks, which was the kinda danger we strongly discouraged from facing. The heavy rains have made the water levels of the Isar rise quite a bit. Not Mississippi quite a bit, but before the renaturization of the Isar this type of swell would flood the riverbank areas pretty good, including the basements of surrounding streets. It was impressive enough for Karl though that our usual trainspotting beach had disappeared into the newly raging torrents of the Isar:



Munich being the capital of river surfing (highly recommended - the trailer for the film about the Munich river surfers) the local champs didn't take long to take their skills to the rare Isar wave, which is much more dangerous than the Eisbach wave next to the Haus der Kunst Karl usually goes to watch river surfers after daycare.



Somehow the daredevils inspired him to try out some stunts of his own. So we watched him take to the peak of the big climbing thing with impressive speed, while trying not to deploy some emergency helicopter parenting contingent.



Well, all in all Munich's the perfect summer city. Especially when accompanied by three exceptional beauties like my posse here...

Rainy Days

Last weeks weather was so bad that I wanted to cry. Thursday was the worst. It had rained for 48 hours straight and it was a holiday, so Karl didn't have his usual daycare entertainment. We installed the baby gym for Henri, but that's nothing that could help with Karl's cabin fever.



Luckily there's a place with lots of heavy machinerie under a big waterproof roof: the train station.



Andrian had been in Vienna for a gig with his band The Deadliners and we went to pick him up. We went early, so we could walk the platforms up and down, check out the signals all the way at the end, find a Gleismesszug (never knew about it and don't know the English word, but it's the yellow thing in the background) and spot a couple of brand new ICE trains. They're superfast!!! In case you didn't know.



The best thing was when we were all back together and had some sausage. And talked more about trains and stuff.

Portrait Of A Baby

Even though Karl has of course been an incredibly good-looking baby, we feel – in retrospect – that he had more a comic figure kind of look when he was Henri's age. Sort of like this one. But you know what? Henri is not only very handsome, he has some potential in that direction as well. See for yourself.



Totally channeling my inner Martin Schoeller here...