Fall Clean Up

After Henris saliva successfully destroyed my old cell phone I finally – as the last design involved person on this planet – got myself an iPhone. How I made it so far without one? I don't know.



So I iPhone documented yesterdays playground clean up session. By now Karl knows every single person there and together with Daniele, Maximilian, Ophelia and Camillo he was working hard on piling up all the fall leaves. And redistributed them right afterwards while Henri was supervising.

Little Red Bobbette

Henry fell in love with the Bobby Car. There's nothing he loves more than being lifted onto the driver's seat and to start pounding on the horn. Well, there might be one thing he loves even more though. That's his brother. In the cascades of baby gibberish we even detected a faint "Karl". Although that is most likely the classic case of over-interpretation by proud parents. Still, his grumpiness is in quite a few good moods these days.

Fall Moods

The best time of the day for the boys is kindergarten pick-up time. They're always thrilled to see each other again and we all get to chat about cars, lunch, pirates and sweets together. Henri loves the fact that now he can sit upright and be part of the action after we converted the Bugaboo this weekend. He's also smart enough to use the morning hours to excessively explore Karls toys at home. The best being of course everything in the fleet of cars – the bigger the better.



P.S.: Mama Beanz, the green hat is getting bigger every year – perfect!

Seven Months

Seven Months! He's turning into a little boy now, right? It is almost impossible to get a picture like this now. Henri is capable of so many new things: sitting, standing, crawling, etc. And it has to be done at ALL times.



Our very dangerous little boy.

Autumn in Munich

Autumn is rushing in with brisk gusts of mountain air carrying the promise of snow-packed weekends (snow line went down to 1000m/3300 ft this weekend). So parents of young boys naturally flock to new forms of Sunday entertainment. We went to see the fantastic Poncho Ponys, who play country music for kids.



They're one of the first examples round here, that kids' entertainment doesn't have to follow the traditional cuddly bear/Judy&Punch line of anachronistic kids' culture. The Poncho Ponys sure are hip, following kind of a Sunny's/Red Hook mentality of a good night out. Which is about as hip as it gets right now in the Western hemisphere. Sure helps of course to have an ace art direction for your kiddo Western Swing band.



Karl was deeply mesmerized by his first full-on underground music pop show. It sure helped that he had already listened to the Poncho Ponys CD about a gazillion times, thus knowing all the songs about "Der schlimme Jim" (mean Jim), "Kaugummikauen" (chewing gum) or the "Forgetful Cowboy". We took along Ferdinand with Amelie and Benny again. Having amazoned Ferdinand the CD as well of course helped to hype up the pre-pre-prepubescent pop hysteria. Which actually manifested itself quite differently. While Ferdinand was glad to sit in the kiddie mosh pit and jump up on stage for the grand finale (see the kid in the white shirt right on the front of the stage below), Karl was quite happy to sit on Fred's lap and listen with literally red-hot ears to every word they sang. Henri slept through most of the show, but when he woke up he was more of a mosh pitter as well, wich we had to limit to pogo-dancing on mom's lap due to age-related limitations to his abilities to independent movements.
Afterwards we went for drinks and cake to our favorite Cafe (with a reservation under the name of Karl, because that's the name which guarantees you the best table in the ouse, which we indeed got. Whose proprietor Georg actually turned us on to the Poncho Ponys in the first place.

Get Up, Stand Up

The immense pride Henri projects upon mastering this crucial stage of evolution early in life is quite a sight. I don't think any adult sense of achievement compares.

Cougar Town

Karl sure loved to hang out with sweet Chiara (who is Antonia's older half-sister), who took him on wild slide rides and made him giggle a lot. We took the boys out on the playground to meet a bunch of other kids and their parents, all from Fred's circle of designer moms. So while Karl was all smitten with his new crush more than three times his lifespan his senior, Henri's all into mom. Whenever Fred enters the room his face lights up like a Rat Pack Show in Vegas. Rat of course to be replaced with brat.

Progressive Party

Progress! Henri's been working on his moves quite a bit. Quite impressive motor skills. Which he's about as proud of as his dad. First of all he erased the word obstacle from his dictionary. Mostly he's doing quite a fine job trailing mom or Karl or dad all across the apartment. Sometimes gravity is of course a bitch. So is balance. But nothing to discourage a young man on the move.



His biggest pride though comes from sitting. Somehow he figured that people take you much more seriously, if you a conversing from an upright position. Forces of natures still can be a nuisance (see above), but for the most part he looks like a professional.

Karl in the meantime starts to develop his own sense of taste and style. Luckily his most prized fashion item belonged to somebody who reclaimed it with a lightsabre. For the short time Karl paraded around the playground he did get a rise out of scaring little girls and boys. Or out of trying to (most looked at him amused or befuddled).



Karl Vader photo courtesy of JoFI, father of the Darth Vader mask's owner.

Oktoberfest

That of course was a very smart idea - go take the boys (Karl, Henri and Karl's buddy Ferdinand accompanied by mom Amelie and dad Bennie) to Oktoberfest the very most packed day in the history of this monumental bacchanal - 20 years of reunification day plus 200 years of Oktoberfest. Somehow we did survive the Duisburg style entry proceedings of the historical Oktoberfest part. There were old tractors, live farm animals, ancient carousels, pancakes. Ferdinand and Karl had a blast. Despite being a bit overwhelmed.



The two have been buddies for almost all of their lives going back to baby massage class, where Fred and Amelie met first, when the boys were about eight weeks old.



Somtimes it shows where this will be going (trouble + mischief + genuine affection = everlasting friendship).



They also got a mighty lesson of local anthropology. Yes boys, this is where you're from. These are the natives (no inbreeding jokes please).





They probably could've spent all day together, but as in every 3 year old's Sundday, there's plenty of chores. Naps to take, ice-creams to eat, swings to swing, sandcastles to build.



And yes, Henri was there all the time, safely nestled into his baby carriage in some kind of state of shock sleep mode. Happy to be served his lunch at our regular cafe (yes - solids!).

Happy And Hungry

One looks happy, the other one hungry.



Smarties can help.