Visit from Kocka and Katja

Three weeks ago, Eva's cousin Kocka and his wife Katja came to visit us (to be honest, they were really here to visit Quinn and Emily ...).

I'm still not too sure how being with us and two small children sounds like a good vacation, but we were very grateful for their visit!
Quinn kept them both very busy...first in the sandbox.

Then on our soccer field.

Katja practicing...

...we are still searching for the first picture where Emily is actually smiling. This close, however...with Emily placing her fist in her mouth.

I'm happy because I finally get to grill in nice weather...

While I was off to work, the gang headed off to the zoo.

...eating...

...another pic of Emily not smiling...but she had a ball...

With a loving big bro like this, how can't you smile? Truth be told, Emily absolutely adores Quinn, even if she doesn't show it on the pics. She's starting to grab his toys, and while he is a bit protective, he lets her play with his faves.

The nice spring weather also meant that everyone got ice cream!

Thanks again for the visit, Kocka and Katja...

Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, and Volcanoes

I was on a short business trip two weeks ago...or so I thought. Then a volcano blew up in Iceland, and my stay got extended 4 extra days. I was one of the fortunate ones with a place to stay, a rental car, and plenty of work to do.

Eva was home with 2 sick kids (and Quinn is almost never sick). Thankfully, Eva's mom and family helped out while I was gone (Danke!!!)

Coming home loaded full of guilt (and Godiva for Eva), I took the kids for as much of the weekend as my patience could muster. The weather really helped out.

I also got a nice reminder of how very nice and valuable a nice, tightly packed neighborhood is. We started out by going to our 'park'...Quinn saw some kids leave the playground, only to start kicking the soccer ball around. Quinn shyly wanted to play as well, so we went together to ask if we could join. After a few minutes, there were a number of 3-4 year olds and their parents kicking the ball around.

Later, Quinn saw a pile of rocks and started throwing them (not allowed!)...and some of the other kids followed suit. So, I quickly created a new game of 'toss the rock in the hole' to try to allow the kids to throw rocks, yet to give the parents the feeling that no one was going to get an eye poked out. By this time, Emily was awake, and I was holding here in her Baby Björn.

We ended up taking one girl home (who I said I'd look after since the mother had to take her younger daughter home), and Quinn ended up playing with his new playfriend in the playground near her house. I chatted with the mother for a while, who was grateful that I looked over her daughter for a while.

After Quinn's nap, Quinn started playing with an older boy that lives next door...a very well behaved boy...Those two were running around like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. When I hadn't seen them for a while, I started looking in the park, hiding behind the bushes so as to not be seen, and they were just sitting there playing in the dirt with fallen twigs / switches. Very cute.

Sunday was more of the same...but in the afternoon, Quinn, Emily, and I watched our local football team play their first game of the season.

The point of all this is the value of the neighborhood: we live in a pretty dense city (probably about 5000+ people per square mile), yet we have some really nice parks right in our backyards. We know or recognize most of the kids or parents, and it gives me a great warmth inside to see my kids play with other children and to watch out for other children.

More pics to come shortly...I'm a bit behind with the posts...

Long (German) Word of the Day

A few weeks ago, I ran across another huge German word:

Hochspannungsschaltanlagengeschäft

34 words, no spaces: High Voltage Substation Business

Easter 2010

Even though we were on a long vacation a few weeks ago, we were looking forward to the long Easter weekend, which is a 4 day weekend in Germany. Of course, we were looking forward to the time off, but we were also hoping for some good weather: so that we could work in the yard, play ball outside, and hide some eggs...
In kindergarten, the kids made Easter baskets. I love Quinn's smile (which is sort of a squint...).

Of course, we also colored eggs on Good Friday. Quinn's hands were red for the next two days.

The weather forecast said that it would be cold and rainy the whole weekend. While it wasn't exactly warm, it was mostly sunny and only rained in the evenings. We got to spend some time working in the yard - which was very much needed.

Similar to Christmas morning, Quinn is allowed to eat breakfast in his PJ's. Notice his Easter Morning breakfast of a chocolate rabbit. Eva and I paid for this later in the day. Quinn really loves chocolate, but we don't usually have it in the house. His sugar high lasted for hours...

Emily didn't know what chocolate is...but it seemed like she didn't want to miss out on Quinn's fun.

Quinn loves to hold Emily...and her head / neck are almost strong enough to not freak us out when he does hold her...

Since it rained Easter morning, we hid the eggs in the house...

Quinn finally found everything...at least we hope it is everything and don't start getting some odd odors in a few months.

Emily sticking her chocolate bunny in her mouth...Papa will have to take care of this rabbit in the middle of the night soon...

Emily 'found' her rabbit in one of the plants. It might be tough to convince Quinn next year that Emily can find her own stuff (Quinn loved uncovering Emily's stuff).

I was in the mood for a full-on Easter Sunday feast. We picked up a fresh, smoked ham from the butcher and a bunch of fresh veggies at the farmer's market (Gemüsefrau). For our Easter sunday meal, I made a smoked ham with a honey, molasses, bourbon topping with garlic, Bärlauch (sorry, no English translation of Bärlauch...it is just a plant that is 'in season' now that tastes like a refined garlic) mashed potatoes with stuffed, baked zucchini. I started cooking after church, so we were able to have a 3pm meal and not have to hurry with the meal with two tired, hungry kids.

With the leftovers and the bones, I made a pea soup today (with fresh broth, of course...even though my mother in law says you don't need broth in pea soup ;-)

Despite less than perfect weather, we had a great family weekend. We got to do some stuff that we wanted to do (gardening, cooking) and the kids got to play to their heart's content (Quinn and I played tons of soccer).

Quinn even played with the neighbor's kids, who are much older than he is, for a while. They ran, and ran, and ran. Even though the kids were at least 4-6 years older, they did a good job taking care of Quinn and making sure he was having fun. It was a bit of sad for Eva and I to see our little baby boy be able to play without us...but it was also very fun to be able to go back in the house, knowing that the neighbors kids were taking good care of him, and being able to hear him close by.

Real Food, Real Poop

Shortly after vaca, we decided to let Emily try out some real food. She's been reaching for our plates for a while: she knows that the food on our plates is much more tasty than milk. Not that milk is all that bad, but if you ate the same thing for 6 months, you'd be begging for a change of pace as well.
Well...she's an eater. She had no problems with pumpkin, and Emily got the spoon action down relatively quickly. We just need to feed her before she gets over the edge hungry.

I was dressed accordingly for the first feeding: orange shirt to go with the orange pumpkin. This way, I don't have to change shirts if she spits it up all over me.

Since then, she's tried carrots, bananas, apples, rice, potatoes, and millet (Hirsebrei). We're back in our routine of cooking fresh veggies ourselves instead of getting the jarred veggies. How can any veggie in a jar taste good?

A pic of Quinn at his school's 'play'. He was to play a rabbit (I think), but in the excitement of it all, decided that it would be better to sit next to mama and papa during the play than to do his part. Stage fright, I guess.

A rare pic of Emily smiling...not that she's not a happy baby, it is just tough to get a pic at the right time.

She has been developing well lately, and she is showing a lot more personality. She is starting to grab a lot more and is more active on her belly. She really likes looking / grabbing Quinn's Legos, and Quinn thankfully lets her have a block or two.

Quinn hamming it up for the camera.

Emily showing another trait of Quinn's: not being able to stay in one place while sleeping. We put her to bed 90° to this position.

All in all, the kids are doing well. It helps all of us that the weather is finally starting to get nicer. We're out more, Quinn is on his Laufrad (bike without pedals), Quinn and I are outside a lot playing with various balls (with Emily oftentimes 'running' with us in her stroller), and we're in the yard getting everything ready for spring.

The most amazing parts are usually at night, when Eva and I finally go to bed and turn out all of the lights...and take one last look at the kids: they are always peaceful when they sleep, and they just seem so big.

Then the circus begins anew the next day when they wake up...