The Joys of Parenting

So, a few days ago, when Eva went outside to dump some water on our bamboo plant, Quinn closed the door behind her and lifted the handle...locking Eva outside. If you know how German windows/doors work, this wouldn't seem to be a problem with a 2 year old.

...but Quinn locked her out of the house. No keys, no shoes, and wearing only jeans and a t-shirt...in 32F / 0C weather. Eva tried to show Quinn how to open the door. After a while, Quinn figured out that Mama was locked out, and climbed on his high chair. Then, he stood up on the chair (which he is never allowed to do), and he raised his hands above his hands in triumph: Mama, I'm standing on my chair, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Thankfully, our neighbor that had a key was home and could let Eva in.

On a slightly other note...this time in the language department. While Quinn's vocabulary is mostly German (he understands both languages equally well), there are a few words that he uses mostly in English, e.g. Chicken. Another of his favorites is 'Hot Dog'.

A few days ago, I mentioned the word 'Hot Dog'...and Quinn said 'Heißer Hund' back...which is the literal German translation of Hot Dog. Seems kinda cool yet odd...and it did make me chuckle a bit.

...I'll get to the Christmas post soon...

Smart Kid

So I just got a phone call from Eva, somewhat panicked: "How can I open the garage door, if I'm locked inside the garage"

?????

Apparently, as Eva was in the front end of our garage that has a normal door getting the bike and buggy ready to take Quinn in to daycare, Quinn closed the door from the outside and turned the key...locking Eva in the garage.

The little bugger has been watching what we've been doing, and now knows how to use keys to lock doors.

OMG! What is my child doing?

When I got back home from a trip to the US, one of the first things that Eva said to me was practically a warning: If you put in a load of laundry, check the wash machine, since Quinn likes to put stuff in it.

Shortly thereafter, Eva put in a load of laundry and noticed about a half hour through the cycle that there was a lot of foam in the machine. Thinking something might be wrong, we stopped the cycle and opened the machine (our washer is a front loader, so this is more difficult than you would expect)...to find my last two bars of Ivory soap in the machine. Thanks Quinn!

I think this will mark the beginning of the 'oh my God, what did my child do'.
Last weekend, there was an open house at the local Fire Department (Feuerwehr Fest). They set up a bunch of cool demos, presentations of sort, and cool stuff for the kids to do. The weather wasn't all that great, but we went with Tanja, Rene, and their son Henrik. They had a bunch of trikes and Big Wheels (of sorts) for the kids to ride on. While Quinn's legs were too short (a common Gould ailment) to peddle, he had fun since I had to push him around (great for the back).

They had a kids version of a firehose that we could use to practice putting out fires. I think this was more fun for the adults, but Quinn tried to get into it.

On a conveyor, they had some mini 'fire trucks' for the kids to ride in. Quinn really liked these, and we rode two or three times...

We also got to slide on the poles. This was particularly difficult for both Rene and I...since we had to keep lifting the boys up so that they could slide down. That was my workout for the day.

Since the weather was significantly better this weekend, we were a bit more active: especially in Germany in the Fall, you need to get out on the weekends if the weather is this nice.

So, we headed into the Fränkische Schweiz for a Sunday morning hike with our neighbors.
We let Quinn run around in one of the fields, which he absolutely loved: running in the tall grass and picking the dandelions. The great thing about such a field is that he can run, fall, stumble, and pick grass with little chance of doing damage to himself.
Not too sure what Quinn is doing here: kinda looks like a cross between his 'I'm taking a dump now' and his 'Kung Fu Master' look. Thanks to Mom and Dad for the super cute jacket (that finally fits!!!). I think he looks like a little lumberjack here.
Quinn and Kaya.
Unfortunately, we got to the Biergarten a bit late. With such a nice day, everyone was out hiking, and the place was packed. We were told that it would take over an hour to get lunch, and there would be a risk that they would be out of food by then. So, we settled for cake and coffee (ok...I had a beer). Unfortunately, it was a shame, since their food is really good, and we were all looking forward to it.

I played with Quinn in the backyard after we got back, went on a nice bike ride in the Fränkische Schweiz, and now I'm pooped.

Quinn is picking up new words each day. He has 'cheese' and 'shoes' down pretty well, possibly perhaps to their closeness to the Germany word for 'bye' that he has known for a while 'Tschuß'. We're also trying to get him to know the 'magic word' (please). He'll say that he wants more of something (mehr), I'll ask for the magic word, and he replies: 'bitte'. Super cute in his 18 month old voice. Eva asks for the magic word like a normal human, but for me, the 'magic word' was something that stuck...so I'm passing it along to Quinn.

While he can say more German words than English, he understands both Eva and I equally well. Regardless of the language, there have been a few occasions where it was obvious he understood what we said, and you could see him contemplating whether he wanted to do what he asked...