Papa? Oma? Nina?

Last weekend Quinn and I took a trip back home. It was a fun weekend and we really enjoyed it. Quinn was very happy to see Oma & Opa (Grandma & Grandpa) and his aunt Nina. Every time the phone rings at our house he goes: Oma? - Nina? So, it was very touching to finally see him back together with his Oma, Opa and Nina. Now when he wakes up in the mornings, he goes: Papa? - No Quinn, Papa is still in America... Nina? No Quinn, Nina is at her home... Qma? No Quinn, Oma is at her home, too...
Anyways, here are some pictures of our weekend with familiy and friends up north:


Quinn and Nina - finally back together! Quinns T-Shirt reads: No matter what - it wasn't me...

It rained all through Friday and Saturday and so Nina and Quinn went to an indoor playground. They had a great time!

Quinn with his Oma and Opa!

Quinn loves my Mom's teddy bear. He actually carried him from where he normally sits to the couch so he could sit with him. I find it amazing how strong Quinn is - and how much stronger he can get if he really wants something.

Quinn and his friend Emma. They've known each other since Emma was born and seem to share a very special relationship. Quinn could hardly stop hugging and touching her...

On Sunday the weather finally cleared up and we could play outside for a little bit.




Thank you everybody for a wonderful weekend.

Rob spent the weekend in Colorado attending his best man's wedding and catching up with friends from college. I cannot wait to see his pictures and hear all the stories. We miss you, Daddy!

I'm from Texas!

Any doubts?

In German I would say: Früh übt sich... You'd better start early...

Can't Think of a Good Title

I always wear my work bibs when I'm working in the garden or mowing the lawn - especially after the accident with my fingers. As luck would have it, Quinn was wearing his bibs a few Saturdays ago...and we took a father/son pic.
Quinn helping me out eating one of the really good (but somewhat sour) apples from our apple tree. He loves the raspberries as well. I pick 'em, he eats 'em.
Eva's dad brought us the swing from his cousin...we didn't have a place to hang it, so we improvised. Needness to say, we got tired way before Quinn did. Try explaining that to an 18 month old.
Eva caught a great pic of a rainbow from our porch.
Quinn with one of his friends...
Kinda hard to believe that summer is winding itself down. Seems like it just started. Despite the lack of posts, we've been busy...and will be through Christmas, it seems. We're not ready for Fall and Winter to come, as it is much easier to keep Quinn active and happy outside than inside.

He's got a few more words, including 'bitte' (please). Super cute when he now asks for more food (noch mehr) then says please (bitte). Hard to turn the guy down.

On an unrelated topic, we're not too sure if this has hit the US, but a pretty extraordinary story has hit the media here in Germany: namely the winner of the 2007 Britain's Got Talent (like American Idol), Paul Potts. I'll let the video of his first round speak for itself. The other video is the t-mobile ad that has been hitting the TV stations in Germany.

If you don't get goosebumps, you can't be human.




Finally, while preparing for a meeting, I came across a great word for the Long Word of the Day: Hochspannungsgleichstromübertragung: High Voltage DC Transmission.

See...German made simple.

Like Father, Like Son ??

Sometimes, even when Quinn does something 'wrong', it is cute.

We let him run around naked every once in a while to let his butt air out a bit. Having a diaper on 24/7 can't be good for the skin. But, even with good intentions, this action of goodwill to Quinn's bum has its risks...namely wet spots on our floors.

The last time he was running around diaperless, both of us were doing our things in separate rooms, then I see Quinn running from his room to the living room...carrying a towel. Cuteness of the situation aside, seeing my naked child running around with a towl in hand, I had to see what was up. Carrying around a towel isn't exactly the first thing I'd do if I were sans diaper.

I poke my head in the living room, and there he is: using the towel to clean up a small puddle that he had left behind. Super cute.

Don't know how he knew that peeing on the floor is not an ideal action that necessitated him to get a towel from his room to clean it up, but I'm glad he has this awareness.

But, he didn't get this from me ...

As a sidenote, he finally has 'papa' down pat, and his other English word is 'this'.

Wrastlin' (Ringen)

In the spirit of the olympics, Quinn and I have been trying to take a stab at a few of the classic events on our own. First up: Wrestling. I can usually weaken Quinn pretty quick with my famous tickle move.
He tries to attack me from my feet, but it is pretty easy for me to defend. Plus, he is too short to do much damage.
After a tough struggle, Quinn always gets the best of me with his 'climb over dad's head and stick the stinky diaper in his nose' move. It always leaves me paralyzed.
Quinn in his victory pose...in his PJ's.
Next up...the 100m dash!
Equestrian events...at the local playground...
...and at home...
Olympic Tug 'o War...with Henrik.
If chocolate cookie eating were an olympic sport, Quinn and Henrik would be champs...
It still cracks me up how they love sitting on the ledge of our patio. I guess it is just their size.
Quinn's Tante (Aunt) Nina was here last week visting...and on vacation. Since day care is closed for another 2 weeks, Nina helped us out by taking care of Quinn during the week. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't perfect, but we had some blue sky.
Ready to hit the huge sandbox at the nearby playground.
Chillin' at the playground.
This pic really cracks me up. Normally, Quinn is always super smiley, but in this pic, he is just standing there with his mouth open. He is not being cranky and not sick...he is just there. What I would give to know what he was thinking...
Quinn reading one of his new books from Grandma and Grandpa Texas. Thanks for the super cool books and some new, exciting reading for Quinn (and Dad).

The Agile Manifesto

With my Friday evening almost 1 L of Weißbier behind me and with a tough work week behind me, I ran into these two really interesting links as I was doing my evening reading:

• Google 'Agility'
• Agile Manifesto

With all of the content out there, it takes quite a bit for a website to really pull my interest. Maybe it is the beer, maybe it is a tough work week working for a huge corporate conglomerate in the midst of some very drastic restructuring (by German standards), but this call to rapid, customer focused development really hits a heart-string in me.

These theories of SW development have been around since the early 2000's and are being extended by companies like Google to manage corporate culture.

They might be on to the Holy Grail of business: how to make a big company act small.

I've finally updated my book list. I normally crank through tons of audiobooks while driving to work as well as a few real books now and then, but with all the travel and the finger accident, I've driven less these last few months.

Happy reading.

Proud Papa

Eva was in her hometown last week, visiting friends and family. Since day care is closed the next three weeks, we had to scramble a bit to make sure Quinn was taken care of and that we didn't have to burn too much vacation.

Below, Quinn is opening up a Bayern München jersey from his cousin Kocka and his girlfriend Katja...they also sweetened the deal by giving him a banana as well. Danke Kocka und Katja! Er wird es beim Saisonbeginn tragen...sorry Jutta...
No trip back home would be complete without a trip to Tick Tack Oma and Opa.
The weather held up great, and both of Quinn's great grandparents spend the afternoon pushing Quinn on the swing...
...and pulling him on his Bobby car. He's getting the hang of riding the mini car, and it won't be too long before he's riding all around the neighborhood.
Beep Beep!
Quinn likes riding in Opa's wheelbarrow.
Thankfully, both Quinn and Eva came home on Friday, and we started Saturday morning with a small hike and a visit to the wild pigs. We remembered to bring the spaghetti (which the pigs love to eat), and Quinn liked the piglets the most...

At a housewarming / birthday party, I had to smile because of Quinn. It was a party in the back yard of our friends, and there were tons of kids there...which means more toys and playmates for Quinn. Most of the kids were older than Quinn, but that never seems to bother him when kids are older or bigger. He just dives in and plays.

One of our friends said that Quinn acts and plays with a lot of self confidence, especially for his age. I just had to smile...it is really good to hear compliments about your child. Proud Papa.

Eating is still not an issue with Quinn - a definite advantage at such parties when people bring various salads, deserts, and main dishes. He points to what he wants, and he just seems to eat, and eat, and eat...

On Sunday as Tanja and Eva met for brunch, Rene and I took the boys to a playground and then rode to the finish line of a local triathlon. The boys could run around, and we had to run around, chasing them.
We must have tired the little guy out on Saturday night and Sunday morning. He slept in until 830am and took a 3 hour nap today. Eva and I didn't know what to do with all of the extra time to ourselves!

By the way, this is my 300th blog post! Wow...how time flies...

The First Haircut

It was finally time for Quinn to get his first haircut. He still doesn't have enough hair up front to 'really' need a haircut, but with his long, curly locks in the back of his head, he was forming a mullet ...Or maybe looking a bit like Krusty the Clown...Ok...so it wasn't all that bad, but after 17 months, it was time to give the boy his first haircut...

He was a great sport, and he only cried a bit at the end. Of course, I wasn't able to cut every lock of hair perfectly with him squirming all of the place in our back yard, but I think he looks better now.

Look, ma...no more mullet! We went to the playground to celebrate.

Earlier that day, we went to the Hundshaupten Tierpark. Sort of like a zoo, but there are mostly animals that are 'wild' to the area (or used to be wild in the area...e.g. the European Bison). Of course, we bought some food for the animals...

...and I promptly ignored the signs that asked everyone to not feed the animals by hand. Quinn was stoked. There is just something about live animals that kids really love.

As you might have picked up from Eva's last post, I was in the US for 12 days on business for our user conference, the Siemens Automation Summit, where we have a gathering of hundreds of our best customers as well as prospective customers in a Summit atmosphere. Let's just say that it was tough shaking all those hands after my finger injury.

It was held this year at Chicago's Navy Pier. The above picture was the only 'touristy' pic that I got the three day. Thankfully, I was able to see the sunrise each morning as I headed out and ran along Lakeside Drive. Amazing view. You'll just have to believe me.

Our final evening event was at the Museum of Science and Industry. We had a 'cold air balloon' set up in the transportation wing...and I got to help set it up. How many engineers does it take to set up a 'cold air balloon'?

...four...with some difficulty...

Since I was in the States over the weekend, I took the opportunity to visit Sam. We haven't seen each other in a while, and it was really great to spend the time to catch up. We chatted for hours, had some great KC BBQ, and one or two frosty adult beverages.

After college, we made a practice to head out to ball games at least once a year. This weekend, we renewed that tradition and headed to a Royals game. Armed with a full cooler of beer, chips, hummus (we are getting older, you know), and cherries (for a few vitamins), we got to the game 3+ hours early to tailgate.

Life is good...

...we also had a massive rain delay. Nothing like the amazing chain lightning in the midwest.

Mom and Dad shipped a package to my office in the States for me to bring back to Quinn. He's slowly understanding the concept of opening gifts.

So, Quinn now has a few new books to read and some new clothes to wear. Thanks Grandmom and Grandpa Texas! His favorite is the train book that plays songs when you push the button. The battery won't last a few weeks (probably designed that way so the parents don't go batty).