When 3 turns into 4

Outnumbered
First of all, the good news: Eva is pregnant.

Eva has been a bit worried that the readers may start thinking that she's getting fat for no reason other than via lack of exercise and excess ice cream. While Eva has been as active as normal (albeit a bit slower), she is carrying our second child. While the pregnancy has been more difficult than with Quinn, Eva is doing great, and the baby is healthy.

The due date is in late September, and we do not know the gender yet...

Nature (and Family) Weekend
Our friends from Erlangen gave us a gift certificate to a family hotel in the Bavarian Forest. While it took us a while to plan the weekend to use this great gift, we finally headed out on Wednesday afternoon for a 3 night stay in a 'Family' hotel. I got huge points by heading out of work by 2pm so we could hit the road early. It is only a 2 hour drive the Bavarian forest, but we wanted to get there with enough time to check the place out before dinner.

The drive went well, until the last curvy portion. Eva doesn't like how I was taking the curves (always too fast). She said that Quinn didn't like them either...I promptly disagreed. How could she know, after all. She could have just told me to slow down instead of using Quinn as her 'excuse' to criticise my driving ;-)

Quinn started screaming. We were practically there. As we were pulling into the parking lot, he puked all over the place. I got the 'I told you so look'.
Then, Quinn, in true Quinn fashion, saw the playground, the huge sandbox, and a car made from a tree trunk. As I was trying to clean the puke off of him (he's screaming), he tries to work his way to the back floorboard to grab his sand toys. He gets the sand toys, and heads straight for the car.

I feel only slightly relieved, but he's having a ball with the car (which he spent a lot of time on those few days).
The place was definitely a family oriented hotel. There were playgrounds and play rooms all over the place. It wasn't extravagant (e.g. there was a 'room' above the barn (with original animal odors) with really old Bobby Cars for the kids to ride...which Quinn really loved), but functional and fun for kids.
The sandbox was even fun for Papa. Quinn really loves tractors and dump trucks, so he, of course, loved this sandbox version. And, since the hotel was in the sticks (am A... der Welt), there were plenty of real tractors and farm implements for Quinn to see.
They even had a pony ride for the kiddos on Friday evening. This was a first for Quinn...the only thing that was missing was his Lederhosen. Oh, the clash of two (similar) cultures: Texas and Bavaria.

We also know how to REALLY tire Quinn out. We head to the pool. The little guy had a blast, and he is getting more comfortable in the water. He also is beginning to 'respect' the water, so he's not doing as many things that stress me out (which allows me to enjoy the moment a bit more and not worry about 'the next accident').
The weather wasn't exactly what we were hoping for. Shortly after this pic, it snowed / hailed really hard for about 20 minutes. Try packing a kid and stroller in a car while getting snowed/hailed on. I couldn't do it...and Eva saved the day!

Of course, we packed our fleeces and rain gear just in case, like we always do for these sorts of vacations. Since we were going to hike, we also had our hiking pants and shoes. So, we were prepared for suboptimal weather.

Quinn, however, forgot to bring his rain coat and hiking shoes, so he had to wear his fleece and sandals all weekend. We used extra socks for his gloves. Note to self, don't forget normal shoes for the kid ;-) Quinn and I were the only folks on the playground in sandals. Cold feet do not seem to bother him, and I guess he gets that from me...

No Gould vacation would be vacation without a hike, which we did each day. Even though the weather was suboptimal, we made the best of it. I think it is amazing how Eva gets the energy to hike while being 4+ months pregnant, but we hope that #2 picks up an appreciation for the outdoors (and a certain amount of activeness) from this like Quinn did.
On our second hike, we made it to the Pröller Peak, a bit over a 1000m above sea level. As is normal in Bavaria, there was a cross at the peak.

There were some cool tree statues along the way.

The obligatory family pic at the peak.

We let Quinn out of his backpack to let him climb on (and jump from) the rocks. It's got to be fun for him as well...

The weather finally picked up on Friday and Saturday. Saturday, our last day, was perfect. Not a cloud in the sky. We celebrated the weather by heading outside for a hike...Quinn celebrated with a nap during the hike. He doesn't look comfy, does he?

Before we went back home, we headed to the outdoor, summer toboggan course (Sommerrodelbahn). They had two different paths. Eva LOVES these toboggan courses, but chose to not ride. I got 'stuck' riding with Quinn. He was a bit skeptical at first, but seemed to have a good time. As soon as we got off, he jumped off and wanted to ride again (noch mehr!).
You get going a bit fast, and there doesn't seem to be much to protect you. You are low to the ground, can brake (or not break if you want to go faster), but are designed to not have accidents.

Nevertheless, we still topped 30km/h (about 18 mph), which is really fast on the tight curves).

Quinn was not happy to go...we could have stayed another few days, but it was time to go. It was a great long, family weekend. And, we still had Saturday and Sunday at home to do some of the 'normal' things.

We really love the Bavarian forest...it really fits our personalities and some of the things we love best in life. We always come back refreshed, and can't wait for the next trip!

1000 Dank @ die Erlangen Gang für ein schönes Geschenk. Wir haben das Wochenende sehr, sehr genossen!

English Garden

As mentioned, coming back from the Bavarian forest allowed us to get a few things done at home, and for us, that meant 'working' in the yard. Almost all of the flowers are in bloom, and we really enjoy these few weeks in Spring when our yard is so colorful.

The tulips still remind me of the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder in April, which brings back many, many warm memories.

Eva and I are like a little old couple in the mornings on the weekends, as we look at each tree and bush to see how things have grown the previous week.

I, of course, really love working on my grass. I have always wanted a perfect lawn, and I put way more work than most (e.g. I aerate by hand). But, when I walk barefoot through the yard in the morning, it is all worth it. I still have a long way to go (the weeds are coming back), but the work in nature with Mother Nature is extremely rejuvenating and relaxing.

Quinn, like his Papa, likes walking outside without shoes as well...

Finally, a pic of Quinn with his Bayern München 'jersey'...for his Oma (who HATES Bayern München). Kocka, wir denken oft an Dich!!!

Thank You Easter Bunny!

After what seemed like a 6 month cold and wet winter, spring finally sprung! Just in time for the long Easter weekend. Both Good Friday and Easter Monday are holidays here, so the perfect weather was very much welcomed for our souls.

After seeing the great, blue skies on Friday, we had a quick breakfast and headed outside. Quinn even seemed to be longing for the outdoors: after waking up and seeing the blue skies, his first word was 'draußen' (outside)...which is very abnormal, as his first word each day is either 'essen' (eat) or 'oatmeal'.
Eva found an article in the paper for an event close to home yet close to some good hiking: the village was showing off their 'Easter Fountain'. It is customary that the fountains and wells get decorated for Easter with flowers and eggs.

The ladies of the village were selling their hand painted (real) eggs. Since the insides are blown out (can't imagine how hard that is to do), the eggs make great decorations that last for a long time - depending on how well you keep the eggs from curious 2 year olds.

Their fountain was nice...we've seen better, but the decorations were only hand painted real (hollowed out) eggs, which is somewhat unique, and has a beauty of its own.

The real bonus of the side trip was the cake: the ladies had an unimaginable amount of cake and pie. So, we bought a few eggs and pieces of cake, and we enjoyed the great weather.

We then headed out for our Easter hike on the edge of the Fränkische Schweiz.
Quinn did a fair amount of walking this time...and we let him do his own exploring and walking on logs. We try our best to make the hikes fun for him in the hopes that he'll learn to love hiking as much as we do.

Great spring weather is not complete with out grilling. We had our friends over, grilled, chatted, and tried to tire the kiddos out. I think I was the only one that got tired...

...don't ask me what I was doing...

After almost a year of trying to convince me that I needed to rip up some of my grass to put in a sandbox for Quinn, I finally broke down, and we ordered a sandbox. I was dreading having to put the thing together.
Of course, Quinn wanted to help Papa. He had no idea what we were building or why...

...but after waking up from his nap, he was stoked that it was a sandbox. Getting the final items for the sandbox (e.g. sand) was a bit of a struggle. It is super convenient to go to Obi (Home Depot) since it is only a few hundred meters from our house, but going to Obi on Easter Saturday during great weather to pick up 300kg of Sand is not fun.

The lines were HUGE and Obi was super crowded (the German readers can fully understand the crowds at stores before a long holiday or on the Saturday between holidays), and it is not exactly easy to push around a cart with 300kg of sand in it. Of course, we walked to Obi, so we had to push the cart all the way home.

Seeing the excitement on Quinn's face made all the effort (and sore muscles) worth it.

Finally, the big day: Easter Sunday. Quinn was a bit too young last year to really understand what was going on, but he knew something was up when he saw his Easter basket on the table.

After he opened up the Easter Egg, he went right to opening the chocolate eggs. Ignoring our parental conscious, we let him eat the first chocolate egg, then the second...and third. Quinn was stoked, and seemed to be running on adrenaline (and sugar) most of the morning

He really loved his stuffed duck, which now has to come to bed with him.
Easter Sunday got away from us a little bit. We were at a local biergarten with some friends a lot longer than planned (the kiddos were playing in the biergarten's sandbox), and didn't get home until almost 9pm. So, we had to do our Easter Egg hunt on Easter Monday...
All in all, it was a simply amazing weekend. A nice, long weekend with great weather, family, and friends was much needed for all of us. You don't realize how much the cold, rainy weather wears you down until you have a weekend like we had: warm sun and blue skies.

After tanking up on some sunshine, we headed to work for a short work week. We are entering the very 'worker friendly' time of year in Germany, where we have tons of holidays and long weekends.

Hope every one had a great Easter!

Thank you Easter Bunny!

Nina's 30th Birthday

No...this is not an Easter post. That will come soon enough.

Last weekend, we went up to Eva's hometown to celebrate Nina's 30th birthday party. Needless to say, Nina was surprised by her gifts!
Quinn loves birthdays. He hasn't quite yet figured out yet that just because there are presents and candles on a table, it doesn't mean that they are automatically for him...

Nonetheless, Quinn must have sang Happy Birthday for 3 days straight.

Quinn even figured out how to blow into those paper trumpet things. No idea what they are called.

Then, he threw it into the pond. They don't work all that well when they are wet.

All in all, it was a great birthday weekend. It is always a pleasure to visit my in laws, and now that I'm approaching my mid 30's, it is nice to see more people join the over 30 club.

Happy Birthday Nina!

A few days ago, Spring finally sprung at home. Eva and I have been suffering in the cold these last weeks, getting some of the Spring gardening necessities started. While we really enjoy this work and being together in Nature, it is less fun when it is cold outside.

I aerate my lawn by hand...which is tons of work (about 10 hours total), but I think the results are better. The advantage of the rainy, cold Winter is that it is easier to aerate, and I've been doing it bit by bit.

Above you see Eva raking the old lawn after I finished the last piece of yard. Quinn gets his little rake out and helps as well.

Finally, with the sun coming out, my newly planted flowers finally came up. I planted about 400 bulbs in the Fall, and everything has come up with the exception of the 125 tulips, which will be coming shortly.

With the temps finally warming up and the days getting longer, it is finally time for Spring...and Easter!

Boy's Weekend

Two weeks ago, Eva had her 'Girl's Weekend' with some of her childhood friends. She got a weekend in a hotel and spa. She got to gossip, chat, have great meals, chat some more, shop, and even make some time for some spa treatments. Good for her. She deserved the weekend away from her husband and son.
Lucky for me, I got to have another long weekend of quality time with my son. Unlike last year, the weather was significantly colder, so it was much more difficult to have easy outdoor activities to tire the little guy out with.

Nonetheless, I started out strong. After picking up Quinn from daycare, we went home, changed, and went straight to the playground. He played in the sand forever. Then, without warning, he started walking away from the playground saying 'Bretzel' (Pretzel). No problem, I thought, the backery isn't far away (and this was the direction Quinn was running anyway).

But wait, I didn't bring my wallet...and I had no change. So, I had to explain to Quinn, under the duress of a hungry child (who was beginning to cry), the concept of money. Without it, there would be no pretzels.
He screamed the whole bloody way home, despite my promises of just going home to get some MONEY. We made it home, and I got out a few coins and showed him the MONEY. We went to the bakery, and he got his pretzel. Thinking I was being a cool Papa, I asked him what he wanted for dinner. He would get whatever he wanted. I was expecting him to say hot dogs. No, he said pizza. No problem, I thought. I had my cell phone, I would call our local pizza joint (I had MONEY) and pick it up right away.

Then I thought, how would I get the pizza home. I was on my bike, and Quinn was in his Chariot (a little buggy that I pull with my bike). I would have to put the pizza on Quinn's lap. I'm not the smartest Papa in the world, but I knew this would spell disaster: Quinn would try to eat the hot pizza, burn the roof of his mouth with the hot cheese, scream all the way home, and repeat until the pizza was torn to shreds.

So, across the street from the bakery is our grocery store. Yes, I admit it, I bought frozen pizzas (pictured below)...and hot dogs for Saturday's dinner.
On Saturday, we went back to the playground. I brought MONEY this time. When he was tired of playing, he wanted a pretzel. So, being the smart Papa that I was (with MONEY), we went to the bakery. Which was closed. No worries, the grocery store is across the street. We got a pretzel, which we started eating in the parking lot.

...then I got to carry Quinn, his sand toys, and his Bobby Car (pictured above) home. Quinn was on my shoulders, eating his pretzel. Needless to say, we got lots of looks on the way home.

Right before we got home, Quinn took a sudden right turn to another playground...he wanted to play on the swing. So (after all, it was our weekend), we played some more. It was already getting cold and dark. I was frozen and hungry when I finally pulled the 'look, the street lights are on...that means that all the kids have to go home' line. I nuked the hot dogs (and baked the fries), and the little man was in bed almost 2 hours later than normal...at 815pm.

Despite some shopping difficulties, it was another great weekend of quality time with Quinn. It was also very nice to have Eva home. Having a weekend of such focused quality and quantity time with Quinn is a very special thing...and I recommend every parent to have such a weekend with their children ... alone.

If all goes well, in a few years, maybe Quinn and I will go hiking and camping for our Men's Weekend.

Modern Technology

Without trying to date myself, I feel that my generation is the one that has witnessed most of the modern computer generation from the beginning. While we were a bit too young for punchcards, we were around for Atari, Pong, Apple IIc/e. I took BASIC in high school and learned Pascal and Fortran long before C++ or Visual Basic was even around.

The Internet was born when we were in high school and became useful when we were in college.

We've suffered through dial up modems and are now disappointed when we can't easily find a HotSpot.

One would think that nothing would amaze me when it comes to technology...but I'm absolutely amazed how cool it is to 'call' someone via the web and a webcam.

My dad and I are now set up with web cams. Armed with our Google account and a small GoogleApp, we can now web conference 'free' - only having to pay for the cost of our flat rate, high speed internet.

Wow!

The audio is much better than I expected, and the video is good.

Even better, it gives my folks a better chance to 'see' Quinn. Quinn loves it. He now asks for Grandpa more often. So, instead of saying that Grandpa lives a long way away, we just set up a webcall. We chat for a while, Quinn waves into the camera, and my folks can see their grandchild.

Very, very cool. I love the Google Video Chat.

Let me know if you're interested. I'll send you an invite to Googlemail (for those of you in Europe) or Gmail...log in, buy a web cam, and then have fun.

The Joy of a Child

It is hard for Eva and I to believe that Quinn turned 2 today. It seems like yesterday that he was born, and here we are celebrating his second birthday.

With Eva's parents and Nina flying 'up' to our place to celebrate Quinn's birthday, we had high hopes for good weather and a great time. The forecast was almost positive. We've had a long, grey winter, and we have been looking forward to spring for quite a while.

Unfortunately, we had the same crappy weather as we've had for what seems like October: grey skies, snow/rain mix, and temps just above freezing.
But, as I learned from Eva when I moved to Germany: there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes. So, we got all bundled up and headed to a very cool zoo in the area.

Nina and Quinn had stump jumping.

Of course, the big day was today: number 2! Quinn had fun 'blowing' out his candles. Let's just say that it was more like 'spitting out' the candles than blowing them out. He was also much better at opening up his gifts.

Quinn got a 'walking bike' (Laufrad). No pedals, but it helps the kids to balance. Quinn has been eyeing the other kids with such a 'bike', and Eva did a great job haggling with a family at a bazaar to get one in great shape. He is still a bit too small for it, but could balance it by himself for a while. Eva or I had to mostly hold him upright from behind. Let's just say that my back will not function properly when I wake up tomorrow.

As you have seen in other posts, Quinn really likes to 'cook'. When we cook or bake, he pushes up his chair to 'help' us. He's had a play cookware and dishes set for a while - stocked with wooden 'food'. He plays with these toys as much as his favorites (books).

In the spirit of encouraging his likes, he got a toy kitchen for his cookware set, and he was up and running cooking in no time. I have to admit, I was a bit 'unsure' of the kitchen. The alpha male in me said that he would be better off with a toy workbench or something. After all, the box had only little girls on it. But, reason prevailed. It certainly can't hurt him to gain a passion, or at least a respect, for cooking. After all, I love cooking, and without my mashed potatoes, Eva might not have been as interested in me, so long ago...Since kids emulate their parents, this 'good' habit has to be OK...

All in all, it was a great day and weekend. When it was all said and done, when Eva's parents and Nina were on their way to the airport and when Quinn was in bed, Eva and I took a few minutes to reflect on the weekend. What a great weekend...

...I still find it amazing how many people, near and far, truly love this child - not just with 'things' (which are greatly appreciated), but with 'themselves'. Whether it is my parents flying from Texas, Eva's parents driving to our place, or our friends just stopping by, they love him with their hearts and they give him their 'time'.

For me, it is even more amazing how much sunshine this small child brings to the hearts of those around him. Probably something that every parent thinks, but just thinking about this little guy smile brings warmth in my heart.

The weather may have been really crappy, but it was such a wonderful birthday. Happy Birthday, Quinn.