Happy Thanksgiving!

For this very special holiday the late afternoon sun turned Karl's red mud coveralls into a pumpkin colored version of it while we were having some fun at the deserted playground.



Even though we're still feeling a little bit nostalgic we didn't do a full blown turkey dinner, but we (and that includes Karl) had some delicious cornish hen (=turkey for babies) with plenty of different sides brought to us by Käfers through Andrian.

First Snow

Karl and me had us some boys' day out today. The plan was to delve into the first snow that had fallen tonight. First we fueled up on a hearty lunch. Karl's choice was pumpkin and rice, which he obviously enjoyed quite a bit. The whole snow thing was a bit disappointing as soon as we had reached street level.

Despite the crispy white rooftops it was a mere sprinkling. I gave Karl some to play around with, but he remained quite unfazed. So we went to the bookstore and got him the German version of "One, Two, Three, Me", which he read back and forth for the rest of the outing. Maybe there's hope that he does develop a love for the great indoors? I guess temperatures around freezing help.

Merci, Omi!

This past weekend Karl we found out a lot of things about Karl. Well, Omi found them out because that's where he stayed for three days while we had a wonderful if childless weekend in Paris. So Karl seems to love cherry jam for breakfast. He's also not afraid of huge black dogs and he loves reorganizing his grandparents house. Oh, yes, and he forgets what his mother looks like after three days.



Here they are in the baby paradise playground figuring out the marble run. Thank you, Omi, for taking such good care of him!

Meanwhile in Paris:

Calling America

Sabine's right about that strange fascination kids have with telecommunications. Of course Karl was calling the Unites States of America. He wanted to check on the election results and immediately wanted to spread the good news that Obama.... no he didn't. He just thinks phones are really funny, because they make really funny noises. And if you hit redial you can call mom's client.Four times in a row. And listen to him getting more and more confused who's calling him making giggly noises. Aaah adults, always a mystery.What they do. How they act. Their mundane dreams and desires. Kinda cute though sometimes.

The Big One II

Before Karls Italian birthday dinner at Seerose we went to pick up Andrian from his Sunday shift at the brand new Süddeutsche Zeitung office. Although the location South-East of Munich is not the greatest, their new high rise building is pretty cool. At least Karl thinks so. He went crazy checking out the freight yard, the truck company, the Allianz Arena as well as the race track from the windows of the 19th floor. Most of all though Karl enjoyed hanging out with REAL boys like Victor and Konrad (the other two people in the picture above are Julie and Alexander).

The Big One

Just like a year ago we started the day bright and early with some warm milk. Pretty much everything else has changed though. It's crazy how much has happened in this one year. Our son developed from this helpless little bundle into a walking and talking energizer bunny boy.

WE LOVE YOU, KARL!

And: Thank you so much for everybody's birthday wishes!

Poing

Since it's Karl's birthday tomorrow we thought we start the festivities today. Hey, 28 hours of labor should at least allow his dear mother to party for an equal amount of time each of the first 18 birthdays. So we took Karl to the Wildpark Poing, which is part natural reserve, part nature trail, part petting zoo. We started out with feeding some friendly deer. The Bambi aged ones were a bit shy, but their mothers sure did enjoy our oats, one even stealing our bag of animal feed munching it down packaging and all. We told Karl that their behavior is paid for dearly in the Bambi movie, but somehow he wasn't fazed that much.



So on we went. It's quiet an impressive piece of deep German woods kept pristinely between manicured farmlands and rural villages turned into rural commuter villagers. Poing by the way really is the name of the village nearby. Karl was super-excited about almost every animal he spotted (hard to document, since now expressed with wild gestures accompanying the screamed announcements of where the most recent source of excitement can be found). He did get to see rams and goats and deer and sheep and boars, a pack of wolves (fighting viciously) and a few lynxes (lounging elegantly). Rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs and some very clumsy piglets rounded out the array of native animals, most of them roaming freely in the vast enclave of forest land. There was even a demonstration of hunting birds' skills done by some falconer. The big owl really left a great impression with it's 5 ft. wingspan strafing the audience. Karl seems to be very much into nature, so we're already afraid he won't be enjoying the great indoors as much as his parents do. We might have to trade in the big TV for new hiking boots soon.

911

I've been copying some of Fred's tricks and kept Karl busy by building him stuff to topple over. Here he is with a nice set of twin towers, Karl and I used to play 911 with Karl as American Airlines flight # 11 and me following him as United Airlines flight # 175. Alright. slightly awkward segueway into announcing Karl's birthday next week, which is on November 9th. In European numerals that reads 911 as well, and in Germany that is also a date burdened by quite a bit of history, like the November revolution of 1918, the pogroms of 1938 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. So maybe I'll just go back a few lines and start over. Wanna hear some deconstructivism phase puns? Like in "Hey, don't scold me, dad, Gehry did it"? Or maybe I just dig that hole even deeper and show you Karl sitting in front of a Freedom Tower version of his toy pile, smirking mischieviously.

You CAN Have Your Cake And Eat It Too

I've been slow with posting the latest boy's outing, since they're currently moving our whole company, newspaper and all, to a new location. Karl got to come by and ride the old Paternoster one last Fred was attending some super wizardy nerd events learning how to program intercontinental missiles or spaceships or stuff, so Karl and me took a trip to the country. We stopped by grandpa's and as it should be at a grandpa's house, Karl got to have a cake and eat it too. Here you see him in the demands phase of the negotiations, before traces of passionate chocolate cake consumption could be seen on Karl, table and grandpa.

He wasn't just excited about the limitless cake eating, but also about working off the sugar high on the stairs afterwards (calories and carbs don't really play a big role yet though, because little baby potbellies aren't just healthy, but cute... don't you wish that would still be valid for your adult life too). Stairmastering became a bit exhausting for everybody else involved, so turns were taken in spotting little Mr. Karl during his workout.


He also liked hanging out with his step-aunt Milena, who not only indulged his every playing whim and fancy, but played him some harp, which he thought was a quite trippy sound experience. Next time it's - pigs and cows and chicken. They really live in the countryside, so we'll have to visit the farmers who let a small apartment to my family when I was a kid.