Karl and Henri

Alright. This is the end of this blog. A very happy ending we must say, since it's first and foremost a new beginning. Which includes the blogging part.

It would be kind of unfair to make Henri use his big brother's URL. There will be enough little brother disadvantages like wearing your big brother's onesies, playing with your big brother's toys, making your big brother's room your own, not being able to smack back with the required force for the first years.... the list is long. So here it is:

The new blog of the Kreye Brothers, also known as The Sons of Fred.

Just copy: http://karlandhenri.blogspot.com/

Please update your bookmarks and blogrolls.



And here's a preview of the first encounter of aforementioned brothers. Did Karl claim all toys as his or did he bestow some presents upon his sibling? Did he try to stab him in the eye or was it a cautious test of expressing brotherly love? Did little Henri have a screamfest feeling threatened by the future bully in his life or did he feel quite relaxed having a rambunctious older brother turning a quiet hospital room into party central? Read how it went here.

Henri

Henri Theodor - born March 19th 6:29PM Central European time, 53 centimeters (21 inches), 3765 grams (133 ounces). Mother and son are healthy and happy. So here he is, Karl's little brother. We are absolutely overjoyed. More details and many a post about Karl and Henri to follow soon.

Springtime for Karl

Temperatures didn't just rise, they jumped and all of a sudden street cafes were full, bikes out and people went all around crazy. Of course we had to start the season with an afternoon classic. That meant a bike-ride down to the river. First stop - the kiosque of Frau Fingerle, the nice lady who's known Karl since he was an infant. Karl sampled the new ice-cream cone the ice-cream company came out with (vanilla with chocolate topping, chocolate streaks and some chocolate pebbles). So unfortunately I couldn't show off his advanced verbals skills, even though he had jabbered me almost off the bike on the way there. The cone put him into the seasonal ice-cream trance in an instant though. Which he only snapped out of, when we reached the beach, where he immediately went to work. Pebbles of all shapes and sizes were flying into the rapid waters of the Isar, carrying the melt of the Alps. Only interrupted to observe some raven building a nest up high in the trees. Sunny days - when Munich becomes one of the loveliest towns this side of Brooklyn.

Grandpa Paul

Big surprise, big hit, big day - Grandpa Paul came by and picked up Karl from daycare. Karl was very enthusiastic about the whole intergenerational bonding thing, introduced "Opa" to all his friends at daycrare, showed him all the great stunts at the playground near the museum (the digger, the carousel, the rope-webs for climbing), explained his favorite paintings at the museum for old masters behind the playground (this is the wild boar hunted down by lions, this is the parrot sitting on a still-life table full of stuff, this is baby Jesus naked). The afternoon was crowned with a tall glass of Apfelschorle and the largest chocolate cookie to be found east of Long Island. Karl didn't want "Opa" to leave, so he sure will be recruited for some more outings to "do things".

Downtown

Here they are, my two favorite people ever, hanging out at a downtown juice bar. We went to see the Maharaja-exhibition from there, which was right up Karl's alley, because they showed lots of footage of elephant parades and had a life-size elephant replica decked out in full regal parade gear. Afterwards we spent quite some time at the kid's reading lounge in the bookstore. Karl browsed through quite a bit of reading materials, before settling in true rascal fashion on a squirt-gun shaped like a shark. Which turned bath-time in to a squirt-gun shootout Ridley Scott would buy the movie-rights, if he'd seen it. Luckily Karl's Ernie-doll is actually a washcloth in real life, so he kinda pulled through alright.

Sunday At The Museum

Still in the waiting game. So what's a coupla boys to do in this lousy weather? Just board that tram and head over to the museum. As requested by Karl (wasn't that expected, when I took him to the Deutsche Museum last week).



We explored a new hall this time. The hall of "new technologies". True to their Pyönyang theme the new technology was a bunch of robotic machines from the 80s. Here you see Karl marvel at the wonders of modern dairy farming. They set up a milking machine that's fully automatic and they put a big fake cow into it. It was a hit.



We also had lunch at the museum. The cafeteria dutifully follows the Pyönyang theme, grease fumes, grumpy staff and all. They did manage to serve a plate of sausage and fries a two year old refuses.



Later on we went back to the kiddieland floor, which is, as mentioned, the very best part of the museum. After watching a bunch of older boys setting up an elaborate track for marbles with some special wooden blocks for quite some time, it took him mere seconds to make sure all laws of gravity are obeyed. All in all Karl had a wonderful time, so we'll be back soon. We'll just bring our own snacks.

Shopping Spree

I decided to retire. We might as well live off Karl's loot. We went on a shopping spree around Munich's famed Viktualienmarkt and Karl made off with something at literally every single store we went to. Must be those blue eyes he turns into death ray laser beams behind my back, threatening everybody into submission so everybody's giving it up. In the order of appearance there were - a big piece of Gelbwurst at the butcher, two baby bananas at the produce stand, a piece of candy at the baker, a clementine at the juice bar we had a drink at (see insert photo shot by juicebartender), a little bag of gummy bears from the fishmonger ... he actually didn't get a present at the liquor store, but the lady there was heartbroken that she didn't have anything suitable to give him. Highpoint of the spree was the bookstore, Karl's absolute favorite store in the whole wide world. He got to pick one book, so he took his conaisseur's time, browsing and perusing the wares for at least twenty minutes. Instead of going for one of his usual faves (Barbapapa or one of the "Wimmelbücher") he chose an English dictionary for toddlers moderated by a mouse. Of course the shopkeeper gave him a little free book with it. He left the store with a wide swagger proclaiming loudly and proudly: "We bought a MOUSE book!" So loud actually that he managed to get everybody to look. Or maybe he just activated his death ray laser beams again behind my back.

Big Shoes

The waiting game is still on, so Karl enjoys having both his legal guardians around, who spend their time mainly hanging out, slouching over to the market and doing some low-impact errands that don't force them to leave the zip code. To prepare for his role as a big brother he tried on mom's shoes to see, if he can fill them. He can and make it all the way through the apartment without tripping.

Events will be posted after they happened.

Childproofing Inspector

Today was e.t.a. date for Karl's little brother and since – once again – all doctors told us that he would very probably join us much earlier, we didn't think that we could actually make it to the little get-together at my friend Tines house yesterday to greet her now two-month-old Ben. But there we were along with Helena, Antonia and their respective parents.



We had a lovely time and so did our son. He thought that his main task this afternoon was to point out to the host which child safety precautions had yet to be taken in their apartment. I'm sure they were grateful to know that you can actually screw the dimmer switch off of their floor lamp and eat it.

Blizzard Day

After week of springtime we got hit by a snowstorm today. Literally out of the blue. So Karl and I went to the Deutsches Museum. It's Munich's famous science and technology museum and a rather bizarre place. Despite the rapid pace of both science and technology the place hasn't really been updated since the mid-70s. I went there quite a bit as a kid, but that was, well, a very long time ago. So I returned for the first time in a very long time with Ken a couple of years ago. Everything was a bit dusty and moldy and half of those science projects you can control with buttons don't work anymore. We came out with the strange feeling of having just visited some North Korean showcase museum. Anyway, with Karl all mobile now it was a very different story. He learned how to navigate a helicopter for example (see above).



Oh, had I mentioned the other bizarre aspect of this museum, the aeronautics and space department's strange pride in technology of the Nazi era? They even have an original V2 rocket on display, which used to be the horror of the London bombing nights. Above you see Karl swaggering through the great hall of airplanes, oblivious to the fact that he just passes the Messerschmitt bf 109, great pride of the Nazi air-force.



I shouldn't be so down on the place though. They do have a great kids' floor with tons of activities. Like a soundproof drumroom, where you can close the door. Nothing wrong with that (well, maybe the cartoons showing that it's mostly "negroes" doing the drumming in this world, either in Africa or in American Jazz bands....)



Alright, alright, nothing politically ambiguous about a giant xylophone. And definitely nothing to complain about an elaborate miniature waterway complete with little boats, lots of millwheels and stuff. We spent three full hours on the kids' floor. Afterwards Karl conked out in my arm and stayed sound asleep all though the tramride home and the next hour or so. I have the faint notion of going back to that museum many a times in the coming years.

Hitting the Swingin 60s

Lame pun in title works only in Fahrenheit of course ("early swing" would've been a bit more international). But it was indeed a rather balmy day for February with the strollers out in force. After the long winter stretch Karl reclaimed all parts of the donwtown playground (which is actually the one down by the hill and full of hipsters contrary to the one up the hill full of a rather affluent international crowd, so the whole analogy does work). Later on he got to accompany me on an assignment. Being one of the infamous anonymous food critics of my paper my current test assignment is a homey Italian restaurant more famous for the heated debate of it being a symbol of gentrification than for it's food. Karl very much embarassed Fred and me by demanding: "lobster! lobster! lobster!" (he did get lobster pasta when we went out with the Gorkows the other Sunday), thus reconfirming all fears about this being an outpost of gentrification.

No pics from the not so undercover assignment. Instead some more swinging (disclaimer: dad made some really stupid faces to get those giggles out of his son)....

Telltale Sign Of Spring Approaching

When there's a ray of sunshine in this town, people come out of their holes immediately. That of course includes the Eisbach surfers. So after picking up Karl on Thursday I was pretty sure we would see some of those fearless, thick-skinned guys.



And yes, their season is opened and Karl intensely studied if their techniques had improved during winter while comfortably seated in his stroller, chewing on a pretzel.



Later on we also went to check out the beautiful Ed Ruscha show at the Haus der Kunst. Karl actually insisted that we would go in when we walked by the museum on the way to our subway station. Once we were there though I soon found out that he only wanted to lure me into their bookstore to get him more reading materials. I'm wondering: is it already time to get a membership at the public library?

Llamas do it! Zebras do it! (...a day at the circus)

Nobody expects a subtle display of fine arts at the circus, but when we took a backstage peak before the show, the level of crassness reached new heights. So instead of the birds and the bees Karl got the llamas and the zebras.



He also does know where his little brother will come from. Yet to put two and two together though, so we'll leave it at wrestling llamas for now. You never know. At the circus. They could have wrestling llamas, no?



The show at Munich's traditional Circus Krone was all about gleaming eyes and bright smiles though. Just like last year. And just like last year the candied popcorn helped get through the still rather boring clowns' numbers. Winner of the day - the elephants. Huge hit. Literally.

Window Seat

I'm not very fond of sitting around in coffee shops with your kids, but Karl insisted on having chocolate cake and apple juice at Kaiser Otto yesterday. As I've mentioned before, their kids lounge is great and I saw myself sitting in the front reading glossy magazines. That didn't really happen though. Instead Karl explained to me all the different flyers and postcards that were lying around as well as the decor while snacking on the requested chocolate cake. Almost as good as my original plan.

Action Hero

After being all creative last year by dressing up Karl as a green Lego brick I took the easy way out for this years carnival and simply bought him a Spiderman costume (or Esbidersman as Karl pronounces it).

Ever since his dad brought home a Spiderman t-shirt from his last trip to New York he's in love with the cartoon character. And just as much as last years Lego brick he stuck out between all the princesses, lady bugs and cowboys at his day-care center.

More Winter Sports

Finally we got to introduce Karl to the great sport of riding a sled down some hillside at breakneck speed. Even though there was some steel heel slowdown action happening, Karl thought this was the greatest fun ever (so did his dad, i.e. me). To distribute the fun evenly Karl got to enlist all relatives present. Granddad was the most daredevil sledrider....



...while aunt Milena seemed to be the most pro, making sure rides don't end up as human snow salads (as did some rides with the male members of the family).



After exhausting ourselves to the point of reddest cheeks ever we stopped by grandpa's neighbors who had their very cosmopolitan German-Italian-London-living grandson Camillo houseguesting for a week. Camillo showed Karl the ropes in his very elaborate play-kitchen, which led to the preparation of a 15-course meal for everybody.



The home stretch on the highway was spent in deep-sleep non-rem mode.

Winter Sports

Karl seems to be immune against cabin fever, at least he put on a struggle when it was time to go to the park yesterday. Didn't take long though and he realized that it's much more boring to insist on a previous stance, when you could actually throw snowballs at daddy. Or stomp snowballs to mush. Or take snowballs and plunk them onto ancient gravestones (it's Bavaria, even the dead are thankful for any kind of distraction from all this idyllic-serenety-tranquility-business). Most fun of course was to chase dad down the pathways of the Südfriedhof (the Southern Cemetary, which has been defunct for over 60 years, but still hosts a variety of art nouveau gravesites of Munich luminaries who had streets named after them). Especially when dad was "really scared".

A good hour of snowball action also broke down Karl's resistance to finally try out the bike honorary god-mom Maria gave him for his birthday. Please note the breathtaking formula 1 style camera pan showing (slightly exhausted and very, very focused) Karl on his first speed-run towards home (where hot tea and freshly baked almond cake were served).

Sunday Dinner

I think Sunday nights are the best when there's no cooking and kitchen cleaning involved. So today I got really lucky since we went out to have a lovely dinner with Julie and Alexander at the Trattoria Seerose. Karl especially enjoyed Julie's interpretations of all the books we brought along as well as Alexander singing him Rammstein songs (no link here – it's baby blog after all...) while having him riverdancing on his legs. Meanwhile Andrian and I were able to eat in peace. Yay!

Today At The Park

On the look-out for the biggest snow melting puddles.

Sunday Duties

Picking up Andrian from his Sunday office duty is always a big highlight for Karl. Not only can he ride the subway AND the train to get there, then run through endless hallways, check out the train depot from the 19th floor, rummage through all the desks in the empty offices and charm the three other employees that are on duty as well. No, he also gets to spin around on daddies task chair after having eaten a whole bag of gummi bears with Alfred Hitchcock watching from the photo in the back.



Luckily we had lunch with a lot of healthy pancake-and-jam vitamins at his usual weekend hangout Kaiser Otto. They have a great kids lounge where he usually chooses to read some more books. Because we don't have enough reading material at home, you know.