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.

Baby Architect

I have to say, I'm pretty proud to have become an accomplished baby architect. On a daily basis I'm spending a couple of hours building towers and bridges creatively combining Karl's toys with CD's, DVD packs as well as books and cardboard rolls. The results are stunning as you can see and I have no idea why Karl is not into it. Instead he's trying to call his friends to arrange playdates. How lame is that?

Must Hold

Karl is holding on to the two pieces of pretzel in case the hunger hits him during his little nap.

Study Time

After a few weekends of traveling and weekend shifts Karl and I finally got to have a boys' day out again. While mom was attending a "First Aid For Babies" class (since Karl's been discovering his rambunctious side this might come in handy should he accidentally or deliberately hurt any other babies) we went to the most ambitious playground in town. It's attended by an explosive mix of overachievers and granola-nazis, so given the wise-ass nature of Germans one can end up with plenty of unwanted advice there. A friend of us averts this by carrying a beer bottle filled with water to the playground, which makes him so unacceptable to both groups that nobody talks to him.

Karl was mainly checking out the competition. Ever since he started going to daycare he's been fascinated with older kids. Bouncing on that elephant resembling thing he didn't seem worried,but a few times he really looked quite forlorn,being the only kid not yet being able to play catch and running around on the playground having shoot-outs with pretend-guns made out of sticks like the older boys. Who came by, declared us a clear and present danger and shot us dead. Who's bringing them up? Donald Rumsfeld? Soon Karl will be able to join though, since he's been walking quite a bit these days. By then I might have to teach him the Colin Powell doctrine of overwhelming force.



Back home Karl got into his new favorite book. Dr. Seuss - the perfect entryway into a second language. More educational events to follow tomorrow.

Vertical Adventures Part II: Look Who's Walking

I've been very reluctant to take pictures of Karl taking his first steps. When I did it for Vertical Adventures Part I he fell and hurt himself (a little bit). That's also why these pictures are not the best. I turned them into black and white because that always looks better. Hard-working inspector Karls main motivation with the whole walking thing is of course the fact that he can go to places much quicker. To check out stuff, to create some commotion and also to get into a whole lot of mischief overall.

Birthday Bash

It's not that I haven't thrown a couple of parties in my life, but this was definitely one of the wilder ones. Today the first member of our original baby massage class posse turned one, Magnus, so we came together and had chocolate cake (everybody) and prosecco (just the girls). It was close to impossible to get this gang of little rascals on one picture together without any help. In the end we managed and here they are, from right to left: the birthday boy Magnus, Ferdinand, Theo (Karls future daycare mate), Julian and yours truly. And now I gotta go back to renovating the apartment.

Homeschooling

While Andrian is livin' la vida loca somewhere on the coast of Spain, we are our old ambitious selves and go on with the homeschooling program. For today's filmography class Karl picked the movie Alpha Dogs. Interesting choice, my son,interesting choice!

Family Business

This past weekend we traveled to Heidelberg for the christening of my sister Carolins son Tomas. It was a lovely celebration and even though time was very short it was fun to see the boys pretend to have social interactions. I guess it will be even more fun when they can really play together as well as really beat each other up.



Of course my brother with Max was there, too.



And at some point even Karl took a little nap on our way back while riding into the sunset. (Well, technically we were riding out of the sunset because we live so far East, but that just doesn't sound as good.)

Lost and Found

On our way back home from the daycare center we've been taking advantage of what must be the last beautiful days of fall by going to the playground. Karl already recognizes it from his bike seat and would probably make me stop in a snow storm as well. What he likes most there is the taste of dirty stolen sandbox toys that other kids have forgotten about.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

We hope you're having a great day at the office while we party hard in your name at home. See you later!



The truth is: we're not at home since Karl is of course at the daycare center and he's also not that into funny hats. Unless I wear them which makes them highly inspectable.



P.S.: Yes, as you might have figured this photoshoot happened a couple of days ago in restless anticipation of the big birthday event .

Living In Style

We finally managed to somewhat decorate Karls room. The picture gallery in the little white frames is still an eclectic but random mix of old art postcards and other stuff and will be updated. As for the rodeo pics – they come from an old magazine that Andrian found on one of his cowboy story assignments. So far Karl seems to be pretty happy in his new space. What he likes best of course is the large number of highly inspectable power plugs.

Hideaway

One of these days, I'm pretty sure Karl will disappear in the washing machine. So I will know where to find him when he goes missing.

Toy Surplus

So Karls birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. It looks like he doesn't need anything, right? Good thing that he's prepared though in these days of economic crisis.

Playground Pilot

It doesn't seem like fall is going away any time soon. Too bad. But Karl is prepared. He combined his brand new pilot hat (a gift from Maria of Frankfurt) with his signal red mud overall. I like his style!