Admit It

You waste hours as I do searching for entertaining tidbits or worthy content on the web. My time now is like a pocket full of loose change: enough for the 99 cent menu but just short of a nice sitdown meal. At least this is my justification for squandering it sitting in front of my computer instead of tackling the next home-improvement project.

SO, if you have any sites to recommend - by all means share it here...it's nice how one link always takes you to another. To get you started:

Food Blog Listing, but of course the art is to wade through the crap. Two sites that looked good at first glance -
A French food site (text in English/French AND English/Metric!!)
And a Bento site - I showed it to Jochen and asked if he would pack my lunch when I go back to work next year...

Of course, recommendations will also be taken for pages covering literature, politics, fashion, travel, film, celebrity gossip and anything else you think I may be interested in...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Snow is rare in Cologne, so even these minor sprinklings are camera-worthy.

Monchichi is putting in more mat time now, although she's only good for about half an hour before she cries for company. And because Piggy gets our bad cop routine she gets the good cop treatment. How is it I've become so soft-hearted this time around??

Pig and Monchichi at the Musem Ludwig Cafe.

And...the reason why photos are getting uploaded faster these days are thanks to my own little toy laptop. Don't look to Jochen for diamonds and pearls, but he's always more than generous when it comes to sports equipment and electronics. Can I interest the US readership for some video skyping???

Pacifier Fairy

The following is an entirely unscientific observation, but I find that the shift in German child rearing philosophy before and after WWII is akin to the move from the Old to the New Testament. In an earlier epoch you had the Grimm fairytales, Max und Moritz and Struwwelpeter stories - serious hardcore object lessons on the dangers of childhood and the fate of those who misbehave. Postwar (then booming) Germany emphasized instead economic incentives for staying on the straight and narrow rather than the dire consequences of going astray - thus you have the custom of presents on the first (half) day of school and the Pacifier Fairy. Grade school is still 2 years away but the Pacifier Fairy finally paid a call to our house about 2 months ago.

The Pacifier Fairy (Schnullerfee) collects pacifiers from big kids so she can, I don't know, recycle them and (yuck) pass it on to babies, I guess. Pig, who gave up daytime use of his Nuni fairly early always still had his dirty little secret for going to bed or whenever he's lounging around at home - interestingly he always made sure to put it away if there were visitors at the house.

The deal is when you're ready to hand over the pacifier, you have your mom or dad call the Fairy and let her know in advance what you'd like to have as a present in return. For Pig commensurate quid pro quo was a garbage truck. A BIG ORANGE one.

Since we were so crap with our toilet training efforts (that's another story) we decided this airy fairy socially accepted bribing was the way to go. However we didn't have much faith that Pig would live up to his end of the bargain, so we made him quit cold turkey for two weeks before we called the Fairy. Amazingly he withstood the test and the Fairy, after some moaning about how kids used to be happy with a nice yo-yo or puzzle, did come after she managed to track down this particular prize.

We were so pleased with the outcome that we told the Fairy she could count on our repeat business - next time hopefully a bit sooner rather than later....

At Least We Don't Call Her Smurfette

When Pig first joined his daycare group, we were told another family gave him the nickname Monchichi - the resemblance is striking, I must admit. I don't know if these little monkey creatures ever made it to the US, but apparently they were a popular Japanese export to Europe in the 70s.

We resurrected the moniker this time around on the assumption that Number 2 will have just as big of a head and just as much hair as Number 1 - pretty much a safe bet. We also knew we wanted a "cuter" nickname for our baby girl - Pig lives up to his name manfully, but given this is Year of the Rat there's potentially nowhere to go but down...

So Monchichi has been our working title for the past six months and now that she's here we think it's a great fit. Hsin presciently told us way back that Monchichi is a clunky nickname, and indeed we find ourselves already shortening it to Monch, Monchi, Chichi, etc. Her vote was for Puggle - which is either a designer mutt or a baby platypus or a toy character.

Pig, who is now very sensitive to gender, sees the logic of Mommy/Monchichi and Papi/ Piggy, so who are we to argue?

Christmas Pictures

Yesiree, just in time for this year's Christmas card distribution we'll be running a 2 fer 1 special and offering 2 kiddies for double the cuteness (yes, that IS how it works). I think to get things going we'll have to come up with a photo by this weekend of the two so we can get the cards printed up in time. Somehow I've been avoiding this very exciting task, but at least we've had a few trial runs - hopefully the final product will feature both children awake and evoking some amount of holiday cheer.

A challenge will be to convince Pig not to do his "scary smile" - as my sister likes to put it. For the past year this has been his photo face of choice, and the only way to not get this toothy grimace is to sneak up on him. I'm actually getting used to this by now - I like to think of it as his patented Zoolander pose. When Monchi sleeps she sometimes has a ghostly smile, eyes closed. I need to get them both to do that at the same time for a Chinese cynical realism montage.

Princess, Yue Min Jun 1997

Table Manners

Although Piggy is normally more a teriyaki chicken-on-a-stick man, the cucumber makis gave him a great opportunity to try out his chopstick skills. Except for some unplanned dives into the soy sauce dish, all in all he managed to get food to mouth without doing serious damage to himself or others.

Exhibit A: The by-any-means-necessary method of holding your chopsticks

We got through this meal with no tears, nothing landing on the floor, and a full belly. Good job Pig!

G Rated

Somehow I don't remember being as domestic during the last maternity leave, but the streak continues and I'm totally enjoying making all sorts of new recipes, both sweet and savory. But, I recognize short of having everyone over for dinner (which will not be anytime soon) all this is just bluster on my part unless I can produce some hard evidence for display. Unfortunately, I'm also realizing quickly that I don't have what it takes to produce hardcore food porn. When something comes out glistening from the oven or piping hot from the stovetop, my focus is on piling it on my plate and wolfing it down - if nothing else because I expect only 10-15 minutes of peace, tops, before I have to go play nursemaid again. Manger interruptus to go get the camera and fuss to get a good picture is just not a discipline, yet. Therefore, for the time being I can only offer some harmless shots of my recent jam making efforts as well as my first ever homemade birthday cake for the Pig (I know, I know, but you have to remember I went back to work well before his first birthday, so up to now store bought was GOOD ENOUGH!!)

9 Years

Today, 9 years ago, Jochen and I met at a Foo Fighter's concert in Cologne. We are still amazed it happened, at all...

Debut

At 3 weeks old, Monchichi makes her first appearance on the blog!! Since the past days she's been much more alert and awake so I can finally get a picture of her with her eyes open:

So far Monchi is a very well-behaved baby (although I may live to regret my words later). Aside from some gastro issues that remain to be worked out, her toughness is a welcomed change from, ahem, what I remembered from the first time...
Some photos from the first day of her birth. Pig loved visiting us in the hospital and thought it was cool they brought such delicious food to the room...























Mini-Me?

These are the dancing shoes Hsin made for Monchichi - gorgeous, aren't they?

Maternity Leave Bliss

I'm now starting my 3rd week of maternity leave and have so enjoyed this period of leisure that I'm afraid I'll kick and scream when it comes time to give it all up for 2am feedings in a month's time. Somehow it didn't seem like such a big deal the first time around - probably because I had plenty of time back then to do my own thing in the first place. But after 3 years of running after the Pig I hardly know what to do now that I have Mondays-Fridays to myself whilst he's off to the kindergarten. My days are half industrious - I'm back to doing my own cleaning, unpacking boxes from the move, baking and putting up jam, trying new recipes as well as obsessively tracking the US election coverage. I was also flirting with the idea of getting in touch with other expat moms just to build up an English-speaking network but must say I haven't been motivated to see that one through.

So as of yesterday I've readied my birthing playlist on the ipod (just kidding - Goldfrapp is probably not going to cut it), packed my hospital bag, and confirmed Plan A (standby babysitter to come stay with Felix) and Plan B (new hospital instead of the originally planned - long story, one which will be told depending on how traumatic the birth is this time around). These things out of the way, I plan to blithely continue my slacker ways, stay up until all hours and swill alc-free wheat beer until Monchichi decides to come out and see the world.

By the way, I have mixed views about Frank Rich, but Ms Palin's lack of self-insight supports the dire scenario he paints this week:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/opinion/05rich.html?em

Bambini Run

From the beginning Felix has been a regular onlooker at sporting events - Tour de France start 2004 in Liege (ok he was only along for the ride in my belly), faithful bystander at the Cologne marathon in September/October each year and all sorts of running and biking competitions in between (unfortunately only once involving Jochen - we both need to get in shape again!) The summer Olympics coverage the past weeks further expanded his horizons in terms of sports so far unknown: dressage, wrestling, diving, crew. It also emphasized sports in terms of what he knows already - namely winning and medals. Recently we saw an advertisement for a series of informal kids races locally and asked if he would like to take part - the answer was an emphatic yes...until the day of the race.

We took him anyway and the minute he got his start number he was rather, keyed on, so to speak. Jochen took him around the 2 loops that made up the 350m course to orient him before the start you can feel his quiet concentration/excitement.

However, the minute the kids were told to line up he didn't want to let go of Papi's hand.

They were out of sight for part of the loop and Jochen reported that he was flagging by the middle of the second round - but he brought it home. Go Piggy!

We're Back!

Hard to believe two years have gone by since the last post, but I've never given up hope that, at some point, I would take up the keyboard again. Pig remains my inspiration, but we're also eagerly anticipating Monchichi's arrival (due date 31 October) to round out the clan. The lost years will have to be dramatically woven into the storyline in the future a la flashback. Meanwhile, some recent pictures from Hsin-Yi's visit.

Hsin at Dallmayer's - where we all wished the portions were a big more hearty.

Here we are at the 20th anniversary Tollwood Festival, which started as a hippie/music happening in Munich. Today there's some music but a lot more food and beer tents, as well as tie-dye and incense stands.


On top of Germany! We just walked back from the Austrian side of the Zugspitze and there was whiteout as far as the eye can see. The weather got better a few hours later but as you can see from the picture not only the winds were howling...

Hot Summer in the City - Week 1

Hard to believe we're already back from our long awaited summer trip to Chicago, but the good memories we carry with us will keep us content until Christmas. I'm especially grateful we were able to meet up with Ellie in Detroit and Aim on her business trip back to Chi-town. Only Mike got away but it's now on me to make it to SUNY-Buffalo, where my man is going to be teaching and starting the Yu Lab this fall...fantastic!

In my campaign to sell Chicago to Jochen we spent quite a lot of time exploring the city. We baked on Oak Street Beach, rode bikes along the shore up to Lincoln Park, caught the fireworks on Venetian Night, and wished we had our camera with us when they served us a pitcher of Weizenbier - that had Jochen rolling on the floor . One of my most favorite spots is still Millenium Park and it's only with the greatest editing restraint that I include just two pics...

Another highlight of the trip was meeting up with Leanne and Niki, two kindred souls who never let me go, and gathering our families around us for the first time. Despite the kids and husbands, being with each other made me feel nearly 16 again.

Pig was, on the whole, unfazed by the new faces, and I dare say he remembers a lot from his last visit. He took to his A-Kong right away, and in short order had the run of the house at my parents. I'm really happy he got to see Aim this time, as she invested so much of her time for him in his first year I don't want him to lose contact. We miss her all the way in California but had a great afternoon playing in the park near her granny's house.
Next week - Door County getaway

Travel Season Begins

Since the last post we've been waiting for summer to arrive in Germany. Back when it was still dreary and rainy Oma and Opa visited us and here are the Wittkamp men (Hans, Jochen and Mini Me) all hard at work doing taxes or account reconciliations or whatnot.

Pig's travel season started early this year, and kicked off with a stay at the Frankfurt grands in early May after cheering Papi on for the Mainzer Marathon.

Second half of the month found us in Munich, where we happened upon the annual brewer's fest at the Viktualianmarkt. The free beers started flowing at 11am AFTER the men in Lederhosen danced around with wreaths...ah, where would German stereotypes be without Bavaria! Pig loved the bustle, the horses, the bells and whistles!

We met up with our favorite well-over-70s couple again in June to head off to the Bavarian Woods, just on the border to the Czech Republic. We did a lot less hiking than intended, due to the heat, the compulsion to catch as many WC games as possible, and sheer laziness. However, the hotel we stayed at was positively idyllic so we enjoyed lolling on the grounds, teaching Pig how to blow dandelion spores (of course he had to take a big bite first) and giving him a flower power makeover!

Escapades

It was always meant in the nicest way (my favorite backhanded qualifier), but back when Pig was just a baby I used to say a dog was way more entertainment for money - but I've changed my mind since - I am LOVING the toddler phase. Yeah, you have to hold the line on crap food by getting good at sneaking chocolate and chips before his eyes, and storage solutions you thought were perfectly sensible are now fair game for havoc. A couple of random pictures this week, only to show how much fun we're having. Jochen started this silly game of giving Piggy his finger to gnaw - was cute back when Pig had one or two teeth, but anyone could see this was a game which could only end in tears...
This other pic - well, somehow all through winter we could never get him to wear a hat, but he seems content with his babuschka....these crazy babies!

Pig is Back!

We've been away for too long, loyal readers! Despite Hsin taking matters into her own hands a few months back and all of you righteously clamouring for updates, work has been pretty hard going since end of last year so the blog fell behind laundry and shut-eye in the long list of priorities, or rather, to-dos. However, as my hours don't seem like they will improve (and commuting to the UK at least once a week now the standard), it's become more important than ever for me to protect my time with the Pig and to try to preserve the sweetness of watching him grow up. Even in this short time away a lot has changed since our Chicago visit. Pig is still his humble self, but he's now quite a refined user of utensils. In fact, we're amazed he hasn't stabbed himself with the fork yet, despite his usual haste to cram food into mouth. On the whole he also manages to convey sticky rice, yogurt, mashed potatoes and other adhesive carbs safely on the spoon from plate to palate. Having said that, no sporks needed for blueberry cake!
Trotting Pig now not only walks, runs, stamps in place like a loco, and plays soccer, he's also climbing anything he can get his hands on. We'll see how safe our balcony is this summer....

Pig is happiest when he has TWO balls in hand...
Finally, a picture from this year's Karneval celebrations. It was fairly lowkey this year for us but we did manage to take Pig for one of the small local parades (where we totally cleaned up - bags of candies and 5 stuffed animals. We figure there's a few more good years ahead until his cuteness expires). We can thank my cousin Jean for the Piglet costume - Pig preened quite a while in front of the mirror, that's how much he liked it. When Jean first told me she bought him this costume I have to admit I regretted not calling him Piglet from the start...wouldn't you have found it more socially acceptable, more adorable perhaps, if I had associated the nickname with the AA Milne classics? In any case, Pig he is and Pig he shall be...until we break ourselves of this bad habit!!

Guest post: Pig in Chicago

Since I have Piggy pics to share, I've decided to briefly hijack this blog in the name of long deprived Pig-watchers everywhere. Everyone was very happy to see Felix over the holidays (oh, yeah, and Yiwen and Jochen, too- but, you know, check the name of the blog) until we discovered that Piggy had no idea how to go downstairs, having grown up in a stairless environment. He would fearlessly (cluelessly) approach and try to descend down the stairs headfirst, and got pretty disgruntled (hah! grunt, pig, get it?) when we kept turning him around to go feet first. After a few days he was a pro at the stairs, but he was unable to apply this new found knowledge to slides.


Piggy has three teeth (or he did at last sighting, more may have emerged), and he gets along quite well with them, especially when you consider that none of them actually approximate (two lower teeth in the middle, then one rebel tooth up and off to his right), making them more decorative than functional. But it gives him a super cute grin.



I think this is a great picture of Piggy and his A-kong. You have to realize that it's taken with my digital camera which has a lag time of, oh, forever. Good for idyllic scenic shots, crappy for squirmy babies. Basically you have to look into the future, predict that Piggy will be doing something adorable 10 seconds from now, and snap.


Finally, me and the Pig enjoying a mutual teeth adoration moment. Of course I get the last picture. My reward for slaving through posting with my 56K modem. Yeah, that's right, it's old school. Anyhow, we're eagerly awaiting the next Pig sighting in the summer, when he is fully bipedal and really ready to take on the town....