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....