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?