Manic Monday

One Monday morning a few weeks ago it was just a blur trying to get everything done before heading to work: change Pig's bedsheets, give Monchi her bottle, shower and throw something on for work. I somehow made it in time to catch my usual train and just as I was settling down to my magazine I caught sight of my right foot and thought, hmm, I could have sworn I decided to put on another pair of shoes.

I got to work and went straight into my usual morning routine of answering emails, eating breakfast and scanning the press clippings when again, I thought to myself, really, I forgot I chose this pair instead.

This strange feeling kept nagging me until I took a proper look at both my feet.


Panic call home. Jochen was just on his way to drop the kids off at the kindergarten so I asked him to bring either of the two black shoes that must be laying out somewhere. Jochen tried to convince me if I didn't notice until now probably no one will. It took a lot of grovelling before he agreed to swing by. The price was allowing him document my flakiness.

Aside from conceding to be a blind woman, I also had to swallow his crowing that probably one pair of black loafers will do me just fine. Grrr!

We are Fascinated

For the past half year Pig has been absolutely taken with big cats. He grasps their strength, speed and beauty and would magic himself into a tiger tomorrow, if he could. Today we got to view its fearful symmetry up close.


After the zoo (and 2 hrs in the rain) the sun finally came out and we proceeded to the nearby sculpture park. Although it's also within a mile of our place we haven't been there in ages, and loved the new installations on the grounds.


This shuddering piece is called "Reaktion". It reminds me of all near misses in my life...



Back on safe ground. This Anish Kapoor piece serves to show how ambitious the Bean is...and I can't wait to see the new Art Institute wing - the pictures I've seen so far are amazing.

aka Ponchi

I hate to complicate things, but this just won't go away: for the last few months Jochen has started calling Monchichi "Ponchi". I don't know why except it stuck, and now in addition to Monchi we also call her Ponchi Maus. I share this because we're heading home soon and I don't want the Chicago folks all confused by this unexpected new name. You can call her cutie.


In any case the hiking season has started and she is so wonderfully LIGHT in the backpack. My last memories of this thing was using it to hoist a 14kg Pig on my back - that was not fun.

Just for Hope

Hope will rue the day she ever sent any bath/hygiene products to this household. Yesterday night while brushing teeth Pig was pulling his usual stall routine when he idly asked, "Mommy, what do you like better? The lollypop flavor,"

"or the toilet flavor?"

Obviously the coconut custard scent the good folks at Avon were aiming for fell short! More importantly the graphics department may want to rework the coconuts...

Yucky Rainy Weekend

The weather this weekend was really the pits. The reason why I'm all worked up is this tends to be the way it goes in Cologne - gorgeous spring weather in April and May, lulling you into thinking, gee, so much nicer than in Chicago, and is that the Biergarten calling my name when SLAM, the rain starts nonstop in June, JUNE. One year I caught myself still thinking summer will be just around the corner - when it was already end of August. Pathetic! Jochen seriously objects to this view of life and he claims Cologne gets 950 hours of sun a year vs 1000 hours in Chicago...see how a man pulls do-doo out of his ears...

On Saturday we went on the bi-annual kindergarten woods outing. This was scheduled long before the municipal daycare employees went on strike, and surprisingly they decided to go ahead with it anyway (the strike is currently on hold for one week next week). Naturally in addition to the overcast weather the conversations were pretty much along the lines of "I had to ask my neighbor's dog to watch little Britta because I couldn't miss work on Tuesday." When will the strike end? Dunno, but the union is saying they can last until August. AUGUST. Who's the HR person in charge around here??!


Then again, bad weather never stopped this family from heading out. Today we went to a local community fest where Pig honed his circus skills.

Thank goodness part of the event was indoors, because twice this afternoon we had to duck inside to avoid the serious downpours.


It was still a lot of fun and Pig picked up a tip or two.


And if you don't believe how windy and shivery it was - just check out the most accurate weather forecasting instrument around.

Still Wobbly

Monchi still topples over, but she's now stable enough to sit in a high chair by herself. Oh, is she pleased to have moved up in the world!

The municipal daycare workers continue to strike, so since Sunday Monchichi has been at Oma's. I'm glad she's well looked after but I can't wait to pick her up this weekend!

Pig and Puck

But Will He Do Dishes?

Pig loves to cook. He's been meddling on the stove for over a year now and as anyone who's seen him eat knows he's just enthusiastic about food in general. As soon as he sees us prepping to make dinner, he'll drag his high chair to the counter to make sure he gets to take part in every step of the process. This is a kid who loves to peel garlic and onions for you. He also knows the proper ratio of rice to water for cooking perfect stovetop basmati. I'm counting the days until he's ready to take over dinner duties Tuesdays and Thursdays...

Fun Sunday!

This morning I got to sleep until 8AM!!! Such a blissful start to my Sunday. Otherwise Mother's Day has always been lowkey around here (I'm sure it'll all be pancakes and roses for me when Monchi is old enough to whip the boys into shape) but it was a really fun day nevertheless. We started by heading to the zoo to get Felix his first annual pass (kids under 4 have free admission), and yes, his famous grimace is now on his one picture ID. Along the way we stopped for the seal feeding show.
This weekend was also the local carneval so we went for a few rides and ice cream. We also visited the monthly flea market and picked up a cool train book and legos for Piggy.

Later in the afternoon Pig got a video break. Check out Monchi's new do, courtesy of some hairstyling fairy from the daycare. Somehow I never would have thought she'd have enough hair for a "fountain". I got this name from the novel The God of Small Things - but is there an official name for this rather embarassing but universal and utilitarian way of getting-hair-out-of-face of little girls?

Back at Work

My first week back at work was nearly perfect: it felt good to get back to my old job, and I spent the week picking up open issues and new assignments, sorting out computer access and swanning around having coffee with colleagues while still managing to make it home every day by 6pm at the latest. On the homefront Monchi and Jochen got on famously...scarily she lived up to his unrealistic expectations that girls are ultimately easier than boys. At the daycare she was also very cooperative in the integration process and will already go nearly full time starting next week - that is if the municiple employees don't go on strike in the next days but that's another story. We even managed to serve a home cooked dinner every night this week. The only fly in the ointment was two aweful nights where she would not go back to sleep...no explanations except one which we could never believe: she wanted even more to eat. In the past six months each time her appetite spikes it usually takes us one or two days before we cop on, because who would have thought this little darling can pack so much away! And poop 3-4 times a day!!

That everything went so well gave me a big confident boost; however, it doesn't change the fact that the day to day routine is truly physically demanding, and that it could be easily derailed by illness or sudden long hours at work. I'm just happy that the two kids adjusted so well to my being out of the house again and amazed that Jochen still had the will to live by the end of the week. Good start!

Weekend Update - Part II

On the not-so-sunny side of the (last) weekend we decided to take an afternoon boat cruise - Pig and Monchi's first.

The former docklands are being converted into a home for architectural showpieces along the river.





Hopefully these industrial views of the Rhine will cure you of any notions that the river is all Loreley/Bingen idyllic. There's some of that down around St Goarshausen and surroundings, but it's always hard to explain to the visiting relatives that it's not all that picturesque as the Romantic poets would like to have you believe...

Weekend Update - Part I

Criteria for our weekend activities are: 1. as much outside as possible 2. Pig oriented 3. food concession onsite - because by god I haven't learned yet to pack an entire lunch or Kaffee und Kuchen, as German families are wont to do. This means we often end up in places we were unlikely to visit earlier, sans kids. On Sunday we enjoyed the beautiful weather at rococo Schloss Benrath, in Duesseldorf.

Best part - no hangups like the French about spoiling the lawn - visitors are allowed to sit, trample, roll, and play football on the green stuff.
Food break: Sacher, Marzipan buttercream and Italian Black Forest cakes (lunch was healthy but not as photo-worthy!)


Snooze break
Back to workI think the first ever picture of all four of us - with Monchi wondering, who IS this guy next to me?

My Girl!

As soon as Pig got better last week Monchichi started running up a fever. She's all better (but now will not sleep through the night, alas!) and looking forward to turning 6 months old this week.