Ice age 2013?

The winter 2012/13 will probably go into the history books as one of the longest all over Europe in a very long time. Jakob was running through  the first snow late October in grandma Heidi's backyard and today both in Hoerbranz as well as Vienna roofs and streets are covered in snow again. It's about time to end the winter though and let spring really begin. Easter markets appear more like christmas markets and Easter Eggs might be found on a white bed rather than on green grass. Jakob definitely is on spring mode already and has the last few days, before snowfall set in in Vorarlberg, trained big time his biking skills and has made significant leaps forward from autumn. He now easily cycles a couple of kilometers on his second hand holiday bike we bought for him together with uncle Werner and aunt Renate. As a consequence he drops dead to bed in the evening. Lately even with grandma Heidi and yesterday even at uncle Werner and aunt Renate's place! Its fair to say, that he has matured.

Enough of that white stuff!

Our little treasure Julia has quite exciting weeks behind her as well. On March 17th she had her big day at church when she was christened in the Verklaerungskirche am Tabor in Vienna and enjoyed a great day with the big family from the Burgenland as well as Vorarlberg. Unlike Jakob, who was christened 6 months younger we gave Julia the chance to decide herself a little bit as she actually could have walked out in case she did not like it. But apart from watching the priest a bit skeptical before and even more so after water was poured on her head she had fun with the big crowd in the church. 

After the ceremony with godmother and godfather

For now we are separated as Markus is back in Vienna working still this week while Julia, Jakob and Kerstin are already enjoying Easter holidays in Vorarlberg. Excitement and fun is guaranteed and the hope for sunshine, warmer temperatures and green grass in the backyard is still intact. 

Julia, Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

A busy time of the year

The past few weeks have as with most probably everyone around the globe quite eventful. For us it was for the fist time a completely new experience as we not only had christmas to look forward to, but also the first birthday of our daughter Julia. But first things first.

When winter arrived in Western Austria 8 days before Christmas we were very excited about white christmas and could not wait until we finally could hit the road to driver to Vorarlberg. By the time we finally got to set off, on Friday December 21st, warm weather has set in and all the snow that was there - and apparently there was a LOT - was gone. It even got worse as temperatures rose continuously and it rather felt like eastern than Christmas with temperatures peaking at 31 degrees in the sun on the 25th of December! We however did not throw in the towel but had a tons of food as always (including an 8 1/4 kg Turkey on December 26th and just  great time. The Christkind was also extremely supportive and had lots of presents for the three juniors, Julia, Ylvie and Jakob. It even followed us from the Burgenland to late-deliver a few presents overnight from 24th to 25th.

Only one of the many presents

On December 28th it was them Julia's big day and she seemed to enjoy it big-big-time. Not only did she behave as if fully aware that it was her day, but she also ate cake and all the other good things she never was allowed to have before, as if she has eaten nothing else beforehand. Our extended festive season continued a few days later following a little bit of sportive activity as Markus did participate in 

the Silvesterlauf in Altach on Sunday 30th - his first run in quite a while. Great weather and perfect support by Heidi, Sandra, Ylvie & Flo as well as  Kerstin, Julia and Jakob - the big boy even accompanied dad over the finishing line - made the event a big fun and success. New Years Even might not have been the most exciting thing one can imagine, as we had raclette at home, but the night passed by so fast, that midnight almost passed by unnoticed. We did not miss it i the end and Markus did celebrate it with some fireworks on the meadow in front of our Heidi's house. Next day in the morning another party was on the agenda: Ylvie-Marie turned 2 years old and we all have been there. The brunch ended for us around 1700 and we wnt home one person short as our son decided to spend the night with his cousin and godmother. His first night away from mom & dad. We did expect a call from Sandra anytime asking us to pick Jakob up again, but this call came only next day morning. It was a strange feeling.

Frosty came for a visit

When back in Vienna also we finally saw some winter with snowfall and low temperatures. Jakob was glad for several reasons as we finally could hit the slopes again after a 10 months break on the Semmering together with grandpa Kurt. Jakob was still a bit rusty, but the winter only has started. By the end of last week Vienna was all covered in snow as ca 40cm of snow fell inner city. Due to Jakob having some fever an not being completely fit we had to skip skiing this weekend, but managed to do some bobsliding and snowman building on Sunday. And later this week we will head west again as Markus goes skiing to Lech with friends and clients while Kerstin and the kids spend time again with family.

Julia, Jakob, Kerstin & Markus 

Sign of life!

It has been a looong time and probably you all considered us to have given up on updating you. Well. Not entirely. Somehow too many things have happened and that fact paired with lack of time to put it on the webpage led to an even bigger backlog of information. About time to break that vicious circle. Here in a few sentences, what has happened since our summer holiday in August: Jakob developed his biking skills further has been accompanying Markus and Kerstin on their runs in the Prater while Julia also started to fancy mobility, started crawling in October and made her first steps in the second half of November. She now is running around the whole flat. We also returned to Vorarlberg twice: Once by plane in September for the wedding of Barbara and Alex and late October for what was supposed to be our honeymoon. We planned to leave the kids with grandma Heidi and the big family while spending 4 days in New York. Unfortunately Sandy came in between and so our flights were cancelled and we stayed in Europe instead. Next attempt in summer 2013.

We already play together!

With that rough picture of the past 4 months, here is to the present: The whole family is very excited about Christmas which we will after last year’s “break” spend again in Vorarlberg. Jakob is seeing St Nikolaus almost everywhere (in the kindergarden, at the bus stop and at night in various books), yet he is still due to write his letter to the Christkind. He better hurries up, otherwise he might get something he does not like. At the same time anything to do with Knights, airplanes, cars or skiing should be highly welcome. The big boy is also taking utmost care of his little sister, sometimes cuddles her wildly and most of the times really enjoys playing with her. Julia not only loves to empty stuff (be it the laundry, any kind of boxes or “her” cupboard in our kitchen with the plastic containers), but she also loves to play with Jakob and his toys .Last night they cooked in their kitchen and served us a delicious soup, Julia also likes to “clean” the workbench or play with Jakob’s  cars and car parkpark. The latter is a sensitive issue however as “hurricane” Julia, as we call her, likes to dismantle the garage and destroy the traffic jam Jakob likes to produce. That sometimes ends in tears for the big boy, but at the end of the day, they do cooperate and fights are very rare.

Julia, Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

A backyard full of excitement

Friday evening we set off for our three week summer vacation by Lake Constance which we all were looking forward big time given we did not have the pleasure of the beautiful lake last year due to our wedding. Good traffic conditions and peaceful children allowed for our arrival just before 0100 and our big boy was all awake and nervous when we arrived and Grandma Heidi. He helped Markus unpack the car, showed lots of stuff he brought with him and checked out the whole house before falling asleep again.

Flying high in the garden 

Saturday was a busy day for Markus and Jakob as they had to fillup Heidi’s backyard with a sand pit which Markus assembled as well as a large inflatable swimming pool so Jakob has an opportunity to jump around. By the afternoon everything was done and while the water was still too cold the first sandcastle was built instead. The coming days were dominated by swimming, jumping and digging in warm summer weather. Tuesday and Wednesday night Markus and Jakob spent the night in the tent Markus got as present for his 30^th birthday. As if his friends had known, the tent was a real family tent which used almost every remaining space in Heidi’s backyard. Jakob liked it so much that he was really disappointed when due to the forecast of rain Markus dismantled the tent Thursday afternoon.

 Hi there - this is my new bike!

Thursday morning however Jakob’s dream however came true, when we went to Bregenz to buy his first bike. Following several clear statements that our big boy wanted a bike with pedals rather than his trainer bike. We were successful and found an ideal bike not only by “technology” but also by colour as it is green, Jakob’s favourite colour. The rest of the day he was either found in the pool or on his bike practicing and being very proud of his new vehicle. Not surprisingly he made big progress on day 1 and dropped dead into bed in the evening. More biking will be on the agenda, no matter what the weather is going to be.

Julia, Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Hot summer in the city and on the roof

Last week Wednesday Markus's sister Ines has had her 30th birthday and we celebrated the day all together in our flat. Given the warm weather we decided to spend the day on teh terrace where a small pool offered kids and adults the possibility to refress and cool down. in the later afternoon we then had delicious barbecue before the birthday child made her way home again where an evening out with her friends was on the agenda.

On Friday afternoon Jakob had his first kindergarden summer party in the nearby Prater and the small kids had prepared songs and dance performances over the past weeks. Jakob was all shy in front of the many parents and friends attending and it took a while for him to "warm up" which surprised us given the summer temperatures were felt even underneath the protecting treet of the Prater. Our little butterfly did have fun however and when we returned home and jumped again into the pool the fun was even greater.

What sort of butterfly am I?

Over the weekend the summer has taken an even tighter grip of Vienna and the Eastern part of Austria with temperatures peaking at almost 38 degrees on both Saturday and Sunday. The four of us spent most of the Saturday at home and only hit the Stadionbad in the later afternoon. Given the fact that both Jakob and Julia had a long sleep after midday a good decision, yet the heat was still close to unbearable when we got to the super-packed Stadionbad. Thanks to our season pass we did not have to queue at the entrance, but still the pools were massively overcrowded and the spots in the shade were also very scarce. Jakob did not mind as he was cooling himself off in the water, but our little one was just hot and uneasy.

Water - here I come!

We therefore decided that on Sunday Kerstin would stay home with Julia and Markus would hit the Stadionbad early morning already together with Jakob. This plan was a good one as Julia had much mroe fun in an airconditioned home and "jumping" into our pool a few times, and the boys had fun on the waterslide and the cool wet in a crowded but not overcrowded outdoorpool.The afternoon they spent almost exclusively inside our little pool on the roof in the shadow, the probably best place to hang out in such weather. Given the heat will stay for the whole week Markus has overnight cleaned the pool and refilled it with fresh water so the the fun can continue. He himslef knows what he will do right after work Monday evening.

Julia, Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

What a shocker!!!!

When Kerstin's mom, sister and niece Ylvie arrived in Vienna Wednesday night we all were looking forward to some great time together during whih especially the kids could have a lot o fun. Both during the holiday on Thursday as well as Friday, when we kept Jakob at home from kindergarden that was th case and we spent a lot of time outside. With the weekend approaching however the troubles started as Friday night Ylvie got sick several times during the night and was far away from being a happy bunny all day Saturday. Saturday evening, right after Chelsea destroyed Bayern Munich's dreams to win the Champions League, Sandra went down the same route a her daughter and we all knew, that we would have a problem.

It was only a question of time when als the rest of us would be caught by the virus which kept Sandra all might busy and forced her into bed almost all day Sunday. By the time Heidi left with her taxi (Renate and Werner picked her up) in the later afternoon Sandra was back on her deet again and mo other casualties had to be mourne for. But come nighttime the horror continued when Kerstin got sick as well, followed by Jakob waking up, being very uneasy about his mum not feeling well a starting to cry which lead to also Julia waking up screaming and Sandra and Ylvie also being wide awake again. It sid nit tke very long that also Jakob had to vomit and the chaos was absolutely perfect and so we called in Kerstin's cousin Anja to help us handling the kids and being there in case we had to go to hospital with our youngest one. Several time being sick and few hours of sleep later on monday morning Markus decided to stay home and take care of the sickos who by then felt already much better. The recovery during the day was really good - especially with Jakob - and in reality we were all waiting for when also Markus and Julia would catch the virus.

It seems as if the two would have been either simply resistant to the virus o lucky as Julia was all fine Tuesday morning when Markus left the house very early to flee and fly to Frankfurt and then on to London in the afternoon. What he came across there suprised him a lot. Not saw he hot (28 degrees) and sunny weather unlike the past months when it was cold and rainy, but he also saw the frontpage of the Evening Standard:

Two shocking news on one front page. Brangelina don't have time to get officially married? How can that be explained? Lots of explanation one can get for the big headline and so the shocking part is rather that falling house prices in London only now make it to the headlines. The UK is officially in recession and London is probably the biggest real estate bubble in the country. In any case its very doubtful that the two frontpage topic are relate in any way.

Julia, Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

In the summertime...

The past 6 days have been absolutely amazing and incredible as since Friday we basically got summer. The temperatures climbed towards and above30 degrees during the day, there were hardly any clouds on the sky and also during the night temperatures did not drop below 16 degrees. The only things that are missing in Vienna are the sea and a sandy beach. Markus was lucky as he has decided a while ago to take Monday off work so we can have a long weekend and thus the four of us could enjoy the early summer. While outdoor pools were still closed - they opened only yesterday and thus missed a break start into the season - we spent Saturday morning at Biohof Adamah north of Vienna and visited family Strutz in the afternoon. Jakob and Anna had fun in the backyard, Julia and Emil had fun inside and all of us had a great barbecue season opener for dinner. On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we spent most of the time on our terrace and our big garden, the Prater in shorts, skirts, flip-flops and tank-tops. What can be more relaxing?

Is it obvious, we enjoy that weather?

Our youngest one has enjoyed the heat in her very own way: Each day Julia was freed of her diaper for a long while and she used her temporary freedom to practice her turning skills - she is almost there to spin herself from the back to her belly - and to move around on the floor. Besides moving around and making her funny sounds she every so often also pees on the blanket we place her on. Julia also is by now very eager to listen to the people around her which was most obvious when grandma Eva and grandpa Kurt visited us yesterday and she almost lip-read what everyone was talking. Somehow she has grown up a lot in the past week. After all she turned 4 months on Saturday.

Julia, Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Going the long distance

Tuesday evening it was time for Julia's first long trip: Markus had his annual skiing trip with colleagues and clients to Lech on the agenda from Wednesday until Sunday and took the opportunity to take the whole family to Vorarlberg to spend some time with grandma Heidi and cousin Ylvie, aunt Sandra and uncle Flo. Not that we were at all surprised, but our car was filled up to the roof and even the new roof-box Markus collected on the weekend was completely packed. Julia was feeling comfortable on the front seat while Jakob and Kerstin were in the back next to some bags and our jackets. With traffic reasonable we made quite good progress and only stopped once shortly as Julia was feeling hungry. Jakob was super patient while his sister was fed and soon after we continued our journey both kids fell fast asleep and allowed us to continue our journey without any further stops resulting in us reaching our destination just after midnight.

Happy Birthday Renate!

While Markus headed towards the mountain the next morning the others had quite some work to do: the final preparations for Kerstin's godmother Renate's 60th birthday on Thursday were due: Bakery Blaser was working all Wednesday preparing several cakes for the upcoming party, Flo had to finish and place the large billboard with Renate’s picture on her balcony and Jakob was working hard learning the text for his song. Thursday afternoon the party kicked off with family as well as neighbors, colleagues and friends invited and thus Meier’s home was packed. Anja and Katrin have prepared a crossword which Renate had to fill in and which granted her small presents with every correct line and with the main price having been a guided tour on a glacier in Tyrol. In order to qualify for that present she had to undergo a 6 x 60 seconds fitness test for a 60 year old. Having passed this test as well she got the bonus of two nights in a hotel in Tyrol before and/or after the glacier tour. Afterwards Jakob had his big appearance by singing “Happy Birthday Mamagota” together with all the guests. As our junior is singing the song permanently anyway it was an easy thing for him and he only had to take care of addressing it to the right person. Jakob enjoyed staying up much longer than usually and was yet again very fond of the older children that were at the party. Given he was behaving so well and not showing any sign of tiredness he stayed up as long as 2300 when however he fell asleep very fast joining Julia in the land of the dreams until late next day in the morning.

Julia, Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Like father, like son

When bringing up children one sometimes feels like standing in front of a mirror and seeing oneself acting. Be it during lunch or dinner when the junior suddenly picks up the full soup-bowl just because mom does it to finish her rest, or be it when the young one is repeating what an adult is saying in the very same tone as the adult. Even more shocking, when such words or phrases are used regularly in the correct context. Maybe shocking is a too harsh word, but for sure it’s quite astonishing.

 No comment...

Early January, when Anna, Lini and Peter were visiting us, we all were really amazed by the way Jakob had a phone conversation with his godfather Stefan. While the content that has been discussed (eating) was not so far out, though maybe difficult to understand for anyone not familiar with our oldest one’s language, the real shocker was the mimic, gestic and whatever else Jakob did during the conversation. Markus did find himself copied in this behavior.

 You spot a certain similarity?

As amusing as it was to watch it also taught us some kind of lesson: We better watch out what we are doing and what we are saying as our juniors will apply as soon as they can.

Julia, Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Hi, my name is Julia!

After first examinations by the pediatritian we are soon setting off home in order to meet Jakob and grandma Heidi who are waiting at home and are very keen to meet the young one already.

Shortly after entering the delivery room at the Ignaz Semmelweisklinik in Vienna and after around three hours of labor our beatiful daughter Julia has been born at 11:17. Given she stayed six extra days in her mobile home she had plenty of time to arrive absolutely ripe and well developed. With her size of 53 cm she is as large as her brother but with both her weight of 3760 g and the amount of hair she outpaces her brother Jakob already.

Julia, Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

We have just entered the Hall of Fame....

Waiting for ...

The advent season 2011 is a very special one for us for several reasons. Firstly, it’s the first time Jakob is undergoing the lead time to Christmas (almost) fully aware of the meaning of it as both in the kindergarten as well as at home he is learning why we are celebrating this special time and he also made the first acquaintance with the Nikolaus last week Tuesday. On the past weekend the three of us tackled the project "Christmas cookies" with Jakob both rolling out the dough as well as cutting out the shapes. Not surprisingly his endurance is still rather limited and thus we focussed on cutting and baking the gingerbread cookies as well as preparing the short crust on Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning Anja joined us to bake the short crust cookies and Jakob was all happy to play around with dough, flour, his rolling pin and the cookie cutters and even more glad he was about "tasting" the dough before reaching the oven as well as the finished cookies as soon as they came out of the oven and have cooled off a bit

Making cookies is big fun and tasty!

As this Christmas we are not only awaiting the arrival of the birth of Jesus the advent time is lived by us in real. Any day our daughter could join us, whereas currently everything is calm still. Obviously we are a little bit nervous and also curious as to whether she is going to be born on the estimated date (December 22nd) or whether she will be a real "christkind" born on December 24th. In any case - we are ready and prepared - on the weekend the boys finished the last necessary bit and assembled - and whenever she is ready she can come. Let’s see when that is going to be the case - we are looking forward to her.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

We gotta feeling

When we woke up on Saturday morning everyone knew its gonna be a special day – not only the adults but also the two juniors Ylvie-Marie and Jakob sensed it. At 10.00 the flat was taken over by the ladies and Markus was kicked out from home. He drove through the rain to pick up his best man Peter and they then moved on to his brother’s flat where the boys had vintage champagne with pizza (unfortunately for all of them the pizza-service added garlic for free and made the experience of the food last longer). When the boys left for the Lusthaus, the location for both the wedding ceremony and the party, the rain has stopped and they could drive through Vienna with Markus’ open convertible. Upon arrival at the Lusthaus, where Sandra, Heidi and Flo have finished the decoration already, some guests have already arrived and thus the 45 minutes to the ceremony flew by very fast.

When Kerstin and the girls – Evi, Lini and Lissi – together with our sunshine Jakob approached the Lusthaus in a horse carriage not only the clouds disappeared but also Markus left. He did not run away but went upstairs where he was awaiting the bride. A few minutes later Eugen, Kerstin’s dad accompanied his daughter into the room accompanies by live guitar music by Kerstin’s cousin Katrin and handed her over to the husband-to-be. The ceremony was personal yet pretty much straight forward and after 20 minutes Markus was allowed to kiss the bride. When a short while later the new family left the room the sky was clear blue and the backdrop could not be more perfect. While we accepted congratulatins from all our wedding guests the impressive Nebuchadnezzar bottle of Veuve Cliquot has been opened, served and enjoyed very much by everyone.

"You now may kiss the bride" - no need to say that twice

For us the afternoon went by extremely fast thanks to a walk through the Prater in order to find the right spot for wedding pictures and it seemed that our friends and family did not get bored while we were away as they all were still present when dinner was served upstairs again. Each table had a little guest in the middle – a beautiful butterfly was circling over the table flowers – and made the whole experience even better: delicious food, sunshine on the balcony, good wine and most importantly a bunch of cool people. Before the party kicked off our group of closest friends – the Bella Familia – presented a lip-dub video of “I gotta feeling” in which they wished us all the best of luck. It was hilarious and moving at the same time and definitely provided the hymn for (at least) our wedding and the first part song our DJ played was – surprise-surprise – ‘I gotta feeling’.

The party started relatively early but lasted long, the dancefloor has never been empty and both the delicious wedding cake as well as the late night goulash soup were highly appreciated by the party-people. Just after 0300 in the morning we closed the shop and we left the Lusthaus. We dropped off Viki and Stefan at their flat before heading to our room for the night – the Romeo & Juliet Suite in the Triest which has been organized by Kerstin’s cousin Anja. As the bar was closed already by that time we had the strawberries and water that was waiting for us in the room before having a wonderful first night of sleep as married couple.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

The final countdown

The clock is ticking louder and louder ahead of the big event tomorrow: our wedding. While one would immagine that after 12 years the ceremony is something like a formality, slowly but surely some sort of nervousness appears.

In order to cope with that we have family and friends who are coming to the wedding from outside and arrived already today in town as well as our witnesses Mary and Peter for drinks and BBQ at our terrace. The party weekend is starting!

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Jakob turned 2 - that has been celebrated!

When Jakob woke up on Wednesday morning he was well aware already that the day would be special as a chocolate cake was "parked" in the air-conditioned bedroom and as a consequence our junior asked for some cake for breakfast. By the time Jakob reached the kindergarten he was confronted with more evidence of a special day: Kerstin took along a (different) cake for J's comrades and he was immediately decorated with a crown and placed right in the centre of a children's circle. Our sunshine seemed to have been fully aware of what all that was about and put forth his hand to every child around him in order to accept compliments and afterwards they all had the delicious chocolate cake. At 1030 both Kerstin and Markus - who took the day off - picked up Jakob from the kindergarten and made their way across the bridge home where grandma Heidi, aunt Sandra and cousin Ylvie were already waiting for us. There was also something else waiting for Jakob: a fully assembled brand-new Duplo deluxe train set - the present from grandma and godmother. Jakob's excitement was so large and he liked playing so much that he completely refused to go to bed for his lunchtime/afternoon nap which we did not like too much given the programme we expected for the rest of the day.

Cool!! I've got my own railtracks!

Just after 1330 the doorbell rang and Markus' family - grandma and grandpa, godfather Stefan and Viki as well as aunt Ines - joined us to celebrate Jakob's 2nd birthday. The weather was very similar to July 13th 2009 with hot temperatures (reaching 35 degrees) and thus we spent actually most of the afternoon in the air-conditioned living room. After the birthday cake - a delicious Sacher cake decorated with a train made of marzipan which Jakob ate straight away - it was time for the second round of presents. This time our junior was allowed to unwrap and he very much liked doing that. He took his time for each present and celebrated the unwrapping procedure and to all our surprise spent some time to play/look at and show around each present before moving on to the next parcel. He is now proud owner of a few pieces of clothing, two more books, a carpet with roads and buildings for playing with cars and a basketball set with a height-adjustable basket and a ball in order to one day follow the steps of dad and godfather. The latter present was tested by all party guests and Jakob was all joyful whenever someone scored and exclaimed a loud "NOOOOO" whenever the basket was missed. Guess what we heard most?

Practice for the NBA Slam Dunk Contest 2032 has started already

Later on we moved up to the terrace where the children's pool was waiting, but for some reason Jakob was less excited about swimming and playing in the water and thus it was mainly the adults - Stefan, Viki and Kerstin - who cooled off in the water. We did not find out whether it was due to Jakob being a bit tired, the water being too chilly or because of the many presents one floor lower. When Anja, Lini, Peter and Jakob's friend Anna completed the round of party guests junior could unwrap yet another present - a "travel highway" with a few toy cars made by Lini which impressed pretty much everyone. The day was concluded with a big barbecue whereas we did eat inside due to the heat that was still intense after 1800 and when bedtime came Jakob was fast asleep within a very short period of time. The excitement of the second birthday was obviously very tiring.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Stag night with a 22 months old

No, this entry has nothing to do with the movie The Hangover and the sequel that started in US cinemas this weekend but its about the first evening and night that Jakob and Markus spent together without Kerstin. The teamwork on Saturday afternoon when Jakob helped his dad to fix the bed bonded the two and so the stage was set for a harmonic saturday night and Sunday morning which gave Kerstin the opportunity to spend some time with her cousin Anja, do "normal" stuff like going to the cinema and sleeping in Anja's flat without being disturbed at any time by our junior. The three of left left home on Saturday afternoon to buy some new shoes for Jakob in the first district, Jakob did chase pigeons in the pedestrian zone Kaerntner Strasse and lateron we seperated. While Kerstin moved on to meet Anja after she finished her work in Le Meridien, Markus and Jakob made their way home along the ringroad and through Stadtpark, where our sunshine again used the opportunity and chased pigeons and crows.

Once they arrived home it was football time. Not as a build-up for the Champions League Final in Wembley between Barca and ManU but as game in our living area - Jakob loves to kick the ball and perform his "Tooooorrr" cheer. Dinner for our junior was easily made - the soup and noodles just needed to be warmed up there was no disruption to the fun and there was also no issue getting ready for bed and when the two boys went to bed. Jakob was briefed once more before bedtime that it will be only dad and him that night, he was ok with that and everything went smooth. Shortly before midnight - more or less the usual time - Jakob woke up and was looking for mom insistingly so that for a short second Markus was fearing the worst. But it did not take too long that our sunshine could be reminded of the terms of this night and fell asleep peacefully next to Markus until 0530 in the morning.

When Jakob has woken up Sunday morning he was pointing at the empty space next to him and did say that mom was missing there, but it was more a statement than a scared question. He was all happy, accepted that Markus needed a bit more time to really wake up and was full of energy for the new day. Jakob even declined the morning bottle (or better said mentioned that he does not want one) and was focussing mainly on playing. shortly after 0700 then he indicated that he wold be ready for breakfast and like that the day continued. It does seem that the two boys work well together as it was very harmonic and cooperative, both had lots of fun and Jakob was full of joy when his mom called in. Kerstin enjoyed a long sleep - getting up only at 0830 - after a night at the cinema watching Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and took an easy start into the day. When she arrived back home Jakob was obviously very happy and showed her everything he learned and improved in the past 12 hours. What is however the best takeaway from our "experiment" is that there is a glimmer of hope that Kerstin can leave our junior "alone" overnight with someone else and as Jakob has also significantly improved his bonding to Markus.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

A perfect weekend

Past weekend was spent in Oberwart where Saturday night the Oberwart Gunners were fighting to prolongue their season by 5 more days and to keep the chance for the first championship alive. In Game 4 of the Finals series in which they were trailing the reigning champions – the Gmunden Swans – the team not only was with its back to the wall but also without one of their key players who injured himself in the loss of game three on Wednesday night. After having beaten Gmunden in the first 5 games this season – Oberwart won all 4 games in the regular season as well as it dominated Game 1 of the Finals – the past two games were unfortunately lost by a narrow margin and so it was quite obvious that the Sporthalle Oberwart was packed with supporters pushing the team to tie the series. A relatively nervous start into the game in Q1 which ended 12-18 for Gmunden was followed by an outburst of probably the most enthusiastic player in the Gunners team and the whole league – Hannes Artner. Within 4 minutes he scored 4 three pointers, turned around the game and injected massive self-confidence into the whole team. Great work on the defensive end, nervousness on Gmunden’d side as well as a few additional three pointers Kelvin Parker for the Gunners resulted in the probably game decisive score 28-7 for Q2.

Whoever has thought that the game was over was proven wrong as Gmunden did work itself back into the game and quite clearly was keen to take home the championship and won Q3 16-22. Also in the beginning of Q4 Gmunden was able to make the game even closer and when Enis Murati dunked the ball on a fastbreak to cut Oberwart’s lead to 65-56 the momentum seemed very much on the Swan’s side again. The following timeout taken by the Gunners however did its trick and the Gunners managed to take control over the game again both on the front as offensive as well as defensive end keeping the lead in the area of 10points and controlled it until the end. When the final time ran out after 40 minutes and the score was 78-67 the whole arena was reliefed and enthusiastic. The fans were chanting “Gmunden wir kommen” and one can rest assured that the traffic between Oberwart and Gmunden will be quite dense this coming Thursday when the decisive Game 5 of this series will tip off at 1930. Fingers crossed, the Gunners can seal the first championship, which would be well deserved for the team, the management and the fans.

Sunday afternoon was very relaxed - as one can see

Sunday morning we spent some time in Markus’ parents backyard playing with Jakob before visiting Michi, Klaus and Nikolaus for barbecue. We were a little bit uneasy as Jakob did not take his lunchtime nap and were worried that our junior would be “difficult” but we obviously underestimated the effect a playing 4.5 year old playing partner and a large backyard would have. Jakob was super happy running around, jumping on the trampoline, climbing up the climbing scaffold, going up- and downhill on the Bobby Car and one could not tell that he has not had a nap. Given the weather was so nice and both our juniors were so happy we stayed until late afternoon and had a second round of delicious BBQ for dinner before putting Jakob into the bathtub and making him bed-ready and, as expected, shortly after we set off towards Vienna Jakob fell asleep – the perfect end to a perfect weekend.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

The burden of the Easter Bunny

With Easter being very late this year the chances for nice and warm weather very obviously quite big and we all were lucky as the last 2 weeks have indeed been full of sunshine and warm temperatures almost like in late spring. Even though Jakob picked up some fever, a heavily running nose and strong cough he did take most out of the beautiful weather during his 1.5 weeks with Kerstin at grandma's place in Vorarlberg. He spent a lot of time outdoors, feeding the ducks, playing sand in the backyard or sitting in the newly attached swing on Heidi's terrace. In the meantime Markus back home in Vienna fitted the terraces with new wooden panels as the ones we had laid out turned out to be unsuitable for a terrace which one walks on with bare feet and crawls around. Hence we now ended up with some tropical, but very nice wood on bothg roof terraces. Thursday afternoon after work and after having picked up and registered our new car he set off to follow Jakob and Kerstin to Vorarlberg and spend the Easter weekend with family.

Ready to shoot a new season of "Home improvement"

While the early summer weather continued on Friday and Saturday when we met Mirko and Maria on Bregenz, played and enjoyed ourselves while still fasting Sunday morning was overcast and featured a light drizzle and therefore we expected the easter bunny to hide presents and sweets for Jakob and his cousin Ylvie indoors. The bunny must have had a huge basket on his back as the presents he left behind were quite large - a whole box of lego bricks, shoes and some pacifiers for Ylvie, a trainer bike, helmet and a child-toolbox for Jakob. We knew that the trainer bike is currently just on the limit (Jakob just touches the ground and might need to grow another centimeter or so to really do well) and so we were not too worried about him not using it all Sunday long. We also knew that the toolbox was the perfect gift and ever since he is fixing every screw in the house. Not only has he tightened all loose parts in grandma's place but after our nightdrive back home to Vienna Sunday night he also did some extra work on the terrace and tightened all screws which Markus obviously has not tightened enough when he laid out the wooden floor.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Ylvie in da house

Last weekend we had full house as Jakob's cousin Ylvie -marie had convinced her parents to drive her all the way from Bregenz to Vienna in order to be able to spend some time us. At the age of 2.5 months a 630km journey is like a "round-the -world-trip" - we very well remember our first long distance journey! The little lady - similar to Jakob at the time - was well behaved and thus the three reached us after a not too long trip safely. Ylvie has developped very well in the past month, added decently weight and is well behaved as well. There are some similarities to our sunshine as also the little lady prefers to be walked around rather than sitting down with her.

Its not a toy - Its my cousin!

Jakob liked the company very much and from the very morning all we heard from him was "Ylvie" and his first way in the mornjing was to go to the guestroom, open the door and see if she was still there. As if she would have threattened to run a way overnight! But he also liked the Vorarlberg tradition of extened breakfasts every day. One reason why we believe him to like that is that there was always a time when he managed to snatch a bite or too of a roll or bread with delicious Nutella. Even though the weather could have been better we also spent a lot of time outside walking around, playning in the mud and shopping and were not bored at all. With Anja and Gianluca also in town who visited us as well on Saturday evening we have had a really crowded place and all enjoyed ourselves. We were all sad when Ylvie, Sandra and Flo left Vienna again on Sunday morning driving back home and jakob ever since states "Ylvie - brrruumm", telling us that she left by car. As Easter is approaching however we soon will see them again, whereas this time we will be the ones traveling.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Closer to home

Following more than 4 months of quite constant separation from the family as Markus' work base was in Prague since he joined Wood & Co our life is getting back to more normality and more evenings together during the week. The reason for that is that Markus is going to work from now in in Bratislava, 80km from home and reachable within less than one hour door-to-door. The daily commute in for workers in London or even Vienna if one is unlucky can sometimes take even longer and be more stressful than Markus' journey on the A4 and A6 in his new car.

Our junior is pretty happy about the development and has been very joyful the past days when daddy opened the door around 1830 returning from work. Finally Markus is back playing with Jakob every evening (well maybe not every day as normal travel activity will sustain) and can also try to bring the little one to bed in the evenings. Most recently this task proved to be quite difficult for anyone apart from Kerstin, but we are confident that this phase will go by soon again.