More than just Saturday Night Fever

Just on time for the official start of summer, the warm weather returned to Vienna and we are enjoying warm, but not yet superhot temperatures. Jakob is practicing and improving every day his walking skills whereas he prefers to carry watering cans, boxes or any of his toys with him. The larger the items are, the better and sometimes he looks like an ant, carrying something which is larger (yet lighter) than himself.

For both Kerstin and Markus Saturday evening was highly anticipated date as Kerstin has planned a girls’ night out for months and Markus was invited to a special 40^th birthday party of one of his former colleagues who is now working in Moscow. As Jakob has developed over the past weeks to a more “user friendly” boy and now could be calmed down during the night also by someone else than Kerstin, we did dare to stick to the plans and follow the invitations as Viki & Stefan volunteered to do the babysitting.

Come Saturday afternoon and the build-up to the evening out we realised that Jakob was quite hot which we initially believed was caused by the hot weather, but when checking his temperature we were quite shocked as the clinical thermometer showed 39,8 degrees. As Jakob was eating & drinking well and also was still quite active and smiling (though he was falling over often) we treated him with antipyretic medicine and calf packing. As a consequence of Jakob’s Saturday Night Fever Kerstin was very disappointed that she missed the girls’ night (while Markus did join the birthday party until shortly after midnight), but it was quite clear that our junior did need his mom. Jakob’s situation did not really improve throughout Sunday – he even reached 40,3 degrees Sunday afternoon – and so Monday morning he will see the doctor and we hopefully find out what the problem is and even more important what to do against it. Fingers crossed.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

The weekend of Father's Day

Last week summer weather had a tight grip on Vienna with temperatures rising steadily and reaching 32 degrees on Saturday, during the night the temperatures did not come off a lot either and in front of the outdoor pools like the Stadionbad long queues built up. Luckily we have bought season tickets and thus could jump the queues, walk through the entrance and select a shady place under the trees. While Jakob did enjoy the time on the lawn bare naked playing and eating melons, carrots and bread he had issues when we went to the pool with him. It almost seems as if he does not like water anymore and so we only could trick him into the refreshing wet element. Saturday evening our plans to have barbeque were virtually blown away as a heavy storm with gusty wind and rain approached Vienna which cooled off the air quite significantly.

Dad & son in the zoo

Sunday morning, after a new experience for all of us as Jakob slept through the night in his own room, the sky was overcast and temperatures were somewhat lower than then days before and thus we decided to spend Jakob’s 11-month birthday and Markus’ first father’s day in the Zoo in Schoenbrunn rather than in the Stadionbad or a lake. When Markus returned from his morning run Jakob featured a new t-shirt and presented a small present to dad. We got on our way after lunch and Jakob was fighting hard to not fall asleep all the way in his pram but only close before entering the Zoo where we met Rosemarie and Sandra. So yet again our sunshine missed most of the animals and woke up after 1,5 hours just in time for the feeding of the seals. After an afternoon snack, a visit to the monkey house and some playing in the grass we transferred home again, where Jakob was all active again, walking a lot and helping Markus watering the flowers on the balcony.


Jakob trains his skills as gardener

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

11 months and mobile

The past month has gone by very fast and Jakob has made huge steps forward in his development. Due to rather cold and rainy weather he had lots of possibilities to practice his standing skills during May. The past few weeks were dominated by more or less successful attempts to walk. While our junior was rather stagerinbg at the beginning he has by now im proived to that extent that he is getting up on his own (without anything to hold on to) and walking for a fe meters sometimes with something in his hand, sometimes without.

Yummy! I love fresh fruit!

With regards to talking our sunshine has also made some moves, whereas he is only rarely blabbering and most of the times making animal sounds (tiger-like). Both Kerstin and Markus do understand Jakob by now (sometimes) but for anyone else it might me a mystery. Jakob has now also learned how te get on and off a sofa or bed without bumping his head (feet first!!) and is eating a lot of food which we could also eat (i. e. not pureed) like potatoes, carrots, turkey ham, melon, apple or strawberries.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Finally summer has arrived!

So far late spring has presented itself rather unfriendly with cold temperatures and rain (luckily not as torrential as in Poland or Hungary where the country is still partially flooded) and doubts about a warm and nice early summer already appeared. At the end of last week though summer finally broke and temperatures rose sharply towards the mid-twenties and the sun managed to sooth our skins. Having built up a large sun-deficit over the past weeks we tried to soak up as much of it as possible and spent the majority of our weekend on the roof terrace. On Saturday we started the day with breakfast together with our guests, Kerstin’s former schoolmate Monika and her boyfriend Stefan who visited Vienna for the long weekend. As it was not only sunny but also the wind was very calm Jakob could basically spent most of the afternoon without a diaper on our terrace lawn. He quite obviously enjoyed his freedom, practiced his walking skills and explored everything. Late afternoon Evi and Christoph stopped by and we decided to heat the barbecue and have dinner together alongside one or the other Aperol Sprizz.

Playing on the terrace was fun. Especially without any diaper!

For Sunday we have had planned for a while already that Anna, Lini and Peter would come and visit us and given the summer weather we quite obviously spent the day again to a large extent on the terrace. Sunshine, temperatures of close to 30 degrees and a breeze made a perfect setting for chilling, our juniors did play with each other and we had drinks and late afternoon again a delicious barbecue and for desert we had yummy cheesecake which Peter has prepared. In the evening we paid tribute to the two days in the sun and fell into bed quite early. While Markus had to return to work on Monday Jakob and Kerstin could for the first time use our season ticket in the Stadionbad. Even though Jakob loves the baby-swimming, he was a bit sceptical about going into the baby-pool but the two had lots of fun in the shade of the trees. We are optimistic to spend some more time going forward in the Stadionbad as the weather forecast says: Summer will stay with us for a while now.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Jakob is walking!

Over the past few weeks Jakob has trained his skills in getting up, standing and walking holding on to someone or –thing intensively and we were pretty sure that the “running days” would not be too far down the road anymore. Most recently he also did make a few small steps side- and forward whereas he never did these steps with full awareness. It always “happened” while being busy with something else. Today though our little sunshine for the first time made a few steps to get from one point to another and really enjoyed his new development with a big smile and joy!

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Getting rid of the fleas

It is amazing how much stuff one is buying throughout the years and either not using it at all or not using it anymore while very often the items are in ok to good condition and it’s a shame to throw them away. Hence we are collecting such treasures in boxes and every two/three years we are selling the stuff on the most busy flea-market in Vienna – the one at the Naschmarkt. The slots are being sold 6 weeks in advance and during the high-season (April-September) they are usually sold out within minutes of the opening of the online registration on Monday morning. Maria managed to get us a spot six weeks ago for the past weekend and hence Mirko, Geri, Stefan, Viki, Oliver and Markus met at 0430 in the morning starting to sell all our “unwanted” goods to interested buyers. The first few hours are probably the most stressful as professional traders are immediately surrounding the cars, browsing through the boxes and are more or less acting like vultures over a dead animal in the desert.

We did almost everything to get rid of our stuff!

The good thing about that early appearance is though, that a large bulk of our stuff – ranging from clothes, shoes, bed linen, toys and dishes to more demanded good like bikes or electronic equipment – within the first hour. As we were lucky with the weather – it was sunny and warm – we saw a beautiful sunrise at ca 0630 having a healthy breakfast with sausages and beer and that was also the point when we started the more aggressive mass-sale process where pieces of clothes were offered at between 0,5 and 2 Euros in order to get rid of them. By lunchtime, after a final push in the “Happy Hour” (1 plastic bag filled with whatever fits in for 1 EUR) we finished, went for lunch in Kunsthalle Cafe at Karlsplatz with our revenues and enjoyed the rest of the warm early-summer afternoon. Judging by the relieved faces of our neighbour sellers they were glad to see us price-dumpers disappear as we probably destroyed their market pricewise. As we won’t be back for at least two years we have had no hard feelings though.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Not in bed with Madonna, but close to the king & queen

While the Austria was pretty wet and countries like Hungary, Slowakia or the South of Poland are drowning from the rain, the Nordic region presented itself in perfect condition and so Markus was enjoying sunshine and mild temperatures throughout his roadshow. When leaving Tallinn on Tueday evening for Stockholm the group did already say "Good-bye" to the sunshine as the forecast for the Swedish capital was far less promising. The surprise and joy was big when a warm breeze welcomed them and they realised that the early summer temperatures have followed them across the Baltic Sea.

Can you spot the king?

Upon arrival at the Hotel, the traditional Grand Hotel in which celebrities like Madonna tend to spend their nights in Stockholm Markus learned about another surprise: an upgrade to a room with view of the bay, Royal Palace and parliament. After a delicious dinner in nearby Wedholms Fisk, one of Stockholm's best fish restaurants, Markus had a perfectly relaxing sleep and was woken up by sunshine - again. This was an excellent start to a busy day at the end of which he finally could cuddle Jakob and Kerstin again back in Vienna.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Reaching a new destination

Sunday was a cold, rainy and windy day in Vienna which we spent all day at home. Our guests hit the road just before lunchtime after lengthy breakfast to get back to Vorarlberg. Due to an accident in Germany which caused them spending more than 4 hours in a traffic jam they did reach home safely, but obviously exhausted. In the evening also Markus left the Vienna for a three day trip to the Nordic region visiting clients in Denmark, Finland, Estonia and Sweden leaving Jakob and Kerstin on their own.

More hair than our junior but the sound is missing

While Markus has been travelling to most of the countries already in the past, Finland was so far a white spot on his travelling map and so he was quite happy to be able to finally tick also that box. The further north he travelled the nicer the weather and so Helsinki welcomed him with sunshine and warm 20 degrees – seems like a good omen. When he entered his room in the funky GLO Hotel right in the city centre a wild creature expected him in his bed: The GLO Beast, a fury merchandise tiger. Immediately he was reminded of our little sunshine and his animal like sounds he tends to make all day long.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Do we smell freedom?

On Thursday after lunch grandma Heidi and the Meiers have arrived in Vienna for a long weekend with us. Werner’s initial plan was to cycle all the way from Hoerbranz to Vienna in several stages as a test run for a bicycle race in a couple of months time in Italy, but due to the weather forecast he ditched it and so the three came by car for a few days in the Austrian capital. Jakob was delighted to have company on his 10 months anniversary and the following days, and was on top form clearly enjoyed the extra attention he received.

Hey! There is three more people playing with me!

Friday night Kerstin and Markus took the opportunity and went out for the first time in more than 10 months together in the evening. Once Jakob fell asleep we got ready for having a few drinks in the Rochus, a bar/restaurant within 5 minute walking distance on Landstrasser Hauptstrasse. Having three babysitters present it seemed like a perfect opportunity and after Kerstin got rid of her initial nervousness we did enjoy the 90 minutes on our own outside our flat. After two drinks and no emergency phone call from home we decided to return home and there we found Jakob sleeping peacefully in his bed. As he fell asleep in our bed it was quite obvious that he was awake in the meantime and could be put back to sleep by grandma. Whether that has been the first step to more freedom for us parents? We shall see!

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Finally double digit! 10 months

We have finished another month and are now already in double digit (months) figures. During the past weeks Jakob has made another leap in his development as he is now crawling very fast, standing up regularly, standing pretty securely and even walking already when he has something to hold on to. Given Jakob is already very mobile we have several security gates installed in order to protect him from injuries (the many stairs in our flat turn out to be not so ideal) and yet he is surprising us very often with the pace at which he reaches the risky parts of the flat like stars, drawers or open doors.

Climbing is fun. Without a shadow even more so!

As our sunshine has also become pretty confident and secure in climbing up the stairs (usually with one of us right behind him) he sometimes surprises us on the second or even third level of the staircase if we are not preventing him for a second from approaching the stairs. Even though Jakob is a very jolly fellow he has developed his own personality further and is now sometimes pretty angry when we disallow him to play with certain items like speakers or power outlets and is trying several times from different angles to approach them. As obviously we try to prevent that as well we every now and then hear an outburst of anger. We are entering the phase of education!

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus