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

No sign of pirates in the Caribbean

Over the past years Markus has established a certain tradition by going usually for a weekend long for a sailing trip with his former boss – who is co-owner of a Swan 82 sailing yacht – and friends. While the past trips took them to Sardinia, Sweden and Mallorca the trip in 2011 has been scheduled earlier in the year and to a more exotic destination: the Caribbean. Hence Markus boarded a plane on Thursday morning to Paris and from there on to St. Marteen where the group of 7 got on the Astro de l’Est. Even though the new main sail has not arrived on time for the trip the Swan, a racing yacht, travelled at pretty good speed – more than 9 knots - with only the jib sail for the first three days.

The beaches on Prickly Pears Cays are far from being busy

After a swim in the Caribbean Sea early morning and a healthy breakfast on board they headed on Friday to Anguilla, an Island close to St. Martin where they enjoyed the peaceful bays of Prickly Pear Cays and Sandy Island, an island which consists of nothing else but sand, a bar with a few tables and 5 palms. On Saturday the crew travelled back to St. Martin where the new main sail was picked up and continued further towards St Barths, a mountainous island with a crazy airport – the short runway starts right after a hill and ends on the beach – and some of the most exclusive hotels and clubs. The whole island was preparing for a 5 day regatta - Les Voiles de Saint Barth - and so the marina in Gustavia, the capital, was full with large sailing yachts as well as huge private motor yachts which could be mistaken for cruise ships.

Turquoise sea viewed from Nikki Beach Club

On Sunday the crew was working all afternoon to put the new main sail up – tough work even for the whole crew of 4 people – and so the passengers decided to spend the day in St Jeans in the Nikki Beach Club. The club in St Barths is apparently the most scenic one in the world, not only as it is next door to the Eden Rock Hotel, and thus frequently visited by lots of celebrities who spend their holidays on or off St Barths. The lunch with cocktails served into the sea, delicious food, lots of french Rosé and fine tunes mixed by the DJ lasted all afternoon and the group only returned at 1800 back to the boat which was finally fully equipped thanks to the hard work of the crew. The next destination for the Astro is Barbuda which is reached after an approximately 12 hour trip and thus the yacht set off at 0230 in the morning but beforehand they dropped Markus off in the Marina as his sailing trip ended according to plan on Monday. He spent a night out on the road, had and early start and soaked up a lot of sun at Nikki Beach Club again before enjoying the experience of flying the short 15 min trip to St. Martin and then onwards via Paris to Vienna again where on Tuesday morning he finally could hold Jakob and Kerstin in his arms.

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

2 nights with Sunny Bunny

One should not be mislead by the title of this blog-entry: We did not visit Hugh Hefner's bunny ranch but spent the past days in the Sonnentherme Lutzmannsburg, a thermal spa for babies and children 120 km south east from Vienna. When Kerstin left for her maternity leave almost two years ago her colleagues gave her gift vouchers as farewell present and we now finally managed to use these vouchers. The mascot of the Sonnentherme - Sunny Bunny and he is omipresent both in the thermal spa as well as the attached Hotel Sonnenpark which we stayed in and which offers pretty much everything a family with children needs. pushchairs for in- and outdoors, numerous Bobby Cars and Bikes as well as large free space to use them, all sorts of baby food as well as a special buffet at breakfast, lunch and dinner for children, several playing areas for children of all ages and much much more.

Lets get ready to rumble!!

When we arrived on Tuesday afternoon Jakob was fresh and full of power as he was sleeping all the way from Vienna and after a few minutes of acclimatization and getting used to the many children dashing around on the Bobby Cars he soon got into it and was almost unstoppable. Wile speeding around and changing cars every so often he was greeting everyone and by Wednesday morning he was well known in the hotel - the waiters and waitresses, members of the Sunny Bunny Club as well as other hotel guests knew him already. He was nicknamed "Schumacher" for his speed on the cars and invited to the Bobby Car race on Friday - unfortunately though he has to miss that one.

Ready - steady - GO!!!!

Given the excitement within the hotel we almost had troubles to convince Jabob of coming to the thermal spa, but once he was there we could hardly keep him out of the water. At the begining he was playing with cups and borrowed watering cans or trucks but soon he ventured out to the water slides. There were 4 levels available in the spa with the first one, a tiny elefant-slide being an easy hurdle. Soon Markus was not needed to help up the stairs anymore and Jakob sometimes seemed dizzy from running back to the stairs and sliding down. Once that level was accomplished we moved on to a lightly bigger and longer slide, but Jakob did not like to slide down on his bum and turned head forward all the time. as a consequence he started off head forward already which did make a few people uncomfortable it seemed. But when they realised that a) he liked it and b) he was perfectly fine diving into the water at the bottom the nervousness disappeared.

It can't be fast enough...

After several runs on this slide we all had to climb up the long water slide which Jakob did not tackle on his own though. He headed down together with Markus or Kerstin and was laughing from start til finish and did not really want to stop. Even though it became quite obvious that Jakob is a wild one the two major water slides - Speedy and Twister - with 145 and 205 m length were left out this time and it was only Markus and Kerstin conquering the two beasts a few times. There should be a challenge for the nex visit for our junior.

Can't get enough!

With all the activity in the hotel and in the thermal spa it was amazing how much energy Jakob still had in the evening staying up a bit longer than usually at home. The nights however were great and he slept very well in his own bed and joined us only around 3am. Although we were quite active we also managed to relax these days and very much enjoyed the Sonnentherme and will definitely be coming back. Not only because Jakob has to conclude some unfinished business.

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.

Back after a 1 month break

Even though one might believe our live got boring as has been quite a while since the last blog entry it has been just the opposite. We all have been quite busy : Markus at work, spending most of January in London, Prague or at the slopes of Kitzbuehel and Lech with clients, Kerstin and Jakob in Vorarlberg and Vienna enjoying themselves, having fun with Anna painting and growing. Our sunshine has had his first haircut mid/January when Kerstin dared to leave the two boys home alone. Markus decided to trim the few hair Jakob had in order to make him look a bit more neat. Jakob was rather peaceful during the process so that one could call the haircut nice (apart from the “hole” at the back of the head which is luckily only visible when the hair is wet. It was however not only the hair that was growing recently – only our junior grew significantly reaching 85cm and 12,5 kg this week. The height now allows him to open the doors at home which means that we will have to lock up doors if we do not want him to get into a room.

A short stop for lunch is crucial

Yesterday Kerstin and Jakob experienced something completely new as the two were driving to Vorarlberg for the first time alone. Given the length of the trip Kerstin was quite nervous beforehand fearing that Jakob might be demanding more attention than she could give him provided she had to focus on the traffic. They left Vienna at 1000 on a bright and sunny day and the little one was all happy and ready for the trip. After a pitstop in Linz where the two had lunch Jakob did fall asleep and allowed Kerstin to move on swiftly. Jakob was in absolutely good mood and a very good boy and thus they reached the destination shortly after 1700. 7 hours for the 630 km trip the first time is a very good pace achievement and might be the start of more journeys like that in the future.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

First things first

2011 started on a very exciting and excellent tone. Not because of great fireworks, a stunning party and the fact that Estonia introduced the Euro but simply due to the fact that Jakob's cousin has decided to arrive. Sandra had regular labor pain all night long while we had New Year's Eve dinner with the family and she left for home together with Flo close to 0200. Less than two hours later the two had to move on to the hospital as it all got serious and at 1031 the black-haired Ylvie-Marie with her size of 49cm and weight of 2866g made her first appearance in this world. The three of them are all well and in good health but tired and even though we haven't seen the little princess yet we already love her. We are very happy for the new family, are very excited and almost jealous about the birthdate of 1.1.11. What a stunning start into the new year.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

An exciting night and a clear answer

Jakob was dead-tired when Markus brought him to bed and within a few minutes after having finished his night bottle he was fast asleep and as soon as the adults were complete again the distribution of their presents kicked off. As its been introduced a few years ago the "secret santa" rule has been applied again and so everyone had to organize the present for one other person. The handover of the presents is always a pretty funny event as the unwrapping of each present is a real ceremony and each of us has to find out who secret santa has been.

This year kicked off with an impressive present from Sandra consisting of several parcels including self-made pralinees in a glass deposited i the snow outside and we all believed that all other presents would be far less exciting and impressive than the first one. For some reason hardly anyone made the right guess who his/her secret santa was as a large majority thought it was uncle Werner for them. Large confusion came up when we realized that there was one present too much underneath the tree with one of them not having a name tag.

The surprise for Flo was large when he picked up a present for Kerstin as it was him who had picked Kerstin and it was him who forgot the name tag on his present. Unfortunately for Kerstin Jakob woke up just when she was unwrapping and we had to interrupt the process.

Jakob must have anticipated something special to come up as he did not want to go back to sleep and so Kerstin brought our junior down to the living room and he helped her unwrapping the present. Actually he Jakob rather took away the small box from Kerstin and opened it himself and showed the content to everyone in the room with pride and honor. Within the wooden box a small whitegold/platinum ring was embedded with a small diamond on top. After a few minutes of having shown the present to all the others apart from Kerstin our sunshine finally handed over the ring to Kerstin who answered the question with a clear: YES.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

White Christmas

On Thursday we left Vienna early - just after lunchtime in order to avoid heavy traffic - and headed for Vorarlberg for the traditional christmas holidays with Kerstin´s family. For the first to hours Jakob slept peacefully in his seat and when he woke up he was in very good mood, enjoyed overtaking many cars and lorries on the highway and was not demanding a stop on the way. As traffic was very modest and the weather conditions good - no freezing temperatures and thus safe roads - we reached our destination afer 5 hours and we could enjoy dinner with grandma Heidi.

Christmas Eve started early for us at 0600 and it seemed as if Jakob knew something special would happen that night. Markus did some shopping in Bregenz in the morning and he went into town again with Jakob in the afternoon to visit the donkey in the city centre where met Flo and his friends for a tradition: mulled wine and lots of chats just before Christmas kicks off. Once the boys returned home they got ready for the big night, got into neat clothes (coincidentally in partner look) and while it started snowing nicely outside we all waited for the arrival of the "Christkind". When we heard the bells ringing in the living room - which was locked all day - Jakob not only got nervous but also a bit scared. Kerstin had to cary him when slowly opening the door in order to find a beautifully decorated and enlightened christmas tree with many presents underneath.

Like father - like son

Our sunshine was fascinated by the looks and when we started singing christmas carrols alongside Katrin´s guitartunes he was all excited and full of joy. Jakob soon detected the parcels that were left underneath the tree and enthusiastically unwrapped the child table & chairs, pencils, a blue doll´s pram, cans of spanish olivs with anchoas, a xylophone, books, CDs and pictures. He actually did not even know what to use first and was running around in the living room like crazy so that he almost diregarded the food which was brought to the table in the meantime: sausages, potatoes and horseradish. After dinner he continued playing but it was pretty obvious that he was dead tired and we soon brought him to bed while the adult´s presents were unwrapped. The night was long and Jakob took another prominent role lateron.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Buy turkey for christmas

Due to a stomach virus which Markus caught on his way to Frankfurt Monday morning ended up spending the rest of the week in Vienna which Jakob really liked as it gave him a lot of opportunity to play and have fun with Dad. Working from home when fit again on Thursday and Friday gave Markus the oportunity to plan and prepare everything for Saturday's christmas lunch with his parents. First thing Friday morning he headed to the supermarket and bought all necessary ingredients for roast turkey with currant glaze. In the late afternoon Stefan came by and together they prepared the 4kg turkey by drowning it in salt water and putting him on ice. simultaneously the starter, a carrot-ginger-soup as well as the currant glaze were prepared.

A salty bath for the bird.

Early evening Kerstin headed off toward her office as she joined her colleagues for the corporate christmas dinner and in order to make her departure easier Jakob and Markus joined her on the way and while Kerstin had her first drink the two boys wanndered through the cold but beautifully decorated city towards home. At home Jakob was absolutely lovely, had dinner , played with Markus and got ready for bed withou any complaint of any question about mum. He fell aspeel peacefully and when Kerstin came home after 0100 Jakob was still fast asleep in his bed.

Lots of raw meet in the morning...

Saturday morning we started early again as the turkey needed a lot of time for the final touches and even more so for the roasting. Stefan made his way to the wintry city - it was snowing all night long - and the two chefs stuffed the bird and prepared it with the delicious glazing before putting it into the oven just before 1000. When the grandparents and Ines arrived in Vienna Jakob was again on excellent form and enjoyed the large group showing all his skills. Lateron Ines and Kerstin went to the toboggan hill together with Jakob in order to make him tired for a lunchtime sleep before the bird was finished.

... and a crispy Turkey 4,5 hours later

After almost 4,5 hours we finally could take the turkey out of the oven and get ready for lunch. It was a mouthwatering sight and a delicious smell that we could all enjoy when the roasted turkey sat on the dining room table and was waiting for being filletted. The taste was definitely living up to the smell and sight and noone dcould recall when we had such a tender meet last and we all were stuffed even though we did not manage to finish the whole bird. Given the big success of the lunch - we can live with the large knife Stefan broke preparing the side dish - it seems that a new tradition has been borne for the christmas celebration in Vienna. With this years experience we will make some adaptations for a repeat next year.


Jakob, Kerstin and Markus