Like father, like son

There is countless evidence that Markus very much likes to perform some DIY and mount lamps, assemble furniture, lay wooden floors, build beds etc. There is also evidence however that he has a certain talent but still messes up things every now and then and therefore he probably will never build a house as he is scared of the roof falling on his head. Jakob seems to have a similar stance towards the art of handicraft and prefers a screwdriver or hammer over every toy. The toolbox he received for Easter is still one of the most used toys, there has been a time when it was the first and the last thing he used and played with.

Two experts tackle a problem

The sight Kerstin was confronted with today afternoon was absolutely hilarious. Markus decided to fix a screw that loosened at our lath floor and crawled under the bed. As soon as Jakob realized that a real toolkit was used he got on the floor as well, joined his dad under the bed and provided him with his view of the situation, his idea of how to fix it and also handed him the necessary tool. Like that the problem was solved much faster.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Two premieres within less than 12 hours

Last night it was time for the showdown in the Austrian basketball league with the decisive game 5 in the finals series in Gmunden. While Markus’ brother Stefan and some friends travelled to the Traunsee to watch the game live Markus, Kerstin and her dad Eugen, who visited us late afternoon, watched the lived broadcast on Sky. During the first 10 minutes the Gunners were not really present, Gmunden controlled the game and built up a significant lead and winning the first quarter 24-11. At this point Markus was not concerned at all as so far in the finals the team which has lost the first quarter could win the game in the end. During the following ten minutes the Gunners finally arrived in the game and managed to cut the lead slightly. Whatever coach Asceric told his team in the locker room at halftime, it did the trick and Q3 was clearly won by 16-26 and the lead almost disappeared. In Q4 the Gunners took the lead and to many people’s surprise The Swans’ reaction was unusual for an experienced team like them as they tried to go primarily via their two strongest players, Ian Boylan and veteran D.T. Mayes. The Gunners on the other hand played real team-basketball - the scoring was spread fairly evenly with 6 players scoring in double digits. The result of all that: after 5 unsuccessful attempts the Oberwart Gunners crowned themselves for the first time Austrian basketball champions. Finally. And well deserved.

At a time when most probably the party was still ongoing in Oberwart our day started again with Jakob waking up just before 0600 and making both Kerstin and Markus get up as well. Its truly amazing how fast our sunshine gets up to speed in the morning. Within minutes he is all over the place, ready to play and have fun. Hence Markus had to soon prepare the morning bottle which he prefers to drink together with Kerstin, followed by some cooking in his play-kitchen and some football in the living room. While Markus got ready to leave for the office in Bratislava Jakob got rid of his diaper and indicated to us that he wants to/has to go to the toilet. We have been trying that several times already without any success. Today however we saw a premiere, as our junior for the first time ever took a pee on the toilet. He was very proud of himself and so were we and that’s we we went one step further: Given Jakob just took a pee, we did without a diaper and just put on short pants and told him to let us know again when he need to go the loo. Less than half a minute after that the second wave came and the floor was all wet. Next time we try that again when we are outdoors.

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

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