Christmas Videos (part 1)

Papa makes dinnertime fun!




I like to rip!

St. Nikolaus

does not ask what you want for Christmas.

At the Christmas market

America on Thursday! Whaaa?

And it's Monday.

We are so excited for all of you--- or most of you-- to meet our little Liam. I am really hoping that he will be the happy little guy that you've seen in all of the pictures and videos. That is, I hope the flight over doesn't destroy him (or US). Of course, he is in the middle of a sleep regression right now (not that he was ever a really good sleeper. There, I just admitted it. And admitting it is the first step to solving the problem, right?)

Of course, what I am really hoping is the jet lag knocks him out and we can start again from sleep square one.

Really, this post is just to let you know that if we look rather bedraggled, it's because of sleep issues and you should give us a hug and tell us that it will get better.

eat, eat, stomp, stomp

We are working on our pre-bedtime ritual... right now it involves toe-eating, book stompin', and Spanish Renaissance dance music. But NO LAUGHING.

Classic first bite. What is this crap ?!!?

As you might notice, Liam is mesmerized by the camera.

Liam, in all his various guises

pre-bedtime almost nude toe-eating

It's never too soon to learn to play piano!

He's in a bit of a twelve-tone phase right now.

The Liam hat

(now that I know Liam is one of the most popular names this year, I can sell the pattern and make a fortune!)

I love turtle!

Thanksgiving!

Let's face it, celebrating Thanksgiving in a foreign land is kind of bizarre. However, if facebook is any indication, such is the power of Thanksgiving that non-Americans who have spent time in our fair land keep the flame of it a-blazin' in their hearts.

Some of the Pros and Cons of making Thanksgiving in Germany:

Cons:

1. It is not a holiday. You won't have the day off, the Friday off, and don't even think about skipping out early on Wednesday.

2. The butcher might call you on Tuesday night to say that you can have the turkey you ordered for Wednesday on Friday (ooops, sorry), which will cause you to run all around town trying to buy up enough turkey parts to feed 19 Thanksgiving-curious Germans.

3. Of course, the biggest con of all is that your family is not there. Yuck.

Neither Pro nor Con

Because it is a workday, you have to have the dinner in the evening. It's odd to stuff yourself and then go to bed-- rather than stuff yourself, take a nap, watch West Side Story, and then see if there is any pie left.

Pros

1. The lack of a whole Turkey (see Cons #2) can prompt impromptu Turkey Leg Confit-making.

2. In Germany it is very easy to get pure goose fat (see Pros #1)

3. Everyone is really excited to celebrate a Real American Thanksgiving, meaning that you could have 19 people stuffed into a usually decent-sized living room.

Potluck is definitely the way to go. Everyone brought an übertraditional dish-- our table was groaning under the weight of stuffing, pumpkin pies, cranberry sauce, baked pineapple, green bean casserole, etc, etc, etc-- with a Turkish pumpkin dish and tiramisu thrown in for local color.

We mostly played Pass the Baby, though (unfortunately without flash):

And some pre-Thanksgiving snaps:

"Yay, the hat fits, Mama!"

the Eisbär a commeth

Whee! I finished my reading for the evening 8 minutes early, so I have time to write the blog!

Liam is now.... gasp... 5 months old. (I shouldn't gasp now because...double gasp... he is just going to keep getting older and older...) He's a champion roller now, and as such he rolls from his little co-sleeper crib into our bed very night. Unfortunately, our bed is not big enough for real co-sleeping, so we have made the leap to buy him his very own crib. Yikes! I'll miss having the little guy right next to me.

Also-- if you see us on the street, don't be scared. He's not a real bear--

(The Germans go NUTS for Liam in his bear suits. It's like having a celebrity strapped to my chest.)

Brown Bear.

Polar Bear.

Our Lovable Baby Nerd

Drinky Boy!

Liam likes to drink from a sippy cup! YIPPEE!

(the bottle really never worked and the medicine dropper thing only worked a couple of times. A novelty act, apparently)

Le Liam, the sequel--- When the Croissant Beckons

Hello Cool Cats and Kittens, Liam here. It's a lot easier to write on the blog, now that I can sit at the computer.

My puppy and bear agreed to be my editors on this piece. Thanks for keeping me on target, guys!

Here's what I like to do on Sundays:

Goooood morning, Mama!

Then, I put on my monster pants and inspect Papa's dental hygiene. Time to floooossss!

Then I try to eat a croissant, but Mama is SO MEAN (like I said before), she won't let me have it and instead makes me dance around.

(Grandpa Cha cha, I tried to make a nice Beach Boys video for you, but it didn't turn out so well.)

I spend most of the day looking real cool.

Then I roll around and wiggle around and I get REALLY MAD that I can't crawl yet.

Le Liam

Are you trying to tell us something, little guy?

5 minutes before bed

Wha?? It's been 2 weeks?

And Liam is now 4 months old!!

Well, the last two weeks have been mildly insane. I started school, which means Liam is with a BABYSITTER or Jeremy a few days a week. Eek! Luckily she is very experienced, but in the first week we were still trying to use the bottle, thinking that Liam would eventually get used to it, and he was WAILING by the time I got home. The poor lady had to call Jeremy on the second day to help. That following weekend Jeremy and I really put our heads together and came up with a two-fold plan of attack-- dropper and formula. The formula was definitively nixed, but Liam found drinking a teeny bit at a time from a medicine dropper pretty entertaining. So, for your edification, if you want to feed Liam, you must sit him in his seat in the kitchen and gently squirt milk into his mouth-- but beware!-- you must also remain standing the entire time. Crazy baby.

A different kind of craziness has also surfaced... because of an intestinal problem (ah, the common and all-consuming diaper fixation!), I am trying to figure out if Liam is intolerant to cow's milk (if he does, chances are that he will outgrow it by age 5)-- goodbye morning milky coffee hello tea and calcium supplements and way too many sardines!

Classes are going pretty well... I'm allowed to write in English, so naturally I feel more comfortable doing that then when we have discussions in German. I gamely try to participate but my efforts are either greeted by 1. confusion 2. a "hmmmm" or 3. a request to return to the topic at hand. oops.

But guess what? Liam can roll over! Wheeee! It's on, everyone!

Ooops again.

Go back to sleep, baby!

at the temple of milk...

We're headed off to Dresden tomorrow!

Before we can post a picture of Liam napping in the Most Beautiful Milk Shop in the World, here is a little diaper and drool to tide you over. He is soooo close to being able to roll from his back to his stomach-- left side only.

Cräzy Sätürdäy Wräp-üp

Last Saturday was THE DAY, ladies and gentlemen. German exam in the morning and performance for Kölner Musiknacht at night. I was going to have to be away from my Liam at least 7 hours, and his bottle drinking skills were not yet perfected. Aiiiyeee!

Well, luckily Jeremy the Superdad tricked the boy into drinking a relatively large amount that day. The exam? Not so bad, if I do say so myself--- But this exam was very serious business. You had to hand over all cell phones and of course no use of dictionaries was allowed. It covered all 4 aspects of language fluency: reading comprehension, selective listening, writing (we had to write an essay) and speaking in formal and informal situations. The last part was recorded on CASSETTE TAPE! They did let me pump during the break--- even if it was a little embarrassing to ask the examiner, it made me much more comfortable... Jeremy, Liam, and I met up at the train station where we booked a trip to Dresden for next weekend (!!), and then we all went to the performance space. I kept trying to feed the little guy, but everything was too exciting for him. He watched the dress rehearsal without making a peep-- perhaps it's not surprising but the boy loves him some live music.


Here's what happened last week:




And this is from today! This is the third time---I was too slow with the camera the first two times.

a couple of videos

Now that I've torn Liam away from the keyboard--

Here are some videos from last week. Enjoy!

and to expand...

Hi folks, Liam here. I decided to take it easy on Mom last night, and only wake her up every 2 hours. (The white noise they put in the bedroom was a good idea.) She was all grateful, like, "sweet, sweet sleep!". That's how you train Mommies.

I was unimpressed by Mama's "new skills piling up". How lame. I decided that I better just tell you myself all the amazing things I can do.

First of all, if I grab your hand, clothing, or hair and pull it into my mouth, it means I love you and I love to CHOMP. Chomp! Chomp! Oh, the delight! I also like to chomp on my giant squid and my puppy, but Mama won't give me the alpaca bear to chomp on because she is mean.

Also, I don't like to be swaddled anymore, so don't do it. If you do, I will have little crying explosions every 10 minutes, so there.

I can move the baby gym this way and that. Me strong, strong man!

And finally, I have the astounding ability to laugh and cry at the same time. For example, if Mama is trying to dress me, and I decide that I am hungry NOW NOW NOW but Papa is doing a funny dance for me, then laughing while crying is indeed the most reasonable option.

Till next time, everybody!

3 months

I don't have the brain-power to write a coherent entry because Liam now likes to wake up every 45 mins at night... During the day, he is still the cutest little guy and the new skills are piling up! And the sweaters I made are now a perfect fit (even if monkey buttons has short sleeves...)

fyi-- we really only sit him on the couch to take pictures...

This Week in Liam: Fill in the Captions

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Post-o-Mania!

Don't expect this kind of treatment forever, folks, but before school starts I'm taking it a little easy. I mean, I am still rehearsing for a performance on Sept 25th and studying for my German exam that will take place ON THE SAME DAY, but hey-- I cleverly will be performing dances that I have performed before. Cheat! As for the German exam... well, I'm trying put in an hour of concentrated studying a day. Our little guy likes to go to sleep at 7pm, so that isn't too hard.

Liam is amazingly easy-going. He thinks yoga is funny mama entertainment-- especially with all the crazy breathing. When I was rehearsing the Harlequin dances, he helped me understand what was funny. I do the bulk of my rehearsing during his morning nap, but if pressed for time, he will oblige by watching me for 10 minutes or so. And he lets me take a shower!

Our challenges are still a bit of nursing distraction when not at home (although it is getting better) and a refusal to take a bottle. Eeek. So now we are buying all kinds of different nipples and bottles-- various flow levels, etc. etc. ad nauseum. Being good scientists, we are also trying to use controls to figure him out (but of course, if the main problem is time to get used to the bottle, all of this is NONSENSE)-- frozen vs. fresh milk, feeding positions, and I should really not be anywhere near the experiments. He took the bottle fine before and during Schwetzingen, but now the little guy has wised up. Bummer.

If you haven't read Jeremy's Utrecht entry, do it now!! He's much funnier than me.

In lieu of being clever, may I present to you... Tummy Time!
Watch for the moment when he becomes hypnotized by the ladybugs on his quilt...

Poor Liam...

...with parents like us, he doesn't stand a chance.

The Little Dutch Boy

While Sarah was dropping some science on the Baroque dance world at her conference, Liam and I hit the town of Utrecht. It was quite an experience walking around with a cute baby strapped to me: normally I get the feeling that strangers on the street are vaguely suspicious that I might be homeless person (one of the few perks of my career path at the moment is that there is little incentive to worry about one's personal appearance, and cultivating a bit of "eccentricity" can be a plus). But with Liam, it was all smiles and coos. I was approached by multiple Dutch Grandmothers, who I assume were complimenting Liam (I am an expert smile-and-nodder, at least Dutch is a fun language to let wash over you).

The first thing we did after checking into the hotel and sending Mommy off to her conference was to sample the local cuisine:









What you are seeing on the left side of the picture is a typical Dutch delicacy, the Krokette. The inside seems be some sort of partially liquified meat, which is breaded somehow, then deep fried. Depending on your taste, they are better than or as good as they sound. I found out later that Liam had gotten to know the krokette very well; changing his clothes later in the day I found that my attempts to shield him from the crumbs were not particularly successful.


Fueled with gravy, I set out to explore Utrecht.

Here we are passing under the tower of the cathedral:

















Liam is ecstatic.



So you know we were in Holland, here we are by a canal:


















And near some giant wheels of cheese:


















Liam sez: "Wow. Fascinating."






Mommy!!!!!!









Liam sez: Yeah, yeah, I get it, it's old. Do I have to wear this hat by the way?



I am not sure what emotion he was experiencing on the walk home to the apartment from the tram, but I'm sure it was intense:

How to become an American Citizen

Did you recently have a baby in Germany? Are you an American citizen? Would you like the baby to be an American citizen and not a poor, stateless waif?

Just follow these easy steps:

1. Make an appointment to Register a Birth Abroad at the American Consulate in Frankfurt.

2. Buy a train ticket from Cologne to Frankfurt. Don't bother trying to figure out how long it takes to get from the train station to the consulate. Just guess.

3. Take several hours the night before to organize all of the forms and supplementary materials.

4. Wake up baby to take a passport photo. Be amazed that the swaddle keeps his hands out of his face as per passport regulations.

5. Catch the 6:55 am train to Frankfurt and fall in love with the special baby section of the train, far away from the pushy unwashed masses.

6. Make sure the train is delayed getting into Frankfurt. Try to contain panic caused by Step 1.

7. Run through the central station trying to find the subway.

8. Change Baby's diapers on the subway, moving the stroller at every stop to allow more passengers to get on and run the pee gauntlet.

9. Take a break to nurse Baby in the copious amounts of time stuck on the subway.

10. Get off at the correct stop. RUN.

11. Cut in front of everyone in line to go through security (haha suckers! Americans coming through!).

12. Make sure that you are awkward with the stroller, blocking the people behind you at the security checkpoint and taking forever to empty out the millions of stroller pockets.

13. Go to the special American citizens' section to wait for blessedly short amounts of time.

14. Make it back to the central station for the return trip with 10 minutes to spare.