Tag Archives: Chinese-German mixed baby

Nathan’s 2nd Birthday

Time flies by so fast that it feels for me that Nathan just celebrated his first birthday few weeks ago. But no, it is already one year now! Today he turned two and we had a very small celebration. Last year my wife planned his first birthday for several weeks and invited a lot of people. This first birthday was mainly for herself rather than for Nathan but that is okay, he won’t remember the chaos anyways and my wife could let her creativity go wild with the decorations.

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The table is ready for some coffee and cake business

This year it was just us, my parents and my brother with his girlfriend. Also we did not celebrate in our apartment but at my parents. Not because we are too lazy to decorate our apartment (okay, perhaps a bit lazy) but these days Nathan spends anyways a lot of time with his grandparents. Besides that my mother was cooking lunch for everyone so it would be not so convenient to bring everything to our apartment. This “party” was so different from last year but I also liked it as it was much more peaceful with a lot less cleaning to be done in the end. He got some nice little gifts and thus far he just loves the Brio Train Set he got from his grandparents, at least he doesn’t even wants to leave it alone and eat or drink something.

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Give me more gifts!

After this summer Nathan will go to kindergarten and I bet that next year a handful of hyperactive little kids will make the birthday party a lot more interesting/ exhausting than I would like to have. But in the end it is all for the kid so we will play along and try to survive! Now my last strength is leaving me and I am just too exhausted to write any more about this birthday…really wonder about the upcoming birthday celebrations in the next years and how I will survive them.

Do you have any tips on how to prepare for a birthday party with many little kids attending?

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What Winter?

Currently it seems winter has arrived everywhere in the world. New York is basically drowning in snow, Scandinavia had for the past weeks more than enough of this devilish snow with temperatures dropping down to -40 degrees Celsius, heck even Chongqing is covered in this white mess. It seems everywhere it is snowing except my dear hometown. I am usually the last person to complain about lack of snow during winter time as I had my share of battles in Finland Ć  la digging out the car each morning/ actually finding the car. However ever since we moved to Germany winter has been very mild in this area.

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Grumpy Nathan on December the 24th, what a winter

Northern Germany, especially the state of Schleswig-Holstein where we live, is rarely hunted down by icy winters with tons of snow. The last time there had been much snow here was during the so-called “Snow Catastrophe of 1978” when even in my hometown snow drifts could reach a height of up to 3m! The reason for such mild winters is the fact that this state is located between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. We had each winter some snow, nothing special but usually enough to go to the nearby sledging hill and have some fun or to build snowmen and castles. When my wife visited Germany for the first time in 2010 we had snow. In fact each time we went to visit my parents during winter time we had snow here. However nowĀ  we live here and the most I have seen is a layer of perhaps an inch of snow which melted away the very same day.

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Winter of 2010, see we had snow before Nathan was born!

No snow is not a bad thing for me except that we would love to show Nathan what all he could do outside during winter time. Thus far all he could do this winter is wearing his rainboots and jump into puddles. The weird thing is that when Nathan was born we also lacked snow in Finland! We had a thick layer up till a week before he was born and then suddenly poof it’s gone! That week before he was born was the last time I needed any winter clothes or to dig out my car. I have the strange feeling that Nathan is creating an invisible dome around us which does not let any snow in. Afterall I think he even hates snow from what I can tell about his encounters with the pathetic one inch layers of snow in the past two years. Each time he sees snow on the ground he retreats, points with his hand to the snow as says “eew”.

 

Do you have snow where you live?

Be sure to follow me also on Facebook and on Twitter as I will post there occasionally pictures which do not find their way into my blog posts. Furthermore I also have a YouTube Channel in which some videos might pop up from time to time

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The Magical Park

Nearby our home is a little park just few walking minutes away. Right from the beginning I need to say that there is usually nothing magical about this park except when you are a child or an adult looking from a different perspective than you are used to. This summer I went there with Nathan for a little walk to pass by time and thankfully I had my camera with me.

Itself the park is in a not so good condition anymore however there are still some nice spots. The whole area has been planted back in 1894 on old farmland which surrounded the city. Now over 100 years later are still few points where the old structure of the farmland can be seen such as oldĀ  brick paths or also the hedge bank surrounding the fields grown over by trees.

 

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Nathan on his way

This picture reminds me of a song from one of my favorite books.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter 1:

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

 

 

 

Have you found any ordinary places which changed when looking from a different perspective?

Be sure to follow me also on Facebook and on Twitter as I will post there occasionally pictures which do not find their way into my blog posts.

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