Tag Archives: crazy Chinese family

Crazy Family, Crazy Germans, Mom in Law, Our cute son

Spending a Day with the Family

June 21, 2015 CrazyChineseFamily 21 Comments

I never really did any family research before nor did I try to stay really in touch with my cousins. This changed in the past couple of years as we were planning ourselves for a little family and now have our son. I figured since we were about to move to Germany last year it would be nice to get in touch with some of my relatives again. Not only to meet them again but also nice for Nathan to get to know his extended family. Here in Germany I have several cousins with their own little families. Okay, little is the wrong word as one of my cousins has herself now four children, one girl and three boys. Her second oldest child had her 11th birthday and we were invited to spend the day there.

We had been visiting her before so I was already prepared that four children mean also a lot of action going on non-stop. Once we arrived the little girl got her present, and the only guest she had over was yet another cousin (daughter of another cousin I haven’t seen in over ten years). Well, it wasn’t so much a children’s birthday party but more like an adult birthday as the children were either outside playing or in their rooms. We adults were drinking coffee and had some delicious cake in the beginning and later on BBQ. You could really see that my cousin was happy that her daughter was old enough that the parents didn’t have to come up with games and entertain the daughter and her friends as she was basically discovering her main birthday gift: her first mobile phone! Well, even though this meant there was less work on the birthday itself those other children of her surely still had too much energy and were basically everywhere.

Anne1 — Are you sure? – You don’t say! – OMG

Her youngest child is four and tried is best to copy his older brothers when it comes to terms of climbing trees resulting that he fell down. This fall actually created a huge bump on his head that made him appear like a unicorn. After five minutes of crying the world was fine for him again and he continued climbing the very same tree. I can only say that in case I fall down like that and hit my head I would be in hospital for a few weeks! Kids are just crazy when it comes to recover from such things. Nathan enjoyed his time as well by hunting with his 2nd cousins some bunnies, playing with their toys and being thrown around by the oldest boy who just loves little kids.

Even though we were there only for around 4 hours it was still a very exhausting day. Not only because of all the over eating but also due to all the action going on by the kids the entire time. We made also a deal with the little girl that she will be taking care of our bunnies during our holidays in China. Sure, we need to drive those bunnies extra to my cousin’s house but it will give us another opportunity to meet. Perhaps next time there will be other cousins of me as well, who knows. We also talked a bit about a family gathering as the last one was over ten years ago but in the end it will need some person who takes up the “leadership” and plans the whole event. It would be great to meet as a family again but it will probably depends when someone is able to start planning.

#Nathancuty having fun with the oldest of the brothers

How often do you visit your relatives?

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Crazy Family, Our cute son, Travels

Flying with a Baby

June 17, 2015 CrazyChineseFamily 42 Comments

In the end of August we have our upcoming holidays in China. This means that we will fly from Hamburg to Helsinki and then from there straight to Xi’an. The first stretch within Europe only takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours but the final flight will be roughly 9 hours. Yes, 9 hours with a little baby with us. Our little Nathan is surely no novice anymore when it comes to flying as one year ago we had a one week holidays on Rhodes which included a 4 hours flight which he managed like a champ. No real crying the entire time, instead mostly staring at the other passenger, eating or sleeping. But no, it will be a bit different as he is one year older by now and much more work. He won’t sleep the entire time, oh no, he will be restless and won’t stay in our lap for several hours in a row.

WP_20140803_16_36_44_Pro — Flying is fun

I guess everyone has experienced on a flight already the kid who is seemingly crying the entire trip. What can be done against it? Not so much, except praying and having enough stuff with to distract the child. We have on our mind to have enough snacks with us, some of his favorite toys (such as an empty yoghurt box, he just loves to play with trash…) and a tablet with some Crayon Shin-chan or Moomin episodes. He can be distracted very easy for multiple hours but sometimes he got his grumpy days where all hell breaks loose. Furthermore we are afraid about the jet lag. One of our ideas was to change his sleeping pattern for a couple of days before the trip to make the adjustment to the new timezone easier but we have no clue if that works.

Do you have any tips for flying with a baby? What are your stories with crying kids on a plane?

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Crazy Euopean People, Crazy Family, Mom in Law

At the City Festival

June 14, 2015 CrazyChineseFamily 20 Comments

Every year in the beginning of June there is here in Neumünster the city festival called Holstenköste. It is a four-day event with several music stages around the city center, food/ drink stalls and funfair rides. I haven’t been at this festival since 2005 as that was the year I moved away from here. Even though my hometown is pretty boring they still do good with this festival. This year the festival had at least during the first two days wonderful sunshine so it was pretty packed there. After those initial two days there was just a rain and we didn’t even bother going there on those days.

The whole event was first held in 1974 and evolved to the current size over the years. This city festival is pretty much THE EVENT OF THE YEAR for many people living here. But of course other cities also got their own festivals such as the Kieler Woche which is around two weeks after my hometowns festival and much much bigger. Talking about size, this city festival here attracts roughly 200.000 people during those four days, not bad for such a boring town I would say.

Besides all the delicious food everywhere on the festival area there are also those funfair rides. It was Nathan’s first time being in one and he looked rather confused. We also went to the ferris wheel which is one of the main marks of the festival for a few decades already. You know, I am terribly afraid of heights and that the cabins of the ferris wheel were open didn’t help either. However I managed rather well and wasn’t afraid at all this time, am I evolving? We were there with several friends of my wife and we all went to the ferris wheel except of MIL who seemed very afraid of it. Nathan was just Nathan and sat the entire time in my lap looking bored, I guess as a baby you just don’t care if you are suddenly around 50m in the air…

koeste12 — Confused Nathan and friend + MIL’s head

It is too bad about the terrible weather during the last two days of the festival but there is always another year, and another and another. As mentioned before there is another festival in the next city soon as we will most likely try to go there as it is even bigger. I am really wondering what my Chinese mother-in-law thinks about these events and about the food. In her opinion she can make any food we ate so far much better than the restaurants but somehow she hasn’t even started yet to make and of those dishes. Even stranger, she never says she can make better food than the restaurants in China, or perhaps she tried and failed and thus doesn’t want to mention it anymore. MIL is full of mysteries it seems.