Tag Archives: crazy Chinese mother-in-law

Crazy Chinese People, Crazy Family, Mom in Law, Our cute son

Three months living with Mother-in-law Part II

July 8, 2015 CrazyChineseFamily 31 Comments

It is once again time to say farewell to my Chinese mother-in-law. This sunday she will head back to China and thus her three-month reign of terror will come to an end. It has been her second time to stay with us for three months and it makes me wonder what is the difference between those two visits.

First of all I have to mention what did not really change at all when comparing both three months visits. There is still the need for her to go shopping but then again she is just addicted to it. She is perfectly fine to be left alone in the Outlet Center for several hours or dropped of in some shopping district in a random city. Then there is the thing about taking pictures which only slightly changed. She surely still takes pictures and videos of nearly everything she sees but especially of Nathan. Every single day she wants us to take pictures of her together with Nathan. She is so camera focused that whenever she sees a camera just slightly pointing in her direction she starts posing, I am not joking. For example when we were in the submarine there were some guys from India taking pictures. So when they wanted to record the machines which were standing behind MIL she immediately started posing and putting on that “fake camera smile”.

So now to the things which have changed since the last time. She got better in cooking! Okay still there were times when she refused to put in any salt because it is too unhealthy but minutes later she would stuff herself with a litre of ice cream. But overall she indeed improved and these days I really love many of her noodle dishes which we have at least every second day. I think few of those noodle dishes I will miss till we go to Xi’an in August, something I would have not expected to ever happen with MIL’s cooking.

There are also few new things which pop into my mind when reflecting about the past month. She really seems not willing to learn anything new/ get rid of bad habits. I think I don’t need to mention the lovely kitchen rag anymore but she still cleans really everything with it (I did secretly change the rag multiple times though). But there is another thing. Each evening when we try to get Nathan to sleep we take him first to our bed, play with him shortly and let him slip into his dreams. Each and every single day MIL came into our bedroom checking on Nathan when he is just falling asleep resulting that he wakes up again and being very very grumpy. To this day there has been no exception to this and she truly believes that he starts crying because he wants to be held by her…it does not even cross her mind that she is the cause of him getting so upset every night.

All in all I can say that the three months passed by quickly, actually too quickly as she was a big help when it comes to take care of Nathan and preparing all the food. My wife has less time these days due to her business and I am just trying to help out whenever I am able somehow. Did you notice that I didn’t show any pictures of the apartment/ kitchen? Well, it looks like a hell here and I do not even dare to check out the kitchen myself.

How would you survive in case your mother-in-law stays with you for three months?

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Crazy Chinese People, Mom in Law, Our cute son

Trip to Kiel and its surroundings

July 5, 2015 CrazyChineseFamily 31 Comments

My Chinese mother-in-law is leaving soon back to China and this means we have to visit even more places than before. Even though we got around here in North Germany in the past months we never went to any other city except Flensburg few weeks ago. This will have to change as there is just a week left for MIL so we started our Sightseeing Tour with Kiel and its surroundings.

Kiel3 — The beach right next to the submarine

Kiel is the capital of Schleswig-Holstein, the state we live in. The city is only 15 minutes away by car from us so it makes it perfect for my wife to get some real shopping done once a while. The first destination I selected for us was the Laboe Naval Memorial several kilometres away from the city. It is dedicated to all the sailors who died during the world wars. In front of the monument is the old German submarine U-995 which can be entered for a small fee. As we only had little time we had to decide to visit either the monument (which has a fantastic view from the top-level) or the submarine. Because MIL and my wife never had visited a submarine they decided on it and we had a short submarine sightseeing. After that we checked out the local beach and then headed to the city.

Everytime we drive to a new city I feel lost, even with GPS. However Kiel was the worst experience so far for me. The streets there are so confusing that I took more than once (eight times) the wrong turn by going into a street too early. I don’t know what they were thinking when coming up with this street system but I have the feeling that those “planners” were under the influence of something… Anyways, I managed to get us safely to a multi storey park house right next to the main shopping mall of the city “Sophienhof”. As it was already past noon we decided it was better to eat first before doing anything else. So off we went first to the so-called old town of the city where I barely saw any old buildings except the church and a couple of other buldings but that is due to the Second World War as more than 80% of the city was destroyed due to heavy bombings by the Allies. After some walking around we settled on a steak restaurant called “Block House” which belongs to the restaurant chain with the same name. They are pretty famous here for their steaks and many friends recommended it so it was time to actually try their food. Though it was very good I still prefer the steak restaurant in my hometown. Not only due to the lower price but it somehow fits my taste better.

After the mission of filling our stomachs was fulfilled the shopping madness started. I really do believe that MIL can survive a month without food or drink if she just can go around shopping. I always thought my wife is already much into all this shopping stuff but my crazy Chinese mother-in-law is unbeatable in this field. Did I mention the current heat wave already? Well, it is pretty warm here in Germany and during our trip in Kiel we had 33-34 degrees Celsius which is pretty decent for German standards. Of course it can’t compete with the temperatures in Asia but even MIL said it is hot but I guess this is only because there are barely any air conditions around here. Last but not least we headed back to the shopping mall to have some Quark dessert at one of the food stalls and then it was time for one more round of visiting each any every shop in the mall for both of the women. We men (Nathan and I) just walked around, really walked around…Nathan actually pushed his baby stroller first one time around the first floor of the mall and then also on the second floor. After the last round was completed he just turned around, looked at me and raised his arms. This is his signal that he is tired and wants to be carried instead. Many people were actually wondering when we went around as I was walking next to the stroller so from the front it looked like the stroller is moving on its own.

In the end both women were exhausted from this long day and my wife even fell asleep the second she entered the car. I must say it was a nice trip and I wish there would have been some time to go the beach to enjoy the sun better and cool down in the ocean. Sadly MIL does not want any more taint than she already got here in Germany and thus no such activities are possible as long as she is here. Now I just hope for the next heatweave once she is gone so we can relax at the beach at some point. Right now even with the worst heat she still tries to cover little Nathan with clothes as he might get sick if there is some breeze or an evil sunray might burn him to death.

One of the million pictures we have to take for MIL with Nathan

They got Nathan some stuff to draw at the restaurant

Have you ever visited a submarine?

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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.