Late Christmas CD (now known as New Years CD)

We are mixing things up this year. For the last 10ish years, we have made an annual end of year CD mix for friends and family. We continue to love finding new music and enjoy how our love for music helps us remember time gone by, and while we don't feel like we came across a lot of new music we loved this year, we wound up with thirteen tracks we really like. We weren't able to burn CDs for friends and family as we usually do, so we're doing it blog-style this year with links to YouTube videos (well, some are videos and official, some aren't so official). We'd be happy to make hard copies for people once we get back to Portland next week, just let us know if you want one. And let us know in the comments which are your favorites!

The Cinematic Orchestra - To Build a Home: Discovered it on So You Think You Can Dance, a very unique voice.
arcade fire - half light II: Actually found their new album a bit disappointing, lacking the sweeping anthems of the previous albums, but the end of this track is pretty close to perfection.
beach house - zebra: Nate loved this album of down-tempo rock
the national - bloodbuzz ohio: This got a lot of play in the car this year
vampire weekend - giving up the gun: Another somewhat disappointing album but a good song
la roux - bulletproof: catchy tune
Hi-Lili Hi-Lo: One of the reasons I love the name Lily is because of the old musical "Lili" and this song from it.
Bruno Mars - You're Amazing : Lots of play in Germany, loved it instantly
Knaan - Wavin' Flag: WORLD CUP! Geh' Deutchland!
Gossip - Heavy Cross: (live on ZDF) : Another song with a lot of airplay in Germany, catchy guitar riff
New Pornographers - My Shepherd: the worst band name of all time, but a very sweet song
Aloe Blacc - I Need a Dollar : Heard this on the radio and assumed it was Bill Withers from the 70's, but nope, just a great new soul song
Sie Liebt Dich - The Beatles : Had to throw a German language song in for kicks.

Happy New Year!

Auf Wiedersehen and Hello

Making our way back to the US tomorrow. 3 months flew by way too fast. Nate gets to celebrate his longest birthday ever tomorrow, 31 hours. Hopefully that makes up for our long flight with Lily way too early in the morning tomorrow.

Here's our little German girl. She came a long way here. She was barely talking and walking but not running when we got here and now her mouth is running just as fast as her feet.

Winter Wonderland

We've been enjoying quite a white winter here in Heidelberg. As I type this I'm watching snow come down quickly as Lily takes her afternoon nap. It snowed about eight inches since I arrived in town Tuesday, then most of it melted overnight. But now it's snowing again and we've probably already had another three inches today. I guess it's an ideal time to be on vacation because I definitely wouldn't want to deal with the traffic that this causes.

Lily has had a love/hate relationship with snow so far. For a while she refused to wear a hat and gloves, which made going outside difficult. But she's turned a corner on that and now likes to run around outside in the snow with her gloves and hat on. At least as long as everyone else is wearing hats and gloves too. She still doesn't like touching snow though. If you pick up some snow and offer it to her she'll whine and walk away, kinda strange but funny.

We've borrowed a tricycle with a long handle out the back so we can push her on it. She's been playing with this on Oma and Opa's dead end street the past few days and likes to alternate between riding it (being pushed) and helping push it. This was great until today when we were walking back home from the library and there was about an inch of wet snow on the ground. The snow kept packing onto the wheels until they couldn't turn, so pretty soon it turned into Lily riding on Daddy's shoulders while Daddy dragged the kaput tricycle home up the hill. Needless to say by the time we got home we were both ready for a nap. Whew.

Lady and The Tramp...oline

Scattered around the room are all the puppets and Barbies (Ken too of course) I played with back in the day. When I brought them out for Lily, first thing she went for was Ken and she asked me to take off his clothes. He does have a good body. Lily is living it up with Oma and Opa. Whether she's opening up her daily gift from her advent calendar or getting spoiled with lots of tasty food, she's living the high life and I'm tagging along for the ride. It's been great getting such a good amount of time to bond with Oma and Opa. It's only going to get better when Nate returns on Tuesday.

Lily's fascination for the trampoline has been really cool. She got the timing pretty much right away and likes to grab other kid's hands and jump with them. Here are a couple videos. The first one shows signs of Lily being coordinated and then the 2nd video nixes that thought quickly.

Tschuss Munchen (Bye Munich)

And just like that, our Munich adventure is over. Poop. Nate is already back in Portland for a couple weeks and Lily and I are now at my parent's place in Heidelberg.

Looking back at our time in Munich, October was all about being a tourist. November ended up being much more about being social for both me and Lily by going to regular playgroups with Lily and seeing friends. Throw in a side trip to Vienna and it was a month to remember.

Here are our November in Munich pics.

November 2010 Germany

I have a feeling I'm going to get quite a few silly photos of Oma and Opa playing with Lily this month. I've already caught my mom cradling a cabbage patch doll while baby talking to it while on the stationary bike because Lily asked her to. We'll see what's next.

What a Run

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm enjoying the day off from work, even if we're not celebrating today. Oma and Opa are coming over Saturday for a feast before we pack up and part ways. I fly back to Portland on Monday while Nicole and Lily will make their way back to Heidelberg with Oma and Opa and I'll fly back two weeks later after popping into the office for a bit.

This is a post I've been meaning to make for a while, and I guess it's a fitting farewell to Munich. Nicole and I have been marveling the amazing sights here since we arrived, even when we go for a run. When I run in Portland it's usually either through Forest Park (definitely nice, but no stunning views or anything) or along the industrial part of the waterfront (not so nice). But the routes we've been taking here have taken us past some beautiful buildings, monuments, and sights. I figured it would be fun to take you on a photo journey of our favorite route. The run is about four miles starting from our apartment, going along the Isar River, then through the English Garten, then turning around and heading for home.

First we pass Maximilianeum, which is the Bavarian Parliament building.

Then we come to the Friedensengel. (photo by Oliver Raupach)
Then we pass the Bavarian State Museum (photo by Oliver Raupach)
Then we pass maybe the coolest thing on the run, people surfing in the Isar river. Yes, surfing in the river. When I ran by a couple of weekends ago there was a big crowd of people watching and about eight surfers on each side patiently waiting their turn on the wave.

Then we enter the English Garden, which is actually bigger than Central Park. On a nice day this field is full of people soaking in the sun. (photo by Jiuguang Wang)

Our final cool sight before turning for home is the Chinese Tower, where there's also a beer garden. An oompah band plays from the second floor of the tower on weekend days. And right now there's a Christmas market set up around the tower. (photo by Frank Brenner)
Hope you enjoyed our favorite run!

One and a Half Years of Lily

Today is Lily's half birthday, or semi birthday, or anti birthday, or whatever you care to call it. I guess it's a good day to take a step back and think about what she's been up to lately and how it compares to the past. It's funny, "the past" used to mean pre-Lily to me, but now the past definitely includes Lily time too.

Lots of things are changing quickly for Lily, mostly her vocabulary and how she finds a new obsession every few days or weeks. Right now she has two obsessions - horses and dirt. I think horses will pass but dirt may be with us for a while. She found a love of horses about a week ago while we were in Vienna and there were horse-drawn carriages making their way through the streets of the old city. Whenever we'd hear hooves clicking down the street she'd say "horses, horses" (actually "husses husses") until she saw them. It eventually evolved into her saying it any time we went outside, and now she says it many times a day, and asks for the toy horses in her backpack ("dakdak"). As for dirt, first she started saying dustpan ("duhdauh"), then mama told her that the dustpan picked up dirt, then Lily started to point out dirt ("dit") on the floor that needed to be swept up. Now, she equates any cleaning activity or anything that's dirty with dirt, and actively talks about it. As an example, the hotel we were staying at last week had very friendly staff in the breakfast room who loved Lily. But since they cleaned the tables, she started pointing at them and saying "dit"... so these very nice ladies were known as dirt, and by the last day, we went to breakfast and before she saw any of them she was asking for "dit" as in "where are the dirt ladies"?

Lily is super friendly with strangers, smiling at everyone and saying "hi" and "tchuss" (German "bye"). We definitely hope she keeps up this trait, as well as continuing to say "yeah" to everything... she hasn't hit a "no" phase yet at all. There are still a couple of things we wish she'd cut out - biting (it's lessened, but she still does it when she's very frustrated) and pulling her hair and eating it. The last one just began a couple of weeks ago and while it's pretty gross we're ignoring it on the advice of a book since it's not dangerous and the theory is that it's a power grab ("you can tell me to not pull out my hair but I'm going to keep doing it because I can do whatever I want"). But we really can't complain, as she continues to be a great sleeper and eater. Knock on wood...

If I had to sum up Lily in this phase I would say she is high energy and emotional. She always wants to be on the go getting into something, and she can get pretty whiny if her every whim is not catered to. This is especially true in the car, where Nicole has to constantly give her attention in the back seat and lately has to keep her hand on Lily's leg to let her know she's paying attention. It's definitely hard for us to balance caving to her every desire versus dealing with a tantrum (they're starting) or whining, but I guess we'll continue to find our way on that one.