Rainy Sundays

Can we afford to stop our weekend walks at bad weather? Of course not! Besides, we have a lovely small raincoat and a lovely small baby umbrella to try out on Tara and the other four elements, so out we go, in not exactly England's best Sunday walk weather.
But who cares?! Tara certainly doesn't... or just a little bit, like when the raindrops hit her on the head and in her face... you see, Tara just doesn't
do cold water on hair or skin... but luckily that's where brolly training comes in. Ah. Bad news. Holding an umbrella isn't quite as easy as it seems, the d*** thing keeps rolling off baby's miniature shoulder and hitting the floor and swaying in the wind. Asylum! Asylum! Anywhere! Under daddy's umbrella, on mummy's arm... oh wait! Is this a wall to balance on? Forget asylum, let Tara walk the wall walk (video)!

The world has seen sunnier days, surely.

Brolly Training (Stage 1)

A little later the weather just gets too bad, and here's what's funny: Getting Tara out of the rain is more difficult that getting her out into it. The only trick that does the trick of turning a kicking, car-seat fighting, shrieking toddler into a submissive, obedient and cooperative 'goo girl' (as Tara might put it) in an instant, is the promise of - what else? - food. "Milch! UND Kekse!" does the trick, as in: "Psss Tara, komm! Wir fahren jetzt in die Stadt und finden ein Cafe mit Milch! UND Keksen! Lecker!"
But, boy!, does she remember what shes given the rainy walk and slippery walls up for! We've been driving for less than a minute... and yes, that's MUMMY driving, ug-hugh, family chauffeur mummy... before this little voice in the back of the car peeps: "Milch? MILCH?" (pause) "MILCH!"
"Jaja, Tara, Mami (oh yes, ug-hugh, Mami) fährt uns nur eben in die Stadt, DA gibt es dann MILCH! Gleich sind wir da!"
By God, I'm chauffeur to a little person with a memory and the ability to demand that promises be kept! Where has she come from, over night?!
Luckily, the town centre is near by and keeping this promise isn't much of a problem. Watch her enjoy it (video)!

Aaah, babycchino! Nothing like it!

Aaah, Babyccuddles! Nothing like it!

PS.: Jose's forbidden me to upload any of my hard work on the pole, but I'm giving you this link to show you what's so great about it. Check it out! Isn't it beautiful?!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

So that's how the mouse went missing!

Wie die Tochter, so die Mutter...

Wer von uns beiden darf zuerst?

Na gut, ist ein bischen zu klein für Mama...

Aber Mama kann das auch... jetzt jedenfalls... ;-)

Und hier noch ein kleines Video von einer von uns. Von der anderen gibt's dann nächste Woche eins...

Spot the Child

I turned my back on Tara for literally one minute (that's how long it takes me to wash the dishes... NOT), and all that was left of her was the trail of mess that we'd created together (cropped and hidden below) and a tiny voice from nowhere in particular. I swear spotting her took me longer than washing the dishes. Not round the corners, and not sitting on the bottom of the stairs either! Where is Tara?


Yes, yes, she is indeed in the picture! And when I've worked out how exactly she got there, I'll let y'all know.

The one below is a little more obvious, and that's great stuff - I can't be doing with looking for misplaced daughters on a daily basis!

HIYA!

Primer paso....

Este post esta dedicado a la legion de seguidores españoles (from a country called Spain, which is, at least the last time was, in the south of Europe...nothing to do with "El Paso", "El Alamo" (at least since the XVIII century), the first United States of North America....nothing.....no "Mamasitas", no "chiguaguas", no "Panchos", no "burritos", no "enchiladas", no "Pollo Tximichanga"... I promise, nothing...OK! maybe some Panchos --> ese Fulgencio!)

Hola que tal!, como les va?

Me recordaran por pasados "post" (muy muy pasados...). Basicamente soy el "maaaaan" conocido por Tara como "Paapa". Tambien me han llamado "a bit of Jose", que en cristiano suena raro... Hoy les vengo a contar un acotecimiento extraordinario.

Como cantaba el gran Celentano: "Cerco l'estate tutto l'anno e all'improvviso eccola qua..." La cosa sucedio el otro dia. Intentaba yo "preparar" a Tara para ir a dormir cuando empezamos a jugar a "sacarle un ojo al calvo" (ver foto adjunta, las lesiones no son permanentes)


De pronto, Tara me dijo "nait-nait", se dio la vuelta y se durmio. Estupefacto me quede. Desde entoces esto mismo ha sucedido cada noche. Alternativamente a "sacarle un ojo al calvo" tambien jugamos a "hurgar el cerebro de Paaapa a traves de la nooose", a parte de esto, el ritual es basicamente el mismo que hacia Alex pero sin Alex (para los mal informados, decirles que Tara hasta este momento historico solo podia quedarse durmiendo con Alex, unica y exclusivamente).
Asi que ya nos queda menos para el segundo paso, "Tara duerme sola". Pero eso ya sera otro post, y espero que pronto.

Pd: Y ahora, aunque tarde, un "Bienvenido" a Nacho y un "Felicidades" para Pedro & Paula.

Ahhhh, se me olvidaba! La correspondiente fotico de Tara en la cama antes de ir a dormir... o casi (besheket, besheket...).





pd: disculpen la ortografia pero esto es un teclado ingles y que si quieres brebas con los acentos Catalina...

Mummy Says Papi Must Blog Too

...but even though mummy cropped and prepped some lovely pix, daddy still is too busy working and playing with Tara when he comes home, and taking Tara to bed after dinner, and all that. Cho!

"Shoes!" (meaning, Papi's shoes are the best!) "Mama. Papa?" (meaning, Mami, when is Papi coming home?)

"Ooooooh!" "Wow!"* (meaning, wow I can't do that! Such hard work inflating balloons!)

"Aaaaaw!" (meaning, sweet cuddles, we're being cute, and how nice is that?!)
Love-love, cuddle-cuddle, and off to bed. Mami gets to clean the kitchen.

* Yes she actually says "wow". A lot, and in the right kind of context each and every time. Picked it up from me of course, who else.

Fruchtzwerge

Two truly scrumptious recipes. Trust me. And to be sure, the frommage frais in it don't obligatorily have to be past their date.

Fruchtzwerge. Bäh, findet Mama, und wie sich herausstellt, Tara auch. Darum sitzen zwei Pack in unserem Kühlschrank und verfallen vor sich hin, denn erfahrungsgemäß sind Verfallsdaten auf Milchprodukten dieser Art sehr flexibel, und außerdem, man weiß ja nie, vielleicht findet sich ja noch ein Nutzen, bevor sie definitiv verrottet sind.

Und so kommt es denn eines schönen Kuchen backenden Tages auch tatsächlich. Ein gut aussehendes Rezept aus einem BBC book takes to looking suspiciously dry, after I've started baking. Seriously. 3 parts dry, and 1 part wet ingredients, i.e. butter? NEVER! The Fruchtzwerge save the day, and voila! Here we go, sharing a new family favourite.
And while we're talking recipes, I wouldn't be a friend if I didn't share our new family favourite pancakes .

So. Get baking and get back to me with praise.

Fruchtzwerg Rosinen Pfannkuchen

(sind eine Variation der Yoghurt Pancakes aus diesem herausragenden Buch, wenngleich dort Joghurt benutzt wird)

Whack together, then bake:
1 egg
120ml milk
120g self raising (wholemeal) flour
2 pots of fruity frommage frais
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 handful of raisins

If for some odd reason you have any left over, it appears that they can be frozen (flat, between layers of waxed/greaseproof kitchen paper) and defrosted in the toaster.

Give me more, says Tara, "ma(s)!" throughout the whole afternoon. It's even important enough for her to come out with a tiny and incredibly cute "peese!" That's unheard of!

All mine!!! *Scoff*

For the equally simple, if a tad more elaborate

Family Favourite Strawberry Fruchtzwerg Cake

(the dry starter recipe can be found in this book, which also has a cake in it with real live flowers. What do you expect!)

You need:
175g softened butter
2 eggs
6 pots of fruity (strawberry?) frommage frais
175g sugar
175g ground almonds
175g self raising flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 small pot of fruit puree (z.B. Apfelmus) or compote (with pieces)
450g strawberries, sliced
handful of dried cranberries (or why not try fresh? Or blueberries? Or raspberries?)

You blend together all the dry ingredients, the butter, the eggs and 4 of the 6 frommage frais, and fill half of that mix into a round tin.
Smooth that first layer, then put a layer of sliced strawberries on top, and fill any gaps with drops of fruit puree / compote.
To the other half of the batter, you add the remaining 2 frommage frais and the berries, pour it over the layer of strawberries, smooth it down, and stick in the oven at 180 degrees for ca. one hour. If it looks too dark before its time is up, reduce heat or cover the cake tin with something as long as that something is heatproof.

Make sure you SHARE-SHARE!

Oh, and before you think we're up to nothing but than eating, let me brief you: We've seen TanteClaudia off, cleaned the house and gone through an ebay frenzy, been busy playing, and most recently tidied the shed. There are pictures, most notably of the way-too-large spiders (make that a 5cm diameter with legs folded up in a natural relaxed position) who I've had to howdoIputhis take care of.

The Battle of the Shed - Mummy versus The Spiderazzos