prep work

Hey all! We've been passing our days recently by crossing more things off of our pre-baby to-do list. Brenda's parents, who returned to snowy Wisconsin late last week, helped us get a lot done, but there are still a few more things to do. One of the big things I want to tackle before the little guy gets here is the complex paperwork we need to fill out to have a baby in Germany. There are also a few home improvement projects I haven't gotten around to since we moved in a few months ago. The trickiest will be putting up curtain rods. With the kind assistance of my father-in-law, I tried to put up curtain rods last week, but I was outwitted by the wall. The walls in our apartment appear to be made of sand and small stones, which makes them quite solid, but the problem is that the wall crumbles around a drill bit as soon as you start drilling. The end result is a hole about four times as big as you intended. My approach until now has been to drill first and ask questions later, but I think I may need to consult the internet (which we'll hopefully be getting tomorrow) for guidance on this one.

This past weekend Brenda and I went to Biedenkopf to visit some good friends and to see them perform with their marionette opera theater. The opera was Weber's Der Freischütz, which Brenda and I hadn't seen before, although Brenda knew one of the arias from her college days. The performance was great - the sets, marionettes, and costumes were all beautifully designed and made, and the six performers (who are crammed together in a very small space above the stage) do an amazing job of bringing life to the marionettes. The music was provided by an all-star cast recording from the sixties. It all makes for a great night at the opera.

While I've been writing this Brenda has been busy making lentil soup, and based on that wonderful smell I think it's dinner time. Until next time, have a great week!

Mutterschutz (A.K.A. maternity leave)

Hey All! This blog post is coming to you from our festively decorated apartment, which is filled with balloons, banners, and a quickly growing pile of baby gear. On Sunday we had a bunch of friends over for a baby shower that wouldn't have been possible without the help of Brenda's parents and our friends Barb and Michael. We ate a lot of good food, played some silly games, and had an all around good time. I'd love to share some pictures with you, but we're still without internet in our apartment, so it'll have to wait until we're back online.

Brenda had her last performance before her maternity leave on Saturday (it was a great performance and she received the most applause I've ever heard her get), and now she can turn her full attention to nesting. Her parents have been helping us a lot while they've been here. They've already made several meals and put them in the freezer so we don't have to worry about making food after the baby is born. They've also been helping us put new furniture together. We should be finished with the crib tomorrow, which is a good thing because our little knödel is getting pretty big. We had an appointment today and the doctor said he weighs about five pounds!

I'd better call it a night. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!

short and sweet

Hey all! I've just got a quick update for you this week. Brenda's parents flew into town yesterday, and we've been really enjoying spending time with them. They're not just here for a leisurely visit, though. They are eager to help us get prepared for the arrival of our little Knödel. We went to Ikea today to get some things, which means we've got some assembly ahead of us in the coming days. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!

two shows to go

Greetings from Frankfurt! Brenda and I made the trip back home yesterday after her busy week of performances in Berlin. Opera singers typically get at least two days off between performances since their roles can be quite vocally taxing, but Brenda and her castmates had four performances in eight days with only one day off in between each of the last three. I went to the final performance on Sunday and thought the cast sounded great. The audience, which included the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, seemed to agree with me based on the applause.

After getting back to Frankfurt yesterday, we spent a good portion of the evening at an informational lecture on childbirth. The talk was given by a head physician at one of the local hospitals and was open to whoever wanted to show up. The doctor did a great job of explaining the entire birthing process, although I must confess that I missed a few things because he spoke (auf Deutsch) for over three hours. After the lecture he took all of us on a brief tour of the birthing floor.

Brenda has two more performances to go before her maternity leave begins, and while she’s looking forward to the shows, I think she’s also looking forward to focusing her full attention on preparing for the baby. We’ve started accumulating some more baby things (for example, the car seat came today) and more stuff is on its way.

Well, it’s pretty late so I’d better call it a night. I hope you all have a great week, and we’ll talk to you next Tuesday!

baby in red

Hey all! Greetings once again from Berlin. Brenda had her first performance of Ariadne auf Naxos on Sunday, and it was another great night at the opera. If it weren't for that baby bump, you'd have no idea she was pregnant since she moves so effortlessly around the stage. In one scene she kicks her leg up to eye level several times, which I probably couldn't do once. (I'll give it a try tomorrow and let you know how it goes.) If you'd like to see a few pictures from the production and/or watch a short video, you can do so on the Berlin State Opera's website (those pictures were taken last June so don't expect to see a baby belly). Here's a more recent picture of Brenda in costume...

Posing for a picture in her dressing room.

This pic is courtesy of our friends Susanne and Stephan who were at the show on Sunday.

These past couple of days we've been taking advantage of Brenda's time off in between performances. Yesterday we went to the Berlin Aquarium and then out to dinner at a sushi restaurant (after seeing all those fish swimming around I decided to have an avocado roll). Today we wanted to get a little activity so we did some yoga at home. Brenda found a video online of a woman in her third trimester doing yoga and, even though I'm not exactly pregnant (do love handles count?), we went with that. We both sat down on our mats (Brenda's was genuine, mine was a bath towel) and we started the video. Things started off well - we closed our eyes, we put our hands on our bellies so we could be in tune with our babies - but then the instructor asked us to do something that I didn't think I could do. Namely, Kegel exercises. If you don't know what they are, WebMD can tell you, but the basic idea is that it is an exercise you do to strengthen your pelvic floor. Brenda and I thought it was something only women could do, so we laughed pretty hard when the yoga video told us to do it. It turns out, however, that men can do it too, so I'm going to be ready for our next round of pregnancy yoga.

I'd better call it a night. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!

gearing up

Hey all! Brenda and I have been in Berlin for a little over a week now, and we've been enjoying a rather relaxing start to the new year. Of course, Brenda has had rehearsals almost every day, but most days they've lasted just a few hours, which has given us time to do other things - like shopping for baby gear. 

We've been having a lot of fun looking at adorable baby paraphernalia, but I must confess that I occasionally get overwhelmed by the sheer number of products we're supposed to buy. Not to mention the zillion different brands for each product. For example, it's hard to know if we're going to want the baby bathtub with the drain plug since I've never actually given a baby a bath. Or how about the biodegradable diapers? From what I've read we're going to need at least 300 diapers for the baby's first month, so I guess we'll order them in bulk and cross our fingers that we like them. All that said, Brenda is amazing at researching the different products and finding out which ones parents seem to like most. It's a good thing, too, because if all the shopping decisions were up to me I'd still be stuck trying to pick the right diaper wipes.

A couple months ago I mentioned that we wanted to make this blog private, but that plan was delayed due to us not having internet in our apartment in Frankfurt. We have internet in Berlin, so a couple of days ago I decided to make the switch. That's when I discovered that if I make the blog private, everyone who wants to read it will have to have a gmail account. Because you all so kindly wrote to me to say you were interested in continuing to read the blog (thank you!), I know that you don't all have gmail accounts. And because we want all of you to continue to be able to read the blog, we're not going to make it private after all. I'm not entirely sure what that means as far as posting baby pics is concerned, but we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

It's getting close to midnight, at which point Brenda will be thirty weeks pregnant. She says rehearsals are going well, although she noticed today that she was getting a little breathless during her aria. Things are a little more crowded in her midsection these days. I'm sure she'll still sound great for her first performance on Sunday.

So that's what we've been up to. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!

the Drew trip 2015

Hey All! It's me again, and after only two days. It must be a blue moon. Since I filled you in on our recent holiday festivities in the last post, I thought I could use this post to tell you about Drew's trip to Germany last month. We had a great time with him (as always), and we took a lot of pictures, so I think I'll let them do most of the talking...

 On one of Drew's first nights in Frankfurt, the twins went out for a stroll along the Zeil (a large pedestrian shopping street) to see all of the Christmas decorations and explore a bit of the Christmas market.

Later that night we had dinner at a traditional Frankfurt restaurant not far from our new apartment. 

 One of the great things about Germany is that they have a large assortment of high-quality, non-alcoholic beers (like the one Brenda is drinking in this picture).

 A large hanging grill (or "meat swing" as we called it) at the Christmas market.

 Drew and Brenda backstage after Brenda's Lucia di Lammermoor performance.

 We took Drew to our old apartment to help us clear out a few remaining things.

 We also spent a few days in Kitzbühel, a beautiful skiing town in the Austrian Alps. Of course, they had a little Christmas market, too.

 Our friend, Florian, is working in Salzburg at the moment, and he came over to Kitzbühel for a night to meet up with us.

 The conditions weren't exactly right for snowboarding, but the town has snow machines so Drew was still able to hit the slopes.

There's always a lot of laughing when we're with Drew.

So there's a glimpse into our time with Drew last month. It's getting late over here so I'd better call it a night. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!