out east

Greetings from New Jersey! We flew out east earlier today so Brenda could have a few voice lessons before we head back to Germany. My aunt and uncle are kindly allowing us to stay at their place which has an amazing view of Manhattan. In addition to her voice lessons, Brenda and I plan on visiting some family in the area and introducing Rowan to more of his relatives. He will also get to add more states to his growing list of places visited. He's currently at five states and three countries. Not bad for a five month old, although I'm not sure he's fully appreciating the new locales. I pointed out the Empire State Building to him earlier, but he didn't react and just kept on drooling.

The past several days we've been having a wonderful time with Uncle Drew in Minneapolis. We went to the Minneasota State Fair and the Rennaisance Festival. Both were very fun and calorie laden. Some might say a bucket full of chocolate chip cookies is excessive, especially when chased by deep fried nachos, but when in Rome... (Did they have deep fryers in Rome? Is that why the empire fell?)

As I alluded to earlier, the great introductory Rowan trip of 2016 (or "Chendowan does America") is coming to a close. This time next week we'll be back in Germany. I think Brenda's looking forward to getting back to singing, and I'm definitely looking forward to my stay-at-home dad work.

I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you once we're back on the other side of the pond!

up north

Hey all! This belated blog post is coming to you from the Twin Cities. We spent most of the day yesterday in Iowa packing up our surprisingly large amount of stuff (we didn't travel lightly before the baby and he certainly hasn't lessened the load) before hitting the road to Minneapolis to see Uncle Drew. Much like our time in Wisconsin, our stay in Iowa was wonderful and it was hard to leave. Rowan has met many of our friends and family now including his three new cousins who were born in the weeks and months after Rowan arrived. So many babies!

Little Rowan is getting bigger all the time. Even though he's only five months old, he fits perfectly into nine month clothes. He has a very sweet disposition and for the most part only cries when he's either tired or hungry. He's been handling all the traveling really well, which is good because he's going to be doing a lot more of it in the coming weeks.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and we"ll talk to you next week!

going for gold

Well, we're back where we started. We began our vacation in Iowa a month ago and now we're back for more. Even though the Iowa State Fair is going on we're going to skip it and watch the Olympics instead. (I hope I'm not offending anyone here, but my attitude is that if you've seen one butter cow you've seen them all.) We'd also like Rowan to spend some more time with his cousins. We got to hang out with his five-year-old cousin Beatrice yesterday, and the two of them got along great.

Brenda has been preparing for her next gig in which she sings the title role in Berg's Lulu. She made the comment recently that it's probably the hardest piece, both vocally and musically, that she's ever studied. I have no doubt that she's going to be great in the part, probably even worthy of a medal. Hey, where's the opera category in the Olympics?

It's been great to spend so much time with our families this summer. A big downside to living in a foreign country is that we don't get to see our families as much as we'd like, but a huge benefit to Brenda's career is the freedom in between gigs to travel home. (The German government's generous vacation and maternity leave policies are also helpful.) Brenda has quite a bit of work in the U.S. in coming seasons, which will allow us to see family (and for family to see Rowan) more often.

I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!

still in cheese country

Hey all! We're still having a great time in Wisconsin with Brenda's parents. We've been seeing lots of friends, taking trips to the farmer's market and just enjoying watching Rowan interact with his grandparents. Earlier this week we took a short trip to Door County, a popular vacation spot in Wiscosin, and introduced Rowan to some of our favorite Door County activities. We went to a drive-in movie, walked along the beach, and had some delicious frozen custard. He probably won't remember the trip so I guess we'll have to go back again when he's older. Darn.

We're hitting the road again this weekend to spend some more time with my family in Iowa. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!

Family time

Hey all! Brenda, Rowan and I are having a wonderful time in Wisconsin with Brenda's parents. Rowan has been meeting a lot of new people, and he's definitely not shy. (Maybe that comes later? Or not, if he takes after his dad.) We've been taking it easy for the most part, although Brenda has been working on her next opera role. It's great to be spending time with family and friends.

We don't have a good internet connection yet, but once we do we'll definitely share some pictures with you. Until next time, have a great week!

Have baby, will travel

Hello all! Writing to you from the road! Sorry for the delay in posting an entry. We are currently driving to Wisconsin, after spending 5 fun days in Florida with our dear friends Dan and Whitney. Our little dude continues to be a great little traveler (his flight count is already up to 3!) and he's also getting used to car travel! We'll try to post some pictures once we're connected to the internet again. Have a great week!

Rowan's first summer vacation

Hey all! We're back in the U.S. enjoying some time with family. Our flight back was, thankfully, uneventful. Rowan slept most of the trip and stayed fairly quiet when awake. We're flying to Florida later this week to hang out with our friends Dan and Whitney (and to lay on a beach), and we're hoping that Rowan will do just as well on that flight as he did on the last one.

Brenda's concert in Austria on Wednesday went well. I didn't get to hear it in person because Rowan and I were back in the hotel room getting ready for bed, but the Schubertiade was kind enough to provide Brenda with a recording. Our friends the Schuberts were there for Brenda's performance, and we got to spend some time with them the next morning when we all had breakfast.

Rowan had a lot of fun with Monika and Michael.

I've been patting myself on the back recently because of how well Brenda and I managed to navigate the unavoidable paper storm that comes with having a baby in Germany. We got Rowan a German birth certificate, a German tax number, a U.S. consular report of birth abroad, a U.S. social security number, a U.S. passport, Kindergeld (child money), Elterngeld (parent money), and we registered him with the Standesamt (civil registry office). Bam! We discovered recently that we overlooked one little thing, however. As we were going through German border control on Saturday, the agent told us that Rowan should have a residence permit like we do otherwise he would only be able to return to Germany as a tourist. We protested and explained that he was registered with the city and that we were permanent residents, but apparently that is irrelevant. Brenda and I can stay in Germany as long as we want, but our four-month-old son (who was born in Germany and has spent almost his entire life there) is a tourist. This is, of course, entirely my fault, and I have no doubt that U.S. immigration laws are equally (if not more) unfriendly. The only thing we can do at this point is fly back to Germany in September and hope they let Rowan into the country. After that we'll head over to the oh-so-charming foreigner's office and get this kid a residence permit. Hopefully that works out.

I'm not going to worry about that now, however. Instead, I'm going to go hang out with my family and think about lying on a beach. I hope you all get a chance to relax this summer, too! Until next time, have a great week!