Posts Tagged colin

Colin and the rubber ducks

Posted by Volker in Colin, family on 06/02/2010

I bought my wife some rubber ducks for Valentines day, a devil and an angel. Actually, they were meant for Colin, and my wife discovered them in my drawer the other day.
However, the wee man is enjoying them – guess that’s the main thing!

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Sunday Column (48)

Posted by Volker in Sunday Column on 24/01/2010

Sunday. Hurray.
What a week, I don’t really know where to start.

I am very excited about a few things. One is my job which I really enjoy. And, I am not only saying that. I am convinced we currently have one of the best display media optimisation offerings out there to utilise ad exchanges. People are responding very well to it, so I am very happy with my choice of job.

Anyhow, besides that I am very excited about my son Colin who started saying DADA and I am now sure he means me :-) However, he was quite sick this week, including a big accident on Friday night after which we had to dispose some cushions :-( The joy of having a baby I suppose. My wife didn’t feel well either but so far I have been ok.

Then I am excited about my new regime – I have been up every morning at 5:45 am to go swimming and to go to the gym. Hopefully I keep doing that for the next while. My knee still hurts but with Ibuprofen and hopefully slow progression I am confident it will only be temporary. Fingers crossed.

And then I am excited about Schimanski :-) Not only did I order his jacket, the M65 Jacket I had for years in his stone/beige colour, but I also got the first four DVDs that were available of Tatort with Schimanski. It is great!

So this week has been very exciting. And, re-reading my post I didn’t necessarily put work before my son but I still spend more time at work than at home, that is why.

What else? I met with a good friend of mine on Monday night which was great. Haven’t had a chance to catch up with him for a while. Then I had a workshop about taxes and how to do my tax return which was quite helpful. I managed to have two early nights too to be able to help my wife with our son. I enjoy having less of a commute in order to be home a bit earlier. Of course if often happens that I have to go back to my emails afterwards, but it works well for us.

Next week I am looking forward to download the new Peter Maffay CD. Hopefully it will be a good one. Old songs newly recorded…. – I am touching base with my German roots quite a bit lately and I really enjoy it. It is as if I find myself and my history and slowly but surely know where I stand. Surely, I will write more about that shortly, but I can now let go of it. It took 9 years!

That’s all for today. I am tired. Taking care of the boy all weekend, long afternoon walks, not 100% myself, laundry….I have a lot of respect for my wife who does that every day. She enjoys it, as I enjoy what I do. That is fair I guess ;-)

You have a good week. Mine looks very busy and exciting, so fingers crossed.

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Gedanken = thoughts about a boy

Posted by Volker in personal on 19/01/2010

Since I started my new job, I have been busy, and I have been speaking more German than I used to. I believe that Colin is benefiting from that, as I try to make the extra effort to speak German to him. Fingers crossed.

I also thought I just write a few lines about his development. My wife already said that I missed things out in Sunday’s post. But I would – I only see him a few days a week. Tuesday is one of them. Tuesdays I make an extra effort to be home early and try to bath the boy and put him to bed. Tonight I managed.

It is great to see him grow. I don’t believe that he is over 7 months already. Before we know it, he is going to be a year. He is sitting up right already, bouncing up and down and says “dada”, not quite in relation to myself yet, but the sounds are there :-)

My wife has done a fantastic job of taking some new pictures of Colin. If you are in our distribution list you will get a link to all of them. We love to share these pictures, however we don’t want them to be distributed all over the place. Anyhow, I think my wife should become a professional photographer. What do you think?

When Colin was born I was less overwhelmed than I thought. Even before that, seeing the first scan, it was just all like it is supposed to be, supposed to look etc. I believe that we have seen development of babies too much these days, it is documented everywhere, and we think we have seen it all. But, 7 months on, I find that I still struggle to comprehend that this little worm on the scan was actually Colin. And today, Colin was sitting in the bath “reading” the book he got from his god mother about animals squirting water whilst I just sit there and watch him. He is self content, happy and can entertain himself. This would have been unthinkable a few months ago when he was crying and shouting much more often.

I reckon that in a few weeks time, maybe a couple of month, I will write about how much he has grown and how much he is crawling. He crawls backwards a bit and tries to figure out completely how to turn himself around. We are getting there and there is no hurry. In his own time.

My wife got a new buggy today, one that we can fold up and take with us anywhere: planes, cars, trains etc. We are getting used to the idea of being more mobile with him. He is eating proper food and enjoys it a lot. His favourite I believe is still macaroni cheese but he also likes the lentil coconut dish, and fish!

It is great. Seeing a child grow up is still a miracle. But you have to see it, you have to look at him and experience it. Hence I try to spend more time with him, and I am destined to take him swimming on Sunday….

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Sunday Column (47)

Posted by Volker in Sunday Column on 17/01/2010

Hello together,

You might have noticed that I haven’t written a blog post this week. The reason is fairly simple. It was my first week in my new job, and there is lots and lots of work todo. But I am loving it, and guess that is the main thing :-)

But of course there is more to life than work. Colin started turning himself back on his back after being on his front. He hasn’t quite mastered it yet but he is improving. Also, he started grabbing everything and gets more and more curious. He is sitting up now too and only sometimes falls over. I cannot believe he is over 7 months already!

Hansel, our lovely ginger cat, cut his foot and had to get stitches. Hence we had to keep both cats inside and they figured out how to open the living room door to get upstairs. So every night we got two visitors that (sometimes) quietly just sneak in and sleep on our bed. How sweet :-) As a result we put a proper door handle and lock on the door so that the cats cannot sneak upstairs anymore. DIY skills par excellence :-)

So a real family life is going on. I worked from home on Wednesday because of the snow. SouthEastern cancelled most trains to London and it was a nightmare. A friend got stuck for 2 hours on the train, so I am glad I stayed home. I still don’t believe that in the year of 2010 5 inches of snow (or less in this case) bring a country to a standstill.

It is melting now. I wouldn’t go as far that spring is coming but we had a few days above zero, with today even being around 10 degrees. I don’t mind the cold if I could do what I normally do, e.g. go to work or go shopping. Shopping delivery slots have been booked out all week :-(

The weekend was great. I had to catch up on some work related stuff but managed to get Hansel to the vet. We also had our neighbours around for coffee and biscuits. We managed to replace a few glasses we broke (I broke ;-) ), and I fixed the above mentioned door handle to the living room door.

Just a normal week with the family and work.

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Sunday Column (41)

Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, personal on 06/12/2009

This week was rather interesting, not to say quite busy.

As you might know by now I have left my job after only 6 months. In summary: it just didn’t work out. However, onwards and upwards. I have been in touch with a few companies over the last few weeks and continue to do so. So far we have not had to cancel Christmas, and I really enjoy the time with my boy!

On Tuesday afternoon I went to see an osteopath for my back and she cracked it well. I felt better afterwards but my muscles that are mainly used to lift heavy things, e.g. Colin, are still very weak and hurt. It also doesn’t help to sit on a too low desk I suppose. However, I go back next week to get more mobility into my back. And, they recommended me to do some exercise….I know :-( Although, a neighbour got me to go to the gym on Saturday, and I did do some exercise, went off to the Sauna and steam room too :-)

Wednesday was busy. I had an unexpected meeting with a good friend in the morning which resulted in possibly another job opportunity. Afterwards I met a friend for a late breakfast, another friend over lunch, having a frutti di mare pizza. Trying to abstain from meat until Friday for my weekly kebab ;-) In the afternoon I found time to catch up with a good friend before heading to a Tweet-Up.

I met two guys I met on Twitter, hence Tweet-Up, who are very much into Social Media. We met in the Albannach and tested a few whiskys that night, later being joined by another good friend. So overall that day has been very sociable, online and offline. Unfortunately one meeting had to be canceled which I hope to reschedule for next week.

I spent most of Thursday to catch up on emails and sorting out some potential part time work to tie me over to January. In theory I could start working in telemarketing for a friend in Germany as of today, but I don’t really have an office space yet. So that decision has to be made depending on a few things next week.

It is great to have a reliable network and friends who can offer and do offer you jobs. Because they know, how reliable, hard working and honest I am. So it is good to have friends and to help each other out sometimes.

What else happened this week. Whilst speaking to so many people, the nice things that I heard was a mortgage approval for friends who were seeking to buy for a while. Congratulations again, we will be neighbours soon! Then, another friend’s wife is feeling much better and might be home for Christmas, which I hope for him and his family. Fingers crossed and good luck.

We got a couple of early Christmas cards too and I realise again how strong our network of friends is. Particularly around Christmas and in these hard times. But, it is all good and we enjoy the company with our friends, and as hard as the times might seem, there are still people out there that are much worse off that us. We should not forget about them!

On Sunday we had an excellent breakfast with our friends and Colin’s god-father. “Il Coskino” and his wife were over for a cooked breakfast where I had some bacon, and a sausage. But that should be all for the meat for a while. Back to veggies and fish.

Have a fantastic week, not long to Christmas now!

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Sunday Column (40)

Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, cb consulting, coaching, personal on 29/11/2009

Yes, this week was quieter than expected. However, this has been my happiest week for a long time. Really since February if you exclude my two weeks paternity leave this summer.

Monday kicked off with lots of meetings. Caught up with good friends and interesting partners which hopefully leads to more business soon. The same really happened on Wednesday, another busy day. Also had to go to the dentist which resulted in us buying a new toothbrush, an electric one: Oral B Professional Care 3000. Not only do we get the “dentist feeling”, which I am not sure about whether that is a good or bad thing, but we also get a polishing function. Wednesday ended with a networking event on Search Marketing organised by the great guys from NMA. Thanks again for a great night.

Thursday I finished my Tai Chi form. Finally :-) I only started Tai Chi in Beckenham this February. But, given the size of Bromley, we are not really many in our class. The Greenwich Tai Chi group allegedly is much bigger. Anyway, we finished the Hine Tai Chi long form in less than a year. Now it will take probably another 10 years to perfect it……

Friday I set up a PPC (pay per click) campaign for cb consulting. As you know, besides my main job, I am offering coaching and consulting services, mainly focusing on inbound marketing for start ups in London. But also, I am focusing on youth and career coaching. A friend asked me for some help, so I thought I try out some Google Adwords campaigns myself before spending money for someone else :-)

I often get asked how I have so much time. But, often all my posts are written during the weekend, and I try to do them outside the “Colin time”. This way they just get published during the week and don’t take up much time.

The weekend was great too. I booked 2 days holidays Monday and Tuesday, so we went away over the weekend. We visited friends in Raleigh in Essex, and also went to Leigh on Sea, a small fishing village. It was a beautiful but windy and cold day. We really enjoyed our first night away with Colin who managed not too badly.


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So I am looking forward to two days off….. :-)

All the best,
Volker
….

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Progress Report Colin

Posted by Volker in Baby, Colin, family, personal on 23/11/2009

Colin November 09Hello,

What might sound like a chore is not. I just thought, and my wife told me off, that I haven’t given an update on Colin lately.

Last week he turned 5 months. Not only did he start to sit up, he also got his first two teeth. It is amazing to see how quickly he seems to develop once of a sudden. I helped him last weekend to start rolling over but he starts doing it himself now. He is actually turning 180 degrees in his bed to get his great grandmother’s toy. He is still so lovely when you wake him up in the morning, he looks at you, realises it is you and then puts on this big smile you just cannot resist.

And, of course he loves his hippo in the bath I was writing about yesterday. He has changed so much and is given so much more back from what he used to. I remember the first few weeks when I was struggling to see the “joy of fatherhood”. But instead, I now really love to see him grow, doing more things each day and explore things too. He is soo curious! Also, he discovered his feet, so not long now and he will be crawling all over the place.

He also started laughing a lot, crying less and properly eating. Luckily he passed the “blowing raspberry” stage whilst eating very quickly. Saves a lot of cleaning :-)

I will shortly publish some pictures, however you can see them on my Facebook profile or on request we can send you a link to our online album. He is so gorgeous, and I am not saying it because I have to! He just brings so much joy into our life, it is amazing.

With Love,
Volker

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Sunday Column (35)

Posted by Volker in Colin, Sunday Column, family on 25/10/2009

Another week, another Sunday. And it is a sunny Sunday :-)

This week, after a few days off, passed quickly but different to many other weeks. I believe every time you have some time off and go back to work, you start thinking about things and re-calibre your work. Hence it seems as if you get less done but you actually work more productively.

Anyways, Tuesday was our 2nd anniversary. I cannot believe how quickly those two years passed. And, we are still very happy together and have enjoyed the time together. With the house, boy and all, we are very settled and happy how and where we live. We enjoy what we have, and this is one of those unbeatable feelings to have. Happiness.

On Thursday, at Tai-Chi, we started refining the form. Particularly with the speed and control. Wow, I felt very tired after the session and now start noticing how much good it does for me. Also, I found out that my old work is not doing too well and people seem to not get paid and made redundant. Hence I am feeling very sorry for them, looking back I am glad I got made redundant whilst they could still pay me. Also, I think that it is such a shame for so many people not knowing what the future holds. All I can do is to offer my help. Fingers crossed it works out for everyone.

At the weekend my cousin was here. Her boyfriend works for an airline so it is easy for them to get flights from Zurich to London. It was a lovely weekend. Too much wine on Friday, a mess on Saturday and a lovely walk on Sunday. Time, although we gained an hour with the change to the winter time, was too short and they had to leave just around 2 pm again on Sunday.

It is so nice to stay in touch with family, sharing values and time, and having Colin meeting my cousin and his godmother. Talking about the family, the grandparents, the parents and how things have changed since we were young is interesting, fascinating and scary at the same time. It is so enjoyable and I hope that Colin will appreciate a German godmother that will teach him “Ballueder Family Values” :-)
With her being a trained acupuncturist, I got rid of some back pain and enjoyed some needles being stuck into myself :-)

Another topic that came up this week was the boy: I enjoy it so much more to be around him. He gives me so much back when I come home from work or wake him in the morning. Just the smile at me and the touching, grabbing and love he shows me, makes me feel so good. Whilst at some point I wasn’t sure how much I enjoy having children, after 4 months I want to have the next one…or two ;-) We shall see.

Also, we bought instant coffee and, although difficult to admit, I actually don’t mind it too much. I will never be a big fan, but I do enjoy it now and then for a quick cup of coffee. Letting go of my standards is not what I had in mind, but maybe getting used to more average supply of coffee (and same is true for wine after my month break), is not a bad thing in the recession.

This brings the week to a close. I could go to sleep and curl up in my bed, watching the wind in the trees, chasing the leaves around the garden. I love autumn with its fascinating colours. I have some things to do this afternoon, but hope that tonight I put on a nice fire, maybe a nice take away and a nice movie. Just chilling. That’s Sunday, that is autumn.

Love and Happiness to you all,
Volker

autum colours

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Sunday Column (25)

Posted by Volker in Colin, Sunday Column, house, personal on 16/08/2009

Oh dear, this week was full of swine :-) 2 if not 3 of my work colleagues went home and 2 came down with the flu. You already know how paranoid I am, so it didn’t help. Still feeling ok, however having a sore throat and itchy ears. The curry on Saturday night surely helped to get any viruses out of my body – I hope so anyway :-) swine

Vodafone exchange my Blackberry Bold within 24 hours and the new one runs fine. Either Ubertwitter caused a crash on the system, which I doubt, or the first one was faulty. Not sure. Fingers crossed! The new one is working so well, I absolutely love it. Will write a review at some point. Need to insure that the Bold though, don’t want to pay for one, in case anything happens to this one. I am far from having installed a lot of programmes but just for my emails, Facebook and Twitter, it is great :-) I know, I will install more programmes, but currently I think a lot about complexity in life. But I write about that later this week on Thursday!

Then, I bought myself an ugly and awful alarm clock. Just because I am used to 2 alarms, I decided to buy the cheapest digital alarm clock there was on Amazon. I love their horrible alarm ring tones and its red colour :-) Hilarious! alarm clock

Other than that not much happened this week. Things have been busy but ok at work and we made progress with some clients. Things are picking up and I am getting more into a routine. Saying that, I don’t enjoy my Tai Chi as much as I have to and would prefer to do something more active. However, my left knee is hurting – for no apparent reason – and I am wondering if should go and see a doctor after all. Hmm, decisions decisions.

Our son has been growing massively. They say that they now put on 1 kilo a month. Wow, he will be really big soon! We went to Sidcup on Saturday and he pooed whilst we were in heavy traffic. It took us a while until we could change him and boy, it was a huge mess. But we managed. He managed to get through a few sets of cloths on Saturday but luckily slept well all night. So overall, I am really pleased with the way he grows up and we grow to coping with things. I try to take care of him most Sunday mornings just so that my wife can have a lay in. This time becomes really special for me, I enjoy feeding him, sitting in the living room and playing with Colin. Normally, whilst he naps, I manage to get a coffee and my blog posts done :-)

In our garden I found tomatoes and what looks like melons growing. Surely they are courgettes that will change their shape later but sometimes I wonder. Never grew melons or tomatoes. Again, I need to update you on the garden. But with the weather being so poorly, I haven’t had much time but cutting the grass and tidying up a bit.

Next weekend we hope to finish the renovating in the living room. Would be good to actually have that done and then think how we might change things around and whether we get more furniture in or leave it less busy. Shall keep you posted on that one too.

To finish up a nice week, we had visitors on Sunday and a nice diner. Have a great week!

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Being a dad – 8 week review

Posted by Volker in Baby, Colin, family, personal on 06/08/2009

Today I want to look back. Back to almost 8 weeks of being a first time dad.
Colin Ballueder 6 weeks The first 3 weeks were very busy. As I wrote previously, we had to go back to hospital and in between us getting used to the new addition to our family, I had to go and find myself a job. But it all worked out and after we had him 3 and a half weeks, I went back to work. Maybe that is what the horoscope on Friday was all about?

Looking back my job change could have not come at a better time. I had over 3 weeks with my little Colin Heinrich, could feed him, change him, bath him. However, already then I noticed that my wife took over quite a lot. And, I want to be honest, I not only let her but really liked her to. This is not because I don’t want to deal with him and his mess, or I don’t want to be responsible for him but the idea my wife and I have is that she will stay at home as long as possible to take care of him.

So will we have a typical 1950s marriage where Jenny is the housewife and I am the husband and bread winner? I don’t hope so, and Jenny surely doesn’t think so ;-) I always say to Jenny she is the home manager, e.g. she needs to delegate to me what needs to be done and I rely on her being able to manage the household. This includes for instance to iron my shirts. We both hate it, so she is managing me to outsource it :-) Luckily there is a dry cleaner and ironing shop down the road which takes care of the problem. I even suggested a cleaner but at the moment we are managing and wanting to manage without one. However, this might change, so I can focus on work and the family at the weekend, and Jenny can solely spend all her energy for the boy. I believe this is a perfect life?

Whilst this sounds very posh, it is not. I hardly know anyone in our situation who doesn’t outsource some of the house work when having a child and the other partner is working, in my case I leave the house at 7.45 am and normally return about the same time in the evening. Living in London comes with a long commute and a career with long hours in the office. But as dedicated as I am to my job, as dedicated is Jenny to having children and a family. The perfect symbiosis.

So looking at the situation after 8 weeks I notice that Jenny does all night time feeds. That works out fine, so that I get 5 hours of sleep in one go, sometimes a bit longer. But I still wake up and you don’t sleep as well because you listen whether the boy is crying or not. And I don’t mind getting up if I have to, but find it difficult to be up most of the night and then go to work. Before he was born, I was sure that I could cope with little sleep much better, but after about 6 weeks, it starts wearing you down. With new feeding habits we even get a little bit longer to sleep and I use the weekend afternoons for another nap to catch up on some sleep.

Also, I was complaining a while ago that I didn’t get enough back from Colin. But that changed a lot. He is now following you with his eyes, builds stronger rapport and is more interactive. He smiles at you whilst you rock him to sleep or when you tickle him. Or when he has a poo ;-)

The older the baby gets, the more interactive it becomes and the more I enjoy it. I cannot say that I didn’t enjoy it before but the joy increases day by day. He now settles easier (most times) and daddy is used to changing nappies or bathing him. However, with increased work load, I see less of the boy during the week because we trying to get him used to going to bed early. That is surely something I don’t enjoy but cannot change.

Often, when I talk to older folk, they say that they regretted that they didn’t see their children growing up because of work and extracurricular activities. However, I do not not see him growing up, I just see less of it. I make up by standing on his cot before I go to bed or trying to spend more time with him at the weekend. It is either that or giving up my job and career which I so much enjoy. And that is not an option, also because I am the “classic bread winner” ;-)

So after 8 weeks I can look back and say that it was all well worth it and … that people are right saying that having a baby is more work than anyone ever tell you it is!

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