The Chessmaster

Much to my surprise and delight, Liam joined the local chess club a while ago.  The club organizer had done a recruiting round at Liam’s school and he decided it was for him.  So every Friday he has been off at the club learning to play chess for a while now.  All things considered, I think he is doing pretty well.  He knows how all the pieces move and capture each other, he understands castling.  His main problem is lacking any real foresight or strategy, he does not think enough about the consequences of his moves, but hey he started playing as a six year old so that is understandable.

 

Last weekend was the end of year chess tournament for the region and Liam was very keen ton compete.  He had it in his head that he could win a trophy and that was a big appeal to him.  He was going to compete in the group for grade 1+2 kids which had 15 contestants.  We arrived at the Altingen Gemeindehaus bright and early Saturday morning and checked in.

 

 

Liam started out quite well, winning his first game.  He was very proud of this victory.  The referee only had to get involved twice because one or the other of the kids had made an illegal move, or not understood something about the rules.  Not too bad for a couple of first graders.

 

 

The second game was heartbreaking for me.  Liam played very well in the beginning and midgame, and on at least 3 occasions, it was mate in one for him, but he did not see it and made some costly mistakes instead.  He allowed the other guy to come back and eventually beat him.  At this point I decided to stop watching the games so closely but just stand back and wait for the results.  It is too psychologically painful to watch your kids make errors and not be able to offer any help.  I did not want to unintentionally influence him with my body language or expressions either, that would not be fair.

 

 

Because the division was mixed grade 1+2, his next couple of games were against older kids, and he did not manage to win them either.  He got pretty upset once he realized that he was not going to have any chance at finishing in the top 3.  In the end he finished in 8th place of 15, and was the second highest of the grade 1 kids.  This is a result I think he should still be proud of even if there is not a trophy attached to it.  I told him if he wants a trophy next year, he has a whole year to practice and get better.  Next summer, he will have the age advantage and hopefully will be able to get the coveted hardware.

 

Group photo of all the winners from the 1+2 and the 3+4 groups.

 

Entringen Rainbow

Even though we get a lot of rain, we are very often treated to some pretty spectacular rainbows.

This is out my front door in the midst of last weeks sun shower.

Liam’s Hospital Visit

Before anyone gets alarmed, this is something that happened quite a few months back.  Back in May, Liam became suddenly quite ill, he could not keep any food or drink down and it seemed like a really bad flu.  After a couple of days, he was getting weak and starting to lose too much weight so we took him to the doctor, who right away said we needed to take him to hospital.  He was suffering from rotavirus, which can be pretty nasty in kids and is very contagious.

 

So it was off to the Kinderklinik in Tübingen and some days in the quarantine ward.  To go in and visit him, we needed to put on gowns and masks and disinfect ourselves, the full monty.

 

 

At the beginning, Liam was just sort of tired, weak and pathetic.  He was placed on an IV to make sure he was getting nourishment and fluids.  He spent the first day just sleeping.

 

 

The IV achieved pretty remarkable results and he was much more spry and full of energy after the first day.  Since he was quarantined,  he was not allowed to leave the room and the biggest problem rapidly became boredom.  All the members of the family took turns sitting in the room with him and we played many board and card games, drew many pictures and read a lot of stories.  He also got more TV than he normally watches in a year.

 

We could tell he was feeling very much recovered by the second day when he pressed the emergency call nurse button and when she came asked her “what is there to do around here?”

 

 

Three days in hospital brought him back to a state where he could come back home and the first big sickness adventure was thankfully behind us.

A Grey Beach Day…

Not every day in Borkum was sunny and war, but we did not let that stop us from going to the beach.  On this particular windy damp day, we went for a walk out to the bank where the seals all congregate.  Seals remain one of the big attractions of the island for Liam, so he gave approval for the trip.

 

 

It is not that long a walk, but sadly this year the seals were all pretty far out.  This was the best view we had at maximum zoom on the little camera.

 

 

However, there were a couple of fishing boats out that caught the attention of Liam.  He liked the look of this one.

 

 

I think I almost enjoy the beach more in this weather, it is not busy, the waves, boats, and animals are all still fun to look at it was not THAT cold.  Here are Claudia and Liam enjoying the sandy walk.

 

 

Even a rare photo of me was captured that day, along with Henrik fighting hard to stay awake.  I am pretty sure he did not last much longer after this one was taken.

 

Borkum Biking

We all enjoy biking quite  a lot and one of the appeals of our Borkum holidays is that the island has lots of nice bike trails, none of which are too challenging for Liam. 

We rented bikes and a hanger for Henrik to ride along and set out on a nice ride around the island.  We did a nice route that took us first through the town and along the old dyke, then out through the northern dunes to the inland coast side of the island.  We were also using this chance as a test opportunity for Liam to try out some “big boy” bikes before his birthday. 

Henrik had such a nice time riding in the wagon that I scoured ebay for a used one of these when we returned home.  I can’t say enough nice things about these bike trailers for kids.  I find them so much better than the kids bike seats that are perched on the back of your bike.  Trailers are stable, easy to pull, comfortable and give you some handy storage space to bring along things like snacks, diaper bags, extra sweaters and rain gear…  The only negative is that they are pretty expensive and you will need to do a good amount of biking if you want them to demonstrate some value. 

One last photo with nothing to do with bike rides is this fun one of Henrik investigating the source of the music.  Liam had been obsessively playing the Star Wars soundtrack while we were on vacation and Henrik was not really used to a stereo and speakers.  He was digging deep to figure out what was going on in there….

 

At first I hated Mario Balotelli… but then….

So I was one of the many people (in Germany at least) who was unhappy with the outcome of the Euro 2012 semi final.  I wanted Germany to win the tournament, but Italy led by two Balotelli goals knocked them out and ruined my weekend.  Balotelli’s childish goal celebration at first just made me think what a clown he was (along with his ridiculous haircut.)

 

But then the Internets happened….

 

 

Thank You Mario Balotelli.  Long after I have forgotten the results of the match, I will be able to look at this meme and enjoy what a fool you are.  Thank you internet, you have once more proved your worth.

Liam’s Birthday

We had Liam’s 7th birthday party a couple of weeks ago.  This year we decided to have it up in the park/wildgehege mainly so that we would not have to have a bunch of wild savage children going berserk in the house.  Fortunately for everyone, we had a great sunny warm day for the party.   This is a part of the enormous national park that is right next to our house.  There is a playground area with some picnic benches as well as close proximity to some animals.  The picnic part is right between the wild pigs and deer.  On this very warm day, the pigs had retreated out of sight to lie in the shade, but we did get a nice look at a deer on the hill.

 

 

A deer eating grass can hold the attention of a pack of children for about 10 min, but after that they rocketed off in to the woods to go berserk.

 

 

Claudia and I had spent any evenings though the week planning some games to play with the kids and had asked Liam about what he would like to do.  He had given us all kinds of information about games he wanted to play and things to do, but in the end the kids had pretty much zero interest in any sort of direction and spontaneously decided to play hide and seek in the forest, a game that was not on the list at all.  oh well, their party.

 

 

After some tiring out in the forest, we went down to the picnic area for cake and presents.  Lots of Lego, lots of Star Wars and a happy birthday boy. 

 

 

We also did a BBQ where the kids cooked their own sausages stuck on long poles, followed by toasting marshmallows for dessert.    Of course kids like fire and after the meal I think they were having as much fun poking it with the sticks. 

 

 

A forest full of sticks and some Star Wars books also kicks off some light saber battles.  Here is Emil as Darth Maul battling Liam Skywalker.

 

 

All in all a fun and tiring birthday party.  I think the kids had a nice time and Claudia and I were pooped by the end of it.  Kids birthday parties are fun, but it makes me understand why lots of people pay a third party to entertain the children, probably a very good investment.