nacken

While little Mr. Julius looked perfectly ok this morning … he came back home from kindergarten with stuff coming out of his ear … and we called our wonderful new doctor and he agreed to come by on his way home.

It is not like Julius is in pain or anything. What happens (obviously .. and I am no MD) is that he gets some infection that builds up liquid in his ear … and while other kids are in pain for days and days .. his eardrums just pop and release the pressure … sounds like a safety valve .. but he needs those eardrums for good hearing … so .. we want to reduce those tears in his ears …

Anyways .. Dr. Mostart was fantastic again. First time that Ritsu met him, and she agrees .. he took his time (not to mention that it was 8 PM on a friday night) and Julius totally likes and trusts him. I think house calls vs. sterile doctor places makes a big difference. So. Julius is again on (different) antibiotics and some medication to get all the pus out of his system …

It seems, if this is going to continue .. we have to look into seeing an ENT specialist … and might want to consider a tympanostomy, which means putting a little tube in his ear .. which allows liquid to come out … well .. we will do everything to make a informed decision on this … until then I just hope that he is getting better ..

I only have this one blurry pic of his meeting with the doctor .. I did not want to disturb by shoting with flash … but you can also see that we showed him pictures of the afformentioned redness that Julius had encountered … and he is pretty certain it was an allergic reaction .. but we have no idea what it caused …

Readers have complained .. and rightfully so … that there has not been much on food on this blog in a while (probably the same people who complained about too many food and drink related entries in teh past) …

There are reasons .. one being time constraints .. others, that shopping here can be tricky … you get fantastic fresh produce .. and everything Italian is just .. well, to die for (cheese, ham … heck.. the cheapest raw ham here is better than anything you find under the name parma ham in New York e.g.) pasta is .. hey, this is pasta central .. no discussion about this …

BUT (did anyone else see this coming) … if you want non-Italian food .. then you find your limits quickly .. some examples: sour cream? BBQ sauce? A1? All spice? Duck breast filet? Very hard to find or just unheard of (I want to extend this list with the help of other international friends and hopefully also find sources … like recently I actually found Ikura! (Salmon Roe) in a close by specialty store .. WAY overpriced .. but what can you do.

So .. for tonight Ritsu pointed out a recipe on our wall calendar (German recipes) and I noticed that I can actually get everything for it:

pound of turkey meat, cut into bite size pieces 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic (sliced and diced) Some leek, cleaned and sliced broth or / and some dry white wine (the latter generously poured into the chef) salt / pepper / sweet paprika spice some cream and some instant polenta

Our result looked similar, but the leek rings get all mushy and the turkey did not have that nice brown effect (which is possibly enhanced on that image on the calendar). But the idea to use some polenta for thickening is very cool and I can image some other dishes I will try this on. Oh, and tastewise it was very nice.

Initially we wanted to go to have pizza. But then we passed this one cafe / bistro kinda place and saw something that we have always been curious about: The aperitivo buffet. I am still not 100% sure how this works … but basically when you buy a drink at places like this, you can raid this buffet full of little Italian delectables. Technically it is an ‘all-you-can-eat’, but it appears no one is doing that. One would think that this system would be abused … hmmm … I was looking around when I went for a plate refill if someone will stop me. (Maybe one of the Italian readers can explain ‘the rules’ a bit better?)

But this place and the people were very nice. The waitress even spoke English and they cut up some fresh strawberries for Julius. I was very happy to find that they offered Caipirinha (which also was pretty good) and Ritsu had this green NON-ALCOHOLIC very fruity cocktail (which of course Julius just had to try)

The food items were several cheeses, 2 different fried balls (one filled with rice, one with ‘i don’t know’), some small fried sardines and some pickled anchovies (very good), 2 different salamis, marinated olives, little sandwich bites, focacchia and even a pasta dish. We could have stayed all evening, order more drinks and finish this buffet. But something funny was happening with Julius:

As it was time for him to get cranky because of being tired anyway, he also showed signs of redness around his eyes. Then we wondered if maybe there has been alcohol in that non-alcoholic drink (manager promised again that it was alcohol free). Julius got crankier and crimson and my next theory was that either the spicy salami or that cheese with red pepper pieces in it had finally hit his taste buds. He has eaten spicy food before with no complaints (or immediate spit out) … but maybe this cheese had some time delayed spiceness.

Anyways … we went home and very soon the little man was sleeping.

Update: Next Morning: all is ok, no more red skin, Julius all over very peachy!

In order to get some better pictures today, I tried to eat his feet while snapping pics with the other hand …

It has been busy in the house of Nacken and Ritsu is still in bed with a terrible back ache. And somehow I did not get to take any better pictures for today. So, instead of doing the ’sleeping Julius’ solution, I thought I can play around with photoshop a bit

Cute guy playing with his assortment of hats … compared to how much he used to hate hats … big improvement.

Too bad the weather was not that nice this weekend and even worse that Ritsu was down with a bad back again. But this afternoon the sun came out and Julius and I took a stroll to Gran Madre. It is a great place to let him run around. He can climb the stairs, chase birds, chat up people and touch the occasional dog.

I don’t feel much like taking him to the nearest green area, as I have observed that many people let their dogs poo all over there … so no free running around there.

We even joined the church service for about 10 minutes (people walk in and out very casually) and Julius was fascinated by the loud organ music.

Last night Julius got very excited about watching Monsters Inc. and danced to the opening tune. I added the music from the CD for better quality .. but it is synched with the tune as it actually happened .. so .. yes .. he keeps dancing after the music is done .. enjoy …

We tried to compile a list of all the words he is actively using. This list is probably not complete, it is like 120+ words now. Beyond these there are many more that he understands but does not say yet. I am also sure he speaks way more Italian in kindergarten.

Names/Animal Sounds: Mama, papa, stitch, doobi doobi, gao, paon, kero kero, wanwan, kaka, pipi, quak quak, bye bye, pyon pyon, lulio (Julius), daddy, nemo, dory, shrek, fiona, buhi buhi, toohoo, opa, kikeriki, jane, maisy

English: shoe, book, water, more, no, turtle, ball, duck(y), juice, done/down, movie, tv, brocolli, walking, apple, cup, pea, saus(age), key, plane, spoon, chicken, peanuts, yoghurt, teddy, fish, donkey, bottle, giraffe, balloon, mouse, oj (orange), money, pajama, bear, boobie, meatball, tummy, boots, panda

Japanese: hebi, hoshi, momo, chocho, tokei, hasami

German: nuni (noodle), auto, buch, schuh, jacke, schal, warm, karotte, hose, socke, bad, sonne, kuh, katze, mütze, bitte, danke, nase, ohr, auge, haar, zähne, käse, tür, rosine, suppe, to(ma)te, joghurt, fisch, affe, bär, lampe, maus, vogel, uhr, küche

Italian: latte, pasta, pizza, scarpe, capelino, pulmino, (cro)codilo, (ele)fante, uva, toto (Biscotto), pane, ciao, patate, denti, no, prego, chiave, mela, bimbi, grisini, guarda, cosi

I kept hearing about kids painting and drawing on walls … and I kept thinking what to do to prevent that … and while I am thinking I turn around and there he is, standing on a chair and beautifying the wall … gladly it was pencil only and windex took good care of that … what if he gets the marker pen open? Click to appreciate the full thing in detail.

(I used some filters on this smaller version to show better what he did)

I wonder if he was trying to give his mom a massage