4 Years and 2 Months Old

Howdy y'all,
Hallo,
Moin Moin,
y'allright me ducks!








To all my Longhorn friends in Texas - I hooked 'em with my halloween face! To everyone else on this planet - who said that spiderman has to have a red face? Many thanks to Miss Cat, my teacher, for painting my face exactly how I wanted it - she had a face painting tent at the 'Boo Fest' that we went to. There was a train ride, pony rides and scary stuff. I also met an artist that made the pictures of one of my favourite books - Little Mike and Maddie's First Motorcycle Ride, my Dad bought that for me when he rode out on a road trip to Sturgess 2 years ago. Jay also did the pictures for the new book called Little Mike and Maddie's Christmas Book and he even signed it for me. I also bought one for my best friend Remi for christmas - but dont' tell him!

I absolutely love halloween - I get to stay up late, scare people and get enough candy, sweets and suessigkeiten to last a lifetime. I was the Incredible Hulk this year and growled 'Trick or Treat' until I couldn't talk any more (much to Mum's delight!). I even said a really scary 'Thank You' once I got the treats. I got a lot of chocolate this year. I don't like chocolate but it came in handy keeping Mum sweet. She gets all soppy when she sees me sharing - but in truth I was just getting the chocolate out of my halloween bag to make room for real candy. Miss Cat had a halloween party which would have been great if the grown-ups hadn't been invited too. Dad had that rat coming out of his head again and Mum had a dress made out of bandages and she kept telling everyone that she was "Carl's Mummy". She said that was a really funny joke but I didn't see many people laughing!

So what else was going on? Remi and I met Thomas the Tank Engine in person! I've seen the movies and read the books but who'd have thought that he'd manage to get off the island and make it all the way to Texas! Sir Topham Hat didn't look too happy about it though..

As I mentioned in my last blog, my Uncle Commi, Aunty Kathrin and Cousin Basti came to visit which was really great. It's so refreshing to having new people to talk to who actually listen to me and it also gave me a chance to expand my German Wortschatz (this means the number of words I know). We had a great week of swimming and playing pool and I think they enjoyed themselves. Kathrin is just like Omi though - she spent most of her vacation in the kitchen! Mum didn't try all that hard to get her out of there though and I certainly didn't complain. She can really cook!

The last of our Carl and Me, toys arrived last week, the neighbours are getting used to seeing 18 wheelers lined up outside! The Janoschik animal ride-on and rocking toys finally arrived. I'm too big for them now but I can see how they'd be a hit with little kids. Mum said they are more like works of art than toys, but I just think they're cute! Dad did a great job of finding new toys for the holidays, but he's really clever anyway - he can ride the golf cart and drink beer at the same time!

Christmas is almost here and you know my parents are going to go crazy again. Since we moved, we have more room for decorations so it's probably going to be even more embarrassing than it was last year. It's ok though, my friends don't know where I live - yet....

Here's the latest slideshow or click on this link to see the pictures.

See you all soon!
Hugs and Kisses
Carl

4 Years and 1 Month Old

Howdy y'all, Hallo, Moin Moin, y'allright me ducks!








What a month! I've been rushed off my feet with visitors from Germany and the new European toys arriving! Mum was in California working, came home with the flu and then gave it to me - nice of her, uh?
Because I'm running behind on my blogs (this one was due on the 10th of October) I've decided to make this blog all about our new house and then catch up with everything else on the next one on November 10th.

As you know, Dad takes care of me and runs our toy store, Carl & Me. Well I'm really easy to take care of and I do most of the work on the toy store so he was looking for something to do with all that spare time on his hands. He found it - mowing 5 acres of lawn! I know my parents were talking about looking for a little bit of land but I thought they were talking about a vegetable garden, not Central Park! It seems like a waste of time to me because as soon as he's done mowing, the bit he did first needs mowing again. Ah well, whatever makes him happy.

The house is pretty cool though. There is a detached game room that I let my Dad share with me. It has a bar, a TV and pool table and it comes in handy when I need some time out (or get put in time out). There is a pool with a bath house and a fish pond all surrounded by pecan trees and bananas - anybody know of any recipes? A nice patio with a bar and fireplace for when I want to write my blog outside and our Chevy has it's own garage somewhere out back. The coolest thing though has to be the party barn. It is a covered area with ceiling fans, music and a seating and I'm pretty sure we'll be having birthday parties and Chevy Club meet ups there pretty soon.
The house itself is OK I guess - I just wanted a game room and somewhere to sleep, so I'm fine.

Take a look at the the slideshow or click on this link to see the pictures.

I'll be back in a couple of days to let you all know what I've been up to and how my halloween went.

Hugs and Kisses
Carl

4 Years Old

Howdy y'all, Hallo, Moin Moin, y'allright me ducks!


It's official, I'm no longer a baby! Mum said there may come a time when I'm older when I will need help eating solid foods again, may have to wear a diaper and need longs naps just to get me through til 7pm so I'm determined to make the most of the couple of years I've got left until that happens.

Did anyone miss my blog this month? I know it's really overdue but my life has been crazy since my last posting. First off, we moved house. Looking back, I totally misunderstood the concept. I just assumed that a truck would come by, pick up the house and 'move' it to a new spot. As it turns out, I had to pack up everthing I owned and move it all to a totally different house. It wasn't too much of an effort on my part but it took my parents forever to get their act together. They were packing a week before and 2 weeks after the move and the funny thing is - the new place looks just like the old place! Grown ups are strange sometimes. I'll post some pictures of the new place next month once all the boxes are unpacked.

My 4th birthday was great and I got everything on my wish list. In fact, I got more than I'd hoped for because we had a party the weekend after at our new house and everyone brought presents. It was really supposed to be a combined birthday party/house warming party and we also celebrated 3 years of living in America but I wasn't about to give the presents back - that would just be impolite. All in all there were 30 kids and about 40 grown-ups even though the party was rained out. It never rains in Texas but on that weekend it rained 48 hours solid, it never let up for a second. I know, I know, Texas needs the rain, it's good for the grass, blah, blah, blah but all I know is that the bouncy castles got cancelled and we were all stuck in doors. The grown ups didn't seem to mind the rain too much which could have had something to do with the fabulous smoked brisket and sausage that Jon and CJ made and possibly the margarita machine that Mum rented for the weekend.

A funny thing happened on the way to the party. Me and Mum handed out invites to all our new neighbors and found out that one of them also comes from England. She has a daughter that lives 3 miles from us and is a trained teacher with her own pre-k school. Her name is Miss Cat and sounds just like Mum when she talks. Anyway, she is also a really good face painter and when she saw the rain she came to my house and painted all my friends faces. She's a cool Cat and I'm pleased to say that she is also my new teacher! There are only 3 other kids in her school, all boys - one of the other boys has an English mum and another has a German mum but I'll tell you all about them once I've gotten to know them better.

It's October already so I'm testing out some new toys in time for christmas. There's a gentleman in Georgia that makes his own wooden toys. He sent me some to try out and we may just add a page to Carl & Me just for handmade toys. He's making a rocking horse right now so we'll see how that turns out. I've been trying out Cugolino from Switzerland too. There is a grown up version called Cuboro which lots of people love over here. They are basically wooden blocks with half-holes in them and the challenge is to build a castle and have all the holes lined up so that marbles can run through. It's too much like hard work for me but it keeps the parents quiet for hours.

Testing toys is only my day job of course until my music career takes off. Last weekend I co-starred at Dales Essenhaus in Walburg. The main attraction were great and they even signed a t-shirt for me. One day soon, I'll be signing shirts for them.

That's it for now, click on the slide show presentation or right here to see the pictures. Didn't have much time for videos but there is one of my 'going to school' chants and another one of me trying out a secret language I made up for a whole new direction in country music.

Next month my Aunty Kathrin, Uncle Commi and Cousin Basti are flying in from Germany and then we're heading off to the Texas sea-side for a few days.

See you when I get back!
Hugs and Kisses
Carl