Steve, Conny, Abby and Linnea visited last weekend (you’ll recall previous appearances here and here. Ruben had his first chance at courtship. Let’s review his strategy:
1. Approach from behind and swat on the head? Check.
2. Emit an ear-piercing, raptor-like sound to frighten his target into submission? Check.
3. Surprised by acquiescence, choose to reject attempted smooches? Check.
Sigh…it’s hard to convince the boy he needs to take advantage while he can. It’s only going to get harder.
This is a cousin of mine (distant, but in my culture, that matters not). It’s nice to see blood relations expand beyond shower singing and karaoke. The second song is more catchy, but the first one focuses on him (Parichay) more.
Next is another cousin, Nitin, who I have met (and saw briefly last month). Something he put together on his computer.
My childhood friend, Rajnesh, is just finishing up a Peace Corps assignment in Romania. One project he spearheaded while there was creating a yearbook for the local high school with whom he was working. He’s posted much of it online, and I have to say it’s really impressive. Check it out, as well as his other adventures: Buna from Romania
Stay tuned for Ruben’s romantic quests later this week…
Ruben had a great trip to the states, getting quality time with Patti, Tha Tha, Athai and company in LA, a Bates College reunion in Massachusetts, and lakeside revelry with Barrett and Johnny in Vermont. It was an action packed three weeks, and (jet lag aside) he has been sleeping this week like nobody’s business.
We held a traditional Hindu ceremony for Ruben, celebrating his first birthday, while in LA. You’ll see in the pics below he looked regal in his kurtha, and was the deserving center of attention.
Massachusetts was lots of fun, with six members of Bates College class of 96, four spouses, and six kids (five under the age of 17 months). Thanks to Kara and Tim for being insane enough to agree to host this, and then to maintain sanity as we proceeded to run amok for the weekend.
I had to return to work and miss out on Ruben’s week in Vermont. Again, you’ll see it was quality bonding time with cousins Bear and Johnny, along with Grampy, Oma and Aunt Heidi.
In that week, Ruben’s vocabulary “binaried” (went from 0 to 1), as he mastered “Burr” for bird. He still has Ba for Bus, Ball, Banana and many other non-ba items. But, this is his first foray outside of the confines of Ba. I suppose if you’re going to expand, the schwa is a good place to start.
We have a plethora of pictures from the trip. Enjoy!
Welcome back everyone. June was a blur, as we spent part of the month in the states, and also “went live” with our new worldwide database at work. As with any change of this magnitude, implementation has been somewhere between this and this. Enough said for now…
The states were great (Ruben’s twelfth country, dad said obnoxiously). I’ll have more on that later this week. For now, here is proof that Steve, Conny, Casey, Kath, Kirstin and myself have been productive with our time. Here’s proof also that the BX should not have decided to sell karaoke machines.
We had a Yokota reunion this past weekend. Casey, Kathleen and Andy (five months) passed through on their way to the states. Steve, Conny, Linnea (20 months) and cousin Abby were able to drive down for a day. And the three spawn got some time together.
We even did some karaoke. Mercifully (for all), no videos available.
Ruben got to spend a fun week with his cousins Barrett and Johnny. Now that he’s walking, the three of them regularly indulged in that singularly popular game played by all little boys…what Heidi aptly called “running”. It seems to consist of nothing more than motoring up and down the halls and through the rooms, alternately chasing and being chased in some haphazard fashion– if there are rules, they are undetectable to the adult eye.
The only requirements appear to be to keep moving at all times, and to scream at regular intervals. Ruben was a quick study. Regrettably, I don’t have good footage, but given the sounds are still echoing periodically in my head, it’s probably for the best.
I do have some other videos though. First, Ruben and Johnny in dueling toddlers:
As readers know, Ruben shows unparalleled eating prowess, but his sleeping skills leave something to be desired (namely, sleep). We went to great lengths to establish a routine for bedtime and naps, and though by no means perfect, it seemed to do the trick (after six sleepless months).
Of course, the problem with routines is when you look to break them. Last Saturday night we decided to take Ruben to a party and try putting him to sleep in his stroller. I remember falling asleep at dinner parties my parents attended, and my parents having to wake me up, or carry me or my sister out to the car. If it worked then, why not now?
At the appropriate time, we went through Ruben’s bedtime routine, complete with singing, pajamas, milk, and his favorite blanket. We stuck his stroller in a corner and said night night. No crying. Had this been the secret all along?
Half an hour passed, all was quiet, but when we peeked in, like something out of an Edgar Allan Poe story, were those big eyes staring back at us. Again, no crying mind you, just those tell-tale eyes.
An hour passed. Soundless but awake the boy remained.
1.5 hours. Would the boy ever give up? Quoth the Ruben, nevermore!
Finally, two hours later, mighty Ruben passed out. By that point we were defeated as well and called it a night. We took him home, transferred him to his crib, and he stayed asleep through the night. We thought we’d escaped…but we were wrong.
Ruben spent the next few days protesting bedtime with a fury unbridled, screaming until he was sweat-drenched and hoarse. He’s finally returning to normalcy today (I hope), but we are hesitant to deviate from our routine any time soon.
As Kirstin noted, we should have expected this, as Ruben even had difficulty with daylight savings. This doesn’t bode well for our stateside trip next month.
Anyway, here is Ruben with his cousins Barrett (4 yrs) and Johnny (21 months).
Ruben spent a wonderful week in Egypt. Keep in mind: travel with baby is tough…travel in Africa is tough…and doing both is arguably foolhardy. However, our gracious hosts Casey, Kathleen and baby Andy made our trip infinitely easier. In spite of some rookie travel moves on our part (stroller in a third world country? Germany has made us dumb), we had a blast.
Andy is adorable. He has striking eyes, an exceedingly calm temperament, and a gigantic head. He’s undeniably cute, and stayed in good humor even when Ruben showered his particular brand of affection: forehead-swatting and eye-poking….
The Kalina cats would have been less humored by such swats (though Ruben tried to dole them out just the same). Nevertheless we managed to keep the boy out of harm’s way, with both eyes intact.
The weather cooperated for the most part. A bit hot at times (after all, it is a desert), and we had a small sandstorm on the first day (but were well-protected with a nice meal and a view–sort of– of a pyramid). We even had a bit of rain (*). These minor quibbles aside, it was good to get away from the winter redux Germany’s been experiencing this month.
*Speaking of rain in Africa — I’ve long suspected songwriting is sometimes pure inspiration and sometimes taking a germane word or phrase and constructing lyrics around it. Though it’s nice to believe it’s mostly the former, in my (limited) songwriting experience, one does end up doing quite a bit of the latter (my personal favorites: “diplomatic immunity” in the Gonzalo song and “seabiscuit” from the Good Guy). Anyway, Toto’s 80’s classic “Africa” has probably the most egregious and ham-handed example of such lyric building, in their second verse:
The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do whats right
Sure as kilimanjaro rises like olympus above the serengeti
Boy that fourth line is a stretch, but all key words are included, meter and rhythm be damned. And it was stuck in my head all week. Perhaps now it’s stuck in yours.
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Egypt is not all pyramids either. Some of the mosques in Cairo were absolutely stunning. An ancillary benefit to the “no idolatry” tenet in Islam is that the mosques contain tremendously detailed mosaics and designs. Our pictures don’t do them justice– they were as impressive as the pyramids, in their own way. As CG aptly put it, folks come to Egypt for the Pharaonic, and stay for the Islamic.
And I’ll add that folks probably leave because of the agressive touts, contraction of “Mummy Tummy” or the deafening noise. We avoided the first two, but couldn’t escape the third. It felt funny to long for the comparative quietude of our otherwise din-filled Hauptstrasse.
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Anyway, here are pictures from the trip. Highly recommended for the intrepid traveller.
Back from Egypt (pics and videos later this week). Here you see Ruben is at the age where he enjoys emulating adult behaviors. I’m pleased…though chagrined that he might be aping me after I read something with which I disagree.
Apologies for the haircut– as you’ll see in the Egypt pics, the moptop was too much. Between the uneven trim and the sizable gap between his two front teeth, cosmopolitan hipster is turning into country bumpkin.
