Suster Blog

Andy Turns 3

2008-12-28T11:03:00.000-08:00

As we watch Andy grow we observe the amount of time that we've been back in the States. He turned 3 today so that's just over 3 for us. Wow. Funny backstory on video below. I went to Sam's Club to order Andy his birthday cake. I was thumbing through a binder of images and torn between Dora and Scooby. I knew he really liked Dora, but could I really get a boy a Dora cake? There was a rather gruff woman behind the counter observing me who said, "no way, you can't buy a boy a Dora cake." I kept thinking it over and she kept pestering me and eventually I acquiesced.

So later than day I asked Andy, "Do you like Batman?" (yes), "Do you like Superman?" (yes), "Do you like Dora?" (yes), "Do you like Scooby?" (no). "No? Don't you like Scooby Doo and Shaggy?" (softly ... yes). Great. So later that day we were walking in downtown Annapolis and I asked Andy again for reassurance, "Do you like Scooby?" (no, I like Dora). Doh! I frantically called Sam's club to see if they could change the order - the results below in the video.

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Hangin' with the Boyz

2007-02-26T13:53:00.000-08:00

Since Tania always tells me I am never in any of the pictures I figured I better post up this shot taken from our day out at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I guess you can tell from the photo how "height challenged" I am around the Kandra family. Chris, my nephew on the left, is just 12. Just got Andy measure at the doctor and he is 90th percentile in height and 40th in weight. He was also 90th percentile in head size. Okay, so at least he got his brains from me, right??? ;-) I still call him KJ (kay junior) since his has in Grandma's eyes but we have also started to see some Katzen resemblance so maybe I'll just call him the maternal grandchild. Or the "anything but Daddy" grandchild.

You'll also note from this photo that Jacob is in his Batman shirt (yes, it is February ... but, hey, this is California, man!) - what you can't see is that under Daddy's blue sweater he is wearing his Superman T-Shirt. Jacob thought it would be a good idea if we were superheros together for the day. We showed up later that afternoon at Maya's 4th birthday party undercover. We both wore sweaters as a disguise over our superhero selves and then lifted up our sweaters to show the crowd that underneath we were really Superman and Batman. Kids. Both of us.

Day out at the Aquarium

2007-02-26T13:16:00.000-08:00

Had a great time with Joe, Anne, Chris and Katie over the last week. It was great to spend quality time together without the pressure of Christmas / Channukah and the mad rush to buy gifts, wrap presents and spend time with an entire extended family of dozens. Lots of highlights to remember and Jacob was really sad to see his cousins go. Got Chris & Katie out on the racetrack yesterday (Malibu Grand Prix) - I wonder if Chris mentioned to his parents that he skidded out and spun the car on to the grass in the center of the track? ;-)

We got them so hooked on In-n-Out Burgers that they had to make a final pit stop there on the way to the airport. Was Manresa restaurant not gourmet enough for you folks? Hope the JetBlue flight home wasn't as disastrous as the attempted JetBlue flight out here. And remember - we're always a great pit-stop on the way to Hawaii!

There are some videos below. If they don't yet show a picture on them aren't yet processed by YouTube so just come back. If you see a picture then they're done and just click on the center. Enjoy.

Andy's Walks !!!!!!!!!

2007-02-12T22:41:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I know that I'm way behind on blogging. Lots going on in both the work and personal life. And ... I guess Video really did kill the Radio star. So much easier to just post videos! I will get back to writing soon. Many pictures to show from our December trip to Annapolis, Jenny's birthday, trip up to SF to see Uncle Map (when he sends me the damn pictures). But for now ... enjoy seeing our new walker in action (click on first video). Then a funny video of Andy doing the funny "crab walk", which practically rivals his old "superman" flying tricks and then he tries to stand straight from sitting with no leverage.

Andy's First Birthday

2006-12-28T08:15:00.000-08:00

Jacob was the international baby visiting France, Spain, Italy, UK and the US before even his birthday. But Andy is mister bi-coastal celebrating his first birthday on both coasts! We started this morning in Annapolis with a birthday celebration with the Kandra family. We're then boarding a plane to arrive in California in time for the paparazzi to catch his evening celebration. Enjoy. Don't forget that if you click in the middle of the two pictures below you will see the videos.

Kennedys / Brothers / Susters

2006-12-24T07:46:00.000-08:00

Tony Brothers was in town Thanksgiving weekend and we had the chance to get all three families together. We were all roommates at college together in San Diego so it's amazing to now all be together with our families.

In typical "all American" style both Tony and Stefan had one boy and one girl. Only I, "Suster", would go the difficult route and have 2 boys. And with Jacob telling me recently "I don't want another brother or sister" and with his mom listening approvingly maybe it will be so.

At the play table with Playdoh is (from left to right) Grayson, Jacob, Siena and Maya). Below on the left are the remaining members of the Kennedy (Crady) clan, Ann and Derick.

The Brothers' children, Grayson and Siena were so cute and so well behaved. They taught Jacob to play Candyland and played ball in the back yard for hours with him. It was the first time that our kids had ever been together since Tony moved to Florida a few years ago with the military. We miss them. The last time I saw Siena she must have been 1 year old.

It was a shame that they couldn't spend the night with us so it was a short trip but maybe that leaves me an excuse to plan a proper reunion where we can invite our other All American roommates: John Wood (one boy, one girl) and Paul Guichard (one boy and, yes, one girl). I guess I really am the odd duck. But this is the first time I've ever thought about it. Isn't it strange that we literally all had exactly 2 kids?

Solo picture is Tony's lovely wife, Becky. Don't you miss California, Becky? Oh come on, we know you do. They have great bases here in NorCal! Goin' back to Cali, Cali, Cali, Goin' back to Cali ....

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Turkey Day on Christmas Eve

2006-12-24T07:20:00.000-08:00

I had to show how wonderful of a Mommy Tania is. We had a relaxed Thanksgiving at home with Uncle Map and Aunt Adrienne.

Here's proof that she cooked a turkey for us. We were too tired from our recent travels to San Diego (2x for me), LA (Jill's wedding) and SF (Ron's 40th birthday party).

Tania & I announced, "we're not traveling anywhere this year!" On Saturday we went (just the two of us) to a spa in Pebble Beach and on Sunday to the Ritz Carlton at Half Moon Bay. Sunday brunch was $75! per person but worth every penny. Sushi, caviar, eggs bene, made-to-order omelets, every kind of meat, Gordon Ramsey-like small plates of everything imaginable an a dessert bar with AT LEAST 30 different choices (we can recommend any of the top 7 we tried ;-)

Here's hoping that next year Jacob will actually eat some turkey, stuffing, potatoes or even pie! He settled for pretzels and milky. Very festive, Jacob!

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Halloween 2006

2006-12-24T06:57:00.000-08:00

December 24th. No chance for any work situations to distract me today! Jacob's watching the Backyardigans, Andy's sitting in his high chair eating graham crackers. So I thought I would finally clear off my big camera from the past 2 months. 177 shots! At 2-3 MB / picture that is a lot of work to get them on the computer, look through them, delete the bad shots and upload them to the Internet! And ... to put some on the blog. Here are the first shots.

This was my first Halloween in the US in 12 years! I think I had as much fun as Jacob did. It was his first proper Halloween. He was very timid at first and wanted Daddy to come up to each house with him. After getting candy bars at the first 5 houses Jacob rapidly became a champion trick-or-treater! "No Daddy, I want to do it by myself!" Aunt Eileen and Sophia came over as did Uncle Map and Aunt Adrienne so we had a great family affair. Daddy went dressed as an Eagle's fan.

Chanukah 2006

2006-12-23T10:42:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I know it's been a month since my last posting. What have I been up to? Well mostly work. I have been busy raising $4 million for my new company, Koral, to get it off the ground and have been keeping a work blog, which seems to suck up a lot of my time as well. I have a whole backlog of pictures to still load here - I haven't stopped snapping pictures. Here's one of Jacob showing how excited a 3.5 year old is opening presents!

Just haven't found the time to post. And ... lucky me. My lovely wife bought me digital photography classes for Chanukah! Cool, hey? She's the greatest. Anyway, you can celebrate our last night with us by clicking on the video below. More posts soon - I promise!

Video Killed the Radio Star

2006-11-12T07:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, if you didn't get the title then you're too old ... or too young! Very my generation with the rise of MTV. So it goes with blogs. I've had a rough month work wise so the blog text has shrunk (more coming soon). But I did manage to get some great pictures this month and a few videos. Here's a couple of videos sure to delight. Andy's first haircut and Jacob the communicator. No longer the little 2 year old running around saying JennyBill, Aqua Joe or Ennnnnnn.

Also, plan to get some pictures up from cousin Jill's wedding, but here is a video for now from the end of the ceremony.

3.5 .... Spidey !

2006-10-29T21:04:00.000-08:00

The Jakester turned 3-and-a-half today. We had a great weekend as a family, which we haven't been able to do in a few months. We went to a carnival at school with magicians, baking contests and face painting. Tania took the kids to the pumpkin patch and carved a Jack-o-Lantern. Jacob got to go to a birthday party and play on the bouncy castle. But mostly we all just hung out. Jacob's corker for the evening. I took him grocery shopping and he was walking down the aisles saying "eenie, meenie, miney, mo." I said, "Jacob, where did you learn that?" (I'm always wondering how these great American childhood traditions get passed down). He replied "Papa taught me." Did you??? Didn't seem plausible to me.

Anyway, the fourth Halloween of his life it coming up this week. For the first year ever it wasn't a fight to get him dressed. In fact, he wanted to wear his costume early! We're excited - our first "proper" Halloween with the kids. Aunt Eileen is coming over. Should be fun. Here's a blast from the past, in order. 2.5 years (David Beckham - the star of England's soccer team), 1.5 years (lion outfit that he had to be wrestled to the floor to get on) and 6 months (his only chubby phase, where his head actually looked like a pumpkin!). Tempus Fugit ...

The Big 4-0 !

2006-10-29T20:25:00.000-08:00

Ron's Big Weekend

The whole extended Suster family descended upon San Francisco recently to help "Uncle Ron" celebrate the big Four-Oh. We wanted it to be a surprise but in typical Ron fashion he started calling everybody a few weeks before looking for inconsistencies in our stories and trying to find somebody who would crack. I'm sure somebody must have but Ron didn't let in that he probably knew what was going on before the weekend.

We started by booking Ron at a hotel for 2 nights in the City. The idea was that Ron would arrive early Friday evening so that he could enjoy a leisurely night out with Wendy and a relaxed breakfast in bed. But ... stupid me. I should have known Ron would leave 4 hours later than the last moment possible. I think he got in around midnight so the hotel only had one room left. No TV. Oh well, my bad for not making up some fake reason that he had to be there by noon on Friday.

The whole family met for lunch on Saturday at the famous vegetarian institution in San Francisco called Greens. Ron & Wendy are vege's so thus must be nirvana. And for Ron's carnivorous siblings it actually was a nice restaurant so we didn't mind no meat. After lunch we dropped off Dad and Mari at the hotel for a break and the rest of us took the boat across the bay\ to Sausalito for a little fresh air and a stroll. It was a perfect opportunity for everybody to just take in the nature surrounding us and chit chat. Nice to have no real distractions but just a great chance to catch up.

We arrived in Sausalito and met up with cousin Dan, the Renaissance Man and his new girlfriend who was really nice and seemed a good match for one of our favorite cousins. You'll see that Dan dressed up for the occasion.

We got back to the City as the sun had just gone down. Met up at one of the nicer Indian restaurants in San Francisco and ate until we had to undue our top buttons. Indian is always a good bet for vege's. I always remember the interesting twist in India where most restaurants assume you are a vege and have a section on the menu for "non veg" meals. Next day we all headed down to Palo Alto (thank you to everybody for making the journey) for bagels and a day with the kiddies. It was a great weekend all around and great to have yet another excuse to bring the family together.

A new dimension

2006-10-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, so we're taking the blog to a whole new level! Maybe now I can just post video in stead of having to type ;-)

Click on the right arrow on photo below and it will play the video. Enjoy!

Tania Rocks!

2006-10-05T01:18:00.000-07:00

New pictures of kids (black & white) courtesy of Tania, aka the Admin Queen! We have found a new nanny (Tania says she is happy the she finally has a wife!). Her name is Normita and she's from the Philippines (hey, spelled right first time!). She is very pleasant as a person, great to the kids and cooks (big, big bonus) and helps with cleaning. So Tania is happy and thus I am happy, too.

Life seems to be settling in to a nice routine for us. As you can see from the shot of my gorgeous wife below she has been putting in the serious hours at the gym lately. The shot below is of Jacob trying to be Spiderman.

Lots of events coming up. This weekend we will see two friends from Europe: Danny Boy Zaidifard and his wife Annie as well as Holger. Next weekend we celebrate Ron's (my brother) 40th birthday. Then the following week back to LA for cousin Jill's wedding!

Stories of the week:
1. Jacob told one of the nannies, "don't make a mess or mommy will get mad at daddy." Telling, hey? ;-)

2. Jacob was in bed with me. I was laughing and giggling with him (usual routine) when he pointed his finger at me and said, "hey, calm down." Whoa! From Tania's mouth to Jacob's ears!

3. Went to Galia's house (okay, Gerardo and Nourit's house) for Yom Kippur. There must have been 8 kids running around and screaming. Looked so fun to Jacob. Reminded me of what it was like to be a kid and go to family events. Was heart warming. (okay, but most of my attention went into the Kugel, smoked salmon pizza, brownies, orzo, pecan, fig & goats cheese salad, cous cous, more smoked salmon, more Kugel, brownies, dates, cookies ... could you tell I was hungry? How do people manage this for a month during Ramadan?

4. New company launched. Check out http://blog.koral.com if you want to see details.

Stories of the Week

2006-09-19T12:13:00.000-07:00

Correlation:
Need to start teaching Jacob the principles of correlation. Okay, he's a bit young. He came into the bathroom the other day when I was in there. He said, "Daddy, before you wash your hands you have to take a pee." I could see where he got the logic, but ... anyway, was good for a laugh.

Igloos:
The other day Jacob built an igloo out of Playdoh. When Jacob got up Mommy accidentally smashed it back into shape. Jacob was disappointed so Mommy got sent to the naughty corner. Apparently Jacob was more traumatized about this than we thought. He woke up at 5:30 this morning yelling, "Mommy, mommy." When Tania arrived in his room he said, "You broke my igloo." Kids.

YPO Retreat

2006-09-10T14:30:00.000-07:00

Arrived in England on Friday and immediately headed 2 hours south by car to a quaint, English country hotel for a weekend with my YPO (young presidents organization) retreat. It is an annual event where 6-8 of us get together to share leadership experiences. We meet once every 6 weeks or so in London and then 1-2x / year we go somewhere else. Last year was Tuscany, this year we were just north of Brighton, in the south of England. Next year we are headed to Brazil! Should be fun.

After a day-and-a-half of meetings we decided to take it easy for the morning and went out skeet shooting. I earned by urban badge by coming in last place in the competition but did manage to blow some clay out of the air. Good think I'm not needed in Iraq!

Our instructor, the bearded guy at the bottom, is the former national shooting champion for New Zealand for 10 years and represented them in the Olympics a few times. Obviously didn't earn his keep with the likes of me! That's alright - I don't like guns much anyway.

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Who couldn't love this face???

2006-09-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

In London for a week. Tomorrow will be the 5 year anniversary of Sept 11th. So sad and so strange still. I was in London when it happened and, in fact, have never been in the US on Sept 11th. As fate would have it I'm here again for this infamous day.

Typing away at my computer waiting for a colleague of mine to arrive for dinner so I had a few moments to clear out Tania's camera. Found these great shots of Andy. Isn't he charming?

Alex & Heather - Pasadena

2006-09-07T11:50:00.000-07:00

After visiting Rachel & Jimmy in LA and Bubbie in San Diego (see posts below) we headed off to Pasadena for a night to see our great friends Alex & Heather before returning home. Can it really already have been a year-and-a-half since we last saw them?

Night one we went to a Thai restaurant in Pasadena with great food and shite (sorry A&H ... I know you love it) service. But we were there for the company. It was a Sunday night and the pretty much called for last call immediately as we were seated at 9 PM. "yes, we'll have appetizers, entrees, 4 rounds of beers and what do you serve for dessert?" Well ... we got the hint when they started stacking chairs. So we headed down to the Cheesecake Factory to spilt "just" 2 desserts. I think we forgot about the portions that they serve. Sinful & delightful.

Alex & Heather are about the embark on a 6-month! around-the-world trip going to Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, India, Bali and Australia. Did I listen well, Heather? If you know them and want to follow their progress go to http://www.alexandheather.blogspot.com. Anyway, they are off in about a month so we were delighted to see them. Aren't they photogenic? If only you had seen this guy after some of our fraternity parties in college - not quite as GQ looking!

Actually, this shot was taken in the morning. We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Arcadia because we wanted to scope them out for cousin Jill's wedding October 21st (can't wait!). We chose this chain because we wanted a suite so the kids could stay in a different room without a 2x price on hotel rooms. We were pleasantly surprised at what a great hotel it was and how much value we got for only $149! Not the Ritz Carlton, but a really comfortable, clean and pleasant hotel. We'll be back.

LEGOLAND !!!!!!!!!

2006-09-07T11:49:00.000-07:00

MAN did we have a great time at Legoland!!! (meant to be said in a Jon Stewart opening his show style) I can't think of a better place to take a (38?) 3-year-old kid. We went to Legoland in the scorching Sunday heat the day after we visited the Wild Animal Park. When we arrived we found the WORLD'S BEST marketing ploy. So good that I had to photo it.

If you had to think of one thing that all men fight over, covet and refuse to let go of? Okay, besides women. As I can attest from a Seinfeld episode it is the PERFECT parking space. So good that you never want to drive your car anywhere. So we arrived at Legoland and see that they have cut a deal with Volvo (maybe Lego is Swedish?) where the best, closest, most covented, practically-as-good-as-handicapped spots are reserved for Volvo owners!!! Here's my proof. I started the day in such a good mood.

But that was only the beginning. The entire family and Bubbie had such a good time together. We basically took turns going on fun rides with Jacob who doesn't seem to have any fear of anything any longer.

We started by flying a helicopter together, which actually went pretty high and could spin around 360 degrees. Daddy loved it as much as Jacob.

Next Mommy took Jacob on a train that goes around a track two times. Not exactly The Big Dipper but got some excitement for Jake as you can see from him hands up on the photo. Doesn't Mommy look great? She's been working hard at the gym lately - we're so proud. She's been taking increased doses of Methotrexate for her RA and at last the swelling seems to be coming down a bit. Go Mommy!

We then got to drive a boat around and Jacob enjoyed steering - for about 20 seconds before he got bored and wanted to look around at all of the things to see along the way. "You drive, Daddy."

And what trip to Legoland would be complete without a chance to play with giant sculpted lego things: animals, cities, pirates, treasure and so much more. We'll definitely be back.

We had a great time, Bubbie! Good job on moving to Carlsbad. Sea World next time?

Bubbie - San Diego

2006-09-07T11:06:00.000-07:00

Made it down to San Diego on Friday for a long weekend away. You can see how delighted Bubbie and grandkids were alike. Day 1 was just chilling out and we got to see Bubbie & Stephen's new house. GREATLY exceeded our expectation. Carlsbad has come a long way since the sleepy town I remember in college.

Tania & I managed to sneak away for a cheeky lunch leaving the kids with Bubbie just a few hours after arriving. Was great to get some private time. Day 2 we raced off to the Wild Animal Park and saw lots of African animals. Although Jacob's favorit thing was the merry-go-round! He finally rode by himself.

More from San Diego trip to come. Out of battery on my laptop and way past bedtime! In London now.

Rachel & Jimmy

2006-09-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

Had a marvelous visit with our dear friends Rachel & Jimmy who moved recently to Ranchos Palos Verdes (basically LA) in California. I went to university with Rachel and we lived in the same dorms along with a host of other friends that we saw on the same trip: John Wood, Alex Craigie and Stefan Kennedy (when we got back).

Rachel & Jimmy moved out to Italy (near Venice) for 6 or 7 years at the same time we were in London so we went and visited them, they visited us and we visited each other on neutral ground (Paris). They had a gorgeous daughter, Sofia, who was born 2 months after Jacob and they have known each other since early days.

Sofia is the sweetest girl and Jacob really loves to play with her. I'm not just being nice so that Rachel will read my blog - Tania can vouch for me. We were so happy that they moved back to the US (only a few months after us! Following us?). It was especially a treat since they live in LA and it was on the way to our roadtrip to see Bubbie in San Diego.

Unfortunately none of the pictures of Jimmy turned out and Tania & I had a moratorium on pictures of us being allowed in public after our 6 hours' drive. But you can see here how much fun the kiddies had. The picture of Jake & Sofia is when the were dancing to the beats of Jimmy's sister (a professional singer).

We also got to meet Baby Evan (not quite a baby anymore) for the first time. He's a whopping 13 months already - man time flies. Is that a theme of mine? Anyway, Evan was about right to play with Andy (almost) and Sofia loved being the big sis / mommy. Here they come to say "good bye" as we pack it into the Volvo. Sure hope they'll come and stay with us in Palo Alto soon.

Another Week of Firsts

2006-08-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

Found this shot of Jacob from our last week in

London. Wow! He has changed so much in the past 9 months. He is pictured here in a cafe on Kensington Park Road (near Portobello Road) in Notting Hill getting a muffin before school. Seated at his left was the first love of his life, Edie Roth. So, two coincidences here: 1) she was born on the exact same day, year and city (April 29th 2003 in London) and her dad, Chris, like me is an Eagles fan. Anyway, we miss Edie.

First Number 1 - Schoolyard Bully. So a couple of firsts to report from the past week. Tania kept Jacob home from school because she was worried that he might have chicken pox since Andy had 8-10 bumps on his body and Jacob got one. He never developed any more. ??? So she took him to the park to be sure that he was still active (proving that there is no guilt in spreading chick pox as long as the people don't know you ;-) and he was playing in the water fountains. A bigger boy came up to him and shoved him on the ground making Jacob cry. Tania saw this happen and wanted to teach Jacob a lesson so she said, "You can cry if you want to but it's much better to shout back at the boy and tell him that pushing is mean and you don't like it." Jacob naturally asked, "Should I shove him back?" to which she replied "no." (side note: depends how big his Daddy is ;-) So Jacob told me about it when I put him to bed and I suddenly realized that this sweet boy of mine is going to have to grow up and learn all of life's lessons the hard way - one at a time. We'll just make sure he takes Karate!

First Number 2: We were in the swimming pool this morning and Jacob announced to me, "Daddy, I've got a good joke for you." Really? 3 years old and he's telling jokes? Even just the way he phrased it to me was so strange - like a teenager. Anyway, he soon proved that either he got his grandfather Zeide's strange Columbian sense of humor or he can't remember punch lines like his Daddy. Joke: "What do you get when you cross 4 lines?" "What, Jacob, I don't know?" "A cock-a-doodle-doo." Get it? Me, too. By bed time the joke had morphed into a cock-a-doodle-poo-poo - but I won't go there

Andy's still growing like a weed. He now wants to stand all the time and his top teeth are now fully visible. He is eating small types of food (Cheerios, Stage 3 Gerber with lumps, small unidentifiable food objects from the floor - presumably dropped by Jacob a week ago, carpet fuzzballs and basically anything that he can fit into his mouth. We now have to watch him when we put him in the baby playpen because he's using his new teeth like a rat and trying to gnaw through the mesh on the side of playpen.

Tania & I had a normal adult week and are getting back in the swing of things. Last weekend we had dinner out on Saturday night with the Kennedy's (first time alone out with them since we moved to Palo Alto even though he was my college roommate and lives 1 block away! - that's how hectic our lives have been). Aunt Eileen and the girls babysat so that we could have a few G&T's and a bottle of wine - we got home at midnight! Sunday moring wasn't feeling 100% after 2 straight nights of drinking (Friday night was a work event). We had our new friends, Gerardo and Nurit over for a later afternoon casual dinner. They're from Mexico City and MAN does he know how to make a Margarita. Just what I needed to cure my headache! Had a great afternoon / evening until the kids went into meltdown mode.

This past Friday Tania & I had a romantic dinner in San Francisco and a FAB restaurant called the Fifth Floor, which was modern French food in a chic, upscale urban environment. This really rivaled some of the best restaurants in London. We then went and saw A Chorus Line, which is playing in San Fran before going to Broadway. "Hello 12, hello 13, hello love."

Last night we went out for a couple dinner with Michael (Tania's friend from B-School) and his wife Ellen to Zibbibbo, a modern Mediterranean restaurant in Palo Alto while Uncle Matt stayed home with the kids. It was also our first night out alone with them as a couple even though they live a 15 minute drive from us. Hopefully this is a good omen and a sign of things to come.

Later this week we'll make the drive down to San Diego to go and see Bubbie and Steven. We're excited to see their new house and also to visit Lego Land and Wild Animal Park. Should get some good photos for the next posting.

Getting Vertical

2006-08-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

August 17th is a day for the record books. It was the date that Tania & I each individually came into Andy's bedroom and found him standing up in his crib - a full 2 months earlier than his big brother! And 2 days later, as you can see, he has already become a pro. Can re-baby-proofing the house be far behind?

The last few weeks have been pretty challenging ones for ole' Blue Eyes and even more challenging for Mommy. We think Andy might have had a bout of infant chicken pox - he had about 10 bumps on his body and a temperature for 3 days. As a result he was up several nights in the middle of the need feeling pretty grumpy. What else is going on in Andy land? We confirm that his genetic DNA is closely related to his brother and Daddy (and, I guess, all of the male species) because he is obsessed with remote controls, telephones, the computer and his favorite meal has become wires. In fact, he is below my chair as I type trying to get the computer cables between his shiny new set of teeth. In addition to the 2 charming baby bottom teeth he now has an matching pair emerging from the top. So he also now eats Cheerios - he skipped right by those wimpy Rice Krispies.

And Jacob is doing well, too. He has grown out of his temper tantrum phase (momentarily, I'm sure) and has decided to stay in his classroom every morning in stead of driving Mommy crazy. Maybe Pavlov had a point? Chocolate ice cream good, naughty corner bad. He sure does love his chocolate, our boy. No mistaking from that chocolatey smile in the picture.

And he is maturing in so many other ways. (Note: all non parents skip to the next paragraph as you won't appreciate this one ;-) I remember Tania once told me that one of her mom's favorite child milestones was when the kids could blow their own noses. That must be such an wintery, East Coast pleasure. My favorite milestone to date has just been crossed. When Jacob "goes poo" he now wipes his own bum afterward AND washes his hands. YES! Nose blowing? He can save that for first grade as far as I'm concerned.

Uncle Matt is still with us. It has been enjoyable spending so much time with my little bro - even if it is just late night after a long day at work watching Jon Stewart together. I think he secretly watches them before I get home and then re-watches them with me later on. Just a guess. He has been staying in NorCal while Adrienne is back in San Diego trying to finalize a buyer for their house. Matt has a job in South San Francisco and they are planning to relocate permanently up here (if anything is permanent these days). It will be great to have them nearby and, as I witnessed with Chris & Katie, it is great for older cousins to play with younger ones - a fruitful two-way relationship. I haven't managed to snap any good photos of Matt with the kiddies - I guess I'm too tired every evening. Note to self: must do better.

Bye!

Random Thoughts from Jacob ...

2006-08-08T21:26:00.000-07:00

I was lying in bed with Jacob this evening trying to put him to bed and the neurons of his developing brain started to fire randomly. Where did he suddenly pull up the memory to say, out of the blue ... "Remember, Kay Mama and I laughed so hard when the birdie flew into the window. He he he." Before you start worrying that he made up a story about a near bird fatality he didn't. It really happend and the bird flew away fine. But HOW did that random thought from 2 months ago appear unprompted?

Other quickies:
1. I was reading him a REALLY f'ing boring book about Dora the Explorer and Christmas (which one of you tortured us with this present? can't be my family ;-) Anyway, I really hate this book (and all Dora books for that matter - so, no, I'm not anti Christmas) and it is loooooooooong (20 pages or so). So I decided to skip a page and see if he would notice. He didn't. Except that when I had finished the book he then told me I missed the page where Dora gives presents to the fishes and whales and he made me turn back to the page and read it.

2. I was reading my second least favorite book, Dora and the Animals. We got to the page where he has to do the sound of the chickens. He told me to do it and I HONESTLY couldn't remember the sound that a chicken made. I tried to fake it by doing a duck like sound, which he didn't buy at all. We laughed really hard. He then corrected me. In case you're wondering, it's "balk, balk, balk". Sorry, Moni, I only eat the things.

3. Another random memory from our last trip back East. He said, "Do you remember my cousin, Devon?" "Yes, of course." "We saw a deer at his house." I want to understand better how the brain and memory works - where does he pull these corkers from?

4. In bed this evening he asked me, "Why did you come here?" to which I obviously replied, "Where? What do you mean?" "California." To which I ask, was this really a profound question or did he just stumble on to this question randomly. I'm betting on the former. Three year olds are much smarter than I thought.

5. Finally, he got in trouble with Mommy this week. She put him in his room for punishment. He got out a black crayon and colored ALL over the walls. I called my mom that evening and told her Jacob finally paid me back for all my childhood mischief. Apple. Tree.

Enough Said

2006-08-06T06:54:00.000-07:00

I have been asked many times why we chose to move back to California, but as they say, "a picture is worth 1,000 words".

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We recently celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary and I surprised Tania with a trip to San Francisco for the weekend. We live about an hour drive South so with the kids Tania hasn't been able to have many urban experiences since we left London. We woke up Saturday morning and Tania had no clue. My brother Matt is staying with us and he had (bravely for a man with no kids yet) agreed to stay with the kids for the weekend. We left at about noon and made the journey up. We were a bit worried for Matt because the whether predictions was for the hottest 2 days of the year (and some of the hottest days on record).

We arrived at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, which is on the 38-48th floors of the 3rd tallest building in San Francisco. As you can see from the pictures our room had magnificent views of the city. In fact, we could see all the way from the Golden Gate bridge on our left to the SF Bay Bridge on our right and everything in between. We also had an unobstructed view of the sublime Transamerica building, Coit Tower, Alcatraz and the entire San Francisco Bay. It is amazing that we were actually able to tear ourselves away from our hotel room and visit the city.

We took a lovely boat ride across the bay to Sausolito where we had a couple of daytime margaritas in honor of Kay as we ate lunch staring back at the skyline of San Fran. At dinner we went to a local French restaurant, Fleur de Lys. The food was spectacular but we found the service wanting. At the top restaurants in Europe you have professional waiters that look at their jobs as careers. In the SF Bay Area it seems that all you get in semi-professional "surfs up" type mentalities where everything is so casual - not the experience we are used to for doling out the kind of cash they expect in a top-notch restaurant. But the experience was good and the mood romantic.

We have to admit that we did think often of the kids at home and of Matt. Not that we were worried about his ability to watch the kids (we were not) but we felt so bad that it was a sauna in our house in Palo Alto and Matt was stuck there. We obviously owe him a big thank you.

We continued the luxurious experience Sunday morning by ordering breakfast in bed and lounging about all morning reading the New York Times and taking in the views. So we promised ourselves to do this at least once a quarter.

Non sequiter - I am typing this Sunday morning August 6th. Andy woke up at 7:00 and has been crawling around the floor playing with toys while I type. I just looked down (he is beneath my legs) and he was chewing on my computer cord. Doh! See last post - these kiddies love wires!

Mr. Precocious

2006-08-06T06:47:00.000-07:00

So Andy took his first crawl steps about 2 weeks ago and he is proving to be more similar to his brother than we thought. Tania was first able to get Jacob to crawl by putting the remote control about 5 feet in front of him and, as a boy, you know how much he wanted it. Andy was the exact same. My brother Matt did an experiment and laid out a bunch of toys in front of Andy and the remote control mixed among them. No prizes for guess which object he went straight for.

In just 2 weeks Andy is now crawling all the way across the entire room to the point where we need to baby proof again. And just like his brother he crawls straight behind the TV in search of wires and cables. What is it with boys? The one thing that really surprised us, though, was how quickly Andy was sitting up and even ... standing! As you can see from this picture he crawls over to the toy box, dips his head in to look and then stands himself up at just 7 months. Unbelievable. I think we also forgot how many bruises and bumped heads come from this stage. Andy's new nickname - egghead. Bye for now. So glad to be back in Cali.

Uncle Allan & Aunt Jan

2006-07-21T22:54:00.000-07:00

Tempus Fugit.

A month has passed since we spent the weekend with Unlce Allan and Aunt Jan (weekend of July 8th, 2006). I can't believe it. I just returned from another trip to London so I have been up on the computer since 5 this morning (jet lag). I haven't had a chance to update the blog, which is why I sent out the pictures recently on BubbleShare.

We had such a wonderful time with the Unc and Aunt - they should visit more often. On Friday night we had dinner and home and Aunt Eileen came over as well. Saturday we road-tripped to Half Moon Bay. We took a long leisurely stroll down the beach with Aunt Jan and Jacob who LOVES the beach having just returned from the family holiday in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. It was so great to see Aunt Jan running along with water with Jacob and drawing names in the sand with a stick and watching the waves erase them. Aunt Jan has such a rare affinity with kids it was heart warming to watch. Unlce Allan decided to hold down the fort on the beach blanket where he earned that Tomato Forehead that you can see in this picture.

Saturday night we has a babysitter and the four of us went out to a lovely dinner in Redwood City at a restaurant called John Bentley's. It felt so civilized to be able to just relax, have a bottle of wine and enjoy a nice meal.

The next day was back to craziness again, though. We had a peaceful morning hanging out but later in the afternoon was Germany vs. Italy in the World Cup soccer match and we had a slew of friends in family in watching the match. Anyway, as you can see they had a great time with Andy. And in the blink of an eye it is now August!

Wasn't it only yesterday?

2006-07-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

4 Years!!!

Joe Anne Chris Katie ...

2006-06-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

Uncle Joe & Auntie Anne visited Annapolis along with first-cousins Chris & Katie. Was great to see them after not seeing them for a year. What happened in that year? Chris, now 12, grew like 3 feet! I'm sure that sounds like an exaggeration until you realise that at 12 his shoe size, as Prince would say, are the same as his age. Seriously, 12! He was great playing with Jacob - we're hoping by the next time we see him we have a new babysitter.

Katie has blossomed into a beautiful young girl. She was feeding Andy food like a professional mom. And we watched a video of Katie singing, "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow" in perfect pitch. Joe & Anne pretty much look the same as last year. Actually, that's not true now that I think about it. Joe used to look like a Picasso painting because one of his eye's was lower than the other due to a sinus infection. With the miracle of modern medicine they were able to insert 3 plastic pieces below his eye to hold it into place properly after draining his sinuses and they didn't even have to cut into his skin. No scars - doctors are truly amazing.

We had our normal bad movie ritual with Joe and Anne. Last time we were all together we went to one of the worst movies I remember struggling through - "Cold Mountain". If Tania & I had gone on our own we would have seriously walked out. This time we checked the movie listings and there was virtually nothing on so we go the idea to go see the new Adam Sandler movie, "Click". We are now 2 for 2. The movie was written for 8 year olds. Given that Adam Sandler did such great films like "50 First Dates", "The Wedding Singer", "Punch Drunk Love" and even a cute film like "Spanglish" we figured we couldn't go wrong. Wrong. Click sucked.

Virginia Cousins

2006-06-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

Drove around The Beltway today to Virginia to see Tania's first cousins (Andrea and Kelly) and Aunt Betsy. Snapped these photos of Andrea's boy Devon (Blondie), Kelly's boy John Henry (Red Head ... or Ginga [pronounced geeng-gah] as we say in England) and Jacob. So cute, hey? We decided the one from the front looks like it could be a rock album cover from the 70's.

Jacob mostly played well but had bouts of driving into John Henry while sitting on a dump truck and trying to grab little plastic men from Devon and shouting "that's mine". Enjoyable day. Also posting some shots of Andrea with Tania & Jake and Betsy holding Andy. I also have this shot of Ellie and Sarah that I just love. They are really gorgeous. I deserve a medal for getting Ellie to somehow agree to be in a picture! Kelly somehow avoided the camera - run in the family?

Superman

2006-06-30T05:24:00.000-07:00

Our little guy, Andy, does this really funny flying thing where he lays on his tummy, arches his back and gets his arms and legs in the air like he's Superman. He then flaps his arms and kicks his legs in rapid succession. Never seen anything like it but it sure makes for a good party trick! He is getting so close to crawling and sitting. I give it 2:1 odds within 30 days.

Birthday Weekend at Rehoboth Beach

2006-06-30T05:09:00.000-07:00

Celebrated Tania's birtday last weekend at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. I guess all efforts at announcing it as her 29th birthday are lost on the birthday cake picture so I won't even bother. More commentary later - just wanted to get the pictures up and live. Off to see the cousins early this morning so need to go and shower.

East Coast Uncles, Aunts & Cousins

2006-06-23T17:18:00.000-07:00

As promised I am uploading the pictures from the visit of Tom, Moni & Rowan. We also were lucky enough to see Tania's Aunt Betsy, cousins Kelly and Andrea and their 5 kiddies. As usual the kids made it into the pictures but the grownups must have been camera shy. More text coming - pictures for now.

Off to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware tomorrow to meet up with Kako and Uncle Jeff "the Cowboy" (according to Jacob).

East Coast, USA

2006-06-22T04:22:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning, 7:25 AM EDT

In Annapolis, Maryland with the family. Arrived here a week ago and really enjoying being here with the beautiful June surroundings. Normally we are only here in December where it is bitter cold. Picture to the right is downtown Annapolis with the view of the State House in the background. Would love to post some recent pictures of the family but I have lost control of the camera and the computer a bit as I'm not in my own house. But I'll try to get some of the shots off of Tania's camera since she got some good shots of the entire extended family. Check back later in the week.

Arrived last Thursday. I flew in from London and Tania flew in from California. Wouldn't have been able to pull it off were it not for the HUGE assistance from my cousin Sophia who traveled with Tania and the family and then flew back on Saturday - what a superstar. I worked Friday as my personal holiday doesn't begin until this Saturday (24th June). Went into Washington, DC on Saturday evening with Tania to attend Ali Shapiro's (her friend from Wharton) wedding. The event itself was lovely and was held in Union Station. If you haven't ever visited it is a grandiose station that is well kept and befitting of a train station of the nation's capital - the picture to the left barely does it justice but should give you an idea. We stayed over night at the Hotel Monaco in downtown DC. Was the first time since Jacob was born that we both spent the night away from the kids together. The joys of living out of town with no family network! It really was relaxing (especially for Tania) to be able to wake up in the morning with no kids to take care of. Big thank you to Papa/Kay for holding down the fort.

Sunday morning Tania and I had to go our separate ways for a few hours - she to a post-wedding brunch and I to meet David Lapter for a work preparation meeting (yuck). But we had the afternoon to explore a small bit of the nation's capital, which was great for me. First time I have had a few hours to just tool around DC in 15 years or so. Normally I am there in the Winter where I barely want to get out of the car or I am there for work where I only see the inside of a hotel meeting room. Sunday we had the chance to walk around Georgetown with Meredith and Matt (T's friends from Wharton) and then visit some of the tourist sites. Most impressive for me is always the Lincoln memorial. We then walked around the famous reflecting pool - site of the Civil Rights movement and opposite the Washington Memorial. Then we headed over to the Jefferson Memorial before we were exhausted and ready to return home to save Papa/Kay.

Monday I had to go into DC for work. What an easy commute from Annapolis. Tania drove me to New Carrollton station (22 minutes) and I took the Metro into the central Metro station, which was only 27 minutes. The Metro is air conditioned and everybody had a seat. What a difference from the London Underground!

Arrived home on Tuesday evening. Tom (one of Tania's older brothers), Moni and Rowan were visiting. It was so nice to see Jacob playing with his big cuz, Rowan (7.5 years old). It was also sweet for me because I still remember Rowan from when she was a 2.5 year old girl when I first met her. She was the center of attention of our Christmas gathering that year as she has all these silly and sweet little kid sayings and gestures, which of course is now the stage that Jacob is at. They were "thick as thieves" and at the end of the day even decided to sleep next to each other on Papa/Kay's floor. I laid down with both of them and read stories (the Gruffalo, of course!) and talked. Rowan recently visited the San Diego zoo and told me all about the animals that she saw. Amazing how a 7 year old child can know about 50 more species than I have even heard of. I did catch her out, though, when she tried to tell me about the "skank," which clearly can't exist at the zoo. I told her to ask her daddy about the skank, who I can only assume was related to his college days? Anyway, when I left Rowan took over the reading duties and read to Jacob about Ponies. I heard them giggling as I headed out to catch up with the family. I hope to be able to get some photos of the Maine Kandra family's visit up soon.

Gelsenkirchen, Germany

2006-06-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

World Cup Match US vs. Czech Republic (12 June 2006)

Here I am in the sea of red Czech Republic supporters. Many people have asked whether I feared being the one white shirt routing for the US in the thousands and thousands (literally) of Czech supporters. I wish. One can only be fearful if defeat of thy enemy is a possibility. They scored 5 minutes into the game and never looked back. We lost 3-0. They have a seriously great team - ranked 2nd in the world. Had a blast at the game, though. Had lots of beer and bretzels (yes, this is the German name for you know what) and hung out with my German colleague, Ingo. Afterward we went to Dusseldorf to a local drinking place to drink many more local beers, eat bratwurst and watch more games on TV. We drank by the river in Dusseldorf until 1:00. Home at 1:30. Up at 5:40 to catch my flight back to London. No, I'll never learn;-)

Next match is Saturday against Italy. We have to win to keep the dream alive. On the other hand England is already through to the next round. It helps to have two teams to support!

International Travel ...

2006-06-07T17:35:00.001-07:00

June 7-8, Frankfurt Germany

Sitting at my PC at 2:30 AM trying to get work done that is due today in the US where it is only 5:30 PDT. I arrived this evening for the opening of our new Frankfurt office after giving a presentation this morning at our London user conference. I arrived in London the afternoon before from San Fran. So you can guess how big the bags under my eyes are. And when the stress and sleep deprivation roles in so too does the crap food. Dinner: 3 beers at office opening, lots of crappy canapés followed by a Quarter Pound (actually a “Royal with Cheese!”), large fries and a coke. I will be in Germany 1 week then back to London for 2 days then off to Annapolis. So international travel isn’t that glamorous.

EXCEPT … I am going to the opening match of the World Cup for the USA! They are playing Czech Republic (ranked number 2 in the world behind Brazil – doh!) in the city of Gelsenkirchen (see map above).

Okay, files just arrived from my CFO. Off to crunch spreadsheets so I can get to sleep!

Go See This Film (An Inconvenient Truth)

2006-06-04T01:34:00.000-07:00

Best analogy of the film ... if you drop a frog in boiling water it will jump straight out. If you put a frog in luke warm water and slowly turn up the heat it will stay in the water until it boils to death. We are fighting incrementalism in which it is hard to feel the effects of global warming on a daily basis but the evidence seems clear we are headed in the wrong direction and we ought to put the world straight for the young boys below in the blog. I wouldn't mind hearing equal time of people who are not convinced that global warming is a serious problem just to hear how they argue it. If you know any great sources let me know. But the film was at a minimum a very compelling case that we need to act now and also to find ways to reduce our dependency on oil. DON'T BE LAZY - GO SEE THIS FILM !!!!!!!!!!

No Title Required!

2006-06-03T21:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know exactly what you're thinking. But it isn't true. Daddy didn't decide to revisit his 1980's glam rock days by dressing up Andy in this outfit. In fact, all of these shenanigans occurred while I was asleep in bed. I was on the late shift last night and had dueling crying babies from 3:30-4:30.

So this morning I didn't make it downstairs until 8:00 and Mommy had a bit of fun with the dress-up basket she bought for Jacob. And you can see who her accomplices were!

I just got done putting Jacob to bed. He explored his usual imagination with the truth during "let's talk" time. It went something like this ...

- Let's talk
- Okay, what do you want to talk about?
- Stuff
- Stuff?
- NO! Jeff.
- Oh. Uncle Jeff?
- Yeah, Uncle Jeff.
- What about Uncle Jeff? (who he hasn't seen in a year - what a memory!)
- He is a cowboy, just like me
- Oh?
- Yeah, but he doesn't have a hat like Andy.
- He doesn't have a hat?
- No because, because he has long hair (he doesn't)

Choke Up, Jacob

2006-06-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

So Uncle Matt and I decided to help Jacob learn how to play baseball. Mommy bought him the bat and ball after "discovering" his natural talent while watching him play ball at his friend Daniel's house. I have to admit the pride you have as a Daddy when you hear that your son is better as sports than then other kids. I guess that competitive spirit never dies!

It was great to have Uncle Matt and Aunt Adrienne over. In the top picture on the right you can see me teaching young Jake the finer points of how to "choke up" on the bat (holding it higher for any non-baseball included folks). And you can imagine how hard Matt & I laughed when we told Jacob to choke up on the bat and he started coughing on purpose.

It was seriously comedy hour when Matt then said, "Jacob, show me you swing" and Jacob walked over to the swing set! Only to be topped by a quick non-sequitur story. We also went to the "Water Mountains" today. Jacob told me that some of the kids weren't letting him play in the water. I jokingly said to him "let's go and rough them up" in my best Austrian accent imitating the Saturday Night Live folks imitating Arnold Schwarzenegger and flexing my muscles. Jacob said, "yeah, let's rough them up" (let's hope he knew I was teasing!). So we went over to roll the boys and Jacob came up, flexed his muscles and started barking like a dog, "rough, rough, rough, rough ..." Honestly. That is one for the memory bank.

Okay, so back to baseball. After showing Jacob how to connect with the ball you can see the results that are now captured on digital film. Below would have at least been a double!

Zeide visits !!!!

2006-06-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

Zeide and Marianella visited for a quick 24-hour trip last weekend. They came on the train from Sacramento - only a 3-hour journey. Jacob & I picked them up Sunday night at the train station and did the "happy dance!"

As you can see they soaked up both the sun and the son at the same time. We went to the Water Mountains on Memorial Day to give them the fun experience of watching Jacob challenge the water to spray him. This is what moving home is all about.
And one last story so that the picture on the left isn't lonely without any text. What a sad moment I had this week. I was in the put-Jacob-to-bed ritual and we were talking about the fact that I would be going to London next week. He said in his little sad voice, "Daddy, please don't go. Mommy, Andy and I love you and we want to see you for dinner tomorrow." This is the reason I soak up every early morning, evening and weekend moment I can with the kids. You gotta love 'en. Anyway, I will be meeting them on the 15th June in Annapolis and we'll manage to fit in a week's holiday on the beach on the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) peninsula. My first ever East Coast beach holiday. Should be fun to play in the sand with the kiddies.

Visiting Norm ...

2006-06-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

Went to lunch with childhood friend Norm Epstein and his family Karen (wife), Samantha (daughter) and Leo (son). Leo is 4.5 so was a perfect age to play with Jacob and Samantha's maternal instincts were kicking into full gear with Andy. Was great to see them. Now that we live in NorCal we hope to see them often. My how life is strange when you see the children of your childhood friends playing together. Norm & I met as Sunday school when we must have been 5 or 6. Here are a couple 'o quick snaps of Leo, Samantha and Jacob. As usual none of us parents rush to be snapped in photos.

Quick aside ... My brother is visiting this weekend. I was lying in bed with him the other night telling each other stories. I told him that "Uncle Matt" was coming. "Do you know who Uncle Matt is?" I asked. "I don't know, you tell me!" shot back Jacob to as is common to almost any question you ask him. "He's my little brother. Do you know who your little brother is, Jacob?" He responded quickly in his proud, knowing voice, "My little brother is Leo!" You can't make this stuff up.

Da Boyz!

2006-05-22T20:29:00.000-07:00

Tania went out for a run tonight. Yeah! We are becoming normal people again. So I took the opportunity to put the kids together and sneak in some shots that she hasn't seen. Jacob is a proud big brother until Andy put his wet hands all over Jacob's face. Yuck! Suddenly it wasn't so fun to hold Andy any more. And ... another day, another tooth. Tania informs me that Andy has number two coming in. Also on the bottom.

More shots below. And I had to do one more Harry Potter shot. This time without the hat. He is sooooo adorable.

Andy's First Tooth !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-05-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, no pictures but had to tell you. Andy's first tooth broke through his bottom gums. 4.5 months is the exact same as Jacob. When asked for his quote, Jacob said (in all seriousness), "Andy is such a cutie pie, I love being a big brother."

Second quick story. Cousin Katie (9 years old) spoke with Tania last week and asked if there was any "sibling rivarlry" between Jacob and Andy. Tania laughed, said "no," and asked if Katie could spell "precocious." 9 year old? Sibling rivalry? Whoa.

Third quick story. Tom, Moni and Rowan weren't able to visit. We were sad not to see them but hopefully they can make it down to Annapolis in late June.

Fourth quick story. Poor Elliott Yamin. We voted for him. Okay, so he looks like an elf. And he doesn't have pizzazz. But he was the most earnest guy and had a wonderful, smooth voice. And at least he wasn't in love with himself like Katharine McPhee. Anyway, we all know that Chris Daughtry should have won anyways. Hopefully the Hunters will be coming over Tuesday night for the finals.

Bye.

Andy's Back

2006-05-18T22:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, so finally some shots of son #2. As you can see little Andy is developing nicely.

Doh! Did you notice that the guy on the left isn't the same as the one on the right? We spent so much time saying how much they didn't look alike, but actually some shots you can really see the familiarity, hey?

Okay, I promise not to fool you again. All the rest are Andy (unless obviously not). So the shots of Andy on his tummy were taken a couple of days ago (4.5 months) and the up close shot below was 2 weeks ago. Ole' blue eyes!

So I thought I would sneak in a shot of Jacob from his 3rd birthday because there is a great shot with him holding the mylar balloons that Aunt Kako sent. Jacob LOVED them and they are still actually around our house on their last breath.

And on the right is a quick pickie of the boys together in the PJs that Joe & Anne sent for Xmas. Mommy has loads of fun when she can dress them up in the same outfit. Thank God we didn't have twins!

I also needed to finally get in all those family shots that were taken with Jacob from all the visitors that we had earlier in the year. We had Zeide and Uncle Matt from my side of the family (below) ...

And one of Aunt Kako who made a very kind surprise visit from Virginia to help out around the house with baby Andy and with recovering Kay.

She's always been so great with the boys and is one of those rare individuals that actually has the patience to talk to a young toddler on the phone when it is hard to figure out what they're saying. I bet she doesn't even realize that's a gift that most people don't have. Maybe that's why Jacob always says, "let's talk about Kako."

"What about Kako?"

"Kako was my sister when I was a little boy. She's my life." And, finally, I thought I'd close on another cutie of the two boys together in Mommy's jogging stroller.

Harry Potter

2006-05-18T22:13:00.000-07:00

So I went on the computer to get some good shots of Andy up on the blog site after so many posts of Jacob when I came across this photo that I just HAD to upload. My lovely wife and mother extraordinaire came up with the greatest idea. She decided to buy a bunch of dress-up costumes and a box to keep them in for Jacob for when he has friends come over. She read that it is a great way to get kids playing together. She's soooooo thoughtful. Anyway, I came home from work tonight to the following - it is truly a joy to be a Daddy!

Jacob-Zeide-Papa

2006-05-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

Some people have asked me how I find the time to blog. The reality is that it's always hard to find the time, BUT ... I am usually just borrowing time away from other activities like TV or sleep so it really isn't that difficult. Plus, for me it is a great way to play around with new technology (hobby) and further my thinking about how the Internet is affecting personal and work life (work). So it is worth doing and hopefully fun for family and close friends to keep tabs from time-to-time.

So today's entry is a chance for me to play around with Flickr (www. flickr.com). It's a photo website that I've used in the past but never in anger. Flickr is one of those HOT web2.0 technology companies and was bought by Yahoo! some time ago. It popularised the world of "social photo sharing" and has a lot of cool tools that make sharing pictures much easier. Today I am test driving the feature that allows you to post pictures directly to your blog site. The advantage here is to upload your pictures one time and then post to your blog site (a bit like I do from Bubbleshare). Let's see how it goes.

Updates on the personal side. The curse of the Suster Waverley house continues to do its tricks - this time remotely. Unlce Tom & Aunt Moni and Cousin Rowan were due to visit us this week from Maine on one of those rare occasions where Tom is able to get time off from his medical practice. Unfortunately they came down with nasty flu bugs and weren't able to make it. It really must be disappointing when you anticipate a vacation so much and then can't take it.

Also, if you read the previous blog about our cosmic twins it is interesting to note the following. About 2 months ago I enrolled Jacob into a group swimming class that was due to start this week. There were several classes available (each divided so that just 5 children can attend) and I just picked the one that seemed most likely for Tania to be able to attend (the weekend classes are booked, of course, months in advance). No prizes for guessing, but Galia (the love of Jacob's life and the girl whose parents I spoke about that moved to Palo Alto from London) was in his class! Weird.

Small picture attached at top left is from when Papa and Zeide were visiting for Andy's bris. Cool to be able to link it to the blog but unfortunately I can't figure out how to link other photos so I will have to upload those directly. Okay, now typing again from blogger software. Had to upload the two on the right separately. What a pain in the arse. I had to delete the Flicr photo wince it was too small. Next time I will use a larger setting, but there is no way to change once it is set up - not very user friendly! Anyway, we have some good Andy shots on Tania's camera and as soon as I can figure out how to upload I will. Stay tuned.

Water Mountains

2006-05-14T14:35:00.000-07:00

First there were Quetzels (Pretzels). Then there were Ping Pies (French Fries) and their cousins Fish Ping Pies (Fish Sticks). And Hangaburgs (which need no definition). Slowly Jacob corrects his really cute names for things and prefers to use the real term. But Tania and my new favourite name variant is "water mountains" (fountains). Playing in the water mountains is Jacob's new favourite activity. (Like the action shot to the left? Thanks to my Canon Digital Rebel that can actually catch all the shots that my slow, old digital camera couldn't)

The ones we go to are about a 5 minute walk from our house - right next to Jacob's playground and his soccer class. There are some great advantages to the suburbs. These particular water mountains are a gas. They stream out water for a period of time, which eventually stops running. The kids are tempted to walk up to the place where the water was coming from and then they turn back on with no warning. It is heart warming to watch the delight of the kids as they get sprayed with unexpected water. As you can also see from the pictures there are also puddles that they jump into and splash. And because it is a posh neighborhood the material is some sort of soft, synthetic rubber like material that is totally safe to fall onto.

After 2.5 years of living in London I think that Jacob isn't used to having so much sun all the time. I know that his skin certainly isn't used to it - we have the whitest kid on the block by a long shot - so we always have our sun block prepared. But we are clearly out of practice in protecting ourselves from the sun as Jacob came home the other day with the tops of his feet looking like tomatoes. Doh! Mommy won't soon forget that spot. More blog posts next weekend. If all goes to plan we should have Uncle Tom, Aunt Moni and Cousin Rowan with us next week. Over and out.

Goooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaal!

2006-05-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon is Soccer practice with teacher Pam. It was a beautiful sunny day out and I hadn't yet realised the pain and suffering I was going to cause myself. I snapped these photos in perfect bliss, unaware that the freshly cut grass and pollen were seeping there way into my system and preparing a 10-hour assault on my system.

But watching Jacob kick the ball into the goal (captured on film in action!) and shouting GOAL! afterward with his arms raised in the air made everything worthwhile.

If you haven't already seen the Shabbat pictures after these pictures be sure to scroll down or find it in the archives as I uploaded this morning. More pictures and blog later today as I upload the photos from our afternoon playing in the "water mountains".

Shabbat Shalom !

2006-05-14T09:56:00.000-07:00

Arrived back into the Bay Area from the UK on Wednesday evening so I worked from home on Thursday in order to see the family for the first time in 10 days. Easy to get lots done on the phone and computer and the huge advantage is that I was able to make it to Jacob's school at 11:15 for Shabbat. For anyone Jewish or with any knowledge of Judaism you will, of course, know that Shabbat (Sabbath) really starts on Friday night. But for a Tuesday/Thursday JCC class we celebrate it on Thursday afternoon. (picture left: Jacob grabbing as many pieces of Challah as he can)

The class starts early by making Challah together to use for the celebration later in the day. As you can see from some of the pictures, this is Jacob's favourite time of the week. In fact, Tania & I are convinced it is the only time that Jacob actually properly eats. And what a little piglet he becomes (yes, I know, bad Shabbat reference ;-). Every week Jacob goes up to the Challah basket and grab AT LEAST 5 pieces of bread or as much as his grubby paws can hold (see pictures for proof). He then proceeds to shove as much of it into his mouth as he can at one time. (picture right: Jacob stuffs his mouth - notice how many pieces squished into his hands)

But before eating the Challah the class sings songs and does the prayer over the wine and bread. Each week there is a nominated "Shabbat Helper" and the week that I attended it was Jacob's new most favoured little girl - Galia. You can see her seated with Mommy Nourit who also (out of unbelievable coincidence) just moved to Palo Alto from London after living there for 10 years (just like us)! But that isn't freaky enough. Her husband, Gerardo and she grew up as Jews in Mexico City - their family having emigrated from the Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania. My dad grew up in Columbia with a family that emigrated from the Ukraine and Romania. My mom's family is from Poland and Lithuania. Not freaky enough. Gerardo went to UC San Diego - the same place as I went. Not exactly the largest or best known school in America (but academically highly rated if I don't say so myself). (picture left: Nourit, Galia (Shabbat Helper) and Teacher Michael (from London!)

Freaky enough? No. He went there 1986-1991 - the exact same 5 years that I went there. He graduated and went to work for Andersen Consulting as did I. Alter ego? After that he decided to move with Nourit to London (presumably stalking me!). He then worked in investment banking (reporting to a guy that I personally know) and then the technology sector. He lived in Bayswater and then West Hampsted. We lived in Bayswater and then looked in South Hampsted but decided to stay in Bayswater. We had our first baby (Jacob) in April 2003 they had their first baby (Galia) in March 2003. Stop there? No. In November 2005 we moved to Palo Alto to be part of the heart of the technology sector. In January 2006 they moved to Palo Alto ... to be part of the heart of the technology sector. We enrolled our children in the same school (JCC) on the same days (Tuesday/Thursday). We moved right near the corner of East Meadow and Waverley. They moved near the corner of Bryant (2 streets over) and East Meadow. And ... we both bought the exact same Volvo station wagon. Ours is a much cooler color, though! ;-) Freeeeeeaaaaaakkkkkkkyyyyyyy. (picture left: Jacob covers his eyes for the prayer over the candles, picture right: Gerardo and baby number two - Auriela ... note that they have two daughters to match our two sons)

Whoops! I clearly digressed. Here you can see the fun we had a Shabbat. Jacob is holding is hand above the head symbolising squeezing the grapes to make the wine for Shabbat. And then he covers his eyes to do the prayer over the candles. Then they sing, "it's a mitvah to give Sedaka, to give Sedaka it is a mitvah ..." (Sedaka being charity that the school collects for poor people Israel). Anyway, in the entire time I was in London I never made it to Jacob's school so it was special to be able to go to school with him. And our cosmic twins came over to lunch with the kids after school. (picture right: squeezing the grapes for the Shabbat wine)

Peekaboo! See you!

Jacob's Third Birthday

2006-05-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

Treasure Hunting ...

In case any of you don't know, Tania's favorite thing in the world to do is to go to party supply stores. So having kids at an age to actually buy stuff from these stores is a field day for T. And her creative juices really flowed. Tania planned a wonderful party for Jacob's third birthday filled with little kids in pirate hats who hunting for a treasure chest full of pirate booty.

We thought about having a clown, a magician, a pinata or playing pin the tail on the donkey, but we realized that at 3 years old kids have such a short attention span that we would really just be doing that kind of party because we thought we were supposed to. So off Tania went to the party supply store to come up with some adventure that would keep 3-year-olds occupied for their 5 minute attention span.

We had loads of fun. Many of Jacob's girlfriends were there (Galia, Maya, etc.) and he even let a few boys come as well (Sam, Oren, Benjamin) and my favorite name for a friend ... Tomo Goldstein. If you manage to click through any of the Bubbleshare pictures below you'll see a picture of him. Mom is Japanese and dad is, well ... you guessed it.

Jacob's birthday was on a glorious, sunny day for Palo Alto. We finally got to make great use of our backyard as all the kids stayed outside on tables and playing on the swingset. So those are the advantages of Suburbia that we have been holding out for! Tania, party-planner extraordinaire, bought a bubble-blowing machine that was the hit of the party. Then it was time to search the treasure map and find the hidden treasure with goody bags and CHOCOLATE! If you don't have 3 years olds or don't remember when they were 3 I can tell you that the game of "hotter / colder" doesn't really sink in as I found out at both Passover (finding the Afikomen) and treasure hunting. But they eventually found it and dug in.

Once all the kiddies had cleared out we had about an hour's break until my family arrived from Sacto. We had Mom, Dad, Mari, Uncle Ron, Aunt Jenny and Uncle Bill and Blanca and we were joined later by Aunt Eileen and Sophia. Olivia was AWOL and I'm told was disavowed from the family fortune for not turning up. You can see from the picture above that Jacob not only enjoyed EVEN MORE chocolate but he also enjoyed the attention and ability to ham it up. Much chocolate + no nap = totally hyperactive followed by total crash.

Anyway, it was great to have everybody around. 2 weeks later as I write this from the not-very-glamorous executive lounge at the London Paddington Hilton, Jacob is still talking about his birthday party and presents so it was clearly a success.

Remember that you can view all 90+ pictures by pressing the forward or backward arrows below the picture. Also, if you want access to the pictures directly (to print, for example) you can go to http://www.bubbleshare.com/album/29978.74a69369cd7

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Andy's First Meal

2006-04-24T19:45:00.000-07:00

Bubbie arrived today so we thought we'd use the occasion to give Andy his first meal. He'll be 4 months old on Friday so we figured it's time. It brought back all sorts of memories from Jacob.

So we busted out our baby bibs (Tania, remember those?) and the feeding chair and made Andy his first meal of baby rice with milk. Specifically, we broke out our "My Auntie Loves Me" bib that came from Auntie Jenny.

Jacob had his first meal in Italy, Andy had his in the burbs. Seemed like the same affair as Jacob - not too interested in this funny stuff being shoved into his mouth. Bubbie had the honours of serving the first meal. Lots of milestones in the week ahead as Jacob turns 3 this weekend.

Well, it has been a rough couple of weeks for blogging. We had Passover week that took up a lot of my free time followed by a work colleague of mine in town from England so it was dinners out every night.

The "I'm totally shagged and can barely type" summary is:
- had a fantastic Passover dinner at Tania's friend from Wharton, Michael and his wife Ellen. It was one goy, one shiksa and two MOTs. We had a great time and both spouses are good troopers and have learned all the Passover Seder
- had the Kennedys over for Passover on the second night. It was a nice Seder although the food from Whole Foods didn't match the home cooked Jewish meal from night one
- And on Friday night we rested ...
- Saturday morning we drove to Sacramento to see Zeide, Mary, Jenny/Bill, Uncle Ron. Jacob and I visited Uncle Ron's house with his new hardwood floors. Jacob is scared of cats. I didn't try to talk him out of it - I'm not a cat person (allergies).
- Saturday night we went to cousin Marlene's for Passover dinner. Was so nice to be back there after so many years of not attending when I was in Europe. Saw all the cousins: Jill, Daniel, Marcy, Marlene, Sharon, Lana, Sophia and Olivia. Sure I'm forgetting somebody. But it was a great bit of nostalgia being around family. Funny point of the evening was Jacob playing hide and seek, "Daddy, you hide in the bathroom and I'll find you." ... Not clear on the concept.
- Sunday we went to Jenny/Bill's new house (mansion). What a lovely place. We were ready to move in. And we were jealous of how wonderful and big the homes were in Folsom / Sacramento. Surprisingly Jacob actually wasn't afraid of their dogs. First time I think.

Off to bed ... Okay, I lie. I'm gonna watch 24. But then off to bed. I shall update things after Jacob's birthday party this weekend. Check out pictures below (don't forget to push arrows to see slideshow).

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Post Kandra World

2006-04-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so reality has set in as you can see from the picture. I guess I was somehow hoping that in the posh city of Palo Alto the garbage collectors actually let themselves into your garage every Tuesday morning to empty your trash. Or maybe the trash fairies took it away? No such luck. So after 4 months of not thinking much about how our trash finds its way to the city dump ground (thanks, Myron!) I now have a new Monday night / Tuesday night task. Oh well. I guess it is all part of settling back in to suburbia from too many years of living in the big city.
Had a day’s vacation yesterday. How did I spend it, you ask? At a spa, at a baseball game, playing golf, matinee movies or strolling around Carmel By-the-Sea? No, I spent it with Tania in San Francisco at a tax accountant and at a trust lawyer. Two hours each – lucky me. But if any of you don't have a "revocable living trust" I recommend that you write me an email because as we learned you will waste a hell of a lot time and money without one and, worse still, the money goes to the government and to lawyers. In California if you don't have a revocable living trust your estate goes automatically to "probate" - even if you have a will. This is the process that is lengthy and costly and a simple trust avoids probate and allows you to will up to $2 million in tax free money to your designated trustee. You can set one up for as little as $1,500 but more likely $2,000.

Anyway, we had a fun, family-oriented week all around. Monday night was a Passover party at Jacob's JCC school. Okay, so it wasn't exactly traditional - they served Chinese noodles, spring rolls and rice in stead of a Seder plate, but we had fun doing arts and crafts (see picture of Jacob and Mommy below making a Seder plate) and watching "Diana Schmiana" doing a clown show and teaching all the kids the Passover songs like Diyanu. And I got to meet some of the parents of Jacob's class mates. Their real Passover ceremony in the school is next Tuesday while I'll be a work.

Tuesday night was American Idol night and we had the Hunters over to watch with us, which was fun. Tania finally felt well enough to cook and made a lovely chicken with cashew dinner with cous cous.

Wednesday night we continued our social festivities as we had "Uncle Rob" Sowers in town for one night. Jacob enjoyed playing with my high school buddy and he especially loved the remote-control racing car the Uncle Rob brought. Rob & I went out to a killer meal at Evvia http://www.evvia.net/, which was seriously as good a restaurant as you will find in London or New York. It was great to see Rob since I normally only saw him as I was racing through the US for a quick trip home to see family and this was much more relaxing.

Thursday night we got to see cousin Daniel who stopped by for dinner. By now Tania had cooked dinner three nights in a row! We had beef stew served over a brown rice grain and strawberries / whipped cream for dessert. Was great to get caught up with Daniel who is now doing contract work at Google. We're hopeful that he will get an offer for a full-time role soon. So as you can tell we are getting back in the swing of things and socialising more.

Next week will have two Passover Seders - first at Tania's friends Michael and Ellen and then at our house with the Kennedy's. Then we are off on our first roadtrip as an enlarged family next weekend when we go to Sacramento to visit Zeide and have Passover at the Ratners. Sunday is Easter so hopefully the Shiksa in the family planned something - I'm not really up on what to do on Easter other than eat chocolate. And hunt for eggs, I guess? So we should have some good family shots in a week or so.

Weekend Alone

2006-04-01T15:46:00.000-08:00

Had to start with a picture of Papa and Andy since it was so cute. Papa had mastered the art of putting Andy to sleep as demonstrated in this photo. And Tania can attest to the fact that we haven't quite figured out how to repeat the magic without him.

So, the first weekend alone since Andrew arrived. Oh, and the plans we had! Friday night was Weeds night. No, we weren't going to smoke dope. But we had a marathon evening of watching one of our favourite new TV shows starring Mary-Louise Parker (of West Wing fame) http://www.sho.com/site/weeds/home.do. The show is written by Jenji Kohan (former writer for "Mad About You", "Sex and the City" and "Will & Grace" and is simply the most clever writing of any show on TV since the West Wing. It's about a suburban mom whose husband dies so she has to turn to dealing weed to support her family. Not for everyone I suppose, but has us in stitches.

Saturday was going to be such a big day. We told Jacob all week about the Father/Son soccer league (finally he no longer calls it football) for which we had signed him up. We built it up and up even though it was only a half-hour class in which 3 year olds learn the basics of kicking the ball. It was our big day out together - Daddy "boss" and Jacob "boss" - no Mommy and no Andy! Mommy diligently packed us an almond butter & jelly sandwhich, hard-boiled eggs, pretzels (aka quetzels) and diet root beer. We drove over to the field together pumped up about S-O-C-C-E-R!!! Yeah, man. Cool! When we arrived we walked through the sloshy, wet grass (we're headed for the wettest Summer in Bay Area history) - our shoes getting muddier with every step. I was already starting to imagine Mommy's reaction when we got home and I was conjuring up responses such as, "how can we play soccer without getting muddy?"

We arrived on the spot of the soccer lesson to start the beginning of the rest of our happy lives together as father and son. My little sportsman and I primed for afternoons of kicking balls, shooting hoop, swimming in the pool and playing tag. There were about 10 other sets of 3 year olds and their parents. For a Father/Son league there sure were a lot of Mommies and daughters. Could it have been Tania's line to talk me into going and leaving her at home with Oprah? We waited patiently for the instructor to arrive. And waited. And waited. And waited. I guess you can tell where this all ends. How could a park organised soccer league be so callous and irresponsible to organise a soccer league and then not send an instructor? We spoke with somebody from the class that was to start before ours who said that they had already been waiting for 45 minutes and also had no instructor. Rat bastards! You can see how thrilled Jacob was when we got home.

Oh well, we went to the park in stead. A little girl tripped and skinned her hands and knee with no mother in site. I helped her out and saw a panicked mother returning from her car feeling guilty. I knew she would be thinking, "I only took my eyes off her for 30 seconds, I'm not a bad mom!" Next I experienced an amazing coincidence. When the crying stopped and we had returned to the scene of the crime I found out that the girl was the infamous Lilly from Jacob's JCC class at pre-school. He had been talking about Lilly for weeks and it was she who had fallen in front of me. So Jacob said hello and she gave him a big hug. When we went to leave her mother told her to give Jacob a kiss. She reached in and Jacob gave her "the Heisman". But she slipped beyond his guard and got in a peck on the cheek. Jacob blushed. And then he wiped it off. I swear! Human nature, hey?

Saturday night Tania and I had a babysitter and headed out for Southern food at Nola's in Palo Alto. We started it with the all important Mojito and Margharita (never mind that neither of those are Southern - they did the trick). Next we had "Foo King Good Spring Rolls" (no joke). Come to think of it - that wasn't Southern either, was it? Oh well, us Californians are a bit eclectic like that. For our main dish we had fried chicken and pork chops with corn bread and for dessert beignets. So I guess we finished with Southern food but the important thing was that we had a night alone, which felt great. Tania is feeling much better thanks to sleep, Prednisone steroids and an occasional drink or two.

Sunday was a relaxed day with the family, a little crossword action, some emails, lots of tag and a lot of wondering why we stuffed ourselves so much the night before. And, of course, it was Sopranos night! I guess we sound like TV addicts, but we are making up for so many years of bad TV when we lived in England. Anyway, here's the full set of Jacob and Myron/Andy photos that you can click through if you're interested. Next post in a day or two.

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Quiz of the Day

2006-03-28T07:20:00.000-08:00

What title song from the famous album by the Eagles best exemplifies Kay & Myron's stay with us in Palo Alto? Okay, so the album cover gives it away. 4 months to the day that Kay & Myron arrived in our "Hotel California" they have their tickets home for tomorrow morning.

I remember when they first arrived we were embarrassed to ask them to stay for 2 full months. We had a load of stuff to settle into a temporary place in California and, of course, the baby was due at the end of the month. Now lyrics from the Eagles' famous song rings true. No, it is not "mirrors on the ceiling, pink champagne on ice" that I am referring to for all of you who believe the "fruits and nuts" myth about California. I'm talking about the famous line, "you can check out any time you like, but you can never leeeeaaavvveee!" Let's hope for their sake tomorrow they will actually board their United flight (San Jose-Denver-Baltimore) just before 8:00 AM in the morning.

Last night we were feverishly taking pictures of the family and "PapaKay" as Jake has affectionately morphed them into were soaking up as much time with the kids as they could. Don't worry guys - were visiting in just 2.5 months!

As usual none of us were too keen to have our photos snapped. With everybody being sick, sore, tired, jet-lagged and generally unexercised for the past 3 months we all felt pretty unsexy for our pictures. But we were good troopers and realised that we had to mark the occasion.

And for tonight? The real sadness begins at 8:00 PST when the Suster/Kandra family will watch our last episode of American Idol together. I guess we'll let the kids stay up a bit late to market this momentous occasion. Okay, so you can laugh at me - but admit it. You like AI too. I know it has become a national cult when I heard Tania and her sister, Katrina, debating the various contestants and my sister, Jenny, sent me a long email outlining her favourites.

And speaking of staying up late - baby Andy has finally turned the corner (provided I didn't just jinx myself). He has been getting 5 hours sleep from time to time. Let's hope the pattern continues.

We are looking forward to April where there is so much to look forward to. We hope to travel to Sacramento for Passover at the Ratners. We hope to host a few Pesach dinners at our place, too. And we await the arrival of some of the family at the end of the month to celebrate Jacob's big 3rd birthday!

So a couple o' final photos from the visit. PapaKay will be missed.

Suburbia

2006-03-25T13:51:00.000-08:00

Palo Alto ... The Beverly Hills of Northern California

So a friend of ours recently quoted this line about Palo Alto. Probably not very accurate in my opinion. Berverly Hills has always struck me as a bit glam and pretentious with everybody "dressed to the nines" (http://ask.yahoo.com/20031022.html). But Palo Alto is very sweatpants, baggy shirt, unkempt hair and baby spit-up on your shoulder. In fact, nothing alike except the housing prices.

I was speaking with a friend of mine who read the blog site a few times and asked why I had never posted a picture of where we were living so I just went outside for a couple of pictures. I know that they are a bit dark but I thought to do this at nearly 7:00 PM and I can't be bothered to wait until I remember during the day time. But I guess you can get the point from these shots.

And if you have any questions about my assessment of Palo Alto all you need to do is look at this picture of the dueling Volvo station wagons parked out in front of our house. Okay, I admit it, one of them is ours. But as Tania will tell you, "at least I'm not driving a minivan like 80% of the rest of Palo Alto." So our version of rebellion, breaking out, being "different" is driving a Volvo wagon. But with 2 kids what choice do you have? But I am not complaing about Palo Alto - we love it! It is upmarket, friendly, safe and great weather.

So what do I get for writing the family blog? Andy just rolled over for the first time ever and I missed it! And he did it 3 times. Actually, it's Jacob's fault for making me get him some milk. And just to be different than his brother - Andy rolled from his tummy to his back while Jacob did the reverse.

Got back from London on Wednesday afternoon. The Suster household went to pot in my absence or as Tania says it, "the curse of the Waverley house struck again." Kay had to be rushed back to the hospital last Sunday night with a haematoma and didn't return home until Thursday. So the Kandras had to cancel their flight home, which was scheduled for Thursday. I would say that maybe they just wanted to ride out the rest of the Winter in Palo Alto - but I'm sure that wouldn't be very funny - would it? Well, I can get away with it because I heard her comment recently that if she isn't careful she will be here to see Andy take his first steps. Kay is "home" now and resting. It certainly hasn't been a very pleasant 2006 for Kay. Nor has it been for Tania, I'm afraid to say. Tania's swelling of the joints hasn't gotten any better and the pain relief from the steriods wore off and she had the worst day I have seen on Thursday. So you can see what we mean about the curse.

Tania started a new drug recently called Prednisone. It didn't work well the first 2 days but after jacking up the dosage x4 relief seems to have kicked in. We managed to get a normal day out today walking around University Avenue, having lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and taking a stroll at the Stanford Mall. Let's hope this is a sign of things to come. Unfortunately due to the Kay/Tania issues we ended up having to cancel our trip to Solvang this weekend. We were supposed to be there to attend our friend Kristin's wedding. Hopefully we can work up our energy over the next couple of weeks so that we can travel to Sacramento to see the family for Passover.

Finally, thought I'd get some pictures up of the kids and a couple of shots of Tania (post Prednisone relief!). Remember you can scroll through photos below by pushing the double arrows to the right or by pushing "play" if you want it to run on its own - there are 26 pictures.

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Paddington, London ...

2006-03-13T16:06:00.000-08:00

Back again at the Paddington Hilton sans family and it is just past midnight. The trip is becoming pretty routine for me after 4 trips in the past 3 months (3 of them in the last 6 weeks). Dropped off at SFO on a Sunday at 5:00 PM, Ambien at 6:15, flight at 7:30, asleep by 10:30 and arrive next day at 2:00 PM local time. Heathrow Express by 2:30 (I don't check bags), Hilton at 2:45 and meetings starting at 4:30 PM and last until 10:00 PM. Bed by 1:00 AM and wake up fresh to start work in London by 8:00 on Tuesday morning. Well ... you get used to it.

Thought I'd blog since I'm not tired yet. Must have slept too much on the plane. All seems to be going well at home. Tania visited the rheumatoligist today. No diagnosis but they gave her cortizone shots to help with the pain. Awaiting test results for fifth's disease, which should arrive any day now. Fingers crossed that is the diagnosis so that we have some idea why she has been feeling so bad.

But she claims to be feeling at least 5% better. Maybe that is because she is finally getting some sleep. We had a night nanny come in on Friday and Saturday nights so Tania got 2 night's rest. Was well worth every penny. Any expectant or future mothers take note! And if you live in NorCal we have just the lady for you! Tania also put Andy on a strict feeding / sleeping schedule as presribed by Gina Ford (aka "the Baby Nazi") in her best selling UK book (on Amazon at http://snipurl.com/ContentedBaby) and website http://www.contentedbaby.com/. We had originally sworn never to succumb to her methods but after hearing that so many of our friends did well on Gina Ford we thought we'd give it a go. Day 2 and already noticing a difference. Too early to call it but Andy slept 5 hours for the first time ever last night. Coincidence? But we are only planning to stick with it for a few months until Andy is old enough for us to fall back on our old favourite methods of Tracy Hogg (Amazon at http://snipurl.com/BabyWhisperer/ or website http://www.babywhisperer.com/. It has really proved to be the perfect baby method for Tania and me and for our lifestyle / values.

And more of a sign that life is returning to normality, we had a foursome date night on Saturday evening with Tania's parents. We visited one of Palo Alto's local gastronomique (said with my best French accent, which isn't very good) restaurants called Bisto Elan (http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/09.28.00/dining-0039.html), which if you're ever in the area is fantastique. I started with the very politically incorrent foie gras - I think the waitress gave me the evil eye as she told me it was planned to be outlawed by 2009. Fuck it - it was on the menu so give it to me!!! Kay had lobster, Myron an artichoke (sort of) salad and Tania had the very adventurous green salad. See Bass, Gnocchi on Fava Beans and Scallops for main course and we EACH had desserts, which were the highlight of the meal. Split a bottle of wine (both ladies drank!) and some port for dessert. No wonder I didn't sleep very well that evening. But we all felt human for an evening. Then I got home and decided to try and get all my new speakers and receiver wired to the tv to have surround sound. Just a 5 minute project, right? Tania wasn't impressed. Oh well, I guess boys will be boys. Sorry, honey!

So that brings me to today. Now it is 12:30 AM and I have to give a PowerPoint presentation to investors in London tomorrow. I guess I should get to bed. See ya.

Hunters Visit with Quiche

2006-03-05T12:14:00.000-08:00

Sunday noon ...

Felt human today. Yesterday we had a huge sigh of relief as Bubbie diagnosed Tania yesterday (we think / hope). Seems she probably has the "fifth" virus, which is common in preschool kids and less common in parents. Or when parents get the virus it tends to behave like the flu. But occasionally it has the characteristics of swollen ankles, knees, elbows and wrists - exactly what Tania has. And it also turns out that fifth was going around Jacob's school. So if Tania's joints aren't doing any better yet, at least her psyche is doing better as she has an answer. Her doctor couldn't diagnose it - they tested her for the kitchen sink and all came back negative. So off to the pharmacist for heated bandages (see picture slideshow below for evidence) to make all feel better(ish).

Then we had a date dinner last night with a new couple that I met through work. Went back to a restaurant in Palo Alto that we LOVE called Tamerine. It is nouveau Vietaneme restaurant and has a very urban hip ambience. Was great for Tania to get a few cocktails in - much needed. And, would you believe it, the husband of the other couple had the same symptoms as Tania two years ago and was relieved to finally find out what it was!

Woke up early this morning with both kids so Tania got a chance to sleep in (8:00 AM - nirvana for a new mother). Robin (Tania's friend) called and I got a chance to speak with her, which was great since we hadn't spoke in ages. Poor Robin is having number 2 in April - too late to turn back!!!

Then I got a call from buddy (college roommate) Stefan. He had walked over to Peets coffee - a 15 minute walk from our houses, which are right next to each other. He took his daughter Maya and dog Colonel and arrived sans wallet! So Mr. Suster had to drive the ole' car over there to rescue my buddy out. So I brought home Jacob his first hot chocolate. No doubt I'll regret that when we try to get Jacob down for a nap.

Then we were visited by Aunt Eileen, Sophia and Olivia who helped to look after Jacob (see pictures). Great to see them after so many weeks. With all the chaos around the house lately we hadn't gotten the chance. Got a chance to swap American Idol favourite stories and general gossip pre Oscars, which start in a few hours. Jacob not yet out of his PJs and almost 1:00 - par for the course on the weekends.

Off to see Munich before the Oscars start. More appealing to me than Broback Mountain. Not that there's anything wrong with it. Just doesn't appeal to me.

Bye! (Don't forget to click the buttons to see the whole slideshow or scroll through pictures.)

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Playing Around with Pictures

2006-03-04T15:18:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I have been using Blogger.com for the blog site for the past 2 months and the most frustruating thing is how it handles pictures. You would think that as a Google company it would be leading edge but I am learning that there are better sites for doing this. Anyway, I am playing around with a couple of new ways to link in pictures. Let's see if this is useful. Press the two orange right-facing triangles on the right to scroll forward in pictures and the one on the left to scroll back. Or ... if you want to sit back and let the computer drive press "play" and it will go on its own.

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Okay, now I've tested it. It's awesome! So much better because I can create slideshows rather than static pictures. Very cool. Anybody looking for a cutting edge photosharing site check out http://www.bubbleshare.com - some very cool features. All my pictures will now be added as slide shows!!!

Smiling ...

2006-03-03T11:02:00.000-08:00

Back from London. I arrived at SFO and in the arrivals lounge was greeting by Jacob running to give me a big hug. Is there anything better than being the parent of a 3 year old? And it was great to see him running again after he got his cast off earlier in the week. It was also great to arrive in the sunshine after being in bitter cold London/Paris where we even had a touch of snow. Just to stay on the Jacob theme - he has finally replaced the love of his life (Edie) from London with a new infatuation (Lilly) at the JCC in Palo Alto. All week long he was pronouncing, "I want to play with Lilly," or "I played cake with Lilly" or "Can Lilly come over?" The cutest was when Tania went to pick him up on Thursday and the group in the JCC was singing Shabbat songs (note: they celebrate on Thursday since there is no class on Friday) and Jacob shouted at the top of his lungs, "I want to sit next to Lilly." Ah, young love.

And we are starting to really see light at the end of the tunnel in all of the Suster/Kandra sagas as evidenced by Kay now up, walking around much and generally looking like she feels much better - see! But we seem to be taking two steps forward and one step back, as Tania is now having health issues. Her joints have all swollen up and become painful making it difficult to even walk or hold Andy. After a week of pain she went into the doctor for blood tests, which was a bit scary but the worst of possibilities all came back negative. No big improvement on Tania's condition but at least she got the okay to take pain relievers from doc. (who as an aside is a female with the amusing name of Dr. Shih - pronounced "she" :-)

And how are the Suster / Kandra families passing their evenings away as we go through convalescence? (Yes, I had to look up how to spell this) We are undertaking that time honored tradition of 32 million other Americans every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings - filling our evenings with Simon Cowell, Paul "is she drunk?" Abdul and Randy "Dog Pound" Jackson. Jacob has even become a fan of American Idol this year and is dancing around during the songs. In case you missed it - the really annoying girl from NY got kicked off last night (2 months too late) along with baldy, blondie and the crooner. We collectively don't like Gideon (75/1 at the bookmakers) because his smile is too weird or Ace (4/1) because he is in love with himself. We like the girl whose mom is a music teacher, the young girl who was in the Lion King when she was 10, the big heavy girl and the Southern guy with the shaved head who needs braces {correction: Myron, the Amercian Idol aficianado, has challenged my description and we had to resort to the Internet. I can confirm that he has been proven correct that Elliot Yamin actually does have hair! http://www.idolonfox.com/contestants/He also corrected my spelling of Gedeon!} Tania & I also like the guy who sings Bon Jovi - I guess that is a generational thing.

And clearly the whole family can feel better about even the worst of Andy nights because he has learned the subtle art of charm. Young Andrew is now smiling on a regular basis, which I have decided must be an inate survival instinct of humans. Were he not smiling soon I think I would have been on the verge of selling him on eBay the other night for screaming the entire night when I had an early morning meeting. I guess Tania eating broccoli and then breast feeding might have made her an accomplice. But then I see him the next morning with a big wide grin on his face and it is hard to do anything but just love him. He is growing well and got his first set of shots at the doctor last week along with the "all clear." And his neck is developing well, which makes him more human-like and he can be balanced to sit up on the swing that Bubbie bought us.

And just to have one Mark technology comment to follow up on my last post, I attended a Web 2.0 conference this week at Microsoft's Silicon Valley headquarters in Mountain View. I am now 100% sure that it is a web 2.0 bubble (or I am now old and cynical). The presentations in the morning were by a bunch of geeky, 20 something programmers whose sole pitch to the audience of investors and journalists was how cool their technology was (it wasn't) with ZERO thought about how they would make money. It is clear the exit strategy is to be bought by Google or Yahoo! and make millions. 99% of them won't. And the one answer any of them had about making money was "advertising revenues". Anybody notice Google's stock slipping over the past few weeks? Might improve again but I would say that its decline is due to the realisation that the advertising market is not unlimited and one has to have other sources of revenue to continue growth. And the realilty is that 95% of Internet ad revenues are derived by the top 10 companies. We were so bored and turned off that we left at lunch time. We sneaked downstairs and ate in the Microsoft cafeteria. I can confirm that it is very cool. To quote Stuart, "better than Whole Foods." And it was. And if anybody knows Stuart you can find out his latest news including the announcement of the sex of his future baby and other happenings at http://www.s29lan.com/blog/.

Couple o' more pickies. Over and out.

Tonight I'm Gonna Party Like It's 1999

2006-02-17T23:29:00.000-08:00

I know you're here so you really should drop a quick comment by clicking on the small link below this text that says "x comments". How do I know you are reading this? I found this really cool website called statcounter (www.statcounter.com) and with it I can track how many people visit the blog, how long they spend reading and what part of the world they come from. Generally I don't know who you are exactly - unless it is Rachel. I know it is you. I don't think too many other people are reading this blog linking from an ISP in Veneto, Italy! ;-) Glad you're visiting! Oh, and Patrick Hynes because I saw that you logged on from the Spencer Stuart network. And somebody else from the country of Brunei Darussalam - but I'm guessing you were just a "lurker" - but welcome anyways. There is other cool stuff that I can track that only a techy nerd like me would think is cool, like which browser you use, which operating system is on your PC, etc. I also can find out if you're a first time visitor or whether you are returning.

I had a total 1999 moment tonight. I have been following a lot of recent Internet developments over the past 6 months with a new trend called Web 2.0 with new companies launching start-ups on a scale that I haven't seen since the 90's. The premier blog site that covers Web 2.0 is called Techcrunch (www.techcrunch.com) and it if you are profiled there you get instant credibility. Anyway, I noticed on their website that they were having a party tonight at Mike Arrrington's house (the guy who started the blog) but it was invite only. Anyhow, a friend of mine had an extra invitation and so I went. It felt so "dot com" bubble all over again. It was fun to see everybody be energetic again about launching new companies. But I couldn't help but think that everybody had the same idea in mind - create something really fast and be sold to Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft really fast. Classic "flip" of your company. Clearly when people don't want to create real companies but just want to make money fast it must be heading for tears. But it did make me excited to be in Silicon Valley (Ground Zero) as I wouldn't have gone to an impromptu party anywhere else with such a group of entrepreneurs that are at the center of a movement like Web 2.0.

Kay is doing a little better day-by-day. I'm sure she doesn't feel like it right now but I can see the smallest signs of recovery that are occuring. And at least she isn't at the hospital anymore. We feel lots of sympathy for her. If you know Kay give her a call - I'm sure she'd be happy to hear from you as I'm also sure being away from home for so many month must be hard. Myron is here to pick up some of the extra slack. He tells me that yesterday Andy took a nap on his chest and he has to be around to play ball and blocks while Daddy is at work or travelling. Tania is starting to settle into a routine - unfortunately a routine that runs around no sleep! But at least we now have nanny support 3.5 days / week. We sure do miss Bella, though :-(

We did manage to get out for our post Valentine's Day dinner. We went for a romantic dinner at Spago in Palo Alto and felt like human beings for the second time in 3 months (the last was went we got out for a quick dinner to Tamerine in Palo Alto - for me a restaurant that was as good as the best you will find in London) - we even managed to split a bottle of wine.

I'm off to London again on Sunday night. Will be a long week of work and being away from the family. Bright spot is that I need to be in Paris on Friday afternoon for a meeting with a VC firm so I am going to get to see my dear friends Stephen Bolger & Lisa LaPlant for dinner. Funny how your life can get so busy and you wake up one day and realise you haven't seen your friends for 6-9 months or more! I realise that I haven't seen my friend Paul since his wedding more than 3 years ago. Tempus Fugit!

Light at the end of the tunnel

2006-02-15T00:08:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day ...

First one that we haven't gone out for a nice dinner since we started dating. I guess that is what happens when you have 2 kids - one with a broken leg and the other 6 weeks old. But we have romantic dinner plans for Thursday evening - let's see if we can keep them.

The past few weeks have continued to be trying times for us. Kay (Tania's mom) had her surgery last week. We were a bit too quick to proclaim it the extraordinary success that it appeared to be. She had pretty serious surgery for diverticulitis and was up and walking around within a day. But then suddenly after 48 hours she started experiencing irregular heartbeats and has been in a sort of middle ground ICU ever since to be closely monitored. While most of the feedback that I am getting seems to be that it is not uncommon to have the reaction that she had post a surgery and that they believe that they have ruled out a heart attack or pulmonary embolism - everybody is still a bit on eggshells and we are thinking of Kay often. Can't be very fun to be stuck in a hospital 3,000 miles from home and having post-op complications. But with 2 kids who are doctors at least she is getting lots of good advice and reassurance.

We continue to be blown away by the generousity and kindness of our fellow class parents. I called Tania on the way home from work to see if I could bring home fast food or sandwiches (classic Valentine's fare) and she informed me that one of the mothers from our co-op school had brought us a full meal. Was really nice.

Life with Andy is getting mildly better. He still isn't sleeping much so Tania isn't either. After 6 weeks I can no longer get up in the middle of the night or I wouldn't be able to function at work. So it is a bit of "ships passing in the night" but that is to be expected. On the positive side he has finally started smiling at us in the way that only babies can where their entire faces light up and you suddenly feel that the effort of the past several weeks has been worth it. I can't even imagine how Tania must feel as I have clearly only put in 10% of the level that she has had to put in. So there is light at the end of the tunnel as we know with each day his neck is getting stronger, his stomach growing bigger and his smiling and communication will only increase. But you can clearly tell in the picture that he is telling us not to worry - everything will be A-Okay! ;-)

Jacob is now running around with his cast as though it doesn't even exist anymore. Quite a change from only 2 weeks ago when he wouldn't even stand on it. Tania says he was chasing girls (Hannah) in school this morning along with Teacher Michael (a Brit so Jacob must gravitate towards the accent!). Anyway, "casty" comes off next week and we are looking forward to getting back to normalcy - including being re-potty trained.

My brother Matt and his wife Adrienne stayed with us the last couple of nights and it was great to see them. They got lots of quality Jake & Andy time, which obviously wasn't easy to do when we were living full time in London. Speaking of which ... only 6 more days in Sunny California until I head back to Old Blighty and I only got back to California last weekend. I've gotten used to the commute so really not that bad on me but just miss the family when I'm away.

And finally, I had that magical father-son moment tonight. Last weekend I bought Jacob "Finding Nemo," which I had been waiting to watch with him for the past couple of years. I struggled to get the brand new Panasonic recordable DVD player hooked up to the Motorola DVR cable box, which is connected to the Samsung HDTV ready 50" rear projection DLP TV set. I started to feel like I was crumbling from the weight of technology around me - even after 2 trips to Radio Shack for help armed with digital photographs of the backs of all of my machines. "Just give me any cable that will solve my problem - I DON'T CARE HOW MUCH IT COSTS!!!" Jacob kept saying, "Can I help? Can I help you? let me do it!"

Tania tried to come to the rescue by handing Jacob the Crate & Barrel catalog and asking him to look at the TV pictures and tell us what to do - great tactic to keep him out Dad "the Wrecking Ball's" way. He announced, "I know, Daddy, push really hard" as he demonstrated on the remote control for the TV player that is in the other room. At least it lightened the mood.

I managed to get the set-up working after 30 minutes and we were able to salvage the evening (and my fatherly pride) by watching the first half of Nemo. To anybody who has a child I don't need to tell you the magic of watching Disney (Pixar especially) with an almost 3 year old and having them laugh, get scared (Bruce the Shark!) and show concern, "Daddy, where is Nemo? His daddy can't find him." Heartwarming.

London Calling ...

2006-01-27T23:01:00.000-08:00

If you don't know the reference from the title you're probably too old - or these days maybe too young. Ask your more hip friends (or these days you can just Google it).

Anyway, I'm off to Old Blighty tomorrow so the Clash was on my mind. I thought I'd do a quick update to the blog before I left. I just spoke to Monsieur Lapter in London today who told me that his daughter Maya turns into a popsicle every time she goes out. Seems they are getting a cold snap from Russia again this year as the winds are blowing West. Meanwhile I went running in Palo Alto last night with Stefan at 9:30 PM in shorts and a long sleeve shirt and no gloves, ear covers or any of the stuff I used to wear training for the London Marathon. And I never wear a jacket to work. I have really enjoyed the temperate weather out here - just puts you in a better mood.

Kay (Tania's mom) is finally out of the hospital and it is wonderful to have her "home". It really adds to the atmosphere around the Waverley house. She seems in very good spirits for having been in the hospital for a week with no food. She'll be home for 2 more weeks with us and then she has to go back to the hospital for surgery. I'm sure it won't be easy for her - we hope we can make Chez Suster as comfy as possible and that she'll want to stay until she's fully recovered.

As you can see Jacob is recovering well from his break. He now has on his "walking" cast, which isn't getting much traction. He has reverted into nappies (diapers) and being carried everywhere. Lots of fun for Daddy going up and down the stairs but that's the least you can do when you break your kid's leg - right? Turns out his leg was only broken in one place (not two) but it is called a "spiral" fracture because the break goes around the bone like a candy cane. First doctor read the xray incorrectly. Very reassuring. The intern who set his cast didn't even remember which bone the tibia was, which even I remembered from 7th grade zoology. One of Jacob's fellow classmates, Mathias, broke his leg the same way going down the slide with his mom. It is so common that her doctor guessed how Mathias broke his leg without the mom even needing to tell him. Anyway, Jacob is being very sweet and it has been a good bonding experience to hang out with him so much. Another thing I notice from his picture is how bad his haircut is! Our wonderful nanny Bella in London took him for his final London coif before coming to California and they botched it. Not quite as bad as the haircut my mom gave me as a kid (the LAST time she ever cut my hair) but he will nonetheless cringe when he sees some of these photos.

We have been really impressed by the generousity of people in suburbia. They are far from the anonymous urban neighbours that live next door to you for 2 years and you don't even know their names. You can all too easily fall into the urban trap. Since we have been pretty stretched with our family situation BOTH of Jacob's preschools got together a list of parents to bring by dinners for us for the next few weeks. People we don't even know have dropped by with full dinners with enough for leftovers. I was even tempted to call one of the ladies and ask for her recipes - look out Tania! I understand that they actually do this for all new mothers - we will definitely play this one forward.

And finally there is Baby Andy (said in Jacob's very cute, high-pitched, elongated way). He is no longer in that newborn state of having his arms and legs curled into balls and his eyes closed 23 hours a day. He is putting on weight very nicely and turned 4 weeks old on Wednesday. It is too early to call the light at the end of the tunnel but I do see him growing stronger and more baby like every day. He is very different than we remember Jake to be. He seems to have wavy hair where Jake's was as straight as it gets. He poops 10x day (no joke) where Jake was 1x every three days. And he could easily star in the remake for Blazzing Saddles without the need for sound effects. But we love him and are enjoying watching him grow and the pleasure it gives Jacob to be a big brother.

Thank you to those that dropped off comments on your last visits. Always nice to hear from you. Back in 10 days or so.

Whew! All Done

2006-01-06T15:01:00.000-08:00

I guess the image says it all. The bris was a wonderful opportunity to get our friends and family together to celebrate the miracle of birth.

I wrote the words above nearly 2 weeks ago and had intended many entries since then. The "new baby G-ds" have been conspiring against me. What has happened since I first typed the above words and uploaded the picture?

1. Many nights of very little sleep with Baby Andy up crying much of the night.

2. A few mishaps at work, which led to conference calls at midnight with most of my staff and board members still in Europe.

3. Tania's mom, Kay, had to go to the hospital (at Stanford) and has been there ever since (6 days now). She has an intestinal ailment that will require surgery. All our thoughts are with her. She is a very strong lady and is being brave. But it can't be fun to be in the hospital 3,000 miles from home. One bit of ironic hospital humour that only Kay could come up with. She hasn't eaten in a week and is, unfortunately, having to share a room with somebody else. The family of her roommate brought in Kentucky Fried Chicken, which left a smell in the room for an entire night. Exactly what you want when your only diet is drip feed liquid!

4. As a result of Kay being in the hospital I helped out with Jacob one fateful Friday morning to give Mommy some extra sleep. On Jacob's play date at the park he went down the slide with his Daddy and came down with a broken leg. Just what we needed, hey? I guess I am more useful at work. Jacob is doing well. The fracture is in two places on the tibia (larger bone below the knee) but is only hairline. He will be in a cast for about a month. I'm told by everybody in the hospitals that this is one of the most common ways that little kids break their legs - NOW THEY TELL ME! They should post signs at all playground! They also tell me that many dogs break their legs this way, too. The slide down with kids.

5. Just to pour salt on wounds - Jacob came home from the hospital and picked up a stomach virus. After a painful night in bed with Codiene (spelling?) we woke up the next day and had vomitting all afternoon. Oh, what fun. The nurse also told me that this is very common (to pick up a virus at the hospital when you come to the emergency room with a broken bone). She could have told me before and I would have masked him in the emergency room! Anyway, at least she was very nice.

So it is now Sunday. I half watched both NFL conference games. I seem to half watch everything these days. Two boring games with the right results. Anyway, I better help Tania out now. I'll try to get some new pictures up soon - before I get bollocked any more!

Date for the Bris is set

2006-01-02T14:56:00.000-08:00

Brit Milah

Andy's Brit Milah ceremony has now been set and will be this Thursday, 5th January at our place in Palo Alto. The service will begin promptly at noon but we would appreciate if people could arrive by 11:30 or at the latest 11:45. Casual buffet lunch will be served. Please RSVP by sending an email to msuster@gmail.com or clicking the comments section below and letting us know whether you will be there or not. All friends and family welcome.

Happy New Year - 2006 !

2006-01-01T11:47:00.000-08:00

Toast!

Put Jacob to bed at 11:30 after playing at Maya's house and celebrating New Year's at 9:00 (midnight East Coast time). Actually, trying to get everybody into the same room in time for the countdown proved difficult so we didn't get around to the countdown until about 9:08. But if you aren't gonna stay up all the way until midnight why quibble over 8 minutes? We had about 12 two-year olds all jumping up and down shouting "happy new year" - was the cutest thing you could imagine. I got a call from my good friend Rob Sowers from Vegas around the same time. "Sow" doesn't have kids and so continues our "bad boy" New Year's Eve tradition in my honor. Somehow the contrast of Sow calling hammered from Paris Hilton's New Year's party in Vegas put into perspective just how much my life has changed. So at midnight I had to at least break out a little bubbly to feel real.

Home in time to get Jacob to bed where he insisted on licking a marshmellow ("do not bite it, Daddy!") as he went to sleep and still made it downstairs to see Regis do the countdown and "wet the baby's head" (as they say in England) with Papa / Kay.

Happy New Year! Could it really already be 2006?

Andrew & Mommy Come Home

2005-12-31T18:59:00.000-08:00

Back at the ranch (New Year's Eve)

The remainder of Tania's hospital stay went as well as these things can and the care was fantastic. And it was tremendously helpful to have Tania's parents around to visit and to be there for T and Jake. Also our dear friends Stefan and Ann stopped by with their kids (Derick and Maya) and some Thai food, which made the last night there a very social affair and helped to occupy Jacob.

We made it back to Chez Suster yesterday without much fanfare. It was a cold and windy day and we were all exhausted so as expected baby number two didn't get any homecoming pictures taken. We have the feeling that this is just the beginning of a life-long bias toward Andy not getting quite as much attention to detail as Jake did. So we are going to try and make an effort to take the same number of pictures, compile as complete of a baby album as we did last time and to appreciate every "first" (smile, roll-over, crawl, walk, talk) to the fullest. But if Tania's pregnancy is any indication, where we seemed to forget that there was another human life on the way, I think we will sink into the habits of 99% of all other parents. But pictures the day after the homecoming are really just as good - aren't they? Humor us.

Andrew is learning to breast feed. Last night we were awake much of the night teaching him how to "latch on" and by today he was in full swing. But not before a nearly sleepless night for Tania and only slightly more for me. But when you see this little helpless creature experiencing every bit of life for the first time it is hard to be anything else but elated. See?

Jacob and I are off the Stefan and Ann's tonight for a New Year's Eve party. They came up with the greatest idea to celebrate it at East Coast time (e.g. 9:00 PM) so that all the kids can be there and enjoy the celebration. Going out should provide a much needed break to Tania and her parents. Okay, Jake is pulling on my finger and saying "you have to play with me" so I guess I'm off. Happy New Year. And if you visited the blog (well, I guess you did or you wouldn't be reading this!) push the comment button below and say "hello". I read the comments out to the family and it is great to hear from everybody. Tania promised me that I could publish pictures of her in just a few days so stay tuned.

Andrew David Suster (Andy)

2005-12-28T19:59:00.000-08:00

From El Camino Hospital - 8:00 PM

Wow what a different experience from the last one! For starters I am sitting in the hospital in Mountain View and they have Wi-Fi where I can access the Internet from Tania's hotel room - amazing! In stead of delivering at 2:00 in the morning and being tired for days, Tania delivered at 3:27 in the afternoon after a great night sleep. 15 hours of labour was reduced to 5 hours of labor and 1 hour 41 minutes of pushing was reduced to "just" 40. The staff were amazing and our midwife stayed an extra half hour after her shift (ended at 3:00) because she wanted to see the baby be born.

When we got back to the maternity hospital room (rather than delivery room) the staff were handing out freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, the TV had cable, the room was temperate and all was copacetic. In London we didn't have our own bathroom, the room had no air conditioning, the refrigerator in the room had a perpetual buzz, there were 3 TV stations (all crap) and I had to sleep on a blow up swimming pool air matress.

So how the name? Well Andrew was the great grandfather of Tania (her father's mother's dad was Andrew Novak - no relation to the now infamous columnist!). But we like Andy so we're going with that and he can change it to Andrew, Drew or even A. Diddy when he is older. David was the middle name of my grandfather (my mom's dad). And as much as I liked my grandfather, the name Harold just didn't make the cut even for a middle name.

So thus brings an end to the family's longest running negotiation in which Tania broke me in the 11th hour. Just kidding - I loved the name Andy. And I got the first round pick in the next baby draft. Jacob was a charm. He was totally sweet with the baby and didn't fuss at all when it was time to come home. He just announced, "see you tomorrow, Mommy, when we wake up from sleep."

Okay, I'm shagged. Over and out.

Muphy's Law / Sod's Law

2005-12-28T06:59:00.000-08:00

Gush ... If you are still in child rearing years and are someday looking for a way to accelerate your wife going into labor I have the sure fire way. Stay up really late learning how blogs work and looking up all of your wife's family and friend's email addresses and she is sure to wake you up early in the morning announcing, "my water just broke!" Doh. Off to the hospital. Could be quick or could be 24+ hours - you never know. Jacob was induced (Tania had low amniotic fluid) so we never went through this experience the first time. I guess it was a lot easier when the doctor just called and said "why don't you come in and have your baby tomorrow."

Anyway, at least we are sneaking out of the house before Jacob wakes up. He is in the good care of "Papa / Kay," his maternal grandparents. Jeff, Tania just announced, "Uncle Jeff must think 'he's the man'. " He just called yesterday to tell us that Tania would be having the baby tomorrow. You da' man.

By the way, any of you that are new to blogs you can always write to us by clicking below any post and clicking on the "comment" button. That way you can leave us little notes (e.g. as in yesterday's post when I said "help us decide the baby's name!")

Soliciting Names ...

2005-12-27T23:37:00.000-08:00

Okay, so now I have the blog site live and running. Somebody mentioned that they liked the following picture because Tania was wearing red and you could actually see that she was pregnant for once. Sorry, T, I know that no 9-month pregnant moms like their pictures but you look great! We also loved this picture because we love Aunt Jan.

So ... after 6 months of hard-fought battle in the trenches over the name of number two Tania & I have reached a consensus, which is ... that we agree that we can't agree. Anybody have a fantastic name we should consider? We also thought of auctioning the name away to anybody who is willing to pay for his college education ;-)

Help! Baby Suster doesn't sound like a very appealing name. Nor does "Baby Daddy," which is what Jake wants to name him.

Time to Start Blogging

2005-12-27T22:22:00.000-08:00

Baby #2 due at any moment, so I thought this would be as good a time as any to start a blog. We're all waiting anxiously for the baby to arrive, including Jacob who keeps announcing, "baby coming soon!".

Had a false alarm recently and went in at midnight as the date turned into the 24th December and Tania had contractions. Turns out we were a bit early but better safe than sorry.

Here is a recent photo of Jacob from Thanksgiving (standing against the window) and one from Chrismakkah, where he wore his Bob the Builder Tonka hat and played with his trucks from Uncles Joe and Tom.

Off to bed - I might need the sleep.