We're Moving!

Well, it's finally happened. I've gotten so sick and tired of Blogger, their poor media handling and their unwillingness to make their service easier to use that I've decided to move the blog over to WordPress.

Follow the link to http://www.samandjohn.us for the new home of the old blog.

There is a catch, however. For security reasons (i.e. protection of the children), SAM and I have decided to make the blog private. That means that you'll need a WordPress account and our permission to view the blog.

This shouldn't be hard to do. To get a WordPress account, go to http://wordpress.com/ and sign up, then email SAM or I your WordPress username so we can add you to the list. Many of you whom I know already have WordPress usernames are already enabled.

Don't worry - all family, friends, friends of friends, friends of family, family of friends and pet groomers of cousins by marriage are welcome.

It's just the real weirdo strangers we're trying to keep out (if you don't know who that is, it's probably you).

To entice you to move quickly, we have already posted some very special news on the new blog.

You'll have to go there to see what it is.

We'll see you there!

Silly Dinner Time Antics

Drinking out of her new cup

And today was Sunday again.

I stayed home again for most of the day, while Sarah brought M out to meet some friends on a play date we had arranged last weekend.

I'm not sure where SAM gets the energy to take care of a sick husband all weekend on top of caring for a fifteen month old daughter and maintaining a full social schedule. I'm fairly sure I married some sort of super-woman.

She loves it!

While M and SAM were out this morning, they went to California Pizza Kitchen where the best thing to come out of it was the disposable soda cup (SAM didn't let M drink the soda) which was brought home.

It was the source of much fun during dinner tonight once her milk was placed in it.

One handed requires a bit more concentration

After her fun with the milk was finished (once she had enough milk), M decided it would be fun to try to put her bowl on top of her head.

As you can see, she absolutely loved it.

She even knew to hold still while it was on top of her head in order to keep it there, and she had the biggest smiles on her face afterwards when I showed her the photos off the back of my camera.

Did she join the Shriners?

Margaret is turning into an absolute cut-up, which is hilarious but also very interesting. I find the fact that she is now aware that she can affect other people by how she acts is both a little bit sad, due to the innocence lost, but also extremely cool because it means that we can start teaching her about how her behavior affects others, and hopefully get her trained up to be a good person who thinks about her actions.

In the meantime, though, it's incredibly joyous just to be able to have a good laugh as a family.

No, it's just your every day dinner bowl being worn as a hat

Afternoon at the park with Dad

A pensive moment

After M and Dad both had an afternoon nap, we both woke to discover Mom had gone grocery shopping.

With both of us looking for something to do, our only choice was to go to the park for some Daddy and Margaret play time.

...right before getting upset

M seemed to enjoy herself, but for the moment when a little girl pushed by her and she got a little upset. But she was quickly distracted when she turned around and saw what else there was for her to play with.

Ready to go again

Luckily, Mommy was home when we got there, and we all hung out until after bath time when SAM had to go out to dinner with some of our friends.

Considering how I feel, we felt it was probably best for me to quarantine myself at home and give Daisy an early night off.

Sending love waves to Mommy

The big payoff for being kept at home, though, came from Margaret after her bath, and right before bed. She did something that made her Daddy feel so very loved.

Seeing me sitting on the floor, she went to her bookshelf, got Tee's gift, "Lift and Look Baby Animals," came back to me, plopped into my lap, and opened the book for me to read to her.

Once we had finished, she pushed herself out of my lap, walked back over to the bookshelf, considered her options, selected "Does a Kangaroo have a Mother Too?" then came back and plopped right back into my lap.

After that, it was "Pat the Bunny," then "Touch and Feel Baby Animals." All told, we got through six books before it was time for bed.

I'm not sure how she knew, but she knew just what her Daddy needed.

"Pbtpbtpbtpbt!"

Now, M is safely and quietly asleep in her crib, and I'm about to make some hot chocolate, watch some TV on my computer and call it an early night.

I can't wait to be better.

Beach!

Despite feeling woozy and achy from a serious cold, I decided to follow M and SAM to the beach for some breakfast with some of SAM's teacher friends.

It was a blustery day, but that didn't stop both mom and daughter from having a blast in the sand and surf.

Margaret was excited by all the surfers, dogs and other children at the beach and had to be pulled screaming from the sand to change once she started shivering.


I left for home first in order to get out of the wind, but the hardy girls stayed on for breakfast and more playtime.

M is in her crib now, complaining about being forced to nap while her mom and I determinedly work to while away a few hours in quiet.

Happy at Breakfast

Margaret had a very fussy evening last night, and went to bed with no dinner and no bath - possibly the result of being overtired from not having enough nap-time.

This morning, she still didn't eat a lot (and really didn't want her diaper changed), but was very excited at something new - sitting at the table!

The pancakes, cheese and blueberries haven't changed, but the view has!

Late Night On The Town

Still going strong at 9:00 pm during dinner
This is our daughter barely half an hour ago (as I write this) at the tail end of a dinner with some old high school friends.

Exhausted as she was, M was a great sport, smiling, laughing and playing with all the company as she devoured enough fish, rice and noodles to feed a small football team.

We are truly lucky to have M. She may lose it when it's just us, but she's always 'on' and behaved when we're out and there's a crowd.

Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention in the last post. This weekend, M has started to really get good at climbing.

Last night, she climbed straight from the tub into my lap as I sat by the tub. This afternoon, we saw her climb onto the sofa for the first time. And this evening before leaving for dinner, I walked into the office to find her standing on SAM's chair playing with the numerous new toys she's never seen before on SAM's desk. Again, first time.

Not sure what clicked, but she's suddenly able to get up onto almost anything in the house now, and up to a level where almost nothing is child-proofed.

I guess it's time to ratchet up the vigilance even more.

*sigh* That's life with a fifteen month old, I guess.

Quick Update

Playing footsies with Mom during Friday dinner
As usual, I find myself wondering where the weekend went... it certainly doesn't seem like we accomplished much!

On Saturday, we managed to get together with some old high-school friends on Saturday lunch, went with George and Joy to look at our impending new apartment again, had our usual date night in the evening and capped off the eve by spending an hour in the bookstore looking at home decor books (we bought one).

Today, we spent the morning hanging out with some friends, Mushtaq and Asel and their two children this morning before spending the rest of the afternoon (while M napped), learning how to use Google Sketchup together so we can 3D model the new apartment.

SAM was surprisingly motivated and showed off surprisingly strong tech skills. It's super hot to see her wielding a 3D model.

She LOVES Leonard
Unfortunately, Margaret has been just a little fussy all weekend. Whether it continues to be teething or tiredness, or some combination, it's not that she's been difficult, but just that she's had more "moments" than we usually get in a weekend.

Added to this is the fact that she's becoming more and more willful and it definitely seemed like there was a lot of dealing with her this weekend.

Really, really, loves Leonard
Something new is that for a couple of nights in a row this past week, she didn't want a bath. She would get in the tub then immediately cry and want out.

For two nights, this meant that we couldn't wash her hair.

My theory is that she knows she doesn't like to have her hair washed so tries to get out before it happens. In fact, Saturday night, she started wailing as soon as she got in, but SAM and I kept her in and washed her hair anyways. As soon as we finished rinsing, she was fine and stayed in the tub another ten, fifteen minutes to play.

Playing peekabo with Uncle George
Now it's yet another week ahead of us.

SAM and I are excited about the new place and will doubtless be poring over our new book and batting ideas back and forth about what to do to get us through.

I can't wait!

Who are you and what have you done to my daughter?

Look at those legs!
It's been awhile since we've had an M post, so those of you who've missed pics of the baby, here you go...

I've returned home to a completely different baby.

The changes are just incredible. In the two weeks I've been gone, the most noticeable changes have been:

1) Increased height and longer legs
2) New interest in problem solving
3) She really seems to understands you
4) New Teeth
5) New interest in her stuffed animals

Bringing a friend out for a walk

Increased height

First, she's just bigger. She's longer and seems built more like a kid as you can see in the first photo. She's much heavier in my arms these days, and now has real strength to carry things and push you away when she doesn't want you.

She's using her new mass well. As SAM has mentioned, M is starting to climb up onto things, from her stroller to attempting to get up into her high chair. She can't quite do it, yet, but she's figured out she can get better leverage if she folds down the foot rest, so it's only a matter of time.

This is matched by enhanced balance whether it's walking or standing on narrow or difficult footing to gain a height advantage.

And while it seems like this will be getting her into more trouble, at the same time, it's kind of cool to watch her get into seemingly difficult positions with relative ease, then to watch her slowly back down from them.

She can now walk down moderate grades

New Problem Solving Skills

M's mind seems to have turned some sort of corner and it's becoming clear in so many ways.

Just this evening, SAM says that she tried to take a mini-pack of pocket tissues and flush them down the toilet. This is interesting because while she knows that toilet paper gets flushed down the toilet, to associate a pocket pack of tissues, while in the plastic, as being a similar thing takes the development of something SAM called, "association."

In a similar vein, we bought her a shape sorter in Guam, and she's able to spend some time with the shapes now, and trying to fit them into the corresponding holes in the box. It's interesting to watch because she gets frustrated when she can't get the shapes in, but at the same time, she definitely knows that the shapes are supposed to go inside the box.

Also, I brought back a little tangram puzzle from Germany that I got for free, and M picked it up today a couple of times and was definitely trying to puzzle how to get the pieces to fit together to make the shape complete again.

It's amazing.

Just picking up some groceries

Language Comprehension

Margaret is really starting to understand what you say to her, and not just understand, but to respond as well.

This weekend, M was carrying around an apple slice and munching it while walking around the house while we were getting ready to go out.

Once it was time to leave, SAM said to M, in Chinese, "OK. We have to go now. Why don't you give me the apple and Mommy carry with us while you go out?"

Sarah has been talking to M in this manner since the beginning as a way to both teach her some language and to give her some advanced warning, but both of us were surprised when M happily held out the apple slice to her mom and allowed it to be put away in a zip lock without a peep.

This wasn't an isolated incident either.

Last night, after M's bath, we needed to cut her fingernails. Normally, M hates this and will fuss and scream and try to pull or flail her hands away.

But when we explained to M that we needed to cut her finger nails, and she could play with her toy with her one hand while we cut the nails on the other, M quietly cooperated and held out first one hand, then the other, to have the nails cut and used the other to play with her toy.

And while, yes, it makes sense that our child is acquiring language, to see it happen and to suddenly have a cooperative baby that appears to understand reason is simply an amazing thing to observe.

She will now pose for the camera

New Teeth

This part is as unfortunate as it is fortunate.

Margaret has a new pre-molar on her upper left hand side for a total of five teeth now. It broke through just a few days before I returned with little fanfare.

Causing more issues are the two lower pre-molars (one each side) that SAM and I can both feel just under the surface that are still working their respective ways out.

Unfortunately, these are giving M plenty more trouble and pain than the other one did. Tonight, we had an upset, screaming baby on our hands who wouldn't go to sleep, even after Orajel and Baby Tylenol.

At the end, she finally cried herself to sleep with me next to her listening to her pitiful little cries grow quieter and quieter, ebbing to that occasional sharp intake of breath before finally settling into a steady rhythmic breathing at well past 9:00.

Keep in mind 7:30 is her bedtime.

My beautiful girls

New Interest in Stuffed Animals

This may not seem new to those of you reading out there, but trust me, she has got a definite second wind in this department.

While she's always had an interest in Leonard, more and more frequently, she will actually choose to play with Leonard or another stuffed toy.

She now sleeps with Leonard in her crib, and in the mornings, she can be heard chirping and cooing and talking to him.

In addition, she not only wants his diaper changed in the mornings before her, but before her bath tonight, she took the clean diaper that was prepared for her after-bath outfit and broke for the living room. By the time SAM caught up with her, M had gotten Leonard's diaper off (he now lives with one on) and was comically trying to put the new one on him.

And as you can see in the photos, she doesn't just play with Leonard, either. On Sunday, with Margaret in my arms, she pointed over to her dresser where another little bear was until I walked over, whereupon she leaned down, picked him up and wouldn't put him down for literally the rest of the day.

Like with Leonard, the play now involves lots of snuggling the toy close to her face which is new behavior as well.

She loves the bubbles in her hair at bath time
M is changing so quickly now, and two weeks away served only to highlight the rapidity of the change.

Day by day, she's more and more fun and more and more interactive.

Part of that new interactivity makes for the best sound I hear all day.

When I walk in the door, and I hear the high pitched squeal that M makes when she either sees or hears me for the first time at the end of the day.

And even though she may play coy at other times of the day, that happy squeal is what makes everything in my life up to this point worth it.

It's a great feeling.

Na shledanou, Praha

The day started like this at Republic Square
Let me just open with one statement.

Prague is the most beautiful city I have ever been to, save, perhaps Venice.

This thousand year old city, once seat of the Holy Roman Empire takes its architecture (and now preservation) seriously. With styles represented ranging from Baroque to Art Deco to Art Noveau to Modern and everything in between, Prague is breathtaking in it's physical beauty.

Almost every building near the city center has a history worth telling. In fact, the sheer number of beautiful and notable structures makes it so that the locals might be forgiven if they get desensitized to it.

Heck, I stopped keeping track of buildings that I wanted to go back to take photos of about three hours into the first morning - THAT is how many there are.

Then the weather quickly deterioriated
Unfortunately, a centuries old city plan made it so that after I got in on my first night, I got lost finding my way home from dinner even though the restaurant was only on a parallel street, one block over from my hotel.

In my defense, the street curved and so when I took a left and another left, I didn't wind up coming back 'round the block like I expected.

Yes, I got lost for 30 to 45 minutes last night, wandering around dark alleys and side streets before finally deciding that my fear of approaching a foreign stranger for directions was miniscule compared to my fear of being mugged of my money and credit cards in an unfamiliar country.

The start of our hour foot tour at Strahovska Church
The next morning, I joined a tour with Yeori, a wonderful guide who gave our tour simultaneously in Spanish and English and taught all of us that Wenceslas was a Saint and a Prince and not a King as the song states.

Ever trying to make my two other Argentinian tour mates more comfortable, I periodically broke out my one year of Middle School Spanish. "Esta bien," "Uno cerveza," "mi llamo Juan," and "Donde esta el bano" all came out of my mouth today.

Si! Mi Espanol esta bien!

I've been told this spot has a spectacular view of Prague
Unfortunately, while my decision to visit Prague in the hard middle of winter and during a global economic crisis was well received by the tour company, it wasn't exactly the best time for touring.

Snow seems to have followed me from Boston to Nuremburg to Prague (and now to Zurich where I am dwindling away my 6 hour layover by watching the plows try to clear the runway), where it was just above freezing yesterday with huge flakes falling out of the sky.

Icy, cold and raw conditions abounded, which made me glad I signed up for a bus tour... before realizing that there was an hour and a half walking component to the tour.

St Vitus Cathedral
The tour was worthwhile, however, even with the walking tour. In fact, the walking tour involved a stopover in a local cafe called by our guide in the face of the driving snow. I tried to order coffee but was shamed into uno cerveza by both by Yeori and Sebastian, one of the Argentinians. His wife was allowed to have coffee. As it was, Yeori sniffed a bit when I asked him to order me a small beer.

It was actually lots of fun to crunch around in the snow with some strangers in a starnge city since we were all suitably dressed with heavy coats.

Old Town Square
After the tour ended, I grabbed a delicious lunch off of Old Town Square which made me realize how much I LOVE Czech food.

The food in Germany was pretty good, but the food in Czech Republic is SO. MUCH. BETTER.

Delicious Klobasa sausage with kraut and mustard? Czech. Onion Soup? Czech. Frisee Salad with cranberry vinegraite dressing, garlic croutons and an entire wheel of baked camembert? OH MY GOD CZECH!!!

So delicious, I'd go back just for the food.

The Jewish Cemetary
After my gustatorially transcendent experience, I went for a sobering walk through the Jewish Museum which covers the Jewish population of Prague starting from before 1100.

Of the 90,000 Jews living in Prague before the Nazis decided they needed a little elbow room and annexed the Sudetenland, about 80,000 were shipped to the Terezin concentration camp to be further shipped to places with names like Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Dachau.

The museum is several buildings, one of which is starkly empty with walls that are white but for the names of those who perished painted on the walls. 80,000 names covered several rooms floor to ceiling.

I could feel the weight of their grief and sorrow pressing down on me and had to fight back tears by the fourth room full of names.

Tougher to take was the upstairs room exhibiting hand drawn pictures from the school children at the primary school that the Jews in Terezin organized to educate their children.

Pictures ranged from happy memories of being home in Prague to dark depictions of being rounded up.

It wasn't until the second wall of pictures that I noticed that a few of the pictures had the word, "Survived" inscribed under the artist's name. Most simply had two years.

It was at this point that I could no longer hold back the tears.

It made me understand better why many Jewish people feel that a strong Israel is essential for never having that happen again.

Even now, writing about it, I feel anguish and grief at the monstrosity of it. The sheer unspeakable awfulness was overwhelming, brought even further home by my new status as a father.

Whereas as a childless man, I could acknowledge that killing six million men, women and children was a bad thing, having a child, then facing the terrible prospect of losing that child has given me a new perspective and a new empathy for my fellow man.

Yet another way that parenthood has changed my view of the world.

I needed a bit of a break after that.

Thankfully, a walk through the old Jewish Cemetery behind the synagogue was a quiet way for me to catch my breath and transition. It was a gloomy, grey and cold day which seemed apropos to my emotional state. I found myself apologizing to the gravestones I passed by, feeling the grief these long dead prominent Czech Jews must have felt to see their people so treated and so exorcising some of my own grief by sharing it with them.

Sarka and me
After that experience, I was in no mood for more touring, so returned briefly to my hotel before meeting the only person I now know in the Czech Republic, an old Camp Huckins friend of SAM's, Sarka.

As you can see, a good time was had by all.

After my afternoon, I was glad for some upbeat company, and Sarka was very indulgent of all my questions about her, the Czech Republic, her life and Sarah's history.

We enjoyed another wonderful meal in a restaurant that never rushed us even as we chatted and chatted after our food, coffees and water were long gone.

It was a wonderful time and wonderful conversation that served as the perfect cap to a worthwhile and meaningful trip for me.

The National Museum
After a very large dinner, I admit, I was so taken by the Czech food that after Sarka headed home, I bought more Czech Sausage off the street from a sausage stand while wandering around the city taking night photos. And after that, another one.

That's how good they are.

And today for lunch as I waited for my flight at the Prague airport? Goulash with... sausage.

You could say that, for me, Prague was a sausage fest.

And a delicious one at that.

Me in Wenceslas Square
Now, I head home, grateful for the opportunity to mix in a little side trip into business, but even more thankful of the family that I return to.

I haven't seen SAM or Margaret in two weeks, now, and I can't wait to get home to see the changes and relax into the familiar.

More from Hong Kong.

Auf Wiedersein, Nuremburg!

I just flew in from Boston...
So it's my last night in Nuremburg, and I've decided to post a quick blog to show everyone what I've been up to these past few days.

I came to Nuremburg for the Nuremburg Spielwarenmesse, or Toy Fair (Spielzug means "toy" and "messe" as far as I can tell, means "gathering", or "convention") which is, by far, the largest toy fair I have ever seen (and I've now been to the three majors).

Nuremburg is the traditional toy capital of the world (prior to WWII) and
they take their heritage seriously with many of German toy companies headquartered here and a wonderful toy museum. They even have a fun airplane play park at the airport which I monkeyed around on.

My colleagues, Wayne, Mark and I have spent the last couple of days walking the toy fair and walking around historic Nuremburg, eating the food, drinking the beer, taking in the sights and learning about the toys.

...and boy, are my arms tired!
Nuremburg itself is a beautiful city which has been wonderfully restored to a large extent to its pre-war, midieval appearance with towers guarding the city stone walls and lots of stone bridges to cross the Pegnitz River which runs through the heart of the city center.

The people here are very friendly, and, though I've been trying to practice my Colonel Klink German ("Ja, der check, bitte" or, "Next halt, Eberhardsoff"), mostly sprechen zie English.

Seriously, though, people here are seriously nice. Everyone is open for a conversation of where you're from and are willing to share their table with you if the restaurant is full. Very cool.

Continuing our tradition of beating innocent costumed characters
More than that, the food and beer have been delicious, and over the past few days, I've consumed more alcohol with my co-workers than I have in the past two years.

Germans drink with lunch, at afternoon snack time (to call it, "tea" would be misrepresenting what gets imbibed), with dinner, and seemingly at every other opportunity.

People (other people) were drinking beer in their booths at the Toy Fair as they did business, frequently with cigarettes burning in their hands.

I've had lots of different beers, beer with lemonade (called a "Radler") and hot fresh pressed apple cider with amaretto which is incredibly delicious.

Me in front of the Spielwarenmesse (Toy Fair)
Interestingly, for as efficient and no-nonsense the Germans have a reputation for, service in restaurants has been incredibly slow. I don't think we've been to one place where the waiting or kitchen staff had any sense of urgency.

It seems that you're expected to enjoy your meal slowly and the waiter will get you your check when he's ready.

It's been interesting.

The Three Musketeers, John, Mark and Wayne boozing it up this afternoon
The trip has been a learning experience, and, while we didn't see anything really new or innovative at the fair (which is a large part European manufacturers), I did start to get an idea of how different the European toy market is from the US toy market in terms of what's popular.

Without a doubt, the toys we saw here were much more traditional - wood or plastic with few bells and whistles, but very high levels of realism. Quality was paramount. The products are well built, some might say overbuilt, but without any real innovation in their technology.

In addition, we met and spoke with some people from other companies' we work with in order to maintain those networks and relationships.

Clock tower near St. Lorenzkircher
Beyond spending two exhausting days walking the fair, we spent some time doing "research" which mostly involved walking and examining local toy stores and the very fun Toy Museum.

I love competitive shopping, but, since most of the toys on the market in Germany are as I described above (very traditional), we bought nothing that wasn't for ourselves.

On the other hand, the Toy Museum was simply inspiring. Seeing toys made for children from literally hundreds of years ago, and being able to see the evolution of an industry and of our products over the last hundred and fifty years or so really made me feel part of something bigger than today.

And maybe what we do doesn't change the world, but there have been professional toy makers putting smiles on children's faces for a very long time.

View down the Pegnitz River
Now, it is past midnight, and tomorrow afternoon, after a morning taking photos, I am off to Prague for an overnight stopover before heading home.

It has been a very long trip and I am desperately happy to get home.

Nuremburg has been a fun and rewarding experience and I am glad I came.

I will leave you with a few photos that I've taken over the past couple of evenings of Nuremburg as we happened upon it while stumbling half lost through the main city center.

Mostly, it's night photography since we've been working during the day, and the images have been most fun to make.

Traditional German restaurant where we had dinner

Two Bridges

The river that runs through Nuremburg's city center

Meanwhile, back at the ranch ...

We've had a slow, slow week, with me finally recovering from the nasty stomach bug and M sleeping off her busy vacation. For all that it's been a slow week, there seems to have been a lot going on!

Margaret has graduated to the kids table (with cousins in Guam)


More cousins!

We were so thrilled to have a last-minute visit from Uncle Ruston, in from Beijing with a visa issue. He and M were fast friends, as evidenced below:

inhaling 蘿蔔糕, no time to talk

We managed to get a free balloon with Uncle Ruston's coffee

To M's great amusement

In other news, M has begun climbing. That, and her new thing is trying to click the straps on her highchair and stroller. Never mind that she can't quite click them yet. She happily spends 20 minutes at a time climbing on the foot step of the stroller, leaning herself over the front bar and playing with the straps.

Good thing the wheels lock

Today she managed to climb all the way into the stroller, much to her disgruntlement as she was then stuck.

Anything and everything is also a seat: Mom's knees, a stair, a foot stool ...

... the foot rest of the stroller?

A light lunch

Oh, and did we mention we're buying an apartment? Floor plan below. More details to follow.