Toddler Welcome

From the time we arrived in Chennai, our sponsors (Kristin and Tony) have been awesome. Even before we got here, Kristin had a social event lined up for me, Ladies' Poker Night:

Once we were somewhat settled, Kristin and Tony hosted a "get to know you" event for us, with most of the other Consulate families whose kids are around Sam's age. We ate, we shmoozed, we watched football. Now, Tony and Kristin are used to having their two kids (Holli and Carter) around, but they are well past toddler age. The chaos created by a herd of munchkins hopped up on toys and cake was something to see.

At one point the older kids started throwing a toy frog at the ceiling. And it stuck.

Yeah, it was that kind of party. :) Thanks, guys!

If it's Tuesday, this must be Germany.

We got to Frankfurt at 5 AM local time, 11:00 at night as far as we were concerned, after being awake most of the flight from New York. Sam had a good time on the plane, but really really wanted to kick the seat in front of him all 7 hours. Thank goodness the German girl sitting there didn't seem to mind. Getting our massive numbers of bags (each weighing 50 lbs. or less) through the Frankfurt airport was a challenge, but luckily the hotel is literally attached to the airport.

Slept a little, ordered breakfast in, and finally felt human later today. We took the S-bahn (train) into the center of Frankfurt to check out the older buildings (as in, 15th century) and have dinner. Mark got his sauerbraten and I had spaetzle, along with an excellent hefeweisen (wheat beer) and apfelwein (cider). Sam had applesauce and said "hi" to the entire restaurant. The Japanese family next to us was charmed. The lady who wanted to read her book in peace moved to another table.

On the walk back to the S-bahn, we saw a shop selling Native American jewelry. Now, I know enough German to realize that the sign basically said, "Native American Jewelry" (the derivation of the Yiddish insult is from the concept of "family jewels"). But I am just enough of a 12 year old to be amused, and to think of the word "Indianerschmuck" as what one might call a Hoosier who is in fact a hoser. :)

Now we're hanging out in the room, watching election coverage on CNN Europe. Our flight to New Delhi is early afternoon tomorrow, so it'll be a morning of relaxing at the hotel before it's time to go.

Onward and Eastward...

New York Stories

Got to New York safely, found a car service with an SUV that could take us and our ridiculous amount of baggage to Mark's grandma Chase's apartment, had some late-night diner food (delivered!) and great conversation with Chase. The next day was Halloween, and after Mark's morning at work we met up at Braden's apartment for a playgroup. Sam was actually the oldest baby for a change.

Braden's cutie, Fisher, was fittingly dressed as the Catch of the Day, while Sam went with a holiday-themed outfit rather than a costume this year.

Later that night, thanks to a babysitter Braden arranged for us, we were able to see Equus with Chase. Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths were amazing, but that is one twisted play.

Side note: in the play, Daniel's character is so disturbed at one point that he doesn't talk, only sings commercial jingles, especially one for a Britsh candy bar called Milky Bar ("The Milky Bar Kid is strong and tough, and only the best is good enough..."). Once we arrived in Chennai, a local cable station was running ads for a showing of the most recent Harry Potter movie, with shots of a tortured-looking Daniel. The sponsor? Milky Bar. Ha!

It was a wonderful weekend with Chase, who has an apartment chock full of sculptures that are just the right height for a toddler to meet. Sam would run around saying "hi" to all of them. Luckily all of the ones at ground level were bronze or other suitably toddler-proof materials. We had no high chair, but we made do:

After meeting up for lunch with friends Jenny and Ross (last seen Scottish dancing at their Texas wedding), we went with Chase to the Natural History Museum. It was the first time that Sam really interacted with museum exhibits, naming the animals he knew, and it was a blast. Towards the end, you will see the famous "sack of potatoes" exhibit from the Anthropology hall.

New York is where a lot of Mark's college buddies have ended up, which afforded us the opportunity to join Jordana and David for brunch, along with their super-cute kiddos, Charlie, Zack, and baby Rosie. Kid-friendly apartment, lots of toys, bagels galore... Sam was in heaven.

Our final night in New York was spent unpacking, repacking, and weighing suitcases. We were not going to be overweight with our baggage again, not with three other flights to take! (The best laid plans... oy oy oy). The next morning Mark went to work at JFK and I went off to mail the excess belongings to our new home in India. We met up at JFK, easily checked in our right-weight bags, and headed out on Lufthansa to our "rest stop" in Frankfurt. Thanks to seat-back movies and Sesame Street on DVD, a fairly uneventful flight was had by all.

In Transit

There are a lot of back posts which will appear once we're settled somewhere with internet (or at least a good spell with borrowed wifi), all about pumpkin patches and visiting New York and moving out of D.C....

But suffice it to say that we are in a state of flux. We're leaving New York tomorrow (Monday) for 24 hours in Frankfurt, then 24 hours in New Delhi, and "home" in Chennai on Friday. Pack out was crazy (I'm not sure it can be any other way), and we ended up one of those sad families at the airport, all of our suitcases open, moving things around and into boxes so that we wouldn't have to pay fees for overweight bags. Thanks to the porters at National Airport, we didn't! There are definitely some packages that will be sent ahead of us before we go head out of JFK tomorrow...

Sam is doing well, loves the airplanes so far, and we're all thrilled to be on our way. We're trying to talk to as many people as we can on the journey, and we'll do our best to touch base once we're in India.

L'hitraot (don't know how to say that in Tamil/Hindi/Urdu)...

Sam's Name

As anyone who has read the blockbuster picture book Sam's Names knows, our son has a lot of aliases. Aside from the traditional Samuel/Sam/Sammy, he answers to Bubba, Shmoopy and Buddy, just to name a few.

But now, he has re-named himself! If you point to Sam and ask, "Who's this?" he'll proudly respond, "SABBY!"

Ladies and gentlemen, Sabby:

With a mouthful of raisins.

Kennedy Center

Last Saturday we had a great day at the Kennedy Center Open House (thanks to Alison and the playgroup for telling us about it)! Neither Mark nor I had ever been there; we didn't even know it had three venues (like the Music Center). The Open House was fabulous- there were free events all day; in the three halls, out on the two plazas, and on temporary stages in the foyer. We saw the National Symphony Orchestra play different pieces of "Americana" (including John Philip Sousa, songs from The Music Man, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the type of music you hear in classic cartoons).

After lunch in the rooftop cafeteria we took in a concert by children's folk singer Dan Zanes on the plaza. Really, really fun, with plenty of kids dancing, a misting tent, and more than enough rocks for Sam to collect as he wandered around the plaza (he's still trying to work out how to pick up more rocks when his hands are already full). Sam also got to experience Popsicles for the first time, and he's a fan. :) We didn't get to see the ballet or Chinese puppet theater, and the storytellers weren't geared to kids, but it was still an enormously entertaining outing. There were even free shuttles back to the Metro station.

Too much sitting in the concert hall; must wander around.

That stroller (not ours) was labeled with our last name!
We didn't get to hang around and meet the potential relatives.

Love the misting tent when it's 90F+ outside!

Mmmm, Popsicle!

Dan Zanes is the one in the blue shirt.

This will probably be our only trip to the Kennedy Center for the next two years, but it was a good one

Elevator

This is a cute (pre-incident) baby hand, not elevator chow.

The elevators in our apartment building have doors that shut really quickly. So quickly that the first person to get in the elevator stops the door mid-close and holds it open for everyone else. We've been pretty worried about the doors closing on Sam, and are vigilant about blocking the door around him. What we didn't realize was that Sam could get injured by the door opening.

Today Sam and I were coming downstairs from Lisa and Eric's apartment (after a lovely lunch, thanks Lisa!), and Sam was standing up in the elevator, holding my hand. As the door opened, he lunged for it, falling against the opening door. This carried his little hand into the minuscule space between the moving door and the elevator, trapping it. His body tripped the sensor, making the door stay open, keeping his hand stuck.

There was no button that worked; the sensor overrode pushing a button for any other floor, there was no "door close" button, and the Alarm button (which we had carefully guarded from Sam's eager fingers) didn't seem to do anything. I hollered "HELP!!!" at the top of my lungs while holding Sam's arm so that his hand wouldn't go further in, and he screamed right along with me.

A woman from the nearest apartment came running out to help, and I decided to try to pull the door closed manually. Thankfully, that worked, but Sam's freed hand looked like flattened Play Doh. I called 911, and the EMTs came quickly while building maintenance workers stayed with us. Sam was pretty upset (compounded by the fact that it was his nap time and he was due a bottle), and his hand looked awful.

Many thanks to the ambulance crew, nurses, doctors, and x-ray techs at Fairfax Hospital Pediatrics ER for taking such good care of us. As of now, there are no breaks in his hand (let's hear it for baby skeletons still being part cartilage!) and he doesn't seem to notice that three of his fingers are swollen. He did complain when he couldn't hold his sippy cup as well ("Hep bebe!") but that's about it.

Mark and I are nervous wrecks, of course. Maybe when he's 30 we'll calm down.

139th Ball

In September the 139th Class had a ball (no, a real one) at the DACOR House in D.C. We don't have a photo of the two of us ballroom dancing, but most of you have already seen that. Just imagine a foxtrot medley and a swing medley, not many other people on the dance floor, there you go...

Don't we look fancy! And sweaty.

This is after both medleys, and the salsa dancing.

Not just dancing- there was talking too!

Lisa (the other Lisa) and Steven get down with their bad selves.


Marcus, also looking fancy. And tall. Very very tall.

Sara , Kris, Janice, Lisa. The three of them managed to dance without looking ruffled. Me, not so much.

Even taller with the hat.

Mark, Lisa, Bev, and Joe in his spiffy dress uniform.

Mark and Jon (the organizer!) boogie down.

This is why Mark prefers ballroom.

And yet, the disco and Motown were just so much fun!!!

Did we mention the karaoke? Sweet Caroline is always a favorite.

Sweet Caroline...

...bomp, bomp, BOM...

...so good (so good, so good)...

Ending the evening with a soulful rendition of That's Life!

Bureaucrat or not, the boy's still got a set of pipes on him.