Friday, October 9, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The Littlest Refusenik (off-topic)
I thought I'd take this moment to tell a story not about Theo, but about history. It's 1977, and a couple in Moscow by the names of Boris and Natalya are blessed with a daughter, whom they name Jessica. Boris and Natalya are "refuseniks," Soviet citizens refused an exit visa to leave the Soviet Union. And to compound this, Jessica is in poor health due to malabsorption syndrome. Jessica needs medical care only available in the West, where Jessica's babushka now lives. Babushka can send formula back to Moscow for her granddaughter with tourists, but this cannot do it all. The family requests permission to reunite in the west, with Babushka calling her Senator and Boris and Natalya filing for an exit visa on health grounds.
Boris recalls the evening he got a call from friends. It was one in the morning, and he was asked to come over, right away. He remembered seeing from the window of his friend's apartment several cars pull up: cars which were favored by the KGB. A group of "official looking" men entered the apartment with an American, who asked the KGB officers to leave the room. "And they left!" Boris recalls, with surprise even today, over 30 years later.
The American was Ted Kennedy. He had made a deal with Leonid Breznev allowing Boris, Natalya and Jessica to emigrate. Kennedy met them at Logan Airport and, as Boris recalls, was "the first person we saw" in America. He kept in touch with the family as they settled, and Jessica grew older and stronger. She now works for the City of New York, helping to find housing for those with special needs.
While I am well aware of Ted Kennedy's weaknesses, it is his strengths I admire. I wish him fair seas and following winds.
Boris recalls the evening he got a call from friends. It was one in the morning, and he was asked to come over, right away. He remembered seeing from the window of his friend's apartment several cars pull up: cars which were favored by the KGB. A group of "official looking" men entered the apartment with an American, who asked the KGB officers to leave the room. "And they left!" Boris recalls, with surprise even today, over 30 years later.
The American was Ted Kennedy. He had made a deal with Leonid Breznev allowing Boris, Natalya and Jessica to emigrate. Kennedy met them at Logan Airport and, as Boris recalls, was "the first person we saw" in America. He kept in touch with the family as they settled, and Jessica grew older and stronger. She now works for the City of New York, helping to find housing for those with special needs.
While I am well aware of Ted Kennedy's weaknesses, it is his strengths I admire. I wish him fair seas and following winds.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Diminutives
For those of you who have not experienced Russian culture up close, I'd like to share some very endearing rituals that I just love. First and foremost there's the use of diminutives for names or nicknames. For example adding a diminutive to a proper name, such as Theodore becoming "Theodorchik" is common, and not just for people. Many Russians refer to their mobile phones as "telefonchik." nBut my favorite example is how Julia and her mom refer to Theo by using a string of increasingly shorter diminutives of the Russian word for little, маленький (pronounced ma-lin-key).
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Reflections on Father's Day
Sunday was my very first Father's Day as a Father. It started off with a little scavenger hunt arranged by the boy (with some help from his Mom ;-). Along with three greeting cards came the audiobook editions of Tim Russert's "Big Russ and Me" and "Wisdom of Our Fathers." These will accompany us on our next road trip for sure.
Father's day part two comes this Sunday, so more to follow!!!!
Father's day part two comes this Sunday, so more to follow!!!!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Growing and Learning
Theodore is now almost 10lbs, and his 24" length makes him fill out the crib nicely. When we first came home, he looked lost in there; a little guy in a giant crib with a toy or two. I am so amazed at the process that is happening here with him and with his parents, who are getting the hang of being mommy and daddy.
I feel like I'm not rolling enough video, taking enough pictures or writing enough down (as you can tell by my spotty blogging record). I want to be sure to leave a concise record of Theo's childhood, so he can better see what things were like when he was too young to remember.
He's a well traveled little guy! Theo and Julia have accompanied me to Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC on business, and has visited family and friends in southern New Jersey. Theo likes the car, and sleeps well while we drive him around.
I feel like I'm not rolling enough video, taking enough pictures or writing enough down (as you can tell by my spotty blogging record). I want to be sure to leave a concise record of Theo's childhood, so he can better see what things were like when he was too young to remember.
He's a well traveled little guy! Theo and Julia have accompanied me to Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC on business, and has visited family and friends in southern New Jersey. Theo likes the car, and sleeps well while we drive him around.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Deep Thoughts at Ikea
Sleep deprivation and a lousy dietary schedule have conspired to keep me in a haze through what has been a pretty good experience so far. So it was with great relish that I found myself with a few minutes of “me time” while returning a few items to Ikea from our kitchen that didn’t fit properly. With a plate of Swedish Meatballs and a cup of coffee, I sat in the cafeteria and noticed a family at the next table. The parents were ecstatic over their toddler daughter’s use of a new word: she would utter “wow….huge!” every time a plane took off from the adjacent Newark Liberty Airport.
I can’t wait until my little guy is at that stage. I think the thing I most look forward to is introducing Teddy to the world. I can’t wait to teach him new words (probably some that he shouldn’t know), and I can’t wait to experience learning through his eyes. I want to tell him stories of my travels and my own tales of derring-do; part braggadocio and part warning. I want to prepare him for his future in ways that my dad prepared me as a little guy, and my grandfather did when I was in my teens. I want to show him the world in a way neither of them could as well. Literally, if all goes according to plan, I want him to see more countries before his 18th birthday than most Americans see in a lifetime. I long to teach him about his ancestry and the customs of his cultures , the history of the two countries he can claim as his own and the deeds of those with whom he shares his names.
But for now, it’s burping and changing duty, followed by tummy time, silly songs, reading and music.
I can’t wait until my little guy is at that stage. I think the thing I most look forward to is introducing Teddy to the world. I can’t wait to teach him new words (probably some that he shouldn’t know), and I can’t wait to experience learning through his eyes. I want to tell him stories of my travels and my own tales of derring-do; part braggadocio and part warning. I want to prepare him for his future in ways that my dad prepared me as a little guy, and my grandfather did when I was in my teens. I want to show him the world in a way neither of them could as well. Literally, if all goes according to plan, I want him to see more countries before his 18th birthday than most Americans see in a lifetime. I long to teach him about his ancestry and the customs of his cultures , the history of the two countries he can claim as his own and the deeds of those with whom he shares his names.
But for now, it’s burping and changing duty, followed by tummy time, silly songs, reading and music.
Monday, April 27, 2009
The happy recap:
On April 10, 2009 at 11:20pm New York time, my son was born. This is a sentence that at various times in my life I feared, rejected, considered with apprehension, or embraced, depending on the phase I was in at the time. Looking back I realize that this may have been the closest to perfect timing I’ve ever experienced in an action that I did not have complete control over. And now that Theodore is here, I get to live out a new phase in my life (along with my lovely wife of course), a waypoint at which my life’s course is reset.
A little background: From 2004 to 2007 I took an assignment in Moscow. I was 34 when I arrived in Russia; a recently divorced mid-career specialist in search of new experiences and distance from certain events, both historical and personal. When I returned to the US in October 2007, I left something very important in Moscow; the love of my life. I met her with about four months left on my tour, which is much more typical of my bad timing. Luckily for me, circumstances provided me with four additional months, giving us enough time to plan our next steps and deciding which of us would move and when. We settled on Julia following me to New York in 2008. We considered a destination wedding in South Africa, and meanwhile, worked out several trips between Moscow and New York, along with trips to Budapest and Toronto.
It was sometime during a Moscow visit in the summer that our little guy became a reality. That trip included us taking an overnight train to St. Petersburg, and staying in a quaint little European style hotel right in the heart of the city. We found out about the pregnancy just before our trip to Cape Town, which we had decided to make a vacation along with a side trip to Dubrovnik, Croatia for the wedding of our close friends Ed and Katya. Since we didn’t know the sex of the baby yet, we referred to our unborn child as “Mishka,” which is the Russian diminutive for a bear. Julia and I often referred to little kids as “Mishki” (the plural) since they teeter and stomp around like little cubs. In a bit of foreshadowing, Julia and I have a picture from the Moscow Circus feeding a baby bear condensed milk and smiling proudly. Little did we know at the time that we’d be feeding a mishka of our very own just a little later in our lives.
In December Julia made the trip here, and on a snowy day we got married at Borough Hall in Staten Island, with my Mom as witness and the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop. I actually went into the office a few hours before the ceremony to catch up on some paperwork, leading a friend to tease us that it was very chic to get married on my lunch hour. We began two processes that required research, introspection and a devotion to detail; finding the right doctor and beginning the immigration process for Julia. The winter of 2008-2009 was our nesting period, though our renovation is, as of this writing, an ongoing project finally within sight of end.
And on the 10th day of April, Theodore Joseph emerged from his hibernation.
A little background: From 2004 to 2007 I took an assignment in Moscow. I was 34 when I arrived in Russia; a recently divorced mid-career specialist in search of new experiences and distance from certain events, both historical and personal. When I returned to the US in October 2007, I left something very important in Moscow; the love of my life. I met her with about four months left on my tour, which is much more typical of my bad timing. Luckily for me, circumstances provided me with four additional months, giving us enough time to plan our next steps and deciding which of us would move and when. We settled on Julia following me to New York in 2008. We considered a destination wedding in South Africa, and meanwhile, worked out several trips between Moscow and New York, along with trips to Budapest and Toronto.
It was sometime during a Moscow visit in the summer that our little guy became a reality. That trip included us taking an overnight train to St. Petersburg, and staying in a quaint little European style hotel right in the heart of the city. We found out about the pregnancy just before our trip to Cape Town, which we had decided to make a vacation along with a side trip to Dubrovnik, Croatia for the wedding of our close friends Ed and Katya. Since we didn’t know the sex of the baby yet, we referred to our unborn child as “Mishka,” which is the Russian diminutive for a bear. Julia and I often referred to little kids as “Mishki” (the plural) since they teeter and stomp around like little cubs. In a bit of foreshadowing, Julia and I have a picture from the Moscow Circus feeding a baby bear condensed milk and smiling proudly. Little did we know at the time that we’d be feeding a mishka of our very own just a little later in our lives.
In December Julia made the trip here, and on a snowy day we got married at Borough Hall in Staten Island, with my Mom as witness and the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop. I actually went into the office a few hours before the ceremony to catch up on some paperwork, leading a friend to tease us that it was very chic to get married on my lunch hour. We began two processes that required research, introspection and a devotion to detail; finding the right doctor and beginning the immigration process for Julia. The winter of 2008-2009 was our nesting period, though our renovation is, as of this writing, an ongoing project finally within sight of end.
And on the 10th day of April, Theodore Joseph emerged from his hibernation.
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