Smiling again

We have a bunch of photos to share from Meg and CJ's travels earlier this month, but I thought I would post a good shot from the swimming pool yesterday. Perhaps the smile is helped by the fact that she's standing on the sprinkler head?

More trouble with smiling

Meg and CJ are on vacation right now, hanging out at a beach house in Massachusetts with Uncle Frank & company. I drove them halfway up, to NYC, where we saw YeYe and a few close friends. Meg will have more photos and videos when she gets back next week.

Here we are with the Khannas:



And here is CJ and I with Linwood:



And here is CJ and YeYe on the subway:



CJ's on-camera smile is not quite what it used to be. You would think, taking four or five shots, at least one would have her smiling and then that would be the keeper. But nope. I need to break out a few new tricks, apparently. Of course, to be fair, I could use a little help with my smile, especially on that second shot...

Need a little extra bounce in your weekend?

These videos really speak for themselves:









As you can see, CJ is handling the ups and downs of childhood quite well, all things considered...

Yet another woman in my life is tired of me taking photos

CJ and I went for a great hike yesterday while Mommy finished recuperating from a nasty cold. We found (with the help of a guide book) a great swimming hole in Shenandoah National Park. We had a great time walking in the forest (nothing beats holding your daughter's hand while walking through the woods and listening to songbirds), splashed around a bit, found a bird's nest, saw a pretty waterfall, and then I tried to take a few photos. Though CJ really wasn't having any of the whole photography scene, I'd still call the outing a success...

Ice Creammm...

One of the unexpected advantages of living in Silver Spring is Moorenko's, which serves up some of the tastiest ice cream we've ever had. Here's CJ, all business with a black-raspberry-chocolate-chip sugar cone.

Summertime fun

We've had a good time the last couple of weeks, visiting family and getting the hang of summer here in DC. Here's CJ, living large down at the pool:



At the end of June, we drove back to NY to visit family. CJ and Cousins Jay and Grace had a good time on the seesaw, even after someone fell off.



CJ and Grace made themselves quite busy on the patio.



We had a good time seeing the DC sights with the gang from Riverdale and Woodstock (although the National Mall, take note, is quite jammed on July 4th weekend). Here's CJ passing time at the Lincoln Memorial:



CJ and Alyssa had a good time at Mt. Vernon as well.



And what is summer without the proper accoutrements?

Swimming with the floaties

CJ is loving the pool in our apartment complex. The lifeguards have become quite taken with CJ, giving her "VIP status," and she has made fast friends with a three-year-old boy in our building. They go swimming every afternoon together, and even do a little drag racing on occasion.



The exciting news is that we put a bid down on a house that we liked. One of the sellers was an architect who did such a great job redesigning the kitchen that we overlooked the wall-to-wall carpeting in the basement. Our offer was too low and we lost the house, unfortunately, but it was good to get our feet wet in the real estate market down here. We're all determined not to let the next house get away.

But it's not all bad. If we had bought the house, we would have had to move out and lose access to the pool before the summer was done...

Photo ops and non photo ops

Nice holiday, father's day. There's always a good excuse for a photo-op.

In the non-photo-op category, we've been shopping for cars lately and had the perfect test drive. Our car, you see, flunked the Maryland inspection and we've been exploring whether to buy a new car instead of fixing the old one.

Yesterday we made it over to the Mini dealership in Annapolis to test drive their "clubman," a station wagon of sorts that gets respectable gas mileage. Meg in particular has been wanting a Mini ever since BMW reintroduced the brand a few years back. But leaving the apartment yesterday was a bit chaotic, and Meg ended up leaving her license at home. Much to her chagrin Meg spent the test drive in the back seat.

But that calamity was nothing; ten minutes into the test drive CJ threw up! It was only the third time she threw up that we know of. The first time was a few hours before we met, when the orphanage drove her to meet us. The second time was two months ago, five minutes from our old home. The third time, yesterday, was a bit more complicated. But we're happy to report that the mini clubman is big enough to be able to clean up a mess without bumping your head. Actually, CJ was kind enough to keep the mess confined to her and her car seat, much to the salesman's relief.

CJ is fine today, as you can see from the photo above. Maybe she was just test driving herself...

Catching up and moving in

My apologies for not writing for so long. As we learned firsthand, an interstate move is quite the learning experience. And starting a new job can also be quite intensive.

First things first -- everybody's doing well, the new place is great, the new job is fine. Lots of nice people abound. The only truly negative part of the past month was when I tried to get phone service (Verizon is such a horrible company). But we're getting phone service when our cable and internet gets hooked up, hopefully this Wednesday, so we'll be more in touch and posting more entries.

Before we left, we had a great going away party at An Beal Bocht, the local Irish pub in Riverdale (highly recommended). Family, friends, and a few of CJ's playground buddies came over to give us a proper send us off. Here's CJ with Emma having a good frolic.



The moving company packed most of our stuff -- CJ did most of the supervising. When she wasn't reliving Halloween, that is.



Under CJ's watchful eye, the movers packed everything with the greatest of care.



Our old apartment was loaded onto the truck on a Friday, and our stuff was delivered to the new apartment on the following Monday. In between, we spent the weekend with Uncle Frank, Aunt Susan, and cousins Jay and Grace. Here's Jay leading everyone through some impromptu martial arts exercises.



Jay is quite the skateboard fiend these days.



While I was busy wrapping up loose ends at the old place, everyone else went out to Long Island to celebrate cousin Bobby's graduation. Here's a gaggle of cousins posing for the camera.



We drove down to Maryland on Sunday with Nai Nai, and stayed at a bed a nearby bed and breakfast. At the B&B, the innkeeper looked after her granddaughter in the mornings, and CJ happily pitched in.



On Monday morning, we went to our new home when our stuff was delivered. Here's CJ and Nai Nai, supervising as the movers unload the truck.



CJ really likes the new apartment, although she was a little lost among the boxes at first.



But now we're mostly unpacked, and celebrating Mommy's birthday today.

Transition: CJ Takes Over

While Daddy was cleaning up his office, CJ tied up a few loose ends at work for him...

On leaves, and leaving

As my previous post noted, we are leaving New York City. I have accepted a job offer from the Pew Charitable Trusts to publicize their environmental work. We move on May 16; I start the new job on May 27.

To those who know us, this comes as no surprise. We had been making noise about leaving town for years. New York City is no longer a welcoming place for the middle class. The housing stock is too expensive, the schools are horrible and getting worse, the subway system is also deteriorating, and the overall cost of living – emotional as well as economical – is far too high.

But I have called this city home for all of my 40 years; breaking up is indeed hard to do.

Yesterday morning I went for a run in Van Cortland Park, traveling a route I had taken many times before. It leads through a stand of woods squeezed between a major street and a busy parkway, yet there is a half-mile stretch in a small ravine where the valley’s ridges and trees shut out the sound of traffic and humanity and you are left to enjoy the sounds of a forest. You could be anywhere, not within the New York City limits.

I have run this trail countless times, through rain and snow and sleet and even bright sunshine and glorious autumn mornings. But this morning, with the mist settling delicately on the new leaves of the oaks and tulip poplars, I thought about all the many crises and personal storms that I ran through as well.

These woods were more than my refuge, the trees did more than shelter me. They absorbed the angst and anguish and anger from innumerable crises, sucking it all in like they breathe in the car exhaust and exhaling peace and tranquility and a friendly space for the red tailed hawk that’s buzzed me more often than not as I’ve run past.

I’ve been in such desperate moods, my brain lost in turmoil as my feet find their way through the well-traveled trails, that sometimes I can’t recount a single detail from my run but feel infinitely better from the trees lifting burden after burden from my shoulders. I’ve run through the recent deaths of my brother, my mother-in-law and a dear friend and mentor; the aborted pregnancy of our first child; the needless travails of too many crappy bosses; and the achingly long road that led to our adopting CJ.

Perhaps they stand so tall and solid because they also saw me through happier times as well. They also shelter enough raspberry bushes to make most of the Bronx happy, it seems.

We are moving to Silver Spring, Maryland, a stone’s throw from Rock Creek Park. When I first started looking at the map of Washington, DC, my focus immediately fastened onto Rock Spring, the largest green swath in the district’s boundaries. We drove through the park during one of our househunting trips, and while the trees are sufficiently large the presence of the road itself raises doubts about the seclusion that the broad branches offer. But this will be home for at least the next year or so, and hopefully we will find a new home close to enough to another stand of trees that can shelter me from future storms aplenty.



My apologies for waxing poetic; one gets more than a little nostalgic contemplating such change in life.

- Dan

Birthday season

It's been a crazy crazy month, and there's the mother of all blog posts getting written to provide all the details. But here's the basics:

1. We're moving to Washington DC on May 16
2. Dan starts a new job, as Communications Officer for Pew Charitable Trusts' Environmental Group, on May 27

Specifics on the going away party to be announced soon. And now, here is CJ serenading the birthday aunts:





Did you catch that goggle reference at the end? She needed a redo...

Easter!

We have a few more photos and some video to post, but we'll use this one as a placeholder for now...

NaiNai's birthday (and follow-up visit)

At the beginning of March, we helped NaiNai celebrate her birthday with a fabulous brunch. Here's CJ bending NaiNai's ear on what it means to be a big girl now:



After we ate, CJ then taught Bogey a new bone trick.



And then, everyone's favorite entertainer tickled the ivories for us.



This past weekend, NaiNai and YeYe came by for a follow-up visit. NaiNai read CJ a great story:



And then all of a sudden, a pillow fight broke out.



It's just another day in the life.

An interesting take on how to look at China

As the parent of a Chinese-American girl, all of the criticisms and scandals swirling around China trouble me. Not that the news lacks justification -- I'll be the first to point out that China's government has an incredible amount of room for improvement. But we are very much on the edge of an era where it becomes acceptable to blatantly discriminate against China -- and by extension, anyone Chinese. (in fact, we're probably there already in most parts of the U.S.)

That is why I enjoyed this post from the China Beat. It effectively discusses how to look at China with a more holistic, big-picture perspective.

I'm also interested in hearing people's thoughts on this rather weighty topic.

Catching up

February was a pretty hectic month. My apologies for not posting all too much. To make up for it, this post will have to be very large...

But larger than Babar? Here's CJ in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, hanging out with her favorite elephant. We were in Washington this past week for Uncle Herman's funeral. While I worked the day after the funeral, CJ and Meg went sightseeing.


Earlier this month, we added an extra day to President's Day weekend and hung out in the High Peaks area of the Adirondacks. Here's CJ and Mommy in a refurbished covered bridge:


Meg and I have been going up to the Adirondacks since the early '90s and were somewhat amused that the High Peaks area had just been "discovered." We had a fun time hanging out with one of Meg's high school buddies, Claudia, her husband John, and their son Joseph. CJ had a fun time goofing around with (and riding on) Joseph:


The six of us then went on a snowshoeing expedition to Roaring Brook Falls (on the south flank of Giant Mountain). The weather was global-warming-weird, fifty degrees in the middle of February in the mountains of Northern New York. Here's CJ, Meg and I at the top of the falls:


And here's Claudia, Meg and Joseph:


CJ, Meg and I continued uphill for another half mile or so, took a break to figure out where we were and whether we should continue. The place where we stopped was a large grove of birch trees, which would have been gorgeous had there been sunlight. Even so, there was plenty of beauty under the gray sky. Here's CJ taking in the sights:


With us, taking photos is like eating potato chips. You can't just take one.


We finally decided to continue on, but only snowshoed another thirty yards or so before coming to the place where the trail crossed Roaring Brook. With all the snow melt coming off the mountain, the brook wasn't quite passable.

And then it started raining, of course.

Here are a few shots from earlier in February, goofing around at home.


With Meg and I wearing our glasses ("goggles") around the house, every now and then CJ snags Mr. Potatohead's glasses and does the same. Here she is "shopping" on the coffee table:


She's a bit of a wackadoo, to be honest.


Way back at the end of January, we got together with three of the families with whom we traveled to China. Due to an unfortunate need for CJ to powder her nose, she missed the group photo. Here are Olivia, Cara, and Gabriella, wondering where CJ wandered off to:


The photo was taken at the tail end of the visit. Folks had to get going, but the three of us stayed a little bit longer with Gabriella, Jana, and Pete. Here's Meg, CJ, and Gabriella:


CJ even led an impromptu yoga class for all the girls.


Finally, CJ had a lot of fun hanging out and watching all of the Giants playoff games with me. We even dragged Meg to the Superbowl party hosted by our friends Josh and Betsy. We were all quite thrilled by the amazing game, but the experience really tired CJ out:


While CJ and Meg did not make it down for the ticker-tape parade, they didn't miss much. This is as close as I got to the Superbowl trophy:


Party on!