Easter weekend

Yes, yes, it's been a while since we've told you about our lives. But you really haven't missed much. Mostly, we've been sick. I've missed more work for sickness in the past month than I have in the previous four years. Thankfully, Kate and Elizabeth only got sick once in the time we've been back in Europe. Most likely, it was caused by the bad ganja at the Rasta Party we threw for Elizabeth.


Or maybe it was the Cheetos.

Really, though, it was this dude, Typhoid Phil, who is seen here with a completely empty stomach at an Easter Brunch at the Ramstein Officer's Club.

Elizabeth got the illness a few days later, but was a trooper through it all, having been fortifying herself all along on kisses.....

...and hugs....

from a new baby doll she got in her Easter Basket.

In addition to being very sweet recently, she's also been incredibly fun. She says "Mama" and "Dada" very well now, in addition to "Hi" and "Bah" (for "bye"). She's been very curious about things, pointing to them and saying "Dada?" while she waits for me to explain the thing she's pointing at. She giggles more. She laughs. She even smiles.

She even is wary of giant, overly happy rabbits. I guess she saw Donny Darko.

Here's a fun montage of the past couple weeks. Enjoy!

Snow central and back

If there is one word that summarizes our February trip to the States, it’s snow. It hampered both our entry into the country … (our flight to DC was cancelled, meaning we had to find an alternative destination, in this case NYC, and make it work) … and our flight out of the country (flights departing NYC were running an average of 5 hours and 42 minutes behind schedule. So I caught a bus).

It was the first time Elizabeth has played in more than a few inches of the white stuff.

Here she is attempting to brush off some canon balls so she can hone the skills she learned at the canon range in Portugal. For some reason, we love putting our daughter in front of military armaments of yesteryear.

We went so I could “cover down” for a colleague of mine in Brooklyn who had been (and still is) out sick. Other than being a great work opportunity for me, it was a wonderful chance to see family and friends (here's a picture of Elizabeth playing with our friends' son, Ethan, in Queens). It was also a fantastic prospect for getting our fill of the amazing cuisine from our home country.
Elizabeth enjoyed the cuisine too. Here she is now scooping sour cream into her mouth in front of a plate that was previously filled with Mexican food. This is actually on our first night in country and, to us, was like 1 a.m., which is why she looks stoned.

Thankfully, she got used to the time difference and the snow and had a good time playing outside ... just about every day. The snow was too high for her to walk around in, though, so she mostly looked out at the vastness of it, yearned to see more, and then, when it all became too much for her to fathom, laid down for a relaxing giggle.


When she couldn't go outside, she was coming up with ideas of how she could traverse the frozen fields and explore this new country. Eventually, she got the idea of putting a saddle on this great white beast and employing his height and speed to explore.

(Despite how it looks, the window doesn't look out to heaven. It was just very snowy and white outside.)

Here's Elizabeth's Oma getting distracted while reading her what appears to be a JC Penny's catalogue that sells both pantyhose and discounted trips to Bali.

It was a fun, long, and productive trip for all of us. And it made us miss living in the States.

The trip back was pretty hellish, with Elizabeth only sleeping for two hours and then crying for another hour while she wondered why she wasn't in her bed. But she adapted pretty quickly to the time here ... and to her old habits again, including putting on daddy's shirt and ripping the shift key off my keyboard. I think she wants to write the next blog. We'll see....

Another month, another country. Or two.

When Kate and I first moved to Europe, we decided (mostly for financial reasons) that we’d limit ourselves to one trip by plane per month. Well I’m currently in the US writing about our trip to Portugal earlier this month. So it seems we slipped up.

Other than the microcountry of San Marino, I had been to every country in Western Europe except Norway (which we’ll see this May and again in July) and Portugal. So there was obviously some personal motivation there. But our good friends and award winners for most relaxed couple – Heidi and Ryan – provided motivation too, as they wanted to see what Lisbon had to offer. So off we went.

Our trip started with the realization that right outside our doorstep (literally) was Tram #28, a historic tramline that offers riders an educational trip up and down Lisbon’s most notable areas, including the Alfama, Bairro Alto, and St. George’s castle.
Nah. We have a map. We’ll walk and figure it out.

Here we are taking a picture in the wrong direction, with the beautiful and formerly steam-powered Santa Justa Elevator in the background.

Then, after 45 minutes of getting lost and exhausted hiking up to the wrong entrance of the castle, we were able to watch Kate let a cannon babysit her daughter at one of the castle’s lookout terraces.And then here’s me and Elizabeth getting distracted with botany at the base of the castle.
We then walked around the historic Alfama district for a bit, had lunch, and smartly decided to take Tram #28 back. Our 1.5 hours of heaving and getting lost turned into 10 minutes of tranquil but bumpy transportation bliss. With the wind in my hair and the sun on my face, I was reflective enough for a moment to come to the realization that, across the world, public transportation riders are consistently a little peculiar, be it in their dress, attitude, or genetic anomalies. Here rode the freaks of Lisbon.

Here’s me looking at a freak now. Actually it was a doggy. A cute one too if I remember right. We’re in Belem – Portuguese for Bethlehem. From here many explorers set off to make discoveries. And it’s here that they brought back those discoveries and turned them into money which built things like the palace in the background.
And this plaza, from which Kate’s fly-aways are charmingly posing while her face indicates that she just recognized some Peruvian pan-flute campadres playing in the background.
And this monument, in front of which a truly awesome dude and his unconvinced daughter are posing.The next day brought fog and a car trip to some places the awesome dude really wanted to go to. Here’s the Castle of the Moors at Sintra, which, as you might be able to see in the background, has castle walls that skirt some smooth and truly neat stone formations.
Here are the most relaxed couple in the world celebrating after having taken over the castle.And here are two kool kats at the Westernmost point in Europe. Elizabeth is pointing West, toward Brooklyn, actually. That girl knows her geography.

And finally we went to the second largest aquarium in the world (Atlanta has #1), where Elizabeth made the fishy sound, oh, about 1,000 times. She’s a cutey.

Elizabeth prepares for airport travel

The LUXury of living in Europe

Sometimes I forget how good we have it here.

Earlier this month, Edward and Stephanie came for a visit – ostensibly to see our little family here, but I suspected they were almost as excited that they were going to spend some time in Central Europe versus, let’s say, Central Texas.We had a lot of family moments that could have happened anywhere, such as this devilish secret Elizabeth is whispering to her pet raccoon, instructing him to bite her father as soon as he leaves the room.

Or this tender moment caught on celluloid of Edward engaging a sloppy act of mutual adoration. Canine camaraderie. Passionate puppy love. (Yes, Pecos is a mutt slut!)But what added to their trip, I think, were things like sampling a few good beers at a real German restaurant (the man behind them has no face!).Or spending sometime in beautiful places.In particular, Stephanie got to revisit a place (and a person) that was incredibly important to her and no doubt helped shape who she is. And Edward got to scratch two more countries off his list (Luxembourg and Belgium) and enjoy the beauty of Central Europe in the winter … beautiful small towns, lightly falling snow, quiet town squares with hauntingly illuminated baroque churches.
It’s not every day we can see the world – and our charmed lives here – through others’ eyes; after all, in April we hit year five of living in Europe and have kind of gotten used to the privilege of being here. But it’s wonderful when it happens.

So thank you for visiting, Edward and Stephanie. Not only was it great to see you two, catch up, and make some great memories together, but it was also wonderful to be reminded of how much of a gift it is to be here. Thanks for making that clear.

Oh, here's Dodger waiting her turn to have her stickers removed. Pecos just got his sticker-dectomy.

Elizabeth takes her doggie for a walk

This was too cute not to share:

Blog about Uncle Edward's visit coming soon. In the meantime...a dancing bear.

Israel with a kid

It’s all about the kid. And the kid is very limiting. That’s one thing we’ve had to learn while traveling around Europe these past 15 months. Car rides must be an hour or less. Plane trips force you to come up with ingenious games to play with drink cups. And no matter how determined the adventurer, no plan is baby proof.

But determined we were – even Indiana Jones would be proud – as we were going to Israel for 10 days with a child. And even though we didn’t get to the Dead Sea, Masada, or a few other locales written up in the bible, we did manage to make the most of a chance work trip – and spend some quality time watching Elizabeth blow bubbles.



Jerusalem:
This video should explain it all.

Actually, we saw most of those sights (except the giant sign, which I couldn’t find anywhere). Here are some pictures to prove it, including Elizabeth standing on a camel.

Although the old city had lots to see – even for secular folks like Elizabeth and her parents – Jerusalem has a new side too, with malls, movie theaters, and restaurants with tongue-in-cheek names like Doggy Style (hot dog joint). Unfortunately, as this is the mecca (sorry!) for monotheistic devotees, even shopping centers were closed on Shabbat. It was worse than Germany on a Sunday.

Around Jerusalem:
Biblical Zoo – Fun, but kind of a gimmicky, this zoo has biblical references to all the animals inside, showing you what line in the Old Testament references monkeys, elephants, and camels. Too bad it also has red pandas from Asia, parrots from South America, and penguins. It’s also laid out so confusingly that we had to ask Elizabeth for directions.

Mini Israel – Like most fans of things miniature, Kate and Elizabeth had a blast here, noting how cute and detailed the people and places were. I, on the other hand, was spending my time imagining myself tackling buildings and kicking cars and people Godzilla-like.

I also noticed a Southwest plane at the mini airport. I’m pretty sure that would qualify as long haul.

Bethlehem – Pronounced “Bethlem” by my father, the little town of Bethlehem was, in fact, little, with one main church next to the town square that followers of Constantine’s mother’s detective work decreed "THE”spot that Jesua ben Josef (as he was known at the time) was born. Actually, this nice old Asian lady is touching the EXACT spot on which Jesus and his placenta plopped before being put into a warm, hay-filled manger. Thanks Asian lady!

Herzliya:
The Beverly Hills of Israel, Herzliya is a sunny beach town with a lot of money that bursts with Israel’s prettiest during the summer months. Good thing we were here in the winter, when it was still sunny and warm (but unfortunately not acceptable for me to wear a Borat mankini).

Be’ersheva:
Now we were really in the desert. I saw a camel-crossing sign, some Bedouins with their goats, an actual tumbleweed drifting across the road (it almost hit our car), and whole throngs of boys and girls just out of high school in olive-green fatigues, low-rise pants, and Uzis nonchalantly draped across their backs.

We actually have no pictures of this incredibly ugly town, but we do have a nice video of Elizabeth in one of the posh local malls.

Season's Greetings

Ho ho ho!

‘Tis the season to start posting some more pictures of Elizabeth, I was sternly instructed. So here you are. It’s a veritable medley of images from the past month including:

Elizabeth with Santa Claus (Der Weihnachtsmann if you’re German. Baba Noel if you’re Turkish) at my office’s “Kids Holiday Party” on Dec. 14. That's almost as precious as....

Elizabeth and her new table and chairs that she got from Old St. Nick this year (yes, Kris Kringle came early to the Ward household). Elizabeth’s new favorite trick is to climb on top of the table…which is why she also got….

A helmet. Yes, it’s a bike helmet. And no she doesn’t ride a bike. But you never can be too sure. Lots of things happen when preparing for the arrival of Sinterklas (Holland/Indonesia). Including this….

A naked monkey baby playing with a pile of Elizabeth’s books that will surely grow in number and difficulty when Dyed Moroz (Russia) comes for a visit. But the best gift that Svaty Miklas (Czech) could give us this year….

A standing, walking, destructive baby that pops out of presents left by Babbo Natale (Italy), tears down shelves, and eats just about anything fist-sized or smaller that doesn’t run away. Things like homemade play-do, as seen here:

One thing Joulupukki (Finland) already dropped off this year was a few inches of snow.

Thankfully, that gave Elizabeth time to stay inside and learn animal noises with Mama.