Ben! Ben! Ben!

This is the Ben Blog Post!

Normally we don't post a lot about other people in order to maintain some privacy since this is a public blog. We never post last names when we do talk about people. Another reason we don't post a lot about other people is because we don't want people to be paranoid about whether or not we are going to blog our experience of hanging out with them.

However, Ben did ask, "Are you going to blog this?" when we saw him. And it wasn't in a paranoid sort of way, but more of a "Will I be immortalized on your blog?" sort of way. So, since he is one of our loyal readers, and an interesting guy, I thought I would post about the great time we had hanging out with him. I feel that us hanging out with Ben is proof that as new parents, we can still have fun hanging out with non-parents. Our social lives are not over!

Who is this Ben?

He wears trendy glasses.
He likes our baby.
He becomes quite tan.
He knows more about wine than anyone else I know (and made us buy an expensive, but tasty bottle on Valentine's Day 2003).
He looks kind of cute wearing a baseball cap backwards.
He used to work at a horse farm (and enjoys the occasional cigar).
He designed and prepared flower arrangements for my wedding.
He has a cool girlfriend.
He is very contemplative.
Sometimes he doesn't want to be seen in public with Robin.

You don't believe these things, you say? That's ok, as you may have suspected, I have photographic evidence.

Trendy Ben

Ha Ha! I hold the baby before Robin!

Tan Ben

Notice the Skillful Opening Job on this Bottle.
He is not even distracted by the super giant purple candle.

Ben in Baseball Cap with Coffees

Horsefarm at Sunset

Beautiful Flowers!

Holly and Ben

Holly and Ben (Holly bangs moved to other side)

Contemplating his Tan-ness

Contemplating the BOB menu
(or wondering... "Does the fact that I don't have
a boat exclude me from ordering?")

I have never seen that woman before.

Over the 4th of July holiday week, Dan, Will, and I met Ben and Holly at the Frederick Meijer Gardens. We enjoyed both the cultural enrichment that comes from viewing art and the invigorating wonder that comes from browsing an outdoor sculpture garden.

We like art with Peering Holes

Will was not invigorated

But we all got to pose next to the pretty pond and waterfall

Over the years, we have seen Ben in many random situations.

• For Robin's 21st birthday, we went to a German restaurant that had deep-fried, bacon-wrapped sausage and a Swing Dance club in the basement. (Ben-roommate Matt stepped on my foot when we tried swing-dancing.)
  
• One time we drove a Prius to a Prohibition-Era speakeasy.
• You saw proof of the cigar-smoking horse farm incident of 1999.
• And who could forget gourmet Thanksgiving dinner at Peter and Ben's apartment.
  

Actually, I can't recall a very normal situation that involves Ben. Perhaps he may have joined us once or twice to BBQ in Lowell, but other than that, it is always strange. But then again, we might say the same about many of our friends. Hmmm... maybe it is us...

On Disliking Baby Formula...

The airports are being careful with flights due to a new plot discovered in Britain. One of the restrictions that has come out of this is a ban on bringing liquids onto planes. That's right, the skies will soon be filled with high-strung passengers who had to chug their venti macchiatos between security and boarding the plane.

How does this most recent protection of our air safety affect me, you might wonder? You may know that Will and I travel a lot on planes. So far, including connections, we have taken 16 flights since Will was born. In order to make Will and the others around us happy passengers, I have to feed him when we take off and land so that his ears won't hurt. Unfortunately, since he is now 27 inches long, this has proven difficult since he tries to kick the arm of the seat when I nurse him. The solution? Breast milk in a bottle. Very convenient.

Convenient... until now. Of course the ban on liquids on planes has some exceptions. Baby formula and breast milk can be brought through security. However, they must be "tested," by the person carrying them on.

Now, I believe that breastmilk is the bestfood for my baby. I have even considered having T-Shirts printed saying, "Breast is Best," a common saying at Le Leche League meetings. (What else would you wear to such a meeting?)

But the question now is... Do I want to drink the breast milk? That just seems kind of weird. I'm fine with removing my laptop from my bag, taking the baby out of the baby carrier, removing my shoes, all without dropping Will. But after going through all of this while trying to balance the baby while standing there in my socks, and then being asked to taste the bottle of breast milk? I'm a little unsure. Perhaps I should prepare some baby formula.

We travel next week.

On Disliking SUVs…

Sports Utility Vehicles are gas-guzzling, parking-space-hogging, freeway-crowding machines.

This being said, I am now starting to understand where one might be useful in my life.

Before becoming a parent, I was convinced that kids were small and could therefore fit inside my car. In fact, I believed that I could have up to 2 kids before I needed to upgrade from my 2-door Saturn coupe to a car that could seat more kids. The back seat of my car was small, yes, but remember, so are kids.

Even better was Dan’s 4-door Honda Accord. You could fit at least 3 kids in the back seat of that. And they didn’t even have to squeeze in through the 2 front doors. They get their own doors!

Needless to say, I was wrong. I forgot to consider car seats. I started thinking about this last year when I was pregnant. How am I going to get a car seat into my Saturn? My train of thought was short because it just was physically impossible to put a car seat in the coupe. So we got rid of the Saturn.

But wait, we still have the wonderful and expansive 4-door Honda Accord at our disposal. We can certainly fit at least 2 car seats in there! One behind each front seat, right? But, alas, the mechanics of it failed us again. Since Dan and I have long legs, we have our front driver’s and passenger’s seats moved back to a comfortable distance from the knee-crunching dashboard. And, since we have an “L-sized” child, we bought an “L-sized” car seat.

Practical "L-sized" car seat at a Pacific Ocean beach

It didn’t fit behind the seats. Our last option… putting it in the middle. This works fine. It fits well. So why would I ever buy a car larger than a 4-door Honda Accord? There are two problems with our current set-up.

The first problem is lifting the car seat in and out of the car. We have to lean over, grab the latch that disconnects the car seat from the base, lift up (while leaning over), and pull the car seat out horizontally. This worked ok in the beginning when Will was only 11 lbs or so. But it is not working so well these days when he is about 16 lbs. Those 5 lbs make a difference.

Perhaps you suggest that we leave the car seat in the car and simply pick up the baby. This has got to be easier since the car seat by itself weighs 13 lbs, right? Well, here we run into the second problem. Will enjoys standing. If we go to lift him up out of the car seat, he puts his feet under himself and pushes up. That gives us about 1 inch of maneuvering space between his head and the top of the car. Most times that we do this, we end up bumping his head on the ceiling, hitting his feet or legs on the car seat, or bumping his head on the door as we pull him out of the car. (When “sorry” ends up being Will’s first word, you will know why.)

This is why we now believe that we need an SUV. We need space for maneuvering the car seat out of the car. We need the head clearance for Will. Between now and October, we have to figure out what kind of SUV to buy. We are kind of hoping that we can avoid the SUV purchase, so if you know of a good car with better head clearance, perhaps we can consider that. If they weren’t so expensive, we would go with the slightly less gas guzzling hybrid SUV. Perhaps we will get one of those small, car-like SUVs (RAV-4, Vue). In any case, it looks like we will be joining the ranks of the large American SUV owners.

Avoid SUVs and get a mini-van, you say? Don't get me started on mini-vans.

Will's First Business Trip

As you know, Will is a first-class world traveler. The kid had a passport and frequent flyer number before he got his health insurance card. After traveling for moving purposes and leisure purposes, he has now traveled for business purposes. That's right, Will accompanied me on a business trip to Syracuse, NY. Here he is, looking very serious and business-like, ready to make a deal.


As you can tell, it is fairly bright in Syracuse during the summer months. Fortunately we were able to pick up these nifty sunglasses in the middle of upstate NY, half way between Syracuse and Rochester where we had dinner with Jen, Scott, and Calla (who is a week younger than Will). It was awesome... in my current southern California lifestyle, I had forgotten how "authentic" it could be to eat at a Truck Stop. I guess there are Truck Stops here in California, but I have not run into one in my suburban paradise. The restaurant in the Truck Stop was called the Iron Skillet. This is because everything was served in... you guessed it... Iron Skillets.


With this trip, Will has now taken 8 airplane flights. They have taken him to 2 countries and 5 different states. The list currently stands at:

Countries

• Japan
• United States

States

• Virginia
• California
• Illinois (but only at O'Hare Airport, 2 times)
• North Carolina
• New York

Where to next? By the time he turns 3 months old, Will's state count will be up to 6 (Michigan trip over the 4th of July including another stop at O'Hare). By the time he is 6 months old, his state count will be up to 8 or 9. While this doesn't compete with the amount of travel he did before he was born (6 countries, 14 states), he's quite the little traveler.

Oh yeah, if anyone knows of a place that sells tiny little neckties, let me know. I'm sure Will and I will take another business trip soon.

Happy Father's Day to Dan!

Dan is celebrating his first Father's Day with his new son and with his dad. We traveled to Charlotte, NC to hang out for the weekend. One of Dan's fatherly tasks was to introduce Will to swimming. As you can tell, Will was quite unsure about this idea. This was Will being ok in the pool.


However, it was a bit cold and we will have to try again once Will is a little older (angry Will picture not shown).

Best Wishes to Dan as he continues to get used to this idea of being a dad! He has done a great job so far.

The World Cup

The guys in my life have decided to watch The World Cup. Yes, all of it. This is possible due to the magic of TiVo. Here, Dan and Will watch the TV here in California (for the recorded English version of a World Cup game). Also pictured is my laptop which is connected to the TiVo connected to the Slingbox back in Virginia. Displayed on it is the same game, but with the commentary in Spanish.


We are such a bad influence on this guy. He's learning about being a couch potato before he learns how to crawl. But what do you expect from parents who have 5 TiVos (with one on the way)?

Good News Everyone

It looks like I will finally be able to live with a cat. I had heard this company was trying to make a cat I could live with a couple years back, but they've recently adjusted their tatics. Instead of splicing the genes, they are going to use selective breeding to reduce the amount FEL D1 produced. Hopefully, these cats will end up being priced below $500 about the time Will decides to stop grabbing things. Anyhow, here is the link.

Secretly A Red-Head

That's right, my hair is now red, burning bright for all the world to see. How did this happen? Well, it is related to my 30th birthday activities. On my birthday, Wednesday, May 31st, I enjoyed many activities. First, I went to the hair salon. I needed a hair cut anyway. While I was there, I told my stylist, Bruce, that I wanted my hair lighter. We decided to go with 2 shades lighter. You would think that 2 shades lighter than dark brown is light brown, right? Oddly, no, it is red.

Dan Petting Will's Head
Angela With Red Hair

After the whole turning my hair red incident, Will and I wandered around and we bought some stuff like tennis shoes and a couple of summer shirts that actually fit me. Will doesn't really make that great of a shopping companion, he gets hungry at random times, but as we just moved to the area, he will have to do. Later on my birthday, I got a chance to start up exercise again when I re-joined Curves (no Curves in Japan, I had to quit for a little while). After exercising, I re-consumed the calories that I burned by going out to dinner with Dan. I had cheese fries and "The Chocolate Thunder from Down Under." It was awesome. Not fancy, but it included two of my favorite foods: cheese fries and chocolate (served separately, of course).

How else did we celebrate my birthday? Yes, we had the birthday grilling extravaganza on Sunday, May 28th. Well, sort of an extravaganza. Kind of a small extravaganza. We had 4 people join us for the birthday stuff. Scot & Tammy and Neal & Kailey. We even had a small grill and a small cake for the event. Dan grilled the food on the balcony while we hung out in the comfortable air conditioning. The only thing we didn't go small on was the ice cream toppings. We had 7 different toppings. Mmmmmm...

What kind of gifts did I get for my birthday? There were 2 categories: tasty things and techie things. In fact, right now I am drinking the tasty wine that Neal and Kailey brought while eating the Godiva truffles that Robin sent me. Mmmmm... Plus, the neat thing about the tasty things is that they are consumable and help us in our effort to reduce the amount of stuff in our lives. I did receive one specific gift that will be with us for a while. I love board games. Especially crushing my opponents while playing them. Liz got me a laser board game! How awesome is that! Ok, not quite as awesome as sharks with lasers on their heads, but still awesome.

After the Birthday was Over
You might notice in the picture above we are out and about, somewhere near a stone wall, with Will hanging out, munching on his Baby Bjorn carrier. Are we touring a stone wall in San Diego? Um, no. While we actually live near San Diego, we seem to be spending more time in the Los Angeles area hanging out with our friends who we met over the winter of 2004/2005. This past weekend we went to the Getty Museum.

Will enjoys his Baby Bjorn carrier. He can either face towards the person carrying it and go to sleep, or he can face outwards and see all of the art. Don't worry, we filmed a video of Will contemplating art. Feel free to stop by and watch it. Perhaps we will eventually upload the videos to our ftp server.

Will Facing Towards Dan

Will Facing Outwards

Documenting Will Contemplating Art

Because part of the Getty involves the outdoor gardens, Will finally got a chance to wear his sun hat...

Will Protected from Sun

Baby Birthday
Besides myself, Will also "celebrated a birthday." He turned 2 months old on June 6, 2006. As an update, he is now larger as shown by this bouncy chair measurement.

And look! He smiles now. He has been smiling for a little while, but whenever we would take the camera out to capture the smile, he would look very intently at the camera. We have only recently captured a few smiles.

As for the statistics, on Tuesday, June 6th, Will weighed 14 lbs 7 oz and is 24 1/4 inches long. That puts our giant baby in the 97th percentile for weight and the 90th percentile for length. So, yes, he is still huge.

Back to Birthday Stuff

I did enjoy my 30th birthday. If you weren't able to make it, perhaps we will see you next year when I celebrate my golden birthday. That's when I turn 31 on the 31st of the month. Where will it be? As you know, we are unsure where our adventures will take us. We will let you know.

30th Birthday Update

It's time!

If you got the evite and thought, "I don't live anywhere near San Diego, what is up with this evite?" You are probably not alone. There are actually not any people from San Diego invited to the birthday celebration. We are currently in that stage of not having friends after we move. Bad timing for a birthday, I know. So, we invited people from the far reaches of the globe.

If you didn't get an evite and thought, "Does Angela hate me? What is up with this?" You are probably also not alone. I wasn't sure who to impose an evite on. However, this doesn't mean that you are not welcome. Drop me an email and I can send you the details about the event.

Of course, this may not be the greatest birthday bash of the decade. (See above about not having friends nearby.) And for some reason, I just couldn't pull of the great Chicago Birthday Celebration of 2000 that Robin did for her 22nd birthday. She had people from Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, and Virginia attending!


I can't even pull off the combination at Dad's surprise 50th birthday party where Dad, Robin, Daniel, and I were all there (featuring Uncle Joel in chair). It was kind of funny because I flew in from Virginia for the surprise. However, I had just flown in the weekend before too for my High School Reunion, but I couldn't tell Dad in order to make it even more exciting that I was there for his birthday. :) Ah, the intrigue!


Oh, and who could forget Dan's 26th birthday in Charlotte which was full of Georgia Tech presents!


Oh, and the Dan's 27th birthday party while we were in Japan:



For my last birthday we were in Florida and took a trip up to St. Augustine (oldest city in US, fitting to visit as I was getting old). As we were in the same situation of having just moved and we didn't know anyone yet, Dan and I spent it together, just the two of us.


Who will join us this year? That is yet to be seen. We hope to see some of you on Sunday, May 28th, here in San Diego.

What about Will? Of course he will be joining us. And, since he only wakes up about 1 time per night to eat, he should be good company for those of you who decide to stay overnight with us. And, he is getting a little more interactive with smiling and cooing and stuff. He will be ready to play after he wakes up and has a bit of coffee...

Road Trip to Los Angeles

After 2 weeks of living in San Diego, it was time for a change of scenery. :) So, we spent a week up in the Los Angeles area.

Ok, it was only a 2 hour drive, but other than visiting his cousins in Sterling, VA, it was Will's first long road trip. I am happy to report that future road trips for Will look promising. He happily rode with us for the full 2 hours. We didn't have to stop during this trial road trip. This is a good thing since we plan on going to Sequoia National Park this summer, more than 6 hours away.

Will in Car Seat

Visiting Friends
Why did we go to Los Angeles? Primarily because Dan had a Systems Engineering Conference located in Redondo Beach. All of the people in the SEA program were there. Oddly, Tyler, who we met in Melbourne, was also in town for work. And, of course, we got to see a bunch of people from our church group, Vow Builders, who we met when we lived in Redondo Beach over the winter of 2004/2005.

Scrapbooking
While Dan was at his conference, I got to hang out with Tammy. We got together at her house to work on scrapbook pages. Now, I do own all of the supplies to create scrapbook pages, however, I have only actually created 1-2 full pages in my life. Typically a session of creating scrapbook pages goes like this: Tammy works on her scrapbook and completes 1 page during our 5 hours session. February creates greeting cards. I focus on the perfect details of the project and accomplish nothing. Our session last week was a little different. Yes, Tammy completed a single scrapbook page during our 5 hour session. Unfortunately Feb couldn't make it to the session. I completed the paperwork for my insurance claim related to giving birth. FINALLY! Oh wait, I was supposed to be scrapbooking. hmmm... maybe next time

South Coast Botanic Gardens
One of the activities of our visit to the Los Angeles area was our trip to a landfill. Ok, it used to be a landfill back in the 1960's. Now it is a beautiful garden. And it also has a pond where you can take quaint, "old-fashioned" pictures.

A Day in the Garden Park

We took 50 or so pictures of various flowers and some of us.

Various Flower

Another Various Flower

Us

50 pictures in 3 hours! Not enough, you say? That's ok, Tammy covered us by taking about 150 during this time. Here is one of me looking maternal.


Turns out the shirt I bought the day before at the Galleria Mall makes me look pregnant. Somebody should have told me when I tried it on! Seriously, I am really back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I was there a week after giving birth. I really need to get some slimmer clothes.

Oh yeah, notice how I "look" maternal? Lovingly reaching down towards my baby? In reality, I am actually being vain. If you look closely at my hands, I am putting my glasses down so that I can be photographed without them. You see, I put my left contact in my eye inside out that morning and it just felt wrong. Not realizing that it was inside out, I opted to wear my glasses to the garden instead of contacts. If you look at all of our pictures from that day, you will see me in glasses sometimes and without glasses at other times.

Will wasn't up for much posing while we were at the garden. The warm weather made him kind of sleepy. So we did the best we could, posing him in his car seat.

Baby Left on the Door Step

Sitting on a Wall

Don't worry, he avoided a great fall. In another part of the garden, we posed on the cute bridge.

Scot and Tammy on cute bridge

Angela, Dan, and Will on cute bridge

We were so glad to see so many friends on our trip. On the way home to San Diego, Will slept the entire way once again. We hope to go on many more roadtrips in the future.

Child Of Unusual Size (C.O.U.S)

As you know, I recently gave birth to what may have been the largest newborn in Tokyo on April 6, 2006. Will was 10.5lbs when he was born, a size that I still can't believe. Now, about 6 weeks later, he is even bigger! Ok, maybe that is sort of an obvious statement. But my giant child is even growing out of some of his 3 month old clothes. We have upgraded to the 3-6 month size.

To show you what I am talking about, we have used Will's bouncy chair as a measuring reference point. Here is Will on April 19 when he was 2 weeks old:


And here is Will on May 3rd when he is almost 4 weeks old:


(I think he looks like his cousin Caleb in the above picture, only not blond.)

And here is Will at almost 6 weeks on May 17th:


Will's rate of size increase almost seems inconceivable!

My First Mother's Day

As a new mother, I got to experience the Postal Service phenomenon of receiving Mother's Day cards. Funny, you might say, Will isn't old enough to use the Postal Service. And really, how would he buy the card since he can't see over the Hallmark Store counter?



Well, I did get a card from Dan and Will, but it was hand delivered. Who then mailed me cards? It was really cool, other mothers in my life sent me cards. I got one from Lee explaining things that mothers want (example: Dinner out...) and what mothers get (Dinner out of a box...). I got one from Grandma Kroboth wishing me a Happy First Mother's Day. I got one from Dan's mom that included a proverb, Proverbs 31:28. And I even got one from my Dad!

The other neat thing about Mother's Day is that there are presents. It seems that if you are able to take care of a baby for 6 weeks, you can be trusted with the care and feeding of plants. Lee sent me a Forget-Me-Not kit and Dan sent me an Azalea Bonsai.


Ever since my mom died when I was 18, I have basically avoided Mother's Day. However, I am now seeing it as a time to be glad. Glad that my mom had a positive impact on my life. Glad that there are other mothers in my life now. Glad that I get to be a mom too.

I'll keep you apprised about the growing and thriving of my plants. And Will too!

Happy Boy's Day!

That's right, while we have returned to the United States, we are still thinking about Japanese holidays. May 5th is Boy's Day or "Kodomo no hi." You can read about it in the wikipedia article here.

While we were unable to find any carp streamers at our local Party City store, we did have a kabuto, the traditional Japanese samurai helmet, compliments of Kishi-san and Yuka.


As you can see, we have Will, sitting around, contemplating how the kabuto indicates that he is a strong and healthy boy. Also shown is a cake that says, "HBD Will." This could mean "Happy Boy's Day Will" or "Happy Birthday Will." As May 5th is Boy's Day, May 6th is Will's 1 month birthday.

Another activity that is done on Boy's Day is the comparison of height. Since Will is new, we couldn't really compare his height to how big he was last May 5th. However, when he was born, he was 21.5 inches long. Now he is 23.25 inches long. In addition to growing about 2 inches, he has also put on 2lbs over his birth weight. That's right, now the little guy weighs in at 12.5 lbs. Both Will's height and weight are above the 95th percentile for babies his age. He is the average size and weight of a 3 month old baby. So, if you were planning on purchasing any 0-3 month outfits for him or even 3-6 month outfits, please scrap those plans.

Happy Boy's Day and
Happy 1 month Birthday to Will

Return to the Land of Stuff

Dan and Will and I have successfully moved from our 300 square foot apartment in Tokyo, Japan to a huge apartment in San Diego, CA. What comes with all of this new space? That's right! Stuff! Yesterday we received 30 boxes of our stuff from the movers. We will be receiving 10 more boxes in the mail. What kind of stuff, you might ask?

Well... We are just not sure how we survived in Tokyo without our:
salad spinner
veggie chopper
mini muffin pan
vacuum sealer
crock pot
fondue set
wine rack
paper towel holder
blender
coffee carafe
poker chips
Nintendo 64
Three TVs (our apartment came furnished, including a TV for each of us)
Fake Tree (apartment also came furnished with fake tree)

And, of course, we have accumulated a large amount of Baby Stuff:
Bouncy Chair (Will loves it, he is sitting in it now allowing me to blog)
Baby Monitor (allows us to sleep better at night since Will is in a separate room, but we can still hear him when he wakes up every night at precisely 1am and 5am)
Diaper Genie (prevents our apartment from smelling like diapers)
Baby Bjorn (helps Will to be calm when the movers move boxes in)
'Tummy Time' mat shaped like surfboard
Car Seat and Stroller (useful for taking walks over to the strip malls near our apartment)

Land of Strip Malls
We have also traded our quaint city neighborhood life for the crazy land of the suburbs. While downtown San Diego is only 1/2 hour drive away, we get to live with a panoramic view of strip malls and housing developments. The mountains are pretty in the background...

What is included in this crazy land? All within walking distance are:

CostCo, Home Depot, Comp USA, Ralph's (grocery store), Trader Joe's, Rite Aid, Michael's Crafts, Payless Shoes, Mervyn's, Ross, Marshall's, Sears, Staples, Borders, PetCo, Barnes and Nobel, Right Start (baby store), Blockbuster, Post Office, Movie Theater

Starbucks, The Coffee Bean, Hot Java Cafe, Jamba Juice, Taco Bell, Rubio's Fresh Mex, Chevy's, Jalapenos Mexican Food, Little Tokyo, Island's Fine Burgers, Yummy Sushi, Olive Garden, Bruegger's Bagels, Thaigo Restaurant, Mc Donald's, Panera, Carl's Jr, California Pizza Kitchen, Marie Calendar's, Pat and Oscar's, The Claim Jumper, Dairy Queen, Boston Market, Wendy's, Baskin-Robbins, Cold Stone Creamery, Irish Pub, Greek Restaurant, TGI Friday's


So, basically, if you come to visit us, you will be able to experience this utopian suburban world that we now live in.