Who's the boss?

Besides being a great '80s TV show, it is also the current theme of our relationship with Rohan. Last Friday he decided he was going to start his terrible two's about nine months early! He went on a "nap strike," for lack of a better term. He decided he no longer wanted to sleep, either in the middle of the day or at night. He was a cranky little guy! That basically went on until yesterday. On Monday the doctor told us it was time to start telling Rohan and showing him who was boss. If we allow him to manipulate us because he is crying or because he looks cute or sad then he will become the boss. It took several days to accomplish this one small victory, but as of last night we won. Yeah for us! One battle down, countless more to come in the Toddler Wars!

On a sweeter note, Rohan now refers to me as papa and Tina as momma. There are no sweeter words than those. Sunday was my first experience with an unsolicited "papa" from him. Tina was holding him andhe said it and then came to me. His vocabulary is really developing across the board. We need to post all of the things he can say!

Ciao for now. Signing off from a 5am taxi ride to NYC.

Cheers,

Brian

Rohan's Latest Stats (4/28/08)

At 15 months, 3 weeks, he measured:

 

Weight: 27lb 6oz (75^th percentile)

Height: 33 7/8 inches (90-95^th percentile)

Head Circumference: 18 ¾ inches (75^th percentile)

 

This last week has been a trying one. Rohan is now asserting his role as the dominant person in the house and it really caught Tina and I off guard. Late last week while I was at a wedding he decided he no longer wanted to take a nap or go to bed at night time. He went so far as to start vomiting. He did that for a few days. Today we took him to the doctor and he basically told us this is a tactic many toddlers at this age do. They try to assert their dominance over the parent and if the parent doesn’t step up and be the boss, the baby becomes the boss. Tonight I put him into his crib and he screamed his little head off for fifteen minutes. I came back in and told him momma and I loved him and that we wanted him to sleep and then told him I wasn’t coming back in. This time around, he wailed like you wouldn’t believe, and then in about 20 minutes he was out cold. Solid!

 

Cheers

 

Brian

 

In NYC, and feeling fine

Musings from NYC:

• Today is tax relief day at Dunkin Donuts https://www.dunkindonuts.com/ buy a coffee, get a donut for free
• Shops near Times Square were open at 8am when I walked from my hotel to there. In case you need some sneakers for your lunch time game, Foot Locker is ready to sell them to you
• Central Park was packed full of runners this morning and naturally I had to try to pass as many people as possible without being passed myself and now I’m tired as hell. There was just one small blond girl that I couldn’t catch. She was booking.
• Investment bankers are so busy they can’t even meet for a drink. Or at least, they pretend to be so busy they can’t meet.
• People here are cranky. Yesterday I got out of the taxi and felt a bit flustered by almost getting run over by opening the door into traffic, and then when I got out on the right side I shut the door and someone yelled at me for not leaving the door open for him. The taxi driver yelled at me too. Do people in NY die earlier than elsewhere as a result of their foul moods?
• Hotel rooms in NY are probably the worst of any major city, and they charge twice as much for the privilege of staying there

Opening Doors

Rohan opened his first door today. Watch out, here comes trouble!

 

I sense a job coming up for me this weekend…

 

Musings as I ride my bike around Amsterdam

I rode my rental bike to work the last two days. Last night I was really challenged when we left the office at 9:30pm and we still had a 30 minute ride back to the apartment, assuming we didn’t get lost like we did in the morning. One of the good things about riding the tram for the last week is we familiarized ourselves with the landmarks and it was actually simple to figure out where we made the one wrong turn. Naturally, we had started down the right street and then thought it was the wrong one and turned around and proceeded in the wrong direction. We made it back home in 25 minutes flat at a very leisurely pace, which was awesome because that is half the time it takes to go by foot > tram > foot. It’s only 4 miles from the apartment to the office, and if I didn’t have the bike and I was really feeling frisky I think I’d almost prefer a brisk walk home than a 50 minute / 4 mile tram ride with lots of waiting and walking in-between. Anyway, the cycling around town is really awesome. I see no reason why every major urban area in the US can’t have this same type of system. In Holland, bicycles come first. If a motorist hits a cyclist, even if the cyclist was a total knucklehead, it’s the driver’s fault. As a result, cars are always on the lookout for bikes. That doesn’t exactly happen in the US. Don’t even get me started on Atlanta. It must be the most “unfriendly” cycling city in the US.

 

Everyone traveling to Amsterdam should feel obliged to rent a bike. It’s really the best way to see the city. The bikes are easy to maneuver and the seats are big and wide, so your bottom doesn’t hurt too badly like it would on a road bike. As I have ridden around town over the last couple of days, I feel like I have really submersed myself into the culture and really feel like a true Dutchman, if only for a few fleeting minutes when I’m not disrupting the flow of traffic or nearly running over pedestrians. In my opinion, cycling is one of the reasons Dutch women have nice legs. So ladies, if that isn’t reason enough to hustle around town on a bike, even for short distances, then I don’t know what is!

 

My favorite bike here is the traditional Gazelle, which you probably know without even knowing you know it. I also think the concoctions they have created for transporting children are really cool. They have bikes with what looks like a wheelbarrow on the front. You stuff the kids in the wheelbarrow and off you go. You’ll also see some young mommies riding with children that look no older than Rohan in a seat right in front of them, essentially strapped to the handlebars. Tina, let’s get one!

 

Last night we found a fantastic tapas place on Westersstraat, which is in the Jordaan district right near our apartment. It was called Paso Doble. We had a nice Spanish waitress and my colleague Eduardo felt happy that he could finally speak Spanish with somebody. We ordered way too much food, probably had one drink too many, and made our way back to the apartment around midnight. All in a days work!

 

Today I was back up at 6:40am for a quick 30 minute jog and then headed back to work. Today we have a hard stop at 7pm, thank goodness…because the last three days of the workweek are going to be hell.

European sports

I can’t help but notice how weird European sports are. What’s on TV this weekend? Let me tell you!

 

MotoGP Sport Bike Racing (and reruns of yesterday)

Women’s Cross Country Running (hugh?)

Rowing – Oxford vs. Cambridge (a big deal?)

Track Cycling (at least it looks interesting)

Curling (I usually only watch this when heavily intoxicated and during the winter Olympics)

Snooker (I just don’t get it)

 

I thought I’d get to see a cycling race since there are two good ones this weekend in France and Belgium, respectively. How disappointing!

 

Losing an hour...again (notes from Amsterdam)

Sunday morning I woke up and realized I had truly done something I may never do again in my entire life: Lose an hour due to daylight savings time twice in the same year. Our government decided it would be great if we confuse the rest of the world for three weeks and move our daylight savings schedule up. While I do enjoy having more light at night in March, I don't think I would be hurt to wait for the rest of the world to switch over as well. So I lost an hour three weeks ago and I lost another one today. Let's mark that one in the hall of records.

 

Yesterday was a gloriously sunny day in Amsterdam. I spent most of it inside trying to finish some things needed for work on Monday morning, however, I did manage to sneak out for a couple hours in the middle of the day for lunch. I also secured a bike rental for the week, which cost about 47€, so basically if I use it twice a day rather than take the tram and a taxi here and there and I'll break even. Besides that, it's just faster to get around Amsterdam on a bicycle than on anything motorized. There are so many people everywhere and I think this is the one person in the world where a bicycle has right of way over a pedestrian. Cars are somewhere in the middle I think. You definitely have to be an aggressive driver here or you'll never get anywhere with all the bikes and people. It's a bit unnerving to have a car buzz past you when you are on a tight road and have nowhere to go and I could see how a lot of people wouldn't enjoy that aspect of bicycle riding around here. I plan to use the bicycle to jaunt off to and from work, weather cooperating of course.

 

I made my way over to Leidsestraat yesterday, which is one of the main shopping streets and is also on the way from the other shopping and red light districts up near Centraal Station to the museum district (Van Gogh, Rijksmuseum, etc.). It was a madhouse full of people. I took a spin up and down but didn't do a whole lot. I was mainly looking for something to eat that wouldn't require an hour of time. That would be okay if I had someone to enjoy the hour with, but when I'm alone I don't really care to sit around and stare at my napkin. I didn't end up finding anything suitable so I got back on my bicycle and headed back near the apartment where I knew there were some places like that. It is a 15 minute walk from there to the apartment, but less than 5 minutes on the bike!

 

I spent the day until about 8pm working and then went out for Indian food at night. There is a restaurant nearby called Shahjahan and I'd give it an "OK" rating. It was definitely spiced down for the locals and I should have thought to mention I want it "desi hot" (like an Indian would eat). It was also very creamy, and that always spells trouble for me.

 

To my delight, I found out NCAA basketball games can be viewed over the Internet from the Netherlands, so I watched a bit of a game with UCLA last night. It didn't start until midnight, I think. Of course, in the morning I realized I was watching a game from Thursday night. Oops. UCLA won last night too, so I felt like I was seeing the real deal.

 

It's just past Noon here and I still have a couple more hours of work to do. I'd better get to it!

 

Brian