Merry Zoey Christmas

Zoey gave us some great Christmas babbling this morning. She wishes everybody a "blah blah blah".

Hope you're having a happy Christmas too!

laughing zoey

Zoey is happy

zoey meets her great-grandpa

This Thanksgiving the Marcus family escaped the Connecticut chill for sunny Florida.  Truly we live in a great world where 2.5 hours of flying brings us to sunshine and palm trees, if only for an extended weekend.

The centerpiece of the trip was the grand meeting between the oldest and youngest members of the Marcus family.  Zoey met her great-grandpa.

My grandpa (the famous author William Marcus) is 96 years old...going on 97.  To put it another way, he's 200 times older than Zoey!  Or another way...Zoey will be his age in the year 2105...no doubt as a cybernetic hybrid of ageless head and robot body.

 

It was very sweet to see the two of them together.  Zoey was in good spirits, having just recovered from a debilitating 104 degree fever.  Family and outdoors time really brightened her mood.

This was the first recorded gathering of four generations of Marcuses!

Zoey was also happy to show off her evolving skills to her grandparents.  Here she is demonstrating her upright-sitting and straw-playing abilities.

 

The trip was, alas, too short.  Farewell to family and sunshine.

 

zoey meets santa

Things in the Marcus family are on track.

Routefriend should have a private beta by the end of 2008. Zoey's digging daycare and she had a blast visiting her Coatesville, PA, family last weekend.  Here are a few pics...

While we were in Pennsylvania, Santa came to meet Zoey for the first time!  Everybody enjoyed his visit except for Uncle Larry, who nobody could find.

Meanwhile, Zoey is getting very social.  All she wants to do is hang out with other babies.  Here she is with her buddy Murph, who was described by one of the daycare teachers as her "boyfriend".  Murph better keep his hands to himself!

Yes we did!

Hooray for Obama!  The future just got a little brighter.  Once Barack had secured the infant 0-6 months demographic, it was all over!

I spent election day campaigning for the Dems then we joined our friends Adam, Bekka and their two-week-old baby Elliot to watch the returns.  All the causes I campaigned for took the night, including especially my goal to have a president that does the country proud.  (I can only assume my politicking was instrumental!)

So, before the buzz wears off and reality sets in, let's appreciate that we've just elected a kick-ass President.

Season of Changes

It's Fall, a time of transition.  Here in Connecticut, the leaves are turning red, Kirsten's back at work, Zoey's off to daycare and I've started a company.

That's right...after three happy years at Nielsen, I've decided to pursue a long-held dream of building a start-up.  Routefriend, LLC, is now registered with the State of Connecticut.  Founder & CEO?  Yours truly.  Computers are magically efficient tools and the whole enterprise is coming together very quickly.  I hope to have a private beta by the end of 2008.  Thus far, total investment has been about $90 for corporate registration fees + $25 for a salad I shared with my star intern, Alex.

Meanwhile, Zoey's adjusting to daycare.  At first, she rebelled against the bottle feeding and her first daycare visit was cut short by a "where are my parents?!" freak-out.  Now she's happy, though.  She likes her bottle and her daycare friends...most of whom are much bigger and impress her with their crawling and solid-food-eating abilities.

That's Zoey in the middle of the picture below, watching her friend Angela read a book.

Here is Angela saying goodbye to Zoey as I take her home.

This is Zoey, happy that one of her daycare teachers is taking her picture.  (Thanks to Miss Anna.)

Kirsten is adjusting from a summer of full-time Zoey exposure to the challenges of working motherhood.  It's tough.  For the first few days Kirsten missed Zoey a lot, but now she's settling in.  Often she'll get out early enough to pick up Zoey and go for a walk, which is a huge treat for Zoey.  As they say, it's the quality time that matters.

A final thought...Kirsten and Zoey wish they could vote.  Don't miss your chance to choose the leader of the free world.  Go vote November 4th!

Zoey, world traveler and adventure girl

KIRSTEN'S FIRST BLOG POST...

At last we will update you on the many events since the last blog post:
In the meantime we have returned from a 4-week-trip to Europe that began July 24th. Zoey was a mere 7 weeks old when she took her first flight across the Atlantic, and it went really well. That is, AFTER Zoey threw up a vast amount of milk just after going through security, soaking herself and her mom from top to bottom.

Luckily this didn't dampen her spirits. After a nice full meal at take-off, the buzzing of the plane put her right to sleep. She had to be woken up for landing in Germany.

We flew on to Barcelona, and headed for the Costa Brava seaside where we joined grandma and grandpa Piening, auntie Astrid and Zoey's cousins Lynn and Liona for almost two weeks of camping by the sea. Our campsite was luxurious and gigantic, with the Marcus family sleeping comfortably in a caravan. Here's a picture of one of our great breakfasts:

Zoey took her first swim in the Mediterranean and got a nice tan on the beach (even though she stayed in the shade!). She loved being with her cousins.

She loved bathing outside in her camping tub:

And she loved to nap on peoples' arms:

Zoey loved touring Barcelona. Here she is with proud Omi Piening.

David found his dream town: Girona. Only one hour from Barcelona by train, which would satisfy our need for having a big city nearby, it is a nice old city with a great walkable city wall and tons of nice cafes and restaurants, a river to walk by and raft on, and hikeable mountains in walking distance.

On we went to visit our friends Olivier and Segolene and their children Ines and Thibault in Paris. Zoey liked hanging out at the Paris Plage by the Seine.

From Paris, we took the TGB (even faster than the TGV) to Stuttgart, and the ICE to Munich. This was cheaper, more comfortable, and just as fast as flying. Don't you just love high speed rail!

In Munich, we visited Kirsten's aunt Helli's family. David took the chance to go on a great bike ride with uncle Klaus. After this, he decided that we could live in Munich, too. Zoey really enjoyed the Hofbrauhaus- maybe a little too much...

From there, we took another high speed train to Braunschweig, Kirsten's home town. We finally got to see the palace in the city center, that was torn down after the war and just recently rebuilt. Behind the facade, there's a nice mall with a Starbucks, where we added another city cup to our collection.

Next and last stop was Wiesbaden, visiting auntie Astrid's family. Zoey and her cousin Liona had a baptism, which gave the whole extended family a chance to meet our new family member. Zoey slept through the entire ceremony, not even waking up when water was poured over her head and face. David was mighty proud of this.

Zoey truly proved to be a worldly girl and a great travel companion. We can't wait to take her to lots more far away places!

little girl in the big city

On July 5th, Zoey took her first trip to the big apple. It was a big success. Zoey had a great time...she was really engaged with her surroundings and very content. Does this mean we have a little city girl on our hands?

This is our tale of urban adventure in pictures...

Zoey took her first train ride into the city. All eyes were on her, which made feeding her that much more weird. Luckily, Kirsten is a Mom first and foremost, and she always finds a way.

At first Zoey was very sleepy. Here she is sleeping at Grand Central.

and sleeping through her first trip to Jamba Juice

and sleeping at Bryant Park

This is Zoey at Rockefeller Center. She says, "I am way too tired to care about some crazy golden statue."

Finally in Central Park, Zoey yawned to life.

After that, she became very engaged for several hours. She toured the city in the Baby Bjorn, and although you can't tell from the picture, her eyes were wide open as she peered out at the taxis and people and buildings.

She was so fascinated, she allowed us to have an uninterrupted meal in a nice restaurant with Aunt Barbara! Thanks Zoey!

Shortly after this shot was taken, minor celebrity David McCallum from NCIS and Man from U.N.C.L.E. stopped by our table to extend congratulations. Unfortunately for Mr. McCallum, Aunt Barbara recognized him and he scurried away as I asked for a picture with Zoey. If we had taken the picture, it would have looked something like this:

To recap, Zoey rode the train, she took in the sights, she had a brush with celebrity--and she did it all in high spirits. We're proud to have a cosmopolitan kid.

one month of zoey

Boy does the time fly. I can't believe Zoey's already a month old. Her awareness and connectedness with her world keeps growing.

The big excitement of the past month has been Zoey meeting her family. At 1.5 weeks old she met her American grandparents. At 2 weeks old she met most of the rest of her American family. We had a big get-together in Montauk, on the tip of Long Island.

This is Zoey with her Grandbob and Grand Mama (final nomenclature still TBD):

This is Zoey with her great grandmother:

Here is Nana with all her descendants...celebrating four generations of excellence!

Zoey's Aunt Megan is happy to have another girl to hang out with.

Of course, the trip wasn't just about Zoey. It was a family reunion, plus Aunt Barbara's birthday. There was much hanging out and catching up.

(Did you notice the mysterious multiple Doris' in the picture above?)

Our hotel was on the ocean, albeit a pretty cold ocean, but nothing will stop me from boogie boarding. If looking sexy in spandex is the price I have to pay, then I proudly pay it!

Our trip ended with a ferry ride back to Connecticut. It was Zoey's first boat ride, but apparently she was having some very exciting dreams because she slept the whole ride.

The next day we picked up her new crib, which I proudly assembled.

It looks great, and she really likes it.

Zoey says, "Thanks for looking at my photos. Now, I gotta run!"

Happy Father's Day to Me!

It's Zoey and my first Father's Day. We'll celebrate by continuing Operation Out and About, our project to make sure Zoey is mobile and functional in the big wide world. We've been going for walks every day and yesterday we made our biggest excursion yet, an hour away to our friends' lake house.

Zoey's been great. She sleeps through every drive and appears content to see new things. At the lake house she was a little colicky, but manageable.

Yesterday, the lake house. Tomorrow, the world!

one week of zoey

Ever since we mastered her feeding, Zoey's become amazingly serene. Mostly she sleeps.


She used to have a wheezy panic cry when we bathed her. Now she sleeps through that too!


We've been able to go for walks every day. Hopefully she appreciates her top-of-the-line bugaboo stroller!

We've enjoyed the company of friends. The other night we had our first parents-only get-together with the Lascelles. That's Zoey sleeping on the couch.

With our happy, sleepy baby, we can chill on our balcony and enjoy the summer!