Gabby is 18 months!

Gabby turned 18 months old in May!

Gabby at 18 months, Mommy's favorite picture.

Needless to say, this came as a bit of a surprise. We have found that one's perception of time, as the parents of a toddler, tends to move indirectly proportional to your current level of frustration. Consequently, good times fly by while less enjoyable moments move rather more glacially ("Gabby, you need to lay down, it's nigh-night time. . . Gabby, it's nigh-night time, you can practice singing in the morning. . . Gabby, it's nigh-night time, stop putting your fingers in Daddy's ear/playing with Mommy’s hair. . . etc."). Needless to say, that the last 6 months have passed by so quickly means we have had mostly wonderful moments; hopefully someday we can remember some of them by looking at the pictures.

Gabby dumping sand over herself.

Gabby is a very busy bee, learning to walk and run, talk (both intelligibly and, more often, unintelligibly), break Mommy’s glasses, sit on Karl’s head, pick flowers for all the old ladies in our building (or any other passing stranger), store large quantities of rocks in her clothing and diaper, and gravitate towards any visible bodies of water in which she could potentially submerge (Gabby loves swimming and has no fear of charging right into it - Mommy and Daddy are a bit more fearful of this). Needless to say, this has kept us on our toes and has generated lots of laughter around our house, at least until someone's head makes contact with a large or immovable object, such as the floor, at full toddler velocity.

Gabby with flowers.

Although Gabby is an expert cat tormentor (see: sitting on Karl's head, above), she and the cat actually get along splendidly—spending many happy hours chasing each other around the house and engaging in some cooperative foraging (Karl now gets the leftovers deposited by Gabby during dinner time, although she typically out-competes him for any floor-level morsels once she gets out of the chair). Recently, Gabby has learned to bypass the floor altogether and now hands Karl her food directly from her high chair. In general, Karl lives a pretty conflicted life. While he is abundantly happy to have another human around to feed him, this must be balanced with the repeated, forceful ejections from all of his favorite napping positions. Such an internal debate must be tiring and he sleeps all the time.

As a family, we have traveled far and wide this spring—Denise was in the US in January, February, and March for interviews and then in Vienna in April for a conference. In March, we all traveled around eastern Germany with Aunt Sue and Uncle Phil and over Easter we visited the Bouwma Homeland in Frysland, The Netherlands. Gabby is an excellent traveler, other than a slight propensity to get car sick on any trip more than 5 kilometers in distance (Vomex is a wonder drug). She mostly sits in her car seat, plays with her toys, and watches the world go by in the sort of way that only a 1.5 year old can do. These trips in Europe will be our last; Denise got a position as a Research Microbiologist at the US Geological Survey in Reston, VA. We will all be moving back to the US on August 2nd and the new job starts in mid-August. While Pete and Denise are really excited to move home and see family and friends more often, Gabby is just glad that Mommy isn’t traveling as much and that there are lots of places to go swimming in the Reston area. Karl has no idea what's coming. . . at least he will be well rested for the traveling.

Family in the Wadden Sea while on our trip to Frysland.

Uncle Phil and Gabby enjoying a currywurst in Jena.

Aunt Sue and Gabby reading a book at a cafe in Dresden.

Gabby at the Zwinger in Dresden.

It has been fascinating and wonderful to watch our little girl move from baby to toddler over the last 6 months. The next 6 will be busy with packing, seeing friends, moving, and then settling into our new home in Virginia. We are going to miss Germany but are looking forward to the adventures ahead for our family.

Testing out boxes while packing

Running around in her cute dress!

Silly girl!

Pushing her Teddy in the stroller.

Explorer in training.

New job!!!!

The Akob-Bouwma family has some big news: Denise accepted a position at the US Geological Survey in Reston, VA! She will be a research microbiologist within the National Research Program and will be working on water resources. Her new position will start mid-August so we will be moving in the beginning of August. We will be sad to leave Germany after enjoying so many wonderful years here but are looking forward to being close to family and friends. We hope that you will be able to visit us in northern Virginia!

1 year old!!!

Gabby turned one year old this week! Needless to say, life has been interesting in the Akob-Bouwma household over the last few months. Gabby's teeth are beginning to appear at an alarming rate (OK, only 3 so far, but more are on the way), and her hair is starting to be long enough to look goofy after a long nap. Gravity continues to be both a troublesome adversary and a source of endless entertainment and scientific endeavor. Recent experiments have stemmed from questions such as: "How many times can I drop my bath toys on the floor before Mommy stops putting them back in the tub? If I rub carrots and/or potatoes in my hair can I make it stand up in funny shapes? How far can I climb up the sofa/chairs/bookshelves/laundry basket before Daddy grabs me and puts me back on the floor?" However, as a scientific theme, entropy (a.k.a., the general tendency towards disorder) reigns. Piles of laundry are reduced to their least organized states, and clothing, towels, pans, or papers resting comfortably on shelves within reaching distance are hastily banished to the floor. Like gasses, which expand to fill whichever container they are in, Gabby's toys also migrate from organized clusters in one part of the living room to fill their container (our apartment).

Gabby's food no longer comes only as a disgusting, unrecognizable mush, but also in little pieces from Mommy and Daddy's plates. These are not only much more interesting but also easier to drop on the rug for a convenient snack later. Fortunately there is still enough mush to grab from the spoon while Daddy isn't paying attention and rub into hair, eyebrows, behind ears, on freshly laundered shirts and socks (Gabby likes putting her foot on the highchair tray), and the cat. It should therefore be little surprise that bath time happens every night now! Right after dinner! What a coincidence! Although Gabby is not walking yet (that day is rapidly approaching), she has discovered that, by crawling fast enough, the dirt in the houseplants, cat food, computer keyboard and mouse, and even the toilet can be accessible before Daddy has time to react. Unfortunately, Gabby's enthusiasm for consuming potting soil and kibble has not carried over to falling asleep or staying asleep through the night (although she gets a little better every day). For the moment this is OK since Denise doesn't really remember what a good night of sleep feels like anyway, but she is bound to remember one of these days. . .

We have been lucky to have a bunch of friends and family visit over the past few months. Gabby both got an extended visit from her Grampy and Grami and got to talk to Daddy on the computer while he helped teach a course in Florida in September. Afterwards, we all headed to the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) to see Guy and Anita's neighbors, Leo and Josiane, from when they lived there 30 years ago. In October, our friend Sarah visited from her new home in Switzerland and helped us with Gabby's very first Halloween at our friends Kirsten and Klaus's house. Gabby dressed up as a scientist (Professor Dr. Gabby), complete with lab coat (converted pillowcase) and nerdy glasses (Mommy's eyeliner). During trick-or-treating, Gabby was delighted that so many smiling people opened their doors to say hi, but couldn't understand why Mommy and Daddy kept stopping her from crawling inside their houses.

It is hard to believe that it has already been a year since our Gabs decided to show up six weeks early. Time flies!

Wow, we can’t believe it but Gabby is 10 months old today (17.September)! The time is going so fast but we are enjoying every minute!!

Gabby has perfected crawling and has now mastered locomoting in “turbo-mode” now giving the cat a run for his money. Karl is still happy he can jump higher and avoid the baby at elevation. We had a great visit at the end of July with our friends Elke and Qobelo—Gabby of course enjoyed meeting new people and Denise and Pete enjoyed catching up. Qobelo (7 yrs. old) was a great playmate for Gabby and helped feed and entertain her.

On August 1^st, Denise went back to work, leaving Pete on his own to look after Gabby. Everyone has survived the transition, although Denise missed Gabby during they day. In August the whole family went to Prague, Czech Republic so that Denise could attend a conference. Gabby enjoyed going to her second scientific conference, learning a lot about geochemistry. She also had a great time visiting the Prague Zoo with Pete—her favorite animals were the flamingos and penguins. She was enthralled with the penguins since they came up to the glass where she was standing. The end of August brought great weather to Jena and we all enjoyed evenings at a small lake swimming and playing in the sand.

September has been a very busy month--Gabby got her first tooth! and we’ve had some exciting visitors. Grami and Grampi Akob arrived in Germany on September 6^th and Gabby recognized them immediately likely from our weekly Skype sessions. She has been enjoying all the attention. A week later our friend Janna arrived for a long weekend and she was thrilled to meet Gabby for the first time. Gabby was a bit confused at first as to why Janna wasn’t in the computer since she only knows her from Skype. Pete headed to Florida in mid-September to teach a course for 2.5 weeks. Gabby is being well spoiled during the days by her grandparents and Denise is being spoiled by nice dinners and clean laundry every day. Grami and Grampi love every minute of being with Gabby and they are amazed at the daily changes! They are very impressed by her “walking” skills as she has now learned to walk while holding our hands.

8 months old!!

The last few months have been interesting, to say the least. In June, we were in Norway for Pete's lobster conference in Bergen. Gabby and Denise came along for the week before the conference and we all had a splendid time walking (Mommy and Daddy) and riding (Gabby) in the land of the Vikings. Gabby found out that she generally approves of air travel, likes the fishies and crabbies in the aquarium, and is largely indifferent to the scenery (fjords and such). Mommy and Daddy took plenty of pictures so she could appreciate it later (photos: Norway 2011). Gabby was also kind enough to save up all her poopy diapers for mommy when they got back to Germany, which she then released in a kind of "Poopagedden." Her Daddy was not upset to miss this as he stayed behind in Norway to finish his conference and explore north of the Arctic Circle. Gabby, now unburdened by the weight of her accumulated meals from Norway, decided that the sedentary horizontal life was not for her and started to crawl and sit up.

A few days after Pete got back from Norway, Denise's brother Joe and his family (Jen, Tyler, and Hannah) came for a visit. We had a wonderful time traveling throughout Germany and around Jena (photos: Akob Visit 2011). Unsatisfied with just crawling, Gabby insisted on learning to pull herself up to standing and moving laterally while her aunt, uncle, and cousins were here. Vocally, she was stuck on "na na na na" and the closely related "a na na na na" for a week or so. Now she has also learned to morph this into the word Momma, which she uses all the time, since that is the only person she wants right now (teething). Denise is creeping around the apartment like a kind of Mommy Ninja to avoid Gabby seeing her and changing the na nas to mommas and any associated crying.

If we have learned anything over the last month, it is that Gabby is probably a bit impatient (I want to be born NOW, I want to crawl NOW, I want to stand up NOW), like her Daddy, and likes to talk a lot, like her Mommy. The next few months should be interesting!!

Gabby is 6 months!!

Gabby is now six months old, which feels like somewhat of a milestone, particularly when we think back to when this all started at 3 am on November 17^th. Regardless, it seems like a good time to post another update.

Our lives are not boring. Dee is busy feeding Gabby, still every 2-3 hours, day and night. Fortunately, all of that food is paying off, and Gabby is growing like a weed (a pink, chubby weed). She is getting more interactive every day and is now starting to do some physical tricks too, like eating her feet, rolling over, eating mushed-up orange-colored food (carrots, squash, other gross things), getting all that food all over her face, onesie, pants, and chair, and then spitting it up again on things that shouldn't be spit up on. She smiles at everything and anything that moves—including the cat (Karl), Mommy and Daddy, random humans, some non-moving objects, and the baby in the mirror! One of her best tricks is laughing out loud, which is infectious for us. Our little girl is a certified water rat! She loves, loves “swimming” in the pool, which entails lots of splashing mixed, attempting to drink the pool water, and did we mention splashing?

We had our first trip on the train to Amsterdam where Gabby became a master of blowing out her diaper in public places. Consequently, we became masters of changing diapers in restaurants, on canal boats, and on public sidewalks. Gabby loved the tour and enjoyed trying to eat tulips during our trip to a botanical garden.

All in all, we have a wonderful, happy, smiley little girl and couldn't be having more fun at the moment. Each day is a great adventure and we are so happy that we can be home with her to be a part of it.

As always, we have lots of new photos on our Flickr site and new videos of her tricks. Gabby’s photo collection: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deniseakob/collections/72157625415804596/. Other photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deniseakob/collections/72157626184293871/.

We that you are enjoying a great spring!

Gabby is 4 months old!

Now that Gabby is 4 months old (3/17/11), we can say that we have settled into parenthood as much as one can with an infant—we almost know what day of the week it is, if you ask us! We are truly enjoying the time at home with her and feel like the German parental leave is a real gift. Denise will be home until August 1st and then Pete will remain at home with Gabby.

Gabby is doing great; she no longer has a breathing monitor at night and now weighs ~ 12 lbs (5.5 kg) and is 22.5 inches (57 cm) long. She has been learning new tricks every week and now smiles at us all the time and “talks” more than you can imagine. We put videos up on our Flickr site of her cooing and babbling away. She is also starting to learn to sit, although only with help from Mom and Dad.

In big news, Gabby is now an official US citizen and a legal German resident. The photo attached shows our big girl with her very own US passport! We are looking forward to her first stamp in it.

Lots of new photos have been posted on our Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deniseakob/collections/72157625415804596/. Note that we are updating Flickr more often than our blog.

Gabriele, 2 weeks old

Now that Gabriele is 2 weeks old (December 1st), we wanted to send an update on her progress. Gabby spent the first 10 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit although she improved rapidly in the first 3 days and was out of the incubator by day 5. Since then, Mom and Dad have enjoyed holding and feeding her as much as possible. On day 11 she was transferred to intermediate care at the Children’s hospital. She is doing well at the new ward and as of today, she weighs 2280 g (5.03 lbs)! Hopefully now that she is gaining weight she will come home soon.

Denise came home from the hospital last Friday after 9 days and was shocked to find that winter had come to Jena (today we have ~16 inches of snow!). Overall, Mom and Dad are doing well and spend as much time at the hospital visiting Gabby as they can. Although, we are a bit frustrated going back and forth from the hospital to spend time with our little one. We just can’t wait until she is home! Mom is requiring a bit more rest these days in preparation for Gabriele to come home and so will be limiting her email and phone calls.

Thank you all again for you love and support and please keep checking our Flickr site for new photos and updates: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deniseakob/collections/72157625415804596/. Since our time is limited we will be posting most of our updates to Flickr so please check there for new info!

Gabriele Alice Bouwma

Happy Family, originally uploaded by deniseakob.

Well, we never expected to post this already, but we have a birth announcement for you all:

Gabrielle Alice Bouwma was born November 17, 2010 at 4:05 PM (10:05 AM Eastern in the US). She was 6 weeks early and was therefore a little small at 2.2 Kg (4.85 lbs) and 46 cm long (18 inches). Since she was pre-term, she will be hanging out in the Neonatal unit at the hospital for a little while as her lungs develop a bit more. Denise is recovering well and we are both happy and exhausted. Photos are regularly posted on our flickr account at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deniseakob/.

We will try to post an update as soon as we can!

Love,

Pete and Denise

August 2010 Update

Well its been too long since we posted news but its been a hectic and exciting Spring and the time flew by before we knew it.

In January, we adopted a wonderful cat named Anton. He was a 2 year old rescue that was a wonderful addition to our family. Unfortunately, Anton was happier than he was healthy and passed away after only 5 months with us. Pete and I enjoyed every moment of our short time with Anton and he is greatly missed. We are very happy that we could give him a wonderful home and life for the short time.

We are now in the process of expanding our family with the anticipated birth of our first child in late December. We are having a girl and she is due to arrive on December 27th. We are very, very excited and are looking forward to the adventure ahead. As we have news about our little girl we will post updates to Facebook, the Blog and send out emails.

This spring and summer also involved quite a bit of traveling. We heading to the Alps in April and enjoyed seeing new places and visiting with friends. Denise went to the US in June for a conference and work but also managed to have a nice visit with her parents. Pete and Denise headed home to the US for 2 weeks in July for a nice vacation. We were able to spend a lot of time with our respective families and did our best to catch up with as many friends as possible. We posted some photos on Facebook and to our Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/...deniseakob/collections/72157624555002134/).

Now that our big travels are over we are incubating our new little one and enjoying the quiet time before she joins us. We hope that this update finds you well and we will try to keep posting our family's progress!

Where we've been...

Here's a map of where we've been up to the start of 2010. Stay tuned to see where the future takes us next!

Trip to Slovenia 2009

The Dragon Bridge, originally uploaded by deniseakob.

Pete and I traveled to Slovenia during the Christmas holidays this year. We spent most of the trip in the capital city of Ljubljana and met friends there. The picture posted is of the Dragon Bridge with the Ljubljana Castle in the background atop the hill. We also visited the Postonja Cave, Trieste, Italy and Lake Bled. It was a wonderful trip and we truly enjoyed seeing such a diverse, beautiful country. This makes 9 countries visited in the past year!

Click on the photo above to see all of the pictures from our trip.

Happy New Year!

Dispatch from Dresden

Well, our time in Prague is done. We packed it up at around 3 this afternoon and headed back to Germany to the city of Dresden. You may remember Dresden as the site of some of the worst bombing of WWII in Germany as some 65% of the city was destroyed. It is also a major cultural center and is famous for it's porcelain. So, we are looking forward to our time here. But first, about our time in Prague.



Prague is an amazing old city. The architecture alone is astounding. It survived most of the worst bombing, so most of it's old buildings are still standing and are amazingly detailed. Prague was the seat of Bohemia and has been around for over 1000 years. It has long been a cultural center of Europe and was the seat of a few Holy Roman Emperors. So, to say there is a lot of history there is a bit of an understatement. Check out the Wikipedia entry for more information.



We arrive on Saturday and headed out to see some of the town. We stayed near the national museum and headed down into the Old town from there (the "New" town was settled in the 13's or so). We saw the astronomical clock ring in the old town square and watched the sun set with an ice cream cone in hand. It was a fine evening, but we were beat by the time we made it back to our hotel. Check out the map below to see where some of the stuff we saw is.


View Prague in a larger map

The next day we took a 2 hour guided tour of the city (mostly an overview) and the Prague Castle. The Castle is the largest in the world and contains the St. Vitus Cathedral both of which are amazing and sit up on top of the hill looking out over the city. The castle first started in the 900s or so and has been built up ever since. It was an amazing place. Read more about the castle and cathedral here and here.



The stained glass in the cathedral was especially impressive, both for its size and complexity. This was a truly impressive space. Click on the picture to see this picture bigger and a lot more of the cathedral.



Butch found a suit of armor to try on in the castle. This was the in "story of the castle" exposition.



On our way out we passed through the vineyards on the castle hill and got some really amazing shots of the city looking over the red tile roofs. What a beautiful city. I am not sure if any of us really knew what to expect, but certainly not this. All around it was a very nice day at the castle.



After the castle, we decided to try out some traditional Czech cuisine. I had the meat plate, Guy had the pig knuckle, Dee and Anita had goulash, and Rosie and Butch tried out the pork steak and potato soup. It was an amazing meal and we all had to be rolled out of there by the time it was done.



We all eventually agreed that the pig knuckle was the most impressive though. A thumbs up for traditional Czech cuisine. . . and beer.



That night, Denise and I walked back through town up to the castle to see it lit up at night and look over the city. What a view!



On Monday, we took one final look at the city in the morning and stopped at the Church of Our Lady Victorious to see the Infant Jesus of Prague. This is a wax figure of Jesus that was brought to Prague in 1628 by a Spanish princess. The church where it is located is incredibly ornate. This was particulalarly meaningful for Anita as she has had a replica of the figure for years, but never dreamed she would see it in person.



After the church, we walked back across the Charles Bridge and into Prague, the car, and our trip to Dresden.

Another Dispatch from the Ore Mountains

So, the Ore Mountains are everything we thought they would be and more. More wooden toys than you could shake a stick at. Fortunately, we managed to leave most of them there. . . my emphasis on the word "most."



There were pyramids, schwibbogen (candle arches), smokers, nutcrackers, and a whole bunch of other stuff.





Despite the fact that there were a jillion-and-a-half stores, every one was a bit different, showing stuff from a different manufacturer and the woodwork was really quite remarkable.



We also visited a factory and got to witness the making of the toys. So, even though this is generally not really my (Pete) thing, we did head to Prague with a little less space in the van. Check out the photos here and on our flickr site.

Dispatch from the Ore Mountains

Over the first two weeks of September, we are being visited by Denise's parents, Guy and Anita and her aunt and uncle, Rosie and Butch. We have had a great time checking out the area around our place in Jena, but now it is time to hit the road for our tour of the former Eastern Bloc.



Day One of the Akob-Profili visit adventure extravaganza, and I am currently sitting in the small town of Seiffen in the easternmost part of Germany, right on the Czech border in an area called the Erzgebirge, or directly translated, the Ore Mountains. People mined metals (iron, copper, cobalt, silver, tin) here starting about 700 years ago continued until the mines all closed some 150 years ago. Given Denise's chosen profession, working with microbes that help clean up uranium wastes, this part of the world is particularly interesting. In a nearby town on the Czech side, Joachimsthal, the pitchblende (uranium ore) was mined in which Marie Curie discovered the element radium, which eventually won her the Nobel Prize. This place, which was turned into a spa where people could experience the wonderful "healing power" of radioactive materials, used to be the only known source of Uranium in the world and was turned into a large, forced-labor mine during the Soviet era to produce the Uranium for the USSR's nuclear weapons arsenal.



This is not the real reason we are here though. We are here because this is the world's capital for wooden Christmas toys (nutcrackers, smokers, pyramids, candle arches, etc.). There are more stores here filled with neat wooden stuff than you can shake a stick at. The old mining towns, after the ore went dry in the 1800's, made this their primary industry.



During the GDR (East Germany) times, this was the primary export of not only this area, but the GDR in general. Now you can find this stuff all over the world and particularly in the German Christmas Markets. It is very interesting seeing all this stuff made and knowing that it is all within a few hours of our place in Germany. More tomorrow, and then we head to Prague.