Constitutional Killjoy

Bad news, Z-Philes: Apparently Zander is out of the running for the Presidency because he wasn't born on American soil. Not too surprising considering the hoops we have to jump through to get his US citizenship, but still!

Oh well. Guess we'll have to settle for him supporting the current US President in the meantime.

Who's your daddy?

You've seen it before (or perhaps you're all too familiar with it), but there are babies who look nothing like either one of their parents. To test if that's the case for our son, we have a simple quiz.

Which of these pictures is Zander?

Photo A

Photo B

Believe it or not, Photo A is Bas, circa 1975. Photo B is Zander, circa two weeks ago. Of course, if you think all babies look alike then this quiz will have no effect on you. But trust us, the resemblance is uncanny!

Zander meets his constituents

Zander doesn't know it yet, but his parents have big plans for him when he grows up. In addition to being a world-class football (soccer) player and an eloquent writer, we are already grooming our son to be the first man to ever run two countries. That's right: as a dual citizen of Holland and America (and naturally being fluent in at least Dutch and English), we believe his obvious career path is to become the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, followed by an 8-year stint in the White House. Of course.

How do we know this is possible? Because he's already pressing the flesh, making the rounds, getting to know the people on their terms. Here are just a few of his constituents who are already prepared to vote for Zander. You can tell by the big smiles on their faces.

If they had to vote today, its obvious that Tracey and Jacques would cast their ballot for Zander (nevermind that they're not eligible to vote in either country...).


In a strategy session with my friend and the most organized and clear-headed person I have ever had the pleasure of working for, Zoe:


Even our nanny Gima is all smiles when it comes to Zander's political future.


Now, considering that he's wearing a shirt that says "Macho" while hanging out with Linda may alienate some women voters who are wary of aggressive displays of machismo...


And finally, there's no telling what will come out of it when Niek and Zander put their heads together (but note the Griz t-shirt, which will certainly get the attention of the Montana voters).

Who's that handsome devil?

Three weeks old and he's finally gotten a glimpse of himself. More like a fun house mirror than the full-length version, I keep telling him that the strange things he experiences as an infant are great fodder for the therapist's couch when he's older...

We had a wonderful time with Oma Tonny last week and it has been a bit of an adjustment to get used to life without her. Zander and Oma are big fans of one another, and there will be much happiness when we're all together again (we've already got our tickets for a week in Holland at the end of May!).

But Zander is nothing if not blessed with a surfeit of grandparents. Next up are Grampa Doug and Gramma Kathy, who will be making their maiden voyage to the Middle East to meet their grandson and of course, to see us, too. We also get to show them our lives here in Dubai, and as those of you who have visited can attest, this is a very different place to call home!

Meanwhile, life with the Little Guy continues to be full of surprises. He's smiling more frequently (yeah, yeah, I know, its just gas. I don't care, though, I love his grins!) and is awake for longer periods of time. Thankfully, this has been more during daylight hours than at night, but he has his moments of night owl behavior, too.


I don't know who invented this play mat concept, but boy, it was a bit hit today (thank you, Dutch girls!). Zander was especially taken with the purple giraffe. He's not quite at the grabbing stage, though, so at this point he just waves his arms like he's attacking a pinata and sometimes manages to give the giraffe a good thwack. Clearly a good time was had by all. If only we were all so easily amused!

A Walk in the Park

I'm 11 days old and its about time I head out into the big wide world! At least, that's what we think Zander would have said, given the option of speech.

Saturday was our first official outing, with a visit to the doctor (everything is fantastic, he's gaining weight at a good pace, etc etc) and a trip to the mall to help Oma Tonny find some new threads at Marks and Spencer. We even had lunch at Macaroni Grill, which made Big Mama happy, too!

On Sunday we decided to take advantage of the great weather, so the three of us loaded up the car and headed out to Mushrif Park, a funny little green space just down the road. Funny because one of its unique features involves a collection of child-sized houses from around the world. Kids can wander around in a German house, an American Indian house (a teepee) or a Netherlands house (oddly, that's a windmill). The park also had a number of rides and slides, but he's a bit young for that at this point, I suppose. Here are Zander and Oma pausing for a photo op.


Sunday was another first, this time for me: my first cappucino since September! I have to admit it was worth the wait and perhaps I'll have another one today (may as well take advantage of the Starbucks and Caribou that are just downstairs!). The picture is a bit grainy because we used my mobile, but I think you can easily see the big grin on my face.


Some of you have asked how Eliot has been handling our new addition, and I am happy to say that he's been surprisingly good about this whole thing. Our strategy has been to act as normal as possible, giving Eliot as much love and attention as we can. For his part, Eliot sniffs at Zander whenever they're near one another and when Zander cries Eliot tends to join in the chorus and run around the room, trying to get our attention if he feels we aren't fixing the problem quickly enough. For the most part, though, he's still a big fan of lap time, even if he has to share...

Meet Zander!

Here he is, our Dutch-American-Mexican love bug: Zander ter Laare! He was born at 12:29 am on Wednesday, 25 March and has kept us on our toes ever since.


He's been with us for just over a week now and while we're both a bit sleep-deprived we already can't imagine our lives without him.


The big excitement today, though, is the arrival of Oma Tonny, who will be with us for about 10 days. Zander doesn't know it yet, but he's just about to have the stuffing loved right out of him!