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!

The wait is almost over!

So we haven't posted an update in nearly a year, but heck, better late than never, right?

A lot has changed since then...the biggest news is that I'm pregnant! And it isn't long now: I'm set to be induced on 24 March. That's just a few days away!

Hard to believe that parenthood is just around the corner. But we are very excited to meet our little guy and promise to be better about posting photos and info once he makes his appearance.

Here's me in the nursery about a month ago. I'm a bit bigger now and we have a lot more supplies stocking the shelves and the changing table, but this is the basic idea.

Check back again soon for actual pics of the newest ter Laare!

Bas: 57 Lena: 23

We totted up our world travels this morning and discovered that one of us clearly has an overused passport. That would be the Dutch half of our global union, who weighs in with an impressive 57 countries. I'm not doing too badly myself with 23 -- and in my own defense, coming from Europe gives Bas a bit of an advantage -- but I clearly have a lot of catching up to do!

And not only with travel -- we've been woefully out of touch on our blog since February. Sorry for that, folks. We've just come out of one of the busiest times in our young lives and it is only now, a good 3 months or so later that I'm finally able to catch up with all of you.

So what's the latest from Dubai? Well, as you can see above, our most exciting news was from our trip out of town (my first exit since India in November!).

Thanks to a very generous invitation from a flower grower, Bas and I got to fulfill the common lifelong dream of walking with the pharoahs. The flight from Dubai to Cairo is quick--just 4 hours--and our first stop was the Egyptian museum. My friend Elizabeth had prepared us last year by saying that it was unorganized at best. What meets you went you finally go through security is a complete jumble of Egypt-related everything: stones, cats, mummies, boats, dolls, inscriptions--you name it, its crammed up next to something from a different era. The thing that got me was the labeling--you can see the passage of time (and perhaps, administrations) as the neatly typed and aging index cards are gradually replaced by hand-written scribbles on note paper, and finally (though more rarely), laser-jet print outs attempt to explain the random artifact you are standing in front of.

While it was all fascinating in an Indiana Jones meets Willy Wonka sort of way, the absolute highlight was the mask of King Tut. This gold and lapis lazuli masterpiece is an icon if there's ever been one. Now, when I was growing up in the tiny town of Laurel, Montana, I spent hours obsessing over this image and many many others. To be right in front of it was extraordinary and breathtaking.

And then there were the pyramids.

Nestled alongside one of the "more rustic" sections of Cairo and protected by a fair amount of security, the pyramids are just as incredible as you can imagine. We climbed around one on of them and actually got to go inside of another. And after cracking my head on the low ceiling of the tunnel, I can understand why these structures have been standing for 5,000 years...

It was a whirlwind weekend that was actually very peaceful, which surprises everyone else who's been to Cairo. But we loved it.

These last few months have also been a working whirlwind. We've hardly had a chance to see one another at the pace we've been running, which is one reason we're particularly happy about our upcoming honeymoon. We'll take two weeks in July to visit Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam (for those of you keeping score, that will bring Bas to 59 countries and me to 26--he's been to Thailand before). While I don't think it will necessarily be cooler than Dubai (I heard on the news last night that they're projecting Summer 2008 to be the hottest one in years...), it will certainly be a nice change of pace.

So now that I've mentioned our honeymoon, I bet you'll be wanting pictures now. :) Next post, I promise!