Melika (11 years old) to her Aunt

Well, about our trip to Greece. It was extremely fun as you know and exciting. I liked Rhodes the best. Mainly because we didn’t have to get up early and run out the door to see broken statues, but we also had an exclusive hotel. The first day we arrived at Rhodes, a bunch of restaurant dancers were there. They were the most pathetic dancers I have ever seen. Do you know how Dad dances? Well, they were ten times worse than him! Can you believe that?

End

There was also an original (parchment) issue of THE WEEKLY LETTER from 1994. The epistle described a typical day in The Hague: Darius had lost his permission slip for a school trip, broken his bassoon reed, misplaced the house key, left his track uniform at home (on the day of a track meet), run out of ventolin and, well, you get the picture. Additionally, Melika asked, via fax from school, that Nazy pick up some ‘white bread’ for sandwiches. Nazy attempted to comply:

Nazy and the Dutch Bakker (Baker)

Nazy stopped at the ‘Warme Bakker’. She asked for ‘Melk-Wit Brot’ (Milk White Bread). She was told that there was only a half loaf left. Wondering how that had happened, Nazy bought the last half loaf. Then:

“Wait a minute!” Nazy exclaimed when she noticed that the ‘Milk White Bread’ was ‘Chocolate Milk Bread’. “This bread is burned!”

“It is not burned, Madam,” the Bakker replied. “It is dubblegebakked.”

“Double baked? Are you joking? It’s burned! Do you have any other white bread?”

“No. I had the throw away the other half of that loaf; it was burned.”
Nazy was unable to get a refund. [Aside: There are some really cool Dutch words that have no simple english translation. E.g. ‘gezellig’ - a sort of feeling of coziness and familiarity, like you have when you’re with your friends. Or ‘gedogen’ — which means to turn a blind eye to something. However, there are also a few English words that have no Dutch translation. E.g. “to make a decision”. The Dutch version is ‘to take a decision’, which means everyone has to agree. ‘Refund’, Nazy discovered, is not a Dutch concept.]

Melika, unaware of the risks she was taking, had a simple observation when she got home.

“… and you couldn’t just get a loaf of white bread?” She asked.

End

This Thanksgiving, Mitra and I took young Tiger to the park to play on the slides and the swings. Mitra gave him a blue yoyo that he pulled along behind himself. He reminded us to ‘be careful and don’t bash your head’ while we climbed the (child-sized) maze. At the bottom of the ‘circly slide’, Mitra and Tiger looked up and encouraged me to ride the spiral.

Not to be outdone, young Arrow, now 4 months old, has perfected his turning over skills, mastered a sneakily crafty smile and is working on holding his head steady while he surveys his surroundings. He hasn’t let his diminutive size …

“Wait a minute, Dan.” Nazy interrupts. “He is 70th percentile for height.”

“I think they measure ‘length’, not ‘height’, at this age, Nazy.” I replied. “But he at the 4 percentile for weight. I think Tiger was reversed.”

“I don’t believe the 4 percentile number.” Nazy replied.

See Arrow at left.

And speaking of percentiles, we also had a chance to re-read the diary we kept for the first several months of Mitra’s life. We noticed a few parental miscues:

• We gave Mitra a pacifier dipped in honey.
• We gave Mitra bottles full of sugar water.

Diary Excerpt: July 1 - 3 (Mitra 5 weeks old)

Mitra woke up at 10:PM. It is now 11:16PM and she is still awake….

IF MITRA WAS NOT OUR BABY, I WOULD HAVE TO CLASSIFY HER AS A TOTAL A*****E. However, she is ours and seems cute. Nevertheless, cute wears thin at 6:00AM when she finally went to sleep. She slept from 6:00AM until 7:16AM. (Recall that she was awake from 10:00PM until 6:00AM. And that means that I was awake as well.) I read her, once again, the baby book that explained how this was impossible.

It is now 3:06 AM and Mitra is still screwing around — crying for reason ZERO and demanding total attention. Her favorite game tonight is the sleep for 8 minutes trick. Placed in bed, sound asleep at 12:33AM; wide awake at 12:46AM. In bed again at 1:30AM, slept until 1:36AM. Back in crib at 2:50AM; awoke at 3:01AM. She lacks any consideration whatsoever for her parents.

End Excerpt

The diary goes on for months, documenting every moment of Mitra’s life. (Short summary: she slept during the day, but not during the night. And when awake, someone had to talk to her.) The diary also includes little glimpses into the life in the 1970’s. (E.g. On June 4, 1976, Bob Newhart was guest host for Johnny Carson and he had Bob Hope & Bobby Goldsboro on the show.)

We’re looking forward to having Darius and Christiane here for the holidays

For last week's letter, click here

Mitra and Arrow
Nov 2016