Six Trees - Red Slope

Holiday party at Bell's preschool

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Exchanging gifts

and singing

Nutcracker at Bell's ballet school

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With Sugar Plum Fairy

and the Russian Dancer

See you next year!

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Solving puzzles!

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This one took 2.5 hours

Celebrating the hard-won success with a drink!

Bell is a natural at Rombix Jr.

Celebrating without a drink

Hanging out

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Making concoctions

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and pies

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At Grandma's office

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Check out our YouTube favorites

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Although we primarily use YouTube for watching Peep in the Big Wide World episodes, occasionally we stumble on something we find very funny.

More pics from Spain

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Jet-lagged: on arrival, on the subway from the airport to Madrid,

and at a tapas bar run by Javier Bardem's family in Chueca.

Madrid has unique street entertainers

Chasing bubbles at Parque del Retiro

City viewed from above, on the Teleferico

On Via de Pintor Rosales

Peter Pan, T-Rex, and Monkey

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went trick-or-treating

Snow in our backyard

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Slide art

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Washington International Horse show

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Lately, Bell's been into horses

Artists at work

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Some nourished by the Great Duke of Alba

B's pre-K buddies

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J is 2 again!

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In Son Coll, Mallorca

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Pictures Bell took

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At a medieval synagogue in Toledo.

In Santa Maria.

At the flea market

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At the Rastro de Consell, Bell got herself a suitcase for 2 Euros (which her parents then used for transporting duty-free Spanish brandy.)

Olives (B's favorites)!

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There are olive trees, many of them hundreds of years old, everywhere.

On terraces that were built by the Moors.

Choosing olives at the Soller market.

An arabesque in front of the Palma Cathedral

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is one way to pay homage to Mallorca's Moorish history. (The cathedral, naturally, was built on the ruins of a mosque.)

After a day at the beach in Pollensa

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Bell said "Mama, I wish I could live in Mallorca."

Our hosts P. and I.

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A view of the sea from P. and I.'s house in Son Coll near Deia.

Bell and I. are really fond of one another.

First time at the Mediterranean sea

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At the beach Soller.

Within minutes of our appearance, an octopus showed up.

P. likes to swim and I. likes to read the Independent at the beach.

In Toledo

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Toledo station, not the cathedral.

This is the cathedral, Bell has never seen so many popes and cardinals before,

or souvenirs like these (many of which, alas, are made in China).

Hanging out with Toledans.

Mesmerized by Goya

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(In case you wondered, one cannot take fotos at the Prado, this was one and only one.)

At the Retiro Park in Madrid

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An old friend came to visit

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Click here to see what B and L looked like back in the day.

County fair

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We ran into friends and it was more fun this to do rides together

B won a prize

Papa skipped the Ferris Wheel

Arlington from the air

Our little dolphin

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Enjoying a summer shower

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At Bell's new BFF and neighbor's birthday

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The birthday girl

Our garden

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S's sunflowers turned out positively monstrous

J's veggies and herbs are regular size

B and her friends went to hear Steve Songs at Wolf Trap

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Ah, that red shirt! This is his website: http://www.stevesongs.com/

Soccer

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Bell tried soccer this summer

Self-portrait

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An outfit B put together

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July 4 in our new neighborhood

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Wearing red, white and blue

Uncle Sam was our parade marshal

Finally, ice cream, the ready-made kind.

A little liquid nitrogen,

a little cream,

bingo! more ice cream

Eventful day

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We reconnected with our former neighbors,

and Bell was finally able to climb on top of the tunnel, something she aspired to do for a long time

watched Mexican dancing at the library,

and shopped for sunglasses

Miss Strawberry has a new haircut

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Large pony, little pony

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At an Arlington community day

Back to our favorite B&B&B (bed, breakfast, and bath).

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Very green, wet, and cloudy -- just like in Japan.

Bell and little J were very happy to see each other again.

Paradise

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That's where little J lives, as far as Bell is concerned. There are goslings,

ducklings,

tadpoles,

a rabbit,

and fish.

Cousin Honey

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EU embassies' Open House

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The Swedish embassy is right next to the Potomac and has a nice roof-top deck.

Trying on construction gear with Skanska.

The German embassy has castles

and face painting.

And the Hungarian embassy has Vizsla dogs.

Sally and Jim were in town

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They first went to a robotics event where Sally built an invention.

We then headed to the Natural History Museum

which has a butterfly pavilion.

We were told that the best way to attract a butterfly is to be like a tree, and Bell went into a tree pose.

Butterflt lands on Sally!

S's old friend from Sussex was in town

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all the way from Malaysia.

Why does that coat look so familiar?

Cherry blossom time again

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We went to do a foto shoot with Stacey Vaeth, and it was a cold morning.

Cherry blossoms were beautiful as usual.

Cherry blossoms mean Sofia's birthday.

At N's recent birthday party

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Bell caught up with old friends

Thinking of Japan

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Berlin, March 14, 2011, AFP/Getty

Tubeteikas

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They wear them when their heads get cold.

In her Seussian best

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Off to celebrate the great man's birthday at her daycare

Tahrir Square, Cairo

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S's Sussex friend M and her daughter K on the night of Mubarak's departure:

Pink swans

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First in line

Full of grace and feeling

Elephant walk, her parents' favorite

This winter's only snowfall

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The snow was so heavy it knocked out the electricity in our entire neighborhood.

Bell's friend M invited us over to his place to stay warm,

but the cat was not sure it was such a great idea.

An hommage to Peep, Chirp, and aunt Jackie

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(Peep and Chirp baked by Esquire Confections)

Birthday party at home was great fun

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The Great Zucchini himself performed and he was the first guest

Birthday celebration in daycare

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In a lucky coincidence, B's birthday celebration in daycare -- with yummy mini-cupcakes -- took place on Pajama Day.

Miss Rachel wore pajamas too and make sure to check out her slippers!

Mixing and matching

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She can spell her name, almost

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Celebrating the New Year with friends

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We made (!!!) Chinese dumplings for the occasion:

Holiday performance at B's daycare

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Rehearsing:

Performing "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth":

Visiting Portsmouth friends

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Getting in touch with her Guatemalan roots

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B's great grandfather was from Guatemala

Thanksgiving in Boston

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Before the festivities begin...

Thanksgiving day, time to start cooking

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and making tasty alcohol concoctions

Waiting for turkey to cook

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It takes a while when it is 23 pounds...

Men in orange

Men in white

Stripes

Painting amidst the hubbub

Finally, it is ready

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Cousins

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"Such a clever me!"

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she says when she completes a tricky task, such as reassembling the contents of her mother's wallet.

Halloween at home

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A Halloween trio

Now she is an elephant

Setting out to meet our neighbors

Halloween in daycare

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October birthdays

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He got a lot of little bottles,

she got one big bottle.

To celebrate, we went to

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our favorite Japanese inn. J and Bell were happy to see each other again

and went to a hot air balloon festival together.

Alas, it was sunny but too windy for balloons.

So, they rode on a giant monster truck instead.

This time, Lisa and Patrick joined us.

Exhausted after all that bathing and fresh air.

S. recently went to Guatemala

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to look at a U.S. government-funded school feeding program. Guatemala is a middle-income country but has one of the highest chronic malnutrition rates (at 49 percent) in the world. We visited schools. This is what a well-funded public school looks like.

And at this school in a very poor neighborhood of Guatemala City, rice and beans are provided by the United States.

These are cooking facilities and children and parents are asked to contribute wood.

Kids get only 2 school meals a week,

but at least their classrooms have windows.

At this school, in an even poorer neighborhood, there are no windows.

Cooking facilities are even more basic.

What food aid looks like

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You will recognize vegetable oil,

but probably have never heard of foods like corn-soy blend or wheat-soy blend that are the staples of food assistance.

At a food aid warehouse

And somehow the Alaska salmon lobby managed to market this to the US government as a good food aid commodity.

Caritas is a Catholic charity

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that is one of the implementers of U.S.-supported school feeding in Guatemala

This is a Pope Mobile that John Paul II rode on his visit to Guatemala not too far back.

Ironies of U.S. involvement

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First, there was a coup, then 36 years of a civil war, now the U.S. government funds civic education at Guatemala's primary schools.

You probably won't see it in the United States

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We came to Guatemala's Ministry of Health to meet with the minister.

We noticed this poster on the way in.

The minister met with us and by the time we went down the stairs to leave the building, he -- squatting, in blue pants -- was leading employees in an afternoon workout session.

In Guatemala City

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The National Cathedral

The Presidential Palace

The Ethnographic Museum

and its Mayan art

S did not go to Tikal, but she saw this

Antigua de Guatemala

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Flags are out for the Independence Day (September 15),

and a marching band was practicing for the occasion.

It seems that Guatemala's public transportation system is entirely dependent on American school buses.

The cathedral where Central America's only Catholic saint is buried.

Our little swan

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At the beach

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We went to Lewes, a small town on the Delaware Bay.

B loved playing at the beach.

While J and B frolicked on the sand

dolphins played in the water nearby.

We love chocolate ice cream.

B took this picture.

Lada, Sally and Jim were in town

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Fun in the pool

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Cousin Mirali was in town,

and he and B did some acrobatics

Now and then

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A recent Tokyo reunion, alas, without us:

This is what B and her friends looked like the last time they saw each other:

We're back

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from our big trip. After our layover in London on the way back, S and Bell got bumped up to business class and our little traveler took to it like a natural. We now need to sort through more than 900 fotos taken in Almaty, Astana, and Karaganda. During his excursion to Astana, K's new capital, J discovered some things that even Borat did not know about, so stay tuned.

With N and E before getting on the plane back to the States.

UPDATE: Fotos have been added. They don't all fit on this screen, so make sure to look at "older posts" when you scroll to the bottom or follow the links on the right.

In Almaty

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Bell and Honey meet

We felt very blurry on our first night in Almaty, after 20 hours of travel and 11 time zones away from U.S. East Coast

S's cousins E and N

Almaty is known for its fountains

Almaty has good playgrounds, and we spent several early mornings there suffering from brutal jet lag

Bell and aunt A at the zoo

Feeding a giraffe was fun

In the mountains, near Medeo

More fountains

Taking a break from sightseeing at the Republic Square

Bubbles are the same in Kazakhstan,

but Bell has never seen a watermelon ball (made in China) before.

Pleased with her tubeteika

Train to Karaganda

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We took the fastest train, which was made in Spain

Alas, I wish I could rhyme the rest of our trip...

Karaganda

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S's hometown is a coal mining city

This is the Miners' Palace

The old Lenin is still there,

as is the old kvas barrell

The Stanislavsky Theater

This is where we stayed, at an apartment where S grew up, then as now above a bread store

Learning to roll dough from aunt R

With aunt M

We saw many relatives and friends

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The lady in the white scarf is S's grandmother's sister

(B decided she wanted to be in this picture after all.)

S and her cousins

S's father's brother is on the right

S's cousin M

With cousin M's daughter

S's classmates from high school

Bell and her buddy I

S's English teacher (holding B)

S and her mother's friend from high school

Bell's cousins

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Dilya is 5

Rustik is 7

Jamilya is 1

and Honey turned 2 while we were there

Honey's grandpa and S's uncle

Honey's grandma

Showing each other new moves

In the village

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S's uncle is building a house in the village, which means on the edge of the steppe where the sky is very big

The house

Preparing wood for the bath

Heating up the bathwater

Looking at horses that have just passed by the house

Where the village's horses hang out

There was no hot water in Karaganda while we were there, so we bathed the old-fashioned way (but only Bell did it al fresco)

Village life is relaxing for those who don't live there

Haircuts at the village are really cheap, which is why

they all decided to get it done there

Everyone is almost naked because it was very hot

Juma and Chuba

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Bell's best friends in the village

In Astana, alas without Borat

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S and B were a little under the weather, but J took a short roadtrip to Astana, K's new capital

A great deal of K's new oil wealth went to build it

Big buildings, few people

A replica of Moscow University building

The tower with the ball at the top is intended to look like a tree and apparently symbolizes youth, growth, and vigor

View from the top

Best of all, inside the ball there is an imprint of the president's hand

Not only Astana's aquarium is the furthest in the world from any open source of water,

it has a mermaid

Big trip

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We are leaving today for the big K. Will be back June 22 with lots of pictures.

Bell's farewell party at daycare

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Bell will be soon moving to a new preschool, so her buddies in daycare -- where she and several kids have been for over 2 years -- threw her a party.

C made a beautiful cake

Eating at the Taste of Arlington

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Jaleo made a giant paella

Our local Indian take-out apparently serves presidents

Jumping at the Taste of Arlington

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