Family April to October 2014

Family portrait on April 28 in Mountain View, CA.

Moby is almost five years old. He recently learned to ride a bicycle inspired by the promise that if he learns to ride one, Seth will let him ride a motorcycle. With that promise, a child who had been averse to trying figured out how to ride a bicycle in the span of a single weekend. And, true to his word, Seth took him to Stockton one weekend in September and paid a couple hundred dollars for a track-side class. Moby was lent child-sized protective gear and a mini motorcycle and given some lessons in a parking lot. Once he learned how to start and turn and brake, he was allowed on the track including in a race. He took third of three and had a great time.

A mini motorcycle race in Stockton in Sept 2014. Moby is the child in the middle.

Moby on Oct 14. He wants to grow his hair long.

Arlo broke his arm. Twice. First he fell off a foam climbing structure for toddlers in day care and fractured something near his elbow. I knew it was time to visit the doctor when my two year old became happier after I immobilized his arm. Six days after that cast came off, he climbed onto Moby’s skateboard and fell off fracturing a bone in the wrist and gaining a shorter cast on the same arm. He was quite cheerful through all that. For the x-ray for the second fracture no one was available to sit with him for the x-ray, so he stood by himself holding his arm very still exactly as requested for each of the exposures.

Arlo leaving the clinic with a broken elbow on May 20 and broken wrist on June 24.

The family traveled some earlier in the summer and then stayed put into the early fall. Our biggest trip was a family trip to Rochester, New York, where we visited with Seth’s aunts and grandmother, and with Ania’s sister-in-law’s family. We then made a quick jaunt up to Niagara Falls. We’re so glad we splurged for a hotel room with a view of the falls. The view was spectacular, possibly more so than the tour behind the waterfall and the boat trip to the base of the falls.

Arlo admiring a giant Pacific octopus at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on April 11.

May 28, with aunt Stefie and cousin Jay.

May 30, with great-grandmother Irmgard LaForge in Rochester, NY.

May 31, Niagara Falls.

Ania finally finished designing her motor controller, had both printed circuit boards manufactured, and with help from her mentor-friend Sasha got all the components soldered on. So far, everything works, which seems like a small miracle. Seth has started working on the firmware, which is just a fancy word for programming the software that will be the brains of the operation.

Oct 4 on the beach in California, letting Daddy write firmware for Mama’s motor controller. This is what engineer love looks like.