Old Family Photos

I've always loved old family photos; and I've always loved the power of digital to bring old photos back to life. I can now see where Rohan gets his impish grin (my mom), and where Deven gets his good looks (looks a little like my great-great-uncle!)

When I was at Uncle Helly's funeral, Aunt Carolyn allowed me to take 1 small album with some precious images, because I know of a service here in San Francisco that can digitize and fix image problems. Finally, 18 months later, I can report that the service, Digital Pickle, did a beautiful job. Some of the photos were in *very* bad shape; but they did a great job of fixing lines/creases/spots/etc. It wasn't free, but it was absolutely worth the price paid; and I will use them again (and Mom & Dad, next time I'm there, I'm going to ship a lot of what you have there off to Digital Pickle - because they have free shipping, and were so good at scanning and fixing these old images - it's totally worth the price!)

Family members have been emailed a link to the entire album; but I won't add them all as some are private (if you're a friend and want to see 'em, please let me know and I'll send you the link too). Family: I have the high-res versions of these too; that I can share/print/download if you want, as well.

Photos here include:

My Grandma Frieda - a woman for whom I have only 1 faint memory, but I hear was a wonderful person.


My Uncle Helly, Aunt Sigi, Grandma Frieda, my Mom (now "Naani" - she's the infant), and Uncle Joergi - this photo must've been taken in mid-1945, given my mom's age. I know my Mom is going to love this, because very few photos exist of her ages ~ 0-5, because post-war Austria was a tough place, and there simply aren't that many photos like this that exist. The original is so tiny that you can't see my mom's face, but you can in the digitized version, which is wonderful!


Uncle Helly & Uncle Joergi


My Great-Great Uncle, (I don't even know his name, I think the caption in the album said "Motz" but I can't really read it).

There are LOTS more for the family to enjoy, including the only known photo of my grandparents on their wedding day. Please, everyone in the family, check it out -and help me correct any mistakes in the captions! :)

Reading with Chaacha

Chaacha Satya (Yogesh's Uncle, 10 years younger than Daada - younger-brother Uncles are called "Chaacha" in Hindi) came to visit us for the evening, and we had a grand time together. He's en route to a 50th Anniversary party for Chaacha Jaggi & Chaachi Kanu in Ithaca, NY (leaving tomorrow morning from SFO @ 6:15am...luckily Yogesh is taking him to the airport, not me!)

It was lovely to see Chacha reading Rohan & Deven stories, talking about "titli" (butterflies) and other characters in the Hindi-English books they read together. I wish we lived closer to relatives and could do this more often...

Bye-bye, bumblebees

We spent a lovely weekend with Satya Chacha (Yogesh's Uncle), at his hotel (photo from the pool/courtyard area) in Yuba City, California; where he is on a summer research assignment (he's a professor of Anthropology @ the University of Saskatchewan in Canada).

The summer here in San Francisco has been particularly cold & foggy this year, and we'd never been to Yuba City, so we were so happy to have the 2 days of unadulterated bright-blue skies, a pool and hot-tub (latter treated as a kiddie-pool of course) and warm balmy evenings.

The weekend also marks a milestone - last Friday Deven 'graduated' from his first classroom ever, and is no longer a Bumblebee at Holy Family Day Home. Tomorrow he starts as a Kangaroo - and instead of having 13 other "young 2s" as classmates (most, but not all, potty-trained) & 3 teachers, he'll have 23 other fully-potty-trained 3-year old classmates & still just 3 teachers. Frankly, the idea of 24 screaming 3-year olds in a 8:1 ratio sends a shiver down my spine - I have no idea how his teachers Megan, Tahoe, and Jenny (who he knew before briefly in Bumblebees) are going to do it. This is 1 example of why he's already in preschool and I'm not a stay-at-home Mom. :)

Yogesh said that both he and teacher Victoria in the Bumblebees classroom got a little verklempt on Friday when we realized it was Deven's last day in that classroom. Deven, of course, has been prepared for the transition, with visits to the classroom and lots of discussions and meetings with the new teachers - so I have no fear of his transition - I'm more worried that I'll pop into the Bumblebees classroom and start hanging his sweater on his old hook, before stares from the new kids make me laugh and go to the classroom. Besides, in Bumblebees, Deven had been hanging out with another classmate, who will go into the other classroom for 3-year olds; this isn't altogether bad, as I blame him for Deven's rascally statements of late... *grin*.

Rohan is doing well - has been saying "NO!" with gusto (along with many other words in his growing vocabulary) for a few months now, and is as cute and charming and difficult as any 19-month old little brother can be.

It seems like just yesterday, we were leaving Deven at HFDH in tears every morning...and now he leaves us happily, and comes home chattering about school every night. Tomorrow, we have a short-day for the first day in the new classroom - I suspect as much for the teachers to get their bearings with the new kids, as for the kids. We will see how the first day of Year 2 goes!

Rohan and his Blaaanket

As everyone who knows Rohan knows he loves his blanket. Specifically
the green froggie blanket Naani Gerda made for him. Deven and I
(daddy) have taken to tease him a bit about it - and he follows along.

Here are two pictures of Rohan and his blaaanket (that's how he says his).

You CAN try this at home

A new safe form of bungee jumping has evolved. No helmet required!

Very busy Monday morning

The kids are having a very busy, productive and connected Monday
morning. Perhaps even busier than the parents!

Not Wearing Sleeves, Part 3 (in the water)

Did I mention that the water, though typical-lake-murky, was wonderfully warm, shallow to the end of the dock, and soft sandy-bottomed? Ideal conditions for those (Deven) who were terrified at the beginning of the week...and we couldn't pull away by the end.

The jetski was well-used by
- Uncle Tommy (the pro),
- Aunt Heather (who lost a pair of sunglasses in a spectacular wipeout),
- Uncle Jeff (pictured here; a natural!),
- Aunt Rea (who took about .02 seconds to figure out how to stand up and do it well), and
- Yogesh (who had the good fortune of having it run out of gas on him twice in the middle of the lake; and note his skinned-shins in the prior post photos).
- I tried the jetski, but didn't quite get it or really *like* the experience, so I left it to the experts.

Meanwhile, on the boat, Aunt Marsha got back on the waterskis (she & Aunt Carolyn grew up on Orchard Lake in Michigan) - she was too fast for us to grab a snapshot; but the image of her showing up the teenagers as she cruised on by is still in my head! :)

Not Wearing Sleeves, Part 2

Celebrating Rea's birthday


A nice shot of Jeff & Rea

Gina & Livia

& the only shot I could find with Uncle Rich (and me & Rohan, of course)

Not Wearing Sleeves, Part 1

We have returned from a wonderful family vacation in Cedar Lake, Indiana (AKA "CLI"), where Aunt Heather & Uncle Tommy have a lake house.




Along with Uncle Tommy & Aunt Heather, the boat and the CLI Jetski were wonderful hosts. They, and cousin Ante, Nanni & Grandpa; Aunt Carolyn, Aunt Rea, Uncle Jeff, cousin Eva, Aunt Marsha, Uncle Rich, Aunt Gina, Uncle Pete, and cousin Livia were all able to join us - for this, the kids first time meeting each other.

Aunt Rea celebrated a birthday (welcome, again, to the "you can't say "Early 30's" anymore, Cuz!), & we had lots of good food, family, sun, & fun.

I'd write more but I'm tired... but it was a magical week...and I succeeded in my only real goal...of Not Wearing Sleeves!

Of Fireflies and Fun with Granddad