Anne Sophie is 1 year old!

Time flies and last week our dearest Anne Sophie turned 1 year old! Celebrations lasted 4 days and started on Thursday September 18, her actual birth date. Dad took the afternoon off and went for a long walk with Anne Sophie to the De Horsten estate. In the evening, about the time of the actual birth (19:35), the three of us went to the pond in Leidschenhage for a small birthday picnic by the fountain.


The next day, Anne Sophie was receiving a company of our good Russian-speaking friends. We had a great time together. But when dad went to put the tired baby-girl to bed, he accidentally himself fell asleep, which did not prevent the guests from enjoying the rest of the party :)

The following day we got a visit from Katja, Ronny and their 10-month old son Zhenya, as well as their two nieces. The kids were having a great time, especially they enjoyed playing football, or rather headball, with a balloon. The game went like this: the fathers would hold the babies in their hands and would let them pass the balloon to each other by hitting it with their heads. This gave rise to lots of excitement and laughter.

On Sunday morning, dad and Anne Sophie again went to De Horsten for about 3 hours. They found some very fine mushrooms, of which mom made a very delicious soup! In the afternoon, we got another birthday visit, this time from Ira and her 6-month-old son Lucca. We ended up singing Russian songs from our youth, letting the children play and enjoy each other's company.

On a different note, in the past few weeks we've been walking and biking a lot. Anne Sophie really enjoys both, and seems very busy watching things as we are passing by and trying to make sense of them. She is now actively trying walking, by holding on to different objects in the room, mostly the couches. But she is still afraid to take that first step with nothing to hold on to.

Dad, that is me, has been reading several books on child development. But mom says: just go and play with your kid, for by the time you finish those books, she'll be a grown-up :) Well, dad's way of doing things is that he first reads how to do something and then does it. The problem is that this reading may indeed last forever and result in nothing practical :) The books are really good and I'll talk about them in a different post!

Keeping fit and Alpe d'Huez

One of the important aspects of our lives is our health and physical condition. Many people almost totally neglect their health by consuming unhealthy foods and indulging in unhealthy habits like drinking, smoking, watching too much TV, etc. Others seem to go into another extreme and are often (almost) obsessed with low-calorie foods, exercise, body shape, beauty products, etc. It is not always easy to find your own middle way of keeping a healthy body, without sliding away into one of those extremes.



After having tried the gym and jogging, I concluded that those are not for me. To be frank, I found both to be extremely boring and uninspiring. At a certain point I realized that what I need are some functional health activities which I can weave into my daily life and which I can use to support my other goals and priorities. I’ve chosen 2 activities that I enjoy very much: biking and walking. I’ll talk about walking in a separate post, but now let’s talk about biking.

Instead of driving, I bike some 10 km to work and back. I do this 4 to 5 times a week resulting in 80 to 100 km of quite strenuous biking per week. I reason that by biking to work I not only contribute to my personal health and enjoyment but also help reduce air pollution and traffic jams. Although in the beginning I had to force myself to get on the bike early in the morning each day, now it feels absolutely natural. Biking early in the morning through beautiful tree-lined alleys of Leidschendam and then a few kilometers along the Vliet (channel) is a most enjoyable experience. But being ambitious as I am, I try to bike as hard as I can. I now cover the distance from home to work in 20 to 23 minutes depending on the wind. Even on the pretty cold autumn mornings, I am sweating a lot as I arrive at work, but for me this is a small inconvenience compared to all the joys of bicycling.

A couple of times a week I also go for a bike ride with my now 1-year-old daughter Anne Sophie, and my wife Luda also sometimes joins us. Anne Sophie enjoys biking in her front seat (attached to my bicycle) immensely! She watches all the objects with intense interest: the trees, the cows, horses and sheep, the road lights, the passing vehicles, and even the stars! I often sing to her as we bike, and she is starting to "sing" along! This is a great way of spending time with your child!

To grow in any area of our life, we need challenges. So is it with biking as well. Fortunately, every year my employer, Delta-N, organizes a biking challenge in the French Alps. This year, at the end of August, we went to bike up Alpe d’Huez, one of the most famous climbs from Tour de France. While for some of my colleagues this was the second or even third time to climb Alpe d’Huez, this was my first time.

The long weekend in the Alps was fantastic: wonderful, sunny weather, majestic mountains, fine accommodation, great food. On Saturday morning we put on our gear to concur the climb of 14 km with an average gradient of 8% and 21 excruciating hairpin bends. It took me 2 hours 12 minutes to get there. It was hard, very hard indeed. The sweat was flooding and irritating my eyes, and I had to stop twice to get some rest. Yet the feeling of achievement on the top was overwhelming!

The descent down to the village was fantastic, with high speeds and magnificent views! After some energy drinks and energy-full food, some of us went to play in the small open-air swimming pool, and then on to a trampoline, ping pong, and some deep philosophical conversations.

This was a great, unforgettable experience of physical exertion, overcoming and achievement! I’d recommend it to anyone!