our fam on the go

January 8, 2010

Cold January day - visit to MoMA

We met Rob Townley (our classmate from grad school) and his wife Clair and their daughter Pearl. We had fun at the Tim Burton exhibit and then off to a great Japanese restaurant (Nate, you enjoyed the salmon katsu) and then to a playground in Central Park. Cold, snowy but we had a great time.

December 27, 2009

Your genetic heritage

Boys, you carry Mom's mitochondrial genome in every cell in your body. Mom's mitochondrial genome is a member of "Haplogroup U4" and is found in western Eurasia, from Mongolia to central Europe. It arose about 25,000 years ago and subsequently spread with the migrations that followed the end of the Ice Age about 14,000 years ago.

On Dad's side, you are descended from a group of people sharing a Y-chromosome type "Haplogroup G" which appears to have arisen in the Caucasus region during the Ice Age, about 16,000 years ago. The high mountains blocked progress of the glaciers that were covering most of Europe and Asia, allowing a refuge for humans and animals. Haplogroup G is still common in the Caucasus region (including Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan) and in the neighboring Near East. Men expanding out of the Near East carried G across much of southern Europe and northern Africa. A separate, smaller migration carried G eastward, where it is seen in low frequencies in groups as far east as China. --- You have very distant relatives in China!

December 20, 2009

December 19, 2009

Gingerbread House

Nate & Ben decided that the rule for decorating the gingerbread house with candy was "one for the house and one for my mouth". However, I think the ratio was closer to 1:10!