Seventeen years ago, I volunteered to be a mentor in the Gordon Engineering Leadership program at MIT. I was paired with Nora, a smart, bright-eyed, and ambitious graduate student. She is a remarkable woman who continues to excel in life. She spent 5 years at Microsoft, 8 years at Meta, and has recently joined Google as the Director of Product Management. More importantly, she and her husband, Simon, have raised a wonderful family, including Lisa (10), Adam (7), Luna (2), and Dora (0.5). They are pictured above with her sister, Peri, whom they are visiting to celebrate her graduation from Smith College.

Jeanine and I attended Nora’s wedding in Seattle and have remained in touch over the years. We were thrilled when we learned that they would be visiting the area, and we enjoyed spending this afternoon with the whole crew. Jeanine prepared a wonderful quiche, and I was on pancake duty. Being so heavily outnumbered, I decided not to try to kidnap Dora, but did take advantage of every moment to get my baby fix. She is the happiest and most chill baby I have ever met and became my instant buddy. I have forgotten how heavy babies are and how quickly they can shift their center of gravity when they move their heads around. I maintained a solid grip at all times, an excellent excuse to monopolize time spent with her.

Her father addressed the weight / CG instability challenge by lashing the child to his body with a baby sling, a wonderful device I was unaware of when our kids were tiny.

Jeanine retrieved a huge box of toys from the basement, which kept the older children occupied so we could visit with the adults. It is pretty clear that our house was designed for adults and will need some safety modifications should we find ourselves with a grandchild at some point.