Nathan at the BMC Halloween Party

Nathan traveled all the way to Sunnyvale to show off his cool costume and was so happy to finally meet Alex S.

Alex hung out with Brian, while Nathan preferred Suzanne...

The Halloween Party

Monica, Bill, and Sophia invited us all over to their home for a halloween potluck. The kids and the parents all had a great time, and Maggie (the dog) managed to get out alive!

Nathan aime le fromage...

This weekend we were pretty busy... and Nathan tried lots of new things. Of particular note, and making his French parents extremely proud, is that Nathan ate some cheese!

It wasn't French cheese... but it certainly wasn't "American cheese" either!

He ate some fairly pungeant "Edam," and said "ummmm mmmm mmmm" the whole way through.

Way to go, Nathan!

Swinnnnnnnng, part deux

After snapping our photo of Nathan in complete terror on the swing last week, we showed it to our Nanny, Ana. She was surprised, saying that during the week she took him to the swings and he had loved them.


It turns out that she didn't actually push him in the swing... she just sat him down and let him gently rock back and forth. Whereas when I put him in the swing I gave him a big push and voila... a terrified baby appeared (Oh, Dad!!)

Yesterday we went back to he park to make amends. We started really slow and built up quite a bit, and Nathan had a swingin' good time!

Le premier tour de manège (the first merry-go-round)

Yesterday in the park Nathan had his first merry-go-round ride. He seemed to enjoy it, but I think he'll appreciate it more as he gets older.

Nathan a dit "non"

Nathan has been able to communicate with us for some time now.

Let's recap:

• "I'm tired" = long, ear-splitting scream
• "I'm wet" = long, ear-splitting scream
• "I'm hungry" = long, ear-splitting scream
• "I'm not hungry anymore" = long, ear-splitting scream + turning his head/grabbing the spoon and making a mess everywhere -- at least he doesn't spit food back out (yet)
• "I'm happy" = long, blissfully sweet silence (or even sweeter, laughter!)

His vocabulary has really picked up in the past few weeks...

Last week when Alex was getting ready to take Nathan out of the bath, Nathan began shaking his head violently from side-to-side, clearly telling us that he did not want to get out of the bath. There was some long, ear-splitting screaming which accompanied the gesture to hammer the point home.

More recently he has begun to accompany the side-to-side head shaking with the words "no na na no non no na no non nu nu nu" (or the like). Clearly wanting to imitate the sounds that we make when we say no.

If I can get a video of it I'll post it for you to see... non non non non non!

Nathan and Sam are published!

My photographer friend, Aurélie, had an article published about her work in the French quarterly magazine Paroles de Mamans in the september-october-november 2007 edition featuring Dads. There are two photos of Nathan and Sam taken by her last May on page 3 (photos 3 and 7, left to right and top to bottom).

Nathan and Alex in the Park

I took my camera to the park today to help prepare for an upcoming Paparazzo shoot. What better subject matter than Nathan and Alex!

Swinnnnnng!

Nathan is a real trooper and is willing to try just about anything.

But Alex and I think he might not be 100% on-board with the whole "swing" thing.

He's comin right at me!

Nathan the King. And quite a climber, too!

First ear infection (otite)

After a more than cranky Sunday, the doctor's visit on Monday confirmed that Nathan was not doing well because he had the start of an ear infection in the right ear -- from a cold gone bad, not from water getting in his ears like some people think.

The symptoms are not easy to recognize but we found that he was not sleeping as well as usual, he had a mild increase in temperature and a sad little face. Also, when having him in our arms, he would rest his head on our shoulder instead of trying to climb.

We started the antibiotics right away. He loves the pink goo and says: "humm" when he sees the spoon full of medicine coming his way.

8 more days of pink goo...