Picnic at Paradise Beach Park

Sierra's Baby Shower

Natasha organized a lovely Baby Shower for Sierra at Le Garage in Sausalito. This was Sierra's "first" shower as she had missed her first one (Jack was born 5 weeks ahead of schedule!).

Unexpectedly, I had brought Sidney with me, and needless to say that he was the hit of the party!

After the shower, he and I continued our day in Corte Madera running errands to get the remodeling of his and Nathan's room under way: door pulls, paint, closet stuff...

Fun, fun!

Christmas Smörgåsbord @ The Moontros

The Moontros invited us over to their house to partake in their self-proclaimed Swedish "pagan" traditions (eating... drinking... what's not to like?)

Scott and Janice slaved away before the meal... and Janice watched the kids throughout most of the actual eating part.  In fact, she overheard Nathan and Max plotting to tip over the play kitchen in the living room.  Obviously these two boys will be trouble as they grow up together.

After we had all eaten our fill, Scott took over and kept both Max and Nathan entertained with countless tickles and giggles!

For the most part I got to just hang out, drink "glögg" and talk with other grown-ups for a change.

This is a tradition I can really get behind!

Jack's 2nd Birthday Party

Nathan was invited to his friend Jack's second birthday party up in Mill Valley.

It was right after Nathan's swim class at 3, and he didn't take a nap earlier in the day so on the drive up he fell asleep in the back seat.

Once we got there, I hung out with Nathan in the car for a good half-an-hour while he took a snooze, but at 4P we had to wake him up to go party-party-party.

Upon waking up I said, "don't you want to go inside to the party."

"No party," he said, in a tired and sort of aggravated ("why'd you wake me up!") tone...

"There will be cake and ice cream," I continued.

He looked at me and said, in a very small voice completely devoid of enthusiasm, "yay.... a party."

No more monkeys jumping on the couch

Tonight we were invited over to dinner at Max's house. His dada made a fantastic selection of food, and then upped-the-ante another notch when he went all iron-chef on us and whipped up another main course selection for us to nibble. Scrumptious!

After dinner, Nathan and Max entertained themselves with climbing on the couch, giving each other "hugs" (mostly just an excuse to try and knock the other one over... and mostly initiated by Nathan I'm sorry to report).

All in all a highly enjoyable evening. Good food, good friends, good fun.

Natasha's Shower

Natasha's turn for a fantastic baby shower at the Garden Court of the Palace Hotel for high-tea. The setting was very elegant and the company delightful.

Sierra did a great job at organizing and we were all very happy to share the moment.

The bets are all in on what Natasha's is expecting: we all agreed that it would be a girl! We'll have to wait until end of September to find out...


From left to right: Sierra, Natasha, Angela, Kim, Janice, Belinda, Alex.

Our day with Max

We woke up this morning with an invitation to head to breakfast with Max and his parents at our local haunt, Park Chow. Much eating and fun later, we decided to take a walk to the park.

Nathan and Max enjoyed hanging out with each other, to the point that they were provoking each other to laugh across the table by violently shaking their heads and then waiting for the other to shake back.

Hysterical laughter ensued.

Giants vs. Cubs (*Cubs win!)

Steve (a season-ticket holder) invited me to come with him to a night game at AT&T park yesterday. The weather couldn't have been better, and we both had a great time talking, watching, eating, and drinking.

The whole time we were there, Steve was worried that he would get horrific heartburn from all the garbage we were consuming, while I wasn't concerned at all.

Last night at 3A I woke up with said horrific heartburn and Steve, by all accounts, had none.

Picnic at Paradise Beach

Belinda (and Steve, and Eva) organized a picnic for our whole crew at Paradise Beach park this weekend. The friends, food, and location was fantastic! And the kids, who last year were much easier to handle, had a lot of fun running around and playing in the dirt!

April's Mom's Night Out

First at Parea for drinks, then dinner at Andalu in the Mission. Very fun night!

Max teaches Nathan to bang!!!

In addition to helping Nathan get comfortable in the "big boy bath," Max imparts a very useful skill to Nathan. Banging on things.

Family Vacation: Weekend in Tahoe

We took another long weekend with friends of our family in Tahoe at a gorgeous rental house near the Heavenly ski area.

Eva, Max, Nathan, and Sophia all had a great time lounging, bathing, and playing with each other -- and their parents all had a great time relaxing together and hitting the slopes!

"Down time" in Tahoe

"Down time" is a lot more fun, and tiring, than it sounds.

Valentine's Day Potluck

The "Three Birthday" Sunday

Nathan, Alex and I all had a lot of fun helping Dahlia, Lincoln, and Phillipa celebrate their birthdays. But it was a longggg day for little Nathan!

Party party party!!

Standing up

Michelle's mother graciously hosted this week's playgroup including grandparents. Timing was impecable as a number of grandma's were in town that week.

Babies played, ate, laughed and cried and Nathan spent time climbing up the leg of dining room table to check out what we had for lunch... trying to pull the table cloth... Catastrophe averted!

Then, we had to have another pinwheel of babies!

Baby picnic... take 2

Our second "baby picnic" was in Russian Hill at Belinda and Steve's house. The plan was to spend the afternoon at the Michaelangelo Playground but the overcast weather made it easy for us all to want to stay indoors in the comfort of the Rowbury's home.

We are a lot of people and lots of babies everywhere. Nathan had a blast (here with his friend, Lila).

Day One play group @ Janice's

We all had lunch and babies enjoyed Monica's story telling.

First Paparazzo gig

Sam had his first Paparazzo gig on Sunday afternoon. Monica and Bill had agreed to a session with Sophia to build Sam's portfolio.

Nathan and I tagged along to San Rafael and turned it into an afternoon out to Marin. We assisted Sam in his picture taking and then had dinner. It was also Nathan's first encounter with a dog, Maggie had the cutest effect on Nathan who started gigling when he first saw her. What a sight!

Picnic at Paradise Beach Park

Today, we had our much anticipated picnic with the Day One group at Paradise Beach Park in Marin. The original purpose of this get-together was for the dads to meet and share their fatherhood experience -- what, we, mothers, get to do weekly.

From left to right: Sam, my friend Zozo, Simon, baby Philippa, Michelle,

me, baby Nathan, Greg, baby Quinten, Connie, Belinda, baby Eva, Steve,

Bill, baby Sophia, Monica, Scott, baby Max, Janice, and Connie's mom.

The other special event of that day was that my friend Alex was in San Francisco for a business trip so she courageously joined us for the picnic. I say courageously because it can't be that fun to join a bunch of new parents and their babies, when you are single! Hopefully, it wasn't too scary.

Well, Nathan wasn't the happiest camper, which is pretty out of character. First, he didn't like to have to stop playing to pose for the baby spinwheel.

Then, he ended up swaddled in a new way and had to give up his "swaddle buster" title. And, finally, had to fend off pirate Eva who kept trying to jump into his Bjorn. So, it was a very busy day for little Nathan!

It was overall a great day and we hope we will get to do this again soon.