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...

Oooh lez'animaux

As we were "persona non-grata" at our house today during the open house, we went to the San Francisco Zoo.

We thought the layout of the zoo was fantastic, and saw a few of the animals but most of them had already decided that they wanted dinner or a nap and were not available for viewing. We will definitely go back again, this time a little earlier.

Nathan didn't seem to mind, as he was just as interested in the people cleaning the cages or the wooden barriers separating us from the "wild" animals.

9 mois 9 kg

For his 9-month check, Nathan insisted that he weigh himself... by himself.

The stats came up to be: 9 months, 20 lbs and 29.5 inches (75 cm).

Sam the Frenchie

After a generous amount of paperwork, a letter of motivation, an interview in French, and a one-year waiting period... I received my French Citizenship!

We were all really shocked at how easy, relatively speaking, it was to get citizenship. As Robert said, "there is not a long line of clients."

The whole troupe went along with me to pick up my paperwork. There was no champaign or baloons (quelle tristesse!), only a print-out of the declaration des droits de l'homme and the Marseillaise (which I don't think I'll learn... it's a little scary). Robert and Linda invited us to lunch at our favorite international airport restaurant, "FireWood," before Robert boarded his plane to return to my "other mother country."

Vive la France, vive la republique!

Breaking the Fast with the Hartogs

The Hartogs invited us over the their house for Yom Kippur to break the fast with them. They had a beautiful table, and their house was filled with friends and family who gathered to join in the festivities.

After fasting all day, we ate our fill and drank in the wine and conversation. We had a wonderful time, and are looking forward to spending many more holidays with the Hartogs!

Famille Va de Floride

Miguelito, Mom's cousin from Florida, Liliana and David had Nathalie's sister's weeding in LA and planned to stop by San Francisco on the way to see Nathan. The timing was perfect as Mom and Dad were in town - my Dad had not seen them since his honeymoon with Mom in Venezuela... over 35 years ago!
For Sam and I, it was the second time we were seeing them and it was always a immense pleasure.

We had a great night, lots of memories, lots of stories, lots of laughs as we are all left wondering what to do with all those stamps!

Weekend in Santa Cruz

For my birthday weekend, we all embarked to Santa Cruz. The main driver was the wedding of a colleague of mine at the Chaminade Hotel in Santa Cruz. So, we had decided to make a weekend out of it.

Saturday morning at breakfast, a man stops by our table and aks us where in France are we from. From one thing to another, he ended up having breakfast with us relating his childhood in Germany and how his family escaped Hitler. His name was Arno Penzias, 1978's Nobel Prize in Physics...

After a lot of swimming and some resting, Saturday night was the wedding. Mom and Dad stayed with Nathan while Sam and I headed to the ceremony and reception.

The site was incredible, overlooking the Santa Cruz Bay. The wedding was beautiful and we had a fabulous time with the rest of the BMC crew.

Rosh Hashannah chez nous

We invited family and friends over to our house to celebrate the new year. Lois, Deborah, Steve (and Lila) joined Robert, Linda, Alex, Nathan and I at a glorious fete! Linda (and Alex) prepared some absolutely wonderful sephardic delicacies, and Robert lead us in a traditional service with lots of symbolism which my cousin, Lois, and I had never heard of before.

After the traditional "eating of the onion" (to liquidate anyone who wishes us harm) and the dates (to further liquidate anyone meaning us harm) we ate a little apple to have a happy and sweet year, were ready to attack the main course.

The Spinnaker... and Mamie Sylvia's sweater!

Robert took Linda, Alex, Nathan and I to his favorite restaurant, "The Spinnaker."

Nathan wore a very cute outfit, which was a gift from his "arriere-grand-mere" Sylvia.

Isn't he adorable?

Nathan et Simon le Hérisson

Nathan really likes Simon the Hedgehog (le Hérisson)

8th tooth...

The lower right lateral incisor (N) showed up this afternoon. The lateral incisors are only supposed to come out between 10 and 16 months (as per the teeth chart) but here we are at not even 8 1/2 months old with a toothie mouth!

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!

7th tooth!

Here we are again, the lower left lateral incisor (Q) just pierced through the gum today...

Maria Kelley: Vegetarian?

Our good friend, Maria Kelley, was in San Francisco for a friend's wedding, so she came by our house for a visit -- and to meet Nathan!

Linda made a fantastic dinner and we were three-quarters of the way through the meal when we started talking about Maria's life, job, and eating habits in Taiwan. It turns out that she doesn't eat meat anymore because she's not always certain what kind of meat she's eating.

We were horrified. We had served her Chicken and she was quietly munching down on something she hadn't eaten in years.

Luckily, she had faith in our little Chicken and very politely put Linda, Alex and I at ease...

Next time she comes, we PROMISE to try and remember that she's a vegetarian -- and we beg her to mention it, just in case!!

Vroom, vroom

For his 8th month birthday, Mamili got Nathan his first car. Check it out!


Hopefully this will give him all the stand-up time he needs. Since last week, all Nathan wants to do is stand up: he pulls himself up on any piece of furniture he can get a hold of. Even at bedtime, we are not yet out of the room that he's up in his bed! Needless to say that it has been very disruptive on his sleep. Why sleep when you can stand up?

Snippety crickets

With that long hair in the front, it was finally time for a little haircut. Yes, yes, you read correctly. Mamili took Nathan to a place on Sacramento Street called Snippety Crickets that specializes in haircuts for kids. Nathan had a toy to distract him while his hairdresser was cutting away, which brought Mamili to tears: "Oh, no, my baby's hair!!!"

The unhappy look on the picture is because he had to leave his toy for a second to look at the camera. Ah, les paparazzi!

At the end of the cut, the hair "stylist" took a picture of Nathan for their "wall of fame" and gave me Nathan's hair in an envelop as keepsake. Very nice touch...

PS: It looks better the second day!

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).

Lunch at the Sorkin's

This lovely Sunday, we all gathered at the Sorkin's house for lunch. Nathan and Abby really bonded as big cousin Abby was showing him new tricks!

Eric Sasson vists

Our good friend from NY, Eric Sasson, came into town on his way to an exclusive workshop for writers, the Squaw Valley Writers Conference. While he was here he stopped by our house to meet Nathan and have lunch with us. Next time he's in town he will most likely be a published writer and may not have time for us "little people." However by then Nathan will be a bigger little person...

Nathan le Plongeur!

Jill and Noah visit San Francisco

My cousin Jill's fiance, Noah, is doing some consulting out in the East Bay and Jill came to visit him for the weekend. On Sunday they came by our place for a quick tour of the Inner Sunset, and lunch at the perennial favorite, "Park Chow." Alex, Nathan and I enjoyed meeting Noah, and we look forward to seeing them again!!

A little more laughter

Listening to this never gets old. For us.

New way of walkin'

So Nathan has succesfully made the transition from a sedentary desk-jockey to mobile menace. He started really moving last Sunday, and here we see him being lured around our bedroom by his second favorite magazine, "Parenting" (his first favorite being the "Economist").

Back to work

After 7 months of maternity leave, today is my first day back at the office. Even though I had prepared myself mentally, nothing can make you ready... I woke up at 5:30 am with an ear pain, had a pounding headache at 8:00 am and nausea started at about 9:00 am.
I started the day with Nathan's first feeding, then ran around trying to get ready. Nathan definitely noticed something was off this morning and just wanted to be held which didn't help with getting ready! Everyone was stressed, even Mamili as it would be her first day alone with Nathanou.

After quick goodbyes, I got all my stuff in the car and started driving away. The drive was long but uneventful. Accompanied by James Blunt, my mind was wandering and doing a recap of the past 7 months, tears were coming up: How would I be able to leave my baby all day? As I passed Palo Alto, fond memories of car pooling with Sam came back -- still 30 minutes to go... Then, I made the rookie mistake of taking 85 N which has always bad traffic no matter what time of day.

Got to the office at around 9:00 am and went straight to my desk. Well, let's say that things were not exactly how I had left them: all the power cables, the mouse, the white-erase board, garbage bin and my chair were gone. So, my first action back on the job was to file a trouble ticket with facilities!

Nobody seem to expect me so I decided to come home early to make Nathan's last 2 feedings of the day. Separation at bedtime was hard, I would not see hime for 12 hours and after a day away from me how could he be sure he'd see me again...

I know it will all be ok and it is an adjustement for everyone in the family, so we'll keep working at making this a smooth transition.