Nathan loves the bath...

Walking at the Shakespeare Garden

This weekend was low-key. After a rainy Saturday used to catch-up on sleep, we ventured out on Sunday for a walk in the park.

Nathan practiced walking with Sam and enjoyed the beauty of the Shakespeare Garden in Golden Gate Park.

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...

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...