Contemplating Nathan, changes...

In a few moments of fenotal-(some magical drug)-induced calm after several strong contractions, Alex and I are contemplating how lucky we are to have each other, to have a beautiful son in Nathan, and yet another on the way.

It is certainly exciting and we feel very blessed.

It has started...

Alex woke up at 11p tonight with some contractions, and after talking with our doctor we came down to the hospital.



Its now 1a and she's 3 cm dialated and on the hunt for an epidural.



Go team!

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.

The artist

Geema bought Nathan some crayons last week, and maman bought him a little table/chair set for him to play on in the living room yesterday.

This morning when he woke up, he launched right into them both and came up with an art project or two along the way!

Nathan and Papie

Manger the bug

Nathan was eating some homemade chicken soup (with extra "cayottes" (carrots), his favorite) tonight and he noticed a little piece of thyme in his broth.

"This a bug" he said, calmly.

Alex and I laughed, and said, "No Nathan, that's some thyme, it's an herb."

Slowly and deliberately he proceeded to raise the spoon towards his mouth and said "Manger the bug."

Ovo mystery

Sitting on Sam's lap, Nathan started saying something that sounded like "ovo"... Quite puzzled, Sam asked him to say it in Spanish instead. Nathan repeated "ovo".

All right, Spanish was not helping, how about in French? Nathan then proudly said: "Foofoo". ("chichi" en Francais)

After lots of laughter, we still don't have any idea about what he meant!

La Vie en...Blue!

We are not sure where this is coming from but for Nathan everything is blue:

nounours blue ----------> nounours is brown
blue truck ----------> a little blue but mostly red, yellow and green
popo blue ----------> normal color popo in the "couche"
blue phone ----------> black phone
blue carro ----------> car passing by that appeals to him, usually not blue

We've noticed that only the things he really liked where "blue", however, so doubt still remains when he refers to popo as blue...

Corriendo!!

See Nathan?

See Nathan run!

Nathan loves to run.

Run run run.

Before he runs, he yells "corriendo" ("run" in Spanish) to make sure everyone is aware of his plan of action.

Corriendo!!

Fun at Ryder Park

Chasing the sun, we decided to go for some water fun at Ryder Park and meet up with Paula, Mika and Patrick. The water jets start automatically at 11:00 am and are on for 5 min every 10 min. Nathan got surprised by the jets and preferred that Papa stay right next to him while trying to "catch" the water!

The cheering section

Nathan ate very well tonight -- first time in a long time. We think it's because of the cheering section he had on hand.





(Clockwise from left, Maman, Nounours, Nounours, Nounours, et Nathan)

Mr. Organization

Nathan decided we needed to organize our cupboard today.

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.

Trucks... Trucks... Trucks!

Nathan loves trucks. Fire trucks, garbage trucks, blue trucks. All kinds of trucks.

This morning, his enthusiasm for trucks got the better of him when he was looking for his fire engine ("Fire truck," "Pompier,' or "Bomberos" depending on who he's talking to...)

Instead of telling me, "Fire truck!" he eagerly shouted, "Fire Garbage!"

Au revoir Papie...

Luis Miguel...

Beloved husband of Sylvia, loving father of Linda and Diana, adoring grandfather of Alexandra, Jordan, and Ruben and great-grandfather of Nathan.

b. December 22, 1914
d. August 4th, 2008


You are in our hearts.

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.

Le bidou de maman

Et voila! Le bidou de maman...

New Orleans

So I ended up heading out to New Orleans for an F5 partner summit the last few days -- I hadn't been since pre-Katrina.

It was pretty astonishing to see the damage and empty buildings that we saw on the drive in from the airport, even this far after the event.

I was not at all surprised to see that Bourbon street was still the same hot, sticky, smelly, and sophomoric environment with lots of booze and bad judgement all around... fun, but in VERY small doses.

Nathan's Haircut

Nathan had another haircut today. The last two times we took him, he screamed bloody murder the whole time he was having his haircut.

To try and avoid having that happen again, we took Nathan over directly after his nap, and after he had eaten a little snack. The lady who cuts his hair, Helen, also turned the TV on to a channel showing cartoons (Nathan never gets to watch TV, so I think this was a key part of the solution). We were all pleasantly surprised by his extremely calm demeanor throughout the entire process.

I hope it's repeatable!

Mommy Shower

On Saturday, Monica and Ana had organized a "Mommy Shower" at the Secret Garden Tea House to celebrate the arrival of bebe Fell #2. The theme was around pampering... of Mommy, of course!

It was a real pampering event indeed: wonderful afternoon with friends around tea and sandwiches, lots of gifts... Just heavenly!

From left to right: Sierra, Ana, Deborah, Monica, Alex, Belinda, Janice, Nicole, Michelle, Natasha, Lauren

Discovering Sidewalk Chalk

Our neighbor across the street was outside with her 2 1/2 year old daughter when we came back from some errands today. They were playing with some sidewalk chalk.

Not much of a milestone, but it certainly was exciting for Nathan. After introducing Nathan to sidewalk chalk, promptly sat on a work of art (apparently it was a lion who had had a facial) and thereby introduced his PANTS to sidewalk chalk as well. And his coat. And ...

Leadership Discussion: Night Out

Tonight I got together with a bunch of industry peers (currently working at places such as RedHat/jBoss, WS02, MySpace, and BrightIdeas) to discuss leadership, and how the lack of leadership in a company can turn a great idea, excellent technology, and a solid group of passionate people into... well... nothing.

That being said, the company we were focusing on in particular has recently helped renew my faith in the Venture Capital system, as the CEO was demoted to CMO (chief marginalized officer) to make way for someone with hopefully a shred of leadership potential.

I hope that this company can turn itself around and that this fixes its leadership vacuum.

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.

The Little Swimmer

At 6 months old, Nathan was a great water-baby. He loved it. 8 months and not a lot of practice later, Nathan's brain became big enough to realize that water can be dangerous, and he has become a little skittish of being in it.

This weekend, Alex and I spent a bunch of time with him in the pool at UCSF and at La Petite Baleen and I'm happy to report that, at least for today, he seems much more comfortable in the water again!

Suffice to say that Alex and I will endeavor to be more consistent with Nathan and water so we don't lose all the progress he's made!

Blah blah blah

This morning has been full of fun... Nathan was wanting to eat some confiture ("tshure") and so I told him, "say 'je t'aime maman' and I think you'll get some."

So he immediately said, "t'aime maman."

Alex melted and of course Nathan got his bread with confiture.

I wanted in on this action, so I said "Nathan -- say 'Papa is awesome!'"

He replied, "blah blah blah?"