the party continues...

So you thought that Alec's birthday was over?

You don't know our little party animal!

On Saturday, we celebrated his birthday in our garden with friends and family. The garden has been the scene of other parties before, mostly bbqs, and even a wedding(!), but this was the first time that it had hosted Alec's birthday party (although we did hold his naming ceremony here about a year ago).

There were several other little ones attending, including Adair, Miriam, Max, Sophia, and Victoria. And big kids, too, including Uncle Dan, Aunt Rai, and all 4 grandparents.



We had cake and ice cream, of course.

And then presents - Alec got some great new toys! Hopefully they'll take his attention off of the computer keyboard and recycling bin.

fighting over toys

Watch out - Radio flyer!

And I discovered that taking photos at baby level leaves you with lots of crotch and ass shots of big people. I'll pay more attention to this in the future!

Birthday boy

Birthday morning sleepyhead!

We can't quite believe it, but on Tuesday at 5:46pm, Alec turned one year old.

Due to jury duty obligations (I was deselected today!), it was actually the one day this week that I went in to work, but Alec had a fun day in the new garden at his babysitter's house.

Fun with dirt!

Upon arriving home, he decided to use his new bucket toy to unearth Darjeeling, the tea plant in the living room. Correction: Darjeeling, the tea plant that will move outside this weekend.

His grandparents arrived from Quebec in the afternoon, and we ordered birthday pizza.

He actually had green mush instead of pizza.

The candle fascinated him. And it matches Auntie Ceevah's birthday bib!

We'll celebrate some more this weekend. See you then!

A2

Alec and Adair

On Saturday, we had a fun afternoon hanging out with Adair and her parents, Amy and Keith, at their home on the coast. I needed to get out of the house before Alec emptied all of the dirt in Sasha the Plant's container onto the floor, and luckily I'm not afraid to invite myself over. Alec fell asleep in the car en route, and then slept for over an hour once we arrived, missing out on some valuable playtime. Once he woke up and had a snack, he was ready to go!

Activities: sword fighting and drumming.

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A3 - Amy with Alec and Adair

Master Manners

So far we haven't found anything that Alec doesn't like to eat. I can't complain.
I am getting tired of feeding him everything, though, so we've been experimenting with the spoon.

He looks like he's getting the hang of it!

Alec and his people...

On Saturday, we went to Scotts Valley, near Santa Cruz, to visit Alicila and Bry, and their sons Miles and Lance. Lance is only 3 weeks old!


We brought lunch, and of course champagne to toast the new addition!
Doesn't Alicila look great?


Alec and Miles had fun playing, especially since Miles has loads of fun toys...

Then, on Sunday, he got to hang out at our place with Miriam - who decided to reclaim her Bumbo chair...
And then got to have fun with grandpa's hat!

A rare event - dinner in the garden in San Francisco!

Last Sunday, it was that rare occasion - an evening where it was actually warm enough to eat outside! I had bought some wild Alaskan salmon earlier that day, before attending a documentary on French Jews at the SF Jewish Film festival, and Nicolas was out sailing. Alec spent some time with grandma Neilda. So everyone was ready to relax outside.

Alec started with an appetizer of dandelion:

Before trying a pickle:



And then having a drink with Papa:

Finally, the main course!

Stay tuned, we have some adventures planned this weekend!

Salut tout le monde!

Nicolas and I have been talking for awhile about finding a good way to post updates about what's going on in our world, and notably, to show our friends and family how quickly little Alec is changing. So, here goes!


Alec is almost a year old, and we've been having fun watching him grow. It's been a busy summer, with trips to Quebec to see his grandparents, and a trip up to Lake Tahoe, to see his uncle D. I had my first trip away from him, a conference in Montreal, this past week, so N was in charge. It sounded like they had a fun time, going to Connecticut Yankee for beers, having friends over for pizza, and other bonding experiences. This weekend, N has been sailing on the bay, so I've been having fun with the little man. We've gone to our favorite farmer's market (Alemany) and then went to see a juggler performing at the Neighborhood house. A. particularly liked the tall unicycle juggling act. Who knows, after mastering the swings and the slide, perhaps the unicycle is on the horizon??

doesn't this look like a future clown?

With N's manic passion for taking pictures, you can guess that we have lots of them saved up. So here's just a few from early August 2008.

A's friend, Sasha the palm tree

see you soon! à bientôt!