Ahoy, mate!

Row row row your boat... today was Alec's first time sailing! And a beautiful day on the water it was! We went out on Strega, the boat that N. races on, with its owner Larry, for a short sail around the bay, from Point Richmond to Angel Island and back.

Alec, in his life vest, was a handful as he explored the winches, various ropes and gadgets on board.

beep beep!

As usual, intense activity was followed by a nap.

siesta at sea
(luckily the waters were very calm)

Au resto mexicain

Nous sommes allés voir Ana, Jeff et Miriam à Oakland. Après une visite au parc, quoi de mieux que le resto mexicain!



On mange une petite lime, c'est sur!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving. This year, for the first time, we hosted my family at our place. It was a very tasty day. Instead of it being turkey day, we decided to have duck - N. bbq'ed 2 ducks, which were joined by sweet potatoes, leek and mushroom stuffing, cranberry sauce and 2 kinds of pie - pecan for the traditionalists, and Meyer lemon and ginger, courtesy of Rai, for the adventurous.

But as fun as dinner was, it was just a really nice day. I took Alec walking on the Embarcadero in the morning, where he went wild with the Louise Bourgeois spider and the mooring bitts.


Later in the afternoon, we had a mini photo session in the garden while we were preparing dinner. Alec kept us busy!

with grandma and grandpa

and Auntie Rai, dancing with Alec on the chaise longue

Beaujolais nouveau!

Last night, we had a party, the excuse being the arrival of the beaujolais nouveau, but really just because it had been too long and we wanted to bring friends together.

Alec was on his best behavior, and charmed the crowd, as usual. No good photos of him, but here's one of Lily, who totally helped us out by taking care of him while we ran around.

Lily, making sure that everyone had crackers for all of the fabulous cheese!

Instead of party photos, I'll post some ritual post-party photos -

Nicolas trying to sleep in, Alec wanting to play!

No sleep for papa!

Thanks for everyone who made the evening a success!

with apologies to Maurice Sendak

Alec in the night kitchen

Earlier this week, Alec escaped after his bath.

Catching up

So it's been awhile since we've updated the blog - I was away at a conference in Charleston, SC (the Charleston Conference, duh) for a week, and while I was away, Nicolas and Alec both came down with colds. So, no major adventures.

As I've mentioned before, sometimes Alec eats everything, but the past 2 weeks, he's either not been hungry, or has decided that he doesn't like veggies or chicken and has subsisted almost exclusively on fruits and yogurt. So the question: is he a fructivore or a frutarian? Perhaps he's Batman? Whatever - I hope that this phase ends soon so that he starts getting bigger!

But this weekend everyone was feeling better, and it was gorgeous here in SF (80 degrees F!), so we ventured out.

On Saturday, we went to Sophia's 2nd birthday, where there were lots of musical instruments to play on.

Alec particularly liked the drums.

And then on Sunday, Auntie Rai came for breakfast,

Alec having Mango Tango, pineapple and French toast for breakfast

and then we went walking on Crissy Field. We took lots of photos since it was so beautiful!

... with Alcatraz in the background

... and climbing on the benches

The walk tired Alec out, but N wanted a photo by the green globe and in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.

il piccolo diavoletto

This year, Halloween coincided with our 3rd annual trip to Carmel with Amy, Keith, Adair, and Corina, Mark, and Eva. Actually, it was Alec, Adair, and Eva's 2nd annual trip to Amy's parents' house. And Amy's birthday, too.

The weekend started off with some trick or treating in Monterey. Alec, true to form, was a little devil!

the devil, the octopus, and the duck

Since we stayed at Asilomar, we were right next to the beach, and spent time there both mornings.
We had a very sandy Alec on our hands.

kelp!

We had fun just hanging out, tasting wine, and sharing feasts. Can't wait until next year!