Another Week of Firsts

Found this shot of Jacob from our last week in

London. Wow! He has changed so much in the past 9 months. He is pictured here in a cafe on Kensington Park Road (near Portobello Road) in Notting Hill getting a muffin before school. Seated at his left was the first love of his life, Edie Roth. So, two coincidences here: 1) she was born on the exact same day, year and city (April 29th 2003 in London) and her dad, Chris, like me is an Eagles fan. Anyway, we miss Edie.

First Number 1 - Schoolyard Bully. So a couple of firsts to report from the past week. Tania kept Jacob home from school because she was worried that he might have chicken pox since Andy had 8-10 bumps on his body and Jacob got one. He never developed any more. ??? So she took him to the park to be sure that he was still active (proving that there is no guilt in spreading chick pox as long as the people don't know you ;-) and he was playing in the water fountains. A bigger boy came up to him and shoved him on the ground making Jacob cry. Tania saw this happen and wanted to teach Jacob a lesson so she said, "You can cry if you want to but it's much better to shout back at the boy and tell him that pushing is mean and you don't like it." Jacob naturally asked, "Should I shove him back?" to which she replied "no." (side note: depends how big his Daddy is ;-) So Jacob told me about it when I put him to bed and I suddenly realized that this sweet boy of mine is going to have to grow up and learn all of life's lessons the hard way - one at a time. We'll just make sure he takes Karate!

First Number 2: We were in the swimming pool this morning and Jacob announced to me, "Daddy, I've got a good joke for you." Really? 3 years old and he's telling jokes? Even just the way he phrased it to me was so strange - like a teenager. Anyway, he soon proved that either he got his grandfather Zeide's strange Columbian sense of humor or he can't remember punch lines like his Daddy. Joke: "What do you get when you cross 4 lines?" "What, Jacob, I don't know?" "A cock-a-doodle-doo." Get it? Me, too. By bed time the joke had morphed into a cock-a-doodle-poo-poo - but I won't go there

Andy's still growing like a weed. He now wants to stand all the time and his top teeth are now fully visible. He is eating small types of food (Cheerios, Stage 3 Gerber with lumps, small unidentifiable food objects from the floor - presumably dropped by Jacob a week ago, carpet fuzzballs and basically anything that he can fit into his mouth. We now have to watch him when we put him in the baby playpen because he's using his new teeth like a rat and trying to gnaw through the mesh on the side of playpen.

Tania & I had a normal adult week and are getting back in the swing of things. Last weekend we had dinner out on Saturday night with the Kennedy's (first time alone out with them since we moved to Palo Alto even though he was my college roommate and lives 1 block away! - that's how hectic our lives have been). Aunt Eileen and the girls babysat so that we could have a few G&T's and a bottle of wine - we got home at midnight! Sunday moring wasn't feeling 100% after 2 straight nights of drinking (Friday night was a work event). We had our new friends, Gerardo and Nurit over for a later afternoon casual dinner. They're from Mexico City and MAN does he know how to make a Margarita. Just what I needed to cure my headache! Had a great afternoon / evening until the kids went into meltdown mode.

This past Friday Tania & I had a romantic dinner in San Francisco and a FAB restaurant called the Fifth Floor, which was modern French food in a chic, upscale urban environment. This really rivaled some of the best restaurants in London. We then went and saw A Chorus Line, which is playing in San Fran before going to Broadway. "Hello 12, hello 13, hello love."

Last night we went out for a couple dinner with Michael (Tania's friend from B-School) and his wife Ellen to Zibbibbo, a modern Mediterranean restaurant in Palo Alto while Uncle Matt stayed home with the kids. It was also our first night out alone with them as a couple even though they live a 15 minute drive from us. Hopefully this is a good omen and a sign of things to come.

Later this week we'll make the drive down to San Diego to go and see Bubbie and Steven. We're excited to see their new house and also to visit Lego Land and Wild Animal Park. Should get some good photos for the next posting.