London Friday December 10, 2010

Hi everybody!
It's me, Julien the Baby!
On Friday December 10, we headed out to the Borough Market, near London Bridge tube station! We again took the Tube, again going to Westminster, only this time we transferred to the Jubilee line to get to London Bridge station! It's super convenient that Westminster and London Bridge have elevators.

In case you're wondering, we're at the Borough Market!


Borough Market is open Thursday to Sundays (or is it Saturdays?) - we went on a Friday so I can't remember the exact details. It's a food extravaganza! DOJ enjoyed a falafel that was made on the spot.

My parents and PoPo also enjoyed raclette cheese over potatoes. The cheese was melted on-site by order. It was very impressive.

I ate everything that my parents ate.

I think you all know how much I love pickles - so a cornichon was no different! Yum.

After the market, we saw a Konditor & Cook bakery. Mommy and DOJ had previously been to a Konditor & Cook on Tuesday during their walking tour in Southeast London. After the bakery, we continued to stroll in this area of South London, south of the Thames. We ended up at the Tate Modern museum!

This was DOJ's and PoPo's first time in the museum. The main exhibition in the Turbine Hall was Ai Weiwei's assortment of 100 million porcelain sunflowers, all painted by hand!

These look just like sunflowers, but they're really porcelain!

A lot of people were enjoying the view.

Admittedly, I was tired so I didn't see them. But we're not allowed to touch them, and if I had been awake, I'd probably be upset that I couldn't play with these. They look delicious!

I eventually woke up, and found myself upside down in the snack area...

After the museum, we walked across the Millenium Bridge, which is a pedestrian bridge inbetween The Tate Modern and St Paul's Cathedral.

The nighttime views were gorgeous. Mind you this was probably 5pm, ha ha.

Welcome to London, in case you didn't know where we were :-) We strolled to the Mansion House tube station, and caught the Circle Line back home.

PoPo helped me walk up the stairs while Mommy and DOJ carried my stroller (now folded up) with their other gear.

DOJ helped hold me up so that I could study the Tube map, in case I need to give him directions for a future journey. I try to be helpful! We then headed home and had takeaway Chinese and Halal (you can guess who ate what!) for supper. I was ready for bed!
And that's our fun Friday in London!
Love,
Julien the Baby

October 23 - 25: The finale of our New York City vacation!

Hi everybody!
We were in New York from October 20 to 25. Even though the trip was relatively short, we had a wonderful visit! Here's the finale of our trip...
Saturday October 23 was my grandfather's birthday! So that was very nice, to honor his birthday with our New York vacation.

We started the Saturday with some upside-down time for me. I warned you that my parents are whacky!

My parents strolled me throughout the Upper West Side. Back in April when we were in Paris, my parents had some mirror fun. Here we go again...

Here we are in Central Park.

The leaves are beautiful, but I really just wanted to walk!

My parents kept me in the stroller throughout most of our Central Park walk, until we arrived at a playground. After my parents spent a decade or two trying to figure out how to actually *enter* the playground, we finally made it inside, and then they let me out of the stroller! I was finally free to walk and run about! Hurray! It was really worth the wait.

It's fun to walk through the park with a parent by my side. I get to feel like a famous celebrity with a bodyguard! Except it's even better because it's Mommy or DOJ!
We stayed in the playground until it got dark, then we exited at Columbus Circle (by the Lipstick Building at 59th Street), then walked all the way back North to 84th Street. But we met Michael around 82nd Street and had dinner together.
On Sunday October 24, DOJ and Michael went to the cinema and they saw the Facebook movie together. In the meantime, I had a leisurely morning with Mommy, and then we walked through the Columbus Street farmer's market. We caught up with DOJ and Michael and strolled some more. Then Mommy, DOJ, and I went to the High Line.

The High Line is an urban park set above ground! It uses the old railroad tracks that were above ground many decades ago! It's an architectural beauty where we are elevated above the streets of New York, in a very wide open space. Wide open spaces exist in very few parts of a city as busy and congested as New York City.

We enjoyed a fun acapella concert!

We got to enjoy wooden chaise lounges and watch the people go by for an hour. It was fun and relaxing. DOJ later read a fun interview with the actress Debra Winger, who talked about walking on the High Line with her son and a reporter, being unrecognized.

It's such a gorgeous place. We were sad to depart The High Line, but we wanted to get cupcakes at Billy's Bakery before heading home for dinner.
On Monday, October 25, we had a leisurely breakfast with Sara at Le Pain Cotidion. Then DOJ took me Michael's for a nap, and then we flew back home!
I had a great New York vacation and look forward to returning!
Love,
Julien the Baby

Upside Down

Hi everybody!
I know that "Upside Down" is a song by both Donna Summer and Yo La Tengo / Daniel Johnston, but I really am talking about the art of being upside down. My parents learned about the idea of babies liking being upside down from Sam and his parents Jean and Trey. They allegedly have a picture of Sam being upside down at the age of 4 months, and I think their goal was to turn me upside down before I was 4 months old. But I don't know if there are pictures...
I have a lot of memories of my parents putting me upside down, usually with them holding onto my ankles and calves. And even though I quite enjoy it (just like the crazy fast baby swings - yet another future blog post), I don't know what the big deal is. If we all could walk on our hands, then we could all be upside down!
Here are some pictures of my parents putting me upside down when we were in France in April. They were really obsessed with getting pictures of me being upside down when we were there. Can we just say the word... Whackjob???

Here I am in Lacoste, in Provence. Lacoste is famous for having a college connected with the Savannah design school of Savannah, Georgia! They're famous for also being associated with the Marquis de Sade. Oh the irony...

Here we are in Goult, at the cafe near the house we rented.

None of the other patrons seemed disturbed that I was upside down... but then again, I quite liked it.

Here I am upside down in the main parking lot of Goult, which is also quite near the house (even closer than the cafe).

Lastly here I am at the Cafe Breizh, a Breton crepe-specialty cafe in Paris, in or near Le Marais. You may notice by the wedding bands that in this picture, it's Mommy putting me upside down!
So one huge side benefit of my love of being upside down is that Daddy now tries to be upside down more than ever in his Pilates class; in fact I heard that today (10/5/10), he was upside during Pilates and was very happy! I would be very happy to hold Daddy upside down every day - I could hold him upside down for hours, when I'm not sleeping, eating, or taking a nap.
I can also tell you that DOJ even went on some crazy roller coaster at that State Fair in Massachusetts on Labor Day so that he and Michael Melcher could be upside down. I'm telling you, my parents are Whackjobs! Hey, that's a fun word...
Hmmm, I wonder if Ruby likes to be upside down...
Love,
Julien the Baby