Halloween 2009

Hi everybody,
As you all know, Halloween's coming up! We already have a costume picked out, but it's a big secret! Shhhhh.
But in the meantime, here are some pictures from Halloween 2009!
Can you guess my costume?

Here I am posing on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 - just before Playgroup!

Here we are at playgroup... since we were mostly 6 months and under, most of us didn't even roll over. So at playgroup we would just rest on blankets while our mommies could have a short moment.


At some point, we were all plopped on the couch for a marathon photo session.

And yes - I'm sitting next to Ruby! In this picture, I wanted to have glazed eyes so that people can imagine what I'll look like in a few years when I start to have Halloween candy! Gotta get myself in practice...
Love,
Julien the Baby

2009 Pumpkins

Hi again!
Here are some pictures of me from October 27, 2009 - right before Halloween 2009! Here I am with some pumpkins. You can see that I look a little different now compared to last year. The most major thing is that I now have more hair than last year. But other than that, everything else is about the same...
Enjoy the pictures!
Love,
Julien the Baby

Happy Halloween!

Hi everybody!
Halloween's coming up, so we got an early start. Tuesday September 28 was a really hot one for us, so we went to the Arata Farms pumpkin patch in Half Moon Bay (off Highway 1). It was much cooler here than in San Francisco, and I got to check out some fun pumpkins!


Even though I would have enjoyed having all these white pumpkins, my parents said that we only needed 1 white pumpkin so I helped choose one.

Mommy and Daddy took turns walking me throughout the big pumpkin patch. I really wanted to go through the corn maze, but they told me that they were too afraid to go with me! Wah!

As consolation, I got to walk through a maze of pumpkins!

As a bonus, there was also a lot of different types of squash!
I hope to come back to pumpkin patches because they're really a lot of fun!
Love,
Julien the Baby

Happy Anniversary to My Parents!

Dear Mommy and Daddy,
Happy 4 year anniversary! September 18 marks your anniversary for your wedding of September 18, 2006!
Here are some pictures related to your wedding... bet you didn't think I'd find these - but I'm a baby, and I can do anything I want!

Here are Mommy and Daddy in Paris a day after they got engaged (November 2005)!

Here's Mommy looking at Daddy and thinking of how much more exciting their lives will be together!

Here they are on their wedding day in Italy (San Polo en Cianti, Toscana), on September 18, 2006. Their officiant is also there in the picture, since he had to make their wedding official!

Here they are in Paris before the Eiffel Tower in November 2005.

Here they are again in Paris, on April 12, 2010, in front of the Eiffel Tower... with me! Yay me!
Happy Anniversary Mommy and Daddy! I love you very much! As my anniversary gift to you, I'll let you spend the whole day with me, and we can do whatever you want. I won't leave you at all today. I may even try to sacrifice my nap so that you can spend more time with me.
Love,
Julien the Baby

September: New England trip!

Hi everybody,
I've just returned from a trip to New England. It was my first time out there. We stayed with Michael and Jason in their country house estate.
On Labor Day, we went to the Tri-County Fair, which is the OLDEST state fair in the country! It was such an honor to be part of this history.


If I ever develop a fear of clowns, please remind me of this picture - because I was pretty amused with these clowns!

Here I am in New Hampshire - my parents have started the college tour as they took me to Dartmouth on Tuesday September 7.

Here I sit on a bench in the Dartmouth Quad!

My favorite - my parents always refer to me as The King of the Babies, and now here's the proof - here's my throne and my knight in shining armor! Ha ha... so actually we visited King Arthur Flour in Vermont.
More to come...
Love,
Julien the Baby

More August adventures!

After the family reunion, my parents and I took a trip with Grams up to Boulder Junction, Northern Wisconsin, to visit her cousin Dick and Dick's wife Lynne. Incidentally this was my first time ever in Wisconsin! I think that DOJ never went to Wisconsin until he was 28, so my parents are definitely giving me some fantastic experiences.


It was so gorgeous...

Lynne and Dick are so sweet. They have 2 children and a few grandchildren.

After our little vacation, I had some fun swimming activity with Aunt Nancy, who was a champion swimmer in high school. Mommy was a synchronized swimmer. So both Mommy and her sister are very experienced swimmers.

Aunt Nancy is a great swimming instructor. There's the old adage of "Those who can do, and those who can't teach..." except she can both *do* and *teach* - that's my Aunt Nancy!

Since the swimming lesson, I've had a lot more water activity thanks to going to swimming pools and the beach with Mommy and our playgroup. Last week, my parents and I went to New England, where I got a lot of great water action in a lake in Massachusetts and the Atlantic Ocean at different beaches in Rhode Island!
Love,
Julien the Baby

And even more pictures from the reunion!

Hi again everyone!
Here are more pictures from the family reunion!
On Saturday August 7, there was a gathering at the club where Grandaddy X, his sisters, and his parents used to play. My grandparents are still members, but both my great aunts moved away to other states. Anyway their cousins Paul and Ken, and their parents, were also members of the club. Interestingly, Grandaddy X's cousin Paul and Grams were classmates and friends in school. Then again, Grams and Grandaddy X's sister were childhood friends before Grams and Grandaddy X got married. Lots of fun history there!

Here I am with Amelia and Carter.

Here's a fun picture - Thatcher, PJ, Amelia, Carter, and Noah - all striking a pose!

Here's a great shot of *everyone* - Grandaddy X and his sisters, plus their cousins Paul and Ken... and then many of their descendants. Not everyone in the family was able to attend.

Here I am with Aunt Nancy and my grandparents' long-time friends Ann & Ray. Ray is also known for having been a broadcaster with the Cardinals, as well as having been mayor in the town where my grandparents live! Some of my mommy's boy cousins (specifically Terry and Rob) were so excited to see Ray. That was really fun.

Here I am with Grandaddy X's cousin Paul, who went to school with Grams! We were very comfortable kicking back together.

Love,
Julien the Baby

More pictures from the family reunion!

Hi everyone!
I'm sorry it's been so long since I've been blogging. I'm so far behind.
I still want to share pictures from the August family reunion!

Here is a picture of a poster that Mommy made - she made posters for each of the siblings (Grandaddy X and his 2 sisters). Maya helped with the picture cuttings, and DOJ (Daddy) helped attach glue between the pictures and the posters. But it was really Mommy and Maya who did the best work.

Here's Aunt Nancy and Grandaddy X! Grandaddy X really loved the posters - he was spending a lot of time looking at them before the reunion dinner at his house.

As you can see, there were lots of family members - naturally they started to gather in the front entryway, looking at the posters and each other... Grandaddy X and his sister Ann had fun seats, watching everyone. Grams was having a fun conversation with Mommy's cousin Ellen (from Ireland) - you may remember that Ellen is the mommy to PJ, Jamie, and Amelia.

Family merged to other rooms in the house. In this picture, you can see Mommy with her cousin Dave, his wife Claudia, and their daughter Lindsey (their son Nicholas was in another room). Dave's mommy Jane (Grandaddy X's sister) is also here... and yes, I'm here with Amelia and Carter!

Here are some of my second cousins in the den - Lindsey, Adam, Noah, and Amelia.

I've really missed blogging! More reunion pictures to come... as well as my other adventures of the past month. Shouts out to Ruby!!!

love,
Julien the Baby

family reunion!

Hi everybody!
We enjoyed our family reunion on my grandfather X side! Grandaddy X is one of 3 children - his older sister Ann has 4 children, and his younger sister Jane has 3 children. Then there are grandchildren like me...

Here we are having a pre-reunion dinner.

Here I am with Amelia (6 years) and Noah (3 years). They are Ann's grandchildren, and direct cousins. They are my second cousins. Or rather, my mommy is their parents' cousin.

This fireplace shot is a bit complex in terms of cousin connections and such. Left to right: Noah, Jamie, Amelia, me, Nick, and PJ. PJ, Amelia, and Jamie are siblings - they live in Ireland! So they traveled even farther than my parents and me!

The grandparents: Ann, Jane, and Grandaddy X! It's so fun to have great-aunts! Ann lives in Princeton, New Jersey and Jane lives in St Louis, MO.

Here I am playing piano with Amelia and Carter. Carter's dad Rick is Jane's youngest son.
More later!
Love,
Julien the Baby

My friend Sam

Hi everyone!
Here are some pictures of Sam and me with our parents, out having dinner - once in late August and once in early September. I was very young at the time - just on both sides of 3 months. Sam was born in February so he's 4 months my senior. You can see how much more sophisticated he is in the pictures.

In this set of 3 pictures, you can see my parents holding Sam and me in late August 2009. We were at the Japanese restaurant Tanuki, on Cornwall and 6th (by California).


In the below pictures, we are being held by Sam's parents Jean and Trey in early September. We are at the Indian restaurant on Clement by 26th.

I think that Sam was a bit unhappy because I was focusing my attention on his mother and not him.

In this picture, you can also see our good friend Sue!
So I didn't mention that Sam's parents and my mommy (and Sue!) all went to college together. So our parents (well, not so much DOJ) have known each other for such a long time. Before Sam and I were born, our parents even went to Tahoe once for a weekend together.
Sam recently moved, but we all had dinner together a couple weeks ago... but that's another blog post!
Love,
Julien the Baby