Monday park: April 5, 2010

Hi everyone,
I'm still very far behind with details of my fun activities!
On Monday April 5, DOJ and I met at Holly Park with a few other babies and their moms. We've all hung out before - Caelan and Buffy; Clementine and Nikki; Nolan and Lisa. DOJ and I got there first and played on the swings for awhile, then Nikki & Clementine arrived.
A little fun history: Clementine and I met in early September at Progressive Grounds. Then a few days or so after, we re-met (as well as Caelan) at a baby massage class given at the Castro Library at 26th (or so) by Castro!
We started playing on the swings, then just played on the fun soft ground. We ended things by standing up and looking by the fence. A good fun 2 hour activity - by the time I came home, I just had dinner and then went to sleep!

Nolan and I sat on the swing together and swung back and forth. It was fun although I had been a little tired from much swinging beforehand!

The light isn't gret, but here you can see the momz Buffy and Lisa (Nikki not pictured), as well as us babies: Caelen, Nolan, me, and Clementine.

Although I'm eating Caelan's book, a few minutes beforehand Nolan was eating his shoe.

Here's another aerial view!

At some point Nikki and Clementine left. Then the other boys and I practiced our standing, while watching activity through the fence! Very fun.
I am having fun now but look forward to seeing everyone else as soon as I can :)
Bye bye,
Julien the Baby

Saturday luncheon with Ruby!

Hi everybody,
Sorry I've not posted for awhile. It's been a busy past week. Time keeps flying!
So last Saturday (April 3), DOJ and I had a fun luncheon with Ruby and her parents, as well as her grandmother and her great-grandmother! It was very fun - we got to sit next to each other and enjoy fun stuff. She shared her pasta with me, which was quite yummy - I'm going to have to train my parents to make it for me. And I shared Faje Greek yogurt with her, and she loved it. So her parents are now feeding it to her!
Then we played for awhile, until it was time for us to have our respective afternoon naps. We had a lot of fun together. I can't wait until our next time to play! Pictures below...

We are sitting next to each other. I reach out for her, because I like to hold her hand!

Here she's holding my hand. We both had to stop holding hands when it was time to eat!

Ruby is showing me a ball because she wants me to play with it. OK so the truth is that it's her ball and she's just trying to play with it. And I want to play with it so I crawl over to her so that I can get closer...

Chaos ensues and I knock the ball down so that I can hold it. I know it isn't nice, but I love to play with any toy that Ruby is playing with. She has great taste with toys, so I know that anything she likes is great for me!

Ruby wants her ball back, so she reaches for it. Don't worry, I returned her ball. It's only fair! And if I didn't return her ball, she probably wouldn't invite me to play together again. I always have fun with Ruby!
Bye everybody!
Love/
Julien the Baby

Baby & Parent Pilates

Hi everyone!

Sorry I've not posted for awhile.

For the past few Thursdays, DOJ and I have gone to a "Baby and Me" pilates course at Movement Lab pilates studio. We learned about it from Ilaria (Lucas' mother), who asked the instructor Julie to set up a "Baby and Me" pilates course. So now twice a week a baby and parent can go to a class. We go on Thursdays at 4:30. This past week, Ilaria/Lucas and Julie/Rowan were also there.

Sometimes I've really teased DOJ by having an EXTRA LONG nap, so that I'll arrange to wake up around 4:28pm, making both of us late but still there by 4:40pm. It's not great to be late, but it's fun to see DOJ squirm as he wonders if he'll be able to even attend the class! The instructor is really nice (she's a mommy plus she's pregnant), so that it's okay that we're late.

Enjoy the pictures. I'm off to have a nap :D

Aunt Nancy & Uncle Glenn visit me over Labor Day Weekend 2009

It's been awhile but at long last I am posting some pictures and memories from Labor Day 2009. Aunt Nancy and Uncle Glenn visited and met me for the first time. It was a great visit! We spent time at home, visited with family and friends, and saw various parts of San Francisco!
Here we are in front of the Grateful Dead house in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood. We also went to a chocolate cafe and the Giant Robot store.
Aunt Nancy and me in Golden Gate Park.
Uncle Glenn and me at Yank Sing for dim sum - the Mobranskys and Heymans also joined us there.
In front of Cupid's Arrow on the Embarcadero. In August 2005, Nancy and Glenn got engaged right at this spot!
With my other Aunt and Uncle! We all got together at Il Fornaio for Monday night dinner.
I got to see Aunt Nancy and Uncle Glenn in Chicago in October and Thanksgiving. I can't wait for them to return!

Happy 9 month birthday to Ruby!

Happy 9 month Birthday to Ruby!
Here are some pictures from the past.
From September...



From January...

See you this week!
Julien

The final week of February in a blur...

Late late, and a post *senza* pictures...
But here's a recap of the last week of Julien's first February:

Saturday Feb 20: we bought a new car seat and new stroller at Citikids!

Sunday Feb 21: a late family lunch at Rosamunde's Sausage Grill (Mission/24th) with Stephanie, Itzik, and Lily. It was their first time to meet MOJ :) Stef taught us how to use our Bundle Me with our new stroller, hurray! Then as MOJ had Pilates, Julien and I simply strolled home in the new stroller, which felt *extremely* easy, even going up Folsom to Bernal Hill. Wooh!

Monday Feb 22: lunch at Sally's with Mogzilla (Mother of Groomzilla); later a park date at the Bryant & 17th Street playground with Caelen (und Buffy) and Lucas (e Ilaria). After the playground, we all went to Coffee Bar for coffee. It's a gorgeous industrial space with the seating upstairs, so we each took turns on the wheelchair service elevator with our babies in strollers :)

Tuesday Feb 23: the heavy rain didn't stop our family from going to the Baby Matinee - we got to see Valentine Day! We also ran into one of MOJ's former coworkers (who attended my alma mater); he just had his 2nd child 2 weeks ago. After a luncheon at Rigolo, we drove home and Julien fell asleep before his playgroup.

Wednesday Feb 24: we went to Baby Rhyme Time at the Bernal Heights library with Shuyi and Ruby. Lisa and Ollie (from playgroup) were also there. Then we headed to Holly Park and Ruby and Julien enjoyed some fun swinging time. Maybe a picture next blog post?

Thursday Feb 25: another lunch at Sally's with Mogzilla, simply because I enjoy meals there! Despite a long afternoon nap, I still made it to Baby & Me mat pilates at Movement Lab. Fun mat class - Julien and I will commit to going every Thursday!

Friday Feb 26: Julien and I met Kate and Druvy at Precita Park for some fun swings activity, before we all abandoned park due to heavy rains. Got to the car just in time :) Thankfully I hadn't attempted to stroll down! Friday afternoon was a very nice day to just stay home...

A few more pictures with Veronica...

Here Veronica feeds me on June 24, when I was just 20 days old. Since I met Veronica when I was 3 days old, I figure that MOJ will eventually post a picture or two from that day!

Again on June 24... you can see how young I am, because my sleeves have built-in mittens to keep my hands warm. Remember, this is in June. Not January.

Here I play with Veronica on July 10 - she and her mommy came over for dinner with DOJ and me, because MOJ was in Chicago for work. You can see how much more grown up I've become, because I am not wearing mittens!

Here we are on Saturday August 1 at my Welcome Julien - Baby Shower! MOJ's friend Denise is also in the picture, because she wanted to pose with Veronica and me. Denise was also at my parents' wedding in Italy. Then again, so was Veronica (and her mommy)!

Here we are on Monday November 9 at Noe Valley Rec Center. DOJ took me here with our friends Stephanie and Lily. Veronica had a slight cold, so we agreed that she couldn't hold me on this day. But DOJ snapped this fun gothic-style picture. Interestingly, Veronica and Stephanie's nephew Jeremiah attend the same preschool! So Veronica's mommy knows Stephanie's sister. Fun small world!

Veronica

Veronica is like an older sister - I've known her since I was 3 days old. She's 4 years my senior; she turns 5 in April. Here are a variety of pictures of the 2 of us. Our mommies are long-time best friends - they went to sleep-away summer camp together back when they were 9 or 10 years old, and ended up in the same high school. Despite them both being from Chicagoland, our mommies both live about 5 minutes away here in San Francisco!
Here are some pictures of us from October onwards...

This picture was taken at Henry Hunan's on October 11. We dined here with our servants (aka parents) as well as Veronica's grandmother.

This picture is from November 11 or so; I love Jennifer's puppet shows!

This picture is from Saturday December 12 at Starbucks (24th Street); this was after Veronica's ballet class. Her classmate Fiona and her brother John Carlos are also in the picture.

And here's a picture from Saturday February 13 - just 2 days ago! We were at Noe Valley Rec Center. She really loves to hold me! I'll try to put up some older pictures later...

Wednesday playdate

On Wednesday Feb 10, DOJ and I had a fun playdate with Ruby (and her mommy Shuyi) and Karuna (and her mommy Kiran). As most blog readers may remember, Ruby and I have hung out on many Wednesdays, as well as our Tuesday playgroup. Karuna is also part of our Tuesday playgroup but I don't get to see her much because of scheduling conflicts. But Karuna and Ruby are also in a Sunday swim class together, so their parents talked about getting together. So the big plan was to have lunch, then go to Baby Rhymes at the Bernal Heights library, and finish things off with the swings in Holly Park. I think that we would have been up for doing a lot more, because our parents were there to chauffeur us around to our hearts' desire.

Even though everyone posed for DOJ's camera, I was more interested in looking at Ruby.

Shuyi took this fun picture - even though we didn't eat what our parents ate, we still were well fed. After lunch, we headed to the library only to learn that Baby Rhymes was cancelled due to some library construction work. There were *lots* of other babies and their parents there. As Ruby's mommy put it, lots of moms reschedule their days and their babies' naps to be able to go to Baby Rhyme or other events... so a cancellation is really not the best situation!
Although the librarian put out a rug and library toys, we all decided to split and go for a walk. Karuna was taking a nap anyway, and wouldn't have had fun playing with the toys since she was asleep!
We walked towards Holly Park, and Ruby and I got to play on the swings while Karuna napped.
You may notice that Ruby and I are both wearing fun zutano(brand) booties! On a side note, I just received a few more pairs in other colors/designs, so be on the lookout for other fun colors! Anyway, after some fun swinging, Ruby got hungry so she left the swings and ate. Coincidentally, Karuna woke from her nap...

It's harder to see her, and DOJ didn't get enough pictures. But Kiran (Karuna's mommy) should have taken some pictures as well so I'll probably get copies sooner or later!

In all it was a super fun Wednesday. I had a *fabulous* nap later that afternoon. I love the swings and look forward to more swings in the parks!

Water video

While feeding Julien his Monday brunch of oatmeal, I wanted to practice giving him water from a cup (ie not a sippycup). Video below. One big joy of Julien's 30-minute-plus meals is that we can listen to some fun cds as background music; today's was the Lost in Translation soundtrack.