The Journey of Our Little Man: January 2008

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Weekend in NY

Jan. 19 - Patsy the Clown was awesome. She did a bunch of fun activities with the kids that included music, a bubble machine, balloon twisiting, a cotton candy, and this rainbow-colored parachute.

Joey, Auntie Laura and Tato

Nathaniel's 1st birthday party.

The happy family with Dorothy the Dinosaur.

Tato's introduction to Dorothy the Dinosaur.

Tato showing some love to Tito Ron.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Ric's Picks

These are a few of Ric's favorite pictures from our trip...

1. Mateo at a funky Metro stop by The Louvre (Paris, France)

2. Mateo in front of St. Jacob's Cathedral (day trip to Ghent, Belgium)

3. Mateo KO'd with Lolo after a long day of sightseeing (Belgium).

4. Mateo & Auntie Tuesday on the day of our departure.

DEC. 26 - Mateo turned 10 months old the day after Christmas. It's so hard to believe that he's getting that much closer to turning over a whole year of life outside of the womb. He is still a big, happy, healthy baby boy. He is a constant babbler and squealer. I jokingly say he got that trait from Ric, but Ric not-so-jokingly says that he got it from Lola Ebs. He has about 4 teeth and has already enjoyed his first dinner roll on his own. He can pull himself up easily, stand unassisted for several seconds and has even ventured taking a couple of steps on his own before plopping onto his diaperbutt. Most bets are that he'll be walking in about a month. Watch out world! He loves to crawl after Mr.Quincy, who surprisingly doesn't mind as much anymore. Today (Jan. 1) I found them sharing a bowl of Mister's dog food! Yup! I've heard and read all the stories, but I have now become a witness to it in my own home. Ric left the two of them downstairs together and that is what I found! Thanks Ric! Otherwise, we are looking forward to all the other milestones that have yet to come. (Photo taken by Ric on his camera phone)

Brussels, Belgium

Dec. 25-31: Along our walk to The Grand Place.

The Gaufres Chaude (hot waffles) vans were everywhere.

Yummy! We had one just about every day.

The beautiful and majestic Grand Place

A visit to Waterloo (Mateo meets Napoleon Boneparte)

Lunch at Au Vieux Bruxelles. The best moule-frites (mussels & fries) in town.

Hanging with Auntie before we take our respective flights home. Of course by the time we'll be landing Amsterdam, Nina will have already landed in Cophenhagen. We had SO MUCH FUN spending quality time the Lolo, Lola and Auntie. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Christmas Day 2007 - Take 2

The second half of Christmas Day started our visit to Brussels, Belgium. This was the view from hotel room. We were relieved to be in a nice spacious room. Mateo was looking out at The Palaise of Justice and Waterloon Straat (Waterloo Street). Our hotel sat along a grand shopping strip in Brussels. The shops right outside our door were Christofle, Tod's, Gucci, Hermes, La Perla, Chanel, Versace, a BMW dealership, need I go on? Needless to say, we had fun window shopping ; )

Christmas Day 2007

Sacre Coeur Cathedral in the Montemarte area of Paris

For the love of your child -

Ric carried Mateo up the stairs to the cathedral.

The crazy thing is we saw others doing the same.

Assessing the challenge

Half way up there

"The second best view of Paris"

Eiffel Tower offers the best view but the line was WAY TOO long.

European Holiday

Dec. 22-25: This was not only Mateo's first trip to Europe (at 10 months of age), but also his first Christmas. We were blessed with safe travel, beautiful weather, and the lack of huge tourist crowds. It would have been nice to have had more time in Paris, but we needed to get to Brussels to see Nina who was flying in from Copenhagen. We were all excited to be seeing her. Mateo did great on the flight (i.e. he slept the entire way) and was such a trooper throughout the trip. This was also Ric's first trip to Paris, France, and with all his resistance before even leaving the United States, he actually wished we were spending the entire 10 days there, once he got a taste of the City of Lights.