La relève

After a few years without skiing, I had the pleasure to start this new year on skis with my 3 year old, Nathan. Succession is assured.
The whole family spent new year's week in a ski resort, on my parents' dime. Best christmas gift ever! Weather was perfect, with blue sky over freshly snow-covered mountains. We signed up Nathan for 6 mornings of entry level ski class, called "piou-piou" class. He wants to go back now.



Après trois années sans skier, j'ai eu l'immense plaisir de débuter cette nouvelle année sur mes skis, et accompagné de notre ainé, Nathan, du haut de ses 3 ans. La relève est assurée !
Toute la famille était présente pour une semaine à la montagne, offerte par mes parents pour Noël. La météo était parfaite, avec du ciel bleu et un beau manteau neigeux. Nous avons inscris Nathan à 6 matinées de classes Piou-Piou, et il veut y retourner.

Maternelle

Tomorrow is the first day of school in Nathan's life. He'll spend four mornings a week at the "maternelle". Barely 3 years old, and already entering active life with its obligations. I'm sympathetic. We prepared him, and we'll walk him there like proud -and pointlessly concerned- parents. He'll carry a change of clothes in his shark-shape daypack, and Brown Dog, his stuffed "doudou", in his hands. Note: Picture added. Eventually Croco the crocodile got to go, instead of Brown Dog. Bad day for Brown Dog!

Matthew is here

A new challenge faces our son Nathan: he'll have to share! It's official, we are parents again, as Laura gave birth on saturday, October 17, at 8:24 AM, to a sweet little guy named Matthew. He is a healthy baby of 8 pounds 1 once, and 20.5 inches. And the best is... he's a snoozer! His big brother -25 months old- was more prone to crying at that age.
The birth took a full night, but went very well, and both the mother and the child fared well and are recovering nicely.


Une nouvelle étape dans la vie de Nathan : il va devoir apprendre à partager, car ça y est, nous sommes à nouveau parents. Laura a accouché samedi 17 octobre, à 8h24 -pendant votre grasse matinée- d'un petit gars de 3,67 kg et 52 cm. Il est adorable, et en plus très calme. Il fait bien ses nuits avec deux pauses têtées. C'est décidé, on va le garder.

Seattle, here we come!

It's been over two years for me, and three for Laura, but the time has come. We are landing at Seatac tomorrow. A week in Seattle will go fast: we want to see many friends, stroll freemont's streets a latte in hand, eat dungeness crab, salmon and Thai food, rediscover microbrews, and get our fill of Northwest scenery.

We'll spend most of our month vacation in Colorado, prioritizing the family. We are currently in Denver, visiting my in-laws. It's been a while since they last saw Nathan, at least ten months for Bob and Margaret who met us in Tuscany last fall, and even more for Tom. It's good to see them enjoying each other.

Tomorrow, we'll be in Seattle, and we'll get a better chance at getting updated on friends news. We too had a few things happen to us, that will make for conversations. First and foremost: a wonderful little boy named Nathan, who doesn't tire to amaze us. Then, for his Daddy who got tired of limping for two years, a back surgery. And for his Mom, a big belly where a little sister or brother is cocooning.

Counting friends

Don't let the title scare you. I'm not in the process of listing up buddies I could hit for money. Despite working for banks, the financial crisis hasn't taken me down that road, yet.

The counting I refer to concerns Laura.
After years of resistance, she fell neck deep into web 2.0 But let me place that in its context.

Back in '01, before we started dating, she declined my request, emailed from Nepal, to help me out with my website. Being asked to edit my clumsy posts, she eluded with a comment to the effect that there was "a fly in her soup". Writer's humor!
Then in '06, she got more cooperative with my newly created blog -that would be the present one. All it took to convince her was.. getting married, and traveling together, this time.

But then, too many of those "you're on facebook right?" made her take the fatal step. She signed up!
First was the excitement, with it's daily quiz welcoming me home "guess how many friends I have"
Today, Laura is getting overwhelmed with posts on her wall, pokes and kisses. She's frowning her eyebrows reading names of wannabee friends "who is that person?" Also, it's hard to keep up when you have among your best friends hyper active social networkers, like Alison, and a baby that wants noting more than pulling keys off your keyboard -note to self: are replacement keys a good Christmas gift?

By the way, Laura has now 40 friends listed!