Happy Pesach!

(That's Happy Passover to you Goyim.)

Tonight I went down to Menlo Park for seder at my cousins Rachel and Ted's house. We spilled a drop of wine for each of the ten plagues (while I chewed on Plague #4: a wild beast), sang (to the tune of Louie, Louie) "Pharoah, Pharoah, whoa baby, Let my people go!", ate delicious food, and generally had a great time, maracas and all. Thanks Rachel, Ted, Sam, Ethan, and Joanna for introducing me to passover, I'm gonna start studying now so I can answer all those questions next year!

Ashley P Drops (Viol)In

Dad's college friend Ashley is in town from the Big Apple this weekend and is staying with us a coupla nights.

She's a violin maestro who teaches kids and plays in all sorts of festivals, trios, quartets, chamber groups, symphonies, 'n stuff. She's fascinating and I can't take my eyes off of her. Especially when she plays me Frere Jacques.

She even played with me on the swing at the park today!

Great Uncle Peter & Aunt Becky Drop By

My great Aunt Becky and Uncle Peter Van de Water stopped in tonight on their way to China for three weeks. They're going to see the Great Wall, Emperor Shi Huangdi's Terra Cotta Army, the highlands of Lhasa, Tibet, the headwaters of the Yangtze and other fascinating sights with 7 other couples. They were really interesting and commanded my full attention.After I went to bed I could hear them talking to Mom and Dad about the spiral notebook industry (and how my Great Great Aunt Kay Van de Water married the inventor of the spiral notebook and how, many years later, my Grandpa Mike on Mom's side of the family briefly manufactured them); my distant relative whose nephew Carlty Gajdusek won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1976 for first discovering the human form of mad cow disease; and how Americans finally seem to be catching on to this whole concept of environmental stewardship.

Four Generations!

Here I am with four generations of women in my family, and here with four generations of Stevens.

Everyone else seems to be a lot bigger than me, but I am showing off my foot.

P.S. I'm feeling much better now, thank you.

Sick :(

I'm finally starting to emerge from my first ear infection, coupled with an alternating fever, disrupted sleep, reduced interest in food, and, as you too would have, corresponding crankiness. Yesterday was not pretty. Thank goodness for bubble-gum-flavored anitbiotics and, now that I'm old enough, berry-flavored ibuprofen. This is from a few days ago when smiles weren't so hard to come by:

Cousin Andrew Drops In

My cousin Andrew Gillis dropped in last night after a conference in San Jose. With the exception of Karen and the girls, I've now met every one of the Brown/Gillis/Kulik cousins but he was definitely the tallest. I think he was as tall as four of me combined. Maybe he'll teach me to stand tall and reign supreme in Carcassonne someday.

1/2 a Year

Today I am officially six months old. No longer a small, helpless infant (here is me at six days!), I can sit up, grab and play all by myself. Hey Ma, where's some big kid toys?

Slumber Party

Now that I'm six months old (!), I'm starting to get this sleep thing down. I've been sleepin' in my crib for a while now but only recently have I built up enough stamina to make it through the night (okay, so it's usually only 7p - 4a. After 9 hours things get a little dicier and I start getting hungry). The key is being surrounded by friends like Kaloo, Chi Chai Monchan, Umpy, and my tag toy. I can just fade into the background and drift off to sleep...After 4.5 months swaddled up tight, and another month sleeping all alone because of some guy named SID, it's comforting to finally have the coziness of fuzzy friends at night.

Baby Smackdown pt. 2

I had so much fun wrestling with Maisy up in Pinecrest that I upped the ante and invited our friend Dylan into the mix. While Maisy and I tussled, though, he just kept kissing me on the head. Silly boys, they just don't get this wrasslin' thing.

My Early Endorsement for '08 - Barack Obama

My mom has been telling me about this great book she's reading called Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama. His experience as a community organizer in Chicago reminded her a lot of her experiences and people she knew working in Oakland. He clearly understands the many problems facing people in American cities these days, and also understands the challenges to fixing them. Combine that with his unique background (a Kenyan father, a Kansas mother, Unitarian grandparents, and the first AfAm editor of the Harvard Law Review) and the fact that he's the first post-boomer to run for President and I was getting pretty excited about having someone like that in the White House. When I learned he was going to be here in Oakland today I suggested we go rally with him and am now proud to lend Barack Obama my official early endorsement for the next President of the United States! His soothing words about my future put me immediately at ease... and right to sleep.

Me-n-Maisy

The best part about spending the weekend in the mountains was playing with my best friend Maisy. We wrestled, watched NCAA basketball (until Mom caught us) and even shared my binkie. Hey, wait a second!

Sledding in Pinecrest!

We went back to Pinecrest this weekend with Molly, Suzanna, Jack and Maisy. It was warm but there was still plenty of snow so us kids got to go sledding for the first time. Jack went super FAST, as you can see from the flames coming off his hat. Dad had a little trouble working up the courage on his own,
so I jumped into the Baby Bjorn cockpit and took him down the hill with me.

Out to Pasture

It has been warm here this week so, now that I know there are other things to eat out there, I struck out to scrounge up some grubs. Sad to report, no luck. Just green, green grass as far as the eye could see.

My First Mush.

Mom fed me my first solid food today.
That is, if you count mushy rice cereal soaked in breastnog as 'solid food.' Fact is though, it doubled my culinary repertoire.Makes me wonder, are there OTHER things out there I can eat?!

Happy Birthday Momma!

Today is mom's birthday. Dad got her a present and is taking her out to dinner but my nanny Betty and I got the party started with this cool new balloon.