Saturday in the Park

Today we had a fun afternoon in Golden Gate Park, where we got together with a big group of people to celebrate Jeremy's 30th birthday. There were babies everywhere at this party. Hardly any of our friends have kids, but apparently Jeremy and Efrat know a lot of folks who do. There was even one baby boy not too much bigger than ours. Mateo seemed to be having a very good time -- enjoying the fresh air, checking out all the new faces, and listening to the music.

Here's Anita welcoming Jeremy to the 30-year-old club. If days were years, Mateo still wouldn't make the cut.

Efrat with her niece, Anita with Mateo, and Casey with Maya Mae

Mateo left his sunglasses in the car, so he had to be creative and use his hand.

Mateo's Trip to San Mateo

Last night we went down to San Mateo for a fun get-together at Kim & Jeff's house. We made panini sandwiches and played a fun karaoke game on the Playstation.

Here's us singing "Rio" by Duran Duran (it was an all 80's disc).

And here we're singing "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor (aka the song from Rocky). Mateo made his occasional contribution, but it didn't help lift our score up to the "rising star" level. However, our heartfelt performance was kindly rated "hopeful" by the scoring algorithm.


After we had gone through just about every karaoke song on the disc, Kim and Jeff decided to break out Dance Dance Revolution, another interactive Playstation game. Here, Mike and Jeff are showing off their dancing skills, while Casey watches in the background.

We finally got the opportunity to take a group photo with our "birth team". We are incredibly grateful to Jen and Kim for their tireless support throughout the long labor process.

Jen briefly escapes from the action to enjoy some precious one-on-one time with Mateo.

Shower time!

We just got a cool new shower-friendly sling for Mateo, and so far he seems to love the shower (so much so that he falls asleep -- the holy grail of baby satisfaction). Looks like we won't have to worry about him being the stinky kid in school.

And for those dedicated Mateo fans out there, here's another video where you can see him move and hear him groove.

Fun to kiss a clean baby!

Mateo loves his new giraffe shirt from daddy.
(And as a side note, you can see that Anita is wearing her wedding ring again, which finally fits on her finger.)

Photos from Mateo's visit to the Women's Community Clinic

Here are the photos we promised from Mateo's visit to mommy's work (The Women's Community Clinic) on Tuesday. Thanks to Tara for sending us these photos.

Leah, the WCC outreach director, showing Mateo a Nuvaring and teaching him about the different types of contraception.

Tara, the WCC development director, taking a break from planning a big fundraiser dinner to hold Mateo. He likes her because he has more hair than she does.

Mateo proudly raises his index finger to state that the WCC is #1 in providing free health care for women.

Family Portrait

Mateo's Due Date

Today was Mateo's due date, so the last 3+ weeks have been sort of a freebie for us, where we got to enjoy our baby in the outside world when he was still supposed to be hanging out in the inside-of-Anita world.

Yes little guy, 40 weeks ago today you started your long journey into this world.

We decided to mark the occasion with a hike in the beautiful Land's End park in San Francisco. Mateo pretty much slept the whole way, but we really enjoyed getting outdoors on such a beautiful day.

The sleepy baby will have to admire the majestic Golden Gate Bridge some other time.

On our way to Land's End, we made a surprise visit to the Women's Community Clinic (where Anita works) and introduced Mateo to clinic staff, who were all very excited to meet him, hold him, and teach him about sexual and reproductive health. They took a bunch of photos, which we'll try to post soon.

Sleeping Beauty

We've posted a lot of photos lately where Mateo is wide-awake and curiously exploring his surroundings, so we thought we'd balance things out a bit and add a couple more shots of him snoozing, since that's what he's doing about 2/3 of the time.

Enjoying a mid-day nap with mom.

And one with dad.

Three Weeks Old: Time for a bath!

It's hard to believe, but Mateo is already three weeks old. And as if that weren't enough of a milestone in itself, today Mateo got his very first bath. We waited patiently for his cord scab (or "raisin" as Anita called it) to fall off, and now that it has, we can bathe him. We started him in the big bath tub with daddy, and he seemed to really enjoy it. Here are some photos of the clean and happy baby.

Mateo's First Party

Last night we went on our first social outing, to celebrate Jane Anderson's 82nd birthday. The whole Anderson-Darcy clan (Anita's best friend Jen's family, who have adopted us as their own and invite us to all their family events) was there and were very happy to meet little Mateo. Mateo seemed to have a good time, but was so excited from the activity that he was awake for 6 hours! He definitely slept well after that... (thanks to Linda for these photos)

Jane Blows Out Her Candles...

Auntie Jen with her sister Julie and nephew Sammy.

Mateo can't wait until he can drive around with Sammy.

Mateo meets Julie (Sammy's mom).

So happy to show off our new baby.

Jane with her 2-month old granddaughter Allie

Big Jim and Little Mateo


Here is Casey reading up on parenting because her and Jim's baby girl is due in 3 weeks.
Mateo is looking forward to meeting his new pal.

Big Saturday

Saturday was a big day for Mateo. He got to meet his cousins Mark, Tracey & Elliot Pearlman who came all the way over from Emeryville to see him and bring him lots of great presents.


And then we got ready to head out for Mateo's big outing. Here he is in his carseat (thanks Mark, Tracey & Elliot) with his beautiful blanket crocheted by his great-grandmother (Jesse's Oma).

Baby Diaper Rash

Mateo has been having a bit of a diaper chafing... so we have been trying to air things out and use cloth diapers as much as possible. Here's a photo of naked baby time.


The Boy with the Giant Diaper...

Two Weeks Old

Mouth Exercises

Looking Adorable

Another Cute Face

Time with Mommy

Playing with Saba (Jesse's Dad Randy)

Sleepytime with Savta (Jesse's Mom Barbara)

Mateo & Jesse in their favorite chair

Daddy & Baby Hands

The Family's First Outing- to the roof patio

It's hard to believe (for us at least) that Mateo is already two weeks old. It's been an amazing experience for us, tiring for sure, but indescribably rewarding and awe-inspiring. Over the past two days, we've been taking Mateo out on brief outings so that he and Anita could get some sunshine and fresh air. This last photo was taken up on our roof deck, where we have a great view of downtown San Francisco and the bay. Yesterday we took Mateo for a short walk around our local community park, giving Anita a good opportunity to try out our new Ergo baby carrier. Today, Jesse's mother will be heading back to Woodstock (his dad left yesterday), and Anita, Jesse, and Mateo will be alone as a family for the first time. We look forward to visits from our local friends over the next few weeks.

Thanks so much to all of you who have emailed and called us over the past two weeks. We are sorry that we haven't been able to get back to you each in person, but we hope this blog is keeping you adequately updated for the time being, and we eventually hope to see or talk to you all.

The B'rit Shalom naming ceremony

On his 8th day of life, we held a B'rit Shalom (covenant of peace) Jewish naming ceremony for Mateo at our house. The same rabbi who married us presided over the ceremony, which was attended by a small group of close friends and family. His Hebrew name is:

Matityahu Nadav
Son of Yishai Akiva and Anita Maria
Born on the 19th of Elul 5767

During the ceremony, Jesse and Anita read letters to little Matityahu, and here are a few excerpts:

Today, on the eighth day of your life, we have gathered together here in our home to bless you as you enter into a sacred covenant with God. Your Hebrew name Matityahu, means “gift from God”, and what an incredible gift you are to us all. I send my sincere thanks out to that infinite presence we call “Adonai”, whose powerful and mysterious guiding force weaves together all things in this vast universe, living and non-living, in a masterfully crafted fabric of balance and harmony.

Your middle name, Nadav, means “generous”, and we will raise you to be a kind and caring person, who goes out of his way to help those in need, to share his good fortunes, and to practice and live the values of “tikkun olam”, striving to help repair the world by working to protect and heal the fragile environment in which we live and working to bring social justice where it is lacking...

...We love you so very much, and we want you to know that we will always protect you and never do anything to inflict unnecessary harm upon you. We have thus chosen to bring you into this sacred covenant with love, and not pain, leaving your perfect little body exactly as it was intended to be, so exquisitely crafted, with every tiny part fulfilling its designated function. We do not believe that your entry into this holy covenant requires any physical alteration of your precious little body, but rather only a spiritual commitment to raise you in accordance with Jewish values, teaching you the customs and traditions of your ancestors, many of whom went through great hardships and persecution in order to practice their beliefs and pass them along to their children...

...You are wrapped in the chuppah under which we began our life journey together, and now we welcome you to join that road with us. You begin your life with us carrying you down this road, but soon you will be crawling and then walking on it. We want you to know that we will always be here to hold your hand on the journey. We love you.

The grandparents arrive to help out and meet the little one

Anita's mom Sharon flew in from Las Vegas last Tuesday evening and came straight to the hospital to visit Anita, who was recovering from her gallbladder surgery. The next morning, she worked hard to make sure our house was nice and tidy for when we all came home from the hospital (thanks also to Jen and Kim, who helped clean up our house while we were at the hospital). When Anita finally exited St. Luke's hospital on Wednesday afternoon, she burst into tears, since her week-long stay had been such a trying ordeal, and she was at long last heading back home with her baby. Sharon stayed with us through Saturday and did so much to help us out -- laundry, cleaning, dishes, shopping, cooking, errands, emotional support, etc. -- I don't know what we would have done without her. She also enjoyed bonding with her first grandchild, who someday will call her "Gemma" (a shortened version of Grandma).




Jesse's parents, Barbara & Randy, took over the next shift of parenting the new parents. They flew in from Woodstock, NY on Saturday afternoon, and also have been very helpful. They loved meeting little Mateo and k'velling over their first grandchild. Randy, being the photography enthusiast that he is, has taken hundreds of pictures of the baby, but unfortunately he's not in any of them, so this photo of Barbara holding Mateo will have to suffice for now.



Here are the proud parents at Mateo's naming ceremony on Sunday. More on that in the next blog posting.