So much to be thankful for

This Thanksgiving we spent among good friends at Jen's family's cabin in the mountains near Clear Lake (northeast of Napa county). The attendees included five couples: Jen & Mike, Kim & Jeff, Efrat & Jeremy, Jim & Casey (with their 5-week old Maya), and us (with Mateo of course). We went on lots of walks through the woods, and Mateo got to try out some of his cute cold weather clothes. We also had lots of great meals together, played games, played with the babies, watched movies, and had a jolly good time. Here are some pictures below:

Mateo's First Bottle

In anticipation of Anita going back to work in mid-January, we decided we should slowly start getting him used to taking a bottle (of breast milk). We have this cool Adiri bottle that's shaped and textured like a breast, which helped to ease the transition. Mateo did surprisingly well and pretty much drank the whole thing without complaint.

11 Weeks Old

Mateo is 11 weeks old today and as cute as ever. Here is in his "L is for lion" overalls that Jen got him.

Lounging on Daddy's lap.

In the last few days, Mateo has been able to grip a simple toy, such as this plastic ring, and shake it around for a while (so much so that he blurred this cute picture). It's not clear that he realizes there's something in his hand, but it's a new milestone nonetheless.

Uh oh. There goes the ring (Mommy snapped this photo with perfect timing to capture its fall to the floor).

We can't get enough of his adorable smiles. It just makes you melt.

A Visit from the Gunawardena Troupe

Last evening, our friend Jamila stopped by with his three kids, Nalini (4 years), Taj (2+ years), and Surya (6 months). All three of them were excited to play with Mateo. Here are a few pictures.

It's Playtime!

Mateo's finally beginning to take an interest in toys. He can't hold them yet, but he likes to look at them and shake his arms and legs. Here are a few cute photos of him in his play area.

More fun people to visit in San Diego

As if being together with 5 generations of family wasn't enough, Mateo also got to meet some of Anita's good friends in San Diego. On the first day of our trip, we got together with five of Anita's friends from her UCSD days: Christina & Andy, Rebecca & Adam, and James. Unfortunately, we were too busy catching up and showing off Mateo to get a photo of us all together. We also got together with Margaret, a friend from Jesse's Berkeley days, who is now a post-doc at Harvard. And last but not least, we got together with Kate and Alessandra, friends of Anita's from Brown, who are both currently doing research fellowships in San Diego. We did get some nice photos with them:

Kate (left) and Alessandra (right)

Alessandra enjoying Mateo

Mateo enjoying Alessandra (it's hard to resist a women who speaks to you in Italian)

An Eventful Two Weeks

Hey there all you Mateo fans. We haven't forgotten about you -- we've just been really busy and haven't gotten a chance to post anything for a while. Here are some highlights from the past two weeks:

We recently got a vest designed to go over the baby carrier so we stay warm, the baby stays warm, and he has a little head space to peak out of. Here's Daddy trying it out. Anita was sure glad she had it the other day, since she was walking down the street and huge brown and orange spider dropped down from a tree and landed on the vest (instead of the baby's head).

Our little pumpkin boy at Halloween. This outfit lasted about twenty minutes.

Last week Jesse had a conference in San Diego and the whole family went so that Mateo could meet more of his family. Here he is with his Great Grandma Barbara Griffin (Anita's grandma).

And here he is with his Great Uncle Jay, who came all the way from Alaska to meet Mateo (and to be with his mom and grandmother during the wildfire scare).


And Mateo's Gemma (Anita's mom Sharon) was so happy to see her one and only grandson again.

Here are the oldest and the youngest family members. Mateo is fortunate enough to have a loving Great Great Grandmother, Margaret Adams.

While Jesse was at his conference, the rest of the fam headed out to Ocean Beach. Unfortunately, it was bad beach weather. But good ice cream weather (it's never too cold for ice cream).

Five (yes five) generations gathered for a photo shoot.

We had a tripod, so we were able to get a photo of all of us together. From left: Great Great Grandmother, Great Uncle Jay, Great Grandma, Grandpa Phil, Gemma, Daddy, Mommy, and sleepy Mateo.