Vegas Baby!

Mateo's travel adventures continued with our recent trip to Vegas. We had planned to spend a week back in San Francisco after returning from New York, just to get some family time for the 3 of us, but when we got back to our apartment we quickly realized we were not alone. As if we weren't tired enough from our long difficult day of flying across the country, our home had been taken over by thousands of unwelcome guests -- ants! We frantically killed off enough ants in the bathroom to give Mateo a quick bath (he takes his bathtime seriously), and then we kept our suitcases packed and headed over to Jen and Mike's house to spend the night. The next morning Anita decided to head to Las Vegas early with Mateo while Jesse stayed behind to get some work done at Stanford and fight off the ants. Jesse thinks he succeed in his battle against the ants, but we'll find out on Sunday when we return home whether they've mounted a comeback while we were away.

Getting back to the main story -- we had a great time in Vegas visiting Anita's mom's family for Christmas. We kept things more low key this time, forgoing the many Vegas attractions for some quality time with the family at Sharon & Phil's house. We're now in Cave Creek, Arizona spending time with Anita's dad's family, and we'll post some photos from this part of the trip soon. In the mean time, here are some photos from our stay in Las Vegas:

We took lots of walks around the neighborhood. Here, Mateo's Gemma (Sharon) is holding onto her two dogs Zoe (a Shar Pei) and Ransom (an Airedale), with Mateo's Great Great Grandmother Margaret's poodle Sam in the background. They're standing in front of Sharon & Phil's house, which you can see in beautifully situated at the foothills of Sunrise Mountain.

Even though it was cold outside, the desert sunlight is intense, so we needed to get Mateo his first baseball cap to keep the sun out of his sensitive eyes.

Mateo loves bouncing on an exercise ball -- perhaps a little too much (it's hard to calm him down and get him to nap without bouncing). Fortunately, Sharon & Phil had a big one that we could use. Jesse & Mateo were happy to reunite after 5 long days apart!

Anita helps chop yams for the big Christmas dinner, as she tries not to get too grossed out by the 10 pound hunk of prime rib right in front of her.

Mateo's great granddad Chuck met Mateo for the first time (since he wasn't able to come down from Alaska in time for our November visit to San Diego). Ransom loved Mateo, too, and became very protective of him, barking whenever somebody held Mateo in a way that made him concerned about his safety (like when daddy held Mateo above his head like an airplane).


Surrounded by admirers.

Mateo's Gemma Sharon, Great Grandma Barbara, and Great Great Grandmother Margaret get ready to open presents on Christmas morning.

Anita's stepdad Phil (Mateo's "Philpa") opening a Christmas card.

The happy family.

Mateo takes a short break from all the morning excitement to catch some fresh air with mom.

"This is so fun!"

"Is that next present for me?"

Another family portrait.

Mateo couldn't get enough of his Gemma, and you can see how happy she is to be able to spend Christmas with her first and only grandchild.

Mateo has recently taken a liking to more physical games. He loves rolling over, though he can't do it on his own yet. Here's a short video of Mommy helping him out.

Daddy discovered another fun game for Mateo that involves rocking back and forth on the floor or the bed with Mateo lying against your thighs. He really loves this one, but it's quite a workout for us. Here's a video of Mommy and Mateo playing this game.

Woodstock: Peace, Love, & Mateo

We recently returned from our trip to Woodstock, NY, which was quite the adventure, complete with two big snow storms. We pretty much held court at Jesse's parents' house for 10 days while dozens of family and friends came to visit us and meet Mateo. We all had a lot of fun, and as you can imagine, everyone couldn't get enough of Mateo. Here are some photos from the trip:

"I'm not quite sure where I am, but this new place is cool."

It was great that Mateo got to spend his first Chanukah with his grandparents and Aunt Dahlia. He loved staring at the candles, but was oblivious to all the great presents he received (we appreciate them though!).

Mateo's great grandparents, Sam (Opa) and Hilda (Oma), flew up from Florida -- they hadn't experienced the winter since they moved from Long Island to Florida 15 years ago, but to meet their only great grandchild, it was worth braving the cold weather.

Mateo took an extraordinary liking to his Oma.

And he liked hanging with his Opa as well.

Mateo's Saba wanted to show off his grandson to everyone at his medical office, so we brought Mateo by at lunch time to visit. Here's a nice shot of him with his Saba and Safta.

Aunt Dahlia had to work in Brooklyn during the week, but came up to Woodstock both weekends to see us. Her busy schedule as a school teacher had prevented her from visiting us in California after he was born, so she had been counting down the days until she finally got to meet her precious little nephew.

Mateo's Great Aunt Joan also came up from New York City to visit.

And so did Jesse's cousin Jon and his girlfriend Havi.

And so did Jesse's friend Nick and his girlfriend Lauren. Thanks also to all the other visitors who traveled to see us -- Jesse's friends Zac, Sridevi, Brandon, Jodi, Nick, Lucas, Xiaoyun; Anita's cousin Marm and his girlfriend Jen; and Jesse's family members Manny & Sophia, Steve & Carol, Garry & Steve, and Linda & Tracy.

Jesse's parents threw a big party for us and dozens of friends came by to visit. Here's a fun shot of Jesse with his childhood friends Nick and Brandon with their moms.

And now we'll leave you with a few more cute photos of Mateo, since we know that's the main reason you visit our blog.

Wow. He's already 3 months old!

Mesmerized by the funny device Daddy's always pointing at him.

Every month we take a photo of Mateo on this glider chair so we can chart is growth. There's no doubt that our little one is packing on the pounds for the winter.

We have to be good about cutting his fingernails, since he's taken a liking to grabbing at his face and neck.

We bundled Mateo up in this cute, but giant, fleece snowsuit before heading out to a Women's Community Clinic party. It's kindly on loan to us from Casey, since we'll be heading to New York on Friday and we don't have too many warm outfits for Mateo.

Anita's been loving this Kangaroo Korner sling, since it's super easy to put on and it allows our curious little boy to look out at the world (he's going through a phase where he won't tolerate facing inward -- he always demands to see what's going on, especially when there are other people around).

On Sunday, we had a reunion with the five couples from our homebirth class. It was so great to see them all again 4 months later and meet all the babies. Our instructor came along as well, and we all went around and shared our birth stories. The babies, from left (from oldest to youngest): Bryce, Satiya, Mateo, Scarlett, and Ayla.

I don't know who started it, but at one point the babies started leaning. If it weren't for Satiya's elbow, they would have all toppled over like dominos. It was so adorable to watch them all lined up like this. These photos hardly do justice to the cuteness of the moment.

After the birth class reunion, we headed over to Berkeley to visit our cousins Jenny, Amy, Talia and Adin. Talia and Mateo really took a liking to each other -- we'll definitely keep her in mind when we're looking for baby sitters.

Here's us with Adin and Amy.