Thanksgiving

I wasn't able to make it baby boot camp at all this week - most of the classes were cancelled, because of the holiday.  Which is a little weird when you think about it - a holiday devoted to overeating should be an occasion for more exercise classes, not less.  So we made up our own class, which was really just a very long walk with some bouts of jogging or running steps or doing push-ups on a bench - basically, looking like a crazy person.  Brennan wasn't much help as he napped almost the whole time. 

Grandma Lorna and Grandpa Üwe visited from Wisconsin and were put to work cooking turkeys, babysitting, and baby lifting.  Here's Ian in a brief pause between bouncing, wearing his day trader shirt.  I managed to incorporate alcohol into both of my contributions to Thanksgiving dinner - cranberry mandarin port relish and baked sweet potatoes with bourbon pecan butter.

Guess who's had champagne!

This is how Lorna had to eat dinner - trapped under a sleeping baby.

We've been working on bedtime for a couple of weeks and Bren's been pretty good about going to sleep in the 8-8:30 range.  He's still sleeping in the sidecar bassinet, though - the crib is still for things like kicking, mobile-watching, and cramming toys in the mouth.

We're also experimenting a little with the playground - I've held him in my lap on the swings and the slide, and while I don't know if he likes it, at least he isn't screaming.  Mostly, he seems to like watching everyone, even if he has to wear the ugly, Mommy-imposed sun hat.  He also seemed SUPER interested in the carousel - at least, until he was on it.  I think the jury is still out on that one, but judge for yourself....

Playtime

Guest Blogger:  Brennan Petersen

I'm sure you are wondering, Who is this handsome man of mystery?  What exotic things does he do every day?  Well, just this once, I'll allow access to my fabulous life and activities here in San Francisco. 

I like to dress sharp and check out the ladies -

how you doin'?

I really, really enjoy kicking

and drooling.

I test the durability of toys and blankets-

this one passed.

I fly through the air EVERY DAY.

I'm still trying to figure out what these hand things do.

They are DELICIOUS.

Sometimes, I wonder what happened to my portfolio.

Back to Work

My polling place is just down the street, in some dude's garage (I don't know why, but in San Francisco you vote in weird places.  When Mike lived in Russian Hill, he voted in an art gallery.) - so I loaded up the baby into the bjorn and walked over. I discovered a few things:  we barely fit in the booth - I had to turn a little sideways - and nothing speeds up my voting process like hearing Brennan drop a tremendous poo.  So I may have accidentally voted for Nader.  Sadly, Prop R, which would have renamed the city sewage plant after W, did not pass.

Here's Bren at 12 weeks.  I'm going to do these once a month now.  No input from the peanut gallery on the number of bottles visible in the background.

Here he is playing tickle with his Daddy.  We're not actually sure if he's ticklish but he smiles and squirms when we do it, so it's fun for everyone.

Playing with Lavender Lab (yes, it's full of lavender, like a big puppy shaped sachet)

I like to call this one "paparazzi catches Brennan leaving Nobu with Crinklebug"

These pics were taken on different days, we just like the rooster outfit A LOT.

My maternity leave is up and I started back at Pets on Sunday.  Bren spent the first day with his Daddy.  They walked up and down the hill a couple times, watched some football, and read "Sally Goes to the Vet" so that he could see what Mommy was doing at work.  Mommy spent the day wanting to call home every 5 minutes.  The next day he went to Cousin Ian's and spent the day with Nanny May. Mommy still wanted to call every 5 minutes, but was reined in by the knowledge that while May's English is WAY better than my Cantonese, a phone call would not be particularly rewarding for either of us.  Anyway, he seems to enjoy his time there - I imagine it helps that May seems to really like to be sure his little tummy is full.  

I suppose this would be the part where I say what a special time it was, but guess what - it's not that kind of blog.  But here's a "I love my little baby" picture, so I guess I'm at least a little corny.

Halloween

I'm a week behind on posting, but we were having some serious problems with our internets. But that just means we've got 2 weeks worth of photos, so lucky you.

I've been working hard on turning Brennan into a science nerd as early as possible. We went to the Conservatory of Flowers for the Butterflies exhibit AND to the new California Academy of Sciences. I don't know if he was a big

fan, but he didn't cry. He did, however, fall fast asleep at both.

(FYI, don't wait until th

e last week to see a butterfly exhibit. They can't be released "into the wild", and I guess the staff doesn't want to ice them all on the last day, so they just stop hatching them and let the existing ones die of old age. This means the final days of the butterfly exhibit feature a smallish group of tired, raggedy butterflies.)

Halloween was a lot of fun - somehow, the last two years, I managed to miss the GIANT FREAKING STREET PARTY going on 2 blocks from my home. Belvedere st. is blocked off, people decorate their houses and turn their garages into mini-haunted houses, and what seems like every small child in the city is trucked in to trick-or-treat, and beyond wondering why traffic was so terrible, I HAD NO IDEA.

But this year, since my parents were staying at the gay B & B on said street, we managed to walk around and take in the festivities. It's too bad Bren is too little for candy, because he would have cleaned UP. He also got to wear two costumes - he wore his bear coat for walking around, and his frog suit for handing out candy at home. As you can see, he was sooo happy in his frog suit.

In addition to meeting his Grandpa Marshall, Bren's other big milestones include crossing the 11 pound mark (so I sort of quit panicking about his weight, and now I don't have to fasten the extra leg straps on the Baby Bjorn that I never fastened anyway because they are a total pain in a--) and turning over for the first time. We were working on tummy time and chattering away when, fwoop, he was on his back. I acted very impressed - actually I was, I didn't think it would happen for another 3 or 4 weeks - but he hasn't done it since, so maybe it was a fluke. He's interacting with some of his toys, especially the ones that that crinkle when grabbed or can by partially jammed into his mouth. I'm going back to work in a week, which is a little scary, but he'll get to spend two days a week with his cousin Ian and every other weekend with his Daddy - he'll probably handle it better than me.