Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Thanksgiving is coming...

One more weekend went by, not too crazy, but very nice...

On Saturday the Berniers (Luke, Isa, Emily and Peter) stopped by to visit us and meet Marc, I cooked some pizzas and we had a good time just hanging out and catching up.


On Sunday we went for brunch with most of our dysfunctional Chicago family, it was cool as always, fun conversation, very good food at "Taste of heaven"... before that I went for my first chilly long run of the winter, it was 20 F (around -7 Centigrade), but it felt great, the lake shore trail was pretty empty... life is good indeed: long run, warm shower and good food with friends!

The rest of the Sunday was pretty lazy, most of the time went by watching sports on TV. Marc likes to watch American Football (all those colors and movement). He had a very long nap lying on my chest, this is one of the best simple perks of fatherhood, when your son cannot think of a more comfy place to nap than your chest.

Thanksgiving is coming, in what has become a little tradition we will go to the Moussa's for thanksgiving. Not having our families around it feels great to share this special day with them, we are honored to be part of their extended family.

This year we have much to be thankful for, it sounds almost surreal, but only on New Year's day we found out that Lily was pregnant and now Marc is almost 3 months old. We've been blessed with this baby, our life has certainly changed, but definitely for the better. Everyday is a new adventure, Marc keeps growing, learning and surprising us.


Happy thanksgiving to our families and all our friends!


A few pictures follow (more, as usual in Picasa):

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Playing is fun...

Time has finally arrived, on top of crying, eating, sleeping and other basic stuff Marc has started to enjoy playing. Winter has arrived to Chicago and getting out is often not too pleasant (windy, cold, etc, etc), so we got a play-mat for Marc to play at home.

Of all the features in the play-mat his favorite one seems to be the small beach ball which he likes to hold, punch and lick. When he holds it he shows a really promising basketball-like posture, maybe we have a Yao Ming in the family :)

One more video of Marc having a blast with the ball follows:


Monday, November 10, 2008

Paperwork update... all clear!

Over the last couple of months I posted a few times about our paperwork adventures, so I just wanted to share a quick update:
- Marc got both his passports.

- Lily got her Spanish visa.
- We had our green card interview today and got approved.

We can almost feel the taste of the tapas and paellas we'll enjoy during our trip to Spain :)


Meanwhile there go a few pictures (more as usual in our Picasa site).




Marc is a morning person....

Just like his father... He wakes up early and full of energy, ready to play, talk with his invisible friends and have a good time.

This is a video taken at 5:30 am (and for that reason a little dark)


Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Nov 4th 2008, Obama wins!!!!!!

Man it's great to be in Chicago! We are witnessing history in the making, after the dark last 8 years we get some light, some hope, Obama won and Chicago was an amazing party yesterday!

I know that moving forward everybody will claim to have been in the Obama rally that night, I won't lie to you, we were not there. We had plan a romantic night in the city to celebrate Lily's birthday in advance and we carried on as planned. This was our first night out alone since Marc was born, we enjoyed a great dinner at Aria (outstanding restaurant) and then Wicked the musical at the Oriental Theater.

The atmosphere was unbelievable when we got to the loop, the amount of people walking towards Grant Park was amazing, young people, whole families...

Once the musical was over and we left the theater it was official that Obama had won, the crowds were celebrating, singing,... This is what hope in a better future is all about.

It won't be easy for Obama, the expectation level is really high and the task at hand a tough one, but hey, who better than him? He is smart, he can communicate and he wants to negotiate rather than impose his will on everybody. All the best to you Mr President!

This event is even more relevant for us now, after all our kid is an American citizen and Obama is his president :).

My father always used to joke about how I was born in Democracy in Spain, how Franco (our terrible, cruel, assassin dictator) died a month before I was born after 40 years of dictatorship out of fear of what was coming (me :)).... Well, luckily enough Marc will not have to enjoy the soon-to-be-former president for long!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Almost 2 months old

Tomorrow will be Marc's second month birthday, hopefully he will feel better then than he does now. He took 3 shots on Thursday (2 month vaccinations), he was doing pretty good until now, but today it was a rough day. His pediatrician told us to use Tylenol for infants if/whenever he was feeling "miserable", at that time I thought she was exaggerating... but she was not... he truly felt miserable today, crying often, looking tired but not being able to sleep deeply...

On Thursday we also went to the Spanish consulate in Chicago, paperwork is moving forward, Lily got her visa on the same day, Marc's passport will be sent to us by mail. As we stand it's just a matter of getting Marc's passports and we'll be rea
dy for our Christmas vacation. I can't wait, I'm looking forward to this trip very much, work keeps being hectic and intense and it doesn't look like it's going to slow down anytime soon. It will be great to be back home, to spend time with my family and to disconnect of everything that has to do remotely with telecom.

What else what else? Friday it was "trick or treat" day in the US. Marc, Lily and I went for a walk around the neighborhood, weather was great (70 F). On our way back home we decided to walk around some of the streets where there are more homes than condos, it was pretty cool. Soooooooooooooooooo many kids.... the homeowners were great, most of them dressed in scary costumes and making the kids have a great time... you gotta love how folks really enjoy this very holiday!


On Saturday night we had some friends home for dinner, we had a great time, if there's somethi
ng we really enjoy is to entertain friends, share a good conversation, a good glass of wine... Food was very good too, Lily cooks better better every time, thank god I'm keeping up with my running, otherwise I would have put a good amount of extra pounds by now :) Following are a few shots of Marc in his baseball outfit, we bought this a few months ago and Marc is now able to use it since he's grown so much: