For the first time! Ok, the water is definitely cooler than the YMCA, but than it's clear water, no more horrible chlorine that stings the eye! And Gabe loved it, as was to be expected :) I just love that place.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Fun on the Rody!
Gabe got the Rody rocking horse from his Mamino and Papilou! He LOVES it!!! It is such a cute fun toy, that the entire family can enjoy, hehehe.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Austin Lightning storm may 15th 2008
Amazing storm pictures from Streetranger, found on flickr... No wonder it was SO scary..
HUGE STORM! May 15th, Austin
A HUGE storm hit us 2 nights ago, around midnight, with winds at 90mph!... green sky... We heard our transformer go down, the power went out.. There was hail (2-3 inches hailstones), big 100-year-old trees fell down and damaged our entire neighborhood (Clarksville). We were without power for 19hrs, not so long after all, but still seems like forever, considering the damage in the streets, having to take care of Gabe, ambulances, fire trucks, landscape trucks everywhere, roads closed down. We are lucky, we barely had any damage. It was a loooooong day!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Gabe is starting to crawl (backwards)
Gabe is starting to crawl (backwards)
Originally uploaded by manueb
This is the only video I've managed to upload on Flickr... weird. It appears to upload and at 100% of completion it says that "something went "BONK" with your videos", but doesn't give an explanation. My videos are short and not over-sized either... Don't get it!
Monday, May 12, 2008
Mother's day!
My own first mother's day :) What a treat!! Turns out, as Gabe is teething and is waking up super early, that we managed to do tons of things all together yesterday!
Gabe got me a new Hello Kitty for my collection and a couple of other cute items :) What a cute gift (thank you Shad :P)
We had breakfast at Sweetish Hill, had lunch at Chui's, and after Gabe's nap, we picked up some ripe cherry tomatoes in our yard, we went to Terra Toys (almost as cool as Toy Joy :P), had an ice cream at Amy's IceCream, and finally went to Whole Foods to get some good dinner stuff (Prosecco, bread, cheese...). Gabe had a blast in the cart!
We had breakfast at Sweetish Hill, had lunch at Chui's, and after Gabe's nap, we picked up some ripe cherry tomatoes in our yard, we went to Terra Toys (almost as cool as Toy Joy :P), had an ice cream at Amy's IceCream, and finally went to Whole Foods to get some good dinner stuff (Prosecco, bread, cheese...). Gabe had a blast in the cart!
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Gabe's 1st tooth?
It's been a few days that I think I've noticed a tooth in there, well, it's not out yet, but I can see it's coming, bottom jaw on the left side! It explains some of the moodiness I guess...
And also he started crawling backwards this morning, very cute and extremely funny!
Gabe with Grandma JeRena
Grandma JeRena came to visit this past weekend and we had a great 3 days! Did tons of stuff, went for a swim, had avocado margaritas (seems like we do that with everybody who come to visit), went swinging in the park, bought a few things at IKEA..
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Trims... Finally!!!
This is what I was talking about a couple days ago... Still needs caulking and painting and also quarter rounds but we're "almost" there now... 10 months later...!
Welcome to "Chez Gabriel"
Here's all of Gabe's food for the next couple of weeks (at least; I hope!). There's beef and chicken, and turkey, cod, salmon, tilapia, mixed with every possible vegetable and herbs.. and all sorts of fruity desserts. I just realized there is no pork meal, I might make one of those. He just eats everything! What a good baby... he just knows good food when he sees it :P All organic, straight from Whole Foods!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Spring cleaning!
Phwew! We have just spent the ENTIRE weekend cleaning up our closets (trust me, it hadn't been done for years!!!) to make some room for our clothes and Gabe's stuff and we just got rid of old unnecessary junk. FINALLY!!! It feels good to get rid of crap! No more crappy boxes, no more dust, no more being scared to have a look in the closets, and even less to store our good stuff in them.
Shad also started putting up the trims in the kitchen and upstairs, it's looking good!
In the whole process, I made 8 meals for Gabe. I was on an adrenaline rush :P
It was a VERY productive weekend, although I must say, extremely exhausting. We're happy with the result though!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Vanessa in Austin
She came to visit last weekend and it was so good to see her, after a year and a half, since we left Oslo. It was a short visit but a good one, we did plenty, had margaritas and apetizers at Z tejas, margaritas at Curra's, margaritas at home... :) And also a nice walk on SoCo, and lots of friends over for a late lunch in our backyard. It was awesome.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Turtle vacation
There are a gazillion turtles in Town Lake, which absolutely cracks me up. Two days ago we were walking there on a playdate when we saw these.. What brings all of them together on such a tiny spot? :)
Monday, April 07, 2008
Gabe's first swim - April 5
We went to our first shrimp lesson this past saturday at the YMCA, along with other parent friends and babies. All 3 of us loved it, as I was expecting it, Gabe LOVED being in the pool and was very comfortable straight away. He does have some fatty fat going on to stay afloat. Let's just say he's buoyant :)
Monday, March 31, 2008
Easter 08
We had a very busy Easter this year. We started out by dinner at John and Mikal's on friday, then spent the day at the Sternes in their yard enjoying good burgers and Savannah :) And on sunday morning, Gabe discovered eggs and bunnies in a bucket (the chocolate was only for mommy and daddy!), and then met with lots of other children at the Shillingtons' house for an Easter egg hunt and a delicious dinner of perogies :) Yum!
Check also this super cute video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FviDExpv9IM
Check also this super cute video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FviDExpv9IM
Macarons Laduree
Never EVER leave Paris without having had a few of those! (It's considered a crime)
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Gabe's first trip to France
Wow it's been forever since I posted anything.. We've been quite busy this last month with our trip to France! Gabe flew for the second time, but it was his first looong trip! He did absolutely great, and it took him 3 days both ways to get over the jet lag (much faster than it took me!!!). We got to see our close friends and family, and it was wonderful to finally meet Lilas and Evan. To see how much Celeste has changed. Not forgetting my beautiful nephews, my little angels, Hugo and Lucas and how happy and proud my brother was when he first saw Gabe! I wish we could see everyone more often, it does suck to be so far away. But the good thing is, how ever long it is before we next see each other, it always feels like I never left :)
Manue with Celeste and Gabe - testing what it will be like with 2 kids very soon :)
Laure and Lilas
My father with Lucas (left) and Hugo (right)
My brother with Gabe
With Benoit and Evan - a difference in size in between our little dudes
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
DIY Baby Wrap
Much more comfortable than what we can buy, much cheaper, and much happier baby too! Although you can't tell from this picture! It does take a while though, but it's super easy! DIY on http://www.flickr.com/photos/manueb/sets/72157603905311287/
Blogged with Flock
Gabe's first homemade puree
Besides bananas and apples. Here comes the first sweet potato, made in a french blender, supposed to keep all the vitamins and nutrients in. I was super excited to try it, its very simple and makes plenty of food in no time. Freeze it in ice cube trays to make portions and voila!
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Gabe's first movie: 'Juno'
Forgot to say that Gabe and I went to the movies together for the first time yesterday! We were at the Alamo which has several "baby days" a week, what an awesome idea! Although now I realize I've been missing out on 5 months of good movies, if only I had known before... whatever!
Gabe loved it so we're planning on going again very soon :)
Gabe loved it so we're planning on going again very soon :)
Feb 6 - AustinMamas2007 Paydate
We had a very nice brunch at Tiphini's today where moms got to chill while boys were playing on the floor. Gabe and Clay played together, although as Gabe is the youngest of the group, he's just mostly laying there on the floor for now. Clay kept hugging him and exchanging the one same toy with Gabe, I thought it was extremely cute :)
Good times, hurray for mimosas and stay-at-home moms!
:P
Good times, hurray for mimosas and stay-at-home moms!
:P
Blogged with Flock
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Playing in the backyard with Gabe - feb3 - week23
The weather has been so nice lately. Fortunately, it stayed nice this last weekend, which allowed Shad to enjoy playing outside with our little chubby buddy.. :)
IKEA trip with Gabe - he loved it
finally picking up the shelves we've been waiting for these last few weeks - they were out of stock.
Gabe's first babysitter is Justin
Awesome! Gabe loves Justin (i.e. doens't cry when Justin holds him). He housesat and babysat for us while we were out having dinner at Wink, first romantic date in 5 months. My god that was good, we pretty much had the best stuff on the menu: seared foie gras with figs, buffalo tartare, duck confit and their awesome dessert trio (never miss on the "El Rey" chocolate cake). 3 days later, Amy watched Gabe during the day while we saw "Cloverfield"... but apparently he cried "2/3 of the time" oh well, it will pass!
Gabe - jan 29 - week22
Someone is extremely happy to spend some wintery Austin outdoorsy time! It's pretty much 80 right now - although it's not going to last I am sure. Gives us time to hang out in the back yard (finally) and read some good french litterature: Le Petit Spirou, one of my own faves :P
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Totoro, totoro..
I just received my order from Jbox: a set of Totoro stamps, a giant card game and a beautiful red lacquer bento box.. Can't wait to use it next time we do sushi and sashimi at home :)
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Look at who's eating his first cereals!
This week is to be remembered: Gabe started eating solid foods with the introduction of baby cereal, hurray! So far, we're sticking to rice, soon though, we'll upgrade to multigrain cereal. All organic, of course :P
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Gabe and I discovering the rainforest
Gabe loves his new playmat he got for Christmas. And Mommy too... never too old for toys :)
Saturday, December 22, 2007
More Xmas crafting: our own personalized stockings :)
I made these pretty stockings for our family. Shad's, mine, Gabe's, my mom's (Mamino) and my Dad's (Papilou), all personalized. Shad's has a camera and a polaroid of Gabe, cause he likes taking pictures, mine has a Geisha, cause I love all Japanese stuff, Gabe has a blue bunny cause he can't part from his blue bunny toy. Mamino's has a cupcake for all the cooking/baking she does, and Papilou has a flying osito (private joke) :P.
Many hours of sewing there!
Blogged with Flock
White Christmas tree
I am kind of dreaming of a white christmas... Took some fallen branches in our yard and spray painted them white and sparkle to create a snowy finish, and I cut out some paper snowflakes and heart baskets, and also a couple of white felted ornaments. TA-DA! It's set in the dinning room and it looks great :)
Blogged with Flock
Friday, December 21, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Early Xmas in VA
We were in Virginia this weekend in Rocky Mount, at Grandma and Grandpa Handy's house for an early christmas, and mostly to proudly show Gabe to all the family :) JeRena had an open house on sunday where everybody got to meet our sweet little guy. I think everybody had a great time, and we came home with a luggage full of gifts!
Gabe did great on the plane by the way, much better than his parents who are a total wreck today...
Gabe did great on the plane by the way, much better than his parents who are a total wreck today...
Thursday, December 13, 2007
The sweetest thing ever
Gabe hanging out in his Bumbo seat in front of the xmas tree - too cute for words, it just kills me :)
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The Crazee Crafteez fabric label is out!
After a lot of brainstorming, designing and re-designing :) We finally came up with something that made us both happy!!!
Printed on PaperFabric, not straightforward... because the instructions say to let the ink dry for 15min. We tried, but the ink ran out, so we actually threw away a few sheets :( My guess is, let dry overnight!
Now I can sew my own designed labels on my creations!! Pretty awesome.
Printed on PaperFabric, not straightforward... because the instructions say to let the ink dry for 15min. We tried, but the ink ran out, so we actually threw away a few sheets :( My guess is, let dry overnight!
Now I can sew my own designed labels on my creations!! Pretty awesome.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Chocolate goodies for thanksgiving
A liitle thanksgiving 'extra' (more of a xmas-y thing but whatever)
With pistacchios, walnuts, pine nuts, pecans, dried cranberries, dried aprictos, semi-sweet and bitter-sweet chocolates :)
Double yum!!
With pistacchios, walnuts, pine nuts, pecans, dried cranberries, dried aprictos, semi-sweet and bitter-sweet chocolates :)
Double yum!!
Thanksgiving 2007
This was our delicious meal, maybe some would say less traditional:
- green beans almondine with lemon
- potatoes and red and yellow bell pepper piperade
- turkey with porcini mushroom gravy
- cranberry/pear/ginger chutney
- plain ol' stuffing
- corn muffins
- pumpkin pie
And of course a good white Becker wine :)
all the recipes from Bon Appetit nov 2007 issue
- green beans almondine with lemon
- potatoes and red and yellow bell pepper piperade
- turkey with porcini mushroom gravy
- cranberry/pear/ginger chutney
- plain ol' stuffing
- corn muffins
- pumpkin pie
And of course a good white Becker wine :)
all the recipes from Bon Appetit nov 2007 issue
One of my cool bday gifts from Shad
The swinger chair!!!! It's so comfortable, I am going to love sitting in it with Gabe! Except of course, since I got it we lost 40 degrees over Thanksgiving and it's kinda freezing on the back porch! brrrr
Monday, November 19, 2007
My Bday - Thanksgiving potluck in our backyard
We had a great time with a few friends yesterday, a nice thanksgiving potluck in our backyard... and it didn't even rain like it was supposed to!
It was a really nice day :)
It was a really nice day :)
Monday, November 12, 2007
Hangin' out in the hammock
I cleaned out the back porch yesterday while Shad was mowing - to each our own crappy task :P
I changed all the dead light bulbs, and dusted, cleaned out the nasty bugs... So we had a nice appetizer in the hammock all three of us, Shiners and some lobster terrine :)
I changed all the dead light bulbs, and dusted, cleaned out the nasty bugs... So we had a nice appetizer in the hammock all three of us, Shiners and some lobster terrine :)
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Praying Mantis vs Stink Bug ; who's gonna win?
We found both bugs on the back porch (super yuck, and what's the point of screening???). I asked Shad to kill them, but he was like "no we can't kill them, they're wonderful creatures"... whatever... He put them in a jar and we watched them for a while... They got in a fight! But we released them before any damage, Shad is soooo sentimental :P I was rather waiting to see which would kick the other's butt!!!! hehehehe
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