Visitors from a Strange Land

I almost forgot to cover the most exciting part of this past weekend. Viana got to meet her "cousins" from the Friedman family, Zollie (3) and Bela(1). Lamine has been best friends with their father, Greg, since the age of 3, they went to the same elementary school together and have stayed in touch through high school, college and 14 additional years of life. They have been best friends for 30+ years. Today Greg and his wife Amy are living in Bangladesh and teaching at a school there. They have been there for the past 3 years, prior to which they taught in Honduras, and have raised their two kids abroad. Talk about adventurous!

They, along with their parents Ron and Marlene, and Greg's sister Danielle, came down to Ramona for a long weekend and Viana got to spend an afternoon with them and meet Zollie and Bela. Viana received a basketfull of multi-colored Bangladeshi gnomes from Zollie and Bela, which Zollie and Bela immediately started to play with too. Kids are so cute. The gnome is the red figure on the left.

At any rate, it was fabulous to see all the Friedmans, even though the time was too short as always. It does seem that whenever we get together it seems like we have hardly missed any time apart. And it is wonderful to see our kids growing up "together" and it is truly exciting to see where the three kids will be 30 years from now! I do wish though, that my dad could have joined us for this weekend, he would have thoroughly enjoyed it. Although I know that he is smiling down on all the kids, old and young!

Greg and Amy, along with Zollie and Bela, will be making the rounds in the states (Colorado, Los Angeles, etc.) before heading back to Bangladesh for the new school year. It was great to see them again, and with any luck they can keep up with Viana's exciting news via the blog.

Big Developments...Little Teeth

So in addition to the joy of spending my first official father's day with Alexis and Viana, we discovered that Viana's very first tooth decided to make an appearance on the same day! No photo available yet. Today (Tuesday) the tooth is quite noticeable, especially if she bites on your finger, yeowch! Who knew such tiny little teeth could so closely resemble shark's teeth? It is amazing though once something new is discovered how quickly it develops. I guess this also explains the uncontrolled drooling :-)

In another somewhat less exciting development, Viana received her first piece of luggage today...a genuine, made-in-america LL Bean "Bean Bag" (see photo). For those who don't know, LL Bean is a Maine tradition (Alexis being from Maine) and the "Bean Bag" is not, in fact, a hackey-sack-sized toy, but the worlds most durable do-it-all bag. It came personalized and in bright Mango colors, to reflect her cheery persona.

Happy First Father's Day

Well, it was a fabulous first father's day. I know there are several other "first timers" out there as well who know what a wonderful feeling it is. My day started off with a delicious breakfast at Jeremy's On the Hill in Wynola (that's on the way to Julian). Blueberry pancakes and crepes started us off right.

We then struck out on an ambitious (perhaps too much so) hike at the Santa Ysabel Open Space Preserve. The casual one mile hike turned into an uphill effort, but the scenery was beautiful and it was wonderful to continue to introduce Viana to the outdoors.

After a relaxing afternoon nap, both for dad and Viana, it was time to open presents! Dad got an assortment of bar-b-que items; he is working hard to perfect grilling techniques. But the highlight of the gifts was a clay imprint of Viana's palm and foot at 2 months old! Dad has been wanting to do that for a while but hasn't gotten around to it. Apparently mom did, yay mom!

LAKERS RULE!!

Viana just wanted to give a quick shout out to the NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers after she watched them win their 15th franchise NBA Title! Although this was her first NBA finals (she got a glimpse of the basketball lunatic that his her father) she enjoyed the game and was cheering all through the fourth quarter.

Next year she'll be wearing Purple & Gold for sure. Go Lakers!

Quick Congatulations

We're woefully behind, we know, we know. But we wanted to send out a couple of quick congratulations. First, and in chronological order, to our friends Katherine and Johnny up in the bay area, congratulations on their engagement!! Can't wait for the nuptuals this fall.

Second, congratulations to Melissa and Jim on the birth of their son Rory this past week! The new parent thing is a challenge, but WELL worth it! We know you'll do great. Can't wait to meet your newest addition.

Congrats to all four, uh, make that five of you!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

This month's big adventure was Viana rolling over onto her tummy. Here is a sequence of photos of the big day at Grammy Chris' house.

Almost got it!









Well, now what?!?









Success!!

May Update: 4 Months Already?!?

So here are some of the photos from May this year. It's hard to believe that Viana is already pushing 5 months old! As you can see from the photos she is gaining quite a personality.

We have discovered that she is quite a morning person. She will spend an hours or two in her bed entertaining herself, pulling on her newly discovered toes, and squealing up a storm. She loves spending weekend mornings in bed with mom and dad and loves kicking us in the ribs!

In the below photo, Viana and mom are busy taking in the latest issue of Mothering Magazine. We knew she'd be a fast learner!

Since this was Alexis' first official mother's day, we took mom and the two local grandmothers (although the prefer a different title) to brunch in Marina Del Rey, CA. It was a nice little cafe overlooking the beach and the marina. The weather was perfect and all of the moms enjoyed spending time with Viana. We took a walk along the boardwalk afterwards, in order to burn off some the waffles we enjoyed.

There were two big pieces of news this month. First, Viana was freed from her brace that she had to wear to correct a minor hip displaysia, yea! And the second (being free from the brace helped speed the process) was that Viana discovered how to roll over onto her tummy! In a 30 minute span she flip-flopped 8 or 10 times. She hasn't quite figured out what to do once she's on her tummy, but that will come. For the time being she enjoys the activity.

Lamine and Alexis also celebrated their 7th wedding anniversary this past May 18th, and to commemorate the occasion, we took Viana back to the "Wedding Bowl" where we got married and had a lovely picnic by the sea. The weather was almost exactly the same as on the big day, and we all enjoyed listening to pounding surf and watching the seagulls fly by! We were briefly invaded by the local squirrel brigade (you can see them in the background below). We then took a stroll along the coast, enjoyed a coffee and slice of chocolate cake at a local coffee shop, and wandered back to the car. It was a very memorable way to spend the afternoon. Gotta love San Diego!

First Post: Joining the New Age

Hello family and friends,

Well, we finally decided to jump on board with the computer/internet age. In light of all the photos of little Viana we thought this might be a better way for all our friends and family to keep up with what's going on.

This is our first test run, we'll see how it works!

- Lamine, Alexis & Viana