The Latest

My mother, Ruby and Lupe's Nana, flew in from LA last night, which is why I have the time to post. I even had time to break out the clippers and shave my hair for the first time since I've been on paternity leave.

Yay for Nana!

The sleep deprivation resulting from the teething has been brutal. It was actually getting slowly better, then they went to the pediatrician and got shots yesterday, which put Lupe in particular in a seriously foul mood last night.

Well, here are a couple of pictures from when he was not in a foul mood, at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park. This is year eight, and Natasha and I were at the first one, and have only missed it a couple of times, thanks to the price (free) and proximity.






We were able to go on Friday afternoon for a quick look at the set by Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, which was fantastic. We then spent the better part of Sunday there with Aubrey, Cecil, Karen, Walt, Chops, and Jude. We spread out a quite large area with quite a few blankets at the stage where they played mostly real bluegrass which is both good in and of itself, but also at a decent volume for the little guys. It was a fantastically sunny day, as you can see in the pics.

Lupe and I then tooled around town with cousins Alisa and Tony on Monday, who were also visiting from LA, which was both fun and exhausting. Lupe hardly slept all day long, yet stayed pretty mellow and happy, which everyone was duly impressed with. They were also still in town on Tuesday, but I couldn't bring myself to inflict more time with children on them while they were on vacation from their own, so we stayed home and cleaned up the back yard in preparation for Ruby's birthday party this weekend. It's going to be a fairly mellow affair as far as these things go, in keeping with our general less is more philosophy (and this kind of thinking). As far as I'm concerned, it's difficult to see how it gets much more exciting for a three year old than having a bunch of other three year olds come over and eat cake with them. Anything above and beyond that is for the parents, I think.

Next year, it may be different, but for now some cake, a big box of sidewalk chalk, and some face paint should be all the entertainment necessary.

Oh, and the keg, but that is obviously necessary for other reasons...