#307. Genevieve's Tour de Manhattan

Inspired by Cadel, this morning Genevieve set off in perfect conditions on a criterium around the lower NYC Greenway then back through Central Park; completing the 30km course in a PB of under 2 hours, easily retaining the yellow jersey
Park Avenue

East River, looking north at 30th St.

South Ferry Seaport & Financial District

Hudson River with Hoboken NJ in background

Dakota Building (Central Park West at W.72nd st)

#306. Xavi update. 6 weeks old today

He is really doing well and has a lovely disposition. Now over 10 lb, 3-4 hrs between feeds, and waking twice between 10 pm & 6 am. Sometimes going to sleep in his cot without help, listening to "Rockabye Baby" lullaby renditions of U2. Smiles and follows things with his eyes and even starting to reach out for objects on his "Skiphop" floor mat, spending a few minutes on his tummy and lifting his head a little.

Xavi playing in his skiphop

reaching out

tummy time

time for a nap after all that exertion

Xavi loves his Mummy!

Xavi update: 5 weeks old

Weighs 9.5 lb. Very alert. Smiling a lot. Graduated from sleeping in bassinette to cot

Supermom Genevieve to the rescue!

After a few bad nights last week, we hired a night nurse to look after Xavi and her diagnosis was he was hungry and bored! He's only 4 weeks old for heaven's sake! Made us feel like we are running a juvenile detention center rather than a home. Anyway we got him some formula and toys, and got Supermum Genevieve over to help. she had an immediate calming influence... happy Xavi
Odeon restaurant in Tribeca; coincidentally today was our 3rd anniversary in NYC. It was 41C yesterday and is around 37C today
the new World Trade Center in the background
Bethesda Fountain in Central Park
dinner on our terrace

On ya, Cadel!

Great to see Cadel not choke the third time and finally win the Tour; brings back many happy memories of cycling in the south of France this time last year. The Tour filled in many dreary hours on the couch breast feeding. FYI the same commentators on SBS were on the TV here. Thought Tina Arena gave a stirring rendition of the national anthem.

One month old tomorrow: The Three Faces of Xavier

May be not quite as funny as the Laughing Baby that was doing the rounds last year, but Xavi can certainly pull a face. Or maybe he just isn't in control of his facial muscles and arms yet...

#289. Xavi update-almost 4 weeks old

at Cafe Minerva in the West Village
in our garden
enjoying bath time more
in our elevator

#288. Xavi update

Now 3 and a half weeks old, eating well and weighs 8.5 pounds (nearly 4 kg). More alert and getting stronger. Waking 1-3 times per night. He seems to have a happy disposition and smiles often

#287. Postcard from Amsterdam

Taking a leaf out of the Casey Anthony parenting guide, Paul left Monica and Xavi behind in NYC and headed over to Amsterdam for a couple of days of partying - Heinken for breakfast lunch and dinner, frequent trips to the "coffeeshops" and then on to the Red Light District. After all, it is only 6hrs direct flight from NYC!

In reality, it was a 48 hr work trip to fulfill a speaking engagement at the World Lung Cancer Conference, which had been organized long before Xavi was conceived. Would have loved the 3 of us to go but unfortunately he had to stay behind - no international travel recommended until he has had his 2nd whooping cough shot at 4 months. A half-day city tour was part of the conference...

view from the canal. Amsterdam has 104 canals and is dubbed 'the Venice of the north"
the WWII memorial at the Dam
outside the Van Gogh musuem
Anne Frank house. the actual house is the one on the extreme left with the black door. the modern building to its right is the museum
now where did i put my bike? the population is 16 million and there are 18 mil. bikes

#286. Xavier's first smile - just 3 weeks old

and with only 3 hours sleep!




...and it wasn't 'wind" either!

#285. Xavy in a patriotic but relaxed mood for his first Independence Day holiday

Don't think he'll be staying up for the fireworks this year


For blog-followers who liked "Drinking in the draught of June", here is more prosaic Editorial content from the NY Times, entitled "Fourth of July, High Noon of the Year"...

Here we are, high noon in the year 2011 — a little past it, actually. July 2 is the middle day of an ordinary year, but the Fourth will do. How the Fourth feels, time-wise, is a matter of temperament. Does it seem like the last outpost of the first part of the year? Or is it the border crossing into the next province of the calendar? Perhaps we can think of all those fireworks bursting overhead as a way of celebrating the new half-year.

The Fourth-ness of the Fourth feels inevitable now. But the resolution that declared the colonies “free and independent states” was passed by the Second Continental Congress on July 2. That might well have been the Independence Day we ended up celebrating. But on the Fourth, we do not celebrate the resolution of freedom. We celebrate the articulation of freedom, the newborn nation’s ability to explain its reasoning and its purposes to itself, to Britain and to the world. The vote made independence fact, but the Declaration made it principle.

What is hard now, as a nation that grew up on its language, is to feel how radical a document the Declaration of Independence really is. In one sense, it was merely the next step in a long series of events that prepared the colonies for their breach with Britain. But it was the step that made the breach irrevocable. It helps to think back to the first English settlers landing here in the 17th century, having set sail — so improbably — for a new land. On July 4, 1776, the American colonies set sail as well, the fate of their experiment as uncertain as the fate of those first settlers embarking across the Atlantic.

They were at the beginning, the men and women who first heard the news of independence. We have no idea where we are now — at high noon or somewhere else in this nation’s history.

The real point of those fireworks overhead is to let us hear the news again, to remind us that a fresh and unheard-of beginning is at the heart of our very nature.

#284. Xavie - 100% Yankees fan

"Yankee Bob"

strolling along the East River

"Diaper Cake" made by Paul's work colleagues

#283. Xavi's first bath

Two weeks old today! Feeding well, now weighs 7lb 4 oz. and has grown an inch in a week
Here they recommend you wait to bathe them until the umbilical cord scab drops off
not so bad!

bad!