9 months old!

On April 12th Charlie turned 9 months!  At his checkup he weighed in at 23 pounds 12 ounces and he is 29.5 inches.  His head is in the 97th percentile, his height is in the 90th, and his weight is in the 95th!

It's hard to get good photos anymore now that he's on the move...

We got the all clear to eat anything except strawberries, honey, and nuts and to encourage finger foods.  The next weekend we met up with Kari, Stella, and Paul at Q in SF for breakfast.  Charlie ate everything we put in front of him.  Black beans, eggs, pancakes, bacon...

Uh oh, bacon!  He loved it so much that he sucked some of it into his wind pipe and Scott actually had to do the baby heimlic maneuver on him.  Scott was very calm about it.  He picked him up, put him face down over his leg and after the second shove, two little pieces of bacon popped out.  Good thing we took that class!

Charlie is crouching now and his consonants are becoming more clear.  It seems like he can say 'no' and 'yes' now and sometimes his babble sounds like words.  He definitely knows his name now.  He's starting to remember things like where the cable cord is coming out of the wall, where the glassware is stored, which furniture is the most dangerous.  He seems to get bored and frustrated at home now so we are out a lot more when he's awake.

This month he got double pink eye and a double ear infection.  He's on his second round of antibiotics and it's causing havoc on his digestion.

Charlie is a water baby!

His favorite thing in the world is being in the water.  He splashes and dips his face in the water and screams and gets very upset when we take him out.  During his first baby pool experience we just wanted him to test the water by leaning into it from the outside.

Instead he decided to leap forward into the water.  He wanted to be in the pool.

 And... success!

Stella was not happy at first to share her baby pool at grandma and grandpa's house.

But she warmed up once she realized he's here to stay.

Happy 9 months baby!  We love you!

Manresa Restaurant

I'm writing this due to inspiration from Mrs. Kirbyface's posting about French Laundry.  You won't get the same amount of excitement but I'll do my best!


Saturday night Scott and I ate at Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos.  Manresa has been awarded two Michelin stars for five consecutive years.  David Kinch, chef-proprieter, has won the Best Chef in America award for the Pacific region from the James Beard Foundation.  It's unreal that this restaurant is walking distance from my parents house!   


We originally made reservations to celebrate my sister and Paul's 6th anniversary but they had an unexpected conflict.  We decided to go anyway.


Please forgive the photos.  I took them using my iPhone.


This was a 7 course prix fixe menu.


Course 1: Smoked avocado ceviche.  What a teaser!  We were SO hungry.  This ended up being Scott's favorite course.  I could have had ten of these.  I don't quite understand the ceviche part since I associate ceviche with fish.  The avocado was creamy and there was a clear broth around it that was salty.  It definitely tasted smoked.  I have no idea how they made this.  Even the glass was impressive.

Course 2: Toasted buckwheat and duck foie gras, etrog citron.  I can't comment on this as I told them I did not eat foie gras.  Scott said it was delicious.  I didn't get the photo taken before Scott dug into it.  Note the fork.  It was very heavy.  

My alternate course 2 was a citrine gelee.  I loved it and I wanted more.  Is it rude to scrape your plate?  What about licking the plate?

Course 3: Into the vegetable garden, their juices.... roots, raw, leaves, flowers.  This was my favorite.  It even inspired me to grow my own herbs and vegetables in my garden and make seasonal salads.  This is not likely to happen but a girl can dream.  Oh and the plate was glass with a gold rim, spectacular.

Course 4: A spring tidal pool, shellfish, mushroom, seaweed...  it was at this course that I realized the silverware they brought out was specific to the course and I was free to use it all.  New silverware for each course!  

Course 5: Sea bream (aka foam), a crab and squid risotto without rice, root vegetables.  Two servers came around with each course and set the plates down at the exact same time.  A third server came and poured the broth in, very carefully.  She switched hands when pouring into Scott's bowl so as not to have the back of her hand facing him while pouring or something to that effect.


Underneath the miner's lettuce were two little squids complete with eyes.  I popped one into my mouth for the experience and gave the second one to Scott. 

Course 6: Duck, slowly roasted in hay and salt crust, homemade walnut wine.  I couldn't believe all those tiny little dishes made me so completely full but I still somehow made room for this course.

Course 7, dessert 1: Roasted parsnip pudding and demerara crumble, lime and yogurt sorbet.  Delicious.

dessert 2: This was the best tasting creation I have ever had.  Caramel custard with cassis and chocolate sorbet, red verjus granita, walnut.  More foam to have.

We were sent away with two macaroons, eight pistachio cookies, and a handful of handmade salted caramels.  It was an amazing experience!  Sorry you missed it everyone but Scott!!