Tristin and Isabella: Happy b-day Mateo!

One of the nicest things about moving back to the US and settling in the Bay area is re-connecting with old friends. Paty Ugarte is probably one of the oldest friends I have on this side of the US (or perhaps the oldest friendship I have still current in my life). Paty and I went to middle school in Venezuela together and we were good friends from 6th grade until about 9th grade, when she moved to Mexico (and then shortly thereafter, I moved to NYC).

Since then, we've been sporadically in touch -- meeting up in Paris for coffee, then in Singapore for drinks and now, in this new phase in our lives, at Mateo's (her adorable son) 2nd year birthday party. It's been great to re-connect recently as her supportive emails and advice during the first few weeks of my post partum period have been very helpful. Needless to say, C., baby T. and I were excited to see Paty, Nico & Mateo and help celebrate Mateo's big 2!

For the birthday party, C., baby T. and I drove to a quaint park in Berkeley and spent about 2 hours hanging out with other mommies, daddies and cute little kids. For most of the day, Tristin was hanging from his baby bjorn observing daddy's chest and once in a while piercing sideways to catch some of the activities. It was the longest period of time we had taken Tristin out. We had also never taken Tristin out to a park before so for both C. and I, the new adventure was quite exciting.

It was also our first time interacting (as parents to baby T) in a social setting. It's funny to enter a whole new parallel world of parenthood. Socializing with other mommies and daddies is so different and much easier than socializing in a regular non-mommy/daddy setting. The common denominator of having kids instantly makes conversations so much smoother. Immediately you have an initial set of questions that form a foundation for a longer, more meaningful interaction, e.g., "how old is he?", "how was your delivery?" (if its a younger baby), "is he potty trained yet?" (if he or she is older), etc.

For Tristin, the day was fun but exhausting. I think infants aren't able to take in too much stimulation -- likely two hours is more than they can handle and on that day, he had a bit more than the max. By the time we got home, not only did he pass out but that night, he also slept for a four hour stretch -- the longest ever! Hmmm...not a bad idea to take him out more often!

C. and Tristin meeting Paty and Mateo for the first time

Paty and the birthday boy, Mateo

Paty's little sister and her husband (had to take a picture of her given that the last time I saw her she was a cute little girl and now, look how much she's grown!!)

One of Mateo's friends -- had to take a picture of her given how cool she looked (apparently it took a very long time for her to choose her outfit for today's big birthday event)!