guttentach,

we are in berlin, a 5th fl. walk up.  when i found out, i just kept thinking about you, meg and the mom with twins who lives on the 4th fl. and thought, if they can do it, i should at least be able to for 1 month.

only the neighborhood where we are is far from stuff, so kind of a drag.  we hung out with sandra and fiona at a pool one day which was beautiful, made for little kids, only 1 ft deep and very nice with a park with trees and grass and a little snack bar.  the next day we went to a beach on a river where sandra's mom used to go with her family when she was young.  it was fun.  and in germany, all the kids go swimming nekid, so it's really cute with all little ones walking around with naked bums.

sandra, tony and fiona are leaving in a couple of days so we need to make new friends to hang out with.  it's a little difficult not knowing the language, but having noey is a good way to meet all kinds of people who he charms on subways and restaurants.

all the playgrounds are sandboxes and noey will have to relearn to get over his dislike of sand.  we just go every day hoping her'll get used to it.  the first grocery store we went to was hard core, we felt like we were in a third world country or at least a recently formerly 3rd world country.  i got a little sad and nervous, but then we found the Bio (organic) market and it was all right - phew.

one of the most useful phrases we use alot (bc we drink decaf, damn americanes!) is "Ohne kaffiene" which means "No caffiene".  they look blankly at you if you try to order a decaf.  speaking of corporate evil, we saw a cafe today called BALZAC COFFEE and laughed bc from a distance the typeface for the sign looked just like Starbucks.  But then we went in and everything looked EXACTLY like STarbucks, down to the wire baskets they sold their muffins in. and the grande, vente, tall, short language was used, even the chairs to sit on were identical.  we just figured that starbucks in germany is called balzac coffee but when we asked the 2 girls working there they replied that it was not related at all to starbucks and that they were in fact Better than Starbucks. . .

We're doing the left coast tour.  Arrived last week for Rebecca's and Gilad's wedding in Santa Monica.  It was beautiful and we got to chill with both their families whom we love.

SM was so much fun, we met another family with twins who were 13 months old and fun for Noey to play with.  Erik and I made great friends with the parents A and J. 

Travelogue:

Eat - Co-Opportunity the local food co-op; Wild Oats and Whole Foods all close by

Play - playground on 7th and Wilshire; Duckpond on 24th and Wilshire; Beach playground at Ocean Park Drive; Carousel and Aquarium at the Pier; Ringman at rings just past the pier

Visit - Venice Beach another beach playground

San Diego - chillin in Ocean Beach

Eat - People's Food Coop; Rancho's Vegan; Cilantro raw

Play - playground at Saratoga and Ebers; beach play at PB end of Fanuel

Having fun, visiting family Noey has a 2nd cousin out here Amy, 13 mos.

Berkeley is next on the tour.

Noakai will be 9 months old this week.  Which means he's been breathing air in this "outside" world for as long as he swirled around the life liquid inside of me 9 months previous.

Today, he went down the slide by himself for the first time.

He was sick this week, and he reverted back to his little baby self to heal, breastfed alot, almost exclusively, did not eat food, slept alot, and bub-napped (snoozed while sucking on the boob).

I call him my 'little C', he curls into a comma next to me when he nurses, cups his fat little hands around my breast and looks up at me or closes his eyes.  It's the sweetest thing.

He said "twelve".  He held up his blue cup to our bath light (which is a blue light) and said "Boo".  He loves drinking herbal tea & fresh squeezed orange juice; loves eating almonds and yogurt.

He is always with me even when he's not.  When I carry him in the sling, and he's so big and heavy now (23 pounds), I imagine what it was like carrying him inside of me, and though he was littler then, I had gained more weight (60 pounds) that he weighs now.  But it's difficult going up the subway stairs, walking up Bedford Avenue from Metropolitan to South First.

He is ending his days, weeks and months as a fetus--crawling and standing, eating and drinking--he can do things separate from me.  But there is a thread connecting his heart to mine, like an silver umbilical cord, strong, nourishing and soulful, only now he feeds me as much as I feed him.