Date night and spending time with others

The weekend began on Friday evening with Jeannie and I going on our first date since the birth of Seva.  We went to dinner at Audrey Claire, then drove to PPL Park to catch the second half of Crystal Palace at Philadelphia Union, then we drove over the Commodore Barry Bridge into South Jersey to hit up the WIF (Water Ice Factory) in Magnolia before heading back to pick-up Seva and go home.

The highlight yesterday was visiting Jeannie's friend, Sam, who had a small gathering at his home on Lincoln Drive.  Besides Jeannie, Seva, and me, there were only 4 others, so it was a pretty low-key event.  The weather was pretty nice, as it was on Friday too, so we sat on the deck out back.  I asked Sam's partner, Shin, a lot of questions about his native Tokyo.  And Jeannie and Sam reminisced quite a bit about their days in their international MBA program.

Before going to the gathering at Sam's, I found out from my friend Ronald that he will be visiting Philadelphia for one day in March 2015.  I'm really looking forward to seeing him.

Today was a day of rest.  I didn't set foot out of the apartment all day.  I watered the plants, drank coffee, gave myself a haircut, took a shower, spent time with Jeannie's friend Veronica who came over for a short visit before she had to leave for PHL, read my book, talked on the phone with my sister, spent time with Jeannie's dad who was here for the day giving us a hand around the apartment, watched the movie Superbad on Comedy Central, ate a great dinner prepared by Jeannie and her dad (shrimp with garlic, cod, rice with coconut milk, and lentils), and spent a lot of fun time with Seva at the end of the night.

Well, Jeannie just passed by and she's getting ready to go to bed.  Since I want the chance to spend time with her before she falls asleep, I'm going to wrap this up now and head up too.  Good night, dear readers.

Tidbits

Since I married Jeannie, I have not removed my wedding ring from my finger, other than rarely fiddling around with it during a meeting or while watching tv.

Seva laughed for the first time tonight.  It was a beautiful and amazing thing to see.  While Jeannie was cooking mac'n'cheese (with tuna & peas) for dinner, I was playing around with Seva.  While standing near the stove, I was holding Seva facing me, with her pelvis held against my mid-torso and her upper body angled away from my body, so she could look up at me.  I periodically dipped down, while smiling at her and encouraging her.  She responded positively and seemed to be having a good time.  And then, she started giggling.  She did it for just a couple of seconds after about a handful of the dips, then she didn't do it again.  When I looked at Jeannie, she had tears of joy in her eyes.  Like I said, it was a beautiful and amazing thing to see.

I also found out online today that there is a Seva Café right outside of Washington, D.C., in Alexandria, Virginia.  We'll have to go there some day, maybe soon.

Jeannie and I went a couple nights ago (on Saturday, July 19th) to visit my friend Javi and his girlfriend Gina.  We enjoyed a really nice evening of salad (made of kale, scallops, cashews), dessert (dates, figs, and sunflower seeds), moscato rosé wine, and coffee.  Javi also played some music for us, first on his various flutes, then on his guitar.  Jeannie had brought her guitar, so she played the only song she knows how to play, Blackbird (Beatles song), while Javi played one of his flutes.  At one point, while Jeannie went into the bedroom to feed Seva, I was able to speak en español to Javi and Gina; we discussed politics in Latin America.  All in all, we had a really great time.  I hope to spend time with them again.

I've noticed that Seva now weighs more than the Baby.  Speaking of the Baby, her right ear has been very dirty the last few days.  I clean it out with cotton swabs, but it seems to get dirty again.  And since I bring up the Baby, I should say that Rocky is doing well as always.  This evening he rediscovered the toy mouse that he goes stretches forgetting about; he kicked it around for a while and really had a lot of fun.

Tonight at the Y, I did a chest/arms work-out.  In my final set of bench press, I put up 195 pounds twice.  In my final set of dumbbell curls, I lifted 35 pound dumbbells 8 times each arm.  In my final set of incline bench press, I put up 135 pounds 4 times; that was at the very end of my work-out.  Overall it was a very good work-out.

Oh, a couple days ago, on Saturday, I helped Jeannie's dad move into his new apartment here in Philadelphia.  He's living just a few blocks away from Rittenhouse Square and he's no more than a short 8-minute walk from our place, so he'll be able to see Seva much more often.  This is great not just for him, but for me too in the short-term as he'll be available to watch Seva for short periods of time when I need to run an errand or take care of something and also for Jeannie and me in the medium-term as he'll be available for babysitting services.  I like my father-in-law a lot, so I'm happy to have him close by now.

Well, it's time to take out the trash and I should be winding down since I know Jeannie wants to go to start going to bed a bit earlier at night.  I thank God for all blessings and ask for God's blessing, protection, and guidance every day always, but especially in these next handful of months, when there will be so much change.

Seva's first roll-over

Today, July 4, 2014, at almost exactly 12:00 p.m., Seva rolled over for the first time from her tummy (face-down) to her back (face-up).  Jeannie and I were both here to witness it as it happened.  Seva was in her pack-n-play downstairs.  It was pretty cool to see.  As we've been noticing, Seva's ability to hold her head up and arch her back have been improving.  And as I've been saying all along, her legs are really strong.

Anyway, time for me to make some coffee now.