Gusanito went on his first big adventure overseas... The whole family (including Nathan's little Brother or Sister, a.k.a. Little O, who decided to join us just in time to go on the trip :-) went to France in October. We spent two nights in Paris, two nights in Sainte Emilion (we learned of Little O's existence our first night there), two nights in Toulouse, one night in Aix-en-Provence, one night in Mougins, and one night in Nice.

Nathan was jet-lagged during our stay in Paris so we mostly did Paris by night. We had one major Paris adventure... Nathan was up and ready to go out at 11PM one night so we decided to go see the Eiffel tour. We took the subway out there but the subway closed by the time we were ready to head back. We ended up walking seven or eight miles to get back to the hotel (I backpacked Nathan most of the way). We got some pretty strange looks for having a baby out at 2AM but I was afraid of taking a cab since we didn't have Nathan's car seat. We made it back safely.

Nathan seemed to recognize that we were in a foreign place. He didn't like it when his father would get ahead of us or out of sight. He would begin calling for him by saying "Da-Daaaaa?" It was adorable! Greg actually found us once (when we were briefly separated at the airport) by following the "Da-Daaaa's". For the most part, Nathan did very well on the trip. We had a hard time finding something he would be willing to eat (his diet in Paris consisted of bread, milk, and french fries). Fortunately, we were able to find some baby food later in our trip and some other pastries that Nathan liked. We also relied quite heavily on McDonalds... Nathan had to go all the way to France to try out his first happy meal :-) I never thought I'd be so happy to find a McDonalds or to see him eat what I normally considered junk food. We loved France and had a great time even with a [almost] two year old in tow.

Nathan started attending daycare the day after we returned from our trip. He had a good week... he didn't cry and even managed to sleep during their scheduled nap times. That Friday started off very badly though. Nathan had a febrile seizure just after Greg dropped him off. He later had a second seizure shortly after returning home from the hospital. He had just finished eating and had brought me several books to read to him. He felt quite warm but he had a dose of Tylenol just before leaving the hospital and wasn't due for another dose of Motrin for another hour. We were on our third book when he had the seizure... in my lap... his head suddenly just dropped and his body began to shake. It was a terrible experience I hope we don't ever have to go through again. We took him back to the hospital and they decided to admit him for further testing. He had an MRI and EEG -- both came back negative. We spent the weekend at the hospital and towards the end I noticed that Nathan wasn't eating so well and seemed to have sores in his mouth. The doctor took a closer look and diagnosed him with hand/foot/mouth disease. It was good to finally have an explanation for the fever. The neurologist who performed the EEG was a bit more conservative that Nathan's other doctors and suggested that we start speech therapy with him right away. He gave us the information for the Infant Parent program which we've enrolled him into. Nathan didn't want to go to daycare the week following his seizures. He cried quite a bit when Greg dropped him off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. He calmed down shortly after Greg left and, I am told, had a good time playing with all the new toys.

November 14th was a great day for me... Nathan finally started calling me "ma-ma".

We had signed up for a parent's night out that was held November 15th. Greg and I decided to work instead of go out. Greg was at the office and I took Nathan to his school. He didn't want me to leave so I stayed and read some office documentation. I had a chance to see Nathan interacting with another little girl that night. It was wonderful to see him "playing" with her. They would follow eachother around, point at eachother's clothes, show eachother toys, stack blocks, and take turns playing with their lips.