Los Angeles, California: I was treated to a very busy day - filled with a lot of time with Lucy (Leo had school in the morning), swim lessons and errands - and then topped with an amazing fine-dining experience with Lisa.
First stop was to the pediatrician for a well-baby check-up. Why a perfectly healthy 10-month-old baby needs to go to the doctor is a puzzle, but after a little cold and plenty of teeth-cutting, it was good to learn our little 16 pounder is growing, thriving and could not be cuter.
Lucy simply charms everyone. People marvel at her beauty. It doesn't hurt that Lucy breaks into a massive smile for each new face she meets... and then demurely buries her head in her Mom's neck... as if to say, "Yes, I will smile at you, but I'm with my Mom. No autographs, please."
Brunch/lunch (with Lucy before fetching Leo from school) was to a favorite neighborhood cafe. I had the daily special breakfast hash brown scramble: shredded potatoes, black beans, corn, mushrooms and pico de gallo. This dish is usually served with a fried egg on top... which I suppose would have been delicious if I could ever even once in my life stomach an egg. (More about this in the July RV Goddess newsletter.)After fetching the male-child from pre-school and feeding him, we drove out a nearby aquatics center for Leo's swim lesson.
Leo does very well with his instructor, follows directions and can now "swim" half-way across the pool. I suppose he could swim all the way across the pool, but classes were being held over there, so that was his barrier today. "Swimming" isn't exactly the word to use at this point in his development, but Leo is coming up for air between strokes and I feel this is a proper start to the crawl swimming technique taught/used around the world. One day soon, Leo will be able to swim as well his Mother (a total fish, jumping off the diving board at the American Club in Taipei at age 4 to retrieve a coin from the bottom of the pool). No goggles, by the way. Goggles are the norm now. Did they have sunscreen in 1985? I can't recall.When Leo is not with his instructor, he has a difficult time with the "keep your bottom on the top step while waiting for the other students" to have their one-on-one time with the teacher. The poor lifeguard reminded Leo several times.
Safety first - but it is difficult to be anything but supportive to a boy who so enjoys swimming, tries so hard to please and is so stinkin' cute.Lisa and I had a super-rare Mother-Daughter Date Night this evening. We Übered over to Birch in West Hollywood and dined on various small shared plates.
Some of the dishes were extremely normal - yellowtail sashimi with shaved horseradish, grapefruit, olive oil and jalapeno - and a few were very-much-so out of our norm. And don't let the sashimi fool you. Birch is most-definitely not a Japanese restaurant. The chef is English and most of the menu is continental and several items include "foam" of some sort.After the sashimi, we also tried 2) Indian naan bread with Israeli Zaatar and Persian yoghurt 3) grilled figs with fried parmesan and parmesan "foam" 4) lamb belly with tomatoes, pine nuts, and goat cheese "spring rolls" 5) corn on the cob with some other sort of foamed dairy and shaved truffles.
We really liked everything we tried and should to go back to Birch with more people, so we could order more dishes to share. Lisa recognized several movie and television actors in the restaurant (I am hopeless, but actually knew of one of the actresses from Nashville). That said, the prettiest and most engaging woman in the room was My Daughter.Lisa and I arrived back to her house to find two sleeping children and a very relaxed Lenny. Such fun to spend a one-on-one evening with My Beautiful Daughter.
Until my next update, I remain, your Hollywood correspondent.