Bob Dylan

Lots of intended posts + no actual posts = poor blogging (+ where did the fall go?)

This isn't a long one, but Eamon's dancing - finally captured on video - seemed to merit at least a mini-post.  I recently (and finally...) picked up a copy of Highway 61 Revisited and Eamon seems to like it quite a bit.  Here he is grooving to Like a Rolling Stone, until he sees the camera and asks to look at pictures instead.  I love it.

A bit more of the house

Well, after a failed copy attempt (it's complicated) I've lost a bunch of the pictures that I took for a post, but most of them probably weren't very interesting anyway.  Some that are left have Eamon and Erica (in the house), too, so . . . bonus.  We cooked out on the grill for the first time the other day, which you can kind of see looking out the back door through the porch.  Green tea "Kalua"-ish shoulder with some pickled vegetables.  I didn't really taste the tea, but there's nothing wrong with salty and hickory-smoked as a main flavor.  Dave gave us the grill, so we invited him over to share.

Through the door is the office, which is also where the train tracks go.  You can see it around the corner to the left in the picture below, looking out of Eamon's room.  Our bathroom has a real sized tub in it for grownup-sized baths.  The window in there is kind of cool, too.

Up the stairs is our room, which is painted a nice deep sky blue.  The closets came with pretty curtains.  Bridget and Tracy painted it in good colors throughout.  Cool light fixtures, which one adventure with the fuse box later mostly now have LEDs.  50W for the bedroom light instead of 500 should help - surprisingly, our house uses more electricity than our apartment.

Our bedroom looks over the back yard.  The shed is big enough for our bikes and trailer, a mower and some tools and such.  Eamon has been riding around on his seat behind Erica's handlebars and seems to like it.  There's a Trader Joe's down the bike path just a little bit, which is no Johnnie's of course, but nothing is or will be (for anybody, I imagine - sad people, rich Johnnie, Whole Foods).  No Indian grocery store with cheap almonds yet, but there's an Indian restaurant nearby (next door to Jac's, halfway to Trader Joe's).

Here's the kitchen nook, which used to look out on a maple and spruce tree.  We're checking out apple trees to put in as tribute, which involves me occasionally reminding myself that we don't really want a full sized apple tree.  Any suggestions on type?  Honey Crisp seems to be in the front running.  Eamon liked the sound of Wine Crisp, which a little Googling reveals have an interesting and Illinois-ish backstory. Erica is rationally suspicious of its advertised "spicy" flavor tones, so that will have to be our second tree sometime.

And, finally for now, the living room, from the front door (by the kitchen).  To the right for Eamon's room and the Office, to the left for where Hope and Clint hang out.  We snagged a snazzy new couch for this room from the end of a final-days sale for a furniture store.  I think all agree that it looks great right now in my parent's basement.  

That's the house.  We love it and are slowly learning what to do with it.  Our love to friends and family, thanks for stopping by.

Happy July

So here we are, one day after the bar exam and two months since we all left Boston.  Still haven't quite put all the pieces together for a photo tour of our house, despite my promises.  We still love it and I re-promise to eventually put up some representative shots.

Eamon is doing great and it looks like the fall is shaping up really well for both him and Erica.  He recently grew quite a bit, but still can't quite stand up in dad's boots.

Madison has been relaxed and beautiful and friendly, although we think often of Boston and people there. We all (Eamon included) enjoy looking at pictures of friends and memories.  Eamon knows a lot of names, helped along in Matt's case by a lucky overlap between one of our best friends and the also sandy-haired star of Trucks, Trucks, Trucks!  He's also been trying out quite a few two-word combinations, lots of useful things like "big car," "peace sign" (from one of his dinner plates), and "knee pit."

Dani, and Audrey and Drew are in town, so we've been having fun seeing all of them too.  

Finally, here's at least one (a little bit old) picture of part of our house.  This is part of the fence out back - you can see our fancy shed in the background.  The flowers are mostly gone now, but there was a stretch of days when right around dinner time the sun would break through the trees and filter right onto the lilies.  It's hard to complain.

Hi from Madison

I'll put up some more complete pictures of everything soonish, but Hello to all from Madison!  We've safely arrived, cats and all, and finally moved into our new home on Thursday.  Everybody is settling in fine, including Eamon, who so far really likes pushing his lawnmower down the bike path to the park.  He also had fun wandering the neighborhood with our across-the-street neighbor, Griffin, and his parents.


A quick picture of our little guy at the Children's Museum...  He took some hard tumbles yesterday, hence the scraped knee and forehead.  Such is the price of exploring...

And here's a quick map of where we are, because I can't figure out how to change the main display map for the blog. Any help on that would be appreciated . . . :-)

 

 

And then this happened....

Eamon is walking!  He's been taking a few tentative steps here and there for what feels like months, but over the last few days he's really been stretching out distances he'll go.  Yesterday we noticed him bopping around by the laundry machine carrying a few things back and forth a few steps.  Then, that evening, he just sort of took off on an unaided journey down the hallway!  Yay, Eamon!  And yay for Mom and Dad's backs, which can begin to straighten from the perpetually hunched position of walking with a toddler who has a deathgrip on your finger....  I took this video today, as Eamon skillfully avoided starting his nap.

Enjoy! (Go ahead and watch it again and again.  I certainly have.  As has Eamon, much to his own delight.)

I promise a cute post is coming about Christmas, but I couldn't find where Rory saved the pictures, so you'll have to wait for sledding and cousin bedtime story cuteness for a bit longer.

October, November, December - How Time Flies!

It's been so long since the last update.  Eamon has had  not one, but two birthday parties!  (The second was a re-enactment with grama and grandad, the Sithers, and Mike and Marliyn.)  The bonus of having two birthday parties, of course, is that you get to eat pumpkin whoopie pie not once, but twice...  Even without birthdays, though, it's always wonderful to have loved ones visit.

We spent Thanksgiving in Austin with the Rambergs.  Eamon did a great job on the plane.  He was excited to play with the drink tray, and to walk up and down the aisle (with a little help from mom and dad) and say hi to everyone.  (Only one mishap there, where he grabbed the water glass of a very nice man and spilled it over both of us.)  He made great friends on our way to Texas with a man named Dean, who had older kids at home and was very nice about playing back whenever Eamon grabbed at his arm.

Texas was a great time, full of food, fun and family.  Eamon and Max are almost exactly the same age, and it was fun to see them playing alongside each other.  Tina was excited to play with them too, and there was a lot of fun interaction between the three, including some shared bath time between Eamon and Tina.  (Eamon doesn't usually get to play in a full-sized bathtub, so that was a treat too.)  In one of my favorite moments, after Tina went running by the bedroom shouting, Eamon looked up, dropped what he was doing, and then blasted out of the bedroom after her also shouting at the top of his lungs.  So cute!

Frances arranged for a family photo session, which resulted in some wonderful pictures.

In addition to the pool (sorry, no pictures), the park right next to Gramberg's was a big hit with everyone.  Here's Max playing on the slide while Eamon checks out the ladder...

...and here's Eamon making himself very useful handing great-aunt Jane some gravel.

Eamon has been taking a few careful steps, although he mostly still holds on to things (like the vacuum ) to get around standing up.  

Check out the cute slippers from Gramberg!

Eamon continues to love his kitties, and seems to be trying out saying cat and/or kitty when he sees them doing something.  (He also continues to warn us with a very clear "Uh-oh" whenever the cats are someplace they're not supposed to be - or someplace Eamon thinks they're not supposed to be - as well as when anybody drops anything on the floor.)  Here's a video of him trying to entice Clint with Clint's very favorite toy.

Dogs are also a very big hit.  We all went climbing yesterday afternoon, and there was not one, but two dogs at the gym!  Eamon practically lost his mind over it, and we spent a good chunk of time out in the lobby following the dogs around and encouraging Eamon not to stick his fingers up the dogs nostrils (as he likes to do when pointing to noses these days).

Of course, life is not always peaches and cream.  Our beloved Johnnie's has closed!  How do people buy  food when there isn't a grocery store around the corner?  We are slowly figuring things out, but miss our little shop very much.  It was sad to see it go, but we did get to say goodbye to a lot of our favorite employees on the last day, and it was nice to hear that almost everyone got offered a job at Whole Foods, which took over Johnnie's leases and thus bears most of the blame for this disastrous closure (but usefully continues to sell us Hemp milk and the very best apples).

We'll be heading to Madison soon for a week and are all excited to see the Foster family, especially cousins Audrey and Drew.  Here's hoping the snow will stay put and Eamon can try out sledding!

All our love to everyone, an early Merry Christmas, a late Happy Channukah, and so on and so forth.

Big hug!!!!

Travels and Fun!

Lots of traveling since the last post.  We flew out to Wisconsin to see family.  It was a quick trip, but we got to see the Drucks and the Vanderkolks, plus the Fosters.  Eamon did some thinking with his Aunt Sue . . .

. . . played with Baube . . .

. . . hung out with dad's Grandma and Grandpa and some cousins . . .

. . . and had some quality time with Grama and Grandad.

We've also had some visitors here.  Our cousin Zach came up from DC and  Allie,  from North Carolina.  

And Gramberg was here too!  Eamon really likes his books and has started to be pretty selective about which one he wants to look at.

Life is good.  Work has been busy for both of us, but also interesting and engaging (at least more often than not).  My ankle is finally getting close to healed, which means I can get out and run again.  So nice.  Erica has been looking at schools and getting excited about her prospects while moonlighting as a goal-scoring machine for her soccer team.  

Plus, Eamon is a delight, although he is becoming quite opinionated and determined about what he wants to hold/see/eat/do, which can be challenging.  He's still loves music and has started to clap along to songs in addition to bobbing his head and body and waving his arms like a conductor.  He's been increasingly interested in standing up to check things out, especially magnets on the fridge, kitchen drawers, and his toy box.  

Of course, balls are still a thrill!

And bath-time has started to be a lot of fun.  Who doesn't love splashing?

Sad to see summer fading away, but I'm also kind of excited for the fall.  Hope everyone is well.

Piano Playing

Did you know Eamon plays the piano!?  Amazing.  Take a look.

He also has started to dance when we put on music.  He stops what he's doing, cocks his head, and then starts bouncing and bobbing away.  Again, amazing.  No video yet, though.  You'll just have to believe.

The Ocean

We've tried to get Eamon interested in water in various ways.  This has included sitting near the water in Rockport, sitting with his feet in a puddle at sprinkler parks, playing with glasses filled with water on our porch, and a too-cold and too-noisy pool in the Poconos.  Some of those attempts have gone better than others.  We're looking to try out a public pool one of these days with the hopes of warm water and more full submersion.  While the Atlantic Ocean is understandably too cold to really enjoy, that didn't stop us from dipping our toes on a hot day....

Clearly he's a bit happier on the sand!

June and Then Some

I bet you're wondering how busy a 7/8 month old can really keep us.  Me too.

June was quite a busy month for us; we got to see all of our immediate family and one had to leave home once!  That's right we saw alllllll the Fosters and alllll the Rambergs.  Even have a few photos to prove it.

We had a blast during Grama, Aunt Dani and cousins Audrey and Drew's, visit at the beginning of the month.  We struck out around town and just hung around the neighborhood.  Eamon loved getting to play and watch his older cousins, while his cousins enjoyed feeding him and having him in their laps.  It made for a full apartment, but everyone had a good time.

About a week after they left we hit the road to Philadelphia to see my brother ordained a rabbi and celebrate this achievement and Aunt Ali's completion of her PhD.  We were so proud and so excited to be there to take part in such amazing accomplishments.  Babies abounded (Ali's sister and brother both had babies weeks from Eamon) and so did the chaos of traveling with a wee one.  During the following week in the Poconos let's just say our nights were punctuated with more frequent crying and nursing and our days consisted of numerous cat naps of sheer exhaustion.  We did, however, LOVE meeting our nephew, Max, and getting to see our niece Tina "hold hand" with Eamon and love him up generally.  It was a pleasure to get the family time in since we've missed the last two Thanksgivings when we usually are all together.

And then, at the end of the month, we had the pleasure of hosting Grandad for a weekend.  

We adventured out to a couple of parks with sprinklers, but Eamon didn't really want to get close to any of it.  Instead he preferred splashing around on our porch with glasses of water and "playing" with the elephant watering can (which, as you can see became putting his mouth all over the spout and drinking from it). 

We're feeling pretty luck that we got to see everyone!

The biggest news outside of all the visiting is Eamon's teeth!  The count is up to 8.  So many adorable toothy grins these days.  He's also making lots more sounds, eating tons of different foods (excepting dairy and wheat.  sigh.  A trip to the allergist revealed he's allergic to wheat.  Bye-bye carbs for momma), and sitting and playing quite contentedly in one place.  Yes, that's right, our baby seems to have no interest in moving around and that is just fine by us.

Our Perfect Little Storm

What can I say?  I'm finally, 6 months in, starting to accept that my new constant is change.  Eamon was going a long just fine and dandy, loving his sweet potatoes, when a week and half ago he got his first virus.  Many pathetic hours of cuddling ensued.  Then he started teething again.  (Number 2 is now visible!)  And I'll be darned if he isn't in the middle of a growth spurt and nursing all the time.  He's also decided that 6 am is a perfectly decent time to wake up for the day.  Which means his first nap is at about 8 am.  (What??  Who naps at 8 am?)  Eamon does  - and most days so do I.  Then I had some chocolate Tofutti ice cream and it became very clear that Eamon's skin gets real irritated when I eat soy, so we're dealing with his skin discomfort again and my renewed effort to deprive myself of every enjoyable food.  But wait, there's more: he's dealing with some intense separation anxiety.  And he seems to have lost some interest in eating solid foods....


Don't even get me started on my theories of how this is effecting his sleep.  And my sleep.  Sigh.


Of course this was all timed perfectly with Gramberg's visit.  It took until the last day of her visit, her 4th here, for Eamon to let her hold him for an extended amount of time without whining helplessly and making desperate eye contact with me or Rory.

The hardest part for me throughout all of these milestones is feeling out of sync with Eamon.   I look forward to getting back into a rhythm with him.  Or at least being a little more confident of how to respond to his needs and wants.  


Anyway, it's a good thing swinging makes everything better.

Trips to Dad's work are great too!

Wearing spiffy caps and sucking on apples can cheer anyone up.

In other news we're (or maybe just me) trying to come up with a good nickname for our dear baby.  I shower this kid with many terms of endearment, but none that are viable, life-long nicknames.  There's no rush, I know.   I come from a nicknameless family so I'm concerned about my skills in identifying and cultivating a nickname.  Thus we're recruiting some help.  A couple friends have made some suggestions we're considering....  Smalls (as in Biggie Smalls because Eamon's big), Cheeks (because Eamon's cheeks are SO awesome to pinch, even when their a little red and speckled due to allergies), Amy (because that's how Eamon's cousin Tina says his name at 22 months), and Dizzy (because many of the sounds he's been making recently sound like a trumpet).  I'm not sold on any of them so the search continues....  This could be your chance to (sort of) name my firstborn child!

And Now the Numbers

Eamon weighed in at 17 lbs 5 oz and measured 27.75 inches.  His head was 43 cm around.  The weight and head are at the 50th% mark and length is 75th%.  We're thankful for his medium-sized head as I had an enormous head as a child, so much so that my parents decided to take me to the doctor to get it checked out.  Anyway, here's Eamon looking so smart playing at the doctor's office!  (Don't those things look like some old fashioned intelligence test?  Clearly he's acing it.)

If you look closely you can see the redness on his arms... and legs, cheeks, ankles, belly....  When Dr. Callahan walked in the room the first thing she said was, "He's a poster child for eczema!"  We're so proud.  Sigh.  His irritated skin is why I'm eating dairy free (a true testament to my love if you know how much I adore ice cream) and that has helped lots, but not all the way.  Rather than go gluten and soy free and starve to death, this visit our doctor gave us some prescription strength hydrocortisone cream.  She also recommended a mixture of shea butter and eucerin as his twice daily lotion.  We had a funny/awkward moment when she asked if we knew where to get shea butter.  I paused because I wasn't sure if she meant, "Do you know that this is something from Africa and that black people use it as moisturizer so you should look in the 'specialty' section where products for black people are usually relegated?"  Or if she simply was asking if we knew where to find it....  Anyway, the mixture of lotions and creams is doing the trick and for what seems like the first time in months Eamon's looking clear-skinned and scratching himself less!  Yippee!  Like most semi-hippy moms I've got some reservations about smearing my baby with steroids, but its effective, my baby's more comfortable, and our doctor was all about stopping using the cream as soon as his skin cleared.  

In the last weeks we've discovered some new activities that Eamon likes.

1) swinging

2)  putting everything in his mouth/dancing.  Can you guess our current favorite?

3) eating sweet potatoes.  Grilled sweet potatoes, no less.  We're trying to develop a sophisticated palate early on....  And for this one I've got another poem for you:

sampling solids

smacking on sweet potatoes

mom's tasting freedom