Two Weeks Old

Well, we've made it two whole weeks together! We've been real busy, too. Last Friday we went to the doctor and Eamon weighed in at 9.7. We're very proud of our growing boy - and we've heard that the 10 lb mark is an important one for sleeping for longer stretches through the night. Anyway, I'm sure everyone's much more interested in the photos.... Here are some of Eamon's firsts

First time in the green Oshkosh B'Gosh jumpsuit, held by Zora.


First ride in the car seat to go and get Uncle Mike.



First time being held by Uncle Mike.


First time being a cute duck baby after first bath in the sink.


First time wrapped up in the moby...

Happy Halloween!

We ventured out into our neighborhood to take in the spectacle of lights, costumes, decorations and craziness. Little did we know that as we bemoaned the lack of trick-or-treaters at our house, right around the corner there was some intensive, imaginative Halloweening happening....

Seems that lots of families head over to this area too. My personal favorite was a very chubby and exuberant Wolverine. Sadly he was too speedy for us to catch on film. The folks who took our picture happened to be Irish (dressed to the nines as punk rockers) so we got to hear some authentic speaking of Eamon's name. The woman said that she had an Uncle Eamon - amazing!

This was also our first time putting our little guy in a carrier. Rory had the honors.

Babies' First Snow

On Saturday we experienced our first snow of the season. Initially it seemed that when anyone mentioned the word "snow" Eamon screwed up his little face and squealed. When the snow actually arrived we all got into the spirit.... The cats played in it, Eamon wore a onsie with the words "let it snow" embroidered on it, and I threw on my festive snowflake fleece pants.

He eats, sleeps, poops... and hugs!

We're learning so much about taking care of little Eamon and we're loving every moment of it. Tired though we may be we're totally smitten.

The other day Rory called me into the middle room where he was getting in some "skin to skin" time with Eamon ("Skin to skin" is this revered practice of taking your shirt off and getting your baby's shirt off and hanging out. Rory is a big fan, but he has grown tired of the reverent tone used to talk about it by pretty much all medical professionals we've come in contact with). Anyway, Rory calls me into the room and says, "Take a picture of him hugging me." How could I say no to that....

Eamon Charles Ramberg Foster

Many of you know that we welcomed our sweet baby boy, Eamon Charles Ramberg Foster to the world on Tuesday, October 25th at 2:01 a.m. He weighed in at 8.9 lbs and measured 20.5 inches. (His name is pronounced with the "ea" saying long A - and trying it with an Irish accent makes it all the awesomer.) Rory came up with Eamon in his search for boy names that started with the letter "E" and we both loved it. Also Rory's great grandmother was Irish. Charles is for my father - it was his first name. And the rest is probably self explanatory. Another fun fact is that Eamon now shares a birthday with Rory's grandfather on his mom's side and another of Rory's cousins, Jackie. What a lucky kid!

Clearly we think he's perfect.

We're all doing well and adjusting to life at home. We look forward to you all meeting him or hanging out with him again some time soon.

And then there were 5 (almost)

A bit of a blog reboot here....

I look like this. Or I did a few weeks ago when this picture was taken. No worries, the baby is still safely inside and I probably look even larger and in-charger.


Also, we now have two cats! The all black one is Clint (named for Clint Dempsey, a US mens soccer player) and the colorful kitty is Hope (named for Hope Solo, the US womens soccer goalie). Though many things have changed in the last months we remain big nerdy soccer fans.


Our baby is due in a few weeks! We're excited and nervous, but mostly excited. We thought adventures in parenting may rival our travels last year, hence the blog reboot.

But just so you don't think we haven't been doing anything the last few months here are some highlights, in no particular order: Rory started work as an attorney; we attended Marshmallow Fluff Festival and I tasted my first fluffer nutter; I started work as a 1/4 time librarian at the school I used to teach at; we traveled to Madison, WI, Austin, TX, and Charleston, SC to see our lovely families; we hosted visitors from Philadelphia, Peru, and NYC; bought, and taught my mom to play, Settlers of Katan; we attended an Atmosphere concert, took in the Chihuly exhibit at the MFA, and saw 2 shows with our friend Fitzy; I perfected a buttermilk waffle recipe; we moved next door; I started some graduate classes toward my certificate in Parenting Education at Wheelock college; we crafted curtains for our baby and a new cover for our crazy-long pillow, affectionately known as the "snake;" we enjoyed sunny days and warm evenings on our porch; we started up indoor rock climbing again; and most recently Rory scored an AWESOME goal for the first win of the season on our coed team.

I'm sure there's more not just because we are incredibly interesting people, but also because I'm incredibly absent-minded what with being mega pregnant and all.

Home Sweet Home and 6 weeks before

It has been quite an adjustment the last month. We got back to the apartment on December 30th, 2010, after being gone for 5 months. Since we have been back we have done a hefty mid-winter cleaning of our apartment, we got magical smart phones that have changed our lives, Rory has started his job as an attorney at Holland and Knight, I've succeeded at many domestic projects, and my graduate school applications have been submitted. We've also watched the Packers kick some ass (well, I have watched obsessively, while Rory vaguely pays attention), we've visited lots of the Boston folks that we missed while we were gone, and I have shoveled many many times. In fact, I don't even get sore anymore when I am out there and I still kind of enjoy it.

Here's picture of what it looks like around here. I forgot to get a picture of the before scene, but if you can see the car in front of ours you'll get the idea of the shoveling I just undertook. And don't even get me started on the Somerville snow emergency parking enforcement because you would be subjected to a torrent of swearing and ill-wishing on ignorant violators.


And, as promised, a few photos of what we were doing about six weeks ago in the Amazon Rainforest. We spent most of our time on this river, the Marinyon, which is one of the two feeders of the Amazon River. Our last day we went about an hour downriver and saw the actual Amazon. We were out of camera battery at that point so no photos. But it was absolutely breathtaking.


Most travel in the area is done on boats, so we spent a lot of time in inner contemplation as the drone of the motorboat made conversation difficult. There we so much to take in that I don't think either of us noticed. Our tour lasted a quick, but full, 2.5 days. We walked through both high rainforest, which is never submerged under water, and low (I think) rainforest, which is submerged during the wet season. We were there in late December which is the start of the wet season. By March and April you would have to take a boat to get to this tree that Rory climbed during his ultimate Tarzan moment. (There was no Jane moment for me).


We also got a chance to see some nifty wildlife and learn about the medicinal quality of loads of plants. Many of the plants are still regularly harvested by local communities for their natural cures to common ailments. Maybe some of you have heard about Cat's Claw and it's use against some forms of cancer - we saw that one. And one that helps women stop bleeding after childbirth. But the animals were perhaps more memorable to us because we surely would have forgotten what pictures of plants were. Our guides spotted the animals as we were speeding along riverways, as skill that astounded both of us. Here's a shot of the second sloth we saw. It's really there, look carefully!


Most of the communities along the river and in the preserve are subsistence farming and fishing villages. We got to partake in fishing with our enthusiastic guide, Neyser, and our talented boat driver, Jairo. What were we fishing for? Piranhas! You could hear their jaws snapping and see their vicious teeth as we brought them into the boat. It turned out that I was the luckier fisherperson this trip. Piranhas are tasty too! The staff back at the lodge cooked them up for us!


And on our last day we got to visit a local village. We walked around and saw the different types of plans that they kept - various kinds of bananas (which do taste better there than here), papaya, yucca, and others. We also got to see Victoria Amazona, those ginormous lily pads that could hold up a baby. At the end of this tour we also were introduced to what some folks favor as a house pet. Snakes seem to be great for catching rodents that might bother chickens or mess with food stores. This anaconda was caught trying to kill a chicken, and though the chicken could not be saved this woman kept the huge animal for a few days to impress and scare the bejeezus out of visitors. Can you tell from Rory's smile how much he is LOVING this?


And to think, 2 months ago, we were on the beach, watching a surf competition....


Can't help but miss it a little on a day like today....