Isaac Celebrates First Steeler Playoff Win

From Isaac's First Playoff Win

Inspired by Pittsburgh's merciless defensive front, Isaac proceeds to sack my foot.

Today was a big milestone for little Isaac OM. He witnessed his first Steelers Playoff win. Well, technically, he only "witnessed" the first quarter, but he was in the house for the impressive second half comeback. (No doubt, the excitement was too much for him because he woke up at 9 PM with a shriek. Nightmare over a potential match-up with the Patriots next Sunday? I understand.)

And as these pictures indicate, Isaac knows how to celebrate a touchdown.

For those interested, here's a link to the game's highlights. While watching, turn down the sound, then imagine me screaming either"YES! YES! YES! YES!" or "Ah! C'mon! What the?!" depending on the outcome.

Huge Snow Storm hits the OMs

For those who don't know, starting last night and lasting until this afternoon, Boston got hit with about a foot of snow. I looked out the window this morning and realized there was little chance of going to lab and after seeing that daycare was canceled, Josh declared today a family snow day!

We had a lazy morning in which I made some oatmeal fruit bars while Isaac napped and then we decided to bundle up and go outside. We put Isaac in his new snowsuit and Ergo (both gifts) and braced ourselves for the cold and snow. It was a beautiful day, but I was a little paranoid about Josh walking in the street while carrying Isaac, "please walk on the sidewalk!"--even though the sidewalk hadn't been cleared yet.

We ended up wandering over to friends' Margot and Mike's house. They were also outside so they greeted us on the street and invited us up for a hot drink. As Isaac played with their daughter Roisin's toys, we sipped hot chocolate (with marshmallows!).

Eventually, we made our way home while Isaac napped in the carrier. Josh shoveled out the car and I prepared a dinner with wheat berries (a novel ingredient for me).

Here are some pictures celebrating today:

More about Christmas 2010

For Christmas, my parents took everyone to see the Christmas Revels--a theatrical, musical performance that included a huge sing-along. In the group shots, you can see the whole family except Jenn, Maya and Paul. They wisely left early: this was the night of the storm and Nicole's car was towed due to a "snow emergency" while we were in the Cambridge theater. The following pictures were taken with Nicole's camera and she just shared them with us. Enjoy!

Isaac in JP with Aunty Jenn after Christmas

Isaac spent that week after Christmas with different members of the family because it was a daycare holiday.

Jenn sent us these pictures and this note:

Hi A &J-

We loved having Isaac here today (Maya loved it, she just didn't want to show it). These are the only shots I got all day. He grabbed for Maya's apple pieces and did a great job on them!

Love,
Jennifer (and Paula and sleeping Maya)

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--
Brandeis University
Molecular Cell Biology (MCB) Ph.D. Candidate

New teeth and new sleep habits...

From about Thanksgiving until New Years, Josh and I basically threw in the towel regarding sleep training. Isaac's front teeth were painfully emerging and the three of us spent about a week sleeping in the same room at the Philadelphia hotel and then later at parents house. After so many weeks of being crazy with our routine, Josh and I weren't sure if Isaac would sleep in his crib again. I also got used to the change and enjoyed being with Isaac at night--even if it meant I didn't sleep more than a couple hours at a stretch. I think that if I wasn't working, I would be happy to continue living that way--because it wouldn't matter so much if I was sleepy. But because I do need to work night now, I knew I couldn't continue living in my foggy world, so for a little, I was trying to do both--be with Isaac through the night and have him in his crib. What that looked like was nursing/ holding until dead asleep (about an hour) and then sneaking quietly away or starting the process over again when he inevitably woke up while being placed in the crib. I felt dishonest sneaking out of Isaac's room--(when he woke up, he cried and I guessed that he was thinking, "where did she go??").

So last week, we did our normal routine (dinner, playing on the floor or bed, bath, dressing in PJs, more playing, nursing) BUT I put him in his bed awake the way I used to. He proceeded to cry for ~40 minutes--and I mean wail! He slept until about 3:30am. Then I nursed him and he slept until morning. The next two nights he cried for under five minutes after being placed in his bed. Since then though, he hasn't cried at all. He still wakes up sometime between 3 and 4 am and then sleeps until about 7 (except Saturday morning when he woke up at 4:30 and he was up for the day--that meant us too!).

So right NOW he is a wonderful sleeper. I'm not delusional enough to expect perfect sleep from here on. I am just content and thankful for what we got this week--pretty wonderful stretches of sleep.

On the teeth front, Isaac's four front teeth are now totally in and are super cute. His top eye-teeth are next. We see the white spots on both sides of his front teeth (are ALL of his teeth going to come in twos??) and he has been putting his hands in his mouth a lot.

As these teeth come in, are we going to go back to nursing all night long (and me being a zombie during the day)? I hope not.

Recapping the day's events

A short video detailing our productive Sunday thus-far. Isaac's presence turns this otherwise mundane snapshot of daily OM living into must see video.

A Great Start to the New Year

On the morning of the first, we woke up early-ish (8 or so), packed a lunch and our yak trax, and headed out a for a winter hike in the Fells, a 2,000+ acre reservation area just a 15-minute drive from our place. It's crazy that we haven't taken advantage of this great, local hiking before. After a short walk in, we took the rock circuit trail and found a large flat rock: a perfect, if a bit-slushy picnic spot. After making a fine repast of PBJ sandwiches, clementines, and pureed peas and brown rice we hiked for another hour and a half before heading home for a lazy Saturday afternoon of napping, cooking, and playing on the floor. I only hope the rest of the year will be as good as this first day of 2011.