New car??

For his entire life, Isaac has patiently let twist him into his car seat in our two-door car. Things may be changing soon.

This afternoon, I drove to a 2:30 yoga class and afterward wanted to drop off some Salvation Army stuff at the bin at Shaw's. I turned off Trapello onto Rt 60 when the car suddenly... died(!!). I was practically in the intersection, but safely made it to the side of the street and put on my hazards. Stupidly, I had forgotten my cell phone before leaving home so I couldn't call AAA myself.  I jumped outside the car with my face still red from exertion and waved down a car. The woman inside the car let me use her cell to call Josh to have him call AAA. Soon after a police car drove by and I waved him down too. The officer said that if I was cold I could join him in his car. I said, "I'm so hot from yoga, I'll be fine" because Josh said it would only be 20 minutes before the tow truck showed up.

55 minutes later(!), and after exhausting every conversation topic I could think of with the officer (yes, I got in his car), the tow truck finally showed up. We had Pat, Cole and Owen visiting at our house waiting to eat dinner. I was so happy to be home, but now we have to deal with our stupid car.

Could this be our moment to get a luxurious four-door vehicle??
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On a completely different topic, here's a shout-out to babysitting exchanges: we swapped babysitting nights with Margot and Mike and had our date-night on Friday. Josh and I went back to our old haunting grounds in Waltham to see the film "The King's Speech." It's a great movie and made even better knowing that Isaac was home safe with our friend. This weekend, we return the favor. Babysitters can be so expensive so this is a nice way to keep our romance alive without breaking the bank.

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.