2014 year in review (aka Christmas newsletter!)

2014 was a big one for our family. Big stuff happened all around.

1. Cecily was born on 3/14/14.
2. Alex graduated from medical school.
3. Alex accepted a residency position in internal medicine at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, MA.
4. We sold our house, bought a house, and moved across the country with a 10 week old.

Even though this year has been very difficult in some respects, we feel blessed in so many ways. Cecily is a happy, jabbering 9 month old and amazes us every day with the ways she grows and changes. Alex, while gone more than we both wish he were, enjoys his program and the people he works with. He is halfway through his intern year. I work 1-2 days per week at a dog/cat clinic in Acton, MA and the rest of the time enjoy being a mom. While we miss Urbana and our friends there sometimes acutely, we have felt love and community from our wonderful church family and other friends we have made here. We are enjoying getting to know New England and look forward to what the new year brings us!

Happy holidays to you and your families and may the new year bring peace to your hearts.

Nine months

Today is Cecily's nine month birthday! In about 7 more days, she will have been outside of me for longer than she was inside of me. We are celebrating by having dad home for the day. He is napping right now.

Cecily and I were able to enjoy Thanksgiving together in Philadelphia while Alex worked. The trip down was almost a disaster. Thank goodness the driver's side window finally went back up after I stopped to get a turnpike ticket. Freezing cold air blowing in on you while you are going 70 mph and still have 80 miles to go with an infant in your back seat is not a good combination. My very urgent prayer was answered.

Cousins

 Mom and dad Parent came back with us to spend a week here. They got to see a lot of Cecily, some of Alex, too much of my cooking and too much of Ruben. We saw some of the sights too (can you count Costco as a sight?)

Longfellow house and Washington's headquarters during the Boston siege

My nine month old baby (!) finally, as of the last week or so, has a predictable napping schedule. She sleeps fairly well at night. She is scooting rather efficiently, including right off the bed if given half the chance. She talks herself to sleep at naptime. She is a social creature and loves interacting with people. She is eating pretty much whatever I give her, and especially enjoys stinky cheese and dark chocolate (what can I say? She is her momma's daughter). And as of this morning, she has two teeth!

Life is good. Sometimes (especially on those weekend nights when Alex expected to be home 5 hours earlier than he actually is) I feel like a single parent and I feel sorry for myself but then I try to remember that it could be way worse. And, as Alex often reminds me, our the things that make our lives challenging right now are then things we wanted for ourselves and that we chose. They are the wonderful things in life and the things that will help us to grow. 

What a ham. On top of the tower at Mt. Auburn cemetery. This was a month or so ago, right when the trees were changing color. 

8 months old

Cecily turned 8 months old 9 days ago. You know how when you have a baby, every stranger you have ever known tells you "they grow up fast"? Well. They do.

To sum up life since I blogged last:

It is getting cold here.

I am loving this 8 month old stage. She is getting mobile (but not enough to get into much), is so responsive and interested in everything, is happy most of the time, and is sleeping through the night! (She still gets up at 5:00 or 5:30, but I will take what I can get. She is a good napper, which helps.)

 Hi. This is my zoned out face I get when I'm tired.

Alex is still gone all the time. To be perfectly honest, some days I really, really despise the whole residency thing and wish he had chosen a different path. Other times I accept it for what it is and figure that I should apply all those lessons I have had in church about learning from our trials instead of just enduring them...

High: yesterday Alex finished up way earlier than normal and was able to join me and my coworkers for an IMAX movie at the Omni theater at the Museum of Science and dinner at an Italian restaurant in the North End.

Low: a day of a plugged duct leading to mastitis I think (feverish, pain, etc), stuck at home without a car because Alex had to get to work at an abominably early hour, not that I would have gone anywhere because I was feeling so gross. Luckily it resolved that day and the next day I felt so much better.

Ok let's move on to what you really care about.

Cecily and her buddy Saul.

(yeah, I haven't posted since before Halloween...)

Better watch out, pumpkin Dean. Someone is after you. 

Dean, focus! I'm trying to flirt over here!

Tell me you've seen a cuter Frankenstein baby.

Cecily and her friend Annika. Annika also has cool toys. 

This might be my favorite video ever.

Question: What do all these pictures have in common?

Answer: There is something in each of these pictures that my parents did for us while they were here. (Clockwise from upper left: recaulk a piece of siding that was falling off, install front porch light, install two sconces and take off the old ones, fix the seal around the front door, remove butterflies, purchase and install new bathroom vanity!, and fix our chandelier). Thank you mom and dad!

Cecily has been practicing her scary Halloween face:

Happy Halloween!

  Nothing like some skelemingos to get you in the holiday spirit! (Thanks, Candy and Tony!)

Cecily on the town with grandma and grandpa

My parents just left town (sob!) after a lovely trip out to see Cecily. My dad kept saying how she is so much more than he expected. I have never had a baby before, so I can't compare, but I will note a few things I love about Cecily:

 - She loves making eye contact with people. She will stare at people in the store until they notice her and then smile when they meet her eye. (It goes without saying that people loooove this.)
 - She talks. A lot. Or "sings" as my dad calls it. She has only one consonant, m, with an occasionally b and some hand to mouth percussion.
 - Often her singing/talking is punctuated with hand movements. Most recently it tends to be two fists straight out.
 - When she is very interested in something or paying attention to something, her hands and feet are moving in little semicircle motions. It is very cute.

I feel so blessed to be her mom and get to see her change and grow. It seems like every day there is something new. For instance, today for the first time, she pushed up with her arms!

Cecily wanted to show grandma and grandpa around a bit, so to humor her, we visited...

the U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides),

Bunker Hill,

Walden,

Lexington and Concord,

the ward trunk or treat,

Boott Mill Museum in Lowell, MA,

and finally Mike's pastry shop, Modern pastry shop (twice) and Arthur's pastry shop (twice). Those Italians sure know how to bake, right dad?

There was lots of good grandma and grandpa time for Cecily.

We already miss you!

Salem, MA

Some friends of ours from way, way back decided to take a long road trip and visit us on their adventure. We went to Salem for an afternoon, which is an interesting place to be in October. 

If we had remembered to bring our witch hats we would have blended right into the Salem crowd.

The ship in the background is called the "Friendship" I believe and is a replica of a 1797 ship and still sails occasionally. 

 This little man is a cutie.

It was a beautiful day, with great friends, two sleeping babies, good food, and lots of sights to see. What could be better?

This is a project I completed recently - spices on the fridge instead of crammed on a shelf.

Family resemblance?

This is a video you might want to check out. It might make you laugh.

Baby updates

Hi friends.

I have a few updates:

Cecily is sleeping very well! Much more than a few minutes of crying when I put her down for sleep or a nap are now the exception rather than the rule. We shifted bedtime a little later to 8 pm to see if that would help her sleep in a little longer, and it kind of worked. I feed her once before I go to bed and she typically wakes up at 5:30 am to eat and about half the time will go back to sleep for another hour or so. It is really not bad. She doesn't have a day-to-day nap schedule but I can kind of predict when her next nap is going to be depending on when she last woke up and how long she slept and it is very doable.

Cecily and I were able to escape Boston for a long weekend while Alex was very hard at work and go to Philadelphia to see some of our family members. We had a fabulous time and Cecily impressed everyone with her eating skills. I am glad she lives somewhat close to some of her cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents.

I think Alex and I are mostly adjusted to what this year will entail. It is no longer a shock if he gets home 4 hours later than expected. He no longer tells me ETA before he has actually left the hospital (which is usually inaccurate), only when he is on the road.

I am looking forward to my first New England fall! And even more to my parents coming out in a couple of weeks!

I am working 1-2 days per week at a dog/cat clinic. I found a couple of great babysitters to watch the baby while I am away, but every now and then we are lucky enough that Alex gets to watch her. This is what I came home to the other day. It was so sweet and my heart melted into a pile of cheese.

Before you watch this next video, just know I am 94.2% sure I am one of those moms that thinks that everything my kid does is adorable. I mostly posted it because I love that she is rocking to the beat of her inner drummer.

 

Happy (half) birthday, Cecily!

Today is Cecily's 6 month birthday. 

It is fun to have a 6 month old. She is a great baby. She gives smiles all the time, you usually don't have to work too hard to get a giggle, and just look at her. She is gorgeous! Wherever I go in public with her I am automatically the second most popular person (next to her). 

A sleep update: a couple weeks ago Cecily slept from 7:30 pm to 5:30 am without waking up! It felt like a little miracle. 

It hasn't happened since.

But... she is now in her own room and I have stopped feeding her in the middle of the night. She still wakes up and fusses but I am hoping that before long she will decide it isn't worth waking up if there is no food involved. 

 Of course, we had to have a few gifts for Cecily to celebrate her birthday. 

I sure love my little girl.

P.S. Happy 200th post!

Broccoli face

What? I haven't posted any pictures of Cecily in over a week?!?

We better fix that.

Mom, I am ready for solids. I promise. Most of it will go on my face. Some of it might go in my mouth.

Super hot day at the beach. We didn't stay long. Cecily wasn't digging it.

I love the quiet snuggle times I get with my girl. 

To recap since the last time I posted anything about how life is going: let me just say it is harder being a resident's wife in a new city with an infant than I expected. Loneliness, not feeling up to the tasks in front of me some days, wondering how I am ever going to make friends... and eating homemade basil ice cream by myself is such a let down. Things will get better I know. I have lots of things to look forward to, like a trip to see my Philly family very soon and my parents coming out to visit next month. And if I am going to be in a new city, Boston is probably a good choice. 

Check out my legs

I have to admit something. My baby keeps getting chunkier. I am not ashamed of this.

She has more rolls than the grocery store. 

These legs are out of control. And I love to squish them. 

Gimme a hug.