Merry Christmas!

This past week, Ethan had his first Christmas. Actually, since we first celebrated in Boston, and then celebrated in Chicago with grandma and grandpa, and then again in Chicago with great-grandma and great-aunt Judith, he really had three first Christmases.
I think he's hooked.



We headed to Chicago on Tuesday night, and stayed until Sunday. It was a great trip, always good to see family.



The weather in Chicago was not great--lots of freezing rain and snow--which limited our ability to go out much. Ethan didn't seem to mind though--there were so many new things to explore at grandma and grandpa's house. He crawled up his first flight of stairs, and enjoyed taking baths in the kitchen sink.


Ethan seems to have somewhat of a therapeutic effect on my mom--she is much more engaged when he is around. It is amazing how a baby can bring this out--sure wish we could visit more!

A Winter Wonderland

This morning we awoke to about 8 inches of snow--and as I write this at 1pm, it is still coming down!
This gave us the perfect opportunity to put Ethan in his new snow suit.



Unfortunately, it is a bit big, and acted more like a straitjacket...He couldn't move in it at all!
He didnt know really what to make of the snow. I think it will be better once he can walk!




Speaking of which, Marla's department Christmas party was last night--and while we were out, Lilia called to tell us that Ethan took a few steps on his own. We have yet to see it, but we sure are proud!


Also, his top right tooth is almost entirely in, and his top left tooth is not far behind. Guess he got his two front teeth for Christmas!

Ethan's first Hanukkah

This past weekend, grandma and grandpa Greenberg were in town. We celebrated Ethan's first Hanukkah.

Ethan enjoyed lighting the menorah.




He especially liked his gifts--a ride-on airplane from grandma and grandpa--and a push walker from mom and dad. We are trying to encourage him to start walking....We'll see how it works.

Oh Tannenbaum!

Last weekend, it was time to get our Christmas tree. We looked into a few places around here, but all the yelp reviews suggested that the thing to do here in Boston is to cut down your own tree. So we decided to give it a crack.

We headed to a small, family run tree farm about 45 minutes west of Boston. We then set out to find the perfect tree.



We found it, a balsam fir, 6 feet tall.

Jason had a blast "chopping" it down with a hacksaw.



We stuffed it (mostly) into the trunk of our Hyundai Elantra and headed home.

Here's a look at the final product:




Not too bad, especially considering we found the the lights and ornaments at a garage sale in August!


Addendum:about 4 days after the tree chopping, Jason developed a rash on his hands....he asked a dermatologist about it at work--he wasn't sure what it was--but when 2 days later it was worse, he was diagnosed with poison ivy! He was miserable for about a week....I don't think cutting down a tree will be in his future next year!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is my daddy's birthday!

I pretty much think he's the best dad in the world and want to wish him a happy birthday!
Thanks for taking such good care of me!

Love, Ethan

Happy Thanksgiving!

Because we found out too late we were off for Thanksgiving to buy tickets to visit family, we stayed on the East Coast for the holiday--and headed to New York City.

Marla had always wanted to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in person, and this year we had the perfect opportunity to check it out.

We headed to NYC Wednesday night--we drove, but traffic wasn't as bad as we were told it would be.

We enjoyed the parade on Thursday--Ethan's first parade. Even Jason, who was not excited at all about going, had to admit that it was pretty cool. The balloons were huge. Ethan's favorite was Buzz Lightyear.






After the parade, we headed to our friends Andreas and Jenny's apartment for Thanksgiving dinner. We know Andreas and Jenny from medical school--they are finishing up their training in New York and couldn't leave for the holiday either, so we celebrated together. They have a 15-month old daughter, Elyse, who Ethan enjoyed hanging out with (or at least her toys!)




It is always great to hang out with old friends, and we had a great holiday!


Friday, we braved the busiest shopping day of the year and took Ethan to meet Santa at the Macy's in Herald Square. Though the ground floor was mobbed, up on the eighth (where Santa was) was not too crowded.
The line moved quickly, (we later learned there was more than one Santa...), and it weaved though very elaborate Christmas displays with trees, trains and lights. Jason was very impressed (it was his first time visiting Santa, too).


When we got to Santa, Ethan wasn't scared at all, and just sat there and pulled on his beard!



We stayed in New York through Saturday, before heading back to Boston.

Getting Greasy

On Saturday, Marla was working, which meant the boys got to hang out alone for the day. The day got off to a rocky start, however, at 7:00 am when Ethan woke up. Jason found Ethan in his crib looking sweaty. He was immediately worried, thinking Ethan was running a high temperature, and went to get the thermometer. He also called Marla in a panic.

But Ethan did not otherwise look like he had a fever--he was happily babbling in his crib, seemingly content.



That's when Jason spotted the jug of diaper cream in Ethan's crib. Apparently, when Ethan woke up, he somehow reached the tub (which was sitting on his dresser in a place that I thought was out of reach)--and proceeded to smear the stuff everywhere. And I mean everywhere--his bed, his sheets, his stuffed animal....but mostly he smeared it all over himself (and probably ate a bit as well!)

Jason snapped these pictures--but he says they dont do justice to the sheer amount of grease...
So luckily Ethan wasn't sick--but dad sure had a mess to clean up!

We're Back!

It's been awhile....
We have been on vacation!

Almost 2 weeks ago now Ethan visited his first foreign country: The Cayman Islands.
Random, I know.
The story goes like this:
Our friend Pam was getting married in Miami on November 7. We decided since we were already in Miami we'd take a week off and go to the Caribbean.
We weren't particular about our destination, so when our frequent flyer miles worked for a flight to Grand Cayman, we decided to go.

Here are some pics from the wedding:






And Grand Cayman:
I have to say, we were a little bit unlucky with the weather, with Hurricane Ida blowing ove right before we got there, and a winter storm at the end of the trip.
Still it was relaxing. Highlights included a visit to a sea turtle farm, scuba diving, and a boat ride to "stingray city" where Jason and I got in the water and fed stingrays...hopefully I got some good pics of that with my underwater camera, which is *film* and still needs to be developed.
Here are some pics from our trip:

(too bad the weather wasnt like this everyday...)

(check out the teeth)

Ethan enjoyed the beach, although he tried to eat the sand. It is crazy to me how he dosent associate 'sand in mouth' and 'disgusting'. Guess he'll lean sometime, I hope!

A Wicked Halloween!

Saturday was Ethan's first Halloween. We didnt really buy him a costume, but we did get him a pumpkin hat and t-shirt from the buck-spot at Target. Did the trick for $2.


In the afternoon, we headed to the Back Bay, a posh area of Boston, for a neighborhood parade and festival. Ethan seemed to get a kick out of it, and we did too!



Later that evening, we had a few trick-or-treaters--other kids who live in the building. Ethan was already in his jammies, but had fun with them:


We can tell that Ethan is going to have a sweet tooth--(just like his mother)--we didnt give him any candy, but he tried to get into the Reese's we were handing out!

My first fall cold

This has been a bit of a rough week for Mr. Ethan. His first fall cold, co-insiding with the bottom teeth coming in.
He keeps waking up from his naps with his nose full of snot..and he is snoring at night time. We feel so bad for him.
He's been getting lots of specially prepared chicken soup--hope it wont last.

Along came a tooth....

Friday night Marla came home (having not seen Ethan all week), and noticed a new development:
A lower right tooth!
There are teeth after all.
It is too small to get a pic of yet, but stay tuned....


We had a great fall weekend here in New England, the leaves are beautiful. We headed 25 minuted south of Boston to the Blue Hills reservation, and took a short hike. Here's a few pics of the weekend:

Not a baby anymore!

These Days, Ethan is growing up fast.
He is crawling up a storm, and learning how to pull himself up to standing.
We have to be really careful, because he is a little too adventurous at times--trying to pull himself up on a wobbly chair--or letting go of the furniture in order to clap his hands only to come tumbling down.



At least his skull is getting thicker!
Changing his diaper has become a real challenge--why should he lie still when he can flip over and crawl off the edge of the dresser?
We are constantly trying to prevent one suicide mission after another. His favorite thing to crawl towards is the lamp's electrical cord. He is also a big fan of the computer cables, and electric outlets--thanks goodness we have put those caps on the sockets! I don't know if all 8-month-olds are like this, or if it is more of a boy thing.

He has also learned how to spit out his food if he is done or doesn't like it. Lilia had to change him 3 times in one day after he did this! He's getting rambunctious... I didn't realize how easy things were when he couldn't move around!

In other news, fall is starting to arrive. We dug out a few winter-ish things we have from San Francisco, but have realized we have a lot of shopping to do for the cold!

A Visit to Chicago

Last weekend, we took Friday off and headed to Chicago to visit Grandma and Grandpa Ferschl.


They were amazed by how much Ethan had changed in 2.5 months--last time we were there he could only roll over--now he is sitting, crawling all over the place, and getting into general mischief.
One of the highlights of our visit was a drive to Milwaukee, where Great-grandma Ferschl got to see Ethan again.


We also visited with great uncle Jim, great aunts Cathy and Judith, and cousin Nik.
We couldnt spend time in Chicago without some pizza, (especially since we have not found ANY good pizza here in Boston), so saturday night we went to our favorite, Piazno's for deep dish. Uncle Jeff and his girlfriend Janice joined us.


So we saw lots of people in a short time. We were sad to leave.....we wont be back until Christmas.