Ethan Meets Santa

Well, what a different experience than last year when we waited in a long line in NYC on the day after Thanksgiving! We went downtown this morning at 8:30 am and we were the only people there! Ethan has been reading about Santa, and was pretty excited to get to meet him. He wasn't as shy as I expected, and didn't even cry when he sat on Santa's lap!

Hanukkah Celebrations

Last weekend, we celebrated Hanukkah with Jason's brother and sister-in-law, and his grandparents. We had them all over for a traditional dinner with potato latkes. This gave us the opportunity to use our food processor--we got it for our wedding, but haven't had much opportunity to use it. It worked great, and everyone loved the latkes.






Ethan enjoyed lighting the menorah. He was fascinated (and a bit scared, thankfully) of the candles.

Happy Birthday, Daddy...

Today is someone special's birthday. Unfortunately, I woke up with a fever yesterday, and I am still feeling under the weather today....not to mention the hike we planned for today had to be canceled due to the rain....Oh well. I love you anyway, daddy, and wish you a very happy 33rd b-day. Thanks for taking such good care of me and being such a great dad.
Love, Ethan

Thanksgiving: Outsourced.

Well, this Thanksgiving weekend, both Jason and I are working. I am on call from home for all four days, and Jason worked Thursday during the day, and for 24 hours on Friday. Ugh!!

This meant we couldn't head to Sonoma for Thanksgiving dinner at the Greenbergs. :( It also meant we needed childcare on Thursday and Friday when the daycare was closed.

Solution: send Ethan to Sonoma for Thanksgiving dinner with the family, while we work.
Thank goodness for family!


Jason and I even managed to go out on Thanksgiving for dinner when he was done at 6pm. Most restaurants were closed, other than the ethcnic ones, so we went out for Indian food!
I was actually surprised at how croweded the place was considering it was Thanksgiving night.....almost every table was taken.



Today, Ethan returned from his vacation in Sonoma. He said it was a good get-away. :)

Visit to Chicago

Last week, Ethan and Dad took a trip to Chicago to visit the Ferschl's.


Mom joined on Thursday.

Ethan did pretty well on the plane and had lots of fun at grandma and grandpa's house.



We visited great-grandma Ferschl, and saw the exteneded Ferschl clan for Friday fish fry.


Also got to celebrate and early Thanksgiving/belated birthday for grandma/early birthday for Jason.



A nice trip, and we beat the holiday travel rush!!

The terrible twos are coming!

Ethan isnt even 2 yet, but were getting a sense of why the phrase "terrible twos" was coined. Ever since his language has improved, he's become very demanding. The development of the word "mine" in the past few weeks hasn't helped either.

When we dont respond to him, he repeats the word louder and louder. He can go on FOREVER! And when we still dont respond they way he wants, he has a complete temper tantrum. Today's walk went something like this:
"Up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, WAAAAAH"
The joys of parenting. Sigh.

Trick or Treat

Last weekend, Ethan went on his first trick or treat adventure. It started with a pizza party at a friends house. Ethan is the short one on the end!



Ethan was a bit younger than the other kids, but held his own. He was able to walk up to different houses by himself - grab candy out of the bucket, then come back to dad and mom! He lasted about six houses and of course mom and dad inspected the treats carefully (read: ate) after it was all over.

Halloween Parade

Friday was the school's Halloween parade. All the kids made their own costumes in class--the school's theme for the parade was "nature". Ethan's class dressed up as leaves.

Since Ethan and his classmates are really still a bit young to parade in any sort of an organized fashion (especially around the city streets), they got to sit in a buggy. Next year, he'll get to walk.


Grandma and Grandpa Greenberg, and Great-Aunt Marcy were able to come watch the parade too--Marcy even dressed up--as octomom!

Halloween Preview

This weekend, we took Ethan to a Halloween picnic that was put on by a local mom's group. We have had lots of rainy weather recently, but luckily the rain held of for a few hours on Saturday morning so we could go outside.

Ethan wore his costume--what we are calling a "mariachi musician" to make it slightly more PC. But really, we have him dressed as a Mexican--with a poncho and a sombrero. Uncle Jeff actually picked the costume up for Ethan last year when he was in Mexico--so it is authentic!

And I think, pretty darn cute. It was certainly original--most of the kids were monkeys or lions from old navy or target--Ethan was certainly the only Mexican!

Anyhow, he had fun. His favorite activity was jumping around in a bouncy house (his first time). Initially he did not want to go inside, but one he warmed up to the idea, we had trouble getting him out!

We plan to at least trying out trick-or-treating in our neighborhood next weekend...stay tuned!

School Days

Ethan has been in school for almost 2 months now. He seems to love it. Everyday he comes home completly dirty--evidence of a lot of fun!! Usually both of his shoes are filled with sand, and his outfit has been changed.



He seems to be bonding with his classmates--he can even say some of their names!


Speaking of which, his verbal skills are really advancing--everyday he seems to come home with a new word. Our favorite so far is "applesauce", which he says really fast--it sounds so funny!

Anyhow, enjoy these pictures that his teachers took of him at school!

What we've been up to....

Well we are finally feeling settled back here in San Francisco. I have been working for a month now, and Jason for 2 weeks. Our weeks have developed somewhat of a routine, and we have enjoyed some fun things around the area on the weekends--here's a bit of what we have been up to:

1. A visit to the California Academy of Sciences--this is San Francisco's science museum/aquarium/planetarium. We took Ethan for an hour on a Saturday morning to check out their living rain forest and the aquarium. He loved the fish!




2. A trip to Los Gatos to visit our friends Sue and Ben, and their son Cruz. They moved down there right before we came back--it is about an hour south of where we live--and much warmer! Their complex has a pool and Ethan and Cruz went swimming. Ethan loves "jumping" off the edge.


3. Pumpkin picking in Half Moon Bay. Half Moon Bay is about 45 min south of SF on the ocean--and famous for growing pumpkins. We visited a small family farm called Tunitas Creek Family farm, where Ethan picked out a pumpkin, and got to feed some goats. He sure has changed since our visit to a pumpkin patch in New England last October when he couldn't even stand up!

Uncle Jeremy's Wedding

Sunday September 12 was a special day: Jeremy got married!

He met a great girl, Erin, right around the time that Ethan was born. We were so happy to welcome her into our family this past weekend!

The wedding was at a beautiful outdoor venue, called Cornerstone Gardens, in Sonoma. And their rehersal dinner was at the Swiss Hotel, where ours was--bringing back such great memories.

We snapped a few pics--but are waiting for some better ones from the photographer-

Ethan sure looked dapper in his little suit!


Here's Jeremy with Jason, Brandon, Gary, Bonnie and Ethan before the wedding:


Proud Parents:


Ethan's great-grandparents walking down the aisle:


Erin walking down the aisle:



Ethan even cooperated during the ceremony and was quiet (thanks to some help from pepperidge farm)
Now Jeremy and Erin are in Italy, enjoying their honeymoon.

Back to Boston

Last weekend, after being in San Francisco for approximately 3 weeks, Jason and I returned to Boston. Seriously.

One of our friends from med school got married in southern New Hampshire over Labor Day weekend. We decided that Ethan could not endure another cross-country flight, and Jason's parents were kind enough to entertain him in Sonoma while we dashed back to the east coast.

Jason and I had a fun, but busy trip back. We also celebrated our third anniversary!



The wedding was lovely. The other highlight of the weekend was stopping for some fantastic ice cream. One thing about New England--there are delicious homemade ice cream stands everywhere--we have been missing them ever since moving back, so we made an ice cream stop a priority in our 48 hour trip.




The BEST PART about these ice cream shops is that they can coat the whole ice cream in sprinkles (my favorite!) Definitely an east coast thing I miss.

While we were gone, Ethan had a great time with grandma and grandpa--playing in the park, feeding ducks, and eating cookies at the nearby bakery--I am not sure if he even missed us!

Ethan's First Day of School

Monday was Ethan's first day of school. Ok, so it's not really school, since he is only 19 months old, it is technically a daycare--but we are really excited.
He even got a new backpack and lunchbox!


Getting into this school was quite a challenge--it is affiliated with the hospital I am working at. Ethan has been on the wait list since I was pregnant, and when we called last January to make sure there was going to be a spot for him this year, we were told "oh, i don't think so!". Luckily, a few more pleading calls plus a couple of kids dropping out led to a spot for us. We had no idea how competitive daycare could be. Ah, city living!

Anyway, we took Ethan in for a few pre-visits before the first day--but saying goodbye on the first day was still really hard! Ethan and I were both crying!!
But we got over it quickly, and from what the teachers told us, he had a pretty good day. He even manged to nap for 40 min (we were worried since he is used to a quiet crib that he would not sleep on a mat on the floor with other children!) And today, he napped for an hour. Hopefully tomorrow will be even longer.

We'll see.....

Back in the Bay

We're Back!! On-line and in SF that is....Whew, it has been quite a trip.....Let's back up....

Jason and I finished our fellowships on August 4. We then packed up and headed for a long weekend on Cape Cod, since we had not had a chance to explore it earlier, and wanted some warm weather and beach time before we headed to foggy San Francisco.
We had a nice time on "The Cape"--Ethan enjoyed playing in the sand--but our hotel was not so nice, and so we truncated our trip by a night.



We then headed back to Cambridge to finish packing up, and say our goodbyes to our neighbors and Lilia. It was pretty tough saying good-bye to Lilia--we sure miss her already!

Next was a week long visit in Chicago.


We had a great time visiting with my family--highlights included heading to Milwaukee to see extended family, swimming in the kiddie pool in the backyard, and a trip to Lincoln Park Zoo. At the zoo, Ethan got to feed a cow, pet some goats and sit in a big tractor.



We also visited with 3 sets of friends who have had recent additions to their families--Jason's friend Mark, who has a new daughter Abby, my friend Janet, who has a new son Tobey, and my friend Meredith, who recently adopted twin 2-year old boys from Russia. So cute!
Also during the week, I had a short side trip to Nashville for my friend Laura's wedding. So as you can see we had a very busy week!

On Tues Aug 24, we flew into San Francisco--and headed to our new home for the year. We are subleasing a condo from a colleague at UCSF. It is a great place, close to both Jason and my new work, as well as Ethan's new daycare (more about that later).
Settling in has been a bit of a challenge, but we are getting there.
Here are a few pics:

Living Room

Kitchen

Now all we need is a new name for the blog...ideas????