Two visits

We have just had two visits.

The first was that Marla visited Hawaii. She went to Honolulu (alone) last week for an anesthesia conference. It was so nice to have some warm weather. I enjoyed Waikiki beach, attending the conference and seeing old friends and mentors at the conference.

Here was the beach at my hotel:



One afternoon, I took a hike to the top of Diamondhead crater, which is the mountain that you can see in the background of Waikiki beach. It was beautiful--amazing views of all the high-rises.

Of course, I missed Jason and Ethan though!



The second visit was that one of Marla's oldest friends, Janet, and her husband and 2 kids (James, 3 and Abbey, 20 months) came to visit us from Chicago. They were here for the weekend, and we had a blast! Ethan had his first roomate, and he was pretty good about sharing all his things. We had fun visiting the Science musuem, and going to the park!


Janet took most of the pictures, so I'll have to post those later.

Overall two great visits!

Hello From Chicago....

Ethan and I are in Chicago this week, visiting Grandma and Grandpa Ferschl.

We had a pretty good flight (my first alone with him)....and arrived here on Saturday.

731 East Ave is a totally different place for Ethan now that he can walk.....so many places to discover.

He quickly found the stairs, and kept heading up them (I didn't even know that he knew how to climb stairs...), and we quickly learned that we had to get a safety gate to keep him in.

For a not child-proofed house though, we have done pretty well. He did somehow get a hold of a large meat fork today, and was sucking on it before anyone noticed...luckily no damage done.

Sunday, we went out to a favorite pizza place with Great-Grandma Ferschl and Great Aunt Judith. Ethan (not surprisingly) LOVES pizza.

We are having a great time here. Wish we could come more often!

A Taste of Spring!

This weekend, it was above normal temperatures--got in the low 50s on both Saturday and Sunday. Finally a chance to get out and enjoy some sunshine! We took Ethan to the park for the first time since October. Now he can walk around the playground and explore it on his own. What a difference a few months makes!

On Sunday, we headed to the Arnold Arboretum. This is a large city park that is acutally owned by Harvard and leased to the city of Boston. It contains thousands of trees and plants and serves as a horticultural research area for the university.

Ethan enjoyed getting out of his stroller and walking around a bit too!


We even managed to find a flowering tree (one of the only alive looking things in the park...no buds on trees here yet) and take a few pics. We can't wait for warmer weather!!!

Ethan does Ethnic

For the past two nights, Ethan has had Indian food for dinner. And he loves it. He definitely did not acquire his mom's palate--the kid eats everything! We have introduced him to Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and now Indian.
The only type of food he has had a problem with is Japanese: we live around the corner from a hibachi grill Japanese restaurant. A few weeks ago, some friends came over for dinner, and we decided to go there. Well, Ethan was absolutely TERRIFIED of the Japanese chefs, who were doing tricks with their knives and lighting fires on the grills. Then, as if this wanst bad enough, some waiters came out banging a gong (for someone's birthday) and he completely lost it. I mean total freak out. I actually had to leave the restaurant and eat at home with him. So no more Japanese, for a while at least!