The case of the missing shoes

Last weekend, our first warm weekend, we realized we needed some summer shoes for Ethan. We picked up a pair at Target on Saturday night, and on Sunday, had a chance to try them out. They worked great: check them out at the park.


After the park, we decided to walk along Newbury Street. About 7 blocks into our walk, we looked down, and...

one shoe was missing. We retraced out steps, but no luck...the shoe was just plain gone. So we got about 3 hours of use out of our purchase.

The next day, Lilia called Jason at work, and asked, "where are Ethans shoes?" Jason explained the story of the missing sandal, but she said, "no, I mean his regular shoes". Jason told her that he thought they were somewhere in the apartment. She spent several hours looking, to no avail. Then she had an idea. Recently, Ethan has been tossing things into our trash can, which sits in our kitchen. We had taken out the trash that morning. Lilia got the janitor to open the trash chute, found our garbage bag, and sifted through it. Inside the trash, she found not only Ethan's shoes, but also one of his sippy cups and a toy! He had thrown them all away when we weren't looking over the weekend!!

I never would have thought to look in the trash, but I am sure glad that Lilia was able to rescue his shoes!

Happy Easter

We have had a beautiful Easter weekend here in Boston, with temperatures in the mid-70s. Trees are beginning to bud, and they days are getting longer. Finally, I think, winter is coming to an end.


We had a lot of fund yesterday when we went to an Easter egg hunt in the courtyard of our building. Ethan did't exactly understand how to hunt for the eggs, but he did quickly figure out how to open them and retrieve the chocolate inside. He then proceed to try and eat the candy, foil and all!


This morning, he found his "hidden" Easter basket. He even got to try an Easter Peep, although I am not sure if he liked it!



One holiday food that he definitely loves (just like his dad) Matzo and eggs. He's been eating lots in celebration of Passover and it is always a big hit.
A lot healthier than the peeps too!

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!

"I'm feeling much better now, thank you very much."

This has been a rough patch for Ethan.

It all began a few weeks ago, when we went to his pediatrician for his one-year check up. I pointed out a brown spot that I had seen for a few weeks below his lower front tooth on his gum. Our pediatrician, said "hmmm" (which is never good) and referred us to an oral surgeon, who said it had to come out.

Now in an adult, this would be a nothing little procedure, but for a one-year old, this required a general anesthetic! Needless to say, we (being both anesthesiologists) were really nervous about the anesthesia. But we decided, the sooner the better, and had him booked for surgery last Wednesday.

Besides having a total melt-down in pre-operative area, the surgery went fine. We still have to wait for the pathology results, but the surgeon was cautiously optimistic that it was just a freckle on his gum. (Which, is apparently quite rare in 12-month old caucasian babies...)


Here's a picture of him in the recovery room:



Anyhow, we thought we were out of the woods, until Friday, when I came home and found Ethan napping. Lilia said, "he was kind of fussy today, and didnt eat too well, I think his jaw is bothering him." Hmmm....

When he got up form his nap, something was clearly wrong--he was sizzing hot--a quick temperature revealed a fever of 104.8. He looked terrible--I have never seen him so listless. The surgical site looked good though, no signs of inflammation or infection. After calling the surgeon, and the pediatrician, we decided not to traipse to the ER and wait until Saturday morning when we could be seen in the pediatrician's office. We gave Ethan some tylenol...and worried all night long. In the morning, the pediatrician gave us the answer--Ethan had an ear infection! We are so thankful that it wasn't a surgical complication. Already today, Ethan is much more himself, and his fever is down. Whew!! It's stressful being a parent.