A Busy Autumn

Fall in New England is an incredible sight to behold. In between naps and snacks and laundry and studying and rugby matches and baby dance parties (see below), we've been taking in the beautiful autumn leaves. There are many lovely trails behind our neighborhood that have provided wonderful respite for myself and sometimes my little buddy in the backpack.

These pics are from a little hike across the border in Vermont up Gile Mountain. It's mighty windy on the top of the fire tower and the view is awesome.

Here are some of the other things we've been up to:

White Coat Ceremony

I got my first white coat earlier this month. The ceremony featured a brief but excellent speech by my new hero, Dr. Jim Kim. Even though it looks pretty spiffy, I don't intend to wear the coat again for at least another year and a half, when I start my rotations through the hospital.

Teething

Ethan has been insane with tooth pain as two more molars and his top canines work their way through the gums. None of these new teeth are fully in, but once they break through the surface, everything seems to cool down. He now points to the Tylenol whenever he is sad. I hope it isn't habit-forming.

Dancing and Daycare

Ethan loves it at daycare these days. He still cries at drop off (perhaps just to give the impression that he loves us) but has a ton of fun playing throughout the day. They play music on the stereo and all the munchkins dance around like little, uncoordinated animals. Now Ethan insists that we put on music whenever we're home and breaks out his sweet moves (video forthcoming!). We're taking suggestions for good kid's music.

Learning

Jeremy spends four days a week in the classroom and he is rapidly learning how to engage the tweens. He's also reading tons of young adult fiction.

I spend many hours a day memorizing the names of arteries, cell cycles checkpoint proteins and mucus glands. We're jut about to start the pelvis in anatomy and reproduction in histology, which I think I will like a little better than the gallbladder.

Ethan is learning to talk. He has been saying "no" for months (what does that say about our parenting?) and babbles on in very emphatic but unintelligible baby talk. To my delight he just added two gems to his vocabulary: "baby" for the bald dollies he likes to feed during snacktime and, my personal favorite, "mama". Oh, sweetness.

Bare Bottoms Rule

Clap Your Hands

In the last couple of weeks Ethan has learned to clap whenever we say "Yeah!", receive high fives (still no active giving five), make the sign "eat" - sometimes frantically, as though he cannot go on without another handful of raisins - and feed himself sloppily with a spoon. Cuteness.

Apple Picking

This morning we went apple picking at Poverty Lane Orchard in Lebanon. It was an absolutely stunning fall day. Ethan ate his own pint-sized apple and Jeremy and I had a few too many Macouns. Ethan had such a hard time standing in the tall grass that we even sat around together as a family for a half hour without having to chase after him. That is a treat we have rarely experienced since the little man went bipedal in July!

I am thankful for some quiet, family time. My medical school coursework has picked up in intensity (although I am experiencing what many before have said - that the material is not particularly difficult or intellectually challenging, just voluminous) and Jeremy is taking on some more responsibility as a student-teacher at Richmond Middle School. We are on the go so much these days - shuffling off to school, daycare, rugby practice, studying, laundry, dishes. It is lovely just to sit in the grass together and eat apples.

Squeakity Squeak

Mike and Amanda Kruse brought Ethan a pair of squeaky sandals back from India. They are fun and silly and really annoying. He only gets to wear them on special occasions.

Squeakers in action:

Sneaky tooth 2.0

While coping with a high fever from some mysterious (day care associated?) virus, Ethan also managed to bust out another tooth. Symmetry and sanity are restored.

Family Fun

The Epsteins and Mitchells rendezvoused in Sachem Village, our new (and bizarrely Stepford) grad student housing development. Unfortunately, Ethan was fighting a wicked virus and was feverish and quite crabby throughout the visit. We were able to have a little fun (and snap a few pics) after the Tylenol kicked in.