It’s January. There are about 5 million feet of snow on the ground. It has snowed about that many times since the first of the year. The sidewalks are narrow and slippery, the car is stuck on a sheet of ice and won’t move.
That is all we have to say for right now.
Oh wow. It has been a while. Not sure if we ever updated about Popi’s death [Elijah's great grandpa], but he passed in early December during Hanukkah and that sort of threw us all for a loop with our days, and Daddy has been on break since his finals ended on the 18th, so it has just been one big wonky month for us here at the Shepherd abode. We had a beautiful Hanukkah (I got lots of books!) and spent a week of wonderful Christmas festivities at Ammi and Papa’s house. We stayed there until a few days before New Years when we drove Uncle B back down to Brooklyn. That was fun, especially the 6 hour car ride down (it’s normally 3), which I think was my personal favorite part of the whole trip. Especially the hour we spent in bumper-to-bumper traffic before the Triboro Bridge when my sleep was disturbed by the lack of car movement and I yelled and yelled a lot and then I yelled some more. Until we got moving again, by which point Mom and Dad were too deaf and traumatized from all my yelling to even think.
Big news in my world peoples – I AM CRAWLING. As of January 4th, 2011. At 1:10 pm, when I casually decided to embrace mobility once and for all after a month or so of cautiously teetering on its brink.
Ammi and Papa gave me a totally radical jogging stroller that keeps my ride nice and smooth and lets Mommy navigate narrow coffee shops with ease. And motivates her to get out there in her jogging shoes again – she’s very excited. Daddy is psyched too because now he can take me for runs.
I dressed in my best suit for Popi’s celebration of life service. Here is my oh-so-handsome picture:
In more recent news, Daddy has an exciting job offer in NYC. We are not sure about it yet, so nothing is final, but it’s at least exciting that he has an offer! I might become a Brooklyn baby yet again!
I am now saying LOTS of syllables, and I am really excited about animals. Dogs in particular. I pat Falki and giggle when he licks my face. I’m not even scared when he barks! And I feed him Cheerios from my booster seat, which makes him my very special and devoted friend.
Sleep is less my friend these days than ever, which Mommy blames on my teeth and I blame on the world. Or at least, that’s what I make it seem like when I get so irate at night that I am kicking and screaming and sticking out my belly and jamming my legs straight so nobody can even hold me or comfort me, not even Mommy. I’ve been very wakeful and trying to crawl in bed at night which is no end of fun for Mommy, since she is my personal jungle gym in bed. Daddy is totally dull when it comes to fun in the middle of the night, or early morning. He just rolls over and grunts at my efforts to engage him by poking him in the face or crawling on his head. Mom is much more responsive to my attempts to ruin her sleep–I mean, PLAY! at 3:00 in the morning. It’s not because I make her wake up or anything by poking her, fussing and then climbing all over her. Which is my favorite time to attempt standing, over, and over, and over, and over again. And then again some more times!
We are all heading to Kentucky in a few days for Mommy’s clinical preparation trip. Daddy is going to be spending lots more time one-on-one with me than he ever has before – in the middle of the boondocks! Seriously, there is NOTHING to do out there! Mommy is a little concerned that the two of us will get lost in the woods, taken under the wing of a kindly mother wolf, and end up eating squirrel soup for dinner, but I assured her it’ll be okay. I’ll keep Daddy well-enough entertained that he won’t have time to go off hunting squirrels like he’s always secretly wanted to.
Just kidding, Daddy’s a vegetarian. He’s going to hunt the elusive lettuce leaf instead, found only in the wilds of the “hollers” of Appalachian Kentucky, didnt’ya know.
Then when we get back Mommy will be starting her clinical work and she is excited but very, very sad about leaving me at home. Although she is very happy I will be in the loving care of one Miss Molly G, who photographed my entrance into the world and so has known me longer than even Ammi! Mommy says she can’t talk about it much because she starts to cry. I just give her kisses and tell her she’ll be okay. She loves attending births and helping women have their babies in a safe, healthy, normal way. And she can smother me with kisses as soon as she gets home!
So we have thus far enjoyed a beautiful holiday season that is cold enough to make even Mommy (the biggest winter-lover around) happy. She is just waiting still on a first big snow and hoping it takes place on Christmas when we are at Ammie and Papa’s drinking hot chocolate and roasting ourselves by the fire.
Hanukkah opened the season early on December 1st and Mommy and Daddy had a few friends over for the first night of candle-lighting. Mommy made sufganiyot and latkes, both of which were sensational, and Daddy missed most of the get-together because of a group meeting. But it’s okay – I got an awesome pop-up book from another Eliyahu who came over (a grown-up), and I got to hang out with Mommy’s and Daddy’s friends. This included staying up WAY past my normal bedtime! Wee!
Mom's eggnog is bigger than me!
Unfortunately, my great granddad, who I call Popi, passed away on the first weekend of the month. Luckily, he was able to pass peacefully in the company of his whole family while listening to my Mimi singing along to the song playing – ”It Had to Be You” - while she held his hand. It was a beautiful death and we threw Popi a wonderful Celebration of Life at The Groves, where Mimi and Popi live. Ammie is sad, but we all know that Popi, who was sick for a long time, is in a better place now and that helps us.
Mommy’s cousin Ashley took some photos of me at the Celebration of Life, which Mommy will post later.
I keep meaning to get some pictures of Elijah in the foliage, but Harvard, being Harvard, leaf-blows the entire Yard about every five minutes, with the result that the Yard is virtually leaf-less every day. I kid you not.
I will be getting an IPhone before Clinical bound in January, at which time my picture posts will become far more frequent.
Toby had a good phone interview with a school starting up in East Harlem. He’s going in for a personal interview in week. This means there is a serious possibility of moving back to NYC. In some ways that makes me very sad and in some ways very excited. Mostly though, I get nervous about the logistics of coordinating a new clinical placement down there and the financial implications of living on one income in the most expensive city in the country until I graduate next fall-ish.
Elijah hasn’t shared his opinion yet on the subject. We think that’s because he hasn’t had the opportunity yet to compare Loui’s [Providence diner] to Bergen Bagels [Brooklyn bagel-ry extraordinaire, ie Mom & Dad's favorite Saturday morning spot]. And he isn’t quite able to appreciate Central & Prospect Parks yet. When he arrives at a verdict on the matter I’ll be sure to let you all know.
Toby also has a meeting on Saturday morning in Rhode Island where he will probably be offered a job. So we will inevitably have important decisions to make in the coming weeks!
The holidays approach!
We are celebrating in the Shepherd household by making paper snowflakes for our windows, making homemade holiday cards, and participating in general merriment and silliness.
Also, I’m starting to sing Christmas carols at the top of my lungs. This is perhaps the BEST part of the holiday season, just ask my husband.
Elijah is very excited about Hanukkah and Christmas. He will be receiving some very nicely wrapped shiny boxes for Hanukkah from Mommy and Daddy, and will be receiving lots of very nice gifts from his Ammie & Papa and perhaps his uncles at Christmas. One lucky little boy, I tell you that much! I can’t wait to get pictures of him tearing through wrapping paper, to unearth exciting gifts to which he will pay little if no attention since there is SHINY CRINKLY WRAPPING PAPER to behold! And consume! Or do his best to consume while Mom and Dad chase after him in vain attempts to prevent aspiration of tiny gummed-up wet bits of tissue paper.
Elijah is now pulling himself onto all fours from sitting-up, and rocks back and forth looking longingly at the objects I place just a little bit out of his reach. It’s as though he knows what he needs to do, but is just a little too scared of it to make any attempts quite yet. And that is just fine with me, for now! The longer he is NOT mobile, the easier my life is. He sits like a champ and has begun to grasp things with individual fingers rather than his entire fist. Everything is still moving directly to the mouth once it’s been picked up, but that pincer grasp is starting to emerge for sure! For some reason he has started to pick up bits of food I put on his booster seat tray, but almost is more excited by the simple fact that he can pick them up and loses site of the awareness that he can now put the food in its intended destination. And instead drops it, usually on the floor; all the while surveying his hand in its open state as though it’s possibly the most fascinating object on earth.
He rolls from front and back and back to front now, which is a new development. Formerly he rolled only from his front to back, which he started doing at about 6 weeks. But now he does both when prompted or given enough motivation – ie, if he sees my chest while I’m lying next to him in bed and I have the audacity to not be offering to nurse him. Can you imagine? What torture – it’s like sleeping next to an ice cream hose and being forced to wait til you’re ACTUALLY hungry again before being able to receive more ice cream.
I wish I could post videos on here, but my computer is somewhat challenged. And ancient. Toby and I decided we are going to wait to buy a new one until we can get a MacBook, which won’t happen until we both have salaries again, so unfortunately you all have to wait on viewing live-action motion pictures of my incredible edible son. He is getting very chubby again–must be preparing for another growth spurt. He is 18 lbs now. Wowsa!
In other projects I have also been compiling a photo album of all the pictures we have taken since Elijah was born, including the pictures Molly took at his birth. The birth photos so far take up about half the album we purchased, but they are amazing and so worth preserving in a safe spot rather than leaving in the cardboard CVS packaging in a shoebox with all the other photos from our lives. Reliving his birth brings me back all the feelings of awe and the exhiliration I felt in the first moments and weeks of his life. It’s such a mind-blowing experience – it really is like that card I saw recently in a stationery store where the cover read that having a baby was like winning the lottery and getting everything you want for Christmas all at the same time.
I will post new pictures soon. We have to get around to clearing out our HD and memory cards for the camera so we can fit new ones in!
Here are some of the wonderful results of our photo shoots with Molly Geiger, photographer and future baby-sitter extraordinaire. Some of you can expect to see these in your holiday cards in a few weeks!
Life is beautiful!
Eli got to wear TWO Halloween costumes. One for the Kennedy School family party, which was a $7 splendorous piece of awesomeness (aka the only costume left at Babies R Us at 1 pm on October 29th…they’d already replaced the rest with CHRISTMAS costumes!), and one in Franklin with a real costume Ammie bought. We think it’s Dracula, but nobody is really certain. Brendan pointed out it could be a magician’s suit, and I first thought it was a pirate costume:
And then we went to the burbs and celebrated Halloween in Shepherd style. Literally.
Do these hooves make my feet look big??
Much fun was had by all. Except the lamb, who didn’t really seem to know what to do with any of the shiny crinkly wrappers presented to him. He just knew it was past his bedtime and wanted nothing to do with the neighbors trying to snuggle him. After a long exhausting night of trick-or-treating [we visited one house], he fell asleep on Mommy’s chest and had a leisurely sleep in front of the fire at Ammie & Papa’s house. Mommy & Daddy considered it a successful night because they got to eat candy, a delicious homemade dinner AND chocolate-chip caramel challah bread pudding. YAY.
