Davis can add

Davis can now add. Well, he can at least put two and two together. Today he put together a bunch of the tummy-time movements he has been doing in isolation (getting his butt off the ground, pushing with his legs, etc) to figure out lunging. He surprised both of us by lunging and grabbing the power cord for the baby monitor while we were playing with him. Time to get our act in gear and baby proof (at least get the cords out of his reach).

New Photos

I took a few pictures of Davis this weekend while he was playing in his room. Here are some selections:

A mixed bag of a weekend

Saturday John, Davis and I went with our friends Jarasa, Dave and Siri to the Middlesex Fells for a hike in the woods. The weather couldn't have been better, it was beautiful and you could feel the start of autumn coming on. We've found it's much easier to dress Davis for going out in the sun now that the weather is cooler..we can use pants and long sleeves without him getting too hot (and of course, his 'Indiana Jones' hat). Davis had a fantastic time on Dad's back in the hiking pack. He occassionally reached out for trees if John got too close. We had a great time getting to know Jarasa, Dave and their daughter Siri. Siri and Davis had synchronized naps about halfway through the hike and slept for the remainder of it. Saturday night, Dave and Megan came over for dinner, we realized Megan hadn't seen Davis since the end of July! He impressed them with his sweet potato eating ability. We had to refill the bowl three times!!

Today felt like a growth-spurt for Davis. He napped most of the day (unprecedented amounts really) and when he was awake, he was eating. He had pumpkin today for the first time and loved it! For John and I it was mostly a chore day. Looking back, I did a crazy amount of cooking: French toast with goat cheese and orange fig spread and a broccoli roasted red pepper fritatta for breakfast. Then I made oat scones and roasted a sugar pumpkin for Davis (which I pureed and froze). I followed that up with quinoa muffins and red beans and rice. John made a mole enchilada casserole and I made a gargantuan fruit salad. We took a bunch of the food to our friends' place for dinner (they have a 2.5week old). When we got back I then assembled a strata for breakfast. I think I feel like I've caught up on my desire to cook. John removed the air conditioners from the windows and put up the wall decorations in Davis' room we ordered last week (pictures coming, I forgot to take some before Davis went to bed).

Breaking News: Davis sleeps through the night!!

Last night was the second night that Davis has slept through the night (in a row). I didn't want to jinx it, I still don't, but two nights ago Davis slept from 8pm to 4am and last night he slept from 8pm to 3:30am! This is biiig news for us. Even though he hasn't been eating at night recently, he's still needed comforting 2-3 times a night from John. We have no idea what's different, other than that he's just growing up and able to soothe himself. We've been trying to get him attached to a sleep lovey, so he can take it to daycare. However, this has had mixed results since when he does wake up at 4am he starts talking to his duckie and won't go back to sleep. He's also doing better sleeping at daycare. He had a 2-hour nap yesterday!

I'm just counting the hours until I can pick him up from daycare. I've decided to start taking Wednesday afternoons off to spend with him. If it doesn't rain, we'll be heading to a consignment store to shop for Halloween costumes, then we'll hit the Arlington Boys and Girls club to see about signing up for swim lessons, then Isis for teething toys (invariably, we have yet again lost some toys, which I'm sure will show up just after I buy new ones), then to the farmer's market!

Teeth: The better to eat apples with

We've had a busy, but the good kind of busy, weekend here at the Naegle household (of course, one of many Naegle households). Saturday we got to see our friends Vasu and Rachana for brunch (we made pancakes they made idli. We subsequently bought idli dough at our local Indian shop and they now know how to make pancakes)! Then last night, our friends AJ and Susan came over for dinner (and of course they brought their killer chocolate pudding and a fantastic Belgian beer). That visit was bittersweet as Susan is moving to San Francisco in early October, followed by AJ in December/January (although, the idea is we slowly move all our friends to the west coast and then we follow...Megan might be looking at postdocs in Seattle ;)

Today, we went for our fifth year in a row (we think we've gone every year), to the Brookdale fruit farm in Hollis, NH to pick apples. Unfortunately, it was very early season, so several of our favorite varieties weren't quite ripe (so we'll have to go again!). This was a fantastic opportunity to get together with some yoga mom friends I had made on maternity leave. It's a really fantastic group of women and of all the groups I had participated in over maternity leave, this one I really feel connected to and want to keep in touch with. Also, for the first time, John got to meet them and we got to meet their spouses! Below are the 'girls', left-most is Siri and her Dad Dave (mom not pictured is Jarasa), then Scott and Charlotte are center (mom Tara) and on the right is Jane, the oldest of the group (mom Edua and Dad John). Davis is quite a bit younger, Siri and Charlotte are two weeks apart and are about 7.5-8months and Jane is 9months. I think the thing I realized today that was so refreshing is that for the first time I have met non-scientists/engineers in the last five years (ok, a couple are scientists/engineers, but one is an architect, one an architecture photographer, a clinical psychologist and a business analyst)!

We tried Davis out in the backpack we had bought when I was about 36-weeks pregnant. He loved it! It was great that he could pick trees while Dad picked apples.













It went so well today, that we hope to hike next weekend (more like a walk in the woods..but it's a start).

The biggest news of the weekend (aside from me actually trying on a pair of pre-pregnancy pants and then subsequently wearing them, oh and that the University of Washington BEAT 3rd ranked USC) is that Davis has a first tooth! His lower right front tooth has broken the surface! He's also eating like a champ now. Tonight he scarfed down an entire serving of carrots in just a couple of minutes. We followed this up with some bubbles, which he LOVED and Lilly HATED. We also got to talk to Grammie on Skype. So you can see it was a big weekend for all of us, and the picture below pretty much sums up how we feel now.

New Pictures / Davis' Room

Davis' room is starting to take shape. Today we received the mats we ordered and I was super excited to put them down so he can start playing in there so I re-arranged the room (again) and moved a lot of the junk we had in there out. After Dinner, Kristen and Davis had some good playtime on the new mats. We're going to order some more mats and have a lot more work to do, but his room is starting to take shape. It is a little hard to see in the pictures below, but Davis can really sit for quite a while without any assistance if he is in the right mood.

Feeling scholarly

I had some surprising news this week, I've been named a Siebel Scholar. The scholarship is for a graduate student's last year of study and it focuses on students in Computer Science, Business, and now Bioengineering. My department was applying for the first time to the foundation, since they have only this year added Bioengineering to the foundation list. I had no idea what was going on, I was only asked for a resume a while ago (which I had made for another fellowship application...I'll tell that story later).

The most fantastic news of all is that my advisor, the department head, is responsible for choosing me as one of the five submissions for our department's scholars. In doing so, he had to make sure the candidates would be finished within 12months. That's right..my advisor just guaranteed I'll be done in a year! (Which was the plan..it's just a really really solid plan now).