World Travelers

Our little family has had a busy few days. On Tuesday, Eben flew to Germany to be with his twin brother who was injured in a suicide bombing attack in Iraq. Despite the full body armor, he sustained some injuries and was flown from Iraq to an Army hospital in Germany. On Saturday they flew to Washington D.C. where he will undergo more treatment and will thankfully make a full recovery. Eben returned home Monday night.

Meanwhile, we had plans to attend my grandmother's memorial service in Tennessee. She was 96 and had led a full life and it was much more to celebrate her life than anything. Since we used frequent flier miles, and planned our trip around Eben's work schedule, our flight was awful - leave at 6:30A Friday from Newark, return 11:59P Saturday. So I ended up booking a hotel in Newark for Thursday night and took advantage of its location by driving to NYC early Thursday and was finally able to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I love this picture of Edison with the Statue of Liberty in the background. I did the audio tour and learned to look at the Statue in a new way. My favorite epiphany has to do with her movement - she is actually walking forward and thrusting the torch up as she looks towards the "Old World" - what a sense of purpose!
A short ferry ride from New Jersey (or Manhattan) is needed to reach the monuments. What you don't see right now is about 100 6th graders going crazy on the top deck of the ferry. But if they're excited about a social studies field trip, I'm all for it!
On 3 of the 4 legs of our flight, I had an open seat next to me and Edison rode in his car seat. This worked very well. I was worried about our 4 hour layover in Chicago Friday morning. But luckily I happened upon an exhibit sponsored by the Chicago Children's Museum. It is a mini-museum based on flight - tons of stuff to play with and climb on. Here is Edison at the pilot's controls (not on the real plane - yet).
I booked us a nice hotel in Tennessee because I wanted to use the pool. Of course, we never had the time to swim, but the fluffy comforter and abundant pillows were really fun. Can you count all seven of Edison's teeth?
Tennessee was lovely this time of year - azaleas and dogwoods blooming like crazy. I was very happy to see my cousin Matt. Uncle Matt is a big fan of Edison, even using Edison's picture for his profile pic on Facebook - too funny! On a side note, Edison is starting to play peek-a-boo. He hides himself behind a towel - holding it up high with his chubby arms outstretched. (Unfortunately I am having trouble finding a picture of this.)

Naked Baby Alert

Eben took the camera with the other pictures of the week, so I hurredly took a few of Edison with our other camera today. Edison was all about being naked today - it was a struggle just to get him to hold still long enough to get a diaper on him. But you probably can't tell this because Edison has developed a love affair with the camera. No matter what he is doing, as soon as the camera comes out, he stops, stares, and smiles. No kidding - that is how I've gotten all of these wonderful pictures over the last few months. My friends think it is hilarious and it has now turned into a party game at play dates - Edison has never failed. So - here are just some pictures of him, nothing in particular going on.


Naked by the fridge.


Naked with a diaper clutch.

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Naked in the playroom in front of his favorite toy - a music table.

Naked in the bathtub.

Dressed (!) with his buddy Tomer. Tomer's mom, Maya, took me out for a belated birthday lunch today at a great restaurant (one of the few here) called Olio. We had a super time. Edison & Tomer made dopey faces at each other in their high chairs and banged on the table for more Cheerios...

Happy Easter

Edison & I had a little field trip last Friday. We met up with a bunch of other moms and kids at the Ray of Light Farm. After that, we visited Gillette Castle (it is really a castle, made out of stone and high on the banks of the Connecticut River) and also Devil's Hopyard State Park which is probably best known for Chapman Falls (lots of water running right now). It was a delightful spring day and the grass has finally turned green around here (but no leaves on the trees yet and only daffodils and crocuses out so far). The New England countryside was very charming indeed.

Here we are with a llama. Luckily no spitting took place (from any of those pictured). Note: Edison got ready for the farm by putting on his overalls.






Edison's favorite animal were the pygmy goats (just like his Nana, actually). He pet this one on the nose and had his fingers licked by this friendly little goat.

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We were treated to a yummy Easter Brunch with Eben's family, hosted by Carolyn. Here is the most recent picture of the Phillips cousins: (back row): Will, Amelia, Sarah and (front row): Lily, Ellie, Edison, and Harry.
Edison loved spending some quality time with his dad, now that Eben has finally recovered from strep throat.
He is getting pretty good at climbing the stairs, but still requires a watchful eye.

Brrr - baby it's cold outside!

Maybe rafting in upstate New York the first weekend in April is not such a good idea after all. You know what they say, "hind sight is 20-20." In this case, the weather report would have been a pretty good indicator, too. After a beautiful few days (which melted the snow pack), a dumping of rain (which began to flood the rivers), it finally decided to snow on us during our rafting trip. We were supposed to raft the gorge section of the Moose River, but apparently it was too high to be commercially rafted, so we switched to the Hudson River (10 miles from its source in the Adirondacks - not the yucky end in NYC). The Hudson was at 8-3, and is not rafted commercially above 8-5 (or so I'm told), so it was BIG water. I don't know if any of us actually enjoyed it, because we were literally frozen. I'm talking stumpy feet that are useless to walk on, fingers that can't work (I tried to give the guide my email to hook him up with WA rafting, but could not write - no exaggeration). Anyway, I think we have finally thawed out.
Thank you to Josh for organizing the trip (I think). And to Eben for providing the entertainment (fell out 4 times). Oh - and to the raft company for thinking to supply neoprene gloves.




Lyndsey & I - This is not our most fashion forward moment, but hey, on the river it is function BEFORE fashion!


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I'm sure there are a thousand possible hilarious subtitles for this picture, but I am suffering from brain freeze (see above paragraph for an explanation).
Edison with his lady friend, Wynnie. Thank you so much to Jon & Stacy for watching Edison while Eben & I went rafting. He had a blast & you really put our minds at ease!
Our uncle, Peter, came to visit this past week. We had a great time playing three-handed spades. He brought a laugh-out-loud funny book for us, Dave Barry's Guide to Life. Thanks, Peter!

April 2009 - Edison is 9 Months Old!

It is hard to believe that Edison is now nine months old. Being pregnant for nine months felt like a long stretch at the time. And it was amazing to think he went from two cells to a 7 lb baby in that time. But watching him grow and develop here in the outside world for nine months has been incredible. In some ways the time has flown by (wow - he looks so different than when he was a newborn), while in others it seems to lag (crying again?!). Here's a newborn shot to help you remember how far he has come:






He has achieved several notable milestones of late: 1) can climb stairs, 2) can feed self Cheerios, 3) SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT (mostly)! As you can see, I am ecstatic about milestone #3. Illustration of Edison's favorite sleeping position - light's out, butt up.











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So cute! (The cut above his left eye is from slipping while holding onto a baby gate - his stockinged feet did not have traction, slid out from under him while he was jiggling on the gate, and his head hit the bars on the gate. Luckily it looks worse than it is.)




He can sit on his knees now, too.










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