I know that it has been awhile since we have posted and I will try to remedy that this weekend. When we left our heroes they were in the midst of a nasty cold and had just gotten their car stolen. Well the next week our nanny walked off the job. She just stopped showing up and wouldn't return our calls/emails. So we were back to square one with child care (which really wasn't a lot of fun the first time we did it). Anyway, we decided to try and stick with the nanny-share with Rick, Brooke, and Kennedy. After a furious weekend of interviews (mostly train wrecks), we have a new nanny that we all are very happy with. Doris is the Kenyan Mary Poppins as far as we can tell (and comes complete with her own British accent). Also, they found my car. It had the steering column stripped and some minor damage, but at this point it looks like I will be the proud owner of a 1997 Civic again. I was just getting used to the 2008 Camry rental car, too.
In honor of the black cloud being lifted, I have posted some random baby pics below. We will try to make the updates more regular.
 
I started my new position this week, at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. So I am now officially a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Although the main medical campus is in Baltimore (on one side is downtown, on the other side is an area that is being "reclaimed"...), the MPRC is located in Catonsville, a quaint little suburb town on the southwest side of Baltimore, just outside the beltway. Apparently Catonsville used to be the site of many Baltimorans' summer homes, because it is situated on the highest hill around and offered the best view around. The cities have grown to meet each other but as you drive up the back hill to my work, you can still see the inner harbor in the distance. Anyway, the MPRC is actually on the campus of the 2nd oldest continuously operating mental hospital in the country, Spring Grove, which was founded in 1797 (the oldest one is in Boston). In the slideshow, the 1st picture is the MPRC, the 2nd picture is the creepy old, boarded up asylum (a national historic landmark, so the state won't tear it down, but full of asbestos, so not safe to use), and the 3rd just shows some of the other buildings on the campus. It's actually a very picturesque setting, but it's a little creepy with all the old buildings and patients walking around, talking to themselves. Every morning in fact I'll be walking through a lobby where schizophrenics wait for their appointments. When I took Brent for a visit to my future workplace (I was still pregnant, but there was some paperwork to be dealt with and my new mentor wanted to take us to lunch in historic Ellicott City)), Brent remarked that the place was "really cool but looked like somewhere they should shoot a horror film". In fact, we found out that the Blair Witch Project was filmed there! However (little piece of trivia here), Blair, MD, is actually an hour west of Catonsville, past Frederick. The work I'll be doing will be supervised by Dr. Jim Koenig, a top-notch researcher and so far a very chill guy. He has developed the prenatal stress rodent model of schizophrenia, and my work will focus on how the prefrontal cortex is altered by prenatal stress, and what this can tell us about cognitive deficits (like working memory and executive function problems) in schizophrenia. I'm very excited to start on these projects!
 One thing that did seem to go well this week was the introduction of Aiden to his new nanny, Jessie, and the other baby in her care, Kennedy. Jessie graduated earlier this year from the University of Maryland Baltimore County with a degree in Psychology. She has an interest in child development and is taking some time off before graduate school while she figures out exactly what she wants to do (clinical, counseling, or educational psych, or research). She's already had a lot of experience being a nanny of infants--previous families include one with two twin 18 month old boys and another with a child with Aspergers and a younger sibling with sensory integrative disorder. She seems to be an extremely patient and easygoing person, and her references couldn't quit gushing about her. And we're really pleased with her so far--we think she'll be great for Aiden. Kennedy is a very bright and even-tempered 6 month old. Her parents, Rick and Brooke, both finished law school within the last 3 years. Rick is still a lawyer (works just across the border in Pennsylvania), but Brooke decided she just wasn't a paper-pusher, and decided to go back to school to get a master's in education. She joined a special program where she gets her classes at Hopkins paid for in exchange for her teaching in an inner-city school in Baltimore. She said she is one of two white people in the building (that's students and teachers included). She really loves it and finds it very rewarding, and is considering staying on in the ghetto after she finishes classes (just two more left). But no doubt it's a rough place--just last week, a kid who went to school there was shot in an altercation with police. Anyway, Kennedy lives about 5 minutes up the road, right on my way to work, which is pretty convenient. Every other week, Jessie & the kids will be at our place, and Aiden won't even have to get out of his PJs if he doesn't feel like it. Also we figure, what could be better for him than playing every day with an intelligent baby who's just one step ahead of him on those developmental milestones? The babies already seem to get along great. The day I was home with everybody, Aiden and Kennedy spent some time just grinning and cooing at each other. Kennedy likes to squeal pretty loudly when she gets excited and, after just two days with her, Aiden does now too. Oh well, guess you can't complain about your kid being a quick study :)
This was a big week for our family. I started my new job, so this was Aiden's first week with the nanny, Brent got slammed at work (this was probably his hardest week so far, with the longest hours) and then came down with a really nasty cold (woke up one morning and could barely swallow), which of course got passed to Aiden. Oh yeah, and our car got stolen. Here's how it went down: Brent somehow gets himself out of bed on Wednesday morning (day 2 of nasty cold) and, as he's drinking some tea, begins wondering how much frost he'll have to scrape off his windshield before the morning commute. He gets up to try to gauge this from the front window. Good news? No frost. Bad news? No car. Yes, that's right folks. Our car was stolen right from under our noses, in our nice quiet little Jewish Orthodox neighborhood. So, there are some frantic calls--first to the cops, then to a fellow intern to see if she can cover him for an hour or so, then to the insurance.... Around 8am, the new nanny (on day 2 of job), the other dad and his little girl, and the cop all show up around the same time (Don't worry Rick, you're leaving your 6 month old in a safe place!). I can't imagine what must have been going through everyone's mind. Anyway, the cops, the guy at Enterprise, and the insurance claim agent each told us that the Honda Civic & Accord models that came out prior to the keyless entry (which shuts the engine off if someone doesn't use the remote to get in) are the easiest and therefore most popular cars to steal. The insurance requires that we give the cops 30 days to find our car. Meantime Brent's driving a 2008 Camry rental to work. At this point we don't know what to hope for--our Civic was a '97, and we know that whoever stole it isn't taking good care of it. Do we really want it back? Without a garage, it seems likely it will just disappear again. On the other hand, that little baby was completely paid off. Anybody interested in selling one of their cars? Looks like we're going to be in the market. Welcome to Baltimore.
Phil and Tara had their annual pumpkin carving party this weekend. It was great to see everyone and especially all the little kids in their costumes. Aiden was sporting his first Halloween costume, a caterpillar. These pics are going to be the first that I break out for his future girlfriends. The thing that I realized is how hard it is to get 6-8 children to sit down for a picture without at least one breaking down in tears (check the pics for the visual evidence). Without any pre-planning you can see that there was 2 caterpillars, a spider, and an entomologist. All of the "bugs" are within 2 months of each other in age (actually the other caterpillar was born less than 24 hours after Aiden). Another thing that you will notice from the pictures is some of the pumpkins are pretty elaborate (zoom in and check out James' pumpkin with a character from the movie "Cars"--now that is talent). PS: The photos up right now are from our camera, but Phil has promised to send us the ones he took.  |
  
We don't have a lot to add this weekend, but Aiden has started to laugh. We think it is super cute for a 12 week old so we wanted to share it with our friends and family. Here is a short video of the little man laughing at daddy. Enjoy!
It seems like there is an epidemic of children being born among our friends and family, so I thought that I would send out a congratulations to everyone. First, to the Arbuckles (Chris and Michelle) who had a baby girl Addison Grace Arbuckle. For all you non-Chicago Cubs fans out there I will explain the name....Wrigley field sits at the corner of Addison and Waveland and Mark Grace is a famous ex-player (Chris is obviously a big fan). While we are on sports themed girl namess, I guess I should congratulate Dave and Bridget Larochelle (belated I know) who had another Chicago Bears fan in their daughter Piper Halas Larochelle (for the late great coach George Halas...Bridget vetoed Lovie I guess). I would also like to congratulate Chris's sister Nikki and her husband Craig who brought home their new boy Samual David Becker. Finally, to Chris and Lisa Hsu, who are proud parents of Zoe Joycelyn Hsu. As all the cool kids have started family blogs/websites, you can see pictures of Chris and Michelle's family and new baby (here) and the Drs. Hsu (here). By the way, for those of you who know them, Peder Lindberg and Colleen Conley are also expecting their first baby in February. Congrats guys!
My mom and dad were able to come out and see us again last weekend (I have been pretty busy in my new autopsy rotation and have been a little late getting the blog post up). Anyway, we all had a great time despite a few flaws in the plan. Saturday we went to Annapolis, Maryland to see the harbor, the naval academy, and a true historical city. I also thought that I was pretty clever leaving Baltimore for the day because there was a city wide marathon and (I had heard) a boat show at the harbor. Problem was that the boat show was actually in Annapolis and nearly the whole harbor was blocked off from sight (with a very hefty entrance fee I might add). We still enjoyed walking around the historic district and having dinner at Phillip's (I recommend the crab dip). Sunday, we decided that we would take a day trip to Sugarloaf Mountain (about 50 minutes from our house) and take in the view followed by some Maryland winery tours. The second flaw in our brilliantly laid plans was that an accident on the beltway ended up increasing our travel time with a very, very, very scenic route. We did make it up the mountain eventually and had time to hit the Sugarloaf winery at the base of the mountain for Mom and Dad's first wine tasting. You can check out the pics from our weekend by clicking on any of the pictures below. You will notice that Mom and Dad got some really incredible pictures of Aiden also.  |
  
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The final treat of our vacation was my cousin Elizabeth's wedding in Blacksburg, VA. She and Don, my new cousin-in-law (Aiden's new 1st cousin once-removed in law? woah.), met while Elizabeth was getting her master's in Aeronautical Engineering at Virginia Tech. Don also has a degree from Tech, in computer science I believe. Despite my total ignorance of either of their fields, and my sheer phobia of all things mathematical (except statistics...I know, I am a freak), I always seem to have a great time talking to these two. I knew something was up the first time I met Don, at family Thanksgiving a couple years back--I couldn't hear a word he was saying to my cousin way at the other end of the table, but he kept her giggling through the whole meal. I'd never seen her laugh so much. Big smiles were on both their faces again this past Saturday. Congratulations to you two love birds, and welcome to the family Don!
Click on the picture above to view the rest of the photos in the album.
The next stop on our big vacation was at the Peaks of Otter with Julie's family. "The Peaks" is a hiking and camping area in the mountains of western Virginia that Julie's family often went to when Julie was a kid. We stayed at the Peaks of Otter Lodge. We had a great view of the Sharp Top mountain and lake just outside our bedroom door. The deer were so tame they walked right up to our rooms. Over our four day stay we took a hike up to "Johnson's Farm", had dinner and a campfire up in one of the mountain campsites, and hiked to the top of Sharp Top mountain. Well....ok, Aiden and we took a bus most of the way up to the top--but hey not too many 10 week olds go to the top of a mountain. Julie's grandmother Polly also went to the top of the mountain with us and told us stories of how her and her classmates use to camp out on the top as teenagers. Unfortunately for us when we got to the top we were attacked by a swarm of angry flying ants--you can actually see them in some of the pictures if you look close. Other than the ants we all had a great time and we took a ton of pictures. Take a look at our photos by clicking on the four galleries below, including around the lodge (top left), the Johnson Farm hike (top right), camping out (bottom left), and hiking Sharp Top (bottom right). Oh yeah....don't worry there are plenty of baby pics especially in the first gallery. UPDATE: Julie has added captions to all the photos.  |
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Julie, Aiden, and I have had a busy week. It was my first week off during residency and we spent the week down with Julie's family in the mountains of Virginia. We started the trip off with a visit to Lexington, Va home of Julie's Alma mater Washington and Lee University. Julie's grandmother (Aiden's great grandmother) still lives in Lexington where her late husband, Edward Turner, was a Physics professor. Anyway, we visited several of Julie's old professors and toured the campus ("the hill" as they call it in those parts). Julie's mom and grandmother (Polly) also offered to babysit while we had a nice evening on the town to celebrate our upcoming anniversary. We enjoyed a pleasant dinner at The Southern Inn in downtown Lexington. Interestingly, when we came back to Polly's house the two veteran babysitters (6 children between them) were looking a little battle weary and were just sitting down to dinner at 10:30 pm. Anyway, click on the pics below to see the gallery from our trip to Lexington. UPDATE: Julie has added captions to the photos  |
 
Brian and Bethany came to visit this weekend. On Saturday, we went to the inner harbor and had lunch at a seafood restaurant right on the water called Rusty Scupper. Later we walked around the harbor which was actually kind of overrun with people because the New York Yankees were in town to play the Orioles. On Sunday we went to the Hampden neighborhood and ate brunch at the Golden West Cafe. Later we walked off our meal a little at the Johns Hopkins University undergraduate campus. Finally, we stumbled on to a wine and jazz festival in Mount Washington Village (a neighborhood near ours). Aiden did a great job all weekend, especially given how much running around we did. He must have been happy to be spending time with his aunt Bethany and uncle Brian. Anyway, it was great seeing those guys and we took plenty of pictures (click on a picture below to see the whole album). You can see in the first set of photos Aiden is sporting a Chicago Bears outfit. Chris and Michelle Arbuckle sent this out. Also, Brian and Bethany brought Bears gear with them. I guess my friends and family don't want him to have any confusion on where his allegiances should lie now that we live in Baltimore Ravens country. UPDATE: Brian and Bethany sent us the pictures that they took this weekend and they look great. You can take a look at their photos by clicking HERE.  |
 
This past weekend, we were lucky enough to have a visit from friends Lauren (some of you will remember her as a bridesmaid in our wedding) and Brian. They drove in from Morgantown, WV to meet Aiden and see a few sites in Baltimore. Friday evening we dined at Blue Agave, a sort of gourmet Mexican restaurant and tequila bar in a fashionable part of town here known as Federal Hill. On Saturday I took them to the Inner Harbor (a must-see for Baltimore newbies). Aiden was on his best behavior for both outings (meaning he slept through most of it). They brought Aiden the cutest little warm-up suit (complete with hoodie), which we're looking forward to breaking in when we go camping with the fam in the mountains of Virginia in a couple weeks. It's one size bigger than his current age but as you can see from some of the recent photos, it may fit him by then! (We were all struck by his size on Saturday at the harbor, when we were seated for lunch next to a family with a 6 week old, looking about half the size Aiden did at that age!) Lauren also encouraged my sweet tooth by bringing maple leaf shaped gingerbread cookies (Lauren's a fantastic cook, specializing in desserts...mmmmm.....I'm remembering her batches of Christmas cookies....) in honor of the autumn season. It didn't feel much like fall yet, though, down by the water in the blazing sun last weekend. Summer continues to rage here--it was 90 degrees this afternoon! Needless to say, I'm in heaven, loving the lengthy summer season here in the mid-atlantic (it's such a short season in central Illinois). Check out the photos below (or click HERE to view the whole album. yes, there are a bunch more baby pictures in it :) You all can thank Lauren and Brian for these! Lastly, we want to be sure to wish our sister-in-law Tracie a very happy birthday today!!! When I talked to her earlier, she had the day off from work and was on her way to go shopping....ah...life before babies :)
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We have been enjoying the fruits of all of Tara's hard labor in the garden this summer. (I guess it's early fall now? Hard to believe in a couple weeks it'll be October, although it's starting to really cool down at nights here now.). Pictured below are Lord (red) and Lady (pink) Baltimore hibiscus (or, as my Grandma Turner calls them, "Scarlet" and "Melanie"), which are currently in full bloom. It seems like every time one thing finishes blooming, another comes to life. It's truly wonderful. Inspired, I brought home some new additions from Watson's nursery last week--a limelight hydrangea and some purple coneflowers--but I'm worried they might croak before I even get them in the ground, since I didn't realize we didn't own a shovel (never had an occasion to need one at the condo back in Champaign!).  You would think in a week I could make it out of the house to buy a shovel, but as I was telling my friend Bethany yesterday, a simple thing like that can be totally impossible for a new parent such as myself. Take this blog post, for instance. The picture's been uploaded and ready for me to make comments since the 9th (it's very un-Julie of me to wait this long!). On another note, Bethany had called with some big news that I thought deserved highlighting. For those of you who met her and Jose at our wedding--those two crazy kids just got engaged! Congratulations, guys!! Hopefully this doesn't embarrass you too much :) Aiden is doing really well these days...grinning from ear to ear about just about everything. The little bugger just gets cuter all the time. My mom was here this weekend taking tons of pictures (she calls herself a member of his paparrazzi) and as soon as she sends us those we'll have more to share with you guys (hint, hint, Mom!).
In honor of the Jewish holidays, I thought that I would dedicate a post to our neighborhood out here in Baltimore. We live in a neighborhood in the northwest part of the city. It is interesting because it is predominantly an orthodox Jewish area. It is a a rather unique learning experience for Julie and I. Currently it is the season of some of the biggest Jewish holidays. Last week was Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and this weekend is Yom Kippur (the day of atonement). During Rosh Hashanah, many of the folks in our neighborhood participated in the Tashlikh. This a ritual in which participates cast pockets full of bread into a moving body of water to signify casting away sin. A fellow resident tells me that in New York her synagogue throws bread into the Hudson River, but in our neighborhood it is the Western Run Creek (a little mosquito farm about half a block from our house). Anyway, I didn't take any photos of the ritual but you can read further about the Jewish Holidays (here). Also, I scanned an image of an advertisement that was left on our front porch. It is "mini mishpacha" a doll set for orthodox Jewish children. You can get a feel for the conservative dress. An especially interesting custom is that they don't work from sun down on Friday to sun down Saturday (It's Shabbat dude!--the Jewish day of rest). In fact, I am told that work includes turning light switches on and off...and some even remove the bulb from the fridge....that's dedication. 
I was finally able to capture Aiden smiling on film (I have been waiting 6 whole weeks for this). Even though he has thrown a smile in here or there it has always been fleeting and tough to get on film. Incidentally, 50% of the time the smile has been followed by passing gas. Anyway, we were able to get some decent pics of him smiling in response to Julie sticking her tongue out at him. She also likes to tell him that his head is "a little bigger than a lemon, little smaller than a melon"...it gets him every time. Click on the picture below to see the whole series. 
Julie and I decided to enjoy our long holiday weekend by taking the 15 minute drive up to the Maryland State Fair. We treated ourselves to corn dogs and "lemon shake ups" but no rides for us this time. Julie (and Aiden) got to go to their first Thoroughbred horse race. In fact, we hoped to get a start on Aiden's college fund by doing a little betting, but alas, it looks like he's headed to a public university like dad...Anyway, check out the pics below. 
We had dinner at Phil and Tara's new house earlier this week. You can see pics of us with their two adorable children Maia (3 years old) and Leo (just over 1 year) by following the link (click here). I also tried my hand at adding video to the site. Below is a video of Maia singing "I have to Crow" from Peter Pan the musical. She knows nearly all the words to every song in Peter Pan and the Lion King (among others). Anwyay, I think this kid is going to be a star someday.
 A few days ago we introduced Aiden to the bottle--and he did great! (Sometimes breastfed babies will refuse the bottle, even when it contains breastmilk. But this kid doesn't care how he gets his food; he just wants to eat!). So...now *Daddy* can get up in the middle of the night to feed the little bugger. Oh, happy, happy day....
Andrew and Tracie came by last Tuesday to see Aiden and have dinner. It is nice to have some family this close (only 1 hour and 15 minutes door to door!). Anyway, we all had a good time and enjoyed delivery pizza from our new favorite place Mt. Washington Pizza (they have pizza, subs and Indian food so you know it must be good). Anyway, I have included some pics from their visit below. The first couple are of Aiden on a "tummy time" surf mat that Andrew and Tracie gave us. Apparently you are supposed to put babies on their tummy at least twice a day to build up their back and neck muscles. So we are not only strengthening little Aiden but also preparing him to have strong positive associations with surfing (Andrew has been all over the world surfing and is eagerly awaiting an apprentice). What you can't see in the pictures is that Andrew had to change shirts half way through their visit because the little man decided to break in his new uncle by peeing out all over him. I guess you christen new boats with champagne, but new uncles get urine. What you can see from the pics is that these two are naturals....(which reminds me I embedded a subliminal message in this slideshow--see if you can pick it out)    
There has been quite a bit of discussion on both sides of the family with regard to who our son looks most like, most of it very biased(....I'm looking at you mom). Anyway, I thought that the best way to settle this was to post representative pictures of both Julie and I when we were babies and let you all vote. By the way, I apologize for resurrecting pictures of some of you with haircuts that you wished would have stayed forgotten....Your voting options are: 1. He Looks like Brent! 2. He Looks like Julie! 3. I didn't know you guys adopted! I made the baby pics into a slide show (Note: this is a web link now), you can click on any of the pictures to get to the whole album or check captions if you are unclear who is who. Please leave your votes in the comments section associated with this post.    
Several people have asked about the murals on the wall of the nursery. I have to admit that we are not responsible (the east coast would have to be awfully magical to raise our artistic ability to this level...especially considering where it was starting). These were actually painted by the former owner of our house, Tara. Tara and her husband Phil were friends of Julie's in college. Every time we came to visit Baltimore we told them how much we loved their place, so when the opportunity presented itself we bought it. Tara is a fantastic artist and painted these murals for the nursery when their first child was born. The paintings are all based on Hans Christian Anderson stories, including: "The Ugly Duckling", "Thumbelina", "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", and "The Nightingale" (for a refresher on the plots of those stories click here). Outside the very unique interior design, Tara and Phil are a big reason why our transition to Baltimore has gone as well as it has. They have helped us with everything, including finding a pediatrician, OB, hospital to deliver at, and even advice on how to start this site (thanks again guys!). Anyway, check out the up close pics of the nursery walls below.
Just to get away from the hundreds of baby pics that everyone has been inundated with, here are some pictures that Andrew (Julie's brother) took in our front lawn. They are close ups of the butterfly bush we have next to our front porch...enjoy.
Julie's mom came up to Baltimore to help us out for a week or so. It was a tremendous help and we were treated to great dinners every night (That's right Steve, when she leaves the house she does the cooking). Anyway, Aiden was treated to long naps in grandma's arms and a paparazzi-esque flurry of pictures. Check them out below (just double-click on the picture).
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