Bookworm

Books are one of Owen's favorite things. He likes all kinds of books: cloth books, paper books, board books. He likes to open them and turn the pages. He likes to look at the bright colors. He likes to eat them. The corners are especially tasty.

Got milk?

The (not so) lazy days of summer, Part II

Goodbye, one more time, to this summer of babyhood. Goodbye, daytrips to the beaches of Cape Ann, Cape Cod, and Westport. Goodbye, summer of the iPhone, the Baby Bjorn, commuting on the M2. Goodbye, David Beckham vs. the New England Revolution, Red Sox vs. Yankees in Fenway Park, Rhino League volleyball. Goodbye, trips to Vermont, Philadelphia and New Haven, visits with friends from New York, San Francisco, Michigan, and family from all over the world. Goodbye, swaddling, learning to roll over, babble, eat food, and sit up.

Hello, fall!

Look Ma, no hands!

Owen tends to focus on one new thing a day. This morning, we practiced sitting up with minimal assistance for balance, and he did great. Then when I picked him up from school, they said he sat, again with minimal assistance, and played the piano (!) for about 20 minutes - an extraordinarily long time for him. Tonight when we came home, he did it again - with no assistance whatsoever - for several minutes... long enough for me to take his picture. And then he fell over and practiced crawling and smiling.

The (not so) lazy days of summer

Now that it's September in Cambridge there's no denying that summer is over - the streets are crowded with students, there's a (relative) chill in the air, and there are even some leaves starting to fall. I can't believe Owen's magical first summer has come to an end.

The daily grind

Since I went back to work at the beginning of May, Owen and I have developed a routine. Nearly every day, I strap him into the baby Bjorn and head off to catch the Harvard shuttle bus that takes me from Cambridge to the medical school in Boston. On the bus Owen smiles at the other people, tries to grab their newspapers, and occasionally fusses, cries, or spits up on both of us. I get out at the Fenway stop, where his daycare is, to drop him off, and then I walk the rest of the way to lab. At the end of the day, I walk back to pick him up, walk back to catch the shuttle, and we ride home.

Now all that is changing, because he's going to a new daycare here in Cambridge starting Tuesday. And thank goodness, because lugging around a 16 pound baby plus a bag full of milk is pretty exhausting, especially in the heat of summer. But I've gotten used to sharing my commute with Owen, and I'm going to miss him. I'm going to miss seeing the faces of the throngs of Japanese tourists light up as we pass them in Harvard Yard every morning. I'm going to miss the mix of delight and annoyance that he causes on the bus when he tries to eat other commuters' reading material, or screams because we stop for too long at a red light. And I'm already nostalgic for this precious time when he is still so little that I can carry him around with me everywhere I go.

The photo is from May, when he was still small enough to ride in the baby Bjorn facing me. Now he faces out, to see the world.