Kaya doesn’t have any actual cousins – so we’ve decided that second cousins and cousins once removed count as her cousins.  This weekend she met Tommy’s cousins Kelly and Joe, and Joe’s mom Jane.  Kelly and Joe were in town to catch some Red Sox games (although I imagine they are seeing more rain delays than baseball given the current weather).  Tommy made everyone some delicious chicken parmesan and Kaya was gifted a beautiful handknit hat from Kelly and two MIT onesies from Jane (that say cutie pi and MIT chick).  Thanks for the gifts and visit!

Tommy’s extended family was nice enough to invite us to a weekend in a log cabin in the Poconos over Labor Day.  It gave me some much appreciated help with Kaya for the weekend and the company was great, as always.  Our accommodations were top notch (we got lucky enough to get the master bedroom, complete with king bed, crib, and private balcony – having a newborn has its benefits!).  We checked out Lake Harmony and went tubing (well, Tommy went tubing.  I spent 5 minutes in the tube and then bailed to the boat), hiking, and hot tub lounging.  Overall, it was a great weekend.  Kaya did great the whole weekend, with the exception of the last 2 hours of our drive home when she screamed incessantly (we’re still not sure why – I think she was just sick of the car).

We got pictures of everyone with Kaya – this one’s my favorite because she’s looking back at Uncle Rich.  She’s really starting to make eye contact these days.

We’ve begun to get semi-comfortable with taking Kaya out of the house.  As of now, it still requires a delicately timed departure and some planning to do anything substantial.  And she’s still much too unpredictable to take her anywhere it’s a problem if she cries.

So far, we’ve been out to dinner a few times, including a nice dinner at Joe’s on the waterfront.  We’ve taken a few trips to Target, and gone to Staples, Rite Aid, and Trader Joes.  Kaya, Max, and I take daily walks to the dog park.  Kaya loves to be in her stroller as long as it’s moving, which results in frequent and extended walks around the neighborhood.

We’ve gone to the drive-in movie theater twice – we saw The Odd Life of Timothy Green and Paranorman.  There’s only two screens that play per night, so we didn’t get any choice in what movies to see, but we didn’t really care.  Timothy Green was decent. Paranorman was obviously made for kids and didn’t really do it for me.

Here’s a nice pic of Tommy and Kaya at the local Thai place:

Kaya received an unexpected and utterly adorable gift in the mail today – her own Kaya-sized chair, complete with personalized embroidering.  She loved it immediately, although it may be a while before she’s crawling in and out of it.  A big thanks to Jamie, Ashley, and Tammy for the gift!

I’ve been a little busy over the last two months.  I finished residency.  Started a job as an attending hospitalist.  Had a baby.  And through it all, I attempted to study for the internal medicine boards – an 8 hour multiple choice exam that determines whether I can be a “board certified” doctor.  It’s essentially the last step in becoming fully credentialed as an internist.  Well, I’m happy to say that they are OVER!  And now to enjoy these blissful weeks between now and when I get my scores.

A big thank you to everyone that’s helped me find some time to study (or actually helped me study) along the way.  Thanks to Tommy who took care of Kaya today and brought her over for a quick lunchtime nursing session mid-test.  And an especially big thank you to Kaya, who has been read nothing but internal medicine review books since she was born.  I promise we’ll move onto Dr. Seuss and Goodnight Moon now.

I’ve learned a lot of things in the past three weeks.  For example, diapers are expensive.  Showers are sometimes hard to come by.  Carrying a baby plus a carseat up to a third floor walk-up apartment is not very easy.  It’s possible to give birth to a 6 pound baby and somehow lose less than six pounds.

Another thing I learned is that babies don’t have very good control of their eyes at birth.  While they can see, they can’t focus very well and commonly look cross-eyed.  They also don’t make eye contact, except by accident, and don’t track voices very well.  This is reminiscent of my days as a medical student on the psychiatry service.  I saw a lot of patients with schizophrenia, and I would know when they were hearing voices in their head, because all of a sudden they would look over my shoulder or to a corner of the room where nobody was, and appear as though they were listening to something.  Well, Kaya does the same thing.  I call this her schizophrenia look:

A big shout out to Aunt Laura, who spent over two weeks here helping make Kaya’s introduction to the Rose family a whopping success.  We are forever grateful and Kaya is looking forward to many more visits from awesome Aunt Laura.

We had trouble coming up with a thank you gift for all of her help.  As a start, we are financing the education of her new family addition (aka, sending Piolin to obedience classes!).  Here’s why! (Note: she is actually a very awesome dog who is very well behaved except for a few habits she picked up on the street in El Salvador).

The term “Grandma Barbara” was coined this week as the appropriate term for Kaya to call her beloved grandmother (this was per grandma herself’s request).  Well, Grandma Barbara made her first appearance this week and was enamored with Kaya just like the rest of us.  Grandma Barbara was also very useful around the house – we are well fed and have a clean house and bathroom!  Thank you!

We especially like the following photo.  Kaya decided to make a massive shart right as we were taking this picture.  You can see Grandma’s reaction.  (Sidenote: “Shart” is a term that is very popular in the Rose household these days – for those less informed, think creatively about what two words combine to form the word “shart”)

Kaya got to spend some quality time with her new grandparents this week.  What a lucky girl!