Cost of signing up for a gym membership: $29.99
Monthly cost of gym membership: $89 (yes, it’s the nicest gym in the world)
Childcare at the gym: $6 per hour
Parking on the street outside: $1 per hour
Feeling like a person again by working out AND showering while someone else watches the baby: Priceless

Kaya hiked her first portion of the Appalachian Trail this week.  She also enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Vermont in September (mainly by napping on the porch instead of the living room).  Many thanks to Laura and Dylan for being excellent hosts and helping take care of Kaya. Tommy came up for the weekend and we spent Sunday at Dylan’s grandfather’s old hunting cabin at Tinmouth Pond (which they refer to as “camp” – apparently it’s a New England thing to call your cabin by the lake “camp”).  Max reaffirmed his love-hate relationship with his new immigrant cousin Piolina.  And Kaya outgrew her newborn diapers.  Overall, a fine time was had by all.

Just an FYI to our blog groupies (aka mom), the gallery is now officially up to date with all of our recent pictures.  Go nuts! (Link above)

Laura and Dylan came to visit on their way back from Maine.  We spent a couple of days in Boston and then headed up to Vermont to show Kaya a good time.  The ride up was a bit crowded but we got there eventually!  The dogs rode in the trunk and the suitcases rode on the roof. We thought about letting the dogs ride on the roof but we heard recently that that is typically frowned upon.

I’m pretty sure that Kaya fits into the category of  a “good” baby.  She doesn’t cry all that much and is overall pretty happy.  However, occasionally (typically in the evenings) she gets worked up and it takes a little while to figure out how to get her to stop crying.  First, I try to feed her.  When that doesn’t work, I go through my list of other possibilities and typically this includes a diaper change.  She will usually increase her crying during the diaper change as usually that’s not what’s ailing her.  However, sometimes mid-change, she will suddenly stop crying.  You might think that this would be a good thing.  But, after 5 weeks I’ve finally learned that this signifies impending urination.  My lesson to you: If the baby is screaming and stops during a diaper change, she’s about to pee all over herself and all over the changing table so make sure she’s got a diaper under her.  I learned this the hard way.  About 10 times.

Photography by Nigel_Jones

Today was the annual HMED picnic at Larz Anderson Park in Brookline.  HMED stands for hospital medicine and is the name of the hospitalist group at BIDMC for which I now work. I knew that many members of our group have had kids in the last few years, but I was SHOCKED at the sheer number of kids in attendance.  The group has about 45 hospitalists, and there must have been 10 babies present under 1 years old and many more kids less than five.  Here’s a picture we took of all the kids (and many of the parents to hold the kids).

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!

Today, I had the pleasure of bottle feeding Kaya, so suddenly I was the supplier. Hahaha, I will buy your love with a freezer full off frozen milk.

You see, I’ve developed a great mental framework for predicting how Kaya will act in response to different situations: I pretend she’s a heroin addict, milk is her white devil, and Tracy is her supplier.

Kaya in early stages of milk withdrawal

It’s great. For example, suppose kaya wakes up from a nap and I’m the closest person to her. You might think she would look at me and smile, but that would be a mistake. Instead, think like a heroin addict. She’s coming off of a great high, and now she’s deep in the valley of dispair. She’s waking up and suddenly the world seems cold and boobless. Where will her next fix come from? She has to have it now! Who the heck is that guy?! That’s not mom. Ahhhhhhh! That’s a much more accurate picture of reality.

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: