bug bites (“buh-buh”)

We had a little scare today as Elijah’s two little bug bites on his arm, at first looking like red, swollen mosquito bites, began to form a ring and then a wheel shape.  The local pharmacist this morning told me he thought they should be examined immediately, as they could be Lyme tick bites.  My heart was sent pounding over that, and had to spend some minutes in prayer…  I brought Elijah to see our pediatrician in Boston where he was examined.  Elijah impressed the doctor by pointing to the bites and saying proudly “buh-buh.”  They taught him to say “bug bite” at Wiggly Warriors on Friday when we first noticed the bites.  The doctor determined they were most likely spider bites.  Since the Little Man is acting perfectly normal, happy and active, with no swelling, itching, pain or fever, there is no concern.  We just need to keep an eye on them and him.  Praise God for that!
Now for some growth stats… though they didn’t measure his height, Elijah did get weighed.  Since he can stand on his own, the nurse brought out the tiniest little scale I’ve ever seen.  It looked like an adult scale you step on, only in miniature.  Elijah stood very seriously on the scale to be measured.  Our big boy is a whopping 14.0kg (30.8 pounds!)

NOTE: at a later doctor's visit, this weight was discovered to be incorrect.  More like 20 pounds.  Much more realistic! Our pediatrician blamed it on student interns. :o)

apple cider pancakes

Use for apples #1: eat ‘em!

Use for apples #2: Apple cider pancakes for dinner!

Now our house is filled with warm apple, cinnamon baking smells… it smells just like Fall… and it’s heavenly!

apple picking at Russell’s Orchards

We embraced the early arrival of Fall in New England by spending the afternoon at Russell’s Orchards in Ipswich, Massachusetts (just a couple of towns over from ours.)  The weather was gorgeous, the apples were sweet and perfectly ripe, and the smell of hot apple cider donuts greeted us on our arrival at the farmhouse.

Elijah’s highlight was the hayride we took to the apple trees, driven by a tractor, of course.  He was in awe.

 

And eating apple after apple…

 

He walked around clutching an apple in each hand…

which was good because it kept him from picking up all of the apples on the ground he saw.

Sharing an apple with Mama.

 

I love this picture of my two boys!

  

We sat by the pumpkins outside the farmhouse and drank hot mulled apple cider and ate hot apple cider donuts, which were perfect—not too sweet, crisp on the outside, moist on the inside, just the right spice and fresh out of the fryer…  Elijah had his first taste of apple cider donut and loved it, of course. 

Now… what shall we do with all of our apples?

Lake George

Last weekend we were blessed to be able to join our good friend Ed at his in-laws’ cabin on Lake George in New York. For years I have been wanting to visit the lake, ever since driving past it on our way back from a wedding. The lake is situated in the beautiful Adirondacks mountains and is a long sliver of a lake. Ed and Julie’s family’s cabin is located right on the water with a great view out any window.

(I have to apologize for the water mark on some of the pictures. I’m experimenting with what’s called High Dynamic Resolution (HDR) pictures, where you can take pictures with different exposures and combine them together.)

The first night there, we stayed up late catching up with Ed and checking out the amazing stars. The below shot is just after sunset with a 30 second exposure.

On Sunday morning I got up early to see the sunrise which was spectacular.

 

Later in the day huge storm clouds came rolling in…

Overall it was a great time with Ed, as well as visiting a beautiful area.

“I like to move it move it”

Jamie, Elijah, myself, and a new friend from Gordon Conwell named Yukari, were visiting a local supermarket and were checking out birthday cards when we came across a card that played the “I like to move it, move it” song. Elijah loves this song and begins to jump and dance when he hears it. We recorded a bit of video showing him dancing in the cart to the song. Again, and again and again.  After each time the song played, he’d sign “More!  More!” with a grin on his face. (Sorry the first part of the video is a bit overexposed). The link to the video can be found here:

blueberry delight

Does it get any better than this?

Labor Day Fun

Labor day for us was the opposite of the name. We started the morning out with breakfast at Cracker Barrel, a half store/half restaurant that serves decent sweet tea, great biscuits, and an excellent breakfast. Although some may laugh getting to the nearest Barrel for us is an hour trip and only attempted on special occasions where we can linger over our beverages and breakfast. We enjoyed our Cracker Barrel. On the way back from breakfast we stopped by the Lexington Minute Man park for a hike along the historic route the Red Coats took on the famous day the shot was heard around the world.

Elijah enjoyed checking out every tree and rock…

 

and a shot of my beautiful wife in a beautiful setting…

After heading home for lunch and a nap for Eli we set out for the North shore town of Rockport, an artist colony with a lot of character. You cannot go to Rockport without taking a picture of the lobster shed, the purported most photographed motif in the world (though I find it hard to believe).

After visiting Rockport we stopped by a state park that used to be an old granite quarry.   After parking the car you hike through a small wood to the quarry with a beautiful view of the Atlantic beyond.

Overall it was a great day and not a whole lot of labor.

Ocean Lawn

Jamie, Eli, and I decided to seize the Labor Day weekend by doing some hiking at Ocean’s Lawn on the North Shore on Saturday. Ocean’s lawn is a 10 minute drive from our house and is a nature preserve where you hike through a mile of woods prior to emerging onto a large grassy area overlooking the ocean. We put Elijah in the Becco and made the quick hike out.

Elijah enjoying a hike through woods

Showing a little love to Mama

Elijah “talking” on the phone

 
how big is Elijah!

mopping

I had a little helper working for me this morning.  He mopped the floors.

I think he’s decided that he’s slacked off the first 15 months of his life, and it was about time he pulled his weight in household chores. He took his job very seriously!!

origami sushi

When Jeremy came back from his trip to Japan, he brought me a pack of origami paper that he had purchased just off a restaurant-supply street.  The paper is specially printed so that when you fold the pieces correctly, the pattern lines up. 

Of course I had to make all the different pieces.  Looks pretty realistic (and tasty!), doesn’t it?  Leave it to Japan to come up with something like this!

Dave’s corner office

David has a new office! A corner office, too!  He’s moving up.  Well, upstairs.  You see, some days David likes to work from home, save a couple of hours and skip his (over an) hour commute, eat lunch with us, and see his little guy and me when he takes a break.  He has been finding it pretty hard to concentrate, however, working in our living room with a very active toddler (and to be honest, I’m not so good at ignoring him so he can work, either.)

We figured that he could carve a little workspace in his closet just off our bedroom, which happens to have a window with a view of the gorgeous garden out back.  He’s got quite a set-up with two monitors, wireless internet, and I told him if he stomps his foot twice, I’ll bring him up a cup of tea. Ha ha!

Elijah thinks his Daddy’s office is a great idea.  He wakes up running and sneaks past the curtain to climb on the chair, bang on the keyboard, and click the mouse.  He even drew his Daddy a picture on the desk with a pen left open just for him… Hmmm.

Here are some pictures of David working (that I interrupted him to take.)  Not bad, huh?  Just don’t call it his Work Closet.  It’s his “Corner Office.”

“smarty-pants”

“Your son’s a smarty-pants!” the church nursery workers told me this morning when I picked up Elijah after the service.

When I dropped him off, he had excitedly toddled over to the Tonka trucks he loves so much.  Yet, the workers told me, as the morning went on, Elijah began to fuss.

“Mama?” he asked sadly.

“She’s coming soon,” the workers told Elijah.

“Na-na?” he asked.

“She’s coming soon.”

Apparently this exchange repeated several times, with Elijah growing more upset and impatient each time. Finally, as they tell it, Elijah marched over to the cubby holes, pulled out his diaper bag out of the sea of others, reached in and pulled out his monkey lovey.

He raised his monkey in the air triumphantly, looked at the workers and declared, “NA-NA!”  He then cuddled it close, knowing what he needed to comfort himself.

Smarty-pants, indeed!

The Small Sat Conference

The week following the trip to DC, I attended the Small Sat conference in Logan, Utah. Small Sat is known as one of the best conferences in the world in dealing with satellites the size of a dinner table to the size of a toaster oven.

I was able to attend the conference with two guys from my lab. We landed in Salt Lake City and drove the few hours up to Logan, Utah where the conference was held. On the drive we stopped at Snow Basin for a little hiking. 

 

After hiking Snow Basin we drove a little dirt rode over the pass from the Salt Lake valley to the Logan valley. It made for a lot of dust, but a beautiful drive.

I’d show pictures of the conference, but if you can picture a large room with lots of people listening to a speaker, you’re good to go. We made the most of the conference, though, attending all of the sessions and visiting all the booths, but the good pictures come from the things we did before and after the conference started, such as the sunrise we saw hiking to Wind Cave one morning,

or the sunset from the Utah State campus…

After the conference we drove out to the salt flats where teams were setting up for Speed Week where they will attempt to beat the land speed record. 

That night we slept out in the middle of nowhere in order to see the stars, satellites, and UFOs.

Not the best shot of stars, but you can see the milky way on the left. 

Our UFO sighting (below): This was a long exposure shot where some object flew through the exposure twice with bursts of light that dropped off and then disappeared. We have no idea what it was.  We even talked with some people connected with Air Force jets, and they didn’t know.  Mysterious!  We think it was a fighter jet with an after burn like we’ve never seen… maybe practicing dogfights?  There was an Air Force base nearby.  Or maybe it was aliens.

Although, it was a great trip, it was nice to be getting up at 5:00 am to make it back to the Salt Lake airport, Boston, and the little fam.