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My choice for a 5-year anniversary gift was a weekend away - I wanted to get back into sightseeing so we can see a bit more of Europe before eventually moving back to the U.S. We'd traveled with Eric before, but always to visit family, so this was our first real "trip" with Eric, staying in a hotel and all that.

We went to the French town of Dijon, about 3 hours away from Geneva. We left Friday evening, spend Saturday and Sunday morning in Dijon, and Sunday afternoon in Beaune before heading back Sunday night. It was a great trip! We're learning that Eric would much rather be outside tooling around than sitting at home. Home is just too boring for him, he's seen everything already!

We happened to be in Dijon on the day of Fete de la Musique, France's national day of music festivals. The music was a little loud for Eric, but we still stayed for a little while before heading back to the hotel. And Dijon's museums are free, which was great with a baby! We could go in for as long as he would let us and we didn't worry about wasting 20 euros on 10 minutes in an art museum. We saw the requisite several churches, spent some time in some pretty parks, and even managed to eat dinner in a brasserie while Eric chilled in his stroller.

Sunday we drove through the Bourgogne vineyards to the town of Beaune, a big wine place. We had a nice lunch, went to the museum of wine, which was interesting (albeit with very dated displays), and even did a wine tasting. The tasting was a total ripoff (the Lonely Planet, unusually, steered us wrong there), but you have to get suckered once per trip, right? It also re-confirmed our knowledge that we are just not wine people.

Next up is a trip home to the U.S. in July for my sister's wedding and to visit family. And in August we'll have to take another weekend trip!

Flickr has a few more photos of the trip.

I only get to write once in a while these days, and when I do write a feature article it's almost always for symmetry magazine, a particle physics publication from Fermilab and SLAC (thus it's available for free). Occasionally articles from symmetry get reprinted in other publications - I wrote an article on neutrino detectors for the very first symmetry issue in 2004 that was reprinted in the Italian science magazine Newton.

Even so, I was pretty surprised when one of my co-workers who scans publications for LHC-related articles tells me that my article appears in this month's issue of Engine Magazine! Having obviously not written something specifically for this magazine (I'd never even heard of it), I assumed that my symmetry article from last year had been reprinted. I picked it up from her office, and not only is my article in there, it's the cover story. And people have to pay 8.70 euros (real money, not just dollars) to read it! It's an interesting publication, apparently aimed at teaching technical English to German engineers. Words are italicized throughout my article, and in two places there's a little English-German key to tell readers what the words mean.

Once in a while I get to feel like a real journalist :).

Eric's now old enough to ride in the backpack, so we've tried it out twice now. This is the Snugli version, but we also have a big old hiking backpack that we haven't quite figured out yet. We're happy that he seems to like it, at least as long as we're in constant motion! Now we just have to build up our strength so that we can take those long hikes we've been missing. Somehow it's a bit more tiring with 20+ extra pounds on your back.

This photo's a little misleading. Eric's not smiling because he's in the backpack (with an adorable hat on), but because he's in one of his very favorite places - the stairway. It's very funny, every time we enter or leave the house he looks around and smiles like crazy. His other favorite place (besides outdoors) has got to be Mom and Dad's bed. Somehow despite our resolutions, he ends up in there most mornings...

Adam put up a new video last night - this one is of the end of Eric's first meal. (Mom and Dad's video skills weren't so great at the beginning, so we present to you only the end...) Not nearly as cute as the last video, but not bad. His first meal of bananas was two weeks ago. Unsurprisingly for the baby that LOVES to drink his bottles, he caught on to eating pretty quickly. Since then he's tried sweet potatoes (yuck at first, but he's getting used to them), apples (yum), avocado (yuck yuck), and mango (yum). We're actually thinking of taking a solid food hiatus for a couple of weeks and trying again later - Eric's always been a big spitter-upper, but it's been even worse since he started eating "solid" foods. (Plus now we have the lovely sight of spitup full of mango bits or orange-stained from sweet potato.) We'll see....

Today marks our five-year wedding anniversary. It's even on the same day of the week, and once again a horse is going for the Triple Crown. (We wish this horse better luck than the one that went for it - and didn't get it - on our wedding day). Our parents say the weather in upstate New York isn't anything like it was five years ago - hot and humid instead of cold and rainy! Of course many other things are much different than five years ago - living in a different country, new jobs, new baby...

It's been a wonderful five years of married life (well, mostly :). Our very low-key celebration today was looking through the wedding photos. It's amazing how much younger we (and many others) looked only five years ago! I can't imagine what we'll be saying on our 10 year anniversary.

Eric turned six months old yesterday. Adam and I can hardly believe it. I glanced at a few pictures from his second and third months, and I can't believe it's even the same baby - he looks totally different!

The big six-month milestone was real food. We cheated a little and started one week early, but he was definitely ready for it. So far the scorecard on foods is:
bananas - loved them!
sweet potatoes - not so sure. he'll eat them, but makes a face every time.
applesauce - liked it, but the jury's still out on whether it likes him.

He's also learning to drink from a cup, but plain water just won't do it. A few drops of apple juice, and he can't get enough.

What else has been happening lately? He was rolling over like crazy in the middle of May, but seems to have completely forgotten the skill. I know they can move on to other things, but we're back to him lying on his tummy and crying until we roll him over! On the other hand, he can sit up on his own for pretty long stretches of time, as long as he doesn't try to get a toy off to the side. And he LOVES standing up holding on to someone's hands. He even managed to stand up for more than a few seconds yesterday holding on to the couch!

He loves the outdoors - he can be crying inside even when being held, and the instant you go on the balcony he's happy. He's sleeping great at night - we can count on 8:30 to 5:30 at least (8:00 to 6:15 if we're lucky), then another hour or so after his morning bottle. Okay, so Mom or Dad probably has to get up once or twice during the night to put the pacifier back in, but that's not so bad! And he's even making progress on putting the pacifier back in himself (Mom and Dad's second-highest dream right now, right after getting rid of the pacifier altogether).

And he's really exploring with his hands - grabbing or touching everything in sight. Toys, doors, windows, computer keyboard, Mom and Dad's plates and bowls (the days of eating with baby on lap are numbered). And of course everything goes in his mouth if it can possibly fit.

He's smiling and laughing all the time, and we couldn't be happier. We'll see what the next six months bring!

Just to let you all know that there are many new pictures up on flickr from our visit to the good old US of A two weeks ago. Many of Eric with relatives, and my sister's wedding shower, and the memorial service for my grandmother. Eric met many new relatives at the service, including his great-grandfather Miller. I think they got along pretty well!

Lots of big things have been happening lately baby-wise, but I have to upload some new photos to go along with that story, they'll show up here soon. Today I'm feeling especially happy toward Eric, as he had one of his rare nights - slept all the way through from 8:30 until 6:10, without waking up at all!

Adam's also noticed that I haven't taken one photo of the garden yet this year, whereas last year I took hundreds at every stage... I finally did some weeding this weekend, so I'll have to take a photo soon. Needless to say there's alittle less time for gardening this year!

Oh boy, it's been over a month since I posted something. Work-childcare-work is pretty exhausting, so this will probably be the pattern for some time to come... New photos show up essentially weekly at my flickr site, so if you're looking for regular updates that's probably the better place to go. But I can't embed videos there, so here you go! This was taken during last week's trip to NY to visit the family. It was a non-stop week, my sister's wedding shower, grandmother's memorial service, Adam's brother's graduation. Eric held up remarkably well - the time difference is always better going that way than coming back (it's easier to keep him up a little later each day than to try to get him to go to bed a little earlier).

Before the video, a quick update on the boy - he's now rolling over front to back pretty well, and even managed back to front once this morning. He's still gaining weight like crazy, so we went for a 5-month appt to talk to the doctor about it. When he starts solids - probably next week - he'll only get veggies and fruits, no cereal. (As she said "when adults want to lose weight, they eat lots of veggies. Cereal is for the...thinner babies.") We're not really that concerned - he doesn't really look overly chubby, just cute-baby chubby, but if the trend continues he'll be off the charts soon for weight (he's already above 80%). We bought a new car seat at home as he's about to grow out of the first one! He's a much happier baby these days, as evidenced by the video below. He only cries when he's hungry, which seems to be every 3 hours maximum (another reason we're going to start solids a couple weeks earlier than the dr's recommendation of 6 months). First we need a high chair, that's a project for next weekend... He got to sit in one for the first time at the grandparents' house, and he loved being up with the big people and getting all his toys in front of him.

So, back before Adam went back to work and illness struck (i.e. two weekends ago), we actually took our first day trip with Eric. We drove to Lyon, which is nominally about 2 hours away, assuming you don't do what we did and accidentally take the long way there on back roads. We went to the Parc de la Tete d'Or, a huge park that has botanic gardens, rose gardens, a pond, a zoo... We had lunch in the park and walked around the zoo. It was a beautiful day, pretty warm for March, and we had a good time!

When we were tired of walking, we visited what is reportedly (at least on Wikitravel) the largest mall in France. It was a reasonably big mall, certainly not huge by U.S. standards but impressive for around here! It was completely jam-packed on a Saturday evening, though. We walked around, bought Eric a couple of small things, had sandwiches and ice cream, and headed back to the car for a bottle and the drive home.

Eric had an especially good time because he got to spend the day in the car or stroller, his two favorite places in th world (besides Mom or Dad's arms).

There are a bunch more photos on flickr, of the Lyon trip and other stuff. You can see him sleeping through lions, zebras, elephants and monkeys....

So I had a few ideas of non-baby-related things to post over the last week, but then it turned out to be one of those really tough weeks. Adam and I were exhausted (as previously mentioned) getting into the new schedule, and then Eric's new exposure to other kids resulted in his first cold. I won't go into all the details of the French response to colds here, suffice it to say they take them VERY seriously and believe strongly in sending babies to kinesiologists for respiratory therapy. (they push on the baby's chest until they scream to force out the stuff. they claim it's harder on the parents than the kid. i'm not so sure.) Oh, and in suppositories.

Anyway, that started Thursday, and then Adam fell ill on Saturday, and I had to work all day Sunday because there was a big open house at work. (And when I say big, I mean big - like 50,000 people visiting on Sunday!) And while driving a journalist to his hotel at the end of the day, the clutch on our "good" car burned out, which we found today will cost 530 euros (which is what, like $25,000 these days?) to fix. So it's Monday, but feels like Friday...

Anyway, I didn't start out to complain about life! We still have a very cute baby (even when he's choking on phlegm). And to prove it, here's my first attempt to embed a video... It's not the most exciting, but you can see Eric and I on our very first sightseeing trip two Saturdays ago. We're at the Parc de la tete d'or in Lyon, standing in the zoo area. There's another video from the park at Adam's YouTube site, along with a few other much older videos. He's trying to find some time to upload some newer, and one hopes more exciting, ones soon...

Went pretty well, I think. He took some small naps again in the afternoon, but I'm trying not to worry... I just hope things iron themselves out eventually. This morning Adam attempted to explain "tummy time" to the childminder and her husband, we'll see how well that went!

Adam and I are exhausted, trying to get into the new routine... It's like my first week back all over again, so I'm hopeful that, like a few weeks ago, things will get easier with time. I don't even get a full break this weekend - I work Sunday for CERN's big open house (last time they got something like 50,000 visitors! Luckily I'm only responsible for one person.). We also hope Eric will fall back into a more regular sleep schedule sometime soon, once the changes are over with...

I posted this photo from Easter weekend since it actually has me in it. Since I'm the big photo hound in the house, most of the Eric photos have Adam with him....

Yesterday was Eric's first full day at the childminder's* house, and he did really well! He had gone there for a couple of hours each day last week ("adaptation" in French), so he had been eased into things a little. It's a big change for him - there's at least two other little kids there all day, plus up to two more in the mornings, at lunch and after school. The woman, Michelle, is very nice, and her husband, who is retired, also is often around and helps with the kids.

It's also a change for me and Adam, and a challenge to our French abilities. Michelle speaks only French and I don't think she's used to talking with people who don't speak fluently. She's very understanding, but doesn't have the tendency to speak more slowly and the ability to easily discern what you're trying to say when you use the wrong adjectives, verbs, etc. But we're getting there! Adam and I pick one thing per day to tell her, which helps. (Yesterday it was an attempt to explain swaddling, which is doubly difficult because the French traditionally don't do this, so we're trying to explain in French why we would wrap a baby up in a straightjacket to sleep. I'm not sure it went too well.). Today it's tummy time.

He's not old enough yet for stranger anxiety, so I wasn't worried about that, but I was really worried about napping. Wednesday-Friday he spent all morning at Michelle's house, and didn't sleep a wink. But yesterday she said he slept 3 times in the crib for maybe 1 hour total, so that was something of a relief. Still not remotely enough, but at least it's a start!

But it's really tough to leave him there knowing he's spending the majority of his waking hours (and he has a lot of waking hours) with other people. We picked him up last night and he did nothing but smile at us for about 45 minutes (even though usually he would have fallen dead asleep the minute we got him in the car). I thought he was too small to realize we were gone and be happy when we were back, but now I'm not so sure.

*Yes, I'm a dork using footnotes. But I thought this term might warrant explanation. There seems to be no appropriate word for a person who takes care of children full time in their own home. Nanny, according to all the definitions I've read, is someone who cares for only your children in your home. And babysitters are people who only care for children occasionally. So what to call someone who cares for your and other children in her own home? Here "childminder" seems to be the popular English translation for anyone who takes care of kids in any setting, hence my use of that term. In French, the woman we're using is called an "assistante maternelle," literally mother's assistant.

Dear Eric,

You did such a good job the other night, sleeping for a whole eight hours! Could you do Mom and Dad a big, huge, gigantic favor and do that from now on? I know little buddy, sometimes you'll get sick or be teething or have bad dreams and you'll have to get up in the middle of the night, but that's okay. Mom and Dad can take it if we have at least a few nights every week where you sleep a little longer... Mom and Dad find it a little bit tiring to spend 3 hours getting you to sleep, finally go to sleep around 10:30, wake up again at 3:30 to feed you, spend another 45 minutes putting you back to sleep, come get you at 5:30 to bring you to our bed where you fitfully sleep until 7:00. Just think, if you were to sleep from 9:30 to 5:30, Mom and Dad would have so much more energy for playing! And you like playing, right???

Love,
Your parents

So it's the second day of spring, and what do we get? A blizzard. It snowed from the time I woke up this morning until dinner - at least 6 inches. By far the most snow we've gotten all year! And the forecast calls for even more this weekend... If only I could cross-country ski! Maybe we'll build Eric a snow fort tomorrow.

I have a long weekend coming up - work is closed on Friday and Monday for the Easter weekend. Before Baby, Adam and I would have used the occasion to go on a trip somewhere in Europe, or at least a few day trips around Geneva. We were considering trying to at least do one day trip this weekend, but we'll likely be foiled by the weather. After a beautiful day today, it's going to snow and rain for four solid days. Argh...

So this will probably look more like our weekend - keeping the baby entertained, trying desperately to get the house in some reasonable order for the first time since my Mom left in January, and maybe watching a movie in several 20-minute segments during feeding times. Maybe, if I'm very lucky, we'll even get to eat some popcorn!

67

I'm a little ashamed at this. I missed some really obvious ones in Europe (hello, Austria). And remembered a few more but couldn't spell them correctly (Liechtenstein, you killed me). But I think the most interesting part about this quiz is looking at the list of countries you missed. I can't feel bad for not remembering countries I'd never heard of. Pridnestrovie? Nagorno-Karabakh?? Queen Maud Land??? Ross Dependency????

Okay, I was trying to think of a non-baby topic for a post, but my mom requested new baby photos and I came across this one. It's so ridiculously cute that I just had to post it. Enjoy!

Check out those blue eyes! They're actually lightening up a little - we weren't sure if his dark blue eyes would last, and it seems like they're heading more in the direction of his parents' lighter eyes. And this is the sweater I made for him before he was born. It fits a little better now than it did the day after we brought him home. I can't believe how much bigger he is!

So, the big push to get him to nap in his crib has resulted in nothing more than a baby who is cranky and overtired all the time. After sticking to the same put-to-bed routine for a week, he's falling asleep much faster and with less crying and struggling. (We had to revert to swaddling and depend on the pacifier most of the time - something we're already regretting.) But every time we put him down, it's guaranteed 25-30 minutes (at most), and he's up. Happy for 5-10 minutes, and cranky again. So we repeat. At this point we're hoping that the childminder with 25+ years of experience will have better luck than we have!

Thankfully he remains a good night sleeper. Bedtime is around 8pm, and he'll sleep until 5-6 a.m. with one feeding in the wee hours. His bedtime has been creeping earlier and earlier, though, which means that for a few days mom or dad was getting up at 4:30 a.m. Thankfully after one day with an extra feeding, he's back on track for a more reasonable wakeup time!

Okay, so feeding Eric has become less of a battle (although much more work - all that washing, sterilization, measuring, mixing, warming up... sheesh). Now we move on to the next battle: Napping.

Until Eric arrived, I had never known any babies that didn't nap. I naively thought that all babies slept most of the time. Our baby? Not so much. He's turning into a good sleeper at night - we can pretty much count on 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. with one feeding in between. But during the day? Forget it.

Since he was a few weeks old, the only way I've ever been able to get him to sleep during the day is in a sling, stroller (in motion, and pushing him back and forth in the hall doesn't work), or car seat (in a moving car). The swing rarely works, which means that the only way he naps is if someone is actively napping with him. He wakes up the instant you try to transition from one place to the other, which means no putting him to sleep in the car and then going to the crib. But if we put him in the stroller and take him for a walk he'll sleep for hours.

Now, he's still a young baby learning how to sleep, so I'd be willing to do whatever he needs so that he can get the 5-6 hours he seems to need, except that we have The Big Deadline looming. On March 31 he goes to a French Assistante Maternelle (official babysitter). She's an older lady with another young child to look after, so I doubt she's going to devote her entire day to making sure Eric gets enough sleep. So we need to train him to nap on his own during the day.

Yeah, right. Adam's been trying for a few days now, and the most we can get is about 30 minutes in a crib, 2-3 times per day, and that's after up to 30 minutes of rocking in our arms, baby swaddled, with a pacifier. I've read that some babies only need a few 30-minute-long naps and they're fine, but Eric clearly needs more - after 30 minutes he wakes up happy for 5 minutes and then turns cranky until we rock him back to sleep.

So, what to do? We're trying the rock-to-sleep, put him in the crib and hope he stays asleep for longer and longer, method until early next week, and then we look to other options. But we're sort of at a loss as to what those options might be. Letting him cry for at least some time in the crib, alone, was something I was always opposed to before. Now? I may even consider that, but even the experts that advocate this say that it's not for babies under 4 months, preferably 6. And it's usually discussed only in terms of sleeping during thenight, not for relatively short naps. So what to do with a 3-month-old? Now that I don't need to google for breastfeeding advice anymore, I guess I'll be spending that extra time on sleep advice...

(PS - this photo? From an ill-fated sightseeing trip last week on one of the coldest and windiest days of this winter. It shows how taking our baby out for a walk in this area can be quite a challenge...)

It's only my second day back at work full time, and I'm already completely exhausted. Adam's being very good about it - I should be taking over baby duty when I get home since he's got the day shift, but I'm so exhausted that I can barely manage sitting with him in the rocking chair! I forgot how exhausting hosting press visits is...

Someone asked me today about the stress of taking care of a baby (this person obviously doesn't have kids yet). I didn't realize until last night how different the baby-care stress is than the work stress. I had a terrible time sleeping last night after my first day back - I think after 12 weeks of learning how to relax from baby stress, my body needs to re-learn how to deal with multitasking so that I can go back to getting some much-needed sleep!

This is my current favorite photo. Eric's smiling behind his hands, but all you can really see are the smiling eyes. Plus he's wearing his rugby-shirt onesie and lying on his new floor blanket from his grandma.