So I cannot keep my word and write every week. But it is only because I had crazy few weeks. (Oh, yeah, I decided to go with a darker theme for my blog - just to keep it nice and black)
Work-wise I am back to work, back to experiments and science. And I finally got to present a group meeting. Some might say "big deal", but it is a big deal. In our group we get to give a group meeting about once every six months (and even then it is really flexible). I gave my first meeting after 8 months in the group. During the group meeting you present all you have done (and plan to do) to the boss and this is the only time he really hears about your project. Usually the boss, and some of his minions, try to find weak spots in the project and once a weak spot has been exposed then they sink their teeth and start tearing the raw flesh. Luckily for me - this group meeting was more of a material science and material/electrical engineering meeting, therefore no one is able to shake me and expose weak spots in my knowledge of these subjects. I gave a 1.5 hour presentation that was very satisfactory. Now I have six more months until the next time I need to report to the boss (unless I decide it's time to publish an article, and then I have to make sure the boss knows that).
But the main interest is, of course, on our personal life and not my professional life. CJ has been growing fast. We can see changes in him and his behavior almost every day. He finally stopped ignoring the world around him and he studies with great interest anything that appears in front of his eyes. He is loosing his hair fast (he was born with a head full of hair, but he prefers to look more like his dad, bold). Also, in the last couple of days he started smiling at me and the MRS, not a smile out of a deep sleep, like he has done before, but a genuine smile directed at that face in his field of vision.
The only thing is that he sleeps whenever HE wants and not when we want him to sleep. By now I know what 4AM looks like pretty well (that's my feeding shift) and we go to sleep at 10PM just to make sure we get our 6 hours of sleep.
But sleeping is not the only thing - I cannot understand why he cannot tell us what's wrong!! He cries when he is hungry, he cries when his stomach aches, he cries when he wants a pacifier, he cries when he wants to go to sleep, he cries when he needs to burp. Why can't he just tell us what the problem is? or, at least, have a different cry for each of the different cases!
Well, we found out that raising a child is a full time job. Now we are trying to juggle that and our previous life. Good luck to us.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
A boy was born
So, for those of you who asked themselves 'where did he disappear to?' and couldn't put 1+1 together - the MRS. gave birth two weeks ago.
The story of CJ's birth (his real name will come up soon) is a long one. The MRS. got the first contractions right after SHAVUOT, and for the next 30 some hours she had contractions, however, they were not close enough and we were told not to come to the hospital.
After more than 30 hours (two full nights actually), we were told we can come and check in at the hospital, by then the MRS was in active labor and she was admitted. The contractions kept on going, and after more than 40 hours since the first contraction hit, the MRS finally cracked and asked for drugs to lessen the pain (I have to admit - she was much more enduring and powerful than I expected!!). The boy decided to wait until another day will change on the calendar, and right after midnight on the 22nd of May he came out.
We decided (or rather the MRS decided and I agreed) to call him Ely. Now, just to make sure you pronounce it correctly - ILAY or EE-lie, not Eli or Ellie or any other pronunciation!! For some reason non-americans have a problem with this spelling.
Anyway, we left the hospital 36 hour after Ely's birth and we started our home adventure with feeding, sleepless nights, diapers full of $#%@ and all the fun stuff of being a parent.
But actually it is a lot of fun. The boy grows every day, and becomes more responsive and demanding. He loves to eat, he hates to lay still, he has mixed feelings about baths and he is totally opposed for being nude (even for a very quick diaper change). When he gets mad or upset he waves his fists in the air and screams from the top of his lungs. He is really opinionated even at the early age of two weeks.
That's it for now, there are so many new things happening all at once, but (for me) the most interesting is my child. I will save other stories to when I return to a more orderly life, when I sleep better and when I can get my mind on anything else.
Oh, yes, we have decided not to share pictures of CJ (I think I'll keep this nickname for him) on the blog/facebook/the internet. So if you really know me and you want to see a picture of CJ, just send me an email and I'll send you some.
That's it, the boy is crying, which means "leave everything and tend to me, and only me". So I'm off...
The story of CJ's birth (his real name will come up soon) is a long one. The MRS. got the first contractions right after SHAVUOT, and for the next 30 some hours she had contractions, however, they were not close enough and we were told not to come to the hospital.
After more than 30 hours (two full nights actually), we were told we can come and check in at the hospital, by then the MRS was in active labor and she was admitted. The contractions kept on going, and after more than 40 hours since the first contraction hit, the MRS finally cracked and asked for drugs to lessen the pain (I have to admit - she was much more enduring and powerful than I expected!!). The boy decided to wait until another day will change on the calendar, and right after midnight on the 22nd of May he came out.
We decided (or rather the MRS decided and I agreed) to call him Ely. Now, just to make sure you pronounce it correctly - ILAY or EE-lie, not Eli or Ellie or any other pronunciation!! For some reason non-americans have a problem with this spelling.
Anyway, we left the hospital 36 hour after Ely's birth and we started our home adventure with feeding, sleepless nights, diapers full of $#%@ and all the fun stuff of being a parent.
But actually it is a lot of fun. The boy grows every day, and becomes more responsive and demanding. He loves to eat, he hates to lay still, he has mixed feelings about baths and he is totally opposed for being nude (even for a very quick diaper change). When he gets mad or upset he waves his fists in the air and screams from the top of his lungs. He is really opinionated even at the early age of two weeks.
That's it for now, there are so many new things happening all at once, but (for me) the most interesting is my child. I will save other stories to when I return to a more orderly life, when I sleep better and when I can get my mind on anything else.
Oh, yes, we have decided not to share pictures of CJ (I think I'll keep this nickname for him) on the blog/facebook/the internet. So if you really know me and you want to see a picture of CJ, just send me an email and I'll send you some.
That's it, the boy is crying, which means "leave everything and tend to me, and only me". So I'm off...
Sunday, May 16, 2010
The waiting game
Well, another week has passed and it is starting to appear routine. I go to work, work around the clock, get much done without too many results, and come back home. The MRS. is still round and waiting, and CJ is showing no rush in coming out to the world.
We have been trying to pass the time till CJ will decide to start his trip. Luckily for us the weather has been really nice this weekend. But there's not much to do but wait.
At least now I've got a gym membership and I allow myself to play volleyball once a week. The games are mid-week and mid-day, so I can skip a couple of hours of work for volleyball. Soon the whole group will start playing sand-volleyball in a departmental tournament.
That's it. Nothing else to tell.
Hope for more news next time.
We have been trying to pass the time till CJ will decide to start his trip. Luckily for us the weather has been really nice this weekend. But there's not much to do but wait.
At least now I've got a gym membership and I allow myself to play volleyball once a week. The games are mid-week and mid-day, so I can skip a couple of hours of work for volleyball. Soon the whole group will start playing sand-volleyball in a departmental tournament.
That's it. Nothing else to tell.
Hope for more news next time.
Monday, May 10, 2010
A non-post
I really don't have anything new to share at this point. So I won't write anything today.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Heat, water, shopping and walking
It is crazy! Today the weather hit 31 degrees with very high humidity after it was 8 degrees and raining only 4 days ago. I already dread the summer when the temperatures will stay high and the humidity would be a killer, but we still have a several weeks of see-saw weather until summer hits.
Yes, it was really hot, and millions of people at the Boston area could not (and still can not) drink tap water. A huge water main broke out to the west of Boston and 28 towns around Boston cannot get treated water to their taps, so we have to boil any water we use for drinking, brushing teeth, washing food and so forth. It is going to take several days to fix the water main and today at the supermarkets people were buying many boxes of bottled water.
May 1st was just a day ago. And instead of marching for the workers and getting a bit socialist, the people of the greater Boston area enjoyed shopping. Garage sales and lawn sales were popping all over. Yes, for some reason the first days of May are garage-sale days, celebrating capitalism. Funny.
Today we thought of going with friends to a statue park just outside of Boston. This should be pretty easy on any other day, but in Boston no day is any other day. Today thousands of people walked for hunger. A 20 mile route was closed and people poured into the streets walking. This caused traffic jams around the city and roads were closed everywhere. It took us over an hour to move in the city and then less than 15 minutes to get to the park once we were out of the city. It seems like Bostonians don't like to sit at home. Whenever they can they find a reason to get out to the streets. Let's wait and see what will be next week.
That's it - the MRS. and myself are still waiting for the arrival of CJ. We took a tour of the hospital facilities and we saw the birthing rooms and the rooms for after-birth recovering. It's really nice to see how a hospital allows these kind of visits since it wants you to come and be its patient (as it is a private health plan and the hospital behaves like a financial entity).
Oh, yes - I have finally got a gym membership that will allow me to return to regular workouts and to volleyball games. And except that there's nothing new. That's it.
Yes, it was really hot, and millions of people at the Boston area could not (and still can not) drink tap water. A huge water main broke out to the west of Boston and 28 towns around Boston cannot get treated water to their taps, so we have to boil any water we use for drinking, brushing teeth, washing food and so forth. It is going to take several days to fix the water main and today at the supermarkets people were buying many boxes of bottled water.
May 1st was just a day ago. And instead of marching for the workers and getting a bit socialist, the people of the greater Boston area enjoyed shopping. Garage sales and lawn sales were popping all over. Yes, for some reason the first days of May are garage-sale days, celebrating capitalism. Funny.
Today we thought of going with friends to a statue park just outside of Boston. This should be pretty easy on any other day, but in Boston no day is any other day. Today thousands of people walked for hunger. A 20 mile route was closed and people poured into the streets walking. This caused traffic jams around the city and roads were closed everywhere. It took us over an hour to move in the city and then less than 15 minutes to get to the park once we were out of the city. It seems like Bostonians don't like to sit at home. Whenever they can they find a reason to get out to the streets. Let's wait and see what will be next week.
That's it - the MRS. and myself are still waiting for the arrival of CJ. We took a tour of the hospital facilities and we saw the birthing rooms and the rooms for after-birth recovering. It's really nice to see how a hospital allows these kind of visits since it wants you to come and be its patient (as it is a private health plan and the hospital behaves like a financial entity).
Oh, yes - I have finally got a gym membership that will allow me to return to regular workouts and to volleyball games. And except that there's nothing new. That's it.
Monday, April 26, 2010
I have no smart title today
Another week and the work load is just growing exponentially. It seems like every action I do produces more work. I make some materials - I need to measure them in different conditions, I measure them and I find out I need to make different materials, and so on. It seems that days have become shorter and shorter since I cannot fit everything into a day's work. But I guess that it gives one a reason to wake up and go to work.
The MRS. and myself are almost entirely ready for CJ's arrival. And that means at least in the operative sense. We got everything we need for the child (including cloths, furniture and all the little things an infant needs) or at least we think we are ready. I bet that once CJ arrives we will find out how many things we still need to get/buy.
The Israeli community in the Boston area is like a Kibutz, you can get anything passed on to you and there is no need to purchase anything. The down side to this community is the fact that everyone has suggestions and thoughts (like any good Jew) and they are not shy in conveying their thoughts and planting stupid ideas in the brains of others. We are trying to keep an open mind, yet we use (or at least I do) a lot of criticism regarding anything we hear.
I was computerless for 2.5 days this week, as my computer was being fixed at the Apple store. I must admit I was going through withdrawal symptoms while I had no computer. It isn't as if I sit and use the computer ALL the time, and we do have two more computers at home, but the fact that I didn't have the possibility to use MY computer was the real problem. However, I finally got my computer back and like a junky getting his fix, all my symptoms were gone.
The MRS. and myself are almost entirely ready for CJ's arrival. And that means at least in the operative sense. We got everything we need for the child (including cloths, furniture and all the little things an infant needs) or at least we think we are ready. I bet that once CJ arrives we will find out how many things we still need to get/buy.
The Israeli community in the Boston area is like a Kibutz, you can get anything passed on to you and there is no need to purchase anything. The down side to this community is the fact that everyone has suggestions and thoughts (like any good Jew) and they are not shy in conveying their thoughts and planting stupid ideas in the brains of others. We are trying to keep an open mind, yet we use (or at least I do) a lot of criticism regarding anything we hear.
I was computerless for 2.5 days this week, as my computer was being fixed at the Apple store. I must admit I was going through withdrawal symptoms while I had no computer. It isn't as if I sit and use the computer ALL the time, and we do have two more computers at home, but the fact that I didn't have the possibility to use MY computer was the real problem. However, I finally got my computer back and like a junky getting his fix, all my symptoms were gone.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Marathon and Independence day
So today is the Boston marathon, and very early in the morning streets were fenced off to allow the runners (who will only start at 10:00 and end around 19:00) to run with nobody jumping into their paths. The Boston marathon takes place on Patriots Day, which is a Massachusetts only holiday. I believe that this holiday was created especially to allow the marathon to take place. Anyways, I have arrived to work very early to avoid all the traffic and commuters that will form later today.
Yes, it is the Israeli Independence day as well, and it is funny and strange to step aside and see the rituals of other Israelis leaving away from Israel. Some are looking very hard to find a ceremony for the Memorial day (which unlike Holocaust Memorial day is not mentioned by Jewish Americans), some only want to light a BBQ and eat, and it doesn't matter if it is a day before Independence day (yes - right on Memorial day, but what can you do, it's a Sunday and a day off of work) or several days after Independence day (what can we do, there is a communal BBQ in the building and we had to book it in advance, well, we forgot).
So these days all Israelis are occupied in finding a place and time to celebrate, because for most - Israel (as is seen and remembered from afar) is the best place in the world (disclaimer - I still haven't made up my mind, I am just conveying the feelings of others).
So work is going OK, I finally got the $40K instrument I ordered 5 months ago. And one would expect that if you pay so much for an instrument it would come assembled, or at least an expert would come to assemble it and show you how to work with it. But NO, I have spent the last 2 work days assembling it, and I still have at least a days worth of work before I'll have to start learning how to use the softwares (yes - in plural). And I also have to do some other work besides this. So it is a busy time at work.
Another reason for it being busy is the fact that our due date is coming closer. The MRS. feels very heavy lately, and we are anxiously counting the days (only a figure of speech) until CJ is due. We go to child-birthing classes, where we learn to relax while we learn about every complication that can occur during labor. We went to infant CPR class where we learned how to revive a dead infant. So, as you might understand, we are focusing on the most optimistic and happiest place we can find.
But cynicism away - we are happy and waiting for CJ to be born. We started thinking and discussing names (the name will be revealed only after birth) and planning the circumcision of the child (which will take place in a doctors office with no guests except for the parents of the child). So this also keeps us busy.
I'll finish for today, since I need to start working. Have a happy Independence day in Israel.
Yes, it is the Israeli Independence day as well, and it is funny and strange to step aside and see the rituals of other Israelis leaving away from Israel. Some are looking very hard to find a ceremony for the Memorial day (which unlike Holocaust Memorial day is not mentioned by Jewish Americans), some only want to light a BBQ and eat, and it doesn't matter if it is a day before Independence day (yes - right on Memorial day, but what can you do, it's a Sunday and a day off of work) or several days after Independence day (what can we do, there is a communal BBQ in the building and we had to book it in advance, well, we forgot).
So these days all Israelis are occupied in finding a place and time to celebrate, because for most - Israel (as is seen and remembered from afar) is the best place in the world (disclaimer - I still haven't made up my mind, I am just conveying the feelings of others).
So work is going OK, I finally got the $40K instrument I ordered 5 months ago. And one would expect that if you pay so much for an instrument it would come assembled, or at least an expert would come to assemble it and show you how to work with it. But NO, I have spent the last 2 work days assembling it, and I still have at least a days worth of work before I'll have to start learning how to use the softwares (yes - in plural). And I also have to do some other work besides this. So it is a busy time at work.
Another reason for it being busy is the fact that our due date is coming closer. The MRS. feels very heavy lately, and we are anxiously counting the days (only a figure of speech) until CJ is due. We go to child-birthing classes, where we learn to relax while we learn about every complication that can occur during labor. We went to infant CPR class where we learned how to revive a dead infant. So, as you might understand, we are focusing on the most optimistic and happiest place we can find.
But cynicism away - we are happy and waiting for CJ to be born. We started thinking and discussing names (the name will be revealed only after birth) and planning the circumcision of the child (which will take place in a doctors office with no guests except for the parents of the child). So this also keeps us busy.
I'll finish for today, since I need to start working. Have a happy Independence day in Israel.
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