Good photo of Ava smiling

Rachel took some good photos of Jenny and Ava yesterday, including a really good one of Ava smiling.  Here they are.

J.

Jenny holding Ava

Here is a video of Jenny holding Ava.  She's such a good big sister!

More later.

J.

Celebrating the holidays with Jane and Greg

Since we were not able to go to Cancun this year, Jane and Greg invited us to their house for Christmas eve and Christmas day.  It was so nice spending time with them and Jenny was so happy to play with Alex and Ella-Anne.  We took lots of photos.  Here are few good ones.

Family photos at the Four Seasons

We walked around Georgetown as a family this morning and took some good photos at the Four Seasons Hotel of Jenny and Ava together plus some good ones of all of us together.  Here they are.  I may use some of these for a holiday card.

J.

Video of Jenny and Ava on Play Mat

Before we left the house this morning, I got this video of Jenny and Ava playing on the mat.  I love the fact that Jenny loves playing with Ava.  We have to remind Jenny to be gentle.  She's very careful with Ava but  she can't resist getting right down and rolling around with her.  It's so great seeing them together.

J.

Seth and Jill visit with Chloe and Cooper

We had a really nice Saturday today.  Rachel had a bunch of errands to run so I took both girls and just went with them on a monster walk all around Georgetown.  We started walking through the Georgetown University campus, including a stop in the classroom I used the last time I taught my Community Development Finance class in G'town's Masters Program in Real Estate.  Whenever we walk on the G'town campus, Jenny likes to stop in that classroom.  She likes to draw on the blackboard using chalk and pretend to be the teacher.  Ava ended up needing to be changed so I changed her right on my classroom desk! (I made sure to keep it clean).

After we left the classroom, we ended up leaving the campus and walking through the historical G'town residential neighborhood and we walked to the Four Seasons Hotel on M Street.  I just love walking with Ava in the stroller and with Jenny through the historical parts of G'town,  There's so much to see that I don't notice when I'm in the car (all kinds of historical markers and beautiful aspects of the houses).  Many of the houses were decorated for the holidays and it looked great.  Jenny and I spent much of the time telling stories and playing fun games.

The Four Seasons was having their traditional exhibit of different Christmas tree displays.  They have a fundraiser where they have different designers design various styles of tree.  It was so beautiful and we had a really nice time just hanging out there for a few hours.  We also bought Rachel a gift card for a massage at the Four Seasons spa (it's the one thing Rachel has been asking for!).  After a few hours, we made the long walk back up the hill to home and then our friends Seth and Jill came over with their two kids -- Chloe (Jenny's age) and their little one, Cooper.  We order takeout Turkish food from Cafe Divan and had a really nice time.  Jenny and Chloe loved playing together and they were happy watching a movie downstairs while the adults hung out.  They just left a few minutes ago and Rachel just put Jenny to bed.  Here are a few photos from their visit.

J.

Video of Jenny reading Dr. Seuss to Ava

This morning, Rachel and I were upstairs getting ready and I went downstairs to find Jenny in the playroom reading Dr. Seuss to Ava.  It was so cute.  Jenny really likes reading to Ava and it's good for both of them.  Ava was asleep and seemed oblivious to it but perhaps on some level she was paying attention.

More later.

J.

A few good photos from College Station and one from today

I was looking through some photos of the week we spent in Houston the week after Ava was born and I found two that I really like -- one of Ava by herself and one of me, Jenny, and Ava.  I believe these were both taken on our first morning in Houston.  I have posted them below.  Ava looks so relaxed and peaceful in the photo of her alone and Jenny and I look so happy to be holding her.

I also posted a photo that Rachel took today of Ava playing on her matt.  She seems to be pretty focused on something - not sure what.  She's a funny one!

We went out with Jane and Greg tonight first to dinner and then to the Kennedy Center to see Handel's Messiah.  It was really nice and was made particularly special this year since we have so much to be thankful for.

I'm looking forward tomorrow since I took the day off and I'm taking Jenny to the movies.  We have tickets to go to the Smithsonian Natural History museum to the IMAX theater where we will be seeing a movie on nature and Alaska.

More later.

J.

Ava is one month old

It's amazing to me that it has been one month since we were in College Station for Ava's birth.  It seems like a year ago!  We are feeling so blessed to have Ava in our lives.  Yesterday, Rachel and Ellen took Ava to the pediatrician and the doctor said she's still growing well and is a healthy little girl.  Last night may have been our most sleep yet since we have been home.   We switched Ava from the 2-ounce size bottles to 3-ounce and the additional amount seems to enable her to sleep longer between feedings.  So I only woke up once last night (I think it was some time around 3 am).  Not too shabby.

We are starting to feel more together and organized (although I do go through bouts of loosing stuff for no particular reason).  Thanks to all of the work Rachel has done with the organizer lady, the house is more organized than it has ever been.  We are still waiting to organize/clean up Ava's room (which is still configured as our office) and we will do that as soon as Ava's crib and dresser show up hopefully in January.

We are looking forward to a quiet few days at home for the Christmas holiday.  Jenny has a break from school and I am taking a few days off.  In fact, tomorrow, I am taking a day off from work to take Jenny to the movies.

Here are some photos that Rachel took yesterday of Ava on her play mat.  She likes it!  More later.

J.

Visit from Uncle Ben

I'm running off to work now but I wanted to post a few good photos from the visit this weekend of my brother Ben and Virginia.  It was so nice seeing them.  More later...

J.

Some good photos of LG and Nelli

This weekend, our friends Lawrence (aka LG) and Nelli stopped by to visit and we got some good photos of them with Ava and Jenny.  Jenny loves joking around with LG and she refused his requests to show him her latest hip hop moves.  Here are the photos.

J.

Relaxing day with Ava and Jenny

We are having a relaxing Saturday with Ava and Jenny.  This morning, I actually slept in until 9:30 am which is the longest I have slept in weeks.  Unfortunately, Jenny woke up with a fever so Rachel has been spending time with her while I take care of Ava.  Rachel suggested that I take Ava out of the house since it was sunny and not too cold.  So we bundled her up and put her in the car seat and stroller.  I walked all around the Georgetown campus with her and then headed over the Marvelous Market in Georgetown.  It was so great walking in Georgetown with her -- I just love the historical aspect and it felt so good walking with Ava.  When I got to Marvelous Market, I met Elana and Jessica there and we had a really nice time.  They took turns holding Ava and we fed her.  Rachel and Jenny also had a relaxing day watching movies and cuddling on our bed.

Right now Ava is asleep and we're going to have a quiet night at home.  We were supposed to go to a movie tonight but we decided to stay home since Jenny still has a fever.  We called Jenny's pediatrician and they told us to give her children's Tylenol and we should call them tomorrow morning if she still has a fever.  She seems happy for now so as long as she's in bed cuddling with mommy and watching movies, she is having a good night.

I have pasted below a video that I took this morning of Ava playing on the play mat.  I also posted a  photo of her.  She is such a beautiful, healthy baby and we feel so blessed to have her in our lives.

More later.

J.

New trick to get Ava to fall asleep

I was having trouble getting Ava to sleep tonight so I tried all of the normal strategies -- swaddling, the pacifier, singing to her, burping her, rocking her, changing her diaper, feeding her, and any number of other techniques that have been recommended to us.  Nothing seemed to be working and Ava was still being fussy.  

Finally, I took her downstairs and put her in the bouncy chair.  That calmed her down a little but what really seemed to put her to sleep was watching the video from earlier today of Chairman Bernanke's Federal Open Markets Committee press conference.  This is a great discovery and something that is not suggested in any of the baby books we have!  The Fed website has on it video from all of the FOMC press conferences so I have a lot of material to go through with Ava before we run out.

This also gives me ideas on a range of other sleep inducing materials -- including Chairman Bernanke's four part lecture series on the history of the Federal Reserve and monetary policy.  I'll be experimenting to see whether there is any advantage of the sleep-inducing nature of video on monetary policy compared to, for example, video on fiscal policy and the fiscal cliff.  My theory is that watching video from either the President or the Speaker of the House on the status of fiscal cliff negotiations will not be sleep inducing but instead would be upsetting.  But I'll have to test this theory.   For now, I'm going to go take our sleeping Ava back to her bassinet.

J.

Photos of Jenny and Ava

Here are some good photos that Rachel took yesterday of Jenny with Ava.  I love the one of Ava holding Jenny's hair!

J.

More family and friends

We packed a lot into this weekend so I won't even be able to remember everything.  A few highlights:  First, Grandma Etu and Grandpa Eugenio came over on Saturday night right after they got home from Mexico.  It was fun hanging out with them and having them meet Ava.  Jenny also had a nice time even thought it was way past her bedtime.  Before that, we spent the day with Debbie and Joe and had dinner with them which was great.  On Sunday, Aunt Alisa came over with Etu and Elana and then we all went over to George and Jessica Springsteen's house for a really nice baby shower that they threw for us with other families from Jenny's WIS class.  It was a wonderful party (made even better by the a fact that the Redskins game was on in the background and it was a really good game).  We are exhausted now but feeling very fortunate to have such good friends to celebrate with.  At the Springsteen's house, it was great introducing little Miss Ava and catching up with everyone.  More later.

J.

Being silly with Photo Booth

I just went upstairs to wake up Rachel (and Jenny was in the bed with her).  Rachel said she wanted to see the funny Photo Booth shots I took this morning when I was bored (Ava was asleep).  So I showed them and then we took some more silly ones.  Our family is starting to be addicted to Photo Booth.  Here are the photos.

J.