I'm so glad when daddy comes home...

As I've mentioned before, my husband just started his first year of residency at Columbia in psychiatry. While he was attending medical school, we both had an understanding that residency was going to be hard. We were especially aware of this after making the decision to stay in NYC and do residency at the same place that Jon attended medical school. But we both thought that maybe having a preview of what was to come during medical school would give him the heads up that he needed to ultimately survive the ridiculousness that is residency. During Jon's 4th year of med school, things seemed to be falling into place so perfectly. We felt good about the way that we ranked residency programs for the match and were fairly confident about the direction that our life was headed. Match day was so exciting -- we opened "the letter" and found out that we were going to be staying here. As soon as it was confirmed, we immediately began plans for rearranging our apartment to accommodate a baby. The planning stages of this process were so fun. I had stopped working by that point and Jon was around most of the time because he was just doing research to finish out the year. It was so nice to have so much time to spend together. We did things that most expecting parents of a first baby do -- we read books to my belly, shopped for impractical baby clothes, searched through countless baby name books to find the coolest/uncommon-but-well-known/easy-to-spell/non-girly boy name we could find (that last one was Jon's personal mission), etc.

However, we soon realized that nothing could've prepared us for the double-whammy of adjusting to life as new parents and Jon's life as a resident. With Jon working about 90 hours a week these days, quality family time is very rare. But luckily as Noah has hit his "stranger anxiety" stage, daddy hasn't become a stranger. Noah loves when he sees Jon. His face totally lights up and he's all smiles and giggles. And as you can imagine, so am I! (I've forgotten what it's like to share parental responsibilities and on the rare occasion that this does occur, I don't even know what to do with myself. It's actually really sad.) But, we have definitely tried to make the best of the time that we do have together as a family and we have had some great experiences. (even if it is only once a month and Jon is in his post-call-zombie mode)


I thought I'd share some recent family fun...


playing catch with daddy (FHE activity)



on daddy's shoulders (his favorite place)



Jon had the day off today so we planned a fun-filled day together. Noah had his first Music Together class which was so much fun. And we were so glad that Jon got to come with us on the first day. Noah was the youngest kid there, but he totally loved singing (i.e. having mom be way too entusiastic about the "hello" song), dancing (i.e. going up on dad's shoulders while he spun around), and playing instruments (i.e. eating instruments). Then we headed down to the Museum of Natural History for the afternoon. The museum was super crowded -- I think every family with children in the city had the exact same idea as we did. (p.s. never take the stroller to the museum on days when the public schools are closed and it is freezing outside). But we got a chance to try out our new baby carrier backpack -- the ergo. (Noah was breaking my back in the baby bjorn, so we upgraded). Jon looked so cute with Noah strapped on his back. I'm SO sad I didn't get a picture of it. Anyway, we wandered around the museum and even got to see the IMAX film about Mars. Noah was so good -- he was quiet through the whole thing! (I couldn't tell if it was the constant flow of cheerios I was pumping into him or the extremely loud rocket ships blasting through the seemingly endless layers of the atmosphere.) And, drumroll please, I have a new favorite Museum of Natural History exhibit!!!! The new Human Origins exhibit is super cool. It was extremely crowded, so I definitely have to go back, but it was very interesting. When Noah decided he had enough of the museum, we walked up to Saigon Grill and had lunch. Noah was such a big boy at the restaurant. He sat in a booster seat for the first time and ate rice with his chopsticks and drank water through a straw. (he's very advanced for his age :) It was quite the family fun day.

family fun at Saigon Grill

(noah's first taste of Vietnamese cuisine -- well, maybe just the rice...)