Ethan the Dancer

When Ethan was a day old, Atta, the hospital Family Wellness Center, told us that he was going to like movement, and strongly recommended we get a rocking chair. A couple of days later, Mimi (AKA Peggy, AKA Katie's mom) and I went on a rocking chair safari, checking out such high class joints as the Salvation Army and neighborhood junk, I mean antique, shop. Our search took us to a pair of stores in Del Ray, Alexandria ("Where Main Street still exists," but is called Mt Vernon Ave) with some great consignment pieces and a pretty neat rocker. I bought the rocker - for the bargain price of $79 - and we took it home. With some creative rearranging, we got it into the bedroom, next to the bed. Katie and Mimi have had some success calming Ethan down with it.

I, however, failed. Since putting the Moby wrap on in the middle of the night whilst half-asleep just isn't very appealing, and probably not very safe for Ethan or me, I've had to come up with other ways. These usually involve taking him to another room and bouncing him around a bit.

Last night, though, We discovered another way. We give Ethan to Elmira, I mean, Erica. I was out at a bourbon tasting with James, so Katie went to their house to hang out with Erica. Ethan was getting fussy as they watched "So you think you can dance." Erica picked him up, and starting dancing. For an hour. To Lady Gaga. For an hour.

Today we drove up to West Chester, with this story fresh in my ears and Katie's memory. Ethan started his witching hour, right about on time, and I started bouncing him around. We danced for a bit, and Katie took this picture - I think he likes it!

So, how are the dogs dealing with Ethan?

The most common question we get from friends and family, after, "So, how are you doing?" and "Are you getting any sleep?" is "So, how are George and Gracie around Ethan?"

George and Gracie spent Ethan's first week with Grandma and Grandpa, and came home when Ethan was 9 days old. Although my parents didn't want to give up the grandpuppies, they were eager to come and visit. We were happy to have them, and, of course, were happy to have everybody home!

George, yes, our nice placid George, who likes almost everybody, wanted nothing to do with Ethan. In fact, George seemed a bit put-out that there was a new child in the house to compete for our affection. He stayed away from Ethan, hung out by himself, and gave off a very depressed air. George kept up his very hang-dog expression for 2 or three days, until I spent several minutes with him Tuesday evening, just petting him. George wasn't really into it for the first few minutes. I think he really wanted to go into his cage and sleep, but he didn't even want to come over to me. But, after a few minutes, he warmed back up to me, and gave me a kiss. He's been much happier since. George continues to remain somewhat aloof, but, he's growing more attached to Ethan day by day.

Gracie, on the other hand, has been very interested in Ethan from the moment she saw him. She comes over to check on him when he starts crying, or even making any noise whatsoever. She sniffs him and gives him the occasional kiss, either on the feet, legs, or head. She checks up on him whether he's in the carseat, getting changed, or in his bassinet. She even stops by while he's eating!

They have both gotten a bit more protective of Ethan and Katie, as well. This past weekend we all went to the dog park. This was the first time we've taken Ethan in, so we kept him in the stroller, and Katie walked around with him. After doing his business, George didn't move more than about 6 feet from them the entire time we were there. When I called Gracie, she came immediately, and they escorted Katie out of the park.

The Two Week Checkup

Ethan had his 2 week checkup yesterday. He got weighed, measured, and generally looked over. We asked after his middle-of-the-night screaming, hiccups, and immunizations. The results?

He's 7 lbs, 7 oz, a good thing - in the 50th percentile. He's 21.25 inches long (with the second measurement, when he was fully extended), in the 75th percentile. His head's also in the 75th percentile - which really isn't that much of a shock. It's surprisingly difficult to get pullover shirts on him.

As for the middle of the night screaming, the hiccups, and the immunizations? Well, the screaming may eventually go away, but it's not all that uncommon. She gave Katie the same advice everybody else has - sleep when he sleeps. She also said to avoid any food that begins with "B" - Beans, Brussel Sprouts, and Broccoli - which isn't really a worry for Katie. But, she recommended staying away from tomatoes, caffiene, chocolate, and other acidy foods - which is a bit more difficult! The hiccups are pretty normal, and will go away.

We asked when he'd get what immunizations, so we could tell the Dr. in BA, and now we have a little schedule. He gets his first round on Jun 8. Who can't wait to give an infant some shots?

Announcing the newest member of the family

For those of you who haven't recieved the e-mail, but continue to follow the largely-defunct site that this blog has been, you may not have known that Katie was pregnant. Yep, for 9 months and a week, she was carrying a baby around in her midsection. There're even pictures to prove it.

Nonetheless, on May 7, at 3:46 pm, she gave birth to the newest member of our family, Ethan Paul Jacob. At birth, Ethan was 21 inches long, and weighed 7 lbs, 6 ounces. He's lost a bit of that weight, and we'll find out tomorrow where he's actually at.

Ethan was slightly jaundiced at birth, but by day 5, his bilirubin count had started falling, so he's lost the slightly yellowish color, and become much more pink.

Ethan's got a fully developed set of lungs, and likes to demonstrate that fact throughout the night. More than just the regular baby cry, he makes a sound akin to that of a stuck pig. If you don't believe me, ask Caryn - she heard him last night on the phone, and asked what it was!

Today, the family went on their first family walk. Katie walked George and Gracie, and I carried Ethan in the Moby sling. It looks slightly ridiculous, but he's quiet in it, I have the use of my hands, and, I'm not off balance. To paraphrase my buddy Ramon, "Greatest invention ever!"

It's Official - it's been over a year!

Just a quick note for those who read this, but don't get some other e-mails from us (feel free to identify yourselves, by the way)!

It's been a year since we updated the blog. In the intervening time, we've had grandiose plans to do a month-by-month synopsis of our activities during the year. Obviously, that never got off the ground.

The biggest news since the last posting was our assignment - and it happened not too much later. We're off to Buenos Aires next summer, after a course of Spanish in DC! Yay!

Ok, that's it for now. Hopefully, we'll have more later... Sooner than later, Inshallah (as they say here).

Bidding

First, I want to wish Mara a very happy birthday. I'm usually pretty bad at remembering birthdays and the like, but I'm trying to get better. Happy B-day, Mar!

Second, I submitted our bidlist yesterday, so I guess I can share it today without jinxing it. Here's to hoping!

Before I get there, tho, I should explain that we have agonized over this list since July 1. We've culled through post reports, real post reports, post profiles, wikipedia articles, diplopedia articles, post info to go documents, and more to try and cull a list of 550+ positions to 20, with no repeats.

The first thing we had to do was figure out what the requirements were, and then what matters most to us; we broke this into professional considerations and personal considerations. Mind you, since we have to send this to my career development officer, we focused on my professional considerations in our summary, and Katie's in our research.

Our requirements were that we had to find a consular position for me. We also had to find one with timing that works out perfectly and includes home leave, consular training, area studies, and, possibly, language training. Those requirements took us down to about 180 positions.

My professional considerations were already mostly included in the requirements. The only other major professional consideration we had was the size of the post (yes, size does matter!) to try and find something different. Since I've worked on the Middle East for 10 years, we wanted something somewhere else, although, if any really good ME positions had worked, we would have considered them.

Our personal considerations were that we wanted to find a place where Katie could continue her career development, preferably in the private sector, but possibly as a State Department contractor. We wanted to find a place where we can take the dogs (which meant no Jamaica, among other places).

So, here's the list. CON means it's a consular position, the - means it's a rotation, POL = Political Officer, ECON = Economic Officer, and the IROG in Curacao means it's a do a bit of everything. We ranked the top 9 high, 10-16 medium, and 17-20 "Low", but we might go to any one of these, or, if the Career Development Officers (CDOs) don't like the list at all, somewhere else entirely. I like our chances for several of these, tho.

1. Amsterdam/CON

2. Warsaw/CON-POL

3. Buenos Aires/CON

4. Bucharest/CON

5. Santiago/CON

6. Lima/CON

7. Tijuana/CON

8. Bern/CON

9. Curacao/CON-IROG

10. Athens/CON-ECON

11. Frankfurt/CON

12. Montreal/CON

13. Toronto/CON

14. Panama/CON

15. Merida/CON

16. Guadalajara/CON

17. Brasilia/CON

18. Hong Kong/CON

19. Belgrade/CON

20. Belmopan/CON

Bad Bloggers! Bad!

I can't believe it's been over a month since we last posted a blog. I guess we've been busy.

We've spent most of our free time doing research into our next post. Yup, we've been here for not quite 10 months, and we're already trying to figure out where we're going next. We got the list of available positions on July 1, and it got pared down again about 10 days ago. On Monday, we finished our draft bid list of the top 20 places that we'd like to go. We submit the final next Wednesday. Hopefully we'll know where we're going by mid-September.

I know everybody always wants to know what's on our short list, but I don't wanna jinx it. Let's just say that countries in the Middle East, Africa, Central and Southeast Asia aren't, but the rest of the world is pretty much fair game. How long we'll be in DC, and when, depends largely on where we go next.

The dogs are still misbehaving, but I think they're acting out of a desire for more love and attention. They sort of listen at least some of the time. They haven't grown much bigger, but they're still chewing up their toys. We're not giving them any more ropes or rubber toys - the pieces end up all over the house. They're also not allowed on the couches, but they think it's a game to jump up on a chair and wait for us to tell them to get down. We've tried putting aluminum foil on the couches; it worked until they started eating the foil. Katie often tells them, "It's a good thing you're so cute." It really is nice to have them waiting for us when we get home. They follow us around the house, and often seem torn as to which of us to follow.

No pictures this time, maybe later.