Clearly now I'm just having fun playing with a new toy. But this will be the last one of the day.

"Crawling" and "Talking"

You can't really say that what passes for either are the real thing, but these are Nicole's versions.

Trying this again

Let's hope this works. Here's Hanukkah video of Nicole enjoying wrapping paper.

Apologies

I spent a fair amount of time today working on videos of Nicole "crawling" and "talking" and also of her first Hanukkah. Then I tried to upload it to the site. An hour later I finally got an error message. So while I wait for feedback from Blogger and for more free time to try a different video editing program, I come back to you with more excuses.

Maybe I'll post some pictures this weekend if I get a chance. We leave on Monday for a visit to Baltimore, so we'll definitely get some good footage out of that. Hopefully I'm able to post the video. We'll chalk it up as New Year's Resolution No. 1.

Squaw Peak here we come!

Or something like that.

Nicole woke up a little earlier than normal this morning. I began to drag myself out of bed, planning on my typical routine of showering before feeding her. But her crying was a little louder than usual, so I checked on her. Much to my amazement, I found her standing up in her crib, holding on to the railing. This was a first! I took her out and she seemed extremely proud of her new accomplishment. I asked her to tell us how she managed to do it, but she's not revealing her secret. Needless to say, today the mattress is being dropped to an even lower level and the bumpers are coming off.

For our 5 voters out there (2 of whom are probably me and Kevin), this latest achievement may mean that you want to recast your "when will Nicole walk" vote.

8-month update

And she's off. Nicole celebrated her 8-month birthday by learning how to crawl, and now we can't keep her still. Her crawling is quite the ordeal, though. I intend to put up a video clip in the next day or two. She basically takes a step with one foot and then drags her other leg like it's gimpy. But it works, and she's all over the place. She's shown signs of pulling herself up as well. You can vote on the right about when you think she'll be walking.

What else is new? Nicole got to spend some time with her friend Maggie over Thanksgiving. She's the baby in the pictures that looks like Neil. Better than Howard, at least. Nicole also has two teeth, right in the center on the bottom. They are visible in a few of the pictures. That's really it. She's looking forward to visiting Baltimore in a few weeks for some great photo opportunities and maybe her first taste of snow.

Here are the aforementioned pictures.

These booties are made for walking ... sort of

The big question is ... will Nicole crawl first or will she walk first? She gave some hints yesterday that she could soon be ready to try either. She supposedly crawled at day care, but it's more like scooting. If you put her down and leave her be, she won't end up in the same place. But it's not quite crawling yet. Still, she looks like she's getting ready. It could be any day. As for walking, that's a lot farther away. But as you'll see in the pictures, she can hold herself up and is just about at the point of pulling herself upright. I'll be teaching her how to play softball in no time.

Here are the pictures.

Time change

Just a reminder for anyone who cares that with the end of daylight savings time, we are now TWO hours behind the east coast and ONE hour ahead of the west coast.

Halloween and a visit from Bubby & Grandpa

Once we explained to Nicole that we would put her in a costume and take her around the neighborhood collecting candy, she asked how she'd be able to eat the candy. We told her she needed teeth, so on Saturday before Halloween, with Bubby and Grandpa in town as witnesses, she got her first tooth. What timing. She also attended her first baseball game, learned how to clap her hands on demand and, of course, enjoyed her first Halloween. Tonight we continue Nicole's series of firsts, and continue the sports theme, taking her to her first football game (Jessica's old high school). She likes watching football at the bar on Sundays, so she should enjoy it tonight.

Here are pictures from Halloween and Bubby & Grandpa's visit.

Quick photo update

Here are a few shots from the past month or so. In case you missed it, Nicole is 6 months old (closer to 6 1/2 now), sits up and is eating cereal and veggies now (she likes carrots more than peas, and who can blame her?). She's such a happy kid, always smiling and laughing and very talkative. She's sleeping through the night, about 8 pm to 6 am. So all in all, things -- and Nicole -- are great.

Click here for the pictures.

Nicole turns a half!

Hard to believe it's been six months already. She's growing up so fast. I intend to get more pictures and possibly VIDEO! on the site soon, so you can see what she's looking and acting like. The main change is that her hair continues to grow in. It's not really long enough to do anything fun with, but it's at least brushable. More hair than me, at least. She's also sitting up, which you've seen some of in pictures, but she's much more stable now.

We just got home from her 6-month checkup. She's sleeping off the effects of her shots. Nicole measured 26 inches (sometimes referred to as 2'2"), which puts her in the 50th percentile and is 2 inches taller than at 4 months. She weighed a whopping 14 pounds, 2 ounces, which is only 20th percentile, but also a 2-pound gain from last time. And she's more than doubled her birth weight, which they say is the goal for 6 months. Her head circumference is 50th percentile, which really only means that she can fit into her Ravens hat for the rest of the season (which, by the looks of it, might be ending in December not February).

Up to new tricks

Trying to make up for lost time, since we were sans camera for several weeks. Here are some new pictures showing you what Nicole is up to these days.

Click here for pictures.

The camera's back, and so is football season

The camera was fixed and delivered about 4 hours before kickoff. Unlike the Ravens, I didn't drop the package as soon as the Fed Ex person handed it to me.

Nicole enjoyed her first real Ravens game and was all dressed up, as you can see. There wasn't much good to come out of it, though, except for these pictures. Plus, we learned that the magic cookies still have some of their powers. For those who don't know, eating Jessica's chocolate chocolate chip cookies brings good fortune to the Ravens. It all started last year when the cookies brought them back from a 21-0 hole against Tennessee. In fact, I packed some cookies when I flew to Louisville on the day of the playoff game against the Colts. However, they lost my luggage -- with the cookies inside -- and I didn't get it until it was too late.

Fortunately, Jessica had just whipped up a batch of the cookies this weekend. They were in the freezer, waiting for Yom Kippur, but the Ravens needed the help early. So, with them trailing 19-13 in the fourth quarter, we quickly wolfed down a cookie. About a minute later Ed Reed ran back a punt for a touchdown to put them team up 20-19. Sadly, that was all the cookie could do, as their powers are no match for Billick's play calling or the referees' penalty calling. I won't be surprised if Nicole's first words are "Why the hell aren't they running the ball?" after I was shouting it for the last 6 minutes of the game.

Looking forward to a better result on Sunday. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures.

Monday morning quarterback

I know you are all super curious to learn about our big weekend. Well, Los Dos Molinos was all that it was cracked up to be, and more. We had a great time with Laurie and Knut. Plus, the food was damn spicy, just how I like it. Unfortunately, we don't think Nicole liked eating it the next day. I may have pushed the limit with how much heat she can tolerate. She wasn't her usual happy self on Saturday night when we went out with Mandy. Luckily, we were at such a loud restaurant that no one could her her crying.

Our camera is due to arrive today. Kevin's camped out waiting for the FedEx truck to arrive. He's got Nicole's Ravens outfit ready to go for the big game tonight, er, at 4pm. We promise to post some pictures as soon as possible. Go Heap!

Oh, and Kevin got to upgrade his birthday iPod to the new 4G nano, it's pretty cool.

Is it fall yet?

Just kidding. The weather has gotten a bit cooler here, and I heard that it's officially the end of monsoon season, so we're pretty excited. Another thing that has us happy is that Canon has shipped our repaired camera, so that should be arriving momentarily. You know what that means - lots of new pictures of Nicole will be hitting computer screens across the country soon.

We got a big weekend ahead of us. Tonight, Kevin and I are making the trek to south Phoenix with Laurie and Knut for dinner at Los Dos Molinos. Will it meet Kevin's expectations after all these years (and past attempted trips)? We'll let you know. Nicole will be hanging with Grandma and Poppie tonight. Nicole had a brief visit at daycare this morning, it was Grandparent Shabbat and how could her grandparents resist an invitation from Nicole's shayna punim?

The rest of the weekend will be spent baking (by me) to prepare for the annual break the fast soiree at Hermvy's house. Seriously, I think the entire Jewish community of Phoenix attends this thing. Other activities (not that they are less important than the baking) include watching football and finally getting to see Mandy. This all will lead up to the big event -- the Ravens game on Monday night. Who do you think will win? Kevin's looking forward to giving Nicole the scouting report in person as opposed to giving it to my belly during last year's football season.

Oh, and in case you were curious, Nicole ended up getting her dad an iPod Nano for his birthday. She's a big spender. I think we need to cut back her allowance.

One problem solved...

Our photos have been moved from Yahoo to Shutterfly. The links on the right side under "Pictures -- in case you missed them" have all been updated. Also, you can now just go to langbaum.shutterfly.com to view all of our albums (it's the handy link at the bottom of the list as well).

I changed the links in the most recent posts but was lazy and didn't go back and change all of them in the archives. If you want to look at pictures, better to click into the links on the main page rather than going through old posts.

Unfortunately there won't be more pictures for a little while. Our camera succumbed to the Arizona heat and had to be sent back to Canon for repair. If all goes well, we should have it back in a week. We promise to take a bunch of pictures as soon as it is returned. Nicole's looking different every day. Her hair is really growing (she must get that from her mother) and she seems to be getting taller (she gets that from someone other than her mother).

Also, it's been four nights in a row so I won't jinx things by saying that Nicole is sleeping through the night. She's good from about 8-8:30 pm until at least 5 a.m. Sometimes she'll go to 6. Needless to say it's made our lives, and Jessica's in particular, much better.

Please bear with us

A couple of technical issues will likely prevent access to the photos currently on the site and keep us from adding new ones for a bit. One is that Yahoo is getting rid of its photo system, so I'll have to move all of the pictures somewhere else and change all of the links. So if you look for pictures and don't find them, I'm in the midst of that changeover. On top of that, our camera seems to be on the fritz and we can't take pictures right now. Also working on getting that addressed. In the meantime, you'll just have to take our word that Nicole is still adorable.

Casual Friday

In response to Smitty's comment regarding my lack of posting, all I have to say is "sheesh to you". Let me reiterate my Institute's motto:

Banner Alzheimer’s Institute…
…ending Alzheimer’s disease without losing a generation…

Yes, I am saving the world. Or at least a small percentage of it (a percentage that increases with age, but I won't go into those stats here).

But Smitty's comment did inspire me to blog a little bit. But I can't do it at the office, given that work blocks most websites, even the most innocent of ones. Email has also been a problem. Case in point, I emailed my CV to my work address only to have it denied because the word "Kraut" was used too many times. You see, back at Hopkins I co-authored many papers with Mike Kraut . . . yes, that Kraut was obviously referring to a bad, bad thing. Kevin used the word "crap" once in an email sent to my work address and it was returned to him as undeliverable due to foul language. I think if the amount of energy that went into blocking websites and emails was used instead for good, we would have already ended Alzheimer's disease.

Ok, enough on that note. Work is actually great. Nicole is doing super, too. She's been enjoying her daily treat of rice cereal and we're encouraged when a fraction of it actually ends up in her stomach. Her biggest complaint right now is not knowing what to get her dad for his birthday on Tuesday. It's a big deal you know, her first birthday gift to him. If you have suggestions, she'd love to hear them. You can email her at nicole.langbaum@gmail.com

Four-month update

Nicole celebrated her 4-month birthday with a visit from her Bubby and then a visit to the doctor. She measured 24 1/3 inches long (50th percentile) and 12 pounds, 3 oz. (25th percentile). Seeing as though she's somewhat tall and thin, I'm now determined to figure out who her real father is. I'm going to keep this brief because Nicole's crying right now, fallout from her shots at the doctor on Tuesday. Poor girl, although her fever is going away.

Here are the most recent pictures.

Addendum

It was so great of Kevin to post on the blog the other day, I guess all my nagging finally paid off, but in his rush, he forgot to update you on some really important things.

1. Nicole has learned to roll over from her stomach to her back. May not sound like a big deal, but the girl hates being on her tummy.

2. After playing in the pool on the 4th of July, Nicole started to mimic her Poppie (not sure if we settled on a spelling of that yet) doing the motorboat with her lips. Well, either she learned that from him or from watching "Wedding Crashers" one too many times.

3. Nicole is a pop princess. She seems to really love Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back". But she also enjoys (to a somewhat lesser extent) Britney's "I'm a Slave 4 U". Maybe this is a sign that a reconciliation is possible.

As for me & Kevin (I know, most of you are only concerned with Nicole), we're adjusting to live in AZ quite well, although we miss our Baltimore peeps. Kevin sweats a lot less than you would think in this hot weather. We're all shocked.

I'll probably be posting a lot more often now that I am a working woman. I have to find something to do to pass the time during this so-called 40 hour work week. Who says I'm wasting my PhD?

And we're back ... again

When we last left you, Nicole was 2 months old, we lived in Baltimore and I was apologizing for not posting often enough.

Now she's about 3 1/2 months old, we live in Arizona and I'm still apologizing for not posting often enough. Sorry about that. I'm not sure what happened to all the free time I thought I would have.

First ... the part you all care about - pictures of Nicole.

Here are some shots from our last couple weeks in Baltimore.

Here are a few from our drive out west. (We're stupid and didn't get any pictures with Gabi and fam in Cincy, but we remembered to take more the rest of the way).

Here are some from our first few weeks in Arizona, including Nicole's first time swimming on July 4.

And here are some from our trip to Michigan and Nicole's first flight. She's an accomplished traveler already.

We'll have more details about the trip and what's been going on out here since we arrived in future (soon ... I promise) posts.

And we're back!

Sorry about that little hiatus. At work we don't like when bloggers go more than a day without posting, so what kind of example am I setting when it's been over a month. I could make excuses, like the fact that we're dealing with a baby, getting ready to move, trying to find jobs, etc., but I won't do that. Instead I'll just say I got overwhelmed by the number of photos we got during the graduation-baby naming weekend that I had to step away for a while. Also, I figured Grandma and Poppie had just spent several days seeing Nicole so they could go a little longer without pictures. I guess I was wrong.

Anyway, here are pictures from the graduation and baby naming weekend.

Here are a few more since then, including Nicole meeting her new friends Madison and Robin.

On the positive side, Nicole slept for 8 hours straight last night, so her mommy is a happy camper. She also slept the entire ride up to New Jersey on Saturday, about 3 hours (3 hours and 45 minutes if any traffic cops or Grandma are reading). Most of the time she's very cooperative. And darn cute. But you already saw the pictures so you know that.

I hope to post more frequently in the upcoming weeks, including on our big trip.

Happy Mother's Day

What a weekend Nicole had. First, her Daddy put together her swing and she got to enjoy the new toy a little bit Friday night and for several peaceful hours on Saturday. Then Saturday night she got to meet her BFF Maggie. They hit it off wonderfully and kept complimenting each other on their pretty pink outfits. Sunday she had a lovely Mother's Day dinner at Aunt Ruth's (well, we all did; Nicole ate the usual), and we got some pictures with her Mommy, Bubby and great grandmothers. (The men get their turn in a month).

Click for more pictures.

Nicole welcomes Maggie

Nicole got some good news today. Her new friend Maggie Blumberg was born this afternoon. Maybe they can play together this weekend.

The bad news is that allergy season has made parenting quite difficult. Nicole will sleep through just about anything (like her father) except for my sneezes. And it seems that's all I do these days, except for blowing my nose. Here's hoping for some rain to wash away the pollen so Nicole can sleep and I can finish watching Casino Royale.

Here are some pictures.

Quick update

Nicole enjoyed her first real bath this week. Mommy and Daddy were happy it wasn't a difficult experience, although they learned the hard way that you can't hesitate -- even for a second -- to put a diaper back on after the bath is over. Fortunately no evidence in the pictures below.

Nicole also liked watching the NFL Draft on Saturday. She was thrilled with the guard the Ravens took in the first round, but wasn't so happy with them burning a first-day pick on a kick returner. She was hoping that the Ravens would grab the Stanford QB that was somehow still available.

Click for some more pictures.

Three weeks old tomorrow

This will be brief, because someone won't stop crying and hiccuping (I'll give you a hint, it's not Jessica). Week three has been busy -- we've attended a birthday party, gone out to dinner a couple times and met a few new people. Nicole tried her first bottles. It's gone ok, but she seems to prefer when her mommy feeds her (and who can blame her?).

Here are some more pictures.

Almost two weeks

It's been over a week since we last posted. Sorry about that. We were a little busy -- can you imagine? Things are going very well, though, especially now that Jessica's feeling much better after her untimely illness. Let's catch you up on Nicole's adventures. She has:

- Made her first trip to the doctor
- Made her second trip to Costco (at least as far as the parking lot)
- Made her first visit to Bubby and Grandpa's house
- Gone out to dinner for the first time
- Seen her first grand slam (fortunately, this one was hit by an Oriole, for a change)
- Caught up on a few episodes of Lost
- Enjoyed her first time in the bouncy chair
- Attended her first party (the social butterfly will attend her second next week)

and most of all
- Missed Grandma and Poppie sooooo much.

Click here for more pictures.

More pictures

Dear friends and family,

Thank you all for all of your emails and phone calls. My mommy and daddy say they'll respond eventually and hope you understand. I'm enjoying my new home and getting the hang of being outside of mommy. Today was a special day. My grandpa arrived from Phoenix and I spent all afternoon napping on him. Mommy and daddy say that I'm a very good girl and am eating and sleeping as well as can be expected for a 4-day-old. Please check out more pictures of me, linked below.

Love, Nicole

Wednesday and Thursday pictures

Friday pictures

Saturday pictures

Quick batch of pictures

As you probably know by now, Nicole Elizabeth Langbaum arrived Tuesday April 3 at 8:02 p.m. weighing 6 pounds, 12.6 ounces and measuring 20 inches long. Mom is doing much better today after quite a difficult day yesterday. Dad's got the hang of this parenting thing already -- change diaper, upload photos, sleep. Or something like that.

Here are a few more from her first day: Nicole's arrival

Last minute thoughts

'Twas the night before pitocin
- Jessica & Kevin Langbaum

'Twas the night before pitocin, and all through the house,
Not a mother was nursing, not even an ounce;

The crib has been ready for months with care,
In hopes that baby Langbaum would soon be sleeping there;

The soon-to-be parents were snuggled in their bed,
With Jessica having visions of bad labor dancing through her head;

Early the next morning, the charge nurse said “come on down,”
Put on this nice Sinai hospital gown;

While Kevin and Jessica filled out paperwork galore,
The expecting grandparents paced the hospital floor;

They finally settled in the swanky delivery suite,
Knowing tonight matzah they would not have to eat;

When all of a sudden Jessica felt a sharp pain,
Baby was coming, our lives would soon be insane;

Kevin opened the door and yelled to the doc,
Come quick, Dr. Faber, tick tock tick tock;

More rapid than eagles her helpers they came,
And she whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

“Now, doula! Now, meconium! Now, pitocin and cervidil!
On, colustrum! On stirrups! On, demerol and epidural!

From the top of her head! To the bottom of it all!
Make the pain go away! Go away! Go away all!”

As quickly as the pain began, it then subsided,
And the new parents couldn’t be anymore excited.

Hall of Fame baby?

Before we plan for what the doctors have referred to as an "induction" on Tuesday, I have to set the record straight. As an editor, I can no longer go along with this accepted terminology.

The noun form of the verb induce is inducement. Induction is the noun form of induct. Webster's agrees with me. More importantly, so does Smitty.

Despite Jessica's improvement with throwing and catching in the last few years, she will not be enshrined in Cooperstown any time soon. Cal Ripken is having an induction. Jessica is having an inducement.

These doctors love to show off how they can spell, constantly referring to themselves as O-B-G-Y-Ns instead of obgyns to prove a point. But I guess they don't teach grammar in med school.

Just had to get that off my chest.

P.S. With Sunday looming as April Fool's Day, we pledge to you that no jokes will be made regarding the baby's birth. If we tell you on Sunday we had the kid, you can be certain it's the truth. I'm just not sure the expecting grandparents could handle that kind of a prank.

Evacuation

The end is in sight! Assuming baby continues to refuse all negotiations and does not come out on his or her own, I am scheduled to be induced at 8am on Tuesday, April 3. This date offers many advantages, including:

1) Kevin being able to watch the championship game of the Men's NCAA basketball tournament

2) Missing at least one Passover seder (no offense, Terry & Elliott)

3) Baby having diamond as his / her birthstone (although this may prove to be a disadvantage to us in later years)

Of course, there is always the possibility that baby will defy the odds and be born tomorrow, the official due date. I would find this particularly ironic given my love of probabilities as an epidemiologist (~ 2% of babies are born on their due date).

Stay tuned!

Dress rehearsal

At least we'll know exactly where to go and what to do when it's time to go to the hospital for real, whenever that may be.

Jessica was having contractions Friday night and Saturday morning. They were regular but not severe (easy for me to say, but that's by her own admission) and got to 5 minutes apart on Saturday. We called the doctor and he figured that with her already dilated and contractions close together we should come in to get checked out. Turns out things hadn't changed from Wednesday's checkup.

Instead of sending us home, they had us walk around for 2 hours. Really only Jessica had to walk, but me being the supportive husband that I am, I walked with her. Of course I was really trying to find a TV with the basketball games on, but that's besides the point.

So after becoming experts on the hallways of the hospital and learning that Ohio State had beaten Memphis (the baby had picked Texas A&M to win that game, but more on baby's tournament picks in a future post), another checkup revealed no more progress and we came home.

Hopefully the real thing comes soon. Sundown tomorrow is the cutoff date for a boy, otherwise there will be a bris on Passover and who ever heard of matzah and lox?

Testing out the old wives tales - Part 2

Ok, neither the laps around the basement nor the Indian food I ate for lunch yesterday put me into labor, so it seems that we're in for another round of experiments today. The agenda: caffeine, some laps around Babies R Us, and hopefully some spicy Mexican or Thai food for dinner tonight.

I realize that all of my fellow researchers out there are saying "but Jessica, you cannot test all of these things at once, how will you know which one caused the labor" (not to even mention testing causality). However, I am throwing my research techniques to the wind with this one, just get baby out!

If you have any suggestions for things that might put me into labor please let me know.

Testing out the old wives tales

Determined to help get baby out of me as soon as possible, the scientist in me is testing out some old wives tales to see if they really work. Today's test - eating spicy Indian food. I met my friend JR for lunch at Akbar where we dined on some delicious, albeit not spicy (at least for my standards) treats. Will this work? Stay tuned . . .

And the countdown continues . . .

Today's visit to the doctor was promising. I am a full 3 centimeters dialated, 75% effaced, and baby is between -1 and -2 station. Basically this means that baby could decide to arrive any day now, or wait a week or two just to torture us. Stay tuned!

Not so much madness

So much for exciting first round games in the tournament putting Jessica into labor. Only the Duke game came close enough, and since we picked Duke to win but also wanted them to lose, we were too torn to be invested enough to cause contractions.

Sadly, after one day of games, Jessica has 11 right, I have 12, and the baby has 13. But baby's already got 3 games wrong for Saturday, so he/she's not spending its pool winnings just yet.

Beavis Langbaum?

We got some good news today at the doctor. The ultrasound confirms the baby is facing head down. We had been told it was breech and were planning for a c-section, but now it looks like that's not definitely in the cards. We're now questioning if it was ever breech, because it still feels the same from the outside. Unfortunately, what the doctor had thought was a head is baby's butt. At least we're certain now that I'm the father! (Hey, I know most of you were going to make jokes at my expense, so I figured I'd beat you to it.)

So now we just wait for Jessica to go into labor. We're hoping because she's so small it's sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, here are pictures of Jessica and her belly as well as some from the ultrasound. You can even see the face! Click here for the pictures. (You can email me at kevlang821@yahoo.com if you have trouble seeing them.)

Until the next time...

Let's get it started in here

Eventually, this blog will be filled with wondrous tales of our life's adventures, if by adventures you mean cleaning up poop and trying to see if we can get 5 hours of sleep a night. It will also be the place to find pictures of our forthcoming bundle of joy, and all sorts of other goodies we'd like to share.

For now, it's a work in progress. Posts will be infrequent as we try to make this thing look halfway decent. But stay tuned in March!