Jemez

This past weekend was the last weekend of the summer (as defined by the UNM academic calendar.) To make the most of it, we went with some friends to the nearby town of Jemez Springs. Although it is only about an 80 minute drive away, and therefore possible to visit as a day trip, we nevertheless decided to stay over Saturday night so as to have more time.

On Saturday, we spent the morning getting there and coordinating with our friends. It took a little longer than expected, since we had decided to meet there, rather than in Albuquerque, and our friends don't have cell phones, and even if they did, we didn't have a signal on ours (Grrr, so much for Verizon having the best coverage -- that of course may still be true, but grrr anyway! ... and on a related note, I really wonder how people managed in the pre-mobile-phone days.) And to add to all the other hurdles, we had two babies' schedules to juggle. However we surmounted all the obstacles and eventually met up.

After lunch in Jemez Springs, we drove out to Jemez Falls, about 15 miles away. The town and falls are in the Jemez mountains, at an elevation of about 6200 ft. The scenery was gorgeous, with bright orange-red mountains dotted with tall evergreen trees, and occasional small bubbling hot springs just at the side of the road. From the parking lot at Jemez Falls to the actual falls was a very short hike, less than half a mile. However, even this proved to be quite challenging, because Jared and Julia's baby is about 15 months old, and having just learned a few weeks ago to walk unsupported, is very much into walking on his own instead of being carried. Of course, he doesn't always want to walk in the direction the adults want to go...


Oddly enough, we don't seem to have taken any pictures of the falls, as seen from downstream. We later walked a short distance upstream, and saw the river above the falls. It was pretty shallow, at least in some parts, and we had some fun wading in.


Here are Tom and Shreya just above the falls.



On Saturday night, after the other had gone to bed, Tom, Shreya and I drove a couple miles out of town, then pulled off the road to do some stargazing. We don't have a tripod, so no pictures, but the sky was quite breathtaking.

On Sunday, after breakfast, we decided to try something a little more strenuous, so we hiked a couple of miles uphill, to McCauley hot springs. These were really just lukewarm springs, but we still enjoyed them!


On the hike back to the car, we got a little nervous, as a bit of a wind blew up, and we could hear thunder from not far away. But fortunately, we didn't get any rain, and made it back safely. Here is Shreya, partaking of a little post-hike refreshment.


On the ride back to Albuquerque, the storm finally broke, and it has been raining (sort of) ever since.

Seattle

Last week, we took Shreya on her third major trip. This time we travelled to Seattle. Tom was visiting Microsoft Research for a week, to do some work with a collaborator. Shreya and I just went along for the ride, among other reasons because I'd never been to Seattle. Of course, in practical terms, I still haven't seen much of the region: during the week, Tom worked all day, and Shreya and I, somewhat transportless, hung out and played either in the hotel or in nearby playgrounds. In the evenings, in principle we could've seen some sights, if we had wanted to skip dinner for the purpose (since restaurants in Redmond seemed to close very early. I suppose this might not have been the case in the city, but in any case we did not find out.) That left Saturday to do touristy stuff, but of course the weather, which had been pretty nice if a bit chilly all week, decided not to cooperate. So, in the end, we skipped going to Mt. Rainier or any of the other attractions and just wandered around Pike Place Market (which Tom points out is an attraction) for some time and spent the day with Tom's collaborator and his wife. So in short, it was an enjoyable week, but uneventful. Here are some pictures.

On the flight out, Shreya attacks a packet of peanuts.


Playing at the hotel.


At Nikhil and Megha's Shreya was fascinated by the coffee table.


Mirrors, mirrors on the wall...

I Saw Her Standing There

(with apologies to the Beatles)

Well she was just seventeen

You know what I mean

(err... fortnights? months since conception?)

And the way she looked

Was way beyond compare

So how could I dance with another... oooh

When I saw her standing there?

(video is from July 16th)

July Jumble

The last few weeks have been sort of crazy around here...

First there was the fourth of July weekend, starting on July 3rd, which may have been a working day for some, but was a holiday for the pediatrician's office. That was the day that Shreya decided to wake up in the morning with a fever of 101F. She had no other symptoms, and was, for the most part even quite cheerful. We sent the pediatrician an email, gave her some Tylenol (the infant version) and decided not to worry about it. But when it was 103F the following day, still with no symptoms, we were advised by the 24-hour nurse line to take her in to the Pediatric Urgent Care, where

They examined her chest
For a rash
And the rest
Of her body for swellings and lumps.

No, wait. That was Christopher Robin. Shreya didn't have sneezles or wheezles. That was the whole point. She didn't have any symptoms, which is what made it So Very Alarming. However, what they did do was virtually nothing. They looked at her eyes and ears for infections, and listened to her lungs. Then they pronounced her to have a fever, told us to give her Tylenol and sent us home $50 poorer! Still, it was better than if she had had an ear infection or something bad. Saturday evening, we had an email back from the pediatrician that it was probably a virus, and not to worry, it would probably clear up in a few days, and if not, we could bring her in on Monday or Tuesday. In the end, it turned out to be a fairly textbook case of roseola, or "baby measles", a virus whose telltale pink rash appears after the three-day fever has subsided and the baby has ceased to be contagious. After all the excitement is over, in other words.

All in all, we had a not particularly holidayish long weekend. One of the nights (I think it was the 3rd) there were fireworks, probably at the state fairgrounds, which were visible from our street corner. So we took her out to see them, but she was rather frightened by the accompanying booming, so we brought her back indoors almost immediately.

In the midst of this excitement, she also got teeth. The first had already begun to appear on July 1st, but a second one started to cut through within a few days of that, so now she has two!

Here she is with her rosy rash and her two new teeth. Smiling in spite of it all!

Then on Friday the 11th, Shreya and I went to the playground in the cool early morning. Shreya enjoyed being strapped to my chest and going down the slides and swinging on the swings. On our way home, she fell asleep in the Bjorn. I walked along, minding my own business, enjoying the morning which was just starting to get hot. And then, as I looked at some gorgeous sunflowers in somebody's yard, instead of where I was going, I stepped on the edge of the pavement where it slanted steeply to a driveway, and twisted my ankle. The yelp I gave woke up Shreya, who started to howl in harmony. We had to sit ourselves down, right there on the sidewalk, and wait for Tom, whom I telephoned, to come with the car and drive us home. For three days, I couldn't walk at all, and even for the rest of the week I only hobbled from one room to another. I had been planning to take Shreya to the lavender festival on Sunday, and the Aquarium on Monday. It only takes one second for such plans to change...

You might think that with all that lying around with a game leg, I would have had plenty of time to do more frequent updates on the blog. Somehow though, it didn't work that way. In the last week, Shreya has become quite attached to Daddy. It did not take her long to figure out that at least for the moment, Mommy tries to get her to play in one spot, while Daddy is the one who carries her around and takes her outdoors. Sigh.

Summer fun

Memorial Day Picnic

Mmmmmmm... cupcake.... Can I have some , Mommy?     (Mommy refused.)

Hello, Archer

Wheeee!

But he's younger than me!

Concert in the Park

Dancing baby

Father's Day at the Zoo

Love to be carried by Daddy!



Everybody is at the zoo with their kid!

At Sandia Peak

The top of the world's longest aerial tramway, which we took.


At the top, with Uncle Mike and Grandma.


High-altitude hiking is thirsty work!


Ready to head back.


We stayed past sunset.


City lights from the upper tram terminal.

New Wave Baby

While in Atlanta, Shreya learned a new trick. She has subsequently steadfastly refused to demonstrate it, giving anyone who tries to induce her to perform it a quizzical look and a smile. Nevertheless, here is cinematic proof!



Starring: Pallavi, Shreya and myself (non-speaking role).
Special guest: Tom's knee and Tom's voice.

Atlanta

We just got back from Shreya's second major trip: ten days in Atlanta. This was an exciting adventure for us, as it was the first time Shreya traveled on an airplane. The journeys went pretty well. On the outbound flights, which were in the morning and afternoon, Shreya was very happy, spending the first flight bouncing on Mommy's lap and the second one sleeping. The return flights were in the late evening, and here she was a bit tired and cranky, but after a little bit of hollering, again spent most of the time sleeping. On the whole, I think traveling with her was reasonably successful.

The trip to Atlanta was dual purpose. Tom spent the weekdays attending a workshop at Georgia Tech. Of course Shreya and I need not have accompanied him to Atlanta for that, but my sister is in Atlanta for the year, and since we had not seen her since Thanksgiving (except over skype) we decided to go as well. We had a lovely time. When both Tom and Pallavi were working, Shreya and I lazed around either at home or in the park or the bookstore. Other times, we lazed around with Pallavi and Shreya demonstrated her bouncing, babbling and smiling abilities. Even on the weekend, when Tom was free, we did not go and see Atlanta sights, preferring to walk in the park or take Shreya to the pool. The only touristy thing that we did was to visit the Civil War museum, to see the cyclorama. That was quite spectacular, though I wish that in addition to the guided tour with commentary, the museum had allowed us to walk around and examine the gigantic painting at our own speed. (Shreya was a little disruptive, but once we were in the guided tour, there was no easy way to leave with her. If we had realized beforehand that it would be like that, we might not have gone, but under the circumstances, we stayed put and watched the show. If the other museum-goers were annoyed with us, they were at least too polite to say so.)

In the mad hassle that was packing for this trip, we managed to remember to take the car seat (not hard since Shreya was sitting in it), the locking clip for the car seat (very forgettable, but we didn't!) diapers and wipes, and toys. Alas, what we did forget was the camera! And then it turned out that Pallavi didn't have one in Atlanta and the one belonging to Tom's collaborator, which we might have tried to borrow, was broken. Finally, Pallavi borrowed one from someone for a couple of days, and between that and the camera on the laptop, we did get some pictures. But we missed recording for posterity the bouncing baby on the plane (Are you allowed to take pictures on airplanes?)


Here Mommy and Shreya are startled out of a nap by a big laptop looming over them.


Shreya meets her aunt. At first she was cautiously friendly

but Pallavi is very good with kids and soon won her over!



Sitting on Mom's shoulder is fun!