Let it snow. . .

So as you probably saw on the news we are buried in snow. It has taken all the energy we have to dig ourselves out so movers can arrive tomorrow morning with some furniture from my parents house.

When Josh and my brother Michael drove from Illinois to NY the trip was also filled with snow and freezing rain. After sledding our furniture down icy sidewalks to the truck, then driving in less then ideal conditions for an entire day, the door of the truck was stuck open at a rest stop one hour from Rochester. Penske sent out a repair man who tied the door down with bungie straps and had them remove the fuse to the dome light so the battery did not run down. After being awake for 26 hours Josh got to go to the closing get some sleep then shovel and move our stuff into the new house. All of this has not been fun. The house is great though. We are taking some time to settle in. Unpacking goes a lot slower with an infant but we will get there.

We will post pictures of the house once the weather clears up but for now here is a family portrait

L's First Chanukah

Leila celebrated her first Chanukah and her favorite part was the gelt. Luckily for us, she didn't realize we kept giving her the same piece every night. We figure this won't last for long.

Over the river and through the woods. . .

After Thanksgiving Leila and I stayed with my parents for a week while Josh packed and moved our stuff. Leila tolerated the two big dogs. I don't think she knew what to make of them. All in all we had a relaxing time.


How much is that doggie in the window?


Taking a nap with Zadye

The First Thanksgiving

We made it to Rochester and to our new house. Moving in ice and snow was not fun but more on that later. For now, here are some pictures from the last few weeks we have been in transit. We'll start with Thanksgiving in New Jersey...

Leila with three of her great-grandparents! L to R: Bubbe Marcia, Mom, Dad, Grams (Rovi) with the guest of honor, Mimi and Papa Cohen.


Chilling with Uncle Michael:


Leila's favorite song -- Hold Your Head Up, by Argent?


Hanging out with Aunt Lauren (see also here), Uncle David, and, if you look carefully, a turkey:


Exploring her animal side with her great Auntie Suzie:


Leila's first laugh with the equally great Uncle Ken:


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Now playing: Dan Bern - Thanksgiving Day Parade
via FoxyTunes

Bathtime is Lots of Fun!

Leila is starting to enjoy taking a bath.



Who is that baby in the mirror?




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Now playing: Raffi - Five Little Ducks
via FoxyTunes

Leila is spending a larger portion of the day awake and alert and a larger portion of the night asleep (Hooray!)



Her newest talent is holding onto toys if you put them in her hands. Her favorite are the pea and carrot.



She is now big enough to be carried in her front carrier. We took her to Allerton park on a short hike and this worked well.

Two months

Leila got an unpleasant birthday surprise today, as her two month anniversary of life on the outside was greeted with her first round of vaccinations. On the good side, she's up to 8 lbs., 12 oz., and 20.5 inches long (10th and 5th percentile, respectively). To remember happier days, here's a video of Leila at play. You'll notice that she seems to have noticed the existence of her hands and seems to be learning what they can do, though she's still new at it.



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Now playing: Janis Ian - Play Like A Girl
via FoxyTunes

Happy Halloween!

Leila has decided to strut her stuff this Halloween. Thanks to Aunt Lauren and Uncle David for the great costume.





Sleeping on dad is always a favorite pastime.

Getting bigger all the time

We stopped by the lactation clinic a couple days ago, and can report that Leila now weighs between 7 lbs. 8 oz. and 7lbs. 12oz., depending on an empty or full tummy. Tonight is mom's birthday (remember to call tomorrow if you haven't yet!), so she's out with her friends, while dad and daughter enjoy some time on the activity mat, a bath -- yes, you read that right, dad managed a bath -- and some blog posting. Enough chit-chat, here are some pictures:

Leila chatting with Adorable bear (that's what his shirt says his name is...):


Naptime:


After dinner:


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Now playing: They Might Be Giants - It's Not My Birthday
via FoxyTunes

Living in Bolivian?

Unlike Mike Tyson, when we say Leila is living in Bolivian, we really mean it. Here she is in her two Alpaca sweaters that her Uncle Michael got her during his travels in Bolivia:





And here she is from last week's one month checkup. Our little girl is up to 19 3/4 inches (10th percentile) and 6 lbs., 12 1/2 oz. (5th percentile), and got a totally clean bill of health. Basically, she's little and practically perfect in every way.



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Now playing: Julie Andrews - A Spoonful of Sugar
via FoxyTunes

Outdoors and Indoors

As promised, Grandpa Lou and Grandma Elaine's visit, now in video form:



Coming up tomorrow: Leila turns one month old!

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Now playing: Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams - My Girl
via FoxyTunes

Granpa Lou and Grandma Elaine

Sorry for the delay, but we're catching up here at It's a Peanut, and finally posting some pictures from Grandpa Lou and Grandma Elaine's visit. The former enjoyed singing with Leila, who sometimes decided to harmonize along:



while the latter tried a calmer approach:



Needless to say, a good time was had by all:



Coming up soon: more photos, and some great new videos too...


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Now playing: George Harrison - I Dig Love
via FoxyTunes

Three weeks

Leila just celebrated her three week anniversary of life with a celebratory dinner of milk with a side of more milk. Daddy spent his morning having some fun with 57,077 of his closest friends, but was back on hand in the evening for yet more cute photos, a sample of which can be seen here:







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Now playing: Sufjan Stevens - Come On! Feel The Illinoise!
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It's a photoshoot

One of the benefits of having a professional photographer for a grandparent is free chances to model. Luckily, a documentary crew was on hand to capture the experience:



Here's the whole family, through the magic of a tripod and a 10-second shutter delay:



and here's the lady of the hour:



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Now playing: Wilco - Kamera
via FoxyTunes

More from Bubbe and Zayde's visit

Tonight, some videos. First, a shopping trip to buy some cute outfits and a new blankie or two...:



and then just chillin' at home with the family:



More from her first professional photoshoot tomorrow!

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Now playing: Barenaked Ladies - Shopping
via FoxyTunes

When we was fab

So, more videos and pictures of Bubbe and Zayde will be coming soon, but in the meanwhile, we had a visit from Uncle Dmitry (see here for photos of our visit to our nephew Ellis). Here's my brother from another father and mother with Leila:



and in his honor, a rare, never before seen concert by a previously unknown member of the Beatles:



and here's another rarity -- an a capella performance from the same artist...



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Now playing: The Beatles - I've Just Seen a Face
via FoxyTunes

More Bubbe and Zayde

I'll get to the videos tomorrow, but in the meanwhile the cute pictures of Leila with Bubbe, Zayde, mom, and dad continue apace. Here's a sample of the full album:

Mama and Bubbe:


Mama and Zayde:


Leila listing her favorite things (hugs, kisses, and daddy):

Bubbe and Zayde in town

Sorry for the absence of blogging, but we'll be back this weekend with a vengeance. Early this week, one could find the entire family hanging out. To badly paraphrase a great Townes Van Zandt song, "I've got three girls; two are human, one's a cat. All I love with all my heart and here is where they're at..."



The big news, however, is that my wife's folks are in town for several days. There have been many new outfits and much cuteness. Here's Leila with Bubbe:



and Zayde:



BTW, if you don't know what Bubbe and Zayde actually mean, and haven't figured it out, try here.

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Now playing: Townes Van Zandt - Two Girls
via FoxyTunes

Baby's Day Out

Well, our litle darling has become, knock on wood, a rather good sleeper at night, waking up only to nurse and then dropping back out for hours. One byproduct of this seems to be that mornings are a bit fussier, so this afternoon, we decided to take her on a small outing. As could be expected, put her in the car seat and she was out like a light. We went to lunch, the video store (Children of Men for mom and dad), and to the library, since 10 days is more than long enough to go without a Raffi CD. We'd provide photographic evidence, but we forgot to bring the camera, so we'll have to do with a post-outing picture of Leila passed out in her basket like an angel:



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Now playing: Moxy Früvous - My Baby Loves A Bunch Of Authors
via FoxyTunes

More baths, more walks, more fun!

For those who are interested, I have some thoughts about my first week of fatherhood posted at my other blog, Rooted Cosmopolitans.

As we enter Leila's second week, we get to repeat all the fun activities from week 1, but this time with better planning of the camera angles. Here's yesterday's bath:



and today's walk:



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Now playing: Barenaked Ladies - One Week
via FoxyTunes

Goodbye to the grandparents (for now)

This morning, Grandma Gail and Grandpa Bill hit the road back to Rochester, leaving us on our own for the first time since Leila arrived. Thankfully, she now seems to be happy to sleep through the night except for a couple of nursing times, meaning that her mom and I are able to get a heck of a lot more sleep. The next set of grandparents will be showing up on Wednesday, but to cap off the current visit, here are a few more pictures:





and a video discussion of the relative cuteness of relatives...



By the way, if anyone wants to make prints out of any of these photos, the large versions online are fine for up to sizes of 3x5 or 4x6. If you want to make a larger print, I can send you the fll-size originals.

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Now playing: Paul Simon - Mother And Child Reunion
via FoxyTunes

Out Walking

She may not have gone too far since coming home, but Leila has done a little toodling about in the neighborhood, as we demonstrate below:



and here's a picture of mom and daughter:



By the way, for those less familiar with flickr, youtube, and blogger, you can click on any photo, and get access to all of our online photos, which can also be found at this link. Click on the videos anywhere except on top of the "play" button, and it will take you to youtube, where clicking on "jfaberuiuc" will take you to all our videos, which can also be found at this link. For any of the blog posts, clicking on the link at the bottom that says "0 comments" or "5 comments" or something like that will take you to a page where you can leave a comment. Unless you have some kind of google account, you'll likely want to click on "other" to leave your name/nickname along with the comment. Hope this helps.

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Now playing: Greg Brown - Walkin' Daddy
via FoxyTunes

L'Shanah Tovah!

Happy New Year to everyone, and may it be a year of happiness, health, and some much needed peace for everyone. Leila's first New Year has been a blast, and she's really enjoying spending time with Grandma Gail and Grandpa Bill, who have been allowing us to sleep occasionally and all sorts of other useful things (they even put her down every now and again and let us hold her...). We even had her first iChat with her mom's family, so she could meet everyone from her great-grandparents Papa and Mimi Cohen on down to Great-aunt Suzie and Great-uncle Ken, Aunt Lauren and Uncle David, and Uncle Jason (we're going to be slightly less than technical with exact genealogical relations). If anyone else wants to have a chat, either text or video, just let me know and I'll set it up.

We'll have some more videos tomorrow, but for now, Leila's first Rosh Hashanah:





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Now playing: Green Day - Holiday
via FoxyTunes

Bathtime/naptime

The first bath was a bit of an adventure, and we cut out most of the crying parts, leaving only the calm pre-bath baby and the angelic, clean, freshly scrubbed post-bath baby:



and here's naptime for everyone, and I do mean everyone:



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Now playing: The Beatles - I'm Only Sleeping
via FoxyTunes

Making movies

So, some more videos of our little superstar.

First, chillin' the hospital while watching her first football game:



and then the first homecoming:



If you want, you can go here and bookmark the page to keep up with her progress...

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Now playing: Bruce Springsteen - Bring 'Em Home
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Everybody's home!

Mother, baby, and dad all made it home safely and happily. There will be a bunch of pictures and videos coming up shortly, but here's a sample:





The rest of our hospital photos can be found here.

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Now playing: Simon & Garfunkel - Homeward Bound
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And, as promised, video of some of her first moments, in this case taking her weight.



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Now playing: The Band - The Weight
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Leila Dawn

At 12 minutes after midnight, we were proud to welcome Leila Dawn to the world, at 5lbs, 13. oz, and measuring 17.5 inches. Mother and baby are both doing great!






Note: Spelled with an "ei", but pronounced as if Layla, like the Eric Clapton song, though we named her that because we thought it was very pretty and it means "night" in Hebrew/Arabic, appropriate for an astronomer's daughter...

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Now playing: Eric Clapton - Layla
via FoxyTunes