catch up

the longer i put off writing my blog, the more difficult it gets to do! i still feel like i'm not ready to get back to real life after the holidays, but i don't have much of a choice at this point. classes started up again last week, but since i'm only taking one "real" class, it's not too much of a change. it is on tuesdays from 1pm-3pm and i almost missed it last week because i totally forgot about it! the class is eukaryotic molecular genetics, which i actually find really interesting. i think i'm going to like it and find it pretty useful for my research. at the beginning of the first lecture i felt kind of lost ... my brain has accumulated a lot of dust since the end of my comprehensive exams and final last semester ... but by the middle of it i started to remember and even answered all of the questions correctly when i got picked on. that will be the last elective class i have to take for my degree - yay! this upcoming week my journal club and research in progress (rip) starts, which will be mondays from 10:45am-1pm. i am kind of ambivalent about these requirements. i can see why they're mandatory, but they can still be pretty tedious.

our christmas and new years holidays were really great this year, despite the passing of peter's grandma which i discussed in my last blog a couple of weeks ago.

the week before christmas, i played hooky on a tuesday and peter and i took erik to phipps conservatory to see the trains again. my mom called and met us there. we went and had a nice lunch, and peter took erik home for his nap while my mom and i went back to phipps (and i took my "big" camera) and had a really nice time walking around, looking at gorgeous plants and flowers, and chatting. here are some of my favorite pictures:















since we weren't going to be home for christmas, we let erik play with his "big" present the weekend before we left. thanks to this very blog, erik's awesome aunt chrissy saw that we were looking to get erik a train table for christmas and just happened to have one that she generously offered to us. they even dropped it off for us without erik seeing it, along with lots of trains and cars and buildings and all the other stuff you need to make a really cool train setup. (THANK YOU AUNT CHRISSY!!!) we got it all ready for him, and let him go up to his playroom to discover it. as soon as he saw it, he immediately began playing with it, and has asked to play with it every day since. he LOVES his choo choo table!!! here he is playing with it on that first morning:





we drove out to nj the monday before christmas and on tuesday took erik to see santa. we went to santaland in boonton where he saw a really cool santa last year. santa was not there, but we got to go for a ride in his sleigh and take a couple pictures.





we found santa at rockaway mall. he was really nice and gave erik a fist bump ("knuckles," santa called it) and kept it very relaxed so erik felt comfortable. i don't think he really knows what the deal with santa is yet, but he knew who he was and sat nicely on his lap for a photo.



we were going to take him to ride the train at the mall, but it had been replaced by these weird animals that you could drive around the mall, so we did that instead. it was surreal, but kind of fun driving rudolph around the mall.



in keeping with tradition, we spent christmas eve at peter's dad's house in ridgewood, with the lehmann side of the family, including peter's dad, his wife jan, his sister marion, her husband michael, and kids brian and lori, lori's boyfriend ernie, and peter's sister anna and brother david, as well as peter's mom who is always included in the lehmann's holiday celebration. erik's opa made him a gorgeous toy chest, and everyone had as much fun playing with erik's new toys as he did.









on christmas morning, erik woke up and santa grandma had left him a huge pile of presents under her christmas tree. the three of us loved watching erik discover his presents and open them with great enthusiasm.





erik played with his new toys while peter and i exchanged gifts with peter's mom. wonder why i only have pictures of erik here???



in the afternoon, we celebrated the holiday with peter's mother's family, including her sister mary ellen and her husband the chief (although i guess now he's the commish!), her cousin john, his wife laura, and their daughter eliza. we exchanged gifts, had a great christmas feast prepared by peter's mom, and enjoyed spending the evening together.







by the time dinner was ready, erik was exhausted from all the excitement and not napping. all he wanted to eat was cereal, and he literally could not keep his eyes open.





the rest of the visit was nice and low key. erik got to play. peter and i got to rest. erik got to spend more time with his grandma and his opa and oma. he really loved making towers as tall as he could with the blocks eliza gave him for christmas. (check out his counting here ... i'm so proud!)



we had an uneventful drive back to pittsburgh and enjoyed a beautiful sunset with some really cool clouds for many miles.





more to come ...