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In Labor at the Hospital

Today, finally after all the back and forth — we wanted to induce by December 23, then December 26 — we are sitting in the labor room at the hospital, waiting for a delivery room to free up. There is one coming up very soon, they say.

It all started today around 4:30 when Ana got some stronger contractions and they built up until 7:00 when we called the Hospital/Doctor/Babysitter. By 9:00 the kids had breakfast and Manuela had arrived to watch the kids. Ivan was very concerned of us leaving again and insisted on knowing exactly the sequence of events, including when I would come, Grosi  would come and finally when Momy and the new baby would arrive.

Now it is 10:10 and Ana is laying on the bed, connected to heartbeat and contraction indicator and a blood pressure measuring device. I am watching her and we are waiting for our delivery room. Grosi is going to arrive at 14:40…. and I am almost convinced the new baby will arrive while I have to pick her up. Well, let’s see what happens.

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Sledding in the Garden on Christmas

Today finally we decided to try sledding in our own front yard…. There was clearly enough snow around, it was not even very cold. So, we took the highest spot right behind our little shed and slid down towards the street. It took a few attempts to pave the relatively deep snow with its icy crust such that finally we were able to slide down to the side walk on our plastic sleighs.

Marki on his way down.....
Marki on his way down.....

Afterwards we produced some snow angels in the snow of the front yard.That was not so easy with the icy finish. And finally we went back in to play some games under the Christmas tree. We are ready for tomorrow…. and it would be nice if number 4 would come soon, but maybe after Christmas 🙂

Building jewels in front of our first Christmas tree.
Building jewels in front of our first Christmas tree.
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An Early Morning in our Bedroom

This morning I got up when Markus was kicking around and it was shortly after 6:00. I realized that we have a wonderful view on Boston, and as the sun was getting stronger I took some photos. Just to prove that we do see the Boston skyline from our bedroom. We are still missing the balcony on our sun room but well we have lots of time to do that. Please do not ask me to repeat the picture in the summer, as the vegetation will take away a good part of the skyline.

30am in the morning.
View from our bedroom at about 6:30am in the morning.

On a separate note, we do not yet have the baby. Ana is holding on tight it seems.

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First Real Snow Storm ‘Done’

All right, this year the first real snow storm was pretty early. Saturday night around 11pm it slowely started and built up slowley to full strength. As announced in the news the snowfall tapered off around noon, but the tapering was kind of slow. Expecting for Ana to be ready to deliver any moment I cleaned out the driveway two times. Once around 9am and one more time around 3:30pm, whent he snowstorm was over and the snow ploughs had made their final pass at the streets . It must have been about 30cm of snow if not more. They said in the TV that it was one of the largest snow storms within the last 10-20 years…. well it was quite fine from our side, luckily it hit on the weekend and Ana did not have to go to the hospital either.

Our driveway less than 24 hours after the storm hit. Not so bad.
Our driveway less than 24 hours after the storm hit us. Not so bad.
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Our first Christmas Tree in Arlington

This year is the year of the first times….. First snow fall, first visit to Boston, first house bought, first sub zero bike ride etc. etc. Today we bought our first Christmas tree. We were not yet sure were to put it, Ana was thinking about the right side of the living room, were the speaker usually stands, I was rather thinking about the left side, replacing the floor lamp. Well as it turned out, Ana was right, the right side is nicer and the tree fit in very nicely.
Anyway, after the breakfast we went to get my warm winter boots, and after that we looked for a tree at Mahoney’s and we met Krishna with family (Dana, Isaac and ? hmm… forgot the name). They bought a big tree together with a nice large new support. We went for a somewhat smaller tree and a support which was cheaper but had the possibility to fill in some water to keep the tree fresh for longer 🙂 of course we made the better choice.
I went with Markus and Ivan to find our tree. As usual it is not easy to find the perfect tree, but finally we found a decent tree. I do not like the tip too much but it was reasonably regularly built (and cut) and would fit well into our living room.

Our first Christmas tree in Arlington. Well of course as Ana says it is not yet ready, light mnissing and some fine tuning on the decoration, but well, that's it.
Our first Christmas tree in Arlington. Well of course as Ana says it is not yet ready, light missing and some fine tuning on the decoration, but well, that's kind of it.

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Biking at Low Temperatures

As it is well known in boy scout circles: ‘It is never too cold, you might just be improperly dressed.’ So following this proverb I have adjusted my biking gear to reflect the sub zero temperatures. Last Friday morning it was -14 C when I rode to MIT the usual path. The Wednesday night before I had my first sub zero ride in the evening after a long squash game. I was so exhausted and had bad headwind that it took me almost 45 minutes to get home. Luckily it was not yet as cold so I survived with my simple jeans. The morning afterwards I did get a pair of nice skipants and the -14 C ride was almost pure pleasure. Today I completed the equipment with a pair of really decent winter boots (wonderful leather on the outside but fully waterproof through several more modern layers: ‘Chippewa since 1901’). One more thing…. I still need some decent gloves, mine kind of suck 🙂

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ETH is Calling

Yesterday i was offered the position in Zuerich. We are all excited and will carefully evaluate the consequences of a move. When number 4 is born we will make plans and we will travel to Zuerich. This is an important new step in our life and we will make sure to make the best informed decision.

As Phillip Schieferdecker put it, ‘Im Fussball nennt man das ein Luxusproblem’.

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Waiting for Number 4

Today is December 19th and our little guy has not yet seen the light of day…. Ana is putting us every night in excitement but finally everything calms down again and I wake up in the morning in Markus bed….
Today we have a long laundry list of things to do. We will start with a good family breakfast and will continue to buy a Christmas tree. A real one, a few years back we bought a small artificial tree, but now as we have a house and the kids are all over Christmas we need of course a real tree. Afterwards we will buy some good snow boots for me because we are expecting half a foot of snow tomorrow. We also need a coffee machine to make sure my mum is going to be well caffeinated while she will be here. Some cigars are of course on my wish list, but of course what we all really want is to go to the hospital.

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Squash…. Moving Forward

I played some squash tonight after having done a great class on gyroscopes, the nightmare of any student (and professor). The last few weeks I have been playing, the quality has been consistently high, playing good length and tight to the wall. Today was particularly good feeling sharp and returning reliably with few mistakes. I played with the young Indian (I always forget his name) and got my shots in reasonably well. He has improved a lot but I can still make the game.
Afterwards I asked Mike and ? from the varsity team to play with me. They presently occupy place 4 and 2 on the team. I was able to beat Mike consistently at about 11:5. The number 2 from the team though, beat me to 8 while I was able to win the second set at 14:12. I had the impression I would also win the following game, but you really never know. Andre Yoon is presently the number one of the varsity club. I should play with him to see where I am standing 🙂 I think it would at least be an interesting match. All games were high speed and had some very nice rallies. Few points were really short, so we were panting….
Next on the calendar is to go up the ladder in the 4.5 team. I should be able to beat Najib and Christopher. Frans, Adrian and Jan I am not sure but it is clearly not impossible.