Sid started off this month celebrating her first Hannukah! Wendy-Grammy made sure to get a menorah for the occasion. Sid was a very big fan of the candles and helped teach Grammy and Papa the prayers to sing.
Then it was time to head off for the next leg of our East Coast journey - down to Philadelphia. We were welcomed by Nana (Martha) and Doda (Aunt Becca), who had been quarantined for several days after arriving from Israel, and with a lovely snowfall.
That sled ride was definitely not the joyous moment we all anticipated. Sid was in more of a cuddle in your arms and watch the snow kind of mood, rather than even remotely touch it. While waiting for our negative COVID results, we rounded out the Hannukah holiday by lighting candles over Zoom with Grandpa Fred and MomMom Beth.
Despite some intense pandemic hair setting in for Gin and Zeke, we had a little 'first family Christmas' photoshoot.
Thanks to the weather warming back up after that inital snow, we were able to have friends over a few times to hang out on the back deck or go for a walk. Shoutout to Mike Prince for these cute shots!
In fact, we went on a lot of walks with everyone we saw!
If we had had to wait one more week for Christmas, I'm not sure Sid would have fit into her themed jammies. It was a close call as it was.
But that's okay, we had backup cuteness.
What's in the package?!
Doesn't matter because the wrapping paper made a very fun crinkly sound.
As we realized a bit late that we had to prepare Sid for an East Coast winter, she got to be the proud owner of this spacesuit/leftover burrito wrapper winter coat! One of the best decisions we've made yet.
We spent an afternoon in Fishtown. So thrilled to finally meet Shoshana!
We had a wonderfully low-key New Years' Eve celebration, as I guess everyone did, watching movies, eating sweets, and having a little champagne toast. And were so happy to have been able to spend Martha's birthday with her this year. Gin made a not-so-attractive but super delicious chocolate blackout cake (psst: the recipe calls for from-scratch pudding for the frosting and woah, game changer!).
This is how Sid rang in the new year,.
Soon after the start of the new year we spent a lovely, if a little windy, afternoon with Will and Shruti!
Sid continues to be on the move. With the help of a few walker/push toys she's really starting to get her feet under her!
Virginia's work continues, and Sid helped out a few days by wearing what we lovingly call her "science vest". It has two pockets to house an audio recorder (which automatically generates counts of the number of words Sid hears in a day) and a proximity sensor. This is a device Virginia's lab is working to develop which measures the physical distance between device wearers (so Virginia and Zeke wear them too to get a sense of how long she spends in close proximity to us). But really the point of these pictures is to show that we had to set up several boundaries and gates to contain this kid!
One of the coolest things we did this past month was to see some live music! Who knew we needed to leave Music City to accomplish that goal. South Jersey's pre-eminent Grateful Dead cover band played at a venue just up the street from Martha's. Each group had their own designated pod on a wide-open lawn. It was a really wonderful afternoon.
I told you we'd get our act together with her monthly photosoot. Voila. And a little behind-the-scenes action at the end - baby shark is our go-to for nail filing and now photo shoots!
