Linda in Boston

I forgot to show that we saw Auntie Linda in Boston on our trip there last weekend! We got her a pearl necklace in honor (and gratitude) for her going along with us to China, and helping out so much in our first couple of weeks with Juliet.

First US doctor's visit

Today (Tuesday) we walked across town to the offices of Dr. Jane Aronson, who is known as "the orphan doctor" in the media. Her practice specializes in adopted children. We had gotten very good advice, instructions, and prescriptions from her colleague, Dr. Laura Feldman, before heading off to China (including the Tobradex which quickly cured my conjunctivitis).

The worst part of the visit was extracting blood samples from Juliet. Our darling is still a bit chubby, and since she's a baby, she has extremely tiny veins. Dr. Aronson started with the right side of Juliet's neck, moved to her left arm, then moved to her right arm, and was finally able to score a vein on the left side of Juliet's neck. Needless to say, Juliet did not enjoy these proceedings. Personally, I found some of the rooting around with needles to be unsettling, as many different angles were tried.

Here's Juliet after all the trauma, and after a couple of bottles of milk to settle her back down.


Other stats seem pretty normal--Juliet is around the 15th or 18th percentile for her age in both height and weight. She's at only the 3rd percentile for head circumference, which might be of concern, but we also observed that her head is somewhat flattened on the back (possibly from sleeping patterns), and also her skull hasn't sealed, so she has time to catch up. Dr. Aronson thinks that Juliet wouldn't need Head Start and wouldn't qualify given her current set of responses. So we'll just go back to making her life miserable with broccoli, baths, and walks through the park.


On the vaccination front, everything is as it should be; apparently the Chinese records were quite thorough, including instructions about the next round of vaccines that ought to be administered. Juliet had to get four vaccinations, about which she was not at all happy, but at least they were over with quickly.

Baby Containment Technology

Yesterday, at Joyce's request, I ventured to "Buy Buy Baby" (what a crass name for a store!) and returned with a Superyard XT, or, more colloquially, the baby fence. My colleague Mike likened it to a sheep pen, and he made fun of all the pictures of happy three-year-olds playing inside their pen. As if!

Juliet doesn't seem to realize yet that it's actually a baby cage. She seems to enjoy the technical challenge of using it to climb.


Uncle Bill and Aunt Evelyn very kindly gave us the high chair that they had used for my cousins Bob and Leslie when they were growing up. Which makes this a vintage baby chair, in case you can't tell from the metal frame and vinyl seats (you can't get this stuff anymore!). Auntie Evelyn warned us, however, to make sure to install a strap to prevent submarining. She also told us that my cousin Bob had climbed out of the chair, lost his balance, and fallen head-first into a nearby garbage can, apparently to much hilarity. After these stories, we've begun affectionately referring to the high chair as "The Death Trap".


Luckily for us, our friend David was willing to give us a few pieces of general-purpose webbing, which we have configured (a) to prevent submarining and secure the tray and (b) as a seat belt. Juliet seems to enjoy eating food off the tray, and flung broccoli all over the kitchen, the tray, and herself. She even got broccoli up the sleeves of her clothes; we're still finding little broccoli bits in improbable places in the apartment.

Quilt Show in Watertown

On Sunday, we headed to a quilt show in Watertown, at which we met up with more friends.

Trevor Blackwell came over on Sunday morning to meet Juliet, and then decided to come along to the quilt show. In typical nerd fashion, I think he and I talked as much about machinery and mechanical engineering (which is to say that Trevor, as usual, taught me about such things) as we discussed the quilts at the show.


I couldn't resist taking this shot of this quilt.


Trevor appears in this photo with Keith Smith, Joyce, and Juliet. Keith's wife Jackie is also a quilter; unfortunately, we didn't get any photos of Jackie or their daughter Maddie. Which is perhaps just as well, since Maddie will give anyone a run for their money in the "cuteness" department, and this is, after all, Juliet's blog.

Visiting the Sandstrom/Smalls

After the conference, we stayed at the home of Chris Small and Carol Sandstrom, friends of ours (originally my friends from grad school, but Joyce and I now feel that we share them) who live in Cambridge.

Here's Chris with Juliet:


And Carol, during a moment I missed, sledding with Juliet:


Their delightful daughter Harriet (who was one of Joyce's and my flowergirls at our wedding), dispensing big sister advice:


And lastly, Juliet considers her career options:


Interestingly, I find that I keep on typing "Harriet" instead of "Juliet". It probably helps that both of their names end in "et", but I suspect that there might be a tiny bit of Freudian slippage in my brain. Joyce and I had long thought that it would be wonderful to be parents of a child such as Harriet, who was preternaturally articulate as a child and remains thoughtful, wonderfully sharp, and painfully direct. I'm sure that Juliet will surprise us in her own ways. Actually, she already has.

Boston USENIX 06

On Thursday we drove up to Boston, so I could give an invited talk at the USENIX technical conference. After the talk, a bunch of old friends went to lunch with us at the Legal Seafoods in Copley Place. Here's a couple shots: Dave Presotto, who I know from Bell Labs, is on the left; Catherine Zhang, who I went to grad school with, is on the right.



Juliet, of course, continues her mission to taste absolutely everything.