2011 Year in Review

In January of this year Justin and I went to Washington D.C. for a few days before school started. We had a lot of fun seeing the Smithsonians and such, even though it was VERY cold. Unfortunately, none of the food we had was very good. I would attribute this shortcoming to my pregnancy, as I was not quite past the morning sickness phase, but Justin agreed with me that the food was disappointing. Here is a picture of Justin and me in front of the Washington Monument.


In March we flew to San Diego, where we got to see Grandfather (my dad's dad) and both of my mom's brothers and their kiddos. Justin had never been to San Diego, nor had he met many of those relatives. The weather was beautiful. The purpose of our trip was to pick up Grandmarm's (my mom's mom) Passat, which we purchased, and drive it back to Houston. The drive back was fun- our last road trip together without babies. Unfortunately I failed to take any pictures of this whole trip (what???).

In May we bought our house. We began our house-hunting in January, and saw many so-so homes. In April we had a particularly depressing day of house-hunting in which our best option was a home that we referred to as the "bird house" due to the 2 dead birds found inside the house when we toured it. The next day we decided to slightly increase our price range, visited one house, and immediately agreed that we wanted to put a bid on it. About six weeks later we closed on the home and began the clean-up (it was a foreclosure). I am happy to report that we are feeling very settled in and thankful for our home. Here's a picture of Justin and me (about 6 1/2 months pregnant) on the day we closed. Bonus: in the foreground is a portion of the car we bought in March.


The biggest event of our year was the birth of our dear son, Ezekiel Thomas O'Shay, on August 17, 2011.

A week and a half later I went back to school. I had help from several friends who watched Ezekiel while I went to school, including lots of babysitting by my parents. I have found my interest in school to be a bit less than it was B.E. (Before Ezekiel). In October Ezekiel's baby cousin Isaac was born in Japan. Hooray!

In November we got to see my whole family, including Isaac for the first time. He and Ezekiel are already getting chummy.


We have just finished celebrating Christmas with the whole family.

We had a really good time seeing everyone, but it was bittersweet; we had to say goodbye to Luke, Amber, Titus, Joy, Apollos and Constantine. They have been part of our life for the last seven years and we are going to miss them a lot. But we're looking forward to seeing them in Anchorage!


Now we look forward to 2012, in which we hope to make new friends, see Ezekiel continue to grow and learn, and continue progressing in our school/work. Cheers!

Birthday Birthday!

We got to celebrate Titus's seventh birthday with Amber and the kids. It was a lot of fun. It's so cute to see Joy delightedly watching Titus open his presents.




Apollos saw me taking pictures and asked if he could take some.


Here are a few of the pictures he took:






Ezekiel always likes hanging out with his cousins. We are all going to miss them when they're gone.

4 Months Old!

Ezekiel just had his 4 months doctor's appointment yesterday. Here are his stats:
Head circumference: 14.75", 56%
Length: 26.25", 90%
Weight: 15 lbs, 9 oz, 63.7%

The doctor said I should start feeding him rice cereal so he can get some iron!

I am often told by strangers / acquaintances to "enjoy him now... he'll be grown up before you know it." I think it's funny that this is such a common thing to say to a person with a baby. I also think it's funny because of course we enjoy him! We enjoy him every day! I'm torn between looking forward to him getting a little bit older, so that he can actually talk to us and walk around with us, and wanting him to stay his precious baby self as long as possible. But we certainly do enjoy him. Mari and Chris: enjoy Isaac while he's this young. He'll be 4 months old before you know it.

Ezekiel got a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament from his Granny in Cushing. He tested it out and decided he liked it before we put it on the tree.



Ezekiel enjoys some rough-housing with his daddy. He expresses his delight by cooing, smiling, laughing, and then barfing.



We recently got to see Santa at a shopping center near our house. Like many young children, Ezekiel seems a little unsure about being put on a stranger's lap. Actually this Santa wasn't a stranger, but I don't think Ezekiel could recognize Mr. and Mrs. Carico through their awesome Mr. and Mrs. Claus costumes.

Quack Quack!

Here's Ezekiel on the morning of Thanksgiving:

Unfortunately he didn't get to wear that very long before it got dirty and he had to change into something else.

This morning we put him in his Johnny Jump-up for the first time. He seemed to like it - he was finally able to look all around him, and even turn around if he wanted. I think it will work even better once he gets a little bit bigger.

9 Cousins!

This past weekend Ezekiel got to meet his Dallas cousins. And today he finally got to meet his little cousin- the only one who's smaller than him!

It was great to see Mari, Chris and Isaac. And all 9 cousins were in one place (unfortunately Luke & Amber were still in Alaska, but they'll be joining the party soon). We'll be taking pictures of the whole fam next weekend, but today we did a few practice shots: one of all the babies born between October 2010 and October 2011

And one of all 9 of my parents' grandchildren

I have more pictures on my facebook page.

3 Months Old!

Today is Ezekiel's 3-month birthday! Here are a few of the developments we've been impressed by:

• He has become HUGE. Well, he's still tiny compared to an adult human. But he's much bigger and heavier than he was when he was born.
• He has started to grab things with his hands. He often holds his hands together in front of him.
• He can now suck his thumb! He is becoming less attached to his pacifier.
• He's working towards rolling over. When he's lying on is front, he can twist his back so that he's pretty much on his side.
• He's laughing a lot! (That's my favorite)

A few times I've wondered at what ages certain developments are "supposed to" happen, but usually I forget or lose interest before I look it up. I've decided I pretty much don't care. While the above developments probably seem un-interesting, especially if they're completely average for his age (or even--GASP--below average), but as his adoring parent, I totally don't care. I'm so proud to see him slowly acquire these life skills, regardless of their indication about how he compares to his fellow babies. And then I had an alarming thought- what if I feel this way about him his whole life? What if I'm always proud of what he's doing well, regardless of whether or not he's better than other people? I guess that's a mother's job. I've always felt opposed to the idea of "celebrating mediocrity", and I certainly hope that my dear son has areas of talent in which he is truly outstanding, but perhaps I will just always see him as outstanding.

Happy Fall!

Ezekiel has really been enjoying the cooler weather, since that means he gets to wear his favorite dragon sweatshirt.

I also means nice snuggle time with his daddy, while wearing his quack-quack sleep sack.

I tried taking Ezekiel to school with me a couple of weeks ago. I thought, "he often naps during this time. He'll probably fall asleep in the car and then sleep through my class." WRONG. He did sleep in the car, but then woke up as I arrived on campus. My professor graciously assured me that it would be a treat to have my little guy in class, but Ezekiel demanded constant attention and then worked himself into a fuss midway through lecture, so that eventually had to leave. So now I know that Ezekiel isn't ready to learn about tax policy yet. Perhaps next semester.

As this semester winds to a close, I'm finding that my enthusiasm for research has slightly waned. Next semester I'll be taking a class from one of my favorite professors, whose research interests I almost always enjoy hearing about. I'm hoping that taking her "topics in microeconomic theory" course will jump start my drive to research and get finished.

I look forward to being done with my degree, because then I'll have to freedom to use it in whatever way I choose. While I do enjoy micro theory research when the problem is interesting enough, finding such interesting problems is not easy. My goals and priorities have been in flux this semester, and as my desire to be a world class researcher peters out, my enjoyment of teaching remains strong. My tuition waiver and stipend depend on me being a teaching assistant, and this semester I'm a TA for an upper level mathematical economics course. I enjoy trying to make the material accessible to the students, and at the same time trying to encourage and reassure them. Pastor Carter has repeatedly emphasized the fact that everything we do, including our work, should be viewed for the context of how it furthers God's kingdom. While economic research clearly works to bring order out of chaos (I love efficiency!), it can be hard to see the impact of this in the day-to-day spent trying to work out the math on some of these models. But it is more tangible to see how I can be a blessing to students every day as a teacher (or, hopefully one day as a professor). So right now I'm hoping to finish my Ph.D. so that I can then have the freedom to do research, as the interest arises, and also to teach.