March Madness

Well March has come and gone, and much has happened. We began the month transitioning Nuri to a daycare near my workplace. After a mere 4 days of enrollment, we heard from the MIT daycare system that we had advanced on their waiting list much further than we thought and they had a space for us just 2 weeks later. Since the MIT daycare system was less expensive, more convenient, and higher quality, we were completely thrilled. The downside was that Nuri had to go through two daycare transitions in a very short span of time, but we are very happy with the MIT system. Nuri is in a room with 6 other babies, aged 3 to 15 months, and there are 3 caretakers. His classroom is in the Frank Gehry building on the MIT campus, and it has a nice sky-light and direct access to the playground via sliding door. The caretakers there are all great and in summer, the kids spend a lot of their time outdoors, in a small section of the playground and go on a lot of buggy walks. The location is a 10 minute walk from home and a 10 minute walk from my work, so I run over to nurse him 3 times a day. It is almost literally a stone's throw from Sal's work, so he visits sometimes too. For those of you aware of the cost of commercial daycare, you might ask how we can afford it... it turns out that MIT provides very nice financial aid for students with children in their daycare system. And of course the important thing is that Nuri is (surprisingly I might add) adjusting beautifully to his daycare situation.

Following our whirlwind daycare transition schedule, we loaded up our suitcases and got on Nuri's first airplane, from Boston to San Francisco. Sal had a conference and I was giving a talk, so technically we were traveling on business, but we got a chance to spend some time with family as well. We stayed with Sal's parents and my parents were able to drive down and meet us. Nuri also got a chance to see Maria and Moose, Sal's uncle's family, and Sal's grandparents, plus many family friends. We spent some time in Berkeley, eating at our favorite restaurants and visiting with friends, and made it out to the Oakland Coliseum to see the A's and Red Sox play their opening (domestic) game of the season. Nuri only made it through 5 innings, but we got some great pictures and that's practically all that counts. And speaking of pictures...