An all family Thanksgiving

Today should be an exciting day in the O'Connor household. Both sets of grandparents will be visiting for early Thanksgiving. In addition, uncles Jay and Jason will be coming from Chicago. this is the first time that Jay will meet Eli. We need to have Thanksgiving several weeks before the actual holiday because Shelby's parents need to work on the day after Thanksgiving. We have been having early Thanksgiving for three or four years, so it is becoming a bit of a tradition. Shelby enjoys cooking elaborate meal and I, of course, enjoy eating. But it will certainly be a crowded day at the O'Connor house.

Yesterday, we left Eli at daycare for the first time. Granted, it was only for a few hours, but that didn't make it any easier for Shelby. Though we feel very fortunate with the high-quality day care provided by the University Preschool Laboratory, the idea of leaving Eli with someone else is still hard to reconcile.

Tomorrow will mark another first. I need to fly to DC for an NIH study section. since Eli's arrival on September 10, this will be the first time that I have spent a night away from him. I'm sure that Shelby and Eli will be fine on their own, but much like leaving him at day care, that doesn't make it any easier for me.

One of the other major challenges now that Eli is six weeks old is trying to balance taking care of him with work. In an attempt to get more done in even less time, I am experimenting with voice dictation software. So if you find odd typographical errors, such as referring to the 'O'Connor house' as a 'neocon house', you will understand why. Generally I've been happy with the performance of voice dictation software. I'm even using it now. With that said, it did make a serious typographical error on one of my NIH grant reviews that I will have to explain away on Monday.