Our week in review

Rebecca showing Eliana how to eat.

Cute as a bug!

We are settling in here in Columbus. Turns out we are living in a very happening place in the city.  Goodale park is within walking distance from our house and is the site of many festivals.  Last weekend was the Pride Fest.  Our friend Francesco came to visit over the weekend, so we took a walk through the park on the way to North Market.  Francesco's wife is expecting and due in September, so he pushed Eliana's stroller for practice.  I figured we could leave everyone guessing as we walked around Pride with two men, a woman, and a baby.  The park was a great place to people watch.  People wore all kinds of interesting clothing or no clothing at all.  I was told that Columbus is the "proudest" city in the midwest.  So once we were out of the park, it was off to North Market.  I love that place!  It is a collection of little vendors within a big building that sell mostly fresh, organic food and locally made goods.  Somewhat like City Market in Indianapolis, only bigger.  One of the best places in the market is Jeni's Ice Cream.  They sell all kinds of unusual handmade ice creams flavors like Backyard Mint, Salty Carmel, Queen City Cayenne, Wildberry Lavender, and Whiskey Pecan.  So good!  Another favorite is CaJohns hot sauce store.  David's favorite, I should say, not mine.  They have samples of the hot sauces, salsa, and mustards sitting out to try, and David is trying them all with sweat pouring down his face.  (I like to say, if David is not sweating, it is not spicy enough).  David had Francesco try one of his favorite hot sauces, and when Francesco did, he said "Why did you do this to me?"  I refused to try anything that wasn't on the sweet side.  David kept saying we should buy some, but I kept telling him no, it was too spicy and we didn't need it (little did he know what was already waiting for him at home for Father's Day).  So on that trip, we just bought some deliciously fresh fish with wild mushroom pasta for dinner. 
Last Sunday was Father's Day, and my parents and sister came to visit (they arrived right after Francesco left - we are some popular people!).  My dad figured that if we wouldn't come to Indianapolis to see him for Father's Day, he would just have to come to Columbus to see us.  He brought Rebecca, and Michael and I are both here in Columbus, so Abby was the only one of his kids missing.  I guess we know who Dad's least favorite child is... :).  The top pic is from that visit when Rebecca was feeding Eliana.  They were quite messy.  Us girls mostly just relaxed while we put the fathers to work on fixing up the house.  David learned how to replace door knobs and put doors back on their hinges.  For dinner we had David's favorite - pizza and hot sauce.
On Thursday, the residency program had a Welcome Cookout for all of the new interns and their families.  I meant to take some pictures, but I forgot until we came back home.  Eliana was so cute that I took some pictures of her anyway, which you see above.  I really enjoyed the cookout because it was a way for me to meet some of David's coworkers so I can put some faces with the names.  Plus I met several other spouses of interns so hopefully we can all spend some time together while our husbands are off at the hospital.  There are many really nice people in David's intern group plus some families with little kids.  Eliana thoroughly enjoyed herself chatting with all the new people, especially a little 7 month old boy named Miles, until she got hungry.  We also got to know some of our neighbors better at the cookout too.  In the house to the east of ours live a couple named Stephanie and Hans.  Stephanie is a third year resident and will actually be the resident David will be following on his first week when he starts in the ICU on Sunday.  What a small world!
To continue the festivities in Goodale Park, this weekend is ComFest.  I guess it is one of the craziest weekends in Victorian Village where we live.  An insane amount of people have been wandering the streets around us.  So what is ComFest?  It is a festival that celebrates coming together as a community.  It showcases local vendors selling their crafts, local bands, and local restaurants selling their food.  It has been described to us as an alternative hippie festival with love and drugs pretty free flowing.  We were also warned not to go after dark especially with a baby.  I was a little hesitant to go, but a couple that we met in Columbus that have a baby about Eliana's age invited us to join them to listen to some music there.  So somewhat trepidatiously we set off to walk to ComFest.  It actually turned out pretty cool.  We went last evening (before dark of course).  There were several stages set up with bands playing music.  We came to see MoJoFlo, the band Tim, another person we have met in Columbus, plays in.  The music was pretty good.  Mostly we sat on the grass and talked to Morgan and Anthony while playing with their son Sam.  Sam is about three weeks younger than Eliana, but he is a little bigger than her.  Eliana is at the top of the growth charts so he must be setting records!  He is so cute too!  Morgan told us the best thing to do at ComFest is people watch.  Bizarre outfits are the norm there, but I would say there was actually a lot less nudity at ComFest than at the Pride Festival.  However, we were home by dark, so perhaps we missed some of the "love and drugs" that we had been warned about. 
So all in all, I would have to say Columbus has been pretty fun so far!