Thanksgiving in Denver

This year Aliyah’s brother and his wife, Josiah and Felicia, bought a house in Denver and to celebrate they offered to host Thanksgiving. Flying 3 hours with a 25 pound kicking baby is about five hundred times better than 6 hours of the same so we agreed, and because my parents and Aliyah’s parents will go wherever their grandchildren are we knew we’d see them too. 

 

They day started off a little roughly - we missed our flight by about 4 minutes, briefly considered driving there (16 hours), and Yarden barfed up about a pound of string cheese into our cupped hands while we were waiting in line to re-book. But if you remain calm it turns out to be very easy to get on a standby flight, even on Thanksgiving, and showing handfuls of cheesy barf really seems to convince other people to hold your place in line, even on Thanksgiving. And on the upside our friend Elisabeth was on our new flight. On the downside someone had a cat on the flight, and my allergies made me nearly blind from breathing 3 hours of recycled cat air.

 

The flight itself was full but pretty uneventful other than a greater than usual amount of turbulence when landing, which made me think about Rosie Perez’s monologue in “Fearless” so I did my best to split the difference between holding Yarden tightly on my lap and squeezing her until she barfed another pound of cheese.

 

When we touched down I turned on my phone and surprisingly our house sitter Milwaukee Matt was calling at that exact moment. In the background I could hear the house alarm going off. I hadn’t given him the code, so I told it to him and thought that would be the end of it. Later we found out the following: (1) Aliyah’s phone was defective and needed to be replaced (2) The alarm company will try to call Aliyah if the alarm is triggered (3) If they don’t reach Aliyah, they call the police (4) Police response time on Thanksgiving is really good (5) Officers who have had their turkey dinners interrupted show up with guns drawn (6) Milwaukee Matt has a great sense of humor about being frisked (7) The City does not have a sense of humor about these things and will send you a bill for false alarms.

 

Felicia, Josiah and their son Jackson have a very nice place in suburban Denver , and they made a really great turkey dinner (and it’s not as easy as you might think find a kosher turkey in Denver ) and the night ended with Yarden and Jackson having a big splashing fight in the bath tub.

 

Next day we took a trip to Boulder . There is a promenade on Pearl Street . It was a little bit of a cat heard to try and get 8 adults and 2 toddlers all with various bladder strengths to all do the same thing. Eventually I just left everyone at a boulder-themed playground and found a specialty store offering a tasting of local wines. I did a flight of 4 for $3 and bought the last two bottles of chardonnay. We stopped for the world's smallest ice cream cones on the way back to Denver.

That night we left the kids with the grandparents and all the parents went out to bar called City Grill. They boast the best burgers in Denver , and they might be right but they were no Umami Burger. Josiah kicked ass in darts, I put some Def Leopard on the jukebox and discovered that my pool skills have not improved by not playing for 10 years, and Aliyah discovered she is a master table-top shuffleboard player.

 

The next morning my parents, Aliyah, Yarden and I met my cousin and godfather Mike Jr. for breakfast. He lives in the area, but he was in the middle of traveling around so he had to meet us on his way to the airport. It was really good to see him again. He has some work that may bring him to Pasadena next year, so hopefully we will also see him then.

 

All the men were going to get shaves and haircuts at a specialty barber’s, but they were booked so we went back to my parents’ hotel room to check them out. It was uneventful except for the opportunity to indulge one of Yarden’s constant wants: Ice.

I gave her a big hotel bucket full of ice in the middle of the floor and let her run amok. She’s mostly fascinated by how ice is cold, and her favorite game seemed to be freezing her hand and then warming it up in her mouth, or sometimes my mouth.

 

The rest of the day was spent preparing a large dinner. Aliyah had found a picture of tenderloin in GQ, and everyone agreed this would be a good plan. At the grocery store there was some confusion over the cut that we wanted so we showed them the picture from the magazine. That same page had the actual recipe on it, so it was kind of a problem later when we couldn’t find it again.  Nobody knows where it went, but I suspect that Aliyah dropped it when she caught her hand in the car door. Josiah, being the great bother that he is, took off running for help and came back with about 2 pounds of crushed ice in a plastic shopping bag. Aliyah’s hand was okay, but we never saw the recipe page again and someone wound up buying another copy of the magazine later. Undeterred by possible further hand trauma, Aliyah got up the courage to use a food mandolin again (first time since she cut off the end of her finger 2+ years ago) and put together a sweet potato and leeks dish from memory.

 

Fortunately our old Simsbury friends the Feldcamps decided to come over and help us eat this enormous meal. They live a little west of Denver . My parents were staying with them that night so after dinner they gave Yarden a big hug and left. Yarden slept in the bed with Bubbie and Grandpa that night, which meant that Bubbie and Grandpa didn’t sleep much, but they still drove us to the airport. first thing in the morning. Yarden sang for us about “Apples and Bananas” and managed to get all the way to “G” in ”The Alphabet Song,” then we flew back to LA and got ready for Monday.

Guest Blogger Yarden on Her 1st & a half birthday

Shhhhh! Mama and Dada are going to be soooo surprised I can write. Don't tell. Now that I'm a big girl I have a few questions that need to be answered: 

(1) Why does Dada call Oto "Oso"?  I think Dada needs to work on his diction. 

(2) Why can't I go to school every day? Those kids are delicious (and they have the bite marks to prove it)! 

(3) Who is this baby Mama and Dada have all these pictures of? Should I be nervous?

(4) When is this recession going to be over? It seems like it's been going on my whole life!

(5) Will the Red Sox win the World Series in my lifetime? 

Yarden is Almost 18 Months

We haven't written for a while.
It's been an exciting time, and I can't hope to recap it all.

I spent a few weeks dedicated to developing new shows with my friend Dan and we are in a good place now. Two different production companies will be taking out our projects.

I took a job through the end of the year that has turned out to be far more creatively fulfilling than anticipated, and I've had a great time writing, producing and directing a show for Spike that will air in February. It's scripted and that's been a nice change of pace.

Yarden and I went to Colorado for cousin Jackson's 2nd birthday. It was a great time and my folks, grandmama, and Felicia's folks all descended on the Soiferstein residence. Yosh and Feesh have a gorgeous new house (large enough to accommodate us all!) and a playroom so big that I'm pretty sure that Yarden thought it was a school.

Jackson (as Superman) and Yarden (as a gorilla) went trick or treating and they took to it like gangbusters. Neither of them had any interest in the candy, but they liked running up to houses to knock on doors and the accumulation of stuff.

We're heading back to Colorado for Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks.

Which brings us to today.
Other than the fact that we are all sick, it's been a great weekend.
Seamus got to catch up on his sneezing, and Yarden and I have been out on the town for girl time adventures.

Yesterday Yarden, my friend Lisa and I went to see They Might Be Giants do a family show at UCLA.

It was incredible, the band was great and there was a confetti cannon, songs about science and live sock puppet theater. All shows should be family shows - 3 in the afternoon, no opening band, the lights stay up, everyone is friendly and dancing and there is zero attitude. And even if the person in front of you has someone on their shoulders you can still see over them.

Afterwards, John and John handed out stickers and then the kids all ran out in the middle of the grass and had an impromptu recess.

Then Yarden, Lisa, her son James and her mother Ruth and I went out to Korean BBQ and I got to come home in a delightful meat coma.

Today, Seamus, Yarden and I all slept in late and then snuggled and watched Australia which is a 6 act movie. Captivating, beautifully shot, heartwarming and approximately 8 hours long.

When it finally ended, Yarden and I met Sofie and Helga for dumplings (Chris is sick too).
Yarden ADORES Sofie, and Sofie LOVES being the big girl. She did a great job of herding Yarden who refused to sit still and wanted only to climb into the fountain near the dumpling shop, or run through the crowded restaurant where the overworked waitstaff carry boiling hot stacks of soup dumplings. If they weren't adorable the two of them would be in trouble.

After the dumpling orgy, we went to kidspace where the girls made bracelets and rode bikes. Yarden dumped a bucket of water on herself and Sofie climbed to the top of a rock wall.
All in all a fun day.

The high points of this week are:
1) My buddy Houman is going to come edit with me on this Spike show.
2) Liam is coming to town with Josh Ritter and will be playing the Wiltern this Wednesday and Thursday along with Swell Season. We feel hipper just by association.

It has been a long time since we updated.
Here are some new things that Yarden has started doing since the last time we wrote.
- She can do all of the hand motions for "Wheels on the Bus".
- She knows the names of all the single and double syllable kids in her class. Sorry Xavier and Francesca, maybe in another 6 months.
- She knows all her body parts (the words boob and butt make her giggle).
- She spontaneously hugs and kisses.
- She has strong opinions, and you can't phrase anything as a question unless you are prepared to hear "No".
- She may or may not understand that she can pee in her potty, but she likes to dance to the three songs it can play. She will sit on the potty just long enough to set off the sensor, then the dance party starts.
- She can mimic a lion, gorilla, elephant, monkey, dog, and a cat. There may be more animals she can do that we just haven't thought to ask yet. We assume she learned these in school.
- She's now WAY into books and will make Seamus or I read her 5 or 6 in a sitting. Her favorites are "Are You My Mother?", "Caps for Sale" and "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed". She mimics the peddler and the monkey in "Caps for Sale" and - if you pause at the appropriate points during "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed"- she will offer up "head", "bed", "doctor" and occasionally something that sounds like "no more monkeys".

More later,

Aliyah

Gone Fishing - Well Lobstering

We are almost two weeks into our family vacation and it's been phenomenal.
We've hit DC, NY, Woodstock. Maine and Connecticut.

Yarden's been on a lobster boat, picked blueberries, played in a thunderstorm, played at 2 museums, rode her first carnival ride, met twins, and made friends with 5 different dogs.

We'll be posting more photos, but in the interim here's a video Uncle Liam shot of Yarden wrestling "Baby Erica", my doll from 1973.
(The doll is from 1973, not the video)

The Year of the Dog

Oso came to us in August last year. I got him as a birthday present to myself. Thinking back, it’s funny how his first reaction when we all met in person was to lick Yarden. It was just the right way to let us know he could get along with babies, or at least that he likes the taste of babies. Yarden still loves his kisses, although she’s gotten stronger and better at pushing him away if he overdoes it. I’d say he’s settled in nicely. This is what he does what he thinks I’ve left for work:That’s the same grill he marked as his the first time he was brought over to our house. He still lets me use it sometimes, but he never offers to get more propane. I think he just likes to have a meat-scented bed. I would like that too.

When the vet wanted to know when his birthday was I just gave him mine. I really wasn’t using it. I had already asked Oso when his birthday was before we got to the vet’s office, but he just looked at me like this:
He looks very confused. I asked him in my terrible Spanish, so it’s entirely likely he is thinking “What’s a kay-annoe?” or “I’ve been adopted by an imbecile.” In my defense it’s equally likely he’s thinking “Walk me.”

I have a love-hate relationship with how focused he gets on the squirrels and birds in our yard. Barking up a storm at 6:00 AM is embarrassingly rude to our neighbors, and he runs away from me if I try to make him go in the house. But on a Saturday afternoon there’s nothing more entertaining than a doggy-daddy-daughter squirrel hunt!
Since the landscaping in the back yard Oso has become a master night time hunter of snails. He chases the bugs, and occasionally regrets catching a bee. These are pictures of Oso being allowed in the newly landscaped backyard for the first time:


Very cute, but this one has it beat by a mile:
For a long time Yarden couldn’t manage to pull herself into his bed. Now she loves it. And when she was smaller it was fine. But these days I try to keep her out, at least while he’s in it, because trying to share a bed with Yarden has evolved into a full contact sport and she doesn’t believe in any rules. Aliyah’s got the scratched cornea to prove it.

Thank you again to everyone who made it possible for Oso to come to us. I asked him to thank you himself, but all he said was “grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrras-see-us,” whatever that means.

Our Tiny Tuberculosis Victim

These are pictures of my adorable, life loving daughter when she is NOT in the grips of teething pain.


Yarden hit 102 fever on Saturday night and again last night.
She's got 4 teeth coming in simultaneously and when the pain hits her she wails like a banshee and flails her body around. Occasionally she punctuates the meltdown with a random headbutt, just to keep us on our toes.

She sometimes can be calmed enough to let me cool and hydrate her by wetting her lips with with pedialyte ice pops - like a tiny tuberculosis victim. She also has added the word/demand "ice" to her vocabulary rotation, as in "I'm handing you back this sippy cup of water because it's not sufficiently chilled." Of course she simply uses the efficient one word demand "Ice!"

Oh - and who can forget the diaper rash, stinky pee, and constant drool that herald the arrival of new teeth.

Only infant tylenol and nursing and sleeping on daddy make her feel better.

We kept her home from school today.
This was the scene when I left the house this morning.

As Seamus aptly observed this morning, it's interesting that evolution didn't make babies MORE appealing when they are sick. What keeps animals from leaving their teething offspring in trees?

Natural Stage Project

My snuggly little mama and her glowing rice cracker.

Yarden is camping ready.

Let me start by saying - I'm not easily impressed and I have an aversion to hipsters.

Which makes it all the more weighty an endorsement when I say that my friend Jon co-produces the most impressively unpretentious guerilla live events featuring good music, friendly folks & spectacular settings.

This week he presented a show at the vista of Topanga State Park.
Each band did one song off of In An Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel and the final act did two original songs comprised entirely of lyrics from Princess Bride.

Yarden and I braved the 405 to the 101 and then made a whole bunch of dodgy u-turns in a frustrating search for a hidden turn-off to the state park.
Note to CA, better signage might help park attendance.
Yarden napped while I debated ditching my search in favor of farmer's stand fruits and veggies and a trip to the Lululemon store in Calabasas.

On our last attempt, we found it. And thank goodness. What a beautiful idea.
(OK I found it. Yarden was useless - she just slept in the backseat.)

Jon's girlfriend Megan (who is also a mad knitter) took these photos.

I call this photo, "I am the luckiest mom in the world."

Yarden looking like she is popping a squat.

24 Hour Grandparents

I posted a photo like this on Facebook and got asked if Yarden had stacked all of these.
The answer is that Yarden is way more into re-distributing (read hiding my stuff) than color coded organizing.
But having a daughter that was a savant organizer is a contender for a genie wish!

My parents breezed into town this Sunday, flush from a million dollar wedding in San Francisco (I saw the photos and tasted the cake. If you've got the money to spend on a party, this is the way to do it).

They arrived around 3pm and left early Tuesday morning- so it was a fast trip, but we packed in A LOT!!!!

Sunday night was our first proper dinner party in the new backyard - replete with fancy dishes, a campfire & our friend Allison Binder. I have no photos - but it was delicious and very fun. I'm very proud of myself, and hey it's my blog I get to brag, because I made all the courses all by myself and even timed them out pretty well.

Everyone has soup as their last course, right?

Wine poured liberally and - if you aren't already drinking it - Opala is my summer white recommendation (under $10 at Whole Foods). MB and I discovered Vinho Verde a few years ago and dubbed it the perfect summer stoop wine, a wine to be bought be the case and enjoyed at summer rentals or on apartment fire escapes. This is an excellent VV, sparkling, crisp, a little sweet and addictive.

So did I mention we were drinking?
Because that will explain the following photos.

Seamus and my dad claim that Zombies attacked and chased Yarden around the yard - but these photos tell a different story.
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She was literally squealing in delight as they chased her around.

This next photo was taken at almost 11 at night, and I think this expression alone should count as baby sign language for "I want to go to sleep now". Normally this expression is reserved for hipsters on the 4am L train on their way back to Williamsburg.


Yarden slept over in the "grandparent storage compartment" with my folks.

Because Yarden in a terrible, horrible, no good sleepover guest - rolling over, kicking, swinging her arms and occasionally headbutting in her sleep - only she woke up refreshed for breakfast with Cousin John.

After breakfast we were off to LACMA, where Yarden became a museum member (free till she's 18 throught the NextGen program) and brought me in as her guest.

This is part of an exhibit by South Korean artists.
Yarden was initially unimpressed.

I'm going to take it as an indication that we've given this girl an exciting 1st year that a floor to ceiling plastic maze is de rigeur and barely worth looking up from a bottle for.

At some point she soaked her diaper and her pants had to dry off.
This photo cracks me up because only a baby can be this blase pants-free in public.
When we left the museum, Yarden was WAY more into exploring the plastic.

I love these "action" shots.
Check out the knee. Despite the pirate shirt she's got a little captain in her.


Yarden dogged by paps.
We stopped at the La Brea tar pits - mostly at the gift shop - and also went to lunch at Mani's.
Yarden was very interested in the installation of recyclables along the walk.
At home we don't let her play with garbage, but at the museum you can touch them, bang on them, march around them, and then try to put them in your mouth and get scooped up by mommy.


Yarden is a good sharer.
Here she is offering to share her straw with Grandpa.
Back home, we skyped Grammy and Yarden showed off her baseball skills.
You can see my mom holding the computer in the lower left hand corner.

Making daddy proud.

Here we are showing Grammy the "just add kid" Indiana Jones shirt we got at the La Brea Tar Pits.
** In other news, I'm really into twitter this week.
I'm recording this in my blog so that I can remember in the future that this is the week of my life that I was really into twitter.

I'm also doing really well at running 4 mornings a week and getting to pilates.
Trying to make it a lifestyle, still feels like a chore.

Aliyah

Baby Meets Lobster

In celebration of Fathers Day, we had a daddy day.

Extra bacon for breakfast followed by a relaxing afternoon at Home Depot.
Here we are at breakfast with Seamus rocking his daddy shirt.
For dinner, Lisa and James came over and we made lobsters and had a campfire with delicious wine. Here are some shots of Yarden investigating our dinner.

At some point she realized that they were moving and became less brave.

In Focus and Nobody Has Their Eyes Closed

Family photo from the Memorial Day visit, the first time that all the grandparents were out in LA at the same time!

They all rented an apartment together in Mid-Wilshire (strangely referred to as Beverly Hills by the rental agent) and Yarden had sleepovers in the room between the bedrooms. If you are familiar with the game "Snatch the Bacon" - that's how I imagine it went, though all the grandparents claim they shared nicely.

Liam had already left when this photo as taken, so I'm posting a separate photo of the two of them. He and Baby Y really bonded.

Liam - if you have a photo where people can see your lovely face, please send it!